Rossini Mosè in Egitto opera to a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola. Directed 2017 by Lotte de Beer at the Bregenz Festival. Stars Andrew Foster-Williams (Faraone), Mandy Fredrich (Amaltea), Sunnyboy Dladla (Osiride), Clarissa Costanzo (Elcia), Taylan Reinhard (Mambre), Goran Jurić (Mosè), Matteo Macchioni (Aronne), and Dara Savinova (Amenofi). Enrique Mazzola conducts the Wiener Symphoniker and the Prague Philharmonic Choir (Chorus Master Lukáš Vasilek). Set and costume design by Christof Hetzer; lighting design by Alex Brok; dramaturgy by Peter Te Nuyl and Olaf A. Schmitt. Special video projections using puppets and models by Herman Helle, Arlène Hoornweg, and Pauline Kalker of Theatre Company Hotel Modern. Directed for TV by Felix Breisach. Released 2018, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
This was not performed on the Bregenz Lake Stage, but indoors. Still, this production has water in it (even if no humans risked drowning) showing the parting of the Red Sea. Let us explain with some screenshots. First we see 3 images of normal humans playing roles in an opera:
And next below we see video images of the Hotel Modern puppets. On the lower right you see what appears to be a tiny stage for the puppets:
And next below we see two views of the parting of the Red Sea:
Richard Osborne (July 2018 Gramophone, page 93) is implacably hostile to this show in attacking “a staging where neither Rossini’s music nor the needs of the individual players appear to be in the forefront of the producers’ minds.”
Here’s a 10 minute YouTube clip showing a bit more about the unusual mise-en-scène here:
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