Opera world split as director reinventions dominate Europe while US, Italy more muted

By RONALD BLUM
Associated Press

SALZBURG, Austria (AP) — The opera world is split in two: Some European productions reinvent works in ways composers never imagined, and traditional stagings favored in the U.S. are condemned by cognoscenti. Martin Kušej’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” in Salzburg includes cocaine-fueled fights, a predator priest, a nearly naked hooker and a basement garage rave. Damiano Michieletto’s “Aida” in Munich is a antiwar jeremiad in which Radamès collapses from PTSD during a Triumphal March of amputees. Tobias Kratzer’s “Tannhäuser” at Bayreuth has a clown-clad title character partnered with a drag queen, dwarf and love goddess who runs over a cop at a Burger King.