What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

Started by Tsaraslondon, April 10, 2017, 04:29:04 AM

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j winter

Quote from: San Antone on January 22, 2020, 03:16:10 PM
I keep trying to listen to the Ring, I even ordered those graphic novel versions since they looked so cool.  About every 2-3 years I make an attempt.  So far I've only gotten through Das Rheingold and Act 1 of Die Walkyrie. 

Who knows?

8)

I'm having a fine time so far, I must confess... :)

Just to clarify, there's only one P Craig Russell graphic novel.  It was put out as single issue comic books, back in the day (1st picture above), and then collected (2nd picture).

There was also a comic adaptation several years earlier by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, which is much shorter and not as good... I love Kane's art, but he does give things a very 70s superhero aesthetic....



The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

San Antone

Quote from: j winter on January 22, 2020, 03:49:21 PM
I'm having a fine time so far, I must confess... :)

Just to clarify, there's only one P Craig Russell graphic novel.  It was put out as single issue comic books, back in the day (1st picture above), and then collected (2nd picture).

There was also a comic adaptation several years earlier by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, which is much shorter and not as good... I love Kane's art, but he does give things a very 70s superhero aesthetic....



I ordered the collected edition, the second one pictured.   8)

j winter

Quote from: San Antone on January 22, 2020, 04:09:00 PM
I ordered the collected edition, the second one pictured.   8)

Cool, I hope you enjoy it!
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Mirror Image

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 22, 2020, 02:54:26 PMBut today:
Britten
The Turn of the Screw


A remarkable work, Karl. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Karl Henning

Quote from: Mirror Image on January 22, 2020, 06:30:25 PM
A remarkable work, Karl. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Will be digging into it more and more!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

André

Quote from: San Antone on January 22, 2020, 04:09:00 PM
I ordered the collected edition, the second one pictured.   8)

+1  :). I have 3 Rings to listen to this year so it will come in handy!

Karl Henning

Quote from: André on January 23, 2020, 07:37:05 AM
+1  :) . I have 3 Rings to listen to this year so it will come in handy!

You certainly do not lack for ambition, Mon cher
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

San Antone

Cross-posted from the WAYL2N thread

Quote from: San Antone on January 23, 2020, 11:37:32 AM


A Quiet Place

I had not known that Bernstein had recorded the 1986 revision of A Quiet Place, and was interested to hear it after a discussion with Roasted Swan (hat tip) on the Bernstein thread. 

8)

André



A very powerful piece. Alwyn's music is closely tailored to the text (the composer's own, after the Strindberg play). Only a brief orchestral introduction to both acts, no arias, no interludes, just through composed dialogues and short soliloquies. The vocal music for the title part highlights the character's complexity and unbalanced mind. That of the manservants is more direct, more simple. Considering the play is a rather sordid domestic tragedy, one can't say the experience is an enjoyable one, but it's emotionally powerful.

Mirror Image

Quote from: André on January 27, 2020, 12:41:30 PM


A very powerful piece. Alwyn's music is closely tailored to the text (the composer's own, after the Strindberg play). Only a brief orchestral introduction to both acts, no arias, no interludes, just through composed dialogues and short soliloquies. The vocal music for the title part highlights the character's complexity and unbalanced mind. That of the manservants is more direct, more simple. Considering the play is a rather sordid domestic tragedy, one can't say the experience is an enjoyable one, but it's emotionally powerful.

No arias, no interludes? Wow...another opera to ignore. ;) I'll stick with Britten.

Tsaraslondon



Callas and Karajan's rare collaborations always reaped gold and this live performance is no exception; an absoutely thrilling performance, which I review more fully on my blog.

https://tsaraslondon.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/lucia-di-lammermoor-berlin-1955/

\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

JBS

This afternoon
[asin]B07ZWBPLZR[/asin]

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

ritter

#1872
Mirella Freni in memoriam.

Act II of Mascagni's L'amico Fritz, in the classic recording conducted by the great  Gianandrea Gavazzeni:

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I've always had a soft spot for this opera (particularly the second act), with its melancholic/bucolic/naive atmosphere, and the young Pavarotti and Freni are simply delightful in it... :)

EDIT:

Following the Mascagni with one of the rôles Signora Freni was most associated with—on record, as she never sung it onstage—, that of Cio-Cio San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The Act I duet, from her second recording (under Giuseppe Sinopoli).

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"Butterfly, rinnegata, rinnegata e felice:'(

Mirror Image

The monodrama, Erwartung:



"Write an opera text for me, Miss!" – August 1909: Schönberg and his family spent their vacation together with Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alban Berg, Anton Webern and Max Oppenheimer in Steinakirchen near Amstetten. It was through Zemlinsky and Karl Kraus that the young Viennese physician Marie Pappenheim was introduced to the circle around Schönberg. During her medical studies at the University of Vienna, Pappenheim wrote poetry under the pseudonym Maria Heim, and it was in the Lower Austrian summer resort that Schönberg invited her to write a libretto. Pappenheim, whose poetry had been issued by Kraus in 1906 in "The Torch" ("Die Fackel"), had graduated in 1909 and thereafter set up a practice as dermatologist, as she "did not want to wander through life as a lyric poet." Two days after Schönberg's invitation, she travelled on to friends in Traunkirchen, where within three weeks she had composed the text to the monodrama "Erwartung." "I wrote lying in the grass, with pencil, on large sheets of paper, had no copy, scarcely read through what I had written." Even while revising the text manuscript that Pappenheim had submitted to him at his vacation residence, Schönberg occasionally jotted down musical ideas here and there. The first copy of the short score was completed in the brief period between 27 August and 12 September 1909. (The hypothesis was subsequently voiced that the composer, with his ambitions towards numerical mysticism, had chosen the opus number 17 on the occasion of the publication by Universal Edition to reflect the compositional period of seventeen days.) The fair copy of the score is dated 4 October 1909. In an interview of 1949 Marie Pappenheim corrected the misconception among researchers that the basic idea for "Erwartung" stemmed from Schönberg: "I received neither a clue to nor an indication of what I should write (would also not have accepted it)." The establishment of the one-act work as autonomous generic form took as its point of departure the writings of August Strindberg, who was highly regarded by the (Second) Viennese School. Monodramatic elements include not only the abandonment of interaction between characters, but also the minimalization of plot devices – characteristics that in Pappenheim's expressionistic drama are thought out to their furthermost logical consequence. On this "empty" leaf, as it were, egocentricity assumes the most radical form: in expectation of her lover, the woman sets out in search and follows wrong trails to stations of uncertainty – remembrance – hope – "illusionary misunderstanding" (Erwin Ringel) – rationalization – jealousy – sorrow – and finally excessive exhaltation of the man who survives only as a dead object. The depth of the forest scenario becomes a projection room for distressing traumatic states – obscurity, danger, threat, fear, loneliness, horror, darkness – and naturalistically reinterprets the subjective ordeal of suffering the woman lives through in four scenes. Marie Pappenheim's syntax consists of a paratactic, disorganized series of sentence fragments that permit associations in the form of a lyric monologue to crystallize from the psyche of the woman: "I always wrote exaltedly, without direction, reflection, censorship, page after page, between the verses other thoughts." The dissolution of syntax in the concentrated language of the monologue corresponds to a liberation of the functional structures of tonality. Small motivic cells are subjugated to a permanent mutation and propelled by an inner impulse of the text (recitative-like motion without repetition or pause). Tempos change according to psychological impulses of fear, a "seismographic record of traumatic shock" (Theodor W. Adorno). Decentralization of the consonant, abolition of tonal center and cadence – characteristics of free atonality – reflect the forcible expressive freedom of the libretto. At the close of the fourth scene Pappenheim offers a topical parallel to John Henry Mackay's poem "By the Wayside" ("Am Wegrand"), set by Schönberg in his (still tonal) song op. 6, no. 6, and again quoted by him in the coda to "Erwartung," as a variant adaptation of the song line "Longing fills the confines of my life" ("Sehsucht erfüllt die Bezirke des Lebens"). While composing the monodrama, Schönberg kept concretely in mind the voice of Maria Gutheil-Schoder, who had sung the vocal part in the Second String Quartet op. 10 at its premiere: "You will remember that I have repeatedly spoken to you of a dramatic work in which there is a part for you. It is a monodrama, with only one part, a real part, conceived as a Gutheil-part" (letter of 22 August 1913). Even as early as 1910 Schönberg had begun to negotiate with the conductor Arthur Bodanzky of the Mannheim National Theater concerning a possible performance of "Erwartung." Planning was delayed until 1913 and ultimately abandoned because of the small size of the Mannheim orchestra. Discussions with the Vienna Folk Opera (1910) and the Vienna Academic League (1913) also proved fruitless. The premiere finally took place on 6 June 1924 at the German Opera House in Prague, as part of the music festival of the International Society for New Music directed by Alexander von Zemlinsky. The work was lauded in the musical press as a "protest against operatic rubbish" ("Signale für die musikalische Welt") and as "a frightfully intensive focusing upon the state of a soul" ("Die Musik").

Therese Muxeneder
© Arnold Schönberg Center

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Such an incredible piece of music. Written in close proximity to Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, I find both of these works encapsulate some of the darkest contours of the human psyche that has ever been written at this point. I suppose one reason I feel this way is because both operas are 'psychological dramas' and there's very little action happening on the stage, which is I suppose is why they're not performed with a great deal of frequency (amongst other reasons). Anyway, I love these works.

T. D.

#1874

York Höller, Der Meister und Margarita (image got cropped)

Maestro267

Britten: Peter Grimes
Winslade (Grimes), Watson (Ellen), Michaels-Moore (Balstrode), Gunn (Keene)
London Symphony Chorus
London SO/C. Davis

Mirror Image

I'll be revisiting this recording today (at some point):



For me, this is the greatest recording of Bluebeard's Castle. Don't get me wrong there are some other fantastic ones like Haitink on EMI or Kertesz on Decca, but I feel Boulez captures this psychological drama to stunning yet chilling effect. His account is almost Expressionistic, which suits this music. Also, the soloists are top-notch. I don't think there's been a more a evocative Judith on record as that found in Tatiana Troyanos. The Bluebeard Siegmund Nimsgern has one of the deepest voices I've heard in this role and it has a certain resonance to it that I find pleasing to the ear. Add in Columbia's superb audio engineering and you have a recipe for success.

Maestro267

I just went and checked, and yes I do have that recording, albeit as part of a 4-disc "Boulez conducts Bartok" box.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Maestro267 on February 12, 2020, 11:29:15 AM
I just went and checked, and yes I do have that recording, albeit as part of a 4-disc "Boulez conducts Bartok" box.

Very nice. One of great operas, IMHO.

Mirror Image

At some point I'll be listening to Schoenberg's Moses und Aron (the early Boulez recording). I've heard bit and pieces of this opera, but never listened to it in its' entirety. I imagine I won't listen to it in all one setting of course, but perhaps an act one day and another act the next.