I Go to Sleep
(Turandot, Metropolitan Opera of New York, 2016) Once again TVC turned up to the Nova Palace in Adelaide to watch another chocolate-box treat in the form of Turandot, Puccini’s last opera, filmed in January 2016 at the New York Met (not the Mets). This ‘Orientalist’ production based on an original design by Franco Zefferelli (who knew a thing or two about prettying-up a set) is choreographed beautifully, in a yin-tong, Mikado style, by Chiang Ching. A troika of sopranos have appeared in the run and the HD film (courtesy of the Neubauer Family Foundation – we must invite that family to Australia and show them a good…
Continue Reading →The Tenants of Moonbloom
Mott Street, NY, in which Moonbloom Realty Corp owned a tenement
(by Edward Lewis Wallant) The tenants of Moonbloom Realty Corp are the poor, the dissolute, the forgotten and the forgetting. Several have blue numbers tattooed on their forearms. Norman Moonbloom, “New York’s most educated rent-collector” now works for his slum landlord brother, Irwin, after decades spent as a feckless student, hopping from discipline to discipline. Norman, small, thin, with a ” gambler-white face”, wears a suit and oversized fedora which make him look like a child dressed as a gangster, and spends his days traipsing between the four Moonbloom tenements, gathering complaints, collecting rent and prioritising the repairs which Irwin will never finance. Irwin rants…
Continue Reading →A Wagner Timeline
As Robert W. Gutman observed, “cannonades preluded the birth of Richard Wagner“.* When he passed up, from Venice to Valhalla, almost seventy years later, he had been working on “The Feminine Element in Humanity”, a concept bearing some similarity to work of another German giant, Goethe, and he expired in the arms of his wife, Cosima. Betwixt 4 am on 22 May, 1813, and 3.30 pm on 13 February, 1883, the greatest music dramatist that ever lived led a hectic, crowded life, one that defies encapsulation, even by the very best biographers. You’d need to spare a couple of decades, travel a…
Continue Reading →“Told You I’d be Back”
Benghal Tiger by Indian artist Deeptanshu Chauhan
Glenelg v West Adelaide – 3 April 2016 at Glenelg (Gliderol Stadium) Taking on the reigning premier is never easy, although we did speculate optimistically last week that the Bloods might still be hungover from their 2015 Premiership. So it apparently proved! Despite or perhaps because of your correspondent’s inability to attend due to a previous commitment, the Tigers made a bright start, kept a handy lead due to a 5-2 return in the second quarter, and blitzed the enemy in the final quarter with a devastating 8-0 return. All played well, reportedly, with multiple goal-kickers R. Kirkby (3), W….
Continue Reading →Impressions of Die Walküre
Josef Hoffman design for Act I, 1876
Richard Wagner Society, 3 April 2016 The Society had a lovely afternoon discussing ‘Visions of Die Walküre,‘ when Wagner enthusiasts spoke of varied productions across the map, and three distinguished speakers (plus yours truly) gave some formal shape to the issues. Neville Hannaford reviewed leading recordings, from the Chereau/Boulez centenary production at Bayreuth to the visually impressive (albeit quirky – Hunding’s hut is represented as a circle of stones) but weakly-acted Valencia offering. He selected Bayreuth as the best naturalistic version, featuring the best Siegmund (Peter Hoffman) and Hunding (a formidable Matti Salminen, who also appeared at Valencia). …
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