Britten Operas

[knight66]

I am listening via BBC Radio Three.

Mike

[uffeviking]

Where are you sitting? I don't want your sneezing, coughing, cough candy un-wrapping next to me!

Love the tenor! 

[knight66]

Yes, Grimes is going well, only in this room have they given me more space to cough to my heart's content.

Mike

[knight66]

I do think that the transmitted Met performance really went up a level from the point in Act 2 where the ensemble starts, 'We planned that their lives'....from then on through a shattering Passacaglia to the end of that act, the adrenalin was coming right through the speakers. 'From The Gutters' was full of pain and disappointment, resignation as well.

Then Grimes with his flashes between reality, hallucination and the mood swings of his neurosis. He moves instantly from honeyed headvoice to guttural.

Anthony Dean Griffey was superb, every word crystal clear, lots of feeling and a convincing combination of poet with rough attitudes. He really digs into the words, pushes a little too much sometimes, but better that than safe and bland.

We lost the Met connection near the start of Act 3 for a while, but were back just in time for the Embroidery aria; though I am not sure it went quite as planned. Patricia Racette's voice sounded under the wrong kind of pressure, the falling phrases sounded out of tune.

Runnicles is excellent at building the tension and energy across a scene; especially to the point where the crowd decide on destroying the outsider. Then to an eventual unwinding. Overall, a really superb performance.

A pity the audience did not allow even a momentary silence before they started to clap

Mike

[uffeviking]

Great review, Mike! I agree with every word you said, especially how you pointed out the perfect diction of Griffey! I am not that familiar with Grimes, but for once I understood what was being sung, it made for a much more involved attendance via web cast, as substitute for being there in person.

And your thoughts and mine on the same line: While I was still trying to catch my breath the live audience had to start clapping. But that's NY, the audience at the Met never fails to break the spell I would rather enjoy. Oh well!

Yes, great performance! Enjoy your weekend Mike, and get over that cold, more hot lemon with honey! 

[(poco) Sforzando]

A pity the audience did not allow even a momentary silence before they started to clap.

There is an unbreakable unspoken tradition at the Met that applause starts whenever the curtain starts closing. This means that, for example, the last notes of Siegfried Act II are never heard because the curtain begins closing two bars before the end. It means that one never hears a moment of silence after the tomb scene in Aida because the curtain begins closing at the last "Immenso Phtah!"

I am quite certain that if the curtain were to close on Peter Grimes before the epilogue, the audience would start applauding. I am also quite certain that if, perhaps due to mechanical difficulty, the curtain failed to close after the same epilogue, the audience would have no idea what to do with its 6600 hands, and everyone attending would sit there in stony silence until the ushers escorted them out of the building.

[uffeviking]

    

[knight66]

Thanks for that. Perhaps then the management ought to delay the curtain a little. I think in the production the curtain may start to fall just before the music ends; those are, I think the original stage directions.

Mike

[Susan de Visne]

The instant applause really shocked me, too. How can anyone do that? Surely time is needed to let the music die, and for the audience to come back to the real world.

That apart, I thought it was quite a good performance overall. Grimes's diction was excellent I agree, and not American at all. I'd never have known he hailed from South Carolina if I hadn't seen the interval interview. (That's another thing that shocked me - interviewing singers the moment they come offstage? Unless it was pre-recorded.) All the other main parts were OK - a good Mrs Sedley, making the most of it - but I thought the Nieces were far too bland. Those can be great little character parts if done well. It was difficult to judge their singing because the transmission was very loud, so that the lovely quartet was a bit lost. It also made it difficult to judge the orchestra, as it blasted down my ears in a way quite different from the way it must have sounded in the theatre. Very brass-heavy.

I really didn't like the set, though the costumes were fine, and you have to be grateful if a director keeps an opera in the era it's set in!

I realise I'm sounding quite critical, but it's really the experience of seeing opera in a cinema that I disliked, because it just isn't a real theatrical experience. On the other hand, I'm very grateful I've seen it at all, and I think it's a very good idea to show it. If I lived in a place where it was difficult to get to live opera, I'd be even more grateful.

[bhodges]

There is an unbreakable unspoken tradition at the Met that applause starts whenever the curtain starts closing. This means that, for example, the last notes of Siegfried Act II are never heard because the curtain begins closing two bars before the end. It means that one never hears a moment of silence after the tomb scene in Aida because the curtain begins closing at the last "Immenso Phtah!"

I am quite certain that if the curtain were to close on Peter Grimes before the epilogue, the audience would start applauding. I am also quite certain that if, perhaps due to mechanical difficulty, the curtain failed to close after the same epilogue, the audience would have no idea what to do with its 6600 hands, and everyone attending would sit there in stony silence until the ushers escorted them out of the building.

This is one tradition I wish would die, but of course that isn't going to happen.  So many endings get chopped off by the applause, it drives me crazy. 

The fact that this Grimes doesn't use a curtain means that there was no applause anywhere until the lights were extinguished at the end of each act, after the orchestra had finished playing (aside from the over-eager, instant applause at the end).  Not a bad decision on the part of the director. 

--Bruce

[bhodges]

I'm revisiting Billy Budd, with the LSO conducted by Britten and starring Glossop, Pears and Langdon, and it's very fine indeed.  But are there other recordings people prefer, or feel are essential hearing?  I wouldn't mind having another, perhaps in more modern sound (even though the sound here is quite good for 1967).   

I found some excellent recommendations for the Chandos recording with Philip Langridge, Simon Keenlyside and John Tomlinson, with Richard Hickox and the LSO.  (Is there any other orchestra that does this piece?  ).

--Bruce

[Anne]

The Met televised Billy Budd a few years ago.  "Billy in the Darbies" (sp?) was the most gorgeous aria!  Unfortunately I did not know the timing of the first part of the opera and ended up putting 1/2 of that song on the first tape and the final 1/2 on the second tape.  I would gladly pay someone for a copy of that telecast!  It was a great performance.

[bricon]

(Is there any other orchestra [than the LSO] that does this piece?  ).

There is the Nagano recording with the Halle Orchestra featuring Thomas Hampson (Billy), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Vere) and Eric Halvarson (Claggart); this recording uses the original (1951) 4 act version, rather than the revised (more commonly performed, 1960) 2 act version used on both the Britten and Hickox recordings.

BTW Richard Hickox will be conducting a run of Billy Budd here (Sydney) in September with Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Billy, Phillip Langridge (Vere) and John Wegner (Claggart) in a revival of the acclaimed production directed by Neil Armfield.

[bhodges]

Anne, thanks for that information; I didn't realize the Met's production had been broadcast.  (It has one of the best sets of any production I've ever seen: that ship, that unfolds and expands like a puzzle box.)

And bricon, that production looks great!  Wow...and Teddy Tahu Rhodes was just here in Peter Grimes and got raves.  He is quite good. 

--Bruce

[Wendell_E]

Yeah, the Met televised Billy Budd back in 1997 with Dwayne Croft, Philip Langridge, and James Morris, with a couple of young fellas by the name of Nathan Gunn and Anthony Dean Griffey as the Novice's friend and Arthur Jones.  I wish I had a copy to share Anne, but I forgot about the telecast entirely until I turned on the radio (back in the days of simulcast) and heard the Budd/Dansker scene at the end of Act II.   

The Met hasn't revived the opera since, which is a real shame, since Billys have a short shelf life.  They've missed the boat (so to speak) with Keenlyside, for one.

[bhodges]

Yeah, the Met televised Billy Budd back in 1997 with Dwayne Croft, Philip Langridge, and James Morris, with a couple of young fellas by the name of Nathan Gunn and Anthony Dean Griffey as the Novice's friend and Arthur Jones.  I wish I had a copy to share Anne, but I forgot about the telecast entirely until I turned on the radio (back in the days of simulcast) and heard the Budd/Dansker scene at the end of Act II.   

The Met hasn't revived the opera since, which is a real shame, since Billys have a short shelf life.  They've missed the boat (so to speak) with Keenlyside, for one.

Well, at least we know the video is available for a re-broadcast (theoretically). 

And you're right about Keenlyside...too bad they aren't booking him.  I've read nothing but great reports about him in this piece.

--Bruce

[Anne]

Anne, thanks for that information; I didn't realize the Met's production had been broadcast.  (It has one of the best sets of any production I've ever seen: that ship, that unfolds and expands like a puzzle box.)

And bricon, that production looks great!  Wow...and Teddy Tahu Rhodes was just here in Peter Grimes and got raves.  He is quite good. 

--Bruce

You're welcome, Bruce.  Glad I could help.

Thanks, Wendell.

[T-C]

Nagano's recording of Billy Budd with Thomas Hampson and Hickox's recording with Simon Keenlyside are both excellent (although in the Chandos recording voices are recorded a bit too low). Nagano recorded the original four-act version while Hickox's recording is of the revised two-act version.

Later this year, there will be a new CD recording of Billy Budd from Virgin Classics.
Daniel Harding conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and chorus. And in the leading roles are: Ian Bostridge (Captain Vere), Nathan Gunn (Billy Budd) and Gidon Saks (Claggart). 

[bhodges]

That's great news, T-C, thanks!  What do you think of Harding?  I have but a single recording, of him doing some prize-winning new pieces (one of those BBC Music Magazine discs) but have not heard him in anything else.  He seems to get opinions all over the map, from "awful" to "brilliant."

--Bruce

[T-C]

Bruce,

Actually, I don't have too many Harding recordings. I have his recording of Brahms symphonies no. 3 & 4, which is interesting, and I have two recordings of him conducting Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw. One is a Virgin Classics CD recording and the other is a Bel Air DVD that was recorded at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. My impression about Harding's contribution in the Britten opera is closer to the 'brilliant' end of your scale...

But this evening I am going to watch a new DVD, which I received this afternoon: Janacek's From the House of the Dead from the Aix-en-Provence Festival with Pierre Boulez (conductor) and Patrice Chérau (Stage Director). My expectations are high...