Opera
- Thread starter Garek
- Start date
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
bluescreen
tofu eating wokerati
Heard about this today and throwing it out there in case anyone's interested - not cheap at £79.99 pa, but cheaper than going:
www.glyndebourne.com
Glyndebourne Encore - Glyndebourne
A new streaming service launching on 1 December – watch extraordinary opera on demand
www.glyndebourne.com
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Interested in how much that set you back?
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
Theodora at the ROH. Handel oratorio/opera directed by Katie Mitchell.
Very modern clever design and set (I’m guessing direction influenced by US video artist Bill Viola). Superbly sung. Very long and a bit repetitive in Act 1.
Highly recommended but only on for two more performances (Mon/Wed).
(Last minute decision to go and booked Thursday - still plenty of seats left then though not the cheapest - maybe people are deciding at last minute due to Covid?)
Very modern clever design and set (I’m guessing direction influenced by US video artist Bill Viola). Superbly sung. Very long and a bit repetitive in Act 1.
Highly recommended but only on for two more performances (Mon/Wed).
(Last minute decision to go and booked Thursday - still plenty of seats left then though not the cheapest - maybe people are deciding at last minute due to Covid?)
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
Not having been to Glyndebourne for the last two years, I’ve booked to go this year to see an opera I know nothing about later this year. Written by a woman. It’s the first time Glyndebourne had put on a opera written by a woman! Which says something. Haven’t decided what yet.
It’s called the Wreckers and it’s by Dame Ethel Smith.
It’s called the Wreckers and it’s by Dame Ethel Smith.
bluescreen
tofu eating wokerati
My parents had a recording of that on 78s! Enjoy!
Chilli.s
mingling jets and statuettes
A mate of mine put on a party and we had half the pa that was used at the festival there. Set up in an old derelict factory it sounded awesome. Wasn't running opera through it though.
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
The pa from the opera house?
Chilli.s
mingling jets and statuettes
I thought it had been used outside?
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
Glyndebourne is not performed outside. It’s in a purpose built opera house.
Chilli.s
mingling jets and statuettes
I have not been to it so don't know. I thought some was outside in the summer? This was 25 years ago.
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
The festival is only on in the summer, but the opera is indoors and always has been. There are occasionally things in and around the gardens, but not fully fledged operas. The summer bit is because there is a long interval, when people have posh picnics.
New York's Met Opera have a good catalogue of stuff to stream and the production quality is generally fantastic. I watched this last night and can't get over how good it is.
Philip Glass's Akhnaten:
The fella playing Akhnaten is a counter tenor - basically a bloke singing soprano - which was shockingly good. The hypnotic, slow movements are mesmerising.
Btw, opera means 'the works' so music, drama and immersive sets. By just listening to a performance on CD, you're missing out on a lot. That said, before Xmas I watched a Scottish performance of a German opera that had no set and everyone was dressed in black and it was pretty good, albeit the plot was stoic.
Philip Glass's Akhnaten:
The fella playing Akhnaten is a counter tenor - basically a bloke singing soprano - which was shockingly good. The hypnotic, slow movements are mesmerising.
Btw, opera means 'the works' so music, drama and immersive sets. By just listening to a performance on CD, you're missing out on a lot. That said, before Xmas I watched a Scottish performance of a German opera that had no set and everyone was dressed in black and it was pretty good, albeit the plot was stoic.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Anyone have an explanation for the Theatre and der Wein production of Tosca shown this morning on Sky Arts. They don't have Tom Service intro on Sky especially at 7am.
I'm not exactly an Opera buff. I like what I like. And this Tosca had me foxed.
This was a snow-bound production set outside a caravan. I didn't see a whole lot of it as it was a very early morning showing, and I went to sleep (watch from my bed).
I was startled by the very final scene where instead of Tosca jumping from the battlements when she realises the firing squad had live bullets when shooting her lover - and he was dead, in this production Tosca was shot be an avenging angel who seemed to be a clone of herself.
I hope Sky Arts show this again over Christmas in the evening. I would like to savour its avant garde qualities. In the pictures from the theatre website there appear to be corpses hanging from a tree. If this is symbolic of the Amderican south they've clearly not been to Louisiana!
This review suggests this production is like Peter Sellars (the opera director) with knobs on!
Une Tosca outrancière, mais puissante au Theater an der Wien - Toutelaculture
Une Tosca de tous les extrêmes au Theater an der Wien. Paul Fourier y était pour Toutelaculture.
toutelaculture.com
DJWrongspeed
radio eros
Opera North - Orpheus
Free to watch, asks the question of "Fusion."
Free to watch, asks the question of "Fusion."
wtfftw
melting like a toastie
Interested to hear if you like it. My neighbour is involved.
Cloo
Banana for scale
If you search 'OperaVision' on Youtube, there's a tonne of EU-funded free full length operas available. I'm definitely going to watch thisOpera North production of Monteverdi's 'Orpheus' which a contemporary Indian composer has added music to. I find it really interesting as Monteverdi's music is so early it was before modern musical keys were established, and Indian music is written a totally different scale, so perhaps it's easier to meld the two styles with older Western music. The sections I've heard sound amazing!
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Appreciating this possibly this depends on whether you take a Tom Service view of Opera for the princely court of Mantua. Given that it was apparently unveiled during the 1607 Carnival seems possible that the assembled aristos were socialising as much as attending to the detail of the work with Wagnerian attention.
To me it sounds like the sort of thing that goes out on Radio 3 after the 10-11 pm talk shows have finished.
The staging here seems to add to the ambience.
Not clear from the Opera North website what the ending is (in the Greek myth it's pretty gory).
I saw the film "Black Orpheus" in the cinema years ago. That had a shocking electrocution scene FWICR.
hash tag
Books, not bombs
How so?
Yes, I/we love the magic flute and first saw it not so long ago. Obviously, I expect this will be a different production. It's fun, it's light...
hash tag
Books, not bombs
Back to see the Magic Flute last night at the Colesium. We did enjoy it though the staging was very different from last time we saw it.
It was sung in English, they still showed subtitles and they also had a person signing every word and sound. I think I prefer it sung in German
but this helped us to understand the story a lot more. There were quite a lot of effects which this promo alludes to, which were possibly
distracting. Also some "big" choreographey touching on Busby Berkley. But a great night out.
It was sung in English, they still showed subtitles and they also had a person signing every word and sound. I think I prefer it sung in German
but this helped us to understand the story a lot more. There were quite a lot of effects which this promo alludes to, which were possibly
distracting. Also some "big" choreographey touching on Busby Berkley. But a great night out.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I really liked this. Very long - but the action seemed to speed up in the 2nd half. The Daily Express had a remarkable review:
The Magic Flute Review – Truly magical Mozart at the English National Opera
Simon McBurney's production of Mozart's Magic Flute was hugely acclaimed on its first appearance at ENO in 2013 and with each subsequent revival has grown better and funnier. This year's is simply unmissable.
I'm not a Mozart expert at all and find the Magic Flute confusing. Last time I saw it it was at the Proms in 2019 in a semi-staged version from Glyndebourne. That production seemed to be majoring on women's equality and the suffragettes - indeed there were abundant placards used as props saying "Votes for Women". Maybe this was a Proms thing - because if you go to YouTube there is an excerpt (Queen of the Night's aria) and I suppose it COULD be tarted up Vienna-style Bloomsbury. No sign of placards at all here. But the Glyndebourne opulence is a stylised as the ENO burlesque in my view. I love the bit where Papagano went looking for love in the stalls and was rewarded with a mobile phone number from a lady fan!
Here is Glyndebourne's Queen of the Night from "Bloomsbury am Wien"
Must dig out the DVD of Ingmar Bergman's Flute from the Royal Swedish Opera.
From memory this might be the ultimate luxury small opera house presentation as could be imagined in 1791 and has the three boys arriving and later departing by balloon. In the ENO production last night the three boys were off-stage in an audience box to the left with their own conductor - and their parts played on stage by primordial creatures
(any ideas anyone?)
Bergman's boys arriving in low definition courtesy of YouTube
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hash tag
Books, not bombs
It's all down to interpretation I guess.
The previous version was we saw was at Covent Garden. It was played without the "gimmicks" but it was still comic.
Also, it was in German. It is essentially a pisstake of Masonic rituals and beliefs.
I haven't yet finished reading it but David Cairns gives a good take on it
The previous version was we saw was at Covent Garden. It was played without the "gimmicks" but it was still comic.
Also, it was in German. It is essentially a pisstake of Masonic rituals and beliefs.
I haven't yet finished reading it but David Cairns gives a good take on it
