Musical Fant

What’s up in Metropolitan Opera in Otober? You know, if I were a rich man I would travel all time long for opera theaters around the world to listen genius music and to watch new perfomances. Such as Wagner’s Das Rheingold that will take place in Metropolitan Opera in NY, October 9, 2010 at 1:00 pm.

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Expected Running time: 3 hours
Two unparalleled artists join forces to create a groundbreaking new Ring for the Met: Maestro James Levine and director Robert Lepage. The cycle launches with Das Rheingold, the prologue to Wagner’s epic drama. “The Ring is not just a story or a series of operas, it’s a cosmos,” says Lepage, who brings cutting-edge technology and his own visionary imagination to the world’s greatest theatrical journey. Bryn Terfel sings the leading role of Wotan for the first time with the company, heading an extraordinary cast.

James Levine; Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Patricia Bardon, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, Franz-Josef Selig, Hans-Peter König.

Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov
October 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm ET
U.S. Encore: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2010, 6:30 p.m. local time
Canada Encore: Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010, 12:00 p.m. ET

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Expected Running time: 5 hours
René Pape takes on one of the greatest bass roles in a new production by Stephen Wadsworth. Valery Gergiev conducts Mussorgsky’s epic spectacle that captures the suffering and ambition of a nation, with Aleksandrs Antonenko, Vladimir Ognovenko, and Ekaterina Semenchuk leading the huge cast.

Valery Gergiev; Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko, Vladimir Ognovenko

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Georg Friedrich Händel was born Halle (Germany), 23 February 1685, in the family of a barber-surgeon who intended him for the law. He started to practise music clandestinely, but his father was encouraged to allow him to study and he became a pupil of Zachow, the principal organist in Halle. When he was 18 he left for Hamburg. There he played the violin and harpsichord in the opera house, where his Almira was given at the beginning of 1705, soon followed by his Nero. The next year he accepted an invitation to Italy, where he spent more than three years, in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice. He had operas or other dramatic works given in all these cities (oratorios in Rome, including La resurrezione) and, writing many Italian cantatas, perfected his technique in setting Italian words for the human voice. In Rome he also composed some Latin church music.

In 1718-19 a group of noblemen tried to put Italian opera in London on a firmer footing, and launched a company with royal patronage, the Royal Academy of Music; Handel, appointed musical director, went to Germany, visiting Dresden and poaching several singers for the Academy, which opened in April 1720. Handel’s Radamisto was the second opera and it inaugurated a noble series over the ensuing years including Ottone, Giulio Cesare, Rodelinda, Tamerlano and Admeto. Works by Bononcini (seen by some as a rival to Handel) and others were given too, with success at least equal to Handel’s, by a company with some of the finest singers in Europe, notably the castrato Senesino and the soprano Cuzzoni. But public support was variable and the financial basis insecure, and in 1728 the venture collapsed. The previous year Handel, who had been appointed a composer to the Chapel Royal in 1723, had composed four anthems for the coronation of George II and had taken British naturalization.

During his last decade he gave regular performances of Messiah, usually with about 16 singers and an orchestra of about 40, in aid of the Foundling Hospital. In 1749 he wrote a suite for wind instruments (with optional strings) for performance in Green Park to accompany the Royal Fireworks celebrating the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. His last oratorio, composed as he grew blind, was Jephtha (1752); The Triumph of Time and Truth (1757) is largely composed of earlier material. Handel was very economical in the re-use of his ideas; at many times in his life he also drew heavily on the music of others (though generally avoiding detection) – such ‘borrowings’ may be of anything from a brief motif to entire movements, sometimes as they stood but more often accommodated to his own style.

Handel died in 1759 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, recognized in England and by many in Germany as the greatest composer of his day. The wide range of expression at his command is shown not only in the operas, with their rich and varied arias, but also in the form he created, the English oratorio, where it is applied to the fates of nations as well as individuals. He had a vivid sense of drama. But above all he had a resource and originality of invention, to be seen in the extraordinary variety of music in the op.6 concertos, for example, in which melodic beauty, boldness and humour all play a part, that place him and J.S. Bach as the supreme masters of the Baroque era in music.

Generally it was a fantastic performance, with usual inherent Metropolitan Opera sweep and rare impeccable taste. From the overture, that sounded marvelous accompanied by an sensual pas de deux in a illuminated area of the scene. Rich choreography went out so organically in the magic light, familiar of dancing Moulin Rouge.

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The decorations tobacco factory resembled a crumbling Coliseum. Those who were in Seville, this factory would not know, because the truth of life gave way to the truth of art and has been done very well. Slight rotation of the massive stage makes us to found themselves either for or in front of the gate. Female employees also came out from under the ground, as miners, wiping his wet towels. It lookes organic and simple. All artists are smoking cigarettes on the stage, especially Lieutenant Zuniga (Keith Miller), clean-shaven and looking like a Yul Brynner.

Latvian diva El?na Garan?a is one of the best Carmen of all I have ever seen, and perhaps even hear! She has powerful and unusually beautiful voice, velvety and blurred, but without a hint of sweetness. El?na is not just beauty, she is an amazing actress.

As for the Don José, tenor Frenchman Roberto Alagna, has also nice and very suitable to its role of Carmen lover appearance. Looking at him, it was clear that Escamillo has to come soon. Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien who had to sing Don José part, suddenly fell ill and it got replaced by New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Teddy – quite elegant bullfighter, but when Carmen chose men singing talent, then she should probably preferes Jose. But Elina Garanca – free as the wind – had their own criteria and we will not condemn it, especially since Teddy sang quite well. Especially when you consider that in today’s presentation, he came unexpectedly, resulting in a morning phone call. Elina herself married to a conductor of Gibraltar, the rock-thorn in the heart of Spain. Not only he but the whole of Gibraltar can be proud of such a wife. Fairy-tale success!