This evening we get Wagner at his most tedious (except for Siegfried's funeral march) and tomorrow we get interesting, beautiful, and popular selections. First, here's WCRB telling us about this evening:
Saturday, July 20, 2024
8:00 PMAndris Nelsons leads the BSO and an all-star cast, featuring soprano Christine Goerke and tenor Michael Weinius, in the epic conclusion of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, Act III of Götterdämmerung, or Twilight of the Gods
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried)
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen)
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, Catherine Martin (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)WAGNER Götterdamerung, Act III
The BSO performance detail page has this to say:
Tanglewood
Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
John Matsumoto Giampietro, staging coordinator
Christine Goerke, soprano (Brünnhilde)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Gutrune)
Michael Weinius, tenor (Siegfried) |
James Rutherford, baritone (Gunther)
David Leigh, bass (Hagen)
Diana Newman, Renée Tatum, and Annie Rosen (Rhine maidens)
Neal Ferreira and Alex Richardson, tenors; David Kravitz and Markel Reed, baritones; Erik Tofte and Jared Werlein, bass-baritones; Leo Radosavljevic, bass (Vassals)WAGNER Götterdämmerung, Act III
Sung in German with English Supertitles
Please note that there is no intermission in this concert. Duration is about 90 minutes.
Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a masterpiece of art that weaves a fabric of passion, beauty, betrayal, tragedy, and redemption into the tapestry of myth and legend, all set to some of the most stirring, powerful music ever composed.
Join Andris Nelsons, the BSO, and an all-star cast for the peerless conclusion of Wagner’s massive, epic opera Götterdämmerung.
Tonight's concert is generously supported by Rabbis Rachel Hertzman and Rex Perlmeter.
The program note tries to give the whole story of the Ring cycle, which is probably necessary to understand the action of tonight's show. Unfortunately, they don't give the actual text. You'll have to find that for yourself somehow if you want it.
When i say "Wagner at his most tedious," I mean the whole Ring cycle is pretty tedious, but "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung" are especially so in my personal opinion — along with "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal." Opinions may vary. Maybe you'll like it. But one evening I was listening to the whole opera and was nearly jolted out of my chair by the beginning of the funeral march. You'll recognize it if you listen.
Then we come to Sunday evening's broadcast of the afternoon concert of the Tanglewood Center Orchestra (not the BSO). Again WCRB gives the outline:
Sunday, July 21, 2024
7:00 PMAndris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’s Three Places in New England. Emanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a musically complex work that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Emanuel Ax, pianoCharles IVES Three Places in New England
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Richard STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra
See also the BSO performance detail page for the links to the program notes (especially the Ives) and this overall description:
Tanglewood
Koussevitzky Music Shed, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Emanuel Ax, pianoIVES Three Places in New England
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
Intermission
STRAUSS Also sprach ZarathustraEmanuel Ax returns to Tanglewood for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a work of intense emotionality and complex musicality that takes the listener through light and shadow, hope and despair.
Andris Nelsons leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra to the stars in Strauss’ palatial Also sprach Zarathustra, and on a journey back home to New England through Ives’ textured Three Places in New England, which tells three very different stories of historic events and landmarks throughout the region.
The 2024 Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert is supported by generous endowments established in perpetuity by Dr. Raymond and Hannah H. Schneider, and Diane H. Lupean
Ives is kind of "quirky" and maybe not your proverbial cup of metaphorical tea, but I've become fascinated with much of his stuff, and I definitely want to hear the "Three Places in New England" again. With the Beethoven and Strauss, we're in a more familiar musical style. (I could do without the Strauss, but that's just me. Most concert-goers seem to like it.)
So give it all a try, despite my negativity. I'll be listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment