The Pity is that Sin Moves like Grace, it has so much Virtue xpost
rich...@gmail.com
Philadelphia this evening for the Opera Company of Philadelphia's
production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia -how much more abject can
longing be?
But almost enough about me. What were Benjamin Britten and Ronald
Duncan thinking, is what I want to know. This two act chamber opera is
a work of almost unremittingly beautiful melodic lines and orchestral
scoring, with arias aplenty and wonderful concerted and a capella
moments. Surely, as melos, it is the most easily accesible of all the
Britten scores, if not the most recognizably dramatic, and just
listening to it (which you sometimes had to do with your eyes closed
in this production; the staging and the direction of the singers was
vile and reduced the libretto, which is subtle and sits on a knife
edge, into a banal, vaudeville cavalcade of raised eyebrows, double
takes, sententious stares, and dumb show choreography) makes you
wonder why it's not the most popular of his scores. With the exception
of Lucia's part, which lies quite high (she is one of Lucretia's
handmaidens, and has a fair amount to sing in Act II), the music lies
easily within all of the voice types, even the Male Chorus. The
original production featured, of course, Pears, Ferrier, Cross and
Otakar Kraus. The first American production was on Broadway, under
Agnes De Mille, and included Giorgio Tozzi, Kitty Carlisle as Lucretia
(you are reading that correctly), and Brenda Lewis and Patricia Neway
alternating as the Female Chorus. Which do you think is stranger -
Kitty Carlisle as Lucretia, or Kitty Carlisle doing Agnes de Mille's
choreography?
I can only think that two things stand in the way of the score. The
first is, obviously, its chamber nature. I have seen this at City
Opera (when New York City had a real City Opera), and in the large
reaches of that auditorium the effect of the score was largely lost,
but there are many small theatres and stages, and that can't entirely
explain it. I suppose it's the complexity of the libretto itself which
accounts for the difficulties. The story, as it were, recounts the
rape of the virtuous Roman Lurcretia by the Etruscan Tarquinius
Superbus, and on one very superficial level is is the story, as Rome
recounted it, of oppressive chtonic rulers whose crudeness causes the
Romans to rise up and establish their own state. Obviously, if this is
opera material, it's not chamber opera material.
But what is the real story? What were Britten and Duncan aiming for?
The story is framed by two narrators, a male chorus and a female
chorus, who provide a perspective (or do they?) on the flow of the
story and comment on it, and they serve very much as donors do in
Renaissance portraits - you will see a Holy Family scene, for example,
with someone in then contemporary dress kneeling at the side of the
picture, and that's usually the donor, who's both commemorated but
also is supposed to be the 'vehicle' by with the viewer finds
themselves in communion with the religious scene portrayed. The
narrators tell you point blank that they are really there to mediate
what is happening in the opera to the audience, but that's not really
so. After Lucretia's suicide - she was raped by Tarquinius and though
forgiven by her husband, we are asked to accept that she couldn't bear
the shame - it becomes increasingly evident if it wasn't before that
the chorus is clearly Christian - vertiginously High Church if not
Roman -and that the notion of death and sin and the inability to
resist temptation are being seen through the eyes of religious
sacrifice and the path of Jesus.
Except that that's not really 'right' either, although this version is
staged as if it were; since the director, William Kerley (he's staged
Fille at Holland Park and Onegin at Scottish Opera), is going to be
the director for Maazel's Castelton Festival of Britten Operas in
Virginia this summer, I would consider this an ominous sign of things
to come, and what we had tonight on stage was the Reader's Digest
version of The Brothers Karamazov. The key to the opera, I think, is
the reflection of the chours on the Etruscans in general, which they
confide to us before the rape, that the Etruscans lived within a
paradox: they had a "passion for creation, and a lust to kill". This
is hardly the first time that this theme has been articulated in art -
it's a real topos, and Oscar Wilde expressed it famously in his great
Ballad, when he lamented that each man kills the thing he loves. But
Wilde's reflections were full of self-pity and purely individual. What
Britten and Duncan are getting to, I think, is something about the
murderous process of creation. Creation isn't separate from
destruction, and the same hand which creates a work of art makes
choices, violent choices, which obliterate other potential creative
'lives' at the same time. Creation is ruthless and driven and no more
'pretty', in reality, than war....the victors write history, and so
the good guys always win, and the artists crate their Grecian Urns,
and so truth is beauty, but when you look at the whole damn process
it's messy and chaotic and it it's really working, you'd best of not
get in its way.
THAT, I somehow think, is what Britten and Duncan are really up to
trying to sort out. But you can't really 'show' that - Benvenuto
Cellini celebrates the myth that 'art' is 'beaitiful' and heroic, not
birth created among feces - and the effectiveness of the piece, I
think, depends on having a Tartquinius who is really 'there' from the
beginning, a scary mixture of overweening ambition, lazy pride, and
dirven, restless searching. Tarquinius is, in a weird way, the artist
in all his complexity and devouring need, and if the opera is to work
you have to be that character ffrom the beginning. (What makes the
matter harder is that after the rape, which is really a loss of
control, which perhaps Tarquinius was expecting all along, he is gone
from the final long last scene of the opera.). I am reluctant to say
that the rape or the suicide is his 'creation' - I don't think it can
be so neatly graphed - but it is more ambigous than you might think,
because the relationship between Lucretia and her husband Collatinus,
while again, superficially so virtuous as to defy belief, is also one
of great stress of Lucretia (Collatinus is a bit of a dolt, I am
afraid), and it's not entirely and unambiguously clear whether she
ultimately kills herself because she can't forgive herself despite
Collatinus' forgiveness of her, or whether, when Collatinus tells her
that the rape is of no real consequence to their relationship and
doens't matter because, after all, she was taken, she did not give
herself willingly in body or spirit, his 'tolerance' kills her because
in fact the rape jolted her to life with a man who'd fascinated her,
in a way that her frozen relationship with Collatinus never had.
So, the drama is full of subletly, ambiguity, deliberate 'double
binds' and mixed messages, and finally decenters the audience; the
libretto, for example, obviously plays with various homonyms, for
example between whore and horse...and it's not even clear to me that
we really ARE supposed to identity with the chorus. Perhaps, frankly,
they're a bit too good for us, who are, after all, more like the
Estruscans and the Romans than the saints and martyrs. This is NOT the
formula for a best-seller, and leaving audiences with a disquieting
sense of ambiguiuty, especially when it's not leavened with humor
(which is how Mozart made his and Da Ponte's ambiguities slide down
easy), doesn't leave you with a little present tied up in a bow. But
the work repays, I think, close acquiantance, and I should hope that
with a great production or some first rate dramatic protagonists, it
might give really unending pleasure.
The singing tonight was more than good enough, and leaving aside the
amateur nature of the direction (and this wasn't a matter of not
enough time - you don't get a whole cast to leer and grimace together
without working at it), the production is very rewarding for the level
of orchestral execution under David Hayes, and the ability to hear
this work in a theatre which seems just the right size. The 'star' of
the evening was Nathan Gunn, and while he sings Tarquinius wonderfully
well, and obliged us in his rape scene of appearing in a tee-shirt and
harness, he's much too nice a guy to really pull off this role,
particularly with this director. He has neither the edge nor, frankly,
the ability to convey multiple levels of character. William Burden was
the Male Chorus, and he sounds about as good as anyone could in this
role....his English was completely pristine...but he suffered the most
from the stagey, smarmy take on the character, and if there is
something that the Male Chorus is not, that something is bovine. Of
the other singers, I should note Lucretia in particular, Tamara
Mumford, who's sung at the MET and Glyndebourne, and who has a sheerly
beautiful lower voice but one which is still a bit unruly in the upper
middle range. Special mention has to go to the Lucia, Rinnat Moriah.
She is one of the most stirkingly beautiful women I have seen on stage
in quite a while, conveyed a naturalness which almost defeated the
staging, and while the voice has a certain wiry French sound, she's
got the goods, I think, and a very impressive trill to boot.
As I said, almost enough about me. This isperhaps the place to mention
that I have started writing my own opera, based on the hitherto
unreported lives of Saints Cosmas and Damien, and we'll be going into
production next year at a still--to-be-named opera house in Germany,
with Nathan Gunn and Rod Gilfrey alternating parts. Calixto Bieto
will, of course, direct.
alcindoro
That generally isn't done until much later, and usually by the
curators.
"One Grecian urn ... two Grecian urns, and a fountain ... trickle
trickle trickle..." -- Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn
Ancona21
wrote:
> In my constant search to keep occupied while the bf is away, I went to
> Philadelphia this evening for the Opera Company of Philadelphia's
> production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia -how much more abject can
> longing be? >
Perhaps I can be of assistance.
http://tinyurl.com/Rape-of-Lucretia
A21
Richergar
Leaving aside the happily obvious, it is really so much more
sophisticated an interpretation...Gunn may be just as able to give it,
but not with this director. And I really liked how complicit this
Lucretia was in participating in the embrace....I think somehow that
is really in the libretto.
> ...
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
alanwa...@googlemail.com
Cannot say about the production but it is a wonderful score (to me)
and I like what what Pears said about it: "The male and female chorus
must substantially appear as narrators, quite detached. There should
be no audience relationship with either chorus because they are not
involved. Just narrators, commentators but..........eventually the
narrators are drawn into the action and if they are not able to draw
in the audience with that involvement then I suppose you could say
that particular performance has failed. That is my view, anyway. Ben
recognised that but also recognised that it could easily miss - too
subtle for it's own good one might say. One early critic said it was
"too Christian" for him. How Ben laughed." (BBC interview not long
before Pears died).
Aside from that wonderful use of limited resources in the opera pit -
I am really struggling to find a composer better at that - although
the early Albert Herring and his greatest chamber score (Turn of the
Screw) show his fascination with this restriction.
Actually not sure that Screw isn't the greatest chamber opera in the
business.
Kind regards,
Alan M. Watkins
LT
>Perhaps I can be of assistance.
Sure you can, Stinkie:
Should Jussi B. and Osie H. ever resurrect, you'll come in handy as
their personal chamberpot at 'bill's bar', a role in which you've
undeniably distinguished yourself back in days of yore.
Ancona21
tinkerer in numerous arcane fields wrote
It is Leonardo's record in the field of Bowel Movement Management
that separates him from the rest of the rectum inspectors.
No one knows dumps like Tillman knows dumps.
L T
>La Stinkona21 Bollmann 'quips':
>Sure you can, Stinkie:
-And still does!!! -Alas, not with ol' Osie and Jussi; There are
surely new micturators around, to 'make their deposjts' directly into La
Bollmann's eagerly awaiting pie-hole.
Pat
>
> It is Leonardo's record in the field of Bowel Movement Management
> that separates him from the rest of the rectum inspectors.
> No one knows dumps like Tillman knows dumps.
======================
I'm glad to see that someone is finally giving Mr Tillman the proper
credit.
Who else insists on rectifying any matter that comes to his attention?
Pat
Ancona21
> On Jun 12, 7:52 am, Ancona21 <Ancon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > It is Leonardo's record in the field of Bowel Movement Management
> > that separates him from the rest of the rectum inspectors.
> > No one knows dumps like Tillman knows dumps.
>
> ======================
>
> I'm glad to see that someone is finally giving Mr Tillman the proper
> credit.
>
Yes indeed. Leonardo has labored over long as a prophet without honor
at RMO World. It's disgraceful that he is so badly underrated. I refer
you to his RMO profile -
( http://tinyurl.com/Leonardos-RMO-Profile ) - at which we learn
that his average rating score is one gold star out of five from a
whopping 5,730 ratings. The meaning of a one star rating is "I
wouldn't recommend this post to my worst enemy". A lesser man than
Leonardo could have crumpled under the pressure of such obloquy, and
would have if not for similar ratings for his treasured posting pal
Virginia Zeani (alias C. Handelman) whose rating score is also one
gold star from a crushing 4,566 ratings:
( http://tinyurl.com/Virginia-Handelmans-Ratings ).
Happily, our Postbusters' genetic material is more tenacious than
Zuul's so we can expect them to be posting here long after kudzu and
ragweed have become extinct.
> Who else insists on rectifying any matter that comes to his attention? >
Look - let's face facts. It takes a man with a deep love for his
subject matter to shovel it out day after day -- love and a good
pair of hip-waders.
A21
L T
La StinkDump Bollmann avers:
>No one knows dumps like Tillman knows >dumps.
Indeed, I do know bollmann and its Ma, dumps if there ever were any.
Reluctantly gained familarity, alas.
Adding to the stenches, Poooor KaaaTheee Finkly's burdensome little
dump, patso the Clown, puked:
======================
>I'm glad to see that someone is finally giving >Mr Tillman the proper
credit.
It's KaaaThee who deserves the credit - for not giving in to temptation
and flushing her little (or not so little?) dump!
>Who else insists on rectifying any matter that >comes to his attention?
Finky and its thug-trust are any and all of such matter.
>Patso the dump/clown
We know.
L T
PS:
I must and do refuse credit for expertise in B's and B-Management;
After all, Boll, its equally ugly little stooge patso the clown, and
their waning infestation of accomplices, with their decalcified,
brainless skulls in deep, mutual cranio-recto 'embrace', are surely the
true experts on such matters.
Ergo, I happily defer to them.
L. Credit Where Due T.
Paul Ferraro
wise man who knows when to defer to those gurus better versed in matters
such as B's & B-Management.
May you live a lifetime, until the next great Italian spinto tenor comes to
the horizon, even should that require a thousand footsteps....
Sri Paulijii
"L T" <tapef...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12225-4A3...@baytvnwsxa001.msntv.msn.com...
Ancona21
> It is written in the the Mahabharata (Bhagavad Gita) that it is indeed a
> wise man who knows when to defer to those gurus better versed in matters
> such as B's & B-Management.
>
> May you live a lifetime, until the next great Italian spinto tenor comes to
> the horizon, even should that require a thousand footsteps....
>
Everybody duck! Here come the V-2 rockets again . .
L T
Re: The Pity is that Sin Moves like Grace, it has so much Virtuexpost
Group: rec.music.opera
Date: Fri, Jun 12, 2009, 11:33pm (PDT+7)
From: Paul Ferraro <donp...@verizon.net>
>It is written in the the Mahabharata (Bhagavad Gita) that it is indeed
a wise man >who knows when to defer to those gurus better versed in
matters such as B's & B->Management.
Those <ahem!> guri (patso the clown, stinkona21 bollslob, and their
fellow slimes) are surely this or any group's Queens of Fecality. Their
'B's' are at each end. Poooor KaaaaTheee, *etc.
>May you live a lifetime, until the next great Italian spinto tenor
comes to the horizon, even >should that require a thousand footsteps....
Oh, at the leastest!! Guaranteed.
>Sri Paulijii
Best,
Swami-In-Training L. Credit Where Due T.
*I'd have expressed deep sympathies to 'Li'l CaytCrottlin' Bollmann -
but, alas, 'she'/it nevah evah EXISTED.