Reply With QuoteThat DVD might itself be a good way to get to know the opera. A powerful production that can make 4 1/2 hours go by pretty quickly.
I can understand that.Originally Posted by Povero Buoso
A few years ago some friends from overseas decided to come to London to see the new David McVicar production of Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House and invited me to join them. I didn't know the opera and on listening to it the first time I was not impressed (!) so I told my friends I'd meet them in London but there was no way I was going to sit through 4½ hours (5½ in total - two intervals) of that!!
In private though I decided to have another go and stuck it on my earphones and listened to nothing else, to and from work, for about three weeks. Familiarity produced a deep admiration and love for the work and I saw it, in London, with my friends and it was a fabulous occasion and one which I'll never forget.
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
That DVD might itself be a good way to get to know the opera. A powerful production that can make 4 1/2 hours go by pretty quickly.
And neither will we. It was magic.I can understand that.
A few years ago some friends from overseas decided to come to London to see the new David McVicar production of Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House and invited me to join them. I didn't know the opera and on listening to it the first time I was not impressed (!) so I told my friends I'd meet them in London but there was no way I was going to sit through 4½ hours (5½ in total - two intervals) of that!!
In private though I decided to have another go and stuck it on my earphones and listened to nothing else, to and from work, for about three weeks. Familiarity produced a deep admiration and love for the work and I saw it, in London, with my friends and it was a fabulous occasion and one which I'll never forget.
Natalie
And this is how La Fanciulla del west is now on my Ipod. Each listen Fanciulla gets better and I confess I now feel really guilty that it ended up below Madama Butterfly in the Puccini game.
"Non sono in vena" Rodolfo summing up P.B's feelings on his dissertation.
Hehe!
I needed to go to the railway station to collect some tickets, then I went to Sainsbury's, then to Asda and town is 45 minutes there and 45 back.
I got as far as Narbal's aria which I absolutely adore, so I didn't do too bad.
You are putting me to shame with such walking! Because of my feverish traveling, I haven't walked in several weeks. It doesn't help that its been raining for 3 days straight with another spell expected tomorrow.
Right now, I'm hunting around trying to remember what I did with my fat pants when I moved last year.
Fanciulla is one of those operas like Les Troyens or Tristan that maybe take a bit of getting used to.
Natalie
Speaking of which, I've been sampling some of my Tristans lately.
More to come . . .
After the sublime Kleiber/Price Tristan I thought I'd try one with a better Tristan tha Kollo (Siegfried Jerusalem) but it's simply NOT AS MAGICAL, so I gave up for the moment
Today I was at home sick and not feeling up to Wagner so I thought some nice reasonable Gluck would do instead:
Natalie
get better soon!
I'm betting you'll start walking again soon and won't need the larger pants! Oh and I don't walk in the rain unless I have to.
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
Hope you feel better soon.
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
To get me through work I've been procrastinating for days...
To get me through work I've been procrastinating for days...
That's a pretty wonderful recording - it's gotten me through many days when I had no interest in walking further than the nearest Haagen Daz' shop (which is, roughly speaking, across the street)...
I'm continuing to work my way through that box of recordings I bought several weeks ago. This one, even with its largely unknown cast, has some very good moments, but really isn't close to being in Handel's league.
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