Reacting to something chez Chalk, I thought I would join the "fun" and post some things that make me choke up when I hear/see them live. I don't boo-hoo but my eyes water even rather copiously and I feel deliriously alive. I get into a zone in which sadness and joy are interchangeable and all is understood as the ineluctable prey of mortality--- and yet paradoxically free of it at the same time.
Here are six items that do it for me. I am not going to tell you what they are but you will no doubt know some of them. I will be happy to answer questions in the comments if there is any curiosity.
In (1), we have a theme that blooms so beautifully that I am always suprised by how much it affects me. So sweet. So sad.
(2) is from the same work. Last time I heard this section live I was not that happy with the performance but then I got a hold of myself and plunged right into excess; I thought that a distinct regret of mine when dying will be that I will never hear this music again. A little self-indulgent, a little maudlin--- so I got carried away! I blame the music.
[UPADATED WITH LINK] (3): with the final bars of this concerto, there is no need to stay for the symphony, if they are so foolish not to put this piece last. I mean what is there left to say--- and I was heard to remark, all portentous-like, "there is no other concerto," last time I heard this piece. Honestly, sometimes I should leave these things in the bottle. (But you know I kinda meant it?)
(4) = sweet poesie at the opera. So pretty! Time stands still. Those chord progressions! The piano! Time is still standing still. And will you look at that, will you? My eyes are watering!
(5) Yeah yeah--- he is the villain but did ever a villain break your heart like this? No. Of course not. Can I borrow the handkerchief? I think I have to dab my eyes and I need to go off and think a little. ("I will love ya, babe, even if she won't.")
(6) An act one curtain; after about 60 minutes of restless chromaticism the bright C major as the ship pulls into port on the bright blue Atlantic is orgasmic. The tension breaks and the plot has done some major shifting--- love is on the horizon and tragedy after it--- but for the moment we are in ecstasy with the protagonists and their abandonment spreads to the entire mise-en-scene. For the moment mortality is defeated and the final chord stretches into infinity (or something like that). When I see this on stage my eyes water furiously, I choke up, and, completely happy, I really don't want to talk to anyone at intermission.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
I'll give you something to cry about [UPDATED]
Posted by Mark at 8:11 am
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4 comments:
This is a great way to do this! I am unfortunately not yet sophisticated enough to host files :-(
Speaking of Tristan -- I've been listening a lot to the Domingo/Stemme set that was released a couple of years ago. It's pretty good!!!
What is #4? That is lovely.
La Rondine (Puccini). Pretty effing sweet, no? Kiri and David Rendall singing. When Kiri is on (and that is often the case), she satisfies me completely.
But I think the point about Rance is that he isn't by nature a "villain" but a man trapped and lonely in the wrong time and place and in love with a woman he knows he can never have. Desperate emotionally, yes--intrinsically evil, I don't think so.
Sherrill Milnes played him that way at the MET in the first year of the current production and director Giancarlo del Monaco gave him the final curtain--he stood heartbroken and hopeless alone on the stage watching everything he had ever wanted exiting with another man. It had huge impact. Fanciulla is drenched in yearning, loss and loneliness, nowhere more so than in Rance.
Count de Luna is the same way, but with dungeons, racks and burning at his disposal, he's a lot more dangerous.
Will--- I agree with you about Rance (and il conte)--- indeed, the beauty of the music both composers give to these characters underscores that. I should have put villain in scare quotes.
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