Resolutions Revisited

In January of 2006 I made a few resolutions. I want to see how I'm doing with them.

1. I will retire from my job. As soon as I stop enjoying it. Honestly. I've been resolving to do this for quite a while, and some people are tired of hearing about it. Being sent to London is making this harder.

---I retired in May of 2006 and haven't regretted it for a minute.

2. I will make an attempt to find at least one falsettist I like. I won't work too hard at this.

---I must say this took until 2010, but I find I do like Philippe Jaroussky, whom I first heard at Salle Pleyel in Giulio Cesare in Egitto. He is quite pleasant to listen to.

3. I will decide where I am going to live after I am retired. This is also difficult.

---I ended up in Sacramento. I like my apartment, but I'm not sure this was the greatest decision.

4. I will try to weigh less at the end of the year than I do now. I should try to find out how much that is.

---I do weigh about 15 pounds less than when I was working.

5. I will go to at least five opera houses I have never been to before. There are two in London, so that should make a nice start. I will also try to get to Munich this year. There are at least three there.

---I have done quite well with this one. Besides the two in London, I have been to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA, the Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, the Arena di Verona, the Baths of Caracalla, Munich Opera, Palais Garnier, and Opera Bastille. I could do better.

6. I will spend more money than I make. This is not a goal you have to set for yourself, but in my case I am a terrible cheapskate.

---I seem to have been successful in 2008 and the years since them. I'm way behind this year.

7. I will try to change my opinion about at least three things.

---Does everybody that ever appeared on American Idol count? No, I suppose not. Joyce DiDonato. She continues to move rapidly up my list. I made it all the way through Tristan and now rather like it, but not as a favorite. I liked Domingo's Cyrano a lot more in San Francisco than I had in London. It's iffy that I have done much in this category. After all, I like an awful lot of stuff.

8. I will have a new favorite opera.

---This was a silly resolution. How could you possibly prefer anything to Der Rosenkavalier?

9. I will try to fall in love. This gets harder to do as you get older. I think it's hormones. I will assume that opera infatuations also count.

---I have been successful here. It was after this that I began chasing around to see Jonas Kaufmann. It is nice to see that others are doing this, too.

It is surprising to have so much success in the resolution game. I think you have to pick the right resolutions.

Le Comte Ory in HD

Count Ory...............Juan Diego Flórez
Countess Adèle..........Diana Damrau
Isolier.................Joyce DiDonato
Raimbaud................Stéphane Degout
Tutor...................Michele Pertusi

Conductor...............Maurizio Benini
Production..............Bartlett Sher

Rossini's Le Comte Ory made its way onto HD today. It was Rossini's last comedy. He had moved to Paris and worked very hard to adapt to Parisian style. There is an almost patter song for the almost buffo bass Raimbaud, sung by Stéphane Degout. There is lots of coloratura for everyone under the sun.

Why would you want this?

For Juan Diego Florez as Count Ory. He doesn't get an aria, but he does get lots of charming, absurd acting and an insane amount of high notes. Juan Diego became a father 35 minutes before the start of the opera. With no sleep he still made a spectacular performance. He looked a little hung over, not a bad look for Ory.

You would want it for the extraordinarily charming Joyce DiDonato as the count's page who in the end gets the girl. If I understood the dialog correctly, the countess is not married, and Isolier might be considered a suitable mate.

You might want it for the menage a trois in the second act, the only operatic trio I know of that takes place in bed. There's lots of messing around in this production.

You would want it for the Countess of Diana Damrau. She does get an aria. This is just about the silliest opera I've seen.

You might like the conducting of  Maurizio Benini.

This buffo plot is given an almost seria musical treatment. I almost liked it.

Post Script:

I have followed with interest the commentary surrounding the Met's performance of the opera Le Comte Ory.

On one level it's controversial for its use of the old score. Tommasini has written about it in the Times here. Operating under Bartoli's influence, the Zurich Opera worked out a way to use the new score from the new not yet published Bärenreiter edition of Rossini's works and performed the opera using their original instruments orchestra La Scintilla. Here is a discussion by the publisher of the differences between the two versions.  The Met apparently could not be bothered and used the same old same old.

I couldn't make it to Zurich, but it would have been fun to try to hear the differences.

Should we treasure an opera simply because Juan Diego Florez looks cute dressed up as a nun and totally aces some high C's, D's and Db's? Is it really funny what his reprobate character is actually up to?

Which is the topic of the second controversy. This is basically a comedy about sexual abuse. At least that's one way of seeing it. Gert definitely had that take on it. If you go strictly by the libretto, I think the idea was to lure the Count into bed with his page when he thought he was with the Countess. The Countess would have been in on this ruse, I assume.

I think it is strictly a modern idea that women should be able to consider themselves safe from the sexual advances of men while continuing to hang out with them. Women are liberated only when men behave themselves.

The joke is supposed to be that Ory thinks he's getting away with something when actually Isolier and the Countess are tricking him. I think it's not really very funny.

Listening to Rossini made me think of...

This is "Son qual nave" from the Sacrificium album. Forgive me if listening to Rossini made me think of Cecilia.

Glorious Percussion

This is Glorious Percussion by Sofia Gubaidulina, a concerto for percussion ensemble and orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel, conductor, Berliner Philharmoniker. I posted this because it is the best visual film of an orchestra playing I've ever seen. I like the music more than the previous experience of Gubaidulina.

Great Moments in the Career of Cecilia Bartoli

Donna Fiorilla - Cecilia Bartoli
Zaida - Judith Schmid

Please note at .55 Bartoli bites Schmid on the ass.  This is Il Turco in Italia in Zurich.

For something not quite so silly here is a Selim - Fiorilla duet from the same opera with Michele Pertusi.



I think this is my favorite part.

Vittorio Grigolo

Now if you wanted to say Vittorio Grigolo was the new Pavarotti, I might consider it.

Jonas

It is the sound, I think. It plays in your soul, or it doesn't. I love the sound of his voice more than just about anything, and this is Italian enough.

He looked over at where I was sitting--close to the stage in the tiers stage left--as he left the stage in the Berkeley concert. I begin to regret that my friends will not stalk. They give me rides and put me up for the night, so I can't really just do whatever I want.

Stalking is something for young people to do, people who stay up late, and in my case the results have not been good. I am thinking this over. I should practice smiling, perhaps.

Misc.

I was watching CSI NY, an episode about disc jockeys, and heard the following exchange: DJ: try this music. Mac: No thanks. I prefer Crumb.

Robert Crumb of underground comics? George Crumb of music that sounds like whales? Who writes this stuff?

A friend saves the Arts section of the New York Times for me, and I have read up to March 22. I knew the Merce Cunningham Dance Company was touring just before disbanding. And now there is an item about a set of CDs called Music for Merce consisting of stuff written for Merce Cunningham. For only $118.14 you can buy this on Amazon. It includes lots of experimental music by a number of composers, not just John Cage.

If you have ever witnessed ballet dancers rehearsing, you know that in the corner of the room is a piano and a rehearsal pianist who plays constantly while they dance. Apparently Merce Cunningham didn't do this. The dancers rehearsed with no music at all, and it got added in at the last minute. Everyone dances with a baffled expression on their faces. This explains a lot.

The Sexy Poppea we have been looking for

A lot has changed at Glyndebourne since the video for Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea was filmed in 1984 with Maria Ewing in the starring role. I was disappointed with the earlier version, but this film from the same venue in 2008 with Danielle de Niese completely makes up for it. Where to begin?

This opera comes at the beginning of commercial opera in Venice. If we have no royalty footing the bill, we must turn to operas which might interest the masses: namely operas about sex and violence, the same things that interest us.

The sexual ambiguity of the casting is probably also authentic to the original.

The incredible Alice Coote is Nerone, putting the role back into the treble where it belongs. Women definitely appeared on stage in Venice, and one of them sang Poppea.

Everything is up to date with 2008, including the staging. The prologue takes place in the audience. The first scene is a bed. Then we have a few books scattered around the floor for Seneca’s house; then a bathtub, first for Nero to kill Lucano in, then for Ottavia; then a scene at the beach created with a large drape and a picnic basket; lots of black men’s suits; in short, modern minimalism.

Of course the star of the show is actually Emmanuelle Haïm and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In the extras it is explained that the two extant scores for this work consist of the voice parts and a figured bass. For any modern performance what the orchestra plays is completely invented in the modern era. The orchestration for this performance conforms to current standards for original instrument orchestras. For my ears the recorders and tambourines sound almost medieval. Are we overdoing a bit?

The playing is passionate and expressive. We are still in the period of opera where most of the music is Florentine Camerata recitative. There are outbursts of incredible coloratura and instrumental interludes for variety, but the endless recitative can get occasionally a bit tedious. Try to imagine you’re Italian.

I am writing too much, but it can’t be helped. All of Monteverdi is pre-tonal, but he clearly has a personal style for how the chords progress from one to the other that is quite beautiful. He is a very great master.

Yes, there’s plenty of sex, actually surprisingly a lot. Also violence. If sex and/or violence can be going on while this dialog is being sung, it pretty much is. Both men and women are in drag. There is talk about virtue and a character who dies for it. That alone has to be unique. On top of all of that we have the gorgeous Danielle de Niese.  Danielle and Alice's voices are well paired.

The contrast with the previous DVD could not be greater. This one is a lot more fun.  I am clapping to the computer screen.
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Sarah Palin Opera

Here is a blog claiming that John Adams, together with John Luther Adams, whoever he is, is writing an opera with the life of Sarah Palin as its theme. Well.

Pro:
The main character is female. This represents progress for Adams.
I'm sure the libretto would be pretty easy to write.

Con:
I feel extremely dubious about the possibility of immortalizing the already far too well known Palin.

For me this would only work as a comedy. Then I would be good with it. Preferably slapstick.