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Opera on DVD

The constant temptation for writers here at Samizdata is to focus only on politics, and as a direct consequence to get depressed. Politics is always depressing. Depressing is what politicians do. They say they are going to encourage this or that, but these thises and thats generally involve extorting yet more tax to pay for such encouragement, which depresses taxpayers yet more, and the encouragement as often as not turns out to be the opposite, while nevertheless scaring away any non-governmental encouragers who might really have helped, which is especially depressing for everyone who got their hopes up.

So, I will now write about opera on DVD, which is not nearly such a depressing subject as politics, and especially not right now. True, opera is often paid for by governments – which goes a long way to explaining why most new operas now are such junk. And true, the stories told in operas are often themselves very depressing, involving, as they often do, politicians, as well as other sorts of bad people doing bad things. But, despite all that, the presentation on DVD of the operas that date from the time when opera was show business and when people ran opera houses for fun and profit, rather than out of a sense of cultural duty, is now getting seriously into its stride.

DVD has always seemed to me the obvious way to enjoy opera. The thing itself, in an actual opera house with actual live singers and players, is for me just too expensive and too chancey. For instance, a few years ago I attended an English National Opera production of Madame Butterfly. It was advertised as being sung in English, but it turned out to be that particular sort of unintelligible English that only opera singers sing. Waar-blaar-traar-hyaar etc. I couldn’t make out one single damn word of it. Since I was paying for someone else to be there too, that was a big slice out of a hundred quid in exchange for a few tunes that I already knew and already had on CD in several versions, all of them better.

And as for when they are singing in another language, well, where’s the fun in that if you don’t understand it? To enjoy that, you have to do a ton of homework, and for me that drains all the fun out of it. No, the answer had to be DVD, with subtitles (which I believe you can often summon up even if they are singing in operenglish). And the good news, for me, is that opera DVDs are finally coming within my price range.

I don’t buy opera DVDs new, any more often than I buy full price regular classical CDs new. I buy them new, that is to say, only very occasionally. Fifteen quid for one disc? No thank you. And operas on DVD still tend to cost nearer thirty quid than fifteen, if you buy them new. But, and this is the really good news, opera DVDs have finally started to show up in decent numbers in the second hand classical CD shops and market stalls that I regularly visit. So, for instance, I recently got the entire Levine/New York Met set of Wagner’s Ring Cycle for thirty quid, and, during the same trip, Beethoven’s Fidelio and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier for a tenner each. Some operas are going now for even less. That, for me, is value. These prices mean that now, I can finally allow myself to enjoy opera, because if I become addicted to it, as I never have allowed myself to so far, the habit will not ruin me and mean that I have to die under Charing Cross Bridge in a cardboard box, instead of indoors and comfortable.

Have I disliked opera because I really did dislike it? – mostly because of the wobbly, incomprehensible way they so often sing it. Or did I dislike it in mere self-defence against being economically ruined by it? Hard to say. But, a few nights ago, listening to the closing scene of Der Rosenkavalier, I could feel myself getting seriously hooked.

Der Rosenkavalier contains many ridiculous things. The leading man is sung by a soprano, which takes some getting used to, however well she sings. And teenager Sophie, whom the leading man (well, more like a boy) eventually becomes engaged to in that melodious last scene, is, in this production, rather obviously nearer to forty than twenty, albeit a very nice looking forty-year-old. Above all, these people are all old-time Viennese, which means that not only does the villain have a thoroughly warped view of the world, but so, frankly, albeit to a lesser degree of course, do the good guys. I.e. the good girls.

But no matter. Richard Strauss’s taste in operatic singing is pretty much the same as mine. He adored the light soprano voice – as opposed to the heavy, wobbly, knock-a-giant-down-at-fifty-paces Wagner-type soprano voice – to the point where ever since, people have tended to call such sopranos “Straussian”. (Gundula Janowitz and Lucia Popp are two of my favourites, both of whom were sublimely wonderful performers of Strauss’s sublimely wonderful Four Last Songs, which I have adored for decades.) Der Rosenkavalier, like most operas, has its longueurs, when they do that annoying form of operatic talking which is half talking and half orchestrally accompanied singing, which is similar to what actors used to do, without music. But every so often, and the final scene of Rosenkavalier is definitely one such time, they get some actual tunes to sing, and as Sophie and the Boy/Girl Soprano sang away ecstatically, I could feel myself surrendering.

Good. For me, classical music is something to enjoy first, rather than to “understand”. But, there is no doubt that if you do want to deepen your understanding of this music, you have to at least be acquainted with opera. Mozart’s piano concertos, for instance, are intensely “operatic”, and a thorough study of the way they echo tunes in his operas will give you an order of magnitude greater feeling for what they are all about.

I already have a number of operatic DVDs, quite aside from the ones I have recently acquired, for the operatic DVD bargain is not an entirely new phenomenon. But, for all the considerations alluded to above, I have tended to keep them on the shelf, unsurrendered to. Now, I look at my little DVD opera collection with new eyes, knowing that I will soon be listening to it with new ears and watching it with those same new eyes, enthralled.

40 comments to Opera on DVD

  • simon

    Those who enjoy opera should enjoy it in the way that best pleases them, and they should pay for their pleasure. Opera is financed by millions of people who have no need of opera at all, and don’t enjoy it however it is presented to them. I find opera unbearable, but then by definition I’m not cultured and should therefore be forced to pay for opera so that those who do find it pleasurable are given the means to re-educate me in a sinister and elitist way.

    The RSC’s new ‘ambitious’ plan to perform all Shakespeare’s plays so that everyone can enjoy them and become ‘aware’ of them is just the latest job creation scheme for those involved in the still nationalised culture industry.

  • Julian Taylor

    Can one fit all of Wagner’s Ring Cycle onto one single DVD – even as just audio?

    I attended the last showing of Giselle at the ROH last Thursday and the next advertised production, the following Saturday, was Gotterdammerung. At a staggering 8 hours performance, starting at 2pm and ending at 10pm with just 2 intervals it left me thinking that dedication must be required in abundance to attend the Bayreuth Wagner festival.

  • GCooper

    Julian Taylor writes:

    “At a staggering 8 hours performance, starting at 2pm and ending at 10pm with just 2 intervals it left me thinking that dedication must be required in abundance to attend the Bayreuth Wagner festival.”

    Not dedication – discipline!

    Of course.

  • Ah, opera. Ahpera. I agree with you about the economics of opera attendance. Being opposed to ending up a bag lady pushing a shopping cart, I am proud to say that I have never attended an opera for which I paid the ticket. Didn’t even ever buy a fancy new dress.

    Opera is bad music and bad theatre. But somehow it works. Enchantingly so. I adore it. (However, you can keep your Wagner. Blechh.)

    That being said, my vast CD and video/DVD collections do not contain opera and likely never will. To me, it is better live. The pathos and the bathos just don’t come through in the home viewing/listening experience.

    So, I am available for opera dates for whomever wishes to spring for the ticket.

    For a delightful exercise in discipline, come to my corner of the world and immerse yourself in the Appalachian experience. Come see The Kentucky Cycle in one day, in an outdoor amphitheater in the mountains (the next time it’s offered), at the Breaks Interstate Park in Kentucky/Virginia, near Elkhorn City, Kentucky, birthplace and childhood home of Patty Loveless (country/bluegrass singer). Not opera, just great theater. I’ll spring for the ticket and the picnic of cold fried chicken ‘n’ fixins ‘n’ sweet tea (iced).

  • permanent expat

    Despite incipient deafness (‘Aurally challenged’ for any idiot PC freaks) I still enjoy listening to music & am fortunate that my tastes are catholic & that I have a good audio/video system which enables me to see & hear almost anything my heart desires from the comfort of my armchair, a good glass by my side.
    There is little ‘culture’ to be physically attended where I now live & the few fellow-expats are here because, like me, they want the quiet life.
    Though not particularly an opera-buff I have always viewed the attendance at performances rather as ‘to see & be seen’ social occasions. Few have any idea what is being sung or understand the language. One can hum the melody in the shower of course but “Isn’t that the Morrisons over there…look on the right, three rows down.” is much more interesting.
    I have all the opera I wish to hear on CDs & old LPs together with some on videotape. DVDs I shall buy when they become available at a reasonable price although some stunning performances, mainly from German stations, can be recorded on DVD.
    Rather like sport, such entertainment, unless one is a masochist, can be better enjoyed in comfort. I am a simple philistine.

  • Verity

    GCooper – V good!

  • veryretired

    I love classical music, but I cannot listen to opera for more than a few seconds. I know the failing is in me, but that doesn’t change my reaction. I have the same inability to appreciate modern dance, or just about any theatrical with (shudder) child actors.

    I’m glad some people can actually enjoy these forms of artistic expression. It would be a shame to see them die out. The financing aspect needs some work, though, as has already been pointed out above.

    And, you’re right—politics is VERY depressing.

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Brian, you need to blog here more often about your passions on music and so forth. We need a break from politics on a regular basis. You are getting involved in the theatre business a bit: I’d love to hear about that too.

    I am not much of an opera fan although I can greatly admire the skills of great singers like Maria Callas and Cecilia Bartoli (I tell my wife-to-be that she resembles them in nice ways!).

  • Nick M

    Oh Jonathan you charmer… Are you French?

    My bird’s father likes his opera. He recently got a DVD of Carmen. For reasons beyond my understanding it was encoded as NTSC, not PAL and therefore plays fine, but just in black and white.

    NTSC in the UK!

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Nick M, well, I usually have to fight the ladies off with a stick. It is my deceptive shy charm. I even managed to nearly seduce a rabid socialist once, although the date went a bit sour after I mentioned that one of my favourite writers was Mark Steyn and one of my favourite books was The Fountainhead.

  • Nick M

    Jonathan,
    What sort of dates do you go on? You make ’em laugh, you don’t talk about Steyn and Rand. Jeez, it sounds like going out with Immanuel bleeding Kant!

    …Just one more antinomy before dinner darling!

    Anyway, what were you doing trying it on with a socialist? Good God man, get a grip (which is probably what you were trying to do…) If it had got serious, you know, you might’ve ended up fathering… Lib-Dems.

  • I wouldn’t worry about his potential paternity issues with the socialist. Reread: she is a rabid socialist. He wanted to make her foam at the mouth.

  • Nick M

    kentuckyliz,
    There’s a rather more fun way of achieving that…

  • David Davies

    The unfortunate thing is that most opera DVD’s are little more than a camera pointed at a stage production.
    Opera’s really come alive when made as films with proper locations such Francesco Rossi’s Carmen and the Placido Domingo version of Tosca filmed in the actual places where the scenes are set.
    I long for the day when some one like Stephen Spielberg produces a version of the Ring Cycle. I think it is what Wagner would have wanted.

  • permanent expat

    Opera filmed………..oh yes. Maybe not for purists but see & marvel at Carlos Saura’s brilliant “Carmen” which is available on DVD in the original Spanish, but also in English. Scintillating!

  • We have over 200 laserdiscs of operas, and I’m sorry to say that the recording companies are slow to move them to DVD.

  • Kim du Toit

    Brian, two words:

    Die Fledermaus.

    Performed at the Vienna Staats Oper, as God/Strauss intended it to be.

  • Kim du Toit

    Sorry, wrong link (above).

    This is the right one for you Brits.

  • Nick M

    Wagner was a complete tosser.

  • permanent expat

    NickM: Crap. I mean your remark.

  • michael farris

    “”Carmen” which is available on DVD in the original Spanish, but also in English. Scintillating!”

    The original language of the opera Carmen is French. I think the movie you’re talking about is one of his flamenco dance movies which sort of mirrors the opera.

    On Rosenkavalier: Opera jargon for a male part sung by a woman (there’s lots of them) is a trouser role. One of the great interpreters of the trouser role of Octavian in Rosenkavalier the 20th century was the German mezzo Christa Ludwig.
    She had tremendous success in the role in Vienna, but when she took her portrayal to the US, audiences weren’t as enthusiastic. After a while, she realized it was because she was too feminine.
    American audiences wanted the illusion of the woman singing a male part to be at least a little realistic while the Viennese were “titillated” (her word) by the sexual ambiguity of two women having a romantic scene together, a sort of early lesbian chic.

  • Nick M

    But, permanent expat, Wagner was a complete toss-pot, a fuck-wit and a turd-burgler.

    Mozart and Puccini could write opera. I like their stuff and I don’t even like opera in general. If I wanna see a fat bird engaged in histionic singing I merely need to go to my local on Karoke night.

    Buy yourself a Sibelius CD and forget all about that Kraut arse-bandit.

    BTW I have made two references to Richard Wagner’s homosexuality. There is no evidence that he ever rode the Hershey highway and I apologise to any homosexuals who I am sure have little or no Wagnerian tendancies.

  • permanent expat

    Michael Farris: I do get disappointed with folk who don’t read. Hard as it may be for you to believe, I do understand that Bizet was Fwench & that the original Carmen was written in that language. My modest posting clearly says: Carlos Saura’s brilliant Carmen. The film was made in Spain &, unsurprizingly, in Spanish. Paco de Lucia plays a small part wearing an unnecessary toupee. If you haven’t yet taken the trouble to see this film, be advised that you are missing something.
    NickM: Quite what homophobia/philia has to do with this thread I have no idea…are you having an ‘identity’ problem?…..because I couldn’t care less. That William Faulkner may have had an ‘identity’ problem doesn’t impinge on his ability. I don’t like all of Faulkner………I don’t like all of Wagner. Uncle Adolph loved him so I suppose that makes him unacceptable in your book. Identity & inverted racism problems….. maybe yours but not his…… do not prevent Wagner from occupying a worthy place in the Pantheon of great composers

  • Tim Sturm

    I went to Goetterdammerung at the Royal Opera House last weekend. Julian Taylor your timing is a bit out – the concert went from 4.00-10.15, making it 4 hours 45 minutes stage time, allowing for 1.5 hours of breaks.

    And I can happily report that the performance was nothing less than stupendous. Wagner was at his peak by the time he wrote the 4th part of the Ring Cycle and the music certainly reflects that. No dedication required! The music was riveting from start to finish, and the performers were (almost) uniformly fantastic.

    I don’t see how a DVD performance can possibly come close to a live performance like that. Best £90 (two tickets) I ever spent.

  • permanent expat

    Tim Sturm: Great & I’m happy for you. Are the performances still running? Maybe this Götterdämmerung… or -daemmerung would convince NickM of his wayward ways

  • michael farris

    expat, I’ve seen the Carmen in question, not bad, though I prefer El Amor Brujo (some of my favorite music ever).

    But if you think this is clear writing …

    “Opera filmed………..oh yes. Maybe not for purists but see & marvel at Carlos Saura’s brilliant “Carmen”

    I think you’re mistaken. Those who don’t already know the opera and/or movie, could easily think that Saura directed a filmed version of the opera Carmen, in Spanish. I wanted to make it clear, for them, that he did no such thing.

  • permanent expat

    Michael Farris: You are right, of course…..
    Forgive me for assuming that some folk in this thread do not need pictures to understand a statement. So, for those of you who have not heared of Carmen etc.
    Carlos Saura did not make a film of the opera Carmen. He made a film about staging the opera Carmen. He called the film “Carmen”, which was very silly of him because there are always those expect the ‘opera.
    When I first saw “Casablanca” I expected a travel documentary 😉

  • Nick M

    permanent expat,
    Nothing will ever persuade me that Ricky W was anything other than a pompous Kraut guff peddler, full of tubas signifying nothing. But, I note you used an umlaut. Care to share how ya got that onto your samizdata post?

  • michael farris

    “Carlos Saura did not make a film of the opera Carmen. He made a film about staging the opera Carmen. He called the film “Carmen”, which was very silly of him because there are always those expect the ‘opera”

    Actually (going into full pedantic twit mode) he made a film about the staging of a flamenco/ballet interpretation of the story of Carmen that utilized a little of the music from the opera. And … the story of Carmen is paralleled in the director’s relationship with the young dancer recruited for the title role (redo of the “A double life” motif).

    As for Wagner, he wrote a lot of great music, some tiresome music surrounding the great parts, and by all accounts wasn’t a nice human being. I think that all the accusations made against Meyerbeer actually work just fine against Wagner as well. The best approach is to not try to pay attention all the time, just at the particular parts you’re interested in (which will differ for different audience members).
    In Walkuere for example, I love the first act and the beginning of the second (through the Fricka scene) but find Wotan’s loooooonnnnnggg monotonous monologue to be sleep inducing. It’s kind of hit or miss after that as well, but the end is pretty great.

  • Julian Taylor

    Tim Sturm, apologies for my dismal recollection – should have checked the times 🙁

    Regarding German operas there is one truly magnificent composer which everyone always seems to pass by – Christoph Willibald Gluck. I challenge even the most resolute Verdi fan to listen to Maria Callas’ recording of Orphée & Eurydice and not be moved by it. As for Wagner I don’t so much have a problem with his music, just with the inordinate length of the operas

  • permanent expat

    Nick M. There’s one on my keyboard.

  • permanent expat

    Michael Farris: What a comprehensive synopsis of Saura’s work! Now I don’t even have to read the book. You forgot the bit where she had a knife stuck in her & he got arrested & that it’s not a comedy.

  • michael farris

    “I challenge even the most resolute Verdi fan to listen to Maria Callas’ recording of Orphée & Eurydice and not be moved by it.”

    I would be moved by it because it would be a major discovery. I’m about 98% certain she never recorded that opera. The soprano role of Eurydyce is actually very small. The opera’s really entirely about Orfeo, usually sung by a woman, but I don’t think she ever sang any trouser roles (and it would have been far too low for her voice).

    The only Gluck operas she sang on stage that I’m aware of are Alceste and Iphigenie en Tauride (the second and probably the first in Italian rather than the original French), and I don’t think she recorded either opera commercially though I have a live recording of the Iphigenie, in which she is wonderful.

  • permanent expat

    Nick M: The Umlaut…..Forgive me, I was impolitely terse. My keyboard has a Portuguese layout which seems to include a plethora of goodies, including cedilla, tilde etc. Very useful if one writes in other languages from time to time and, the price of keyboards being now very low, maybe a good buy 🙂

  • Nick M

    Thanks, permanent expat. Alas I’m stuck with my absolute beut of a KB which just happens to be an IBM Trackpoint. It’s a UK model and so good I can’t even consider replacing it.

    I’m sorry to upset you, but I can’t stick Wagner beyond his few brief moments of brilliance. I can’t even begin to imagine how anybody can sit through 4 hours of Die Walkure for the four minutes that’s really good. And the poor sods that sit through the whole Bayreuth Ring Cycle in a day… Oy Vey Gewalt!

  • APL

    Nick M: ” Alas I’m stuck with my absolute beut of a KB which just happens to be an IBM Trackpoint.¨

    Have a look at this page..

    http://home.earthlink.net/~awinkelried/keyboard_shortcuts.html

    Which gives you the ´ALT´ Key conbination to present almost any accented character you want. YMMV.

  • permanent expat

    Nick M: Bayreuth is a Glitteratitreffpunkt.
    However, as Wagner well knew, Ohne das Vorspiel bedeutet der Liebestod gar nichts. Having to sit/work through it might be a bit of a bind………..but check it out with your girlfriend 😉

  • Julian Taylor

    Michael Farris,

    I spent last Friday evening listening to a very fine recording of Callas in Orphée & Eurydice and indeed a very brief search on Amazon reveals this link (track number 8). Enjoy.

  • michael farris

    What we have here is confusion of terminology. When someone who listens to opera a lot (like me) reads “Callas in Orphée & Eurydice” the first thing they think of is the complete opera (which in this case brings immediate confusion about which role she’d sing, as none of the three roles suit her voice or temperament).

    She did however sing and record lots of arias from operas she didn’t (and couldn’t) sing on stage and this is one of those. In this case an opera fan would be more likely to write “Callas’s recording of ‘J’ai perdu mon Eurydice'” or even “Callas’s recording of Orphee’s aria” (since it’s the only aria from that opera usually performed on its own). But if you’re not an opera buff then you wouldn’t know that.

    I’m most surprised that she sings it in the original French, it was rare for her to sing in any language but Italian and the opera is usually performed in that language (and sounds better that way too IMHO).

  • Midwesterner

    Nick M,

    If all else fails, in Windows –

    Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map

    I haven’t figured out how to make the Alt key method work on my laptop. No dedicated numeric pad, I guess.