Wednesday 9 June 2021

AMARYLLIS IN GARDEN, 9/06/21

The Amaryllis in my garden this morning

Saturday 1 May 2021

CHANTS FOR SOCIALISTS

WILLIAM MORRIS

THE WORKERS

O Earth, once again cometh Spring to deliver
Thy winter-worn heart, O thou friend of the Sun;
Fair blossom the meadows from river to river
And the birds sing their triumph o'er winter undone.

O Earth, how a-toiling thou singest thy labour
And upholdest the flower-crowned cup of thy bliss,
As when in the feast-tide drinks neighbour to neighbour
And all words are gleeful, and nought is amiss.

But we, we, O Mother, through long generations,
We have toiled and been fruitful, but never with thee
Might we raise up our bowed heads and cry to the nations
To look on our beauty, and hearken our glee.

Unlovely of aspect, heart-sick and a-weary
On the season's fair pageant all dim-eyed we gaze;
Of thy fairness we fashion a prison-house dreary
And in sorrow wear over each day of our days.

THE EARTH.

O children! O toilers, what foemen beleaguer
The House I have built you, the Home I have won?
Full great are my gifts, and my hands are all eager
To fill every heart with the deeds I have done.

THE WORKERS.

The foemen are born of thy body, O Mother,
In our shape are they shapen, their voice is the same;
And the thought of their hearts is as ours and no other;
It is they of our own house that bring us to shame.

THE EARTH.

Are ye few? Are they many? What words have ye spoken
To bid your own brethren remember the Earth?
What deeds have ye done that the bonds should be broken,
And men dwell together in good-will and mirth?

THE WORKERS.

They are few, we are many: and yet, O our Mother,
Many years were we wordless and nought was our deed,
But now the word flitteth from brother to brother:
We have furrowed the acres and scattered the seed.

THE EARTH.

Win on then unyielding, through fair and foul weather,
And pass not a day that your deed shall avail.
And in hope every spring-tide come gather together
That unto the Earth ye may tell all your tale.

Then this shall I promise, that I am abiding
The day of your triumph, the ending of gloom,
And no wealth that ye will then my hand shall be hiding
And the tears of the spring into roses shall bloom.

Tuesday 27 April 2021

Richard Wagner, PARSIFAL, Wiener Staatsoper, April 2021

CAST (Unfortunately, I couldn't find an entire cast list, so only the major characters are listed here).

PARSIFAL Jonas Kaufmann

AMFORTAS Ludovic Tezier

KUNDRY Elina Garanca

GURNEMANZ Georg Zeppenfeld

KLINGSOR Wolfgang Koch

YOUNG PARSIFAL Nikolay Sidorenko

(Actor, silent role)

Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera

CONDUCTOR Philippe Jordan

DIRECTOR Kiril Sereberennikov

____________________________________________________________________

This is a very striking production of PARSIFAL, which has considerably divided opinions, although the majority verdict is in favour.....I will say at once that I absolutely loved it, although I was puzzled at first by the unfamiliarity of the setting.....which is a prison. I will just highlight a few salient points of the staging.

In the second two images, we see Kundry as a Prison Visitor/journalist, who takes photos of the prisoners. Well, what has this to do with Wagner? i take it to be a metaphor for an all-male community like the Grail Temple, which is perhaps as much of a psychological prison as anything else. It was very well-staged, with close attention to detail and showing the prisoners as individuals, although of course they become a chorus again in the Grail Temple scene. Gurnemanz (Georg Zeppenfeld) is portrayed as a senior (long-term) inmate, who has curious, close relationship with the prison guards, and - tattoos Grail images onto the bodies of some of the inmates, Apparently there is an intense Tattoo Culture in Russian prisons. (I am indebted to Paul Padillo for this information).

This sets the scene - it is disturbing in many ways, but then PARSIFAL is a disturbing opera, it has never been easy to interpret. The first two acts are staged as if the older Parsifal (Jonas Kaufmann) is re-living his youth.....the younger Parsifal is a silent role played by actor Nikolai Sidorenko. The older Parsifal sings from the front of the stage, and sometimes he even lip-synches to Gurnemanz, because he is remembering everything.

I should say at this point that all three acts are set indoors, so the references to Nature must be imagined. In fact this works surprisingly well for the Good Friday music.....better than I expected......although we can't see the beauty of the meadow that Parsifal talks about, we can hear it the music, and obvious Parsifal and Gurnemanz can see it in their imaginations. The fact that everything is set indoors leads to a rather witty staging of Klingsor's Castle.....he appears to be the proprietor of a fashion magazine, and the Flower Maidens are all models.....with Kundry perhaps as a senior journalist. Again, unexpected, but it worked very well in the context.

A few more detail of the staging are worth mentioning. Just before the Grail Scene, the prison officials are inspecting the parcels that have been sent to the prisoners......first of all they find a menorah, which they examine with some puzzlement ......(who would have sent a menorah, and why?) and then they finally unpack the Grail.

The end of Act II is especially striking, in that is is KUNDRY who destroys Klingsor (she shoots him, with the gun that she had previously been aiming at Parsifal).

I can see that purists might have a problem with this....why is it a gun and not the Sacred Spear? Because it reinforces the point that the whole confrontation has been a journey of self-discovery for Kundry as well as Parsifal.....she is transformed by the experience, and is thus able to become the agent of Klingsor's destruction. Elina Garanca conveys every aspect of this very complex character, not merely beautiful singing (and not always beautiful.....sometimes the tone of voice exactly parallels the inner torment!) but good acting......and she's a very attractive woman!!!

In this scene, as before, it is the younger Parsifal whom she tries to seduce, while the older Parsifal watches.......as the scene reaches its climax, he does obviously become very angry.

For me the absolute climax of the performance was Ludovic Tezier as the tortured Amfortas. This was conveyed with such intensity of expression that I could hardly watch it......I don't recall EVER having seen such a performance, almost terrifying.....

Whether we agree that Kundry survives at the end and is reconciled with Amfortas, as the image above suggests, must remain open to question......perhaps it is not entirely impossible.

At the end, as usual, I was left with tears in my eyes at the sheer beauty of the final music.

Sunday 18 October 2020

Violas in garden, 18 October 2020

These are some of the violas in my garden, 18 October 2020

Tuesday 9 April 2019

LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, Royal Opera House, 2 April 2019

Giuseppe Verdi LA FORZA DEL DESTINO,
Royal Opera House, 2 April 2019 (Cinema Relay)

CAST

Marchese di Calatrava..........................................ROBERT LLOYD

Leonora di Vargas................................................ANNA NETREBKO

Curra, a maid.......................................................ROBERTA ALEXANDER

Don Alvaro..........................................................JONAS KAUFMANN

Don Carlo di Vargas............................................LUDOVIC TEZIER

Alcalde................................................................MICHAEL MOFIDIAN

Maestro Trabucco...............................................CARLO BOSI

Preziosilla............................................................VERONICA SIMEONI

Padre Guardiano................................................FERRUCCIO FURLANETTO

Fra Melitone......................................................ALESSANDRO CORBELLI

Surgeon...............................................................JONATHAN FISHER

Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor....................................................... ANTONIO PAPPANO

Producer............................................................CHRISTOF LOY

A great triumph for the Royal Opera House in every respect. This opera has not in the past been one of my favourites, although I have always loved the music. This production, however, managed to turn this rather daft Victorian melodrama into a thing of beauty. I wonder if there will ever again be such a fortunate conjunction of cast, conductor (Antonio Pappano) and orchestra? I will never forget this as long as I live.

It may be the best performance that Anna Netrebko has given.

It can't be an easy role to play.....poor Leonora never has one moment of happiness....well, perhaps a fleeting few seconds before their flight is thwarted by her father and the inevitable tragedy ensues. I loved the soaring high notes in 'Pace, pace, mio Dio' and the passion and commitment she brought to this tragic character. Whatever she tries to do, however sincerely penitent she is, she can't find peace, so tormented by the memories the death of her father and the loss of Alvaro.

However, this wasn't a case of the the star soprano dominating the scene, the connections between the characters were truly reciprocal.....the relationship between Carlo and Alvaro has a lot of sub-text, I think, depicted with great intensity by Jonas Kaufmann and .Ludovic Tezier.

The performance of 'Solenne in quest'ora' broke my heart........almost a thwarted bromance!! There is no better pairing than Kaufmann and Tezier, and in this performance they took the scene to heights of sublimity.

And their later confrontation is even more intense and tragic because of what came before.......Alvaro's fate is tied up with the whole Calatrava family, not just Leonora...it's almost as if Alvaro is thinking.....I have to kill you, but that's not really what I want to do.....
..

In this production, the crowd scenes scene with Preziosilla seemed a bit extraneous.....very well performed, but something of an irrelevance.....I assume that was Christof Loy's point. Veronica Simeoni was a very attractive and smooth-voiced Preziosilla. In the crowd/circus scene, I especially liked the Street Vendor, who reminded me of Cut-My-Own-Throat Dibbler, a character created by Terry Pratchett.

It was certainly cast from strength..... I was particularly happy to see beloved veteran Robert Lloyd as the Marchese di Calatrava, and Feruccio Furlanetto as Padre Guardiano.

I liked the staging, although it has attracted some unfavourable comments. It is one set, based on a room in the mansion of the Calatrava family, which accommodates all the other scenes as well. I thought this was quite effective, especially in the final scene....I realise they are supposed to be in the monastery where Leonora has taken refuge, but the fact that it resembles the claustrophobic home in which Leonora was trapped at the beginning means that the wheel has come full circle..Alvaro and Leonora are re-united when it is too late.

.....During the overture, there was a staging of a 'back story', the childhood of Leonora and Carlo.....with another brother, who dies. It shows that Leonora never really had a chance.....claustrophobic childhood to doomed adulthood.

(In the play on which LA FORZA DEL DESTINO is based.....LA FUERZA DEL SINO.....there are in fact two brothers. Alvaro kills Carlo in their duel, then the other brother....Don Alfonso...tracks him down and forces him to fight a duel.....Alvaro kills Alfonso too).

This was one of the best performances of anything I have ever seen at the Royal Opera House.