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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #90 on: 12:16:37, 16-04-2008 » |
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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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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #91 on: 12:28:56, 16-04-2008 » |
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And one from the Guardian: http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/operalivereviews/story/0,,2273880,00.htmlAs you can see, the country's principal liberal newspaper generously gives up a whole five paragraphs to this major musical event  |
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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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...trj...
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« Reply #92 on: 12:32:48, 16-04-2008 » |
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Not enough Amypete Winocherty for the tastes of the Groanydad's music editors.  But respect is due to Fiona Maddocks for this: In the lead-up to this long-awaited premiere, on the Today programme and elsewhere, there have been well-intentioned attempts to pretend Birtwistle’s music is really no harder than a night out at Chicago or Billy Elliot if only you put your mind to the matter.
This is disingenuous. Complex? Yes. Difficult? Damned difficult. Birtwistle demands every ounce of your attention, urges you to use your full listening brain to detect the rich layers, poignant details or noisy mayhem of his score, his most voluptuous yet. |
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« Last Edit: 12:36:39, 16-04-2008 by ...trj... »
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #93 on: 12:33:14, 16-04-2008 » |
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Aaargh! I see I'm going to be swimming against the tide here. I'm supposed to be reviewing this... and I didn't really get on with it very well  I would agree that the central performances were extremely strong, and the music was sometimes quite mesmerising, however I felt the piece was sluggishly paced (my companion thought it could have been done in a single act, which is unfair IMHO – I’d certainly have cut each act down by about a third.) I also thought the killings were very clumsily staged. I want to see people being convincingly gored/stabbed, rather than barely touched and then running offstage to grab a handful of fake blood with which to convince us they were mortally wounded. When Theseus was about to kill the Minotaur, all possible tension went out of the fight when Theseus went offstage for the fake blood! I found that my dislike of the production overshadowed my impressions of the piece itself. I’m doing a review for OT, so not going into too much detail at this juncture... P.S. Do we have any resident Ancient Greek experts who can enlighten me as to what the heck "Io dike phaneithai" means? |
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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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martle
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« Reply #94 on: 12:43:13, 16-04-2008 » |
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Despite Ruth's qualms about the production, it seems clear even at this relatively early juncture that we're looking at another Birtwistle triumph, both critically and in terms of 'popular' acclaim. It's hard to think of any other 'difficult' composers for whom this could be said - although, is HB's phenomenal success exclusively confined to the operatic cogniscenti/ new music crowd, I wonder (the former understanding his absolute mastery of the demands of musical theatre at least, the latter his compositional brilliance per se)...
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Green. Always green.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #95 on: 12:43:54, 16-04-2008 » |
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Hm. I certainly had my own reservations about which more anon but the convincingness of the gory bits wasn't one of them. I wonder how many operatic demises have really featured convincing splatter? I wouldn't necessarily nail my colours to the mast for the solution they adopted but if not at all realistic it was at least appropriately ritualistic and didn't stretch disbelief too far for me.
Certainly in the slaughter of the various innocents I had a bit of a problem with the pacing - it did seem to me as though the length of those sections was determined not so much by dramatic or musical considerations as by the need to make sure everyone got dispatched. And I do agree with the Evening Standard's reviewer about the Keres.
Ruth, I suppose I see what you mean about tension in the Theseus/Minotaur showdown - still, no one really expected the Minotaur to win did they? (Oops, sorry to give it away if someone did.) And that certainly throws the focus on the Minotaur's last scene where it belongs...
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #96 on: 12:46:33, 16-04-2008 » |
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But even though everybody knows Theseus wins, it would have been a lot more engaging if the audience hadn't been given a great big clue as to exactly WHEN he was going to win... Looked like the world's least complicated labyrinth ever constructed, too. If you can find your way in that easily, you don't need a ball of red string to find your way out again...  |
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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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...trj...
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« Reply #97 on: 12:53:16, 16-04-2008 » |
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« Last Edit: 13:17:57, 16-04-2008 by ...trj... »
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #98 on: 13:58:37, 16-04-2008 » |
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But even though everybody knows Theseus wins, it would have been a lot more engaging if the audience hadn't been given a great big clue as to exactly WHEN he was going to win... Actually the moment it became clear to me had nothing to do with swords and blood and the like. It was the moment the Minotaur saw that Theseus wasn't a young and gorgeous creature like all the ones he'd slaked his various lusts on up to that point. (You saw him recoil on seeing Theseus' face I trust.) Now that was a striking thought: he could only slaughter innocent beauty and confronted by someone who couldn't get those juices flowing for him he was a bit of a wuss. |
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #99 on: 14:04:47, 16-04-2008 » |
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I did think one of the most powerful moments was when, locked in combat, Theseus and the Minotaur seemed to become aware of the equality between them.
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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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Ron Dough
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« Reply #100 on: 15:25:36, 16-04-2008 » |
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(Oh, and I've just seen from that last link that "It will be on radio and TV".
That being the case, it would make a nice partner for Gawain, which I'm sure nearly everybody here has got by now, (though Ruth and IGI might like to PM me if no one's passed it on....) |
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harpy128
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« Reply #101 on: 20:45:27, 16-04-2008 » |
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P.S. Do we have any resident Ancient Greek experts who can enlighten me as to what the heck "Io dike phaneithai" means?
Not an expert and my lexicon is buried under a pile of opera CDs but I think the "dike phaneithai" bit sounds as if it means justice is done, or possibly let justice be done? Not sure where Io comes into it though - again. Am quite looking forward to it even though I need to hear Birtwistle stuff several times to "get" it. I like the idea of a Minotaur-centric approach to the story. |
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harpy128
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« Reply #102 on: 00:57:30, 17-04-2008 » |
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"justice is revealed" rather than "is done" I think...but it's rustier than the Titanic (assuming that's very rusty indeed) :-/
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #103 on: 10:22:11, 17-04-2008 » |
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Thanks, harpy! That makes sense. It is chanted repeatedly by Theseus as he makes his way through the Labyrinth. There is quite a bit of Ancient Greek text used in the libretto, but the surtitles just give it verbatim, rather than translating it! It's even quoted in the programme, again without translation, as if to say either that the audience is expected to know Ancient Greek, or that it isn't meant to be understood by the majority  |
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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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oliver sudden
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« Reply #104 on: 10:41:30, 17-04-2008 » |
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as if to say either that the audience is expected to know Ancient Greek, or that it isn't meant to be understood by the majority ...just for me, since so much of the piece has to do with language, articulacy, communication and the like I didn't find it the slightest problem that some of the text component was out of reach. If anything more appropriate for me than having themes like that flung about while the audience sits up there omnisciently. |
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