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THE
OSCHOLARS
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Issue no 44:
May 2008
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For the Table of Contents, click  | To hub page
 | To THE OSCHOLARS
home page 
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Click  for
the Editorial page of the current issue of THE
OSCHOLARS
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'MAD,
SCARLET MUSIC'
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A monthly page dedicated to Oscar Wilde
and Music, compiled by Tine Englebert, with contributions from Danielle
Guérin, Lucia Krämer, Kirsten McLeod and
Sandra Mayer.
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Additionally, we will be looking at some
of the other operas of the period, or inspired by it.
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To go to
previous pages of Mad, Scarlet Music, click as appropriate
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Note: for
the time being only the pages since February 2007 are posted at www.oscholars.com.
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Earlier
pages are at www.irishdiaspora.net,
but will be transferred over as time permits.
There is difficulty in accessing these directly, which is why we are
transferring them.
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Before July
2002, ‘Mad, Scarlet Music’ was incorporated in the Editorial pages of THE OSCHOLARS.
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Click  in the Table of Contents for direct access
to the information about each item.
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WILDE NIGHTS AT THE OPERA
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1.
The Birthday of the Infanta
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2.
Salome (ten productions)
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TWO
MUSICAL COMEDIES
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3. A Man of No Importance
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4. My Friend Bunbury
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A SPANISH HOMAGE
TO OSCAR WILDE
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5.
El gigante egoísta, El ruiseñor y la rosa, El fantasma de Canterville, El ruiseñor egoísta de Canterville
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DISCOGRAPHY
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6.
Zemlinsky on disc
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BEYOND
THE WILDERNESS
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7. La Bohème
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8.
Ariane et Barbe-Bleu
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9. Pelléas et Mélisande
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RESEARCH
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10. A new
section on research into the music of the period
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I.
WILDE NIGHTS AT THE OPERA
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Salome
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Two
Metropolitan Opera performances (both broadcast in 1952) featuring Ljuba Welitsch and Astrid Varnay in the title roles are available from the
Met. Click the poster for details.
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SALOME
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New National Theatre
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Hon-machi, Shibuya-ku
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Tokyo 151-0071
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www.nntt.jac.go.jp
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Sunday 3th February 2008
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Saturday 9th February 2008
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Wednesday 6th February 2008
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Monday 11th February 2008
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Natalia Ushakova as Salome
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Salome
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Natalia Ushakova
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Herod
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Wolfgang Schmidt
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Herodias
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Koyama Yumi
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Johanaan
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John Wegner
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Narraboth
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Mizuguchi Satoshi
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Page
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Yamashita Makiko
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Thomas Rösner
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Conductor
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August Everding
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Production
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Joerg Zimmermann
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Scenery and Costume Design
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Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
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Salome
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Theater Dortmund (Opernhaus)
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22nd February 2008
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Herod
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Hannes Brock/Jeff
Martin
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Herodias
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Szilvia Rálik
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Salome
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Valérie Suty
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Narraboth
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Simon Neal
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Jochanaan
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Charles Kim/Thomas Piffka
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Page
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Maria Hilmes/Franziska Rabl
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Alexander Schulin
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Director
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Ekhart Wycik
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Musical
Director
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Christoph Sehl
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Décor
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Cornelia Brunn
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Costumes
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Justo Moret Ruiz
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Choreography
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salome
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Salome
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Das Meininger Theater
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13th, 27th January, 9th February 2008
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Herod
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Bettine Kampp
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Herodias
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Stan Meus
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Salome
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Anna
Maria Dur
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Narraboth
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Joel
Montero
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Jochanaan
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Erdem Baydar
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Page
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Ute Dähne
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Andrea Moses
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Director
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Hans Urbanek
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Musical
Director
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Christian Wiehle
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Set
and Costumes
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Ludwig Haugk
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Dramaturge
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Salome
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The Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden, 21st February 2008 to
12th March 2008.
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Salome
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Nadja
Michael
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![RO08_Salome[1]](.../Mad/image015.jpg)
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Herodias
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Michaela
Schuster
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Page to Herodias
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Daniela Sindram
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Herod
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Thomas Moser
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Narraboth
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Joseph Kaiser
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Jokanaan
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Michael Volle
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Philippe Jordan
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Conductor
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David McVicar
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Director
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Es Devlin
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Designs
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Wolfgang Göbbel
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Lighting
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Andrew George
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Choreography
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In our November 2007 edition we published some notes on the first Covent Garden production of Salome
(8th, 10th, 12th (m), 14th December 1910), with
Ackté in the title role, from Charles Reid: Thomas Beecham – An Independent Biography. London: Victor Gollancz
1961.
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Salome
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For the new 2007/08
season, the Vienna Staatsoper will continue its
Richard Strauss focus, including four performances of Salome on 6th January,
22nd and 24th April, and 23rd May 2008 in a production by Boleslaw Barlog.
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Salome
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Camilla Nylund
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Herodias
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Janina Baechle/Daniela Denschlag
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Herod
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Michael Roider/Wolfgang
Schmidt
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Jokanaan
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Peter Weber/Terje
Stensvold/Alan Titus
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Stefan Soltesz
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Conductor
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Boleslaw Barlog
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Director
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For more detailed information, including a short video extract, see:
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http://www.staatsoper.at/Content.Node2/home/spielplan/spielplan_detail_werkbeschreibung.php?eventid=497976#
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Salome
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Hamburgische Staatsoper
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Große Theaterstraße 25
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Hamburg
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www.staatsoper-hamburg.de
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26th April 2008
30th April 2008
4th May 2008
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"...
der Mond ist wie der Mond, das ist alles" : Einer der Höhepunkte des Repertoires:
Richard Strauss' "Salome"
"Sieh die Mondscheibe,
wie sie seltsam aussieht. Wie eine Frau,
die aufsteigt aus dem Grab", sagt der Page seinem Freund Narraboth. Für Salome ist der Mond
"wie eine silberne Blume, kühl und keusch. Ja, wie die Schönheit
einer Jungfrau, die rein geblieben
ist." König Herodes erblickt im Mond seine eigenen Wahnbilder: 2Er sieht aus wie
ein wahnwitziges Weib, das überall nach Buhlen sucht
… wie ein betrunkenes Weib, das durch Wolken taumelt …" Nur Herodias hat sich eine sachliche Nüchternheit bewahrt:
"Nein, der Mond ist wie der
Mond, das ist alles."
Der Mond spielt in der Oper "Salome" eine wichtige Rolle; die berühmte Schauspielerin Sarah Bernardt, Titelheldin in der Uraufführung von Oscar Wildes gleichnamigem Bühnenstück, meinte gar, er sei der eigentliche
Hauptdarsteller. Der Mond symbolisiert um die Jahrhundertwende die kranke (weibliche) Seele. Das Fremde, Andersartige, die Darstellung des Pathologischen,
Perversen, Morbiden, die
"psychologische Finesse," wie er es
selbst nannte, reizte Richard Strauss an Oscar Wildes
Drama, insbesondere die Darstellung
der krankhaften Emotionen beim Aufeinanderprallen der gegensätzlichen Welten Salomes und Jochanaans.
"Der Mond ist von Anfang an das geheime Zentrum des Geschehens, wie eine Art Projektionsfläche, über die die Personen kommunizieren", schrieb Willy Decker, der Regisseur der Hamburger
"Salome"-Inszenierung. "Das Stück spielt also im Mondlicht, in dem es keine
Farben gibt, sondern nur Abstufungen
zwischen fahlem Weiß und schattigem Grau. Darüber hinaus spielt der Mond auch
in seiner symbolischen Bedeutung
eine erhebliche Rolle … Auch Salome selbst spricht von ihm wie von einer
schönen Jungfrau, ›kühl
und keusch‹ wie sie selbst, und identifiziert sich somit mit dem
Mond. Der Mond ist die geheimnisvolle und unerreichbare
Frau, und diese Symbolik
hat in allen Kulturen eine lange Tradition. In den meisten Sprachen ist der Mond
weiblich; er gilt als passiv, da
er sein Licht von der Sonne empfängt und reflektiert. Sicher ist es diese Indirektheit des Lichts, die seine Magie ausmacht.
Man schreibt dem Mond eigenartige magnetische Wirkungen auf die menschliche Seele zu, in der er dunkle psychische Kräfte freizusetzen vermag. Menschen werden mondsüchtig und verlieren die Herrschaft über sich; wenn
er scheint, erwacht die Geisterwelt. Er hat eine anziehende
und zugleich verderbenbringende
Wirkung, und so ist er auch ein
wichtiges Todessymbol.
Seine Farbe ist die des gebleichten Skeletts. In solcher Atmosphäre, die von einem Hauch der Verwesung
durchdrungen
ist, sehe ich das Stück, dessen Farben nur in der Phantasie
gegenwärtig sind."
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Herod
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Siegfried
Jerusalem
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Herodias
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Renate Spingler
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Salome
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Hellen Kwon
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Jochanaan
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Wolfgang Koch
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Narraboth
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Peter Galliard
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Page
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Matthias Köster
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Simone Young
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Conductor
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Salome
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The
Florentine Opera Company
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Milwaukee
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15th,
16th & 17th February
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Herodias
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Joyce Castle
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Herod
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Joel Sorensen
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John the Baptist
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Mark Doss
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Salome (16)
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Kelly Cae Hogan
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Salome (15
& 17)
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Erika Sunnegårdh
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Narraboth
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Eric Johnston
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John Hoomes
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Stage Director
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Joseph Rescigno
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Conductor
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SalomE
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Teatro Regio, Turin
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Opened 24th February 2008
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Salomé
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Nicola Beller
Carbone
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Herod
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Peter Bronder
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Herodias
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Dagmar Pecková
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Jochanaan
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Mark S. Doss
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Page
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Manuela Custer
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Robert Carsen
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Director
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Philippe Giraudeau
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Choreographer
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Radu Boruzescu
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Set designer
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Miruna Boruzescu
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Costumes
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Manfred Voss
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Lighting
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Dario Cioni
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Video
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Gianandrea Noseda
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Conductor
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Orchestra of the Teatro
Regio
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Crédit photographique : Ramella & Giannese Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino
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Salome
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Dallas Opera
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Dallas, Texas
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1st,
3rd, 5th, 6th & 9th February 2008
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Salome
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Mlada Khudoley
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Herod Antipas
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Allan
Glassman
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Herodias
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Judith Forst
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Jokanaan
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Robert Hayward
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Narraboth
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Jonathan Boyd
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Page
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Eudora Brown
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Graeme Jenkins
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Music Director
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[The Birthday of the
Infanta] Der Zwerg
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Los Angeles Opera
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17th, 23rd February; 1st, 8th March
2008
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by Terence McNally
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Acting Up Stage Theatre Company
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Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs,
Toronto, ON
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7th to 22ndMarch 2008
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Directed by Lezlie
Wade
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Book by Terence McNally; Music by
Stephen Flaherty; Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
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Starring: Douglas E. Hughes, Patty
Jamieson, Liz Best, Kyle Blair, Christopher Darroch,
Ian Deakin, Susan Henley, Bethany Jillard, Gary Krawford, Megan
Powell, Nora Sheehan, Barrie Wood
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What happens when our deepest
secrets are finally revealed? Dublin
bus conductor Alfie Byrne is content reading Oscar
Wilde poetry to his passengers and staging plays in his local church. But when forced to confront a lifelong
secret, Alfie must learn to face his true nature
and finally take a stand in the world. With a powerful story and a stunning score
by the team who brought Ragtime to the musical stage, A Man of No Importance celebrates the genius of Oscar Wilde, the
boisterous streets of Dublin , and the bumps along
the road to self-discovery.
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http://www.manofnoimportance.com
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Musical by Gerd Natschinski based on Oscar
Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
(First performed in Berlin, 1964)
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Musikalische Komödie, Leipzig
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16th, 18th
January 2008. Further performances: 21st, 22nd June, 17th, 18th July 2008
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José Luis Turina
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At the 16th Nauplion
Festival in the summer of 2007, the Orquesta de Camara Reina Sofia with conductor and soloist Nicolás Chumachenco performed Homenaje a Oscar Wilde, the world premier of four works by the Spanish composer José Luis Turina
dedicated to Oscar Wilde. The Nauplion Festival in
the beautiful Palamidi Fortress in Nauplion, Greece honoured in
2007 Spain and its artists. The created works of José Luis Turina were orchestra adaptations: El gigante egoísta, El ruiseñor y la rosa, El fantasma de Canterville, El ruiseñor egoísta de Canterville. They were
performed 30th June 2007.
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Source: http://www.nafplionfestival.gr/en/
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The Palamidi
Fortress in Nauplion (Greece) which was constructed in 1687 by the Venetians
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These works
were not the first encounter between the composer and Oscar Wilde. In 1997 Turina had already dedicated a string quartet, Homenaje a Oscar Wilde.
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Radio
France broadcast the concert: Emission
France Vivace 1st November 2007.
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Source: http://www.radiofrance.fr/francevivace/prog/index.php?time=1193871600
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Jose Luis Turina
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José Luis Turina (b. 12th October
1952, Madrid), the Spanish composer and grandnephew of the famous
Spanish composer Joaquin Turina (1882-1949) began
his musical studies at the Barcelona Conservatory, also studying philosophy
and literature at the University of Barcelona. From 1973 he studied at the
Madrid Conservatory, where his teacher in composition and instrumentation was
José Olmedo. He later continued his training as a
composer with García Abril,
Bernaola and Rodolfo Halffter.
He completed his studies at the Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome as a pupil of Donatoni.
He won first prize at Valencia Conservatory's international composition
competition (1981) for Punto de encuentro and the Queen Sofía
Prize (1985) for Ocnos. He has taught
harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Cuenca Conservatory (1981–5), of
which he has also been director. In 1985 he moved to the Madrid Conservatory
to teach harmony and in 1992 to the ‘Arturo Soria’
Conservatory in Madrid. He also taught at in the USA (1989–92), at Colgate
University (Hamilton, NY), New York State University at Oneanta
and in New York at Cornell University and Hunter College. His works have
figured in numerous national and international festivals and competitions,
most notably in Cuenca, Geneva, Granada, Lisbon, London, Metz, Oporto, La
Rochelle, Seville, Strasbourg, Vicenza and Zagreb.
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Turina adheres to an abstract concept of music; for him, music
speaks for itself, although he accepts the meta-language that has evolved
from the necessity of offering an explanation for individual creativity. His
music is based on the constant quest which combines an inherited tradition
with personal innovation, a dialectic between
expression and structure.
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Turina is the composer of the opera Don Quijote en Barcelona (1998-1999),
orchestral and chamber works, works for voices and
for solo instruments and educational works.
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Source:
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Marta Cureses: 'Turina, José Luis', Grove
Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 19 February 2008), http://www.grovemusic.com
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Over the many issues of ‘Mad,
Scarlet Music’, many recordings of works based on Wilde have been
noticed. We are now undertaking the
task of bringing these together in a Discography, compiled by Tine Englebert,
where new recordings will be added as they are published. Here too we will add information about L.P.s, 78s and
tape recordings. We begin with a list
of recordings of Zemlinsky’s Florentine Tragedy and Birthday
of the Infanta (also known as The Dwarf / Der Zwerg). Click the gramophone.
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A glance at some of the other
operas with which Wilde’s contemporaries (and sometimes Wilde himself) would
have been familiar; and those that derive from the works of the period.
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MAETERLINCK / DUKAS
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Fairy tale in
three acts first performed 10th May 1907, Opéra Comique, Salle Favart, Paris
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Oper Frankfurt am
Main
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Untermainanlage 11
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60311 Frankfurt am Main
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Germany
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www.oper-frankfurt.de
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New production sung in French with German surtitles
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Duke
Bluebeard had five wives. All have vanished. Are they being held prisoner or
are they dead? When writing his libretto Maurice Maeterlinck combined two
themes: the story from the middle ages about the French knight Bluebeard and
the Greek myth – Ariadne, who outwitted the human
flesh devouring Minotaur in his labyrinth. Unlike Debussy’s symbolic version
of Maeterlinck’s drama Pelleas et
Mélisande, Ariane was conceived as an opera
libretto from the word go. Bluebeard enters his castle with his new victim, Ariane. She is not blinded by the Duke’s riches and goes
directly to the forbidden door and finds the five wives cowering in the dark
cellar. Ariane manages to free them and give them a
new feeling of worth but she has to leave the castle alone because the other
women want to stay and tend their tormentor, who was injured during their
fight for freedom. In Dukas’ only opera it is this
last wife, and not Bluebeard, who is the central figure. Bluebeard, in fact,
has only 27 bars to sing, when his sixth wife enters the forbidden room.
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Paul Dukas, a friend and admirer of Claude Debussy, is perhaps
remembered best for his orchestra
scherzo The Magician’s Apprentice
and La Péri. His only opera is a orchestral
masterpiece: sophisticated and complex in motifs and strong in sound
symbolism. Dukas’ musical legacy was quite small.
He did not write much and destroyed a lot of what he wrote. He was a man of
few words – just like Bluebeard.
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MAETERLINCK / DEBUSSY
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Drame lyrique en
5 actes et 12 tableaux - Sur un livret de Maurice Maeterlinck ; créé le
3 avril 1902, à l’Opéra Comique, à Paris.
Sung in French with German
surtitles.
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Staatsoper unter den Linden
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Unter den Linden 7
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10117 Berlin
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www.staatsoper-berlin.de
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Ruth Berghaus (1927-1996) legendäre Inszenierung von Claude Debussys
“Pelléas und Mélisande” war ihre letzte an der Staatsoper unter den Linden.
Die Premiere hat 1991 Michael Gielen dirigiert, Roman Trekel singt seitdem Pelléas und Ensemblesänger wie Kwangchul Youn und Hanno Müller-Brachmann haben in dieser Produktion als Arkel und Golaud ihre Rollendebüts
gegeben.
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The Metropolitan Opera, New York
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1st April, 5th April, 9th April, 12th April,
15th April, 18th April 2008
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Doctoral research
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In our October 2007 edition, for
the first time, we listed some of the doctoral research on the music of the
period being undertaken at British Universities; and are very grateful to Dr Katherine Ellis for drawing this
to our attention. The first resort for
Great Britain
is http://www.rma.ac.uk/register/register.asp.
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We hope to expand and
internationalise this list in future, and would be glad of assistance.
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Royal Opera
House Collections Online
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Royal Opera House Collections'
Catalogue and Performance Database are now online at www.rohcollections.org.uk. These resources,
the result of many years of dedicated work, are an important milestone in an
ambitious, ongoing project to open up ROH Collections to as wide and diverse
an audience as possible.
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The website provides an overview of
ROH Collections and brief introductions to each collection in the archive.
The Collections Catalogue contains individual catalogue records, with images,
for the Frank Sharman Photographic Collection and a section of the Costume
Collection. Over the coming months, additional catalogue records will be made
available online.
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The Performance Database has three
levels: work (creators and premieres), production (director and design team),
and performance (dancers, singers, and music staff). Currently online are all
the works performed by The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet (and their
earlier names) since 1946, as well as all new productions and first night
casts of each production. Similar data for The Birmingham Royal Ballet will
be available in April, and nightly performance records will be added on a regular
basis. The database can be searched by title, person, company, character, and
date. Records are linked to items in the Collections Catalogue, such as
costumes worn in a certain production, and therefore searches can be
undertaken across both sets of information.
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In addition, the website offers
interactive 'Highlights from the Collections', allowing users to focus in
detail on certain items, through magnifying images, brief textual
explanations, and audio clips. The website launched with three highlights:
the costume for Turandot worn by Amy Shuard and Birgit Nilsson, designed by Cecil Beaton in
1963; Constant Lambert’s score for Frederick Ashton’s ballet Dante Sonata (1940); and an architectural detail of the theatre, normally quite
difficult to view.
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For
the Table of Contents, click | To hub page | To THE
OSCHOLARS home page
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Click for
the Editorial page of the current issue of THE OSCHOLARS
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