By Richard Strauss. Directed by Mark Streshinsky. Produced by West Edge Opera at the El Cerrito Performing Arts Theater, October-November, 2011.
Ariadne auf Naxos is a comedy, and the projections comprised part of a somewhat silly avant-garde production of the serious opera within the comic opera.
There were four video channels. A DVD player provided a video feed to the house projector and an 11' x 15' screen, and showed scenic backdrops — except during a portion of Zerbinetta's aria, when it was fed by a camera on stage. Three 50" plasma televisions rotated 90 degrees were fed by a Power Mac running Isadora. The TVs sometimes showed the bodies of three singing nymphs whose heads appeared above the televisions, and other times showed part of the scenery.
Streshinsky has top notch collaborators aiding him in this effort, starting with conductor Jonathan Khuner, who even does a bit of acting in the show, and Jeremy Knight, the video/projection wizard whose creative license transformed some of the opera's more lengthy arias and ensembles into engaging, even rollicking entertainment.
—Cheryl North, Contra Costa Times
