Britten Operas

Started by karlhenning, April 09, 2007, 08:10:00 AM

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karlhenning

I'll launch this, since I am on the threshold of getting to know many of the operas, at last.

Still in the middle of listening to Peter Grimes, for the first time.

knight66

Karl, Whose version? I regard it as an opera for grownups. What a wonderful sweep it has and such insight into human nature. Live, it can have an overwhelming impact. The interludes are vivid and atmospheric. I especially love the heartbreaking embroidery aria and there is a lot for the chorus to do that emphasises their role as protagonist. Grimes as antihero, as outsider, as poet, as scapegoat....lots of strands to explore.

There is a quartet for Auntie, nieces and Ellen, it starts with the words....From the gutter....and it develops into the nearest I have heard to the trio from Rosenkavalier, an unexpected influence.

How are you finding the piece?

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

BachQ

I'd like to learn more about The Rape of Lucretia . . . . . . .

knight66

Well, Lucretia is not grand opera in the way of Grimes. It is a chamber opera. Although it deals with a pre-Christian subject, it is filtered through the hindsight of subsequent Christian ideology and this aspect of the opera is handed over to the male and female chorus...solo parts. They comment and speculate on the action.

We are introduced to the happy Roman matron, at ease in her blissful life with her husband. She is preyed upon by the Etruscan King Tarquinius. He awaits his opportunity when Lucretia is left undefended and he despoils her. She takes on the idea that she has somehow allowed this to happen to her and that it brings such shame on her husband that she commits suicide.

Britten was in his early 20s when he composed it. The restricted orchestra is used with great imagination. There is often a wide eyed feel to the orchestration and it then becomes very dark in colour leading up to and after the event.

My own feeling is that the structure which imposes a framework of commentary gets in the way of the drama and the libretto is over-poetic. The action is held up, Lucretia's husband seems a two dimensional character, hardly worthy of the sacrifice.

Despite all of this, it is well worth listening to or watching. The recording I have has Janet Baker giving a definitive performance with Benjamen Luxon providing sleek menace as Tarquin. Baker brings the character to believeable life and tragic death, not a feat all singers of the role manage.

An awkward but rewarding piece.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

karlhenning

Quote from: knight on April 09, 2007, 01:50:38 PM
Karl, Whose version? I regard it as an opera for grownups. What a wonderful sweep it has and such insight into human nature. Live, it can have an overwhelming impact. The interludes are vivid and atmospheric. I especially love the heartbreaking embroidery aria and there is a lot for the chorus to do that emphasises their role as protagonist. Grimes as antihero, as outsider, as poet, as scapegoat....lots of strands to explore.

There is a quartet for Auntie, nieces and Ellen, it starts with the words....From the gutter....and it develops into the nearest I have heard to the trio from Rosenkavalier, an unexpected influence.

How are you finding the piece?

Mike, it's the Colin Davis reissue on Philips.  I'm still absorbing, but I am certainly mighty impressed.  And I have long liked the Sea Interludes, to be sure.  More anon!

D Minor:  I should have the chance to gain Lucretia's acquaintance (so to speak) ere this month is very old.

Susan de Visne

Quote from: knight on April 09, 2007, 02:49:35 PM


Britten was in his early 20s when he composed it.

Mike

Sorry to be pedantic, but he was in his early 30s. Lucretia was the year after Grimes.

Like most of Britten's operas, it works very well on the stage, awkward libretto and all!

BachQ

Quote from: karlhenning on April 09, 2007, 03:16:51 PM
D Minor:  I should have the chance to gain Lucretia's acquaintance (so to speak) ere this month is very old.

Please keep us updated, Karl . . . . . . . We seek to share in your discovery . . . . . . . :D

knight66

Quote from: Susan de Visne on April 10, 2007, 06:40:30 AM
Sorry to be pedantic, but he was in his early 30s. Lucretia was the year after Grimes.

Like most of Britten's operas, it works very well on the stage, awkward libretto and all!

Sorry, typo...the sort that goes through spellchecker without any problem.

Mike
DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

karlhenning

Well, I've had an initial listen, in less-than-ideal conditions, to The Turn of the Screw.  Too creepy a story to say simply, "I like it";  but it makes a strong musical impression, and I will (from a musical standpoint) enjoy getting to know this better.

bhodges

I still haven't gotten to know The Turn of the Screw, but have enjoyed virtually every other Britten opera I've heard.  Good for you for plunging into Peter Grimes -- and that's an excellent recording.  I am waiting with bated breath for the Met's new production next season.

--Bruce

karlhenning

Well, you know, Bruce, one always listens to new things.  Keeps the ear from ossifying, and goodness knows the literature is much richer than any of us could completely subdue.

And, one always finds new music to love!

I think next up needs to be The Rape of Lucretia.  I want to get all the 'dark' stories out of the way before listening to A Midsummer Night's Dream, e.g.

Harry Collier


I have a soft spot for A Midsummer Night's Dream. I swing like a pendulum where Britten's music is concerned, but MND is always pleasant listening.

bhodges

Last night I saw Curlew River for the first time, a production by the Rouen/Haute-Normandie Opera from 2005 (originally premiered at Aix-en-Provence in 1998).  It's not really an "opera" in the traditional sense: short (just 70 minutes, no intermission) and with a cast of about 20, and a chamber orchestra of seven musicians.  Based on Sumidagawa, a classic of Japanese noh theater, the story takes place in medieval times, with a "madwoman" in search of her lost son.  She and a partner cross the Curlew River on a small boat, and she find's the boy's gravesite, where his spirit briefly appears, and she is cured of her madness. 

The music is very spare, stark, and delicate, with much use of flute and harp to illustrate the emotions of the characters, who are all played by men, including the Madwoman.  There is a small chorus that evokes the choral parts of Peter Grimes or Billy Budd, and whose parts provide a nice contrast to the more spartan writing for the main characters. 

The set was simple: two platforms, one higher in the back, and a rectangular pool of water in front of them, with floating candles.  The musicians were grouped together at the right.  Everyone was quite good -- the intimate theater seats about 250 people so the singers don't have to strain.  If it may not enter my Britten "hit parade," I'm still very glad I saw it. 

--Bruce

Susan de Visne

I've just read the review of Curlew River from the New York Times. The boy played by a girl, apparently, which is rather inauthentic - and also, apparently, a conductor! Britten didn't intend there to be a conductor. It's like chamber music, the singers taking their clues from each other. Perhaps none of this matters all that much, but in addition to the fact that it was performed in a theatre rather than a church, it does make it all rather far from what Britten wanted, even more so than the modern dress performance at the London Proms.

Choo Choo

I'm shortly going to be seeing Albert Herring (in, of all places, Salzburg) and was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a recording to familiarise myself with this (as yet, to me) unknown music beforehand?

T-C

I can recommend two recordings of Albert Herring that I am familiar with:

Steuart Bedford recording with the Northern Sinfonia and a cast including Christopher Gillett, Josephine Barstow, Felicity Palmer and Robert Lloyd. This was recorded in the early nineties by Collins Classics and is available now cheaply on the Naxos label. Sound quality is excellent.

On DVD there is a very good performance from the Glyndebourne Festival 1985. The London Philharmonic is conducted by Bernard Haitink and with John Graham-Hall, Alan Opie, Jason Rigby, Felicity Palmer etc.

Britten's recording is available on Decca, but it is still in full-price. And I don't like especially Peter Pears voice...       

karlhenning

Well, I am at last listening to Death in Venice.

Choo Choo

Quote from: T-C on April 18, 2007, 05:55:28 AM
I can recommend two recordings of Albert Herring that I am familiar with

Thanks - that's excellent  :)

karlhenning

Finally setting to Gloriana.  Great prelude! Let's see where it goes from here . . . .

The new erato

I have several operas yet to discover.

But thought I should mention that I'm absolutøley enamoured by his early musical (?) Paul Bunyan. Anybody else know it?