Regietheater is the modern practice of allowing a director freedom in devising the way a given opera or play is staged so that the creator's original, specific intentions or stage directions can be changed, together with major elements of geographical location, chronological situation, casting and plot. Typically such changes may be made to point a particular political point or modern parallels which may be remote from traditional interpretations. Examples found in Regietheater productions may include some or all of the following:
Relocating the story from the original location to a more modern period
Modifications to the story from the original script
Costumes that frequently mix eras and locales. Examples include the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis's 2010 production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and its 2011 Don Giovanni which portray some characters in 18th century attire and others in mid-20th century clothing.
History
It can be argued that Regietheater began with the work of Wieland Wagner, who in the years after World War II responded to the profound problematisation of the work of his grandfather, Richard Wagner, resulting from its earlier appropriation by the Nazis, by designing and producing minimalist and heavily symbolic stagings of Wagner operas in Bayreuth and elsewhere. Guided by the theories of Adolphe Appia, Wieland Wagner's productions allegedly sought to emphasise the epic and universal aspects of the Wagner dramas, and were justified as being attempts to explore the texts from the viewpoint of depth psychology. In practice this would mean, for example, that the opening act of Die Walküre, specifically described as set in Hunding's forest hut, was presented on a stage shaped as a large, sloping disc: no hut was either seen or implied, and the composer's many detailed instructions relating to the actions of Wehwalt, Sieglinde and Hunding within the hut were disregarded because it was said that the details of the scoring meant that they were already illustrated musically. Examples
In 1976 the Patrice Chéreau production of the centenary Bayreuth Ring that sought to make manifest an anti-capitalist and Marxian sub-text recognized to be present in the work given the time of its original creation: following this conception, Wagner's mischievous Rhinemaidens became three ragged whores plying their trade near a hydro-electric dam, the gods are a late-19th century industrialist family, and Siegfried used an industrial steam-hammer to forge his sword.
The rise of deconstructionism gave a new lease of life to Regietheater in Europe and elsewhere. Prominent American deconstructionists include Peter Sellars and David Alden. Other directors often associated with Regietheater include Walter Felsenstein and Christopher Alden: Alden states: "Opera is a lot like the Catholic Church in terms of the way people are devoted to it and how to a lot of people it's as holy, as sacrosanct and as untouchable as religion," he says. "In that way I think it’s still necessary to keep smashing those idols and keep trying to get beyond that idolatry — so that you can get at things that are maybe closer to the bone, and more human.". Calixto Bieito, Harry Kupfer, David Pountney, and, have also applied such principles to a wide range of operas from the classical and romantic periods.
Controversy
Supporters of Regietheater will insist that works from earlier centuries not only permit but even demand to be re-invented in ways that not only fit contemporary intellectual fashion but even strive to connect them with situations and locations of which the original composers and librettists could not have conceived, thus setting the story into a context the contemporary audience can relate to. In recent years, the appointment of "celebrity" directors, who do not appear to have learned the specific requirements of opera direction including, in some cases, those who have flaunted their inability to read music, and who seem to be unable to psychologically direct singers behind unreflected Regietheater clichés, has led to a general misapprehension of the Regietheater term by both theatres and critics. Opponents will accuse such producers of shallowness, crudity, sensationalism, lack of real creativity, insensitivity to the richness of the original setting, neglect of the role played by the music, and of pandering to the appetites of ephemeral journalism. More and more, however, critics distinguish between "proper" application of Regietheater principles, and the gratuitous use of misunderstood Regietheater stereotypes.
