Train Set

One might think that, at the very least, an opera director should like the music—but that’s not always the case. “I am amazed at how many directors are unmusical,” declares James Robinson, whose production of Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio comes to the Minnesota Opera this month. “Any composer worth his salt will reflect the drama musically,” he maintains. “When directing an opera, music informs so many choices.”

This may sound obvious, but far too many opera productions demonstrate that, sadly, it’s not. “There has been a tendency of too many directors not taking opera seriously,” Robinson says. “They come in to save the world from opera with their production. They’re not interested in solving the problems of a piece, but are throwing out every piece of logic. That’s too easy.”

Robinson’s work is familiar to Minnesota Opera audiences. He directed last season’s Masked Ball and the production of Turandot that premiered here in 1995 and was revived in 2000.

When Robinson begins working on a piece he has not seen, he starts by listening to a CD, without the libretto or even a synopsis. “I want to hear what is guiding the musical choices,” he explains. “Only afterwards do I read the libretto and then listen with it.”

When working on a more familiar opera, such as Abduction, Robinson’s approach is to come up with a concept in collaboration with his designers. “We talk about what we’ve found frustrating about previous productions, what we haven’t understood, and what we don’t like,” he says. “With Abduction, we all had a feeling that we’d been bored out of our minds.”

Abduction is a frothy comedy set in a Turkish harem. A pasha has kidnapped a European noblewoman and her maid. The woman’s lover and his servant, in love with the maid, plot their rescue. It’s not a tremendously deep or compelling tale, so Robinson and his team tried to zero in on what was enjoyable about it.

“We asked ourselves, What is the piece like? What does it resonate with? The story is slight, but it has its charms. It reminded me of the screwball comedies from the 1920s,” says Robinson. That led to his setting it in the 1920s, aboard the Orient Express from Istanbul to Paris. “It’s really a very intimate piece. Setting it on a train contains all the energy. It gives it a kind of madcap quality.”

Robinson insists that updating the time period is not gratuitous. “We are not doing it to be clever. We want people to appreciate the opera. It needs a little assistance to give it the proper urgency,” he says. “The job of a director is to bring the story out, find a clarity for the audience. I want to make it very logical and connect all the dots.”

Robinson applies the same intention when working with singers. “I talk about the objective of a scene,” he explains. “I get them to understand the point of what the music is saying.” But he admits, “You walk a fine line. The impulse of the director is to do too much. The best direction is when you’re not aware of it at all.”

This production premiered in 2002 at Houston Grand Opera and the Minnesota Opera was one of its coproducers. It was originally intended to be produced here in 2005, but was rescheduled. This will be the fourteenth presentation of the production nationwide.

Robinson will be less available in the future because he’s been appointed artistic director of Opera Theatre of St. Louis. “In taking this position, I will need to be more selective in directing,” he says. That’s a loss. Whatever you might think of his individual choices, it’s clear that Robinson starts from a position of loving—and respecting—the operas that he’s directing. Nov. 1–9. Ordway Center, 345 Washington St., St. Paul, 651-333-6669