The Radio 3 Boards Forum from myforum365.com
09:20:09, 02-12-2008 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Whilst we happily welcome all genuine applications to our forum, there may be times when we need to suspend registration temporarily, for example when suffering attacks of spam.
 If you want to join us but find that the temporary suspension has been activated, please try again later.
 
   Home   Help Search Login Register  

The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > The Opera House > I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini)
Pages: [1]
« previous next »
  Print  
Author Topic: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini)  (Read 114 times)
JeanHartrick
*
Posts: 41
« on: 09:16:50, 09-11-2008 »
Wonderful to hear the current Opera North production - Bellini is all too rarely performed in this country.

Sarah Connolly was excellent as Romeo.

But isn't it rather late for a trouser role?

(I see there was a very old thread on Bellini's operas but it had gone off topic so I didn't revive it.)
« Last Edit: 09:23:22, 09-11-2008 by JeanHartrick » Logged
Don Basilio
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 2682


Era solo un mio sospetto
« Reply #1 on: 13:46:11, 09-11-2008 »
Quote from: JeanHartrick on 09:16:50, 09-11-2008
But isn't it rather late for a trouser role?

I was pleased to see a poster for this at Derby station yesterday.

By late, I take it you mean that there is not a later example as a lead travesti role until Rosenkavalier?

A generation before Rossini was regularly writing male juvenile leads for women (La donna del largo, Maometto Secondo, Semiramide.)

I'm sure there is one in Donizetti, but I can't for the life of me think of one.

By the time you get to Verdi, travesti roles are only supporting, or at least I can only think of Oscar in Ballo.

Who was Juliet?
Logged
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
JeanHartrick
*
Posts: 41
« Reply #2 on: 14:57:20, 09-11-2008 »
Juliet was Marie Arnet - she was very good too.

I get a bit vague about opera after Verdi, so I didn't even know about Rosenkavalie.

But what was the attraction, anyway?  The interweaving of two voices of similar timbre?  I love Semiramide for that reason.

Or is there as special sort of frisson to be gained from the implications of woman-on-woman sex?
 
Logged
Don Basilio
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 2682


Era solo un mio sospetto
« Reply #3 on: 15:03:18, 09-11-2008 »
Yes, it is interesting isn't it, Jean?

From Monteverdi on it was the convention that a really juvenile male lead was a high voice, certainly up to Idomeneo.

The tenors in Handels' oratorios are a bit older and heavier than juvenile leads.  (Joshua, Jonathan in Saul and Jupiter in Semele are all tenors, but Othniel, David and Athamas are altos.)

I am not aware of the tradition in comic opera -travesti roles a plenty, but for supporting roles.
Logged
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
perfect wagnerite
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 1568
« Reply #4 on: 17:05:01, 09-11-2008 »
Quote from: Don Basilio on 13:46:11, 09-11-2008

I'm sure there is one in Donizetti, but I can't for the life of me think of one.


Maffio Orsini in Anna Bolena, Kobbe confirms.

Quote from: JeanHartrick on 14:57:20, 09-11-2008

Or is there as special sort of frisson to be gained from the implications of woman-on-woman sex?


IIRC, Iris Murdoch seemed to think so (but I can't remember in which novel - I've a feeling the passage has been quoted somewhere on these boards before).  But I think Hofmanstahl and Strauss were making a conscious reference to Cherubino - one of the many deliberate anachronisms in that exasperating and intermittently overwhelming, intermittently tedious work.  But it is almost impossible to imagine Octavian done any other way - somehow, for reasons I can't articulate, a tenor just would have been wrong.
Logged
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)
Don Basilio
*****
Gender: Male
Posts: 2682


Era solo un mio sospetto
« Reply #5 on: 17:20:21, 09-11-2008 »
The Iris Murdoch is The Black Prince, which George Garnett knows well.  Lots of insight on Strauss here.  http://r3ok.myforum365.com/index.php?topic=2882.15

Orsini is a side role, not a love interest, more like Oscar than Romeo.

I like Bellini very much, but I do find his expositions of the plot slow.  We are nearly at the Act 1 Finale before R and J meet, IIRC.  How did the pace, seem, Jean?
Logged
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
Pages: [1]
  Print  
« previous next »
 
Jump to: