Subject: Scene from "A Masked Ball"
Author:
Posted on: 2013-12-02 20:47:00 UTC
i thought that, with the opera broadcasts coming up this weekend, I'd share a clip from last season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4cb96zBgo4
That is Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Renato Anckarström in Giuseppe Verdi's "A Masked Ball" (Un Ballo in Maschera).
Ah, "Un Ballo in Maschera"... How complicated your backstory is. Fun times are had with you.
I dunno... personally, I'm sort of all "eh" at "Ballo in Maschera" by this point. There are other Verdi works that I enjoy a lot more (Fallstaff and the Requiem in particular), so... I dunno.
As for this season... the only things I'd probably be interested in are all the not-so-standard Slavic operas they're doing (Rusalka, Prince Igor, The Nose) and the Falstaff broadcast coming up. Personally, I'm really annoyed that they're not broadcasting the production of Wozzeck they're doing in March, but that's me.
But yeah, the Met broadcasts are fun. Here's a clip from the Siegfried broadcast I saw a couple years back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc0yLN2AQgo
I selected this one because Dmitri Hvorostovsky is kicking off the radio broadcasts in the title role of Rigoletto" and I am a Hvorostovsky fangirl. I don't Russia has produced a sexier baritone than him.
I do like "Rusalka". "Eugene Onegin was already done this season, but that's one of my faves. I would also love to see "La Cenerentola" because it's got Juan Diego Florez, and he is incredibly sexy when he sings Rossini (well, he's sexy anyway).
I'm sorry; I am just really crazy about this sort of thing. I don't particularly like Berg, Schoenberg, Janacek, Glass, or Adams. I also really hate "I Puritanni" and "La Sonnambula". It feels like the heroines are very much one-dimensional characters.
I love Prokofiev, especially his opera "War and Peace".
In my opinion, Early Glass is the only Glass worth listening to. His more recent stuff basically gets a "meh" reaction from me. I'm not really familiar enough with Adams to make a call either way, but... Y'know.
But how does...? Never mind. I don't know, with Berg I think you do kind of have to sit with the tonal language a little bit. I'll be the first to admit it's a very complex music, but once you get used to the language it sings. Schoenberg does it less so, but I think it's the same deal with him. (Though it could also have to do with the performances. Out of curiosity, what Schoenberg/Berg have you been exposed to?)
Personally, I'm mildly interested to see La Cerentola. Rossini is one of the few composers of bel canto that I actually find interesting in any way, so... I dunno. We'll see.
I can's remember what exactly they were, but they were very atonal and didn't seem to go anywhere musically (I think one of them was a clip from "Wozzeck").
I just don't like a lot of the 20th Century composers simply because I find their music hard to listen to. I like Ravel, however, and I'm also a big fan of Stravinsky (particularly of his "Firebird" ballet), and as I said, I love Prokofiev.
There are only three really well known bel canto composers anyhow. And Rossini's music is recognizable; even if people don't know his operas, they know the famous "William Tell" Overture.