tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post2952903682414495515..comments2024-03-28T12:59:05.739-07:00Comments on Iron Tongue of Midnight: FundingLisa Hirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-6380618706339700912015-07-04T15:55:57.219-07:002015-07-04T15:55:57.219-07:00I've never seen La Gioconda, so if it turned u...I've never <i>seen</i> <i>La Gioconda</i>, so if it turned up on the SFO schedule in a couple of years, well, I would be happy.<br /><br />SFO has various special funds that they use for fundraising purposes and to support particular initiatives. It is apparent from the <i>Troyens</i> program that they made a special fundraising effort to stage the opera, and the program quite rightly calls out a long list of donors to the effort, both foundations and individuals. Among other funds, there's a special fund that I assume supports Nicola Luisotti's salary; there's a fund for new opera; there's a Great Singers fund that must pay for overscale singers (I bet Domingo got more than $17,000 per when he sang <i>Cyrano</i> here...). I'm all in favor of a fund to support the production of unusual and rarely heard works, or especially expensive works such as <i>Troyens</i> and <i>Frau</i>.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-8796257947730833122015-07-04T15:39:16.105-07:002015-07-04T15:39:16.105-07:00By now. though, how much "lesser-known" ...By now. though, how much "lesser-known" is <i>Les Troyens</i> than <i>Faust</i> or <i>Manon</i>? Berlioz's <b>concert-hall</b> music is standard repertory, after all...I remember a quarrel I had fifteen years ago with someone on Opera-L about the wisdom of replacing <i>Trovatore</i> (which was virtually uncastable at the time, at least on the international level) with <i>The queen of spades</i> (which seemed more castable and just as thrilling a night out), and I pointed out that Tchaikovsky composed <i>The queen of spades</i>, with the implication that audiences might be curious about what such a popular concert-hall composed would have to offer in opera. He brushed me off, noting that you can whistle <i>Trovatore</i> while waiting for your car to be repaired. Lesson from that? Opera people are not concert-hall people, for better or worse.<br /><br />But <i>Les Troyens</i> is so large-scale that performances are never going to be everyday fare, In that respect its real competitors in the standard repertory are other grand grand operas--<i>Aida</i>, <i>La Gioconda</i>, <i>Die Frau ohne Schatten</i>, <i>Guilliaume Tell</i>, various Meyerbeer and Rimsky works among the lesser-known but much demanded. I'd be glad to hear <i>Les Troyens</i> rather than <i>Gioconda</i> or , especially with today's crop of singers. But there is plenty enough elsewhere to replace .bgnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07110058388805605682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-10729427706752653122015-07-04T12:49:20.841-07:002015-07-04T12:49:20.841-07:00What I've found frustrating almost from the be...What I've found frustrating almost from the beginning of going to opera is how conservative the audiences are, which translates to the stuff that's programmed. Fine, I don't expect people to rush out to buy tickets to Birtwistle's operas (though they do in England), but I've read more than one opera administrator (anonymously of course) complain how sick they are of programming <i>La Boheme</i> and <i>La Traviata</i> but they have to pay the bills.<br /><br />It used to amaze me to go to people's apartments/houses and there'd be hundreds of CD's/LP's in shelves and I'd think "Great, we can play some stuff I've never heard before" and it'd be 18 recordings each of the same 30 operas. <br /><br />What's even more frustrating is that there's plenty of operas that would do well with people who think that opera ended with the death of Verdi but the conservatism and risk adverse mindset means that even *those* aren't given an airing.Henry Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15871451112170286316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-36404892985568345682015-07-03T20:57:26.205-07:002015-07-03T20:57:26.205-07:00bgn, I'm exaggerating for effect, but only a l...bgn, I'm exaggerating for effect, but only a little. Companies could stop performing the dreck that is in the repertory in favor of better operas. I know they've gotta sell tickets, but they could make more of an effort to sell less-known works, too.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-8520638612093072602015-07-03T20:50:07.737-07:002015-07-03T20:50:07.737-07:00We could see more performances of terrific Respigh...We could see more performances of terrific Respighi operas like <i>La Fiamma</i>, <i>La campana sommersa</i> and <i>Marie Victoire</i> if opera companies would stop performing <i>Nabucco</i>, <i>Ernani</i> and rataplan rataplan rataplan <i>La Forza del Destino</i> and put the money aside for better operas.<br /><br />We could see more performances of terrific German operas like Braunfel's <i>Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna</i>, Egk's <i>Peer Gynt</i> and Zemlinsky's <i>Der Traumgörge</i> if opera companies would stop performing <i>Lohengrin</i>, <i>Tannhauser</i> and *shudder* <i>Der Meistersinger von Nurenberg</i> *shudder* and put the money aside for better operas.<br /><br />We could see more performances of non-tonal operas like <i>Lear</i>, <i>Die Soldaten</i> and <i>The Bassarids</i> if opera companies would stop performing <i>Die Entführung aus dem Serail</i>, *shudder* <i>La fille du régimentr</i> *shudder* and <i>I Puritani</i> and put the money aside for better operas.<br /><br />Etc. etc.Henry Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15871451112170286316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-29787794021274125182015-07-02T18:40:41.198-07:002015-07-02T18:40:41.198-07:00I'm as sick and tired of Gounod and Massenet a...I'm as sick and tired of Gounod and Massenet as you are...but, alas, an opera company doesn't work that way (and I don't mean the old saw about the old standards). If you're thinking of saving money by not doing new productions of <i>Faust</i> et al and putting the money aside for <i>Les Troyens</i>, then you have to either do nothing at all or do some pre-existing production of something else in its place.bgnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07110058388805605682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-45394060666807152712015-07-02T15:12:30.459-07:002015-07-02T15:12:30.459-07:00Besides, when you've heard Mae West sing "...Besides, when you've heard Mae West sing "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix," anything else has to be a disappointment.john_burke100https://www.blogger.com/profile/07095645907050540263noreply@blogger.com