It is a masterpiece compared to the production Jarico and I saw in Madrid recently. The director obviously had no clue about the concept of the show.
Precurtain consisted of the Spanish cast CD playing in the theatre. That was our first clue. All the music was prerecorded. During the overture, there was a series of short scenes depicting the arrest of Cervantes. In the prison, the sound cue was off for the lowering staircase, so we kept hearing them being lowered long after they were firmly in place. The prison set used a projection as a backdrop which was projected directly on all the actors completely obliterating their faces. By this time, we were laughing hysterically.
During "I, Don Quixote", as Sancho was dressing Cervantes, he accidentally knocked his microphone out of whack causing lots of noise and eventual failure. We couldn't hear Snacho for the next 15 minutes. Instead of the mule dance, they wheeled the actors out on gigantic statues of a horse and mule. At that point, the entire prison presence was firmly abandonded, never to be seen again (at least in the first act). Because the music was prerecorded and the sound cues were all over the place, many times the actors would simply place themselves and wait out the musical vamps in silence until it was time to sing, which could have been amusing if it were not so incredibly DULL.
During "It's All the Same", the stage was washed in a variety of solid colors somewhat in the bewildering style of the film version of South Pacific, but with complete disregard to musical phrasing or timing. It seemed completely at random. The end of the first act (we were PRAYING for an intermission), there was an entire dream sequence which consisted of a wedding between Quixote and Aldonza complete with an elegantly dressed dancing court of lords and ladies. It was painful to stay that long. Not surprisingly, we did not stay for the second act.
For this, they charged 50 Euros for orchestra seats. For the first time in my life, I really felt we deserved a refund for the travesty we witnessed on stage. Luckily, we bought the cheap seats and were upgraded for free because there was only about 30 people in the audience. The only good thing I can say about the production was that the cast had some great singers.
Now I love the film version.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Updated On: 4/5/05 at 10:53 AM
