Turandot is ice that gives fire. But is Turandot really made of ice. I think she is prentending. Scared by the gruesome story of her ancester, a princess like she, who was brutally raped and killed some thousand years ago. Still she is scared but now as a grown woman she also longs for love. It is so easy to just hear the fairytale Turandot but it is an opera that shows a China filled with mysogyny. When you really listen to Ping, Pang and Pong you can hear the hate of women quite directly put. Turandot lives in a time and place that men can have as many wives and concubines he wants and can afford. A Daughter of the Emperor has powers so long there is no man that owns her. No wonder Turandot is scared. Her riddles scheme is just an preemptiv strike towards the men that want to possess her, and the kingdom too.
What does Calaf want? he definetely want to no longer roam fearing for his life. He finds his father. Then there is Turandot. I doubt that he even saw her. He waa fascinated and there it was the chance to be an hero, a true romantic hero. I think Turandot and Calaf both saw in each other the possibility of a new and better life. But can this romanticism evolve into?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Going to the opera?
I have a head-ache and often pain from my gall bladder operation so maybe I should not go to Stockholm for the premiere of Stiffelio on Saturday and then go to Barcelona for the CavPag. 2 early flights. Pain. But....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, 3 April 2011
The gall bladder, the opera-tion
I have no need for a gall bladder that only creates painful stones. Therefore, an operation on Monday. I got a call from the hospital on Thursday. I called work to get an OK, got it, and called back YES. So operation April 4th in stead of April 28th. GREAT. I will be well before Easter and my Easter Opera Holiday, Stiffelio (April 16), Cav/pag (April 17), La Boheme (April 23).
Day surgery. WOW, what a word, day-surgery. I am not worried about the surgery. It is the no eat, drink thing that worries me, and being prepared for surgery. Waking up can be a night mare. Of course, not waking up would be worse, I know that. Waking up with things in your nose etc. is no cake walk.
Naturally you would think that the surgery would be on my mind since that is tomorrow but no. I am thinking about Norma in Taormina with Maria Guleghina in AUGUST. Why? I love the opera NORMA, I am just crazy about it. And I love Maria Guleghina. But what about Taormina? Well, just because I would love to see finally NORMA live and with Guleghina, Taormina is new for me and I am frankly unsure of how to come there, and I should probably use my money for other things.
Or maybe, I just have a head ache!!!
For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com
Day surgery. WOW, what a word, day-surgery. I am not worried about the surgery. It is the no eat, drink thing that worries me, and being prepared for surgery. Waking up can be a night mare. Of course, not waking up would be worse, I know that. Waking up with things in your nose etc. is no cake walk.
Naturally you would think that the surgery would be on my mind since that is tomorrow but no. I am thinking about Norma in Taormina with Maria Guleghina in AUGUST. Why? I love the opera NORMA, I am just crazy about it. And I love Maria Guleghina. But what about Taormina? Well, just because I would love to see finally NORMA live and with Guleghina, Taormina is new for me and I am frankly unsure of how to come there, and I should probably use my money for other things.
Or maybe, I just have a head ache!!!
For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com
Monday, 28 March 2011
Looking forward to April, May, June and maybe July
I hope my operation will not hinder me to travel to Vienna in early May for Jenufa with Agnes Baltsa and Nabucco with Maria Guleghina. Later in May I will then travel to Berlin to see Samson et Dalila with José Cura.
Then it will soon be June and that means a trip to Dortmund, Germany for a concert version of IL CORSARO with Maria Guleghina (June 10th to be precise). Later to Zurich for Cav/Pag with Agnes Baltsa and José Cura.
In July Classic Open Air Festival Berlin with José Cura. But will I go to Savonlinna and Saremaa for 2 more concerts with José Cura.
For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Un bel di vedremo - for Japan
Un bel dì
A dream that a ship would arrive Nagasaki with her beloved marine Pinkerton but he arrived with a wife and an intention to take their son from her. So the opera Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini ends with a suicide and with Pinkerton running with her name on his lips but arrives too late. He feels remorse but too late.
What does this have to do with the recent events in Japan? Very little. Except that the word Nagasaki reminds me of the nuclear bombs that fell over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And now another nuclear disaster looms over Japan. This double-triple nature disaster is the biggest that Japan has experienced since the Second World War.
The opera by Puccini is about the small and personal disaster of one Japanese woman. But the earthquake/tsunami is the personal disaster of many, many persons. A 9.0 earthquake is a force much greater than one can imagine. To hear that the difference between 8.9 earthquake and a 9.0 is many, many times the force is unimaginable to most if not all people. Yet, that was what was happening. Then it was and still is, I think, the after-shocks. It sounds innocently but it is earthquakes too and some of the quite big. Small only when one compare to the giga-shock. And then tsunami, a wall of water. What makes it more damaging it all the other elements that the water brings. Homes, workplaces, whole cities destroyed.
But still, Un bel dì vedremo. Japan will be rebuilt with home, workplaces. But lives has been lost. Those who live on has experienced life-threatening times, some have had severals of those experiences. And many have lost relatives, neighbors and colleges. I worry about the lives that also need rebuilding. The people of Japan. To see on TV the Japanese people helping each other and to see a factory owner happiness in finding another of his workers. I see the love and care of the Japanese and I hope that world will not fail in giving our heart and help for as long that Japan will need us.
I hope that the disaster in Japan would make us smarter about building nuclear power plants, etc on dangerous places. Must we never underestimate Mother Nature!
Can't we learn before disasters strikes, and not always after. I am so sick of people having to die and get sick before we get serious about preventing harm.
We must hope for the Beautiful Day to appear for the people of Japan and that the mental health of a people who is suffering will be tended to. I have faith that families, neighbors and colleges will work together to lift each other up. But first it is survival time, then we can hope of a good life...
For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com
A dream that a ship would arrive Nagasaki with her beloved marine Pinkerton but he arrived with a wife and an intention to take their son from her. So the opera Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini ends with a suicide and with Pinkerton running with her name on his lips but arrives too late. He feels remorse but too late.
What does this have to do with the recent events in Japan? Very little. Except that the word Nagasaki reminds me of the nuclear bombs that fell over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And now another nuclear disaster looms over Japan. This double-triple nature disaster is the biggest that Japan has experienced since the Second World War.
The opera by Puccini is about the small and personal disaster of one Japanese woman. But the earthquake/tsunami is the personal disaster of many, many persons. A 9.0 earthquake is a force much greater than one can imagine. To hear that the difference between 8.9 earthquake and a 9.0 is many, many times the force is unimaginable to most if not all people. Yet, that was what was happening. Then it was and still is, I think, the after-shocks. It sounds innocently but it is earthquakes too and some of the quite big. Small only when one compare to the giga-shock. And then tsunami, a wall of water. What makes it more damaging it all the other elements that the water brings. Homes, workplaces, whole cities destroyed.
But still, Un bel dì vedremo. Japan will be rebuilt with home, workplaces. But lives has been lost. Those who live on has experienced life-threatening times, some have had severals of those experiences. And many have lost relatives, neighbors and colleges. I worry about the lives that also need rebuilding. The people of Japan. To see on TV the Japanese people helping each other and to see a factory owner happiness in finding another of his workers. I see the love and care of the Japanese and I hope that world will not fail in giving our heart and help for as long that Japan will need us.
I hope that the disaster in Japan would make us smarter about building nuclear power plants, etc on dangerous places. Must we never underestimate Mother Nature!
Can't we learn before disasters strikes, and not always after. I am so sick of people having to die and get sick before we get serious about preventing harm.
We must hope for the Beautiful Day to appear for the people of Japan and that the mental health of a people who is suffering will be tended to. I have faith that families, neighbors and colleges will work together to lift each other up. But first it is survival time, then we can hope of a good life...
For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Who does Abigaille think she is?
She thinks she is the King's eldest daughter. Her idol is her father but he cares only for Fenena, his only biological daughter. No wonder Abigaille has a difficult relation to her sister. The love of her father is not the only issue but that Ismaele also prefers Fenena is like a deadly poison to the heart of Abigaille.
If she cannot have her fathers love at least his admiration. That is her real reason for soldiering and dreams of becoming Queen. Nabucco is blind to her needs. He is a man of ambition himself so he can understand ambition but that she is trying to show him her love is beside him to see. The need of an heir was behind the making of Abigaille as his daughter. His need was met but the need of a child of love from a parent was not met. All the times when he shows his preference for Fenena he creates poison in Abigaille's heart.
Of course Abigaille is a cruel warrior but no more than Nabucco himself. But Abigaille has a sweet side to. Not only willing to save Ismaele but even his people Israel. She only want his love. But it is too late. Fenena owns his heart. Deep down Abigaille even love her sister. When her jealousy at last is over she can feel loveand only love.
In the end of the opera one can hope that she is at last seen by God and forgiven. I find her conversion deeper and more touching than Nabucco. Nabucco gets a whole scene and she only an aria in the end.
For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com
If she cannot have her fathers love at least his admiration. That is her real reason for soldiering and dreams of becoming Queen. Nabucco is blind to her needs. He is a man of ambition himself so he can understand ambition but that she is trying to show him her love is beside him to see. The need of an heir was behind the making of Abigaille as his daughter. His need was met but the need of a child of love from a parent was not met. All the times when he shows his preference for Fenena he creates poison in Abigaille's heart.
Of course Abigaille is a cruel warrior but no more than Nabucco himself. But Abigaille has a sweet side to. Not only willing to save Ismaele but even his people Israel. She only want his love. But it is too late. Fenena owns his heart. Deep down Abigaille even love her sister. When her jealousy at last is over she can feel loveand only love.
In the end of the opera one can hope that she is at last seen by God and forgiven. I find her conversion deeper and more touching than Nabucco. Nabucco gets a whole scene and she only an aria in the end.
Nabucco 2002-01-12, 2005-07-01, 2007-06-29, 2007-08-11, 2008-02-22, 2008-07-14, 2008-07-17, 2010-01-30
I love Abigaille
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)