Angels In America OPERA

[folkyboy]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 12:45pm

Has anyone seen the opera of this yet? I know it's coming to Boston this month and I'm debating on getting a ticket but I wanted to know if anyone has perchance been subjected to it?

I've been told they stripped all the political undertones of the show.

(sorry if this has been mentioned before)
Updated On: 6/6/06 at 12:45 PM

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 1:14pm

Angels IN America.

The Paris production will be aired on PBS this year.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 1:16pm

Did it already air, actually?
I missed it?

[folkyboy]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 1:18pm

haha i can't believe i wrote that. sorry i'm @ work and doing a bazillion other things. thanks for catching me in a dumba$$ moment.

as for it airing on TV? i never heard of this

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 1:21pm

From the Great Performances Website:
"ANGELS IN AMERICA -- THE OPERA"

A Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play and a multi-Emmy-winning film for television, Tony Kushner's epic "Angels in America" -- a searing saga of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s -- has also become a major event in the world of contemporary opera. Adapted by composer Peter Eötvös, "Angels in America -- The Opera" received unanimous raves at its 2004 premiere at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet. The NEW YORK TIMES exclaimed, "The angels are singing now. ... Eötvös has produced from ['Angels in America'] a slippery and musically delightful combination of opera and musical." Filmed for television by François Roussillon and staged by Philippe Calvario, the opera features Daniel Belcher as the AIDS-stricken Prior Walter, Topi Lehtipuu as Prior's guilt-ridden lover Louis Ironson, Omar Ebrahim and Julia Migenes as the troubled Mormon couple Joe and Harper Pitt, Donald Maxell as the notorious Roy Cohn, and Barbara Hendricks as The Angel.

Watch for the launch of the Web companion in 2006.

[Barihunk]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 2:37pm

The opera has yet to be scheduled for broadcast by PBS Great Performances.

Opera News ran an interview with Tony Kushner last month in which he said he "loved" the opera. He was evasive about what he thought of the condensing of the play into 2 and a half hours but he went on record as saying he was enthusiastic about the opera on the whole and admired Eotvos' music.

[jacco]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 5:08pm

It's on in Amsterdam this month. I'll see it then and post a review. have mixed emotions about this project....but hey....I'll give it a chance.

[darkmist115]

Posted: 6/6/06 at 9:33pm

hmm..
this could be really awesome or really bad.
but if kushner likes it..

[folkyboy]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 8:21am

well Anne Rice loved Lestat so...

[Barihunk]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 10:47am

A more objective review (and photos) can be found here (scroll down to November):
Angels OPERA Review

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 10:53am

While I can see stripping *certain* political ideals from the show simply knowing that the length has been cut down, the play is almost *entirely* political, so I doubt that it's been stripped of all politics. If you did that, then it's not Angels in America.

Updated On: 6/7/06 at 10:53 AM

[beacon1]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 11:46am

Thanks Emcee!

It would be WONDERFUL to be able to see this. I wonder how they kept some of the most powerful lines intact.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 11:49am

I don't know. I think this could go either way: it could be astonishing, or terrible, but I'm not sure it's possible for it to be anything in between. It's awfully ambitious.

Updated On: 6/7/06 at 11:49 AM

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 11:57am

I really want to see it.

[tophertilson]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 12:35pm

Fascinating article, Barihunk. Thanks for posting that!

TT

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 12:38pm

I'm not sure how I feel about Louis with long hair and a guitar.

[darkmist115]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 12:44pm

definitely agree, mandi moo.