The rest is irrelevance

[pallas_athena]

I haven't been posting much here. One of my unwritten-yet-mandatory rules of blogging is "Don't post unless you have something interesting to say."

Not that there's been a lack of material: speedlime and I prepared our usual Thanksgiving dinner, saw some amazing art, and went to Istanbul! Then esdi_leanne, for her birthday, decided to recreate the dinner party from that one scene in Rocky Horror-- and truly epic it was. I never cease to be amazed at the excellently inspired madness of my friends.

Just before leaving for DC, I saw the Royal Opera's der Rosenkavalier. This opera is like an old friend in whom you keep discovering new reasons to love them.

The ROH's production is an old friend too-- I first saw it back in the '90s, when I was at university, with Ann Murray as a last-minute Octavian subbing in for an ailing Anne-Sofie von Otter. What made it more amazing was that I'd just seen her sing Despina the night before! She sailed through Octavian with grace. That's one hardcore mezzo right there.

The next time I saw that production was one of those once-in-a-lifetime evenings. My grandmother had given me a gift certificate, so I used it to take two of my music-college friends along to see the dream team of Renée Fleming and Susan Graham as the Marschallin and Octavian. Along with Christine Schäfer as Sophie, they were doing the same roles at the Met that year, so the onstage relationships had a natural ease which made the opera work beautifully.

That performance pretty much retired the opera for me. My plans to see the ENO version the summer before last had fallen through, so when the curtain went up on the 18th, that was the first Rosenkavalier I'd seen in over ten years.

It was OK. Neither Soile Isokoski (Marschallin) nor Lucy Crowe (Sophie) were in particularly good voice, but Sophie Koch's Octavian was man enough to hold the stage. Peter Rose's Ochs was more human and less bestial than Ochs is usually allowed to be, and I found myself quite liking that. Thomas Allen was luxury casting as Faninal, and he played it to the hilt. Graham Clark and Leah-Marian Jones as Valzacchi and Annina were having indecent amounts of scene-stealing fun.

I wish the voices had been in better condition. All the cast are fine singers, who in top condition can handle this music with no problem. But Isokoski's middle voice was MIA, along with Rose's low notes, and though I am a fan of Thomas Allen, I have to admit that on that night he didn't quite have the strength for the big moments like "Ein schöner Tag" at the beginning of Act II. But this opera is about human imperfection, after all, and singers are human, much though we might wish otherwise.

So there have been interesting things happening, but when there's been the time to write about them I haven't seemed able to muster the enthusiasm. I could blame the grey of winter for this, but I think it's probably some mental flaw instead.

I hope all of you are staying warm. Firelight and friends are the best antidote to winter.

Comments

[justpolina.livejournal.com]

And you too, my lovely. I will try to add my own brand of vaguely good cheer when you return. Much love in the interim.

(And Annina is one of the wonders of that opera!)