Menahem Pressler must bow out of his Music@Menlo programs, owing to a family emergency. I hope all will be well with Mr. Pressler and his family.
Bowing in - Jeffrey Kahane and Gil Kalish!
Kahane takes the Carte Blanche concert, which will include Chopin, Faure, and Brahms.
Kalish takes the piano part for Concert Program VI, which will be otherwise unchanged.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Gothic Arrives
Okay, so I was not in London on Sunday. But the reviews and comments on Havergal Brian's gigantic Symphony No. 1 are out there on the net, and I have been reading with interest and amusement. Start with Kenneth Woods, who has fascinating comments and links to other commentators and reviewers.
Then go to the BBC Proms web site and actually listen to the thing.
Then go to the BBC Proms web site and actually listen to the thing.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
"Yes, she's the kind of a girl who makes the News of the World"
In one sense, yes, I'm having a lot of fun following the expanding circle of scandals surrounding Rupert Murdoch's journalism empire in Great Britain, where, among other things, his minions hacked into and tampered with the voicemail of a young girl who'd been murdered, obtained private medical information about Gordon Brown's then-infant son, and bribed Queen Elizabeth's bodyguards to obtain phone numbers and travel information.
In another...well, keep in mind that the News Corporation owns the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. Not that you could trust them, but the recent revelations should give you even more pause.
In another...well, keep in mind that the News Corporation owns the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. Not that you could trust them, but the recent revelations should give you even more pause.
Monday, July 11, 2011
SF Opera: Rumor & Gossip Edition
Lohengrin with Brandon Jovanovich, care of someone posting anonymously, as do we all, on Parterre Box.
San Francisco Opera Ring: Good News and Not-So-Good News
Press release from San Francisco Opera with some interesting news:
SFO sold 99.96% of the available tickets to attendees from 46 states and 21 countries. Box office income was $7,236,673.
KDFC will broadcast all four operas on radio:
SFO sold 99.96% of the available tickets to attendees from 46 states and 21 countries. Box office income was $7,236,673.
KDFC will broadcast all four operas on radio:
Performances of Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung have been recorded for the San Francisco Opera International Radio Broadcast, available locally on Classical KDFC (90.3 in San Francisco, 89.9 in the North/East Bay, 89.7 in Eureka, 92.5 in Lakeport/Ukiah) on the following dates: Das Rheingold (September 4), Die Walküre (October 2), Siegfried (November 6) and Götterdämmerung (December 4). The Ring operas will also be broadcast both nationally and internationally through the WFMT Radio Network.However (sigh, big sigh):
At this time, there are no immediate plans to release this new San Francisco Opera Ring cycle on DVD or to remount this production in the near future.
NYCO Joins the War on Musicians
H/T La Cieca. AGMA reports that NYCO is "proposing" the following:
NYCO PROPOSALS
NYCO PROPOSALS
- Eliminate all health insurance.
- Eliminate ‘contract year’.
- Eliminate all employment guarantees.
- Eliminate weekly artists.
- All employment to be on a per-performance basis.
- Eliminate re-engagement rights.
- Eliminate tenure.
- Eliminate minimum staffing provisions.
- Eliminate paid time off.
- Eliminate vacation pay.
- Eliminate travel time.
- Eliminate all references to New York State Theater.
- Eliminate releases and leaves of absence.
- Freeze severance pay. Payable only to people who resign now.
- Allow non-AGMA singers, not covered by contract.
- Eliminate dancers from contract.
- Eliminate production staff numbers and guarantees.
What's left after that? A pickup organization, not an opera company.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
The Gods Shouldn't Talk Like the People Next Door
That's what Desmond Shaw-Taylor told Andrew Porter when Porter started working on his singing translation of the Ring nearly 40 years ago. It's a matter of tone: Wagner writes in different textual and musical tones for the different groups of characters in the Ring. The Giants move heavily to heavy music; Loge is light and mercurial, befitting the demigod of Fire and his trickster nature.
This raises the question of whether the Gods should act like the people next door.
Francesca Zambello's Ring makes a number of errors of tone, in the staging and in the supertitle translations, where the tone she's setting on stage is at odds with the music and the libretto. There's the physical horseplay between Wotan and Bruennhilde, which I called out in my review. Do the Gods really act like that? And what about the phone conversation that got laughs right before Fricka's entry?
Zambello also has a habit of throwing characters on stage who aren't there in the libretto. I remember these, and perhaps there are more; I'll include my theories about what her justifications might be:
The director gives us another Kumbaya moment that I did not much care for: the godly huddle in Rheingold around Donner during his call to the mists, in which all of the Gods grab hold of the croquet mallet that he lugs around - while he's singing. What, the God of Thunder can't make a mighty noise on his own? They're also so far upstage as to make Gerd Grochowski work much harder than he should need to.
At the critics' panel, I challenged her on her calling the Rheinmaidens good, because on one hand, they lose the gold! and on the other, their merciless teasing of Alberich sets off the whole story. On the third,
as Frick says, they've drowned a lot of men. She had a reasonable explanation - that they're 13-year-olds who don't fully understand their own actions and they grow up during the course of Rheingold and the whole cycle. I can sorta buy that.
The rewrite of the libretto for supertitle purposes that bugged me most, though, was the translation of something Wotan says in Siegfried, where he first refers to Alberich as "schwarz Alberich" and himself as "licht Alberich." Dammit, the latter was translated as "Wotan, lord of light," when he's making a clear analogy, for good reasons, between himself and Alberich.
They have so much in common! They're both willing to abuse and use others in the pursuit of power. Alberich enslaves the Nibelungs with the power of the ring, and rapes Gunter and Gutrune's mother to create Hagen.
Wotan is willing to make a deal with the giants using the goddess Freia as payment of the construction fees for Valhalla. He creates Siegmund and Sieglinde with the idea of creating a free man who can obtain the ring, then doesn't exactly take good care of them, not to mention the nameless mortal woman who is their mother.
The mistranslation of "licht Alberich" is bad, very bad, given the above; far worse than any of the silliness I describe above, because it undermines our ability to understand an important analogy between two of the moving forces of the cycle.
This raises the question of whether the Gods should act like the people next door.
Francesca Zambello's Ring makes a number of errors of tone, in the staging and in the supertitle translations, where the tone she's setting on stage is at odds with the music and the libretto. There's the physical horseplay between Wotan and Bruennhilde, which I called out in my review. Do the Gods really act like that? And what about the phone conversation that got laughs right before Fricka's entry?
Zambello also has a habit of throwing characters on stage who aren't there in the libretto. I remember these, and perhaps there are more; I'll include my theories about what her justifications might be:
- The end of the first Rheinmaiden scene in Rheingold, with Loge watching on the side. Loge says later in the opera that he has talked with the Rheinmaidens and promised to get the gold back for them. We don't know how much time passes between Scenes 1 and 2, only that it's enough time for the Ring and Tarnhelm to be forged. We don't know when the Giants start to build Valhalla. I see no good reason to put Loge on stage at this point; his first entry in the score is accompanied by his characteristic fiery leitmotif, as it should be.
- Rheingold, scene 2, when Fricka wakes Wotan up, Zambello puts Donner and Froh on stage too. here FZ is establishing the Gods as frivolous, Gilded-Age types. Not so bad. But...did Fricka whack Wotan with the blueprints, as in 2008? If she did, I missed it, a piece of stage business I found eye-rolling the first time around.
- The Rheinmaidens' on-stage appearance at the end of Rheingold, rather than singing offstage or from the pit. I saw Zambello discuss this, and other subjects, at a music critics' panel between Siegfried and Goetterdaemmerung, during cycle 1. She wanted the Rheinmaidens to appear, dressed in brown rather than gold, to show their growth over the course of the opera, and also the environmental degradation that had started with the theft of the gold.
- Hunding's men, who appear twice in Walkuere, were invented for this production. I presume this is to give Hunding social context within some period of American history, but I find it wholly unnecessary. Hunding appears as a single individual in Walkuere, and individualism is a prominent trope of American social history. Act I works best as a confrontation among three individuals, and the Siegmund/Hunding fight works best as a fight between two men, alone in a rocky place.
- The parade of dead heroes during the Annunciation of Death. I found this moving in last year's production, though not necessary. I am sure it's distracting for some, and, again - the scene is a discussion between a Goddess and a man. Do they need dead heroes? Can Siegmund see them?
- Fricka's appearance on the freeway in Act II of Walkuere. She tears up the contract for Siegmund's death that she forced Wotan to sign, now that Siegmund is dead. A little gratuitous! We already have Wotan, Bruennhilde, Siegmund, Sieglinde, and Hunding on stage.
- The Forest Bird in Siegfried is supposed to be offstage, but in this production she's been personified as a young woman. I found her adorable and her interactions with Siegfried, all at a distance, quite touching. (Contrast with another personified Forest Bird whom I liked in the past, the cellphone-wielding Bird of Mark Streshinsky's production of Legend of the Ring at Berkeley opera.)
- Hagen's Watch at the beginning of Act II of Goetterdaemmerung, where Gutrune is inserted in the scene to converse - and flirt? - with her evil half-brother. Truly unnecessary, and the implied flirtation is past gratuitous. If anything, Gutrune and Gunther probably look down on their half-dwarf brother. And of course there's the unnecessary remote control...which got laughs during the production I saw.
The director gives us another Kumbaya moment that I did not much care for: the godly huddle in Rheingold around Donner during his call to the mists, in which all of the Gods grab hold of the croquet mallet that he lugs around - while he's singing. What, the God of Thunder can't make a mighty noise on his own? They're also so far upstage as to make Gerd Grochowski work much harder than he should need to.
At the critics' panel, I challenged her on her calling the Rheinmaidens good, because on one hand, they lose the gold! and on the other, their merciless teasing of Alberich sets off the whole story. On the third,
as Frick says, they've drowned a lot of men. She had a reasonable explanation - that they're 13-year-olds who don't fully understand their own actions and they grow up during the course of Rheingold and the whole cycle. I can sorta buy that.
The rewrite of the libretto for supertitle purposes that bugged me most, though, was the translation of something Wotan says in Siegfried, where he first refers to Alberich as "schwarz Alberich" and himself as "licht Alberich." Dammit, the latter was translated as "Wotan, lord of light," when he's making a clear analogy, for good reasons, between himself and Alberich.
They have so much in common! They're both willing to abuse and use others in the pursuit of power. Alberich enslaves the Nibelungs with the power of the ring, and rapes Gunter and Gutrune's mother to create Hagen.
Wotan is willing to make a deal with the giants using the goddess Freia as payment of the construction fees for Valhalla. He creates Siegmund and Sieglinde with the idea of creating a free man who can obtain the ring, then doesn't exactly take good care of them, not to mention the nameless mortal woman who is their mother.
The mistranslation of "licht Alberich" is bad, very bad, given the above; far worse than any of the silliness I describe above, because it undermines our ability to understand an important analogy between two of the moving forces of the cycle.
The 10,000 Foot View and the 1,000 Foot View
When technical writers talk about documents, you hear phrases like "30,000 foot view" and "10,000 foot view" tossed around. The idea is that different documents, or the same document, can look at a product from different perspectives. To make complicated software work, you need high-level views to understand how the software fits into a stack that might include hardware, the local area network, a database server, client software, APIs, and so on. You need low-level views to get the right arguments for a method.
My Ring review is a high-level overview of the Zambello/Runnicles Ring that ran for three cycles at San Francisco Opera in June and early July. I called it a triumph and I'll stand by that.
Still, I have some quibbles, which I'll be discussing in a posting that I expect to put up shortly. But I need to make a couple of things clear first.
I'm fine with modernizing or interpreting the Ring (and any other damn opera) according to the director's ideas. You want to put the Ring in feudal Japan or on the moon, fine by me. You just need to be dramatically convincing and reasonably consistent about it. Wagner's fairly sparse stage directions aren't the Holy Writ, to be obeyed without question or alteration.
I feel the same way about Shakespeare, as it happens. It would be silly to always perform Shakespeare the way his plays were done during his lifetime: outdoors, rather rapidly, in Elizabethan dress, and with boys or young men playing women's parts. Hey, I'd love to see that from time to time! But any playwright or composer knows that theater changes and audience expectations change. Once the work is released into the wild, it's open season.
So for people out there complaining that the Zambello Ring is Regietheater or Eurotrash or in some way illegitimate or wrong - you're just wrong yourselves. This stance is obviously objectionable - and ludicrous - when the complainers haven't even seen the production. Hold your fire, buy tickets, and wait until you see the whole, which is greater than the sum of the parts that can be described in any review.
My Ring review is a high-level overview of the Zambello/Runnicles Ring that ran for three cycles at San Francisco Opera in June and early July. I called it a triumph and I'll stand by that.
Still, I have some quibbles, which I'll be discussing in a posting that I expect to put up shortly. But I need to make a couple of things clear first.
I'm fine with modernizing or interpreting the Ring (and any other damn opera) according to the director's ideas. You want to put the Ring in feudal Japan or on the moon, fine by me. You just need to be dramatically convincing and reasonably consistent about it. Wagner's fairly sparse stage directions aren't the Holy Writ, to be obeyed without question or alteration.
I feel the same way about Shakespeare, as it happens. It would be silly to always perform Shakespeare the way his plays were done during his lifetime: outdoors, rather rapidly, in Elizabethan dress, and with boys or young men playing women's parts. Hey, I'd love to see that from time to time! But any playwright or composer knows that theater changes and audience expectations change. Once the work is released into the wild, it's open season.
So for people out there complaining that the Zambello Ring is Regietheater or Eurotrash or in some way illegitimate or wrong - you're just wrong yourselves. This stance is obviously objectionable - and ludicrous - when the complainers haven't even seen the production. Hold your fire, buy tickets, and wait until you see the whole, which is greater than the sum of the parts that can be described in any review.
Friday, July 08, 2011
Why Does New York City Need Two Opera Companies?
Over at About Last Night, Terry Teachout asks the above question. Evidently his Sightings column tomorrow will ask about NYCO's mission, or purpose. Once upon a time, it was the "people's opera," putting on lower-cost productions of popular operas, often starring up-and-coming young Americans; once upon a time, it presented repertory the Met wouldn't touch.
A couple of the answers to Terry's question are self-evident. Think of a few of the other large Western cities: London has the Royal Opera and the English National Opera; Paris has the Palais Garnier and the OperaBastille Comique (three houses, two companies though!); Berlin has the Deutsch Oper, the Komische Oper, and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. New York is populous enough to support two major companies.
And even with the more adventurous repertory and stagings under Peter Gelb, a big opera company willing to take on important contemporary operas - and Baroque opera - is a good thing.
A couple of the answers to Terry's question are self-evident. Think of a few of the other large Western cities: London has the Royal Opera and the English National Opera; Paris has the Palais Garnier and the Opera
And even with the more adventurous repertory and stagings under Peter Gelb, a big opera company willing to take on important contemporary operas - and Baroque opera - is a good thing.
Changes!
A press release from San Francisco Opera announces the following changes in the 2011-12 season:
- In Lucrezia Borgia, Francesco Meli "has withdrawn," replaced by Michael Fabiano.
- In Attila, Oksana Dyka and Ramon Vargas have both "had to withdraw," replaced by Lucrezia Garcia and Fabio Sartori. Note: the latter two singers are appearing in this opera right now at La Scala, conducted by Maestro Nicola Luisotti. Coincidence? I think not.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Hadid Builds an Opera House
The visionary architect Zaha Hadid has finally got some career traction in the form of commissions, and the city of Guangzhou, China, has just completed building an opera house that she designed. NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff reviews the new house in the Times.
It's a gorgeous building and the review is appreciative - but it leaves out the most critical question: how does the house sound?
Facepalm! Perhaps Tony Tommasini is getting his visa in order?.
It's a gorgeous building and the review is appreciative - but it leaves out the most critical question: how does the house sound?
Facepalm! Perhaps Tony Tommasini is getting his visa in order?.
Friday, July 01, 2011
Setting Up a Blogger Blog for Mobile Devices
Of interest primarily to users of Blogger, but I'm willing to bet that TypePad and WordPress have comparable settings.
Smartphones are selling like hotcakes, and people who have smartphones read blogs on them. This can be damned inconvenient, because of the small size of the screen; blogging platforms default to an assumption that readers are on a laptop or desktop computer.
On Blogger, you can set up your blog so that Blogger detects when a smartphone asks to see a page of the blog. From the Dashboard, click Settings > Email & Mobile. In the Mobile Template section, select the radio button labeled Yes. For more information, read this informative posting on official Blogger Blog.
Anyone want to contribute TypePad and WordPress instructions?
Update: From C.K. Dexter Haven, WordPress information, hoisted from the comments:
believe that WordPress has the default set to show mobile templates because every time I've read a WordPress blog, that's the version I see.
But just in case:
Start at the Dashboard
- on the left menu, click on Appearance
- at the bottom of the sub-menu that opens, click on Extras
- ensure that the box labeled "Display a mobile theme when this blog is viewed with a mobile browser" is checked.
Smartphones are selling like hotcakes, and people who have smartphones read blogs on them. This can be damned inconvenient, because of the small size of the screen; blogging platforms default to an assumption that readers are on a laptop or desktop computer.
On Blogger, you can set up your blog so that Blogger detects when a smartphone asks to see a page of the blog. From the Dashboard, click Settings > Email & Mobile. In the Mobile Template section, select the radio button labeled Yes. For more information, read this informative posting on official Blogger Blog.
Anyone want to contribute TypePad and WordPress instructions?
Update: From C.K. Dexter Haven, WordPress information, hoisted from the comments:
believe that WordPress has the default set to show mobile templates because every time I've read a WordPress blog, that's the version I see.
But just in case:
Start at the Dashboard
- on the left menu, click on Appearance
- at the bottom of the sub-menu that opens, click on Extras
- ensure that the box labeled "Display a mobile theme when this blog is viewed with a mobile browser" is checked.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Also on the Blogroll
As a big fan of MoRunnicles, of course I had to add the UK blogger Tam Pollard, whose blog is called Where's Runnicles? (I wonder about that too.) Also adding The Back Deck, the new blog of Santa Fe Opera, Notes from Valhalla, San Francisco Opera's Ring blog, and the Seattle Opera Blog, which is called just that.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
New to the Blogroll
Beloved reader C.K. Dexter Haven takes up the pen, er, keyboard with his new blog All is Yar. Go forth and read!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Missa Monstra
San Francisco Symphony put on Beethoven's Missa Solemnis the other day (last performance is this afternoon, if you can brave the Pride Parade crowds), and I reviewed the concert for SFCV. Herewith some further thoughts.
I'm willing to bet that I'm the only person reviewing this week's concert who has sung the thing; not only that, but I was an assistant conductor of the chorus I sang it with, so the score I leafed through while writing the review is a full orchestral score.
I tell you, it is a frighting piece to look at, let alone sing. Remember the great Wagnerian soprano Lilli Lehmann's line? The one about how she'd rather sing all three Bruennhildes than one Norma? I feel that way about the Missa. It's like singing the choral finale of the Ninth Symphony three times, only worse. The Missa contains multiple fugues, all complex and instrumental; the rhetorical tone changes often; it's long; it's high; it's loud. It's a monster.
A couple of weeks ago, SFCV founder Robert Commanday said that one of the choruses he'd prepared to sing the Missa had learned it in six or seven rehearsals. Wow. That must have been one fantastic group, because the Stony Brook Chamber Singers worked on it off and on for a year without feeling completely secure about it.
My review came close to describing Thursday's performance as a near train-wreck, and it was, but I hate to use such linguistic shorthand to describe complex circumstances. I hear from the grapevine that the symphony and chorus had a full rehearsal Thursday during the day, meaning everyone sang it twice that day. On one hand, they probably needed it. On the other, that would be exhausting.
I hear from elsewhere on the grapevine that MTT has been working on and thinking about the Missa for a couple of years, and that the performances, including that of Christine Brewer and Gregory Kunde, have improved since Thursday night. That's all good. I wonder seriously what it would have been like had Ragnar Bohlin, chorusmaster of the Symphony Chorus, been at the helm, just because it is so tough for the chorus.
Other reviews:
I'm willing to bet that I'm the only person reviewing this week's concert who has sung the thing; not only that, but I was an assistant conductor of the chorus I sang it with, so the score I leafed through while writing the review is a full orchestral score.
I tell you, it is a frighting piece to look at, let alone sing. Remember the great Wagnerian soprano Lilli Lehmann's line? The one about how she'd rather sing all three Bruennhildes than one Norma? I feel that way about the Missa. It's like singing the choral finale of the Ninth Symphony three times, only worse. The Missa contains multiple fugues, all complex and instrumental; the rhetorical tone changes often; it's long; it's high; it's loud. It's a monster.
A couple of weeks ago, SFCV founder Robert Commanday said that one of the choruses he'd prepared to sing the Missa had learned it in six or seven rehearsals. Wow. That must have been one fantastic group, because the Stony Brook Chamber Singers worked on it off and on for a year without feeling completely secure about it.
My review came close to describing Thursday's performance as a near train-wreck, and it was, but I hate to use such linguistic shorthand to describe complex circumstances. I hear from the grapevine that the symphony and chorus had a full rehearsal Thursday during the day, meaning everyone sang it twice that day. On one hand, they probably needed it. On the other, that would be exhausting.
I hear from elsewhere on the grapevine that MTT has been working on and thinking about the Missa for a couple of years, and that the performances, including that of Christine Brewer and Gregory Kunde, have improved since Thursday night. That's all good. I wonder seriously what it would have been like had Ragnar Bohlin, chorusmaster of the Symphony Chorus, been at the helm, just because it is so tough for the chorus.
Other reviews:
- Joshua Kosman and I attended the same performance.
- John Marcher was surprised.
- Axel Feldheim liked the chorus, and liked the solo quartet better than I did.
- Opera Tattler tattles.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Bargains: Hoisted from the Comments
Over on my Stage Directions posting, Joe Barron is asking about bargains in Ring recordings. Here are some suggested methods for locating deals, but because what's available where at good price points shifts madly, I can't really point to many specific offers.
- LPs. If you've got a turntable and you're willing to frequent garage sales, look at Craig's List, eBay, opera-l, and used record stores, you can find some great bargains. I picked up 120 opera recordings in the 1990s from a fellow opera-l reader who had replaced his LPs with CDs and wanted as many as possible to go to good homes. My finds including most of the Janacek operas, a number of rarities (Der Vampyr, anyone?), and copies of the Goodall and Solti Rings.
- Berkshire Record Outlet.Check frequently; do searches on "Ring des Nibelungen," know what you're looking for, ask questions of the knowledgeable. At the moment, they've got the 1952 Bayreuth Ring for $48 on Melodram (Keilberth); the 1950 La Scala Ring for $28 on Opera d'Oro (Furtwangler); and the 1953 Bayreuth Ring for $52 (Krauss). Those are all mono, and none of them are official issues, meaning I can't vouch for the sound quality. Note that the 1952 with Keilberth is not the first stereo Ring, which is the 1955 Bayreuth recording available only on Testament at a much higher price.
- MDT. MDT has frequent big sales organized by label. They once had the Goodall on CD for 60 pounds, far and away the cheapest price I've ever seen for it, considering that the individual operas can run $60 apiece. Watch the shipping because MDT is in England. Right now, they have Furtwangler's RAI Ring for $38, Krauss for $67 (on Orfeo, which is supposed to have the best sound for this set), Barenboim for $43 (a mixed bag that I know by reputation only...), Keilberth 1955 for $114.
- eBay. Used and new! Again, know what you're looking for, set alerts, be ready to pounce. Watch those shipping costs, especially for LPs. At the moment "Ring des Nibelungen" returns 198 results, including Levine on DVD for under $70, the Solti on LP for $45, the stereo Keilberth for $70, Furtwangler's RAI Ring for $60, etc.
Friday, June 24, 2011
New York!
Marriage equality passes in New York State.
And I like Katherine Franke's Times op-ed today, saying that we should have a range of legal options for recognizing familial relationships.
And I like Katherine Franke's Times op-ed today, saying that we should have a range of legal options for recognizing familial relationships.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Stage Directions
My Ring review cites Wagner's stage directions for the end of Goetterdaemmerung, noting that there's no reason to invent action for the orchestral coda. Realizing that not everybody has the libretto handy, here they are, forthwith, with bits of the Immolation text as guideposts.
Bruennhilde
(alone in the center [of the stage]; after remaining long absorbed in contemplation of Siegfried's face, first with profound shock, then with almost overwhelming despair, she turns to the men and women in solemn exaltation. To the vassals:)
Starke Scheite
schichtet mir dort
....
....
Vollbringt Bruennhildes Wunsch!
(During the following, the younger men raise a huge funeral pyre of logs before the hall, near the bank of the Rhein: women decorate this with coverings on which they strew plants and flowers. Bruennhilde becomes again absorbed in contemplation of Siegfried's body. Her features become increasingly transfigured with tenderness.)
Wie Sonne lauter
strahlt mir sein Licht;
...
...
Wisst ihr, wie das ward?
(looking upward [and addressing Wotan])
O ihr, der Eide
Heilige Hueter!
....
....
Ruhe, ruhe, du Gott!
(She gives a sign to the vassals to bear Siegfried's body on to the pyre; at the same time, she draws the Ring from Siegfried's finger and gazes at it thoughtfully.)
Mein Erbe nun
nehm ich zu eigen
...
...
Ihr in der Flute
loeset ihn auf,
und lauter bewahrt
das lichte Gold
das euch zum Unheil getaubt.
(She has placed the Ring on her finger, and now turns to the pile of logs on which Siegfried's body is laid. She seizes a great fire-brand from one of the vassals and gestures towards the back.)
Fliegt heim, ihr Raben!
...
...
in Wahlhalls Prangende Burg.
(She flings the brand on the pyre, which quickly breaks out in bright flames. Two ravens fly up from the rocks on the shore and diappear in the background. Bruennhilde sees her horse, which has been led in by two young men. She hasten towards it, takes hold of it and quickly removes the bridle; then she leans over it confidingly.)
Grane, mein Ross!
...
...
Selig gruesst dich dein Weib!
(She has mounted the horse and leaps with a single bound into the blazing fire. The flames immediately blaze up so that they fill the whole space in front of [Gibichung Hall], and appear to seize on the building itself. The men and women press to the extreme front in terror. When the whole space of the stage seems filled with fire, the glow suddenly subsides, and only a cloud of smoke remains; this drifts to the background and lies there on the horizon as a dark bank of cloud. At the same time, the Rhein overflows its banks in a mighty flood which pours over the fire. On the waves the three Rheinmaidens wim forward and now appear above the pyre. Hagen, who since the incident of the ring has observed Bruennhilde's behavior with increasing anxiety, is seized with great alarm at the appearance of the Rheinmiaidens. He hastily throws aside spear, shield, and helmet and rushes like a madman into the flood.)
Hagen
Zurueck vom Ring!
(Woglinde and Wellgunde twine their arms around his neck and draw him with them into the depths as they swim away. Flosshilde, swimming in front of the others toward the back, joyously holds up on high the regained ring. Through the cloudbank, which has settled on the horizon, a red glow breaks out with increasing brightness. By its light, the three Rheinmaidens are seen, swimming in circles, merrily playing with the ring on the calmer waters of the Rhein, which has gradually returned to its bed. From the ruins of the fall hall, the men and women, in great agitation, watch the growing firelight in the heavens. When this reaches its greatest brightness, the hall of Valhalla is seen, in whcih gods and heroes sit assembled, just as Waltraute described in the first act. Bright flames rise on the hall of the gods. When the gods are entirely hidden by the flames, the curtain falls.)
Now, I own that there is a shortage of sopranos willing to ride a horse onto a flaming funeral pyre, not the mention animal welfare laws and fire marshalls that frown on such behavior. What Wagner has prescribed would be tough to stage even for Cirque du Soleil, with its shows set in giant tanks of water. But film technology makes it eminently do-able after Bruennhilde sings her last and vanishes from the stage, horse or not.
The Wadsworth Ring, most of which I saw in Seattle in 2001, came close to realizing the instructions - though again, the gods in Valhalla looked like a family reunion rather than the end of the world: too much Kumbaya for me.
Bruennhilde
(alone in the center [of the stage]; after remaining long absorbed in contemplation of Siegfried's face, first with profound shock, then with almost overwhelming despair, she turns to the men and women in solemn exaltation. To the vassals:)
Starke Scheite
schichtet mir dort
....
....
Vollbringt Bruennhildes Wunsch!
(During the following, the younger men raise a huge funeral pyre of logs before the hall, near the bank of the Rhein: women decorate this with coverings on which they strew plants and flowers. Bruennhilde becomes again absorbed in contemplation of Siegfried's body. Her features become increasingly transfigured with tenderness.)
Wie Sonne lauter
strahlt mir sein Licht;
...
...
Wisst ihr, wie das ward?
(looking upward [and addressing Wotan])
O ihr, der Eide
Heilige Hueter!
....
....
Ruhe, ruhe, du Gott!
(She gives a sign to the vassals to bear Siegfried's body on to the pyre; at the same time, she draws the Ring from Siegfried's finger and gazes at it thoughtfully.)
Mein Erbe nun
nehm ich zu eigen
...
...
Ihr in der Flute
loeset ihn auf,
und lauter bewahrt
das lichte Gold
das euch zum Unheil getaubt.
(She has placed the Ring on her finger, and now turns to the pile of logs on which Siegfried's body is laid. She seizes a great fire-brand from one of the vassals and gestures towards the back.)
Fliegt heim, ihr Raben!
...
...
in Wahlhalls Prangende Burg.
(She flings the brand on the pyre, which quickly breaks out in bright flames. Two ravens fly up from the rocks on the shore and diappear in the background. Bruennhilde sees her horse, which has been led in by two young men. She hasten towards it, takes hold of it and quickly removes the bridle; then she leans over it confidingly.)
Grane, mein Ross!
...
...
Selig gruesst dich dein Weib!
(She has mounted the horse and leaps with a single bound into the blazing fire. The flames immediately blaze up so that they fill the whole space in front of [Gibichung Hall], and appear to seize on the building itself. The men and women press to the extreme front in terror. When the whole space of the stage seems filled with fire, the glow suddenly subsides, and only a cloud of smoke remains; this drifts to the background and lies there on the horizon as a dark bank of cloud. At the same time, the Rhein overflows its banks in a mighty flood which pours over the fire. On the waves the three Rheinmaidens wim forward and now appear above the pyre. Hagen, who since the incident of the ring has observed Bruennhilde's behavior with increasing anxiety, is seized with great alarm at the appearance of the Rheinmiaidens. He hastily throws aside spear, shield, and helmet and rushes like a madman into the flood.)
Hagen
Zurueck vom Ring!
(Woglinde and Wellgunde twine their arms around his neck and draw him with them into the depths as they swim away. Flosshilde, swimming in front of the others toward the back, joyously holds up on high the regained ring. Through the cloudbank, which has settled on the horizon, a red glow breaks out with increasing brightness. By its light, the three Rheinmaidens are seen, swimming in circles, merrily playing with the ring on the calmer waters of the Rhein, which has gradually returned to its bed. From the ruins of the fall hall, the men and women, in great agitation, watch the growing firelight in the heavens. When this reaches its greatest brightness, the hall of Valhalla is seen, in whcih gods and heroes sit assembled, just as Waltraute described in the first act. Bright flames rise on the hall of the gods. When the gods are entirely hidden by the flames, the curtain falls.)
Now, I own that there is a shortage of sopranos willing to ride a horse onto a flaming funeral pyre, not the mention animal welfare laws and fire marshalls that frown on such behavior. What Wagner has prescribed would be tough to stage even for Cirque du Soleil, with its shows set in giant tanks of water. But film technology makes it eminently do-able after Bruennhilde sings her last and vanishes from the stage, horse or not.
The Wadsworth Ring, most of which I saw in Seattle in 2001, came close to realizing the instructions - though again, the gods in Valhalla looked like a family reunion rather than the end of the world: too much Kumbaya for me.
Unions, Classical Music, and All o' That
A couple of weeks ago, Greg Sandow was quoted in The Australian as follows:
Is there any evidence that the Philadelphia Orchestra lacks, um, pizzazz or excitement? Has Greg heard the orchestra play in the last few years? Does he understand what goes into orchestra building?
But getting back to the idea that a reasonable way to reduce costs is to break unions (as, perhaps, NYCO is about to try) or to talk the musicians into taking enormous cuts or to generally blame union and musician wages for the financial difficulties faced by some arts organizations today (see Detroit, see Philadelphia, see NYCO, see the quiet threats emanating from David Gockley's office at San Francisco Opera).
First, let's remember the division of labor at opera companies and symphonies:
We are currently in a serious economic downturn, and coming out of it very slowly - read Paul Krugman's column and blog at the NY Times, if you need more information about that. Or keep an eye on the unemployment numbers. This has affected every arts organization in the country.
NYCO and the Philadelphia Orchestra are poster children for weak or incompetent administration. At NYCO, the board made at least two terrible mistakes: the appointment of Gerard Mortier, evidently without due diligence about what kind of budget he would want, and the renovation of the NY State Theater at Mortier's request, which left the company with their usual bills to pay, no place to perform, and no income. Mortier skedaddled without ever coming to NY or staging a production, leaving the board scrambling to find a new director. They wound up with George Steel, who had about as much experience running an opera company as do: several months at Dallas, which was preceded by great success as the concert presenter at the Miller Theater. Maybe Steel is the third big mistake; hard to say at this point. He's in a terrible position, where he'll get blamed for mistakes other people made. Honestly, you'd have to be a miracle worker to pull them out of the current skid.
Oh, I forgot about the way NYCO has run through its endowment. Once valued at $55 million, presumably at the height of the boom, the endowment is down to $9 million. That's the fourth terrible mistake. They've also got an inexperienced board president, appointed just a few months ago, who says things about not disclosing their finances. As a non-profit, hello, you are legally required to release financial information to the public. Don't talk about keeping things under your hat. It only makes you look bad. So, let's call this the fifth mistake.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has been having various problems since the 1990s, when they stopped contributing to the musicians' pension plan. I'd call that a long-term governance issue. They've had music director issues, with Christoph Eschenbach coming and going rather quickly; a successor has been found, but he is not in place yet. So there's been weak, or no, musical leadership. I understand there have been problems with the administrative leadership as well, with Alison Vulgamore appointed after a chaotic period with no general director. (Oh...and it is not good that she is taking a big pay raise when the orchestra has just declared bankruptcy.)
Guess what? The Philadelphia Orchestra could try to lower its costs by firing all its musicians, and it would still have the higher costs of the Kimmel Center over the Academy of Music, the low ticket sales, the problems in their administrative leadership. And they would have a gigantic public relations failure on their hands too. I bet most of their audience would flip out if the orchestra replaced 100% of its musicians with recent conservatory graduates. The loss of good will would be immense. I myself would never set foot in their hall or give a penny to an organization that had done such a thing, and I know that I am not alone in that.
See also:
Sandow says that if the Philadelphia Orchestra were to suddenly discharge all its musicians and replace them with young players on contract, what might be lost in polish could easily be made up for in pizazz.
"I wonder if that wouldn't be more exciting to hear," he says. "It might really surprise people."Sigh. I wish people would stop and think before they say things like that. He'd just throw out an enormous body of accumulated knowledge and playing experience to reduce costs and possibly gain "pizzazz."
Is there any evidence that the Philadelphia Orchestra lacks, um, pizzazz or excitement? Has Greg heard the orchestra play in the last few years? Does he understand what goes into orchestra building?
But getting back to the idea that a reasonable way to reduce costs is to break unions (as, perhaps, NYCO is about to try) or to talk the musicians into taking enormous cuts or to generally blame union and musician wages for the financial difficulties faced by some arts organizations today (see Detroit, see Philadelphia, see NYCO, see the quiet threats emanating from David Gockley's office at San Francisco Opera).
First, let's remember the division of labor at opera companies and symphonies:
- The musicians and singers are paid to put on concerts and operas.
- The nonmusician union members are paid to make costumes and sets and wigs and move stuff around the stage.
- The administrators are paid to raise enough money to pay for putting on concerts and operas, and to perform myriad administrative tasks with some degree of smarts.
We are currently in a serious economic downturn, and coming out of it very slowly - read Paul Krugman's column and blog at the NY Times, if you need more information about that. Or keep an eye on the unemployment numbers. This has affected every arts organization in the country.
NYCO and the Philadelphia Orchestra are poster children for weak or incompetent administration. At NYCO, the board made at least two terrible mistakes: the appointment of Gerard Mortier, evidently without due diligence about what kind of budget he would want, and the renovation of the NY State Theater at Mortier's request, which left the company with their usual bills to pay, no place to perform, and no income. Mortier skedaddled without ever coming to NY or staging a production, leaving the board scrambling to find a new director. They wound up with George Steel, who had about as much experience running an opera company as do: several months at Dallas, which was preceded by great success as the concert presenter at the Miller Theater. Maybe Steel is the third big mistake; hard to say at this point. He's in a terrible position, where he'll get blamed for mistakes other people made. Honestly, you'd have to be a miracle worker to pull them out of the current skid.
Oh, I forgot about the way NYCO has run through its endowment. Once valued at $55 million, presumably at the height of the boom, the endowment is down to $9 million. That's the fourth terrible mistake. They've also got an inexperienced board president, appointed just a few months ago, who says things about not disclosing their finances. As a non-profit, hello, you are legally required to release financial information to the public. Don't talk about keeping things under your hat. It only makes you look bad. So, let's call this the fifth mistake.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has been having various problems since the 1990s, when they stopped contributing to the musicians' pension plan. I'd call that a long-term governance issue. They've had music director issues, with Christoph Eschenbach coming and going rather quickly; a successor has been found, but he is not in place yet. So there's been weak, or no, musical leadership. I understand there have been problems with the administrative leadership as well, with Alison Vulgamore appointed after a chaotic period with no general director. (Oh...and it is not good that she is taking a big pay raise when the orchestra has just declared bankruptcy.)
Guess what? The Philadelphia Orchestra could try to lower its costs by firing all its musicians, and it would still have the higher costs of the Kimmel Center over the Academy of Music, the low ticket sales, the problems in their administrative leadership. And they would have a gigantic public relations failure on their hands too. I bet most of their audience would flip out if the orchestra replaced 100% of its musicians with recent conservatory graduates. The loss of good will would be immense. I myself would never set foot in their hall or give a penny to an organization that had done such a thing, and I know that I am not alone in that.
See also:
- Joshua Kosman in the S.F. Chronicle
- Matthew Guerrieri at Soho the Dog, on the Detroit situation (don't be fooled by the pile of pastrami, er, smoked meat pictured at the top of the posting)
- Alex at Wellsung
- Michael Kaiser at the Huffington Post (See David Gockley's comment to the article, too)
- Drew McManus at Adaptistration, too many articles to link to
- John Marcher at A Beast in a Jungle
Not Sure Where These Belong...
DON'T make someone who wants to join your organization's mailing list provide their street address and phone number.
DON'T send an annoying solicitation every month in your print newsletter AND in every monthly email. I recently took myself off all mailing lists of an organization to which I gave $400 last year, to give you an idea. Maybe I'll remember to donate to them, maybe I won't, but they sure made it easy for me to skip reading anything from them ever again.
DON'T send an annoying solicitation every month in your print newsletter AND in every monthly email. I recently took myself off all mailing lists of an organization to which I gave $400 last year, to give you an idea. Maybe I'll remember to donate to them, maybe I won't, but they sure made it easy for me to skip reading anything from them ever again.
Das Ende: Reviewing Der Ring des Nibelungen at San Francisco Opera
My review of SF Opera's new Ring production is up at San Francisco Classical Voice. It's an overview of the production and performances, and as such can't get into the deep details of either the work or the performances. I had intended to write individual reviews of each opera; that didn't happen. But since I have a lot to say that didn't make it into the review...there'll be some miscellaneous rambling here.
I'm relieved to see that Joshua Kosman reached the same conclusions I did, with more flair and in many fewer words. I'll be looking over the rest of the recent coverage soon; I rarely read reviews of performances I'm covering until I've written my own.
I'm relieved to see that Joshua Kosman reached the same conclusions I did, with more flair and in many fewer words. I'll be looking over the rest of the recent coverage soon; I rarely read reviews of performances I'm covering until I've written my own.
Garden of Memory, Today!
I'm late posting this, but I also only got the notice about Garden of Memory two days ago. If you're not at War Memorial Opera House seeing Das Rheingold tonight, you can have a great time at Garden of Memory, the annual Summer Solstice new music program at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. The music covers every possible style, the location is a marvel.
Date: Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Time: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Location: Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA
Tickets: $15 general, $10 student/senior, $5 kids under 12. Available at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets.
Parking: tight; public transportation or car pooling is recommended.
Date: Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Time: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Location: Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA
Tickets: $15 general, $10 student/senior, $5 kids under 12. Available at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets.
Parking: tight; public transportation or car pooling is recommended.
Musicians Don't Comment?
Over at Classical Life, critic Tim Mangan's blog, Tim has picked up on a point from my Blogging Basics page. An interesting discussion has ensued, with a range of readers weighing in, including the illustrious Martin Bernheimer.
My own experience is that classical music bloggers will, eventually, hear from performers. I certainly have, and I listed some of those I've heard from in my comment at Tim's. I should note that to my knowledge I've never reviewed one of flutist Tod Brody's performances; I've reviewed many SFS and SFO performances in which Carey Bell played. (Some day I'll catch up with them both at SFCMP.)
I'm reasonably sure that in part it's the informality of the medium, in part because some performers who wouldn't necessarily write to, say, Anthony Tommasini or Joshua Kosman with a complaint are perfectly willing to write to a blogger or comment on a blog. We're not always regarded as legitimate reviewers. I had one intense email exchange with a performer in which the performer asked me about my credentials - and then dropped the discussion.
My own experience is that classical music bloggers will, eventually, hear from performers. I certainly have, and I listed some of those I've heard from in my comment at Tim's. I should note that to my knowledge I've never reviewed one of flutist Tod Brody's performances; I've reviewed many SFS and SFO performances in which Carey Bell played. (Some day I'll catch up with them both at SFCMP.)
I'm reasonably sure that in part it's the informality of the medium, in part because some performers who wouldn't necessarily write to, say, Anthony Tommasini or Joshua Kosman with a complaint are perfectly willing to write to a blogger or comment on a blog. We're not always regarded as legitimate reviewers. I had one intense email exchange with a performer in which the performer asked me about my credentials - and then dropped the discussion.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Blogging Basics
You'll notice - well, you probably won't, which is why I'm posting this - a new item in the sidebar, a page called Blogging Basics. This goes with Web Site Basics and Publicity Basics. It's based on a short presentation I gave at the annual conference of the Music Critics Association of North America. Nothing complicated, just some nuts and bolts advice about running a blog and attracting an audience.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers
I've gotten email from University of Rochester Press about a new entry in their Eastman Studies in Music Series: Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers, by Bálint András Varga. Looks like an interesting book; the questions are:
Do today's composers draw inspiration from life experiences or from, say, the natural world?The composers queried include Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Alberto Ginastera, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hans Werner Henze, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawski, Luigi Nono, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Toru Takemitsu, and Iannis Xenakis. I hope Gudaidulina isn't the only female composer included. $49.95 from UR press.
What influences, past and present, have influenced recent composers?
How essential is it for a composer to develop a personal style, and when does this degenerate into self-repetition?
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