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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #1 on: 14:51:23, 14-05-2007 » |
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Paul Nilon is being billed in the title role - if so, then I would imagine you'd have a very good evening.
The music is fiercesomely difficult to sing, for all the parts... if ENO can pull that off, they will have a fine performance on their hands.
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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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Parsifal1882
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« Reply #2 on: 16:02:07, 14-05-2007 » |
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Will I escape punishment (inquisition or otherwise) if I claim that TITO is superior to the FLUTE?  |
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Il duolo della terra nel chiostro ancor ci segue, solo del cor la guerra in ciel si calmera! E la voce di Carlo! E Carlo Quinto! Mio padre! O ciel!
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richard barrett
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« Reply #3 on: 16:36:01, 14-05-2007 » |
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Will I escape punishment (inquisition or otherwise) if I claim that TITO is superior to the FLUTE? It's a different kind of thing, though, isn't it, being basically an opera seria instead of a Singspiel and therefore representative of a dying genre rather than one which would lead to the flowering of German-language opera in the following century. Having said that I have to add that the Zauberflöte, despite being in some ways quite brilliant, is in others (harmonically, expressively) a bit rudimentary, which is where something like Tito scores over it. That's my two cents' worth anyway. I think Don G, Figaro and Così are better than either. |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #4 on: 17:05:48, 14-05-2007 » |
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Zauberflote isn't like anything else, really, not even other singspiel.
How does Tito compare with Idomeneo in your mind, Richard? I haven't heard it for ages, but my memory is that Titus is such a prig. Vitellia is much more interesting, although I wouldn't want to spend the evening with her. I seem to remember a gorgeous and very sweet duet for the two juvenile leads in Act II, but I may be mistaken.
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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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Tony Watson
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« Reply #5 on: 17:10:57, 14-05-2007 » |
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La Clemenza may not be performed very often now but I think it was performed more often than Cosi Fan Tutte in the 19th century. Mozart's widow did much to promote it, to preserve his memory as a serious composer.
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harpy128
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« Reply #6 on: 17:26:42, 14-05-2007 » |
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That ENO production is quite powerful. Some of the main cast members (including Paul Nilon and Emma Bell) are the same as when they did it a couple of years ago, but Sesto is Alice Coote instead of Sarah Connolly. Should be good.
Hastily edited to add that I don't mean Coote is an improvement over Connolly, but it will be interesting to hear a different interpretation.
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« Last Edit: 17:28:25, 14-05-2007 by harpy128 »
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Parsifal1882
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« Reply #7 on: 17:43:04, 14-05-2007 » |
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I guess many Mozartians tend to convince themselves that the composer's operatic swansong is/should have been the FLUTE, rather than TITO, which they regard as a backward step, simply because it's an opera seria and not as 'symbolic' as the other one.
Of all of Mozart's well-known operas, the least successful is (to my mind) IDOMENEO, gratuitously overlong and not so memorable. It infuriates me to read someone arguing that the Act 3 quartet is 'perhaps the most beautiful ensemble ever composed for the stage'. Having heard the quartet many times in connection with this argument, I still wonder why he has so overrated it.
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Il duolo della terra nel chiostro ancor ci segue, solo del cor la guerra in ciel si calmera! E la voce di Carlo! E Carlo Quinto! Mio padre! O ciel!
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #8 on: 20:37:45, 14-05-2007 » |
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I think it's worth keeping in mind that Mozart would have realised TITO might reasonably have been performed all over Europe, wherever there was an Italian Opera-House (which was pretty-much any substantial city)... whereas FLUTE and his Singspiel works were unlikely to be heard outside Germany and Austria, and perhaps not even that far. Mozart probably couldn't have anticipated the "boom" in German opera that would occur as the C19th opened, which saw his German works performed for a much wider public. FLUTE, after all, was written for a suburban vaudeville theatre with no reputation at all, and for practically no fee at all - largely as a favour to Schikanaeder. The whole thing was rushed-out to cash-in on the success of the rival show, CASPAR DER FAGGOTIST. Its earliest performers were music-hall artistes - the first Pamina was aged 17 when she sang it. TITO, on the other hand, was written for the best singers in Europe... so they're two completely different works indeed  Probably some C18th member of the Lebrecht family was fulminating at the time about Mozart dumbing-down the noble opera seria... I entirely agree, Parsifal - IDOMENEO is musical mogadon, with a libretto so preposterous it could win prizes. |
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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 #9 on: 20:55:30, 14-05-2007 » |
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I entirely agree, Parsifal - IDOMENEO is musical mogadon, with a libretto so preposterous it could win prizes.
Whew, thank goodness to hear that. There was I thinking that my lack of appreciation of Idomeneo was my lack of musicality. Mind you, Elettra is pretty exciting (and completely out to lunch, poor girl)... |
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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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Don Basilio
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« Reply #10 on: 21:18:25, 14-05-2007 » |
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It infuriates me to read someone arguing that the Act 3 quartet is 'perhaps the most beautiful ensemble ever composed for the stage'. Having heard the quartet many times in connection with this argument, I still wonder why he has so overrated it.
I suspect that many commentators, embarrassed at the idea of opera as an excuse for a string of hit solo numbers, leap on any ensembles in C18 musical drama and over-compensate in praise. Any ensemble in Handel is always picked out as evidence of his dramatic sense and freedom from convention. They usually are, but they are quite slight. The weight of his works is his mastery of the conventional forms. Mozart's ensembles are wonderful, of course, whenever Father Da Ponte was producing the words. Any other contenders for "the most beautiful ensemble" prize? |
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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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Tam Pollard
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« Reply #11 on: 21:26:58, 14-05-2007 » |
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In my view the answer depends on how ruthless they are in cutting recitatives (the more so the better in my view, especially since for the most part they weren't written by the man himself, and it shows). Mackerras did it in concert at the festival here in 2005 and it was rather fine (help by the SCO and their superb chorus), which was done just after his DG recording (also worth listening to). Some of the music is very fine indeed (the overture is wonderful) and I certainly prefer it to Idomeneo.
bws
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Tony Watson
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« Reply #12 on: 21:29:52, 14-05-2007 » |
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Its earliest performers were music-hall artistes
The first Queen of the Night must have been some music-hall artiste. |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #13 on: 21:31:34, 14-05-2007 » |
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[
The first Queen of the Night must have been some music-hall artiste.
She was Mozart's sister in law. |
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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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Lord Byron
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« Reply #14 on: 06:07:42, 15-05-2007 » |
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ooooooooooo, defo sounds like I should go,think I will try be in london on a few of the last saturdays and then see if any tickets at the tkts box office, if not, will buy a good seat direct
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