Oberon's Grove

Larissa Diadkova as Fricka

Larissa Diadkova (above) is Fricka and Mikhail Kit is Wotan in the Act Ii confrontation scene from Wagner's  DIE WALKURE.

Larissa Diadkova & Mikhail Kit - WALKURE Act II scene - w Sergeeva - Met-bcast 2005

Gunther Schuller: Of Reminiscences And Reflections

Above: composer Gunther Schuller

Passing some of the time while sheltering in place by re-reading my twenty-volume opera diary, I came upon an entry dating from the Spring of 1997 detailing a concert by the Hartford Symphony. It seems that I was very taken that evening with a work by Gunther Schuller entitled Of Reminiscences And Reflections. I'd never heard this music again after that first encounter, but I got to wondering how I would feel about it now.

Of course, I found the music on YouTube: you can listen to it here.

Below is the program page from the Hartford performance:

And this is what I wrote in my diary:

"...the revelation here was Gunther Schuller's Of Reminiscences and Reflections, conducted by the composer. I kept hearing Salome, especially near the end of the 20-minute work. The textures are rich and varied, giving an impression in certain passages of dark clouds drifting across a night-time sky, sometimes allowing stars to shine thru. The percussionists had a real workout. Overall, it was quite thrilling, and the orchestra played very well."

Listening to it now, some twenty+ years on, I was again impressed. The piece was composed in 1992 as a response to the death of Mr. Schuller's wife; a feeling of the threat of engulfing tragedy suffuses much of the music.

~ Oberon

Opera's Greatest Love Duet

Béatrice Uria-Monzon and Roberto Alagna are seen in both rehearsal and performance of "Nuit d'ivresse", the love duet from Hector Berlioz' LES TROYENS from a concert given at Marseille in 2013. Lawrence Foster conducts.

Watch and listen here.

Britten's LES ILLUMINATIONS ~ Roxana Constantinescu

Roxana Constantinescu (above) sings Britten's LES ILLUMINATIONS in a performance from the Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, 2014. Pekka Kuusisto is the concert-master.

Watch and listen here.

Second Twilight

Above: Birgit Nilsson as Brunnhilde

On December 14th, 1963, I heard Wagner's GOTTERDAMMERUNG (Twilight of the Gods) for the second time. I had been an ardent opera fan for almost 5 years, but delving into the Wagner repertoire was still somewhat daunting. I had first heard GOTTERDAMMERUNG 1962, finding parts of it thrilling and other sections less so. The 1963 broadcast felt more accessible musically, and details of the plot seemed clearer to me.

I recently discovered that the 1963 GOTTERDAMMERUNG broadcast has been posted on YouTube. Listen here.

Brünnhilde: Birgit Nilsson; Siegfried: Hans Hopf; Hagen: Ernst Wiemann; Alberich: Gerhard Pechner; Gunther: Norman Mittlemann; Gutrune: Mary Curtis-Verna; Waltraute: Mignon Dunn; Woglinde: Mary Ellen Pracht; Wellgunde: Rosalind Elias; Flossilde: Gladys Kriese; First Norn: Lili Chookasian; Second Norn: Mignon Dunn; Third Norn: Mary Curtis-Verna; Conductor: Joseph Rosenstock

Actually seeing a RING opera was still i my future, but once I had attended the matinee of Karajan's magnificent RHEINGOLD in 1969 (part of an unforgettable weekend), the Cycle became an obsession for me. Echoing Wotan: "Den Ring muss ich haben!"