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Reiner Torheit
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« on: 11:33:25, 08-09-2008 » |
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A rather general overview in The Washington Post, and citing some well-furrowed examples - but even so, it broaches the topic of writing operas about "new" kinds of stories and events... which seems worth discussing  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/05/AR2008090501039.html |
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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 #1 on: 11:53:18, 08-09-2008 » |
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I would have thought basing a work on the Bhagavad-Gita is a bit like basing a work on the gospel of St John (not but what Bach made a success of that.) Lots of discourse, not much action.
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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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pim_derks
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« Reply #2 on: 13:19:00, 08-09-2008 » |
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Perhaps this thread is not the best place for this comment but I would love to see an opera based on this wonderful book:  Castafiore should sing out of tune, naturally, and Thomson should sing in a twelve tone row, closely followed by Thompson singing the same row in reverse order. The music should be funny and light, a bit like The Rake's Progress or Der Junge Lord. Lovely! |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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Ruby2
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« Reply #3 on: 13:30:32, 08-09-2008 » |
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Amy Winehouse.  |
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #4 on: 23:57:23, 08-09-2008 » |
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Amy Winehouse.
An unfinished story, surely? But how about Janis Joplin? (Particularly since Lisa Milne does such a passable impression.) Seriously, with all due deference, I think they're asking the wrong question. I don't give half so much of a stuff concerning what any opera is about as I do how the creators and performers go about it. The best subject ever is worth next to nothing if the possibilities of music and staging aren't exploited to its benefit, though there's little point in asking an opera to do what other genres could do better. I'd hope that an opera nowadays would be more than a musical with serious music: that it might reveal some basic truths yet pose intriguing questions that reverberate long after: that it holds the senses and emotions ransom, and leaves them subtly but irreversibly altered: that it exalts or lowers its audience to a level they've not experienced before. Not a comfortable corporate event, but a riveting personal experience. |
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martle
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« Reply #5 on: 12:51:44, 09-09-2008 » |
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I'd hope that an opera nowadays would be more than a musical with serious music: that it might reveal some basic truths yet pose intriguing questions that reverberate long after: that it holds the senses and emotions ransom, and leaves them subtly but irreversibly altered: that it exalts or lowers its audience to a level they've not experienced before. Not a comfortable corporate event, but a riveting personal experience.
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Green. Always green.
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George Garnett
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« Reply #6 on: 12:59:14, 09-09-2008 » |
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Could we perhaps just slip in 'and communal' after 'individual' before the draft goes to plenary for approval?
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richard barrett
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« Reply #7 on: 13:27:33, 09-09-2008 » |
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Could we perhaps just slip in 'and communal' after 'individual' before the draft goes to plenary for approval?
Very good, Mr G. |
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #8 on: 13:42:25, 09-09-2008 » |
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On a point of order, where is this individual?
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martle
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« Reply #9 on: 13:43:50, 09-09-2008 » |
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I'd bet my best composing pencil that George meant 'personal', Ron.
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Green. Always green.
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George Garnett
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« Reply #10 on: 14:09:42, 09-09-2008 » |
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'Personal/individual', 'behind conductor/behind orchestra', 'concert orchestra layout/pit orchestra layout' ... it's been a difficult day.
Yes indeed, martle. You are a kind individual person.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #11 on: 14:15:14, 09-09-2008 » |
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Personal and communal. Yes, that's an improvement: thank you, George.
(Marty, you have a pencil that composes? Would that be HB or BB?)
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richard barrett
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« Reply #12 on: 14:17:17, 09-09-2008 » |
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(Marty, you have a pencil that composes? Would that be HB or BB?)
Harrison Birtwistle or Bix Beiderbecke? |
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time_is_now
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« Reply #13 on: 14:18:24, 09-09-2008 » |
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exalts or lowers its audience I like that. |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #14 on: 14:24:02, 09-09-2008 » |
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(Marty, you have a pencil that composes? Would that be HB or BB?)
Harrison Birtwistle or Bix Beiderbecke? It was another BB I had in mind, r, although he's less likely to cross your mind. |
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