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#1

Opera and Vocal / Re: New to Wagner - Just purch...

Last post by Karl Henning - Today at 07:32:13 PM

In seriousness, I seem to remember Wagner wrote the libretto of Gotterdammerung first, with characters giving the necessary explanation of preceding events. Then he decided he needed to dramatize the events of Siegfried, so he wrote that libretto including characters giving the necessary explanation of preceding events.Then he decided he needed to dramatize the events of Walkure, so he wrote that libretto including characters giving the necessary explanation of preceding events.
Then he decided he needed to dramatize the events of Rheingold, so he wrote that libretto but had no need of lengthy expositions in it.
Then he started composing, and being Wagner he felt no need to cut the accumulation of speeches and dialogue explaining to the audience what the audience had supposedly seen on the preceding evenings.

I believe you have exposited fairly.

#2

Opera and Vocal / Re: New to Wagner - Just purch...

Last post by Karl Henning - Today at 07:29:54 PM

Says the guy who keeps saying he's done with philostophizing. 

#3

Great Recordings and Reviews / Re: The 20 Études of Philip Gl...

Last post by steve ridgway - Today at 07:25:23 PM

Try this to help you to reframe things

https://www.bussigel.com/systemsforplay/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Reich_Gradual-Process.pdf

Ah, the music of the clockwork universe ⏳.

#4

Opera and Vocal / Re: New to Wagner - Just purch...

Last post by AnotherSpin - Today at 07:20:38 PM

It would be quite piquant if the rain occurred just at the point in the final scene when Thor summons up a storm with his hammer.

And of course during the first scene, so you could properly feel like you were, along with the Rhinemaidens and Alberich, immersed in the Rhine.

Wagner's detractors would surely yawn at such a coincidence. Rain precisely when Thor calls the storm? Or during the Rhinemaidens' splashy opener? How dreadfully banal.

People are endlessly droll: they switch on their suspension of disbelief only for stories they've already deemed worthy, while everything else is waved off as mere chance with imagination firmly shut down.

The real hoot is their smug conviction that this choice was ever their own.

#5

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Purchases Today

Last post by Daverz - Today at 07:05:49 PM

Daily Deal from eclassical.com

A fine soprano and excellent pianist.

#6

Opera and Vocal / Re: New to Wagner - Just purch...

Last post by JBS - Today at 07:02:54 PM

And enough exposition to choke a fire-drake.

In seriousness, I seem to remember Wagner wrote the libretto of Gotterdammerung first, with characters giving the necessary explanation of preceding events. Then he decided he needed to dramatize the events of Siegfried, so he wrote that libretto including characters giving the necessary explanation of preceding events.Then he decided he needed to dramatize the events of Walkure, so he wrote that libretto including characters giving the necessary explanation of preceding events.
Then he decided he needed to dramatize the events of Rheingold, so he wrote that libretto but had no need of lengthy expositions in it.
Then he started composing, and being Wagner he felt no need to cut the accumulation of speeches and dialogue explaining to the audience what the audience had supposedly seen on the preceding evenings.

#7

Opera and Vocal / Re: New to Wagner - Just purch...

Last post by JBS - Today at 06:49:45 PM

We saw the premiere of Das Rheingold with Levine, when the Machine didn't work in the final scene. We couldn't get tickets inside the theatre, so we listened on the plaza in front of the Met, sitting on chairs while following the video broadcast on a massive screen. At various points during the performance, the heavens opened with torrential rain, and listening to Wagner while sitting on chairs on the plaza in a downpour lent an unforgettable flavour to the whole affair.

It would be quite piquant if the rain occurred just at the point in the final scene when Thor summons up a storm with his hammer.

And of course during the first scene, so you could properly feel like you were, along with the Rhinemaidens and Alberich, immersed in the Rhine.

#8

Opera and Vocal / Re: New to Wagner - Just purch...

Last post by (poco) Sforzando - Today at 06:36:11 PM

"The Machine," of course, puts me in mind of The Princess Bride.

Andre the Giant could play Fafner (and Robbie Coltrane Fasolt).

#9

Composer Discussion / Re: Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-19...

Last post by Roy Bland - Today at 06:34:44 PM

orchestral works

[Die Walküre]

#10

Opera and Vocal / Re: New to Wagner - Just purch...

Last post by Karl Henning - Today at 06:01:12 PM

Sailing along Die Walküre now. I'd kind of forgotten what a moral quagmire Der Ring is. I guess the willing suspension of moral distaste is practically a prerequisite. Sumptuous music, to be sure.

And enough exposition to choke a fire-drake.