The dark dance of umbrella's (****½)
Vera Nemirova directs The Queen of Spades in Vienna [stream]
The small group of intolerant, ignorant fools who stood waving blue and yellow flags in front of the Vienna State Opera last week were completely ignored by the Viennese opera audience. All performances featuring superstar Anna Netrebko were sold out. What was remarkable about this was that she was billed for a very late debut in an emblematic role within the Russian repertoire. Vera Nemirova's production dates from 2007 and the previous airing of this production aired in January 2022, when our theaters were still paralyzed by fear porn and insane social distancing rules were crippling performances. Some of that was rectified in this performance.
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