Arguing With Himself: Mark Lamos and the Anatomy of Directing Mozart’s La finta giardiniera at New York City Opera.

Abstract

Opera has long been the dominion of singers, composers, and conductors. Opera scholarship has been produced largely by music historians, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists. Recently, the trend is changing in opera studies to include those artists chiefly responsible for mounting productions: opera directors. These studies, however, have focused primarily on critical reflections on the director’s final production rather than the rehearsal practices and directorial methods employed to foster a production to opening night. As the scope of opera scholarship is expanding to include performance texts, a study detailing the day-by-day, moment-to-moment challenges and triumphs of an opera director in rehearsal shall provide greater clarity and appreciation of the often ineffable craft of directing for the stage. The resume of director Mark Lamos includes productions on Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, and a Tony Award for the Hartford Stage under his leadership. His 2003 production of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera for New York City Opera was an ideal choice for documenting a rehearsal process since Lamos endeavored to reimagine the opera Mozart originally composed. First, this study provides the relevant historical context in which Mozart wrote La finta giardiniera in 1774-75. Second, the rehearsal log captures Lamos working with the entire production team beginning with the first company meeting through Final Dress Rehearsal. The log is inspired methodologically by ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation reports produced in the social sciences to gather information and make meaning of a cultural event, namely, an opera director at work. The log of nineteen rehearsals is divided into three chapters that include the early rehearsals to stage the production concept, “stumble” and full run-throughs, and technical and dress rehearsals. Each rehearsal day is subdivided into three sections that introduces the rehearsal themes (Exposition), records the real-time proceedings of each rehearsal (Development), and analyzes Lamos’s directorial choices in the context of other directors faced with similar artistic challenges (Recapitulation). Lastly, the Conclusion includes critical reviews of Lamos’s production, an analysis of Lamos’s directing methodology, and considers how my study contributes to a nascent field in opera scholarship.