Word: wagnerian
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...opera; it came as highly touted as a Cecil B. DeMille spectacular. The libretto was written by Playwright Christopher Fry (The Lady's Not for Burning). Chicago Lyric spent well over half a million dollars on the production, a near record. The musical forces were mighty: a Wagnerian orchestra of 96, a chorus of 100. The preparation was elaborate. Choral rehearsals began in April; the orchestra practiced an unprecedented 110 hours...
...that flies over the audience, and the fieldmouse that jumps out of Renfield's hand and scurries across the floor into the fireplace. There is fun, too, in the soundtrack: chilling animal calls in the distance, snippets of Debussy and Mahler and Holst, and a wonderfully ominous neo-Wagnerian leitmotif for tuba and timpani...
...scandalous affair with the wife of the distinguished conductor Hans von Bulow finally ended in her divorce and her marriage to Wagner in 1869. In celebration of that event, Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll, which, in its tranquillity and relative simplicity, contrasts sharply with the stereotype of Wagnerian heaviness and turmoil. Unlike his operas, it is modestly scored, an intimate love poem which Wagner never meant to have published. It is, in addition, an immensely difficult piece to perform--the orchestra is required to evoke a tranquil, exalted atmosphere, and then maintain this mood through twenty minutes of technically exacting...
...again played sweetly, particularly in the quiet opening and closing sections, and the solo wind passages were impeccably performed. But too often the idyllic atmosphere of the music was disrupted by unnecessary heaviness in the lower instruments, and Wilkins's cautious, fastidious approach to the work detracted from its Wagnerian sweep and passion. Hence, although the performance was as precise as one could wish, it might have been more inspiring. As an ambitious attempt to perform a very difficult work, it was certainly impressive, but it cannot be called entirely successful...
...give the Met the benefit of the doubt, is that neither Tristan und Isolde nor the Ring cycle makes much sense without Heldensoprano Birgit Nilsson, who has been away from the U.S. for several seasons and gives no sign of returning. Last week the Met considerably shored up its Wagnerian wing with a new production of Tannhäuser that was spectacular to behold, breathtaking (with one major exception) to hear and immensely satisfying in the way it made dramatic sense of the churchiness that infuses the work. The performance also emphatically implied that Music Director James Levine, 34, is fast...