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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #255 on: 22:07:50, 30-03-2008 » |
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Are we ruling out Alberich (twice) and Fafner in 'Das Rheingold' for being too obvious, or have I misunderstood the question, IGI?
No, Alberich's transformations into serpent and toad were one of the ones I was thinking of earlier, plus Fafner, although the actual transformation doesn't need to be solved by the director as it happens between operas, doesn't it. We may need to seek a linesman's decision on this one but Shostakovich's The Nose might just be a contender? If the decision goes against me here I'll keep it up my sleeve for the fissiparousness round.
Probably a no to that one, GG. An obvious Wagnerian transformation occurs in Lohengrin: Gottfried, Elsa's brother, is transformed into a swan by Ortrud, fetches up pulling Lohengrin's boat, and is transformed back into a man before Lohengrin departs (a passing dove having been roped in - literally - to pull Lohengrin's boat back to Monsalvat).
A temporary Straussian metamorphosis occurs in Die Frau ohne Schatten, in which the Emperor is nearly turned into stone in Act III, until the Empress renounces her quest for a shadow.
Indeed, pw. Can you think of another swan transformation? It's in an opera where there's another, more famous, human-animal transformation episode. |
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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 #256 on: 22:10:50, 30-03-2008 » |
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OK, not swans, and I don't know it, but Humperdinck's Konigskinder?
Isn't there some work based on W B Yeats with swans?
(Late at night and dined well, passim.)
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« Last Edit: 22:26:02, 30-03-2008 by Don Basilio »
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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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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #257 on: 22:12:27, 30-03-2008 » |
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In ORPHEE AUX ENFERS, Pluto transforms himself into a fly (at Cupid's suggestion) so that he can get through the keyhole of Eurydice's room.
The SNOWMAIDEN is transformed into a real live girl, and back again, within the space of the opera (and the end of which she melts). RUSALKA does the same trick, only starting and finishing as a mermaid (or not, if you're David Pountney).
In topsy-turveydom, the members of the House Of Peers all turn into Fairies at the end, and the Pirates of Penzance all turn out to have been "noblemen who have gone astray" and mutate into the landed gentry at the end.
The heroine of CALISTO is turned into a bear by the Furies - but Jupiter rights this wrong, and subsequently turns her into a star in the apotheosis.
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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 #258 on: 22:27:17, 30-03-2008 » |
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In Monteverdi's Ulisse, the kind people who have taken him back to Ithaca are all turned into rocks by an angry god/ess
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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 #259 on: 22:32:07, 30-03-2008 » |
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In Monteverdi's Ulisse, the kind people who have taken him back to Ithaca are all turned into rocks by an angry god/ess
By Neptune, no less - I can't remember what they had done to deserve this. |
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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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Don Basilio
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« Reply #260 on: 22:36:13, 30-03-2008 » |
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They brought Odyessus home and Poseidon couldn't stand his guts.
(Note pseud Greek usage. If tinners helped me out I could manage 75% in Greek letters.)
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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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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #261 on: 22:37:25, 30-03-2008 » |
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In Monteverdi's Ulisse, the kind people who have taken him back to Ithaca are all turned into rocks by an angry god/ess
By Neptune, no less - I can't remember what they had done to deserve this. Isn't it just that they took him back to Ithaca? The Odyssey is, after all the story of Neptune's tormenting of Odysseus after his blinding of his son Polyphemus. Oh yes - Don Basilio got there before me. |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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George Garnett
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« Reply #262 on: 22:46:10, 30-03-2008 » |
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Can you think of another swan transformation? Anything to do with Peter Maxwell Davies? |
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George Garnett
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« Reply #264 on: 23:03:56, 30-03-2008 » |
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Aha! Rimsky Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan in which the Prince turns into a bumble bee at one point and the swan turns into a princess(?).
While I'm on, does Rossini: La Cenerentola count? I don't know it but if it doesn't have rats turning into ponies I'd be very disappointed.
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« Last Edit: 12:32:01, 31-03-2008 by George Garnett »
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #265 on: 23:11:31, 30-03-2008 » |
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Aha! Rimsky Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan in which the Prince turns into a bumble bee at one point and the swan turns into a princess (?).
That's the very one, George, or The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son, the Famous and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess Swan to give it Rimsky's full title! The Swan Princess is rescued by Prince Guidon (Tsar Saltan's son, who lives with his mother on an abandoned island) from being killed by a kite. The Swan-Princess in gratitude finds a way to help him: she changes him into a bumblebee so that he can fly over the sea as a stowaway on Saltan's ship to visit him incognito. I have this opera on an mp3 disc from Russia and it contains some simply gorgeous music. I wish for a modern recording, but the days of Gergiev's Russian opera series on Philips seem long gone now.  |
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« Last Edit: 23:26:51, 30-03-2008 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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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #266 on: 23:23:43, 30-03-2008 » |
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While I'm on, does Rossini: La Cenerentola count? I don't know it but if it doesn't have rats turning into ponies I'd be very disappointed.
George, prepare to be disappointed... Are we ruling out Alberich (twice) and Fafner in 'Das Rheingold' for being too obvious, or have I misunderstood the question, IGI?
Surely there's more work for the tarnhelm to do? |
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« Last Edit: 00:08:28, 31-03-2008 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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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #267 on: 00:46:32, 31-03-2008 » |
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Any operatic characters who are turned into rivers or streams?  |
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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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strinasacchi
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« Reply #268 on: 00:47:51, 31-03-2008 » |
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Aren't Handel operas on another thread at the moment?
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #269 on: 00:48:47, 31-03-2008 » |
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Aren't Handel operas on another thread at the moment?
Very true, strina. One character is Handelian, the other is not, but the composer has featured already in answer to the question on transformations... |
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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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