Three musical reviews
Dec. 12th, 2007 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirHaste Street, on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Yes, I'm still alive, and no, I'm not being overwhelmed by either labwork or finals (for once in my life). Mostly I've been badgering myself to write and failing.
Sign #41232 that you need to tone down the OCD: looking at the "favorite books" section on someone's profile and getting unreasonably annoyed at the fact that they listed Pride and Prejudice while spelling Jane Austen's name wrong ("Austin" instead of "Austen").
I might as well write them up now before I drag my feet any longer:
1. The Rake's Progress: About a month ago, I went to see a dress rehearsal of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaebi_lit, who is a subscriber to the SF Opera and had tickets. I arrived rather late and ended up getting manhandled by the not-so-grandmotherly ushers into the last row of the balcony. Lesson learned: never cross little old women at the opera house. I missed most of the first scene of the first act, but luckily I listened to the recording I bought from iTunes beforehand, so it wasn't too bad. Managed to find jaebi_lit after the intermission down on the dress circle tier, which was closer than I'd ever been to the stage. Definitely a much better view.
The libretto was written by W.H. Auden in English, based on a series of eighteenth-century paintings by William Hogarth (and not based on Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, as I'd mistakenly assumed). What I found interesting: Stravinsky's score has distinctly late Baroque/early Classical elements (e.g. it includes a harpsichord and sounds very Mozartian, albeit with enough avant-garde treatments of tonality to remind you that Stravinsky's the composer), while the SF Opera production used a 1950s American setting, i.e. around the time when Stravinsky composed the opera (shortly after he immigrated to the U.S.). So the music references the time period of the opera's original source, while the staging references the time period of the composers. Nice touch, no?
On the whole, the staging was very clever: red satin bedding sinking into the floor and forming a heart before disappearing completely, an inflatable film set trailer, Anne driving to "London" (more Hollywood than London proper though) in a car with her scarf suspended behind her to convey the illusion of wind, the auction taking place around a balcony pool with some sort of projection to look like real water.
The tenor was excellent, although at times a little too expressive (hard to believe that I'm using that as a criticism). E.g. Rakewell's complaints about being bored of London don't sound particularly dissipated or full of ennui when his voice is swelling with emotion. More of a Broadway voice than an opera voice, perhaps. His best moment was in the final act, when Anne visits the now-insane Rakewell in the asylum, since the expressive voice was perfectly suited to the scene. I think that was my favorite part, although I also liked Anne's aria when she decides to follow Rakewell to London. The soprano who sang Anne and the alto who sang Baba were also very good, though no one stands out in my memory as having been exceptional.
2. La Rondine: I originally intended to go see this opera withladydaera but we weren't able to obtain rush tickets. No surprise there; the lead role is sung by Angela Gheorghiu, an internationally renowned soprano, so many performances were completely sold out. (She's on the EMI recording of La Rondine as well.) Anyway, jaebi_lit had seen it before and wanted to see it again so she got balcony side tickets for a Sunday matinee performance.
Well, what can I say? All the reviews were right: Gheorghiu's voice was incredible. Every note effortless, every pianissimo haunting. Beautiful tone: clear but with more depth and richness than a lyrical soprano. I had tears in my eyes by the end of the signature aria, "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta". I was a little surprised by Ruggero; the tenor who sang the part had a brassier voice than I expected, but after I got accustomed to it, it seemed to fit the part well. After all, Ruggero is different from Rodolfo, although both are similarly starry-eyed. Ruggero is very much a country boy from the provinces, so it makes sense that his voice is more energetic than sweet-toned. In any case, he sang his part well and acted brilliantly; one really believed that he was in love for the first time. The rest of the cast was amazing as well: Prunier and Lisette both playing comic roles but also having wonderful voices in their own right.
Wikipedia mentions that the opera has been called "the poor man's La Traviata", and the two do share some superficial plot parallels: the fallen woman falling in love with a young man but deciding to leave him "for his own good". Though there are some crucial differences: Ruggero doesn't know that Magda has been Rambaldo's mistress (in fact, he doesn't even know her real name), nor does his family object to her (in fact, his mother gives him permission to marry her), and Magda doesn't die at the end. The great melodramatic sweep of La Traviata is missing; La Rondine is much more self-contained in scope. But there's something particularly poignant about Magda being offered a chance at permanent happiness--she really could have chosen to keep on lying about her past and married Ruggero--but giving it up instead. Of course, a part of it is for Ruggero's sake since she loves him too much to marry him under the pretenses of being the innocent girl he believes her to be, but I think that Ruggero would have loved her enough to stay with her after she tells him. Magda really is a marvelously complicated character. A romantic, who wants youth, true love, passion, adventure--words we can't help regard with a certain jadedness but the sound of which gives us a secret thrill, nonetheless--but with very human weaknesses. Her time with Ruggero is but a dream that must come to an end. The opera ends with Magda standing at the center of the stage and the lights fading until there is nothing but darkness and her face in spotlight with an indescribable expression. Is it agony? Fear? Despair? How many people live like Magda, dreaming but too afraid to realize those dreams even when they can?
Well, I'll stop before I grow more melodramatic myself, but the opera was really wonderful. Puccini's music never fails to charm me, of course. Gheorghiu held a signing after the performance, andjaebi_lit and I waited in line to get CDs signed. Very exciting! I've never been so close to an opera singer before. She's very small and slender in person, which makes you boggle over how so much sound can come out of her.
3. Andrew Bird: This past Saturday, Iris (a fellow grad student) invited me to go to an Andrew Bird concert in San Francisco. The only nonclassical concert I'd been to before was the OK Go concert in Boston last year, so I was pretty eager to go again, even though I knew next to nothing about Andrew Bird or his music. The venue was the Warfield, an old vaudeville theatre on Market Street, and we arrived about an hour early so we were able to stake out standing positions near the stage.
The opening act was the Handsome Family, who sang fairly conventional country/folk melodies with very unconventional lyrics (Wikipedia describes them as American Gothic, which is as good a description as any I can think of). After that, the floor started getting really crowded, and our view was blocked by tall people, so we managed to weasel our way into some balcony seats above before Andrew Bird came on stage.
The only words I can think of to describe the concert: mindblowingly amazing. In his live performances, Bird basically plays a small motif that he records and loops while he starts playing another motif, which he also records and loops (all through a system of pedals set up on the stage), and so on, building up layers and layers of dense instrumental sound into the most dizzyingly beautiful music I've heard. Think Ravel's Bolero, but with fewer instruments and more than one musical theme. The premise is not so different from the 20th-century minimalists, I suppose. Bird plays the violin (by holding it like a guitar and playing pizzicato-style, as well as by more conventional bowing), the guitar, and the glockenspiel, in addition to whistling and singing. Each performance is also partly improvised, which only adds to how incredible the experience is.
I listened to his first album (courtesy of Iris) before going to the concert, but I have to say that I didn't really get blown away by the music until I saw it live. I've been listening to his albums on repeat ever since.
Yours &c.
Yes, I'm still alive, and no, I'm not being overwhelmed by either labwork or finals (for once in my life). Mostly I've been badgering myself to write and failing.
Sign #41232 that you need to tone down the OCD: looking at the "favorite books" section on someone's profile and getting unreasonably annoyed at the fact that they listed Pride and Prejudice while spelling Jane Austen's name wrong ("Austin" instead of "Austen").
I might as well write them up now before I drag my feet any longer:
1. The Rake's Progress: About a month ago, I went to see a dress rehearsal of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress with
jaebi_lit, who is a subscriber to the SF Opera and had tickets. I arrived rather late and ended up getting manhandled by the not-so-grandmotherly ushers into the last row of the balcony. Lesson learned: never cross little old women at the opera house. I missed most of the first scene of the first act, but luckily I listened to the recording I bought from iTunes beforehand, so it wasn't too bad. Managed to find jaebi_lit after the intermission down on the dress circle tier, which was closer than I'd ever been to the stage. Definitely a much better view.The libretto was written by W.H. Auden in English, based on a series of eighteenth-century paintings by William Hogarth (and not based on Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, as I'd mistakenly assumed). What I found interesting: Stravinsky's score has distinctly late Baroque/early Classical elements (e.g. it includes a harpsichord and sounds very Mozartian, albeit with enough avant-garde treatments of tonality to remind you that Stravinsky's the composer), while the SF Opera production used a 1950s American setting, i.e. around the time when Stravinsky composed the opera (shortly after he immigrated to the U.S.). So the music references the time period of the opera's original source, while the staging references the time period of the composers. Nice touch, no?
On the whole, the staging was very clever: red satin bedding sinking into the floor and forming a heart before disappearing completely, an inflatable film set trailer, Anne driving to "London" (more Hollywood than London proper though) in a car with her scarf suspended behind her to convey the illusion of wind, the auction taking place around a balcony pool with some sort of projection to look like real water.
The tenor was excellent, although at times a little too expressive (hard to believe that I'm using that as a criticism). E.g. Rakewell's complaints about being bored of London don't sound particularly dissipated or full of ennui when his voice is swelling with emotion. More of a Broadway voice than an opera voice, perhaps. His best moment was in the final act, when Anne visits the now-insane Rakewell in the asylum, since the expressive voice was perfectly suited to the scene. I think that was my favorite part, although I also liked Anne's aria when she decides to follow Rakewell to London. The soprano who sang Anne and the alto who sang Baba were also very good, though no one stands out in my memory as having been exceptional.
2. La Rondine: I originally intended to go see this opera with
ladydaera but we weren't able to obtain rush tickets. No surprise there; the lead role is sung by Angela Gheorghiu, an internationally renowned soprano, so many performances were completely sold out. (She's on the EMI recording of La Rondine as well.) Anyway, jaebi_lit had seen it before and wanted to see it again so she got balcony side tickets for a Sunday matinee performance. Well, what can I say? All the reviews were right: Gheorghiu's voice was incredible. Every note effortless, every pianissimo haunting. Beautiful tone: clear but with more depth and richness than a lyrical soprano. I had tears in my eyes by the end of the signature aria, "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta". I was a little surprised by Ruggero; the tenor who sang the part had a brassier voice than I expected, but after I got accustomed to it, it seemed to fit the part well. After all, Ruggero is different from Rodolfo, although both are similarly starry-eyed. Ruggero is very much a country boy from the provinces, so it makes sense that his voice is more energetic than sweet-toned. In any case, he sang his part well and acted brilliantly; one really believed that he was in love for the first time. The rest of the cast was amazing as well: Prunier and Lisette both playing comic roles but also having wonderful voices in their own right.
Wikipedia mentions that the opera has been called "the poor man's La Traviata", and the two do share some superficial plot parallels: the fallen woman falling in love with a young man but deciding to leave him "for his own good". Though there are some crucial differences: Ruggero doesn't know that Magda has been Rambaldo's mistress (in fact, he doesn't even know her real name), nor does his family object to her (in fact, his mother gives him permission to marry her), and Magda doesn't die at the end. The great melodramatic sweep of La Traviata is missing; La Rondine is much more self-contained in scope. But there's something particularly poignant about Magda being offered a chance at permanent happiness--she really could have chosen to keep on lying about her past and married Ruggero--but giving it up instead. Of course, a part of it is for Ruggero's sake since she loves him too much to marry him under the pretenses of being the innocent girl he believes her to be, but I think that Ruggero would have loved her enough to stay with her after she tells him. Magda really is a marvelously complicated character. A romantic, who wants youth, true love, passion, adventure--words we can't help regard with a certain jadedness but the sound of which gives us a secret thrill, nonetheless--but with very human weaknesses. Her time with Ruggero is but a dream that must come to an end. The opera ends with Magda standing at the center of the stage and the lights fading until there is nothing but darkness and her face in spotlight with an indescribable expression. Is it agony? Fear? Despair? How many people live like Magda, dreaming but too afraid to realize those dreams even when they can?
Well, I'll stop before I grow more melodramatic myself, but the opera was really wonderful. Puccini's music never fails to charm me, of course. Gheorghiu held a signing after the performance, and
jaebi_lit and I waited in line to get CDs signed. Very exciting! I've never been so close to an opera singer before. She's very small and slender in person, which makes you boggle over how so much sound can come out of her.3. Andrew Bird: This past Saturday, Iris (a fellow grad student) invited me to go to an Andrew Bird concert in San Francisco. The only nonclassical concert I'd been to before was the OK Go concert in Boston last year, so I was pretty eager to go again, even though I knew next to nothing about Andrew Bird or his music. The venue was the Warfield, an old vaudeville theatre on Market Street, and we arrived about an hour early so we were able to stake out standing positions near the stage.
The opening act was the Handsome Family, who sang fairly conventional country/folk melodies with very unconventional lyrics (Wikipedia describes them as American Gothic, which is as good a description as any I can think of). After that, the floor started getting really crowded, and our view was blocked by tall people, so we managed to weasel our way into some balcony seats above before Andrew Bird came on stage.
The only words I can think of to describe the concert: mindblowingly amazing. In his live performances, Bird basically plays a small motif that he records and loops while he starts playing another motif, which he also records and loops (all through a system of pedals set up on the stage), and so on, building up layers and layers of dense instrumental sound into the most dizzyingly beautiful music I've heard. Think Ravel's Bolero, but with fewer instruments and more than one musical theme. The premise is not so different from the 20th-century minimalists, I suppose. Bird plays the violin (by holding it like a guitar and playing pizzicato-style, as well as by more conventional bowing), the guitar, and the glockenspiel, in addition to whistling and singing. Each performance is also partly improvised, which only adds to how incredible the experience is.
I listened to his first album (courtesy of Iris) before going to the concert, but I have to say that I didn't really get blown away by the music until I saw it live. I've been listening to his albums on repeat ever since.
Yours &c.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 08:54 am (UTC)I-is that OCD? I just thought it was a sign of uh, book obsession -> is annoyed by it too (IF YOU CAN CLAIM TO LOVE THIS WRITER YOU CAN SPELL THEIR NAME RIGHT, wtf) XD
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-13 07:26 pm (UTC)