The Works

[treeve]

Back in 1981, in politically torn Poland, with the waves
looming high of Solidarnosz, Lech Walesa, the hovering
satellite Soviet controls and the accusations of
corruption in Stanislaw Kania's government and scandals
emerging, I was in Warsaw, I was taken to the Teatr Wielki
(Opera Narodowa) to a special performance of Stanisław
Moniuszko's opera Halka (Helen), all part of the prize
tour of Poland, for an essay on the Plight of Children in
the World, and Poland's Architectural Heritage. It was
quite wonderful to be in that opera house, in a private box.

I have been a 'fan' of opera for some years. Partial (if that is the word) to Benjamin Britten, Giacomo Puccini, Serge Prokofiev, Alexander Borodin, Peter Tchaikovsky, Guiseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner.... But, besides VHS and BBC broadcasts that was the only opera that I have ever attended. I have the whole 'Ring' on reel to reel, but without the stage settings and performance, it loses so much.

Many performances of arias, duets, choruses, marches, in all manner of mixes, but again a single song is nice, but like reading five pages in the middle of a novel.

However,
what do you like.
Opera?
Songs from the operas?
'I like Katherine Jenkins anyway, whatever she sings'.
I hate opera, gimme dat drum'n'bass, yo.
Alternatively
Wots Opera ... oo my brain urts ....

 

[tabtab13]

I'm more of a songs from Opera that a whole performance myself. Trouble is, I can never remember the titles. Anything sad and emotional sung by Pavarotti always gets me going - anything happy and jolly doesn't do it for me.

Also like Wagner - 'Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung played at volume is stirring, powerful stuff. Probably not PC to say this and in no way would I want to trivialise the situation or what happened during the war, but in the final days of WW2, the Berlin Philharmonic put on one final performance, and one piece they played was this. Against such as 'backdrop' of the utter destruction of Berlin, people's emotions must have been all over the place listening to it. It's that feeling I like from opera, the gut wrenching heart ache and despair, as I think sadness is a more powerful, longer lasting emotion than happiness.

 

[treeve]

As you say stirs the soul ... it was the same with Poland - Frederic Chopin. One thing that kept them going was their utter conviction, the stirring of the soul, the unified belief and their undying sense of being Polish and proud of their history and heritage. In that year I learned a lot about what is worth keeping and what is worth forgetting. That is why I feel so deeply about crass destruction by what can best be described as Morlocks (Time Machine).

Yes, I too like the Anvil Chorus, and Ride of the Valkyries ... a most incredible cinema moment - the helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now, perfect, the Valkyrie, choosing who is to die on the battlefield. How very Norse, a dark earth moment.

Just remembered, as I am trawing through the memory bank ... went to see Othello in London, somewhere north, it was not what I would say was a good performance. The plot is too intensely wrapped around misunderstanding, it requires a lot of acting as well as the fine music and libretto around 1998?