Sing Faster

Year: 1999

Grade: B-

Country: USA

Director: Else

Review

behind the scenes look at wagner’s 17 hour opera (the ring), told from the point of view of the stagehands. actors and choreographers are boring and so standard by now that it’s refreshing to see a behind the scenes film that takes a sort of marxist view of theater. in a lot of ways the set pieces and overall production behind the scenes is the real accomplishment of such an undertaking. sure the actors do a fine job and wagner’s score is great and the orchestra does a good job, but, to me, the stagehands’ story is more interesting than the one taking place on the stage itself. there’s something about real people behind the scenes doing things as a team that appeals to me much more than a story about gods stealing golden rings and having incestuous relationships. i’m sure that the ring is about more than that, but you get my point. unlike the opera, the film is short (60 minutes) and sometimes funny. pretty well-edited, the film uses a lot of voice-over to advance the story of the ring (told by the stagehands) while showing them preparing the various setpieces for the scenes they are describing. worth checking out if you’re into theater or documentaries.