Ferocious!
Tomorrow night’s performance of Attila promises to be a visual feast, especially for those of us whose visual aesthetic was crystallized in the 1960s era of gigantic hair, pearlized eyeshadow, liquid eyeliner and sharply tailored sportswear.
Detail of a photo by Ken Howard, Metropolitan Opera
And Violeta Urmana‘s look is pretty fierce too!
For those of you who wonder why those of us who were fortunate to attend so many performances at the old and new MET in the good old days treasure our memories of our favorite singers maybe these videos from youtube can in some way help you understand:
Rsyanekfreak: I always thought Calaf would make sense as a character if — defeated and dejected — he had turned to opium for comfort. Delirium is one explanation of why he found Turandot such a babe. The other is ambition. Neither makes him any nicer than that cad Pinkerton.
Lucky Pierre: You answered your own question, but did not need to trash Nabucco to do it. For slighting some of the best ensemble writing in early Verdi, I sentence you to learn how to use the Shift key.
Quanto: Silent movies seem an odd way to mourn the passing of the good old days. It can’t be the silent movie acting you miss. There’s still plenty of that around.
Not mourning them – rejoicing in seeing dead or retired friends again. Their voices never die within us and you obviously have no idea what backstage life was like.
Slent movie acting in Opera?
Wasn’t Melba reputed as one of the very best?
The rules alleged to have been used by her, while remaining still:
(1)Great concern- one arm raised.
(2)Total anguish – raise both!
somebody was sure having fun at Kurt Adler’s expense—but damn, wasn’t Corelli magnificent looking?
Lucky Pierre,
Good early morning. Your question is very good, it got so many good responses. Here is a youtube clip of Odabella’s entrance. You can hear Joan Sutherland and follow the score,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfpRqk9jLg
If you were Attila, wouldn’t you give her your sword?
Anyway, I was reading Wagner in ‘The Destiny of Opera’ and to exercise my fingers I will copy this that touches on some of the things that have been said here.
“…the Play may boast of at least this merit:-that the plot itself, with the incidents that hold the plot together and the motives that explain it, must be intelligible, to rivet the spectator’s interest; and that a piece composed of nothing but declamatory phrases, without an underlying plot intelligibly set forth and thereby centering the interest, is here as yet unthinkable. Opera, on the contrary, may be taxed with simply stringing together a number of means of exciting a purely physical sense, whilst a mere agreeable contrast in their order of sequence suffices to mask the absence of any understandable or reasonable plot”.
That is not the last word of Wagner, but he does voice what some commented.
Anyway, some people smitten give their heart, others the head of John the Baptist, Attila his sword.
I for one to prevent all that yelling and screaming and yodelling would
not have given her my sword – I would have lopped off her head for
some peace and quiet
Wagner is coming to conclusion that
“opera” was done with and that the
form is nothing but dress up stage concert -that his form as “music drama ” was the way. He felt Spontini in La Vestale had said the last word in opera . Verdi coulndn’t
get past that, try as he might .Not
until the wonderful Falstaff does
he finally change and approach the Gluck thoughts on opera . No more
screaming sopranos but an opera that is close to a chamber work of
great beauty therefore fewer
performances since the opera “fan”
can’t exist without a yodelling or shrieking soprano in the throes of
a hysterical orgasm aria .
No yodeling or shrieking sopranos in Wagner? Well, that’s a fine ho-jo-to-ho for you!
No expert = good observation
no one is perfect – but—after
a horse ride through the skies
a little exuberance is to be expected and it is really the
orchestra now that moves the action-I once saw a thrilling ride in on horse back with hoofs clattering and
horse reigned back and music at full blast it was thrilling
and the ho jo was called for,
as opposed to tenor doing his Di quella bit usually minus dotted notes sword pointed at
audience and an odd bunch of soldiers standing around waiting for high C before rushing off -it’s a static concert number -with the the tenor facing us better to hear his top note
and sword pointed at us I sometimes thought maybe they were going
to attack the audience. The first
is great theatre , the second
standard ump-pa pa concert aria mit a high C
When I think of chambered pieces, I think of Wagner.
Dear CruzSF,
Far be it from me to Telemann what to think, but some of those “chamber” guys packed a lot of punch haydn behind that delicate facade. So have another Fresca, Baldy, and go with the flow.
Oh, Betsy, you warm the chambers of my heart! (Or is that the Fresca coming back on me?)
Aorta thrash you for that
Don’t rameau it down his throat.
I skipped a beat . (thank you, manou)
Turning Scarlatti in my confusion
Isn’t that always the way? You’re having a little fun, and some Englishman comes in and Schutz you down. Bach, humbug! Women ! Always wanting to accessorize when any old Purcell do.
Chaconne a son gout…
Carissimi – let’s pachebel it in before we annoy serious people who can’t handel this.
Oh goody, Mrs Beckmesser is back
Oh goody, Mrs. Beckmesser is back
And then Verdi mindful of Wagner, writing in a more continuous organic strain…finally infuriates us in Falstaff Act 4 writing a short section of love music for Nanetta and Fenton before quickly cutting away from it. Without allowing it to develop really and fully bloom. Yet arguably it is one of the most sublime strands of music he ever created. GRRH! I listen to it and always beg ‘if only he had let it become a big traditional aria….if only!’
Opera make sense?? PUHLEEZE. After that opening aria that Odabella has to sing “cold” without any warmup she deserves anything Attila has including his sword of any sort. If the soprano can deliver give her whatever she wants.
Manou – stop it at Chaconne!!……. ….which is nothing short of brilliant. . The rest -so-so. Am alerting fiddle world to this -they’ll love it when
doing the Bach work .
Oh dear, Attila has inspired pundemonium.
*centres self*
*takes run-up*
*deep breath*
ATTILA THE PUN
La Cieca, you really ought to make them stop all this vandalizing. If they want to behvae like barberians, they should go over to the Rossini thread. I swear to Goth, it just disgusts me the way some people carry on. (I’d work in Tartar but I don’t want to seem saucy.)
well, thank you, all for the above discussion. in terms of “making sense”, obviously operas have to have some “inner coherence” that is not necessarily judged by “realism”, that’s why we have “suspension of disbelief”. but sometimes things are just… well, too much.
thanks for the links, valkyrietta, unfort. my italian is not as good as spanish or french. there used to be a website with translations of the libretti (karadar?) but it no longers offers the translations apparently. btw, sutherland is stupendous in the aria you posted above. that’s my main reservation about urmana and any other spinto/dramatico sopranos that attempt it, their lack of coloratura agility.
i did find one video however that has simultaneous spanish lyrics and i was able to follow it better:
now, this is one convention that drives me up the wall — the screamed whisper of opera. here she accepts the sword and then starts screaming bloody revenge — and that’s supposed to be a whisper that he doesn’t hear???? the man is standing right next to her, and he’s not deaf, not to mention there’s a whole chorus able to hear her. so either he doesn’t hear her thoughts, or he does and ignores it, thinking “how adorable, her cries of revenge only make me hornier for her.”
theodossiou to me always seemed like an underappreciated artist — at least in the US, but here her coloratura is not as precise as i remember her doing in teh past. who’s the attila btw, does anyone know?
so, thanks all, for the above. now i understand that it makes sense that there are layers of deception, that odabella pretends to join his camp and even pretends to save his life (in order to later kill him herself), etc. my main objection to the plot i think has to do with how easily attila is disposed of at the end.
Lucky- the video is almost as funny
as
Night at The Opera which is still Verdi but with better cast .Any sane person seeing those two would run for the exit if not burst out in laughter .Elsa Lanchester with her
mad hair do from the Frankenstien
movies would fit in neatly with as
much sense .
and walkyrietta, in regards to the nordic/german sagas, yes, gudrun/kriemhild is a different character. she uses attila as a tool of her revenge against gunther/brunnhilde/hagen (????) for siegfrid’s death.
Some of the lines in this thread remind me of the phrase “Tartar tyrant”, but I can’t remember who said it, perhaps Maria Montez in some movie.
Okay, Lucky Pierre, I have a libretto of Attila in Italian, English, German and French. Unfortunately, not in Spanish. Here is Scene 3, and I’m sorry I’m not at the Met listening to it live.
Attila (descending from the throne)
Ah, what is this group
of foreign maidens I see?
Who dared, against my interdict,
to save them?
Uldino
It seemed to me a worthy tribute to the king.
Warriors extraordinary,
they defended their brothers…
Attila
What do I hear? Whoever inspired
unwarlike women with valour?
Odabella (with vigour)
The boundless holy love of our country!
While you warriors rush
to their swords like lions,
O barbarians, your women
stay weeping in their carriages.
But you will always see us,
us Italian women,
our bosoms girt in steel,
fighting on the reeking field of battle.
Attila
Beautiful, O virgin, is that fury
sparkling in your eyes;
Attila honours the valiant
and abhors cowards…
Courageous woman, ask of me
as favour whatever you most desire.
Odabella
Give me back my sword!
Attila
Gird on mine!
Odabella
(Ah, a sword!)
O sublime, divine justice,
by thee is this now granted me!
Thou hast armed the hatred of the oppressed
with the oppressor’s sword.
Pitiless steel, can you guess
for whose breast your point is destined?
The hour of vengeance is at hand…
the Lord has revealed it.
Attila
(What new emotion suddenly descends
upon my soul, which loves destruction?…
This ardour, this noble face,
envelops my heart in tenderness!)
Chorus
Long live the king who reveals to the earth
with what brilliance Odin surrounds him!
If he scourges, he is like a torrent in flood;
if he rewards valour, he is like a dew.
(Exeunt Odabella and women)
It is concise, it presents two of the strong characters Verdi liked about this story. You think the words of her cabaletta make her suspicious to Attila? Well, they say love is blind, and so is infatuation. Besides, Attila’s got the power. He rules from the Danube to the Baltic, from Hungary to India, he does not fear a mere woman, not even with a sword. This might not be evident in those Prada costumes, but it is from the historical background of the characters. And let us not forget, Odabella does have to sing a cabaletta.
Okay, Valkyrietta, thanks, I see it now, and it does make sense, in a way. I see also that Odabella has besotted not only Attila, but the members of the chorus, male and female, who are also listening and who might otherwise have ratted on her. That’s one hell of a besottin’ woman thar.
valkyrietta, merce, diletta amica, come e gentile.
but i think you are confusing attila with genghis khan or timurlane, i don’t think attila’s empire stretched that far, from india to the baltic. still his was a big one.
odabella is obviously a little sister to abigaille. early verdi did like his warrior women, didn’t he.