Watch Motezuma

Motezume is a notably atypical opera because it talks of love fairly little which is quite unusual for a lyric opera.
It especially deals with the elimination of one culture by another culture.
Motezuma is defined as a character... in fact, is seen neither as a positive nor a negative one.
He defends his people but he is also very aggressive.
On the other hand, the Aztecs were not a peaceful people. He goes from one extreme to the other.
Goes from being a victim of the Spanish, a helpless victim of Herman Cortez' Spaniards...but on the other hand he is a major aggressor.
Motezuma is maybe not even the most interesting character. The most interesting role has to be Mitrena who is full of powerful contrasts. She is a woman, a wife and a mother, and a political woman, a sort of Lady Macbeth.
The extras are heavily relied upon they play an almost dominant role in certain scenes.
Theatrically speaking the interesting thing is that this is a war between different peoples different cultures. This affects the movements also. The dramatic movements, but also the gestures in combat are very, very different.
How the body moves, how it reacts, how it jumps - various techniques that are not the same.
Instead of fixing on the historical reality it has been tried to make a spectacle.
There is that gilded platform whose gold is almost tangible right on the platform there are traces of blood.
Hence this is an Aztec platform conceived as if it had been used by priests for human sacrifice so it still carries traces of those sacrificed.
Above it all there is the intrusion of the Spanish world via the cross, which is not a reassuring cross not the kind of cross one can turn to in prayer, to ask for aid. It is an aggressive cross.
There is the raising of the cross which is the most spectacular part which uses stagecraft in synergy with the dramaturgical element because the raising of the cross is done by way of steel cables fastened by the extras themselves; there are no technician