Opera appreciations and discussion

[InBangkok]

3 minutes ago, Steve5380 said:

 

 

OOOOhhhhh....

 

You mean that @InBankock had posted here a video that may have copyright issues?  Isn't this an immorality?

Don't be so stupid. I did not upload it t as actually been uploaded fr quite some time. Clearly copyright had not been agreed!

[Steve5380]

6 minutes ago, singalion said:

 

The money is not the point.

If the company had some corporate culture it had never started infringing other people's or artists IP rights.

The problem might be more nowadays that they grew to an octopus and difficult to get them back in complying with laws.

 

For a US company with headquarters in the US it is an insult for not having respected IP rights. What country has been preaching others for years on the requirement to protect IP rights???????

 

And please take a look how companies as Google et altera have used their power to fight off smaller players causing them into court actions (some of them vastly blown up).

 

Google soaked up a lot of smaller ventures by copying their business model and destroying the competition.

 

Let's be fair please.

There is no point you are making.

 

Since when can you say we need to close two eyes only because they are multi million dollar companies?

Such a remark is disappointing.

 

 

There is much evil in this world.  And nature does not care about injustices.

 

How you compare the actions of Google with the actions of American drug companies that raise the cost of medicine in the US to astronomical levels... simply because they can,  because people are willing to go bankrupt to avoid dying from their illnesses?  These are MORTAL sins, compared with VENIAL sins by Google hurting their competition.

[wilfgene]

To acoustic and now to ethical consumerism.  I take it as you dudes exemplify being not straight is only a part of us.

[Steve5380]

4 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

Don't be so stupid. I did not upload it t as actually been uploaded fr quite some time. Clearly copyright had not been agreed!

 

I am not stupid.  I just made an evaluation of morality.  But if this causes you to suffer,  I will withdraw my opinion

 

[Steve5380]

2 minutes ago, wilfgene said:

To acoustic and now to ethical consumerism.  I take it as you dudes exemplify being not straight is only a part of us.

 

It makes sense that music ethical consumerism resonates in the acoustics of this thread. 

[InBangkok]

20 minutes ago, singalion said:

 

 ha ha,.... video has been already taken down....

 

copyright issues?

 

ha ha

For the time being the full Act 3 is available from the same recording. David's aria actually starts with the lovely Sheila Armstrong singing the solo. James Bowman then takes over.  David's despair at Jonathan's death is almost like a love song. Start at 31'03" - and be quick. Haha!

 

 

 

[Steve5380]

1 minute ago, InBangkok said:

For the time being the full Act 3 is available from the same recording. David's aria actually starts with the lovely Sheila Armstrong singing the solo. James Bowman then takes over.  David's despair at Jonathan's death is almost like a love song. Start at 31'03" - and be quick. Haha!

 

 

 

 

Now if this video is also in violation of copyrights, your repeating of your previous sin cannot be taken as an involuntary mistake, but it rises to the level of repeated offender.

 

Being a piece of Handel, enough time must have passed that a recording whose copyright has expired could be available.

[singalion]

3 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

 

There is much evil in this world.  And nature does not care about injustices.

 

How you compare the actions of Google with the actions of American drug companies that raise the cost of medicine in the US to astronomical levels... simply because they can,  because people are willing to go bankrupt to avoid dying from their illnesses?  These are MORTAL sins, compared with VENIAL sins by Google hurting their competition.

 

And you forget that start up inventor who had some IP, paid 20 - 30,000 USD for the registration of the IP, hired staff, paid salaries for years and then Googlista copied exactly what the start up inventor did, even linked it's copy into Google's platform for users to see what google has on apps, later Google sued the start up company for patent infringements on some algorithms. The start up went bust. 25,000 people sacked. The start up probably had won the infringement court case...but...

 

Case 2: Hoody Willingwood  from Scotland wrote a book at the John le Carré level titled "The Spy that didn't love me". He was in talks with Pinguin books on a big publication. Film rights were already discussed with Hollywood, matter got a bit stuck due to the Weinstein court case as the Weinsteins did not have time to focus on this. In the meantime Google published 93 of 100 pages on Google Books for free. Total Sales once book was published amounted to 3,000 copies. Willingwood had to sell his house in Auchindrian at a loss. He is now reading novels to others while taking the underground and living from tips. He was thinking of suicide and collapses when seeing a Google logo.

 

You just forget that lifes depend on such ventures too.

 

What is the topic of blood sucking American Drug companies? (no need to elaborate further)

Can you argue at one point. Don't bring in non relevant issues.

 

Googles sins are as mortal as maybe your drug companies...

 

Google has build it's empire on a lot of copied apps  from weather apps to lowest price checkers and who knows what.

[singalion]

4 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

 

Now if this video is also in violation of copyrights, your repeating of your previous sin cannot be taken as an involuntary mistake, but it rises to the level of repeated offender.

 

Being a piece of Handel, enough time must have passed that a recording whose copyright has expired could be available.

 

he did not upload it.

The one uploading copyrighted material is the sinner (and Youtube not having checked on the copyright).

If you download on your pc, you probably might be a sinner or a criminal too.

 

I found it just very illustrative for what we were talking about.

[InBangkok]

5 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

 

Now if this video is also in violation of copyrights, your repeating of your previous sin cannot be taken as an involuntary mistake, but it rises to the level of repeated offender.

 

Being a piece of Handel, enough time must have passed that a recording whose copyright has expired could be available.

What a ridiculously pathetic comment that shows what little attention you paid to the earlier detailed discussions - as @singalion pointed out! Handel is not be entitled to any copyright fees but the estates of the late Sir Charles Mackerras and Dame Margaret Price plus those of the living participants in the 1973 recording and the recording company definitely are.

 

if you want an out of copyright recording, find one made in 1950 or earlier and whose participants all died in 1950 or earlier.

Edited December 18, 2020 by InBangkok

[Steve5380]

3 hours ago, singalion said:

 

he did not upload it.

The one uploading copyrighted material is the sinner (and Youtube not having checked on the copyright).

If you download on your pc, you probably might be a sinner or a criminal too.

 

I found it just very illustrative for what we were talking about.

 

2 hours ago, InBangkok said:

What a ridiculously pathetic comment that shows what little attention you paid to the earlier detailed discussions - as @singalion pointed out! Handel is not be entitled to any copyright fees but the estates of the late Sir Charles Mackerras and Dame Margaret Price plus those of the living participants in the 1973 recording and the recording company definitely are.

 

if you want an out of copyright recording, find one made in 1950 or earlier and whose participants all died in 1950 or earlier.

 

What a pathetic display of exculpatory excuses!

 

I was going to forgive your sin anyway!   

[Steve5380]

3 hours ago, singalion said:

 

 

What is the topic of blood sucking American Drug companies? (no need to elaborate further)

Can you argue at one point. Don't bring in non relevant issues.

 

Googles sins are as mortal as maybe your drug companies...

 

Google has build it's empire on a lot of copied apps  from weather apps to lowest price checkers and who knows what.

 

What is the topic of Google doing here? Don't bring in non relevant issues. You can fill all the data storage capacity of BW with stories of victims of unethical competition practices, but, what has all that to do with Opera?  Justice in this world will not be achieved... until the fat lady sings!

[heman]

i fear this thread about the enjoyment of opera has gone astray. Let us focus on the types of operas - be it be the baroque, classical , romantics , serialism , neoclassics or modern for us here to learn, share and enjoy. My apology if i disrupt this thread with my statement.

Edited December 18, 2020 by heman

[wilfgene]

1 hour ago, heman said:

i fear this thread about the enjoyment of opera has gone astray. Let us focus on the types of operas - be it be the baroque, classical , romantics , serialism , neoclassics or modern for us here to learn, share and enjoy. My apology if i disrupt this thread with my statement.

It's come to about the continuity of the Art Form.

[Steve5380]

2 hours ago, heman said:

i fear this thread about the enjoyment of opera has gone astray. Let us focus on the types of operas - be it be the baroque, classical , romantics , serialism , neoclassics or modern for us here to learn, share and enjoy. My apology if i disrupt this thread with my statement.

 

Your post rather than disruptive, may be able to restore this thread to its original subject and away from the evil incursions of money.  Once again, Music should be an abstract art.

 

I just read a review in classical-music.com listing their "The 20 Greatest Operas",  and, no surprise, their No. 1 pick is Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, and No. 2 is Puccini's La Boheme. 

 

I have posted so much about the Marriage of Figaro,  I rather change to La Boheme.  Here is a famous aria from Act 1, so Italian sounding with Pavarotti that it opened my appetite for a nice large pizza with everything on it. 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Steve5380

[InBangkok]

2 hours ago, heman said:

i fear this thread about the enjoyment of opera has gone astray. Let us focus on the types of operas - be it be the baroque, classical , romantics , serialism , neoclassics or modern for us here to learn, share and enjoy. My apology if i disrupt this thread with my statement.

You certainly do not disrupt the thread. It is perfect timing because in my view it has veered way off track. For my part I apologise, but some of us who love opera and who quite regularly attend opera performances take issue on too many occasions with another poster here who by his own admission has not been to an opera performance in the last quarter century. Or at least than is what he posted on 12 November. Yet in his very first post on this thread he contradicted himself by writing -
 

Quote

Posted November 8

 if I have the opportunity to attend live an opera in my city, I gladly do it

 

One of these statements is untrue. He lives in Houston which has a very fine opera company presenting around 8 operas each year. Yet as has become obvious he has not been to a live performance for 25 years.

 

Even though he has no interest in live performance, he takes every opportunity here to promote the viewing of opera on a computer and its value compared to live performances. He has written he has zero interest in the libretti of opera or the words being sung. He is only interested in the music. 

 

That poster started his contributions to this thread near the foot of page 1 with this extraordinary statement - 

 

Quote

Posted November 8 (edited)

While I am not much interested in the scene of an opera,  the stage for unattractive singers in costumes to walk around and sing the words from some usually very dumb librettos,  I like the spectacle of dance,  of ballet. 

His next post was again about dance to the music to Chopin accompanied by a youtube vdo of dancers. Whenit was claimed this was not opera, he claimed this was indeed opera. In another thread he expanded on this ridiculous suggestion - 

 

Quote

Posted November 9 (edited)

 It is also well known that the word "Opera" is the plural of Latin's "Opus", which means "work".  So Opera is "works".

By "works" he means any artistic work, when the rest of us are all perfectly well aware that opera refers to "western opera" as defined by the TS. He spent several posts talking about lieder and in another posted no less than 4 youtube excerpts from Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream - which is certainly not an opera. On November 20 he made yet another astonishing statement
 

Quote

Posted November 21 (edited)

Maybe the difference is that my main art form is MUSIC,  an abstract art that doesn't need to be perceived by anything else than by sound.  You may be inclined more to theater or other visual arts.

 

His posts in general have little to do with the performance of opera. He is dismissive of most live performance. There then followed a long discussion on the legal position of uploads on to youtube and the likelihood of the EU taking action against youtube to protect copyright holders. He will hear nothing against youtube and his comments descend into near outright stupidity on occasion. 

 

Frankly, if this poster is permitted to continue to disrupt this thread about live western opera, it will die. He is someone who is never wrong, despite that fact that his posts are not at all about live opera. He shows no respect for other posters who actually post about live opera and a variety of experiences they have enjoyed in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia and around the world. 

 

If you @hemanthink I have disrupted the thread, then I will drop out. Just let me know.

Edited December 18, 2020 by InBangkok

[InBangkok]

40 minutes ago, Steve5380 said:

I have posted so much about the Marriage of Figaro,  I rather change to La Boheme.  Here is a famous aria from Act 1, so Italian sounding with Pavarotti that it opened my appetite for a nice large pizza with everything on it. 

Just for your information that is a vdo of the same production and performance by the Genoa Opera in Beijing in 1986 of which I posted Musetta's Waltz Song earlier today. Good luck in finding a pizza in an opera house! Sorry I forgot you will be watching it on your computer and can order in to munch as you listen.

Edited December 18, 2020 by InBangkok

[Steve5380]

44 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

 

Frankly, if this poster is permitted to continue to disrupt this thread about live western opera, it will die. He is someone who is never wrong, despite that fact that his posts are not at all about live opera. He shows no respect for other posters who actually post about live opera and a variety of experiences they have enjoyed in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia and around the world. 

 

If you @hemanthink I have disrupted the thread, then I will drop out. Just let me know.

 

Please don't be so negative!  If it is a danger to your life,  I will definitely avoid disrupting the thread, that is, I will post but without disrupting.  Hopefully you will also lower your sensitivity to disruption.   And nobody wants you to drop out.  Just... live here and let others live here too. 

 

My earlier statement "if I have the opportunity to attend live an opera in my city, I gladly do it" is not untrue.  It is a matter of how I handle "opportunities".  Not every opera staging I see as an "opportunity".  But the conversations here have awaken again my interest in live performances,  so as soon as the pandemic is over I will find and value opportunities to attend the Houston Opera and the Houston Symphony. 

[Steve5380]

38 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

 Good luck in finding a pizza in an opera house! Sorry I forgot you will be watching it on your computer and can order in to munch as you listen.

 

I don't see a problem if there are no pizza concession stands in opera houses.  I can bring one with me, and eat it while the music is loud enough.  Not so good when it is cold, but still enjoyable. And cold it won't smell so much as to tempt other spectators.  About ordering one at home, I don't do this.  I have two large pizzas 'supreme' frozen in my refrigerator,  and I plan to eat half of one on Christmas day   

[InBangkok]

8 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

My earlier statement "if I have the opportunity to attend live an opera in my city, I gladly do it" is not untrue.  It is a matter of how I handle "opportunities".  Not every opera staging I see as an "opportunity".  But the conversations here have awaken again my interest in live performances,  so as soon as the pandemic is over I will find and value opportunities to attend the Houston Opera and the Houston Symphony. 

As so often, a typical twisting of written fact that is destroying this thread. Either you have been to a live opera in the last quarter century of you have not. If you have not, your statement that you gladly attend a live performance if there is the "opportunity" in your city is untrue. Houston Opera, as I have earlier pointed out, has an excellent reputation and presents several performances of 7 - 8 different operas each year. How you can seriously expect readers of this forum, readers who do attend live opera when they have the chance, to believe that over a quarter of a century - 25 long years - and at a very minimum between 800 and 1,000 performances you did not "see an opportunity" to attend even one performance? Not one performance of your three Mozart favourites? Not one performance of La Boheme or any other Puccini? But - surprise! surprise! - this thread has sparked an interest and you will drag yourself away from the youtube favourites you tell us you continue to watch time after time and "find opportunities" in the future. After all you have written about the many negatives of live performances, do you seriously expect anyone actually to believe that piece of nonsense?

 

Now you try to wriggle out of what you have said - yet again - by switching the past for the future. Oh I see! Now you will find "opportunities" to attend both the opera and the symphony after the pandemic. Really? I pointed out in another thread that the Houston Symphony is also a very fine ensemble with one of the most exciting of the younger generation of conductors as its Music Director. Its concerts over the last 25 years will have been in their thousands. And you had no opportunities to attend any? But again your interest is sparked and you will "find opportunities" after the pandemic? You expect us to believe that? A 77 year old (or is it now 78) who by his own admission sees no reason to spend money to see what he can see free on youtube, who has admitted he is totally set in his ways, who has said in several posts that he has not the remotest interest in what opera singers actually are singing for his exclusive interest is the beauty of the music - that purely on the basis of a couple of threads in a chat room based Singapore your interest in live performance has suddenly and quite inexplicably been reawakened? 

 

You write such nonsense too much of the time to be credible.

[InBangkok]

9 hours ago, Steve5380 said:

I don't see a problem if there are no pizza concession stands in opera houses.  I can bring one with me, and eat it while the music is loud enough.  Not so good when it is cold, but still enjoyable. And cold it won't smell so much as to tempt other spectators.  About ordering one at home, I don't do this.  I have two large pizzas 'supreme' frozen in my refrigerator,  and I plan to eat half of one on Christmas day   

What a piece of drivel!  As if anyone sitting watching a live opera or concert would find the odious smell of a pizza anything other than totally disconcerting and distracting . . . the mind boggles at the ghastly thought.

[heman]

Hope a nice cool weekend for everyone. I plan to watch my dvd on Pucinni's Turandot with Eva Marton and Domingo later this afternoon. I have not view this for almost a year now. It is so different from his other verismo operas. I was fortunate to witness its performance here at the Esplanade Theatre a few years ago by the Lyric opera.

I just cant wait to witness more live performances of any opera locally. The pandemic really disrupts the live performances worldwide. Pray hard the time for such events to be realized soon in the near future.

[LeGrad]

Second Viennese school is my kinda jam - and this scene has all the high drama i need.

[Steve5380]

37 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

As so often, a typical twisting of written fact that is destroying this thread. Either you have been to a live opera in the last quarter century of you have not. If you have not, your statement that you gladly attend a live performance if there is the "opportunity" in your city is untrue. Houston Opera, as I have earlier pointed out, has an excellent reputation and presents several performances of 7 - 8 different operas each year. How you can seriously expect readers of this forum, readers who do attend live opera when they have the chance, to believe that over a quarter of a century - 25 long years - and at a very minimum between 800 and 1,000 performances you did not "see an opportunity" to attend even one performance? Not one performance of your three Mozart favourites? Not one performance of La Boheme or any other Puccini? But - surprise! surprise! - this thread has sparked an interest and you will drag yourself away from the youtube favourites you tell us you continue to watch time after time and "find opportunities" in the future. After all you have written about the many negatives of live performances, do you seriously expect anyone actually to believe that piece of nonsense?

 

Now you try to wriggle out of what you have said - yet again - by switching the past for the future. Oh I see! Now you will find "opportunities" to attend both the opera and the symphony after the pandemic. Really? I pointed out in another thread that the Houston Symphony is also a very fine ensemble with one of the most exciting of the younger generation of conductors as its Music Director. Its concerts over the last 25 years will have been in their thousands. And you had no opportunities to attend any? But again your interest is sparked and you will "find opportunities" after the pandemic? You expect us to believe that? A 77 year old (or is it now 78) who by his own admission sees no reason to spend money to see what he can see free on youtube, who has admitted he is totally set in his ways, who has said in several posts that he has not the remotest interest in what opera singers actually are singing for his exclusive interest is the beauty of the music - that purely on the basis of a couple of threads in a chat room based Singapore your interest in live performance has suddenly and quite inexplicably been reawakened? 

 

You write such nonsense too much of the time to be credible.

 

What you wrote here is pure nonsense.

 

I don't have any need to justify myself,  to "wriggle out of what I said".  I could care less about what you make up of my writings.  I am sincere and I know quite well my life, and why and what I do with it.  

 

The last time I visited the Houston Opera was with my wife in a yearly subscription, about one opera a month. This is when we saw The Magic Flute, I think in February of 1985.  This is 35 years ago.  A while after we got tired and we gave up the opera.  Later I got divorced. I had no interest then in going to the Opera by myself.  I have a DVD with The Magic Flute which I can see anyway.  Then I lived 21 years with my bf, who didn't have interest in operas.  Once I took him to a concert of the Houston Symphony which he enjoyed.  But later he became ill and disabled, and it was not practical to go to a concert with him.  Once I went by myself to see Alfred Brendel play in the Jones Hall, and it was great but this was it. 

 

If now I got a resurgence of interest in live concerts, in part from conversing so much about them, I will try to attend some, opera and concerts, recitals, and see if I find them worthwhile.  The purpose is not to make you happy. It is the fact of being open minded and not being afraid to change my habits and try new things.   If I find that I miss something without them,  GREAT, I will have plenty of opportunities to find live music in Houston.  If not, I will continue to be happy with my current source of music for my great enjoyment.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Steve5380

[Steve5380]

23 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

What a piece of drivel!  As if anyone sitting watching a live opera or concert would find the odious smell of a pizza anything other than totally disconcerting and distracting . . . the mind boggles at the ghastly thought.

 

This is precisely why I wrote it,  to make your mind boggle at the ghastly thought.  You are so easy... 

 

I would never take pizza anywhere for a snack.  My choice, if at all, would be a small plastic bag full of almonds.  They don't smell, although they make some noise when I crack them in my mouth.  

[Steve5380]

21 minutes ago, heman said:

Hope a nice cool weekend for everyone. I plan to watch my dvd on Pucinni's Turandot with Eva Marton and Domingo later this afternoon. I have not view this for almost a year now. It is so different from his other verismo operas.

 

 

Congratulations for your good sense.  I enjoyed hearing my CD with Beethovens Eroica while I was cooking this afternoon,  and in the evenings I do some yoga poses while watching my DVD with the Bejart dancers. 

[Steve5380]

.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Steve5380

[Steve5380]

17 minutes ago, NtuLad15 said:

Second Viennese school is my kinda jam - and this scene has all the high drama i need.

 

It is this man's fault.  He should have got himself a boyfriend, instead of this jealous woman. Male voices are also less shrill.

[InBangkok]

29 minutes ago, heman said:

Hope a nice cool weekend for everyone. I plan to watch my dvd on Pucinni's Turandot with Eva Marton and Domingo later this afternoon. I have not view this for almost a year now. It is so different from his other verismo operas. I was fortunate to witness its performance here at the Esplanade Theatre a few years ago by the Lyric opera.

I just cant wait to witness more live performances of any opera locally. The pandemic really disrupts the live performances worldwide. Pray hard the time for such events to be realized soon in the near future.

I only heard Eve Marton once. As the Marcos regime was crumbling, the shoe lady Imelda managed to find funds to invite the San Francisco Opera to present Tosca at the Cultural Centre in Manila. Marton was a wonderful Tosca in glorious voice. In earlier performances, Domingo had been her Cavaradossi. Sadly we were at the last performance of the run and he was replaced by a tenor whose name I have now forgotten. But Justino Diaz was a splendid Scarpia. The magnificence of the end of Act 1 was quite wonderful.

 

Some years later on a visit to Rome, I went to all three locations for the opera. I found that fascinating. Earlier Zubin Mehta had recorded a DVD with Domingo and Raina Kabaivanska filmed in the original locations and the original times. I have not seen it. Interestingly Pavarotti asked Kabaivanska to sing at his funeral rather than his home town friend since childhood Mirella Freni.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Mehta conducted his Florence Opera forces in the fabulous Zhang Yimou production of Turandot in Beijing's Forbidden City in the late 1990s. I wonder who directed that Marton/Domingo DVD. Enjoy it!

[InBangkok]

17 minutes ago, Steve5380 said:

It is this man's fault.  He should have got himself a boyfriend, instead of this jealous woman. Male voices are also less shrill.

Yet another idiotic post and absolutely nothing to do with Lulu. You clearly do not know the opera and have no feelings for it. So don't comment with such a stupid statement. Ms. Petersen has sung your favourite Mozart operas and is a regular in Vienna, La Scala, London, Paris, the Salzburg Festival and elsewhere. She also sings a lot of Bach. She sings as Berg wrote - not the way you want her to sing.

Edited December 19, 2020 by InBangkok

[Steve5380]

4 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

Yet another idiotic post and absolutely nothing to do with Lulu. You clearly do not know the opera and have no feelings for it. So don't comment with such a stupid statement. Ms. Petersen has sung your favourite Mozart operas and is a regular in Vienna, La Scala, London, Paris, the Salzburg Festival and elsewhere. She also sings a lot of Bach. She sings as Berg wrote - not the way you want her to sing.

 

I want to remind you that you had agreed to not use insults in your posts to me.  It is not civil to call my posts 'idiotic'.

[InBangkok]

1 minute ago, Steve5380 said:

 

I want to remind you that you had agreed to not use insults in your posts to me.  It is not civil to call my posts 'idiotic'.

You are yet again wrong! You wanted me to agree to a set of rules and I refused! If you can not remember what was written just a few days or so ago, how can readers of the music threads believe anything you say you remember several decades ago - as you just wrote in the Instrumental Music thread. Let me jog your memory which clearly needs jogging. What I actually wrote in my post last Tuesday was -

 

Quote

I will not, with respect, obey rules set by another member other than the owner and moderators.

 

[Steve5380]

9 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

You are yet again wrong! You wanted me to agree to a set of rules and I refused! If you can not remember what was written just a few days or so ago, how can readers of the music threads believe anything you say you remember several decades ago - as you just wrote in the Instrumental Music thread. Let me jog your memory which clearly needs jogging. What I actually wrote in my post last Tuesday was -

 

 

 

You need to improve your memory and/or your comprehension.  You agreed to not use insults after you rejected the rules about the use of materials I proposed.  Go back and check!

[heman]

1 hour ago, NtuLad15 said:

Second Viennese school is my kinda jam - and this scene has all the high drama i need.

I seen Lulu twice so far , once in Sydney and another in Vienna. It is a remarkable opera with good number of  coloratura passages. Though it is serial in nature, one hardly notice it. Unfortunately  Berg did not complete this work  

I love Alban Berg especially Wozzek  and his early works for soprano and orchestra.

Edited December 19, 2020 by heman

[InBangkok]

14 minutes ago, Steve5380 said:

 

You need to improve your memory and/or your comprehension.  You agreed to not use insults after you rejected the rules about the use of materials I proposed.  Go back and check!

After you wrote "Okay... it is your right to disagree.    At least, can we agree to not be disrespectful putting down each other with "Wrong", "false", and other statements like these?" I now find I did indeed write "Agreed." So I apologise that I failed to remember that.

 

But that has been withdrawn because of your continuing idiotic, downright wrong and other off the point posts. I will continue to call you out when you write nonsense and outright rubbish. I will happily continue to respond respectfully when you make points which are actually valid in respect of live opera performances.

 

Again my apologies!

 

[wilfgene]

11 hours ago, InBangkok said:

If you @hemanthink I have disrupted the thread, then I will drop out. Just let me know.

Not exactly a contribution.

'By coincidence, the swan left a print on the snowy mud.

 Well, the swan has left and doesn't give a damn.'

That you have come to this world.  You have used your brain to think.  You have used your heart to feel.  And then something here rattles something in you.  

That's all that matters to me.

Hopefully, I matter to you.

[InBangkok]

1 hour ago, wilfgene said:

Not exactly a contribution.

'By coincidence, the swan left a print on the snowy mud.

 Well, the swan has left and doesn't give a damn.'

That you have come to this world.  You have used your brain to think.  You have used your heart to feel.  And then something here rattles something in you.  

That's all that matters to me.

Hopefully, I matter to you.

Every post is a contribution. Yours is a rather nice summation of things which preceded it. What matters to me is truth in respect of the thread, its title and the intention of the TS as he himself posted. That is about live opera performances. I post of my opera experiences which I hope may be of some value to those seriously interested in the actual topic. As a mere poster, I value similar contributions. I do not value contributions which try to change the topic, continuously denigrate the live opera experience and falsehoods. If someone objects to the thread subject, they are perfectly able to start another of their own on, for example, the joys and benefits of youtube. There is no need to wreck other threads.

[InBangkok]

Chatting with a musician friend this afternoon, she asked if I had heard of the two young professional violinists who had formed a comedy duo TwoSet Violin to create videos on youtube. The Asian-Australians Brett Yang and Eddy Chen gave up their full time jobs as members of the Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony Orchestras when their videos went viral. As of last month they had 2.94 million subscribers. I was told I really had to look at a few of their vdos which have helped introduce younger people to classical music.

 

I admit I looked at the first with more than a degree of skepticism. Yet I found that behind their sometimes silly humour they were making a lot of good points. I could also see why they have become so popular. I looked first at some conducting videos. One led on to this one which concentrates on classical singers and what made/makes them so special. Helping them is a singer friend who is working at the Finish National Opera.

 

There was just one singer I had never heard of - the coloratura mezzo Julia Lezhneva. She sings part of a fiendishly difficult Handel aria and was aged only 21 on the date of the concert. So I attach below that TwoSet Violin opera vdo and the full version of the Handel aria. Most of the aria's vocal fireworks come in the da capo section starting around 3'36". Looking at the comments, it is clear that some visited the site only after seeing the clip on the TwoSet episode.

 

 

 

 

[heman]

1 hour ago, InBangkok said:

Julia Lezhnev

I heard her since 2014, the day i met my ex partner . A petite Russian soprano rather than a mezzo to my judgement known for her tight corset-like gown. Her pyrotechnic attacks on Baroque vocal literature is phenomenal. I still recalled her video with the Helsinki Baroque vividly that members of this orchestra were "magnetised" by her vocal capability. I was drawn especially to her interpretation of Mozart's motet  Exulatate Jubilate !

 

 

[InBangkok]

We’ve talked before about Oberon in the Britten opera and recently about Eva Marton. One link to the two is a young counter tenor who has been singing Oberon recently at the Hungarian State Opera. A graduate of the Liszt Academy, Zoltan Darago joined the company about 2 years ago. At the Academy one of his teachers was Eva Marton.

 

Some time ago I heard this student concert performance of Handel’s Va tacito from Giulio Cesare. I remember thinking about the purity of the voice with no edge to it similar to some counter tenors. Darago was 19 at the time and I really like his singing. He’s also very cute!!  Unfortunately I don’t like the orchestral direction - too plodding with way too much legato. It should be much more marcato. And surely a student ensemble should be taught to smile occasionally!
 

I really wonder how the voice has developed in the 8 years since the vdo was made.

 

 

[Steve5380]

12 hours ago, wilfgene said:

Not exactly a contribution.

'By coincidence, the swan left a print on the snowy mud.

 Well, the swan has left and doesn't give a damn.'

That you have come to this world.  You have used your brain to think.  You have used your heart to feel.  And then something here rattles something in you.  

That's all that matters to me.

Hopefully, I matter to you.

 

12 hours ago, InBangkok said:

After you wrote "Okay... it is your right to disagree.    At least, can we agree to not be disrespectful putting down each other with "Wrong", "false", and other statements like these?" I now find I did indeed write "Agreed." So I apologise that I failed to remember that.

 

But that has been withdrawn because of your continuing idiotic, downright wrong and other off the point posts. I will continue to call you out when you write nonsense and outright rubbish. I will happily continue to respond respectfully when you make points which are actually valid in respect of live opera performances.

 

Again my apologies!

 

 

 

Every initial white page of the BW editor is like a sheet of blank snow for some swan to make an imprint. 

 

It is made by a brain who thinks, a heart who feels. Each combination of these is unique, the same is the imprint.

 

What is not necessary is for someone who feels superior to take the position of snow preserver and try to erase the imprints his superior mind considers idiotic, downright wrong, nonsense and outright rubbish.   Someone that does not realize that what he leaves in place of the imprint in the white snow is... a pile of crap!

.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Steve5380

[Steve5380]

.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Steve5380

[Steve5380]

14 hours ago, InBangkok said:

Chatting with a musician friend this afternoon, she asked if I had heard of the two young professional violinists who had formed a comedy duo TwoSet Violin to create videos on youtube. The Asian-Australians Brett Yang and Eddy Chen gave up their full time jobs as members of the Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony Orchestras when their videos went viral. As of last month they had 2.94 million subscribers. I was told I really had to look at a few of their vdos which have helped introduce younger people to classical music.

 

I admit I looked at the first with more than a degree of skepticism. Yet I found that behind their sometimes silly humour they were making a lot of good points. I could also see why they have become so popular. I looked first at some conducting videos. One led on to this one which concentrates on classical singers and what made/makes them so special. Helping them is a singer friend who is working at the Finish National Opera.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, InBangkok said:

 

 

 

I have also seen these two guys, usually doing dumb things with their violins.  I laughed with them and was entertained. I didn't know that they are / were professional violinists playing in orchestras,  I thought that they were students of violin.  Now I see from your video that they have advanced themselves to comics promoting diverse musical activities.  Very good! I am glad that YouTube offers opportunities like this to entrepreneurial individuals who may start making a profit without having to take out big bank loans.

 

Here is the video with Julia Lezhneva quoted in the interview of the two guys with the singer:

 

 

 

And here is a video where Julia sings Mozart.  Charming!  (she must also have a first class dentist, something important for a singer  )

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Steve5380

[InBangkok]

Perhaps there are times when a lighter moment is called for. Here is one of the best known Rossini duets, known well outside the normal opera audiences. Extraordinary to realise that this was filmed 38 years ago. Dame Kiri seems to have been around for most of our adult lives. When I last heard her in recital in Bangkok in 2008 she was well into her 60s but the voice was still in great shape.

 

Sadly unlike a number of singers who keep singing just too long - or fail to alter their repertoire to suit a declining vocal quality, I only once heard Dame Joan Sutherland during the opening Festival at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre at the end of 1989 when she sang with orchestra. She has just turned 63. The first half was desperately sad. The voice was almost threadbare. After the interval she  was in better form, but still a shadow of what we hear on her recordings. I kept wishing I could have heard her during her younger years.

 

 

[InBangkok]

I wonder if Smetana's Bartered Bride has ever been produced in South East Asia. I have not come across any of a work which I find has some marvellous music and which can be a really fun night out. I have only seen one production by Sir David Pountney which was designed, if my memory does not fail me, by Maria Bjornson.

 

The Overture and Suite of Dances are often performed in concerts. This version from the Czech conductor Vaclav Neuman with the Leipzig Gewandhaus has all the sparkle and flair essential to set the scene and then give a flavour of some of the opera. It's a pity it does not also include the well-known Polka but this is included in some other versions. I find the Furiant a little on the slow side but the Dance of the Comedians brings out all the spirited comedy of the circus.

 

 

[InBangkok]

We've discussed before Karajan's preference for younger voices, sometimes pushing them too far too quickly. In the early 1970s Helga Dernesch seemed one of the obvious dramatic sopranos to eventually take over Brigit Nilssohn's mantle. Ten years earlier before she was 25 she had already appeared in two seasons at Bayreuth, one singing Sieglinde. After starting her career as a mezzo, the voice quickly moved higher into the soprano range and then to dramatic soprano. She became a favourite with Karajan. Having started his DGG recorded Ring cycle with Regine Crespin as the Walkure Brunnhilde, he dropped her and instead had Dernesch take over the role. He also recorded Fidelio and Tristan with her, both with Jon Vickers as the tenor. In the meantime Solti recorded Tannhauser with her and the Vienna Philharmonic, all five in the space of around 3 years.

 

On disc the voice sounds quite glorious for the most part, warmer than Nilssohn even though with less power. It seemed to the opera world that Dernesch would be the dramatic soprano for probably the next 25 years. But some had noticed flaws in her technique. When she sang Isolde at the 1972 Salzburg Easter Festival, her singing was patchy. In Richard Morrison's masterly biography Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music, he makes clear that during the subsequent recording sessions, Karajan's producer had frequently to insist on retakes, telling the conductor that the casting of Dernesch was a mistake and she could not sing the part. Although the recording has its share of fans, including some of the critics, it was to be the start of a slow end to Dernesch's career as a dramatic soprano. The faulty technique that should have been corrected years earlier took its toll on the voice. She eventually took a year off singing and came back as a mezzo. 

 

Having seen her as Isolde the vocal troubles were starting to become evident. As an example, the final note of the Liebestodt involves an octave leap up to a semibreve marked pianissimo. F# is in an awkward part of the voice. On the recording (below) she hits and holds the note. In performance a few years later she could only just get the note and hold it for little more than a quaver. 

 

As one of the most natural stage actors, she was fortunately able to resume her career singing in all the major houses. I saw her only once again, this time as Herodias in Munich in 1989. She was superb.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by InBangkok

[singalion]

On 12/18/2020 at 10:10 PM, Steve5380 said:

 

What is the topic of Google doing here? Don't bring in non relevant issues. You can fill all the data storage capacity of BW with stories of victims of unethical competition practices, but, what has all that to do with Opera?  Justice in this world will not be achieved... until the fat lady sings!

 

 

 

YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. Three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—created the service in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

 

 

As a matter of completeness...

[singalion]

On 12/19/2020 at 6:34 PM, InBangkok said:

 

 

This about Youtube. Next one gone. Looks like they are increasing the copyright checks. Some people should read the small print of the tickets... it clearly says in most cases no photography, recording etc.

 

Coming back to Mark Knopfler (for those who don't know more mainstream rock guitar player), during his last tour he offered all ticket holders for a small fee to receive a video of the concert at the location you watched it). If you had registered early you even received 3 different concerts at your choice as a recording. But not alike Bob Dylan he doesn't fight all copyrights on youtube so far, initially he did. but we need to see after the change mid next year, many record labels may go out and ask to delete all the copyrighted materials.

 

 

 

[singalion]

What I miss often with Operas is, good information on the background of some opera plays.

 

I mean you have the classical pieces, some storyline from the Greek philosophy or the Greek gods (hey, don't get on the wrong track now). Yes, there have been some who were very introvert not disclosing the background of their opera piece but some revealed.

 

Like Verdi he was very outspoken about his plays, taking historical figures but actually telling something of his private life and loves.

 

But not for all operas you can say the composer revealed the background or "hidden" script of the play.

 

Like with other arts we tend to look at reasons or explanations. Looking at a painting we tend to ask, why and why this way and not another.

Same goes for operas. Many are adaptations from old theater pieces. The Greek or Roman storylines...

 

So the interest goes into the "hidden script"...

[InBangkok]

This year has seen a loss of many artists and administrators in the music profession. Covid19 has claimed some. Illness others. The passage time most.

 

The most recent has been Dame Fanny Waterman, founder and inspiration of the triennial Leeds Piano Competition way back in 1960. A formidable woman who cajoled, begged and borrowed to get the first competition off the ground, she presided over a competition which, in its early years introduced Murray Perahia, Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Peter Donohoe and Boris Berezovsky among its prize winners. Its one error came in 1969 when the outstanding Radu Lupu was placed fourth. At that time there were only three prizes given out. Following the Lupu debacle, the number was increased to five.

 

In the world of opera, surely no passing has been of greater import than that of the soprano Mirella Freni who died in February aged 84. A childhood friend of Pavarotti in Modena (had he lived the tenor would also have been 84 this year), Freni often used to say when the two were spoken of in the same breath, "You can see who got all the milk!" Like many European singers in the post war years, she made her international debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1960 as Zerlna alongside Joan Sutherand's Donna Anna. She made her Royal Opera House debut the following year as Nanetta in Falstaff with Giulini conducting. Her La Scala debut came in 1963 in one of what was to become her signature roles, Mimi in Boheme conducted by Karajan.

 

Her voice gradually moved into heavier spinto roles, adding lead roles in Otello, Aida and Don Carlos to her repertoire in the mid 1970s. She first married a pianist from Modena, Leone Magiera, who was to go on to become Pavarotti's coach and occasional conductor of his arena concerts. They divorced and in 1978 she married the great Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov. They appear together on quite a number of CDs. I had the good fortune to hear both in Simon Boccanegra in Tokyo conducted by Abbado when La Scala made one of its occasional visits.

 

This is an excerpt of the recording made after the initial La Scala performances. It is from the end of Act One when Piero Cappuccili as Boccengra is calling the mob to make peace. Freni appears at 2'20" and then sings the soaring phrases near the end.