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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 141 responses total. |
bjorn
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response 25 of 141:
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Jul 24 01:37 UTC 1996 |
IWLTA that this item has now been linked to Great Ring.
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krj
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response 26 of 141:
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Jul 24 16:02 UTC 1996 |
If we link it to the Music conference it will just die. (1/2 :) )
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jor
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response 27 of 141:
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Jul 24 22:06 UTC 1996 |
heh.
Is "Tommy" an opera? Why? I am pretty ignorant about opera, more of a Who fan.
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tpryan
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response 28 of 141:
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Jul 24 22:22 UTC 1996 |
Yes. If follows all the structures off an Opera.
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bdh
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response 29 of 141:
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Jul 25 09:36 UTC 1996 |
Much like a dump truck looks like a sports car....
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krj
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response 30 of 141:
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Jul 26 05:22 UTC 1996 |
(( Summer Agora #53 <--> Music #195 ))
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krj
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response 31 of 141:
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Jul 26 05:36 UTC 1996 |
What ar the "structures of an opera," Tim?
I could write a bit about opera, languages and supertitles.
I became eespecially fond of opera in English in the late 1980s
and early 1990s, when UM School of Music did their fall operas
in English translation: I remember LA BOHEME and FALSTAFF.
But there are markets and fashions in opera, like many other human
endeavors. New York's Metropolitan Opera went through a stage
around the turn of the century where all operas were presented
in German, even the Italian ones. I think it was the Wagner
influence. In the current era, the fashion is for original-language
productions. The New York Times recently ran a review of the
St. Louis Opera's season, and they reported that St. Louis
does everything in English.
The English National Opera also does all its performances in
English. The ENO and it predecessor, the Sadler Wells company,
are generally the only ensembles which record operas in
English translation. I've tried collecting these: so far I have
RIGOLETTO, TRAVIATA, OTHELLO, RHINEGOLD, VALKYRIES, and
highlights from CARMEN.
Here in Ann Arbor, the UM School of Music operas are the best
introduction to the art I can imagine. And right now I can't
recall what the school is producing for the fall. :(
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robh
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response 32 of 141:
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Jul 26 06:42 UTC 1996 |
This item has been linked from Music 195 to Intro 87.
Type "join music" at the Ok: prompt for discussion of
light opera, heavy opera, medium-weight opera, bantam
opera, and rock opera.
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rcurl
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response 33 of 141:
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Jul 26 07:16 UTC 1996 |
I like opera in the original language. Everyone *knows* the stories
and the sense of what is being sung (after you've studied the opera),while
the musicality is heightened by the original language.
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jor
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response 34 of 141:
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Jul 26 11:03 UTC 1996 |
Everyone knows *now*. Even for an opera avoider like me there
are moments from these classic operas that are inescapable,
they are quoted so often in our culture.
But if you were at the first performance of an opera it would
be all new music, quite a lot to sit through. So my understanding
is that to make the music more accessible, certain things would
be repeated, so they would sound familiar.
Pete Townsend evidently felt free to do this in general: in
different Who tunes on different LP's he reuses a transition
or intro here, maybe a set of chords there, leaving himself
open to charges of repetition. But he considers himself a
composer and defends his right to do this. In fact, in
interviews, he seems to think he is quite a music genius
and that you will be fascinated to hear him go on and
on about it.
So Tommy does use repetition like opera and it can get old
pretty quickly. Plus there are banal parts of Tommy that
were of course overplayed. Pinball Wizard, and the See Me
Feel Me stuff that they did at Woodstock, i cannot stand
to hear another time. But in between the repetition and
banality there are some real gems in there. Underture
and Sparks, which seem to be the same chords, have some
drumming that won very flattering comments from . .
Leonard Bernstein. And I still like Christmas:
Have you seen the faces of the little children they get so excited
Waking up on Christmas morning hours before the winter sun's ignited
They believe in dreams and all they mean including heaven's generosity
Peeping round the door to see what parcels are for free in curiosity
But Tommy doesn't kno-ow what day it is
He doesn't know who Jesus was or what prayin' is
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rcurl
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response 35 of 141:
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Jul 26 21:42 UTC 1996 |
Er....what item is this?
I've been a big opera fan for as long as I can remember. We always went to
the Metropolitan Opera when it was coming to Detroit, and sure missed it
when it stopped. Now, its just an opera here or there when the UM Musical
Society pulls one in. Anecdote: sometime in the past when others and I
drove long distances for some outing activities, the driver could choose
the music. Eventually, we had to make a pact: I would not choose opera if
noone else chose rock. (We played a lot of country-western....)
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davel
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response 36 of 141:
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Jul 27 20:34 UTC 1996 |
Rane, change your rseps to display the item # so you won't have to ask.
Or look in your scrollback buffer.
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srw
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response 37 of 141:
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Jul 28 04:10 UTC 1996 |
Opera is a pretty wide category. Tommy is a "Rock Opera", Rane.
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jerryr
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response 38 of 141:
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Jul 28 04:54 UTC 1996 |
here's a fun question - what's opera the plura of?
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omni
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response 39 of 141:
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Jul 28 05:00 UTC 1996 |
Operetta. As in Gilbert and Sullivan. (I think)
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rcurl
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response 40 of 141:
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Jul 28 05:32 UTC 1996 |
Dave, my question was a comment on the prior response, which I found
befuddling. Steve, though, explained why, as "rock" and "opera" are
disjoint in my music appreciation (as I had just described).
I suppose the "singluar" of opera is opus, but I don't know how one became
the other.
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srw
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response 41 of 141:
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Jul 28 06:52 UTC 1996 |
39 nope: operetta is the diminutive of opera.
40 souds right. An opus is a "work". I don't see how the plural of that would
come toean what we know today as opera, but the word matches in form.
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robh
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response 42 of 141:
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Jul 28 09:21 UTC 1996 |
Opus is definitely the singular of Opera. What Bloom County
has to do with opera, though, is anybody's guess. >8)
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jor
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response 43 of 141:
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Jul 28 13:10 UTC 1996 |
Ack! Yes that's where the term comes from, referring to the
musical-dramatic pieces as "works" of art.
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krj
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response 44 of 141:
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Jul 28 14:48 UTC 1996 |
Rane in #35: I'm surprised that you don't go to the Michigan
Opera Theatre in Detroit. I have bones to pick here and there with
them, but generally they do good work. I'm sure it's not quite as
wonderful as having the Met come to your doorstep.
And, as I have previously mentioned, there are the UM School of Music
productions, which are often quite good. Those usually add up
to six local productions each year.
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krj
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response 45 of 141:
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Jul 28 15:10 UTC 1996 |
(That's four operas for MOT in Detroit, and two for the UM.
Plus an additional operetta or musical for MOT -- titles like
THE MUSIC MAN, THE MERRY WIDOW, CANDIDE.)
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rcurl
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response 46 of 141:
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Jul 28 19:59 UTC 1996 |
Perhaps we should take another look at MOT. The MET was a big enough draw
to overcome our discomfort walking from the theatre to our car afterward,
through crumbling neighborhoods littered with broken glass.
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krj
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response 47 of 141:
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Jul 28 20:29 UTC 1996 |
The Michigan Opera Theatre has moved from the Masonic Temple
to their own building adjoining Grand Circus Park.
The new neighborhood, while still rundown, feels quite a bit
more secure; it's right at a People Mover stop, and on opera
nights there is a sizable police presence.
I'll have a bit about the *inside* of the Detroit Opera House
in another response.
I'd love to get an inventory of all the opera productions within
a 3-4 hour driving time of Ann Arbor. Toledo has one production
each year, and each year they manage to arrange a scheduling
conflict with Leslie. We used to drive to Cleveland occasionally --
hey, it's not that much farther than Cedar Point -- but we have been
dropped from their mailing list. This past spring we saw a production
of Britten's ALBERT HERRING in Adrian, from the Opera Lenawee
company. I am vaguely aware of something at Bowling Green State
University.
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arabella
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response 48 of 141:
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Jul 29 18:43 UTC 1996 |
Re #38 etc.: The word "opera" is a singular, not a plural. In
Italian it means "work," so it is basically the same word as "opus,"
but in a different language. The plural of "opera" is "opere."
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rcurl
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response 49 of 141:
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Jul 29 18:54 UTC 1996 |
Ah! Finally. A fact. Thanks, Leslie - even if this ends all of our drift....
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