tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post3498772992718658964..comments2024-03-15T21:51:30.609-07:00Comments on Iron Tongue of Midnight: Whither Bayreuth?Lisa Hirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-68476372247699255762015-09-12T12:29:16.490-07:002015-09-12T12:29:16.490-07:00During the LA Opera's Ring performances in 201...During the LA Opera's Ring performances in 2010, the USC opera workshop put on a short run of Das Liebesverbot, and did a very creditable job of it. Even though the cast and orchestra were students, and the opera was apparently somewhat trimmed, I can report that it's a fine piece, both musically and dramatically. It doesn't sound much like Wagner, except for the occasional phrase that anticipates things like the Ode to the Evening Star or the Wedding March. On the other hand, you can certainly hear influences of Beethoven and Weber, and the lead soprano needs the kind of voice suitable for Abscheulicher or Ocean Thou Mighty Monster.<br /><br />It's at least as good as many operas that get done all the time, and if it weren't for Wagner's Liebesverbot-Verbot I think we'd see a lot of it.<br /><br />One thing struck me: the opera alters the moral of Shakespeare's play. Wagner moves the action from Vienna to Palermo during Carnival, and changes Shakespeare's attack on sexual and religious hypocrisy to a full-throated defense of libertinism and what used to be called free love. His very un-Victorian and basically self-serving sexual morality, treated as metaphor in his later operas, is plain as day here. If this opera had circulated at all when it was new, it would have generated quite a scandal.<br /><br />So if you can't have your festival of Trojan War operas, how about a festival of operas taking place in Palermo? Add to this Les Vêpres Siciliennes and Krol Roger, and I'd certainly attend.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-73607480566589392332015-09-12T11:18:01.998-07:002015-09-12T11:18:01.998-07:00That's an idea. I've got a CPO CD of overt...That's an idea. I've got a CPO CD of overtures or tone poems by Siegfried W. I remember them as okay, not great, but it has been a long time.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-74049303548278199282015-09-11T19:49:26.990-07:002015-09-11T19:49:26.990-07:00One advantage to doing bigger scale non-Wagner pie...One advantage to doing bigger scale non-Wagner pieces in that theater is that you could get singers with the right voice but who can't project over a 110-piece orchestra in a 3,000 seat auditorium. <br /><br />Eva is 70, Katharina is 37, I suspect we're going to see a Wagner in charge for quite a while. As long as that happens, I don't see anything changing, even something like adding the three exiled operas. I'd love to see a production of a judiciously trimmed <i>Rienzi</i> (i.e. the ballet music), the other two not so much.<br /><br />One bit of repertoire they should consider is Richard's son Siegfried's operas. I've heard a handful of them, and while they're obviously not on the level of Richard's best works, I enjoyed them, especially <i>Der Heidenkönig</i> and <i>Sonnenflammen</i>. The invaluable CPO label has recordings of 5 of the 18 he wrote, sound samples are at the links to each opera:<br /><br />https://www.jpc.de/s/15972318?searchtype=contributorIdHenry Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15871451112170286316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-26478887388829539532015-09-11T15:29:22.531-07:002015-09-11T15:29:22.531-07:00Thank you!Thank you!Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-83548244314952781972015-09-11T15:25:59.533-07:002015-09-11T15:25:59.533-07:00Love the Recovered Voices idea! Take that garden f...Love the Recovered Voices idea! Take that garden full of thumbnail bios of silenced Jewish Bayreuth artists a few steps further.<br /><br />And just imagine the drama those discussions would generate...Chanterellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15718940408471760091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-51011728032058932672015-09-11T11:16:58.929-07:002015-09-11T11:16:58.929-07:00I do not know the answer to that question, but it ...I do not know the answer to that question, but it is a good one.Lisa Hirschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14014924958428072675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-23464557348186541752015-09-11T10:46:48.654-07:002015-09-11T10:46:48.654-07:00Doesn't the Festival, at least in some years, ...Doesn't the Festival, at least in some years, begin with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth, because Wagner conducted it there himself? I know that Wagner considered the Ninth the culmination of the symphony and the starting point for his own music theater, so perhaps an orchestral concert program could be built on that principle, leading up to the Ninth.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8957911.post-91128231581275058892015-09-11T09:47:12.436-07:002015-09-11T09:47:12.436-07:00How about a "Make it new, children!" fes...How about a "Make it new, children!" festival featuring contemporary works?Patrick J. Vazhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09279528648512493917noreply@blogger.com