The National Theater Taichung (NTT) opened its “The Fall for Great Souls” series last night with the first of three performances of Barcelona-based La Fura dels Baus’ terrific, sci-fi centric production of Richard Wagner’s Siegfried, backed by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO, 國家交響樂團) under conductor Lu Shao-chia (呂紹嘉).
Siegfried is the first of 10 programs that include Austrian-based Taiwanese choreographer Lin Mei-hong’s (林美虹) The Little Mermaid for the Landestheater Linz Ballet, where she is artistic director, on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4, Etat de siege by the Theatre de la Ville, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s (雲門舞集) 45th anniversary show and Hsu Yafen Taiwanese Opera Troupe’s (許亞芬歌子戲劇坊) production of The Soul Switch and Justice Bao (謎魂奇案).
Siegfried, the third of the four operas that constitute Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung is a brave choice to start the series, given that the three-act production lasts for five hours, with two intermissions.
Photo courtesy of Tato Baeza
The 39-year-old La Fura dels Baus and Carlus Padrissa, one of the troupe’s six directors, are renowned for their futuristic 3D stage designs and blurring the boundaries between actors and audience, and this production of Siegfried is no exception.
Padrissa’s multimedia vision of the opera, which premiered in 2008 in the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain, with Zubin Mehta conducting, features video projections in three dimensions, an 11m dragon, acrobats, glass floors that reflect the duality of the character.
The sets were designed by Roland Olbeter, the costumes by Chu Uroz and the lighting by Peter Van Praet.
Photo courtesy of Tato Baeza
Padrissa sees Siegfried, a man who does not know who he is or who is parents were, as a man in a permanent state of combustion in his pursuit of the idea of justice for all.
A super-condensed summary of the opera goes like this: a dwarf, Mime, raises a boy, Siegfried, as his own, hoping that he will be able to one day slay the dragon Fafner, which stole a huge treasure from Mime’s brother, Alberich, including a ring that gives is wearer power over the entire planet.
After Siegfried grows up, with the help of a mysterious wanderer (actually the god Wotan), he is finally able to reforge his father’s sword, which he uses to kill the dragon. He also eventually kills Mime, claims the ring of power and rescues a beautiful woman, Brunnhilde, who is meant to be his wife.
Photo courtesy of Tato Baeza
It is a story of treachery, the pursuit of justice and the desire for love: lots of drama, lots of high notes.
The cast includes Vincent Wolfsteiner as Siegfried, Rodell Rosel as Mime, Jukka Rasilainen as The Wanderer and Susan Bullock as Brunnhilde.
The opera will be sung in German, with English and Chinese surtitles.
If the high prices of the tickets are not enough to scare away Wagner or La Fura dels Baus fans, the idea of a marathon performance that starts before most people have had their dinners (5pm) might be, so the NTT is offering a meal service during the intermissions, with advance reservations via its Web site or the NTCH ticketing system.
Many people noticed the flood of pro-China propaganda across a number of venues in recent weeks that looks like a coordinated assault on US Taiwan policy. It does look like an effort intended to influence the US before the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) over the weekend. Jennifer Kavanagh’s piece in the New York Times in September appears to be the opening strike of the current campaign. She followed up last week in the Lowy Interpreter, blaming the US for causing the PRC to escalate in the Philippines and Taiwan, saying that as
Taiwan can often feel woefully behind on global trends, from fashion to food, and influences can sometimes feel like the last on the metaphorical bandwagon. In the West, suddenly every burger is being smashed and honey has become “hot” and we’re all drinking orange wine. But it took a good while for a smash burger in Taipei to come across my radar. For the uninitiated, a smash burger is, well, a normal burger patty but smashed flat. Originally, I didn’t understand. Surely the best part of a burger is the thick patty with all the juiciness of the beef, the
This year’s Miss Universe in Thailand has been marred by ugly drama, with allegations of an insult to a beauty queen’s intellect, a walkout by pageant contestants and a tearful tantrum by the host. More than 120 women from across the world have gathered in Thailand, vying to be crowned Miss Universe in a contest considered one of the “big four” of global beauty pageants. But the runup has been dominated by the off-stage antics of the coiffed contestants and their Thai hosts, escalating into a feminist firestorm drawing the attention of Mexico’s president. On Tuesday, Mexican delegate Fatima Bosch staged a
Would you eat lab-grown chocolate? I requested a sample from California Cultured, a Sacramento-based company. Its chocolate, not yet commercially available, is made with techniques that have previously been used to synthesize other bioactive products like certain plant-derived pharmaceuticals for commercial sale. A few days later, it arrives. The morsel, barely bigger than a coffee bean, is supposed to be the flavor equivalent of a 70 percent to 80 percent dark chocolate. I tear open its sealed packet and a chocolatey aroma escapes — so far, so good. I pop it in my mouth. Slightly waxy and distinctly bitter, it boasts those bright,
RSS