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I have fallen into a well of obsession brought on in part by too much time in isolation.  I hope things open up soon so I can get out of the house.

Lise

I bought this so I could have some Lise in the car.  On my car stereo it sounds spectacular.  I can still drive fine, but are driving and ecstasy compatible?  So what is the fuss about?  Her voice is big and extremely beautiful.  She seems to be able to bring sufficient weight into her singing while still achieving the color of a lyric soprano.  

My first reaction to a complete film with Lise:

• Barbara Baker

  This is what I love best about opera, that some day you will wake up and find that a wonderful new voice has come into your life.
  

There is much chatter on the internet comparing her to the other Scandinavian sopranos:  Kirsten Flagstad, Birgit Nilsson and Nina Stemme.  I don't hear them in her voice.  I hear something entirely new, big and with a certain bite to the tone.  I have already grown accustomed to it and love it very much.  And while I might feel inclined to give advice, you should notice how carefully I have avoided it.  She is smart and well advised.

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Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges

My music group has become involved in a project about a forgotten composer named Joseph Bologne or Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745 – 1799).  His mother was a slave on the island of Guadalupe in the West Indies.  In 1753 his father, noticing that his son was a musical prodigy, took him to Paris.  He was a composer, a violinist and a champion fencer.  When Mozart was touring the world, he heard concertos by Saint-Georges in Paris.

I'm listening to a YouTube file that says Violin Concertos, one after the other.  They're quite lively.  This is in the style period generally called Rococo, transitioning to classical.

 

He was in Paris at the time of the French Revolution in 1789.  Since he had acquired a title, he was probably lucky to get through it alive.  He sided with Revolutionary France because of their stance on racial issues.  

Some people don't want to get involved in politics.  But how political is this really?

Starry Heavens Concert

Selfie

All the music on this concert is by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Programm

Ludwig van Beethoven
Irish Songs

 Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer and piano trio.

1. Since grey beards inform us (WoO153, Nr. 4)
2. The Pulse of an Irishman (WoO154, Nr. 4

Ludwig van Beethoven
Schottische Lieder op. 108

 Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer and piano trio.

1. The Shepherd’s Song
2. O sweet were the hours
3. Come fill, fill, my good fellow
4. O Mary, at thy window be
5. Faithfu’ Johnie
6. Sunset
7. Bonny Laddie, Highland Laddie

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sechs Lieder von Gellert, op. 48

Soprano Lise Davidsen with Sophie Raynaud on piano.

1. Bitten
2. Die Liebe des Nächsten
3. Vom Tode
4. Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur  "The heavens declare the glory of Gott"
5. Gottes Macht und Vorsehung
6. Bußlied

Ludwig van Beethoven
Heiligenstädter Testament (Brief des Komponisten Ludwig van Beethoven an seine Brüder Kaspar Karl und Johann von 1802) 

Nikolaus Bachler, reader.  There is no music.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Streichquartett a-Moll, op. 132, 3. Satz
Canzona di ringraziamento. Molto adagio 

Musicians from the orchestra of the Bayerische Staatsoper

One knows from hanging around in libraries that these songs exist.  They're in the complete works, after all.  But one never hears them performed.  Schubert seems to have kicked other people's songs out of the way.   The Scottish songs are in Scottish dialect, and Lise sings only in German.  She hits just the right religious note.  I wish I was seeing more of her.  I noticed that both singers rushed on to the next song with no pause between.  Just because songs appear together on the same opus doesn't mean it is all one piece.  It was possible to tell how many songs had been sung only by looking at the program.  A small separation would have worked better for me.  One wishes to characterize each song individually.

For the speaking there are no titles.  Nikolaus Bachlere has a lot of confidence in his diction. 

The colors of the interior of the Bayerische Staatsoper have changed from the last time I visited.  You can see above that they're pale blue now.

This virtual concert comes with a sound machine in case you were missing the normal noises of a concert.  It includes booing.

Aida from Paris

 

Director -- Lotte de Beer 
Conductor -- Michele Mariotti 

Ksenia Dudnikova -- Amneris
Sondra Radvanovsky -- Aida 
Jonas Kaufmann -- Radames 
Ludovic Tézier -- Amonasro, Aida's father

We've all been warned.  This production of Aida from Paris is a puppet show, at least in part.  Sondra is dressed in black like the puppeteers.  The above picture shows her and her Aida puppet.  She sings, it acts.  The Ethopians have puppet representations and the Egyptians don't.  That means Amonasro also has a puppet.  I wrote about a different opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, where two people played each character.  One sang, the other acted and spoke lines.  When I see this, I think they don't think singers can act. Of course now that blackface is forbidden, this might be a way to represent a different race.

Sondra was wonderful.  I believe that she was the best spinto soprano in Italian repertoire singing today.  I gave her a brava in "O patria mia."  Jonas's hair wasn't as straight as we'd feared. It took him a while to warm up.

The chorus members wear masks while singing.  That's a first for me.  I greatly enjoyed the singing but was unenthusiastic about the concept. Here is the best part.

Cav/Pag

Production..............Franco Zeffirelli
Conductor...............James Levine 

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA

Santuzza................Tatiana Troyanos
Turiddu.................Plácido Domingo
Lola....................Isola Jones
Alfio...................Vern Shinall
Mamma Lucia.............Jean Kraft

We are celebrating Franco Zeffirelli week from the Metropolitan.  This Zeffirelli production of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana might be a real place.  This is Italy. Perhaps there should be a list. This film, this production, this cast brings you the real thing.  

My favorite of this cast is Tatiana Troyanos, of course.  She is so intense that your heart is stirred. Plácido treats her badly, but she takes her revenge.  It's sad all these old productions are gone.  It's Easter Sunday and everyone is at church, except Santuzza who has been excommunicated.  She confronts people as they go in and out of the church.

PAGLIACCI

Nedda...................Teresa Stratas

Canio...................Plácido Domingo

Tonio...................Sherrill Milnes

Silvio..................Allan Monk

Beppe...................James Atherton

This is just ok.  The set is not particularly interesting after the magnificent summoning of a realistic Italian village in CR.  It's still worth seeing for the great cast.  Milnes does a terrific prologue. I think I prefer the current production of Pagliacci.

 

Der Freischütz

Conductor: Antonello Manacorda 
Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov 

 

Ottokar, Prince: Boris Prýgl (baritone)
Kuno, forrester: Bálint Szabó (bass)
Agathe, Kuno's daughter: Golda Schultz (soprano)
Ännchen: Anna Prohaska  (soprano)
Kaspar / Samiel: Kyle Ketelsen (bass)
Max: Pavel Černoch (tenor)
Ein Eremit: Tareq Nazmi (bass)
Kilian: Milan Siljanov  (baritone)

 

Der Freischütz, 1821, by Carl Maria von Weber streamed from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  It's a Singspiel, which means there is spoken dialog just as in Fidelio.  I remember it was covered in school as an historically significant event, though performances are rare.  Once long ago I was in Vienna when it was playing, and I thought not to miss it.  It is my only previous experience of this opera.

You can tell from the picture that it's regie.  These are business men in an office tower.  In the front is a man in a blue suit with brown shoes.  He has not been properly raised.  Blue suits go with black shoes.  I am not buying Freischütz in an office.  Waiters come in wearing pandemic masks.  The contest isn't about marksmanship, it's about being willing to shoot someone.  So the cops don't show up if you shoot someone through the window of an office building?  I'm not buying it.

I love the music in this opera.  I suppose it's the most like Beethoven.  The arias are nice.  Ok.  Alles gute.  So no one is really shooting anyone.  The waiters tell us that it's all fake.  The scenes end entirely without applause.

Max is told he must go to the Wolf's Glen, but in this single set production it looks just like the other scenes.  Max must shoot his fiance.  The music leads us to a happy ending, but then there is a twist.  I won't give it away.  The music is pretty good.  This is the same director that put Les Troyens in a mental hospital.  If you've never seen the opera, this will give you a rough idea.  It streams for 30 days.

Les Troyens

 

 

Conductor...............James Levine
Production..............Fabrizio Melano

Cassandra...............Jessye Norman [Debut]
Coroebus................Allan Monk
Aeneas..................Plácido Domingo
Dido....................Tatiana Troyanos 

This performance of Berlioz' Les Troyens at the Metropolitan Opera is from 1983.  Jessye Norman made her Met debut.  There were performances in the run where Jessye played Dido and someone else Cassandra.  She is spectacular as Cassandra.  No one else approaches her.  It is wonderful to see it again.


Berlioz isn't doing what anyone else was doing at his time.  Not Musically and not theatrically.  It is wise to notice he wrote his own libretto.  He loved Virgil's Aenead and based the opera on it. I know the French always treated him with disrespect and perhaps still do.  After all they were the ones who staged the Dido scenes in a mental hospital.  I prefer some semblance of historical setting which we certainly have here.  Both the Met and San Francisco Operas staged it in the last decade, and both achieved triumphs.  But perhaps this one is the greatest of all.  I love it.

The horse doesn't seem to look like a horse. Cassandra and all the other Trojan women commit suicide at the end of Act II.  

The effect of this production is just as it should be.  How does all this pompous singing translate to an insane asylum? It's designed to bring status to Dido.  I love this opera and this is a wonderful version. 

Covid Label

I have created a new Covid label to designate which performances I have reviewed took place during the pandemic.  Later I will review them as a group to assess how they took the pandemic into account.  A friend thinks this is of historical significance.

Royal Opera Fidelio revisited

There is an audio copy floating around the internet from a radio broadcast from the Royal Opera of the Fidelio from last summer that includes Jonas Kaufmann.  He became ill before the broadcast into movie theaters, but this is an earlier performance.  So we have Lise Davidsen, Jonas Kaufmann and Tony Pappano together.  Look on rai?  I'm told it has been taken down.  This is the one.  We can only hope we will get other opportunities to see them together.  Two of my opera loves on the same stage might be too much for me.  O Gott, welch ein Augenblick.

My first take is here.  I love this opera as no other and can't really explain why.  Pappano understands.  All it misses is Jonas.  Lise goes back into women's clothes, but looks nothing like she did at the beginning.  She is wonderful in this role, and I hope to see her in it again.