the cieca caucus
Since our this podcast completes our series of Faust episodes, La Cieca needs to decide which work should be featured next on “Unnatural Acts of Opera.” Your doyenne has narrowed the selection down to five works of maestro Rossini, and now it’s up to you, cher public, to tell her which of these five you want to hear.
Why comment on my comment in the first place. It was my opinion. I’m getting a little tired of having to defend my opinions; no one has to agree with them, but they’re mine.
And not just mine:
From the Music & Vision homepage:
“This interest is useful as Il Turco in Italia has suffered rather because its plot has been seen as a re-run of L’Italiana in Algeri, written the year before. Both involve exotic, foreign men getting involved with feisty Italian women and ending up realising that love is better close to home.” which was written by Robert Hugill, a British composer.
What I find so interesting, though, is that my apology to you got no comment at all, while my opinion about Turco brought a response. I’m a really, really nice person, and I’m going through a really, really hard time (for health and work reasons) right now, so I wanted to do something to get me out of the house and out of my own head. I sprang for two tkts to the Met, and offered to be someone lunch. Am I wallowing in self pity at this moment; yes, I am. I’m trying to pull myself out of it, but frankly, I need a little help.
Well.
Sanford – are your most recent comments above directed at me? I can’t quite figure out if this is the case, but it seems as though they might be.
First off, I’m not sure to whom you were “apologizing”, but it was never necessary to send such sentiments in my direction (if you indeed did so). I took no offense at any point in what you posted here. I do agree with you 100% that we can be critical without being nasty, and there are a lot of nasty comments that appear here at times. (For example, Mark recently referred to me as a cow – yeah, that was nice). I haven’t put any energy into thinking about how to be “less” nasty, because, IMO, I haven’t been nasty in the first place. But again, I agree with your sentiment.
Second, regarding Turco – I simply said I would address your comment by way of making conversation: this is how conversations are constructed. First one person says something, then another says something, and so on. I used to feel that Turco was second rate and derivative, but it really isn’t (at least IMO) and I only learned that after a time of studying the score more closely. As you said, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, which, frankly, I found amusing as I was totally “in sync” with what you were saying.
Third, concerning the MET concert and brunch and so forth, you did refer to me at one point, but the reason I no longer attend is that I don’t live in the area anymore, and would never have considered going under any circumstances. I never even expressed an interest. Concerning your generous offer, I have no idea why no one here took you up on it, but it probably would be better to not take personal offense. In any case, I hope you had a good time at the concert Sanford.
Well, the concert was wonderful. OMG, but there was some glorious singing. There was only one singer I felt didn’t measure up.
I told La Cieca I would report to her first, and so I shall.
As for my mood, don’t mind me; I’m depressed and taking it out on everyone, including my mother and my sister. I will snap out of it soon, as I know from past experience, that it doesn’t last for long. I’m a weebloe; I wobble but I don’t fall down. And the shopping spree at Macy’s yesterday helped, as did the concert today.
I voted for “Turco”, only because I wanted it to be a closer race than it is right now.
Why would anyone want to hear Viaggio twice? (Once, I’d say, but some people want to hear everything at least once. And I’m one of those.) So I vote for Matilde.
Dear Miss Language,
Why wouldn’t anyone want to listen to “Il viaggo” at least a couple of times
! Granted that it is almost a scenic oratorio, so little dramatic action there is, it still is one of the most consistently wonderful of all Rossini’s creations. Almost every piece a small masterpiece on it’s own (though I personally find Corinna’s arias lacking something 
): the wonderful long Introduction, two extremly good arias for basses, a wonderful duet for tenor and soprano, the genius Pezzo a 14 voci and the long “Gala” certainly help the opera to overcome dramatic shortcomings 
!
being a static oratorio might be a good reason for not wanting to watch it more than once, but I agrfee it’s worth hearing more than once. I didn’t really like Corrina’s arias much either, until I heard Sylvia McNair’s recording. I think to solve the voting descrepancy, La Ciaca should podcast them all. Simultaneously. Kind of like a regie podcast.