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Music: Practice & Theory

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    Opera scores tend to have very little in the way of stage directions ... And even if it was otherwise people would not actually care ... Commented yesterday
  • I fear I may have been unclear. I didn’t mean to ask why productions differ in general or how strictly one should follow the score. My point is: even in the same staging by the same director, the same scene can change dramatically from performance to performance, completely shifting how the characters come across. In my example, both the Countess and Cherubino are shy and exchange two brief kisses; she then becomes almost pushy while he shows no further interest in kissing her. In the next, both stay reserved and nothing happens. How can such extreme variation occur within the same production? Commented yesterday
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    @user140898 it was not clear from the question that these were the same production. But you do say "years later" -- it's entirely possible that the original director was not involved and that the action was directed by someone else. For example, New York City's Metropolitan Opera in New York is still staging Zefirelli's La Bohème 45 years after its première and nearly seven years after his death. Commented yesterday
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    Your question explicitely says: Years later, different singers. I see no indication of it being the same production. But even if it was the same, same director and everything it is not unusual for the staging to be changed up a bit. Commented yesterday
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    @user140898 I (and, I think, many others) tend to forget details that are present in question titles unless they are repeated in the body. Another persistent problem with this format is that sometimes people ask one question in the title and then conclude the body by asking an opposite question, and then someone begins their answer with a simple "yes" or "no" (I'm not saying you did this, just pointing out some general pitfalls of the format.) Commented 19 hours ago