Opera-rah-rah!

As long as we are spending time on the daily songs, let's give some time to Opera-ctober. There were some things that were different about it.

I started it a little late. One reviewed artist had a new release set for October 3rd that I wanted to get in, and other old friends had new releases, so that was one reason. In addition, I was not positive that I could come up with 31 songs.

It's not that there aren't at least 31 good opera songs out there. Between live performances, listening on CD, and in some cases watching on television, I might not even have needed to repeat operas. Still, finding the right recordings was difficult.

I ran into the same issue during Musical May (that was not this year). I may have seen or been in a live performance that had great meaning to me, but what you can find on-line is not always the same. When you have a song that got radio play, there can be different mixes, but the version that you liked is probably out there. You might remember a live performance that wasn't recorded, but in general it is the recording industry and they literally make records.

With opera, some pieces are strong enough that the presentation doesn't matter so much. In many cases those get referenced enough that you don't need to be a big opera fan to recognize them - "La Donna E Mobile", "La Habanera", "Largo Al Factotum - even if those titles don't sound familiar, the opening bars will.

For other, I know a lot of it had to do with the staging. When I listen to recordings it doesn't sound quite the same. Similar, but not the same.

There are also two pieces that I don't think get the attention that they deserve, but I will pick up with those Monday. For right now, I am just going to revel in some opera memories that were visual as well as auditory. They are more precious to me now, because even though I still end up there periodically, I hate the current director's taste. That makes it even more tragic that the reason Robert Bailey retired was more being exhausted with fundraising than with staging productions.

• My first live opera, Rigoletto in 1998. The set was gorgeous, and looked very Italian, but I hadn't realized that they would be able to make the sun set and turn into night. I went for "La donna e mobile", but the show was beautiful for ears and eyes.
• That same season's production of Faust was the best I have seen (three versions now). There were many wonderful things about it (and I can't believe the reviewer had to ask why Faust was left with the dream Marguerite instead of Marguerite herself). The most visually stunning moment was when Mephistopheles peeked out from behind a red satin curtain, and began walking forward, pulling the curtains forward and bathing the stage in red as he detailed his plans of seduction. The peril of live theater is that on a different night the curtain got caught on something (a friend of mine was there), marring the effect, but when I saw it, it was perfect.
• Also that season (it was a really good season), they did a Julius Caesar with mostly modern dress. For "V'adoro pupille", Cleopatra was dressed in pink taffeta. It is usually staged as her performing for Caesar with some distance, and here too. However, at the start he got the end of her wrap, a very long piece of fabric that when gathered around her shoulders looked white, but when stretched out was practically transparent, except for the sequins, which you also could not see except when the light hit them. So it was like the lovers were connected by a band of twinkling stars. Probably a pretty simple costuming detail, but I thought it was magical.
• La Belle Helene came later, but it had a similar mix of modern and classical dress. The costume for Paris was jeans, a leather arm band, and long blond hair. No shirt. Later on there was a tux, and then a cassock over the jeans for a disguise, filled with pink hearts when he opened the cassock. It was silly but also pretty sexy, which left me with a ridiculous crush on Tracey Welborn that made his return for The Pearl Fishers that much more appreciated.
• I have seen I Pagliacci live at Portland Opera, and it was a good production and pairing it with Carmina Burana works, but there was another production of I Pagliacci that I saw on PBS that was fantastic. Nedda was on a swing for "Stridona Lassu" which I thought really heightened the longing and nostalgia of the aria. Then for the conclusion, the stage for the performance within the performance rotated. Instead of stabbing, Canio takes out Nedda and Silvio with single whacks of a cleaver and they fall just near each other but not touching and it is circling as Canio gives the final line. It's an abrupt ending anyway, but that was an incredibly impactful delivery.
• This is not particularly visual, but I need to look up a name. For the 2003 production of Le Nozze di Figaro, Figaro was just the best baritone. It may have stood out more because usually the tenor is the lead anyway, so it feels different to have the deeper voice leading, but he was superb.

The full list:

10/8 “La Donna E Mobilie” from Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Luciano Pavarotti

10/9 “So anch'io la virtu magica” from Donizetti's Don Pasquale, performed by Mirella Freni

10/10 “V'adoro pupille” from Handel's Julius Caesar, performed by Natalie Dessay

10/11 “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, performed by the Atlanta Symphony

10/12 "Stridona Lassu" from Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, performed by Anna Moffo

10/13 “La Habanera” from Bizet's Carmen, performed by Elina Garanca

10/14 “Sempre libera” from Verdi's La Traviata, performed by Roberta Peters

10/15 “Je crois entendre encore” from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, performed by Lawrence Brownlee

10/16 “Non ti scordar di me” from Verdi's Il Trovatore, performed by Luciano Pavarotti

10/17 ”Barcarolle” from Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffman, performed by Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca

10/18 “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini's Turandot, performed by Daiyu Qiang

10/19 “To America I Sailed on a Ship Called Hunger” from Bolcom's A View From the Bridge, performed by Adam Walton

10/20 “This is Prophetic” from John Adams' Nixon in China, performed by Carolann Page

10/21 “Va Pensiero” from Verdi's Nabucco, performed by K&K Philharmoniker and Opernchor

10/22 “Largo al Factotum” from Rossini's The Barber of Seville, performed by Dmitri Hvorostovsky

10/23 “Scena del Giudizio” from Verdi's Aida, performed by the Teatro Greco di Taormina

10/24 “Flower Duet” from Delibes' Lakme, performed by Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca

10/25 “La galere de Cythere” from Offenbach's La Belle Helene, performed by the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra

10/26 “Quale occhio al mondo” from Puccini's Tosca, performed by Jose Carreras and Montserrat Caballe

10/27 “Ah Paraseusse Fille” from Gounod's Faust, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra

10/28 “Auto da fe” from Bernstein's Candide, performed by the Royal National Theater Company

10/29 “A cenar teco me invitasti” from Mozart's Don Giovanni, performed by Franz-Josef Selig and Carlos Alvarez

10/30 “Che faceste?” from Verdi's Macbeth, company at La Scala

10/31 “Wolf Glen Scene” from Von Weber's Der Freischutz