Hardcore
I've always considered myself just a little bit hardcore. I teach hardcore, I (try to) sing hardcore, and I live hardcore - but it's only today that I've realized that I really am hardcore...
Last Tuesday, while napping on my mom's new tumba-tumba rocking chair, I got a call from Ms Juliet Bien. She was out teacher in Humanities II - Art, Man, & Society. She was a great teacher, she knew everything she had to know about art, and she taught it really well. Anyway, I got a call from her and she told me that she'd found three books about operas containing complete recordings of the operas, their respective libretti and annotations, and commentaries on the composers and the operas. In all, these operas were Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Beethoven's baby and only opera Fidelio, and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (that's not the original title, but the title's in German something like Der Fleder-something Hollander). And they all cost only 360php each!!! I didn't want to impose, but she said it was fine so she bought the last two (because I already have Barbiere), and gave them to me today - I paid her back, of course!
Anyway, up until now, my operatic repertoire is limited to mostly Italian bel canto roles like Norma, Traviata, Medea, Annina, & Leonora (in both La Forza del Destino, and Il Trovatore), and a few French roles like Carmen & Dalila. My German is limited because, for one thing my German accent sucks. As a Filipino who studied a bit of Spanish, I found the Italian words very easy to pronounce; and being naturally nasal has helped me with the French repertoire. But German is very hard and glottal (tama ba?), and so my roles are limited to the arias that I have - the most notable would be Mozart's Der Holle Rache aria by the Queen of the Night in the composer's Magic Flute. I'm also a bit familiar with Isolde and Brunnhilde, but the former I know in Italian, and the latter I find too heavy to sing.
So anyway, these two additional gems to my collection will help me even out the score, and make me a more well-rounded opera cognoscenti. I've always considered the German repertoire extremely heavy - especially Wagner, who developed the style of highlighting emotions with the use of orchestrations (so a Wagnerian singer has to be able to raise her voice above the veil of Wagner's orchestra). His Isolde is particularly moving - the last aria Mild und Liese especially, which is most commonly called the Liebstod where Isolde decides to die after Tristan has died (if you've seen Romeo+Juliet with Leo di Caprio - and who hasn't - you should be able to recognize the 30+second clip of this aria being played at the very end, just as Juliet pulls the trigger on Romeo's Sword). But the liebstod that I own is in Italian, I know I have the German somewhere, I just can't find where I put the mp3.
I'm also familiar with the Ring of the Nibelungs, but only some parts of it. The entire Ring cycle consists of 4 operas: Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), Die Walkure (The Valkyrie), Seigfrid, and Gotterdamerung (Twilight of the Gods aka. Ragnarok). The last three operas contain the most famous soprano role - that of the obese Diva dressed in a Viking's costume belting out loud, unintelligible notes - Brunnhilde, who is the chief of the Valkyries, daughters of Odin. She falls in love with Seigfried, who has come to the possession of the powerful but cursed Ring of the Dwarves. Because of this love, she defies her father and brings about the end of the Norse Gods. Of course, she is punished for her betrayal - thus, The Immolation of Brunnhilde - a 14++ minute aria (solo) where Brunnhilde is chastised for bringing about the death of the Gods.
I'm listening to The Dutchman right now, and I can hear touches of the Ring Cycle - lots of heavy orchestrations, and a deep, rich soprano rising above all the instruments. As I've said, I've always considered the German repertoire (especially Wagnerian roles) very heavy, so I'm having a hard time appreciating this CD. But I like it so far, the story's really simple, but the music is so complex that it lends a certain amount of umph into the entire opus. The singers, by the way, on both CDs are not really famous, I've never heard of them, and the one name that sounds familiar is cast in a minor role, nevertheless, I'm listening to this CD and not minding at all that I can't sing along with it. I'm not hating it either, which means that if I keep playing this CD, I'm going to be able to memorize it, and love it later - unlike another CD that I got on sale, Il Turco in Italia, which is really weird, I mean fine, the ensembles are ok and Callas is in the lead, but I find it really boring - plus, it's a comedy, so it leaves little space for true singing.
The Beethhoven CD, on the other hand, is a bit lighter than the Wagner, because it's been part of contemporary music, and it's written in a very Italian style, with recitatives. If it were French, it would be called an opera comique like Carmen. But since it's German, it's a Singspiel - an opera with incorporated spoken dialogues in between the songs. It's actually quite fun. My Carmen CD has spoken French in it, and this one has German. Parang gusto ko tuloy mag-aral ng German!
Beethoven actually kept revising this opera, and now we're left with five different overtures: Leonore 2, 3, 1, and 4 (written in chronological order because some idiot thought Beethoven wrote number 1 before all the others, when it's actually the third already), and the less performed, but more appropriate Fidelio Overture. I haven't listened to this opera yet, but I got a glimpse kanina when I tested if the CDs were running. There's this quartet in Act I with two sopranos, a tenor, and a bass - danda!! There's also an aria for the lead soprano which aims to showcase the singer's talents. Translation: lots and lots of trills and high notes!!! ^_^
I'm really looking forward to listening to these operas, I just don't have a lot of time yet. It's almost finals and I have a TON of papers to check. Speaking of school stuff - I made a student cry kanina!!!
I told all my students to submit all their requirements by 4:00pm today. I gave them more than a week to revise their major papers, and submit two other minor papers. But this girl came in at 4:15 reasoning that she had waited for her classmates to finish their papers so they could submit their papers. When I told her that I was sticking to my rules, she just fell to the floor and started weeping!!! She actually cried!!! And all the other faculty members fell silent and just waited for me to respond! Of course, when I saw how miserable she was, I wanted to accept her work; but I glanced at some of my colleagues, and they were just waiting for me to break. So I told her to wait for her classmates outside and I will talk to them when all of them were there.
So after a few minutes, I went out the room to see cry-baby with dimple-lady holding her paper plus two other papers. I wonder where the other two girls were? I told them that I had to stick with my rules and that I would only accept their papers after I have checked all the other papers which came on time. If I can't do that before the semester ends - and I have no plans of checking later papers - I would give them Incompletes: their classcards would be marked Incomplete but they have a year to complete that. Since they already had their final papers, all they had to do was to wait for me to finish checking papers this sem, and hand theirs to me so I can give them grades - no deductions, no nothings. Translation: Late papers = late grades. Ang bait ko no? If I had given them 5.0s (and I could have!), they would all probably fail the course because the papers that they needed to submit accounted for 60% of their final grade.
That's it for now!! My cousins just arrived from the States, and we'll be taking them to Boracay next week. It's my first time to go there, hihihi! Excited aku! Hihihi!!!
Anyway... ang cute talaga ng Dutchman, hihihi! Gusto ko na tuloy maging Wagnerian soprano!!! Hojotohoooooo!!!!!
Last Tuesday, while napping on my mom's new tumba-tumba rocking chair, I got a call from Ms Juliet Bien. She was out teacher in Humanities II - Art, Man, & Society. She was a great teacher, she knew everything she had to know about art, and she taught it really well. Anyway, I got a call from her and she told me that she'd found three books about operas containing complete recordings of the operas, their respective libretti and annotations, and commentaries on the composers and the operas. In all, these operas were Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Beethoven's baby and only opera Fidelio, and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (that's not the original title, but the title's in German something like Der Fleder-something Hollander). And they all cost only 360php each!!! I didn't want to impose, but she said it was fine so she bought the last two (because I already have Barbiere), and gave them to me today - I paid her back, of course!
Anyway, up until now, my operatic repertoire is limited to mostly Italian bel canto roles like Norma, Traviata, Medea, Annina, & Leonora (in both La Forza del Destino, and Il Trovatore), and a few French roles like Carmen & Dalila. My German is limited because, for one thing my German accent sucks. As a Filipino who studied a bit of Spanish, I found the Italian words very easy to pronounce; and being naturally nasal has helped me with the French repertoire. But German is very hard and glottal (tama ba?), and so my roles are limited to the arias that I have - the most notable would be Mozart's Der Holle Rache aria by the Queen of the Night in the composer's Magic Flute. I'm also a bit familiar with Isolde and Brunnhilde, but the former I know in Italian, and the latter I find too heavy to sing.
So anyway, these two additional gems to my collection will help me even out the score, and make me a more well-rounded opera cognoscenti. I've always considered the German repertoire extremely heavy - especially Wagner, who developed the style of highlighting emotions with the use of orchestrations (so a Wagnerian singer has to be able to raise her voice above the veil of Wagner's orchestra). His Isolde is particularly moving - the last aria Mild und Liese especially, which is most commonly called the Liebstod where Isolde decides to die after Tristan has died (if you've seen Romeo+Juliet with Leo di Caprio - and who hasn't - you should be able to recognize the 30+second clip of this aria being played at the very end, just as Juliet pulls the trigger on Romeo's Sword). But the liebstod that I own is in Italian, I know I have the German somewhere, I just can't find where I put the mp3.
I'm also familiar with the Ring of the Nibelungs, but only some parts of it. The entire Ring cycle consists of 4 operas: Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), Die Walkure (The Valkyrie), Seigfrid, and Gotterdamerung (Twilight of the Gods aka. Ragnarok). The last three operas contain the most famous soprano role - that of the obese Diva dressed in a Viking's costume belting out loud, unintelligible notes - Brunnhilde, who is the chief of the Valkyries, daughters of Odin. She falls in love with Seigfried, who has come to the possession of the powerful but cursed Ring of the Dwarves. Because of this love, she defies her father and brings about the end of the Norse Gods. Of course, she is punished for her betrayal - thus, The Immolation of Brunnhilde - a 14++ minute aria (solo) where Brunnhilde is chastised for bringing about the death of the Gods.
I'm listening to The Dutchman right now, and I can hear touches of the Ring Cycle - lots of heavy orchestrations, and a deep, rich soprano rising above all the instruments. As I've said, I've always considered the German repertoire (especially Wagnerian roles) very heavy, so I'm having a hard time appreciating this CD. But I like it so far, the story's really simple, but the music is so complex that it lends a certain amount of umph into the entire opus. The singers, by the way, on both CDs are not really famous, I've never heard of them, and the one name that sounds familiar is cast in a minor role, nevertheless, I'm listening to this CD and not minding at all that I can't sing along with it. I'm not hating it either, which means that if I keep playing this CD, I'm going to be able to memorize it, and love it later - unlike another CD that I got on sale, Il Turco in Italia, which is really weird, I mean fine, the ensembles are ok and Callas is in the lead, but I find it really boring - plus, it's a comedy, so it leaves little space for true singing.
The Beethhoven CD, on the other hand, is a bit lighter than the Wagner, because it's been part of contemporary music, and it's written in a very Italian style, with recitatives. If it were French, it would be called an opera comique like Carmen. But since it's German, it's a Singspiel - an opera with incorporated spoken dialogues in between the songs. It's actually quite fun. My Carmen CD has spoken French in it, and this one has German. Parang gusto ko tuloy mag-aral ng German!
Beethoven actually kept revising this opera, and now we're left with five different overtures: Leonore 2, 3, 1, and 4 (written in chronological order because some idiot thought Beethoven wrote number 1 before all the others, when it's actually the third already), and the less performed, but more appropriate Fidelio Overture. I haven't listened to this opera yet, but I got a glimpse kanina when I tested if the CDs were running. There's this quartet in Act I with two sopranos, a tenor, and a bass - danda!! There's also an aria for the lead soprano which aims to showcase the singer's talents. Translation: lots and lots of trills and high notes!!! ^_^
I'm really looking forward to listening to these operas, I just don't have a lot of time yet. It's almost finals and I have a TON of papers to check. Speaking of school stuff - I made a student cry kanina!!!
I told all my students to submit all their requirements by 4:00pm today. I gave them more than a week to revise their major papers, and submit two other minor papers. But this girl came in at 4:15 reasoning that she had waited for her classmates to finish their papers so they could submit their papers. When I told her that I was sticking to my rules, she just fell to the floor and started weeping!!! She actually cried!!! And all the other faculty members fell silent and just waited for me to respond! Of course, when I saw how miserable she was, I wanted to accept her work; but I glanced at some of my colleagues, and they were just waiting for me to break. So I told her to wait for her classmates outside and I will talk to them when all of them were there.
So after a few minutes, I went out the room to see cry-baby with dimple-lady holding her paper plus two other papers. I wonder where the other two girls were? I told them that I had to stick with my rules and that I would only accept their papers after I have checked all the other papers which came on time. If I can't do that before the semester ends - and I have no plans of checking later papers - I would give them Incompletes: their classcards would be marked Incomplete but they have a year to complete that. Since they already had their final papers, all they had to do was to wait for me to finish checking papers this sem, and hand theirs to me so I can give them grades - no deductions, no nothings. Translation: Late papers = late grades. Ang bait ko no? If I had given them 5.0s (and I could have!), they would all probably fail the course because the papers that they needed to submit accounted for 60% of their final grade.
That's it for now!! My cousins just arrived from the States, and we'll be taking them to Boracay next week. It's my first time to go there, hihihi! Excited aku! Hihihi!!!
Anyway... ang cute talaga ng Dutchman, hihihi! Gusto ko na tuloy maging Wagnerian soprano!!! Hojotohoooooo!!!!!
posted by Mikee @ 12:11 AM
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