Happy Holidays - and a chance to reminisce
Dogbertd
As we approach the end of another year I wanted to take this
opportunity to thank you all for the education and entertainment I get
from browsing this newsgroup.
Happy Holidays to one and all.
And as it's the end of the year (indeed those with a poor grasp of
arithmetic seem to think it's the end of the decade) I invite you to
share you best or worst Wagner-related memories of the year.
For my part it was a sad, unenviable first. This year saw the first
production of a Wagner opera I've attended where I found it absolutely
necessary to avoid looking at the stage for most of the time. I'm
pretty open-minded about most stagings - I enjoyed the notorious
Richard Jones Ring and was able to find some amusement in the
shark-infested Parsifal and considered the Warner Walkure not
completely idiotic (all at Covent Garden). But for some reason this
season's Covent Garden Tristan und Isolde was the straw that broke the
camel's back. The production (aka "The Wedding from Hell") seemed to
me so trite, thoughtless and stupid that I decided about half way
through the first act I couldn't look at the stage any longer. As the
second and third acts showed exactly the same stage, I wasn't missing
much from there on and fortunately I had a good view of the conductor
and the orchestra.
A pity, since I greatly enjoyed the musical side of things (the
half-Tristan of Ben Heppner excepted). And it's not often that you
reach the end of Tristan and have the impression that the Isolde (Nina
Stemme) could quite happily have sung the whole thing again there and
then. But Wagner himself would be quick to point out that in his works
above all, the drama is the ultimate driving force and so deliberate
attempts to destroy the drama - for me - destroy the opera.
I hope this doesn't mean my arteries are now hardened to the point
where I can't stomach new ideas on stage, but I certainly hadn't
anticipated leaving Tristan with such a sense of foreboding.
Regards,
Dogbertd
M
>
> I hope this doesn't mean my arteries are now hardened to the point
> where I can't stomach new ideas on stage, but I certainly hadn't
> anticipated leaving Tristan with such a sense of foreboding.
Personally, I am amazed that 'opera production' can nowadays get away with
so much.
In the present situation there is a simply psychotic attitude to Wagner's
texts: the words that show what he wants his singers to say are treated as
sacred; the words that show what he wants his singers to do are treated as
excrement...
In reality, the job of a producer should be seen as merely that of an
engineer: someone who is given a brief by the artist and and has to find a
way of making it all work ("Rocky cleft on one side; bluish light; Erda
rises to half her height; yup, that's no problem..."). Somehow producers
have been allowed to feel that they are artists themselves, entitled to
treat someone else's work as mere material. Rather than trying to represent
and communicate Wagner's thought, they spend their -- and our -- time
telling us what they think about Wagner's thought, insofar as they actually
know it (which may not be very far). It ought to be seen as an ethical
issue. Or, at the very least, as a branch of parasitology.
M.
Richard Partridge
> Dear Chaps (and I think you are mostly chaps),
>
[snip]
> And as it's the end of the year (indeed those with a poor grasp of
> arithmetic seem to think it's the end of the decade) I invite you to
> share you best or worst Wagner-related memories of the year.
>
[snip]
According to the American Heritage dictionary (sorry, I don't have the OED),
a decade is "A period of ten years." So the end of this year is certainly
the end of _a_ decade. Whether it's the end of _the_ decade is arbitrary.
Dick Partridge
Hans Christian Hoff
? And as the first year of the first decade of this millennium was a.d.
2000, the end of 2009 will be the end of the tenth year in that year, and
thus the end of that first decade.
Regards, and happy new year (and new decade !) from
Hans (without AHD, OED or OBE)
"Richard Partridge" <r.par...@verizon.net> skrev i nyhetsmeldingen:
C7592B2B.1DDAA%r.par...@verizon.net ...
Hans Christian Hoff
tenth year in that DECADE"
HCH
"Hans Christian Hoff" <hch...@broadpark.no> skrev i nyhetsmeldingen:
4b36218d$1...@news.broadpark.no ...
Aage Johansen
> Well; the end of This Year will always be the end of This Decade, won't
> it ? And as the first year of the first decade of this millennium was
> a.d. 2000, the end of 2009 will be the end of the tenth year in that
> year, and thus the end of that first decade.
>
> Regards, and happy new year (and new decade !) from
>
> Hans (without AHD, OED or OBE)
Do you remember the discussion on whether 1999 or 2000 was the last year
of the (second) millennium?
:-)
--
Aage J.
- and Happy New Year!
Mike Scott Rohan
> Hans Christian Hoff wrote:
> > Well; the end of This Year will always be the end of This Decade, won't
> > it ? And as the first year of the first decade of this millennium was
> > a.d. 2000, the end of 2009 will be the end of the tenth year in that
> > year, and thus the end of that first decade.
>
> > Regards, and happy new year (and new decade !) from
>
> > Hans (without AHD, OED or OBE)
>
> Do you remember the discussion on whether 1999 or 2000 was the last year
> of the (second) millennium?
> :-)
>
> --
> Aage J.
> - and Happy New Year!
>
>
>
>
>
> > C7592B2B.1DDAA%r.partri...@verizon.net ...
> >> On 12/24/09 5:56 AM, Dogbertd, at Dogbe...@hotmail.com, wrote the
> >> following:
>
> >>> Dear Chaps (and I think you are mostly chaps),
>
> >> [snip]
>
> >>> And as it's the end of the year (indeed those with a poor grasp of
> >>> arithmetic seem to think it's the end of the decade) I invite you to
> >>> share you best or worst Wagner-related memories of the year.
>
> >> [snip]
>
> >> According to the American Heritage dictionary (sorry, I don't have the
> >> OED),
> >> a decade is "A period of ten years." So the end of this year is
> >> certainly
> >> the end of _a_ decade. Whether it's the end of _the_ decade is
> >> arbitrary.
>
> >> Dick Partridge
Best way to have it, especially after a few snorts -- when we won't be
able to pronounce it, anyhow. Thanks to all for the good wishes, and a
Happy Hogmanay to all from Deb and myself!
Slainte mhath,
Mike