I went to the prima tonight at the MET - there are only four performances this season, and while I think there are lots of things Levine doesn't do very well, and things he does badly (like, anything French), this Wozzeck, which he's nurtured over several decades, is one of the peaks of his achievement at the MET, and one of the most satisfying live performances
from him I've heard. The orchestra played with a transparency and beauty of tone which I doubt (with all due respect) many orchestras, symphonic or operatic, could achieve in this music, much less picking it up after several years out of repertoire. While the hall was probably only 2/3 filled, the audience seemed to be with the performance....lots of applause at the end, lusty cheers for Dalayman and Held, and the biggest cheers of all for Levine and the orchestra. It all sounded like chamber music (which I suppose in a way it is, in terms of the intimacy). The orchestra was NEVER too loud, and never occluded, and there were 'comments' on the words in the winds in particular which I'd never heard before. Berg was to me, the greatest of the Second Viennese School.
I thought the level of the singing (as opposed to singing/acting) extraordinarily high, and in Katarina Dalayman the MET has a Marie who can sing this role with as large and solid a voice as anyone I've heard....and I've heard pretty much everyone since the mid 70s. What she lacks a bit for me, ultimately, is any kind of vulnerability or haunted quality....it's neither febrile nor particularly touching, but singing well, in this role,
is a big step. I liveked Alan Held visually as Wozzeck very much...he's a tall guy just on the edge of being beaten down by his world, and it's hard not to keep your eyes on him. I thought his characterization a little more individual. Graham Clark was the Captain, and I don't think I've ever found
a Captain who does what I want with the role - the vocal line is so expressive, that they all seem to hector, and sound a bit like Alberich, and in fact I think the key to the character is that the Captain is maybe MORE trapped than Wozzeck, even if he's not in such a gruesome position economically.....it's the Captain who clings to the life raft of his
position and knows nothing, really, while Wozzeck, although bent on destruction and condemned to live out society's self destruction of him (remember an Artaud essay about Van Gogh, which he titled "The Man Suicided By Society?"), KNOWS something that the Captain will never know. Walter Fink in his house debut couldn't be bettered, I thought, as the Doctor, and the chorus sang and moved wonderfully.
My own connection with this work is an odd one - this is the very first
opera I ever bought. I was 16, and picked it up used at some kind of
farmer's market in Pennsylvania just across the border from where I lived in Delaware. I had no idea what it was. I'd never heard an opera all the way through, and just liked the cover (the LP Harrell/Farrell/Mitropoulos version, which we've all discussed here many times before). I was playing
the cello at that point, and immersed in German symphonic music from the
19th century, which meant, where I was growing up, just the three Bs and a couple of S's and not much more, but from day 1 I just loved the work. I didn't know it was supposed to be hard, and the fact that it was sung in English didn't make me think I shouldn't get it. It would be years before I heard another opera all the way through - in college I took out from the liberry the Sills Devereux and the Moffo Rigoletto at the same time - the Sills because Time Magazine said something about "God Save the Queen" being in the "overture", and the Rigoletto I don't know why - but I didn't get either of them (the operas, I didn't even get to the performances), and it would be a few more years before I'd understand anything about what was
going on on stage, thanks, ultimately, to Mr. Beethoven and the Fricsay Fidelio. There are years and periods when I feel I can't hear another Wozzeck, ever, but this was, musically, a great evening, and I hope you will give yourselves a chance just to listen if you can.
On Tuesday, December 27, 2005 at 9:41:56 PM UTC-8, REG wrote:
I went to the prima tonight at the MET - there are only four performances this season, and while I think there are lots of things Levine doesn't do very well, and things he does badly (like, anything French), this Wozzeck, which he's nurtured over several decades, is one of the peaks of his achievement at the MET, and one of the most satisfying live performances from him I've heard. The orchestra played with a transparency and beauty of tone which I doubt (with all due respect) many orchestras, symphonic or operatic, could achieve in this music, much less picking it up after several
years out of repertoire. While the hall was probably only 2/3 filled, the audience seemed to be with the performance....lots of applause at the end, lusty cheers for Dalayman and Held, and the biggest cheers of all for Levine
and the orchestra. It all sounded like chamber music (which I suppose in a way it is, in terms of the intimacy). The orchestra was NEVER too loud, and never occluded, and there were 'comments' on the words in the winds in particular which I'd never heard before. Berg was to me, the greatest of the
Second Viennese School.
I thought the level of the singing (as opposed to singing/acting) extraordinarily high, and in Katarina Dalayman the MET has a Marie who can sing this role with as large and solid a voice as anyone I've heard....and I've heard pretty much everyone since the mid 70s. What she lacks a bit for me, ultimately, is any kind of vulnerability or haunted quality....it's neither febrile nor particularly touching, but singing well, in this role, is a big step. I liveked Alan Held visually as Wozzeck very much...he's a tall guy just on the edge of being beaten down by his world, and it's hard not to keep your eyes on him. I thought his characterization a little more individual. Graham Clark was the Captain, and I don't think I've ever found a Captain who does what I want with the role - the vocal line is so expressive, that they all seem to hector, and sound a bit like Alberich, and
in fact I think the key to the character is that the Captain is maybe MORE trapped than Wozzeck, even if he's not in such a gruesome position economically.....it's the Captain who clings to the life raft of his position and knows nothing, really, while Wozzeck, although bent on destruction and condemned to live out society's self destruction of him (remember an Artaud essay about Van Gogh, which he titled "The Man Suicided By Society?"), KNOWS something that the Captain will never know. Walter Fink
in his house debut couldn't be bettered, I thought, as the Doctor, and the chorus sang and moved wonderfully.
My own connection with this work is an odd one - this is the very first opera I ever bought. I was 16, and picked it up used at some kind of farmer's market in Pennsylvania just across the border from where I lived in
Delaware. I had no idea what it was. I'd never heard an opera all the way through, and just liked the cover (the LP Harrell/Farrell/Mitropoulos version, which we've all discussed here many times before). I was playing the cello at that point, and immersed in German symphonic music from the 19th century, which meant, where I was growing up, just the three Bs and a couple of S's and not much more, but from day 1 I just loved the work. I didn't know it was supposed to be hard, and the fact that it was sung in English didn't make me think I shouldn't get it. It would be years before I heard another opera all the way through - in college I took out from the liberry the Sills Devereux and the Moffo Rigoletto at the same time - the Sills because Time Magazine said something about "God Save the Queen" being in the "overture", and the Rigoletto I don't know why - but I didn't get either of them (the operas, I didn't even get to the performances), and it would be a few more years before I'd understand anything about what was going on on stage, thanks, ultimately, to Mr. Beethoven and the Fricsay Fidelio. There are years and periods when I feel I can't hear another Wozzeck, ever, but this was, musically, a great evening, and I hope you will
give yourselves a chance just to listen if you can.
Wozzeck sung in English (recent Youtube upload):
Alban Berg: "Wozzeck" Erich Kleiber/Covent Garden/1953 repaired
I went to the prima tonight at the MET - there are only four performances this season, and while I think there are lots of things Levine doesn't do very well, and things he does badly (like, anything French), this Wozzeck, which he's nurtured over several decades, is one of the peaks of his achievement at the MET, and one of the most satisfying live performances
from him I've heard. The orchestra played with a transparency and beauty of tone which I doubt (with all due respect) many orchestras, symphonic or operatic, could achieve in this music, much less picking it up after several years out of repertoire. While the hall was probably only 2/3 filled, the audience seemed to be with the performance....lots of applause at the end, lusty cheers for Dalayman and Held, and the biggest cheers of all for Levine and the orchestra. It all sounded like chamber music (which I suppose in a way it is, in terms of the intimacy). The orchestra was NEVER too loud, and never occluded, and there were 'comments' on the words in the winds in particular which I'd never heard before. Berg was to me, the greatest of the Second Viennese School.
I thought the level of the singing (as opposed to singing/acting) extraordinarily high, and in Katarina Dalayman the MET has a Marie who can sing this role with as large and solid a voice as anyone I've heard....and I've heard pretty much everyone since the mid 70s. What she lacks a bit for me, ultimately, is any kind of vulnerability or haunted quality....it's neither febrile nor particularly touching, but singing well, in this role,
is a big step. I liveked Alan Held visually as Wozzeck very much...he's a tall guy just on the edge of being beaten down by his world, and it's hard not to keep your eyes on him. I thought his characterization a little more individual. Graham Clark was the Captain, and I don't think I've ever found
a Captain who does what I want with the role - the vocal line is so expressive, that they all seem to hector, and sound a bit like Alberich, and in fact I think the key to the character is that the Captain is maybe MORE trapped than Wozzeck, even if he's not in such a gruesome position economically.....it's the Captain who clings to the life raft of his
position and knows nothing, really, while Wozzeck, although bent on destruction and condemned to live out society's self destruction of him (remember an Artaud essay about Van Gogh, which he titled "The Man Suicided By Society?"), KNOWS something that the Captain will never know. Walter Fink in his house debut couldn't be bettered, I thought, as the Doctor, and the chorus sang and moved wonderfully.
My own connection with this work is an odd one - this is the very first
opera I ever bought. I was 16, and picked it up used at some kind of
farmer's market in Pennsylvania just across the border from where I lived in Delaware. I had no idea what it was. I'd never heard an opera all the way through, and just liked the cover (the LP Harrell/Farrell/Mitropoulos version, which we've all discussed here many times before). I was playing
the cello at that point, and immersed in German symphonic music from the
19th century, which meant, where I was growing up, just the three Bs and a couple of S's and not much more, but from day 1 I just loved the work. I didn't know it was supposed to be hard, and the fact that it was sung in English didn't make me think I shouldn't get it. It would be years before I heard another opera all the way through - in college I took out from the liberry the Sills Devereux and the Moffo Rigoletto at the same time - the Sills because Time Magazine said something about "God Save the Queen" being in the "overture", and the Rigoletto I don't know why - but I didn't get either of them (the operas, I didn't even get to the performances), and it would be a few more years before I'd understand anything about what was
going on on stage, thanks, ultimately, to Mr. Beethoven and the Fricsay Fidelio. There are years and periods when I feel I can't hear another Wozzeck, ever, but this was, musically, a great evening, and I hope you will give yourselves a chance just to listen if you can.
On Tuesday, December 27, 2005 at 9:41:56 PM UTC-8, REG wrote:
I went to the prima tonight at the MET - there are only four performances this season, and while I think there are lots of things Levine doesn't do very well, and things he does badly (like, anything French), this Wozzeck, which he's nurtured over several decades, is one of the peaks of his achievement at the MET, and one of the most satisfying live performances from him I've heard. The orchestra played with a transparency and beauty of tone which I doubt (with all due respect) many orchestras, symphonic or operatic, could achieve in this music, much less picking it up after severalhttps://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.classical.recordings/c/uBIPjamMYrs
years out of repertoire. While the hall was probably only 2/3 filled, the audience seemed to be with the performance....lots of applause at the end, lusty cheers for Dalayman and Held, and the biggest cheers of all for Levine
and the orchestra. It all sounded like chamber music (which I suppose in a way it is, in terms of the intimacy). The orchestra was NEVER too loud, and never occluded, and there were 'comments' on the words in the winds in particular which I'd never heard before. Berg was to me, the greatest of the
Second Viennese School.
I thought the level of the singing (as opposed to singing/acting) extraordinarily high, and in Katarina Dalayman the MET has a Marie who can sing this role with as large and solid a voice as anyone I've heard....and I've heard pretty much everyone since the mid 70s. What she lacks a bit for me, ultimately, is any kind of vulnerability or haunted quality....it's neither febrile nor particularly touching, but singing well, in this role, is a big step. I liveked Alan Held visually as Wozzeck very much...he's a tall guy just on the edge of being beaten down by his world, and it's hard not to keep your eyes on him. I thought his characterization a little more individual. Graham Clark was the Captain, and I don't think I've ever found a Captain who does what I want with the role - the vocal line is so expressive, that they all seem to hector, and sound a bit like Alberich, and
in fact I think the key to the character is that the Captain is maybe MORE trapped than Wozzeck, even if he's not in such a gruesome position economically.....it's the Captain who clings to the life raft of his position and knows nothing, really, while Wozzeck, although bent on destruction and condemned to live out society's self destruction of him (remember an Artaud essay about Van Gogh, which he titled "The Man Suicided By Society?"), KNOWS something that the Captain will never know. Walter Fink
in his house debut couldn't be bettered, I thought, as the Doctor, and the chorus sang and moved wonderfully.
My own connection with this work is an odd one - this is the very first opera I ever bought. I was 16, and picked it up used at some kind of farmer's market in Pennsylvania just across the border from where I lived in
Delaware. I had no idea what it was. I'd never heard an opera all the way through, and just liked the cover (the LP Harrell/Farrell/Mitropoulos version, which we've all discussed here many times before). I was playing the cello at that point, and immersed in German symphonic music from the 19th century, which meant, where I was growing up, just the three Bs and a couple of S's and not much more, but from day 1 I just loved the work. I didn't know it was supposed to be hard, and the fact that it was sung in English didn't make me think I shouldn't get it. It would be years before I heard another opera all the way through - in college I took out from the liberry the Sills Devereux and the Moffo Rigoletto at the same time - the Sills because Time Magazine said something about "God Save the Queen" being in the "overture", and the Rigoletto I don't know why - but I didn't get either of them (the operas, I didn't even get to the performances), and it would be a few more years before I'd understand anything about what was going on on stage, thanks, ultimately, to Mr. Beethoven and the Fricsay Fidelio. There are years and periods when I feel I can't hear another Wozzeck, ever, but this was, musically, a great evening, and I hope you will
give yourselves a chance just to listen if you can.
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