Classical Bookworm

Manon: Toi! Vous!

Make sure the kiddies aren't in the room—this is hot stuff!

Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón in Massenet's Manon (III.ii)

Mesopotamian Monday: Golden Goat from Ur

Here is an impressive statuette from Ur (now in Iraq), 45cm tall, 2600–2400 BC. More explanation from the British Museum below.

Canadians Who Like Culture Like Culture

The other day Jon Stewart made fun of a TV pundit who proclaimed that the Super Tuesday results proved that "voters like to vote for who they like." Just as obvious is a new study that shows that Canadians who like cultural activities like other cultural activities.

• Compared to the Canadian average of 67%, the book reading rate is particularly high among Canadians who visit an art gallery (85%), visit another type of museum (82%) or attend a performing arts event (between 77% and 80% for various types of performances).
• Compared to the Canadian average of 41%, the performing arts attendance rate is particularly high among Canadians who visit an art gallery (68%), visit another type of museum (65%) or visit an historic site (59%).
• Compared to the Canadian average of 27%, the art gallery attendance rate is particularly high among Canadians who visit another type of museum (60%), attend a cultural festival (51%) or visit an historic site (49%).
• Compared to the Canadian average of 61%, the movie theatre attendance rate is particularly high among Canadians who attend a cultural festival (79%), listen to downloaded music (79%), attend a performing arts event (between 77% and 79% for various types of performances) or visit an art gallery (78%).

King of the High C's

"Pour mon Âme" - La Fille du Regiment - Donizetti

More on Rings and Happy Endings

I was reminded of how some people compare The Lord of the Rings with Wagner's Ring Cycle, and it occurred to me that I find the ending of the Ring Cycle far more satisfying than the ending of Tolkien's story. There are some similarities between them: the rings of power are both destroyed (or at least placed out of reach); and the rule of supernatural beings ends. In both, humans (or mortals in general) become free to decide their own destinies. How this comes about, dramatically, couldn't be more different, though.

In the Ring Cycle, it is the gods and demi-gods who are the main characters, not humans (or mortals, in the Tolkien). In the end they are destroyed, while the immortals in LOTR, as well as the central hero, Frodo, are rewarded with eternal life in what sounds like a Garden of Eden. In the Ring Cycle, salvation comes, inadvertently, from the gods themselves—the hero Siegfried defeats the king of the gods, Wotan (his grandfather), but is later killed by treachery, and the heroine Brünnhilde (daughter of Wotan) sacrifices her immortality and then her life, and relinquishes the ring of her own free will. The story ends with a great conflagration at Valhalla and incredibly beautiful music (which always gets me boo-hooing) heralding the age of freedom for humanity.

Obviously Wagner has an advantage in being able to use music to elicit emotions, but I still think the way he ends his story, with so much loss and sacrifice, but also unalloyed Joy (to use Tolkien's word), is much more powerful than Tolkien's romantic Happy Ending. I just can't figure out why, other than to suppose that Wagner was just better able to tap into the primal power of myth. I'm really not sure what that is, but I suspect it goes beyond both romance and tragedy; perhaps it is the best of both. Perhaps it is simply the art of catharsis. I know there are one or two of you out there who are familiar with both works—what do you think?

Mexicans Line Up Around the Block to See Frida

This was the scene on the last day of the centennary Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. People waited up to seven hours to see the largest ever collection of Kahlo's artworks and artifacts, which included 65 oil paintings and over 100 photographs. More than 420,000 people saw the exhibit over the course of two months,  smashing the attendance record (323,000) set by the three-month Goya exhibition. I think Frida would have liked that.

Well Done, Richard Bradshaw

I was very sorry to learn, today, that Richard Bradshaw, conductor, artistic director, and general director of the Canadian Opera Company, died last night of a heart attack. I only became familiar with him last fall when he brought us Canada's first complete Ring Cycle in Canada's first opera house, which he was instrumental in building. As I reported at the time, the whole production was very well received, with the highest praise going to Bradshaw's conducting and to the building itself.

As I read more about his contributions to the arts in his adopted country, I am aware of what a great loss this is, but what a blessing it is that we had him as long as we did. Originally from the UK, he knew what Canada was missing and did his best to raise the profile of the arts here. Just last year he said, "We are a great and rich country and getting richer, but we have Third World investment in the arts." I hope his words will shame us into supporting the arts as we should.

In his honour, here is the funeral music from the third act of Götterdämmerung. The hero is laid to rest...

(James Levine, Metropolitan Opera)

UPDATE: Saturday Afternoon at the Opera will be hosting a live tribute to Richard Bradshaw during their last hour this coming Saturday. By my calculations that should be 5 pm in each time zone. Listen online (in any time zone) here.

Saturday Afternoon at the Opera

No, not that Saturday afternoon at the opera. I had a lovely Saturday afternoon watching a classically-inspired opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). Les Boréades is the story of Queen Alphisa of Bactria (now northern Afghanistan) who falls in love with the mysterious stranger, Abaris. This upsets Boreas, god of the North Wind, who was hoping she'd marry one of his sons. He brings down fierce winter storms and it takes some intervention from Eros and Apollo (who turns out to be Abaris' father by a Borean nymph) to set things aright. The production I saw by the Opéra Nationale de Paris was very simple, with black and white costumes, and quite a bit of ballet, which I like. Here's the description on Amazon:

Director Robert Carsen and his creative team flood the stage with summer blossoms, drifts of autumn leaves, winter snows and thunderous spring storms. The cast of 140 are attired in elegant costumes inspired by late 1940s Dior.

It was as beautiful as it sounds. The singing was also very beautiful, and there was quite a bit of chemistry between the lead characters. I loved it.

You can watch a clip and see more pictures at Opus Arte.

Daphne and Marcela

Today, while listening to Richard Strauss' opera Daphne and reading some explanation in my mythology text, I noticed some similarities between her and Marcela from Don Quixote. Daphne is (or was) such a well-known tale that it could have been the inspiration for Marcela. You decide:

Companion of Diana, [Daphne]'s joy was in the depths of the forests and the spoils of the chase; a headband kept her flowing hair in place. Many suitors courted her, while she cared not for love or marriage; a virgin she roamed the pathless woods. Her father often said, "My daughter, you owe me a son-in-law and grandchildren"; she, hating the marriage torch as if it were a disgrace, blushed and embraced her father saying, "Allow me, dearest father, always to be a virgin. Jupiter granted this to Diana." [Her father] Peneus granted her prayer; but Daphne's beauty allowed her not to be as she desired and her loveliness ran counter to her wish."

—Ovid, Metamorphoses

Das Rheinkürefriedammerung

Wallala! I made it though the Ring in a Day! Sixteen hours of Wagner, and it's all a bit of a blur. The music is swimming through my head like the frolicsome Rhinemaidens. It was very moving and I really got into the drama of it this time, especially the end of Die Walküre (very poignant for daughters). It was only my second complete hearing, and I'm embarassed to say that I haven't actually seen the operas yet. That will soon be rectified.

If anyone would like to listen to this Canadian Opera Company Ring Cycle in a more civilized manner, it will be replayed in September over the course of a week, as originally performed. Don't miss it!