Anna Karenina - any info?

[bjivie2]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 4:32pm

Can anyone give me some info on the show Anna Karenina that played on Broadway for 48 performances in fall of 1992? Why did it close so quickly? What didn't work? Any opinions on it? Has it been produced since?

[Piercemn]

Posted: 4/30/07 at 9:02pm

www.ibdb.com

Think about it. What exactly is it about this material that sings for you? As an opera, Anna Karenina would work, because you could do some electrifying music that would make the emotional level of the book work, but it's simply not material for a musical.

What style of music would you use? How could you narrow down the book for a libretto? It's just not a logical idea for a musical any more than Dr. Zhivago, The Cherry Orchard or The Brothers Karamazov would be. There are better shows,even ones set in Imperialist Russia.

[bjivie2]

Posted: 5/1/07 at 3:13pm

Could you not say the same thing about Les Miserables? Not trying to butt heads, I don't know Anna Karenina at all. Was there anything else not going for it other than an ill-fated idea from the get-go?

Posted: 5/1/07 at 7:03pm

The novel (one of my faves) complete sings to me--and certainly it's an easier work to focus on small aspects of to make a clear libretto than say War and Peace (which I think they tried as well).

Pierce why an opera instead? While an opera might fit the bigger dimensions fo the story better, you can tell even *less* plot in opera - for the most part

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 9/23/08 at 6:59pm

I'd like to bump this thread because flops always interest me.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/23/08 at 10:44pm

I have the CD to that & another AK musical.

This one is not half bad.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 9/23/08 at 10:56pm

"Could you not say the same thing about Les Miserables?"

Sure. And the dreadful, Euro-trashy results are there for everybody to see.




Sister Luke
The Belgian Congo