If opera repertoire were a candy store, this would be Belgian chocolate laced with speed in a spotlight with a theme song and superhero tights

Friday, July 11th

Bayerisches Staatsoper

Muenchner Sommer Opernfestspiel

Edita Gruberova

Yes, she’s singing IT…

Senior Moments, brought to you by Clara Schumann’s lover

The first, very rough itinerary page is posted! Woohoo! ::victory dance::

Now down to business.

In my last post I decided to compare performances of specific pieces. Umm, what was I thinking?!?!? No artistic director in their right mind duplicates another ensemble’s repertoire. Fortunately for me, there are a select few instances where Brahms Symphony No. 2 will be played by different ensembles, but my enthusiasm wanes drastically for Brahms… even though I’ll be attending. Ach.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Brahms. There’s no doubt that he was a master. Take two seconds to look at the way he plays with form and counterpoint in the string quartets and piano trios. The guy was a genius, and it’s no surprise that he paved the way for the likes of Schoenberg and Berg (swoon!). Still, I don’t enjoy listening to his music. All those sappy, sequenced 7-6 suspensions in the piano sonatas slay me. every. time. Blegh. Enough already! But I diverge…

In order to fix my lapse in common sense regarding repertoire, I’m left with no choice but to widen the parameters! Darn. Instead of comparing performances of specific pieces, I’ll be comparing composers and their respective musical styles/periods. Christine Schaefer (mein Lieblings Saengerin) will be singing sacred baroque music by Vivaldi and Pergolesi at Rheingau which will contrast nicely with the Bach performed at the Leipzig Bach Festival earlier in the summer. Performances of Mahler (Alma AND Gustav) songs will also contrast well with Victor Ullman’s songs salvaged from Teresienstadt and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. To boot, BBC Proms Folk Nights provide a selection of composers that integrated “folk” into their music in vastly different ways, such as Vaughn Williams, Bartok, Grainger and Berio.

But, who ever thought Vaughn Williams and Berio would be on the same program???? Talk about culture shock. BBC Proms might just have topped La Scala’s awkward performance of La Boheme. Of course, it is prom, and we all know how awkward that can get… 

Christmas in July… the Italian way

Rheingau Music Festival, Leipzig Bach Festival, Spoleto Festival and Aldeburgh Music Festival all have tickets available. Whee!

Milan’s La Scala also has a summer season, and it definitely takes the cake for strangest programing. They’re doing Puccini’s La Boheme in July with Gustavo Dudamel conducting. Who would have guessed that the Italians take Christmas in sweltering July seriously? Add a young conductor known for his bravura to a sappy Puccinni classic, and, well, I feel the need to  experienced the strangeness of it all.

Foiled!

Plan A:  Attend famous German music festivals.

No such luck. They are ALL sold out, in some cases years in advance. Fortunately, Salzberg Festival broadcasts on TV, and I might have a snowball’s chance at going to the Aldeburgh Festival to see a recital of Britten’s Quatre Chansons Francaises. All the other festivals?? Nein! No Mahler in the German sunset. No relaxing with a beer after the Four Last Songs. No pantomimes to live performances of Heldenleben. I’m seriously crushed…  ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen! (heh)

Bayreuth’s box office amuses me the most. Hopeful attendees must send a written, formal request in German to their offices no later than September of the prior year. Further digging suggests that requests should be submitted TWO years in advance, assuming they have tickets on which lifetime attendees didn’t already call dibs. Then, and only then, will they give you a ticket… maybe. Agh. Evidently, I am not a lucky enough lil’ snowflake to get a ticket.

Plan B: You give me tickets? I give you kidney.

Plan C: Visit the festivals anyways, attempt to get tickets from a street hawker, scower the city for less famous concerts, and/or stake out a spot on a fence where I can (almost) hear the outdoor concerts. I just hate to see resonance go to waste.

Plan D: Screw Bayreuth. I’m going to Milan. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to Paris. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to pout, succumb to retail therapy, buy opera DVDs on Amazon, eat copious amounts of pasta and host a Ring cycle sing-a-long.

Plan E: Practice. Bis. Ewigkeit. I won’t need to submit ticket requests for ten, err… twenty years down the road if I’m on stage. Take that!

Plan F: Start my own festival. Yeah. At my festival everyone in the best seats would have one kidney, and it would never be sold out. There would also be a competition to write a piece for soprano and 8 track cartridge.

Plan G: All the above.