{"id":758,"date":"2013-06-25T14:40:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T14:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/2013\/06\/dazzled_by_gloriana.html"},"modified":"2013-06-25T14:40:33","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T14:40:33","slug":"dazzled_by_gloriana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2013\/06\/dazzled_by_gloriana.html","title":{"rendered":"Dazzled by &#8220;Gloriana&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been assaulted by the stage lighting of a<br \/>\nproduction? In the sixty-plus years since I saw my first play and opera (<i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style:normal\">Carmen <\/i>at the Cincinnati Zoo!), this is<br \/>\nthe first time I have felt physically threatened by a lighting designer, Mimi<br \/>\nJordan Sherin, who has lit Richard Jones&#8217;s otherwise imaginative, rewarding<br \/>\nrevival of Benjamin Britten&#8217;s <i style=\"mso-bidi-font-style:normal\">Gloriana<\/i>,<br \/>\nat the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<style>\n<!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-font-charset:78;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:Cambria;\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n{mso-style-unhide:no;\nmso-style-qformat:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmargin:0cm;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n{mso-style-type:export-only;\nmso-default-props:yes;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;\nmso-ansi-language:EN-US;}\n@page WordSection1\n{size:595.0pt 842.0pt;\nmargin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;\nmso-header-margin:35.4pt;\nmso-footer-margin:35.4pt;\nmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n{page:WordSection1;}\n-->\n<\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>The<br \/>\nproblems are two-fold: a bank of extraordinarily bright lights lining the top<br \/>\nback of the stage, which appeared to be on switched on for great stretches of<br \/>\ntime; and tubes of intense coloured strip lighting over Ultz&#8217;s generally<br \/>\namusing sets. My wife and I felt mugged by the headache-making intensity of the<br \/>\nlights shining in our eyes, and murmurings from those seated either side and in<br \/>\nfront and behind us indicated that we were not alone in our suffering &#8211; and even<br \/>\nmade to feel a bit sick by the duration and intensity of the aggressive<br \/>\nlighting. Fortunately for me, I had carelessly left a pair of sunglasses in a<br \/>\njacket pocket, so was able to endure the punishment of the first half without<br \/>\nhaving to get up and leave the auditorium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Others were<br \/>\nnot so lucky. At the interval I saw dozens and dozens of people leaving the<br \/>\nfront doors, and a quick check showed that very few of them were standing on<br \/>\nthe Bow Street pavement sneaking a quick fag. Some of these must have been ticket-holders<br \/>\nfleeing, not to save their lives, but their sight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Without<br \/>\ngoing into the other merits or demerits of the production, which I&#8217;ll save for<br \/>\nmy review, I felt there was something sadistic, and wrong, <span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp;<\/span>about punishing an innocent audience in this<br \/>\nway by half-blinding them. Surely this sort of really brutal, literally<br \/>\nin-yer-face lighting ought at least to carry a health warning? In Britain we<br \/>\nare used to seeing notices that caution audiences that &#8220;strobe lights are used<br \/>\nin this production.&#8221; What about this even more dangerous lighting?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"mso-tab-count:1\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been assaulted by the stage lighting of a production? In the sixty-plus years since I saw my first play and opera (Carmen at the Cincinnati Zoo!), this is the first time I have felt physically threatened by a lighting designer, Mimi Jordan Sherin, who has lit Richard Jones&#8217;s otherwise imaginative, rewarding revival [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-ce","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}