More Regie tropes

You know when suddenly a whole lot of directors seem to have the same idea at once? Like when all put-upon women wear short red dresses and red shoes? I looked at this in January. I’ve noticed some more since.

Here’s looking at you! The Eye of Sauron seems to be popular these days. The Vienna Ring shows a giant eye to represent Fafner. As an exciting fight with a dragon it is lacking.

 I would explain what Stefan Herheim is doing with this giant eye in Salome, but it would take a few paragraphs, minimum, and would hijack the post. But it’s brilliant. And anything but literal like the Fafner eye is.

 However, I have no clue what the giant eye in Robert LePage’s Met Die Walküre is supposed to convey, literal or otherwise (saw this via broadcast, more shortly). (There's an eye in Achim Freyer's Walküre too, but it is much smaller!)

Also, do you remember the years when every staging inserted the composer as a silent character or make one of the characters into the composer? I know there are several of these but could only name a few specific ones, which is frustrating. Also, they are all in productions designed by Christian Schmidt, so this not so much a trope as one guy’s favorite idea. But there are more from other sources, I know it, so if you know please tell me what they are in the comments.

First is the Volksoper’s Neuenfels production of Der König Kandaules, which has a wandering Zemlinsky (I saw this production.) I could not find a picture of the Zemlinsky figure despite finding lots of pictures of the production. What I could find was this Fierrabras from Zurich with lots of Schuberts and one other guy:

And also this Tristan, which I saw and liked A LOT. Tristan is Wagner. Both of these were directed by Claus Guth.

A popular design choice at the Staatsoper is monochromaticism, or at least extremely sparing use of color. The photos on their website are always washed-out, but take my word for it, these productions below actually are that drab in person too. Check this: 

Jenufa (David Pountney):

Faust (no director credited):

Rheingold (Sven-Eric Bechtolf):

Billy Budd (Willy Decker):

Medea (Marco Arturo Marelli):

Put these onto your Regie bingo card! More on Walküre in a little bit.