The Bastille opera house is a shiny tiled edifice on the outside and a shiny granite faced edifice on the inside in the foyers and corridors, with a black felt covered feeling in the auditorium. It displays, notwithstanding a right wing political origin, all the charm of soviet architecture designed with Orwell's 1984 in mind, and whatever could go wrong in its construction apparently did. Wikipedia says:
"Due to its size, the auditorium is frequently—and unfavourably—called a "vessel", and, compared to other world-class opera houses, the acoustics have been described as disappointing at best.
The hall is generally cold in colour due to the prominence of grey granite, black or white stone and black fabric in the structure and decoration as well as to the lightning from the giant white glass ceiling, although the use of pearwood for the seats and handrails and of oak for the floor brings a warmer, light brown touch. This modern design has been controversial ever since the houses’ opening..."
When we saw that Aida would begin on our watch, immediately that sales opened I bought the best Internet tickets I could. This may be something like eBay auctions with buyers furiously clicking bids in the available milliseconds, because the only seats available were on the top level and were priced at €15. At that price perhaps I should have smelled something noxious.
We arrived before dinner and decided on provisions at the bar, being two packets of dried out sandwiches and a glass of champagne: €44. That is the relative measure of seat quality, not comestible quality. The seats were folding dickie seats just inside the door and placed sideways, so that the stage could only be seen by twisting ones neck or body. There is a high balcony wall to which the seats are attached, so my partner could only see the stage by sitting on her coat as a cushion. We could not have predicted this from the seat numbers, which gave a row and seat number. In the photo our seats are near the door at top dead centre.
The set and costumes were an unpleasant shock: three brass tiers so singers could sing at 3 levels. The principals in 19th century dress uniforms, soldiers from the 21st century in camouflage fatigues with weapons to match, female leads in blonde wigs, a ballerina lost from a Swan Lake set doing a very unimpressive and irrelevant dance, the dance of the Moors diminished to a single person in a red fez clowning around with hands on knees, the Italian flag for the Ethiopians, and a Hapsburg Austrian double eagle flag for the Egyptians. Shiny brass WW2 style tank dragged around, more shiny brass palaces sets presumably reflecting the 19th century setting. However, Ethiopian prisoners were dressed as WW2 Jewish refugees, and piles of naked body dummies on the lower stage level in a sickening mimic of German concentration camp photos. Crowds with placards of the crudest xenophobic kind.
In summary a mish mash of deconstructed and reduced production of what should have been grand opera. Twice we heard the audience down the front booing, not about the music we hope.
The orchestra was good. The male singers, Aida and orchestra were excellent.
We left at interval, at the end of Act 2.
"Due to its size, the auditorium is frequently—and unfavourably—called a "vessel", and, compared to other world-class opera houses, the acoustics have been described as disappointing at best.
The hall is generally cold in colour due to the prominence of grey granite, black or white stone and black fabric in the structure and decoration as well as to the lightning from the giant white glass ceiling, although the use of pearwood for the seats and handrails and of oak for the floor brings a warmer, light brown touch. This modern design has been controversial ever since the houses’ opening..."
When we saw that Aida would begin on our watch, immediately that sales opened I bought the best Internet tickets I could. This may be something like eBay auctions with buyers furiously clicking bids in the available milliseconds, because the only seats available were on the top level and were priced at €15. At that price perhaps I should have smelled something noxious.
We arrived before dinner and decided on provisions at the bar, being two packets of dried out sandwiches and a glass of champagne: €44. That is the relative measure of seat quality, not comestible quality. The seats were folding dickie seats just inside the door and placed sideways, so that the stage could only be seen by twisting ones neck or body. There is a high balcony wall to which the seats are attached, so my partner could only see the stage by sitting on her coat as a cushion. We could not have predicted this from the seat numbers, which gave a row and seat number. In the photo our seats are near the door at top dead centre.
The set and costumes were an unpleasant shock: three brass tiers so singers could sing at 3 levels. The principals in 19th century dress uniforms, soldiers from the 21st century in camouflage fatigues with weapons to match, female leads in blonde wigs, a ballerina lost from a Swan Lake set doing a very unimpressive and irrelevant dance, the dance of the Moors diminished to a single person in a red fez clowning around with hands on knees, the Italian flag for the Ethiopians, and a Hapsburg Austrian double eagle flag for the Egyptians. Shiny brass WW2 style tank dragged around, more shiny brass palaces sets presumably reflecting the 19th century setting. However, Ethiopian prisoners were dressed as WW2 Jewish refugees, and piles of naked body dummies on the lower stage level in a sickening mimic of German concentration camp photos. Crowds with placards of the crudest xenophobic kind.
In summary a mish mash of deconstructed and reduced production of what should have been grand opera. Twice we heard the audience down the front booing, not about the music we hope.
The orchestra was good. The male singers, Aida and orchestra were excellent.
We left at interval, at the end of Act 2.
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