With today´s high sound and picture quality, it is a great pleasure to listen to televised broadcasts of classical music and opera. Among the European/German/French channels, particularly ARTE, 3sat and ZDF kultur often include outstanding concert broadcasts in their programming.
However, with regard to the popular classical operas - such as e.g. Carmen, La Bohéme, Tosca, La Traviata and many others - there is a problem: Almost all contemporary opera directors choose to "modernize" their productions by completely discarding the intententions of the composer and the librettist with regard to the timeframe of the events in the plot. It is not nice to watch Carmen unfolding in a contemporary industrial slum or La Traviata in a third world setting.
Last night´s broadcast of Giuseppe Verdi´s Aida from Basel is a case in point. I was looking forward to a great opera evening, but unfortunately the "modernized" staging once again almost ruined the experience.
Having watched the opera for about five minutes, I realized that there was only one way to prevent a total disaster: by closing the eyes and only listening to the singers and the orchestra.
The singing and the playing were outstanding!
Still, it would have been nice also to enjoy the performance visually!
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