thesis vii. the monster stands at the threshold... of becoming.
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jeffrey jerome cohen, “monster culture” / backstage at the magic flute at the metropolitan opera house, NY, circa 1905 / "opera house" by thomas rowlandson and auguste charles pugin / the philadelphia metropolitan opera house before and after renovation / porgy and bess in rehearsal at the met, dir. james robinson / tosca act 1 original set design by adolf hohenstein / tosca at the san fransisco opera, dir. shawna lucey / wozzeck at the opera bastille dir. william kentridge / carmen dir. juan guillermo nova at the sng maribor / kids music cafe at the sydney opera house / don giovanni dir. robert carsen at la scala / madama butterfly dir. matthew ozawa at the detroit opera / the isango ensemble's edition of treemonisha dir. mark dornford-may / m. butterfly dir. james robinson at the santa fe opera / die meistersinger von nürnberg dir. barrie bosky at the bayreuth festival / rigoletto dir. david mcvicar at the royal opera house / the view from the stage at the margravial opera house, photographed by klaus frahm
the role of a dramaturg differs between play development and production but generally speaking the role consists of being a researcher and advisor to the director and/or playwright, assisting in structural, cultural, and/or historical specificity of a given work; i always say that my job as a dramaturg is to be there to both ask questions and to help answer questions; the goal is to help shape a cohesive, clear, and dramatically effective piece of theatre
The most important part of operatic dramaturgy is to understand that everything and I mean everything is alive. An opera house is an animal. An opera is an animal (the score is its heart but not quite its soul, not entirely). Opera characters are animals. The orchestra is a eusocial figure. Instruments are animals. The ghosts are animals. Everything must be understood to be alive and/or an organ of some other thing. The curtain is a membrane tissue, the theatre elevators ventricles. You are an animal too. If you stand long enough in an opera house alone you will start to hear the way it breathes