Opera

Subject: RE: Opera
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 07 Jan 23 - 04:02 PM

Just finished listening to the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of
Cherubini's "Medea"
with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky (born in the United States).

It's a powerhouse of drama -- and the audience loved it.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 17 - 08:27 PM

It is sad to see how many of the original participants are gone now, but thanks for revisiting this topic.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: DaveRo
Date: 18 Feb 17 - 05:04 AM

Part 1 of The Ring Cycle was broadcast on BBC TV a week ago. Quoting from the BBC website:

The first of the four music dramas in Richard Wagner's monumental Ring cycle, in a radically stripped-back, critically acclaimed production by Opera North. Filmed during live performances in 2016, this is total immersion in a unique, all-encompassing music drama.

It was subtitled in English and had occasional explanations if what was going on. I thought it was great.

Part 1 is available on the iPlayer for another 3 weeks. Parts 2-4 are available for 5 months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04pd17m/wagners-ring-cycle-part-1-das-rheingold

More about the performance, and Act 1 the second episode, Die Walküre, here:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/13/watch-act-one-of-die-walkure-from-opera-north-ring-cycle-wagner

Subject: RE: Opera
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 05:19 PM

Seeing an opera at the Met is one of my fantasies. Maybe some day . . .

Subject: RE: Opera
From: EBarnacle
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 07:17 PM

The first two live performances I saw were Trouvatore and Lucia at the Met with Pavarotti and Sutherland. Peak experiences, both. Incomparable!

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:50 PM

I do like The Magic Flute, and I agree it's much better in German. I always smile a bit when Tamino whizzes in bawling "Zu Hilfe! Zu Hilfe!"

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:04 PM

My exercise in philistinism:
http://come-to-think.livejournal.com/24657.html

Subject: RE: Opera
From: EBarnacle
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 02:25 PM

Just for the heckuvit, I went back to the Anna Russell videos. The closed captions were such a mangle that they were almost a funny as she was.

By the way, if you enjoy the Marx brothers Night at the Opera, I strongly recommend Lend Me a Tenor if it ever plays in your area. I am not sure whether it has ever been put on disk.

As far as the Guest of Stone, I can think of several candidates, led by Lady Liberty.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 09:37 AM

I have been listening to quite a bit of Mozart lately. Then I came across the thread here about Roland Barthes explaining why Trump succeeded.

It immediately came to mind that there was an opera already written about him - Don Giovanni. The connection is particularly clear if you watch the Czech puppet version, which makes the Don into a sort of unstoppably monstrous extension of Mr Punch.

Who's going be the Guest of Stone?

Subject: RE: Opera
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jan 17 - 01:55 PM

Parts I and II of Henry IV, it says.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Jan 17 - 04:18 PM

Verdi and Shakespeare.
I would have to go back to my music history sources and re-do some homework. However:

There is somebody you have to know about with regards to how a weary old composer, like Verdi -- it was near the end of his life, remember -- could rise to the bait of an Italian operatic adaptation of Shakespeare.

That person is Arrigo Boito. If you know "Otello" and "Falstaff" at all -- I know neither one very well, I admit -- you know that Verdi's music is a setting of Arrigo Boito's libretto, and it was Boito who did the work -- heck of a chore that must have been -- of making an Italian lyrical "book" out of an Elizabethan English drama.

Don't forget, more than one Shakespeare drama went into Boito/Verdi's Italian "Falstaff," because some of the Falstaff material comes from a drama besides MWW....don't ask me which drama -- one of the historical plays named after an English monarch I suppose?

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Jan 17 - 10:10 AM

I don't much care for Wagner, and think he made a mess of the Nieblungenlied and Parsival and harbor the suspicion that part of the reason Ludwig II was done in had to do with "artistic differences" about that sort of thing.

That was five years ago but nobody corrected it... Wagner died in 1883, and it wasn't until 1886 that Ludwig murdered his psychiatrist and drowned himself.

I recently read a fascinating book, "The Monarch Dines", by Theodor Haweis, who was a teenage kitchen assistant in Ludwig's court at the end of his reign. He describes his younger self brilliantly: so awed by the institution of monarchy that he couldn't bring himself to think of any problem with the King expecting to be served dinner at dawn on gold plates with settings for his three imaginary friends. Ludwig was as mad as a box of frogs, but Haweis describes his deposition as a total upset to the order of nature.

Surtitles: I had an interesting experience with those watching Tristan and Isolde in Barcelona. It was sung in German (of which I could only get the occasional word) and the surtitles were in Catalan... which I could follow in places: it's similar to Provencal, and I've read enough mediaeval Provencal song lyrics to understand quite a bit of a love story that mostly came out of the troubadours' world.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 17 - 10:07 AM

I have seen the film, it is quite good, hilarious in places. Hugh Grant was excellent and Streep was...well, Streep.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jan 17 - 09:16 AM

There's nowt wrong with enjoying opera without understanding the words if that lights your fire. I've been to just one opera with surtitles (Carmen) and they didn't distract me too much and I'm glad I had them, though I didn't watch them slavishly. I saw a lovely production of Magic Flute which was in English and in my mind that knocked off a star. If I'm listening at home I'll have the libretto to hand though I won't be glued to it. We should remember that opera was never meant to be a difficult art-form for cognescenti only. There's a story that Mozart arrived home delighted that he'd heard people in the streets whistling tunes from the Magic Flute, and Verdi was a popular hero in Italy. As with all music we all take from it whatever we like and that could be different things at different times. Nothing better than a Mozart concerto when you're peeling the spuds and carrots. Or even a bit of opera!

Subject: RE: Opera
From: EBarnacle
Date: 28 Jan 17 - 11:16 PM

As I am coming late to this thread, I have several comments.
I have found the titling at the Met a distraction from watching the operas I went to see.

Today, I was driving up to Albany and one of the local NPR stations was broadcast today's Met production of Barber of Seville. Due to timing, I only caught the second act but thoroughly enjoyed the music and singing without the need to understand the words. Many years ago, the whole family used to gather to listen to the weekly Texaco Opera from the Met.

There have been a few references to Shakespeare. I recommend Harold Bloom's comments on The Merry Wives of Windsor in his book Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. There is no need to read the whole book unless you want to. I am now in my third month reading this tome. Basically, he contends that MWW is the least of Shakespeare's plays, written to satisfy a royal command. I cannot accept that this trivial play could have inspired Verdi as it did. He does not, however, improve the story.

As far as the music goes, the music of opera has almost always been contemporary to the period when it was written. Asking West Side Story to be written in the music of Shakespeare's time would have been a nonstarter. As such, all opera is a collection of period pieces, meant to be enjoyed by the audience it is written for.

Many years ago, I bought Songs of the humpback whale. I simply lay in the cone of the speakers and allowed myself to be immersed in the sound. Good opera has the same effect of me.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Jan 17 - 06:35 PM

Interesting to note references, on this thread of all threads,
to Florence Foster Jenkins.
Now Meryl Streep stars in a film about Florence Foster Jenkins.
I haven't seen/heard it, but photos keep turning up in the media.
Has anyone here seen Meryl Streep's Florence?

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 06:01 PM

Thank you for the reminder and the link!

Subject: RE: Opera
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 26 Sep 13 - 10:06 PM

The Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD 2013-2014 starts soon. The schedule is here. http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/liveinhd/LiveinHD.aspx If you live outside the US and Canada, look for the orange box on the left side of the linked page and click on International theaters.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 May 13 - 07:48 PM

I received a DVD of Guilio Cesare, Handel's opera about Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, performed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, and was completely taken by the music and the strong cast.
Andreas Scholl, perhaps the best of the countertenors, took the part of Caesar, Inger Dam-Jensen sang Cleopatra, Randi Stene sang Cornelia, and Tuva Semmingsen took the part of Sesto, Cornelia's son. Lars Mortensen conducted Concerto Copenhagen. Andreas Scholl I have heard before, but the others were new to me.
Christopher Robson sang Tolomeo, co-ruler of Egypt. The villain of the piece, he was played as a vengeful, grasping but essentially weak character, who sought to seduce Cornelia and remove Cleopatra from the throne.

In one scene of contrasts, Cleopatra is shown in the bath; later Tolomeo is shown disrobing and taking a shower. Cleopatra's bath scene was tastefully done, and Tolomeo's was grubby, which I guess was the intent of the director, but I wondered how Handel handled these particular intervals of music and singing.
Caesar and the various soldiers are dressed in pseudo-battle fatigues, although Caesar is allowed a plum-colored tunic.

Don Firth complained about directors who re-stage opera in modern dress and with modern actions. I don't think he would like some of Francisco Negrin's directive excesses, and I would agree with him.

The singing is superb, and one can close one's eyes during Negrin's excesses and just enjoy Handel's wonderful music.

David McVicar directed the Glyndebourne production of the same opera, also with updates to late Victorian times. The music also superb, but. although a fine singer, Sarah Connolly didn't seem right as Caesar.

Is there a more traditional performance on film?

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 13 - 01:02 PM

Interesting story. Not an opera story, but it happened in Spain.

I had a meeting in Amsterdam, but at the time a circle return ticket was available, including a stop in Madrid. I wanted to see Avila, and took a train. I was happily wandering around, when I was stopped by two very polite Guardia Civil, in their stiff black tricorne hats.

They took me to headquarters, and to an office with many books on the shelves.
The man who came in was in a suit, and had a small beard.
he asked me what I was doing. He asked me lots of questions- all to do with the English language.
Differences in numbers was one subject. In Spanish, 22 would be twenty and two and a date would be 19 and ought two.
He seemed to be a well-read man and very polite. At the end, he recommended a good place to eat. Never any mention of why I was picked up; probably because I was alone, and believe it or not, I saw no tourists- (cliché warning) off the beaten track.

Getting back to opera, I have a baroque French opera in which the singers used the manner of the stage of the times. Many exaggerated hand and body movements emphasize the dialogue. I'll dig it out and post some details tomorrow.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 21 May 13 - 12:52 AM

"Carmen" is the only opera I have seen performed live and fully staged. It was an option on a tour of St. Petersburg. This post is more about funny stories of going to it rather than about the opera itself. One evening the tour group was offered the opportunity to see "Swan Lake," and everyone in the tour group decided to go. At a meal the next day we were offered the opportunity to see "Carmen." Nobody else at my table was interested, but I signed up. Eventually the guide came over and said I was the only one in the whole tour group who wanted to go, so neither he nor the interpreter would go. Instead he would put me in a taxi which would take me to the theater and the same driver would pick me up after the performance. That evening, off I went. Even I knew the basic plot of the opera. I figured if the sub- or super-titles would be in Russian so they wouldn't help me, but since the opera was in French I could follow along a little (4 years of French in high school plus one in college, though that was long ago). Upon arriving I was given a one-sheet program that summarized the opera in a few paragraphs in several languages, including English, so I read that. And then the singing began. In Russian. No titles. After the opera I went out to wait for my taxi driver to show up. As the crowd thinned, I began to get nervous. I had no idea how to use a Russian pay phone and no Russian money. (US dollars were accepted--and, I think, preferred as more stable than rubles at that time--everywhere we went.) Eventually a man came up to me and said "Taxi" and the name of the hotel our group was staying at. The problem was, he didn't look like the man who had brought me to the theater. I said that in English, of course, and he just repeated, "Taxi" and the hotel's name. I got into the car. Obviously I made it back safely, but I was trembling all the way. The next morning I told the guide about this and he said the original driver must have gone off duty. Then I told the interpreter that I had expected the opera to be sung in French because it was by Bizet. She said, "Oh, no, operas are always sung in Russian." I said that in the US they are sung in the language in which they are written, which surprised her because she had assumed they were all sung in English here.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 May 13 - 12:23 PM

A "Carmen" with Sophie van Otter (DVD) has been released, which restores much of the original. Haven't seen it yet. BBC Music Magazine gave it a good review.

I have a "Carmen," but it isn't memorable; I can't remember anything about it.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 May 13 - 12:02 PM

I have the DVD of the Glyndebourne "Gulio Cesare," which I thoroughly enjoy.
Good fun, if not authentic.

I am going to get the Danish Theatre production (Harmonia Mundi) for comparison, but I doubt that it is "original" Handel-Haym, the opera has gone through several reincarnations.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 19 May 13 - 10:06 PM

Since I am relatively new to opera, I have no previous performances to compare to what I've seen recently. However in spite of that I have noticed that I usually like operas (and plays) staged in the time they were about. That's why I was surprised that I liked this production of Rigoletto. If you don't like any operas in updated settings, you may as well skip the production of Giulio Cesare I saw Wednesday night. It moved the setting to India during English rule. This production originated with the Glyndebourne Opera Company.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Airymouse
Date: 19 May 13 - 12:42 PM

AS is often the case on these threads, I find the comments more interesting than the subject
1)" Nothing to do with folk music" Not so. My friend Richard Chase tracked down that "Go tell Aunt (Abby, Nancy, Rhody et al") came from an opera by Rousseau, who may have based it on a Sicilian folk tune.
2)"madder than a boiled owl" (that the local PBS station was not broadcasting Wagner). The last verse of "The State of Arkansas"has the line, "Got a quart of whiskey my misery to thaw, I got as drunk as a biled owl, when I left Arkansas". I sang this song for decades before I found out that "biled" was actually how midwesterners pronounced "boiled".
3) "Schubert was a paedophile". Given the spelling, it seems likely that the poster knows that this word is pronounced with a long e, just like "pediatric" and "orthopedic." This fact has escaped every newsman in the US.
4) "I don't listen to Wagner, because he was anti-Semitic" At least Wagner stole from Mendelssohn, and Hitler considered Mendelssohn a Jew,even though Mendelssohn converted to Christianity. Also Issac Watts was anti-Semitic {consider his Cradle Hymn for example)

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 May 13 - 10:33 PM

There are some operas that wouldn't be damaged too much by update, but why bother?

La Traviata is set in nineteenth century Paris among the fairly well-to-do. There's a bit of "bed-hopping," in that some of the women—including Violetta, the protagonist—get by by being the mistresses of wealthy men. But at a party, she meets a young man new to Paris, just in from Provence in southern France. They hit it off and all goes well until Alfredo's (the young man's) father steps in and puts the kibosh on the affair. The two are really in love, and finally Alfredo convinces his father that he loves Violetta and she loves him. They return to Paris and find Violetta, attended only by her faithful maid, Annina, living in squalor and Violetta is dying of "consumption." In the final scene, the two are reconciled, Alfredo's father is duly sorry for what he's done, and Violetta dies in Alfredo's arms.

The main changes in staging would be in matters of dress, and there really isn't a heck of a lot of difference between the formal wear the men and women were wearing at the depicted parties and formal wear today.

So—why mess with it?

Another is La Boheme. A bunch of "Bohemians" (would-be artists, poets, playwrights, philosophers, and musicians living in garrets) and their various affairs, notably Rodolfo, the poet and Mimi, the girl who lives upstairs and makes artificial flowers, and Marcello, an artist, and the headstrong Musetta. Once again, Mimi dies of "consumption" in the final act.

Set it in modern times and you have a bunch of hippies living in San Francisco or Greenwich Village, and nothing much changes.

[If fact, the musical "Rent" is a re-write (music and all—it's a "rock opera") of La Boheme, set in New York's Lower East Side. Same story, except that instead of consumption (tuberculosis), the modern Mimi, an exotic dancer, is infected with HIV.]

But again, why bother?

Oh! That's right. The director is hell-bent on "being creative."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 May 13 - 07:01 PM

I share your shudders at some of the up-dating. There are some horrors.

Rigoletto is such a simple story that it can be revised into a new locale without too much damage to the original plot. I have to admit that some of the subtitles, if they accurately reflected changes in the dialogue, were rather silly. Supposedly "Rat Pack" time is evoked, but the dialogue fell flat, at least to my ears.

There is a weapons change in Rigoletto, the sword as replaced by a large switchblade.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 May 13 - 05:23 PM

Thanks for the heads-up on Rigoletto.

I checked my local listings, and my local PBS affiliate has it listed for 1:00 p.m. next Sunday afternoon (May 26th).

I guess I'm a hard-nosed traditionalist or something, but I really deplore "creative" directors who want to do "something new and interesting" with classic operas. I like the traditional staging of Rigoletto (period costumes, the whole bit) and sometimes get a bit angry at what directorial revisionists are wont to do.

Some years ago, Wagner's four Ring operas were staged by one of these types, who wanted to make some sort of social statement about the Industrial Revolution and its effect on the working class. He had the Nibelungen dwarfs all running around wearing hard-hats, safety goggles, and carrying lunch pails. Wotan wore the traditional eye-patch and carried the traditional spear, but instead of the long cloak, they had him in a black Sherlock Holmes-style greatcoat. Siegfried wore chinos, a plaid shirt and colored suspenders (he looked like he'd escaped from "The Red Green Show"). Ah, c'mon!!

Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) was originally set in Spain in the Sixteenth Century during a conflict between the Prince of Aragon and the Prince of Urgel. Manrico, the tenor, is both an officer in the service of Urgel and a lute-playing troubadour. He and the Count di Luna are bitter enemies and rivals for the hand of the lovely Leonora.

They are unaware that they are brothers. Manrico was kidnapped by the gypsy woman Azucena, whose mother the di Luna family burned at the stake as a witch. She raises Marico as her own son and wants to use him as a tool of vengeance against the di Lunas.

Helluva complicated plot, but some outrageously good singing!

Some "creative director" moved the story from Spain to Italy and updated it to the Garibaldi Revolution in the Nineteenth Century. Instead of armor and 16th century period costumes, they're all dressed in military uniforms, except for Manrico who looks like he's wearing Salvation Army rejects.

In the concluding scene (spoiler alert!), Manrico and Azucena are locked in a tower cell when in walks the Count di Luna and Leonora, who agreed to stay with him if he frees Manrico But she has just taken poison, preferring to die rather than submit to di Luna. There is a batch of singing. The poison acts more quickly than Leonora expects and she slumps to the floor, sings her last, and dies. Di Luna, realizing that he's been had—in traditional versions, orders Manrico taken out and beheaded, forcing Azucena to watch from the barred window. But in the updated version, he takes Manrico out in the hall, draws a revolver, and shoots him.

At which point, Azucena shouts triumphantly that di Luna has just killed the long-lost brother for whom he's been searching all his life. Then she cries, "Mother, you are avenged!!" as di Luna stares in horror.

The singing in this version was marvelous, greatly enhanced by the magnificent voice of baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the Count di Luna.

But the costuming and revisionist hanky-panky!??

I look forward to this rendition of Rigoletto. But I really dread the idea of setting the whole thing in Las Vegas instead of Renaissance Mantua—and the costumes and such.

Shudder!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Opera
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 18 May 13 - 05:06 PM

I saw it at the movie theater a few months ago. I also did not think I would like it because of moving the setting to las Vegas in the 60's, but I enjoyed it. I had just seen the movie Quartet in which the quartet from this opera is important, so it was interesting to see the opera so soon after the movie.

The Live in HD broadcasts at movie theaters ended Wednesday night with Giulio Cesare. Natalie Dessay was great as Cleopatra, and I liked the opera. Watch it on TV if you can.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 13 - 02:46 PM

I didn't realize it was on until it had been running for about 30 minutes. I turned it on but was working on something so didn't pay the attention I should have. I'll have to look for a repeat. What I heard sounded and looked good. The modern dress always makes me take a moment to decide if it fits, and it seemed to.

SRS

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 May 13 - 02:37 PM

Stayed up late last night and watched the Metropolitan's "Rigoletto" on PBS.
A recent setting was Little Italy in New York; the Met's offering is glitzy Las Vegas, Nevada.

Enjoyable for the most part. Zeljko Lucic as Rigoletto and Stefan Kocan as the hitman I thought performed and sang well; Diana Damrau as Gilda was a little weak.
Piotr Beczala as the Duke aparently was supposed to be a Sinatra-type character. He lacked Sinatra's spark but his singing was mostly excellent.

The evocation of Las Vegas was bright and eye-catching.

Just wondered what others thought of the performance.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Ron Davies
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 01:03 PM

"unhappy lives".    May well have been true for Schubert.   He was short --about 5' 1" I believe--and squat and had to wear very thick glasses.    His physical limitations may well have kept him from being drafted when Napoleon's armies swept through, but they also meant no female companionship.

Musical talent wasn't enough, it seems.

He did go to brothels--though recently evidence has been found that he did not die of syphilis, as has been assumed for a long time.

But there is no proof he was a pedophile, and that is my main point--despite the off the cuff smear earlier in this thread that he was.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:20 PM

Anna Russell's laying out, with examples, of the Ring Cycle is, to coin a word, a classic.

As I mention toward the top of this thread, Barbara and I have taken in Seattle Opera's production of the Ring, sitting through all four very long operas in one week. About twenty hours. We could tell at the end of the week that we'd been sitting a lot, but it was a real experience.

The real snort about Anna Russell's routine about the Ring is it's spot on!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Elmore
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:18 PM

SRS: I don't think Russell's Ring Cycle bit will ever go out of fashion. I love it.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 08:00 PM

That particular Anna Russell bit didn't age as well as some of the rest of her program. I love her description of the Ring Cycle.

SRS

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stringsinger
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 07:09 PM

Opera was decidedly a European invention exalting drama to the heights of music.
I see it as a larger picture of what could be called musical theater. It's interesting to see the overlap when Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" can be performed by the New York Opera Company as well as opera revivals of "Porgy and Bess".

In order for opera to survive as a relevant art form, new approaches must be taken to fix the many creaky libretti. (Boito and Verdi exempted here, also The Magic Flute).

The opera singer is an amazing athlete of the voice and to understand it requires some folkies to put on a different set of ears.

To criticize opera as being pretentious is narrow minded. It is a unique art form and an interesting musical world. I enjoy Philip Glass in his approach to opera. I can't quite grok "Vozzeck" however though I do appreciate Berg's musicianship.

The standard repertory of opera tried-and-true makes up for its libretti by a melding of scenery, musicianship, compositional prowess and beautiful voices.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 06:31 PM

Lord, my EARS!!

If that's "opera," then I'm the Maharajah of Screamandrunabad!

The nearest thing I've heard to that is from a bunch of horny alleycats sitting on a back fence and announcing their distress to the world at large!

Oy!!

=======

But Florence Foster Jenkins.

Gotta give her full marks for trying, poor lady. She did manage to fill concert halls because her performances were even funnier that those of Anna Russell. The big difference of course is that Anna Russell intended to be funny. Mrs. Jenkins was dead serious, and seemed to be totally unaware of her—um—how can I put this delicately?—vocal shortcomings.

One didn't know whether to feel deeply sorry for her or run screaming with your hands over your ears! Little of both, I guess.

For those who are thick enough to think this is opera, be it noted that she never sang in an actual opera (nor ever would) and when she gave a recital, she hired the hall on her own dime.

Now, as to Anna Russell, here's the real scoop.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Opera
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 02:59 PM

Elmore, it was a safe bet. I ground my teeth so much at seconds 6, 20 and 29 that I shut the volume completely and closed the YouTube link. It gives new meaning to the word terrible.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 02:49 PM

That was the 201st for purists.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 02:48 PM

Let's use the 200th post to celebrate Florence Foster Jenkins, shall we?

SRS

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Elmore
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 02:41 PM

999: I tried. You get to keep your two bits.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:34 AM

It's goin' downhill. Two bits to anyone who can listen to over a minute of this.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Elmore
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 10:23 AM

Many of the eighteenth and nineteenth century led unhappy lives. Some were mad as hatters. Doesn't detract from the beauty of their music.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 06:46 PM

It's an--off the cuff--smear.   And I will not let it pass a second time. Admittedly I'm not an unbiased observer:   Schubert's 5th, 8th and 9th, the Trout Quintet, the String Quintet in C and the Piano Trios 1 and 2 are some of my favorite music.

i.e.   I think Merle Haggard put it pretty well--I'm sure he was thinking of his reaction to an attack on Schubert, wasn't he?---   "walkin' on the fightin' side of me".

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 10:45 PM

It's long enough I don't remember what all is in it. I'll review the posts later. A 200-year-old accusation is a bit of a reach.

SRS

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Ron Davies
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 09:36 PM

"out of the blue"    The Schubert allegation is earlier in this thread. But it's presented as a fact.   A rather revolting smear--by somebody who is not careful about facts.

I considered responding at the time. But it slipped by.




The opera chorus and overture observations however are not out of the blue, I'm sure.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 06:54 PM

I have now seen more Met in HD broadcasts.

On jan. 9 I saw Un Ballo in Maschera. It was good, but I think I'm more impressed by more elaborate sets and costumes than were used in this production. As an aside, I think this is the only broadcast this season in which Dmitri Hvorostovsky appears. He has a small following among a group of people from Providence's East Side (a fairly pricey neighborhood). They only come to the operas in which he appears. The women in that group tend to gasp and giggle when he appears on screen. However, they didn't come to this one.

I skipped Aida on January 16 because it had been done two years ago and my budget isn't endless. However, the woman who sang the lead was a different one and I was impressed with her in the previews.

On January 23 I saw Les Troyens, and enjoyed it very much.

On Feb. 6 I saw Maria Stuarda, the opera that I had most looked forward to this season. I was not disappointed. It was very dramatic.

Next up, on Wednesday, will be Rigoletto==set in Las Vegas in 1960! Last week I used a free pass to see the movie Quartet, which is about four opera singers living in a retirement home who are rehearsing to perform a quartet from this opera as part of a fundraiser for the home. I am looking forward to seeing that quartet performed.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 03:06 PM

Never any problem listening to catmusica (Barcelona). They have two classical streams on the net, so one has a choice. I think that they are on 24/7, but I haven't listened beyond about 10pm, MST.

I see http://www.catmusica.cat/index_cm.htm at the top of the page.

Their language is Catalan; no Spanish.

The vocalists are Jonas Kaufman, tenor; Katerina Delayman, soprano; Rene Pape, baix; Peter Mattel, bariton; Evgeny Nikitin, baix-bariton and Runi Brattaberg, baix.
I may try and get a cd of this performance, if it becomes available.

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 02:18 PM

That was some out-of-the-blue stuff, Ron.

What can you tell us about Catmusica? I found a site, but can't hear it. Is it only in Spain? How are you listening to it?

SRS

Subject: RE: Opera
From: Ron Davies
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 01:54 PM

So this thread is up again.   I'm not an opera buff , in general ,but quite a few of the overtures --and even more choruses--are just sublime.   OK, I'm not an unbiased observer, having been in orchestras which played many overtures and in choruses which have done opera choruses.

At least twice we did an opera chorus concert.   Sold out the Kennedy Center concert hall.   And great fun--among other things, like the soloists, the chorus has to assume roles through the music.    I'm pushing to do another one.



One more thing:   there are allegations, fine, but no proof, that Schubert was a pedopohile.

Fascinating the way some folks like to lynch people in the Mudcat Kangaroo Court.