Pictures from the Trip Part I

Here are pictures from our recent week on the south island--- it was there that we listened to the opera referred to below.

Check out the lovely manuka in the first few shots. Nelson the dog is around of course, as is Timmy playing golf.

Pictures from the Trip Part II

Opera Log

I give you now the Opera Log of our vacation. We did other things too. Pictures will be coming along in due course.

Sunday:

Medea in Corinto (Giovanni Simone Mayr)

Written in 1813 for the Italian market, this work is highly attractive. Medea’s first aria has a violin concertato! And Creusa’s aria in act 2 has a harp concertato! In this opera seria, weezgotcherconcertatiritcheer!

!!

Jane Eaglen is in the lead and there is stong casting elsewhere with Raul Gimenez, Bruce Ford, and Yvonne Kenny. As everyone who is anybody knows, this is a production from Opera Rara. It dates from 1994. Eaglen sounds great (which is not so surprising--- she was really good in the bel-canto repertoire back in the early 90s; I head her as Norma twice and the first time she was pretty darn good--- but she was not the living end--- she lacks an opulence of tone and the risk-taking instincts I like to see in a bel-canto diva). Anyway, this is a well-judged performance of an admirable opera that while it is not all sexxaay like some barn-burner from Pacini, it is elegant and interesting. And it is unfair of me even to bring up Pacini; this is 1813 and those super fun moves the boys will be coming up with in the 1820s and 30s are, well, in the future. I will return to this opera AND this performance often.

Penelope (Faure)

This is the studio from Erato with Jessye Norman. She was at the top of her game at this time and she is a treat. I have always liked her. Alain Vanzo and Jose Van Dam are super. Charles Dutoit shapes it quite nicely all the way through and there are many moments that I like very much for their poetic sensibility. A lovely piece. Perhaps a little sedate but that’s Faure for you. I really like it and some portions are hauntingly beautiful. The ending is drop-dead gorgeous a masterpiece of happy/sad. Here it is. Pull out your handkerchiefs; ur gonna need’em. Here it is.

Monday:

Manon (Massanet)

The Sills studio with Rudel conducting and Gedda as Des Grieux. Awesome recording all around. We thoroughly enjoyed this as we love the opera and the artists.

La Verità in Cimento (Vivaldi)

A rarity from 1720. The plot set in two mythical sultanates is pretty complicated. I will not deal with it here though were this opera to become a favorite with the public and with me I would no doubt be at least tempted to rush to a defense of the plot of this opera. Is that co-dependent somehow? Listening to the opening right now--- this is baroque conducting in the mode of accentuating the extremes. It has lots of slashing figures. It is invigorating...though, am I bleeding? I think I may need a bandage or two.

Tuesday:

Liden Kirsten (AKA Little Kirsten) (J. P E. Hartmann)

A total rarity. Danish. 1849. Libretto by Hans Christian Anderson. Set in Denmark in about 1000 or so. It has a happy ending as mistaken identities are all sorted out leaving the female lead able to avoid the convent and able to marry the male lead who turns out NOT to be her brother (things look incestuous for a moment). A minor Danish composer, Hartmann has a fluent manner.

Wednesday:

Thais (Massanet)

The 2000 studio with Fleming and Hampson. Fleming sounds good. She is certainly distinctive. Her voice is so totally recognizable! This is a good role for her, by the way---which is no doubt one of the reasons she chose it--- but I am quite happy to fault some of her choices--- I mean what is it with her and the Bel-Canto heroines?--- she just does things at times that I just don’t get in that repertoire--- but at this point I am intoning tiring words to a worn melody [which I am trying to redeem through metaphor? O h y e a h]; in any case, her portamenti and self-indulgence find a most congenial home in the character of this soon-to-be-reformed-but-not-just-yet-as-I wish-to-wallow-a-bit-in-the-ostensibly-meaningless-life-of-mine-and-then-I-need-to-narcissistically-reject-it courtesan from late-ancient Alexandria. I must stress that her portamenti are most welcome as they ARE seductive. Furthermore, her top while a tad labored is nonetheless rewarding to hear and indeed brilliant in this outing. Hampson sounds glum and the tenor Sabbatini cannot compare to Gedda on the Sills recording of this opera. Not even. Conducting by Abel is good but I think I prefer Rudel in the Sills recording. TRH prefers Sills in this role. I am on the fence here. They bring different things to it and Sills was past her prime when she made her recording. Had the recording been made during Sills’ prime…

Thursday and Friday:

Rienzi (Wagner)

Complete. COM-PLETE. That means this baby is almost five hours long. The ballet-pantomime in Act II is 40 effing minutes long! Fuck! I did it over two days. Anyway, there was that studio with Kollo which has good points (especially the recording of the orchestra) but on the whole this one is the one to have. The sound is good even if some orchestral detail is lost at times. The singing is better right down the line with the possible exception of the trouser role, Adriano. The Rienzi of John Mitchinson is solid, musical, and even delicate at times. It is nice to avoid Kollo’s scolding timbre.

This work possesses considerable power and they say had Wagner died right after writing it that it would be a repertory item. That impresses me as reasonable. The music is great and with tyranny on the move in the world and religion a tool of oppression the story remains timely. Rienzi who has brought freedom to the Romans from aristocratic oppression (in the 1300s) is brought down by a papal excommunication engineered by his opponents.

To give you a flavor of the piece, here is a theme from the excellent overture as it is being put to use in the development section.

Here it is in Act III when things are still going well for Rienzi.

And here is its final shattering appearance at the end (and this is, of course, the end of the entire opera).

Tragic opera indeed.

La Gioconda -- Finale OR "Just a sec, k?, I need to get ready"

Here we have Grace Bumbry from the 80s I think. She is rawking da haus in one of the Spanish houses.

The story in brief: La Gioconda has made a deal with Barnaba that she will give herself to him. He is now coming to "collect." At first she pushes him away, "Hold on Romeo; I gotta make myself all pretty-like for ya." And he is all, "you have got my motor running, mamma!" And then she says, "you wanted me? You can have me dead!" and she kills herself. Barnaba, ever the gentleman, tells the dying La Gioconda that he strangled her mother. (Though in this production, the decision seems to have been that he is telling this to her corpse.) Curtain falls to loud f-minor chords.

Though a mezzo at least some of the time in her career, Bumbry really had the dramatic soprano goods.

The performance is a little wild especially at the top but she has nice tone in all the registers. She also knows how a diva is supposed to act in this repertoire. Check out the dramatic way she kneels, with one arm up as she goes down. The fall when she kills herself is disturbing because it seems real! The switch to overhead camera is shocking! The plucked lower strings when he shakes what he realizes is a corpse? Conductor!! [thumb up]!!



(I am not sure what the story is with the figure that we see at the end. Is it the Virgin, who has been remarkably unhelpful to our poor heroine? Could be. Oh irony!)

PS I will be on the south island for a week. I will be back with pictures and, most importantly, OPERA LOG!

"Thanksgiving" and a hike the next day

Down here, we celebrate Thanksgiving when we feel like it!

The table:



The dog:



Look. They. Eat. Thanks. Giving. Dinner. Yay.:



Scenes from the hike the next day. Certainly needed the exercise!











Compare the next two pictures. I have added a reddish area to the second. That marks about where our house is:

A Bouquet Sent to Me...

...by my father and Julie to congratulate me on my promotion:



They will appreciate this picture as they could hardly bring these flowers across the Pacfic Ocean just like that, after all.

I'll give you something to cry about [UPDATED]

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.

Some Good News

I have received the good news that I was promoted from Lecturer level 5 to Lecturer level 7. This may sound like overprecision in a depressingly bureaucratic situation--and you may have something there (but my take on that is that it is ALWAYS something in Academe, so, like, whatevs)--but it hides the fact that I am now tenured [!!] because I went over the bar that exists between levels 5 and 6 [promotion over a bar renders one tenured like magic] and that I was given an accelerated pay raise in addition to the promotion, which is a stamp of approval from the committee over and beyond what was sought (it IS an honour---I should and do feel good about that).

To celebrate, I have a track by a New Zealand coloratura soprano, Mina Foley. This recording was probably made in the early 1950s. This singer evidently went koo-koo coa-coa-nuts crazy and therefore did not have the career all were expecting and that is why she is not more famous. In any case, it is THAT aria ("O luce di quest'anima") from Linda di Chamounix. You have got to hear this rendition to believe it. It starts off modestly enough and then she goes to town, way down-town , then up-town, then all-around town. One might say, one may, that she had a couple of high notes. Yes one could.

Here it is.

Let me know if it will not play, btw. My old solution stopped working and this is new.

Turandot Review

Well this was the best thing I have seen the opera do since I came to NZ. The Faust last year was not bad. The Lucia earlier this year had a nice soprano, Elvira Fatykhova, whose only fault was that she could hit a high e-flat and hold it for only about 2 seconds--- she would hit it and you would be going, "sounds nice, ok! give it me, sock it to me, mamma!" and then she would wrap it up and take it away, as though saying "that's all for you, young man!". Why she does not have a really major career is clear enough to me. It was awkward, really, that she would hit this note and then take it away so quickly. I had never heard anything like it before. We will pass over the Edgardo, Yvan Momirov, in nearly complete silence. The rest of the cast was fine. The minister, Raimondo, one Jud Arthur, was a good singer and easy on the eyes...ok...he was teh hott. Ooh boy. Preach it! You want me to sign something? Sure, anything, ANYthing for you, RaiJudArthurMondo.

But I am here to discuss Turandot.

Like I say, it was really a good production. It is an Alden production which I almost always like. He did an awesome Lucio Silla in Long Beach and super-duper-neato-torpedo Vespri in SF (I still thrill to the triple assassination of Tenor, Baritone, and Soprano in slow-mo in the final moments [yes-- Procida shoots Arrigo, Montfort and Elena dead!! Teh excitement!!!111!! 4rls!!])

But, like I say, not as I do, so far, I am here to discuss Turandot.

The Alden production eschews for the most part overt Chinoiserie (sic?) and instead conjures up a hybridized scene. It is a combination of Cultural Revolution China and late-capitalist-glamour-puss-globalized-celebritized-absolutistic naked assertion of dictatorial-cult-of-personality power---um, you know what I mean. Turandot becomes a glamorous vision of modernity that nonetheless anchors itself in a timeless claim to authority. Modern glamour in purple velvet makes a primeval claim that is not to be denied. This production is highly perceptive on the direction the world very well might be going in. I found it highly thought-provoking.

Check out Turandot. This is from Act 2:





See what I mean? The scenery--spare, modern--cements this impression.

The singing was at a very good level (Liu) to truly excellent (Calaf, Timur and, crucially, Turandot). Here is the cast and production team list:

Turandot Margaret Medlyn
Calaf Dongwon Shin
Liù Maria Costanza Nocentini
Timur Grant Dickson
Ping Phillip Rhodes
Pang Adrian McEniery
Pong Benjamin Fifita Makisi
Conductor Nicholas Braithwaite
Director Christopher Alden

It was announced that Medlyn had a cold but she went on anyway. She has a powerful voice that has a number of brilliant and incisive colours in it. She is an excellent actress and will make you forget that there is anyone else on the stage. She has the measure of the role vocally and histrionicly. We are lucky to have her. Most successful!! Brava!

Shin in the mid range can sound a tad provincial but his upper notes are highly brilliant and deservedly bring the house down. He cleaned up in "Nessun Dorma", and, folks, it really was good. Nocentini sounded a little out of sorts. I saw the dress rehearsal and she was better there. Timur was good. Powerful. The three Ps had lots of funny business to do and I have never seen them staged so well. However, this was closing night and they were still muffing their lines a tad. Honestly! That should not have been happening. Braithwaite chose one excellent tempo after another and the orchestra played fine. The piccolo player needs to work on his or her e flat--it fell apart at the end of Liu's death scene (Why do I note this? Well, I play the flute and piccolo myself.) Fatykhova and the piccolo need some e-flat tutoring.

Here are some more pictures:

Turandot and Liu (Act 3):



Turandot and Timur (Act 3):

Mas de Adriana Blogging

Moving associatively sideways repertoire-wise, we bid goodbye for the moment to Daniela Dessi and can barely recall someone whose initials are Andelina Nebtraintrestle. We now spend some time with this aria from Adriana.

First up is Mirella Freni. She has never been one of my favorites but her voice here is really rich and nice. She just fills the tones out so nicely. This is clearly from a MET Gala or a special performance of Die Fliedermaus:



Howzabout that second to last note? Damn she sounds good at the further end of her career and this is singing that would be nice at the beginning too.

Next is a link to Renata Tebaldi singing this aria on some cheesy telephone hour show, but damn she owned this role. Rudolf Bing said that Tebaldi demanded a production of Adriana at the MET as a quid pro quo. He tried to wiggle out of the agreement but she smiling would not let him. If my memory serves, that smile put "dimples of steel" on her face and he had to do the opera. Here is the

Tebaldi link.


And this is a singer I knew more by reputation but now I have both a visual and an audial image. OMG! This is so over the top! But kids, this is opera!! Portentosa, splendida, fucka, yeaha, si si si!!. Drum-roll please! [fanfares] "Ladies and Gents, I give you scenery-chewer extraordinaire...let's give a loud round of applause... to... Marcella Pobbe!!! (now with pearls):



P.S. She is lipsynching of course, as happens in these Italian films of the operas. I wondered if this were an actress playing the part. No, it IS she:

Dessi in Adriana Lecouvreur

[Dessi blogging!!! OK!!]

Earlier this year, they did Adriana Lecouvreur, a wonderful opera by Cilea, at La Scala. Gosh I would have loved to have been there for that. Opera Chic covered it very nicely in a number of posts. Here is one of the entries if you are interested. You can get all scrollolicious from there and read more, if you are of a mind. OC is fascinated with the Dessi's bust and makes reference to Dessi's endowment amusingly a number of times.

But how is it that Dessi has come to be on the blog menu, as it were? Weren't we supposed to have Trebzoroaster blogging? Well, we were but YouTube has taken away the video that I wanted to post. The lost video is a version of Musetta's waltz-song from La Boheme done like a music video that J-Lo or someone like her would do, only with Puccini. Anyway in it La Trebsaldine is married to this guy and they are like rich and stuff and as they are being driven somewhere her eyes keep meeting the eyes of the hottt chauffeur AND it looks like something may happen but it does not AND at the end it looks like she has only thought of dishonouring her vows and will not now, nor ever. The final look between them is farewell forever [or at least they finish their meal and need a ride home, I guesss] (I add here that Anna Banana has also been singing full on in the back seat of the car, which does put a lot of weight on ye olde suspension bridge of disbelief, you know). Furthermore, the narrative of the video where infidelity is thought of but then is successfully resisted (and let me tell you the wedding bands are a bright shiny gold if memory serves), seems like the idea of what constitutes edgy on some Christian network. Oooh she almost gave in to sin. Thrills. Chills. Sheesh, this is hardly the dementia of which Ethan Morden speaks. But anyway, I am not going to discuss that video because instead I have this one which I ran across as I searched for the other one.

Cilea, Cilea, Cilea! One of the also-rans in the verismo sweepstakes, but he did place well with this opera. The melody is 24 carot-gold and Dessi does it well. She has a nice strong voice and she looks great, if you ask me. And the boys, right before she starts the big melody: "splendida...portentosa...musa...diva...sirena," talk about a fan club! The aria and opening material make for a most gratifying entrance for the soprano. It has been one of my favorite things since I first heard it. Cilea 4eva! 4rls!

Back!

My manuscript is now wending its way to the publishers. May they please say "yes we want your manuscript--OMG--- we want you you you!!1eleven11!!!" (or words to that effect).

I will hopefully be able to post more than in the recent past.

It is Spring down here and here are some pictures from the botanic gardens in Wellington.

But first!, before the pictures, I have learned that Chalkenteros is officially in love with Anna Netrebko again. We wish the happy couple all the best. We hope that true love will find a way and they can stay together. (In fact stay tuned for more Anna blogging!)

Anyway, here are the pictures from the trip over to the gardens:

Back in about a month...

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this truly novel presentation of Act III of Il Trovatore. I will try to post something on occasion, but I have to get this manuscript done!

(I picked up this delightful video at My Favorite Intermissions. This guy is a very witty writer by the way.)

Ciao, for now.

Vingt Regards

Just a quick note on an interesting concert I just attended. The brother of one of my colleagues here in the classics programme played Messiaen's "Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus ["20 Looks at You Know Who"]. What an amazing work it is. It is 20 movements and takes something over 2 hours to be played. It is a work out for a solo pianist.

The various movements recreate the effect of the movements of the stars, the tender look of The Virgin at her baby, the quiet omnipresence of God, the Son gazing upon the Son. Inverted rainbows are to be found. So are inverted lightnings. Amazing.

The pianist, Read Gainsford (who teaches piano at Florida State [I think] in Tallahasee) played like the god that is needed for this piece. He has delicacy, power and awesome intelligence.

Seeing this piece was a treat and while I am not a Xian, I nonetheless find the sprituality of this piece honest and most assuredly not cloying. I like Messiaen better and better all the time.

Abigaille + Marisa Galvany = A Reason to Live

Gosh I wish I had been in the audience for this! Is this from the 70's the late 60'? Who knows! Who cares!!

Prima Donna Galvany was an exciting dramatic soprano whose powerful instrument and take charge stage manner brought much joy to opera lovers like me back in the day.

Here, in this scene from Verdi's Nabucco, she is is playing Nabucco's imperious daughter, Abigaille, who has just seized control of the kingdom. At the end of this scene she orders her father (her own father! teh excitment!) arrested. And if you study her movements as he shakes off the guards who are leading him away, she is laughing at him. Bad bad bad!! In fact, study all her movements at the end. She brings her arms fast down after the high e flat---

(which she just pulls [thnx!] out of the ether [drawing on an account the pin number to which only she knows, kids])

---as though to say--- if the kingdom weren't mine before this note, after it it would be!---and that e flat is mighty nice, what bravura singing! She then sweeps her costume back to show dad that she so so so so so so so means business. She laughs at him, as already noted, and then up go the arms as she faces an idol or something that is at the back of the stage--- TREMBLE, PROFANI, I AM TEH QUEEN!!!

Out the Window This Morning

The wind had just shifted bringing cool winds up from the South. There were some showers riding on these winds.

Pictures of Anna Sure to Please My Dad!

Hey dad, we could take Anna to target practice!!! That would be pretty boss, don't you think?

In any case, don't #$%^ with Trebs is henceforth the watchword, surely.




The facets of Anna are fascinating in their unfolding, to put it mixedmetaphorically [I was seduced by the effs, your honour; the siren-song of alliteration made me do it!]

And, you know, a certain Romanian diva recently was less than complimentary about la Trebazoid. Hmmm. [Sotto voce to Angela, "cuidado, chica, k? justsayin' kthnxbi."]

(via Sieglinde's Diaries)