In front of him, two television hosts, one speaking in Persian and the other in Arabic, sat on the left of an immense stage awash in blue.
The scenic highlight was a Trojan horse that the audience saw only from the legs down, but whose legs were nearly as tall as the immense stage was high.
The production clearly challenged the director, not only because of the Met's immense stage — the performers must work in a space that requires more walking, and hitting many more marks, than in a traditional show — but because of the immensity of the themes Muhly addresses, language among them.
Someone called Dr. Virgil asks, "Are you ready to begin your journey?" If you are, he "flicks a row of circuit breakers," and you awake "on an immense stage," backed by a chorus of singers in front of a roaring crowd.
To make the immense stage and seating area feel more intimate, there are two enormous video screens on either side of the proscenium, carrying close-up images of the performers and, on this night, English subtitles to translate the Latin and German texts.
So, Mr. Khan, since you had such an immense stage, what should you have addressed?
And indeed, adding to the full depth of the Metropolitan's enormous state-of-the-art stage was an equally immense stage behind it that opened before our eyes as we watched a fully built ship sail toward the audience in slow motion as the curtain fell.
