#operablogging

[elucubrare]

"di rigori armato il seno" from Der Rosenkavalier is a perfect piece of parody - the text is composed completely of the emptiest stock phrases of 18th century opera seria, while the beauty of the melody itself underscores the complete disconnect between technical accomplishment and true emotion, in strict contrast with the scoring of the rest of the opera. it's sung by a hired singer, to highlight the artificial world of the Marschallin and her husband from which Oktavian escapes through his love for Sophie. It's deliberately devoid of real feeling.

so now you're thinking, there's a "but" here, huh? yeah I think it's super gorgeous musically.

[thedupshadove]

For real though, has some sort of multi-day-long opera festival ever taken the opportunity to stage The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro back-to-back, with the same cast in the recurring roles, to really highlight The Abrupt Assholification Of Almaviva?

Wait, hang on, according to Wikipedia almost all the recurring roles have different voice types in the two different shows. Damnit.

[elucubrare]

it is - dare i say - bad that the 2018 Met Traviata has a fairy-tale flavored 1790s aesthetic because that's almost exactly the time period Verdi fought the censors not to set it in (he wanted it to have contemporary costumes because it's about a social issue). i'm always opposed to ~*~gritty, modern~*~ productions of operas* but if there's one it would make sense for it would be Traviata

_

*they look bad

[elucubrare]

aw fuck i'm crying at traviata again, it's been so long

[elucubrare]

i've been listening to L'Elisir d'Amore during long stretches on the elliptical & it is a dumb romcom opera that no one should care about but i do -- and while i've been making "the real love potion was money all along" jokes in my head, the libretto is fairly carefully constructed so that some of the peripheral characters, and therefore the audience, know that Nemorino is rich now, neither Nemorino himself nor Adina know, so the inheritance isn't guiding either of their actions

[elucubrare]

also having Alfredo's sister walk across the set in bridal clothes during the prelude to act III is bad too. no we didn't get the contrast between them from how you've dressed Violetta in white the whole production. please hit me on the head with the comparison hammer, i need it.

[elucubrare]

i keep falling in love with sopranos who sing, like, Wagner and RStrauss exclusively & while i have tried as hard as I can to like both Wagner and RStrauss, i just can't do it

[elucubrare]

Susanna & Figaro ≈ Penelope & Odysseus