Favourite Opera

[Tsaraslondon]

My favourite opera is Norma, though I despair of ever seeing a decent production with a Norma who can really do justice to the title role. Lord Harewood said back in 1976,

... let no one imagine he has genuinely heard Norma without a truly great singer in the title role. Not to have one is as dire in its consequences as a performance of Gotterdammerung with an inadequate Brunnhilde. The trouble, as far as Bellini is concerned is that, in the twentieth century, there have been fewer great Normas than fine Brunnhildes.

and I see no reason to revise that statement for the twenty-first century. I have only seen the opera once with the woefully inadequate Sylvia Sass as Norma and a friend of mine recently saw it at the Met with Guleghina, who was, in his words, disastrous. Who on earth makes these casting decisions? Even the excellent Caballe, in a performance on DVD from the Orange Festival (with Jon Vickers, no less, as Pollione), falls short in some aspects of the role. Fortunately I have Callas's live 1955 account from Milan (with Simionato, Del Monaco and Zaccaria) to remind me of just how great this opera can be.

If, then, I can be allowed a second choice, then it would be Berlioz's Les Troyens, almost as difficult to stage and cast as Norma, but nowadays not quite the rarity it once was.

[Wanderer]

I couldn't choose one single favourite opera. No way.

Works that I'm presently quite into:
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
Schreker: Die Gezeichneten
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
R. Strauss: Salome & Die Frau ohne Schatten
Zemlinsky: Eine florentinische Tragödie
Schoeck: Penthesilea

[The new erato]

Lard Harewood said back in 1976,

Is it Lord? Or was he really that fat?

[Ephemerid]

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.

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.

I can totally relate to this.  For me also it is the more subtle quality of Pelleas that I am more naturally drawn toward.  Not that it makes it necessarily better than Tristan, but it says a lot more about the listener I think. 

[Tsaraslondon]

Is it Lord? Or was he really that fat?

OK OK. I've corrected the typo

[Sergeant Rock]

Sarge,

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

Thank god. My faith had been badly shaken. I mean, the one absolute certainty in this universe...seemingly gone in a flash! But now my faith is restored 

Seriously, it's good to see you mentioning a different opera, and one I love too.

P&M remains in my Top Five (I think I hear Mr. Minor's teeth gnashing  )

Sarge

[marvinbrown]

My favourite opera is Norma, though I despair of ever seeing a decent production with a Norma who can really do justice to the title role. Lord Harewood said back in 1976,

  I can appreciate the allure of Norma especially when "you know who"  0:)- I kindly refer you to your avatar Tsaraslondon- is in the title role!!

  marvin

[Tsaraslondon]

  I can appreciate the allure of Norma especially when "you know who"  0:)- I kindly refer you to your avatar Tsaraslondon- is in the title role!!

  marvin

We must not be ashamed to shed a tear and express emotion. It is not a crime to believe in this music. People think that I detest the entire Italian school, in particular Bellini. This is not true – a thousand times no! Bellini is my first preference, because there is strength in his vocal writing, and his music lends itself so perfectly to the original text .... Of all Bellini's operas, Norma is the one which unites the richest flow of melody with the deepest glow of truth .... I admire Norma's melodic inspiration, which joins the most intimate passion to the most profound reality; a great score that talks straight to the heart – a work of genius.

Richard Wagner's words, not mine.

[marvinbrown]

We must not be ashamed to shed a tear and express emotion. It is not a crime to believe in this music. People think that I detest the entire Italian school, in particular Bellini. This is not true – a thousand times no! Bellini is my first preference, because there is strength in his vocal writing, and his music lends itself so perfectly to the original text .... Of all Bellini's operas, Norma is the one which unites the richest flow of melody with the deepest glow of truth .... I admire Norma's melodic inspiration, which joins the most intimate passion to the most profound reality; a great score that talks straight to the heart – a work of genius.

Richard Wagner's words, not mine.

  No argument here my friend  .

  marvin

[Tsaraslondon]

  No argument here my friend  .

  marvin

I knew that, Marvin. I added it only as a point of interest and for all those Wagnerites, who love to denigrate Italian bel canto opera.

[bhodges]

I knew that, Marvin. I added it only as a point of interest and for all those Wagnerites, who love to denigrate Italian bel canto opera.

I have never understood why some listeners can't enjoy "all of the above," but rather feel they have to choose one or the other.  There is so much great music sitting around...why not enjoy as much as possible? 

[/rant] 

--Bruce

[Tsaraslondon]

I have never understood why some listeners can't enjoy "all of the above," but rather feel they have to choose one or the other.  There is so much great music sitting around...why not enjoy as much as possible? 

[/rant] 

--Bruce

I totally agree with you.

[lukeottevanger]

To return to a theme briefly lit upon yesterday (re links betwene Pelleas and Bluebeard)

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...

Bartok was explicitly and confessedly influenced by Debussy in the parlando vocal style, too - indeed, there have been extensive studies of the musical influence of Pelleas on Bluebeard, and it's not hard to see why. Links in plot devices and symbolist tendencies are not surprising, either, given that Balazs (librettist) drew heavily on Maeterlinck's Ariane et Barbe-bleue (as set by Dukas)!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

To return to a theme briefly lit upon yesterday (re links betwene Pelleas and Bluebeard)

Bartok was explicitly and confessedly influenced by Debussy in the parlando vocal style, too - indeed, there have been extensive studies of the musical influence of Pelleas on Bluebeard, and it's not hard to see why. Links in plot devices and symbolist tendencies are not surprising, either, given that Balazs (librettist) drew heavily on Maeterlinck's Ariane et Barbe-bleue (as set by Dukas)!

I thought so! Usually I read up on things that interest me, but while I have read a few books about Debussy, I haven't about Bartók... Thanks, Luke! (Btw, I am going to read Mellers' book about RVW in a few weeks' time.)

[bhodges]

I could see a very long triple bill, but no more daunting than a few days of Wagner:

Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle (1911)
Dukas: Ariane et Barbe-Bleu (1907)
Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande (1902)

Or perhaps reverse them, in chronological order? 

--Bruce

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I could see a very long triple bill, but no more daunting than a few days of Wagner:

Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle (1911)
Dukas: Ariane et Barbe-Bleu (1907)
Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande (1902)

Or perhaps reverse them, in chronological order? 

--Bruce

Ariane et Barbe-Blue is an opera I always have wanted to hear, especially as I like what I have heard so far of Paul Dukas (Péri and Sorcerer's Apprentice).

Life's too short!

[bhodges]

Ariane et Barbe-Blue is an opera I always have wanted to hear, especially as I like what I have heard so far of Paul Dukas (Péri and Sorcerer's Apprentice).

Life's too short!

Try to find a recording--there are at least two, I think (I have neither).  I heard it a couple of years ago at New York City Opera, in a not-so-good production, unfortunately.  But the score is marvelous: imagine all the colors of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but expanded to opera-length. 

--Bruce

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Try to find a recording--there are at least two, I think (I have neither).  I heard it a couple of years ago at New York City Opera, in a not-so-good production, unfortunately.  But the score is marvelous: imagine all the colors of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but expanded to opera-length. 

--Bruce

Yummy! 

[Operahaven]

Thank god. My faith had been badly shaken. I mean, the one absolute certainty in this universe...seemingly gone in a flash! But now my faith is restored 

Never lose faith in me, Sarge.... 

Claude Debussy's  Pelleas et Melisande,  La Mer and  Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun  still remain my top three favorite masterpieces in all music...

0:)

[Ephemerid]

Claude Debussy's  Pelleas et Melisande,  La Mer and  Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun  still remain my top three favorite masterpieces in all music...

0:)