tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9617011.post8659023883726194872..comments2024-03-04T09:44:11.172+01:00Comments on Renewable Music: As Good As It GetsDaniel Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09093101325234464791noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9617011.post-59485831167526022232010-06-01T14:29:23.534+02:002010-06-01T14:29:23.534+02:00Mike --
The non-ending of Don Carlo(s) — reflecti...Mike --<br /><br />The non-ending of Don Carlo(s) — reflecting both the story itself and Verdi's own sense of striving despite pessimism — makes it more of a late 20th century, proto-existentialist work, than a mid-19th century work, don't you think? I wonder if that affected its performance history even more than the fact that the second-tier figures have the real crowd pleasing arias and ensembles (Posa, Eboli, King, Grand Inquisator). <br /><br />I tentatively with agree with you about this trio of works, with my edge probably going to Les Troyens. Sadly, I've never seen Guillaume Tell on stage, but the score is wonderful. (BTW, I envy your Don Carlo work: I can imagine no greater kick that getting to supernumer in all three, a veritable grand slam of opera walkonandoffs.) But before I commit to this list, I still need to know Falstaff and Oberon (yes, Oberon, and in English) better.<br /><br />A second BTW: The end of the Frankfurt season features The Damnation of Faust and it's been very interesting to see how exotic the French repertoire in general, and Berlioz in particular, remains to a German public. I hope to write about this soon.Daniel Wolfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09093101325234464791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9617011.post-30350081358005381962010-06-01T09:30:38.632+02:002010-06-01T09:30:38.632+02:00Even though it doesn't really have an ending, ...Even though it doesn't really have an ending, which in its own way is sort of cool, Verdi's "Don Carlo/Don Carlos" is the great 19th century opera, period. Musically and dramatically, it's stuffed with richness but as economically as can be. The only other 19th century operatic works that I love as much are those other behemoths, Rossini's "Guillaume Tell" and Berlioz's "Les Troyens." I was a supernumerary a couple of times for "Don Carlo," dragging tenors and baritones off the stage, and it couldn't have been more fun. Enjoy your backstage babysitting with Verdi, who really was god.Civic Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12362422142667230626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9617011.post-38550078893181727032010-05-26T18:32:41.121+02:002010-05-26T18:32:41.121+02:00Well, there is also the place that Opera had withi...Well, there is also the place that Opera had within the larger context of musical development at the time.<br /><br />Consider the reactions of the public (especially in Paris) to works like Debussy's Prelude, Stravinsky's Le Sacre, and Satie's Parade. Such a reaction as Le Sacre got at the time might bankrupt an opera company.<br /><br />Then there's the musical direction itself. While Strauss's Elektra was certainly a key work at the time, he himself never went into that direction again, falling back on "safer" Romantic patterns. With both Elektra and the later Wozzeck, the audiences at the time were still having difficulty accepting the musical structures, nevermind the intensity of the subject matter.<br /><br />There was perhaps some development in Opera as a leading edge form in Britten's Peter Grimes. Too, Shostakovich's Lady MacBeth is something of a direction-setter, only we know what happened there. Such politics, as well as the post-war depressions (and the war's impact on the population at large), likely played a role in the "safety" of Opera in Germany and Italy at the time.<br /><br />One of the other changes is that the Americans were now finding a different identity and footing in the mid 20th century. They weren't making operas, but rather they were inventing the American Musical.Joe Shelbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07371019210357778459noreply@blogger.com