Satyagraha by Philip Glass at the LA Opera,

https://www.laopera.org/season/1819-season-la-opera-season/satyagraha/ 

The Ghosts of Versailles. Alexander Dodge.

Lit by the glow of sparkling chandeliers, an 80-piece orchestra began to play, sending a melodic tone through Los Angeles’ opera house.

  Thursday night’s double feature was the final dress rehearsal for the six-show run of Dido and Aeneas and Bluebeard’s Castle.  The show, directed by Barrie Kosky, took a modern twist on the traditional operas.   Telling tales of love and betrayal, Kosky, used minimalist lighting and stage design to tell 400-year-old stories in a new, stripped-down way.  

  The show opened with Dido And Aeneas, an opera that deals with themes of love and betrayal.   Dido the Queen of Carthage falls for enemy Trojan prince, Aeneas.  As their love blossoms, a prophecy by Jupiter seeks to squash it, sending out three witches to carry out a spell that leaves Dido dead, while Aeneas leaves to follow his destiny and rule his kingdom.

  Curtain closed, the cast sat silently, dressed in period wear on a stark white bench that spanned the length of the stage.   The costumes, which featured corseted gowns, men’s pants and jackets and wild headpieces, were all made in-house at the fashion district in downtown Los Angeles.  The cast sang and danced from the confines of the bench, while colorful lighting casted shadows, evoking the appearance of different times and settings throughout the show.  Many in the cast were making their first L.A. Opera performance, and while they were preserving their voices for the upcoming run, their powerful melodies rang strongly through the venue.  The performance ended with a ten-minute death scene that had Dido crying and gasping for life, as it was stolen from her saddened body.

  A brief intermission followed before an eager audience was ushered in for Kosky’s take on Bluebeard’s Castle.  The opera follows Judith, who has abandoned her family to be with her new husband, Bluebeard.   Running away with him to his dark and damp castle, Judith begs to bring light and love to his dreary abode.  Judith asks Bluebeard for the keys to the seven closed castle doors, ignoring the murderous rumors about Bluebeard’s former wives.  A reluctant Bluebeard can take no more, and gives in to Judith’s persistence.

  The curtain opened to reveal a white slanted disk as the stage.  Bluebeard and Judith stood, frozen in a slow-dance embrace.  The opera was sung in its original Hungarian dialect, with English subtitles shown on screens along the aisles and atop the main stage.  Bluebeard and Judith were dressed in business attire, looking as if they escaped from the office to the darkness of his castle.  While there was no set design, each door was symbolized by a man dressed in Bluebeards likeness.  As the doors opened their contents poured, spilling gold, water, and flowers from the men’s suit jackets.  Judith’s persistence and suspicion grew as she begged for the seventh and final door to be opened.   Giving up, Bluebeard revealed that his rumors had some truth.  Out came his three former wives dressed identically to Judith.  The wives danced along the rotating stage with the three men who appeared before.  The show ended with Bluebeard’s promise that Judith would be his most special wife, representing the glorious midnight in which he met her.