| James Robinson* Director |
| Balanced Fancy |
| SFO 2005-2006 Season Norma |
| Salsipuedes/ Houston Grand Opera "James Robinson's production, with sets and costumes by Allen Moyer and Constance Hoffman, has just the right degree of fancy. Ana Maria Martinez, Zheng Cao, Chad Shelton and Scott Hendricks are perfectly balanced as the two couples, and Oren Gradus sings handsomely in the moving aria of the self-sacrificing ship captain. Joseph Evans is riveting as the crazed dictator in the scene culminating in his murder, while Cat�n's repeated rhythmic patterns build tension. Here and elsewhere those patterns emerge with due precision under Guido Maria Guida's baton." "The ensemble cast sang with splendid enthusiasm and passion. Director James Robinson and set designer Allen Moyer provided a vigorous, colorful production that was perfectly outlandish in look and gesture. Conductor Guido Maria Guida confidently steered an imaginative, rhythmically tricky score using an orchestra without violins or violas." |
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| Lucia
The Method in Her Madness Since his 1998 NYCO debut, director James Robinson has brought his keen ear for music and sharp eye for detail to a witty but heart-tugging Hansel and Gretel set in turn-of-the-century New York City, a darkly antic Viaggio a Reims, a thoughtfully updated Boh�me, and a rip-roaring Trittico that plumbed both the manic heights and the depressive depths of verismo. |
| ELEKTRA, by Richard Strauss (Canadian Opera Company). Director James Robinson and his designers turn Strauss' Greek-inspired tale of revenge and neuroses into a dark fantasy world of Victorian repressions. Intelligent performer Susan Marie Pierson is still growing in the title role, while Susan Shafer as her murderous mother Clytemnestra manages the show's best dramatic and musical turn - from Norma Desmond on a bad day, she becomes a bloated, crawling spider. |
| Norma
Canadian Opera Company Year Built: 1998 Director: James Robinson Set Designer: Allen Moyer Costume Designer: Anna Oliver Lighting Designer: Heather Carson |
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| Anyone can Google and get this infor mation that I have placed here in one place for convenience. |
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| Norma Notes: SFO: In your opinion, which is the more grievous directorial mistake�just doing it on auto pilot or going to extremes (e.g., making Norma a Star-Trek priestess where the audience is distracted by freaky effects?)
J.R.: I think the greatest mistake that can be made is to mistrust the dramatic material or he misled by the beauty of the music. As a matter of fact, I made such a mistake the first time I did la different production of Norma, shortly before doing this production for the first time tin Toronto in 1(3991. I bought the CD, listened to it a lot and determined that it was all about creating a beautiful environment, which I did. I thought it was ultimately a failure because there was just so much beauty on the stage! When the opportunity to have another crack at it came up (something that doesn't occur that often, I might add), I jumped at the opportunity. I was able to dig deeper both into the music and the drama and come up with something that was strikingly different and ultimately more satisfying. It's still Norma: there are Romans and Druids and they look like that and I don't feel I was compromising a "vision" to seem up-to-date. It would be easy to put everyone in trench coats, fedoras and get out the German shepherds. But to what end? |
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