What Are You Listening To?

[brianvds]

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Reminds me of the scene in Amadeus in which Mozart, unable to choose between three wigs, exclaims "I wish I had three heads!"

Most certainly one of my all-time favorite films. And to be honest,

A great film, as long as we remember that it isn't a biopic.

It was Amadeus that first truly turned me on to Mozart and Opera. At the time I was quite a fan of the Baroque: Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi (The Baroque Revival that began to employ historic instruments and performance styles as well as rediscovering the endless forgotten works by Baroque composers was just underway.) I was also quite a fan of Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, Tchaikovski, and Stravinsky at this time.

I have long wondered whether opera productions were as spectacular and lavish in Mozart's day as they are in the film. In any event, I can see myself becoming a fan of opera if they do it that way. I don't get how people can listen to a whole opera production. Opera is a show, not just abstract sound, and thus, by my aesthetic, productions should be as visually spectacular as we can make them. Not at all a fan of the new-fangled thing you sometimes see, with virtually bare, minimalist stages and singers in modern business suits and that sort of thing.

No. Valkyries should have horned helmets, dammit.

One of the marvels of YouTube: plenty of opera productions, with subtitles. (Subtitles are another essential item - an opera is a story, and if I cannot follow what's going on it would be like watching a French film without subtitles.) I have even downloaded some, and will watch them soon as I am done reading that book on procrastination that I have been pottering around with.

You may see me rave about Wagner yet.

 

[stlukesguild]

A great film, as long as we remember that it isn't a biopic.
Oh yes... the movie was based on the play by Peter Shaffer... which itself was based on the play Мо́царт и Салье́ри (Mozart & Salieri) by the Russian author, Alexander Pushkin. But then films and novels and plays have always played fast and loose with historical facts. Look at Shakespeare's "Histories".

Not at all a fan of the new-fangled thing you sometimes see, with virtually bare, minimalist stages and singers in modern business suits and that sort of thing.
Minimalism I can handle. It's when the director/producer completely undermines the original with their bizarre visions...

... that I can't truly stand.

Some time ago I began collecting DVDs of opera productions. There are some fine productions... especially by William Christies... of Mozart, Rameau, etc...

In this vein... take a look/listen to this lovely piece... The Dance of the Blessed Spirits... from the opera Orfeo ed Eurydice ... by Christoph Willibald Gluck... one of the most underrated composers of all time:

Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits

 

[brianvds]

A great film, as long as we remember that it isn't a biopic.
Oh yes... the movie was based on the play by Peter Shaffer... which itself was based on the play Мо́царт и Салье́ри (Mozart & Salieri) by the Russian author, Alexander Pushkin. But then films and novels and plays have always played fast and loose with historical facts. Look at Shakespeare's "Histories".

There are broadly two types of historical/biopic film: those that are inaccurate but make some or other point, and those that are plain inaccurate.

Not at all a fan of the new-fangled thing you sometimes see, with virtually bare, minimalist stages and singers in modern business suits and that sort of thing.
Minimalism I can handle. It's when the director/producer completely undermines the original with their bizarre visions...
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... that I can't truly stand.

Yup, also irritating. I once saw excerpts from an opera by Berlioz in which people flew around in helicopters and stuff like that. Now I suppose some operas and plays lend themselves to such treatment better than others. But for many decades the west has suffered from neomania, in which we almost desperately pursued "originality" for its own sake.

Some time ago I began collecting DVDs of opera productions. There are some fine productions... especially by William Christies... of Mozart, Rameau, etc...

As I noted, there are plenty on YouTube. Will download and watch some time, at least the ones that have spectacular stage design, and subtitles. I have seen excerpts from John Adams' Nixon in China that made me want to watch the whole thing, but alas, can't get hold of a subtitled version. Don[t know if I'm alone in this, but I find it almost impossible to make out the words when people sing them, so I need subtitles even for an opera in English!

In this vein... take a look/listen to this lovely piece... The Dance of the Blessed Spirits... from the opera Orfeo ed Eurydice ... by Christoph Willibald Gluck... one of the most underrated composers of all time:

Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits

All very well, but where are the blessed spirits, dancing or otherwise?
Seriously though, very nice, and precisely the kind of stage effect I want to see in an opera.

Like everybody else except you, Dance of the Blessed Spirits is the only piece by Gluck that I know. I naively thought he was a one-hit wonder.

 

[stlukesguild]

Like everybody else except you, Dance of the Blessed Spirits is the only piece by Gluck that I know. I naively thought he was a one-hit wonder.
Don't underestimate Gluck... and unfortunately he is one of the most underestimated composers of classical music. He broke away from the ornamentation of Baroque opera and pointed the way toward the Classical Era and the operas of Mozart.

Orphée et Eurydice (Orpheus among the Blessed Spirits)

Gluck composed a good number of impressive operas including:

Armide
Iphigenie en Tauride
Orphee et Eurydice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Iphigénie en Aulide
Alceste
Paride ed Elena

All are available in marvelous recordings by some of the finest singers and conductors... including Paul McCreesh, John Eliot Gardiner, Rene Jacobs, William Christies, etc...

Paride ed Elena

You are correct, however, in the Gluck's Orpheus operas Orfeo ed Euridice (Italian) and Orphée et Eurydice (French). The operas include many differences beyond that of the language including the addition of a number of ballets (popular with the French audiences) including "Dance of the Furies" and "Dance of the Blessed Spirits".

 

[Hermes2020]

It must be a wonderful experience for an orchestra to play a piece conducted by the composer. Here Schuller conducts the Radio Philharmonic of Hannover in his pieces inspired by Klee: 7 Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, composed in 1959.

 

[brianvds]

It must be a wonderful experience for an orchestra to play a piece conducted by the composer. Here Schuller conducts the Radio Philharmonic of Hannover in his pieces inspired by Klee: 7 Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, composed in 1959.

Interesting pieces - thorny modernist stuff with a bit of jazz thrown in.

In somewhat similar vein, in that it's inspired by modern art, South African composer Peter Klatzow with Three Paintings by Irma Stern:

Alas for local composers, they can't always get hold of an actual orchestra to perform their work, so he had to make do here with an electronic realization.

 

[Hermes2020]

I am aware of Klatzow's work. I think he composed the music for the ballet Raka, which I saw on video once and liked very much.

 

[Hermes2020]

Wow, I just finished listening to the Klatzow and enjoyed it very much.

 

[stevenD]

A very insightful song:

 

[brianvds]

I am aware of Klatzow's work. I think he composed the music for the ballet Raka, which I saw on video once and liked very much.

He died in 2021, of Covid. It hardly even made the news here; just a short article in a newspaper or two. And like much of this sort of thing, virtually no recordings available, with some company probably clinging to copyright and not allowing anyone to put anything online.

 

[brianvds]

In its weird wisdom, YouTube recommended this to me:

Most "popular" music tends not to do much for me, but I really enjoyed Sufjan Stevens's soulful sadness in this collection. A sort of Rachmaninoff of folk, is my verdict - it takes some spine to compose a lyrically beautiful song about, wait for it, John Wayne Gacy..