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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #990 on: 12:31:17, 08-09-2008 » |
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If we include operas where the angel is really the devil, Prokofiev's Fiery Angel is a good starting point.
Other angelic interventions include the voice from Heaven (very distant, as the libretto says with probably unconscious irony) at the end of the Auto-da-fe scene in Don Carlos, and the heavenly voice at the end of Act 1 of Parsifal.
There is a chorus of angels in Giovanna d'Arco who respond to the chorus of demons tempting Giovanna to go astray; and I think there is an angelic chorus in the Prologo to Mefistofele.
Are the Three Shining Ones in the Pilgrim's Progress angels?
(How far divine intervention in operas on pagan classical themes is allowed must be a moot point - I am assuming that pagan Deae ex machinae are off the agenda).
Edit: Sorry - Deae ex machinis. ex takes the ablative, of course.
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« Last Edit: 13:35:21, 08-09-2008 by perfect wagnerite »
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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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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #991 on: 13:18:04, 08-09-2008 » |
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In Gounod's Faust, there's the celestial choir of "anges pures, anges radieux" who declare Marguerite "sauvée" at the end of her little exchange with Méphistophélès in which the successful method of getting rid of him seems to involve singing the same tune higher and higher until he gives up  |
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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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harpy128
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« Reply #992 on: 13:45:03, 08-09-2008 » |
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How about a character in a Rossini opera who may be an angel in disguise (judging by his name)? And a (usually) disembodied divine voice - pagan - in a Britten opera?
Edited again to remove the Parsifal one we've already had.
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« Last Edit: 13:49:24, 08-09-2008 by harpy128 »
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #993 on: 13:58:42, 08-09-2008 » |
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Is the Britten one Apollo in Death in Venice, harpy?  I'm not sure I know where to draw the line when it comes to identifying non-Judaeo-Christian "angels". |
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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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Don Basilio
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« Reply #994 on: 14:01:49, 08-09-2008 » |
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Voice of Apollo in Death in Venice is disembodied, although I remember now the cherubic Iestyn Davies wandering around the beach of the Lido in smart casual wear at the ENO last year. (So, that's where I've seen him before Belshazzar at the proms.)
Rossini angels, hum. I will not look up a reference book, I will not...
Norina in Don Pasquale's USP is that she is supposed to be pura come un angelo, as is Alfredo's sister in La traviata.
PS Just seen Ruth.
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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 #995 on: 14:08:15, 08-09-2008 » |
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Norina in Don Pasquale's USP is that she is supposed to be pura come un angelo, as is Alfredo's sister in La traviata.
And the Dutchman sings to Senta, "Du bist ein Engel", and Tannhauser sings that an angel has prayed for him just after Elisabeth calls off the Wartburg knights from killing Tannhauser after he opened his big mouth about his years of depravity in the Venusberg ... But surely just calling someone an angel doesn't count ... |
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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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harpy128
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« Reply #996 on: 14:10:33, 08-09-2008 » |
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The Rossini one might be hard to find in a reference book, but the ROH production of the work in question makes the pun in his name rather obvious.
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #997 on: 14:11:42, 08-09-2008 » |
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Ah! Alidoro (in Cenerentola). Which presumably just means "golden wings".
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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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Don Basilio
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« Reply #998 on: 14:13:44, 08-09-2008 » |
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But surely just calling someone an angel doesn't count ...
Yes, I know that, but my fingers just got carried away on the keyboard. |
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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 #999 on: 14:14:34, 08-09-2008 » |
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Yes, Alidoro could be a fairy rather than an angel  |
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1000 on: 16:34:56, 08-09-2008 » |
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And the Dutchman sings to Senta, "Du bist ein Engel", and Tannhauser sings that an angel has prayed for him just after Elisabeth calls off the Wartburg knights from killing Tannhauser after he opened his big mouth about his years of depravity in the Venusberg ...
But surely just calling someone an angel doesn't count ...
But if it does count, then Aljeja sings to Goryanchikov "Ty angel moy!" right at the end of HotD. |
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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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Ron Dough
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« Reply #1001 on: 18:00:05, 08-09-2008 » |
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More more-or-less disembodied voices in Britten: the angel who joins Ananias, Azarius and Misael in the eponymous Burning Fiery Furnace with those wonderful stepwise resolutions of the organum chords of the other three: the voice of God himself in Noye's Fludde, and a spirit rather than an angel in the voice of the Madwoman's dead son in Curlew River.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1002 on: 22:16:57, 08-09-2008 » |
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Ferneyhough's SHADOWTIME includes the Angel Of History.
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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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harpy128
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« Reply #1003 on: 22:42:34, 08-09-2008 » |
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Perhaps we could count Saint Francois twice as, besides the angel, the chorus represents the voice of god. I don't think The Burning Fiery Furnace is technically an opera so maybe that's a Sign that we should go on to oratorios?  |
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HtoHe
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« Reply #1004 on: 23:19:44, 08-09-2008 » |
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For some Germanic operatic angels:
Hansel and Gretel (or is that a Sandman?)
A Sandman and a Dew Fairy appear and sing, Don B; one before sleep, the other afterwards. No fewer than fourteen angels are invoked in the children's evening prayer and they usually appear as the Dream Pantomime music is played but they don't have any words. However, the libretto in one of my recordings is pretty definitive: Suddenly a bright light from above penetrates the mist, which draws itself together like a cloud and assumes the shape of a flight of stairs coming down the centre of the stage. The light grows brighter as two small angels appear and descend the stairs followed at intervals by six more pairs, each taller than the last.... Whether or not these are the original stage directions I can't say for sure, but I suspect they are. I've certainly seen productions more or less along those lines in German opera houses at Christmas. |
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