Joosten's production of Les Troyens is ambitious.
He illustrates this Grand Opéra as a journey through time. Starting in an antique amphitheatre for the first two acts, we move on to the Middle Ages and the Baroque era, then finally to some cool contemporary location. Joosten marks the different periods not only theatrically but with quotations from the fine arts; we see articles and costumes from pictures of Breughel and Bosch, tableaux vivantes from French historical paintings, some Delacroix, some Goya maybe; it is like a big quiz. At the end we are even confronted with a live video sequence.
The more we see, the more we wonder what this all is about and what it has to do with Berlioz's Troyens. The answer is not simple, because the concept is too top-heavy. Joosten's idea is that every era has its own perception of the past - that every generation changes the aesthetic parameters of the presentation of History - leading in the end to the impossibility of historic truth. Berlioz's view of the classical drama wasn't free of this either. Joosten treats Berlioz's idea as a 'grande machine théâtrale', while failing to deal with the themes such as heroism and patriotism, which give the work its structure. It was a fascinating evening anyway, because Joosten and his set designer Johannes Leiacker collaborated to presting fascinating pictures on stage to illustrate the action.
. - Japonica |
