Mr. Nézet-Séguin said he was excited to mount several operas that have never or rarely been performed at the Met, including Handel’s “Agrippina” and “Alcina”; Verdi’s “Don Carlos,” in the original French (the company has only performed the Italian version); Cherubini’s “Medea,” in Italian; and Prokofiev’s “The Fiery Angel.”
Read all about it...
...except for the casting, so place your bets.
Showing posts with label Alcina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcina. Show all posts
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Friday, June 26, 2015
BEMF Friday, bit the second
A Boston vignette: Meeting up with the Music Librarian after Buxtehude, and hanging out in the sanctuary of Emmanuel for a bit because she's a Music Librarian on a Mission and has a Mozart score she's supposed to be handing off to a Fortepianist in Need on our way to have lunch at another Thai place with Librarian's SO the Bass Trombonist. Delivery of score made on sidewalk, followed by all too brief discussion of what it's like living with five period keyboard instruments in your apartment plus cats. There's a lot of music in this town.
Lounging & Talking About Music, ep 2: Also talking about cats. And social media's effect on arts presenting. And cats. And the absurdity of the Boston Olympics bid. And music.
Then to First Church, admittedly late for Seattle Historical Arts for Kids' production (slightly adapted) of Alcina, which I knew about not from the BEMF Fringe program but from Twitter (cf reference above to social media convo), where this happened
and then this happened
When I sit down next to the Envoy in the back row, she hands me a note that says Amanda Forsythe is sitting with her kids in the front row. No pressure!
It doesn't seem to faze them. I've come in at Questo il cielo. There's a bunch of extra characters, of whom we've already mentioned Bradamante's lady knight sidekick. Lady Forsizia is particularly eye-catching as she's in full bloom a couple of months out of season. Handel and Ariosto seem engaged in a somewhat Straussian power struggle between opera stage adaptation and source material -- swords are drawn, but we know from the last BEMF (the Almira festival) that Handel had special body armor made from opera scores, so Ariosto's scrappy Italian Renaissance street-fighting ninja skills notwithstanding, I think this eventually ends in a draw.
Working with an orchestra of two violins, cello, theorbo, and harpsichord, the cast gets to sing in both English and Italian, and the English translations actually work well with the music -- "She's a liar, / she'll make you a plant!" sings Oronte. Straightforward but snappy.
This being a production having at its center various manifestations of Girl Power -- Bradamante is also designated as a Lady Knight in the program book, and Oronte, in this version, keeps his disparaging remarks specific to Alcina, thus failing to cast aspersions on all women -- the venue has a certain resonance as well.
Lounging & Talking About Music, ep 2: Also talking about cats. And social media's effect on arts presenting. And cats. And the absurdity of the Boston Olympics bid. And music.
Then to First Church, admittedly late for Seattle Historical Arts for Kids' production (slightly adapted) of Alcina, which I knew about not from the BEMF Fringe program but from Twitter (cf reference above to social media convo), where this happened
Please PLEASE support his incredibly wonderful youth opera opportunity however you can!
http://t.co/VhS2CsbJAo
— alice coote (@AliceCoote) May 5, 2015
and then this happened
— Joyce DiDonato (@JoyceDiDonato) May 5, 2015
When I sit down next to the Envoy in the back row, she hands me a note that says Amanda Forsythe is sitting with her kids in the front row. No pressure!
It doesn't seem to faze them. I've come in at Questo il cielo. There's a bunch of extra characters, of whom we've already mentioned Bradamante's lady knight sidekick. Lady Forsizia is particularly eye-catching as she's in full bloom a couple of months out of season. Handel and Ariosto seem engaged in a somewhat Straussian power struggle between opera stage adaptation and source material -- swords are drawn, but we know from the last BEMF (the Almira festival) that Handel had special body armor made from opera scores, so Ariosto's scrappy Italian Renaissance street-fighting ninja skills notwithstanding, I think this eventually ends in a draw.
Working with an orchestra of two violins, cello, theorbo, and harpsichord, the cast gets to sing in both English and Italian, and the English translations actually work well with the music -- "She's a liar, / she'll make you a plant!" sings Oronte. Straightforward but snappy.
This being a production having at its center various manifestations of Girl Power -- Bradamante is also designated as a Lady Knight in the program book, and Oronte, in this version, keeps his disparaging remarks specific to Alcina, thus failing to cast aspersions on all women -- the venue has a certain resonance as well.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Friday, February 6, 2015
even younger artists
Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music takes on Alcina tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm ET. Live video streams of both performances will be up here, and, as usual with this series, it'll be a different cast tomorrow.
Update: So everybody had pretty much equal trouble with the coloratura, even with the tempi ratcheted down a notch or two from average. On the other hand, there was some pretty spiff work in the more leisurely bits, and we've got a couple of Bradamantes to look forward to. Also, a bunch of these are students of Carol Vaness (stray's first Vitellia :-), so we're interested to see where they go and what they do.
Update: So everybody had pretty much equal trouble with the coloratura, even with the tempi ratcheted down a notch or two from average. On the other hand, there was some pretty spiff work in the more leisurely bits, and we've got a couple of Bradamantes to look forward to. Also, a bunch of these are students of Carol Vaness (stray's first Vitellia :-), so we're interested to see where they go and what they do.
Monday, October 27, 2014
be very afeard
Random thoughts on Alcina at Carnegie Hall, as scribbled on the fly in a notebook in the wayback:
Di', cor mio -- OMG, as the young people say.
Ruggiero, dude, don't cut yourself on that dress.
killer cello obbligato!
Tornami a vagheggiar -- effect on foetus in utero? Recheck 20 years.
Mi lusinga -- hearing Alice Coote sing this is like falling backwards into a goosefeather barcalounger.
Verdi prati -- strings go all mingey when the beauty vanishes. Ew.
Ombre pallide -- yeah yeah, guess how that was LOL
___________________
Overheard at Intermission:
"She's a villain, you know."
"And if we didn't know, the dress would tell us!"
___________________
more killer cello obbligato!!
The dress erodes as the power does
Rage! Look out how she handles that score!
"Bring your Gorgon shield!" Really this opera is all about accessorizing.
Sta nell'ircana -- Horns! and vehement page-turning!
Man these scores get a workout, hope they didn't rent them.
Barbara! -- Wakey!
let me introduce you to my fully-armed and operational cadenza.
If you want to know how spectacular this performance was, I really have nothing to add to Earworm's assessment.
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