Tristan und Isolde: Tonight Bayerische staatsoper,(before the opening performance today..).

Tristan und Isolde
 Suppose these nearly two years without any trip or journey outside my home and its surroundings was just  a hazy, melancholic, dream... and then is coming real time where suddenly I have my flight  booked and ticket in hand  (I know! having a ticket at the BR oper is quite an event in itself still I managed several times with help the from a friend and or from the BR reselling ticket site ), and here I am in this marvellous shell  for music and voices where I saw nearly all  of Anja Hartero 's major roles! Then, I am going to discover her Isolde...

back to present... on line...

Here, luckily she talks about her Wagner's roles and the help they give her to  study  Isolde which seems more difficult than the others ( I saw most of them, her Elsa I saw twice, in Bayreuth and in Berlin ).

I am so pleased to actually see and hear her discussing Isolde, after this long period I did not hear any news from her. I do hope she will be a success as always ! I miss her on stage . That is impossible for me as it is but I will try to catch on the radio BRKlassics some arias or let's dream, the oprea being broadcast ?

Lucky Munich citizens, who,  tomorrow, can sit in front of the Staatsoper for a free open air performance... ! 

Her Tristan, for this first performance is her best stage- tenor and friend, Jonas Kaufmann... Nice to see him again along side Anja Hareteros! but during these months I listened to him either discussing the situation for artists or performing on the web several times.  As for Anja Harteros,  I never had the chance to catch a glimpse of her on the web. So, Cheers for both of them and the entire cast!

 

 

 

Gihoon Kim wins BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021

Gihoon Kim wins BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021

Wonderful singing ! rich baritone voice with style and talent ! Hope to see him live on our Southern opera stages.. soon when life will be more and more normal! 

Korea is a land of born singers and musicians ! "fighting" as the younger generation says in Korea!

My last Tosca May 16th 2019

 Memories of that Tosca seem to come from   another life where someone else was replacing me...

 All around  me life is starting again with precautious gestures... vaccination is helping to widen the doors onto normal life:  That is life  with no curfew, less ill people in hospitals, and still with masks on in shops queues and concert halls now beginning to open again. Outdoors masks are not  compulsory. Because of my special  health conditions, vaccinattion at the moment is not possible for me. I have to visit a specialist in Marseille who is fully  booked for months  and  could decide what to do towards that vaccination issue. I am not anxious about it because after nearly two years I am used to living at home entirely and in my two small gardens with Music of course and internet connection.

That is why I live in my memory most of the time. I should try to sort it out but I have never been an organised person... Dreams,  arias,  memories come to me because I often listen to either France Musique or what I look for in all my recorded music from live productions I attended more than ten years ago. Before retirement I used to tape concerts from the Radio, France Musique mainly and I have drawers full of tapes ... with all sorts of operas and concerts and interesting long live interviews or comments on operas. I very rarely put them on my radio set. But when I bought a recording stick I really enjoyed what I recorded  I had a Sony one which allowed me to keep all the precious lyrical moments I enjoyed where I was. Of course I also managed to download them on my computer and I have a collection of beloved music and singers.Then I was given an Iphone and recording videos was so easy... when I had a rather sheltered seat at Bastille Opera House or Marseille or anywhere .. La Scala too when I went even  at Moscow Bolschoï and last precious souvenir Bayreuth for Lohengrin with Anja Harteros... 

That is why I rediscovered today  the video of the 16 last minutes of Tosca at Bastille with Anja Harteros and Vittorio Grigolo.

 I did not  upload those minutes on youtube because they are considered illegal and I understand but I would like to share the beauty of the two artists in this extreme tragic moment with the music singing acting and a rather striking setting. I wrote briefly some lines about that last Tosca because it was an event in our life: For once I was not alone my husband asked me to book a seat because Tosca is his favourite opera and he wanted to see Anja Harteros he listened to because of my deep passion for her art of singing and he caught sight of her at a small shop near  Berlin  Deutsch oper whee she was singing  (I was going to of course!) she was at the cash desk for some sweets  .. that was so good... we said 'hello' with admiration...I bowed very impressed... as always!

Vittorio Grigolo is a passionate singer on stage and he is a nice tenor too with a lot of "Italianita," very communicative acting  with his partners. 

 

I suddenly rediscovered how intense he was, so that his Floria became also like him, passionate and loving! She was disheveled and had some of her  bangs (very impressive curly hair) in front of her eyes and I noticed he was gently combing her hair  back with his hand as well as stroking her head gently. I did not remember these gestures and her affectionate even loving embraces when I was in the house that night, it is my video which told me that intimate palying that opening night.

They both shared impressive,  expressive,  passionate singing,  I remember that, but I did not remember the intensity of their shared acting at the end of Tosca. I will try to reflect these discoveries in the screesnhots from the video I made on May 16th 19,  a day before flying to Beijing and  crossing 3600 kms through China on their fast trains, our last journey before Covid 19 started all over the world, but at that time we did not know ... it was ahead of us..      

Sceenshots trying to show their intense moving acting and singing. Anja Harteros was amazing and Vittorio Grigolo was so moving,  perhaps a bit too much... still it was convincing... I keep in mind he was replacing Jonas Kaufmann who has so often starred with Anja Harteros and that night was the opening night so both must have been more moved and eager than ever in singing acting sharing their roles.

 
They had a lot of chemistry that night to be remembered ! The last vision of Tosca walking away with a veil floating across the stage then that aura where only her shadow gradually became smaller... until the curtain fell and the music gave its last hard pangs in our hearts.. with her cries.. Tosca's  ending is really something at the orchestra and that night it was fantastic, (conductor Dan Ettinger, director Pierre Audi). 

(Today I erased the link for the audio finale which did not work. And erased also the video I uploaded because I have doubts.)

(Many thanks for the upload on Youtube,  I was very confused to see this video and mine with watermark which means I downloaded it? I left France on the 17th and did not have access to youtube for more than a month somehow. Vittorio Grigolo sang only that night of the 16th and the upload refers to another date). What counts is the sound of their voices, their intensity, their subtle renditions  according to their feelings at that tragic pathetic end we all know the issue. With utterly skilled musicians and singers-actors they are both it is a rare moment which is now for me unique. (I had also the chance to see Vittorio Grigolo at La Scala along side Diana Damrau .. so it was for me another great discovery ! 

Now I feel better ! 

D who was sitting behind me at row 27th same folding seat at the Parterre mid alley with plenty of space for his legslol gave me the surprise of making the video with his smartphone... that is why as he has no youtube account, when he downloaded it there appeared the watermark... I feel relieved that he remembered doing so... He did it for me because I was so absorbed in the music and singing of my favourite dramatic soprano... I managed to see all her 'Tosca' in France...

Martha Argerich rehearses Ravel Piano Concerto (with English Subtitles)

In a previous post she was sharing amazing four hands piano  playing with her friend Daniel Barenboim.

Here it is such an amazing rehearsal... and the comments are so matter of fact. The short concert extracts  are magnificient. And Ravel is an old friend of mine .. so to speak...

"Hidden harmonies" from Yin Yang blog quoted today on my blog because I often listen to " Moon reflected on the second Spring" Abing

 

Home > culture, history, music, video > 二泉映月 (Moon Reflected on Second Spring), a modern Chinese classic

二泉映月 (Moon Reflected on Second Spring), a modern Chinese classic

April 23rd, 2010 YinYang Leave a comment Go to comments

If there is a music that can make one’s soul weep, 二泉映月 (Moon Reflected on Second Spring) is it.  It was composed and played by 华彦钧 (Huà Yànjūn), more commonly known as 阿炳 (“Blind” Abing), who lived during one of the most tumultuous periods of modern Chinese history.  Only with the most miserable human condition could someone make this music.  Famous Japanese conductor, Seiji Ozawa was quoted in Chinese, “此曲只应跪听” which means this piece should be heard while kneeling down.

Ozawa perhaps can relate well to the miserable life Abing had to endure, for Ozawa was himself born in China during Japan’s invasion. Abing lived from August 17, 1893 to December 4, 1950. The two Opium Wars in the 1800’s had left the Chinese government severely weakened. Chinese society continued to decline as the European, American, and Japanese colonial powers try to divvy up China in the 1900s. At age 34, he contracted syphilis and eventually became blind. After that, he roamed the streets of Wuxi and played his music on the 二胡 (erhu) and the 琵琶 (pipa) instruments. Around that time, Japanese troops advanced further into China, including Wuxi where he lived.

A year after birth, his mother died partly from depression, brought on from resentment by her family for having married Abing’s father who was a Taoist priest. In China, monks, nuns, and priests do not customarily marry. Abing was raised by an extended family until the age of 8. His father took him back and started teaching him music some time after that. At the age of 21, his father would die, leaving Abing to fend for himself.

With the tragedies in his immediate family and his own misfortune and a broader ravaged society from foreign invaders, Abing could only yearn and gasp for a different world. (See also, “毛阿敏 (Mao AMin), 渴望 (”Yearning”), yearning for a better future“)

Luckily, professors Yang Yinliu and Cao Anhe, both natives of Wuxi, from the Central Conservatory of Music managed to record six of Abing’s songs in the summer of 1950. Abing at that time was already sick and had not played any instrument for few years. The recording was made following three days of rehearsal. The two professors had only enough tape to record three erhu and three pipa pieces during their first meeting, and Abing’s death in early December 1950 would end the opportunity to record more of his performances.

After the professors made Abing’s recordings available, his songs became instant classics, especially 二泉映月.

(Click play to play 二泉映月 within your browser, or, click on Abing’s image above to download it as originally played by him and recorded by the professors on magnetic tape. This photo of Abing was from an identification card issued by the Japanese army.)

Source: Baidu 百科, CCTV

Below is a more recent rendition of 二泉映月 hosted on tudou.com:

[Note: This post is absolutely not about dwelling on misery and playing victim-hood. Perhaps its said best by raffiaflower in one of our earlier post comments:]

Rather than compare China with Spain, Mexico, Vietnam, etc, it might be more apt to compare China 1842/1945 with World War II between the great powers of Europe. They were “civilisational crises”; both necessitated re-invention. In the case of the West, it had to ditch imperialism and nationalism that had put Germany into conflict with France and mainly Great Britain. The old powers adopted liberal democracy and forged closer fraternal bonds.

China’s century of humilation similarly laid bare the inadequacies of the 5000-year civilisation it had been so proud of. Against tremendous odds, it has re-invented itself and continues to do so. The Western world commemorates World War II every year, pledging “never again”. Why shouldn’t China remember its greatest hours of peril as the starting point of its modern nationhood?

It’s not about victimhood. It’s a reminder of the need for vigilance.

Categories: culture, history, music, video Tags: Abing, Huà Yànjūn, Moon Reflected on Second Spring, 二泉映月, 华彦钧, 阿炳

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