Category Archive: MUSIC
The Wagner Operas
"Should be bigger...?" (Unveiling the Wagner Memorial in Berlin by Anton von Werner, 1908)
(Ernest Newman) This ‘earnest new man’ was a precise and authoritative Wagner enthusiast, but he stowed away gush and did not indulge in panegyric. Newman certainly had the measure of Wagner the man (as his 12 cassette audiobook Wagner As Man and Artist shows). Yet his love and appreciation of Wagner’s work shines in this single-volume complete Opera companion, the kind of work to thoroughly research beforehand if you want to accentuate the payoff of seeing a Wagner, or to skim afterwards to clarify any nuance or symbol left opaque by a particular production. As Newman says in his introduction, whilst “…a…
Continue Reading →Don Giovanni
"Tu a cenar meco?" (Painting by Fragonard; image by Rama)
(State Opera SA, 30 May 2015) TVC had only seen the disastrous ENO production but not this version which originally featured Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the Don. What a relief to find staging and performances generally faithful to the 1787 work; in fact, superb staging, a simple hall, doubling as a courtyard, bounded by masonry with balconies (which, unfortunately, wobbled a little) but the simplicity of this setting, varied by good use of lighting, emphasized the pyrotechnics of the finale when the far wall collapsed to admit the Commendatore’s statue and a team of demons ferry the Don to the infernal regions (or…
Continue Reading →The Idyll
Tribschen as Arcadia (photo by Josef Lehmkuhl)
(Ensemble Le Monde, Elder Hall, 29 May 2015) ELM gave us a varied programme, with Serenade in C Major for String Trio by Dohnányi. Played in 5 short bursts, each part crowded with disparate moods, ideas and tones, this unfamiliar (to TVC) work is of great interest and showed the versatility of violin, viola, cello. During the soft, still moments, the cello acted almost as a harp. A larger portion of the ensemble gathered for Richard Strauss’ tone poem Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders! TVC is willing to give Strauss points for his operatic and several symphonic works, but it is hard to underrate this one,…
Continue Reading →Birthday Boy
Birthday cheer
Richard Wagner (b. 22 May 1813) Happy 202nd anniversary to the Old Fellow! We present an image of the artist as a young Lohengrin, hope Placido sings a little Swan-King today and look forward to Wagner Society SA bash on Sunday (see below). “Mein lieber Schwann!” Sunday afternoon, 24 May, the Wagner Society of SA hosted a lunch and talk by Gillian and Nicholas Braithwaite. Jill is a violinist of note and Nicholas is the highly esteemed conductor (he led ASO from 1987 to 1991), he has recorded and conducted all over the world. The Braithwaites gave a sparkling talk on the…
Continue Reading →Eurovision Song Contest
The Varnished Culture cites this as exhibit ‘A’ in our defence against a charge of snobbery. L introduced P to it some years ago and ever since, every late May, we settle down to score the finalists. TVC scores each song but has a separate scoring system we call The Euro Points System, in which extra points are given for: 1. Dry ice 2. Contortionists 3. Bad Dancing 4. Any item of Clothing being Torn Away 5. Dwarves 6. Angel Wings or Mock Flying 7. Clowns 8. Piano as Furniture 9. Bearded Ladies 10. Puffs of Smoke. Euro Drinking Game # 1: Every…
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