The Making of BLO's Clemency CD

By David Angus, BLO Music Director

When I found out in September 2012 that discussions were underway for a live BLO recording of MacMillan’s Clemency, I had mixed feelings: great excitement at our first commercial CD (and a world premiere recording as well) but also some nervousness. A CD is very unforgiving, and people expect a high level of perfection―something that is not so easy to achieve in a live situation, with a difficult new piece and an acoustically challenging venue.* Fortunately, we had the experts at SoundMirror in Boston, working on behalf of BIS Records, to help us overcome all the difficulties, such as mixing the input from the head microphones with the ambient sound, and editing everything into a seamless recording.

The first stage of the process was simply to do normal performances to the highest possible standard, as always. We didn’t really take any notice of the microphones during the show, but it was very interesting to be able to hear sample recordings afterwards, when they tested their equipment. Once they had a recording of the whole performance, we all stayed behind and re-recorded any sections that had been imperfect in any way. This was a race against time, dotting around through the score, picking out the right sections and fixing them extremely quickly while we still had the singers in town. It was made all the more challenging by losing two performances due to Winter Storm Nemo, which forced us to cancel shows.

The final stage was the editing. Dirk Sobotka, the Tonmeister ("sound master," the producer), is a high-level musician as well, and he had worked out all the best versions of each section to stick together. I went out to the SoundMirror studios and spent a lot of time with him, going through everything, discussing any corners where things didn’t sound right or where I thought there might be a better option. I then left him and his team to glue it all together again in such a way that nobody would ever hear the joins, which they did very successfully!

We have been very fortunate that this CD has gone out on the BIS label, a very high-level international classical label, where they produce CDs with full booklets. The staff spent days helping them put together the liner notes with biographies, pictures, information about the project and the pieces, and of course the texts. Thanks to the efforts of the artists, the technicians and the dedicated leadership and staff of a world-class operation at BLO, we can happily boast a CD that is a work of art.

None of this would have been possible without the generous support of BLO’s Chairman of the Board, Steven Akin, and the dedication of so many—onstage and off—to the end product.


* Boston’s Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, the site of BLO’s 2013 Opera Annex production

DR. VON LYRIC: An (obsessive) winter journey with Franz and Ian

On February 4th at 6pm in the Brattle  Theater in Cambridge, the Harvard Book Store in presenting a talk by the noted tenor (and, yes, scholar and musicologist) Ian Bostridge, co-promoted by BLO and the Longy School of Music. He is speaking on Schubert's magnificent song cycle WINTERREISE in connection with a book he has written on that work, subtitled, The Anatomy of an Obsession. As he has performed this cycle more than one hundred times, it is not clear to me whose obsession we're talking about here. In any case, the talk (and, one assumes, the book) is described as dealing with WINTERREISE's, "...enigmas and subtle meanings...Schubert's psychological makeup...historical and political pressures...the continuing resonances and affinities that make Schubert's wanderer our mirror..."

It sounds genuinely fascinating. Why not check it out?

Side note: If you're interested, BLO is also holding a social media contest for a limited number of free tickets to the event. Check out our contest blog post and enter to win a chance to go for free!

There are numerous full length performances on YouTube (including  Peter Pears, Fischer-Dieskau, Christa Ludwig, and Brigitte Fassbaender – yes, women can sing it too). Bostridge is  represented not only by a concert recital performance but also by a quite intriguing, dramatic version in a film directed by David Alden.

Excerpts from that video performance follow:




One of the most moving performances of a WINTERREISE excerpt that is that of  probably the most famous exponent of the bleak beauty of the Schubert cycle: Hans Hotter (at age 82) and a young Thomas Quasthoff (if you don't know the story of this remarkable performer, check him out on Wikipedia).


Another celebrated singer of WINTERREISE, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:


An interesting discussion of the piece by another very perceptive tenor, Jonas Kaufmann, and Helmut Deutsch:


Another take...

Contest: Join us for Harvard Book Store’s author event, Feb. 4!

BLO is excited to share with you Harvard Book Store’s upcoming event with author and tenor Ian Bostridge—and we’re giving away a limited number of free tickets!

Who, What, Where, When, and Why:
On Wednesday, February 4 at 6:00pm, tenor Ian Bostridge will discuss his book, Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession, at the Brattle Theatre at 40 Brattle Street in Cambridge as part of the Harvard Book Store author series. Learn more here.

Score a free ticket from BLO!
As a co-promoter of the event, BLO is giving away several free tickets, and we’re holding a contest to decide who the lucky attendees will be! To enter, simply visit BLO on Facebook, Twitter, or send us an email to boxoffice@blo.org with your answer to the question:

What’s your favorite piece of classical music that celebrates a season and why?
Feel free to share a video or anecdote about your pick!

Entries are due by midnight on Thursday, January 29. Winners will be randomly selected on Friday, January 30.

We’re looking forward to sharing our favorites and learning more about Schubert’s great work on February 4!


More about Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession:
An exploration of the world’s most famous and challenging song cycle, Schubert's Winter Journey (Winterreise), by a leading interpreter of the work, who teases out the themes—literary, historical, psychological—that weave through the twenty-four songs that make up this legendary masterpiece.

Drawing equally on his vast experience performing this work (he has sung it more than one hundred times), on his musical knowledge, and on his training as a scholar, Bostridge teases out the enigmas and subtle meanings of each of the twenty-four lyrics to explore for us the world Schubert inhabited, his biography and psychological makeup, the historical and political pressures within which he became one of the world’s greatest composers, and the continuing resonances and affinities that our ears still detect today, making Schubert’s wanderer our mirror.

DR. VON LYRIC: As promised, Streisand and Handel (and another treat)

So here we have the other side of the crossover coin – two notable performances. But wait,  is "notable" the right word? Brave? Disturbing? Ridiculous? Inspiring?

DR. VON LYRIC: Crossover and (probably) be damned!

Having touched on Renée Fleming singing "Summertime" in my last post, the vexed question of "crossover" singing has arisen. Perhaps no other aspect of operatic performing has raised more questions or caused more bile, vitriol, and occasional praise to be spewed forth (particularly in the case of Ms. Fleming and her "courageous," "inspiring," "foolhardy," and "despicable" forays into the pop, jazz, and Broadway fields). Are operatic singing's technique and training totally inappropriate when applied to other fields? Is it, indeed, even a matter of technique, or rather a matter of style…or experience…or temperament…or soul?

Like most things, operatic or not, sometimes it works (and reveals)…sometimes it doesn't. I think a little relaxation is in order. Let's just take things easy and gain what we can from performers who may wander out of their comfort zones and show perhaps unexpected sides to both us and themselves.

Perhaps the seminal exponent of this trend was the great Metropolitan Opera star Ezio Pinza when he crossed over to Broadway with SOUTH PACIFIC (1949). We might forget, but this was a very controversial move at the time.



But famous opera singers, of course, had been singing "pop" music for ages, and recording it, too. Here is Adelina Patti singing "Home, Sweet Home" (her famous encore) at the age of 62 in 1905. From the accompanying photos of her castle in Wales, she could talk with some experience about a "sweet home."



A favorite singer of mine…stylish, elegant, witty, while doing anything.



A sidebar…Ava Gardner singing the same piece from the MGM musical film. In the released film, she was dubbed by Annette Warren, although Gardner had been promised to do her own singing. So here she is, revealed, as also stylish, elegant, witty.



Stephanie Blythe doing Kate Smith with affection and a refreshing lack of condescension.



Eileen Farrell (and Leonard Bernstein, no less) in another of my candidates for best American (or anywhere) song.




Next post, we'll contemplate the journey back across the bridge, from the pop world to opera. Barbra Streisand sings Handel? I'm not kidding, so stay tuned!

A final question for all you readers: Who is closer to the "soul" of Maria Callas — Joan Sutherland or Billie Holiday?

A Look Back at 2014's Community Engagement Programs

This Season, the Community Engagement Department at BLO has welcomed two interns to our team, Queenie Fang and Paige Revens. Both Queenie and Paige are already accomplished artists and students, and they have been assisting with events and programming to gain experience in the field of arts administration. We asked them to reflect on the Community Engagement programs of 2014 for this New Year-themed blog post.

Happy New Year!

What does the New Year mean to you? A new beginning? An opportunity to push yourself further? As the Education and Community Engagement Department launches into 2015, let’s look back on the accomplishments and lessons that 2014 brought.

We took opera into the community through an engaging roster of events, including artistic presentations, production insights, and interactive educational programs for youth and adults, that explored the Company’s four productions that fell during the 2014 calendar year: Verdi’s Rigoletto, Bellini’s I Puritani, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Martin’s The Love Potion.

To kick off programming in 2014, in January and February, BLO Emerging Artists, Chelsea Basler and Omar Najmi, and BLO Resident Teaching Artist, Heather Gallagher, visited eight schools across Massachusetts. During these visits they introduced students to opera voice types, characters, and musical motives through interactive activities and performances of excerpts from Rigoletto. BLO also launched its first Music!Words!Opera! in-school residency program, coordinating a series of 10-week classroom visits by Ms. Gallagher to three classrooms!

Photo by Ben Gebo

Next up, BLO partnered with the French Cultural Center and the Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts to present a program exploring Rigoletto. Coro Dante conductor, Kevin Galiè delivered a lecture on the history of Verdi’s opera and his inspiration from Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’Amuse. French-speaking actors from the French Cultural Center and BLO Artists performed three scenes from both the play and opera in their respective languages for comparison.

February’s Opera Night at the Boston Public Library featured Emmy Award-winning Arts & Entertainment Critic Joyce Kulhawik interviewing celebrated bass, Morris Robinson, in advance of his portrayal of Sparafucile in Rigoletto. In April, BLO Music Director, David Angus provided special insight into the score of Bellini’s bel canto gem, I Puritani, including its famous tour de force soprano arias, for the opera-goer and the opera-curious.

BLO also partnered with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to provide several events in our Signature Series. In March, we traced the influence of Victor Hugo, a superbly creative poet, novelist, playwright, critic, even an opera librettist, on a wide range of musical creations. And in April, we explored operatic “mad scenes” through the roles of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor and Elvira in I Puritani. Thanks to the performances of BLO Artists, we heard extreme, often poignantly beautiful voices from both musical and literary sources as these women attempted to exist outside the apparently normal and rational boundaries of their own cultures.

Photo by Ben Gebo

As part of BLO’s youth education programs in partnership with Wheelock Family Theatre, we offered two weekend workshops for ages 11-15 in the spring of 2014: Musical Characters: Developing Your Voice & Physicality in March, and Pitch Perfect: Bringing Your Individual Voice to Auditions & Roles in in May. The students were supremely talented and so excited to share their performances with friends and family at the end of each weekend!

BLO received fantastic news in May: an $18,000 grant from the BPS Arts Expansion Fund at EdVestors to expand our Music!Words!Opera! programming and offer professional development to Boston Public Schools teachers during the 2014-2015 school year. This has enabled us to take on 12 schools for artistic visits and residencies this season – we start in January 2015!

Photo by Liza Voll

We also had an exciting and busy end to the summer here at BLO! In August we collaborated with Boston Landmarks Orchestra and presented a program of scenes from past and upcoming productions. It was a wonderful evening, despite being rained out of our original performance location!

We participated in the Boston Public Library’s series “Concerts in the Courtyard.” Scenes were presented with selections of music from the upcoming season as well as some crowd favorites, such as Cinderella and Die Fledermaus. There was something for all ages at this wonderful afternoon performance!

We rounded out the month of August with our summer teacher training workshop for Music!Words!Opera! This event was led by Opera America trainers Clifford Brooks and Neil Ginsberg. Teachers from Boston and surrounding towns gathered at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts for this week-long workshop where they learned how to incorporate opera into their daily lessons with students. The week culminated with the teachers writing, staging, and performing their own original opera titled Voyage, a series of vignettes that depicted immigrant stories from Boston. 

Photos by Elizabeth Mullins

The 2014-15 Season opened in October with Verdi’s La Traviata and a beautiful gala on Opening Night. We also had an extremely well-attended final dress rehearsal, which was open to high school groups, college students, and Music!Words!Opera! teachers.

The Opera Night at the Boston Public Library event this fall included a lecture by Robert Stanton, professor at Boston College, regarding the various treatments of the Tristan and Isolde legend, along with selections of music from different settings of the famed love story.

October brought two fascinating Signature Series events to the Museum of Fine Arts. The first, titled Ancient Greek Myth and Opera, was led by Christine Kondoleon, the George D. and Margo Behrakis Senior Curator of Greek and Roman Art at the MFA, who highlighted some of the beautiful pieces of Greek art in the museum collection as well as some of the many opera characters that are based on Roman and Greek mythology and literature. Next up, Zarzuela and Tonadilla: Powerful Spanish Dramatic Music Traditions related to the Goya special exhibit on display. BLO coach/accompanist James Myers presented a lecture along with musical selections from BLO Artists.

Photo by Eric Antoniou

Our Opera Annex production of Frank Martin’s The Love Potion took place at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline in November. Our Annex outreach programs began with a special design presentation for Temple community members, Adagio donors of BLO, and Music!Words!Opera! teachers, where the production team demonstrated how they created a stage in the round and used lighting in this unique space. BLO also provided a “backstage tour” for pre-school students at the Temple, showing over one hundred three-year-olds the amazing theatre we created and introducing them to Ms. Gallagher, who is also an Emerging Artist this Season and who performed in the opera!


2014 brought all these special events, not to mention our regular series of Pre-Performance Lectures, free half-hour opera previews before each performance at the Shubert Theatre, and Opera Annex talk-backs, engaging post-show panel discussions featuring members of the cast and creative team.

We love providing fulfilling and diverse experiences for our audiences and look forward to enhancing and expanding these Community Engagement programs in 2015!

DR. VON LYRIC: A Little Warmth in the Depths of Winter

While making my way through the frigid streets of Boston yesterday and today, I have been thinking about the balmy days that will eventually come our way. Yes...summertime. So why not indulge a bit now and listen to some wildly different versions of what I consider possibly among the very greatest songs ever written.

BLO Thanks Governor Patrick!

Today, Governor Deval Patrick spends his last full day in office and completes the ceremonial "lone walk" down the front steps of the Massachusetts State House. As we look back on his eight years in office, we offer our thanks to Gov. Patrick for his tremendous support of the arts in Massachusetts!

DR. VON LYRIC: The Incomparable Borge

Never has there been a more engaged and attentive accompanist!

Seeing the Everyday in a New Light: Temple Ohabei Shalom’s Preschoolers Experience The Love Potion

by Heather Gallagher, BLO Emerging Artist and Resident Teaching Artist

I can remember from a very early age being intrigued with the idea of classical music. I guess I must have been around 11 or 12 years old when I picked up a recording of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. I remember really enjoying the first song, “O Fortuna” (I had heard it in movies and numerous commercials), but after a while I became frustrated with the following songs. It was a little overwhelming, all that clashing percussion, brass, and people singing in a weird language I didn’t understand. It was a lot to take in, and truth be told, I felt kind of stupid for not “getting it.” So I turned off that record and took a breather…for about ten years. The next time I delved into the world of classical music, I was about 22 years old. Years pass, I am now a professional opera singer. Go figure!

In addition to my work in opera, music education is one of my passions. When BLO’s education team, Beth Mullins and Lacey Upton, asked me to come to Temple Ohabei Shalom to talk to some of the Temple’s students in November, during the opera's run there, I was thrilled. The task seemed simple: talk about my experience working with Boston Lyric Opera’s production of The Love Potion. Then I remembered that my “audience” was around four years old. What could an audience of preschoolers possibly get from a work such as Frank Martin’s little-known and seldom-performed The Love Potion, a work that borrows significantly from 12-tone techniques and features a very mature plotline of adultery and forbidden love? I walked through the Temple doors that morning with some sense of uncertainty as I wondered how exactly this was going to work.

Heather Gallagher, Resident Teaching Artist,
meets with preschool students at
Temple Ohabei Shalom.

As I set foot inside the Temple, my apprehension abated as I watched my colleague, Brad Vernatter, BLO’s Director of Production, offer one of our props, a glowing orb, to a group of youngsters. A chorus of “Ahhhs!” came from the larger group as Lacey, Beth, and the educational team brought these magical props around to other groups to see and touch. I saw their eyes light up again as I approached the stage with one of our costumes, a heavy linen robe. Introducing myself, I explained who I was and a little about the show and the purpose of the robe. We sang “Happy Birthday” to one of the students, and I did some vocal warm-ups for them. Things were going great. Then,  I had the bright idea to open things up to some questions. Here’s a sampling of what I experienced…

Me: “ Does anyone have any questions about singing or opera?”
Preschooler #1: “My dad has a car!”
Me: “That’s wonderful! Do you have any questions about music or opera or what it’s like to be a singer?”
Preschooler #1: “No!”

Me: “How about anyone else? Any questions. Don’t be shy!”
Preschooler #2: “My dad has a, has a guitar!”
Me: “That’s really neat! Do you play the guitar at all?”
Preschooler #2: “No, my dad has a nice guitar!”

Me: “What about you, you’re VERY enthusiastic! What’s your question?”
Preschooler #3: (Silence...)

Children at this age are so refreshingly honest, it isn’t difficult for them to catch you totally off-guard – repeatedly. As an artist, I feel a lot of pressure wherever I go to help people understand opera, and it seemed in the moment that this little exercise in audience development had backfired. But then, an interesting thought cut through the clutter of my neurotic brain: “Understanding is important, but there is no understanding without experiencing first.”

That was when I realized what the point of today’s visit was: The Experience. Not comprehension, but the tangible experience of being in the presence of working artists, music, and opera. Being able to hold a real, working prop in your little hand, hearing a live opera singer sing some scales, seeing a conductor work, and being surrounded by numerous instruments and knowing what that sounds like…even seeing your place of worship totally transformed into a strange and marvelous new theatre with a stage and audience seating on all sides. Being able to see the everyday in a new light: that’s what today was about.

Four-year-olds have it easy. They’re allowed to be silly, make mistakes, and explore. They’re encouraged to do so. As adults, we feel so much pressure to be smart, measure up, know what’s going on, that we forget about the experience. But it’s open to us at all times. One doesn’t need the mindset or knowledge of a professional to unlock the joys of classical music. You don’t need to understand a single thing, actually. Like a four-year-old, you just need to open your eyes and ears to the experience. 

Preschool students listen attentively as Ms. Gallagher tells them about her job
as an opera singer and demonstrates vocal warm-ups.

Conductor David Angus leads a sectional rehearsal while
preschool students listen and watch.

From a BLO Intern: “When I opened a magic box called opera”

Queenie Fang joined the BLO team as an Education and Community Programs Intern in July 2014. Born and raised in Shanghai, China, Queenie came to Boston in 2013 as a student and recently earned her master’s degree from Boston University in Arts Administration. Queenie will continue on with BLO as an intern through June; we asked her to reflect on the first half of her time here and what she has learned so far.

When I opened a magic box called opera...
by Queenie Fang

This summer, I received a magic box called opera from BLO. Excited and curious, I started a journey to explore where this box would take me. With no exposure to opera before, this journey has brought me so many surprises and my preconceived notions about opera have been easily broken.

When I opened the box and started experiencing opera, I realized that opera does not have to be the stereotypical, high-brow event that people usually think of. It can be easily accessible to the general public. BLO not only offers discount tickets and fun contests to give away tickets for mainstage opera productions, it also provides interesting educational events throughout the city. For example, the first major project that I worked on as an intern was the BLO’s annual summer concert with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, an event that is free and open to the public. The program provides a sneak peek at the upcoming season, and this year every audience member could take home a BLO customized fan!

When I opened the box, I got the chance to experience “all-in-one performance art.” One of the perks of interning at BLO is that I am able to attend all of the mainstage productions. La Traviata at BLO this fall was the first opera I’ve ever seen. The story is so famous and well-known that, at first, my expectations were not high. However, I was completely blown away, and so were my friends, who are also opera newbies. At the end of the show, they told me that before the show, they thought they might fall asleep, but when the show started, they found themselves captivated by the story and enchanted by the chorus.

When I opened the box, I saw the importance of good teamwork and driven, passionate colleagues. I feel very comfortable working with my colleagues, and they always make themselves available to others to provide assistance. I learned that to ensure a superb performance, not only do the singers, conductors, and orchestra members have to do their jobs well, but the stage management and production staff members complement their work by keeping everything running smoothly and free from distractions. I also learned that different departments work together closely to fulfill the organization’s mission: to build curiosity, enthusiasm, and support for opera by creating musically and theatrically compelling productions, events, and educational resources for our community and beyond. Therefore, various educational programs have been developed for opera fans of all ages and experience levels to enhance the enjoyment of an opera performance. Their good teamwork reminds me of an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

When I opened the box, I also got a sense of belonging. I’m sure for every novice job candidate, it feels awesome to attend professional events with a job title. I will never forget how excited I was when I got into the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through its staff entrance, because on that day, BLO was holding an opera lecture. Besides, as an international student who just came to the States one year ago, being able to work with those super nice people, and learn from them, has given me a sense of belonging.

When I opened the box, I received a more enriched life. I’ve had so many “firsts” during my internship! First time attending a live opera; first time witnessing a temple transformed into an opera stage; first time helping with a special event; first time assisting with organizing auditions; first time going on a backstage tour, and much more! All these experiences are so precious. I learned what happens behind the curtain; I got to know the elements of a great show, with wonderful singing and acting and a very strong visual presentation; I was inspired to build support for art in my own country… When you open one door, it may lead you to a whole new world. Just keep an open mind, and keep trying – the world is full of interesting things for us to explore.

It’s holiday season again, and I’m glad that I’ve already witnessed the power of my magic box. What do you expect to get when you open your holiday gifts? Maybe on Christmas Eve, you will receive a magic box too. Don’t be afraid to open it, let’s see where it can take you. Happy holidays!

From the Archives: BLO's ZAIDE (1977)

Treasures from the BLO archives!

Today, we perused the program for BLO's Zaide, from the Company's 1976/77 Season. Zaide, which was unfinished upon Mozart's death, is a Singspiel, meaning that it alternates between spoken dialogue and sung arias (much like The Magic Flute). Its story is set in Turkey, an exotic and fascinating locale to 18th-century, European audiences, and tells the story of two slaves, Zaide and Gomatz, who fall in love and try to escape their master, the Sultan Soliman, to freedom. Mozart's manuscript breaks off before the end, but our program note from 1977 has some great insights on the piece!

Program for the 1977 BLO production of Zaide

From the "Historical Note by Michael Goodson"
It was not until this century that Alfred Einstein discovered a Singspiel text of 1763, Das Serail, which was clearly the model for the libretto Mozart set. A tale of "fashionable turquerie" written by Frantz Joseph Sebastiani and composed by Joseph von Friebert, Das Serail not only clarifies major points of plot and characterization, but by its lack of dramaturgical skill throws into sharp relief the seriousness with which Mozart approached the adaptation prepared by his librettist.

That librettist — Andreas Schachtner, dramatist, Salzburg court trumpeter, and childhood friend of Mozart — retained the basic outline of the first of Sebastiani's two acts, while departing considerably from his source in the second. To what extent he intended to follow Sebastiani's denouement is uncertain. In Das Serail, coincidence alone prompts the Sultan Soliman's magnanimity: Zaide and Gomatz discover they are sister and brother and the Allazim character [the overseer to the slaves] is no less than their father! Yet in reconstructing a libretto around Mozart's score, Das Serail is an indispensible resource...

The score is an eloquent testament of Mozart's growing appreciation for the operas of Gluck, much of whose work he studied and saw performed while on tour in Paris...Mozart's statement that he "should help to raise the National German opera high in the musical world" has been interpreted many ways; jingoistic readings aside, the Singspiel was attractive not because it was German but because it was young and relatively free from the formal preconceptions that surrounded the opera seria and were beginning to surround opera buffa. It was a format with which Mozart could experiment, and which would reflect him fundamentally. Judging his contributions from Zaide to Die Zauberflote [sic], keeping in mind the claims staked in opera buffa and opera seria, one is tempted to ascribe the whole province of Singspiel as well to Mozart's personal property.

Curious about Zaide? Check out Lucia Popp singing "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben" from Act I ("Rest peacefully, my sweet love"). Though Zaide is rarely performed, it is considered one of Mozart's finest for the soprano voice!

DR. VON LYRIC: More...more...

No comment necessary...or possible!

DR. VON LYRIC gets a bit silly (for a while)

Let's just take a slight holiday break between the tragic fate of Violetta, the agonies of the adulterous Isolde, and the upcoming tortured passions of Kátya. For the next few weeks, it's just a few laughs, a few jokes, a parody or two. Enjoy!

DR. VON LYRIC – Looking....

Instead of our more usual videos, I thought this week we might just quietly glance at a few of the myriad visual images generated by the passionate saga of Tristan and Isolde. These range from medieval paintings to more modern takes by Beardsley and Dali, among others. I haven't arranged them chronologically or  identified them individually – just let their colorful or erotic, bold, or quaint evocations flow over you. Hope you got a chance to see BLO's take on the Tristan legend....it was bold....erotic...and powerful in its own right, and the setting in the Temple was magnificent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE LOVE POTION: A CONVERSATION WITH PROFESSOR BYRON ADAMS, PROFESSOR IN THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE

Prof. Byron Adams

Magda Romanska, BLO Dramaturg and Associate Professor of Dramaturgy at Emerson College, talks to Prof. Byron Adams about Frank Martin’s The Love Potion. Prof. Adams is a world-renowned musicologist, composer, and a leading expert on Frank Martin. Prof. Adams specializes in British music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His essays have appeared in journals such as The Musical Quarterly and Music and Letters. In 2007, he was appointed scholar-in-residence for the Bard Music Festival, and edited Edward Elgar and His World (Princeton, 2007). As a composer, Prof. Adams won the Grand Prize of the Delius Festival Composition Competition, and in 1984, he was awarded the Raymond Hubbell-ASCAP Award for his compositions. He was composer-in-residence for the Colonial Symphony Orchestra from 1990-92, and in 1985, he was granted the first Ralph Vaughan Williams Research Fellowship by the Carthusian Trust of England. In 2000, the American Musicological Society recognized his scholarship with the Philip Brett Award. In 2007, Prof. Adams was a Visiting Fellow for the Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Studies of the University of London. Prof. Adams received his Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell University where he wrote his dissertation on Frank Martin’s music.

MR: Can you tell us a little bit about the history behind the making of The Love Potion?  Not many people know that this is not an actual opera but oratorio. Can you explain the difference and how it could potentially influence the performance and the staging of the piece?

BA: The history of Le vin herbé really goes back to Martin’s experience of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion when he was just twelve years old, the eighth son of a stern but loving Huguenot pastor in Geneva. The reason that I trace the origin of Le vin herbé—“The Love Potion”—to this shattering experience was that it gave Martin a predilection for what might well be called “interior drama.” In other words, the drama that takes place in the minds and souls of the protagonists. Martin composed Le vin herbé in 1938: “I had no major compositions planned, but the legend of Tristan and Isolde consumed my thoughts. At that moment, Robert Blum asked me to write a half-hour piece for his Madrigal Choir, scored for twelve solo voices and a few instruments.” Martin uses the retelling of this Celtic legend by Joseph Bédier, specifically the chapter on the love potion that sets the tragedy in motion. After the premiere of this first version of Le vin herbé, Martin decided to expand his work by setting two other excerpts of Bédier’s “romance.”

MR: The subject matter of The Love Potion is the myth of Tristan and Iseult, the same story as Wagner’s most famous opera. What are the major structural and dramatic differences and similarities between the two works? 

BA: First, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is scored for a large Romantic orchestra and lasts several hours. Le vin herbé, by contrast, is concise and modestly scored—but conjures up the entire story with a mixture of economy and passion. Martin uses the chamber chorus in the manner of a madrigal fable or as the chorus of a Greek drama—or the St. Matthew Passion. As in Bach’s masterpiece, the chorus delivers narration and comments on the action, which is utterly unlike Wagner’s music drama. Interestingly enough, Claude Debussy toyed with the idea of turning Bédier’s romance into his own version of the Tristan and Isolde story. Debussy sought a more Gallic restraint and delicacy than the oceanic, Teutonic eroticism of Wagner’s masterpiece. Debussy’s aim is exactly what Martin miraculously achieves in Le vin herbé. Simply put, Martin’s Le vin herbé is passionate, yes, but, unlike Wagner’s music drama, is wonderfully discreet, objective, and inward. Deep emotion is, paradoxically, generated through an essential restraint.

MR: Although the production history of The Love Potion isn’t extensive, the piece has acquired almost a cult status among its many devoted fans.  Can you tell us more about the reception and the production history of the work?

BA: Le vin herbé is a work that has had relatively few performances, as the score is not exactly easy to perform! One problem is that it is often regarded as an “oratorio,” which it is most emphatically not—it is in an unclassifiable genre. Perhaps the best description of Le vin herbé is that it is a “Passion” about passion, as it were. Most performances have been in concert, but the work is best known through recordings. Le vin herbé will always appeal first and foremost to listeners who can comprehend fully the sophisticated aesthetic of this work, in which nothing is shouted and yet human love and despair are plumbed to their harrowing depths. Those who listen, respond, and are attentive fall in love with Le vin herbé itself: its fans tend to be vehement in the expression of their love and loyalty to this great score. Recently, however, it has been performed with success as a chamber opera, just as there have been staged, or semi-staged, productions of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

MR: What are some of the most difficult and challenging aspects of The Love Potion in terms of its staging?  How did the directors tackled them in the past? 

BA: The most challenging aspect of staging Le vin herbé is its interiority—its refusal to raise its voice or go after obvious effects. The title characters do not writhe about in the throes of ignoble passion. There is also the challenge that the protagonists are also part of the vocal ensemble; Tristan and Isolde as well as other characters, such as Brangane, say, emerge and recede from the collective voice of the chorus. Another difficulty is posed by the eerie distance created by the conception; it is as distant as the chronicles of the Middle Ages and as contemporary—or, perhaps, timeless—as yesterday. The opening and closing choruses, which address the “Lords” listening to the tale, place the action of Le vin herbé within a mysterious framework, as we, the listeners and viewers, are those very viewers, both the lords and ladies of olden times and yet possessing our own contemporaneous existence. Le vin herbé exists both in and out of time. However, the score is so rich, so subtle, so moving that it is well-suited indeed for staging. I am very glad that this masterpiece is now making its way onto the stage!