Opera-tunity knocks: This week at the Met

"Don Giovanni" at the Met this week.

I want to go back to watching the MetOpera's opera stream.

Remember, I was going great guns with it back in April, when we were in the depths of the lockdown. I quickly fell behind with it because I got hooked on Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" and began watching it over and looking for different versions. Then there was Wagner week and I caught a few of the Wagner operas as I recall. And then .... and then ...

And then I guess what happened to me was like what happened to everyone else as we went through the Coronavirus craziness. The weeks began passing faster and faster and running into each other and now suddenly it is months later and I have not watched one single other Metropolitan Opera opera.

But now I do believe I will start again. I was just looking at what is coming up.

In the next week -- the week beginning August 2 we are talking -- they have two Mozart operas coming up, "The Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni." There is also a "Madame Butterfly" with Roberto Alagna and a "Parsifal" with Siegfried Jerusalem.

"Parsifal" is a little heavy for me though Leonard Pennario liked it a lot. I might watch it to try to see what he saw.

There is an illustrated synopsis for "The Magic Flute." Cute!

There is also an interesting essay about "Don Giovanni" which I have been enjoying picking over. There is a trend these days, say I, to see Don Giovanni as not a bad man but as a rather attractive rebel, a man who insists on his own happiness. I am saying it is a trend because when I saw the opera in Toronto a few years ago, they took that tack.

I admire this essay for acknowledging the Catholic background to the opera, and the literal nature of hell. The director, Michael Grandage, suggests that literal interpretation is something quaint, something the public in general might have trouble understanding. I do not have that trouble, I will tell you that. I believe hell exists. But Grandage has a point, I do not think a lot of people would agree with me. It is nice that he would even explore this topic because Mozart's Catholicism informs so much of his work and few musicologists acknowledge that.

What else is on tap this week? Handel's "Agrippina." They keep giving us this Handel in modern dress and pointing out political parallels to modern times ....

...  I don't know, not to use the language of Don Giovanni but are people seduced by this? Have these operas drawn audiences and gained fans? They seem to me tough to swallow.

But anyway ....

A lot to look forward to this week, if I get back into the opera saddle!

Getting a handle on Handel

This evening my mom and I were lying around listening to Handel's "Messiah." And I got to thinking..

We like "Messiah" so much. But then again, we have heard it a thousand times.

Handel was a really good composer. A few weeks ago I was driving around listening to "Julius Caesar" ("Giulio Cesare," so cool, in Italian) and it did not matter I had no idea about the music or what was going on, I enjoyed listening to it. Every tune seemed to grab me.

So. The big question is: If I went around for a year listening to "Judas Maccabaeus," say ...



 ...and it got so I could sing the airs from "Judas Maccabaeus" the same way I can sing "Oh Thou That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion," would I wind up loving it as much as I love "Messiah"?

I might have to try and find out.

Drama on a grand scale

Last night I saw "The Nutcracker" at Shea's. And at intermission, emboldened by a glass of wine, I mentioned to my friends how cool it is that the Grand Pas De Deux near the end of "The Nutcracker" is really just a simple scale, going down.

It is fun to play the game of what themes are just a scale. It is something you can think about while you are falling asleep.

I have two good examples of ascending scale but Blogger is defective when it comes to posting videos and I do not, alas, have all day. So they will have to wait till tomorrow. For now I have another descending scale. It is funny how a simple descending scale, nothing added, can sound so different from the pas de deux from "The Nutcracker."

It is "Joy to the World"!



There you go, Tchaikovsky and Handel.

A master knows how to work that scale!

We are not amused

We sniff with disapproval on the music associated with Queen Elizabeth II's Jubilee.

Elton John and Paul McCartney, indeed.

We would prefer Sir Edward Elgar.

That music brings a bygone era to life, is what I love about it. What we love about it! Today I am using the royal We. You sense the fuss and excitement and then suddenly it broadens into this thrilling march.

There is also George Frederick Handel.



Or I will offer my earworm of today, "Jupiter" from Gustav Holst's "The Planets." I heard that at the Mass I went to Sunday and I could not get it out of my mind. They made the noble melody into a hymn which I sang with gusto. But after that I was stuck with it!



Listen to that. That sounds good, even after a couple of days on my brain. Why not use that instead of Paul McCartney and whoever?

Why didn't anyone call me?

The Royalty has their brand to consider.

Do not bow to the times!

The truth about Beethoven

I have been thinking about Mozart ever since yesterday when I wrote about the "Alleluia" from "Exsultate Jubilate" and also since I answered an impassioned comment on this post on Mozart some time ago.

I was thinking about Mozart and Beethoven.

You know what kills me, how experts are always telling us that Beethoven worshiped Handel, but make no mention of Mozart. Or how -- they love this -- Beethoven said that he considered Cherubini the greatest composer of the age.

Yeah, well, whatever.

I will tell you whom Beethoven considered the greatest composer of the age, beyond a doubt.

Mozart.

"But Mary, how do you know?"

Did he write about it? Not that I know of.

Did he come to me in a dream and whisper it to me as I lay sleeping?

No.

But here is how I know.

Beethoven considered Mozart the greatest composer of his age because how could he not.

Beethoven was not stupid.

There was nobody who could half measure up to Mozart. Mozart's music must have haunted Beethoven every step of the way. It must have felt like chains on his ankles, this genius who had come before him. If he did not talk about it that could have been why. If you are a proud person, which Beethoven was, it is hard to talk about something that haunts you, that frightens you, that intimidates you and humbles you.

Imagine coming after Mozart. Someone who set the bar so incredibly high. And with no apparent effort. Someone who, your reason tells you, must come along only once in a million years. That piece my anonymous correspondent mentioned...



Or the 24th piano concerto, in C minor? We do have Beethoven's reaction to this piece on record. He said to a friend, "We will never be able to do anything like this."



Such a long shadow this little man cast. It can not have been easy for Beethoven.

But surely it was true.

Too hot to Handel

Today is all about Handel! That is the hand dealt me today.

I know, that means we won't have a sexy picture the way we had yesterday. But we will still have some good listening. That is for sure. And we do have a pretty good picture today, admit it. It is of Handel without his wig!

The first thing that happened today Handel-wise was my friend Larry emailed me with this story about Handel. Larry is my Internet friend who posts all those exciting Leonard Pennario performances on You Tube. He got onto Pennario because he was researching the recordings of the conductor and composer Rene Leibowitz, and he happened on the magnificent recordings of Liszt's Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2 that Leibowitz and Pennario made together. Now we are a You Tube team, Larry and I.

Larry found this story about Handel that suggests that Handel was a glutton who died of lead poisoning.

Didn't they say the same thing about Beethoven? I know lead poisoning was supposed to have had something to do with his death. Last time I checked, anyway. These things change.

I wrote back to Larry saying that the sour humorless comments on the story cracked me up, and that if we ran this story in Buffalo everyone would be weighing in identifying with Handel and cracking jokes about wings and beer. Even with the sour comments, though, it makes for an interesting read. Poor Handel. Who can blame him for liking his food? Imagine living in the inhospitable early 18th century, with horse do in the streets and sewage everywhere and probably fear of getting your head chopped off for God knows what. You would have to take your pleasure where you found it. That is for sure.

Oh wait. We worry these days about getting our heads chopped off too! Or sawed off, anyway. Well, still.

The other Handel happening was the video that was sent to my Leonard Pennario blog by my erudite and generous friend Ward. It is of the "Hallelujah Chorus."

This makes for fine listening but you cannot cheat, you have to watch it at the same time. Access it here. I was wondering at first if it was from Buffalo's St. Paul's Cathedral because that is where Ward is from but Ward said darkly that no, he had the suspicion it was cribbed from Boston's Gay Men's Chorus.

Wherever it comes from, it is a hoot. The best part is how you can hear the people laughing as they are filming it.

Hallelujah!