Two artistic punctuation marks

I want to remember two small, but mighty theatrical experiences today, one operatic, and one ballet.

1)The Met radio broadcast this morning was Tosca. Patricia Racette sang "Visi d'arte," to which which Bryn Terfel (Scarpia) responded with three slow, sarcastic claps of applause. What a brilliant idea! It's difficult to imagine anything better than the way Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi played that scene, but Terfel definitely added his own creative stamp.

2) Tonight while I was ironing, I turned on Classic Arts Showcase.They aired an incredible pas-de-deux from Roland Petit's "Proust," with Natalia Makarova. I wasn't exactly clear about the story line, but it seemed to be like a young man was remembering a long-gone romance. Makarova lay still as death on the floor, on top of a puddle of silk made by the long drape extending up high behind her. There was nothing else on the stage. Her partner lifted her from it, and gradually got her to become a bit more animated.

Makarova danced as if she were literally a memory; fluid, impossible to completely capture. After a long series of backward steps, her partner finally realized he had to let her go, and supported her as she returned to the silken puddle. She laid motionless. But he moved back, with his arm out, hand outstretched, the entire drape fell from above, and covered her, as if it were a shroud! That single bit of stagecraft took my breath away.

Der Rosenkavalier Synesthesia

If Der Rosenkavalier is an opera made of crystal and light, this final trio is the prism for the entire work. In an absolutely ethereal combination of soprano voices, Strauss spins and spins three separate melodies until they finally coalesce in a brilliant single ray of sound, then disperse back into their diverse colors. If St. Augustine were here today, I'm sure he would want to include this music in De Trinitate.

What follows are some of the major recent interpretations of the trio with some of the greatest voices of the last three decades. My dream team? Kiri te Kanawa/Renee Fleming (tie), Susan Graham, and Lucia Popp/Judith Blegen (tie).

Munich, 1979
Gwyneth Jones (Feldmarchallin), Brigitte Fassbaender (Octavian), Lucia Popp (Sophie),



Metropolitan Opera, 1982,(subtitled in English)
Dame Kiri te Kanawa as the Marschallin, Judith Blegen as Sophie, Tatiana Troyanos as Octavian.



Met 100 Gala, 1983 (concert version)
Kathleen BATTLE, Elisabeth SODERSTROM, Frederica von STADE)




Salzburg, 1984 (subtitled in Italian)

Tomowa-Sintow (Marschalin),Baltsa (Quin Quin),Moll,Perry (Sophie),Karajan)



Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, 2009 (subtitled in German)
Feldmarschallin: Renée Fleming, Octavian: Sophie Koch, Sophie: Diana Damrau

Review of Met "Der Rosenkavalier" 2010

Critic’s notebook: “Rosenkavalier” at the Met on HD, 1/9/10

On Seeing Der Rosenkavalier in HD

For Christmas, Steve gave me tickets to go see two Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in HD at the comfy Gateway theater in Springfield. (No greater love hath a husband for his wife than to take her to the opera!) We saw The Tales of Hoffman with Anna Netrebko in December; today we saw Der Rosenkavalier with Renee Fleming and Susan Graham.

For those who don't know the opera, you can read the plot synopsis here, and see a slideshow of scenes here.

This was my dad's favorite opera. I'm told that when he was young he blew out a couple of speakers listening to Baron Och's Act II waltz. I also cherish the memory of listening to the entire opera on records one Saturday afternoon with my mother and father, the second and last time they visited us in Springfield. Now I have a wonderful memory of watching the entire opera in the Met HD transmission with Steve and Joanna.

Opera is the greatest of all art forms, because it unites them all: liberetto (poetry), score, voices, acting, orchestra, sets, costumes, lighting. But the bigger they are the harder they fall, or like grease in the bowl one uses to make meringue, all it takes is for even one part to be off and the entire thing can be ruined. Operas like Der Rosenkavalier are especially demanding, but when done right are especially rewarding. Today's Met performance used the classic sets by Nathaniel Merrill, now going on 40 years old. I remember seeing the front cover of an Opera News in the 70's, showing Octavian's presentation of the rose. The photo was all in shimmery silver and white and aqua, with three tall glass doors giving a view to the rococco hall and stairs behind, and I thought it was the most beautiful set I'd ever seen. Never in a million years did I expect to be able to someday see it, and yet, in God's good grace, here I have, today, with those I love most!

Truly, God gives us the desires of our heart. Ah, but Lord, help me to desire what is truly best, and most beautiful: help me to desire You.

Kim Thompson's "All the Great Operas in 10 Minutes"

Okay, let's talk about this greatest of all art forms. Here's an amusing introduction from Kim Thompson:

Easter Greetings

CHRIST IS RISEN!

My ideal soundtrack for this morning:


Vaughan Williams, "Fantasy on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"
Rimsky-Korsakov, "Russian Easter Overture,"
Mahler's Symphony #2, "Resurrection," last movement
Gounod, final moments of Faust, "Christ est réssuscité!"
move to 2:50 and watch it here




MEPHISTOPHELES
Jugée! Judged!

ANGELIC CHOIR
Chœur céléste

Sauvée!
Saved:

Christ est ressuscité!
Christ vient de renaître!
Paix et félicité
Aux disciples du Maître!
Christ vient de renaître!
Christ vient de renaître!
Christ est ressuscité!
Christ has risen again!
Christ is born again!
Peace and felicity
To the Master's disciples!
Christ is born again!
Christ has risen again!




Paschal Greetings from Around the World

Language: Greeting - Response

Aleut: Khristus anahgrecum! Alhecum anahgrecum!
Aleut: Khris-tusax agla-gikux! Agangu-lakan agla-gikux!
Albanian: Krishti U Ngjall! Vertet U Ngjall!
Alutuq: Khris-tusaq ung-uixtuq! Pijii-nuq ung-uixtuq!
Amharic: Kristos tenestwal! Bergit tenestwal!
Anglo-Saxon: Crist aras! Crist sodhlice aras!
Arabic: El Messieh kahm! Hakken kahm!
Armenian: Kristos haryav ee merelotz! Orhnial eh harootyunuh kristosee!
Athabascan: Xristosi banuytashtch'ey! Gheli banuytashtch'ey!
Bulgarian: Hristos voskrese! Vo istina voskrese!
Byelorussian: Khrystos uvaskros! Saprawdy uvaskros!
Chinese: Helisituosi fuhuole! Queshi fuhuole!
Coptic: Pchristos aftooun! Alethos aftooun!
Czech: Kristus vstal a mrtvych! Opravdi vstoupil!
Danish: Kristus er opstanden! Ja, sandelig opstanden!
Dutch: Christus is opgestaan! Ja, hij is waarlijk opgestaan!
English: Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
Eritrean-Tigre: Christos tensiou! Bahake tensiou!
Esperanto: Kristo levigis! Vere levigis!
Estonian: Kristus on oolestoosunt! Toayestee on oolestoosunt!
Ethiopian: Christos t'ensah em' muhtan! Exai' ab-her eokala!
Finnish: Kristus nousi kuolleista! Totistesti nousi!
French: Le Christ est réssuscité! En verite il est réssuscité!
Gaelic: Taw creest ereen! Taw shay ereen guhdyne!
Georgian: Kriste ahzdkhah! Chezdmaridet!
German: Christus ist erstanden! Wahrlich ist er erstanden!
Greek: Christos anesti! Alithos anesti!
Hawaiian: Ua ala hou 'o Kristo! Ua ala 'I 'o no 'oia!
Hebrew: Ha Masheeha houh quam! Be emet quam!
Hungarian: Krisztus feltamadt! Valoban feltamadt!
Ibo ( Nigeria): Jesu Kristi ebiliwo! Ezia o' biliwo!
Indian (Malayalam): Christu uyirthezhunnettu! Theerchayayum uyirthezhunnettu!
Indonesian: Kristus telah bangkit! Benar dia telah bangkit!
Italian: Cristo e' risorto! Veramente e' risorto!
Japanese: Harisutos Fukkatsu! Jitsu ni Fukkatsu!
Javanese: Kristus sampun wungu! Tuhu sampun wungu!
Korean: Kristo gesso! Buhar ha sho nay!
Latin: Christus resurrexit! Vere resurrexit!
Latvian: Kristus ir augsham sales! Teyasham ir augsham sales vinsch!
Lugandan: Kristo ajukkide! Amajim ajukkide!
Norwegian: Christus er oppstanden! Sandelig han er oppstanden!
Polish: Khristus zmartwyckwstal! Zaprawde zmartwyckwstal!
Portugese: Cristo ressuscitou! Em verdade ressuscitou!
Romanian: Hristos a inviat! Adeverat a inviat!
Russian: Khristos voskrese! Voistinu voskrese!
Sanskrit: Kristo'pastitaha! Satvam upastitaha!
Serbian: Cristos vaskres! Vaistinu vaskres!
Slovak: Kristus vstal zmr'tvych! Skutoc ne vstal!
Spanish: Cristo ha resucitado! En verdad ha resucitado!
Swahili: Kristo amefufukka! Kweli amefufukka!
Swedish: Christus ar upstanden! Han ar verkligen upstanden!
Syriac: M'shee ho dkom! Ha koo qam!
Tlingit: Xristos Kuxwoo-digoot! Xegaa-kux Kuxwoo-digoot!
Turkish: Hristos diril - di! Hakikaten diril - di!
Ugandan: Kristo ajukkide! Kweli ajukkide!
Ukrainian: Khristos voskres! Voistinu voskres!
Welsh: Atgyfododd Crist! Atgyfododd yn wir!
Yupik: Xris-tusaq Ung-uixtuq! Iluumun Ung-uixtuq!
Zulu: Ukristu uvukile! Uvukile kuphela!


and these are the ones of interest in the Bilysnkyj household: ]

Kristus nousi kuolleista! Totistesti nousi! --Finnish
Ortanne Laivino! Anwa ortanne Laivino! --Quenya
基督復活了 他確實復活了 (Jidu fuhuo-le! Ta queshi fuhuo-le!) --Mandarin
Χριστός ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! (Khristós Anésti! Alithós Anésti!)
Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! --Latin
Kristur er upprisinn! Hann er sannarlega upprisinn! --Icelandic
Crist aras! Crist soþlice aras --Old English
Kristus is opstien! Wis is er opstien! --Frisian

QUOTES: On music and opera

St. Cecelia, by J. W. Waterhouse. 1895.

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."
-W. H. Auden

"I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts."
-Franco Zeffirelli

"Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process."
-Lord Kenneth Clark

more here

Happy Birthday, "Otello!"

Today marks the 121st anniversary of the debut of Verdi's Otello: Feb. 5, 1887, at La Scala in Milan.

To my mind it is Verdi's greatest opera, the work of his mature genius. His librettist, Arrigio Boito, distilled Shakespeare's tragedy into its purest form. Boito provided Iago with a devilish "Credo" which Shakespeare never wrote, but which telegraphs Iago's nihilism. Watch a chilling Justino Diaz sing it here. This is what he is singing, in translation:

I believe in a cruel God who created me
Similar to Himself, and whom I name in my wrath.
From the baseness of a germ or an atom,
Basely I was born.
I am wicked
Because I am a man;
And I feel the mud of my origin in me.
Yes! This is my creed!
I believe with a firm heart, just as
The little widow in church believes,
That the evil I think, the evil that comes from me,
Is wrought by my destiny.
I believe the honest man is a mocking actor
In his face and in his heart,
That everything in him is falsehood:
His tears, kiss, gaze,
Sacrifice, and honor.
And I believe that man is the plaything of
unjust fate
From the germ of the cradle
To the worrn of the grave.
After so much derision comes Death.
And then?
And then? (long pause)
(whispering) Death is Nothingness
(shouting) And heaven an old wives' tale.
(laughter)

Currently, Placido Domingo owns the title role, and can be heard on various excellent recordings. He appears on DVD in Franco Zefirelli's lush production. It is a visual delight, but for many his idiosyncratic cutting of Desdemona's Willow song is a musical travesty. My favorite recording is conducted by Sir John Barbirolli, and features James McCracken as Otello, Gwyneth Jones as Desdemona, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Iago.

Martina Elicker has written a fascinating postmodern analysis of Shakespeare's theatrical Othello, Verdi's musical Otello, and Zeferrelli's video Otello. She observes:

This paper focuses on a critical comparison of the theme of Ot(h)ello's "otherness" as depicted in Shakespeare's play, the opera adaptation by Verdi/Boito, and the 1986 movie version by Franco Zeffirelli. The main aim of the analysis is to point out the different types of mechanisms at play in creating "otherness" in the three media: with the help of language, music, visual signs, etc. Ot(h)ello's character is clearly outlined and his life - past and present -, attitudes, religious beliefs, and cultural background are juxtaposed with those of the other characters firmly embedded in Western, Christian societies and traditions. For obvious reasons, Zeffirelli makes use of visual signs and symbols the most, at the same time drawing on (con-)textual elements of the play and the musical texture of the opera, and thus further emphasizes Ot(h)ello's outsider status among the Venetians and Cypriots. In the context of "The Unifying Aspects of Culture," it is particularly interesting to note Zeffirelli's own Italian Catholic background when discussing his selection of musical, textual, and visual signs which stress "difference", "otherness" - rather than "unity", "unification."

See. I told you it was a postmodern analysis. ; )

Did Adam and Eve get a kiss good-bye?

This afternoon the house was empty

so I cranked up the Metropolitan opera broadcast of Wagner's Die Walkure. Almost everyone knows the famous "Ride of the Valkyries" (or has heard it thanks to Apocolypse Now). But for me the best comes last: the closing scene, "Wotan's Farewell," (which you can start watching here and finish watching here. ) In the final act, one of the Valkyries, Brunhilde, disobeys her father, the god Wotan. Here is the Met synopsis of the scene:
Left alone with her father, Brunhilde pleads that she was really doing what he wished. Wotan will not relent: she must lie in sleep, a prize for any man who finds her. But as his anger abates, she asks the favor of being surrounded in sleep by a wall of fire that only the bravest hero can pierce. Both sense this hero must be the child that Sieglinde will bear. Sadly renouncing his daughter, Wotan kisses Brünnhilde's eyes with sleep and mortality before summoning Loge, the spirit of fire, to encircle the rock. As flames spring up, Wotan invokes a spell forbidding the rock to anyone who fears his spear (fire music).

I have often imagined the expulsion from Eden to have been a fiery, thunderous affair, rather like the Archangel Michael wielding his flaming sword in Respighi's Church Windows. But now I wonder if it wasn't more the way Donald MacIntyre (as Wotan) sadly kisses Gwyneth Jones (as Brunhilde) good-bye. Like Adam and Eve, Brunhilde's disobedience results in a Fall. Wotan, like Yahweh, punishes in order to preserve justice. Both do so with simultaneous love and pain. Wotan gently lowers Brunhilde onto a ledge where she will sleep in safety, awaiting her fate. Yahweh graciously makes garments of skin for his naked, rebellious children before he banishes them, for their own good.

There are similarities, but there are also important differences. Wotan cannot redeem. He can only wander off into the distance and await his destruction, and hope that the flames will protect his beloved daughter from harm. As the dispirited Wotan kisses Brunhilde goodbye, he knows that he is condemning her her to her eventual death. Perhaps he even sees his own future, wherein his spear, symbolizing his power, is broken.

But Yahweh is the Almighty, who, even as He judges, works to restore and renew. Instead of imprisoning us in our own private, unconscious Edens, He sent us out-- together--to witness and share His salvation, unleashed by a soldier's spear (John 19:34). We are protected not by flames, but by faith in Him. (1 Peter 1). Our story is the reverse of Brunhilde's; she starts out immortal and ends up a mortal; we start out mortal, and we end up immortal (1 Cor. 15:53-54). Wotan cannot redeem, but Yahweh can and does.

So. Did God kiss Adam and Eve goodbye?

I don't know. But there's something I'm wondering about even more: will He kiss us hello when we rise from death?

Somehow I think He will.

NOTE: Want to learn more about Wagner's Ring?Here's Eric Rawlins' straitforward, non-threatening, amateur's introduction. You might also be interested in his analysis of the musical themes in The Lord of the Rings, here.

Garrison Keillor on Pavarotti

Here is part of Keillor's remembrance:

"....In fact, the times I've wanted to plant my feet and sing in my upper register and sob in Italian have all been for the exquisite grief of being a dad. Romantic turmoil is a picnic compared to the emotional turmoil of parenting -- the load of guilt, the sense of incompetence and failure, the night thoughts, the terrible scenarios that come to mind, the agony of watching your child perform in public, the fear of your bright young thing entangled with brainless self-destructive people -- O God! God! God, save my child! From me and from other idiots. My little girl shoots baskets in the driveway and I get tears in my eyes, thinking of her deprived of my protection, as someday she will be. O my darling.

It's a sweet part of growing old to see your own child grow up and take on these sorrows. My boy was a big Van Halen and Mötley Crüe fan and liked other hair bands and then he fell in love with a good woman and they begat two little boys and now he tunes in to Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard and George Jones. Metal bands say not much at all about daddyhood and country singers say a lot; you can hear it in their voices, just like in Pavarotti's. He died at 71, leaving one small child. This was his tragedy at the end. All that money and acclaim and a great career to look back on, but what he really wanted was 10 more years to see that kid grow up. Dear God, give us more time. The heart weeps at the thought."

Then there were two...tenors

So Luciano Pavarotti is gone.

I have seen Placido Domingo several times, in Chicago and in Omaha; as Ramses, Don Jose, Hoffman, and Samson. We would have seen Pavarotti at the Chicago Lyric, but "The King of Cancellations" lived up to his name. So I never saw him perform and from what some are saying, that may be just as well. It would have been hard to accept him visually as a romantic lead. On that score, Domingo and Carreras had him beat hands down. But that voice! At its prime, it was the aural equivalent of extra virgin olive oil.

"There were tenors, and then there was Pavarotti," Franco Zeffirelli said. Pavarotti once hit nine high Cs in a row during a 1972 Met performance of Fille du Régiment. To my mind, that, and not "Nessun Dorma" is his signature piece.

No one will ever top Franco Corelli as tenor god in my operatic pantheon; and no one can top Placido Domingo for sheer joy of singing, good humor and all around humanity. But I will remember Pavarotti for those high C's, for his Christmas concerts singing "Gesù Bambino" surrounded by boy sopranos, and for "Una Furtiva Lagrima." That was one of my father's favorite arias. May Luciano sing it for him tonight among the angels.

See also Andrew Tomassini's appraisal

Beverly Sills - A Memorial and Some Quotes

“A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down.”--Beverly Sills

Her daughter was profoundly deaf.
Her son was severely mentally disabled.
Her husband had Alzheimer's Disease.
She smiled and sang.
Now she is a legend.

I got my very first opera record in 1966, when I was in sixth grade: selections from Bellini's Norma, sung by Joan Sutherland. That led to a Sutherland Greatest Hits, including the mad scene from Lucia di Lamermoor. And from there, it was inevitable: to Beverly Sills. Although she was famous for her bel canto roles and for singing Handel, the aria I most cherish is her "Marietta's Leid" from Die Todt Stadt. Today Kiri Te Kanawa and Renee Fleming are more associated with that aria, but for me it will always belong to Beverly Sills and her conductor, Julius Rudel.

Not only was she a great soprano, she was a wise woman. Witness:

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.”

“Art is the signature of civilizations.”

“I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.”

“In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv7zBzObsH8 Sills sings "Vilja" from The Merry Widow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT0yWpdG_fs Sills sings the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor (poor quality recording, but her voice shines despite its shortcomings)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef9Wrl1i3eI Sills discusses her children and her career
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoXHfNGtccc Sill's final farewell--a Portuguese folksong.

Now it is the angels' turn to listen to her, and rejoice.