On Christmas
\nEve, theatre and opera director Andrei Serban talked about the power of music
\nin life, opera and theatre at the launch of a bilingual book entitled Opera
\ndirecting, thoughts and images published by Nemira. The book contains texts
\nwritten by Andrei Serban and photographs by Mihaela Marin and is the second
\nproject bringing Serban and Marin together. Photographer Mihaela Marin:<\/p>\n
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It’s a new
\nexperience because it’s the first time I worked with opera. People know me for
\nmy theatre photography, and all my previous four albums were about theatre.
\nUntil not long ago, opera for me was more about the music. I never thought we
\ncould make a book with images about the opera, images that would tell the story
\nof an opera production. For the first time, this kind of book also contains
\ntexts written by the director of those productions, which are very interesting.
\nThe photo on the cover is from Lucia di Lammermoor and I have chosen it because
\nin it you will discover Andrei Serban himself. It was the first time that he
\never went on stage. It was a surprise for everybody, for me, who was backstage
\ntaking photos, as well as for the singers who had no idea Andrei would enter
\nthe stage for a few seconds. It’s something I will always remember fondly.<\/p>\n
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Opera
\ndirecting, thoughts and images contains photographs from six opera productions
\nstaged by Andrei Serban, two in Iasi, Romania, three in Paris, and another one
\nin Vienna. Music is made of sounds and silence, said Andrei Serban at a talk
\nwith the public held after the launch:<\/p>\n
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The composer
\nbrings together sounds and silence. What fascinates me about the opera is the
\nsilence at the beginning of a production. When lights are turned off and the
\nconductor raises his or her baton, there is a moment of suspense, of
\nimmobility. That suspense is full of mystery. During the rehearsals for an
\nopera production I always try to convince the conductor to extend the pauses
\nbetween the notes, especially when the score contains the symbol ‘fermata’,
\nthat moment of interruption, of pause. Conductors, however, are reluctant to
\nprolong that moment. They are afraid spectators might become anxious if the
\nsilence between the notes is too long. Indeed, this silence has intensity and
\nurgency, it is an active silence. For some people, silence is anxiety, for
\nothers it’s solace.<\/p>\n
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The stage
\ndirector is the creator of the opera show, says Andrei Serban, adding that
\ndirecting opera is very different from directing theatre: <\/p>\n
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When I work with
\noperas or large theatre companies, I am bound to appeal to the audience, compel
\ntheir attention. I have the duty to provide aesthetic pleasure. Singers adapt
\nmore or less to the directing. They know the voice is all that matters, and
\nthat the directing has to do with visual effects, it has very little to do with
\nthem. For some, the less directing instructions they get, the better. Theatre,
\nin that respect, is very different. It is the actors who convey the message. And
\nif the acting is poor, everything seems to go wrong. <\/p>\n
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Andrei Serban has
\nalso warned against the conflict between the conductor, the lead singers and
\nthe director, who may turn into tyrants.
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Academics claim
\nmodern directing is destroying opera. I don’t think you can destroy Traviata -
\nits musical structure is too robust. The Magic Flute too is immune to a
\ndirector’s touch. The power of music prevails over any stage artifice. With
\ntheatre it’s very different, because the structure of a play is much more
\nvulnerable. Shakespeare and Chekhov may seem dull when spirit is lacking, when
\nthe stage director is mediocre. <\/p>\n
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As long as
\nlove, death, joy and suffering are part of experiencing life, as long as people
\nwant to listen to and see true drama expressed in music, there is a future for
\nthe opera, director Andrei Serban said optimistically. However, the conference
\nat the launch of the bilingual album ‘Opera Directing, Thoughts and Images’,
\nwas about theatre: <\/p>\n
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None of the
\nobstacles, bad things and conflicts I face in life have any meaning for me if I
\ndon’t recognise them as leading to something good and positive. I want to see
\nthe same thing in the theatre I make. If what occurs on stage leaves the
\naudience full of frustration, bitterness, negativity and hatred, that is a
\nvery, very weak way of using theatre, much weaker than that which sparks
\npassion, conflict, but does so trying to breathe into us the feeling of being
\none hundred percent humane at present, which helps us to go home with refreshed
\nenergy, giving us hope. In this sense, theatre is the art of the present.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Director Andrei Serban talks about the power of music at the launch of his book \u201cOpera directing, thoughts and images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":160830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[44762],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-160829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-andrei-serban"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n