Indeed, her [Taymor's] approach is high-minded, with a sense of whimsy: rich in stylized gesture tinged by Asian dance movements but also focused on the personal journeys of the characters toward Mozart's ideal of enlightenment, and the feelings of love they have for each other. It is not the fairy-tale theater, Ms. Taymor said, of Ingmar Bergman's entrancing 1975 film version, and the set is more three-dimensional than in the Met's previous version, by David Hockney.
"I think to go symbolic without being human is ridiculous," Ms. Taymor said after a recent rehearsal. "It's all got to be grounded in these very basic emotions, but that's what fairy tales and myths are based on anyway." When asked how those emotions are conveyed, she took a position that would warm the heart of a composer but not a librettist: "It's in the music," she said.
[...]
"What is opera?" Ms. Taymor asked. "It's storytelling of large, epic emotions and landscape. You have dialogue, you have communication through language, but on top of that it's stylized, because it's musical. When I say the word 'stylized,' that doesn't mean it's not real. It always comes from a very real place. But it becomes heightened through the music, and when music heightens the emotions, the physicality has to match that."
You go, girl! I love you to pieces.
Full article is here.
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