I also fine opera critics to be a rather stuffy conservative crowd. I could see how this "opera" would not appeal to them.
Another review from the San Jose Mercury News.
Quote:
Morris frees a stuffy `Arthur'
CHOREOGRAPHER TAKES A NEW LOOK AT HISTORICAL TALE WITH SONG AND DANCE
By Richard Scheinin
Mercury News
Mark Morris' reinvention of ``King Arthur,'' the 315-year-old ``semi-opera'' by Henry Purcell, is a work of happy genius.
It is a charmer -- fanciful and all sexed-up in order to send up the original historical tale, dumped by Morris in favor of a vaudevillian pageant that crowds the stage with singers and dancers in gold lamé and lingerie. As choreographer and director, Morris literally undresses ``Arthur'' to reveal -- here's the paradox -- the joyful and erotic soul of the Baroque.
``King Arthur,'' which made its debut at the English National Opera in June, is having its U.S. premiere at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, courtesy of Cal Performances, the director's own Mark Morris Dance Group and the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Jane Glover, a smart and stylish interpreter of 17th-century music. I attended Tuesday's performance, the second, and recommend that you brave traffic to see one of the remaining three, starting tonight.
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