Catalogue
English

Teatro Colón, ''Hagith''

Buenos Aires

The contrast between ancient and modern is the theme of the idea of the mise en scène and of its scenographical representation.The large windowed wall with the functionalist style divides the frontal world of the old King, sick and dying, and that of the young Prince, visible through the windows and illustrated by projections on a large 22 x 16 m Rear-projection screen realized with the film RAR - Arizona.The projections show the urban landscape of Buenos Aires revised into a collage that evokes the dark expressionist skyline of Metropolis - the modern world of the Prince is in fact placed in the Years 1920s of the Twentieth Century, those of the famous film by Fritz Lang.
View all
The old King spends his last days in a claustrophobic alcove that is filled with objects in a confusion of styles that puts the epoch in a timeless past.
The contrast between the two epochs, that ancient and the modern one, is represented by the superimposed sliding, but without interference, of two distinct layers of projection.On the windowed wall there is a front projection filtered by a mask that prevents the reaching of the Rear-projection screen RAR - Arizona.
The frontal projections on the wall are depicting the ancient world of the King, while the city that is looming through the windows is that cold and technological of the epoch of the Prince, that advances to replace the previous one.
The High Priest, on the right, sends the young virgin Hagith to the King because, coupling with him, she will defeat his disease and will avoid his imminent death.But she will fall in love with the young Prince and she will refuse to save the King with his own sexual sacrifice.As a result of the refusal, the King will die and Hagith will be sentenced to death.
The idea of ​​the mise en scène elaborates expressly that of the film Good Bye, Lenin!, In which the protagonist, a women of Berlin, wakes up from a coma that lasted eight months during which an epochal change happens - the fall of the Wall in 1990.The fact is hidden to her to avoid a shock that could be fatal, and therefore her life continues in a past that doesn't exist any more.
The whole court, who wears the clothing of the epoch of the Prince, agree to hide the changing of the times to the dying King.In order to continue the representation of the golden limbo, they all appear to the King with pompous clothes belonging to a mythical and not clearly identifiable past, that is a sort of an exaggerated and reinterpreted in a farcical way Renaissance.
The theme of the front projections often refers to the desease of the King and to its inexorable evolution.So some ancient anatomical pictures follow one onother, pictures with organs - the heart in this case - veins, blood cells and sometimes the electrocardiogram tracing.
Hagith
Opera in one act
Music
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)
Libretto
Felix Dörmann
First night
Warsaw, Teatr Wielki, 13/5/1922
Scenography
Luigi Scoglio
Costume design
Michał Znaniecki
Joanna Medynska
Light design
Bogumił Palewicz
Technical direction
María Cremonte
Stage direction
Michał Znaniecki
Staging
Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires
Season
2012

Materials used in this production

RAR - Arizona

Rear-projection films

Rear-projection screens

Rear-projection screens

Information on data processing
Privacy PolicyCookie PolicySettings