Favourite Opera

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I know I've already suggested that Bluebeard is one of my own most select bunch of operas - P+M happens to be one of the others*. Reading something into Jezetha's post which he may not have intended, its nice to see I'm not alone in feeling that these two operas somehow make a worthy pair. Comparing the two is interesting, of course....

*Three Janacek operas make up the balance!

Well, for one thing - the openings of both operas are quite similar, and so is, partly (P & M has more, of course), the setting - a dark castle. I have always thought Bartók must have been influenced by Debussy for his own opening gesture...

[(poco) Sforzando]

Hard (and kinda gross) to stage realistically, though a couple of productions (available on DVD) have done stylized versions:  Marthe Keller's National du Rhin production has them fall to the floor at the sound of the guillotine.  Robert Carsen's production, which I saw at Lyric Opera of Chicago, but is available on DVD from La Scala has the nuns doing stylized movements (someone said it looked like tai chi) as they sing the chorus.  As we hear the guillotine chops, the nuns, slowly lying down on the stage, whith their arms outstretched, forming crosses.

The Met's Carmelites starts with the nuns lying down on stage with their arms outstretched, forming crosses. I do hope the stagehands made sure the stage was well mopped and dust free. But for the guillotine chops, the Met nuns die decorously offstage.

[Anne]

Please, Anne...don't encourage him. You don't know what a can of worms you'd be opening 


Sarge

Thanks Sarge, I didn't realize it was the same poster under a different name that was here some time ago.  Appreciate the heads up.

[Michel]

P&M sucks ballz.

[BachQ]

P&M sucks ballz.

Speaking of which ........ my least favorite opera = Elgar's The Spanish Lady

[Operahaven]

Thank you for the encouragement.  Anything you want to say about P et M, I am interested in hearing.   

Hi Anne,

All I will say is that  P&M  is one of the absolute wonders of music - an achieved world, subtle and infinitely nuanced....One does not encounter masterpieces as sophisticated as Debussy's opera very often.

Make sure you have either the 1978 Karajan recording with the Berlin Philharmonic or Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebow (2001) 

My favorite singers are on the 1970 EMI Boulez recording - Elisabeth Soderstrom and George Shirley (hands down the finest Pelleas!)

Here is my favorite introductory book on P&M just reissued:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9781406544701

Good luck!

[gomro]

We do not, I think, support Pologamy, so we should not have more than one favoruite opera.

Like a wife, you have to commit to one. What is it, and why?

Mine is Cavalleria Rusticana. Words cannot describe my love for it, so I offer only this short video clip, whose images sum it all up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1X7V65Sfpo&feature=related

If I can only have one... I'm not much of an opera guy anyway... that one would undoubtedly be The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, by Michael Nyman.

[Operahaven]

I'm shocked, shocked. Not P&M??   

Sarge

Sarge,

It is  Pelleas et Melisande  but since everyone knows that I went with my second choice... 

[Operahaven]

P&M sucks ballz.

Michel,

Why do you dislike it ?

[Anne]

Hi Anne,

All I will say is that  P&M  is one of the absolute wonders of music - an achieved world, subtle and infinitely nuanced....One does not encounter masterpieces as sophisticated as Debussy's opera very often.

Make sure you have either the 1978 Karajan recording with the Berlin Philharmonic or Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebow (2001) 

My favorite singers are on the 1970 EMI Boulez recording - Elisabeth Soderstrom and George Shirley (hands down the finest Pelleas!)

Here is my favorite introductory book on P&M just reissued:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9781406544701

Good luck!

Thank you for the suggestions.  I am unclear why you are recommending the '78 Karajan BPO or the 2001 Haitink Royal Concertgebow when you like the singers in the '70 EMI Boulez w/Soderstrom and Shirley best.  I have ordered the book.

[Operahaven]

Thank you for the suggestions.  I am unclear why you are recommending the '78 Karajan BPO or the 2001 Haitink Royal Concertgebow when you like the singers in the '70 EMI Boulez w/Soderstrom and Shirley best.  I have ordered the book.

Hi Anne,

Here is the problem for me:

I prefer conductors who give a sense of Debussy's debt to Wagner (Parsifal) and I like conductors who make the music flow  extra languidly and heavily.....  Karajan is supreme with this.... Also the orchestra is the center of everything in  Pelleas  so this should be the first consideration..... Pelleas  is a "conductor's opera".

Boulez on the other hand is a dry, mostly brisk, nothing but the notes approach. He doesn't luxuriate in the score enough. However, his conducting of the first scene of Act II -  A Fountain In The Park  - is SUPERB... For me that 8 minute scene alone is worth the price of the entire CD.

So to sum up: Karajan for the orchestra, Boulez for the singers.

[Anne]

Thank you for the info.  I remember learning Wagner and having to remember the orchestra constantly.  Do you have an opinion on Abbado's VPO DG recording with Ewing and Le Roux?

[Operahaven]

Thank you for the info.  I remember learning Wagner and having to remember the orchestra constantly.  Do you have an opinion on Abbado's VPO DG recording with Ewing and Le Roux?

Yes, I own that one too.... Avoid it.... There is little richness there but most importantly I cannot stand LeRoux as Pelleas; his voice is annoying... There is also a DVD with him under John Eliot Gardiner.   

[Anne]

I guess I'm all set now.  Thank you very much for your help.

[Operahaven]

You're most welcome.... Good luck.

[Michel]

Michel,

Why do you dislike it ?

Boring and silly.

[The new erato]

Boring and silly.

The most moving opera I know. The emotions aren't on display though, but carried inside and mostly only expressed through the music. Therefore probably the most musical of all operas IMO, no histrionics and an opera for everybody that occasionally are in doubt concerning the usual opera conventions. A different opera yes; boring and silly ? - not.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The most moving opera I know. The emotions aren't on display though, but carried inside and mostly only expressed through the music. Therefore probably the most musical of all operas IMO, no histrionics and an opera for everybody that occasionally are in doubt concerning the usual opera conventions. A different opera yes; boring and silly ? - not.

I couldn't have put it better. Pelléas et Mélisande is a miracle of expressive reticence.

[marvinbrown]

When I first got into opera, it was I Puritani.  Then next it was Rossini's Semiramide.  Now it would be Tristan und Isolde.  Some day I hope it will be Pelleas et Melisande.  I keep working on that opera again and again but still not there yet.

 That makes 3 of us so far Anne who consider Tristan und Isolde as their favorite opera.  As much as I love Debussy's P+M I find that I have to  get in the mood to listen to it.  Musically and vocally it is a very subdued opera that requires a lot of patience to listen to - patience that at times I just don't have.  Its momentum is slower that Wagner's Parsifal, the voices are somewhat restrained- in brief it is not your typical French opera.  

 marvin  

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

 That makes 3 of us so far Anne who consider Tristan und Isolde as their favorite opera.  As much as I love Debussy's P+M I find that I have to  get in the mood to listen to it.  Musically and vocally it is a very subdued opera that requires a lot of patience to listen to - patience that at times I just don't have.  Its momentum is slower that Wagner's Parsifal, the voices are somewhat restrained- in brief it is not your typical French opera.  

 marvin  

With me it's the other way round - Tristan und Isolde is a work of such an intensity, that I simply can't experience it too often. One could even go so far as to say that P & M and T & I are the two extremes of operatic literature.