Comments on: “it is a curious story… i have it written in faded ink”

Logie on fire commented

Logie on fire — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:15:44 +0000

Re dysfunctional opera families; the Luna family who are always either burning or beheading somebody, and The Tudors of Anna Bolena, with little bloody Mary and little Elizabeth offstage, and the Seymours and Percys and Howards et al scheming to get their own girl in the royal sack. And poor genderbender Smeaton, who I think got quartered in real history.

Sanford commented

Sanford — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:02:05 +0000

Harry, that was exactly my point; I was being facetious.

Operaman commented

Operaman — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:52:02 +0000

La Cieca – since your headline here is from the opening of Henry James’s (also Benjamin Britten’s) The Turn of The Screw, may we assume that you are envisaging the appearance of Anna Nicole Smith’s ghost in this opera?

Vanderdecken commented

Vanderdecken — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:18:54 +0000

Listening to Angel Taormina’s exquisite take on Lucia, I believe her nickname “La Rossignol Dramatique” is fully deserved, though “Nightingale Stuck in a Cuisinart Blender” would also do fine.

Often admonished commented

Often admonished — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:18:20 +0000

“The Tempest (which featured the half-human character Caliban)” …btw sung at the premiere by Ian Bostridge.

La Padmore has learned that type casting always pays off.

armerjacquino commented

armerjacquino — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:49:51 +0000

Hahaha- well, cocky, I’ll ‘do’ my ‘best’.

Cocky Kurwenal commented

Cocky Kurwenal — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:42:10 +0000

I nominate ArmerJ to explain the concept of the rhetorical question to harry at #169.

GJ Hallam commented

GJ Hallam — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:59:27 +0000

The obvious choice to play the doomed model is Aussie pace bowler Nathan Bracken.

harry commented

harry — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:20:01 +0000

Sanford you ask how many ‘dysfunctional family’ operas are there . Tons! From past and present. Here’s a few from the top: Don Carlos, Regina, Greek, A Quiet Place , Electra, Salome, The Ring, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensek, Kata Kabanova, Desire under the Elms, Streetcar named desire, A View from the Bridge,Jenufa, Pelleas and Melisande, Le Amore de te Rei, Francesca Di Rimini,

Drammy commented

Drammy — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:50:50 +0000

Oh my gawd, sustained high note at ~4:51. LOL.

link for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk84Niba5Fo

Drammy commented

Drammy — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:46:27 +0000

Oh ho, but there’s a key difference.

Anna’s family: Fatty.
Society: Blonde bimbo. LOL she is dumb and on drugs LOL
whereas
Angel’s universe [which naturally revolves around her]: We love you and you can do whatever you set your mind to!11!!

I -really- want to know if Taormina is a joke. I’m listening to it for about the 5th time and can’t keep the stupid grin off my face. The Lucia is such a tantalizing appetizer. Now I want to hear the entire album…let’s hear her Der holle rache and Caro nome for starters.

Sanford commented

Sanford — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:38:52 +0000

And frankly, I think if written well, Anna’s story could be a metaphor for bigger issues, such as the price of fame, dysfunctional families (how many operas about dysfunctional families could we name/.), self-image (particularly the cost of trying to live up to what the media says women should look and act like – What? You’re a woman with a normal woman’s figure? YOU”RE FAT! Take TRIMSPA, baby. Don’t like yourself and feel you’d be happier looking like someone else, Octomom? Here’s some surgery; now you look just like Angelina? No self worth? Pop out 14 babies. Have no talent? Marry a rich old geezer?) She’s pretty tragic, if you ask me.

But perhaps Angel Taormina could play her?

Sanford commented

Sanford — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:25:30 +0000

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS AT 2:50 TO POOR MS. TAORMINA? It’s one of those rare recordings of filth that is soooooooo bad you have to keep listening. It’s just bad, really bad, until 2:50, when I started laughing, but it just gets more and more awful until 4:27 when all hell breaks loose.

She is one of those singers who not only should leave out the interpolated high notes, but all of the other notes as well.

WindyCityOperaman commented

WindyCityOperaman — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:57:28 +0000

Looks like a particular vocal prodigy, dramatic coloratura, actress, writer and wunderkind has removed her vocals from her website. I guess a few of us tired old queens were being harsh.

Nevermind. You can still her lilting tones here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk84Niba5Fo&feature=channel_page

wotan_in_inman commented

wotan_in_inman — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:57:33 +0000

Was it the 60’s or the 70’s? My mind’s a mess, thank you. Anyway, there was this terribly exciting theatre group — someone named Beck as I recall. Doing terribly exciting things — one of which was to have all the actors parade through the audiences chanting about “I’m not free to take off all my clothes,” which just stirred me no end.

But then a member of the audience — was it a critic, even, maybe — stood up and took off all his clothes, standing there naked as a jaybird.

The troupe was terribly upset and asked to have him removed from the theatre.

My point is that there is now and always has been a plethora of pretentious artists and most are able to gather around them pretentious supporters who will help them waft to greater and greater heights. Sometimes one encounters an artist without pretension who has something legitimate to say and a truly remarkable way of saying it. I can’t always tell the difference until the metaphorical balloon is pricked. It seems that the real artist has/needs fewer sycophants. Also, the real artist tends not to whine.

I envy those of you who are able to make absolutist statements, much as I envy the evangelists of any ilk who lurk in my hedges. Knowing one has the truth so frees one from any further thought.

Karnal Jones commented

Karnal Jones — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:47:31 +0000

Nothing wrong with my balloons harry. I just copped a case of extreme boredom about the same time you started to post a lot.

harry commented

harry — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:14:40 +0000

Oh! Karnel Jones has stirred out of its slumber.. A few of its pet balloons apparently have been punctured while it slept.

Karnal Jones commented

Karnal Jones — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:05:02 +0000

harry take your pills then sit down and be quiet.

harry commented

harry — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:50:12 +0000

brooklynpunk: the answer is quite simple. As we all realize a composer needs a libretto ( a script!)to work with,to set music to.If a composer keeps using regularly librettos with certain types of theme,is it not feasible to make judgments,where he is ‘coming from’? For one example: Britten, his ’sexual closet /repressions ‘ or his themes of non violence in the face of aggression, run deep throughout his works. Get it?

Next you look at ‘the material’: what sort of musical treatment has it being given. Is it over the ‘top’? Is it too grandiose, emphatic,or ramming home some point when there is no dramatic substance to back the situation being played out. Ask what is the motivation, behind it. It does not ‘accidentally happen’,though I suspect you would plead otherwise. An alert audience then feels, being taken for a ride,asked to give acceptance ,undue attention or creditability to composers’ pet subjects. Subject matter twisted and distorted out of shape to fit his niche and / or hang ups.’. Some composers forget the important question ‘does enough people out there in the World really care?’.

Sadly today, many composers are not using material of accepted universality; we are seeing them fascinated by stories, here today, gone tomorrow. Anna Nicole Smith ,for instance? I am sure though Turnage in promoting it,will call on the great Greek myths of wrath, to show how the ‘poor darling girl of the tabloids’ was done in’.He will have to find something to talk about at those promotional lectures and press conferences, all part of the composition deal /commission. Let the bandwagons roll on. Culture is getting perversely more funny and insane by the minute by people said to be promoting the future of artistic endeavor. yet,who are driving nails into its coffin, faster than a fast ram jet nail gun.

Brooklynpunk commented

Brooklynpunk — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:44:53 +0000

btw….what exactly is “rat-bag socialist” in the context of ….music…?…does the composer include strains of “The International” in his scoring…?