Word: backdrop
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...this essentially rural set fails to provide a wholly satisfactory backdrop for the scenes of court and town, it works wonders in transforming the less-than-congenial dining hall atmosphere into a proper stage. The use of an elaborate unit of limited flexibility benefits house theatre tremendously, even when it makes certain transformations impossible. The costumes demonstrate similar virtues: none are overlavish, all are colorful and consistent with the whole, and all show good period spirit. A surprising number of principals look handsome and easy in potentially difficult clothes...
...only smoother and higher (15 ft. v. 9-12 ft.) than its predecessor but is topped by a 15-in.-wide pipe that, unlike the old barbed wire, makes any hand grip impossible. The Wall is now nicely whitewashed; besides the esthetic consideration, this gives the Grepos a better backdrop for shooting...
...restraint made the opera's few moments of overt action all the more effective. As Hero Siegmund and Villain Hunding waged their battle at the end of Act II, a single, blinding white beam split the backdrop, silhouetting the struggle in all its throat-catching violence. When Wotan summoned the magic fire at the finale, the blackness was pierced by a single red spot, transforming Wotan's spear into a tongue of flame; in the inexplicit staging, these moments stood out in a relief that old-fashioned literalness could never achieve. The orchestra, which Von Karajan subdued...
...occasion was certainly right for a party, and the trappings were all that anyone would wish: the sweep of Red Square, an entertainment cast of thousands, the backdrop of the Kremlin and, later, the elegant Palace of Congresses as a banquet hall for 2,000 guests. But the hosts seemed downright edgy, as if expecting one of the guests to swing from a chandelier or pour champagne on someone's head. Indeed, some of the partygoers at last week's celebration of the Soviet Union's 50th anniversary figuratively jangled a few chandeliers and threw a goodly...
...looked like a huge, ominous Tinkertoy: an abstract tangle of pipes, scaffolds and ladders against a moody blue backdrop. The singers, clambering over it with starkly stylized gestures, seemed to be groping through a hallucinatory dream sequence. "It was," said the composer, "an ideal staging that caught the nightmarish quality I intended and gave it an extra dimension...