“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
Archilochus
What un unexpected delight, Farmer! I accept it as a great Seasonal Gift, and thank you for it acordingly
I dug up the links and credits, which I think may be helpful to interested parties such as myself. If anyone needs a translation, I'll gladly supply, but it shouldn't be necessary.
COSI FAN TUTTE (So do they all - OR - Everyone does it)
Act I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgnN7s4B5H0
Act II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M3OsRHdWP8
"Drame joyeux" ("dramma giocoso") en deux actes de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, créé le 26 janvier 1790 au Burgtheater de Vienne
Livret en italien : Lorenzo Da Ponte ST : italiano, english, deutsch, français, español
Direction musicale : Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Wiener Philharmoniker & Staatsopernchor
Mise en scène (1988) : Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
FIORDILIGI, dame de Ferrare vivant à Naples : Edita Gruberova (soprano)
DORABELLA, sa sœur : Delores Ziegler (mezzo)
GUGLIELMO, officier, fiancé de Fiordiligi : Ferruccio Furlanetto (baryton)
FERRANDO, officier, fiancé de Dorabella : Luis Lima (ténor)
DESPINA, servante des deux sœurs : Teresa Stratas (soprano)
DON ALFONSO, vieux philosophe : Paolo Montarsolo (basse)
Chœurs de villageois et de serviteurs : Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor (dirigent: Helmuth Froschauer)
Needless to say, it's a superb performance in every detail. I listened to the first act early in the morning. Only Mozart could take an essentially farcical plot, which might easily in lesser hands descend to the level of travesty, and greatly enhance its comedic potential in the context of music of incomparable elegance, beauty and power with settings to match.
I must have breakfast now, and look forward to the second act, very soon.
I posted this opera to better understand some comments of Slavoj Zizek regarding the different motivations of the cynic v. ironist. You might find them interesting as well.
Everything about this production is impressive -- especially the ACTINGm which is rare in Opera, which in the past was too often all about The voice and little else. thing have changed dramatically since "The Golden Age" of the Met, and I happy to add, "THANK GOD!"
Paolo Montarsolo, who sings Don Alfonoso, the mischievous, manipulative, cynical aristocrat who, apparently, amuses himself in his old age by interfering in the natural course of other, younger lives, is so good he almost steals the show.
This is the first time I've ever paid much attention to that role -- and to the abundant recitatives, which can be tedious to those of us who do not understand foreign languages very well, if at all. HOWEVER, the close-ups in THIS filmed production showed the subtlety, sincere emotional involvement, and the abundant wit of the "sung dialogue" (recitative) projected by this wonderful cast.
I'd never heard Edita Gruberova (Fordiligi) sing Mozart before, and was amazed at how beautifully she sang in the style Mozart requires. earlier in her career, Gruberova was known primarily for her incisively brilliant, nearly freakish displays of flashy fioratura.
The lady is getting on now, so this film must have been made sometime ago. I wish I could find the date, but so far no luck. I'm guessing the early eighties. If anyone knows for sure, please tell.
Teresa Stratas, one of the very best singing actresses of our time (please see my article 2012 article on SALOME), is another who all-but steals the show. What memorable CHARACTER she gives Despina, the mischievous maid who gleefully conspires with the elegant-fasinating-but mildly sadistic Don Alfonso!
Does anyone realize how I Love Lucy and all the "sitcom" burlesque that followed is undoubtedly derived from this and other preposterous plots from opera and drama such as Moliere, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and other authors of "Restoration Comedy?"
And THEY probably got it from much older sources long forgotten by all but a few dismal scholars desperately searching for an acceptable topic for their theses, so they can claim "a job with benefits" in the monstrous, cannibalistic, largely-farcical hierarchy that academia is today.
I'm sure Oscar Wilde, who -- shameless exhibitionist that he was -- wrote a play that word-for-word became the libretto for Richard Strauss's Salome en francais! -- and The Importance of Being Ernest among other things-- felt no shame or guilt at his obvious affinity for Restoration Comedy, although Salome -- a very different creature -- must have erupted from the darker, depths of his tortured psyche. Like most of us Wilde was complex, enigmatic, not fully comprehensible.
Except for the occasional, very rare illuminating expressions of brilliance and refinements of style exemplified by such as Mozart, humanity changes little-if-at-all over millennia.
We don't make "progress," all we do is acquire ever more sophisticated, often ridiculous gadgets and follow "trendsetters" by changing costume, hairstyle and outward demeanor and bearing every few years -- all surface stuff.
Mozart and the very few others of his rare kind -- and the Hope of God -- are all that makes it intriguing -- even bearable.
It's all but a musical variation on Comedia dell' Arte. Even the il Dottore character played by Despina delves into its' roots.
The classic, traditional plot is that the innamorati are in love and wish to be married, but one elder (vecchio) or several elders (vecchi) are preventing this from happening, leading the lovers to ask one or more zanni (eccentric servants) for help. Typically the story ends happily, with the marriage of the innamorati and forgiveness for any wrongdoings. There are countless variations on this story...
Opera buffa, yes, sure, but his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte billed it as "A Joyous Drama."
As I have aways believed it isn't where an idea originates that matters so much as how WELL it gets developed.
I suspect we human creatures have always had a penchant for lampooning ourselves, since the Dawn of Awareness.
Life really is absurd, of course, but also wonderful. Certainly a paradox through and through.
I want to read Zizek on all this, but haven't had time -- yet.
Anyway, thanks again for this GREAT TREAT.
I just enjoy it for what it is rather than what it may or may jot REPRESENT, although the latter is always interesting. Just a MAGNIFICENT production all the 'round.
10 comments:
What un unexpected delight, Farmer! I accept it as a great Seasonal Gift, and thank you for it acordingly
I dug up the links and credits, which I think may be helpful to interested parties such as myself. If anyone needs a translation, I'll gladly supply, but it shouldn't be necessary.
COSI FAN TUTTE (So do they all - OR - Everyone does it)
Act I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgnN7s4B5H0
Act II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M3OsRHdWP8
"Drame joyeux" ("dramma giocoso") en deux actes de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, créé le 26 janvier 1790 au Burgtheater de Vienne
Livret en italien : Lorenzo Da Ponte
ST : italiano, english, deutsch, français, español
Direction musicale : Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Wiener Philharmoniker & Staatsopernchor
Mise en scène (1988) : Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
FIORDILIGI, dame de Ferrare vivant à Naples : Edita Gruberova (soprano)
DORABELLA, sa sœur : Delores Ziegler (mezzo)
GUGLIELMO, officier, fiancé de Fiordiligi : Ferruccio
Furlanetto (baryton)
FERRANDO, officier, fiancé de Dorabella : Luis Lima (ténor)
DESPINA, servante des deux sœurs : Teresa Stratas (soprano)
DON ALFONSO, vieux philosophe : Paolo Montarsolo (basse)
Chœurs de villageois et de serviteurs : Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor (dirigent: Helmuth Froschauer)
Needless to say, it's a superb performance in every detail. I listened to the first act early in the morning. Only Mozart could take an essentially farcical plot, which might easily in lesser hands descend to the level of travesty, and greatly enhance its comedic potential in the context of music of incomparable elegance, beauty and power with settings to match.
I must have breakfast now, and look forward to the second act, very soon.
Thank you again.
If anyone is the least bit confused, a synopsis of the plot may be found here:
http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/Opera-Synopses/qt/Cosi-Fan-Tutte-Synopsis.htm
You can turn on the closed captions if you like as well.
Glad you liked it! :)
I posted this opera to better understand some comments of Slavoj Zizek regarding the different motivations of the cynic v. ironist. You might find them interesting as well.
Everything about this production is impressive -- especially the ACTINGm which is rare in Opera, which in the past was too often all about The voice and little else. thing have changed dramatically since "The Golden Age" of the Met, and I happy to add, "THANK GOD!"
Paolo Montarsolo, who sings Don Alfonoso, the mischievous, manipulative, cynical aristocrat who, apparently, amuses himself in his old age by interfering in the natural course of other, younger lives, is so good he almost steals the show.
This is the first time I've ever paid much attention to that role -- and to the abundant recitatives, which can be tedious to those of us who do not understand foreign languages very well, if at all. HOWEVER, the close-ups in THIS filmed production showed the subtlety, sincere emotional involvement, and the abundant wit of the "sung dialogue" (recitative) projected by this wonderful cast.
I'd never heard Edita Gruberova (Fordiligi) sing Mozart before, and was amazed at how beautifully she sang in the style Mozart requires. earlier in her career, Gruberova was known primarily for her incisively brilliant, nearly freakish displays of flashy fioratura.
The lady is getting on now, so this film must have been made sometime ago. I wish I could find the date, but so far no luck. I'm guessing the early eighties. If anyone knows for sure, please tell.
Teresa Stratas, one of the very best singing actresses of our time (please see my article 2012 article on SALOME), is another who all-but steals the show. What memorable CHARACTER she gives Despina, the mischievous maid who gleefully conspires with the elegant-fasinating-but mildly sadistic Don Alfonso!
Does anyone realize how I Love Lucy and all the "sitcom" burlesque that followed is undoubtedly derived from this and other preposterous plots from opera and drama such as Moliere, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and other authors of "Restoration Comedy?"
And THEY probably got it from much older sources long forgotten by all but a few dismal scholars desperately searching for an acceptable topic for their theses, so they can claim "a job with benefits" in the monstrous, cannibalistic, largely-farcical hierarchy that academia is today.
I'm sure Oscar Wilde, who -- shameless exhibitionist that he was -- wrote a play that word-for-word became the libretto for Richard Strauss's Salome en francais! -- and The Importance of Being Ernest among other things-- felt no shame or guilt at his obvious affinity for Restoration Comedy, although Salome -- a very different creature -- must have erupted from the darker, depths of his tortured psyche. Like most of us Wilde was complex, enigmatic, not fully comprehensible.
Except for the occasional, very rare illuminating expressions of brilliance and refinements of style exemplified by such as Mozart, humanity changes little-if-at-all over millennia.
We don't make "progress," all we do is acquire ever more sophisticated, often ridiculous gadgets and follow "trendsetters" by changing costume, hairstyle and outward demeanor and bearing every few years -- all surface stuff.
Mozart and the very few others of his rare kind -- and the Hope of God -- are all that makes it intriguing -- even bearable.
It's all but a musical variation on Comedia dell' Arte. Even the il Dottore character played by Despina delves into its' roots.
The classic, traditional plot is that the innamorati are in love and wish to be married, but one elder (vecchio) or several elders (vecchi) are preventing this from happening, leading the lovers to ask one or more zanni (eccentric servants) for help. Typically the story ends happily, with the marriage of the innamorati and forgiveness for any wrongdoings. There are countless variations on this story...
I suppose that "Technically", Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte is considered to be a work of "Opera Buffa".
Opera buffa, yes, sure, but his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte billed it as "A Joyous Drama."
As I have aways believed it isn't where an idea originates that matters so much as how WELL it gets developed.
I suspect we human creatures have always had a penchant for lampooning ourselves, since the Dawn of Awareness.
Life really is absurd, of course, but also wonderful. Certainly a paradox through and through.
I want to read Zizek on all this, but haven't had time -- yet.
Anyway, thanks again for this GREAT TREAT.
I just enjoy it for what it is rather than what it may or may jot REPRESENT, although the latter is always interesting. Just a MAGNIFICENT production all the 'round.
I just enjoy it for what it is
...just as I enjoy sucking out every available ounce of "surplus jouissance" that can possibly be derived from also knowing what it represents. ;)
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