On Monday, November 15, 2010 at 8:12:03 AM UTC-8, richergar@hotnail.com wrote:

I have had the ocassion to do a lot of reading on MM, and have gained
more more rouned (I hope) understanding of what a really complex guy
he was - always kind of portrayed as a Dostoevskian force of nature
and a drunk, and not much more, Taruskin in particular, and Garpiov,
have been very enlightening in terms of his artistic path, which in
many ways was as inner-directed, and sophisticated, as any composer I
can think of; in fact, I can't quite think of a ready comparison,
excerpt possibly Berg, and I am not so sure that the situations are
really similar. Perhaps thinking of him in the same mental breath as
Leonardo might not be so misleading.
In any event, he left a trail of opera projects and unfinished operas
which one wishes on had complete and which are generally not available
in performance. One, The Marriage, just barely exists as to Act I, and
I have never heard it, although I recently checked out the score. It
is comic and goes along the Dargomeshy (sp) path of being entirely
true to word setting, as opposed to melody. The other (or an other) is Salammbo, based on the Flaubert (who seemed to attract any number of composers to their doom), and I have just found on You Tube a recent
posting of the fragments, under Rostropovich, from a dress rehearsal,
which starts here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg3ZIGR3yFY
I can't believe you won't love the music, or recognize who essentially different it is than Boris or the Kovanschina. The one detriment is
that you have to search a bit for some of the sequential episodes, but
that's easy to do on You Tube, and well worth it.
Enjoy... a very special treat, I think.

(Youtube upload):

Olga Borodina: Salammbô

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