Piece: Gotterdammerung (Act III)
Conductor: Wilhelm Furtwangler
Recorded: Live 1950 at La SCALA in Milan
So this is it, this is the end, the end of one of the most famed opera cycles in history. I admit, I haven't digested it all. I can say that the final 40 minutes are amazing, just flat out beautiful. I can say is that there is this Soprano (most likely Brunhilde) who for about 20 minutes just captures any attention with what must be her sorrow and pain (according to the synopsis her lover just was murdered). I still get shivers just thinking of the vocal mastery, and the amazing composition of her soliloquy.
Besides the music, the one extremely impressive thing about the Ring Cycle is its length. Clocking in just over 17 hours (give or take an hour) there is very little to compare it to. Consider this, the Beatles released just 10 and half hours of music over their 22 singles and 14 albums, which is barely the first 2 and half operas Wagner used for this one cycle. Now we can all argue about quantity versus quality and so on and so on, but when was the last time you watched a movie that was over 4 hours long? Sat for two straight hours as a cast of characters belted words that you might not understand (remember writing an opera in anything other than Italian was taboo up until Mozart and I don't speak German as well I as used to)? But I'm straying from my point. I guess my question lies in with our video-on-demand, Internet wherever you go lifestyles, who's writing 17 hours worth of not just music, but also an accompanying story?
I'm impressed by the Ring Cycle, and one day wish to see it live, without interruption (OK one opera at a time) and to experience what it is supposed to be, a long, epic tale which took years to craft and needs almost a day to discover and possibly a year to digest.
Tomorrow brings something new, and (hopefully) something shorter; because seriously, when I'm trying to cram in an hour and half of music a day, it's hard to also catch all your favorite TV shows, blogs, twitter updates, live feeds and bathe. Luckily I've only had to cut out the bathing.
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Have you noticed that when you don't follow the language the human voice suddenly feels more like an instrument?
ReplyDeleteI know many singers refer to it as their instrument, but I always seem to listen in a different way to it when I can actually understand.
How about you?
I do think that being able to understand the language does make a difference on how I hear the vocals. But for me I think the biggest difference is in intentions of the voice. With opera the voice is there to tell a story with a musical background; but if you take a choral for instance, the vocals are there as part of the music with the story (if there is any) being secondary. It's one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan of opera (or musicals for that matter), the story gets in the way of the music. But that is just my opinion.
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