(no subject)
Mar. 11th, 2022 10:57 amI was back at the Metropolitan Opera this week, for the first time(s) in over two years. Twice! I finally felt like it was a reasonable risk to take, and I dunno, I guess we'll see, but I really enjoyed it at least.
Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss
I dunno, I remember liking this production more the last time I saw it, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The premise of the show is that at the last minute, the duke has ordered that a opera seria company staging a very Important opera based on the myth of Ariadne and a commedia dell'arte troupe doing silly clown stuff perform simultaneously. Initially they are performing two different shows in parallel, but as time goes on their stories become more and more entangled. It is very, very silly and yet it has that Straussian way of sneaking up on you with profundity. Every time Ariadne sings one of her tragic arias, you are aware of Zerbinetta's mocking, you are aware that Ariadne is taking herself too seriously... but those feelings she has are still real, and Strauss makes you feel them deep in the feels.
I saw it with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ghost_lingering, and I also was seeing her for the first time in two years, so that was great too.
Don Carlosby Giuseppe Verdi
This was... a lot. It was four and a half hours, and yes, it really needed to be four and a half hours, but also, did it really need to be four and a half hours?
I mean, it was great, no denying that. Musically, I found it a little surprising? It's definitely Verdi, but it felt closer to the Requiem than to any of his operas I know. There's so much religion in it, and that connection to the sublime and the infinite gives it a continuous, almost oppressive heft. There's so much of everything in it, it's an incredibly complicated exploration of the complexities of politics and love and family and religion, yes, it's about all of those things.
Also it is the tinhattiest history ever. Like, as far as I can tell, the actual history is that Philip II had a tweenage son Carlos and Henry II had a tweenage daughter Elizabeth and people said "Maybe marrying them in a couple years would be a good political idea" and then what actually happened is that Philip II married Elizabeth when she was 14, because yikes... In the opera version, this becomes Carlos had an all-consuming love for his fiancee Elizabeth and his father stole her from him. You keep shipping your weird RPF rarepairs, Schiller!
Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss
I dunno, I remember liking this production more the last time I saw it, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The premise of the show is that at the last minute, the duke has ordered that a opera seria company staging a very Important opera based on the myth of Ariadne and a commedia dell'arte troupe doing silly clown stuff perform simultaneously. Initially they are performing two different shows in parallel, but as time goes on their stories become more and more entangled. It is very, very silly and yet it has that Straussian way of sneaking up on you with profundity. Every time Ariadne sings one of her tragic arias, you are aware of Zerbinetta's mocking, you are aware that Ariadne is taking herself too seriously... but those feelings she has are still real, and Strauss makes you feel them deep in the feels.
I saw it with
ghost_lingering, and I also was seeing her for the first time in two years, so that was great too.Don Carlosby Giuseppe Verdi
This was... a lot. It was four and a half hours, and yes, it really needed to be four and a half hours, but also, did it really need to be four and a half hours?
I mean, it was great, no denying that. Musically, I found it a little surprising? It's definitely Verdi, but it felt closer to the Requiem than to any of his operas I know. There's so much religion in it, and that connection to the sublime and the infinite gives it a continuous, almost oppressive heft. There's so much of everything in it, it's an incredibly complicated exploration of the complexities of politics and love and family and religion, yes, it's about all of those things.
Also it is the tinhattiest history ever. Like, as far as I can tell, the actual history is that Philip II had a tweenage son Carlos and Henry II had a tweenage daughter Elizabeth and people said "Maybe marrying them in a couple years would be a good political idea" and then what actually happened is that Philip II married Elizabeth when she was 14, because yikes... In the opera version, this becomes Carlos had an all-consuming love for his fiancee Elizabeth and his father stole her from him. You keep shipping your weird RPF rarepairs, Schiller!