American Opera? (and English opera too!)

[Tsaraslondon]

Ah!  Unjustly accused!  Lady Bainbridge remains innocent!   0:)

Interesting that in the Amazon list near the top Beaton's name does not appear.

In any case, one reviewer says her voice is "unpleasantly shrill" with occasional wobbly intonation. 

Maybe that was due to acting!   

A friend of mine had the set on LP many years ago, and would play one of Cathy's scenes when he wanted to have a laugh. Really her diction was appalling. Not one word was intelligible - not a single consonant. Much worse than Dame Joan Sutherland, at her worst period.

[Guido]

Still on that I want magic! Fleming CD - What the hell is going on during the Menotti aria "Monica's Waltz"? It is sung by the character Monica, but she keeps referring to herself in the third person not least with the line: "Monica, Monica can't you see that my heart is bleeding for you." Is she talking for the mute boy Toby as a game or something?

[bhodges]

Still on that I want magic! Fleming CD - What the hell is going on during the Menotti aria "Monica's Waltz"? It is sung by the character Monica, but she keeps referring to herself in the third person not least with the line: "Monica, Monica can't you see that my heart is bleeding for you." Is she talking for the mute boy Toby as a game or something?

USOpera.com to the rescue:

Act I

Monica, the daughter of Madame Flora ("Baba"), and Toby, a mute boy living with them, are playing while Madame Flora is away. When she returns, she is furious that they are not ready for the seance she has planned; Monica prevents her from striking Toby. They busily prepare, and when the three guests arrive for the seance, Monica pretends to be the teenage daughter of one and the baby son of another, while Toby works the mechanical devices that control the motion of the lights and the furniture in the room. Suddenly, Madame Flora stops the seance and sends the customers away. She tells Monica she felt a spectral hand clutch her throat during the seance. She suspects Toby at first, but as Monica tries to comfort her Flora hears a voice imitating Monica's performance at the seance.

Act II

A few days later, Monica is watching Toby perform a puppet show for her; then she dances for him. Monica realizes he is trying to tell her that he loves her; pretending to be his voice, she says it for him. She runs off as Flora reenters; the medium tries cajole Toby into confessing that he was the one who touched her during the seance, or that he knows something about it. When he does not answer, she begins to whip him, but is interrupted by the doorbell. The three clients from the previous seance enter; Flora gives them their money back and tries to convince them they have been cheated, even showing them the wires and microphones, but they refuse to believe her. She throws them out, and despite Monica's protests, throws Toby out, too. Monica goes to her room, and Flora, frightened by what she has experienced, drinks herself to sleep. Toby returns; Flora awakes, and Toby hides from her; Flora, thinking he is the spirit she felt, shoots him.

--Bruce

[Guido]

Cheers!

[Guido]

A friend of mine had the set on LP many years ago, and would play one of Cathy's scenes when he wanted to have a laugh. Really her diction was appalling. Not one word was intelligible - not a single consonant. Much worse than Dame Joan Sutherland, at her worst period.

I really want to hear this piece. I have a few arias from it as sheet music which I have played through - all are gorgeous, and of course Fleming's recording of "I have Dreamt" is just ravishing... And I'm also desperate to hear the cantata Moby Dick (dedicated to Ives)...

[Guido]

Minnesota Opera are stagin Wuthering Heights in their 2014-15 season! Please god, let it be recorded! And also, god, I hope you're listening, get Renée Fleming to be Cathy.

[lordlawler]

I think I was referenced earlier in this thread as the musicologist who had an "unhealthy obsession" with Herrmann's Wuthering Heights so I have a few things to say about the opera. Before I nitpick the recording let me say I find this work to be one of my personal favorites to listen to (I've heard it pretty much 20 or so times. Yeah...)

It is a pity that the only recording is of such uneven quality. Part of this lies in the short amount of time that this 3 hour opera was prepared in. And the Cathy has TERRIBLE diction. The Heathcliff has some vocal issues, possibly because while Heathcliff is a baritone role, he is often singing in his upper ranges, which can be rather taxing for such a long time.

Herrmann also takes the tempos rather too slow - but the score usually has the tempos marked at a faster tempo. Hindley's Act 4 drinking song is marked at moderato, but Herrmann takes it at a tempo far under that. Possibly these tempos were chosen because of issues with performers, or Herrmann's increasing fondness for slower and slower tempos as time wore on.

Looking at the score, I can see sometimes a rather big difference between what I see and what I hear. Missed notes, terrible diction, singers going to ff rather than p as marked, etc etc etc...this really needs to be rerecorded. Great orchestra sound though.

However to get on point, it is one of the finest American operas of the 20th century, and it is a pity that its only been put on once, and not very well at that. I highly recommend giving it a listen, while the quality can waver, and some scenes go on too long, there are some amazing moments of drama and atmospheric writing that make up for any weaknesses. Well, more than some, more like many, despite Herrmann's tendencies to go into melodramatic romantic gestures.

[Anne]

A friend of mine had the set on LP many years ago, and would play one of Cathy's scenes when he wanted to have a laugh. Really her diction was appalling. Not one word was intelligible - not a single consonant. Much worse than Dame Joan Sutherland, at her worst period.

As far as I'm concerned, every opera in English should have English subtitles.  Maybe my hearing is starting to go, but I dread listening or watching a DVD of English or U.S. operas.  One has to strain so much to understand the words.  For me, even singers with good diction are included.  Just my personal gripe!

[Tsaraslondon]

As far as I'm concerned, every opera in English should have English subtitles.  Maybe my hearing is starting to go, but I dread listening or watching a DVD of English or U.S. operas.  One has to strain so much to understand the words.  For me, even singers with good diction are included.  Just my personal gripe!

I agree. It's a worrying trend, Anne. if you listen to Britten's own recording of The Turn of the Screw, a libretto is hardly necessary, so clearly do the singers articulate the text. Nor do I seem to have much trouble understanding the words of pre second world war singers. Try Kathleen Ferrier or Heddle Nash. Even foreign singers articulate English better. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's singing of Danny Boy is so clear in every detail, that English listeners often thought it funny to caricature her strongly accented English, though personally I find that rather unkind. Do the Italians poke fun at the numerous strange accents they must hear? They adored Sutherland, who mangled their language (well any language really) beyond recognition. At least with Schwarzkopf, trongly accented or not, you can hear every word.

[Guido]

I think I was referenced earlier in this thread as the musicologist who had an "unhealthy obsession" with Herrmann's Wuthering Heights so I have a few things to say about the opera. Before I nitpick the recording let me say I find this work to be one of my personal favorites to listen to (I've heard it pretty much 20 or so times. Yeah...)

It is a pity that the only recording is of such uneven quality. Part of this lies in the short amount of time that this 3 hour opera was prepared in. And the Cathy has TERRIBLE diction. The Heathcliff has some vocal issues, possibly because while Heathcliff is a baritone role, he is often singing in his upper ranges, which can be rather taxing for such a long time.

Herrmann also takes the tempos rather too slow - but the score usually has the tempos marked at a faster tempo. Hindley's Act 4 drinking song is marked at moderato, but Herrmann takes it at a tempo far under that. Possibly these tempos were chosen because of issues with performers, or Herrmann's increasing fondness for slower and slower tempos as time wore on.

Looking at the score, I can see sometimes a rather big difference between what I see and what I hear. Missed notes, terrible diction, singers going to ff rather than p as marked, etc etc etc...this really needs to be rerecorded. Great orchestra sound though.

However to get on point, it is one of the finest American operas of the 20th century, and it is a pity that its only been put on once, and not very well at that. I highly recommend giving it a listen, while the quality can waver, and some scenes go on too long, there are some amazing moments of drama and atmospheric writing that make up for any weaknesses. Well, more than some, more like many, despite Herrmann's tendencies to go into melodramatic romantic gestures.

Thanks for posting about this! I just wish even that poor recording was available today.

[karlhenning]

(I've heard it pretty much 20 or so times. Yeah...)

That's certainly unusual focus. I recuse myself from the question of whether it is an "unhealthy obsession" 

And welcome!

[lordlawler]

Haha, well its a thing I do sometimes to a work when I first discover it/get very taken with it. I've heard the first act of Britten's Billy Budd something like 15 times for example. And then there's my Rite of Spring obsession this semester (I took a class on Stravinsky and wrote a paper, did a presentation, and wrote program notes for the symphony concert on The Rite).

Regarding Wuthering Heights, the recording can be found sometimes on ebay or amazon sold used, but can often come at a pretty penny, and the discs are vulnerable to deterioration (I think they are of a certain make that had some flawed cds in it, I forget which factory...its called bronzing or what not).

However, there is a better way. I'm not sure how this works for non university students (since I've only done this as a university student), but there are a variety of libraries around the world that have a recording, and it might be possible to request it (either as LP or CD) via an interlibrary loan. That's how I got a copy of the vocal score, sent to me from University of Texas Austin haha.

I also recommend dropping by the Bernard Herrmann Society (BHS - http://www.bernardherrmann.org/) they have a semi active forum where you might be able to dredge up some more information.

[karlhenning]

Haha, well its a thing I do sometimes to a work when I first discover it/get very taken with it. I've heard the first act of Britten's Billy Budd something like 15 times for example. And then there's my Rite of Spring obsession this semester (I took a class on Stravinsky and wrote a paper, did a presentation, and wrote program notes for the symphony concert on The Rite).

Understood;  generally, I have much the same experience frequently.  I have not listened that many times to any complete opera . . . but I probably ought.  Oh, if only time were an inexhaustible resource!

I need (wish) to do something on these lines with a number of Britten operas . . . listen to them five times in the course of a week.  May possibly do just that with Turn of the Screw, now that I've borrowed a vocal score . . . .

[Coopmv]

But isn't this a piece of garbage?

[Wendell_E]

But isn't this a piece of garbage?

I'd say 'no'.  It's my favorite of Adams' operas.

[jochanaan]

But isn't this a piece of garbage? [image cut]

I'd say 'no'.  It's my favorite of Adams' operas.

I agree.  I saw it live here in Denver last summer, and it's a fine piece of musical theater.

[Sorin Eushayson]

Horatio Parker wrote an opera called Mona that won the Metropolitan Opera's prize for best composition in 1911.  Unfortunately I can find no recording of it anywhere... 

[Harpo]

I'd say 'no'.  It's my favorite of Adams' operas.

I've only seen "Klinghoffer" in a film version on TV. I liked it.

Name-dropping--I went to music camp with John Adams in 1962. He was 15. The camp is mentioned in his recent autobography, but his memories of it are different from mine. I do remember him playing clarinet, but apparently he did a lot of conducting, too, and claims that he was thrown out of camp because he led a campaign to let him (rather than the camp director) conduct the final concert. He looks pretty much the same now, except that his hair and stubble are gray.

[Slezak]

  I think Menotti's first opera, Amelia al Ballo, is a masterpiece. Joseph Baber wrote Rumpelstiltskin, which is hardly ever heard, but a great work. Thomas Pasatieri and Calrysle Floyd's works are quite good, and very listenable.

[Trouble]

Three pages on this subject and, unless I somehow missed it, not once did I see a mention of Menotti's superb The Consul or even his Saint of Bleecker Street.  
For shame!