There was a hoax that Nicolai Gedda had died. Apparently he's still alive.
The Life Ball, a benefit for AIDS, took place in Vienna with the theme Gold, so we have Woman in Gold played by Conchita Wurst. Adele Bloch-Bauer may be gone from Vienna in fact but she remains in spirit.
Anna Netrebko goes every year and performs.
Over the weekend I attended a performance of The Requiem by John Rutter. This was my first experience of one of his choral works. He is British but is most popular in America. For my ears it sounds like Fred Waring with more dissonance and a bigger dynamic range.
Philippe Sly, bass-baritone, and John Charles Britton, guitar, treated us to an all-Schubert program on the side stage at Mondavi Center. I have been in this space before when I saw Monteverdi in 2013, but since that time it has been arranged as a cabaret with small tables. We were allowed to bring in food and drink (I highly recommend the macaroons). I have already seen Philippe in The Secret Garden, Cosi fan Tutte, and Partenope at the San Francisco Opera, where I will soon see him as Figaro in Figaro. He is currently an Adler Fellow and is being given some big assignments. I selected him for sexiest in Partenope.
There were a few odd things about this performance: there were no programs, so I will have to rely on memory, and they were miked. They commented after the performance that the mikes were a surprise. The miking was discrete, although it changes the timbre of the guitar more than the singer. There were 2 screens: English words were projected on one side and paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, a contemporary of Schubert, on the other.
The guitar arrangements were by the guitarist. In one spot Philippe reached over and keyed one of the guitar strings because John couldn't reach it. Cute. The use of guitar accompaniment was a big influence on the selection of repertoire. We agreed that melodramatic Schubert wouldn't really work with guitar.
Du bist die Ruh
Du liebst mich nicht
An die Musik
Auf dem Wasser zu singen
Der Lindenbaum
Der Leiermann
That's it. I can't remember anything else. There were 2 songs from Scheone Muellerin and 2 more from Winterreise.
The intimacy of the space and the gentleness of the guitar/bass-baritone combination created a sweetness that was very pleasing.
There was an encore by Ravel. M. Sly is French Canadian. I predict big things for Philippe.
Conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Directed by Jurgen Flimm
Leonora,Fidelio - Camilla Nylund
Florestan - Jonas Kaufmann
Don Pizarro - Alfred Muff
Rocco - László Polgár
Marzelline - Elizabeth Rae Magnuson
Jaquino - Christoph Strehl
I saw Jonas Kaufmann's Florestan in Zurich quite by accident in 2007. I went to see Semele and stayed for other things. This film is the same production and some of the same cast, but the conductor is Harnoncourt instead of Minkowski, and Rocco is László Polgár instead of Matti Salminen. I like Matti, but there is something special about László.
A video is better for the canon. Harnoncourt accompanies discretely, and microphones handle everything else. Rocco sings about money and pulls out a box of it.
Is it better if Marzelline, Rocco and Jaquino are funny or serious? Is it better if Fidelio is dignified or flirtatious? Perhaps it is best to see all sides. Florestan is perfect, of course.
Rocco worries about daring even small things, and Fidelio dares everything. What a hero. I am a complete sucker for this opera. It has the best of all happy endings.
Only László Polgár gets flowers, but Harnoncourt gets by far the most applause and is far better than Minkowski.
If you haven't watched this, now may be the time. #ad
1 How to support the tone. This is taught a lot of different ways but basically consists of controlling the breath as it goes out and keeping the pressure down off of your vocal chords. You're going for a low even pressure that gets stronger as you go up the scale.
2 How to enunciate clearly. Remember there is no amplification at the opera.
3 How to pronounce foreign languages. Unless you are Cecilia Bartoli or work exclusively at the ENO, you will be expected to know how to pronounce Italian, German, French and maybe English. Your teacher will tell you how to pronounce the neutral vowel in French and then someone else will tell you it's not like that at all. You can also learn to speak these languages if you like, but that is easier if you have someone to talk to. [See Diction Police. See things voice teachers worry about.]
4 How to integrate your registers. You will need to be able to convince the audience that you have only one voice and not two or three as you go up and down the scale. [See Chest Voice ]
5 How to sing legato. How to sing legato while enunciating clearly. This is actually possible. [See Legato]
6 How to place your vowels. That means your pharynx is open AND your upper formant is focused all at the same time. This is a big part of the process of getting all of your voice to sound more or less the same. [See Yawn]
8 How to sing high. No high notes, no opera. Even Placido Domingo had high notes when he started out.
9 If you are a tenor, you will need to learn how to sound like one. Being a tenor is harder. This is a specialized trick that will require you to find a teacher that knows how to do it. [See Tenor Blog. See Leggiero Tenor]
10 How to sing in tune. You are allowed to sing out of tune sometimes but only on purpose. Some teachers will put this at the top of the list, but this is a mistake. If this is really hard for you, maybe you shouldn't be a classical musician. The better your breath support the easier it is to sing in tune.
11 If you want to be a coloratura, you will need to know how to sing fast and with less legato. You will need to learn how to trill. [See Vibrato/Trill and Trill]
12 How to do all of these things at the same time.
Put off classification as long as possible. And practice. It's no use knowing how to do things if you don't practice. This list is the result of listening to a lot of students. They're not really learning anything.
Thanks to Ivis Bohlen I have a new source for opera streaming called The Opera Platform. I will add it to my streaming information. The operas originate in a variety of places, and according to Ivis the streams will remain available for six months.
This blog is sort of a train of thought thing and not really a set of essays. How does my life intersect with music?
I went to the local college to see The Beggar's Opera, and this has led me to Kurt Weill, which has then in turn led me to actually read the book Kurt Weill on Stage which I have had around the house for a while. Weill is a long time obsession that I may wish to indulge in.
Suddenly I am wanting to watch Berlin Alexanderplatz which is about this period.
I would have to research this further, but it seems my inability to see a clear Marxist vision in the texts of Bertolt Brecht comes from his own confusion about it.
I also find that I am conflicted about covering students in the form of reviews.
Conductor: Jeffrey Thomas
Violin and Viola d'amore: Elizabeth Blumenstock
Violin: Cynthia Black
Countertenor: Ian Howell
Cello: Gretchen Claassen
The American Bach Soloists, who generally play in a church in Davis, are my favorite group in the greater Sacramento area. They did not fail to please.
Apologies. The film I was reviewing has been removed from YouTube. Perhaps you can find it elsewhere.
After seeing The Beggars' Opera at a local college, I became interested in its related work, Die Dreigroschenoper or The Three Penny Opera. Now look what I found--The 1931 movie of Die Dreigroschenoper, which until this moment I had not known existed.
Rudolf Forster as Mackie Messer
Carola Neher as Polly
Reinhold Schünzel as Tiger-Brown
Fritz Rasp as Peachum
Valeska Gert as Frau Peachum
Lotte Lenya as Jenny
Kurt Weill's Three Penny Opera, 1928, appeared 200 years after The Beggar's Opera, 1728, and has basically the same plot. The words are by Bertolt Brecht.
I watched this film on my big screen tv and found it to be charming. The most famous Weill singer of all time, Lotte Lenya, plays Jenny, the prostitute girl friend who sings Jenny's song. Lenya is not quite beautiful enough to be a movie star. If you can't make it through the whole movie, which has surprisingly few songs, here is a sample.
I find that I also love this, the song sung by Polly at her wedding, called Barbara Song.
All ends happily. While Mackie is in jail, Polly buys a bank to take on actual power and raise bail for Mackie. Mackie escapes from jail, allowing them to keep the bail money. Mackie has chosen well in his spur of the moment wedding. Everyone makes up.
This is a treasure which I am pleased to have added to my life experience. The English subtitles in the full movie are rather bad. I kept wondering what a "queer coronation" might be but finally realized they meant queen.
Strange footnotes. Neher died in a Stalin prison camp, betrayed by Brecht. Lenya, according to IMDB, is most famous for her appearance in From Russia with Love.
Die Dreigroschenoper was written at about the same time as Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, 1930. Both works combine the gifts of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and have a leftist political purpose. These were not their only collaborations, but they are the most famous ones.
Three Penny Opera is a bit easier to understand as a political instrument. Members of the lower classes band together to take advantage of their position in the world. One kills and steals. Another trains pickpockets and beggars to optimize their take. They band together to demonstrate against the new queen, a sour looking individual who covers her face rather than look at them. Eventually they notice that their interests coincide, and they band together. This is a strong statement for the lower class. You know--workers of the world unite.
Mahagonny has always confused me. Three fugitives from the law found a city where anything goes. It would seem that in Brecht logic criminals are the good guys. Mahagonny is sort of like Las Vegas. They are wildly successful but break down into factions and collapse in poverty. I can only imagine that Mahagonny represents capitalism.
If I read my sources correctly, Weill was Jewish and Brecht was not. Weill left Germany before Hitler came to power, but Brecht waited until after. They parted ways around the time of the filming of the Dreigroschenoper movie. Weill's later works are not particularly socialist at all.
I don't always understand the relationship between the works I am experiencing in the Weill/Brecht partnership and the politics they are supposed to inform, but I do very much enjoy the roughness and down to earth quality of the style they inhabit. Perhaps I shouldn't try so hard.
I'm going to write about The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, 1728, without actually saying anything. Opera from the very beginning was an entertainment for the upper classes. One of the first operas written provided the entertainment for a Medici wedding and was presented in the inner courtyard of the Pitti Palace. The first commercial opera was presented in Venice where there were a lot of very rich people at that time. Opera was the entertainment for the moneyed classes. The opera house comes with a Royal Box. These rich people want the opera to make them seem well educated and cultured. It is not a coincidence that the era of new opera creation in Italy and the Italian monarchy ended at the same time. London, by contrast, has had a popular theater tradition since before Shakespeare, so the surprising thing is that Italian opera, like those written by Handel, would ever have been popular there. Italian opera is populated by gods, mythological figures and people from Italian history. Why would the British care about this when they have a perfectly good theater tradition of their own? The sudden appearance of The Beggar's Opera in 1728 is generally blamed for dealing the death blow to Handel's opera career. This work is populated by pickpockets and highwaymen and their girlfriends and was a raging hit in its day. It was parodied 2 centuries later by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in Die Dreigroschenoper. The Beggar's Opera is supposed to be a parody of opera with "familiar songs." Well. When I saw this work presented at Sac State last night--done in a realization by Benjamin Britten-- none of the simple tunes were at all familiar to me. The most serious flaw in this performance was its length. Chop about an hour out of it. Emphasize the spoken dialog for your ax. I like opera so I'm perhaps not the best judge.
