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martle
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« Reply #780 on: 20:45:09, 29-07-2008 » |
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I have been curious for a while to know whether the particular representations of underpants in that opera was in any sense inspired by the then Prime Minister?
No, Ian. In fact, underpants do not feature in the score or libretto, only in the deluded mind of its only producer.  |
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Green. Always green.
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BobbyZ
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« Reply #781 on: 22:05:18, 29-07-2008 » |
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Are we on spaceships now or can other means of transport still be mentioned ? If so, the innocents arrive by ship in The Minotaur.
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Dreams, schemes and themes
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #782 on: 22:10:04, 29-07-2008 » |
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Would the other British one be Tippett's New Year?
Good call, George. Is the German work Stockhausen's Sirius? Spot on George. It is Stockhausen, but I was thinking more of Michael's journey back to heaven at the end of Donnerstag (that does involve a spaceship doesn't it?). I think that Sirius is usually referred to as sort of an oratorio. Are we on spaceships now
I'm not. The last one I got on was a mistake. |
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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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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #783 on: 22:24:26, 29-07-2008 » |
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There's one in Martin Butler's neglected masterpiece, Craig's Progress.
And a fine spaceship voyage it is, too! One of just 265 scene-changes required by Pruslin's "wide-ranging" libretto  only in the deluded mind of its only producer. Tautology - all producers have deluded minds  |
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« Last Edit: 22:26:41, 29-07-2008 by Reiner Torheit »
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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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martle
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« Reply #784 on: 22:29:10, 29-07-2008 » |
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Reiner,   |
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Green. Always green.
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #785 on: 23:43:28, 29-07-2008 » |
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As I was waxing lyrical earlier on about exciting horseback journeys, who could forget - not strictly in an opera, but given that it's fairly often staged by opera companies I think the inclusion is justified - the Ride to the Abyss from The Damnation of Faust?
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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 #786 on: 23:51:37, 29-07-2008 » |
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Although I don't know a note of RATSUMIES ("THE HORSEMAN") - Aulis Salinen's political allegory about the mythical founding of Finland a mere thousand years before it really happened - I presume that it's about, ehem, a horseman |
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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 #787 on: 00:35:27, 30-07-2008 » |
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In Strauss' Arabella, Count Elemer arrives by sleigh.
In Berlioz's Les Troyens, in the Royal Hunt and Storm episode Ascanius and some Carthaginian hunters pass by on horseback.
At the end of Giordano's Andrea Chenier, Chenier and Maddalena di Coigny ride off to the guillotine in a tumbril.
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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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oliver sudden
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« Reply #788 on: 07:08:40, 30-07-2008 » |
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Although I don't know a note of RATSUMIES ("THE HORSEMAN") - Aulis Salinen's political allegory about the mythical founding of Finland a mere thousand years before it really happened - I presume that it's about, ehem, a horseman I did hear someone say that it was actually about a poor chap who failed the Vocal Endurance segment of the initiation test for one of those Finnish shouting choirs, but someone may have been having me on. |
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #789 on: 04:56:27, 05-08-2008 » |
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By plane... well, I can think of an arrival by plane (Nixon in China) and a long-awaited Flight which presumably eventually takes place after the final curtain, but I can't think of an actual operatic plane journey.
Sorry to come to this so late, but isn't there some plane journey in a Krenek opera? Grr/hmm |
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #790 on: 23:07:59, 05-08-2008 » |
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With the start of the Olympics only days away, tell us about operatic sporting contests/ settings.
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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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Lady_DoverHyphenSole
Gender: 
Posts: 63
Warning: armed with a stout hatpin or two!
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« Reply #791 on: 23:17:30, 05-08-2008 » |
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Well, I'm certain the Wagnerian squad could bag enough gold (Rhinemaidens for swimming, the Valkyries for equestrian, Parsifal for archery) to hide Freia well enough to let us all go home four days early  Then there's the shooting contest in Der Freischutz. Isn't The Silver Tassie based around an Association Football match? |
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RuthElleson: "Lady_DHS is one of the battiest people I know"
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HtoHe
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« Reply #792 on: 23:54:49, 05-08-2008 » |
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Isn't The Silver Tassie based around an Association Football match?
I assumed it was Gaelic rules but I wouldn't want to bet on it Lady_D. There's a rather tragic boxing match in Mahagonny |
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #793 on: 03:32:29, 06-08-2008 » |
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A very, very late entry for "operas with essential-to-the-action ballets".. ARIODANTE. I don't know why I forgot it before?! The ballets have been "welded" into the score and can't be cut because the action runs through them. For example, you can't cut the Act II finale ballet (Ginevra's nightmare) because (a) it concludes the Act and runs into the curtain... almost certainly a production would performs Acts I & II together and then take an interval, but moreover (b) you can't cut the ballet because right at the end of it Ginevra wakes up and sings six bars of accompanied recitative in F# minor (one of the most unusual and disturbing ends to an act in any of Handel's operas). The final ballet of rejoicing at the wedding of Ariodante & Ginevra is also pretty-much "unremovable" from the musical score. Handel introduced this French-style approach to opera ballet in the hope of seeing-off the competition from the Senesino-led company of competitors (aka "The Opera Of The Nobility", although it never held that title in fact). Sadly it was all in vain - the public didn't want Handel's reformed version of opera seria, and ARIODANTE crashed and burned - it was a flop.
Meanwhile, sporting challenges...
TANCREDI E CLORINDA is set on the eve of the Tournament, but Tancredi & Clorinda accidentally meet at the roadside by night on the way there.
My memory of RIENZI is a bit sketchy these days, but doesn't Rienzi sponsor Games at the end of Act II as a means of buying public support? (Legendarily done as a "Triumph Of The Will" style Nazi rally in the Hytner ENO production)
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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 #794 on: 14:03:14, 06-08-2008 » |
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There's bow bending in Monteverdi's Ulisses.
And Act 1 of Death in Venice ends with the Games of Apollo.
Archery comptetion in Rossini's Tell.
I always preferred opera to games.
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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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