{"id":2658,"date":"2012-03-31T07:54:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T12:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=2658"},"modified":"2012-03-31T07:54:21","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T12:54:21","slug":"what-does-putting-a-real-temple-on-stage-add-to-an-opera-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/03\/31\/what-does-putting-a-real-temple-on-stage-add-to-an-opera-production\/","title":{"rendered":"What does putting a real temple on stage add to an opera production?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/207.112.70.56\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/temple.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2659\" title=\"temple\" src=\"http:\/\/207.112.70.56\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/temple.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"440\" height=\"586\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/03\/temple.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/03\/temple-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>(CLARIFICATION: The first paragraph is changed, in response to the Canadian Opera Company&#8217;s objection that I had unjustifiably described the logs as showing signs of dry rot and termite damage.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>While at the Four Seasons Centre yesterday to do an interview, I was allowed a sneak peek at the construction site in the backstage wings, where, after rehearsal hours, crews are assembling a real Ming-era Chinese temple for the Canadian Opera Company&#8217;s upcoming production of Handel&#8217;s <em>Semele<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This is an unusual production, masterminded by Linda Wong Davies, of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ktwong.org\/#\/home\" target=\"_blank\">KT Wong Foundation<\/a>. Aiming to bridge the traditional cultures of China and Europe, the project paired Chiense visual artist Zhang Huan with Handel, with interesting results at the production&#8217;s fall 2009 premiere at the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de a Monnaie, in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s lots more to write about the production later. The COC is also preparing a time-lapse video of the construction of the temple, which the company will post on their website after the construction is complete.<\/p>\n<p>But one question is nagging me now: Why do we need to have a real, ancient temple inside a modern opera house?<\/p>\n<p>If we can suspend disbelief when confronted with performance narrative, why do we need a real-world object &#8212; rather than a cheaper, lighter, no-need-to-insure-it balsawood and styrofoam replica &#8212; planted in the middle of everything?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s like having real elephants on stage for <em>Aida<\/em>; we seem to have a real need to mix fiction with palpable (and smellable) fact, and I feel strange that I don&#8217;t understand this.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(CLARIFICATION: The first paragraph is changed, in response to the Canadian Opera Company&#8217;s objection that I had unjustifiably described the logs as showing signs of dry rot and termite damage.) While at the Four Seasons Centre yesterday to do an interview, I was allowed a sneak peek at the construction site in the backstage wings, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,35,37,39,43,62,63],"tags":[628,737,1514,1887,2963,3045,3650],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/03\/temple.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-GS","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}