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Swan_Knight
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« on: 14:27:41, 25-09-2007 » |
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This arrived in the post today. Haven't listened to it yet, but I've heard it described as the most 'calorific' opera ever written.
Any truth in this, those who know it?
I think I'm probably going to like it....but will it be a guilty pleasure?
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...so flatterten lachend die Locken....
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #1 on: 15:10:26, 25-09-2007 » |
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I've only heard an aria from it which was performed by Renee Fleming this year at the Proms. That was certainly calorific - but marvellously rich and sweeping.
There has been some discussion of it in tOP but I can't find it, otherwise I'd have inserted a link.
I've got my ticket for the RFH performance!
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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 #2 on: 15:25:24, 25-09-2007 » |
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Of Korngold's three completed operas, HELIANE is probably the least-known. I frankly know only one excerpt, "Ich ging zu" - which Heliane sings in her defence at her trial, when she is accused by her jealous royal spouse of cuckolding him with a stranger (an offence that's especially grievous to him, since she has never consumated her marriage to him). The piece is from 1927, the same year as the extraordinary JONNY SPIELT AUF. For some bizarre reason Korngold's father, the musicologist Julius Korngold, began conducting a hate-campaign against JONNY and its composer, apparently believing his son's work would somehow shine more brightly as a result? (There were certainly themes in JONNY that the Nazis would have had a picnic with - the idea of a jazzband negro violinist having a greater "right" to the Amati violin than its rightful owner?) By some ghastly miscalculation he went to the Nazis to inveigh against Krenek's work... although the result was to bring the wrath of the Reich down upon both pieces (and their composers). Neoclassical infidelity was obviously 1927's hit topic, because OEDIPUS REX dates from the same year as HELIANE. To a certain degree it's possible to say that HELIANE was composed as a vehicle for the Berlin star soprano of the epoch, Lotte Lehmann, who sang the premiere. There's something highly dekadant about the stranger having a Sacher-Masoch-type fetish for the Empress's feet  |
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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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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #3 on: 00:41:59, 03-10-2007 » |
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There has been some discussion of it in tOP but I can't find it, otherwise I'd have inserted a link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio3/F7497567?thread=4574795 |
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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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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #4 on: 09:33:44, 21-11-2007 » |
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Hurrah, the LPO performance is today!
Anybody going?
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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 #5 on: 12:22:10, 22-11-2007 » |
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Yes, I did. Did you enjoy it, Ruth?
Excellent in parts, I thought. Not feeling as eager to see it staged as I was after listening to it on CD, but there's probably nothing wrong with it that a completely new libretto wouldn't cure.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #6 on: 13:06:24, 22-11-2007 » |
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probably nothing wrong with it that a completely new libretto wouldn't cure.
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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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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #7 on: 13:59:03, 22-11-2007 » |
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Ah yes, the libretto. I think I have a new favourite surtitle of all time: "Take this girdle, white as your breast, and strangle me" I loved the orchestral playing; I loved the chorus; I loved Patricia Racette though I found her big number a bit shrill. The fantasy setting and musical style reminded me strongly of "Die Frau ohne Schatten", though there are lots of other Straussian and Wagnerian influences in the score (towards the end the tinkly celesta coming in on the second half of every phrase was too Rosenkavalier for words). I did not love the opera. I liked it, and I would not have missed it, but sometimes it was just too silly. Musically it is very densely scored, and it was a mistake to put the soloists behind the orchestra (perhaps it sounded great from the balcony and/or rear stalls, but I was in the side stalls and a number of my friends and acquaintances were in the front stalls, and from there it was really difficult to hear the singing. The other big mistake was the casting of Andreas Schmidt as the Ruler - tremulous tone, dodgy tuning, weird gestures. I really enjoyed the first half of the last act, which was musically very powerful. |
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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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Lobby
Gender: 
Posts: 15
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« Reply #8 on: 14:43:09, 22-11-2007 » |
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Ruth,
I'd agree with most of what you said.
Most of the soloists were no more audible from the rear stalls and I too think it was a mistake to place them behind the orchestra. The one exception was Willard White who came over so strongly that, after his first phrase in the first Act, I started to wonder if the soloists were being amplified. As soon as the others started singing I quickly realised they weren't.
I also think you're being too kind to Andreas Schmidt, who was jaw-droppingly bad and gave the second worst performance in a professional opera production I have ever heard (for those who are interested, the worst was from the basque tenor Peyo Garrazi when Covent Garden presented Don Carlo in French for the first time).
Jon
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"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever."
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ulrica
Posts: 43
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« Reply #9 on: 17:04:13, 22-11-2007 » |
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Ruth
As you know, I've posted my remarks in the other place, so won't repeat them here, save that (re Andreas Schmidt's 'weird gestures') that I thought he'd perhaps envisaged the Ruler as Dr Evil in the Austin Powers movies. I can't otherwise explain why he spent so much time with his left hand near his mouth. Poor chap though: he really seems to have lost it vocally.
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #10 on: 21:55:22, 22-11-2007 » |
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Does anyone know whether this will be broadcast? the worst was from the basque tenor Peyo Garrazi when Covent Garden presented Don Carlo in French for the first time).
I'd forgotten about him, but now you remind me I remember exactly what you mean. I shall now spend the next couple of hours racking my brains for the name of the tenor who, at about the same time, replaced Carerras at the ROH after he withdrew from Trovatore, and who was not only grotesquely overparted but seriously under-rehearsed and, after cracking his top C and brandishing his sword at the end of Di Quella Pira, missed the archway through which he was about to make his dramatic exit and ran smack into the scenery .... Carlo Bini?  |
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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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George Garnett
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« Reply #11 on: 08:55:29, 23-11-2007 » |
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This was billed as Robert Tear's last ever public performance wasn't it? Was anything made of that?
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #12 on: 09:55:10, 23-11-2007 » |
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This was billed as Robert Tear's last ever public performance wasn't it? Was anything made of that?
Nothing whatsoever. In fact, your post is the first I'd heard of it... |
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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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ulrica
Posts: 43
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« Reply #13 on: 10:05:11, 23-11-2007 » |
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There's nothing on Tear's page on the Askonas Holt website to suggest that he's retiring (or now retired), and it's up-to-date: it mentions that he has sung in Das Wunder at the RFH. I hope he isn't retiring just yet, as on the evidence of Wednesday he still has a lot to offer. (I was sitting in front of what appeared to be his fan club!)
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