Regie

I have been playing the Regie game with La Cieca lately, and I must say it is a lot of fun. I guessed Die Fledermaus a week or so ago, and was disappointed that it was so easy. It looked exactly as it should to me. In this production both Alfred and Rosalinde are in their dressing gowns, implying a lot more fooling around than is generally the case. It looked like fun to me.

I have a harder time understanding Eugene Onegin in the old west.

One doesn't oneself live in Germany and doesn't see the need. Both the UK and the US have very lively theater traditions that have nothing to do with opera or government subsidies. In the old days one of the directors at the Ulmer Theater was doing Busby Berkeley and another did exclusively black on black, so this whole German thing is nothing new to me.

It has to have to do with money. In our culture someone spends the money and takes the risk to produce a new work and put it on in a Broadway theater. Twisting old pieces in government subsidized productions is simply not necessary. The Germans should give capitalist theater a try. Start a Broadway style tradition in Berlin now that you have a real capital.

I've heard of a piece about King Ludwig II that is put on in the Bavarian Alps every summer, so there is at least some original theater in Germany.

I like the game. Try it yourself. Search on Regie and it will show you all the old ones he has posted and people's guesses. Yes, I know--everyone already knows about this.