La Bohème at the Met Opera!

A few friends and I got rush tickets to the Metropolitan Opera's production of La Bohème yesterday. I've never seen it live before (even though I have three different recordings on my computer). It was absolutely worth the experience; the show was spectacular. I can't believe what I've been missing. (Rodolfo's character, especially, tugs at my heartstrings.)

It's always interesting listening to music with lyrics in a language I don't know, because so much more of my understanding depends on the vocalists' interpretations of their parts. (The Met Opera has electronic panels on the back of each seat displaying translations of the lyrics, but I tried not to rely on that, because watching the staging of the production is a huge part of the experience.) You can always get a rudimentary understanding of what's going on, because there's enough overlap between the various Romance languages (though that leaves German lyrics nigh impossible), but the nuances are really up to the vocalists, in their facial and body language down to the minute inflections of their lines. For instance, in this production, the audience could tell in the first act the exact moment when Benoît loses control of the situation at Rodolfo's apartment -- you could tell by his posture and the vocals of the other characters how inebriated he was getting.

Another element I've noticed: it's hard for any stage performance to adequately develop character, because it's constrained to about two hours, and there's only so much of each character that the audience gets to see. I do like how -- other than the marketplace scene -- Puccini doesn't include any group or choral numbers. The opera focuses narrowly on the lives of the six central characters -- and really only three or four of them are developed at any depth; the small cast lends it a sense of intimacy that you don't often see in some of the larger, more traditionally theatrical operas in the repertoire. It would be a good choice for an indie opera house -- I'm not surprised that Rent (a very creative update on La Bohème where everyone dies of AIDS instead of tuberculosis) remained an Off-Broadway production despite its success.

Now I really must see Rent. I missed both the original production, which closed when I was in high school, and the revival, which went dark quite recently. (I have the soundtrack to that, as well, and I do like how Jonathan Larson includes so many nods to Puccini.) I've heard mixed reviews of the film, but one of these same friends is organizing a screening of the original production -- I'm super excited! :-)

Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever

This came up at another meal (I think it was Josh who showed this to us, but I could be mistaken):

http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/04/a-scientific-at

The opera rap portion is... interesting. Ear-blisteringly so. Give it a listen; it's a bit slow in the beginning, but it becomes hilarious at around a minute and a half.

There has been a lot of scholarly debate over whether our ideas of euphony and cacophony are innate or learned. Music in minor keys, for instance, evokes sadness in western music, but lacks that connotation in some other cultures. I wonder if opera rap might be considered normal, or at least non-comical, to listeners from other parts of the world.

Frank, Wendy, and Sarah's Epic One-Act Opera

Soprano: I love you!
Tenor: You're dying of tuberculosis -- how can you hit those high notes?!?!
Soprano: By George, I am! *dies*
Tenor: Alas! *flails* I will have vengeance!
Baritone Sidekick: On tuberculosis?

(Five points for spotting the wordplay.)

R.I.P. Dame Joan Sutherland

The famed Australian soprano Joan Sutherland passed away yesterday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/arts/music/12sutherland.html?_r=1&hpw

She was one of the titans of the operatic world during the height of the bel canto school. Early in her career, in the 1960s, she was nicknamed "La Stupenda" by Venician audiences who were blown away by her rendition of the Handel opera "Alcina". She went on to portray a number of the most famous Bellini heroines, and is also credited with boosting the career of one Luciano Pavarotti (he surely needs no introduction), who was then a promising young tenor just setting out in the opera world; she later recorded with him one of the authoritative versions of Puccini's Turandot.

Anyhow, I have some of her recorded work, and it's absolutely brilliant. I never, unfortunately, had the opportunity to see her on stage, and now I never will.

She will be greatly missed.

NYTimes: Tips on Scoring Discounted Tickets to Musicals, Plays, Museum Tours, &c. in New York this Summer

A handy article for anyone in New York for the summer:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/travel/28linestrategy.html?hpw

Entertainment in the City isn't cheap; Broadway shows, operas, concerts, &c. are mostly beyond your average college students' budgets. The ones that don't cost as much, like museum tours, Shakespeare in the Park, that sort of thing, all sell out ridiculously quickly; I know people who have waited in line, in ungodly hours of night and early morning, to try to get tickets to Shakespeare in the Park. (Yes, the part of me that laments the decline of literacy of the masses is greatly heartened to hear it, even though it means that I didn't get to see Othello last summer.)

Chances are, though, that after this article, people will flock to these once-secret box offices, and these tips will grow obsolete within the summer. Ah, well.

The History of Opera Gloves

I'm making myself a Regency ballgown (for the Stanford Big Dance, which is the big social dance event of the quarter); the theme of the dance is "Pride and PrejuDance and Zombies". As you know (well, now you do) any Regency ballgown requires a pair of opera gloves. I ordered them online (Here's to hoping that they arrive in time!), since I don't pretend to know how to fit opera gloves, nor do I have the time to. Anyhow, here is an article on the history of said gloves:

http://www.operagloves.com/history.html

Expect a smattering of posts on Regency costuming in the coming days; costuming resources, you know.