Orphée et Eurydice
Production concept and design direction is by Jose Maria Condemi with realization by Seattle Opera resident designers Phillip Lienau (Sets) and Heidi Zamora (Costumes). Connie Yun is the lighting designer.
Production rental link: https://webtest.seattleopera.org/rentals/orphee-et-eurydice/
Interview with Jose Maria Condemi: http://thesunbreak.com/2012/02/21/director-jose-maria-condemi-on-staging-glucks-orphee-at-seattle-opera/
Gluck’s proto-Minimalism presents further challenges for the overall staging and design. Director Jose Maria Condemi knows that the composer’s simplicity is hardly simple-minded, but calls for a subtle balance of stylization and realism. What makes the production so deeply satisfying is the clear sense that emerges of a unified aesthetic vision, shared by his design team and the performers. The myth’s timeless, archetypal character is always anchored in recognizably human emotions.
Thomas May (Crosscut), Mar, 2, 2012
It’s a testament to the power of art when an opera that is 238 years old still rings fresh with a unique combination of beauty and emotion. That was the case when Seattle Opera presented “Orphée et Eurydice,” ...this all-new production conceived by Jose Maria Condemi, was terrific from top to bottom.The stage direction was absolutely spot on. The opening scene when the chorus, in silhouette and against the outline of an enormous tree, slowly carried the body of Eurydice, was very dramatic. The sinews of Hades complemented the music and stretchy actions of the Furies in the second scene, and the resplendent colors of the Elysian Fields (complete with a slip-and-slide hillside) looked like pure joy.
James Bash for Facts and Arts, Mar, 21, 2013
