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1000 results for “m_libretro”
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@raccoonforfriendicaapp version 1.0.0-beta1 has been released 🎉🎉🎉 not only in the usual Android flavour, but also in an experimental desktop version (for now as a .deb package, I'll add a Windows installer too soon)
What's new?
- feat: reply bar themes
- feat: explore foreign instances in guest mode
- feat: configure translations with LibreTranslate
- feat: display quoted posts
- fix: list/circle retrieval
- fix: instance change
- fix: reset notifications when switching mode
- fix: timeline loading (Mastodon)
- fix: search by post URL (Mastodon)
- enh: support large screens with adaptive layouts
- enh: improved hashtag charts appearance
- chore: new languages (et) and updates to other onesLet me know what issues you will be experiencing, I'm working on a new stable release before summer!
#livefasteattrash #raccoon #fediverse #app #kotlin #kmp #androidapp #fediverseapp #androiddev #mobileapp #desktopapp
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@raccoonforfriendicaapp version 1.0.0-beta1 has been released 🎉🎉🎉 not only in the usual Android flavour, but also in an experimental desktop version (for now as a .deb package, I'll add a Windows installer too soon)
What's new?
- feat: reply bar themes
- feat: explore foreign instances in guest mode
- feat: configure translations with LibreTranslate
- feat: display quoted posts
- fix: list/circle retrieval
- fix: instance change
- fix: reset notifications when switching mode
- fix: timeline loading (Mastodon)
- fix: search by post URL (Mastodon)
- enh: support large screens with adaptive layouts
- enh: improved hashtag charts appearance
- chore: new languages (et) and updates to other onesLet me know what issues you will be experiencing, I'm working on a new stable release before summer!
#livefasteattrash #raccoon #fediverse #app #kotlin #kmp #androidapp #fediverseapp #androiddev #mobileapp #desktopapp
-
@raccoonforfriendicaapp version 1.0.0-beta1 has been released 🎉🎉🎉 not only in the usual Android flavour, but also in an experimental desktop version (for now as a .deb package, I'll add a Windows installer too soon)
What's new?
- feat: reply bar themes
- feat: explore foreign instances in guest mode
- feat: configure translations with LibreTranslate
- feat: display quoted posts
- fix: list/circle retrieval
- fix: instance change
- fix: reset notifications when switching mode
- fix: timeline loading (Mastodon)
- fix: search by post URL (Mastodon)
- enh: support large screens with adaptive layouts
- enh: improved hashtag charts appearance
- chore: new languages (et) and updates to other onesLet me know what issues you will be experiencing, I'm working on a new stable release before summer!
#livefasteattrash #raccoon #fediverse #app #kotlin #kmp #androidapp #fediverseapp #androiddev #mobileapp #desktopapp
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Don Pasquale, 1932
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1r548mc/don_pasquale_1932/Tonight, for Valentine's Day, I decided to treat myself to Don Pasquale. I had promised myself I would listen to it, first at Christmas, then New Year, and failed to do so both times. Now, I'm glad I waited. What could be better than my favourite singer in a work by my favourite operatic composer?
Libretto
https://archive.org/details/donizettisoperad00doniWikipedia Link ((since I mentioned it)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_PasqualeRecording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FeEiRH5ULkUnlike when I first heard the opera, I didn't read the full libretto, just the Wikipedia entry. This is simply because I wanted to enjoy the beautiful voices and music and not be distracted by my screen reader speaking while it was playing, or have to stop occasionaly to read and then listen to more. However, I do remember it, and I love the story itself. It's hilarious, with scheming but no violence or cruelty, just fun. I laughed on a personal note as well, because I myself prefer seniors for partners. I felt sorry for poor Don Pasquale when he saw all of the things being bought and how much money was being spent, but the acting made it extremely comical, and the interaction between him and Norina was priceless.
This was an excellent production, with wonderful sound quality. The only thing that annoyed me was the huge gaps during the record changing. I would expect them when listening to real seventy-eights, not a digital copy. I have never heard this anywhere else, including the 1907 Pagliacci, the much later radio performances of various operas, and even other studio recordings. It was really distracting. The singing, however, was mostly excellent. I say that because although Adelaide Saraceni didn't have an annoying high-pitched, bright voice that gives me a headache (not being mean, it literally does), she didn't really impress me in this role either. I have also heard parts of it sung by Toti Dal Monte and Amelita Galli-Curci, and I wish the latter had been chosen for this recording because she was perfect. I really liked Ernesto Badini and Afro Poli, together and apart. I'm not normally one to gravitate to baritones or basses, but both are worth researching for more recordings. I had definitely heard Afro Poli in the past, so I recognised him, but I had to look up his name. "Cheti, cheti immantinente" made me laugh because it reminded me so strongly of Gilbert and Sullivan's patter songs. Even the plot itself would have been perfect for an operetta. Notice I didn't mention the entire reason for my listening to this opera, namely Tito Schipa! I had forgotten how incredibly small his part was. I'm sure it could easily fit on two seventy-eights. It was, obviously, perfect, but it left me sad and wanting more. It seems that, every time I hear Ferruccio Tagliavini sing something from his repertoir, it's always a big part. I actually heard more of Schipa in Act II of Manon! But, at least it's something, and his arias here were beautiful.
Overall, I would very much recommend this opera for anyone who wants to have fun and laugh. The story, music, and singing are all wonderful.
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I have a little gift for all of you. I just found it today. For those of you who are seasoned veterans, I'm sure you already know about it. But for those of us who are new to opera, and who won't accept anything but the best, there is a full recording of Don Pasquale from 1932! Not only does it naturally have wonderful singing, due to the time in which it was recorded, but Tito Schipa himself is in it! For my blind peers, do not turn it off after the first song if you inten to hear it all. After each song, there is a little pause, since these were originally 78s, not lps. For my fellow operetta lovers, this, while a true opera, is, nonetheless, very light, so it should appeal to you.
youtube.com/watch?v=lOOkdoN7pE…
If, like me, you don't know Italian, here is the libretto in English. I'm sure there are others, but this is from a year before Schipa's birth, so it's not full of modernised language and other nonsense. I don't know if that is done often with operas (it is with operettas, to my extreme annoyance), but it's better to be safe than sorry. My strategy has been to read one or two scenes, then listen to some of it, then read more.
archive.org/details/donizettis…
#78Rpm #DonPasquale #FullOpera #GaetanoDonizetti #opera #Italian #TitoSchipa
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Voyagers will recall Mark Adamo as librettist of John Corigliano’s The Lord of Cries, which #OdysseyOpera performed in collab w/ @bmop — the recording got a GRAMMY® nom for Best Opera Recording. #OdysseyOpera makes a new excursion w/ Adamo for his opera, Lysistrata • https://odysseyopera.org/artist-page-mark-adamo/
The Nude Goddess: not your mom's Lysistrata. The New York Times notes, “Mr. Adamo, who also wrote the libretto…makes the story a richer human drama”.
Feb 15 • From $35
https://odysseyopera.org/lysistrata-or-the-nude-goddess/ -
Have a little bit of #opera for #MusiciansDay !
«Misera, dove son!» is a beautiful, sweet piece that is perfect for anyone who wants to get to know opera music while avoiding the usual suspects. Fluvia’s aria from Pietro Metastasio’s libretto to Ezio has been set to music by many composers, this is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s version from 1781.
https://m.soundcloud.com/meganmariehart/misera-dove-son
https://on.soundcloud.com/nwXnUuErCdgEFvvz5
#music #operaSinger #mozart #live #concert #concertAria #classicalMusic #operaMusic
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In the six months I’ve been in transition, I’ve had many significant affirmations, from inside and outside. But none can compare to my night at the opera. The opera itself was very good. It wasn’t a traditional performance of Don Giovanni. It was presented in English, without sets, and with a heavily modified, localized libretto including references to Tim Horton’s and various locations in Edmonton. After discovering Il Commendatore motionless on the floor, Don Ottavio pulls out a cell phone to call an ambulance… I wish I could have seen the whole thing.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I could go to the opera, I had to find something to wear. At that point, I owned several women’s tops and a few ill-fitting bras I had bought online. And my purple boots, of course. I had arranged for my friend Megan, who was taking me to the opera, to take me shopping that morning. It was two hours of alternating anxiety and affirmation.
Get the mall done
First we went to a shoe store. The salesperson didn’t know if they had many size 10 shoes. They had a pair I loved in size 9½. I tried them on…and they fit perfectly! I couldn’t believe it because the work boots I wear almost constantly are a men’s size 9½. The uppers of the new shoes are stretchy fabric, and I could almost go down another half size. “Well,” Megan said, “Welcome to women’s sizing.”
The next stop was a lingerie shop. I already own a few bras that I ordered online, but none of them fit properly, so Megan took me to La Vie en Rose to be fitted. I was so anxious as I entered the store, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with no makeup. I thought I looked like a man intruding in a women’s space, as I felt so often before I hatched. One employee led us to the back and handed us over to another for my fitting. She asked me something about specific bra types, or what size I wore. I nervously said, “I’m fifty-four years old and I’ve never been fitted for a bra before.” She nodded and took me into the fitting room. I brought out the pads I’d be wearing, and she sized me at a 38 B or C with the pads, or an A without.
We went out into the store and looked at bras. I wanted black because I figured that was the most likely color of the formal wear I’d be buying next. We selected three styles, and I took B and C cups of all of them to the fitting room. I was nervous as I tried them on, so much so that I tightened the shoulder straps of the first one when I thought I was loosening them. “Are you doing okay, hon?” asked Megan. I stammered something that told her I wasn’t doing so great. “Do you want me to come in with you?” “Yes,” I replied. This was a very small fitting room, and Megan is a big girl, but it was comforting to have her so close as she helped me adjust the straps and try on each bra. “We’re going with a C,” she said confidently after I tried on the first one.
None of the first batch fit well. They all squeezed my outer pecs and under my shoulders. I know that’s not completely avoidable, but this felt very uncomfortable, so Megan went to find more options. I stood in the fitting room, feeling exposed even though I was behind a curtain, and I had been out in public with my “boobs” showing many times during my lengthy man phase. Is it indecent exposure if a woman who is very convincingly pretending to be a man shows her boobs in public?
Megan returned with some more bras. She handed me the first one and said “I think this is the one.” I tried it on and she helped me adjust it. Then I put my pads in. It wasn’t completely comfortable, but it fit. I looked at myself in the mirror. The bra perfectly covered my pads. I didn’t have cleavage because my pecs don’t move that way, but it looked almost like I had breasts. I put my T-shirt on. I thought the bra rode a little high. I’m over fifty; I shouldn’t have perky teen breasts. But Megan said it was perfect for what I’d be wearing. I took it off and put my T-shirt back on over my not-so-curvy chest.
Could I actually pull this off?
Next we drove to the Laura liquidation center. I was even more anxious as we drove into the parking lot. Would I be able to find anything that looked okay on me? “If you’re too anxious, we can stop whenever you want,” Megan told me. “No,” I said. “We’re doing this.” Nerves or no nerves, I was going to find something. I had a nice black sweater in my backpack, so the worst case was that I’d just have to find a pair of dress pants.
We chose a couple of dresses and a pantsuit and walked to the fitting rooms. I put on my bra with my pads. The first dress I tried on was a dark purple (of course). I stepped out into the fitting lounge. “I don’t think this one…” I said. Megan chuckled. “I’m sorry, but you look like you’re going to a funeral.” Scratch dress number one. The second dress was no better, so I tried the pantsuit. It wasn’t bad, but when I stepped out to show Megan, she pointed out something that interfered with the line of the suit. Specifically the lower part. I went back into the fitting room and Megan went to find more clothes. I was getting discouraged. It’s going to be some time before one particular obstacle is taken care of, and that would eliminate quite a few outfits.
Megan returned with a whole pile of dresses and one pantsuit. Only one of them was purple. The dress on top of the pile was bright red. “I know these aren’t your color, but I want you to trust my judgment.” I was staring at the red dress as Megan said this. It made me think of the Matrix, of the woman in the red dress who distracts Neo during one of Morpheus’ tests. Could I pull off being the woman in the red dress? I tried it on first. It looked good. Then Megan zipped it up. The fabric moved into its intended position–and it looked gorgeous! I stared at myself, up and down. I moved. There was a slit that exposed my left knee. I spun around. The dress flowed as I moved. “This is number one,” I said. But I was going to try on everything Megan brought.
I tried on a light purple flowery summer dress. It wouldn’t work with my bra, but it could be an option for another time. “It’s ten bucks,” Megan said. I looked at the price tag. Marked down ninety percent! There was a rip from where the belt had been pulled too hard, but I hadn’t noticed it because the belt covered it perfectly. That dress went onto the “yes” hook. The next dress was a light green that totally did not suit me, but the cut was very nice, which is why Megan wanted me to try it on. Then I tried the pantsuit. The top of this suit flowed into the bottom with two strips of fabric in a diagonal crossing pattern. It hid what it needed to hide. I stepped out to look in the three-way mirror. I looked amazing! The way the top came together, my padded curves looked perfectly natural. “Want me to go get your shoes?” Megan asked. I nodded, then kept looking at myself while she ran back to the car. She returned with my new shoes and a wide deep maroon belt. “Trust me,” she said. I put on the belt and my shoes. I looked fantastic! Wearing this suit, I would own any room I stepped into. But for tonight, I wanted the red dress.
I bought the pantsuit as well as the two dresses. The total bill came up to $250. Not bad considering the red dress was marked down from $450. There is supposedly a stain on one strap, but I can’t find it.
I had been planning to find a hat of some kind to hide my balding spot, which estrogen has not magically filled in yet. But after seeing myself in those clothes, I decided I wanted people to see me wearing them, and not see me hiding myself.
Off to the ball
We went back to Megan’s apartment, ordered dinner, then started doing our makeup. Megan is a makeup artist, and she has given me some bold new looks, but that night I wanted to do my own eyes. I used Megan’s earth tone palette because my usual purple wouldn’t work with that dress. I carefully applied a two-way gradient pattern: very light to somewhat dark coming down from my eyebrows, then not quite as light to darker from the inner corners of my eyes moving outward, with a slightly more subtle gradient below my eyes. A little mascara and my eyes were done. I loved the effect. I asked Megan what she thought. She paused, her eyes widening, before telling me I looked amazing. This was the best compliment I could have received from my makeup teacher.
My makeup for the opera and the pearls Megan lent meIt was time to get ready. I put on my dress and my shoes. I added a shoulder cloak Megan had previously given me to fend off the chilly wind. Megan asked which of three dresses she should wear. There was really only one choice. Two of the dresses were quite informal, and I needed her to match me, even if her style is a significant contrast. She wore a dark gothic dress with a pair of bright rhinestone platform boots. Getting into Megan’s car gave me a new experience: carefully pulling in all the folds of my dress before closing the door.
We arrived early; we were one of the first people inside. There was a balloon arch set up for photos. We took a few pictures of each other, and had someone take a pic of both of us.
The lady in red and the goth chick with the spectacular bootsI look like I’m tensing my arms in this pic, but I was actually feeling quite relaxed by this point. Relaxed isn’t the right term. Somehow, I felt powerful. A few other people had entered the lobby. Some were dressed casually, some more formally. None matched the elegance of my dress. You can see the confidence in my smile in this picture.
Cinderella becomes the Queen of the ballAs more people came into the lobby, there were quite a few more people dressed formally. A few women complimented my dress. “You look gorgeous!” “That dress is amazing!” I knew some of the stares wouldn’t be as friendly, but I wasn’t paying attention. I kept my chin up and walked as if I were walking through my own personal ballroom. I felt like Cinderella! I told Megan I never dreamed I would be one of the most noticeably well-dressed women at the opera. “Top five,” she said.
It’s all pumpkins now
Unfortunately, my perfect day did not have a perfect ending. I was enjoying the performance–during the overture, the sound of the orchestra completely masked my tinnitus! But between a painful tooth choosing that time to flare up and the piercing resonance of two of the performers, I felt a migraine coming on. I resisted. I hadn’t had a migraine since I started hormone therapy! But before long, my head felt like it was collapsing from the left side. When the lights went up for the intermission, I told Megan I needed to find a quiet, dark room. Unfortunately, the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium does not have a room of refuge. This is not a venue for anyone prone to migraines, or with an aversion to noise, crowds, or a similar condition, to push their limits. Even so, as we walked through the crowd, I held my head up and walked like the Queen of the ball.
Megan took me back to her place. By the time we were halfway there, I could barely keep my eyes open. Brake lights in front of us were painfully bright. I got into bed. With the lights off, the bedroom was the refuge I needed. Megan went to make me some food; I was extremely hungry, which I’m sure contributed to the migraine.
That’s when something strange happened. I started crying. I rolled onto my side and cried into the pillow, sobbing powerfully. I wasn’t upset, except that Megan was missing the rest of the opera (even though she told me she wasn’t really impressed with the interpretation). The migraine wasn’t painful enough to have such a strong effect. But there I was, sobbing into the pillow until I heard Megan open the bedroom door. I took a couple of deep, stabilizing breaths. In the darkness, she couldn’t see my eyes. It’s not that I’m embarrassed about crying in front of Megan; she’s one of my best friends, and I’d trust her with almost anything. But I didn’t want her to think that I was upset about anything about that day, especially when I couldn’t explain my reaction.
In retrospect, I think it was the sum total of the alternating stress and euphoria of the day. I’ve never experienced anything like that day, and I probably never will again. All in all, it’s one of the best days I can remember. It may have ended in a hail of pumpkins, but while I was there, I was the lady in red, the Queen of the ball.
I may have been wearing red, but I am Violet. That may not mean anything to anyone who doesn’t know me, but it’s my confident affirmation that I have achieved the ultimate goal of truly being myself.
-
La Cenerentola, 1953
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1scthkh/la_cenerentola_1953/It has been far too long since I've listened to a full opera, and I
decided it was time to begin again. I actually read the libretto to
this some time ago, but I hadn't listened to the work itself until
tonight.
Libretto
https://archive.org/details/lp_la-cenerentola_gioacchino-rossini
First Recording Tried
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ22-8ztr_gRecording Used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmGQ6o7g8c(Note: The libretto that
I used, while the exact same translation, was from a different link,
with a different introduction. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but
this one seems to be formatted a bit better and is actually directly
from the album of the performance being reviewed, complete with short
notes on the singers!)
The story was Cinderella, without the magicalelements, as was explained in the introduction. However, there were
a few clever twists along the way. There is some wonderful trickery
involved when the prince and his valet reverse places and tease the
unsuspecting stepfather (no stepmother here) and stepsisters. I
really enjoyed watching them go from bad to worse, sticking their
feet in their mouths as the phrase goes. It was also fun watching
Ramiro, Dandini, and Alidoro plot things, especially since I knew
something would happen but not exactly what, until it did. That
said, this is the first time I found the libretto of an opera to be
disturbing. I always preface such remarks with the idea that it's
not real life, and it should not be taken as such.
I'm also not onefor political correctness and modernising works. Even so, I was
shocked when Don Magnifico literally threatened twice to murder his
own stepdaughter! I would expect a threat of wipping, going to bed
without dinner, or being locked in her room, but that was a bit much.
I was also uncomfortable with the ending. It is made clear that the
actions against Cinderella were bad. The prince was even willing to
punish the father and sisters. But Cinderella acted as if all of it
was just a dream or a game (her own words) and actually forgave them,
going so far as to hug them and welcome them back into her new life!
I'm not a psychologist, but this made me think of Stockholm syndrome,
or at the least, a woman so badly abused that she has no idea that
such actions should be punished. It's all for a tidy, happy ending,
but the message seems to be that it's perfectly fine to abuse your
child, and that, if you're abused, you should just smile and accept
it. Had this been written by Verdi or Puccini, I'm sure the ending
would have been much more satisfactory, but then, of course, it
wouldn't be a comedy. In keeping with a light theme, the best ending
I've seen would have been from the modern film Ever After, in which
Cinderella asked that they be treated as she was, and the sisters
were seen being led into the kitchen to become maids.
While the
libretto may have raised questions, no such thing can be said of this
performance, which was excellent. I was actually going to listen to
another version, ironically, also from 1953, because I was quite
familiar with at least three of the singers, namely Giulietta
Simionato, Giuseppe Taddei, and Italo Tajo, plus the conductor,
Tullio Serafin. But the sound quality was terrible, and I say this
as someone who is accustomed to acoustic and live recordings!
However, this turned out to be a very good thing, because I found
several new singers to enjoy, particularly Marina de Gabarain, and
Juan Oncina (also in the first recording). De Marina Gabarain has
one of the best female voices I've ever heard in opera, and Juan
Oncina is a very sweet leggero. The music itself was absolutely
marvellous. Not once did I feel that any of it dragged. This is
definitely my sort of opera, both in story line and in music, from
melodies to harmonies. The sound effects during the storm were also
great.
I highly recommend this opera to anyone who wants to have a
night of wonderful music combined with a great story and performance.
I'm sure there are those who will say that, since this is a
Rossinian work, these singers weren't the best for it. But in that
case, it would be necessary to find those who truly studied bel canto
as authentically as possible, and while I'm sure they exist, I dont
know anyone like that, unless we go all the way back to singers like
Patti and Battistini.
-
La Cenerentola, 1953
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1scthkh/la_cenerentola_1953/It has been far too long since I've listened to a full opera, and I
decided it was time to begin again. I actually read the libretto to
this some time ago, but I hadn't listened to the work itself until
tonight.
Libretto
https://archive.org/details/lp_la-cenerentola_gioacchino-rossini
First Recording Tried
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ22-8ztr_gRecording Used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmGQ6o7g8c(Note: The libretto that
I used, while the exact same translation, was from a different link,
with a different introduction. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but
this one seems to be formatted a bit better and is actually directly
from the album of the performance being reviewed, complete with short
notes on the singers!)
The story was Cinderella, without the magicalelements, as was explained in the introduction. However, there were
a few clever twists along the way. There is some wonderful trickery
involved when the prince and his valet reverse places and tease the
unsuspecting stepfather (no stepmother here) and stepsisters. I
really enjoyed watching them go from bad to worse, sticking their
feet in their mouths as the phrase goes. It was also fun watching
Ramiro, Dandini, and Alidoro plot things, especially since I knew
something would happen but not exactly what, until it did. That
said, this is the first time I found the libretto of an opera to be
disturbing. I always preface such remarks with the idea that it's
not real life, and it should not be taken as such.
I'm also not onefor political correctness and modernising works. Even so, I was
shocked when Don Magnifico literally threatened twice to murder his
own stepdaughter! I would expect a threat of wipping, going to bed
without dinner, or being locked in her room, but that was a bit much.
I was also uncomfortable with the ending. It is made clear that the
actions against Cinderella were bad. The prince was even willing to
punish the father and sisters. But Cinderella acted as if all of it
was just a dream or a game (her own words) and actually forgave them,
going so far as to hug them and welcome them back into her new life!
I'm not a psychologist, but this made me think of Stockholm syndrome,
or at the least, a woman so badly abused that she has no idea that
such actions should be punished. It's all for a tidy, happy ending,
but the message seems to be that it's perfectly fine to abuse your
child, and that, if you're abused, you should just smile and accept
it. Had this been written by Verdi or Puccini, I'm sure the ending
would have been much more satisfactory, but then, of course, it
wouldn't be a comedy. In keeping with a light theme, the best ending
I've seen would have been from the modern film Ever After, in which
Cinderella asked that they be treated as she was, and the sisters
were seen being led into the kitchen to become maids.
While the
libretto may have raised questions, no such thing can be said of this
performance, which was excellent. I was actually going to listen to
another version, ironically, also from 1953, because I was quite
familiar with at least three of the singers, namely Giulietta
Simionato, Giuseppe Taddei, and Italo Tajo, plus the conductor,
Tullio Serafin. But the sound quality was terrible, and I say this
as someone who is accustomed to acoustic and live recordings!
However, this turned out to be a very good thing, because I found
several new singers to enjoy, particularly Marina de Gabarain, and
Juan Oncina (also in the first recording). De Marina Gabarain has
one of the best female voices I've ever heard in opera, and Juan
Oncina is a very sweet leggero. The music itself was absolutely
marvellous. Not once did I feel that any of it dragged. This is
definitely my sort of opera, both in story line and in music, from
melodies to harmonies. The sound effects during the storm were also
great.
I highly recommend this opera to anyone who wants to have a
night of wonderful music combined with a great story and performance.
I'm sure there are those who will say that, since this is a
Rossinian work, these singers weren't the best for it. But in that
case, it would be necessary to find those who truly studied bel canto
as authentically as possible, and while I'm sure they exist, I dont
know anyone like that, unless we go all the way back to singers like
Patti and Battistini.
-
La Cenerentola, 1953
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1scthkh/la_cenerentola_1953/It has been far too long since I've listened to a full opera, and I
decided it was time to begin again. I actually read the libretto to
this some time ago, but I hadn't listened to the work itself until
tonight.
Libretto
https://archive.org/details/lp_la-cenerentola_gioacchino-rossini
First Recording Tried
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ22-8ztr_gRecording Used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmGQ6o7g8c(Note: The libretto that
I used, while the exact same translation, was from a different link,
with a different introduction. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but
this one seems to be formatted a bit better and is actually directly
from the album of the performance being reviewed, complete with short
notes on the singers!)
The story was Cinderella, without the magicalelements, as was explained in the introduction. However, there were
a few clever twists along the way. There is some wonderful trickery
involved when the prince and his valet reverse places and tease the
unsuspecting stepfather (no stepmother here) and stepsisters. I
really enjoyed watching them go from bad to worse, sticking their
feet in their mouths as the phrase goes. It was also fun watching
Ramiro, Dandini, and Alidoro plot things, especially since I knew
something would happen but not exactly what, until it did. That
said, this is the first time I found the libretto of an opera to be
disturbing. I always preface such remarks with the idea that it's
not real life, and it should not be taken as such.
I'm also not onefor political correctness and modernising works. Even so, I was
shocked when Don Magnifico literally threatened twice to murder his
own stepdaughter! I would expect a threat of wipping, going to bed
without dinner, or being locked in her room, but that was a bit much.
I was also uncomfortable with the ending. It is made clear that the
actions against Cinderella were bad. The prince was even willing to
punish the father and sisters. But Cinderella acted as if all of it
was just a dream or a game (her own words) and actually forgave them,
going so far as to hug them and welcome them back into her new life!
I'm not a psychologist, but this made me think of Stockholm syndrome,
or at the least, a woman so badly abused that she has no idea that
such actions should be punished. It's all for a tidy, happy ending,
but the message seems to be that it's perfectly fine to abuse your
child, and that, if you're abused, you should just smile and accept
it. Had this been written by Verdi or Puccini, I'm sure the ending
would have been much more satisfactory, but then, of course, it
wouldn't be a comedy. In keeping with a light theme, the best ending
I've seen would have been from the modern film Ever After, in which
Cinderella asked that they be treated as she was, and the sisters
were seen being led into the kitchen to become maids.
While the
libretto may have raised questions, no such thing can be said of this
performance, which was excellent. I was actually going to listen to
another version, ironically, also from 1953, because I was quite
familiar with at least three of the singers, namely Giulietta
Simionato, Giuseppe Taddei, and Italo Tajo, plus the conductor,
Tullio Serafin. But the sound quality was terrible, and I say this
as someone who is accustomed to acoustic and live recordings!
However, this turned out to be a very good thing, because I found
several new singers to enjoy, particularly Marina de Gabarain, and
Juan Oncina (also in the first recording). De Marina Gabarain has
one of the best female voices I've ever heard in opera, and Juan
Oncina is a very sweet leggero. The music itself was absolutely
marvellous. Not once did I feel that any of it dragged. This is
definitely my sort of opera, both in story line and in music, from
melodies to harmonies. The sound effects during the storm were also
great.
I highly recommend this opera to anyone who wants to have a
night of wonderful music combined with a great story and performance.
I'm sure there are those who will say that, since this is a
Rossinian work, these singers weren't the best for it. But in that
case, it would be necessary to find those who truly studied bel canto
as authentically as possible, and while I'm sure they exist, I dont
know anyone like that, unless we go all the way back to singers like
Patti and Battistini.
-
La Cenerentola, 1953
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1scthkh/la_cenerentola_1953/It has been far too long since I've listened to a full opera, and I
decided it was time to begin again. I actually read the libretto to
this some time ago, but I hadn't listened to the work itself until
tonight.
Libretto
https://archive.org/details/lp_la-cenerentola_gioacchino-rossini
First Recording Tried
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ22-8ztr_gRecording Used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmGQ6o7g8c(Note: The libretto that
I used, while the exact same translation, was from a different link,
with a different introduction. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but
this one seems to be formatted a bit better and is actually directly
from the album of the performance being reviewed, complete with short
notes on the singers!)
The story was Cinderella, without the magicalelements, as was explained in the introduction. However, there were
a few clever twists along the way. There is some wonderful trickery
involved when the prince and his valet reverse places and tease the
unsuspecting stepfather (no stepmother here) and stepsisters. I
really enjoyed watching them go from bad to worse, sticking their
feet in their mouths as the phrase goes. It was also fun watching
Ramiro, Dandini, and Alidoro plot things, especially since I knew
something would happen but not exactly what, until it did. That
said, this is the first time I found the libretto of an opera to be
disturbing. I always preface such remarks with the idea that it's
not real life, and it should not be taken as such.
I'm also not onefor political correctness and modernising works. Even so, I was
shocked when Don Magnifico literally threatened twice to murder his
own stepdaughter! I would expect a threat of wipping, going to bed
without dinner, or being locked in her room, but that was a bit much.
I was also uncomfortable with the ending. It is made clear that the
actions against Cinderella were bad. The prince was even willing to
punish the father and sisters. But Cinderella acted as if all of it
was just a dream or a game (her own words) and actually forgave them,
going so far as to hug them and welcome them back into her new life!
I'm not a psychologist, but this made me think of Stockholm syndrome,
or at the least, a woman so badly abused that she has no idea that
such actions should be punished. It's all for a tidy, happy ending,
but the message seems to be that it's perfectly fine to abuse your
child, and that, if you're abused, you should just smile and accept
it. Had this been written by Verdi or Puccini, I'm sure the ending
would have been much more satisfactory, but then, of course, it
wouldn't be a comedy. In keeping with a light theme, the best ending
I've seen would have been from the modern film Ever After, in which
Cinderella asked that they be treated as she was, and the sisters
were seen being led into the kitchen to become maids.
While the
libretto may have raised questions, no such thing can be said of this
performance, which was excellent. I was actually going to listen to
another version, ironically, also from 1953, because I was quite
familiar with at least three of the singers, namely Giulietta
Simionato, Giuseppe Taddei, and Italo Tajo, plus the conductor,
Tullio Serafin. But the sound quality was terrible, and I say this
as someone who is accustomed to acoustic and live recordings!
However, this turned out to be a very good thing, because I found
several new singers to enjoy, particularly Marina de Gabarain, and
Juan Oncina (also in the first recording). De Marina Gabarain has
one of the best female voices I've ever heard in opera, and Juan
Oncina is a very sweet leggero. The music itself was absolutely
marvellous. Not once did I feel that any of it dragged. This is
definitely my sort of opera, both in story line and in music, from
melodies to harmonies. The sound effects during the storm were also
great.
I highly recommend this opera to anyone who wants to have a
night of wonderful music combined with a great story and performance.
I'm sure there are those who will say that, since this is a
Rossinian work, these singers weren't the best for it. But in that
case, it would be necessary to find those who truly studied bel canto
as authentically as possible, and while I'm sure they exist, I dont
know anyone like that, unless we go all the way back to singers like
Patti and Battistini.
-
(original Reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/r/OldOpera/comments/1olcp4p/macbeth_1947/ )
"Macbeth, 1947
I've been on some sort of Verdi/Tamagno kick lately and I was trying to return to my normal, light repertoir, but I wanted to listen to an opera for Halloween. I immediately thought of McBeth, which I hadn't heard yet, only to discover that it was written by Verdi! It's just one of those weeks.
Libretto
http://www.operafolio.com/libretto.asp?n=Macbeth&translation=UK
Recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQVoC7skN9Y
There really isn't much to say about the libretto. Anyone who has received a good education knows the story of Macbeth, and Verdi follows Shakespeare very closely. But I will say that this is yet another time when the text has no ocr errors and when the Italian and English are easily separated, so I had no problem reading it with my screen reader, NVDA.
I'm glad that I chose this version because it gave me the chance to hear mostly new (to me) singers. I actually found an article about MARGHERITA GRANDI just prior to hearing this. It was a review of a cd of her music, but part of it was this exact performance. Apparently, recordings by her are rare.
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-13451/
I agree with the author that she had a unique sound and a good range. I could also hear the dramatic and the softer parts as her voice changed. I read somewhere that Lady Macbeth is one of the most difficult roles in opera, but she handled it very well. I did know of Frank Valentino, but mostly because of his background. He was a student of Emilio Piccoli, Schipa's second serious singing teacher, his first being Alceste Gerunda. Valentino went on to become a teacher in America, until the 1970's. At any rate, while I can't describe his voice as beautiful or appealing, for this role, it fit perfectly. His acting was also wonderful, particularly in the dramatic parts. I could feel his emotions, as if he had become Macbeth! I really must add Italo Tajo to my regular rotation. I have heard him in several operas, and each time, I liked him. He will be the second bass to join the group, with the other being Salvatore Baccaloni. I just wish he had a larger part here. New to me were the two tenors, Walter Midgley and Andrew McKinley (Macduff and Malcolm, respectively). I'm very annoyed that I never heard of them, particularly Midgley, who has a beautiful voice! I hope I can find more recordings of them.
The opera itself was okay. I certainly can't rate it as highly as La Traviata or Rigoletto, but I can't say I didn't like it musically, like Falstaff. It definitely had its moments and Verdi did capture the right mood, given the subject. But part of it dragged. Still, for Halloween, it was a good choice.
Now, I desperately must return to my bel canto and Romantic operas, preferably with large tenor roles! Can anyone please recommend something? Italian strongly preferred."
-
(Note. The bit about watching/listening and Tagliavini refers to a Reddit post in which I asked about four different versions of La Boheme that I have in my large list of opera links. Also, Schipa is still my favourite singer of all time. But Gigli is second, Tagliavini is third, and Battistini is fourth.)
"I just finished listening to La Boheme from 1938. I say "listening" because several people mentioned that I said "watching" in the post where I was trying to decide on a version. I am totally blind, so it's all listening for me, whether there is a video or not. But I'm accustomed to saying "watch" when referring to things that I find on Youtube, which is odd, as I usually download them as mp3s, but anyway. This is the full opera.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5vRfD7uC…
This is the libretto that I used.
opera-arias.com/puccini/la-boh…
The first act basically told the story of the characters themselves. The second made me laugh in several places. Marcello and (Musetta were quite funny, in general. Poor Alcindoro) kept trying to calm Musetta and was ultimately stuck with the bill, but that was clever. The third, of course, was more serious, and forshaddowed things to come. I'm glad the fourth act had some comedy in it, because the ending was heart-breaking. Even though I knew what would happen, it was played so well that it brought me to tears, and I had to calm down before writing this review! Even Schipa himself couldn't do that, and I have the last scene with him in it! Gigli was an absolute master of this role, and while complaining about his sobs in other instances may be justified, he used them expertly in this performance, and truly brought the character of Rodolfo to life. What really surprised me is how much I liked Licia Albanese. I am usually not a fan of high-pitched female voices, but for some reason, I liked her, and the chemistry between her and Gigli's characters could be felt. I am really glad that I chose this version and would highly recommend it to anyone."
"Since I mentioned being caught between Gigli and Tagliavini in my other post, here is Che Gelida Manina by both of them.
Gigli
youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ba_MSygG…Tagliavini
(I am providing two versions because he sings them quite differently. The first is extremely sweet and the second less so, but it still sounds like it's before the voice change. I have always loved his version, but I don't know how he would handle the rest, particularly the really dramatic parts.)
1
youtube.com/watch?v=ux1QuTbQsc…2
youtube.com/watch?v=2DdPoNsTRD…Now for Schipa.
youtube.com/watch?v=gqcuAAA_2m…
And this is the final scene that I mentioned in my review. Naturally, it is played well, as Schipa always sang everything beautifully. But Gigli added his own elements to it.
youtube.com/watch?v=IMTQ7gGyuw… "
Since I mentioned it, here is my large list of operas.
dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/242…
#BeniaminoGigli #FerruccioTagliavini #Gigli #LaBoheme #opera #Puccini #review #Tagliavini #TitoSchipa #Schipa
-
(Note. The bit about watching/listening and Tagliavini refers to a Reddit post in which I asked about four different versions of La Boheme that I have in my large list of opera links. Also, Schipa is still my favourite singer of all time. But Gigli is second, Tagliavini is third, and Battistini is fourth.)
"I just finished listening to La Boheme from 1938. I say "listening" because several people mentioned that I said "watching" in the post where I was trying to decide on a version. I am totally blind, so it's all listening for me, whether there is a video or not. But I'm accustomed to saying "watch" when referring to things that I find on Youtube, which is odd, as I usually download them as mp3s, but anyway. This is the full opera.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5vRfD7uC…
This is the libretto that I used.
opera-arias.com/puccini/la-boh…
The first act basically told the story of the characters themselves. The second made me laugh in several places. Marcello and (Musetta were quite funny, in general. Poor Alcindoro) kept trying to calm Musetta and was ultimately stuck with the bill, but that was clever. The third, of course, was more serious, and forshaddowed things to come. I'm glad the fourth act had some comedy in it, because the ending was heart-breaking. Even though I knew what would happen, it was played so well that it brought me to tears, and I had to calm down before writing this review! Even Schipa himself couldn't do that, and I have the last scene with him in it! Gigli was an absolute master of this role, and while complaining about his sobs in other instances may be justified, he used them expertly in this performance, and truly brought the character of Rodolfo to life. What really surprised me is how much I liked Licia Albanese. I am usually not a fan of high-pitched female voices, but for some reason, I liked her, and the chemistry between her and Gigli's characters could be felt. I am really glad that I chose this version and would highly recommend it to anyone."
"Since I mentioned being caught between Gigli and Tagliavini in my other post, here is Che Gelida Manina by both of them.
Gigli
youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ba_MSygG…Tagliavini
(I am providing two versions because he sings them quite differently. The first is extremely sweet and the second less so, but it still sounds like it's before the voice change. I have always loved his version, but I don't know how he would handle the rest, particularly the really dramatic parts.)
1
youtube.com/watch?v=ux1QuTbQsc…2
youtube.com/watch?v=2DdPoNsTRD…Now for Schipa.
youtube.com/watch?v=gqcuAAA_2m…
And this is the final scene that I mentioned in my review. Naturally, it is played well, as Schipa always sang everything beautifully. But Gigli added his own elements to it.
youtube.com/watch?v=IMTQ7gGyuw… "
Since I mentioned it, here is my large list of operas.
dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/242…
#BeniaminoGigli #FerruccioTagliavini #Gigli #LaBoheme #opera #Puccini #review #Tagliavini #TitoSchipa #Schipa
-
(Note. The bit about watching/listening and Tagliavini refers to a Reddit post in which I asked about four different versions of La Boheme that I have in my large list of opera links. Also, Schipa is still my favourite singer of all time. But Gigli is second, Tagliavini is third, and Battistini is fourth.)
"I just finished listening to La Boheme from 1938. I say "listening" because several people mentioned that I said "watching" in the post where I was trying to decide on a version. I am totally blind, so it's all listening for me, whether there is a video or not. But I'm accustomed to saying "watch" when referring to things that I find on Youtube, which is odd, as I usually download them as mp3s, but anyway. This is the full opera.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5vRfD7uC…
This is the libretto that I used.
opera-arias.com/puccini/la-boh…
The first act basically told the story of the characters themselves. The second made me laugh in several places. Marcello and (Musetta were quite funny, in general. Poor Alcindoro) kept trying to calm Musetta and was ultimately stuck with the bill, but that was clever. The third, of course, was more serious, and forshaddowed things to come. I'm glad the fourth act had some comedy in it, because the ending was heart-breaking. Even though I knew what would happen, it was played so well that it brought me to tears, and I had to calm down before writing this review! Even Schipa himself couldn't do that, and I have the last scene with him in it! Gigli was an absolute master of this role, and while complaining about his sobs in other instances may be justified, he used them expertly in this performance, and truly brought the character of Rodolfo to life. What really surprised me is how much I liked Licia Albanese. I am usually not a fan of high-pitched female voices, but for some reason, I liked her, and the chemistry between her and Gigli's characters could be felt. I am really glad that I chose this version and would highly recommend it to anyone."
"Since I mentioned being caught between Gigli and Tagliavini in my other post, here is Che Gelida Manina by both of them.
Gigli
youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ba_MSygG…Tagliavini
(I am providing two versions because he sings them quite differently. The first is extremely sweet and the second less so, but it still sounds like it's before the voice change. I have always loved his version, but I don't know how he would handle the rest, particularly the really dramatic parts.)
1
youtube.com/watch?v=ux1QuTbQsc…2
youtube.com/watch?v=2DdPoNsTRD…Now for Schipa.
youtube.com/watch?v=gqcuAAA_2m…
And this is the final scene that I mentioned in my review. Naturally, it is played well, as Schipa always sang everything beautifully. But Gigli added his own elements to it.
youtube.com/watch?v=IMTQ7gGyuw… "
Since I mentioned it, here is my large list of operas.
dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/242…
#BeniaminoGigli #FerruccioTagliavini #Gigli #LaBoheme #opera #Puccini #review #Tagliavini #TitoSchipa #Schipa
-
(Note. The bit about watching/listening and Tagliavini refers to a Reddit post in which I asked about four different versions of La Boheme that I have in my large list of opera links. Also, Schipa is still my favourite singer of all time. But Gigli is second, Tagliavini is third, and Battistini is fourth.)
"I just finished listening to La Boheme from 1938. I say "listening" because several people mentioned that I said "watching" in the post where I was trying to decide on a version. I am totally blind, so it's all listening for me, whether there is a video or not. But I'm accustomed to saying "watch" when referring to things that I find on Youtube, which is odd, as I usually download them as mp3s, but anyway. This is the full opera.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5vRfD7uC…
This is the libretto that I used.
opera-arias.com/puccini/la-boh…
The first act basically told the story of the characters themselves. The second made me laugh in several places. Marcello and (Musetta were quite funny, in general. Poor Alcindoro) kept trying to calm Musetta and was ultimately stuck with the bill, but that was clever. The third, of course, was more serious, and forshaddowed things to come. I'm glad the fourth act had some comedy in it, because the ending was heart-breaking. Even though I knew what would happen, it was played so well that it brought me to tears, and I had to calm down before writing this review! Even Schipa himself couldn't do that, and I have the last scene with him in it! Gigli was an absolute master of this role, and while complaining about his sobs in other instances may be justified, he used them expertly in this performance, and truly brought the character of Rodolfo to life. What really surprised me is how much I liked Licia Albanese. I am usually not a fan of high-pitched female voices, but for some reason, I liked her, and the chemistry between her and Gigli's characters could be felt. I am really glad that I chose this version and would highly recommend it to anyone."
"Since I mentioned being caught between Gigli and Tagliavini in my other post, here is Che Gelida Manina by both of them.
Gigli
youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ba_MSygG…Tagliavini
(I am providing two versions because he sings them quite differently. The first is extremely sweet and the second less so, but it still sounds like it's before the voice change. I have always loved his version, but I don't know how he would handle the rest, particularly the really dramatic parts.)
1
youtube.com/watch?v=ux1QuTbQsc…2
youtube.com/watch?v=2DdPoNsTRD…Now for Schipa.
youtube.com/watch?v=gqcuAAA_2m…
And this is the final scene that I mentioned in my review. Naturally, it is played well, as Schipa always sang everything beautifully. But Gigli added his own elements to it.
youtube.com/watch?v=IMTQ7gGyuw… "
Since I mentioned it, here is my large list of operas.
dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/242…
#BeniaminoGigli #FerruccioTagliavini #Gigli #LaBoheme #opera #Puccini #review #Tagliavini #TitoSchipa #Schipa
-
(Note. The bit about watching/listening and Tagliavini refers to a Reddit post in which I asked about four different versions of La Boheme that I have in my large list of opera links. Also, Schipa is still my favourite singer of all time. But Gigli is second, Tagliavini is third, and Battistini is fourth.)
"I just finished listening to La Boheme from 1938. I say "listening" because several people mentioned that I said "watching" in the post where I was trying to decide on a version. I am totally blind, so it's all listening for me, whether there is a video or not. But I'm accustomed to saying "watch" when referring to things that I find on Youtube, which is odd, as I usually download them as mp3s, but anyway. This is the full opera.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5vRfD7uC…
This is the libretto that I used.
opera-arias.com/puccini/la-boh…
The first act basically told the story of the characters themselves. The second made me laugh in several places. Marcello and (Musetta were quite funny, in general. Poor Alcindoro) kept trying to calm Musetta and was ultimately stuck with the bill, but that was clever. The third, of course, was more serious, and forshaddowed things to come. I'm glad the fourth act had some comedy in it, because the ending was heart-breaking. Even though I knew what would happen, it was played so well that it brought me to tears, and I had to calm down before writing this review! Even Schipa himself couldn't do that, and I have the last scene with him in it! Gigli was an absolute master of this role, and while complaining about his sobs in other instances may be justified, he used them expertly in this performance, and truly brought the character of Rodolfo to life. What really surprised me is how much I liked Licia Albanese. I am usually not a fan of high-pitched female voices, but for some reason, I liked her, and the chemistry between her and Gigli's characters could be felt. I am really glad that I chose this version and would highly recommend it to anyone."
"Since I mentioned being caught between Gigli and Tagliavini in my other post, here is Che Gelida Manina by both of them.
Gigli
youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ba_MSygG…Tagliavini
(I am providing two versions because he sings them quite differently. The first is extremely sweet and the second less so, but it still sounds like it's before the voice change. I have always loved his version, but I don't know how he would handle the rest, particularly the really dramatic parts.)
1
youtube.com/watch?v=ux1QuTbQsc…2
youtube.com/watch?v=2DdPoNsTRD…Now for Schipa.
youtube.com/watch?v=gqcuAAA_2m…
And this is the final scene that I mentioned in my review. Naturally, it is played well, as Schipa always sang everything beautifully. But Gigli added his own elements to it.
youtube.com/watch?v=IMTQ7gGyuw… "
Since I mentioned it, here is my large list of operas.
dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/242…
#BeniaminoGigli #FerruccioTagliavini #Gigli #LaBoheme #opera #Puccini #review #Tagliavini #TitoSchipa #Schipa
-
Franghiz Ali-zadeh at Cello Biennale 2024: ‘Composing is the unfolding of amorphous chunks of energy’
The Amsterdam Cello Biennale celebrates its second lustrum in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ from 31 October through 10 November 2024 with lots of premieres. Among them the Cello Concerto SÖVQ that the Azerbaijani composer Franghiz-Ali-zadeh composed for Amsterdam Sinfonietta. This will be premiered with the renowned cellist Kian Soltani. As in most of her music Ali-zadeh connects traditional music from her homeland with Western compositional techniques.
Franghiz Ali-zadeh (c) By Natella.MI first heard music by Franghiz Ali-zadeh (Baku, 1947) in 1997. A year before, I had finished my musicology studies at the University of Amsterdam and had started working as a programmer for the Dutch classical radio station NPO Klassiek. For both my teachers in Amsterdam and my colleagues in Hilversum a composer was obviously a dead, white male. A music friend took my ongoing complaints about this to heart and bought me the CD Crossings by La Strimpellata Bern, entirely dedicated to Ali-zadeh.
Melodic richness
I was at once captivated by the melodic richness, delicate colour palette, spaciousness and meditative atmosphere of the five pieces on this album. I was particularly impressed by how organically Ali-zadeh interweaves Western compositional techniques with traditional Azerbaijani mugham, a system of modes in which ancient, orally transmitted scales and melodic fragments express a particular mood on which the performer improvises. As soon as I saw even the slightest opportunity, I seized my chance to play this enchanting music to the listeners of NPO Klassiek.
Twenty years later, I met Ali-zadeh in person, when I interviewed her in a pre concert talk on her brand new Nassimi Passion, which she had composed for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. With infectious enthusiasm, she recounted the creation of this large-scale composition for baritone, choir and orchestra, in which she once again realised a synthesis between East and West. While her Passion does tell a story of suffering, this is not inspired by the life of Christ, but that of Azerbaijani poet, Sufi and martyr Nasimi Imadeddin, who was gruesomely murdered in 1417. Among other texts, she used his mystical poetry for the libretto.
Ear-catching lyricism, rousing percussion
Musically, Ali-zadeh hooks into the Azerbaijani Mersiye tradition of lamentations alternately sung by a solo voice and a choir. With unprecedented flexibility, she mixes the gliding string tones so characteristic of Eastern music with a chorale by Bach. Ear-catching lyricism alternates with passages in which the orchestra growls and rants with overwhelming bellowing and rousing percussion.
The work was premiered on 7 April 2017 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Choir and baritone Evez Abdulla, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. The live recording of this impressive composition appeared a year later on the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s own label Horizon. Although she composed works for several Dutch ensembles, Franghiz Ali-zadeh is not yet a household name in the Netherlands.
Baku
She was born in 1947 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, which was still part of the Soviet Union at the time. ‘The city lies on the coast of the Caspian Sea,’ Ali-zadeh says with a smug smile. Nice tidbit: in 1969 one of its central districts was named after Nasimi, to whom she would dedicate her Passion half a century later. Ali-zadeh grew up in a well-to-do, though not particularly musical milieu. ‘My father was an engineer in the oil industry’, she recalls, ‘but in his spare time he liked to play the tar.’ This long-necked lute with eleven strings is widely used in Central Asia, especially in Persian and Caucasian music.
Franghiz Ali-zadeh & Thea Derks,
Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 7 April 2017When she was five, the family purchased a piano and from 1954 to 1965 she attended the youth department of the State Conservatoire in Baku. ‘Since we belonged to the Soviet Union, we mainly studied music by composers such as Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Sviridov and Shchedrin,’ she says. ‘But we also immersed ourselves in works from Bach to Mahler, and in addition we listened to the rich Azerbaijani tradition of classical and folk music.’
She finds it hard to say who her favourite composers were then and now: ‘My preferences are constantly changing, it depends on my mood, my age, events in my life. But there are two who will always admire: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Uzeyir Hajibeyov (1885-1948).’ Thus Ali-zadeh nicely encapsulates the two worlds in which her own music moves: Hajibeyov composed the Azerbaijani national hymn and wrote the first oriental opera, Layla and Majnun, in 1908.
Improvising and composing
Like many children, the young Franghiz soon struck up improvising and composing on her instrument: ‘When I was seven, I wrote a few preludes and a children’s song, whereupon my teachers advised my parents to enrol me for composition alongside piano lessons.’ This appealed to her so much that around the age of nine she decided to become a composer.
This by no means entailed giving up the piano, she made a brilliant career as a pianist and still gives concerts. There’s the proud smile again: ‘I have played many Azerbaijani premieres, by composers such as John Cage, George Crumb, Olivier Messiaen, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidoelina and Edison Denisov, as well as members of the Second Viennese School, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.’ Because of her efforts on behalf of Schoenberg’s work, she was appointed a member of the Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles in 1988.
Her composition teacher at the Baku conservatoire was the renowned Kara Karayev (1918-1982), whose music is not entirely unknow in the Netherlands. After completing her studies in 1972, she became his assistant and later started teaching there herself. In 1980, she won the annual prize of the Azerbaijani Composers’ Union and nine years later she obtained her doctoral degree with the thesis Orchestration in Works by Azerbaijani Composers. In 1992, the Soviet Union having now disintegrated, she moved to Turkey. This gave her international exposure a strong boost.
International fame
In 1999, she was the first female composer-in-residence at the Internationale Musikfestwochen Luzern (now Lucerne Festival). That same year, a DAAD Stipend allowed her to live and work in Berlin for a year. She decides to settle there and today she divides her time between the German capital and Baku.
In 2000, Ensemble Continuum places her work at the centre of a concert in New York, and that same year she composes Dervish for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. But her real breakthrough came in 2002, she says: ‘That was when Yo-Yo Ma and the pianist Joel Fan recorded my piece Habil-Sayagi for cello and prepared piano on CD.’ And from 2005 onwards, the Kronos Quartet developed into one of her most ardent advocates.
Ivan Monighetti
Incidentally, she had composed Habil-Sayagi in 1979 not for Yo-Yo Ma, but for the Russian cellist Ivan Monighetti. That tasted like more and in 2002 she also wrote her first Cello Concerto, Mersiye, for Monighetti and the famed Gulbenkian Orchestra. It was premiered in Lisbon and is named after the same Azerbaijani tradition of lamentations that inspired her for the Nassimi Passion.
The trigger was the devastating attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 11 September 2001: ‘It is a kind of confessional monologue of the cello, in which the feeling of mourning over the tragic loss of aesthetic values and ideals prevails. Never before had the world been so vulnerable. The cello part interprets the human voice, alternating between recitative and cantilena.’ The piano shades the argument with forlorn chords and unsettling tinkling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4BGIoHtY2Q&ab_channel=QuinoneBob
Twenty-two years later, she writes her second Cello Concerto, SÖVQ, again for Monighetti. The latter was to present it to the public with Amsterdam Sinfonietta at the Cello Biennale on 6 November 2024, but had to cancel the premiere due to personal circumstances. However, his star pupil Kian Soltani was able to take over the concert effortlessly; he was programmed as one of the main guests in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ anyway.
Ali-zadeh does not seem too bothered by this last-minute change. ‘Kian Soltani is one of the best cellists of our time,’ she says. ‘Moreover, he is not unfamiliar with my music: in 2012, together with Monighetti and others, he put my piece Metamorphoses for eight cellos on CD, and in the 2016 Cello Biennale he already performed Habil-Sayagi.’
She cherishes her collaboration with Monighetti, she hastens to add: ‘I have enjoyed working with Ivan since 1979 and have written several pieces for him. I consider the Mersiye Cello Concerto an absolute milestone and hope that the collaboration with Kian will be just as fruitful.’
Love for the cello
When artistic director Stephan Heber of Amsterdam Sinfonietta commissioned her to write a concerto for cello and string orchestra to be premiered in the Cello Biennale, she was delighted: ‘I love the cello immensely and immediately set to work.’ Asked whether it is not tough to write a concerto for solo cello and string orchestra, she answers pragmatically: ‘Of course it is a difficult task, but I see it as a challenge: nothing is impossible!’
Yet in the score, we encounter percussion instruments such as vibraphone, glockenspiel, triangle, drums and chimes, which definitely don’t belong to Amsterdam Sinfonietta’s regular lineup. Why did she decide to include them and what is their function? ‘This was an idea of Ivan Monighetti’s,’ she replies. ‘It gives me the chance to expand my colour palette and make the sound of my concerto richer and more varied.’ How did Heber respond to this idea? ‘Stephan agreed, on condition that only one percussionist can play all the instruments, and he found Dominique Vleeshouwers ready to perform all the parts.’
From the beginning, she worked closely together with Monighetti on her concerto: ‘We were in continuous contact. Especially about technical aspects, because playing techniques for the cello are constantly being renewed and enriched. By the way, it was also his idea to insert a cadenza before the second movement.’
Although she again draws on the Azerbaijani mugham tradition in SÖVQ, this second Cello Concerto is completely different from the first, she stresses: ‘Instead of a tragic atmosphere and mournful images, this has a much more optimistic tone, with nostalgic feelings and a desire to explore new horizons.’
Personal memories and new goals
This is already evident in the title, which is by no means unequivocal. Ali-zadeh: ‘The Azerbaijani word sövq is polysemantic and harbours many meanings and values, including impulse, inspiration, passion, dedication. I chose it after I finished my piece because, to my mind, it captures the essence of its two contrasting parts.’
The first movement is called ‘Dreams’, the second ‘Fighting’. The first indeed has a dreamlike atmosphere, with a very open, transparent fabric and a remarkably long intro by the orchestra. When the solo cello finally enters, it is accompanied only by the soft tinkling of a triangle and tremoli of the first violins.
As the cello gradually starts playing more virtuoso and faster, the other strings very slowly rejoin the argument, with descending and ascending glissandi and delicate tremoli against stray motifs on glass chimes and vibraphone. ‘In this movement, I reflect on personal memories and feelings, unfulfilled desires, images from nature, encounters with great musicians,’ Ali-zadeh explains.
‘Fighting’ opens next with a cadenza of the solo cello and a tambourine, the cello playing double stops and triplets in a slow tempo, marked ‘maestoso e pesante’. This time it takes a long time for the orchestra to join in. Ali-zadeh: ‘For me, the cadenza is a concentration of strength and feeling, in preparation for the battle to come.’
This manifests itself in decisive sixteenths rhythms of the orchestra versus fiery parts of the soloist, tumbling through all registers. Notable is the ‘military drum’ that figures only in this movement, where it appears about halfway through and is only heard for a few bars. Why? ‘I wanted to create an alarming atmosphere. This movement expresses the desire and determination to overcome obstacles in life and brace yourself to achieve new goals.’
Amorphous chunks of energy
The question as to how her compositions come into being leads to a slightly desperate sigh: ‘It is a mysterious process, which I never seem to fully master. Interesting thoughts come up at the most unexpected moments – or don’t come at all for a long time when you sit down to work. Sometimes I improvise at the piano, sometimes I hum something, sometimes I hear a sound or intonation that pleases me in the oddest places, for instance a child crying in the street. Or I get inspired by a plane in the sky, seeing clouds or mountains and so on. Composing is the gradual unfolding of amorphous chunks of energy. The process is totally unpredictable!’
This may be so, one constant in her output is the love for her homeland: ‘SÖVQ is dedicated to Azerbaijan.’
In the concert on 6 November Amsterdam Sinfonietta will also perform Reqs, which Ali-zadeh composed for the Kronos Quartet.
Vleeshouwers withdrew before the premiere and Yifan Du stepped in at short notice, doing an excellent job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iVniKdkg5U&ab_channel=ScoreFollower
This article first appeared in Dutch in the Nov-Dec issue of De Nieuwe Muze
#AmsterdamSinfonietta #CelloBiënnale #FranghizAliZadeh #IvanMonighetti #KianSoltani #NassimiPassion #SÖVQ
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Oh my, lolz. With specificity, I recommend you checkout the archives in the Fediverse City Matrix community where so many Fediverse lead devs share, and then there's dozens of news articles and blog posts I've covered over the years with respect to #Fediverse, #ActivityPub, and #FOSS daemons in general.
But real quick, I can offer a couple of nuggets for you to take a look at and evaluate for yourself...
Android:
- Relatica is one of the finest clients for Friendica, not to take my recommendation lightly because I rarely recommend any client specifically designed for a single platform.
- Fedilab is IMO, perhaps the best, supporting your deprecated mastoSilo, #PeerTube, #Pixelfed, #Pleroma, and most other Fediverse platforms and their families of forks.If the devil is in the details, then translation leveraging via #LibreTranslate, lightning fast cross boosting/liking/bookmarking/scheduling, quote posting, dynamic character count limits per account/server, multiple input methods and just way too much to list.
A few years back when many apps were getting booted from the playstore, the trust of their userbases eroding for their crippleware practices when several of them, and most notably tusky, hard coded blocked lists of Fediverse servers that their users could not log onto. This violated truth in advertising laws and it's water under the bridge now but the stain remains, and #Fedilab was almost singularly the app that refused to violate the spirit of #FOSS or alienate users. Get it at F-Droid.
Web:
- Without a doubt the best experience is almost universally the native web UI. Some exceptions do exist, and have even spawned entire Fediverse server projects. This is unfortunately why I don't use the excellent platform #GoToSocial very often, although I like it, and I no longer use Takahē much nowadays either since they dropped their excellent web UI.
- Phanpy is a fav of many #Mitra users, although I can't use it because it breaks webfinger addresses through what @cheeaun calls "short usernames", often rendering identification extremely problematic on a regular basis. I prefer the good looking native web UI for Mitra anyway, mitra-web, because Mitra is a privacy conscious publishing platform that does indeed natively support #Monero based subscriptions for anyone in the Fediverse (think substack or medium but respecting privacy - even anonymity) - I believe Ethereum support has already been completely dropped. Maybe you can still login that way. There's been quite a few specialized projects spawned from Mitra, perhaps not in small part due to it's stubborn commitment to only open standards, like FEP-ef61, along with #Streams - the bleeding edge in Fediverse technology, actively developed by the same dev that created #Friendica, arguably the oldest extant Fediverse platform 🙂
- I would be remis in my list if I didn't include Pinafore, once considered the most cross-server compliant client, but like anything built with frameworks that are replaced wholesale, the dev felt it just wasn't worth it to go through and completely modernize the entire base (there's a blog post about why).... Well, there's a lot of pretty little third rate semi-crappy clients nowadays, and a few top notch ones too. I'm only giving honorable mention to a few that I recommend you familiarize yourself with for grounding :)I really like #SocialHome too, another full on Fediverse publishing platform, but the web UI is really the way to go.
On the publishing platforms in the Fediverse, the real beauty Stones when articles are boosted to other platforms that also support #Markdown, #LaTex, #MFM, etc. And of course they can also do whatever that shitty one trick pony 'mastopub' can, literally a cheap Twitter clone that strives to itself be the next deprecated monolithic silo (just check the list of Twitter cofounders on the board).
Desktop:
I'm only going to mention Sengi real quick here, there's a few, but here's a bit of advice from someone who's been administering #Linux servers since 1992 and #UNIX in general since the 80's - avoid snap and flatpaks and appimage unless you're rolling your own or there's just no choice for your skill level.
Depending upon your particular distro, look for usually a
.debor a.rpmpackage (you can thank me later, as you'll get the full featured experience as the dev intended that's the native package for your Linux distro).Okay I kinda like Whalebird too, it's what I use for GoToSocial and I like it for #Misskey flavors too, including #Iceshrimp and #CherryPick🍒 is a fav in that family too.
I've tested very little of anything in Windows however, and completely, categorically dismiss anything Apple 🍏 that's Post-Woz 😜
If you have alterations related to historical aspects of any of these platforms or apps that long predate the existence of masto, feel free to hit me up and I'll see if I can't point you towards some good resources.
I hope that helps! Live long and prosper 🖖
#tallship #nomadic_identity #Fediverse_clients #Takahe
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Tonight, I decided to do a double bill, since both of the operas in question were short, and they are often paired together. I chose Pagliacci and Cavalleria rusticana. The text on this site is extremely clean i.e. free of ocr errors which plague almost everything I read in general, since I prefer old literature, much of it obscure. I was, therefore, very pleased to find both libretti here.
Pagliacci
Libretto
http://www.murashev.com/opera/Pagliacci_libretto_English
Recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZw62w8fry8
This is one of the cleverest operas I've ever read, in the sense of having a play with in a play. In that regard, it reminds me of A Midsummer night's Dream, but obviously without the lightness and humour. It was actually easy to see things from both the perspective of the audience, who had no idea what was going on until the end, and the actual actors who were well aware and were trying either to escalate the situation or stop it and return to the play. The sad thing, of course, is that there really are sick people out there who would harm and even kill others over cheating. This is definitely realism in a bad sense. But the way that it was written was brilliant.
I have a later version of this, from 1934, with Gigli, but I chose this one because of its historical significance. It was the first recording of this opera, and the first (official) full recording of any opera. Plus, Ruggero Leoncavallo was present, so we can be sure this is how he wanted it to be sung. The first thing I noticed when listening to this was the sound! I have heard many recordings from this time, though this is my first full opera from then. The sound is wonderful, and somehow, they even managed to create a little bass, so that it doesn't sound like everyone is singing into a tin can! I would love to know how they did this! Antonio Paoli (Canio) embodied the sad clown, able to deliver lines that could make a listener feel sorry for him, but his voice was also strong enough to show his anger and eventual break with sanity as well. I haven't heard it called that, but I can't imagine it as anything else. The play was simply too close to his real life and he couldn't separate the two. Plus, he was already furious before going on the stage. Giuseppina Huguet (Nedda) had an interesting feature in her voice. Sometimes, her notes would flow well, but sometimes, they seemed to jump from low to high without smoothness, if that makes sense. But I was impressed with how high she sang. That said, everyone here sang well, to the point that I now have new people to research!
Cavalleria rusticana
Libretto
https://www.murashev.com/opera/Cavalleria_rusticana_libretto_English_Italian
Recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWCnVxWTS_4
Unlike the previous work, this one has both English and Italian on the page. However, I was extremely pleased to note that they divided it thoughtfully between the two languages, so I was able to quickly copy and paste the English into another document, so that I could read it without interruption. I can see why this is often paired with Pagliacci. Not only is it also short, but the themes of adultery and murder are strong here as well. As before, both victims are guilty of cheating, though in this case, it's a bit more complicated. Turiddu left Lola to join the army, and she married Alfio while he was gone. Instead of being a mature adult and accepting it, he seduced the innocent Santuzza, then lied to her about Lola and then dropped her as if she were nothing when he got what he wanted. Of course, if he hadn't done these things, we wouldn't have an opera! It took me a moment to understand why Santuzza felt she couldn't enter Lucia's house, the church, etc. Then, I remembered about the rule of Catholics (and probably other Christians) not having sex prior to marriage. The ironic thing is that between her, Alfio, Turridu, and Lola, she was the only truly innocent one! Some might say that she was partly responsible for what Alfio did because she told him about Lola's infidelity, but I don't. She was being honest. He, of his own volition, killed Turiddu. I was actually surprised that he didn't fully lose his mind like Canio, but in this case, it appears it was a duel and he was only truly angry with Turiddu and kept to that code. Turiddu seems to have shown some remorse in the end, asking his mother to take care of Santuzza if he didn't return.
With regard to the audio, the first thing I noticed was what I think anyone would when listening to this version, and it's truly magical. It's a speech by Pietro Mascagni himself, who was not only the composer but also conducted the work on this occasion! The sound quality, naturally, was excellent. Unlike the previous work, I was familiar with several of the singers, except Lina Bruna-Rasa (Santuzza), and Maria Marcucci (lola). The singing itself was excellent. ButI felt as if this opera dragged on. I'm not sure if it was the music or the lack of many good arias (I only really liked two), or both. A lot of it was shouting.
I couldn't help but notice a few similarities between these two works. Both, involve a dultery and men who take things too far by committing murder because of it. Another thing that immediately came to mind was that prior to the murders, both operas involved church. In the one, it seemed to be an ordinary day (probably Sunday) and in the other, it was Easter. I couldn't help but wonder if this was just to set the scene of village life, or if there was more to it, perhaps suggesting thehypocracy of those who would say they are Christian and then cheat and murder people. Maybe, it's just the atheist in me adding that dimension, though. Another thought, of a far more pleasant kind, was how these two composers must have felt, having their own works recorded in front of them and seeing them become so famous. As for me, I definitely prefer earlier works, both musically and in subject, though between the two, I enjoyed Pagliacci more and would gladly listen to the later version, in order to compare the two. Still, Gigli made Rusticana worth it because he was in his element, and sounded wonderful!
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For tonight's opera, instead of my usual light fare, I chose something tragic. I had been curious about it for quite some time, and it also fits neatly into my list of Schipa's operas, which I shall soon finish at this rate. But it was well worth it.
Libretto
https://www.opera-arias.com/verdi/rigoletto/libretto/english/
Recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsxxPDbqQkY&list=OLAK5uy_kdJVBOkQal084JqOED2nAmAR8suE1h69I
There does seem to be a curse in this opera, and it's not the one on Rigoletto! First, I couldn't find the version with Tagliavini. Then, a friend kindly gave the link to me, and I was happy, because I found a version of the libretto at Hathi Trust. I thought it would be wonderful, like Linda di Chamounix, in which all I had to do was read every other page for the English. Instead, this one had English and Italian mixed in the same lines, so that there was no way for me to make sense of it with my screen reader. I found another at the Internet Archive, but the txt version had so many errors that even I, being accustomed to making sense of such things after a lifetime of having to do so, found it difficult to read! So I was forced to use a modern version at a site that I usually avoid for that very reason. Fortunately, it wasn't bad, and I was able to read the story. And I thought the mix-up with I Due Figaro was bad!
At any rate, I make it a point not to judge operas as I would real life, nor do I add current ideas to them. But even by the standards of that time, it seems that Rigoletto was controlling and strange, not telling his own daughter his name or that of her mother and basically imprisoning her in the house, only allowing her to go to church. It's no wonder, then, that she fell in love with the Duke, who was probably the only other man she knew and was initially kind to her. Of course, all of it serves as a wonderful means of creating a great plot, with her innocence and love being a large part of it. This reminds me of a Greek or Shakespearian tragedy, with anger, vengence, and mistaken identity all playing a role in the eventual outcome. For one of the very few times in my life after finishing a story, I found myself thinking of the effects of the ending. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen once the Duke found out that Gilda not only died but sacrificed her life for him. He certainly had his flaws, but he was not represented as truly violent or evil.
Since this was a playlist, after downloading it, I slightly modified the track names by adding numbers, i.e. 001 to 030, then played them using Media Player Legacy, which played them all in the correct order, without my having to do anything. As is to be expected from RAI, the sound quality of this is truly excellent. If this were classical music and not an opera, I would have not liked all the crashes and loud music, but here, of course, they make complete sense and add to the ambiance and story itself. I knew all of the main singers, so I'm not surprised at all by the excellent performances, but it was still a pleasure to hear the characters brought to life in this way. Aside from the wonderful arias, several of which I already knew, I loved the quartet near the end. I was also impressed by the sound effect of the storm. The ending, of course, was done extremely well, both musically and in acting. While I will try earlier versions out of curiosity, I am very glad that I chose this one and I highly recommend it.
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Holland Festival brengt verzengende Salome #HF17
Herodes heeft zijn kreet ‘Dood deze vrouw!’ nog niet geslaakt of zijn soldaten heffen Salome ruw op hun schouders en smijten haar in de hel. – De in een ruïne veranderde sjieke salon die via een doorkijkluik bijna de gehele opera zichtbaar was. Salome’s in bloed gedrenkte jurk lijkt even op te vlammen, maar dan valt – pats! – het doek. Met dit krachtige beeld besluit regisseur Ivo van Hove een meeslepende enscenering van de opera van Richard Strauss.
Parel in rijk getooide kroon
Deze productie van Salome is een nieuwe parel in de toch al rijk getooide kroon van De Nationale Opera. Ivo van Hove vertelt het verhaal namelijk zonder ons krampachtig een eigen ‘visie’ op te dringen. Het sobere, maar vindingrijke toneelbeeld van zijn vaste vormgever Jan Versweyveld vormt een treffend contrapunt met de hyperemotionele lading van zowel libretto als muziek. Een simpele maan verbeeldt de heftige gemoedstoestanden van de moreel losgeslagen personages op het toneel.
Omineus wassend overschaduwt zij de in een zwart achterdoek uitgespaarde salon met canapés en palmen. Traag van links naar rechts glijdend kleurt zij rood als Salome Jochanaän tracht te verleiden, om dan weer te verbleken.
Na Salome’s fatale sluierdans wordt de habitat van Herodes en Herodias zelfs geheel aan ons oog onttrokken door een frontaal op ons afstormende maansverduistering. Het beklemmende beeld roept associaties op met de apocalyptische, alles verwoestende planeet uit de film Melancholia van Lars von Trier.
Niemand is onschuldig
Niemand is onschuldig. De jonge Salome (Malin Byström) beklaagt zich over de wellustige blikken van haar stiefvader Herodes (Lance Ryan), maar belaagt zelf Jochanaän (Evgeny Nikitin). Herodes geilt op zijn stiefdochter, maar wil het leven van Jochanaän sparen als zij om diens hoofd vraagt. – Niet uit respect voor de profeet, maar uit angst voor het onheil dat zijn executie teweeg zal brengen. Zijn vrouw Herodias hitst hem daarentegen op, uit welbegrepen eigenbelang: ze kan Jochanaäns aantijgingen niet langer verdragen.
Het schitterende toneelbeeld vindt zijn gelijke in de voorbeeldige uitvoering. Daniele Gatti voert het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest trefzeker door de kolkende partituur. Nu eens subtiel en verleidelijk (Salome als nog onschuldige tiener), dan weer onderhuids dreigend (onheilsboodschappen Jochanaän), woest en oorverdovend kakofonisch (Salome eist diens hoofd) of met ingehouden suspense (in afwachting van de executie).
Ruim baan voor zangers
Gatti geeft de zangers alle ruimte om hun vaak bijna atonale melodieën gestalte te geven. Dat zij desondanks soms overstemd worden, ligt niet aan hem maar aan Richard Strauss. In zijn streven alle woekerende emoties muzikaal te verklanken, schiet de componist soms een beetje door. Maar over het algemeen is zijn Wagneriaanse partituur een lust voor het oor.
Mede dankzij de vele leidmotieven. Neem alleen al de wufte, ‘oosterse’ melodie die Salome introduceert, of de donkere celli en hoorns die Jochanaän kenmerken. Wonderschoon ook zijn de klanknabootsingen. Bijvoorbeeld de windvlaag die door het orkest ‘waait’ als Herodes ‘machtige vleugels’ meent te horen. Gatti en zijn musici maken elke nuance hoorbaar.
Opgestuwd door het dienstbare orkest komen ook de zangers tot grootse prestaties. Voorop de Zweedse sopraan Malin Byström, die excelleert als Salome. Ondanks haar ranke gestalte en meisjesachtige uitstraling heeft zij een dijk van een stem. Moeiteloos en loepzuiver zingt zij haar zware partij, die van laag naar hoog schiet in ongemakkelijke toonafstanden.
Ondertussen weet zij feilloos het narcistische, recalcitrante en egoïstische karakter van haar puberpersonage te treffen. Weliswaar is haar sensuele sluierdans niet altijd even soepel, maar bij vlagen heeft zij de allure van een Barbara Hannigan. Zeker wanneer zij haar perverse lusten botviert op het bebloede lijk van Jochanaän.
Poetin lookalike
De Canadese tenor Lance Ryan is als acteur onovertroffen. Hij is een ware Poetin lookalike, die gladjes zijn lustgevoelens voor Salome bagatelliseert, bruut zijn vrouw Herodias afbekt en verstoord over het lijk van Narraboth struikelt. ‘Ik heb geen opdracht gegeven hem te doden, weg ermee!’ Jammer dat zijn fraaie tenor iets te weinig kracht heeft om weerstand te bieden aan het orkestgeweld.
De Duitse mezzosopraan Doris Soffel heeft een sterkere, maar ietwat schelle stem en schiet qua inleving enigszins te kort. Als een verloren Tante Sidonia doolt ze over het podium, zich schijnbaar afvragend wat ze daar eigenlijk doet. De Rus Evgeny Nikitin heeft weliswaar een sonore bariton, maar weet zijn personage evenmin vlees op de botten te geven. À propos vlees: met zijn getatoeëerde lijf en grijze staartje ziet hij eruit als Henk Schiffmacher. Dat levert potsierlijke momenten op als Salome zijn lelieblanke lijf en ravenzwarte haar bezingt.
De kleinere rollen zijn goed bezet. Peter Sonn is een overtuigende Narraboth, Hanna Hipp zijn dito page. De vijf joden (Dietmar Kerschbaum, Marcel Reijans, Mark Omvlee, Marcel Beekman en Alexander Vasiliev) zorgen voor een komische noot met hun gekibbel over geloofszaken.
Sowieso valt er in deze in wezen loodzware opera toch vaker wat te lachen. De inventieve enscenering en personenregie van Ivo van Hove en zijn team kunnen niet genoeg geprezen worden. Gaat dat zien, gaat dat horen!
Gehoord: dinsdag 12 juni. Salome is nog te zien t/m 5 juli.
#DanieleGatti #DeNationaleOpera #EvgenyNikitin #HollandFestival #IvoVanHove #KonininklijkConcertgebouworkest #MalinByström #RichardStrauss #Salome
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Operadagen Rotterdam: drie opera’s die je niet wilt missen
Vrijdag 12 mei begint de twaalfde editie van Operadagen Rotterdam. Het tiendaagse festival staat onder de titel Lost & Found in het teken van de actuele vluchtelingenproblematiek. Ik selecteerde drie opera’s van Calliope Tsoupaki, Annelies van Parys en Claron McFadden, sterke vrouwen die hierop reflecteren en wier werk het verdient gehoord (en gezien) te worden.
Vluchtelingenproblematiek
De vrees voor het onbekende is zo oud als de mens – verworvenheden worden gekoesterd, vreemdelingen met argusogen bezien. In hun zoektocht naar een ‘nieuw thuis’ verlaten velen hun vertrouwde wereld en steken letterlijke en symbolische grenzen over om elders een nieuw – en hopelijk beter – bestaan op te bouwen.
Durven we ons te begeven op onontdekt terrein? Komen we aan op de plaats van bestemming of raken we juist verdwaald? Zonderen we ons af van de rest van de wereld, of herkennen we onszelf terug in de vreemde ander? Dat zijn de vragen die de componisten Tsoupaki en Van Parys en de sopraan Claron McFadden stellen. Alle drie kozen een bijzondere invalshoek.
Calliope Tsoupaki: Fortress Europe
De oudere dame Europa wil koste wat kost verhinderen dat ook maar één asielzoeker haar comfortabele wereldje binnendringt. – Hoewel ze als jonge vrouw op de rug van oppergod Zeus vanuit Syrië naar Europa kwam, waar ze als vreemdeling een nieuw bestaan moest opbouwen. Haar zoon is een politicus die de poort tot Europa stevig gesloten houdt. Oog in oog met de bootvluchteling Amar gaat hij echter twijfelen.
Tsoupaki componeerde er hartverscheurend mooie muziek bij, met kruidige, Arabisch getinte koorpassages en klaaglijke melodieën van een hobo. Zij maakt de gevoelens van weemoed om het verlies van huis en haard indringend invoelbaar. Jammer van het gortdroge en eenduidige libretto, dat niets aan onze verbeelding overlaat. Maar dankzij de wonderschone muziek en de treffende enscenering is Fortress Europe toch een voorstelling om een traantje bij weg te pinken.
Annelies van Parys: Het Kanaal
In Het Kanaal van de Vlaamse Annelies van Parys wil een vluchteling het Kanaal overzwemmen, een nieuwe toekomst tegemoet. Op de krijtrotsen aan de overkant stuit hij op een transseksuele vrouw die haar leven wil beëindigen. Tussen de twee ontstaat een verrassende dialoog: hun lot blijkt sterker verbonden dan gedacht.
Hun gesproken conversatie vindt zijn spiegel in de muziek van Annelies van Parys. Zij zette liederen op een recent teruggevonden theatertekst van William Shakespeare. Die beschrijft hoe een sheriff wil verhinderen dat zijn burgers een groep vluchtelingen lynchen. Een zangeres plaatst als ‘commentator’ de monologen in een breder, universeler kader. Zij wordt afwisselend begeleid door gitaar of luit, tokkelinstrumenten die populair waren in Shakespeare’s tijd.
Claron McFadden: Nachtschade: aubergine
Uitgesproken origineel is de insteek van de Amerikaans-Nederlandse sopraan Claron McFadden. In Nachtschade: aubergine gaat zij op zoek naar de gemeenschappelijke wortels van onze diverse culturen. Hiertoe volgt zij de route die de populaire paarse groente aflegde vanuit het Midden-Oosten naar onze keukentafel.
Zij bezocht vijf landen rond de Middellandse Zee. Samen met de lokale bevolking maakte ze een plaatselijk auberginegerecht en studeerde ze een traditioneel lied in. McFadden presenteert haar ervaringen in de vorm van een theatraal en culinair concert. Zo maakt zij ons verlangen naar identiteit in een steeds veranderende wereld invoelbaar.
Achter de musici worden filmbeelden geprojecteerd van Lisa Tahon, die McFadden volgde op haar reis. Gaandeweg wordt duidelijk dat van één oorsprong geen sprake is, slechts van een oneindig aantal vertakkingen en knooppunten. We blijken bovendien meer met elkaar gemeen te hebben dan we denken.
Bij het concert worden auberginehapjes geserveerd. – Een voorstelling om van te watertanden
Operadagen Rotterdam, van 12 t/m 21 mei
#AnneliesVanParys #CalliopeTsoupaki #ClaronMcFadden #FortressEurope #HetKanaal #NachtschadeAubergine #OperadagenRotterdam
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dip 33: le edizioni di negativo, l’antilibro di francesco pirella, il castello spinola di campi ligure (1999)
ospite degli amici Laura Parodi e Raffaello Bisso, io e la mia futura moglie andammo al Castello Spinola (Campo Ligure), nell’inverno 1999 (novembre? dicembre?) per il progetto di mostra di antilibri/antieditori: la Fabbrica dell’antilibro, dove tra le altre cose era in funzione – prodigio… – una macchina maravigliosa che permetteva di autopubblicarsi un tomo in velocità.
spronato anche dalle infinite autoproduzioni (e dalla strepitosa rivista “Ossetia – L’eco del popolo oppresso”) di Ugo Pierri pittore in Trieste, avevo qualche tempo prima ideato – e lì a Spinola esponevo in vendita – le mie EdN, Edizioni di Negativo, entità anarchica votata alla pubblicazione di racconti, traduzioni, prose brevissime, poesie e materiali vari. (dalla stampante di casa mia cioè uscivano fogli A4 variamente organizzati & piegati nell’allestimento fino al formato A6; in tirature estremamente parche).
in fondo la nascita di “bina” nel 2003 si deve anche a quell’esperienza.
sull’idea di antilibro non è affatto male la pagina di Wikipedia, a questo link: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilibro, delibabile in pdf pure qui.
(lo spillato ciclostiloso Manifesto di Pirella si può invece visualizzare qui, da un’immagine trafugata da ebay).delle EdN c’è una traccia che ritrovo nella newsletter “ROL – Rubicondor On Line”, di Silvia Tessitore e Piero Cademartori, ossia dell’editrice Zona, :
LOANO (Sv) – Circolo ”Italo Calvino” (Via Roma,
Pal. Kursaal) – dal 17.11 all’8/12 ore 21.30 –
LO SCRITTORE DIMEZZATO, incontri poetici e letterari
a cura di Marino Giusti – Letture incrociate, libri a confronto
– 17.11: Silvia Tessitore, Piero Cademartori – 24.11: Raffaello
Bisso, Marino Giusti – 1.12: Leonardo Pesce, Andrea Burlando,
Michele Vaccari – 8.12: Marco Porsia, Fabrizio Battaglia,
Roberto Gambino – In coll. con Edizioni di Negativo,
Editrice Zona, Libreria Annexia (Genova), Rubicondor On Line –oppure, in rete, in un commento di M. Sannelli (addirittura), ad arredare una precisazione sulla fine degli anni Novanta e sulle autoproduzioni:
*
qualche altro materiale in tema di autoproduzione e Pirella:
un Frammento da una tesi di Francesca Depalma (Politecnico di Milano, 2011-12):
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intervista a Francesco Pirella, 31 ott. 2011:
https://www.metaprintart.info/cultura-grafica/350-intervista_a_francesco_pirella-2/e cfr. anche https://t.ly/cWUtm:
“La complessita’ e la frantumazione delle sorgenti di comunicazione, la tendenza ad acquisire gli oggetti prodotti da quelle sorgenti, riproducono condizioni ricettive di epoche passate, addirittura sembrano orientare processi di tipo piu’ artigianale… Questa edizione propone un progetto leggero e mirato, funzionale non soltanto alla creativita’ individuale, ma anche alla flessibilita’ gestionale (produrre quanto serve quando serve) pur mantenendo un collegamento genetico con il parallelepipedo gutenberghiano… suscettibile di dare vita ad autentici neoprolibri autoprodotti…”. L’idea dell’antilibro, e del manifesto del 1995 venne a Pirella quando, nel 1992, il suo magazzino fu inondato da un’alluvione. Lo spettacolo di quei libri grondanti gli indusse il convincimento della inutilita’ dell’editoria tradizionale. “La vecchia tipografia non esiste piu’, sostituita dalla composizione elettronica”, spiegava Pirella. “Il libro e’ travolto dal floppy di un computer, dal cd-Rom: e noi utilizziamo altre forme di duplicazione (xerografia, laser) insieme ai materiali della vita quotidiana, carta riciclata, plastiche, metalli”
(FP)
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“Il 5 novembre 1995 all’Acquasanta nel Comune di Mele c’è stata la presentazione del Manifesto dell’Antilibro sottoscritto da Gillo Dorfles, Mario Persico, Francesco Pirella e Edoardo Sanguineti. 1996 © Archivio Audiovisivi Città Metropolitana di Genova” http://www.cittametropolitana.genova.it
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il Libretto con le 17 poesie di Sanguineti, alla Fondazione Berardelli:
https://www.fondazioneberardelli.org/book.php?id=2079*
intervista a Edoardo Sanguineti:
“Intervista al poeta, scrittore e anima della cultura anticonformista Edoardo Sanguineti, in occasione della mostra ‘Il porto dei libri’ a Genova nel 1997 dove Sanguineti parla anche del lavoro di Francesco Pirella con il quale il 5 novembre del 1995 firma il ‘Manifesto dell’Antilibro’, progetto di ecologia culturale con Gillo Dorfles e Mario Persico, ad Acquasanta (Genova)”.
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la “Raccolta gutenberghiana Francesco Pirella”, in mostra presso l’ARMUS – Archivio Museo della Stampa: https://cultura.gov.it/luogo/archivio-museo-della-stampa
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informazioni sull’attività di Francesco Pirella nella Fondazione Mondadori:
https://www.fondazionemondadori.it/censimenti/venezieliguria/Schede/70015.htm#000000 #333399 #antieditoria #antilibro #ArchivioMuseoDellaStampa #ARMUS #CastelloSpinola #dip #dip33 #dip33 #EdizioniDiNegativo #EdN #EdoardoSanguineti #FabbricaDellAntilibro #FondazioneBerardelli #FondazioneMondadori #FrancescaDepalma #FrancescoPirella #GilloDorfles #LEcoDelPopoloOppresso #LaRaccoltaGutenberghianaFrancescoPirella_ #LauraParodi #MarioPersico #Ossetia #OssetiaLEcoDelPopoloOppresso #RaffaelloBisso #Sannelli #Spinola #UgoPierri
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Cecilie Ore: ‘I did not choose composition, composition chose me!
While studying piano in Paris, Cecilie Ore realised that she was more of a creator than a performer. She switched to composition and moved to Amsterdam to study with Ton de Leeuw. This autumn her H2O-Trilogy for string quartet will premiere, and her choral composition Speak Louder! will be recorded for CD.
‘I come from a family of scientists’, says Cecilie Ore (Oslo, 1954), ‘but my mother was very interested in music, opera and modern art. In addition to the importance of natural sciences, I was also imbued with the value of artistic expression. I discovered contemporary music on my own, however.’
Cecilie Ore (c) Ketil BornThere was no piano at home, but the instrument nevertheless exerted a great attraction on her: ‘Wherever I was, I would always find a piano. I really wanted to learn how to play, but it was not until I was eight years old that I got my first piano lessons.’
This proved to be decisive for her development: ‘By playing the piano, I learned to understand music on a deeper level and realised that while composing you must always bear in mind the importance of interpretation.’ She studied the piano with Liv Glaser at the Norwegian Academy of Music and continued her studies in Paris with Suzanne Roche. ‘That was my own idea, but Liv Glaser supported it wholeheartedly.’
Golden move
It was a bit of a culture shock: ‘As a teacher, Roche was the total opposite of Glaser. She was one of Vlado Perlemuter’s assistants and I remember her as being strict and very focused on technique. In any case, education in France was much more authoritarian than in Norway and, in my opinion, more conservative as well.’
Yet it turned out to be a golden move: ‘I learned a lot from Roche, who organised fantastic meetings and concerts in her home in Montmartre. During that period I realised that I was not really a stage personality. I did not feel comfortable in the limelight and discovered that my inner need was rather to be creative.’
‘In hindsight, a career as a concert pianist had never much appealed to me, I think I am more of a back-stage person. My piano playing led me to composing, and I’m very grateful for this! These days I hardly ever touch the instrument anymore, though; the compositional process takes place inside my head.’
Ore now also understands better why she was so keen on going to Paris after graduating: ‘It was largely subconscious, and only much later the penny dropped as to where this urge came from. Once I had written my first composition, there was no looking back; it felt like coming home at last. It is not as if at a certain moment I changed my mind. I did not choose composing, it chose me!’
Literature
Besides her studies in Paris, literature also gave her a firm push towards composition. In several interviews, Ore mentioned she needs literature in order to compose. Does this refer to specific writers or books? ‘No, it is more general. I have always been a reader, so it was only natural that my first compositions were triggered by literature and language. On the one hand, a text can evoke mental images and trigger extra-musical ideas.
On the other hand, music and literature have many aspects in common, such as timbre, rhythm, pitch and form. For me, working with text is like working with a sparring partner; it offers both resilience and ideas. Literature was a vehicle that helped me find my way into composing.’
Cecilie Ore: ‘Literature helped me find my way into composing. Working with text is like working with a sparring partner; it offers both resilience and ideas.’
In 1984 she wrote Calliope for solo soprano, after The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein. As in her later vocal music, Ore employs fragmented texts and countless repetitions, in a wide range of vocal variations. ‘This was still during my studies, when I was reading books about the functioning of our brains.’
‘I wanted to create a sound picture of how our mind freely generates associations, roaming around, forking in and out of new thoughts. Calliope was an attempt to create an inner polyphony of thoughts and a musical heterophony with only one voice: whispering, speaking, singing, shouting and otherwise. It is a piece that raises questions: For whom are we writing? Ourselves? Strangers? Or…?’
Ton de Leeuw
Ton de Leeuw (c) MuziekencyclopedieHeterophony, the repetition and variation of motifs in alternating sequences in different voices, often occurs in Early and Asian music. As an ethnomusicologist, Ton de Leeuw studied non-Western traditional music extensively, and he regularly used heterophony in his own work. Did De Leeuw perhaps spark off her love for this technique?
‘Certainly, that aspect of his teaching has been important to me. As a student, I had a period when I mainly listened to Indonesian, Chinese and Japanese ritual music, especially gagaku (Japanese court music, TD) and kecak (Balinese temple music, TD). It was a shock to hear how modern it sounded!’
There are more similarities with De Leeuw, who in connection with his own output often spoke of ‘music of being’, a concept he borrowed from Asian music. He contrasted this with Western developmental thinking and the tonality associated with it. In this ‘music of becoming’, a composition rushes from climax to climax, building up ever more tension that is finally resolved in the fundamental. This feels like a safe ‘homecoming’. Eastern music, on the other hand, is generally built from variations on similar motifs and rhythms. In essence, it is always the same, though it constantly changes colour, like a kaleidoscope. This gives the listener room for reflection, and to discern new patterns each time.
Time
However different in style, a feeling of timelessness also characterises Ore’s work, and she readily admits being interested in the phenomenon of time. Between 1988 and 1992, she dedicated the tetralogy Codex Temporum to it, and in 1999 she completed yet another four-part cycle, Tempora mutantur. Both have been released on CD.
‘Fascinated by Asian music, I looked for ways to connect the Eastern way of thinking with Western musical ideas’, says Ore. ‘I wanted to create an open landscape but at the same time music that has flux and direction. This idea underlies most of my work.’
Cecilie Ore: ‘Ton de Leeuw was a very open and tolerant teacher. He did not try to force his ideas on me, but let me find my own way.’
Being Norwegian, how did Ore end up studying with Ton de Leeuw? ‘Two important role models for me in Norway were the composers Lasse Thoresen and Olav Anton Thommessen. They had both studied at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, and advised me to study with Ton de Leeuw.’ As with her previous studies in Paris, this choice worked out well: ‘Ton de Leeuw was an attentive listener! His way of teaching was very open and tolerant. He did not try to force his ideas on me, but let me find my own way. This required a great deal of independence, which not all students found easy to cope with.’
Ore appreciated it, though: ‘Ton de Leeuw held up a mirror and forced you to look at your strengths and weaknesses. His approach was hard at times, but in the long run it was really valuable. He did not wish to create epigones, but instead focused on discovering the uniqueness in his students. Thanks to him I learned to develop my own expressiveness instead of imitating others.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Cm6bgN2fM&list=OLAK5uy_n2g4yt3B9ndNmtadgaFRQeGYrDECn4I1k&index=3
She never mentally asks him for advice, though: ‘The core of his teaching was to make his students independent, and inspire us to view current musical trends with a critical eye, in order to look beyond them. Exactly what true teaching is all about.’
Cycles
In perusing her list of works it strikes one that Ore seems to have a penchant for thematic, multi-movement works. In addition to the aforementioned cycles on the concept of time, she also devoted a three-part series to cloud formations under the overall title Cirrus. Coming autumn her H2O-Trilogy for string quartet will premiere.
‘Composing cycles is attractive’, explains Ore. ‘You can formulate ideas and reformulate them again and again, penetrating ever deeper into the musical material. In my H2O-Trilogy, for example, all the scales and harmonic structures are derived from the 2:1 ratio of hydrogen to oxygen. Which incited an abundance of major and minor seconds.’
Cecilie Ore: ‘In my H2O-Trilogy all the scales and harmonic structures are derived from the 2:1 ratio of hydrogen to oxygen. This incited an abundance of major and minor seconds.’
The trilogy is a ‘homage to and celebration of nature’, says Ore. ‘The first string quartet, WaterWorks, pictures the movement of water, starting from the high mountains, flowing through rivers, lakes and waterfalls and eventually ending up in the sea via the fjords, where it evaporates and returns as rain. Then the circle starts all over again. The next movement, Glacier Song, is an ode to ice and glaciers . The strings quote fragments from Purcell’s Cold Song, as a reminder of the little ice age in Europe. Morning Mist, the third and final movement, is about moisture and fog.’
Ore uses various musical means to make these concepts palpable. ‘It has long been taboo to write programmatically’, she says, ‘but with this cycle I wanted to challenge the modernist concept that music must be abstract. I want the audience to hear the water running, so I use dramatic scale- and trill-movements. With the use of extreme ponticelli I hope to make them experience the chill of ice, while rapid figurations molto sul tasto, and fingers that barely touch the strings evoke the feeling of being enveloped by the vague consistency of mist.’
Political and social themes
Another constant in her work is the engagement with social and political themes, which manifests itself ever more strongly. It began in 2001 with A. – a shadow opera, a chilling inner monologue by Agamemnon. This constitutes a long and fierce indictment of war, violence, and abuse of power. Six different voices – accompanied only by sparse gongs – speak, groan, shout or whisper fragmented verses by the Norwegian poet Paal-Helge Haugen. Gradually, we recognise the well-known Nazi excuse of ‘Ich habe es nicht gewusst’, recited in an array of voice inflections that send shivers down your spine.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1BBrOKsHBci1xYySlW3AoD
The libretto was partly written in collaboration with Iannis Xenakis. ‘Xenakis was originally supposed to compose the music’, recalls Ore. ‘But when he fell ill, I was asked to take over. That assignment heralded my return to vocal music. It pulled me from the safe but narrow confines of contemporary instrumental music and threw me straight back into society. For all my subsequent vocal pieces I asked myself: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be civilised? From here it seemed natural to explore topics such as the death penalty, freedom of speech, misogyny, criticism of religion, superstition and the like.’
This led to impressive compositions such as the opera Dead Beat Escapement, about the inhumanity of the death penalty (2008); the choral piece Come to the Edge!, inspired by the mock trial against Pussy Riot in 2012, in which statements by the two accused women are quoted (2013), and Who do you think you are?, in which a solo soprano recites a chilling litany of (death) threats against women who dare voice their opinions (2014). In the at times hilarious Vatican Trilogy, Ore zooms in on issues such as a dead pope on trial, the gruesome murder of a pregnant pope and the fig leaf campaign that led to a secret closet filled with severed penises (2015-2017).
Man versus Nature
In 2019 she composed Speak Louder! for mixed choir, which will be recorded for CD by Ensemble 96 in September. The fourteen-minute composition targets overpopulation. Ore: ‘An important mantra repeated by almost every politician in the world today is growth. But where has this got us? Europe and many other countries are overpopulated. We use natural resources as if they were infinite.’
‘We exploit and steal the habitat of animals, birds and insects. We behave as if the world were created only for mankind and fail to recognise that our survival depends on the subsistence of other species. – And then we act surprised when Covid-19 comes along! We should really stop exploiting and overpopulating the world, and start treating nature with more kindness, understanding and respect.’
Cecilie Ore: ‘We must stop exploiting and overpopulating the world and treat nature with more kindness and respect. The dragonfly on my website symbolizes my concern about this.’
Her love of nature is immediately apparent on visiting her website, which opens with a larger-than-life photograph of a colourful dragonfly. Ore: ‘The image indeed symbolizes my concern for nature, but it is twofold. Years ago, someone said that my first string quartet, Praesens Subitus, was reminiscent of the movements of a dragonfly: standing still in mid-air, suddenly moving and then just as unexpectedly standing still again, and so on. In that piece, I investigate the relationship between horizontal and vertical events, between movement and stasis. ‘Indirectly, the dragonfly embodies the question: how do you create music in which Eastern and Western ideas are incorporated on an equal footing?’
Which brings us back to Ton de Leeuw: ‘His approach to Eastern music and its underlying philosophy remains a constant source of inspiration for me.’
This interview originally appeared in the August/September 2021 issue of the Dutch music magazine De Nieuwe Muze. I translated it at the request of Norsk Musikkforlag, publisher of Ore’s scores.
#CecilieOre #H2OTrilogy #LivGlaser #SpeakLouder #SuzanneRoche #TonDeLeeuw
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Lisa Neher & Kendra Leonard present strong women in micro-opera festival
For over a year, theatres and opera houses have been closed. The American singer and composer Lisa Neher and librettist Kendra Leonard therefore organized the One Voice Project Virtual Micro Opera Festival. With few resources they realized a varied series of five mini-operas for unaccompanied solo voice.
Lisa Neher in ‘Momentum’With their initiative, Neher and Leonard want to offer us some beauty and give themselves and others a chance to practice their craft. The ladies have thought carefully about the production. Once you’ve applied for a – free – online festival pass, you gain access to a load of information about the creators, the operas and the performers. From March 22 through March 26, they send a link to a new world premiere every day. The operas are offered for free on the pay as you can principle and remain available on YouTube.
The subjects are very diverse and partly arrived at in consultation with the singers. For example, the tenor Hugo Vera moved to Los Angeles in the middle of the pandemic. Leonard incorporates the associated anxiety, loneliness and confusion into her libretto. In Wide Awake in the New City, we see Vega somewhat lost among relocation boxes and haphazardly placed furniture in his new apartment.
‘Sorry we had to drive so terribly long,’ he sings to his cat Eloise. He mourns the loss of his friends and frets about his new job, in which he will have to teach virtually. But as soon as he steps out onto his balcony, the prospect of singing in the renowned Disney Hall one day cheers him up: ‘I can do this. In time we’ll figure it all out’, he muses in appealing coloratura.
The three following operas have a feminist-historical tinge. Par for the Course is about the athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1911-1956). She excelled in many disciplines, but became best known as a phenomenal golfer. When she qualified for the 1948 U.S. Open, the rules were abruptly changed so that only men were allowed to participate. The opera zooms in on the moment she learns – from the press – that she is excluded from participation.
Dressed in an orange blouse and black & white pepitre-skirt, soprano Audrey Yoder expresses her frustration. In flawlessly intonated, large intervals, she denounces men’s fear of her achievements: ‘I can even beat you at javelin throwing!’ – Behind her we see archival footage of the javelin throw with which Zaharias won a gold Olympic medal in 1932. Self-assured, Yoder lists her many successes, then quotes the criticism that female athletes are ‘unnatural’ on a listless, descending glissando. She ends on a powerful defiant tone: ‘Is there anything I do not play? – Yes, with dolls!’
Sung by Lisa Neher herself, Momentum is about the 1967 Boston Marathon. Kathrine Switzer (b. 1947) registered for the run under her initials. When an official noticed her, he tried to forcibly remove her from the race. She finished it nonetheless and five years later women were officially allowed as participants. Neher announces the opera somewhat emotionally; she is an avid marathon runner herself. The camera trails her along desolate streets and industrial estates, while she intersperses her sung indignation with rhythmical huffing and puffing.
The mezzo-soprano Margaret O’Connell sounds equally determined in Woman Waits With Sword. The noble Alberte-Barbe d’Ernécourt (1607-1660) defended her estate as Chevalier de Baslemont against French, Swedish and Croatian soldiers. – And against an intruder who one day thought he could take possession of her castle. With no more than a feathered tricorn hat, O’Connell portrays this man, ridiculing his macho behaviour. Finally, she challenges him to a duel: with sword drawn and arm raised, she looks into the camera. Bring it on!’
In the fifth opera, Now Available, we return to the here and now. The tenor Zach Finkelstein seems locked in his cramped room. Desperate, he looks out the window and sings about the closed theatres, the lack of bright spots, the fear of losing his skill as a singer. ‘I’m still singing… in my living-room.’ Leonard infuses his text with some criticism about opera companies that rarely offered compensation for cancelled performances. ‘Can I ever trust them again?’
The Voice Project Virtual Micro Opera Festival is a great example of grassroots music theatre. Without subsidy or advanced technology, the makers have created five wonderful miniatures in which everything is just right. No matter how simple the setting, the lighting, camera work and sound recording are spot on. Neher’s vocal lines are varied and imitable, without being kitschy, and are a perfect match for the often rapidly changing emotions. The singers are excellent, O’Connell standing out with her exceptionally empathic portrayal of the female Chevalier.
Go see and hear!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK6uz_zXgB0
This review was first published in Dutch on the culture site Theaterkrant
Liked my review? A donation, however small, is welcome through PayPal, or direct money transfer to my bank account: T. Derks, Amsterdam, NL82 INGB 0004 2616 94. Thanks!
#AudreyYoder #BabeDidriksonZaharias #HugoVera #KathrineSwitzer #KendraLeonard #LisaNeher #MargaretOConnel #VoiceProjectVirtualMicroOperaFestival #ZachFinkelstein
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Zonderland – muziektheater over ontheemding
Actualiteit lijkt niet de grootste inspiratiebron voor moderne kunstenaars, uitzonderingen daargelaten als bijvoorbeeld JacobTV, Merlijn Twaalfhoven, Ai Weiwei en John Adams. Mijn nieuwsgierigheid wordt dan ook gewekt door de muziektheatervoorstelling Zonderland van de Turks-Nederlandse componist Meriç Artaç en de Noors-Nederlandse regisseur Ingrid Askvik, die zondag 11 december in première gaat in Ostade A’dam.
Deze productie van Diamantfabriek vormt onderdeel van Muziektheaterdagen Amsterdam, een tiendaags festival dat nog duurt tot en met 17 december. Volgens het persbericht is Zonderland ‘een absurdistisch sprookje over wachten, onmacht, heimwee en toekomsthoop. Het is een ode aan een verloren generatie van asielzoekers in opvangcentra, aan al diegenen die in een papieren bureaucratie zijn beland waardoor zij tussen wal en schip vallen’. Ik stelde Artaç vier vragen.
Meriç Artaç
Waarom koos je voor de titel ‘Zonderland’?
Allereerst wil ik benadrukken dat ik het stuk samen met Ingrid Askvik heb gemaakt. Onze eerste titel was Prinsessen zonder land, maar later kozen we voor het krachtigere en universelere Zonderland. Het stuk gaat over twee meisjes die geen land meer hebben, ze kunnen niet terug naar waar ze vandaan komen, maar ze mogen ook niet verder. Tegelijkertijd is Zonderland een metafoor voor alle soorten “tussengebieden”, tijden in je leven waar je om verschillende redenen niet doorheen kunt.
Wat gaan we horen?
De muziek bestaat uit geluidsfragmenten die ik heb bewerkt tot een soundscape. Ik nam verschillend materiaal mee naar de repetities, en heb daarmee tijdens het ontstaansproces de muziek gecomponeerd. De elektronische muziek vertegenwoordigt zowel “het systeem” dat de twee meisjes geketend houdt, als hun innerlijk.
Ingrid Askvik (foto Bart Grietens, fotocredit Strilen)
Een van de hoofdelementen in het systeem is het geluid van een wasmachine. Die draait en draait, en als je denkt dat hij stopt gaat hij toch weer door. Ik heb ook gecomponeerd voor een viool. Deze wordt bespeeld door een van de twee meisjes en is het enige bezit dat ze hebben meegenomen.
De vioolmuziek staat voor haar herinneringen aan vroeger, en aan wie ze toen was. Veel van de elementen in de muziek vinden hun oorsprong in iets wat alledaags is of op andere manieren bekend. Ik denk dat het stuk hierdoor toegankelijk is voor een publiek dat niet is ingewijd in moderne muziek.
Wie schreef het libretto en waar gaat het over?
Het hele stuk is samen met de spelers op de vloer gemaakt. Vanuit improvisaties zijn teksten ontstaan, die vooral de regisseur heeft bewerkt tot een script. Als startpunt voor de teksten en de situaties namen wij de sprookjes van Hans Christiaan Andersen, het toneelstuk Wachten op Godot van Samuel Beckett en het boek Hoe ik talent voor het leven kreeg van Rodaan Al Galidi.
Wat is voor jou de kern van de productie en wat hoop je ermee te bereiken?
Het is een open voorstelling geworden. We leven in een tijd die sneller dan ooit beweegt en onze kernvraag tijdens het maakproces was: wat gebeurt er met je identiteit wanneer je leven tot stilstand komt, als je in een wachtpositie wordt geplaatst terwijl alles om je heen vooruitgaat en niemand naar jouw verhaal luistert? Wat betekent dat voor je gevoel van eigenwaarde?
Velen van ons hebben in between jobs gezeten of hadden een tijd lang geen huis, in die zin kennen we allemaal het gevoel van ontheemdheid. Wat er gebeurt in asielzoekerscentra is de extreme versie hiervan: mensen blijven soms jaren zitten zonder te weten of ze hier een nieuw leven kunnen opbouwen of niet. Wij hopen met Zonderland te tonen hoe dat kan voelen, en mensen aan het denken te zetten.
Na de try-outs kregen we uiteenlopende reacties van wat bezoekers gezien en gehoord hebben en wat zij belangrijk vonden. Kennelijk hebben we inderdaad iets losgemaakt.
Compositie, concept: Meriç Artaç
Regie, concept: Ingrid Askvik
Solisten: Maartje Goes (viool, zang, spel i.s.m. ArtEZ), Eva van der Post (spel)
Decor: Koen Steger
Artistieke begeleiding: Sylvia Stoetzer
Ontwerp: Yvo Zijlstra
Fotografie: Dionisis Christofilogiannis
Zonderland is een diamonds productie van de Diamantfabriek#IngridAskvik #MeriçArtaç #MuziektheaterdagenAmsterdam #OstadeADam #Zonderland
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Happy 100th birthday, György Kurtág!
On 19 February, György Kurtág hopes to celebrate his 100th birthday. That very day the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ will organise the concert Happy 100 György!, featuring music by Kurtág himself and kindred spirits, as well as three new pieces by Dutch composers. The day after, Die Stechardin, his second opera, will premiere in Budapest.
György Kurtág, the Hungarian grandmaster of incisive aphorisms (Budapest, 1926), is no stranger in the Netherlands. As early as the 1970s, pianist Geoffrey Madge and the Residentie Orkest championed his existentialist music. Yet he rose to true fame in the 1990s, when Reinbert de Leeuw started advocating his music, dedicating many memorable concerts to the amiable composer, with whom he forged a close bond.
In 2016, the Muziekgebouw honoured Kurtág on the occasion of his 90th birthday. During a festive portrait concert, De Leeuw conducted the Asko|Schönberg through works by Webern (a great inspiration for Kurtág), György Ligeti, his namesake and compatriot, and works by Kurtág himself. In the birthday concert on 19 February 2026 again a work by Ligeti will be played: his groundbreaking Poème Symphonique, whose music consists of the ticking of 100 metronomes wound to different tempos.
Kurtág and Reinbert de Leeuw
In 2016, Kurtág and his inseparable wife Márta were too frail to travel from Budapest to Amsterdam for the concert. However, they did appear in a preview of the documentary The Three Kurtágs, made by their niece Judit. This was unique: György and Márta Kurtág often performed as a piano duo, but they never became public figures like Ligeti; they lived a secluded life.
Sitting comfortably together on their sofa, the two discuss the progress of the CD recordings of a large part of Kurtág’s work, which Reinbert de Leeuw has been working on since 2013. They charmingly bounce off each other in a lively conversation, in which a sentence started by one is naturally finished by the other – as if they were literally speaking with one voice. Their love for each other and for De Leeuw is palpable.
They regret not being able to be physically present during the recordings, but because Reinbert plays these back over the phone after each session and also visits them regularly in person, they are still able to comment on them. The notoriously critical Kurtág, who sometimes calls out ‘Nein, nicht so!’ when Reinbert merely raises his arms to begin a piece, is now full of praise. ‘It’s as if they recorded the music in their mother tongue,’ he says with shining eyes.
Musical mother tongue
The three-disc CD box containing all of Kurtág’s conducted choral and ensemble works was released a year later. In the accompanying booklet Kurtág gratefully refers to it as “a royal gift”. That is no exaggeration, because on this release from the German label ECM, Reinbert de Leeuw once again surpassed himself. With his relentless determination to get to the heart of the matter, he leads Asko|Schönberg, Groot Omroepkoor, Cappella Amsterdam and a selection of soloists to intense performances, that allow Kurtág’s soul-piercing sounds to penetrate to the very core.
This unique historical document is still available for purchase for less than forty euros – a bargain. Kurtág’s suggestion that the musicians and singers perform his music as if it were their own mother tongue is no idle chatter. Language is extremely important to the sensitive Hungarian composer – in more ways than one.
He often refers to Béla Bartók as “my musical mother tongue”. But he has created his own unique grammar from poignant, aphoristic bursts of sound that spring from a deep inner necessity. He is a great lover of poetry and literature: of the eleven pieces on the compilation, seven are vocal. Kurtág even learned Russian so that he could read Dostoevsky; three cycles on the CD box set are in this language.
The best known of these is Messages from the Late Miss R.V. Trussova, with which he made his breakthrough in Western Europe in the 1980s. In 21 miniatures, a soprano sings of bitter experiences of love. The longest song lasts 3 minutes, the shortest 22 seconds. In that short span of time, Kurtág sketches an entire novel. Unfortunately none of the three vocal cycles will be performed in the concert Happy 100 György! on 19 February. Het Muziek, successor to Asko|Schönberg, will however perform Akrostichon – Wortspiel for soprano and ensemble by Unsuk Chin.
Kurtág’s first opera causes a sensation
In 2016 the 90-year-old Kurtág was still working on his first and so far only opera, Fin de Partie (Endgame), based on Samuel Beckett’s play of the same name. He had seen it in Paris in 1957 on Ligeti’s recommendation and called it “one of the most powerful experiences of my life”. The opera was commissioned by Teatro alla Scala Milan in 2010, and he had been working on it ever since. Together with Mártá, he significantly condensed the story; only sixty percent of the original text remained. On the other hand, they added Beckett’s poem Roundelay as a prologue.
This prologue premiered during a festival in honour of his 90th birthday at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he himself once studied. The world premiere of the complete opera took place in November 2018 at the Teatro alla Scala, directed by Pierre Audi, who died last year, with Markus Stenz conducting. Kurtág and his wife Mártá were again unable to attend; she died a year later.
This first work by the then 92-year-old composer caused a real sensation. The absurd libretto, which barely has any plot and revolves around four people waiting for an indeterminate ending, was immediately hailed as a classic by the international press. In March 2019, the opera was also performed at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and again Markus Stenz. Theaterkrant called it “a true musical masterpiece”, while de Volkskrant saw how “supreme aimlessness can lead to supreme beauty”. Unfortunately, I had to miss the performance due to illness.
Fin de Partie (c) Ruth WaltzEver-expanding piano series Jatékok (Games)
For Kurtág’s 95th birthday in 2021, the Muziekgebouw organised an ambitious three-day festival, which was unfortunately cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. Instead, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard played excerpts from Jatékok (Games) via a live stream. In this ever-expanding series of miniatures for one and/or two pianos – which he himself calls “pedagogical performance pieces” – Kurtág explores a musical idea or portrays a friend.
He frequently played these with Mártá, and they recorded a number of them on CD. In 2021, Aimard presented several brand-new miniatures, because even at the age of 95, Kurtág was still composing every day. During the concert Happy 100 György! on 19 February, Het Muziek will play a selection from Jatékok in an arrangement by Olivier Cuendet. This organist and composer previously made an orchestral version of Zwiegespräch for string quartet and electronics, which Kurtág composed together with his son of the same name.
The icing on the cake is the rarely performed Lebenslauf for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart and two basset horns. Kurtág’s works are placed in context with Ligeti’s Poème symphonique mentioned above and works by Unsuk Chin and Thomas Adès. There are also three world premieres, inspired by the number one hundred. Mayke Nas wrote 100 seconds, Huba de Graaff composed 100 notes, and Jasper de Bock made 100 years (I, II, III, IV).
Kurtág finishes second opera at the age of 99
Kurtág completed his first opera when he was 92 years old, but he did not rest on his laurels afterwards. Commissioned by the Budapest Music Centre, he composed a new opera, Die Stechardin, which will premiere on 20 February 2026 during a birthday festival in Budapest.
The libretto is based on letters and writings by the German scientist Georg Christoph Lindberg, who had a relationship with his student Maria Dorothea Stechard, twenty years his junior. Although she died at the age of seventeen and he later remarried, she always remained his great love. ‘She reconciled me with all of humanity,’ Lindberg wrote to a friend.
The libretto poses recognisable questions about life. Is there an afterlife? Does our soul live on after our death? Is there love that transcends the grave? The action is set in another world – heaven, an alternative reality? – where Maria waits for her beloved to rejoin her.
Kurtág completed this three-part monologue for soprano and orchestra in June 2025 and orchestrated it together with Zsolt Serei. Maria Husmann, who has been working with Kurtág for decades, sings the title role, accompanied by the Concerto Budapest Orchestra under András Keller.
Farewell
It is not surprising that Kurtág was drawn to this theme: in 2019, he lost Mártá, who had been his partner for 72 years and remained his inspiration throughout his life. While his opera Fin de partie can be viewed as an artistic testament, Die Stechardin may be considered a farewell, celebrating the beauty of life and love. It expresses reconciliation with death and Kurtág’s hope for a speedy reunion with his beloved.
May he be able to attend the world premiere on 20 February 2026 in Budapest, and then join Márta, wherever she may be.
On 19 February, I will moderate the introduction to the birthday concert Happy 100 György in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Starting at 7.15 p.m., admission free. I will speak with Fedor Teunisse, artistic director of Het Muziek, and the composers De Bock, De Graaff and Nas.
#DieStechardin #GyörgyKurtág #GyörgyLigeti #HubaDeGraaff #MaykeNas #UnsukChin -
Happy 100th birthday, György Kurtág!
On 19 February, György Kurtág hopes to celebrate his 100th birthday. That very day the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ will organise the concert Happy 100 György!, featuring music by Kurtág himself and kindred spirits, as well as three new pieces by Dutch composers. The day after, Die Stechardin, his second opera, will premiere in Budapest.
György Kurtág, the Hungarian grandmaster of incisive aphorisms (Budapest, 1926), is no stranger in the Netherlands. As early as the 1970s, pianist Geoffrey Madge and the Residentie Orkest championed his existentialist music. Yet he rose to true fame in the 1990s, when Reinbert de Leeuw started advocating his music, dedicating many memorable concerts to the amiable composer, with whom he forged a close bond.
In 2016, the Muziekgebouw honoured Kurtág on the occasion of his 90th birthday. During a festive portrait concert, De Leeuw conducted the Asko|Schönberg through works by Webern (a great inspiration for Kurtág), György Ligeti, his namesake and compatriot, and works by Kurtág himself. In the birthday concert on 19 February 2026 again a work by Ligeti will be played: his groundbreaking Poème Symphonique, whose music consists of the ticking of 100 metronomes wound to different tempos.
Kurtág and Reinbert de Leeuw
In 2016, Kurtág and his inseparable wife Márta were too frail to travel from Budapest to Amsterdam for the concert. However, they did appear in a preview of the documentary The Three Kurtágs, made by their niece Judit. This was unique: György and Márta Kurtág often performed as a piano duo, but they never became public figures like Ligeti; they lived a secluded life.
Sitting comfortably together on their sofa, the two discuss the progress of the CD recordings of a large part of Kurtág’s work, which Reinbert de Leeuw has been working on since 2013. They charmingly bounce off each other in a lively conversation, in which a sentence started by one is naturally finished by the other – as if they were literally speaking with one voice. Their love for each other and for De Leeuw is palpable.
They regret not being able to be physically present during the recordings, but because Reinbert plays these back over the phone after each session and also visits them regularly in person, they are still able to comment on them. The notoriously critical Kurtág, who sometimes calls out ‘Nein, nicht so!’ when Reinbert merely raises his arms to begin a piece, is now full of praise. ‘It’s as if they recorded the music in their mother tongue,’ he says with shining eyes.
Musical mother tongue
The three-disc CD box containing all of Kurtág’s conducted choral and ensemble works was released a year later. In the accompanying booklet Kurtág gratefully refers to it as “a royal gift”. That is no exaggeration, because on this release from the German label ECM, Reinbert de Leeuw once again surpassed himself. With his relentless determination to get to the heart of the matter, he leads Asko|Schönberg, Groot Omroepkoor, Cappella Amsterdam and a selection of soloists to intense performances, that allow Kurtág’s soul-piercing sounds to penetrate to the very core.
This unique historical document is still available for purchase for less than forty euros – a bargain. Kurtág’s suggestion that the musicians and singers perform his music as if it were their own mother tongue is no idle chatter. Language is extremely important to the sensitive Hungarian composer – in more ways than one.
He often refers to Béla Bartók as “my musical mother tongue”. But he has created his own unique grammar from poignant, aphoristic bursts of sound that spring from a deep inner necessity. He is a great lover of poetry and literature: of the eleven pieces on the compilation, seven are vocal. Kurtág even learned Russian so that he could read Dostoevsky; three cycles on the CD box set are in this language.
The best known of these is Messages from the Late Miss R.V. Trussova, with which he made his breakthrough in Western Europe in the 1980s. In 21 miniatures, a soprano sings of bitter experiences of love. The longest song lasts 3 minutes, the shortest 22 seconds. In that short span of time, Kurtág sketches an entire novel. Unfortunately none of the three vocal cycles will be performed in the concert Happy 100 György! on 19 February. Het Muziek, successor to Asko|Schönberg, will however perform Akrostichon – Wortspiel for soprano and ensemble by Unsuk Chin.
Kurtág’s first opera causes a sensation
In 2016 the 90-year-old Kurtág was still working on his first and so far only opera, Fin de Partie (Endgame), based on Samuel Beckett’s play of the same name. He had seen it in Paris in 1957 on Ligeti’s recommendation and called it “one of the most powerful experiences of my life”. The opera was commissioned by Teatro alla Scala Milan in 2010, and he had been working on it ever since. Together with Mártá, he significantly condensed the story; only sixty percent of the original text remained. On the other hand, they added Beckett’s poem Roundelay as a prologue.
This prologue premiered during a festival in honour of his 90th birthday at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he himself once studied. The world premiere of the complete opera took place in November 2018 at the Teatro alla Scala, directed by Pierre Audi, who died last year, with Markus Stenz conducting. Kurtág and his wife Mártá were again unable to attend; she died a year later.
This first work by the then 92-year-old composer caused a real sensation. The absurd libretto, which barely has any plot and revolves around four people waiting for an indeterminate ending, was immediately hailed as a classic by the international press. In March 2019, the opera was also performed at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and again Markus Stenz. Theaterkrant called it “a true musical masterpiece”, while de Volkskrant saw how “supreme aimlessness can lead to supreme beauty”. Unfortunately, I had to miss the performance due to illness.
Fin de Partie (c) Ruth WaltzEver-expanding piano series Jatékok (Games)
For Kurtág’s 95th birthday in 2021, the Muziekgebouw organised an ambitious three-day festival, which was unfortunately cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. Instead, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard played excerpts from Jatékok (Games) via a live stream. In this ever-expanding series of miniatures for one and/or two pianos – which he himself calls “pedagogical performance pieces” – Kurtág explores a musical idea or portrays a friend.
He frequently played these with Mártá, and they recorded a number of them on CD. In 2021, Aimard presented several brand-new miniatures, because even at the age of 95, Kurtág was still composing every day. During the concert Happy 100 György! on 19 February, Het Muziek will play a selection from Jatékok in an arrangement by Olivier Cuendet. This organist and composer previously made an orchestral version of Zwiegespräch for string quartet and electronics, which Kurtág composed together with his son of the same name.
The icing on the cake is the rarely performed Lebenslauf for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart and two basset horns. Kurtág’s works are placed in context with Ligeti’s Poème symphonique mentioned above and works by Unsuk Chin and Thomas Adès. There are also three world premieres, inspired by the number one hundred. Mayke Nas wrote 100 seconds, Huba de Graaff composed 100 notes, and Jasper de Bock made 100 years (I, II, III, IV).
Kurtág finishes second opera at the age of 99
Kurtág completed his first opera when he was 92 years old, but he did not rest on his laurels afterwards. Commissioned by the Budapest Music Centre, he composed a new opera, Die Stechardin, which will premiere on 20 February 2026 during a birthday festival in Budapest.
The libretto is based on letters and writings by the German scientist Georg Christoph Lindberg, who had a relationship with his student Maria Dorothea Stechard, twenty years his junior. Although she died at the age of seventeen and he later remarried, she always remained his great love. ‘She reconciled me with all of humanity,’ Lindberg wrote to a friend.
The libretto poses recognisable questions about life. Is there an afterlife? Does our soul live on after our death? Is there love that transcends the grave? The action is set in another world – heaven, an alternative reality? – where Maria waits for her beloved to rejoin her.
Kurtág completed this three-part monologue for soprano and orchestra in June 2025 and orchestrated it together with Zsolt Serei. Maria Husmann, who has been working with Kurtág for decades, sings the title role, accompanied by the Concerto Budapest Orchestra under András Keller.
Farewell
It is not surprising that Kurtág was drawn to this theme: in 2019, he lost Mártá, who had been his partner for 72 years and remained his inspiration throughout his life. While his opera Fin de partie can be viewed as an artistic testament, Die Stechardin may be considered a farewell, celebrating the beauty of life and love. It expresses reconciliation with death and Kurtág’s hope for a speedy reunion with his beloved.
May he be able to attend the world premiere on 20 February 2026 in Budapest, and then join Márta, wherever she may be.
On 19 February, I will moderate the introduction to the birthday concert Happy 100 György in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Starting at 7.15 p.m., admission free. I will speak with Fedor Teunisse, artistic director of Het Muziek, and the composers De Bock, De Graaff and Nas.
#DieStechardin #GyörgyKurtág #GyörgyLigeti #HubaDeGraaff #MaykeNas #UnsukChin