Music Drama

[Nilla]

Of course I like Wagner.

No, Wagner is too much for me, too pompous and above all; too long.

BTW, have you ever heard Anna Russel's 22 minute condensation of the Ring?

I haven't seen that parody but maybe similar things were quite popular in Germany as I lived there 20 years ago. I saw some of those on television.

Currently, I am learning to appreciate Scandinavian composers.  My music channels have been running much Sibelius and Grieg along with some others.

Grieg is very popular here in Sweden, is often played. I'm not so sure about Sibelius. I can't remember that I ever heard one of his peaces live. The reason might be that I mostly listen to classical music here in a small town and there is mostly smaller ensembles. The music I know from Sibelius is for large symphonic orchestras and such an orchestra seldom visit us here. And if I visit the city for some music event, it's either a rock/pop concert or an opera. I haven't been at the Phiharmonie for ages. I'm not at all updated on what they play. I keep good track of what's going on in the operahouses and which rock and pop legends are visiting Sweden, but not the Philharmonie.

If you want to explore the Scandinavian music, I can recommend a Swedish composer named Lars-Erik Larsson. His "Förklädd Gud" (=God in disguise, no idea if it's translated to English) is one of my favourite classical pieces. It's for choir and orchestra. Before i got ill, I use to sing in a choir. Not at all that kind of difficult things, but I do appreciate choir music.

[A Nonny Moose]

Interesting.  Larsson is included in my eclectic music channels occasionally.  Right now they are running a violin concerto by Mozart (No. 5 I think).

I too did considerable vocal work from the time I was in high school.  I completed the curriculum of the Toronto Conservatory up to Grade VI, but then my day job got in the way.  The next step for me was to audition for the Opera School, and I had to make a career decision.  I stayed in IT, and didn't regret it much. 

My wife and I were members of a private choir which mostly did amusing things and tour retirement homes which was fun.  By late wife was a violinist at the orchestral level and both my kids are brass players (trumpet, trombone), but I am not as musically adept as my family.  I have a block of some sort when it comes to playing from sheet music.  It takes me ages to learn a piece well enough to dare to perform it.

I haven't been to a live performance of any kind since my wife passed away.  I am partially disabled, live in a rural area and have no transportation.  So I am grateful for the something like 100 music channels on my cable service.

[rkelly17]

Of course I like Wagner.

I've never been a Wagner fan myself (though I have a good friend who can go on at some length about not only each opera, but which is the best recorded version of each opera--and he has three or four that he got from his grandparents on 78 RPM disks from the late 40s). Since I taught 16th century theology I used to take groups of students to Germany. One year we had a fellow who really wasn't the least bit interested in the 16th century. He just wanted to go to Bayreuth and have his picture taken standing at attention with his hand on his heart at Wagner's grave. So, when we had a free day at Nuernberg, sure enough . . . .

 

[A Nonny Moose]

Liking Wagner doesn't necessarily mean that I have any particular devotion to him nor his music.  Of all his works, I like Der Flegende Hollander the best and even that can get tedious at times. 

I also like Der Meistersinger von Nuremberg, mostly because it is a satire.  Besides who doesn't like works in C major?  Only the prize song in this opera is chromatic and aimed directly at the critic, Hanslick, who appears as a character, very transparently, in the opera.  This gasser complained about Wagner's use of chromaticism and all the odd keys his works are in.  So Richard wrote one in C major, so there!

If you ever get to see a live performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, by all means go.  It starts out like Mozart, and by the beginning of the second act it is much more like Wagner, but lightens up at the end.  I used to have a recording with the Voice of God (John Vickers) as Florestan, with Christa Ludwig as Leonore and her husband Water Beery as Rocco.  A definitive performance.  I think Beethoven wrote this opera just to show he could write a masterwork in this genre too.  Classical composers were nothing if not humorists.

This Mozartian game is played also at the beginning of Der Flegende Hollander, but Wagner's muse won't allow this to continue.

When it comes to German opera, I am also partial to Der Frieschutz.  Good and evil, well defined.  Almost as much fun as Faust.

I am pretty much attached to most vocal music, and especially music drama.  So if it is performed on stage with singing and an orchestra I generally like it.  I like Der Drei Groschen Oper as well and, of course, Cabaret, even though it is really a horror story.

Like all opera lovers, I guess I am also stuck on Puccini's war horses as well as those of Verdi and the other Italians, and I also like modern composers such as Leonard Bernstein (Candide, West Side Story), the tin pan alley guys with the Broadway musicals which are actually operas, and even our own Geoffrey Rideout and Healy Willan (Dierdre).

[rkelly17]

My problem is that I've always been much more of an instrumental person (except for German Baroque where I like both), even to the extent of not training my own voice when I could have. It frustrated my various choir directors no end. If only we could be as smart at 16 as we are at 60. 

[A Nonny Moose]

That certainly is a wide field.  You have not only the vast Bach family but so many others as well.