Well said!Originally Posted by sospiro
This kept my spirits up while battling the wind and the horizontal rain today.
I'm going to the final dress rehearsal of Nabucco at ROH in June. I'm rather hoping that it will be Platanias at the rehearsal and not PD. He's past it and he never was a baritone.
I love Act II. For me, the music, if not always suitable for concert excerpts, is wonderfully effective within the context of the compelling drama.
But Walküre is my favorite opera, so I'm a bit biased.
It's probably because I was in the middle of too many family 'discussions'. I'm always feeling "Ok, already - I get your point!" Listening to Fricka nag poor old Wotan about having to kill his kids? Enough!
I'd agree with Amfortas that Die Walküre, arguably the best opera ever composed, is perfect from beginning to end. I'd not change a single note. I think it is not that act II is bad. It is indeed sublime. It's just that Act III is such a phenomenally beautiful moment - the most beautiful part of the most beautiful of all operas - that one might feel anxious to get to it. But can you imagine the original audience from the premiere who had never heard Act III, how they must have wildly enjoyed Act I, and then II, and finally got in awe and admiration of act III? Think of the first time you ever heard Die Walküre... So, without knowing what is coming, there is no way not to love act II.
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
Absolutely agree. I, too, wouldn't change a thing.
My reference to Act II is when I'm out walking and listening to Die Walküre, I am anticipating Act III and impatient, after listening to the marvelous Act I, with the conversation with the first half of Act II. It's a different thing when sitting in the opera house and experiencing the whole opera.
One of the pleasures of Wagner is he knew exactly what he was doing dramatically - that whole Gesamtkunstwerk concept - that builds and builds, culminating in a flash of ecstasy that kind of leaves me exhausted.
Tristan und Isolde is another example. Tristan's Act III soliloquy is remarkable, but I get impatient, knowing what's coming. However, the 'Liebestod', without it, is out of context and less meaningful.
So what if I've been a sucker for instant gratification since I was a little kid?
someone mentioned Simon Boccanegra somewhere...
(well, I'm pretty sure who someone would have been)
and I felt in a Simon Boccanegra mood
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Piero Cappuccilli (Boccanegra), Mirella Freni (Amelia/Maria), José van Dam (Paolo), Nicolai Ghiaurov (Jacopo Fiesco), José Carreras (Gabriele)
La Scala Chorus & Orchestra,
Claudio Abbado 1977
someone mentioned Simon Boccanegra somewhere...
(well, I'm pretty sure who someone would have been)
and I felt in a Simon Boccanegra mood
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Piero Cappuccilli (Boccanegra), Mirella Freni (Amelia/Maria), José van Dam (Paolo), Nicolai Ghiaurov (Jacopo Fiesco), José Carreras (Gabriele)
La Scala Chorus & Orchestra,
Claudio Abbado 1977
And. And ..... Did you like it?
"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
A new version of my favourite opera in the Triptych
Schicchi is just about perfect for me as an opera and I find it incredibly funny.
"Non sono in vena" Rodolfo summing up P.B's feelings on his dissertation.
Pleasant if unmemorable, and largely well sung, although Rockwell Blake sounds way too nasal for my liking (we are definitely in a golden age of Rossini tenors now)
Natalie
Not bad.
I've listened to other stuff by Koopman and I quite like him.
"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
"Music is enought for a whole lifetime--but a lifetime is not enough for music." --Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff
My guilty pleasure opera, Suor Angelica. Victoria de los Angeles. I'm completely defenseless.
Never a guilty pleasure when it's one of the Trittico operas...My guilty pleasure opera, Suor Angelica. Victoria de los Angeles. I'm completely defenseless.
"Non sono in vena" Rodolfo summing up P.B's feelings on his dissertation.
I tend to indulge myself with old favorites when flying. So, during my flight back to DC last evening:
I haven't decided on today's listening for my walk this afternoon. Stay tuned!
Today's listening was:
This is not particularly lengthy (nothing like Rosenkavlier, for example) and there aren't really any memorable tunes. However, it's still Strauss, so Daphne is sumptuously orchestrated and replete with gorgeous singing.
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