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Author Topic: Opera, anybody?  (Read 32387 times)
JK
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« Reply #125 on: January 17, 2020, 02:16:43 AM »

Okay I will see Wozzeck. However I can't see it on Saturday . The weather here is supposed to be severe. However, thank goodness , the theater will show a repeat next Wednesday afternoon so I'll go then.

Did you make it to Wozzeck, Lizzie? And if so, what was your verdict?
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
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« Reply #126 on: January 17, 2020, 08:06:43 AM »

Great production but very depressing. :-(
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 "The best thing you can be 'like' in music is yourself." Dr. John
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« Reply #127 on: January 17, 2020, 08:08:16 AM »

Great production but very depressing. :-(

Sorry to hear that, E.
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
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« Reply #128 on: January 18, 2020, 01:53:41 PM »

To lift us up a bit, here's a duet from Rodelinda, now getting seven performances in Amsterdam's opera house. Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo (Unulfo in Amsterdam) is Bertarido in this duet ("Io t'abbraccio") from Act 2, with Nuria Rial as Rodelinda (Lucy Crowe does the honours in Amsterdam):       

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpDEEBw50n8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodelinda_(opera)
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« Reply #129 on: January 26, 2020, 10:44:02 AM »

As to snobbery in Opera, there was a post on the Metropolitan Opera FB page urging patrons who attend the matinee performance today to stay after it ends. There will be a discussion session featuring some of the cast, possibly the conductor, etc.
Believe it or not, there were a couple of posts criticizing this, saying this is how Opera is being "dumbed down" nowadays. According to them , Opera is for the elite and not what one referred to as the "great unwashed." Thought he was kidding but from his later replies he and the other guy were serious.
 I'm thinking about my "unwashed", just getting by Grandmother , who treasured her 78rpm Enrico Caruso records .
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"No White Flags." - Team Gleason

"(Brian) got into this really touching music with songs like 'In My Room', and 'Good Vibrations' was amazing. The melodies are so beautiful, almost perfect. I began to realize he was one of the most gifted writers of our generation." - Paul Simon

 "The best thing you can be 'like' in music is yourself." Dr. John
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« Reply #130 on: January 27, 2020, 01:21:35 AM »

As to snobbery in Opera, there was a post on the Metropolitan Opera FB page urging patrons who attend the matinee performance today to stay after it ends. There will be a discussion session featuring some of the cast, possibly the conductor, etc.
Believe it or not, there were a couple of posts criticizing this, saying this is how Opera is being "dumbed down" nowadays. According to them , Opera is for the elite and not what one referred to as the "great unwashed." Thought he was kidding but from his later replies he and the other guy were serious.
 I'm thinking about my "unwashed", just getting by Grandmother , who treasured her 78rpm Enrico Caruso records.

That's sick! I remember the under-gardener at our local manor house, a very basic kind of a chap, was a great fan of light opera.

Sick, and supremely insulting. "Dumbed down" my left leg. I wonder if you met these types face to face whether they'd be so gosh darn cocky.
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower: A Beach Boys Orchestration Web Series
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« Reply #131 on: February 10, 2020, 02:13:45 AM »

To lift us up a bit, here's a duet from Rodelinda, now getting seven performances in Amsterdam's opera house. Countertenor Lawrence Zazzo (Unulfo in Amsterdam) is Bertarido in this duet ("Io t'abbraccio") from Act 2, with Nuria Rial as Rodelinda

Here's another version of this duet I heard this morning on Dutch radio, sung by Joyce DiDonato (Rodelinda) and Patrizia Ciofi (Bertarido):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJqsBGSj5w
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
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« Reply #132 on: March 16, 2020, 04:23:00 PM »

 I don’t know how many countries can access this, but the Metropolitan Opera is showing free broadcasts of operas. The opera showing through tomorrow is Carmen.
It’s available on the Met Opera on Demand app available on various devices.
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"No White Flags." - Team Gleason

"(Brian) got into this really touching music with songs like 'In My Room', and 'Good Vibrations' was amazing. The melodies are so beautiful, almost perfect. I began to realize he was one of the most gifted writers of our generation." - Paul Simon

 "The best thing you can be 'like' in music is yourself." Dr. John
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« Reply #133 on: March 18, 2020, 04:04:36 AM »

I don’t know how many countries can access this, but the Metropolitan Opera is showing free broadcasts of operas. The opera showing through tomorrow is Carmen.
It’s available on the Met Opera on Demand app available on various devices.

Let's hope a bunch of people watched it. I'm not an app person (except for family) but belated thanks anyway for the heads up, Lizzie.

Hoping you're okay out there.

By way of compensation for not watching it, here's the wonderfully upbeat overture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oADEqBBJaaA
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
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« Reply #134 on: March 19, 2020, 12:21:18 PM »

Hello, the free series is continuing for the Met broadcasts. They will be doing a couple of Italian operas. Next week will be all Wagner.
Sad news - got word that the Met is laying off all of its union musicians and chorus. But I think trying to maintain their health coverage for a while (imagine those of you outside the US shaking your heads at that, as health coverage is a given where you live)
« Last Edit: March 19, 2020, 12:23:49 PM by NOLA BB Fan » Logged

"No White Flags." - Team Gleason

"(Brian) got into this really touching music with songs like 'In My Room', and 'Good Vibrations' was amazing. The melodies are so beautiful, almost perfect. I began to realize he was one of the most gifted writers of our generation." - Paul Simon

 "The best thing you can be 'like' in music is yourself." Dr. John
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« Reply #135 on: March 19, 2020, 08:59:52 PM »

Our local opera company suggested another source for free streaming of operas
Operavision.eu
Operas performed by various European companies
They are now featuring Mozart operas performed by a Finnish company.
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"No White Flags." - Team Gleason

"(Brian) got into this really touching music with songs like 'In My Room', and 'Good Vibrations' was amazing. The melodies are so beautiful, almost perfect. I began to realize he was one of the most gifted writers of our generation." - Paul Simon

 "The best thing you can be 'like' in music is yourself." Dr. John
JK
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« Reply #136 on: October 28, 2020, 04:14:58 AM »

Oooff! This topic hasn't been posted in since lockdown.

To help keep my spirits up in these weird times, I recently turned to a work by the memorably named Italian Baroque composer Leonardo Vinci. It's his 1725 opera La Rosmira fedele, also known these days as (La) Partenope after the Queen of that name, here sung by the contralto Sonia Prina, whom I know aeijtzsche considers a model for her own singing voice.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpmNYKFOG-nmlCo0y-TUDxiworHP9l6rY



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partenope_(Vinci)
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower: A Beach Boys Orchestration Web Series
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« Reply #137 on: October 29, 2020, 03:20:22 AM »

Each of the 54 segments in the video linked in the previous post identifies the role featured in that segment. To facilitate listening, and in case the cover image does a runner, here's a list of who sings what:

Maria Ercolano, soprano (Arsace, Prince of Corinth)
Maria Grazia Schiavo, soprano (Rosmira/Eurimene, beloved of Arsace)
Eufemia Tufano, mezzo-soprano (Emilio, Prince of Cumae)
Sonia Prina, contralto (Partenope, Queen of Naples)
Stefano Ferrari, tenor (Armindo, Prince of Rhodes)
Charles Do Santos, baritone (Ormonte, commander of Partenope's troops)

Giuseppe/Pino De Vittorio, tenor and Borja Quiza, baritone, provide comic intermezzi, variously described as hilarious ("they stole the show") and excruciating!

(Recorded live 29 April--1 May 2011, Auditorium Victor Villegas, Murcia, Spain.)
« Last Edit: October 29, 2020, 08:38:20 AM by JK » Logged

"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
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« Reply #138 on: October 29, 2020, 08:37:06 AM »

Before we leave this topic, the page linked below gives an invaluable in-depth review of the live performances and clarifies a couple of things (and explains a whole lot more). First, the two aforementioned comic intermezzi are only on the DVD (and not the CD linked above), where they get the aforementioned flak from some quarters. Second, the banter between Vittorio and Quiza's characters is in Spanish because the audience is Spanish! For those interested, and to gather as much material as possible in one place, here are both intermezzi as included on the DVD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtN1e1TvB90

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2r0jvhcWFU

https://theidlewoman.net/2015/01/14/partenope-leonardo-vinci-1725/
« Last Edit: October 29, 2020, 10:05:32 AM by JK » Logged

"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower: A Beach Boys Orchestration Web Series
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« Reply #139 on: November 18, 2020, 05:39:56 AM »

The closing scene of Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites (completed 1956) has to be one of the most heart-breaking moments in all opera. Towards the end of the Reign of Terror in France during the 1790s, the sisters of a Carmelite monastery went to the scaffold rather that give up their faith. In the final scene (here at 2:25:59), the fall of the guillotine can be heard 14 times as the nuns' voices drop out one by one. Absolutely chilling. That said, this may be the greatest and most affecting music Poulenc ever wrote: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh6ZIguBmV4   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogues_of_the_Carmelites
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
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« Reply #140 on: November 18, 2020, 10:24:09 AM »

Yes I’ve only been able to watch it once. Too gut wrenching. Sad
I’m a Lay member of the Carmelites. We honor these brave women, the Martyrs of Compiègne, on July 17 each year.
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"No White Flags." - Team Gleason

"(Brian) got into this really touching music with songs like 'In My Room', and 'Good Vibrations' was amazing. The melodies are so beautiful, almost perfect. I began to realize he was one of the most gifted writers of our generation." - Paul Simon

 "The best thing you can be 'like' in music is yourself." Dr. John
JK
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« Reply #141 on: November 18, 2020, 12:18:29 PM »

Yes I’ve only been able to watch it once. Too gut wrenching. Sad
I’m a Lay member of the Carmelites. We honor these brave women, the Martyrs of Compiègne, on July 17 each year.

Hello, Lizzie. We only seem to bump into each other here, as I don't post in (or even look at) any other part of this forum these days.

It was certainly brave of them. The strength of their faith defies all imagining.

I've often envied people who have faith, something outside everyday life to fall back on...

Take care in these troubled times.
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower: A Beach Boys Orchestration Web Series
the Carbon Freeze | Eclectic Essays & Art
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« Reply #142 on: February 21, 2021, 02:48:06 AM »

This brings back some memories of the time when aeijtzsche used to post in this thread. I heard the aria "Caro! Bella!" from Handel's opera Giulio Cesare this morning and thought of her. It features a favourite of hers, the contralto Sonia Prina, in the title role with soprano Natalie Dessay doing most of the singing as Cleopatra, supported by Le Concert d’Astrée under Emmanuelle Haïm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV_7LFDKODA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Cesare
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"Ik bun moar een eenvoudige boerenlul en doar schoam ik mien niet veur" (Normaal, 1978)
You're Grass and I'm a Power Mower: A Beach Boys Orchestration Web Series
the Carbon Freeze | Eclectic Essays & Art
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