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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #1020 on: 22:01:08, 20-09-2008 » |
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Well, the last could be Jerry Springer: The Opera, as a slightly oblique guess?
 I suppose it could! However, it's a 19th Century opera! |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #1021 on: 22:16:17, 20-09-2008 » |
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Well, the last could be Jerry Springer: The Opera, as a slightly oblique guess?
I suppose it could! However, it's a 19th Century opera! In reality, I think we're looking at Meyerbeer here - Robert Le Diable, in which the devil, in disguise, summons the shades of nuns who had reneged on their vows from their graves. The said nuns then try to seduce Robert (who is the devil's son) with offers of sex and alcohol. Apparently it was a huge hit in its day. Not on the list, but The Wrong'Un in Yan Tan Tethera is a kind of devil, I suppose |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #1022 on: 09:12:57, 21-09-2008 » |
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Well, the last could be Jerry Springer: The Opera, as a slightly oblique guess?
I suppose it could! However, it's a 19th Century opera! In reality, I think we're looking at Meyerbeer here - Robert Le Diable, in which the devil, in disguise, summons the shades of nuns who had reneged on their vows from their graves. The said nuns then try to seduce Robert (who is the devil's son) with offers of sex and alcohol. That's the one! Still seeking... A Russian appearance for Mephistopheles? A devilish dam? An American take on the Faust legend? A 19th Century Russian appearance for a devil? |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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martle
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« Reply #1023 on: 09:20:56, 21-09-2008 » |
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An American take on the Faust legend?
Are you thinking of Adams, Dr. Atomic, IGI? (Although I suppose that would more correctly be a take on Prometheus...) |
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Green. Always green.
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #1024 on: 09:26:21, 21-09-2008 » |
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An American take on the Faust legend?
Are you thinking of Adams, Dr. Atomic, IGI? (Although I suppose that would more correctly be a take on Prometheus...) No. A 1956 opera commissioned by NBC television, where a little devil visits earth on his tenth birthday! |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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George Garnett
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« Reply #1025 on: 09:56:39, 21-09-2008 » |
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Does Stravinsky The Soldier's Tale just squeeze in as an opera? Oh, all right. I suppose not.
Then there's Penderecki's The Devils of Loudon. Hmm, but no actual devils involved I hear you cry, just people acting that way without daemonic assistance.
Then I'll just have to fall back on Lukas Foss Griffelkin for IGI's 10-year old devil but I can't claim any credit for that. All plaudits go to Mr Dr Professor Google.
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #1026 on: 10:05:20, 21-09-2008 » |
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I suppose in fairness I should award the plaudits for Robert le Diable to Dr Professor Kobbe and his mysterious henchman H.
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #1027 on: 11:08:55, 21-09-2008 » |
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Then I'll just have to fall back on Lukas Foss Griffelkin for IGI's 10-year old devil but I can't claim any credit for that. All plaudits go to Mr Dr Professor Google.
Is correct. I suppose in fairness I should award the plaudits for Robert le Diable to Dr Professor Kobbe and his mysterious henchman H.
A Very Useful Book, in my opinion! The Russian Mephisto appears in a 20th C work already mentioned in dispatches regarding angels. The 19th C Russian is the title role. The devilish dam is Czech. |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #1028 on: 12:46:24, 21-09-2008 » |
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The 'devilish dam' would surely be Kate in Dvořak's The Devil and Kate?
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Lady_DoverHyphenSole
Gender: 
Posts: 63
Warning: armed with a stout hatpin or two!
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« Reply #1029 on: 16:38:32, 21-09-2008 » |
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The Russian Mephisto appears in a 20th C work already mentioned in dispatches regarding angels.
Prokofiev: The Fiery AngelAll this talk of The Devil and Kate makes me want a contrabass even more. I'd better carry on saving, I suppose, not least for a new sofa under which to store such a beast. |
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RuthElleson: "Lady_DHS is one of the battiest people I know"
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1030 on: 22:52:16, 21-09-2008 » |
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There's a believed spotting of Old Nick in Mussorgsky's SOROCHINSKY FAIR, although it turns out to be a false alarm, and a case of mistaken identity whilst under the influence of alcohol.
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #1031 on: 23:07:07, 21-09-2008 » |
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The 'devilish dam' would surely be Kate in Dvořak's The Devil and Kate?
There's an opera by Smetana titled Čertova stěna ( The Devil's Wall), based on a legend whereby the devil is said to have halted the building of the monastery by damming the Vltava, which then rose and flooded the site. Lady DHS has spotted the appearance of Mephistopheles (and Faust) in a scene in Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. The other Russian one I thought of is Rubinstein's The Demon (which Gergiev and the Mariinsky are bringing to the Barbican in January!) |
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1032 on: 04:07:19, 26-09-2008 » |
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Aha! I knew there was another devil in a mid-period soviet opera, and I could even picture him in the production - but couldn't pinpoint the piece?! Woke up at 6am with the answer - Farfarello The Devil, in LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES. Glad to get that one out of my system  Now! Since there was recently a message-board topic called "Berg Operas"... ... tell us about operas set in mountains, on mountains, over mountains and so forth? # D'you wanna start, eh? Then tell us about an opera set in completely fictitious mountains.... # Another opera begins with a composer climbing a glacier on a mountaineering holiday... # Yet another climber has set off to scale the Matterhorn.. # A different glacier provides the setting for a Tyrolean tragedy ending in a rather pricey special effect... # Another lost girl in the mountains has trekked all the way up there despite the threat of bandits # And yet another has lost her goat (now that one's easy...) |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #1033 on: 06:38:57, 26-09-2008 » |
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# A different glacier provides the setting for a Tyrolean tragedy ending in a rather pricey special effect...
That would be Catalani's La Wally, ending with an avalanche! Another one set in the mountains would be Rossini's Guillaume Tell, especially Act II where Mathilde gets separated from her hunting party. The shooting of the apple off Jemmy's head is another potentially expensive special effect....or a completely fudged one. Would the episode of the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains in VW's The Pilgrim's Progress count? |
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« Last Edit: 06:55:02, 26-09-2008 by Il Grande Inquisitor »
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #1034 on: 07:23:29, 26-09-2008 » |
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The lost girl in the mountains must be Micaela in Carmen; The composer climbing a glacier on a mountaineering holiday is, I think, Elegy for Young Lovers; Much of Die Walkure is set in mountainous terrain, and, given the name, I would assume that Montsalvat is supposed to be in the mountains - so Parsifal, too. And of course there is the Venusberg - the most boring place on earth, Tannhauser assures us, a challenge to which Wagner responds in ways which he possibly didn't intend ...  Other mountainous operas include D'Albert's Tiefland (unknown in Britain but quite popular in Germany at one time) |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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