THE NEW ZEALAND OPERA SOCIETY
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An operating theatre for dissecting operas and disseminating operatic knowledge
Updated: 1 hour 50 min ago WEBER : OBERONRadio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 16th of November 2008 at 3 pm COMPOSER Carl Maria von WEBER: Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique The recording I own is conducted by Rafael Kubelik (in German), with Placido Domingo, Hermann Prey, and Birgit Nilsson; I am playing it here with a diamond needle in its vinyl groove, but you can buy it on compact discs (DG). The one by Gardiner (in English) is equally good, with Jonas taking Placido's place as Huon. Surprisingly, the version with Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt is not so good, I am told. The work is a Singspiel, in that the gaps between the arias and choruses are filled with spoken dialogue; in the Gardiner version there is a narrator describing the course of the action. The pieces you hear separately on the radio are: Stories about fairies can be slightly on the fantastic side, meaning the fantasy is over the top. This one takes us round the world, but this is understandable when Puck is involved (I could have quoted aptly from Shakespeare here if my memory had not deserted me). Puck has to find a loving couple to prove that neither men nor women are characteristically inconstant (unbeständig). The Elf King's oath (in the subtitle) is that he will not be reconciled with Tatiana, after their quarrel over the relative inconstancy of men and women, until such fidelity is proven to exist. The test pair are Sir Hüon of Bordeaux at the court of King Charles the Great (Charlemagne), and Princess Rezia, daughter of Caliph Harun ar Rashid. All's well that ends well (I can remember that line from the Bard). The seductive mermaids come with Neptune when he appears. This opera could have been titled "The Magic Horn" (a counterpart to Mozart's "Magic Flute"), as Oberon gives Hüon such an instrument to call him for assistance. This is a fairly (or unfairly) rarely heard opera of one of the first great romantic composers, Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, 1786-1826. A fairly (or unfairly) short life (it was the consumption that tubercled him), but he had escaped death earlier in his life, when he poured himself a drink out of a wine bottle, and quaffed it, not realizing that it was nitric acid, used for lithography. CIMAROSA : IL MATRIMONIO SEGRETOCimarosa's The Secret Marriage
based on the English comedy "The Clandestine Marriage" by David Garrick and George Colman. Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 9th of November 2008 at 3 - 6 pm 9:00 Composer of the Week Roger Wilson on DOMENICO CIMAROSA (1749-1801) (R Mon 7.00pm) (RNZ) COMPOSER SYNOPSIS LIBRETTO (Italian) Domenico Cimarosa (1749 - 1801) , The Secret Marriage (1792), comic opera in two acts. Il Matrimonio Segreto Act 1 Right then. We begin this sparkling comedy of manners (and errors!). It is indeed a farce, but we will have strong sympathy for the suffering characters. The grumpy one is Geronimo, a rich ‘old’ merchant of Bologna. He has two daughters, and he wishes to find aristocratic husbands for them. The elder one is Elisetta, and it will emerge that she is to marry Count Robinson, with 100,000 crowns written into the contract. (We need to be told beforehand that this aristocrat is in fact impecunious.) The younger daughter is named Carolina, and she is already married to her father’s clerk, Paolino; their marriage is no secret to us, because they tell us right at the beginning; but nobody else who appears on the stage is in the know, including Geronimo, Elisetta, Count Robinson, and Fidalma, a wealthy widow, who is Geronimo’s sister and a member of his household. After the jolly overture, Paolino comforts Carolina, who is anxious about the situation they are in. He has news for her: he will gain her father’s favour, because he has arranged for Count Robinson to seek the hand of Elisetta. When Geronimo comes in (acting like a gentleman of importance, the most illustrious of merchants) Paolino presents a relevant letter from the Count, and for this he receives due thanks and praise. Geronimo announces it to the whole family. The two sisters have a spat when Elisetta starts boasting that she will become a countess, and Carolina is a nobody. Aunt Fidalma separates them. After Carolina leaves, Fidalma confesses to Elisetta that she would like to take another husband (we are told on the side that it is young Paolino she has her eye on). Geronimo assures Carolina that she too will have a knight. She responds with a sad look and a despairing aside (many of the words sung in this opera are in brackets in the libretto!); she complains of a headache. Paolino introduces the Count (they count each other as friends), and he greets the three ladies gallantly. He asks to be left alone with them. Now he has to guess which is the one he is to marry. He first ‘accosts’ Carolina as his ‘sposina’ (little spouse); “Oh, no sir, you are mistaken”. So he tries Aunt Fidalma; “No sir, you are mistaken again”. Elisetta owns up. Robinson thinks they are playing tricks on him, so he goes back to Carolina (and nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina, he is thinking). They all start talking to themselves, exclaiming that they have “un orgasmo” in their bosom (how will that be translated in the subtitles?). Pause to regain our composure. We left the suitor Count Robinson with the three ladies of rich Geronimo’s household, namely Fidalma (his wealthy widowed sister), Elisetta (his elder daughter, who is promised to the Count), Carolina (his other daughter, secretly married to Paolino, his clerk). All four were suffering “un orgasmo” (which was translated as “turbulence” in the subtitles). Carolina is agitated, and Paolino tries to calm her; he will take their case to the Count and to Fidalma. Robinson has made it obvious that he prefers Carolina to Elisetta, and now he informs Paolino (“Misery me, what a contretemps is this!”). In scene 11, the Count woos Carolina, but she tries to persuade him that she is not a good bargain, having neither looks nor languages. Left alone (12), the Count reflects on this. Geronimo (scene 13) hears Elisetta’s complaint; she is supported by Fidalma; Geronimo does not accept it, as gentlemen do not behave like plebeians. Paolino ushers them off into the banquet-hall. Carolina and Robinson are together again in earnest discussion (14): “Think about my sister”; “I feel no love for her”. Elisetta (15) rails at them both, then Fidalma intervenes, and intercedes with Geronimo (16). When Paolino enters they sing a sextet :”What sad silence”. The Count confesses, and they all start complaining about their ears or their head. Act 2 Geronimo confronts the Count; he insists the wedding will take place; Robinson is prepared to accept a lower bride-price for the younger daughter. But he has to find a way to make Elisetta reject him. Robinson tells Paolino (2.2) that the father has agreed to the change of plan. In despair Paolino (2.3) approaches Fidalma (most of their conversation is in brackets!), who thinks she is the object of his love. Fidalma passes this confidence on to Carolina (2.4), and Paolino joins them in a trio of misunderstanding. Recapitulation: Count Robinson (an unwealthy aristocrat) is looking for a wife in rich Geronimo’s household; the eligible women are Fidalma (Geronimo’s wealthy widowed sister), Elisetta (his elder daughter, who is promised to the Count), Carolina (his other daughter, secretly married to Paolino, his clerk); not knowing about her secret marriage, the Count is asking for Carolina, and is prepared to take her at half-price. For her part Fidalma believes (mistakenly) that young Paolino wants to marry her, and she informs Carolina. Carolina in consternation confronts her hapless spouse, accusing him of building a harem, and saying she will go and throw herself at the mercy of her father. However, Paolino announces his plan of escape: a carriage will come to the garden gate later, and they will flee to the home of his aunt. Carolina is not sure, but agrees to this (an elopement after the wedding, we might say). Here [2.7] the Count does to Elisetta what Carolina had done to him: present a really bad image of himself to make her despise him. His defects include somnambulism, but she dismisses them all as trifles, and ultimately suggests he is only joking. This compels him to swear that he does not love her. [2.8-11] Elisetta and Fidalma confer; each thinks that Carolina is her rival; she is a coquette and should be put away in a convent. Geronimo accepts that Carolina should be sent to a nunnery the next day, as a punishment for flirting; he is deaf to her desperate plea (and to much else that is said around him!). [2.12-13] Carolina soliloquises: everybody is “in orgasmo”. The Count enters, and declares his heart is still set on her; at her prompting he promises to fulfil her every wish, and kisses her hand. [2.14-15] Geronimo and the other two women surprise them. Obviously Carolina allows every man who comes along to kiss her, and therefore she must be confined in a convent. Elisetta confides to her aunt that she is prepared to pardon the Count’s indiscretion. [2.16-17] Paolino has come for the great escape. Geronimo orders him to despatch the letter concerning Carolina’s entry to the nunnery. Paolino sees that the moment for flight has definitely arrived, and he goes into Carolina’s room to fetch her. [2.18] Robinson (still thinking of Carolina) and Elisetta (still intent on marrying him, and here spying on him) have a brief chance encounter by candlelight and an exchange of courtesies. [2.19] The married couple, sneaking out, hear a noise and retreat into Carolina’s room. Elisetta thinks the Count is the man talking to Carolina; raging with jealousy, she summons the whole family to witness this treachery. They call upon the perfidious Count to come out, and he does emerge, but from his own room. Carolina and Paolino then confess that they have been married for two months. There is reconciliation all round, though Geronimo is not given any lines until the final ensemble, where all affirm their contentment with the two marriages. DONIZETTI : IMELDA DE' LAMBERTAZZIRadio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 2nd of November 2008 at 3 - 5.10 pm COMPOSER SYNOPSIS REVIEWS Nicole Cabell's fansite LIBRETTO Italian DONIZETTI: Imelda de' Lambertazzi, an opera in two acts You have heard of Romeo and Juliet? Well, they came back to life as Tony and Maria on the West Side, but in an earlier incarnation (13th C) they were Bonifacio and Imelda, from the feuding Geremei and Lambertazzi families of Bologna. The ending is the same: corpses on the stage, but the difference is that no potions or poisons are involved. Actually, in the original version of the story, and in historical fact, Bonifacio Geremei is killed by a poisoned sword wielded by Lamberto Lambertazzi, and Imelda dies when she tries to suck the poison out of her lover's body (presumably to revive him rather than to deliberately kill herself?). Bonifacio (the baritone!) asks Imelda to run away with him, but she declines; so he approaches her father and brother to beg for permission to marry Imelda and thus make peace in the city. They are not interested in his insulting proposal, and when he tries to see Imelda again, Lamberto stabs him; and although Lamberto is himself mortally wounded, when Imelda tries to flee, he slays his sister, too (as in Verdi's Force of Destiny). Imelda declares her guilt and seeks reconciliation with her father as she dies. Expect some noisy crowd scenes and furious fighting. This recording is from the Opera Rara series. In my town, Palmerston North, NZ, a selection from this series is broadcast every Tuesday night, on John Ward's Gramophone Room. HANDEL : TAMERLANOHandel's Tamerlane
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 26th of October 2008 at 3 - 6.20 pm COMPOSER BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION SYNOPSIS SCORE!! HANDEL: Tamerlano, an opera in three acts It was one of Handel's twenty-day miracles of composition (like Messiah), in 1724, following his Julius Caesar. Notes on the history behind the opera and summaries of the plot are available by clicking on the headings above. No libretto available from the usual Italian source, but the musical score is on line! ROSSINI : GUILLAUME TELLRossini's William Tell
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 19th of October 2008 at 3 - 7.10 pm INTRODUCTION COMPOSER BACKGROUND SYNOPSIS LIBRETTO French LIBRETTO Italian ROSSINI: William Tell, opera in 4 acts (and 4 hours) French is the original language of this opera, the last of Rossini's 39, because it was first performed at the Paris Opera house in 1829 (and therefore includes a ballet, ruining the dramatic tension but also prolonging the agony of the bottoms on seats). When it found its way into Italy, translated into Italian, it had the usual problem with the censors: an Austrian prince is oppressing the Swiss, and the Italians know all about that! In Milano it was William Wallace (not Tell), and the action was moved to Scotland; in Roma it became Rudolph of 'Sterlinga', and later Judas Maccabeus! It was based on Friedrich Schiller's German drama Wilhelm Tell (1804), and he was the poet who wrote the Ode to Joy used in the Beethoven's ninth symphony; the composer, and the conductor Leonard Bernstein at a concert at the broken Berlin wall, saw it as Freiheit (freedom) as much as Freude (gladness). Both liberation and joyfulness abound in Rossini's opera. Central to the story is Tell's refusal to bow to the tyrant Gessler's hat, and so he and his son Jemmy are put to the test: Tell shot an arrow in the air (from his crossbow) and it fell to earth ... with an apple attached to it, revealing the gravity of the situation. In the end, another of his arrows will pierce Gessler's rotten core. Collected above is an assortment of aids to understanding the opera (none of them from the NY Metropera, because they have not done it in this millennium). The French version to be broadcast (a recording made in London in 1973) is conducted by Lamberto Gardelli, and has Montserrat Caballé, notice carefully and gratefully; it will be preceded by an appreciation of this divine diva from Spain. There is a video documentary of her life and work available, which includes her singing Casta Diva divinely in a performance of Norma in a windy arena. My only audio version is the one from 1980, conductor Riccardo Chailly, with the same Ambrosian chorus, and the following soloists (and this list of celebrated singers gives one reason why Tell does not make an appearance on opera house stages): Pavarotti, Freni, Milnes, Ghiaurov, Tomlinson, Ferruccio Mazzoli, Elizabeth Connell, Della Jones, Richard van Allan, Piero de Palma. Everybody knows the overture, or at least its finale (which has been a lone ranger at times). To my mind it echoes Beethoven's Pastoral symphony (number 6) starting with the beauty of nature, then a storm, followed by the horn calling the cows home (ranz des vaches, here on an 'English' cor); its ending represents the uprising and chase, reminiscent of Wagner's Rienzi overture. The essential background to the drama is that the Austrian tyrant dominating the Swiss people, namely Ges(s)ler, has a sister, Princess Mathilde von Hapsburg, and she has been saved from drowning by Arnold, who happens to be the son of Melcthal, a venerable Swiss leader. Mathilde and Arnoldo are in love, secretly, and so it is Romeo and Juliet all over again. WAGNER : GÖTTERDÄMMERUNGRichard Wagner's Dusk of the Gods
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 28th of September 2008 at 3 - 7.20 pm COMPOSER CHARACTERS BACKGROUND UNDERGROUND The meaning of it all ANALYSIS SYNOPSIS STORYLINE LIBRETTO WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen, the stage-festival play, performed as a tetralogy of prologue and three operas (4) Götterdämmerung, an opera in a prologue and three acts The Ring is a massive opera of the fairy-tale genre. Right? The Rhine nixies, the Valkyries, and the Norns would be the fairies. The title is literally “gods-dusk”; it is usually translated as “Twilight of the gods”; 'twilight' means 'between-light', the light that is seen when the sun is below the horizon, either at morning or evening. The word 'dusk' refers to the darker side of twilight, and 'Dämmerung' ('dawning' or 'dusking') can even be translated as 'nightfall', thus implying 'downfall', in Wagner's word. At the end Brünnhilde will say that the gods' end is now dusking/dawning (dämmert). So the libretto I have before me seems to have got it right: “The dusk of the gods(Goetterdaemmerung)”. A pause for a note on German orthography (eminently superior to English chaotic spelling, which was corrupted when French conquered Anglo-Saxon, and the very simple and sensible 'cwic' became 'quick' with two additional and superfluous 'c' letters; x is not necessary, 'focs' shows all the sounds; and German 'braun' tells us precisely how to say the word, but English 'brown', with almost the same pronunciation as the German word, gives a choice, whether as in drown, or grown, or grow-en): the 'umlaut' sign (which turns the sound of the vowel around) consists of two vertical strokes, representing the letter 'e' in the old German handwriting, but it comes out as two dots on typewriters. The o (as in Gott, and god and dog, two words the English system gets right!) becomes ö (in Götter, 'gods') and is pronounced as in 'fleur'. A survival of the ä appears in English as 'man' becoming 'men' (German 'Mann', plural 'Männer'). The e can be restored, if necessary or desired, hence Goetterdaemmerung. And now, on with the show! The Dusk of the Gods, the fourth facet of the Ring (@ 4h15m), is the longest but has the fewest longueurs (Denis Forman reassures us). In our video-opera group we are not racing through it (as happens on the radio); we are taking in one scene at a time (12 or more), devouring only one 'bleeding gobbet' ('lump of raw meat') on each occasion. Remember its libretto was written first of the four, and it has a prologue plus three acts, which became a prologue (Rheingold) plus three other operas; another way of describing it is: an evening and three days. Along the way we will have the whole story related again, and again. The Rhine nixies will swim back to delight us (if they sing in tune with pleasant tone); they will at least get the golden ring back, but as the river finally engulfs all, then presumably the rest of the gold is back where it belongs. Strange to say, Wotan never appears (saving the expense of another baritone), but he gets several mentions (not all honourable). In Siegfried (Act 3) Wotan the Wanderer and Wonderer (those two words should each be used for the other and their spelling would be truly phonetic) had mused on “the end of the gods”, and had summoned up Erda for psychiatric consultation and predictive information; she was too tired and told him to go to her three daughters, the Norns, who weave fate (or whatever) with their rope. PROLOGUE Scene 1 [1] And here they are, the three Norns, nameless but vocally distinguishable (soprana, mezzosoprana, contralta; I give them feminine gender endings to exclude men playing the parts). They are doing their German rope trick at Brünnhilde's rock. The first and eldest Norn ties the golden cord to a fir-tree. They usually sing and sling the string at the World-Ash-Tree (Welt-Esche), but Wotan has chopped it down (and up) for firewood. He once came to the tree, and drank from its spring, and paid for a boon with one of his eyes (poked out by a protruding twig?!). He made his powerful spear from one of its branches, and on it he wrote in true Runes (a true rune is actually simply a letter in another form of the Greco-Roman alphabet, the Runic alphabet, which itself was borrowed from the Phoenicians; but Wagner has added mystery to the term). Wotan’s inscriptions recorded his treaties, and that is why, whenever covenants are mentioned, we hear the spear motif (a long descent down a scale). Incidentally, there will be an oath on a spear scene later. The second Norn winds the cord around a rock at the mouth of the cave (if permitted by the director). Her report is that the spring has run dry. After young Siegfried shattered the spear, Wotan ordered Walhall's heroes to destroy the Ash-tree (and soon it will be reduced to ashes). [Despite what you thought I said in the Manawatu Standard about clearing the landscape of forests to make more lawns, meadows, and pastures, and the uselessness of trees as not being able to grow money, I don't class idiots who cut down trees as heroes. See bonzoz] The third weird-sister tells us that in the giant-built hall Wotan sits with heaps of faggots (Scheite), awaiting the dusking of the end of the gods. The rope is being frayed by the sharp rock, and when it is to be thrown northwards, it breaks. All their wisdom is finished, and they retire to bury themselves with Mother Erda. Scene 2 [2] Dawn comes up like thunder; Siegfried and Brünnhilde emerge from the cave. Wagner instructs him to be fully armed (did he fit into her armour?), so she must be in her gown (she does not have a change of clothes, but she can wash it and dry it by the fire, which has not gone out but is still blazing to keep intruders out). She bids him set off to accomplish deeds of glory (does she want him out of her house because he is cluttering up the place already?). She says she is letting him go because she loves him so much, and she has given him all her wisdom and power. He says it has all been too much to take in, but he at least knows how she feels about him. It has been a great adventure for both of them, and they have plighted their troth; so he gives her the Alberich’s ring as a token of their mutual love (he is going to the Rhine, and he should have taken it with him and thrown it in the river, and then they would have lived happily ever after, and so would everyone else!). Blissfully she puts the ring on. He can have Grane the Pegasus-like horse in return (though the sturdy steed has lost his flying licence; and there goes her only source of meat). The rapturous couple exchange some more sweet nothings, including a bunch of hearty ‘Heil’ exclamations. She waves to him till he disappears. [3] The orchestra plays Siegfried’s Rhine Journey. We would assume that Siegfried is riding along the river bank, but I have seen suggestions that he and the horse are on a raft on the water, but Wagner has the curtain down all through it, so that they can change the scenery. However, when Siegfried arrives at his destination, the stage directions say that he is in a Kahn (a boat or a barge) which has to be moored. And now we come to the first Act of the drama! We have had two happy scenes out of three, but now everything turns sour and everyone becomes bitter (except Siegfried, who is always happy-go-lucky and he does not know he is doing bad things, because he is on drugs). For the fine details of the plot, and the musical leitmotifs, study the Metropera guides under STORYLINE and ANALYSIS. For the rest, this is how Wagner divides it all. Act 1.1 Gibichung Hall. Gunther (King of the Gibichungs), Hagen (son of Alberich through a union that did not involve love, which he has foresworn!), Gutrune Gibich (sister of one, half-sister of the other). The first two are plotting (Alberich has instructed Hagen in ways to retrieve the Ring for him) to marry Gutrune to Siegfried, and thus free up Brünnhilde for marriage to Gunther. Act 1.2 Siegfried is seeking employment as a fighting man. They give him a potion of fogetfulness, and he immediately falls for Gutrune (as if she was the first woman he had ever seen). The two men go to get Brünnhilde. Hagen stays to keep watch. Act 1.3 Brünnhilde is at her rock, kissing the ring and enjoying some happy memories of her lover, when her Valkyrie sister Waltraute arrives with news from home; all gloom; she must give the ring back to the Rhine maidens, or they will all perish. Unthinkable! Act 1.4 Left alone B hears Siegfried's horn but is startled by a strange figure coming through the flames: we know it is Siegfried, wearing the tarnhelm and taking the form of Gunther. She struggles with him, but she is overpowered and sent into the cave, for consummation purposes; S takes the ring from her and announces to himself that his sword Notung will separate them while he takes Gunther's part (a very risky operation, and the cold metal would be off-putting). Act 2.1 Hagen at his watch is visited by his father Alberich, and murder is suggested. Death to Wotan and his grandson Siegfried the Wälsung. Act 2.2 Siegfried reports that Gunther is bringing B home to the hall. Gutrune greets him and asks Hagen to prepare the wedding. Act 2.3 Hagen blows his huge cowhorn and summons the vassals. They think some disaster has struck, but they soon learn the truth and are amazed that that grim Hagen is being merry. (This is the only chorus in the whole thing, and it is the male voice choir; the ride of the Valkyries is not sung by the chorus but by a set of soloists.) B is astonished at what she finds, and accuses S of treachery; S denies it by an oath on the spear; B says this spear will avenge her. Act 2.4 Hagen takes her aside and offers to be her agent; she eventually tells him that she has put a spell of invulnerability on S, but not on his back, because he would always face his foes. Right! Gunther is now brought into the plot. Act 3.1 Siegfried's horn is answered by the cow horns of the Gibichungs, They are hunting a boar. The water nymphs of the Rhine know what is going on, and Siegfried is their hero; they tease him, as is their wont, and tell him the history of the ring, and urge him to give it back to them, threateningly. But he won't part with it. Act 3.2 When the hunting party is united, S tells his life story, and he remembers he woke Brünnhilde; when two ravens fly out of a bush he jumps up, turns his back on Hagen, and receives a thrust of the spear. Hagen cries Revenge! and stalks off. Siegfried continues his sad tale and rejoices again in his love for his true bride. Wagner had originally given this opera the title Siegfried's Death; this now occurs, and to the strains of noble funeral music, he is carried back to the hall. Act 3.3 Hagen arrives first and reports, untruthfully, that Siegfried has been killed by a wild boar. Gunther is struck dead while endeavouring to prevent him from taking the ring; then Siegfried's dead hand raises itself menacingly and strikes terror into all. Brünnhilde takes charge of the situation, declaring herself to be his true bride, and ordering the men to erect a funeral pyre (in typical Aryan fashion she will virtuously join him in the fire). He was faithfully faithless to her, and she takes back the ring. She and Grane ride into the flames (the Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence was one who did this to the letter). She is thus cremated, and as the Rhine flows over the hall, the nymphs reclaim their gold ring (drowning Hagen in the process, I presume). Valhalla on high is caught up in the conflagration. Listen for the theme of love's redemption (first briefly poured out by Sieglinde in act 3 of Die Walküre) rising above the destruction (you may receive a frisson for your trouble, or a warm feeling). It is not the end of the world, I trust. If you want to know about the Siegfried and Brünnhilde of the sagas go to: http://collesseum.googlepages.com, specifically The Völsung Saga and The Nibelung Epic. WAGNER : SIEGFRIEDRichard Wagner's Siegfried
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 21st of September 2008 at 3 - 7 pm COMPOSER CHARACTERS BACKGROUND UNDERGROUND The meaning of it all ANALYSIS SYNOPSIS STORYLINE LIBRETTO WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen, the stage-festival play, I give previews not reviews, but with regard to this series: I like the orchestra and what the conductor Adám Fischer is doing with them; but there is some wobbling and rasping in the voices, making me want to stand right back (one or two rooms away). At this moment I am listening to Wolfgang Windgassen and Birgit Nilsson as Siegfried and Brünnhilde (Solti's Ring), with no worries. Several hours after writing that, I found John Culshaw's book Ring Resounding (1967) buried on this desk. On p.227, he tells of an objection raised by a listener to that recording of Siegfried: on stage Windgassen sounds tired, but he is always fresh on the records; perhaps Wagner wanted it that way. Solti replied simply that 'Wagner was mad', expecting a tenor to last the distance over four hours, even with long intervals. With studio recordings we can hear it as Wagner imagined it. Nevertheless, when I first started listening to the Bayreuth recordings, I was struck by the superior sweetness and strength that Windgassen could maintain compared with the other feeble tenors they hired, and my school-friends Geldard and Grattan agreed with me. As for Nilsson, I remember the report on the New York performance where they needed a different Tristan for each of the three acts, opposite her Isolde. The Metropera teaching aids are supplied above, but this is my version of the story. Wagner, Siegfried (1876) (or The Lad that loved a Valkyrie, as W.S. Gilbert might have said) Act 1We left Brünnhilde sleeping on a rock, surrounded by fire which burns continually.While the Valkyrie has been cosily hibernating there, Sieglinde, the sister of the slain Siegmund, had given birth to their son, named Siegfried, in the forest, and had died in the process. Mime, the Nibelung dwarf we met in Rheingold, forging away in the underworld, is now dwelling above ground in his smithy, and he had taken on the task of raising the orphan boy. Fafner, the giant who had killed his brother Fasolt, is now ensconced in his Fort Worth cave, gloating over the gold, and by means of the Tarnhelm, the magic headdress that Mime had made, Fafner has the form of a dragon, all the better to guard the treasure against those who would steal it. Alberich the Nibelung, the brother of Mime, was the original robber of the bank of the Rhine, run by a band of silly ninnies, or nixies, bathing beauties skilled in ersatz seduction but not in production or protection of gold. The deep music we hear at the start speaks of brooding: Fafner the dragon on his nest of golden eggs; Mime the dwarf pondering how he might gain the golden ring and have power over his brother Alberich and everyone else in the world. Mime's present problem is how to control the unruly adolescent who wants a sword, and whenever he is given one he smashes it. Mime is thinking that the two pieces of Siegmund’s sword Notung that are now in his possession would do nicely for piercing the giant-dragon’s heart. The whole of Act 1 is concerned with forging this weapon. Siegfried bounds in leading one of his playmates (as he will say in Act 2, when he blows his horn only wolves and bears come to investigate), and he mischievously terrifies Mime with his bear, before sending the animal back into the woods. Siegfried demands a sword (so he can have adventures smiting and slaying); as usual the latest model is rejected and smashed on the anvil. Mime offers him some hot stew, and that too is cast aside; Siegfried says he does his own hunting and roasting out in the wild. Mime starts off on the ‘Where did I go wrong?’ routine, pleading that he had been a good parent, and sobbing. Siegfried responds to this by saying he hates Mime, and the birds and beasts of the forest are dearer to him; he has seen them lovingly tending their offspring. He uses violence on Mime to force him to reveal who his real mother and father were. Mime tells him everything we already know, and Siegfried wants his father’s sword repaired. He is leaving home and asserting his independence. Mime sits moping. The Valhalla theme sounds out, which suggests Wotan is around, and someone calling himself Wanderer emerges from the woods. Yes, he needs to get out of the house, to give his wife Fricka a break, perhaps, or maybe he is just allergic to nagging. He proposes a merry quiz with his own head as the stake. He answers Mime’s three questions with ease, on the inhabitants (or dominant beings) of the underworld (Nibelungs in the depths of the Earth), those on the surface (giants on the back of the world), and on cloudy heights the gods. Wotan insists that Mime goes through the same ordeal. First, the family that Wotan loves but treats badly? The Volsungs of course. What is the name of the sword that Siegfried will use against Fafner? Notung. Who will join its pieces together? Mime is stumped. He will lose his life. Siegfried returns, and eventually decides to work the sword himself. This time, after a lot of ‘Hoho! Hohei!’, when he tests the sword it is the anvil that breaks. Act 2 Young Siegfried, the unloved adolescent with an unfettered attitude, pumped up with testosterone and adrenalin and with no trace of fear in his constitution, now has a sword to play with. His father Siegmund’s peerless weapon, Notung, has been restored to its pristine form, and having smashed an anvil it is ready to take on weighty dragons, wily dwarfs, and even the spear of Wotan, which broke it. Act 2, Scene 1 Alberich the Nibelung has come out of his hole and is muttering to himself in front of a cave. Suddenly a glimmering glow gleams in the gloom of night (that is an example of how Wagner’s alliterative poetry works in German); a stormy wind announces the Wanderer Wotan, and the moon shines forth on him (he should be mounted on his horse). An angry confrontation ensues: What are you doing here? Wanderer (also known as Light Alberich) says he has only come to watch Black Alberich keeping his watch, not to do anything. (Chéreau dresses them alike in his Bayreuth production.) The Nibelung knows that the god is powerless because of the covenant he made with the giants, written in runes on his spear (Daaa di da di dam dam dam dam dam, down the scale, is the contract and spear motif). Alberich is all set to rule the world, but Wotan knows that Mime will be bringing Siegfried to wrest the ring from the dragon. Wotan calls out to Fafner the ‘worm’ to wake up. Who is disturbing my sleep, he growls (through a loudspeaker). They both warn him about the brave stripling who is coming to challenge him. Alberich asks Fafner to give him the Ring, so that Siegfried will have no reason to attack the guardian of the treasure. The dragon declines, and reclines in slumber again. Wotan rides off laughing at Alberich’s failure but warning him of doom. Act 2, Scene 2 Daylight comes, and Mime brings Siegfried to the dragon’s lair, the cave of treasures. This is where Siegfried might learn fear, Mime says, and describes the monster to him (In the Patrice Chéreau version the dragon is wheeled around on a cart by stagehands; nothing to be afraid of.) Mime tells him to wait till the dragon comes out to drink at the spring, then he retires to the spring himself, murmuring his hope that Fafner and Siegfried will slay each other. Here we arrive at a truly beautiful part of the opera. Siegfried lies under a linden-tree (that is, a lime-tree, but it does not bear limes). He thinks about his hate for Mime, and wonders what his real father and mother were like; certainly not like the ugly gnome who has parented him up to this point. Do all human mothers die when they give birth to a son? How he would love to see his mother. She probably had brightly shining doe's eyes, but even more beautiful. The birds sing (flutes, clarinets, oboes, in the orchestra); one in particular seems to be talking to him. (Chéreau has it imprisoned in a small box cage so we can see it; the poor little thing darts about in its prison all the time, not singing happpy songs at all.) He tells the bird that the dwarf had said that we can learn the language of birds. He cuts a reed and tries to answer the bird in flute sounds (cor anglais!), without success. So he blows a lusty forest tune on his silver horn, hoping to attract a good companion. This time he attracts not the usual wolf or bear but a dragon. They have a merry conversation. What big teeth you have, Grandpa. All the better to &c. They fight. Notung pierces the beast’s heart. (Chéreau has the giant Fafner crawl out of the dying reptile.) Fafner wants to know who has killed him and who put him up to it. Siegfried has no idea what to say, but from Fafner’s death aria he learns about the giants who once ruled the world and now they will all be dead and gone. But Siegfried is warned that the instigater will now kill him in turn, if he is not careful. The youth finally gives his name and wants this fount of knowledge to tell him about his own origins, but Fafner expires pronouncing the name Siegfried. Siegfried happens to taste the dragon’s blood, and finds that he can understand bird-talk, and the chirpy soprano tells him he has won the jackpot; he should claim the Nibelung hoard and take the useful tarnhelm (a magic cap) and the powerful ring. He goes into the cave. The two Nibelung dwarf brothers, namely Mime and Alberich, quarrel over who will gain the gold. Siegfried comes out with the loot and Mime asks him if he has learnt fear yet. Nope, says the dope. Mime offers him a poison potion [both from the same Latin word, meaning 'drink'], but dragon’s blood also enables Siegfried to discern the real meaning of a deceiver’s words; and so he lops off Mime’s head. He sits down again and bemoans his orphanhood and expresses once again his longing for a mate. The bird tells him about Brünnhilde on the fiery rock, available only to a fearless hero. That’s me to a T, says he, just my cup of tea; and led by the bird he lopes off. Act 3 The story so far: the young orphan Siegfried, grandson of the god Wotan, and son of the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, is ignorant of his lineage and he also knows no fear, so he has no trouble confronting and slaying the giant-dragon Fafner and seizing the Ring of power. He also kills his caregiver, the Nibelung dwarf Mime, who tries to poison him to get the Ring. However, he refrains from snuffing out the bird who comes and sings frequent refrains, about a desirable woman on a fiery rock. Now you would expect Siegfried to be more interested in food than sex, after all his exertion with the sword; but Wagner does not provide a restaurant in the wild place beyond the forest. Now read on (but Wagner keeps the recapitulations going, and every quarter of an hour one character tells another personage what has been happening in the recent and distant past). Act 3, Scene 1 At the start of Act 3, Wotan is still seeking to learn what the future holds for his world; so he summons up the Earth-goddess, Erda, the fount of knowledge and wisdom. She is very sleepy, and apparently she does not recognize him as the one who fathered the Valkyries through her; and it seems to me that she can only remember giving birth to Brünnhilde. We have to remind ourselves that Wagner wrote the libretto of the whole Ring cycle backwards, so when he came to The Valkyrie, he possibly decided he needed nine of them to do a decent ride of the Valkyries (not that they do it on stage anymore, not even with lightweight boys on hobby-horses). But you are making me digress, and you should have realized that this hypothesis can be refuted by referring to Götterdämmerung (written before Siegfried), where Brünnhilde is sitting on her rock wondering why Siegfried has not come home for his dinner, and her sister Waltraute visits her and reports that the Valkyries don’t get around much any more. The conversation between Wotan and Erda runs thus: Wake up, you all-knowing witch [wise female]. Who is disrupting my slumber? [just like the dragon, earlier] The Wanderer, wanting to pick your brains. Go and talk to the Norns, they are awake, winding their cord of fate. [her 3 daughters] The Norns cannot tell me whether the wheel of fate can be stopped. Well, I bore a brave and wise daughter to Wotan; go and ask her. No, Brünnhilde was disobedient and is now dead to the world, until a man rouses her. In that case, let me go back to sleep and seal up my knowledge. No, Mother, not till you tell me how Wotan can be freed of the care you put in his heart. You are not what you call yourself! Why are you disturbing my sleep? You are not what you think you are! Wotan’s will is the end of the gods. Go to sleep. With regard to the music, the first theme we hear is the upsurging motif (Da-di-da-di-da-di-da) that portrays the Rhine River at the beginning of The Rhinegold; and it also refers to Erda, who sometimes rises up out of the earth, as she will here. The next motif represents the downfall of the gods; it runs downwards, and (please note carefully) it is the opposite of the previous one, which perhaps also describes the rise of the gods to Valhalla, their celestial home. Another plunging theme is the Spear and the oaths and covenants associated with Wotan’s weapon; it has thirteen notes, which descend the scale, plodding in march time. Its counterpart, I suggest, is the motif that arises when Wotan finally tells Erda that a new world is coming, to be created by Brünnhilde and Siegfried. This theme will ring out at the end, as the two lovers embrace. Act 3, Scene 2 Siegfried is on his way to Brünnhilde’s fiery rock. His informant (a little bird told him) has flown off, and now he encounters an elderly gentlemen, who asks him where he is going, and quizzes him about his history. This Wanderer is Wotan, who already knows all the answers to his questions, and Siegfried does too, and so do we. Right then: the woodbird talked to him, and he understood because he tasted the blood of the dragon (Fafner the giant), and it was Mime the ugly dwarf who goaded him to do it, to teach him fear, and he himself forged the broken pieces of the sword; and if the old man does not stop asking all these mocking questions he will get a taste of the same medicine. And where did you get that hat, and what happened to your eye? Probably you lost it when you barred the way to some other stranger, so get out of my space or you might lose the other one. This should have been a happy reunion (“My lad, I’m your grand-dad”), but it turns into a family quarrel (“Show respect to your elders”). Wotan is wrathful and Siegfried has lost patience; he suddenly realizes thet he is facing his father’s old foe; revenge at last! At the end of The Valkyrie Wotan had declared: “Whoever fears the point of my spear, never step through this fire”. Here was one who was not afraid of him. Siegfried smashes Wotan’s spear with Siegmund’s restored sword Notung. Last time (in The Valkyrie, end of Act 2) it was the other way round: the spear shattered the sword, somehow. My guess is that it is because Siegfried is wearing the Ring, and this makes him more powerful than Wotan. The old wanderer disappears, the young adventurer heads for the circle of fire “to find the bride”. With a Hoho and a Hahei (or two), and singing lustily (“Lustig! Lustig!”), and blowing his horn, he exclaims: “Jetzt lock’ ich ein liebes Gesell” (Now I will attract a dear companion). This harks back to when he was in the forest, and the only creatures he could attract were wolves and bears, but when he started talking to birds he blew on his horn in the hope that “ein lieber Gesell” would be attracted by it. There Wagner used a masculine noun; here Gesell is neuter, perhaps because Siegfried is not supposed to know what a woman is like. But he knows that the object of his quest is a bride named Brünnhilde, who might teach him fear. Act 3, final scene We have seen Siegfried pass through the blaze (he would go through fire and water to reach the bride a little bird has told him about, and he will secretly marry her); he has stripped her of her helmet and breastplate (though her dress is still on her). With trepidation and closed eyes he has pressed his lips to hers, wondering whether this might prove to be for him the kiss of death or for her the kiss of life. I used to listen to a ten-inch long-play recording of this love-scene, sung by Kirsten Flagstad and Set Svanholm, so it will last about half an hour. Brünnhilde slowly sits up. “Heil dir, Sonne!” (Hail to thee, sun!). Long was my sleep; now I am awake: who is the hero who awakens me? Siegfried tells her excitedly that he is the one who has come to rouse her. He sings Heil to his mother who bore him, and the maid echoes this. She always knew he would be the one who won her, and the word “love” comes up often in their enthusiastic deliberations. Brünnhilde looks tenderly on Grane her horse as he grazes, who had also been woken by Siegfried (with a kiss?!); for his part the lad is desirous of more grazing on her mouth. Seeing all her armour lying around she suddenly feels vulnerable. Siegfried becomes ever more fervent, declaring that the fire that protected her has now moved into his bosom. He speaks of ardent love, she feels “Angst”. She calms down and sings (to a tune that Wagner used again in his Siegfried Idyll) about her eternal nature, and that she has always been above that sort of thing; so she tenderly asks Siegfried not to spoil everything by overwhelming her. Fair enough, after all, she knew his mother, her half-sister, and Siegfried should be saying “Aunty Hilda, shall we have a nice cup of tea?”. They both lack practise (they are virgins, remember, he having never seen a woman before in his life, and she being his maiden aunt). However, passion floods over them, and they get high on it; their jubilant duet ends in an embrace, with cries of “leuchtende Liebe” (bright shining love) and “lachender Tod” (laughing death) (it’s the Liebes-Tod of Tristan and Isolde again!). She has the choice of ending on top C or an octave below; he has been singing his head off for hours, so he stays an octave or two below her. ADVT A mystical séance is proposed: http://collesseum.googlepages.com/pearlers WAGNER : DIE WALKÜRERichard Wagner's Valkyrie
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 14th of September 2008 at 3 - 7 pm COMPOSER CHARACTERS BACKGROUND UNDERGROUND The meaning of it all ANALYSIS SYNOPSIS STORYLINE LIBRETTO WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen, the stage-festival play, (2) Die Walküre, an opera in three acts I saw the whole thing (presumably cut down) when I was 17, in the theatre of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music; Eugene Goossens conducted the student orchestra, which included their teachers, who were members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. On that Saturday night Siegmund (Allan Ferris) managed to inflict a bleeding wound on Hunding. A few years later, with my two fellow Wagnerites, Grattan and Geldard, I saw and heard Hans Hotter performing this final section, as part of a Sydney Symphony concert in the Sydney Town Hall, before the opera house was built. Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Act One At the end of the Rhinegold, we saw the chief god Wotan, with his consort Fricka and the other gods, crossing a rainbow bridge and making their way into the celestial castle named Disneyworld, or Walhalla in German. The name could mean the hall with a wall, or else choice hall (Wahl-halle), the abode of the choice people, the elect. However, the divinities were not having it all to themselves: it was to become a retirement home for heroes slain in battle. To transport them on high, Wotan (Woden, Wednesday's child) went down to earth and mated with Earth (Erda,whom we saw warning Wotan to give up the Rhinegold ring), and produced nine warrior maidens known as Valkyries. They would carry the dead heroes on their Pegasus-like steeds to the upper realm, howling and yowling and whoopwhooping as they ascend in their wild ride. We might find the true meaning of Walhalla if we analyse the word Valkyrie, German Walküre, Scandinavian Valkyrja 'slain-chooser' (val, valiant dead; kyr choose) though I still like may idea that it means 'chooser of the chosen'. Anyway, Valhalla is the hall of those slain in battle. When they get to Heaven they are revived, not primarily to drink mead and ale in the banqueting hall (the common misconception) but to form a celestial army. With our hindsight we know that what Wotan really needed was a fire brigade (remember the great conflagration coming at the end of Götterdämmerung). The demi-god Loge (Loki) did not live there, because he was a potential potent arsonist. Wotan was a wanderer (he is called Wanderer in Siegfried), and in spite of being married to Fricka, the patroness of family values (or perhaps he thought that putting other females 'in a family way' was promoting that cause) he went about spilling his..., or, as we now say, passing on his precious genes. Under the assumed name Wälse he fathered a pair of human twins by a woman of the Völsung or Wälsung family: a daughter Sieglinde, and a son Siegmund. They were brought up separately.Young Siegmund was expected to confront the dragon Fafner in his den and bring back the ring; Wotan even placed a sword in an ash tree for him to find. This tree was part of the interior decoration in the dwelling of a hostile man named Hunding (note the hound reference in his name; the canine connection of the twins was that their father was a wolf; no, truly, seriously, they really thought he was). By chance or design, Sieglinde was married to Hunding, and one stormy day Siegmund was on the run (you can hear the tempest and the chase in the brief overture). He burst into the Hunding house exclaiming: Wes Herd dies auch sei, hier muss ich rasten (Whose hearth this 'och' be, here must I rest). He lies down. Sieglinde comes in, thinking her man has come home wanting his dinner, but instead she cries: Ein fremder Mann! (a strange man). She moves closer and closer, talking to herself all the while. Siegmund suddenly begs for 'ein Quell' or two (Quell means 'a well', so he is saying 'Can you please direct me to the nearest drinking fountain). She gives him water from a drink-horn, and he is grateful. She tells him he can have refuge in Hunding's home. He says he is weaponless and wounded, and she immediately wants him to show her his wounds. No, they are only slight, he says. But she now puts meed in the horn, and they share it. He rises to leave, but she urges him to stay. When she asks what he is running away from, he starts on the catalogue of names he applies to himself (having forgotten his real name): Woeful, Doleful, and so on through Act One. Sinister spine-tingling brass chords announce gruff Hunding's arrival, wearing armour and carrying his spear (his horse he leaves in the stall). Get the meal for us men, he eventually orders. Hunding notices the stranger's resemblance to his wife, and in the table-talk Siegmund says he cannot call himself Peaceful (Friedmund) or Joyful (Frohwalt), but Woeful (Wehwalt); his father was Wolfe, and he is a thus a Wolfing, and he had a twin sister. After the guest has told his long story, Hunding realizes that this is the foe he has been pursuing, and, in effect, he challenges him to a duel in the morning. He goes to bed. Alone, Siegmund wonders where the sword promised by his father might be, and he notices something shining in the axial ash tree. Sieglinde tells him that at her wedding a one-eyed man came in and put a sword there. Siegmund successfully draws out the blade; she tells him his true name is Siegmund (Victor); they have an extended love-duet; the door bursts opens in tune with their passion and the spring moonlight floods the room. To your brother you are bride and sister; so let the Wälsung blood flourish, are his last words. Hunding's first utterance had been: Let my house be holy to you. And here they are embracing on his floor. Nothing's sacred any more. Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Act Two The first sounds from the orchestra are the frenzied trumpeting of the sword motif, amid turbulence. The blissful kissful unhappy ill-fated lovers are now on the run; Sieglinde and her twin-brother Siegmund Wölfing Wälsung are fleeing from the outraged Hunding, Sieglinde's unloved husband. We do not see the distressed couple, but we hear their agitation in the music. They are impatiently waiting in the wings until scene three, for fifty minutes, while the gods discuss the morality of their unnatural relationship. We suddenly think the orchestra has turned too many pages and is already into the Ride of the Valkyries of Act 3. But no, Wotan (Woden, Odin) comes into view, wearing armour (or a double-breasted suit) and holding his spear, accompanied by Brünnhilde the Valkyrie, with her helmet, shield, and spear (well, that's how Kirsten Flagstad looked) but some versions might want her dressed differently (as Catwoman, or Wonder Woman, or Maria von Trapp). Wotan tells his beloved daughter to take his son Siegmund's side in the coming combat between the husband and the brother. She leaps from rock to rock (if she is lucky, but they might give her an escalator). Brünnhilde is giving forth her war-cry: Hoyotoho, Heiaha (and a bottle of rum). From her high perch she espies Wotan's consort Fricka, her step-mother (or is Fricka her aunt?), and she warns her father to prepare for a fierce fight himself. Brünnhilde beats a hasty retreat into a cave, with her steed Grane. We don't expect to see the horse, nor the two rams drawing Fricka's carriage. She (presumably being based on Wagner's own wife Minna) jumps straight in: she knows he has been avoiding her, hiding in the mountains (Switzerland, with his rich woman-friend, Mathilde Wesendonck, equivalent to Erda, with whom Wotan had found passionate comfort, and who had given birth to the nine Valkyries). You won't have read all that in any books, because I made it up; but notice the reference to 'Minne's power. (Minne means 'love') in Wotan's lines. Hunding has appealed to Fricka, as the guardian of marriages. (Who is going to cook his meals and bring him his nightcap now?). Wotan says he does not recognize an oath of wedlock if the marriage is loveless. Fricka now launches them into a full-throttled domestic dispute. She pours out her resentment over his sexual relations with a woman to produce the twins and with a goddess to engender the Valkyries. Wotan says she does not understand: the gods need this hero to get the gold and the Ring back. (Beowulf has been at the movies in 2007 and we need to note that Sigemund is the dragon-slayer in that Anglo-Saxon epic; he gains the treasure, including a hoard of rings, not just one.) Wotan and Fricka argue over Siegmund's status as a free agent, if he has a divine father and a magic sword. Fricka eventually wins, and Wotan swears to her that Siegmund will lose; and Brünnhilde will now ensure that Hunding is the victor. Scene 2 Brooding deeply, Wotan tells the story that we already know from Das Rheingold. He adds the details about the origin of the Valkyries (had she never asked him, who is my mother?) and the bad news that Alberich (the Nibelung who had forsworn love to get his hands on the gold) had now fathered a boy in hate through a woman he paid to render him this service; that child (Hagen is his name we will learn ultimately) will get the Ring and bring about the downfall of the gods. Wotan gives his daughter the command to take Hunding's side now, and he becomes angry when she tries to talk him out of it. Scene 3 The lovers arrive; Sieglinde is hysterical and wants to to press on further; Siegmund wants her to rest (I presume they have been up all night). Finally she faints, and he cradles her. Scene 4 Brünnhilde appears (only heroes about to die can ever see her); she tells Siegmund she is taking him to Valhalla. Will Sieglinde come, too? No? Then it's no go. He even threatens to kill Sieglinde with the sword. Brünnhilde is overwhelmed with compassion, and agrees to save them. Scene 5 A gentle scene, then Hunding's horns announce his arrival. The Valkyrie supports her step-brother, but Wotan intervenes, lets Hunding do the foul deed, then kills him, sending him to Fricka with the message of the outcome she desired. And now he is intent on punishing Brünnhilde for her disobedience. A woman has conceived and will give birth to a son, and his name shall be called ... Siegfried. Wagner: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) Act Three: Scene 1 The wild music we hear is known as 'the ride of the Valkyries', but there will probably be no horses; they will be hiding in the woods, bucking and jostling. The wild place we see (in our mind's eye) is where the nine Valkyries meet, before riding up to Walhalla with the heroes they have garnered from battlefields. Count them. There are only four: Gerhilde (name means the German heroine, or something else), Ortlinde (from the place where linden trees grow?), Waltraute (forest rue?), Schwertleite (leading sword?). Then Helmwige (has a wig under her helmet?) arrives with her catch slumped over her saddle. They all exchange Hoyotoho and Heiaha. Likewise when the others fly in: Siegrune (victory through reading runes?), Grimgerde (Grim Gertie?), and Rossweisse (knows her horses, especially white ones?). They are all wearing full armour, but don't be surprised if they appear in evening gowns at a dinner party, or in miniskirts doing go-go dancing (singing Yohoho and a bottle of rum). One is still missing. Where is Brünnhilde? Here she comes, pursued by Wotan, but that's a living woman her horse Grane is carrying (highly irregular). 'Das ist kein Held!' (That is no hero) Helmwige exclaims (she could be a man hiding under that wig); she is pre-echoing Siegfried's astonishment when he takes the armour off Brünnhilde asleep on her rock ('Das ist kein Mann'). It is Sieglinde, and now that her brother and lover Siegmund is dead, she wants to die; and so she invites Brünnhilde to kill her. She changes her plea when she is told she is bearing Siegmund's love-child. She can hide in the forest, near the cave where Fafner the giant has become a dragon to guard the Rheingold; she will be safe from Wotan there, because he avoids the area. (Wrong, he does eventually go there to confront Mime and Alberich, in Siegfried.) The child will be called Siegfried (listen for his theme resounding on horns). The pieces of Siegmund's sword are entrusted to Sieglinde. There has been a lot of shrieking hysterics, because Wotan is coming, in raging wrath, but Sieglinde becomes ecstatic and cries out thankfully as she leaves: 'O hehrstes Wunder' (O most marvellous wonder). This beautiful tune will lie dormant till the very end of the epic, when it will rise above the sound of the crumbling crashing world to proclaim 'redemption through love'. It only lasts a moment (7 brief bars, fortissimo). Remember it. In both cases it declares to us that Brünnhilde is a wonderful woman. Scene 2 When Wotan comes on, fulminating (with optional lightning and thunder on stage), Brünnhilde has wrapped herself in a huddle of her sisters. He goes on at great length about her treachery and the punishment she shall receive: she will be put into a death-like sleep on the rock, until a man comes along and wakes her, and takes her to his home, where she will sit obediently by the hearth and spin. (That bit never happens; she will be taken to a palace.) The Valkyries flee in terror into the woods, when Wotan threatens the same fate to them unless they avoid her. We are left with two talking heads and a massive orchestra (completely out of sight). According to Wagner's stage directions there could be clasping of knees and farewell kissing of eyes, as the bargaining proceeds, but it is mostly Brünnhilde pleading for mercy and attempting to justify herself. Scene 3 'War es so schmählich was ich verbrach?' (Was what I did so shameful?). So begins a dialogue lasting half an hour, leading to a monologue of Wotan which fills the final quarter of an hour, but the music will sweep us along. Wotan bids his daughter a heartfelt farewell, sets her on the rock, summons Loge to surround it with magic fire, and enunciates a solemn warning: 'Whover fears the point of my spear, never pass through this fire'. WAGNER'S VALKYRIE Radio NZ Concert network Sunday 2nd of March 2008 3 - 8 pmWAGNER: Die Walküre, an opera in three acts Brünnhilde..................... Lisa Gasteen Sieglinde....................... Deborah Voigt Fricka........................... Michelle DeYoung Siegmund...................... Clifton Forbis Wotan........................... James Morris Hunding........................ Mikhail Petrenko Metropolitan Opera Orch/Lorin Maazel (EBU) I was led to believe that we would be having our own Simon O'Neill as Siegmund, and I was sure it was his photo on the Metropera website, advertising this opera. WAGNER : DAS RHEINGOLDRichard Wagner's Rhinegold
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 7th of September 2008 at 3 - 5.40 pm COMPOSER CHARACTERS BACKGROUND UNDERGROUND The meaning of it all ANALYSIS SYNOPSIS STORYLINE LIBRETTO WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen, the stage-festival play, performed as a tetralogy of prologue and three operas (1) Das Rheingold, a prologue in one act Wotan........................... Alan Titus Donner.......................... Oskar Hillebrandt Froh.............................. Attila Fekete Loge............................. Christian Franz Fricka........................... Judit Németh Freia............................. Anna Herczenik Erda.............................. Cornelia Kallisch Alberich........................ Hartmut Welker Mime............................ Michael Roider Fasolt............................ Jan-Hendrik Rootering Fafner........................... Walter Fink Woglinde...................... Eszter Wierdl Wellgunde..................... Katalin Gémes Hungarian Radio SO/Adám Fischer (recorded in the Bartók National Concert Hall, Palace of Arts, Budapest by Hungarian Radio) Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (‘The Ring of the Nibelung’, namely Alberich, an underworld dwarf). In our local video-opera group we have already had several potted versions of this massive work (some productions run to 17 hours of words and music). There was the Stagehand’s Ring (where the backstage boys told the story as seen from their vantage points). We have been regaled by Anna Russell in pink chiffon, holding forth on the oddities of the storyline. We have seen Placido Domingo (a serious Wagnerian tenor) preparing for a performance of ‘The Valkyrie’. This year we have been working our way slowly through a Bayreuth Festival video-recording (Pierre Boulez, Patrice Chéreau, Donald Macintyre, Gwynneth Jones), in which the GBShaw interpretation of the epic-drama is followed (see UNDERGROUND). The Ring is a trilogy, in four parts (a tetraptych disguised as a triptych; Wagner thought he could fool some of the people some of the time, but when you count up the number of nights you have to go out to see it you use four fingers). The last part is Götterdämmerung (‘Twilight of the Gods’); the German word Dämmerung can refer to the ‘tweenlight’ of sunrise or sunset, but even though the real action of the opera begins with the sun rising (Dawn and Siegfried’s journey along the Rhine River) the catastrophic ending informs us that this is the ‘nightfall’ of the gods, and their downfall. Bernard Shaw translated it as 'Night falls on the gods'. It is important to understand that Wagner wrote the whole thing backwards. He first called it ‘Siegfried’s Death’, and in it he told the audience, through conversations between the characters, how Siegfried met Brünnhilde, what Siegfried’s parentage was, and the origin of the fateful ring. So he decided to write the libretto Siegfried, to explain those three themes. Then he produced ‘The Valkyrie’, to introduce Wotan and his daughter Brünnhilde. Finally, he added ‘The Rhine Gold’ as the prologue. Then he started composing the music. This shows why The Ring is so repetitive. Wagner could have shortened them all down to the size of Rheingold (150 minutes, or 2 and 1/2 hours) by eliminating all the flashback stuff! As Anna Russell tells us, if you know the E flat chord then that is basically what the 150 bars of the Rhinegold prelude are about. It is true that you will hear the preludes and overtures to Wagner’s music-dramas on the radio (from Rienzi to Parsifal) but certainly not this one (very minimalist!); but the same applies to the opening music of the other three parts of The Ring. To my ears it is the same theme as for Erda, the goddess of the Earth, though in a different key. Remember, Wagner makes extensive use of ‘leading motifs’. So we are starting deep down in the ground, but there are seven rising notes in the theme: DAAA-DI-DAAA-DI-DAAA-DI-DIII. And there are arpeggios representing the moving waters of the Rhine. Suddenly in the climactic surging there is a breakthrough, and we are up into the clear air, with the voices of the three Rhine maidens ringing out. They are ‘wogeling’ (Weia Waga Woge Wagalaweia), an aquatic form of yodelling. They are nixies (water-elves); their names are Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde. They see a dwarf coming out of a cleft in the rock, sneezing. It is Alberich the Nibelung. They think he is ugly, and tease him terribly, pretending to be attracted to him, but always slipping away from his grasp. When the sun shines on the hoard of gold that they are guarding, Alberich loses interest in them. They inform him that anyone who renounces love can make a ring from this gold and rule the universe. They are not called nixies for nothing: they act seductively, but when it comes to the point they say Nix, Nothing doing. So Alberich gets his own back and nicks the gold from the nixies. They go into ‘Oy vey’ mode: ‘Wehe! Wehe! ‘ (Woe!Woe!). Second Scene The chief-god Wotan (Woden) and his consort Fricka (Frygge) are sleeping in a flowery meadow on a mountain top above the Rhine River. She wakes him to point out their completed new home, a glorious castle (we eventually learn that its name is Walhall, Valhalla). Fricka is the patroness of ‘family values’, and she is not happy about the reward that is being given to the two giants who built the divine residence; it is her sister Freia, goddess of youth and beauty, who produces the apples that keep the gods young. In their heated argument, Wotan finds cause to mention that he lost an eye when courting her. (Watch for the patch over his eye-socket.) Freia comes in, pursued by the big brothers Fafner and Fasolt. Her brothers Donner (Thor, the wielder of thunderbolts) and Froh (what employment he engages in is uncertain, but his name tells us he is glad) want to sock it to the giants. But Loge (Loki, the cunning demi-god, connected with fire) is called in to restart negotiations over the contract. He offers the idea of Alberich’s gold, and the Ring. The giants like the idea of wealth, but take Freia off as hostage. Immediately the gods start to look old. Wotan and Loge prepare to descend to the underworld. Third Scene In the intermezzo Wotan and Loge descend to the underworld. We hear the flickering motif of Loge, semiquavers darting about, representing trickery and wildfire; also the renunciation-of-love theme, letting us know that we are entering the realm of Alberich the Nibelung; then we are assailed by the sound of hammers on anvils (dum di-di dum-dum-dum). Alberich is dragging his brother Mime by the ears, and calling him a treacherous dwarf (!), for not achieving his productivity quota. Where is that special helmet I ordered? The motif of the tarnhelm is heard (chords on horns moving about slowly and mysteriously). Mime says he was afraid it would not be up to standard, but Alberich takes it and tries it on; pronouncing a spell about night and mist (Nacht und Nebel) he disappears from sight into a ‘nebulous’ column. While invisible he whips Mime, and then moves off to let all the Nibelungs know who’s the boss, and that he will be watching them even though they cannot see him. Wotan and Loge engage Mime in conversation, and at length suggest they might be able to take Alberich’s power away and save the Nibelungs from his tyranny. When Alberich comes back and asks what their business is in Nibelheim, they say they want to pay their respects and see the wonders he has wrought. Alberich shows off all his gold. Alberich boasts that he will become master of the whole world, and having renounced love he will overpower the gods and have his way with their women (in a loveless mode, naturally). Wotan becomes angry, but Loge inervenes and asks Alberich to demonstrate the magic powers he has acquired through the tarnhelm. His first trick is to change himself into a giant snake. How about something tiny? When he turns into a toad, Wotan puts his foot on him, the dwarf returns to his own form, and the gods bind him, and drag him up to the world above. In the interlude listen for the ring, and the anvils. Fourth Scene Alberich complains about the service, being trussed up like a Christmas turkey, and he threatens revenge. If he wants to be untied, he must yield up the gold. Well, at least I get to keep the ring, he murmurs. He orders the Nibelungs to bring up the hoard. Then he demands the tarnhelm, but Loge throws it on the heap. Wotan now covets the ring. No, no, anything but that; and anyway it really belongs to the Rhine maidens. Wotan snatches it from Alberich, and puts it on one of his own fingers. Right, I now put a curse on this ring; misery and death will prey on anyone who has it in their possession. So saying, Alberich crawls back into his hole. He has forsworn love, but ultimately we learn he has fathered (lovelessly) a nasty son named Hagen, who is to regain the ring for him. The gods gather round, and the giants return with Freia; and the divine beings cheer up and look young again. The giants will accept the gold, as long as it hides Freia. But in the end there is a hole in the pile through which she is still visible. The ring will fix that, but Wotan has already become attached to it! Fasolt seizes Freia and is making off with her, when Erda (the earth mother) appears out of the ground (but only as a torso, like the Rapanui / Easter-Island statues). Give it up, Wotan, flee the ring’s curse, she admonishes. A gloomy day is dawning for the gods (dämmert den Göttern), hence the name of the last of the four parts: Götterdämmerung; as I said, the German word can mean dawning or dusk, and it is the end of the gods that Wagner had in mind. Wotan tosses it on the hoard. Thereupon Fasolt and Fafner fight over the ring. Fafner kills Fasolt, takes all the gold including the ring, and stalks off. When we meet him again, in part 3 (Siegfried), he has used the tarnhelm to become a dragon and he is living with the gold in a cave. Anna Russell pokes fun at this, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head in disbelief. In ignorance, actually. We readers of Beowulf (see the movie with Angelina Jolie!) know that it is a dragon’s hallowed role to guard gold in a barrow; and we are not talking about a barrowful of gold, but a hoard of treasure in a tomb. So, we and the gods look on aghast at this outcome. Death has a nasty smell. Let’s go inside. Donner swings his hammer and there is a thunderclap. A rainbow bridge springs up, allowing the gods to make their entry in Walhall(a) (at last we learn the castle’s name). Loge stays out of it, muttering that they are hastening to their end, and he just might be the arsonist who burns their home down. The maidens of the Rhine whine: “Rheingold, reines Gold”(pure gold) is Wagner’s pun. VERDI : FALSTAFFGiuseppe Verdi's Falstaff
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 31st of August 2008 at 3 - 5.35 pm COMPOSER CHARACTERS BACKGROUND UNDERGROUND Merry Wives of Windsor FOREGROUND On this Welsh production ANALYSIS SYNOPSIS STORYLINE LIBRETTO VERDI: Falstaff, an opera in three acts I saw Tito Gobbi in the role, in Melbourne, before I emigrated to New Zealand. He is on the Karajan recording I have owned since the World Record Club issued it on three black discs. The compact discs I am playing at this moment have Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1950, in Studio 8H, with Giuseppe Valdengo, and an audience. The links for clicking (above) have a wealth of information, in words, and pictures, and sound if you want it (including Gobbi and Schwarzkopf with Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra). MONTEVERDI : POPPEAMonteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.
LIBRETTO The Coronation of Poppea is not the first ancient Rome opera we have had in our local video-opera group. Mozart’s Clemency of Titus was another. The thing that connects the two in my mind is that Titus was the warrior who ended the Jewish war in the year 70 of the current era, and Nero was the non-combatant who started the war against the Jews. Arrigo Boito composed Nerone, which dramatizes Nero’s persecution of Christians; I have a/the recording of it, but it has no pictures, so it will not be used in our opera group. Monteverdi’s Poppea (1642, his last opera) was based on the work of the historian Tacitus. In our local video-opera group we have seen Monteverdi’s Ulysses (and Penelope) and his Orpheus (and Eurydice), and also this one, which is about the emperor Nero (and his empress Octavia and her replacement Poppea). In the performance we saw, Anne-Sophie von Otter is Nero, and Mireille Delunsch is Poppea (we have seen her as the Marilyn Monroe form of Violetta la Traviata). As usual in a Monteverdi opera, there is a Prologue. Fortune, Virtue, and Love (Amore) are having a superiority contest, over which is the most influential, and Love wins. This story will demonstrate Love’s world-changing power. Here is one version of the opera, but some scenes may be omitted. Act One (1) In Poppea’s place (or palace), Ottone (Otho, who will be emperor himself for a short reign) loves Poppea, and he has come to admire her at dawn; but when he sees two soldiers he realizes that Nero (Nerone) is already there taking pleasure with her. “Ah, perfidious Poppea”, he laments, lengthily and bitterly. (2) The two guards wake up and discuss the current politics: the Prince is robbing the poor to enrich his cronies; he only listens to the rapacious old pedant Seneca (a slander, I think; he was the famous stoic philosopher, and Nero’s tutor). Quiet, he’s coming. (3) “Don’t leave, stay in my loving embrace.” Nero must go, but promises to return. “When?” (4) Poppea is musing over her prospects. Arnalta, her old nurse and confidante, warns her that Octavia knows what is going on. No, Love will conquer Fortune. (5) Octavia is invoking Jove and inviting him to punish Nero for his infidelity. She has a nurse, too (not given a name, a transvestite male), who imparts her counsels. (6) Octavia is with her page Valletto (tenor, or boy soprano), and old Seneca instructs her in being a glorious virtuous empress, even though Fate and Fortune have struck her harshly. Octavia is not impressed; she knows that Nero plans to divorce her. Valletto mocks Seneca, and he threatens to burn his toga and his books if he does not help her. (7-8) Seneca’s soliloquy (on the miseries that go with crowns and purple robes) is interrupted by Athene, predicting his death, and Seneca (being a practitioner of Stoicism) stoicly accepts it. (9) Nero informs Seneca that he is determined to remove Octavia from her position as his consort, and then wed Poppea. Seneca says that the people and the Senate will not approve; Nero will tear out the tongue of anyone who gainsays him. He parts from Seneca in anger. 10] Poppea, Nero(ne), Otho/Ottone (unseen) Nero has just had a quarrel with his guiding philosopher Seneca, over his plan to divorce Octavia and marry Poppea. Now Nero is in a softer mood, as Poppea asks him if he had enjoyed her kisses and the apples of her breast, during the night. The Emperor is so delighted he wants to make her Empress. Poppea points out that Seneca is saying that Nero’s sceptre depends on his approval. What? What! exclaims Nero, and sends a guard to demand that Seneca kill himself immediately. 11] Otho, Poppea, Arnalta (unseen) [eavesdropping is endemic in this place] Otho tries to regain Poppea’s love, but she says: Bad Luck. (Arnalta the nurse is given a word here, set to music by a later composer: Poor boy; when I was young I couldn’t bear to see my lovers suffer; I gave them what they wanted.) 12] Otho reconsiders his position: Poppea is a serpent that he can no longer cherish in his bosom; if Nero finds out they had been lovers Otho could be in big trouble. 13] Drusilla, a lady-in-waiting of Octavia, loves Otho; she asks whether he is still obsessed with Poppea. He admits this, but surprises Drusilla by offering himself to her, repentantly and wholeheartedly. They toss her doubts to and fro, but she becomes convinced. The act ends with Otho confessing to himself that he has Drusilla in his mouth, but Poppea in his heart. Act 2 Scene 1] Mercury visits Seneca, and invites him to join the immortals. 2] Liberto (a freed slave), the Captain of Nero’s Guard, reluctantly informs Seneca that there is an imperial decree: Seneca tells him that he does not need to speak the message; he can go and tell Nero that Seneca is dead and buried. 3] Seneca tells his friends that he can now put his stoic doctrines into practice. 4] A comic scene, in which young Valletto (like Cherubino) discusses love with a lady (again there is focus on the chest, and the word latte appears in the text); he describes his symptoms, and she agrees to relieve his discomfort with her sweeteners. 5] Nero and Lucano (not our tenor Luciano) rejoice in the death of Seneca, and they sing in praise of Love. 6] Otho is still pining for Poppea, and simultaneously thinking of murdering her. 7] Octavia demands that he kill Poppea, or she (Octavia, & Poppea will blacken his name. 8] Drusilla is ecstatic because Otho has said he loves her. Valletto (Octavia’s valet/pageboy) asks Nurse how much she would pay to be youthful like Drusilla; all the gold in the world, she replies. He goes on teasing her about her venerable age. 9] Otho approaches Drusilla in her deliriously happy state and asks her to lend him some of her clothes. He reveals that he is planning to do away with Poppea. 10] Poppea is in her garden, glad that Seneca is out of the way, and praying to the goddess Love for a safe and speedy union with Nero. Arnalta warns Poppea to be careful, but if she does achieve high rank, kindly remember her faithful nurse. She puts Poppea to bed. 11] Love watches over Poppea as she sleeps. 12] Otho arrives intent on murder, though diffident. Love intervenes. Poppea awakes and finds herself confronted by ‘Drusilla’ with a weapon. Arnalta calls for help. Love’s words close Act 2: “I have defended Poppea; I will make her Empress”. Remember from the prologue that Love was considered to be more powerful than Fortune and Virtue. Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea Act 3 Scene 1] In the previous scene Otho/Ottone had disguised himself as Drusilla (the woman who loves him and has been led to believe that he loves her) and was intent on murdering Poppea (whom he loves, but she has dropped him in favour of Nero/Nerone). The goddess Love saved Poppea, and ‘Drusilla’ was chased off by Arnalta, Poppea’s assertive nurse. In this opening scene, the real Drusilla is thinking how happy she is because her rival (Poppea) is going to be removed by Otho, assisted by her clothing; if all goes well, she will worship and adore her garments after this. (Really?!) 2] Drusilla is now accused of attempted murder, by the formidable Arnalta (in the first performance this part was played by a male comic; we are still trying to work out what we are up against in this production; she looks just like a pantomime dame). 3] Nero enters and he is informed of the treachery against his beloved Poppea. Drusilla protests her innocence; Nero threatens torture; Drusilla confesses, and claims to be the only guilty party. Nero sends her off to the executioner, and adds a request that he should prolong the agony she suffers before she dies (lunga amarissima agonia, ‘long bitterest agony’). 4] Otho intervenes and takes the full blame. Drusilla is not to be outdone, and insists she is solely responsible. Their claim and counterclaim goes on for some time, until Otho breaks the chain by suggesting that an honourable death would be too easy for him, compared with being banished from Nero’s gracious presence. This works, and the Emperor consigns them to remote exile. And while Nero is in the mood for repudiation, he decrees that his spouse Octavia/Ottavia should be divorced from him and shipped to a distant destination. 5] Nero and Poppea rejoice, as the way to their union has been cleared of all obstacles. 6-7] Octavia laments her fate. Arnalta rejoices over her new status, as confidante of the Empress and living in the palace as a lady. The first Octavia objected to the order of the scenes in the script, which meant that she was upstaged by Arnalta 8] At last, the coronation of Poppea, as promised in the title. We should be glad for her, but they are a bunch of unlikable characters, and not one of them will live happily ever after. Monteverdi was 75 when he composed this masterpiece (to be compared with Verdi producing Otello and Falstaff in his old age). The finale was set to music by another composer or two. BBC Proms 2008 MONTEVERDI: The Coronation of Poppaea, an opera in a prologue & three acts STRAUSS : CAPRICCIORichard Strauss's Capriccio
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 24th of August 2008 at 3 - 5.30 pm STRAUSS: Capriccio, an opera in one act This was the last opera of Richard Strauss. A "capriccio" is "a lively and usually short musical composition". This one runs non-stop for 140 minutes, more than two hours There is a famous monophonic recording of the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, produced by Walter Legge, and so Mrs Legge (alias Elisabeth Schwarzkopf) got the main role, of the countess. Kiri Te Kanawa takes this part, very ably, in a video version; it is a San Francisco production, conducted by the left-handed Donald Runnicles (also seen batonning sinstrally in a documentary about "Parsifal"). It is sung in German with English subtitles (sighs of relief all round). But this audio version will not be so amenable. Looking at the list of names for this Vienna production, my mind is a blank, except when my eyes light on Renée Fleming. Our cup of chocolate will be 'creamy'! At the halfway point, the aristocratic heroine tells the servants: "We will have chocolate [hot cocoa drink] served here". That, of course, will be the cue for your tea-lady to bring in the brew and biscuits (chocolate bikkies, which you can dip in your cup and thus tastefully turn your tea into cocoa, if you like). I would characterize this opera as a sophisticated comedy of manners. Our friend Ramaeau gets a mention (our local video opera group will remember our afternoons with Les Indes Galantes, and Radio NZ has broadcast Castor and Pollux), and also Gluck (his Orpheus has been on our menu). Krauss describes it as "a musical conversation piece", dealing with the controversy that raged in Paris in Gluck's time: which is more important in an opera, the words or the music? It could also be titled: "Let's make an opera". It is the young beautiful widowed Countess Madeleine's birthday. The party is in her salon. Flamand is composing the music for her, Olivier is writing the words. They are also competing for her affections, while her brother, the count, is chasing an actress named Clairon ('Bugle'). Madeleine can not make up her mind between her suitors; she will tell them in the morning. Will she choose them both, and have a perfect "wedding" of words and music?! Meanwhile, Kiri's persona looks as if she will be happy with her chief manservant for the night. But I could be misreading her face. Each of the two protagonists, Olivier and Flamand, have a private tête-à-tête with Madeleine, and she starts her preliminary agonizing over the choice, until the hot chocolate was served. The Count now comes in, excited about the praise his actress-friend Clairon has bestowed on his acting ability. He learns that Olivier's sonnet (which he had previously recited, rather badly) has been set to music, and he is displeased; he is on the side of the word-spinners, not the music-grinders. Along the way, Clairon mentions a play entitled Tancredi (eventually this became a Rossini opera). A little ballet piece (a pas de deux) is inserted, introduced by La Roche, to show the wide range of theatrical experience (this ought to be the second act, a requirement in Paris, as Wagner was forcefully reminded when he staged Tannhäuser there and wilfully and disastrously put his ballet in Act One; but there is no break in this 140-minute "musical conversation-piece" of Krauss und Strauss). La Roche avers that the basic defect of opera is the deafening noise of the orchestra; the voices are drowned out by bombast; the singers are forced to scream. The Count declares that it is no use trying to understand the meaning of the words because you can not hear any of them. La Roche bemoans the dying of Italian fine singing (implying that bel canto has become can belto). We are treated to an Italian duet by the Italian singers; the text is by Metastasio (in Palmerston North we have Don Bewley, a connoisseur of this poet and librettist). "If I die by your side, my idol.... Who has ever felt such sweet happiness/ cruel torment?... Farewell my love, light of my eyes." La Roche's scenario for staging the birth of Pallas Athena from the head of Zeus is mocked by the company ("he must have got a headache"). He then outlines his idea for The Fall of Carthage with great theatrical machinery and special effects. Finally he speaks of a new opera with real people like themselves, not mythological or historical. (Strauss wrote one of these about a spat he had with his volatile soprano wife, in Intermezzo, words and music by the composer.) This new opera could be a birthday present for the Countess. All depart, and the menservants begin gossiping about their betters, and proposing to put on a marionette show for the Countess. However, their chief tells them they can have the night off. The Count will be away with the actress, helping her with her lines (or whatever), and there will be no guests in the house. Another comical scene ensues. Monsieur Taupe comes out of hiding. He had been asleep and had missed his transport back to town. He explains to the major-domo the importance of the prompter's role; every one is dependent on him; when he falls asleep the players freeze on stage, and the audience wakes up. Now comes Madeleine's lengthy moonlight monologue. Flamand and Olivier will meet her separately in the morning to talk about her opera. She is suffering from the "torn between two lovers" syndrome, and asks her reflection in the mirror to assist her in her choice. Already there have been suggestions that she could have them both, on the side. Meanwhile she will be having dinner alone, with her faithful manservant. (Kiri flicks her fan and gives him a saucy glance, as if to ask what is on the menu tonight. Another case of what the butler saw, or, on this occasion, did?) More at the Wikipedia article, with a link to a copy of the German libretto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capriccio_(opera) http://www.opera-guide.ch/libretto.php?id=363&uilang=de&lang=de STRAVINSKY : THE RAKE'S PROGRESSSTRAVINSKY'S THE RAKE'S PROGRESS
Radio New Zealand Concert network Sunday 3rd of August 2008 at 3 - 5.30 pm We have an amazing collection of visual aids, which I have culled from the Metropera archives (they did this one in 2003) and elsewhere. COMPOSER CHARACTERS BACKGROUND FOREGROUND Hogarth's 8 pictures! UNDERGROUND ANALYSIS SYNOPSIS STORYLINE LIBRETTO If you go to the external links at the bottom of that Wikipedia page you will be invited to click and obtain a copy of the libretto (pdf); and if you can not resist the temptation you will find 200 pages (English with French translation) pouring into your machine, and that's big bytes! My Big Mac computer could handle it, but if I had done it on the older iMac (which I use mainly for mail) it could have been disastrous. No chance of that at present, as it has refused to open up to me for several days, ever since I asked it to take me to my googlepages website, and it seized up. So, there will be no special personal affable messages from me, to you, unless / until I can get into my locked mailbox. My question to you: Is your rake making any progress? How does your garden grow? (Using the language of Hogarth's time.) It is raining and storming here in New Zealand, wreaking havoc on horticultural enclosures and endeavours. If you are in Palmerston North, you will need to record this broadcast, because at 2pm you will be at the Cathedral hearing Guy Donaldson's Renaissance Singers performing works by local composers Graham Parsons and Helen Caskie; at 3pm you will be in Cinema Gold gazing intently at Anna Netrebko as Juliette, in a considerably delayed "live" screening from the Metropera ; at 5pm you will be in Centrepoint theatre admiring Cynthia Fortitude, alias Helen Moulder, opera-singer extraordinaire, making a party-political speech (What about the workers?). STRAVINSKY: The Rake's Progress, opera in three acts Beautiful Elisabeth Schwarzkopf played the part of Anne Trulove at the first performance, in Venice in 1951. ( I know that, like most Germans, she had trouble widh English "the" [za], but she conquered it eventually.) TOM RAKEWELL admiring his machine that purports to turn stone into bread: Thanks to this excellent device Man shall re-enter Paradise From which he once was driven. Secure from need, the cause of crime, The world shall for the second time Be similar to heaven. When to his infinite relief Toil, hunger, poverty and grief Have vanished like a dream, This engine Adam shall excite To hallelujahs of delight And ecstasy extreme. NICK SHADOW The idle drone and the deserving poor Will give good money for this toy, be sure. This shows that Wystan H. Auden and Chester Kallman used rhyming in their libretto. "I liked it very much. Everything except the music." (Benjamin Britten). So it must be all right, then? I don't have a recording of the opera, so I am playing some of Stravinsky's symphonic music. In the Song of the Nightingale, the poor little twitterer got stuck on one note, so I had to cut her off, and move on to the two symphonies. The last track on the three-movement symphony, to be played con moto has become far more repetitious and minimalist than the rest, and I have decided it is another seizure; and so I have taken the disc out and cleaned off the fluff (or whatever) and we have gone back to the nightingale. At the end, as in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, there is a short epilogue. All the principals step out in front of the curtain without their wigs (or beard, in Baba's case) and sing the moral of the morality play: "For idle hands and hearts and minds, the Devil finds work to do". |
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