tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post2567915507453240160..comments2023-09-23T11:52:22.009-07:00Comments on BOOM'S DUNGEON: FemiquaversBoomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16254294523764695548noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-9498057382893664692013-04-09T04:56:21.492-07:002013-04-09T04:56:21.492-07:00I howled with laughter about operatic death from t...I howled with laughter about operatic death from testicular cancer. Thank you!<br /><br />And don't forget Prokoffiev's Maddalena, in which the scheming sociopathic heroine gets her lover and her jealous husband to kill each other. RMChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374925668753408346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-28818862758201383692013-03-18T07:43:02.271-07:002013-03-18T07:43:02.271-07:00As I read Boom's post I realized the topic is ...As I read Boom's post I realized the topic is mighty close to one explored several years ago on a web discussion group "Change one letter to create a new opera". That was highly amusing, this one thought provoking but not without its jovial aspects. Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01918025316257404558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-24979902404912939382013-03-18T04:02:04.264-07:002013-03-18T04:02:04.264-07:00In Benjamin Britten's operas all the victims a...In Benjamin Britten's operas all the victims are men (or a boy) apart from Lucretia - well, he couldn't change history, could he? This seems also to be an exception that proves the rule, as Bengy was not a hetero man, unlike nearly all the other composers mentioned. Ethel Smyth left her pair of traitorous lovers to face the incoming tide in their chains at the end of The Wreckers, a very welkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00495527810915349116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-18838898858667722422013-03-13T15:05:45.303-07:002013-03-13T15:05:45.303-07:00Not that I've spent even as much as one whisky...Not that I've spent even as much as one whisky thinking about it, but I'd always assumed composers (at least in the 19th century) had had to get used to the idea that their star tenor was either (i) unable to sing a convincing dath scene or (ii) unwilling to do so - and that he probably carried more weight than the leading lady, if only because he could argue & shout more aggressivelyDavidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-90932431804728798152013-03-03T08:46:27.757-08:002013-03-03T08:46:27.757-08:00This is a very interesting article. I've never...This is a very interesting article. I've never thought about opera scenarios in this way.You've convinced me. Thanks geofflebowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08818135408000969921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-77757720195612836252013-02-28T06:59:46.580-08:002013-02-28T06:59:46.580-08:00Rootie,
Thank you for the heads-up on "L'...Rootie,<br /><br />Thank you for the heads-up on "L'amore dei tre re". <br /><br />Not only have I not heard this opera, I did not even know anything about it. The synopsis promises such a high body count that I simply will have to listen to this piece (assuming it has been recorded).Boomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16254294523764695548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-17080898602785626022013-02-28T06:51:18.286-08:002013-02-28T06:51:18.286-08:00It's so much more fulfilling when everybody di...It's so much more fulfilling when everybody dies at the end, whether simultaneously or in sequence, regardless of order (Tosca, Amore di tre Re (you know that once off stage, old man Archibaldo is going to keel over from grief and heart stress from having to carry his daughter-in-laws body around at the end of act 2).Rootiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12278779480380235860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-86555703299042116242013-02-27T07:06:20.205-08:002013-02-27T07:06:20.205-08:00Christopher,
I think it is premature to include Sa...Christopher,<br />I think it is premature to include Saariaho's opera in the standard repertoire. But if we grant it a place on the fringes of SR, it will join a number of other (older) operas in which only men die:<br /><br />1. In von Schilling's MONA LISA, Mona's love Guido is murdered. But instead of following him to the afterlife, she kills his murderer (her husband).<br /><br />Boomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16254294523764695548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-32052174817871280212013-02-26T17:39:57.083-08:002013-02-26T17:39:57.083-08:00Virtually every black actor can attest to the actu...Virtually every black actor can attest to the actuarial slaughter attached to black men...there is an apocryphal tale of such a would-be victim, presented with a script for his approval, skimming rapidly through the pages, and when asked why the rush, responding, "I just want to see where I die."<br /><br />Real life female mortality was so commonplace in the nineteenth century, layblhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18239429370851066412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-84619170805731845052013-02-26T16:02:28.409-08:002013-02-26T16:02:28.409-08:00Good to see you around; the cobwebs were getting t...Good to see you around; the cobwebs were getting thick.<br /><br />Your data are slightly skewed though, achieved by cheerfully overlooking a couple hundred years' worth of material before the earliest one on your list (not sure of dates, but I think it would be <i>Lucia</i>).<br />Back when (as the saying goes) operas were operas and the sopranos were men, morbidity/mortality rates were muchRanapipienshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10513059153198015732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-19343539450455535322013-02-26T15:47:48.172-08:002013-02-26T15:47:48.172-08:00Kaija Saariaho’s *L’Amour de loin*, which has prac...Kaija Saariaho’s *L’Amour de loin*, which has practically entered the standard repertoire now, ends with the death of its male protagonist.<br /><br />Doesn’t Nekrotzar die at the end of Ligeti’s *The Grand Macabre*?<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427944003603852488.post-51848178898631185112013-02-26T14:44:42.266-08:002013-02-26T14:44:42.266-08:00Even as they are dying, the great soprano role'...Even as they are dying, the great soprano role's VOICES are triumphant, and in some sense the raison d'etre for opera. That's what I learned from Carolyn Abbate.<br /><br />a quick 2 cents!<br /><br />john schotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16313960961501577603noreply@blogger.com