Classical Listening

[stlukesguild]

Sorry to see that you missed Scott Fitzgerald from the writers StLukes, I hope he's included in the leading others referred to.
Now I am expecting delivery of a couple of tee shirts from New York: a present from an insistent friend. I asked her to send plain ones only, because I'm thinking of ironing on this transfer of an iconic symbol of American music, although obviously I didn't tell her that.

Well... I undoubtedly missed a few others beyond Fitzgerald... but as a result of having spent too long in the excessive heat (nearly 100-degrees f.) over the last few days, I was just too damn lazy to get out of my seat and go to the shelf of American Lit.

I must say you will surely cut a dashing figure in your Dolly T-shirt and will fit right in in any of those above-mentioned biker bars... or upon your next vist to Dollywood:

http://www.dollywood.com/

I shall repay your compliment to American culture with a tip of the hat to a jaunty little British tune in honor of HRH:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA34XC08xHo&feature=fvst

[Vonny]

I didn't realize that what I said was discussed. I won't say too much because I don't know much about Classical music.

It's really a good thing that American men don't attempt to use the word "lovely" very much, because boy, would it ever fall flat!

I'm sure there are multitudes of horrible people in London. I just clashed with one a few hours ago, in fact.

Neanderthal was not the best choice of word, I suppose.

I don't know what the difference is, but there's just something I can't describe. Take Lokasenna, for instance. There's no way this country could have ever produced him. Now, I'm sure there's only one Lokasenna in England or Wales or wherever, but still he had to be born there.

If there's one man in this country who has refinement like Lokasenna, please tell me who he is. Tell me of one that is in any way on the same order.

[Emil Miller]

[QUOTE=stlukesguild;1054942 I shall repay your compliment to American culture with a tip of the hat to a jaunty little British tune in honor of HRH:
[/QUOTE]

Ah yes, prime examples of UK neanderthals prior to the tattooing fetish.

I don't know what the difference is, but there's just something I can't describe. Take Lokasenna, for instance. There's no way this country could have ever produced him. Now, I'm sure there's only one Lokasenna in England or Wales or wherever, but still he had to be born there.

If there's one man in this country who has refinement like Lokasenna, please tell me who he is. Tell me of one that is in any way on the same order.

Now here's a very well known American and one that Lokasenna may resemble when he is older.

[stlukesguild]

Ah yes, prime examples of UK neanderthals prior to the tattooing fetish.

Tattoos are not wholly without their merits



Actually, I'm surprised at your response to tattoos considering your love of all things Asian.

Now here's a very well known American and one that Lokasenna may resemble when he is older.

Something to look forward to. Actually, I quite like this portrait:



I don't know what the difference is, but there's just something I can't describe. Take Lokasenna, for instance. There's no way this country could have ever produced him.

Seriously, I don't know what you are trying to say. Not to question the unique aspects of Lokasenna... or even the fact that undoubtedly he is a product of his culture... but I really think you need to get about more if you have such a jaded view of American culture. There are alternatives to the Neanderthals.

[stlukesguild]

Returning to the raison d'etre for this thread, I have been doing a lot of listening lately to Shostakovitch. AS a result of the glowing reviews of the Naxos recordings of Shosty's symphonies conducted by Vasily Petrenko:







I've long had mixed feelings about Shostakovitch. I loved certain works... but then found others pandered to much to the composer's Soviet masters. At times he struck me as the dutiful worker, squirreling away with one eye looking over his shoulder... rarely ever as audacious as Stravinsky. But for less than $5 US per disc I thought "what can I lose".

My prejudice against Shostakovitch, for one thing. These performances are marvelous... the 5th and 11th especially. (I didn't pick up Petrenko's 10th because nothing I've read in the reviews has led me to believe he has come close to surpassing or rivaling Herbert von Karajan's classic, fiery recording:



In tandem with the Petrenko recordings, I gave another listen to this disc, and what can I say...? "Lovely". Actually the right words would probably be something closer to dynamic, explosive, fiery... And one might use the same terms for the 11th.

Beside Shostakovitch, I've been listening a lot to Verdi's La Traviata. This was the first complete opera I ever watched... on cable television in the classic Zeffirelli film featuring Teresa Stratas and a young Placido Domingo. I listened to it again in the classic Giulini recording...



... featuring that diva among divas...



... and Giuseppe di Stefano. I was so blown away I spent the next hour of so scouring YouTube and watching videos of the classic scenes:

Kristine Opolais performance is particularly... "hot":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTAYNoZSQTA

While I love Anna Netrebko, I simply hate the minimalist stage sets of her recent performance... her performance, however, is stunning as usual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ELC...eature=related

After watching this, however, I think just what might have been... how this opera could have been staged to capture the glitter and opulence of the final days of the Fin de siècle. Certainly no production comes near Zeffirelli's classic film... and both Stratas and Domingo are brilliant. Stratas is as magnificent here as she is in her performance of Strauss' Salome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcKdnkGBSgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc-PjPf-uIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5QHoksdErk

And this one is just cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDhHxIz83Ic

I ended up watching and listening to this opera so much that for days after I kept singing "Misterioso, Misterioso altero..." from Un dì, felice, eterea... although it's doubtful that my singing might seduce Violetta.

[Vonny]

A final response on the subject.

Here is the only American who can hold a candle. And this man is a strong competitor, because there is a lot to him that doesn't appear in his photo. It's not that important, but he has a fantastic body, as well, even though he's about 60. He makes me feel better every time I think of him.

http://www.hcnw.org/Hanson.asp

I have to edit this because, after sitting in meditation for a bit, I realized that "holds a candle" is not correct. This one has a light. He's wonderful. ...Also, I've done some research on this forum, and read the "heroes" thread, so I know who people's heroes are. Heroes are who make them who they are. ...I have never heard this man use the word lovely, but it doesn't matter because he would never display a disrespectful picture of his young colleague's hero in his office.

And also, he wears beautiful silk shirts, and looks better without the suit.

[Emil Miller]

Vonny, I have just had a look at your favourite doctor on the web and by all accounts he is an extremely intelligent man. However, his penchant for silk shirts is something I doubt that Lokasenna shares. Now it is axiomatic that young women have an inexplicable attraction to medicos of all kinds but, while I have never been able to discover why this is, I would suggest that you might find it more interesting if you widen your scope; think of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tom Cruise for example. That's the extent of my knowledge of the current crop of film stars but there are obviously others.

[Vonny]

However, his penchant for silk shirts is something I doubt that Lokasenna shares.

Oh, if you click back on LitNet in about 40 years (or sooner) you'll see that he'll have a PhD wife about 10 years younger than he is putting silk shirts on him, and he'll grow to tolerate them, which is the case with the most handsome American doc, (well, except his wife is an M.D.)... (oh how discouraging.)

Now it is axiomatic that young women have an inexplicable attraction to medicos of all kinds but, while I have never been able to discover why this is,

It's true. I don't know why either! Especially when they're very tall, can sail, and have a lovely sailboat. I'm kidding about this, honestly! But you added a couple of new words to my vocabulary here, Emil.

I would suggest that you might find it more interesting if you widen your scope; think of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tom Cruise for example. That's the extent of my knowledge of the current crop of film stars but there are obviously others.

Schwarzenegger is a politician in California. I was reading in a magazine about how beautiful California was at one time, with loads of wildflowers, and those very deep beaches with powdery, warm sand - before people went there and ruined it. A lot of films I don't watch, so I haven't seen Tom, but I wouldn't turn down his cast-off Nicole Kidman. Oh god, I know better than to come near this place on my drinking night. I'm honestly kidding about Nicole! She's Australian and much too tall, about 8 inches taller than I am... No, I am kidding - Really!

I don't want to be off topic, so let me say that I appreciate Vaughan Williams. Vaughan is quite exotic, and would've been better than my screen name that I put no thought into whatsoever, but that's how it is when you've had little exposure to British Culture.

And I don't think Lokasenna will look like that portrait above, whoever that is. He'll look like his other hero, his scientist father, in a silk shirt.

Have to edit once more: What the doc has going for him is he's a 1 in 10 million doctor and man.

[Vonny]

Returning to the raison d'etre for this thread, I have been doing a lot of listening lately to Shostakovitch. AS a result of the glowing reviews of the Naxos recordings of Shosty's symphonies conducted by Vasily Petrenko:







I've long had mixed feelings about Shostakovitch. I loved certain works... but then found others pandered to much to the composer's Soviet masters. At times he struck me as the dutiful worker, squirreling away with one eye looking over his shoulder... rarely ever as audacious as Stravinsky. But for less than $5 US per disc I thought "what can I lose".

My prejudice against Shostakovitch, for one thing. These performances are marvelous... the 5th and 11th especially. (I didn't pick up Petrenko's 10th because nothing I've read in the reviews has led me to believe he has come close to surpassing or rivaling Herbert von Karajan's classic, fiery recording:



In tandem with the Petrenko recordings, I gave another listen to this disc, and what can I say...? "Lovely". Actually the right words would probably be something closer to dynamic, explosive, fiery... And one might use the same terms for the 11th.

Beside Shostakovitch, I've been listening a lot to Verdi's La Traviata. This was the first complete opera I ever watched... on cable television in the classic Zeffirelli film featuring Teresa Stratas and a young Placido Domingo. I listened to it again in the classic Giulini recording...



... featuring that diva among divas...



... and Giuseppe di Stefano. I was so blown away I spent the next hour of so scouring YouTube and watching videos of the classic scenes:

Kristine Opolais performance is particularly... "hot":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Qtxm8ljsc

While I love Anna Netrebko, I simply hate the minimalist stage sets of her recent performance... her performance, however, is stunning as usual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ELC...eature=related

After watching this, however, I think just what might have been... how this opera could have been staged to capture the glitter and opulence of the final days of the Fin de siècle. Certainly no production comes near Zeffirelli's classic film... and both Stratas and Domingo are brilliant. Stratas is as magnificent here as she is in her performance of Strauss' Salome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcKdnkGBSgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc-PjPf-uIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5QHoksdErk

And this one is just cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDhHxIz83Ic

I ended up watching and listening to this opera so much that for days after I kept singing "Misterioso, Misterioso altero..." from Un dì, felice, eterea... although it's doubtful that my singing might seduce Violetta.

I just clicked that last link, and it is really sweet

Then I watched the top, "hot" one. I like it. But I was wondering, as the others who reviewed it, how she could sing in all of those positions.

[Emil Miller]

I was playing this on the piano this afternoon and just checked out this kid's version. I believe it's what is sometimes called a mannered performance and the look at the end is priceless.

http://youtu.be/7tgMBuQRW_g

[stlukesguild]

Then I watched the top, "hot" one. I like it. But I was wondering, as the others who reviewed it, how she could sing in all of those positions.

I would suggest that what that commentator doesn't seem to grasp is that there are great singers and there are great opera singers. Some great singers have the voice to sing the most challenging repertoire, but they can't act and they can't move about the stage. The great opera singer is both a great singer and an actor/actress. One of the greatest voices in the whole of opera... perhaps THE greatest... Joan Sutherland, was a mediocre actress, visually fit the stereotype of the broad, matronly singer (not the sort of woman that mean are going to fall head over heels in love... or at least lust with as they do in many operas) and was notorious for her poor pronunciation of the non-English repertoire. Maria Callas, the stunning diva in the photo above, did not have Sutherland's vocal abilities, but what she did have was the ability to wrench every possible ounce of emotion out of even the most inane roles. Anna Netrebko, the current Russian opera star in the second video above has a decidedly good voice... perhaps even great. But she also has the look and the ability to carry herself on stage. She can convey deep emotions... or she can vamp it up in a manner that seduces the audience and endears them to her. Here, for example, she is with two other great opera singers all with endearing stage presence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa58TdbRGJ4

Placido Domingo, by the way, will certainly go down in history as one of the greatest singers ever. He is currently still performing... at over 70 years of age. At the time of this recording he was already in his mid-to late 60s!!

[mortalterror]

The great opera singer is both a great singer and an actor/actress.

Ah yes, operatic acting. How else would we know how you felt without the dramatic flailing and running about the stage? Why, we'd have to fall back on the words you are screaming at the top of your lungs or something. These people act like silent movie stars. There are no Katharine Hepburns or Marlon Brandos in the world of opera.

[stlukesguild]

And I don't think Lokasenna will look like that portrait above, whoever that is...

The portraits above, by the way, are of Tom Wolfe, the American writer known for his novels, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff (about the American Space program), and Bonfire of the Vanities, as well as his somewhat reactionary critical writings such as his book From Bauhaus to Our House. Wolfe models himself as the Southern gentleman, always dressed in a white sit, hat, and walking stick and is equally notorious for his conservative, reactionary political beliefs as well.

[Emil Miller]

Spent most of today watching YouTube videos of piano pieces. This one is simply delicious. Someone points out in the comments that at 2.29 it's just magical. I'd say that if it doesn't break your heart it's probably because you don't have one.

http://youtu.be/F_jJ5dsjoEU

[stlukesguild]

And Mortalterror knows all about stage presence when it comes to singers... having based his ideals upon Metallica and AC/DC.