Two recent concerts
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthSettings of poems from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal -- Kettle's Yard, 11 June 2009
Lune, eau sonore, nuit bénie ... sang qui se fige
Baritone Jonathan Sells, Piano Marc Verter: settings of Baudelaire's poems by Debussy, Chausson, Duparc, Fauré.
Sells introduced the concert with a brief chat about Baudelaire's sordid reputation: "we're hoping not to offend your sensibilities this afternoon -- it's too nice a day."
Most of the settings were written when the composers were in their twenties, between about 1870 and 1890. They certainly pick up on the lush decadence of Baudelaire: the lyrics reminded me strongly of such Goth and emo staples as the Creatures. Would we have had Fleurs du Mal if SSRIs had been invented? Perhaps not.
Fascinating musical settings, anyway, though I would have liked more piano, less voice.
Threepenny Opera (Weill) -- Barbican, 12 June 2009
The world's no good and man's a mess
This should have been more interesting than it was. Performed by classical singers instead of the usual rock / popular / jazz types: conductor HK Gruber also took the part of Mr Peachum (pleased, he says in the programme, that the singers thought of him as 'one of them'). The orchestra got to stand up and join in as chorus, still playing, in the wedding scene. And Ian Bostridge was MacHeath. But ...
... sung in German with English surtitles -- for the edification of the pre-adolescent girl sitting behind us -- and German isn't my favourite language for song. Worse, although the Barbican Hall has excellent acoustics they didn't work: I could barely hear Bostridge over the orchestra. No costumes, no acting-out -- a contrast to the concert performance of Golijov's Ainadamar, where the singers assumed their roles with utter conviction despite lack of props.
I wasn't convinced by the contemporisation (is this a word? Is it the right one?) of the libretto: lines like "All afternoon they work out at the gym" jarred.
We left at the interval: F unwell, S exhausted and me just not engaged.
Lune, eau sonore, nuit bénie ... sang qui se fige
Baritone Jonathan Sells, Piano Marc Verter: settings of Baudelaire's poems by Debussy, Chausson, Duparc, Fauré.
Sells introduced the concert with a brief chat about Baudelaire's sordid reputation: "we're hoping not to offend your sensibilities this afternoon -- it's too nice a day."
Most of the settings were written when the composers were in their twenties, between about 1870 and 1890. They certainly pick up on the lush decadence of Baudelaire: the lyrics reminded me strongly of such Goth and emo staples as the Creatures. Would we have had Fleurs du Mal if SSRIs had been invented? Perhaps not.
Fascinating musical settings, anyway, though I would have liked more piano, less voice.
Threepenny Opera (Weill) -- Barbican, 12 June 2009
The world's no good and man's a mess
This should have been more interesting than it was. Performed by classical singers instead of the usual rock / popular / jazz types: conductor HK Gruber also took the part of Mr Peachum (pleased, he says in the programme, that the singers thought of him as 'one of them'). The orchestra got to stand up and join in as chorus, still playing, in the wedding scene. And Ian Bostridge was MacHeath. But ...
... sung in German with English surtitles -- for the edification of the pre-adolescent girl sitting behind us -- and German isn't my favourite language for song. Worse, although the Barbican Hall has excellent acoustics they didn't work: I could barely hear Bostridge over the orchestra. No costumes, no acting-out -- a contrast to the concert performance of Golijov's Ainadamar, where the singers assumed their roles with utter conviction despite lack of props.
I wasn't convinced by the contemporisation (is this a word? Is it the right one?) of the libretto: lines like "All afternoon they work out at the gym" jarred.
We left at the interval: F unwell, S exhausted and me just not engaged.
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Date: Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 12:05 pm (UTC)