Mozart operas

Started by Harry, September 20, 2007, 02:17:55 AM

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longears

#220
Quote from: Harry on October 12, 2007, 04:46:12 AM
Until now, I like the Entfuhrung aus dem Serail best....................................
And I like Cosi best, but only by a nose.  It's probably the moralizing in Don & Flute that rub me just a little wrong in spite of the terrific music.  But to me they're all great.

And now for something completely different:
Quote from: 71 dB on October 12, 2007, 04:48:40 AM
You must put your words right because Karl et al. don't attack you the way they attack me for similar opinions.

You're mistaken (again!), dB.  You attack.  You don't merely offer your half-baked opinions as a personal response, like Harry, but arrogantly insist that you alone (and in spite of a lack of qualifications that would humble anyone with a lick of sense) have the intelligence to recognize truths that are hidden to everyone else.  You repeatedly attack those who don't share your ill-informed views.  And then when they defend themselves and their informed opinions, you whine that you're being picked on.  Give it a rest.

karlhenning

Quote from: longears on October 12, 2007, 05:12:39 AM
And I like Cosi best, but only by a nose.  It's probably the moralizing in Don & Flute that rub me just a little wrong in spite of the terrific music.  But to me they're all great.

That aspect to Don and the Flute doesn't bother me;  I suppose I see it less as preachy, and a bit more like a contemporary adaptation of the fable tradition.

In any event, yes, the music is marvelous!

Harry

Quote from: longears on October 12, 2007, 05:12:39 AM

And now for something completely different:
You don't merely offer your half-baked opinions as a personal response, like Harry, picked on. 


Ehhhh, word!
My reviews ain't half baked Long Ears, you eat them to soon, give it the proper time to bake will ya! :)

Haffner

Quote from: longears on October 12, 2007, 05:12:39 AM
And I like Cosi best, but only by a nose.  It's probably the moralizing in Don & Flute that rub me just a little wrong in spite of the terrific music.  But to me they're all great.






I guess I'm weird; I always considered Cosi... to be superior to Marriage of Figaro because of its irony. MoF included outstanding music, and the libretto can be truly awe-inspiring. But Cosi... has a very cynical, bitter side to it which is mostly unknown in other Mozart operas. Cosi... is titled "All Women Do Thus..." but the story reveals that men can be just as conniving and dishonest. I must be dumb, because I didn't "get" that part of Cosi... until I studied the libretto.

karlhenning

Quote from: Haffner on October 12, 2007, 05:24:07 AM
I guess I'm weird; I always considered Cosi... to be superior to Marriage of Figaro because of its irony. MoF included outstanding music, and the libretto can be truly awe-inspiring. But Cosi... has a very cynical, bitter side to it which is mostly unknown in other Mozart operas. Cosi... is titled "All Women Do Thus..." but the story reveals that men can be just as conniving and dishonest.

For good or ill, that is the "problem" of Così:  it's a comedy, and so, true to the genre, everyone must be properly matched up at the end.  But given what the men were about beforehand . . . to rejoice for them is conflicted at best.

longears

Quote from: Harry on October 12, 2007, 05:21:25 AM
Ehhhh, word!
My reviews ain't half baked Long Ears, you eat them to soon, give it the proper time to bake will ya! :)
Sorry, Harry, I didn't intend the "half-baked" to apply to you, rather that you offer your personal responses as just that--personal responses--and not as edicts from a superior being who just "knows" as received wisdom that "Two Blind Mice" is a loftier artistic accomplishment that Beethoven's entire canon!

Harry

Quote from: longears on October 12, 2007, 05:42:30 AM
Sorry, Harry, I didn't intend the "half-baked" to apply to you, rather that you offer your personal responses as just that--personal responses--and not as edicts from a superior being who just "knows" as received wisdom that "Two Blind Mice" is a loftier artistic accomplishment that Beethoven's entire canon!

Thank you, I had to laugh so hard, that part of my Pizza has to be removed from my carpet. ;D

71 dB

Quote from: karlhenning on October 12, 2007, 05:10:21 AM
Good gravy, Poju, you will never know how vastly amusing it is — to all of us — to see you lecturing about "opening one's musical mind."

Thanks for the chuckles, guy!

Amusing? The fact is I have exceptionally wide taste in music and I am sure few members of this forum could compete with me. And yes, most people do have HUGE musical chuckles. It's amazing how preoccupied we are when it comes to music.
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karlhenning

Quote from: Harry on October 12, 2007, 05:44:24 AM
Thank you, I had to laugh so hard, that part of my Pizza has to be removed from my carpet. ;D

One wants to be thorough about pizza-removal, don't forget, mijn vriend  ;)

locrian

QuoteThe fact is I have exceptionally wide taste in music and I am sure few members of this forum could compete with me.

:o

longears

Quote from: 71 dB on October 12, 2007, 05:50:29 AMThe fact is I have exceptionally wide taste in music and I am sure few members of this forum could compete with me.

And now I have to wipe the coffee off my keyboard!

Haffner

Quote from: karlhenning on October 12, 2007, 05:42:10 AM
given what the men were about beforehand . . . to rejoice for them is conflicted at best.







But isn't that part of the Genius? To see people applauding the men...sweet irony (it's good for the blood, nicht wahr?)

longears

Several aspects of the story are amusing, but it's the music, with all the duets and trios and sextets and so on, that really floats my boat.

Haffner

Quote from: longears on October 12, 2007, 06:27:05 AM
Several aspects of the story are amusing, but it's the music, with all the duets and trios and sextets and so on, that really floats my boat.





Yeah, it's rare to hear such incredible ensemble arias.

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: 71 dB on October 12, 2007, 04:48:40 AM
You must put your words right because Karl et al. don't attack you the way they attack me for similar opinions.

But they are not similar opinions. You are attacking some of the greatest works in the operatic canon. Il Sogno di Scipione, being a very early work, is hardly that. A couple of years back I went to see Mitridate at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, which, for the most part, I too found very boring. Sure, there were glimpses of Mozart's genius here and there, but it seemed like a Handelian opera seria rather lacking in Handelian inspiration, and extremely formulaic. What a gulf of difference there is between Mitridate and Idomeno, also an opera seria, but one in which Mozart's genius overrides its formula.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: HandelHooligan on October 11, 2007, 08:43:13 PM
Did you forget about the don?

No, he mentioned Figaro, where there are two dons. (Ding, ding! Don, don!)

Larry Rinkel

Quote from: longears on October 12, 2007, 05:58:00 AM
And now I have to wipe the coffee off my keyboard!

And so 71dB hijacks yet another thread . . . .

Harry

Quote from: Larry Rinkel on October 12, 2007, 06:52:45 AM
And so 71dB hijacks yet another thread . . . .

No, he will not, if I ask him kindly. :)

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: 71 dB on October 12, 2007, 05:50:29 AM
Amusing? The fact is I have exceptionally wide taste in music and I am sure few members of this forum could compete with me. And yes, most people do have HUGE musical chuckles. It's amazing how preoccupied we are when it comes to music.

And don't assume, or rather presume, that your tastes range much wider than most of the other contributors on the board, just because you profess a liking for lesser known composers, such as Dittersdorf. My tastes take in all musical forms, from works for single instruments to works requiring huge forces, from Lieder to opera, from Dowland to composers still writing today, such as James MacMillan, John Adams and Steve Reich. I also enjoy music from several different countries and continents. In my collection I have works by lesser known composers such as,  Martucci,Caturia, Roldan, Wolf- Ferrari. I enjoy the music of Takemitsu,Messiaen and Rautavaara, as well as the music of Byrd and Tallis. I enjoy the operas of Monteverdi as much as those of Verdi. Have you heard Franisco Valls' Mass "Scala Aretina"? What a glorious piece that is. What about the Solo Violin Sonatas of Eugene Ysyae? It is against this background that I believe that from Le Nozze di Figaro onwards, Mozart wrote some of the very greatest operas ever written. As I mentioned once before, he single handedly changed the course of operatic history. I doubt Dittersdorf's influence was quite as profound.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

71 dB

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on October 12, 2007, 06:47:03 AM
But they are not similar opinions. You are attacking some of the greatest works in the operatic canon.

Harry said: "I bored to the bone."
I said: "I get easily bored."

To me these are similar opinions. In fact, Harry's opinion is stronger.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"