sovay: (Lord Peter Wimsey: passion)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2011-06-26 04:25 pm
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Nürnbergs teurem Sachs

Well, as far as first experiences of Wagner go, that was pretty awesome. I even got the high-resolution stream to work after the first act. Gerard Finley: why have I not heard of? (Apparently I would have if I'd been able to get tickets to Doctor Atomic at the Met in 2008.) Johannes Martin Kränzle: would watch sing his way out of a paper bag. (Which is pretty much happens to Beckmesser in the third act, Malvolio-funny.) What a much more complicated opera than I was expecting. I may attempt to write it up, but first I have to start making Ethiopian collard greens from a recipe I got off the internet. I wish there would be a professionally available recording, but right now I'll settle for being glad—for once—that even if I was in the wrong country for a production, it didn't matter.
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[identity profile] kenjari.livejournal.com 2011-06-27 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
Gerard Finley: why have I not heard of? (Apparently I would have if I'd been able to get tickets to Doctor Atomic at the Met in 2008.)
I saw the simulcast of Dr. Atomic at Fenway theaters, and Gerard Finley was amazing as Oppenheimer. He reduced just about the entire theater to tears with his aria at the end of act 1 (Batter my heart, three person'd god). I have in fact named my car Oppenheimer in honor of that opera and his performance in it.
Glad you enjoyed Meistersinger. It's the only one of Wagner's operas that I think of as being fun.
sovay: (Cho Hakkai: intelligence)

[personal profile] sovay 2011-06-27 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
He reduced just about the entire theater to tears with his aria at the end of act 1 (Batter my heart, three person'd god).

Dammit. I don't suppose that's available on DVD?

I have in fact named my car Oppenheimer in honor of that opera and his performance in it.

Awesome.

Glad you enjoyed Meistersinger. It's the only one of Wagner's operas that I think of as being fun.

It was! Including the moments when it wasn't, which I liked.

[identity profile] straussmonster.livejournal.com 2011-06-27 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
Two productions, both the Met's (Penny Woolcock) and Peter Sellars', both with Finley. (He was miked; Adams doesn't seem to trust operatic voices.) Sadly, I think that number is really the best part of the opera. It's a serious mess for a number of reasons, the worst offender being that Peter Sellars is not a good librettist. But John Adams seems loyal to him, now.
sovay: (Lord Peter Wimsey)

[personal profile] sovay 2011-06-27 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
Sadly, I think that number is really the best part of the opera.

Well, John Donne.

All right, at least I can see that.

[identity profile] straussmonster.livejournal.com 2011-06-27 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
Well, it's one of the cases where it's an alignment of a good text and a good dramatic sentiment/placement, and Adams makes the most of it. I think (and I once got the chance to tell him as much, and did) that the choice of the Muriel Rukeyser poetry for Kitty--which is pretty much all she gets to sing--was way too dense for operatic setting. The Donne is short enough and also structured enough to make a formal aria out of it.

The less said about the Magical Native American Contralto is probably the better...

[identity profile] kenjari.livejournal.com 2011-06-27 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
The Met production is not on DVD, sadly, but one of the other productions is. And even more sadly, there is not even a CD out of the opera yet. It's actually pretty frustrating to me, since I loved the opera. You'd think with at least two major opera companies having done it and it being by one of the best known contemporary composers that it wouldn't take more than three years.

[identity profile] straussmonster.livejournal.com 2011-06-27 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
It's on Met Player, though, if you're willing to spring for that.
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