preview

James Levine Essay

Decent Essays

Capping a career spanning 40 years as musical director for the Metropolitan Opera, with over 2,500 performances and 85 operas conducted, James Levine is to conduct one of his favorite operas, Die Entführung aus dem Serail as his final work before retiring to the new position of Musical Director Emeritus. In the final dress rehearsal, on the twentieth of April, Levine conducted the piece with the energy, eccentricity, and excellence known nearly exclusively to him in his field. In the rehearsal, Levine, as well as the standout coloratura soprano Albina Shagimuratova as Konstanze and bass Hans-Peter König as Osmin, displayed the gravitas and mastery of the Mozart opera to perfection. When W. A. Mozart was a young boy, he was toured around Europe’s courts as a prodigy by his father, Leopold Mozart. Although tumultuous and nerve-wracking for the young boy, his traveling did provide him with the different styles and sounds from …show more content…

The set designer, Jocelyn Herbert, through various pastel colors and Arabic architectural motifs, very clearly articulates the middle-eastern atmosphere. The set is also designed perfectly in a fashion so that it does nothing to subtract from the context of the opera itself, but rather adds color and substance to the action without requiring the audience to suspend very much disbelief. The costumes for the opera, also designed by Ms. Herbert, were brilliant; the colors of the clothes of the Turks matched their colorful surroundings, whilst the European characters were dressed in more monochrome, but elegant garments that clearly distinguishes between the two. Along with the setting and costume, the blocking of the opera is also very well done. The stage manager, John Dexter, was very clear to make each movement sensical, whether it be for the libretto or the music, as opposed to some operas in which movements are extremely grandiose and

Get Access