Opera for Beginners (Part 3 of 3)
Aug. 6th, 2019 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnI talked about Opera for Beginners for my family reunion talk and used much of the advice I was given here, thank you! :)
-I brought speakers, because there isn't much use in giving an opera talk if you can't hear the music! The hilarious thing was that I was not the only one who had audio/audiovisual components to my presentation, but I was the only one who had brought speakers. I had been a little bitter about lugging them all around Montana, but less so when they turned out to be broadly useful :) What was more irritating was that after they worked fine when I tried them out in my office, they didn't work at all for a while when I was trying to give the talk. Finally my cousin's teenager, who was acting as unofficial tech support, suggested rebooting as a last resort, and of course that worked. Sigh.
-A couple of people mentioned talking about where one might go looking for opera. My biggest recommendations to a newbie are the following:
1.The Chandos Opera in English CDs, without which I would still hate opera today. I highly highly recommend all the Mozart ones, particularly the da Ponte operas (Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte), and the bel canto comedies (e.g., Barber of Seville, The Elixir of Love), and dis-recommend their Verdi except Don Carlos (for some reason Verdi tends to come out a bit muddled). Their French opera also seems to be very good, and I absolutely adore their Eugene Onegin (which stars Thomas Hampson and Kiri te Kanawa).
2. Met On Demand, which comes with a free 7-day trial. People who know a lot about opera rag on the Met for not being adventurous in its staging and concept, which, fair, but for a beginner, in my opinion, that's exactly what you want, and you can't do better than the Met for gorgeous staging and costumes, great singers, and great videography, which I didn't even know would affect me until I started watching a bunch of these... and... it does actually make a huge difference when watching video. (Watching live is, of course, different.)
-I showed several clips, one of which was a 3-minute clip of Kaufmann/Hampson/Salminen in the auto-da-fe scene from Don Carlo. (Alagna/Keenlyside/Furlanetto is still the whole version of Don Carlo I would recommend, but for auto-da-fe out of context I thought the former was better, not least because it didn't have a giant weeping Jesus in the background.) I explained beforehand the background about how Posa is Prince Carlo's best friend but also has the relationship where he has sworn fealty to King Philip. (I have uploaded the clip here (google drive video clip, ~3 minutes) --mildredofmidgard, I know music/opera is Not Your Thing but this is the moment in Don Carlo I was talking about, check it out) and my big triumph, as far as I am concerned, is that when the clip ended my cousin cried out, "Oh, that's so sad!" MY WORK HERE IS DONE.
-My other great triumph was that E was curious about what I said about Don Giovanni. Being her, she could not care less about Don G himself -- she was perfectly content with a limited understanding that he was the Bad Guy -- but she was particularly interested in what I said about Don G coming to a sticky end, and asked about it the next day. Once I further explained that there was a singing statue and that in many productions Don G disappeared into flames with the statue at the end, both she and A really wanted to watch it, so that afternoon we all snuggled up on the couch and watched "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco" (this one with Rodney Gilfrey) and they still ask for "the statue opera" on occasion. (That's the only part they have watched or are interested in watching, or that I am interested in playing for them, until they're a lot older. Well, okay, "O statua gentilissima," but that's along the same lines.)
-Since you guys said it was fun for people to recognize music in opera, another short clip I showed was from Thais, because, well, I don't know if it's all Koreans or just my particular family, but all our extended relatives LOOOOOVE Meditation from Thais and all of us cousins who play violin (or piano, if that cousin happened to be near one of the cousins who played violin) have had to play that song approximately six million times, every time a third cousin twice removed came to visit. There was much groaning when the melody was revealed :)
-It turns out my aunt (uncle's wife) really likes opera!!!! We are already making plans to go to Salzburg or Italy sometime and watch opera :D (well, pipe dreams right now... I certainly wouldn't go until my kids are older)
(Part 1 was where I asked for help; Part 2 was an outtake of this post about emoting in opera)
-I brought speakers, because there isn't much use in giving an opera talk if you can't hear the music! The hilarious thing was that I was not the only one who had audio/audiovisual components to my presentation, but I was the only one who had brought speakers. I had been a little bitter about lugging them all around Montana, but less so when they turned out to be broadly useful :) What was more irritating was that after they worked fine when I tried them out in my office, they didn't work at all for a while when I was trying to give the talk. Finally my cousin's teenager, who was acting as unofficial tech support, suggested rebooting as a last resort, and of course that worked. Sigh.
-A couple of people mentioned talking about where one might go looking for opera. My biggest recommendations to a newbie are the following:
1.The Chandos Opera in English CDs, without which I would still hate opera today. I highly highly recommend all the Mozart ones, particularly the da Ponte operas (Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte), and the bel canto comedies (e.g., Barber of Seville, The Elixir of Love), and dis-recommend their Verdi except Don Carlos (for some reason Verdi tends to come out a bit muddled). Their French opera also seems to be very good, and I absolutely adore their Eugene Onegin (which stars Thomas Hampson and Kiri te Kanawa).
2. Met On Demand, which comes with a free 7-day trial. People who know a lot about opera rag on the Met for not being adventurous in its staging and concept, which, fair, but for a beginner, in my opinion, that's exactly what you want, and you can't do better than the Met for gorgeous staging and costumes, great singers, and great videography, which I didn't even know would affect me until I started watching a bunch of these... and... it does actually make a huge difference when watching video. (Watching live is, of course, different.)
-I showed several clips, one of which was a 3-minute clip of Kaufmann/Hampson/Salminen in the auto-da-fe scene from Don Carlo. (Alagna/Keenlyside/Furlanetto is still the whole version of Don Carlo I would recommend, but for auto-da-fe out of context I thought the former was better, not least because it didn't have a giant weeping Jesus in the background.) I explained beforehand the background about how Posa is Prince Carlo's best friend but also has the relationship where he has sworn fealty to King Philip. (I have uploaded the clip here (google drive video clip, ~3 minutes) --
mildredofmidgard, I know music/opera is Not Your Thing but this is the moment in Don Carlo I was talking about, check it out) and my big triumph, as far as I am concerned, is that when the clip ended my cousin cried out, "Oh, that's so sad!" MY WORK HERE IS DONE.-My other great triumph was that E was curious about what I said about Don Giovanni. Being her, she could not care less about Don G himself -- she was perfectly content with a limited understanding that he was the Bad Guy -- but she was particularly interested in what I said about Don G coming to a sticky end, and asked about it the next day. Once I further explained that there was a singing statue and that in many productions Don G disappeared into flames with the statue at the end, both she and A really wanted to watch it, so that afternoon we all snuggled up on the couch and watched "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco" (this one with Rodney Gilfrey) and they still ask for "the statue opera" on occasion. (That's the only part they have watched or are interested in watching, or that I am interested in playing for them, until they're a lot older. Well, okay, "O statua gentilissima," but that's along the same lines.)
-Since you guys said it was fun for people to recognize music in opera, another short clip I showed was from Thais, because, well, I don't know if it's all Koreans or just my particular family, but all our extended relatives LOOOOOVE Meditation from Thais and all of us cousins who play violin (or piano, if that cousin happened to be near one of the cousins who played violin) have had to play that song approximately six million times, every time a third cousin twice removed came to visit. There was much groaning when the melody was revealed :)
-It turns out my aunt (uncle's wife) really likes opera!!!! We are already making plans to go to Salzburg or Italy sometime and watch opera :D (well, pipe dreams right now... I certainly wouldn't go until my kids are older)
(Part 1 was where I asked for help; Part 2 was an outtake of this post about emoting in opera)
no subject
Date: 2019-08-19 01:54 pm (UTC)My canonical take is, as usual, agnostic on the issue of whether they had sex. I interpret Friedrich as intensely homoromantic with a low to nonexistent sex drive (again, unclear why). My fanon is that he had strong feelings for Fredersdorf and was semi-attracted in that he liked to look more than touch (I mean sexually--eighteenth century mores mean I imagine a fair bit of non-sexual touch). But that is not something I would defend as canonical, just one of many possible interpretations that I have selected for the character in my head.
The whole Dresden adventure is a riot from beginning to end, much like Wilhelmine's memoirs in general. *popcorn.gif*
Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-19 03:40 pm (UTC)Let me tell you all about my family. Dad: on the one hand, was always very proud that he singlehandedly changed Prussia from a bankrupt joke to a respected kingdom. Otoh, he was horrible to live with. I won’t run out of stories of him being violently abusive towards Fritz, me and Mom in this volume, reader.
Mom: on the one hand, Fritz & self owe her all for her appreciation for the arts, which Dad was always against. And she had a hard time with him. Otoh, I resent Mom, too. Not least for putting us on a war footing with Dad by making us promise we’d never marry anyone but our English cousins, and making us choose between him and her even before he went nuts on us. (She never forgave me for eventually marrying someone else, either.) Also, until I was eleven, my governess kept abusing me, and did Mom ever notice? Nope. It needed Fritz‘ governess to point out to her that mine would cripple me for life if she continued to be in charge of me.
Fritz: my dearest brother, whom I’m emotionally all over the place about, due to writing my memoirs during the three years interlude we were estranged. He was wonderful until he got on the throne. Thereafter, my moments of WTF, Fritz? Keep increasing.
*explanatory footnote from the Fritz/Wilhelmine correspondence about their three years estrangement: Fritz: you betrayed me by meeting Maria Theresia.
Wilhelmine: It was just the one time! She’s the empress, passing through Bayreuth, how could I not?
Fritz: You LIKED her, you traitor. She LIKED you. I hate you forever.
Wilhelmine: WTF, Fritz?*
My younger siblings: get only cameos in these memoirs. Like in this rare non-violent story of what happenened when Dad became a fan of the Preacher Mr. Francke, who made him feel he wasn’t pious enough. Original quote follows:
„Every afternoon, the King held us a sermon. His lackey sang a choral, in which we all had to join. The sermon we had to listen to with the same attention as if an apostle was speaking. My brother and myself got the giggles, and often, we just had to laugh. Then we were chastized by all the condemnation of the church, which we had to endure with repentant faces, hard as that was. In short, this dog Francke was at fault for us having to live like Trappists for a while. This exaggareted pietism even made the King hit on an even stranger idea. He decided to abdicate in favour of my brother. He only wanted to reserve an income of 10 000 Taler per annum for himself and wanted to retire to Wusterhausen with the Queen and his daughters. „There,“ he said, „I shall pray to God and organize the sowing of the fields while my wife and my daughters will work in the household. You,“ he addressed me, „are skillful, so you’ll be in charge of the clothing, sewing and laundry. Friederike is thrifty, she’ll supervise the kitchen. Charlotte will go to the market to shop for food, and my wife will be in charge of the younger children’s education.“ He even started to write down instructions for my brother.“
Prussian royal family: WTF, Dad?
FW: Okay, Fritz & self just got invited to Dresden, guess we’ll have to postpone the godly existence as normal pious citizens.
*Dresden interlude* Ensues.
FW: Maybe Wilhelmine should marry King August.
Sophia Dorothea: The guy who’s her godfather, spawned roughly 300 kids already and is potentially sleeping with at least one of them?
FW: You’re just hung up about those British marriages, aren’t you.
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-19 04:47 pm (UTC)But deeply entertaining for me, as well as a highly accurate summary!
Re hundreds of illegitimate kids: though that is certainly what people like Wilhelmine said at the time, he certainly had a lot of them, and he probably had enough sex to be having 365 or whatever illegitimate kids, my understanding is that modern historiography sees the primary sources as rather tabloidy (Wilhelmine's memoirs are more entertaining than rigorous) and puts question marks around a bunch of those offspring, bringing the total "known" illegitimate children down to a significantly lower number than 200-400. But the attribution of some 300 illegitimate children to him should tell you everything you need to know about Augustus the Strong anyway, Cahn.
Fritz: You LIKED her, you traitor. She LIKED you. I hate you forever.
Wilhelmine: WTF, Fritz?
Also Fritz: *says nice things about Maria Theresia later in life, about how he respected her as a worthy opponent and a "saint" (presumably for putting up with him), after years of trashing her personally and making unprovoked war on her country* (At least so our sources say, I'm not sure we have this from the horse's mouth, but correct me if I'm wrong)
Everyone: WTF, Fritz?
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 05:30 am (UTC)WTF, Fritz, indeed. Can't imagine what Maria Theresia would have said to that one, or rather, I can, since she could be very robust as well. Then again, other than their shared sense of duty and hard working nature, you could not have designed a more perfect opposite to Friedrich II than Maria Theresia if you tried, seriously, you couldn't, starting with the basics (Woman/man) and moving on to every area of their lives: married for love and remained in love with husband of choice till death/married to get out of prison, stayed away from wife thereafter; traditional Catholic versus free spirit/likely atheist; sixteen Kids, famously married all over Europe, versus childless monarch; loving parents (the worst MT's father ever did to her was not to prepare her for the succession, as he hoped to get a male heir until basically five minutes before his death, so she had to learn on the job and quickly) and secure childhood versus, well, childhood a la Hohenzollern and Nightmare adolescence; and so forth.
(Sidenote to amuse you both: one now forgotten German politician called Angela Merkel "the Maria Theresia of the Uckermark", meaning this as a put down while casting himself as Fritz as the same time. To which the rest of the journalists snorted and said, you are no Friedrich, Peter Gauweiler. Our Chancellor just ignored him.)
Additional irony,
ETA: A fanboy meets his Idol
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 05:39 am (UTC)Oh, god, yes, if you want to know about Maria Theresia and Fritz, you need to know about Joseph II keeping Fritz's book by his bedside and that meeting of theirs, lol, 18th century history.
Shall we tell her about the Russian fanboy shenanigans too?
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 05:42 am (UTC)Historical Fritz on this occasion: "Do they think I'm dead?"
Fritz: *can barely sit a horse* *not having his finest moments in this war*
Also Fritz: *still not dead yet*
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 06:29 am (UTC)Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 04:51 pm (UTC)...maybe in a new post? hold on
Meanwhile, in Austria...
Date: 2019-08-20 02:50 pm (UTC)Re: Meanwhile, in Austria...
Date: 2019-08-20 04:59 pm (UTC)Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 03:39 am (UTC)Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 04:31 am (UTC)Volume 1
Volume 2
There are also Kindle versions (of what quality I do not know) on Amazon for a few dollars each, and of course hardcovers.
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 04:55 am (UTC)...although both links seem to go to Volume 2? And my quick google searches don't seem to find Volume 1?
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 04:56 am (UTC)Yes! You can even access the translations online for free.
Volume 1
Volume 2
There are also Kindle versions (of what quality I do not know) on Amazon for a few dollars each, and of course hardcovers.
ETA from while I was fixing the copy-paste error of pasting volume 2 twice: OH LOL look what I just found LOL FOREVER. You know, when you decide to make up a tabloid cover to match the tabloid contents. No lies detected in the title, at least!
Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 05:01 am (UTC)Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 05:03 am (UTC)Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs
Date: 2019-08-20 06:08 am (UTC)