Futility?

This word sums up what I think about  my blogging on Opera passion.
Dismalness is all around  us and yet I carry on charging to various places to follow the stars... my stars.
Four days ago,  September 11th,  brought its load of sorrowful memories:  first, in 1973 Salvador Allende 's assassination and the Chilean coup d'Etat, an immense horror and so many missing people... then, 1993,  the Islamic attacks in New york, nearly 3000 deaths. Since then, so many terrorist attacks occured in Europe and elsewhere. Since the Paris and Nice attacks I cannot say that whenever we travel (and we did a fair amount of travelling with our grandchildren this summer) these  horrendous events are  not on my mind together with a repressed insecure feeling.
Of course it is futile to express all sorts of opinions about a singer, ( will she turn up for the show? will he manage to reach the high C? can we say it is her role debut if she sings only one act in concert? ... I prefer her in Verdi... and so on and so forth, which is even more acrobatic if it is on a discussion forum where agressivity is always around to reinforce arguments. Not long ago I left a forum for good, furious about one extremely agressive and overpowering eminent guest, I feel relieved now and what a waste of my time that was!)
And it is even more futile to spend so much money on always increasing price tickets and on fares to places like Munich, Berlin, Dornbirn, Schwarzenberg, Paris, Montpellier and perhaps Saint-Rémy de Provence ? But what is passion without all these drawbacks? Love is always excessive, passion is even more so futility has to be part of this game. To some extent though.
This nearly beginning ot the opera season I have to react, frankly I cannot stop wandering about to catch a new production of my favourite singers, mainly Anja Harteros, Mariella Devia and Karine Deshayes, Vesselina Kasarova,  Ludovic Tézier,  perhaps Charles Castronovo and Jonas kaufmann?  I will also travel for Hector Berlioz: oratorios, concerts or ballets, for Mozart too, and Debussy, Haendel, Bellini... the list is endless. As long as I am alive I have to feel the music live and accept the futility of the game. But I will have to be more selective. Aging and money spending are taking  good care of my futility.
The past events in Aix  reassured  me in my taste for new productions of Haendel like Il triomfo del tempo e del disinganno : actualised by Warlikowski with modern characters playing the four strong philosophic arguments, made the drama real and breathtaking:
Bellezza

Sabine Devieilhe

Piacere

Franco Fagioli

Disinganno

Sara Mingardo

Tempo

Michael Spyres

My special admiration goes to Bellezza, embodied by Sabine Devieilhe who has enherited

dramatic and singing abilities of a young Natalie Dessay. She has, in this particular vision, a tragic look  really unforgettable at the very end. As usual with Warlikowski 's universe, the video creates a world of its own which goes deeper into the libretto. And here I had the feeling it was a real achievement. The four singers are all wonderful baroque singers and the conductor E. Haïm and her baroque ensemble were stunning on that opening night. Of the four operas I attended (Cosi, Pélleas et Mélisande,Il Triomfo, Kalila wa dimna) Il triomfo is for me a triumph !

Modernised staging is their common characteristic. Cosi fan tutte was extremely clever on  historical point of views but also too trashy on the sexual side, going to unnecessary extremes. (But I fairly well know such behaviours were common during colonisation). The singing actors were all very good at acting  but uneven as  music performers. 

Pélléas et Mélisande had a wonderful team of singers: Barabara Hannigan and Stéphnae Degout. I

had already seen Laurent Naouri in Golaud and loved him in that difficult role. They all were fantastic singers bringing the poetry of the text in their voices. But Katie Mitchell's staging did not make me come into this dream. A pity because on the orchestra side it was a real journey into the depths of this tale.
The operas and concerts from Aix Festival 2016 are on free streaming on the web. I particularly enjoyed the tale rhythm of the the kalila-wa-dimna and the instruments. On the whole Mozart's new vision of Cosi was annoying because of its excess but quite logical when it is possible to 'dive' into Honoré's transposition. Mozart's was saved by his wondrous music!