Posts by Balthazar
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Good one! [thumbs-up emoticon which we conspicuously lack...]
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Post #2 specifies that the Question Day resets at 8:30 a.m. CST = 9:30 a.m. EST = 2:30 p.m. GMT.
Or about one hour ago.
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6. Dmitri Tcherniakov.
His re-imagining of Don Giovanni as a familial drama in the Aix production with Bo Skovhus was brilliant. I also appreciated his Met Prince Igor which spared us from another Polovtsian Dances straight out of National Geographic.
His re-imagining of Don Giovanni as a familial drama in the Aix production with Bo Skovhus was brilliant. I also appreciated his Met Prince Igor which spared us from another Polovtsian Dances straight out of National Geographic.
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8. The Saint-Sulpice scene where Massenet's Manon seduces the Chevalier-turned-priest.
"N'est-ce plus ma main, que cette main presse? N'est-ce plus ma voix?"
I know it wasn't there during the time of Louis XIV when the opera is set, but Massenet (along with his audience) was presumably familiar with Delacroix's mural of Jacob Wrestling with the Angel installed in one of the chapels at Saint-Sulpice. No doubt the temporal purists will scoff, but I find it a serendipitously fitting metaphor for Des Grieux's embattled conscience and like to imagine him gazing at it while singing "Ah, fuyez, douce image!"
"N'est-ce plus ma main, que cette main presse? N'est-ce plus ma voix?"
I know it wasn't there during the time of Louis XIV when the opera is set, but Massenet (along with his audience) was presumably familiar with Delacroix's mural of Jacob Wrestling with the Angel installed in one of the chapels at Saint-Sulpice. No doubt the temporal purists will scoff, but I find it a serendipitously fitting metaphor for Des Grieux's embattled conscience and like to imagine him gazing at it while singing "Ah, fuyez, douce image!"
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9. I'll go old school and put my money on Handel. Having dangled a sassy soprano out a window, we know he can walk the walk.
Wagner would probably talk a big game, but when the commotion started, he would probably take the opportunity to run out on his tab. :lol:
Wagner would probably talk a big game, but when the commotion started, he would probably take the opportunity to run out on his tab. :lol:
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But he doesn't commit suicide does he? Or am I hopelessly lost...
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Haha. That explains it. I was a bit confused because your other two picks are indeed suicides!
By the way, thanks for bringing Menotti's The Consul to my attention - I am not at all familiar with it, but it sounds interesting.
:tiphat:
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12. Best a cappella moment: climax of "Son geloso del zefiro errante" from La Sonnambula. Call-and-response arpeggios which then join up. This is where the tenor earns his keep.
From approximately 4:45 to 5:30 in this clip with Dessay and the amazing Florez. Even the poor sound can't mask the remarkable, easy roundness of Florez's high notes:
From approximately 4:45 to 5:30 in this clip with Dessay and the amazing Florez. Even the poor sound can't mask the remarkable, easy roundness of Florez's high notes:
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