Photo, for once, be me. On an armchair. Yep. An armchair. I'm available for weddings and books on armchair photo shoots only.
Being (hugely likely) the one and only segment in the series Hairman at the Bookstore I thought I would dig out my sand coloured corduroy jacket, thrust my pipe into my mouth and bring to your attention some operatic tomes to peruse at home with a mug of cooking sherry. Unfortunately quite a lot of opera books fall into the charge whatever you want area of retail so prices tend to be as flexible as a Rossinian plot making this a sporadic segment at best. But enough of my moral outraging. It's time to sell a book!
The book in question is Living Opera (Oxford University Press) by Paris based American scribe Joshua Jampol. Roping in the likes of Pierre Boulez, Robert Carsen, Plácido Domingo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Natalie Dessay, Simon Keenlyside (and another fourteen other opera luminaries) he partakes in a series of interviews / conversations that centre on the participants approach to opera / music making, giving a snapshot of both the opera world and the participants themselves.
So what is it like? Erm, so far I've only read the first interview with Pierre Boulez and interesting page flicking it made – though I have to admit to complete ignorance when the discussion focused briefly on tonal music. But generally speaking it made for an engaging introduction to the book with a flavour of Boulez the person appearing alongside his ideas on music and opera.
Whether or not the remaining interviews follow in the same appealing vein is a mystery I'm planning to solve over the coming weeks. But in case the book slips into the black hole of publishing and ends up taking the warehouse / bargain bin / pulping route I thought I'd bring it to your attention now...thereby saving myself from having to write a review and simply enjoying it at my leisure while buffing my hair with a silk duster and imagining Joyce DiDonato is reading her interview to me dressed as Rosina...umm, where was I?
Buying advice is the usual places – AmazonUKGermanyFranceCanada, Waterstones, Blackwells, WH Smith, Barnes & Noble. I picked up my copy for a wallet friendly £11 from one of Amazon's independents compared to the £16-£17 the biggies are charging, although these prices are the norm for hardback copies. Remember to figure in delivery charges to your abode – but you won't need me to tell you that. And please note that the book is currently only available in English.
As Tony Harrison pointed out, the Vs of life are many and varied and can quite often be at their most heated between bedfellows, or in this instance between the ROH and their independent numero uno blogger. Anyone who has read Intermezzo's blog will know that it's written by someone who a) Knows what they're talking about and b) Cares passionately about the opera and classical music world. You may agree with what's written on there, or you may not. What can't be denied is that it acts as an invaluable advertisement for the opera / classical music scene in London and other stops around the UK, and the continent, and does so in a way that's accessible to the casual, and the not so casual visitor alike.
While I appreciate that the ROH are well within their legal rights to enforce copyright control over the images they produce / commission in this particular case I feel the letter of the law has been adhered to far too strictly. The whole idea of being a performing arts company is to show off exactly what it is you're famed for and if your message is spread should be the overriding factor rather than how it is spread. In a way it would have been far more worrying for the ROH if Intermezzo hadn't taken the time to share her experiences of performances at Covent Garden, but had instead blogged about the benefits of saving grass cuttings to use as biodegradable fake moustaches.
Having chosen to approach the situation in the way that they did has obviously backfired, but hopefully a greater awareness will now exist at Covent Garden about the potential power for good (feeling like Spiderman as I'm writing this) the Internet can bring them if the whole company can embrace the nuances of the net and appreciate the symbiotic nature of today's new media. It would be a great shame if a groovy way out can't be found out of the situation as in Intermezzo the ROH have a uniquely placed, and immensely popular blogger, who converts many souls to the religion of opera and the ROH. It's time for the messenger of love and tranquillity to do his thing...
Or at least that's what my inner hippy thinks. Thankfully it looks as though the Pipes of Peace are in the process of being blown and an end may be in sight to Mezzogate over the coming days.
*Call me sloppy, lazy, and unprofessional or just cursed by an evil Gremlin called Janice but the earlier version wasn't my intended post.
**The Love Gods of Opera have now done their thing with Intermezzo having official access to the ROH's press images and Wagner, Verdi and the boys breathing a collective sigh of relief.
Ahead of WNO's season opening Fidelio Lothar Koenigs chatted to Culture Critic about WNO's new season, his interest in Der Blaue Reiter art movement and a (possible please be true) hint at WNO's next venture into Wagner.
The first is Verdi's Rigoletto from the recent summer season with Simon Keenlyside making his role debut as the eponymous funny guy without humour. Joining him as the Duke is Gwyn Hughes Jones, Sarah Coburn making her WNO / UK debut as the jester's daughter (Gilda), Leah-Marian Jones as the psychotic tart with a heart (Maddalena) and David Soar as plain old psychotic Sparafucile. Conducting the performance was / is Pablo Heras-Casado. I thoroughly enjoyed this in the theatre with strong performances all round but as I missed Hughes Jones as the Duke I'm definitely recording this one when it's broadcast on the 2nd of October at 6pm UK time.
The second BBC Radio 3 broadcast comes on the 13th of November (6pm UK time) and is Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. A strong cast is headed by Sarah Connolly as the Composer, Orla Boylan (Ariadne) and Gillian Keith (Zerbinetta). WNO's Music Director Lothar Koenigs will set the groove. I can't say much about this one as it hasn't been performed yet.
The broadcast times may change so I'll keep an eye out for any movings around. You can listen through the usual ways - Radio, Digital TV and via the Internet (even outside the UK). All of this means you can finally hear what it is I blabber on about for once.
Before I lose any semblance of respect I'll begin by suggesting you may want to jump to the musical excerpts. If on the other hand you've had a drink, are feeling in a good mood or are curious to see what a cock-up I've made of sticking to this idea then by all means carry on reading.
Hairman: First of all many thanks for agreeing to this interview. Leonore / Fidelio: It is a pleasure, but I’m refusing to praise the great martyr Don Pizarro.
H: Duly noted. L / F: To think what that man subjected Florestan to and he is now being commemorated as if he was a great and good man…ach!
(Throws hands up)
H: We’re here today to talk about your impressions of late eighteenth century Seville, more specifically the reports that Seville prison experienced a rare, but devastating outbreak of Chronic Gullibility Syndrome, or CGS for short. As someone who was present at the time in question do you think the claims are well founded?
(She laughs)
H: I’ll take that as confirmation?
L / F: You may.
H: What makes you think that people were suffering from CGS?
L / F: How much do you know about the episode?
H: What do you mean? L / F: It was more than just CGS that was at work during my time in the gaol. There were also spontaneous occurrences of singing taking place throughout that ghastly place. I would be walking from my room to the kitchen when without warning I would be singing about the joys of leg extension. Everybody, and everything was affected. Men, women, children, birds, ants...rocks. There was even an orchestra hidden away in the gaol. It was all very fantastic.
H: I guess it would have been.
(Silence while I wait for a response from Leonore who hums quietly to herself)
H: Any specific examples of this singing and CGS?
L / F: Too many to number! But there are a few that I can recall without difficulty to this day. Marzelline, the gaoler's daughter, was a sweet girl who was forever being bothered by Jaquino, the porter. He was quite harmless really but he was one of those infuriating men who need to be informed repeatedly that their advances are simply not welcome. It was because of him that I think Marzelline fell for her father’s assistant. His name was Fidelio, a young man starting out in life. The trouble was that Fidelio was I, and I was there to rescue my husband from his doom, dressed in a frankly pathetic disguise that included the most capacious shirt and hat you could ever wish to see. Despite this ridiculous costume she couldn’t deduce I was a woman. I knew straight away that something was amiss when I heard her singing this touching song.
L / F: I was surprised she never wondered why her Signorinashave blades began running out the time I came to the gaol. But she wasn’t the only one not to realise I wasn't a young man. Rocco and Jacquino were just as appalling. Take this example when we broke out into song at the same time. You would have thought one of them would have questioned why my voice was more akin to Marzelline's than to theirs. But perhaps they were too taken with their hopes and cares to realise something was wrong.
H: It is quite obvious that your voice isn’t that of a man.
L / F: You can tell, sitting here. But if you had been there at the time in question you would have been as hopeless as the rest. But Rocco, the gaoler, was also blinded by something other than this CGS. He was eager for his daughter to marry and I am of the opinion that he was willing to ignore the truth. He was like us all really, wishing things were different than they were...and he did have a weakness for money, especially gold and how it affected the quality of happiness a person could hope to experience in their lifetime.
L / F: I couldn’t accuse the prisoners of being gullible, locked away as they were in those pitch-black cells they could hardly see the gruel, and thankfully not the maggots, in their bowls. They were quite overcome when Marzelline and I encouraged Rocco to allow them to be let out in the yard. It may have been some years since many had been outside, let alone seen the sun.
L / F: Florestan was by far the worst of any of the prisoners. The poor man was losing his mind. Pizarro had him hidden away from the other prisoners, kept alone in the bottommost dungeon. A terrifying place for any soul. This was his reward for telling the truth.
H: Did anyone suspect who you were?
L / F: Not one person. I cleaned up after everyone, always insisted the toilet seat be put down, never did I take part in their sport of pelting the village idiot with rotten tomatoes. I had protuberances where they hadn’t any, and vice versa. Even Pizarro failed to recognise me, and he possessed the senses of a hawk. Pardon me for saying this but I couldn't believe they were all so thick. But that was before this CGS of yours stopped working its witchcraft on us. Did you know this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened in Seville?
H: Erm. No.
L / F: It seems that a teenager called Cherubino was mistaken for a girl. And then there was a count who dressed up in all manner of disguises. Even though he was well known throughout the countryside and town nobody recognised him. Of course he never pretended to be anything other than a man so perhaps it doesn’t tally with your CGS. But they all broke into song.
H: Did they now?
L / F: But I doubt they sang anything as joyful as everyone in the gaol did to celebrate our deliverance from Pizarro's clutches and my rescuing Florestan.
L / F: And then, as soon as we finished singing this CGS of yours weakened its grasp. But not utterly. Pizarro, following his death was pardoned by our new ruler and is now heralded as a martyr. The poor souls he tormented will be forgotten. Are we finished now?
All recreations were undertaken by:
Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Lucerne Festival Orchestra Arnold Schoenberg Chor Wien (Chorus Master Erwin Ortner) Claudio Abbado: Conductor
Peter Mattei: Don Fernando Falk Struckmann: Don Pizarro Jonas Kaufmann: Florestan Nina Stemme: Leonore Christof Fischesser: Rocco Rachel Harnisch: Marzelline Christoph Strehl: Jaquino Juan Sebastian Acosta: First Prisoner Levente Pall: Second Prisoner
Their efforts will be recognised with a CD release in early 2011 on the Decca label.
In a Please don't sue me notice the recordings will cease to exist after the final performance of WNO's Fidelio at Oxford's New Theatre on the 3rd of December.
I don't do predictions – just ask my bookie, Knuckles ap Kneecaps. My speciality is more Things I'd Like to See Happen in 2010 / 2011. Call them whims, moans and wishes, in no scientific order of preference the list goes something like this…
5. S4C / BBC Wales to record at least one performance out of each of the seasons. That is a grand total of three operas. Not many. If both these organisations, who have the brief of reporting on Welsh life, would lose a rugby match here, an obscure Katherine Jenkins documentary there I'm sure they could fit in the filming of performances for the benefit of those who can't make it to the theatres, at the same time preserving the work that goes on at WNO.
3. The management of the Wales Millennium Centre to put up better signs for the toilets. After several years of pointing the confused members of society towards the wc's I'm in possession of enough evidence to say that the original signs just aren't working. I can't fault the toilets themselves – top notch, just as long as aimers hit their targets…
8. A younger audience. To be fair the age of the audience at WMC is quite varied but on certain nights I feel quite young, which I don't mind given the realisation that my significant birthdays now fall every ten years. However, for the sake of future audience figures it would be nice to see an influx of younger folk in attendance as they will be the oldies of the future.
7. People travelling up from London to quit moaning about the time it takes to get out of the WMC at the end of the night. Of course not every visitor moans but having experienced the traffic jam in the Amphitheatre at Covent Garden quite a few times and then taken part in the demolition derby that's the cloakroom in comparison getting out of WMC isn't the major hassle some people suggest it is. I agree that there should be an extra set of lifts on either side of the building but generally speaking it isn't a huge slog to leave the Armadillo.
89. I decide on Hairman, HairMan or Hair Man as my name.
21. If #5 proves a bit of a struggle how about BBC Radio Wales / Cymru recording the performances? Lose a rugby match here, a Katherine Jenkins concert there...
2. A suitable replacement for John Fisher is found. I don't want to see a rushed appointment that fails to work out, but at the same time I wouldn't want any extra pressure to fall on Lothar Koenigs' shoulders. Stability really is the key and the sooner WNO can find a replacement the better for the company as a whole.
9. Surtitles failure. For some reason the English surtitles at the WMC can go AWOL from time to time but luckily for me I can speak / read / write / dream in Welsh so I slide my eyes to the right to read the Cymraeg. However, many people (including Welsh folk) can't understand the Welsh surtitles so my wish is that the English surtitles don't succumb to exhaustion as much this year.
34. Sweet suckers. So you eat sweets – I don't care. So you unwrap them during the quietest bits, ummmmm, I care. So after the final curtain has gone down you've left your rubbish behind – I really care. If you're too lazy to take your rubbish with you, don't bring it in the first place.
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