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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1035 on: 07:38:08, 26-09-2008 » |
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A good start from IGI, who is now clearly leading the ascent on the South Col and has all his crampons in a row  I know GUILLAUME TELL incredibly poorly (listened to it once on the radio without a libretto) and so I'll take your word on that! Now, who can get a foothold on the others? There are some K2s mixed in with a few Primrose Hills there, so we ought to see a few flags on summits fairly shortly! (The topic of the Witches Sabbath in MLADA has come up here and on TOP so frequently of late that I didn't bother to include it - but it's another popular operatic "peak" that we can now eliminate from our enquiries). Would the episode of the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains in VW's The Pilgrim's Progress count? Oh, go on then - how could I refuse? 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;
A fine answer indeed! And it will do for the gent making the Goodbye-Mr-Chips-like ascent of the Matterhorn, so full marks. But we have two composers climbing glaciers to find, by strange happenstance. Can anyone get the other? By way of a clue - he finds a stranded soprano at the top of a crevasse when he gets there, and by Act Two she's already in rehearsals for his new opera. |
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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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Don Basilio
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« Reply #1036 on: 10:45:16, 26-09-2008 » |
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Well, it's not really an opera, but Fraser Simpson's The Maid of the Mountains (Love will find a way, A bachelor gay am I) ought to have a look in.
And the female chorus in Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance assert they are climbing over rocky mountains, although they are only going for a paddle on a Cornish beach.
And while I'm in operetta/musical mode, The White Horse Inn is set in the Tyrol (where waitresses still regularly wear dirndls.)
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #1037 on: 11:02:14, 26-09-2008 » |
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# And yet another has lost her goat (now that one's easy...)
Meyerbeer's ill-fated attempt at a pastoral opera, Dinorah, perhaps? Dinorah falls into a raging torrent and is swept away, after chasing her pet goat which has run away during a mountain storm? |
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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 #1038 on: 23:59:31, 26-09-2008 » |
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Another mountainous setting would be the opera from which I've just returned - Puccini's La fanciulla del West. I enjoyed this much more than the other time I saw it many years ago in a WNO production. The ROH show is very fine - great sets and the minor characters are all so finely drawn that it's a great ensemble piece in many ways.
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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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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #1039 on: 16:58:43, 27-09-2008 » |
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More mountains:
Handel's Acis and Galatea takes place ‘near Mount Etna’.
Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah is set in ‘the mountains of Tennessee’.
Showing a scant regard for geography, Donizetti’s Emilia di Liverpool is set 'among the alpine valleys and mountains of the city'!
Act I of Jenůfa takes place at a ‘lonely mill in the mountains’.
Act III of Martinů’s Julietta takes place in a hut on Mount Parragia.
Act II Scene ii of Verdi’s I Lombardi takes place in Pagano’s cave on a mountain overlooking Antioch. The Mount of Olives is in the distance for Act III.
Ernani opens in the bandits’ camp in the mountains of Aragon.
Luisa Miller is another opera set in the Austrian Tyrol.
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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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Don Basilio
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« Reply #1040 on: 17:26:13, 27-09-2008 » |
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And since Manrico and Azucena sing that they will return Ai nostri monti, presumably Act 2 Scene 1 of Il trovatore takes place in mountains. Or, since the entire cast of Trovatore , and Azucena in particular, are completely off their trolley, maybe they are just imagining it.
And back to musicals set in Austria, let me be the first to mention The Sound of Music on this thread, and Climb Ev'ry Mountain.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #1041 on: 17:36:14, 27-09-2008 » |
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Die Zauberflote begins in a wooded mountain pass.
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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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HtoHe
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« Reply #1042 on: 18:00:07, 27-09-2008 » |
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I'm reminded of the discussion we had at New Year where it transpired that the Liverpool of Emilia di Liverpool was, in Donizetti's mind, located in the mountains just north of London. Could these be the completely fictitious montains Reiner is looking for?
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #1043 on: 18:05:38, 27-09-2008 » |
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The Mount of Olives is in the distance for Act III.
Having been there, I can confirm that the Mount of Olives is considerably less vertiginous than Primrose Hill. |
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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harpy128
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« Reply #1044 on: 18:32:59, 27-09-2008 » |
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The climax of Judith Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera takes place on top of a mountain. (Guess I'm the only Weir fan here?  ) Also in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo the chorus keep urging one another "Lasciate i monti" so I guess some of them must be up mountains. By the way I went to La Calisto (v enjoyable) today and discovered another operatic shepherd, Endymion - don't think we had him? |
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martle
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« Reply #1045 on: 19:18:18, 27-09-2008 » |
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The climax of Judith Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera takes place on top of a mountain. (Guess I'm the only Weir fan here? ) Not at all, harpy! I think you'll find quite a few others. I've forgotten about the detail of NatCO plot it's so long since I heard it, but I'm generally very admiring of her work. Sorry, back to the quiz. |
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Green. Always green.
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harpy128
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« Reply #1046 on: 20:17:06, 27-09-2008 » |
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Oh good Thanks, martle. Oedipus Rex was abandoned on a mountainside as a baby, and adopted by a shepherd. (Can I claim double points for that?) |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #1047 on: 21:09:19, 27-09-2008 » |
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I only know La Calisto from the legendary (and reviled) Leppard version with Dame Janet being saucily sapphic. I'm sure there's a mountain there somewhere - either Endimione and Diana have their chaste tryst (the best and most intensive of trysts to my mind, cf Tristan) on a mountain top, or Giove, the randy old thing, impresses Calisto (but she is easily impressed silly girl, isn't she?) by making a spring burst forth on some mountain side.
Incidentally, I believe the most recent HIP recording had Giove disguised as Diana being sung by the bass Giove in falsetto, rather than by the singer of Diana. Men will go to any lengths to kid themselves that women can be perfectly content without them doing a thing other than washing the car.
I do hope the mezzo sang both Diana and Giove disguised as Diana. The whole thing falls down otherwise.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #1048 on: 21:59:45, 27-09-2008 » |
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I do hope the mezzo sang both Diana and Giove disguised as Diana. The whole thing falls down otherwise.
No, they did it the other way, I'm afraid... |
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Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1049 on: 23:34:55, 27-09-2008 » |
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I'm reminded of the discussion we had at New Year where it transpired that the Liverpool of Emilia di Liverpool was, in Donizetti's mind, located in the mountains just north of London. Could these be the completely fictitious montains Reiner is looking for?
The self-same ones, HtoHe - pat on the back for that! Has anyone been to the ROH Calisto, and would I like it? I'm in London this week. Meantime, we are still chasing our other fictional mountaineering composer and his glacial sweetheart, anyone?? |
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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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