Red Roses. White Dresses.

Anne Midgette took note of Counts' use of reverse chronology in his staging of Schoenberg's Erwartung. She however thinks that it distracts us from the mystery and ambiguity inherent in the score. Obviously I disagree with her on this point, but we may genteelly agree to disagree. Where I think she's dead WRONG however is in her characterization of the "rose petals showering down over a Greek chorus of white-clad dancers" as cliche. I think that it shows Counts' imaginative interpretation of the stage directions given by Marie Pappenheim (Schoenberg's librettist): "A woman comes; delicate, clothed in white. Upon her dress red roses, the petals partly gone ..."