Met Opera On Demand

[+ g56whiz]

The final scene of Carmelites is one of the most powerful and emotionally shattering musical scenes I know. I cannot hear it without getting emotionally wound up. Incredible stuff

 

My first experience of Carmelites literally took my breath away and it was the radio broadcast about a week before I saw it at The Met. I’d been puttering about the apartment paying scant attention to what i would soon see on stage. I knew the plot of course. Then the recurring swoosh of the Guillotine got my attention. Then the diminishing voices. Then the silence. Then the single voice of Constance as she takes up the Salve Regina. Then another swoosh. Then silence. I stood there in my apartment stunned and couldn’t breathe. There was silence in the house as well before the audience began its applause. Then a week later the same reaction twice in rapid succession: at the final silence then again a moment later at the tableaux of the prostrate nuns. Truly incredible stuff.

[body2body]

I hope to see a production of Dialogue of the Carmelites some day, I have only heard it in a Met broadcast. I did see Poulenc's La Voix Humaine in a very fine production many years ago. I saw the Cocteau play from which the Opera is derived at the Comedie-Française a few years ago, and found that Poulenc's score improved the work making the sole character less strident and more sympathetic. Beautiful music can do that.

When David Hemmings was the Artistic Director of Los Angeles Opera we got a lot of Britten. In addition to Peter Grimes, Albert Herring, and Billy Budd, we also got A Midsummer Nights Dream, and The Turn of the Screw. Seeing all these formed my opinion that Britten is one of the finest composers of Opera in the 20th century. The Midsummer is superb, and the Turn of the Screw is taught and frightening (with only a small chamber orchestra).

[+ g56whiz]

One of my problems with Britten’s operas is that they’re in English. As a singer, I know how difficult English diction is for a singer and I know how often singers sacrifice diction for tone. It’s done in other languages I know (the famous La Stupenda did it in all languages alas) but English is my language and I want it to be heard and understood.

 

And here’s an anecdote about Carmelites. When The Met first presented the opera they did so in French. They always do operas in the language in which they are written. But someone must have pointed out to them that Poulenc directed that Carmelites should always be sung in the local language. The revival was in English with the French soprano, Regine Crespin as Prioress. In the entire cast, including several Americans hers was the English most clearly sung.

[gallahadesquire]

...

Although I'm also tempted to say that her 1966 revival of Annie Get Your Gun was in some respects a new musical - the book was rewritten, songs from the 1946 version (and the characters that sang them) were cut, one new song was added ("An Old Fashioned Wedding") and the whole score was newly arranged and orchestrated. But I suppose that's all a big technicality, lol.

 

In 1971 or thereabouts, I was a member of a "smaller" chorus who were chosen to perform Messiah with Sir Colin Davis.

 

The choral director asked us at one rehearsal:

"Chorus, you're learning the material very quickly ... I chose you for that .. but why are you

Louder

than the full chorus?"

 

When we got to rehearsing with Sir Colin, we were somewhere in the Third Part.

"Now, let's sing Lift Up Ye Gates."

"Uh, no. I cut that," said our choral director. "We don't sing that."

"WELL! If you cut that, then I'm cutting ..." and it went back and forth. Just the usual cuts.

 

Anything you can cut, I can cut better.

[+ WilliamM]

When my local theater cancelled Live in HD I invested the savings in Met Opera On Demand. It may be a while before I look up Death in Venice. I recall it as a long evening of slumber in the house. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a big fan of Mann. I don’t think I ever made it thru Magic Mountain although I tried several times.

 

Try focusing on the many characters in the novel rather than the political ideology. Narrative and characters are Mann's strength at least in Magic Mountain..

[+ Charlie]

Exactly!

 

However, was there not a recent question on some quiz show where the contestants were asked what opera was based on an original Egyptian subject. I wonder which one that might be?!?!?! Hmmmm..... Hint: It is not the Moses und Aron mentioned above or even Moise et Phararon or Mosè in Egitto.

My immediate guess would be Akhnaten, by Phillip Glass. However, I have never seen it.

 

Luckily, I had listened to a number of operas on Saturday afternoons before I attended my first performance, because it was Die Meistersinger, which would have discouraged me from listening to more opera, or at least to more Wagner.

[bostonman]

My immediate guess would be Akhnaten

 

Well, you got the first letter right...

[bostonman]

The Met.. always do[es] operas in the language in which they are written.

 

Actually, I don't think it was until the late 20th century that they started routinely presenting Russian or Czech operas in the original languages. And yet, there was still a production of The Bartered Bride in the late 70's done in English. Mahagonny was also done in English. There was a famous 1950's production of Cosi Fan Tutte in English. Wozzeck's Met premiere was also in English.

 

And although we may consider operetta in a different category, it's been traditional to present Met productions of Fledermaus in English - and the current rep's Fledermaus and Merry Widow suffer from terribly amateur translations by Jeremy Sams.

 

I think that Hansel and Gretel has generally been done in English at the Met, as a way to bring in the kids. Currently there are also heavily abridged "family" productions of The Barber Of Seville and The Magic Flute in English.

 

Also, they've never done the original Don Carlos in French...even though they've done the 5-act version of the score.

Edited March 2, 2018 by bostonman

[gallahadesquire]

My immediate guess would be Akhnaten, by Phillip Glass. However, I have never seen it.

 

Luckily, I had listened to.

It lends itself towards relatively minimal staging. It’s fascinating, especially the choreography.

[bostonman]

It lends itself towards relatively minimal staging. It’s fascinating, especially the choreography.

 

The Met will be doing Akhnaten in the 2019-20 season. Same director who did the Met's Satyagraha, though I don't know if it will be the same designers. But if it is, I'd expect quite an eye-catching and wonderfully eccentric/inventive spectacle, as their Satyagraha was.

[bostonman]

In 1971 or thereabouts, I was a member of a "smaller" chorus who were chosen to perform Messiah with Sir Colin Davis.

 

The choral director asked us at one rehearsal:

"Chorus, you're learning the material very quickly ... I chose you for that .. but why are you

Louder

than the full chorus?"

 

When we got to rehearsing with Sir Colin, we were somewhere in the Third Part.

"Now, let's sing Lift Up Ye Gates."

"Uh, no. I cut that," said our choral director. "We don't sing that."

"WELL! If you cut that, then I'm cutting ..." and it went back and forth. Just the usual cuts.

 

Anything you can cut, I can cut better.

 

Sounds like they should have cut the "iah" off the title...

[+ g56whiz]

Sounds like they should have cut the "iah" off the title...

 

Well not really. Handel conducted or authorized performances of Messiah with a variety of cuts or transpositions usually to accommodate the performers available (or their ability) or the limits of the hall. I doubt if there is what musicologists would consider an Urtexte. In the US the near universal use of the G Shirmer score (with the Mozart orchestration) standardized most performances, but in liturgical settings cuts were and are common. Cutting Lift Up Ye Gates may be a bit much though.

[bostonman]

Well not really. Handel conducted or authorized performances of Messiah with a variety of cuts or transpositions usually to accommodate the performers available (or their ability) or the limits of the hall. I doubt if there is what musicologists would consider an Urtexte. In the US the near universal use of the G Shirmer score (with the Mozart orchestration) standardized most performances, but in liturgical settings cuts were and are common. Cutting Lift Up Ye Gates may be a bit much though.

 

Oh, I know, lol. And indeed, hard to imagine cutting "Gates" for any reason.

[+ g56whiz]

Actually, I don't think it was until the late 20th century that they started routinely presenting Russian or Czech operas in the original languages. And yet, there was still a production of The Bartered Bride in the late 70's done in English. Mahagonny was also done in English. There was a famous 1950's production of Cosi Fan Tutte in English. Wozzeck's Met premiere was also in English.

 

And although we may consider operetta in a different category, it's been traditional to present Met productions of Fledermaus in English - and the current rep's Fledermaus and Merry Widow suffer from terribly amateur translations by Jeremy Sams.

 

I think that Hansel and Gretel has generally been done in English at the Met, as a way to bring in the kids. Currently there are also heavily abridged "family" productions of The Barber Of Seville and The Magic Flute in English.

 

Also, they've never done the original Don Carlos in French...even though they've done the 5-act version of the score.

 

I sit corrected. Other than perhaps Boris Godunov it wasn’t until the late 20th Century that The Met did much Czech or Russian opera at all. I should have limited my comment to the reign of James Levine who seemed to favor original languages and limit cuts.

 

In the early history of The Met, Gounod’s Faust was performanced so often and auf Deutsch that the places was jokingly referred to as the Faustspielhaus.

 

As for Fledermaus, the first performances of the current (or just prior) production were as I remember in German. Was it Dom DeLuise as the jailer? When the transition to English occurred it was only for the spoken text least the integrity of the music be compromised. If you had a smattering of German it made for a brain racking evening.

[bostonman]

I should have limited my comment to the reign of James Levine who seemed to favor original languages and limit cuts.

 

As for Fledermaus, the first performances of the current (or just prior) production were as I remember in German. Was it Dom DeLuise as the jailer? When the transition to English occurred it was only for the spoken text least the integrity of the music be compromised. If you had a smattering of German it made for a brain racking evening.

 

The English Bartered Bride and Mahagonny were, in fact, Levine's productions.

 

The current Fledermaus (debut was on New Years' Eve 2013) has English lyrics by Jeremy Sams and (a needlessly crass) English book by Douglas Carter Beane. Frosch was played by Danny Burstein.

 

Dom DeLuise's Frosch goes back to the 1980's-90's and the old Otto Schenk production, which I think indeed was sung in German with English dialogue.

[+ WilliamM]

The Met Mahagonny DVD is available at the Met Opera Store.

[TBearTX]

OMG. First opera is Death in Venice? I suggest reposting this in the Fetish Forum. A rather SM way to begin.

 

HAHA!!

[+ Charlie]

The first time I saw Kat'a Kabanova was at the ENO, which performed everything in English. The English translation sometimes sounded so childish that I couldn't help giggling. I really prefer to hear operas in the language in which they were written, even if it is a language that I don't know well.

[bostonman]

The Met Mahagonny DVD is available at the Met Opera Store.

 

It has been available for a few years now. And the performance is also on the Met On Demand site.

 

But it was not commercially available at all for a long, long time, even as many of the other telecasts were.

[whipped guy]

The first time I saw Kat'a Kabanova was at the ENO, which performed everything in English. The English translation sometimes sounded so childish that I couldn't help giggling. I really prefer to hear operas in the language in which they were written, even if it is a language that I don't know well.

Not to mention some of the supertitle translations. There is the infamous one in Act I of Tosca where Cavaradissi says when describing his painting , "I gave her two black eyes"! I had thought that this was the stuff of silly operatic legends, but I did see it for myself at the now defunct CT Opera years ago. Talk about a literal "laugh out loud" moment!

 

Regarding translations into other languages, there is not only the problem of creating a singing translation that exactly mirrors the words as specifically set by the composer, but differences in languages also play rhythmic havoc with the vocal lines. As an example in general French usually has fewer syllables compared to Italian. Therefore in going from French to Italian there are usually all sorts of alterations due to extra notes that falsify what the composer actually intended. I can only imagine what happens when translated to Russian and other similar languages!

[bostonman]

Not to mention some of the supertitle translations. There is the infamous one in Act I of Tosca where Cavaradissi says when describing his painting , "I gave her two black eyes"!

 

Well, almost. He never says anything of the kind, and the painting is of a woman with BLUE eyes lol. It's Tosca who tells Cavaradossi "ma, falle gli occhi neri" (the intention being "but, paint her eyes to be black, like mine are"). The closest HE comes to this is in his aria, when he compares the blue-eyed woman in the painting to Tosca's darker eyes. But yes, of course, if a translator is choosing to use "black eyes," he deserves the derision he gets.

 

What's a shame about that moment with Tosca is that I've always felt it should be funny - but because of the playfulness and flirtiness in the scene, not because a translator hasn't thought about the unintended nature of the colloquial expression.

 

Another pitfall in supertitles is the tone. I once saw a Don Giovanni which went for a rather archaic ("old libretto-ese") translation in its supertitles, and buttoned almost every phrase with an exclamation point. Which made the whole thing seem way more melodramatic than would ever be necessary. The opposite can also be true, when a translator decides to get too "hip" and try to make everything sound like it's in current slang. That can be equally as bad as archaic phrasing.

[whipped guy]

Well, almost. He never says anything of the kind, and the painting is of a woman with BLUE eyes lol. It's Tosca who tells Cavaradossi "ma, falle gli occhi neri" (the intention being "but, paint her eyes to be black, like mine are"). The closest HE comes to this is in his aria, when he compares the blue-eyed woman in the painting to Tosca's darker eyes. But yes, of course, if a translator is choosing to use "black eyes," he deserves the derision he gets.

Well I guess that I have now been afflicted with operatic dyslexia in addition to the other versions with which I have had to struggle throughout my life.

[TruHart1]

My first experience of Carmelites literally took my breath away and it was the radio broadcast about a week before I saw it at The Met. I’d been puttering about the apartment paying scant attention to what i would soon see on stage. I knew the plot of course. Then the recurring swoosh of the Guillotine got my attention. Then the diminishing voices. Then the silence. Then the single voice of Constance as she takes up the Salve Regina. Then another swoosh. Then silence. I stood there in my apartment stunned and couldn’t breathe. There was silence in the house as well before the audience began its applause. Then a week later the same reaction twice in rapid succession: at the final silence then again a moment later at the tableaux of the prostrate nuns. Truly incredible stuff.

I remember the amazing and tremendously moving John Dexter production when I was lucky enough to see that production during a MET on tour opera trip 3 or 4 of my friends took to Minneapolis in 1979. I had seen the opera before in a college production and found it boring, overly long, and with a Madame de Croissy who overacted her death scene so much it was laughingly ridiculous (she was a well-respected voice teacher!) Before I saw the Dexter MET performance, Dialogues was the least anticipated opera performance for me, on the trip.

 

But from the amazing opening stage scene, that particular MET opera production had me totally and completely involved!

http://archives.metoperafamily.org/Imgs/Dialogues7677.06.jpg

By the time the final Salve Regina with the guillotine was happening, everyone in my group was in tears, including me. I've very seldom been as moved dramatically by any opera as I was by this performance. This production IS available at the MET on demand and still just as moving (to me) as it was when I first experienced it!

 

TruHart1

[body2body]

They played the Poulenc Gloria tonight on the radio. I hadn't listened to it for a long time. My God, what beautiful music. I thought the same thing last year when I heard the composer's Concerto for Organ Strings and Tympani at the LA Phil. At Christmas I heard an exquisite choral piece which turned out to be Poulenc's Four Motets for the Christmas Season. He has become one of my favorite composers. Now I have to see Dialogue of the Carmelites.

[samhexum]