More pictures from our trip down south last January

Here are some Summer shots. Oh how it aches to see the summer sun and the shadows when they fall that way NOW when we have this sun and the shadows falling this way in the depths of Winter. That said, today was gorgeous in Wellington... so ache is not so sharp (for the moment! [as I must add cuz I must rock the cranky on teh "angry" blog, of course])

Anyway... first up is

He who must be obeyed:



Queenstown:





Milford Sound:




South coast to the west of Invercargill:



More to come, at some point...yeah.

Not Something You See Every Day

Don't ask. It will take too long.

Noted with Pleasure

Virginia Burrus (pg. 64 in her 2004 The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography) on St. Jerome's Paula:

"What Lynda Coon has dubbed ‘the patristic theology of the cosmetic’ is more than a matter of simple inversion. Resisting Jerome, Paula claims her ascetic practice as her own. Seeming to swap beauty for ugliness and pleasure for pain, she is making herself over as the bride of Christ. Her fasts are heroic (17), her illnesses frequent (19). Face furrowed by grief, body practically a corpse, her mortal flesh betrays an immense desire. Good looks disordered, her power to please is out this world."

"Her power to please is out of this world!"

[!]

You go girl, as the young people used to say.

Reception

Is this a "family blog"?-- I hate that term, effing "family blog", by the way, AND all those terms that talk about family this or family that. There is a big presumption there (a family has children in it, duh) and in the end it has less to do with children (who tend to be cruel and filthy-minded, anyway--- I mean I was there and So. Were. You.), and more to do with adults pulling a power-play on other adults. Could people mind their own business and not brandish the kids in this way? It's a thought.

That out of the way--- (and, btw, is this becoming an "Angry Blog"? Possibly.), check out what I have to *deal with* on our very own street in sweet Ngaio in Wellington:

TWO VEHICLES, PARKED


VEHICLE ON RIGHT:


VEHICLE ON LEFT:


Um...teh provocative... what I will say is the following: "interpretation happens at the point of reception." Or Pehaps "Othay Reekgay actionshay in teh Ulcay de Acsay."

Consumatum est. I give too much.

Later.

Moonrise on Cape Sounion

Look what I found at Aprile Millo's blog:



This is the most recent full moon rising right behind the temple precinct at Cape Sounion in Greece.

I of course visited this gorgeous temple (to Poseidon? Yeah? For the Romanist it is use it or lose it!) with the students in 2006 (and am slated to take another group to Greece in 2009). Here are two of my shots from 2006:





Now it is back the mines and my final labors on my book project which just seems to go on and on. (People are all like-- though they don't quite say it--- what is taking you so long?-- and all I can say [and they still don't get it] is that the demands of what I want to say and how I want to say it require that certain labor intensive things need to happen...maybe I am deluded about this.... but I have had success in the past in presenting results and in other ways, so I should follow my judgment here...and so I WILL... but...) Um, Mark, STFU and BACK THE MINES ALREADY!!

New Zealand Symphony Concert

Am I back? Well for the moment. At least. We will talk this one step at a time. First right, then left, and then we will see if I can get back into the swing.

What I did not tell you about, and which I should have I suppose, was the La Boheme back in May. The cast was good looking and they sang well enough and the Mimi in fact was even better than that. She was Antoinette Halloran who I suggest that you should try to see if she comes your way. She does have the goods. BUT, on the whole--and I am bucking the tide here, everyone "loved it," I tell you, they just "loved it"-- it was fairly provincial in terms of the expertise of most of the singers. The Rodolfo was nice, but I am so over these facsimiles of a ping when it is just tightness with just a glint of something more. But you know I need to get over myself and remember that I live in the provinces--- BUT all the same it gets irritating when the whiff of a possibility of a suspicion of ping gets the ladies and gents a-swooning--- can we not get SO excited. It is too much to ask? Clearly, it is.

Anyway, tonight TRH and I saw our excellent symphony in this program:

RAVEL La Valse
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No 2
TCHAIKOVSKY Manfred Symphony

Here are the conductor and the soloist:

YOEL LEVI Conductor
SIMON TRPČESKI Piano

It was a really good concert. The La Valse was quite engrossing and was making a nice big sound by the end. This Yoel Levi is good. He really made sure the orchestra was articulating cleanly and carefully. And he really demands and gets gradations in volume.

The concerto was a treat. Everyone and their dog of course knows this warhorse like the back of their hand, and we around here are no exception to this. Though not French, Trpčeski (how is that for a bunch of consonants at the beginning of his name!---FYI he is Macedonian), he played as though he were as French as Thibaudet. Lines were clear, clean, classical and surely St. Saens had to be smiling from somewhere as he heard his work played so elegantly and yet with fire that it needs in spots. Trpčeski, handsome devil that he is---- check him out!:



--- will be back in two weeks to play the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff and we are certainly looking forward to that.

The last work on the program was the rhapsodic Manfred Symphony. I really enjoyed this too. Again the careful control that Levi has over the orchestra paid dividends (as it did in the concerto, where the two of them combined efforts to bring out St. Saens' musical argument). The first three movements came off well. The banging conclusion to the first movement caused applause to erupt and that was not suprising, given the excellent playing and conducting. TRH found the finale somewhat rambling but I rushed to Peter Illych's defense in the car on the way home--- talking about what the audience of the time would have known about Manfred and such. (I will admit here that I sort of agree with him--- but don't tell him.) I did like the quiet ending with the great man finally after all his struggles finding rest.

(This orchestra is not provincial, by the way.)

Trip Down South (Many Pictures Here and To Come)

We were away from late January until about the 11th and I missed the birthday of one of my sisters. Guilt, guilt! I think I will call her like this weekend. Anyway, we went down to the deep south of the South Island.

First up was Christ Church. The first two pictures were taken at a place that we had breakfast in this city. Sophie, the proprietress, is a total character. She and TRH, needless to say, got along well, as he is a character too.

The remaining pictures were taken in the Botanic Gardens. The terrier was not allowed in, so you will not see him. Imagine him sulking in the car under a nice shady tree, for that was where he was. More pictures from this trip will be posted in due course. I am working on research and teaching and they are keeping me very busy!

Summer Pictures

Well I am finally back in Wellington for a while. I am afraid that those nice boys will at long last have to be knocked down from top position--- with a pie...



...I just made. Today. It is apricot. The apricots were small and not too sweet and the flesh was firm. This may be the best one I have ever made given the quality of the fruit. We shall see.

Here is Ohiro Bay where we often take walks:



Here are three shots of a bouquet that Dad and Julie sent us in celebration of our 20th anniversary. They always send a card or something. It is very nice of them to do this:







Pretty, huh?


And here are various shots of the garden. Things are looking nice this year:

French Boys Lip-Synching

This made me smile. It is something of the departure from this blog's usual content, but maybe it will make you smile too. The song, which I like, I suspect is by Daft Punk but it may only resemble what they do--- and since I really don't keep up with teh dancemusic the way I used to, hell if I know. In any case, this little vid is delightful from beginning to end and I point out for special recognition the blonde's expression at 2:16.

Don Giovanni in Los Angeles [updated with cast and creative team lists--- I forgot to post them before!]

[Erwin Schrott as the Don]

Two years ago, Los Angeles Opera tried to kill me with a wretched production of Parsifal. A Wilson Abortion that was boring and careless of the hapless audience who was left to wonder what the heck the story was about, as is usual with Wilson productions. One needed to already know the plot or study the synopsis carefully. To be fair the conducting by Nagano was a) as TRH says “ravishing” or b) as I might say “really really good”. Domingo was sick and did not sing either. It was, in short, a long long afternoon.

This year, however, the company redeemed itself with a truly excellent and engrossing Don Giovanni. We saw the closing performance of the run. This was one of those surpassingly rare performances where it all comes together. The staging served the piece beautifully and the musical values both in the pit and on stage were superlative. Myself, TRH, the charming FS, and DR were all so enthused. It was great.

The production first. The abstract and raked set was striking and the use of different colored lighting was dramatic and articulated the various scenes well. The constumes matched the lighting (and were stylized 18th-century). The opera was never trivialized by this production. The production was witty AND mindful of the deeper issues in play and, quite frankly, of the movement of the plot. People as animated trees or the use of mirrors in the second act--- so simple and so effective. And when the Don becomes a giant peacock at the end of act 1 (how odd that sounds) that was just great---and then this jawdropping metamorposis was followed by transmogrification into a devil, which, naturally, only increased our enjoyment. At the end of the opera there is great visual pun. The Don is done, he is spent (spento). An hour glass containing some or other glittery substance is broken open and there is a long smeary line of it spread across the stage. It suggested to me a great big smear of semen and it looked liked it shape-wise (he is spent; the action of the opera is consummated; get it?). And then, at the conclusion DO, DA, DE, Z, L, and M all get on their knees in front of it and gather up some in each hand. As the curtain falls it is catching the light from their open palms and it is beautiful. All the characters could not get enough of him, btw. And this Don was a little homo too. He mounted M and L at different points in the opera.

The Singers were uniformly excellent in my opinion. In TRH’s case, he did not think the Zerlina was top-notch. I wonder if TRH is resistant to a mezzo Zerlina. He says that that is unfair and “that she just did not have it; as opposed to the other singers.” I like the rustic quality that the strength that she showed in the lower register brought to her characterization. The Masetto was strong. When was the last time you said that? DG and L were really really really in command and I and TRH are certain that you could not find better exponents of these roles on other stages right now. DA and DE both gave me and TRH considerable enjoyment. TRH feels though that they were not as good as the boys. My thought on all of this is that the comparisons are somewhat invidious because if you transplanted the DA or the DE into another production, I, for one (TRH may feel differently), would be admiring the DA’s nicely focused timbre and her clear and penetrating top and the evenness of the DE’s voice through all the registers and the acting skills of both. The Don Ottavio had a nice lyric tenor with a solid core that insured that this DO was no eunuch (in spite of the plot). Both of his arias were sung without the straining tone one can so often encounter in this role. There was instead a manly tone and a sense of phrasing that was natural and communicative. In sum, as regards the singers, we were free to enjoy the opera as EVERY role was capably filled.

The conducting. Haenchen chose moderate tempos which added immensely to the enjoyment of the production. When the Don tempts Zerlina with coffee and chocolate toward the end of the first act, the tempo was one the slowest I have ever heard (without being perverse, of course) and this allowed us to appreciate the amazing grace of Mozart’s writing for the violins here as never before.

Conclusion: A truly excellent production with capable singing and high values all around. It is really a treat to attend the opera when it is done to this standard.

CAST LIST
DON GIOVANNI Erwin Schrott
LEPORELLO Kyle Ketelsen
DON OTTAVIO Charles Castronovo
DONNA ANNA Alexandra Deshorties
DONNA ELVIRA Maria Kanyova
ZERLINA Lauren McNeese
MASETTO James Creswell
COMMENDATORE Kang-Liang Peng

CREATIVE TEAM
CONDUCTOR Hartmut Haenchen
DIRECTOR Mariusz Trelinski
CHOREOGRAPHER Emil Wesolowski
SET DESIGNER Boris F. Kudlika
COSTUME DESIGNER Arkadius

Vocal Scene in Wellington: Daniel O'Connor in Recital

I work with AM at Uni. Her son, Daniel O’Connor is a bass-baritone who is going to be starting his fourth year of undergraduate studies next year. This was his End of Year Recital, his final exam, if you will. He is also in the opera chorus so I have seen him on stage in Lucia and Turandot and he was in Purcell’s King Arthur last year and had a nice solo in that work in which he excelled. He also is tall and good looking and handled himself well in KA and indeed in this recital.

He had an ambitious program. It was as follows:

A three-song song cycle by Ravel: “Don Quichotte et Dulcinee”

Two arias from Don Giovanni: Leporello’s catalogue aria and the Don’s serenade to Elvira’s maid in act 2.

Schubert’s Die Wetterfahne

“But who may abide the day of his coming” from The Messiah

The [very lovely] song cycle by Douglas Lilburn, Sings Harry

Let me say that he really sang well. The Ravel songs which I did not know are tricky and I was particularly taken with the last two. The catalogue aria was well done and his strong voice arched through the graceful lines and made a lovely impression. I cannot recall what I thought of the Schubert--- it has been too long now. My favorite moment in the recital (along with the latter two Ravel songs) was the Lilburn song cycle. Lilburn’s idiom owes something to Sibelius and, lovely and honest, it possesses a directness that is similar to Calisle Floyd’s (as in Susannah) though the harmonic choices are different. The poems track very loosely the life of man as he grows up out in the country of the south island. Love is mentioned, his uncles, his father, the countryside and it ends with these words (I quote at some length here):

Then Uncle Jim was off to the wars
With a carbine at his saddle
And was killed in the Transvaal
I forgot in just what battle.

And Uncle Simon left the farm
After some wild quarrel,
Rolled his blanket
And rode off whistling on his sorrel.

My father held to the land,
Running good cattle there,
And I grew up like a shaggy steer
And as swift as a Hare
While the river ran down.

But that was long ago
When the hawk hovered over the hill
And the deer lifted their heads
And a boy lay still
By the river running down,
Sings Harry.

The piano writing and the poetry and beautiful masculine lines of the vocal writing created a situation where my eyes watered a little a bit and I was loving what I was hearing. Obviously at home with this music—he is a NZ young man after all--O’Connor brought this work to life. It is so wonderful, by the way, that this young man is able to communicate musically like this. I look forward to hearing him again.

Anna Leese Returns to Wellington

Well, I have a back-log of remarks to make on various vocal recitals I have seen. In my defense---and I am always mounting a defense it seems--- I had to finish a book review on a book that was in German [go f!@#ing me! such determination! such a surrender to vanity in saying yes in the first place! um!! yeah!? yeah?...] and I am in the throes of composing a presentation for my meeting in Chicago--- they want it so so so early for the respondent---- so it's a good thing--- being responded to at the meeting is good and helpful, but it is cutting into my little sideline of recording vocal happennings in and around Wellington---so that is a downside--- anyway I am going to set things right shortly, "starting here, starting now..."]

I am going to start with a post on Anna Leese's recital first, because I don't have a program for it and I don't want to forget. It was tonight. In the case of the others (which I plan to put up in the next couple of days), I have all the relevant programs, so time therefore ("and clearly" [as some may be tempted to remark, given the lag and I add that NJ playfully punched me in the arm for not writing up the others yet. It kinda hurt but it was kinda a manly bonding thing, so it was A-OK]) has not been of the essence. Oh but how unfair; those who have been waiting will have to wait a little longer! Ahime. Ahime.

So Anna Leese who has been making a name for herself in Britain returned to give a very nice recital. She a lyric soprano who, to my ears, may be able to make some spinto moves in the future. She started out well but was really sounding great during the Puccini. But I loved her portmento stylings in the Verdi. The Mozart and the Handel did not have the same sureness of style that she shows in Verdi and especially in Puccini. [TRH thinks precisely the reverse, btw.] But that said I think she can pursue any of the various avenues on this program. Her voice is a truly lovely one and the way it blooms and gleams on top is so so sweet. The middle is beautiful and possesses an individual and yummy timbre. Her rendition of the La Rondine aria, an especial favorite of mine, gave me chills. Mi chiamano Mimi was really everything you could want. The waltz-song sounded good this time round (just as it did the time before). If I had to cavil, I would have to say that the moments of coloratura in the 18th century rep were not up to the standard she sets and meets elsewhere. But you know I kind of want to STFU on that. I only cavil because I "have to." I hope she comes to a concert hall or opera house near you soon. She is really good. Great things are predicted for her. She is young yet and time will tell--- but she more than deserves watching for what may yet come to be and, quite frankly, what she is right now.

Program:

Bach/Gounod, Ave Maria
Two arias from Handel's Julius Caesar
Mozart, Il Re Pastore Aria
Verdi, Willow Song/Ave Maria

--Pause---

Ariditi, Il Bacio
Puccini, 3 arias from La Boheme
Puccini, Il sogno di Doretta from La Rondine

Two Encores:

Oh Holy Night
Morgen by Strauss

PS: The page turner was teh hottt.

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