The Color

I really appreciated watching all of these different productions over the past week in class. First off, I loved watching Topsy Turvy. I love that it both captures the "personal" lives of the characters offstage in addition to what they become when they are on stage. One stark contrast that we see in the movie especially is the use of vibrant color within the production of The Mikado. There are probably many reasons why they chose to make the color change so different in the two "worlds" of the film, but what keeps coming to mind are the many discussions that we have had about the living conditions of the Victorians. The use of coal in the cities quite literally made London filthy. The furniture, streets and life was covered in the smog and soot that came from these unsanitary living conditions. I loved that the dark undertones of the colors used in the "reality" sections of the movie were in such direct contrast to the whimsical world of the stage. The stage then takes on a whole new life with the vibrancy of the production and the color of the visual aspect of the work. In the clips of Princess Ida I also noticed a difference in the vibrancy of the productions. I loved the costuming of the singers in the production that Houston Grand performed in 2003. These costumes seemed to capture a similar vibrancy that I felt in the movie that we watched this week. Maybe it is just my own personal opinion, but it seems that the silly whimsical nature of G&S satire seems to be even more highlighted by the visual vibrancy this type of production and costume provides. As much as I enjoyed the Canadian joke that occurred in "This Helmet I Suppose" in the International G&S festival in Buxton, England, the costuming seemed washed out (quite literally with the women's chorus in white). This washed out affect I think takes away from the pointed specificity of G&S. For my own personal taste, and if I ever am on the production side of a G&S performance one day, I would hope that I can capture the energy in the sarcasm within the visual effect of the opera. I think that the jokes breathe a whole new vivaciousness in full "Technicolor." I also wonder with the improvement of the HD broadcast and such if we will then be able to see some of these new productions in a similar vibrant and captivating way.