Word: oratorio
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...gave a magnificent performance of Part One in 1949, the bicentenary of Goethe's birth. They made one bad mistake; used a phonograph recording of Holst's The Planets, when they had to hand the rich fare of Faust music, Wagner's Overture, Liszt's Symphony, Berlioz's dramatic oratorio, and Boito's opera Meflstofele...
...advance publicity whetted popular interest in Romeo and Juliet, and for once a new work by Berlioz became an overnight success. ("Come, dears," wrote a society columnist. "You will hear wonderful things.") But there were grumblings even then that Romeo and Juliet was a curious hybrid-neither symphony nor oratorio nor opera. What Berlioz was aiming for was a new amalgam of symphony and opera in which vocal solos, choral and instrumental passages were mixed in loosely linked episodes. In Berlioz' musical shorthand, some moments of highest passion-the passages between Romeo and Juliet-are left to the orchestra...
When Pablo Casals set to work on an oratorio titled El Presebre (The Manger) in 1943, he intended it to be performed on the occasion of Franco's downfall. In the 17 years since then, El Caudillo has looked as healthy as ever, while age has begun to slow up even the indefatigable Casals, who just turned 84. In the course of his birthday celebrations, the composer bowed to the inevitable: in Acapulco, at the climax of a two-week Mexican Casals festival that ended last week, he mounted the podium to give El Presebre its world premi...
...oratorio is based on a poem by an old comrade of Casals-Spain's Juan Alavedra, who, like Casals, went into exile in Prades after the Civil War. In three emotion-packed hours the work unfolded the entire Nativity story, starting with the journey to Bethlehem and ending with the arrival of the kings and a final hosanna of thanksgiving. More operatic than oratorio-like in style, the work opened with a skirl of oboes and the beating of a high-pitched hand drum, developed its theme in a flow of Catalan folk-flavored melody, interspersed with grandiose choral...
...were blowing out a candle. Another problem is that Lerner seems to stop shy of the most tragic moments not only Arthur's death but Guinevere's trial and rescue, which, in the script as it stood last week, was only related in an awkward "standup oratorio." Perhaps L. & L.'s biggest problem is to find a way of telling this climactic scene visually or dramatically...