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• Today I listened after a long while to Karajan’s Frau ohne Schatten live from Vienna. I had already recommended the recording in the Strauss page, but I had to re-write the whole thing. It is not a good recording, it is a gift from Heaven! If Karajan had conducted only this performance, he would have been listed as one of the world’s greatest conductors anyway. Nobody before or after him - probably not even Strauss himself - had such a complete understanding of what is going on musically and dramatically in this opera. And DG made a great work in the recorded sound, which, within the limits of mono, is more than acceptable - what clarity! There are things here you won’t hear anywhere else, with the probable exception of Thielemann’s broadcast from the Met - but, hey!, Thielemann will have to do lots of homework to get so deep in the spirit of this score! Everything sings here and has meaning. Including the cast. This is it - Leonie Rysanek’s best recorded performance. I saw her live only once in the end of her career, but could understand what everybody said about the floaty radiance of her voice being unaccessible for microphones. But here, ORF did it. You actually feel her voice floating at whatever dynamic level in the whole theatre. And Christa Ludwig - that greatest artist, that miracle of miracles among singers! My God - the intelligence of this woman is beyond description - and it is all for the best that it is wrapped in such a velvety sexy voice. All the other Färberinen are horrible in comparison - Nilsson, Borkh, Behrens - I don’t care how good they are, they don’t do THIS! They don’t get even close. And the sadly underrated Grace Hoffman matching these two note by note - for once, we can recognize that the Amme is a spirit as much as the Empress is, due to Hoffman’s crystaline singing. It is a pity Jess Thomas was not in fresh voice, because Walter Berry is, as always, an excellent Barak and there are even Lucia Popp and Fritz Wunderlich in minor roles. OK, until second thought, this is my desert island disc.
This recording saved my musical day, because - I have to confess - I can’t stand Berlioz’ Les Troyens. I’ve been trying, but what can be done of a piece without melodic interest, without structural interest, with scarce use of counterpoint and which turns around recitatives with the most conventional harmony? We were a group of friends and we were so sick of it that, after 5 minutes of Dido saying she was going to die and singing still something else instead, my friend Renata just said "She should better die - or I’ll go there and kill her myself!". It is a pity, because Levine’s conducting in this video was very very nice and the two leading ladies had more than enough conviction. In the more pleasant first part of the opera, Jessye Norman, although she lacked some grace and her vestal colleagues looked too old to start with (when the Greek soldiers invade the temple and see all those "girls", they just say "Where’s the treasure?"), has charisma and dramatic powers to hypnotize a whole city - and Tatiana Troyanos - she’s so lovely for words - what a SEDUCTIVE VOICE! In the single beautiful passage to my ears in the Carthage part of the opera, the extended scene involving something that could be described as a group love scene (basically it involves Dido and Aeneas, but there are lots of people not leaving the room when most of us would have felt awkward) and the duet Nuit d’ivresse - ah, Troyanos just made the whole world stop. My list of things not recorded by her is neverending...
Ah, yesterday was Bloomsday. I should get back to my reading of Ulysses (too much stuff going on these days...). There was a celebration here in Rio in an Irish pub. In the newspaper it was said that everyone could go, but a) I had Les Troyens to see (kidding...); b) I know nobody there. But it would be nice to be in Dublin one of those days and do what probably every tourist do there - look after the places where the events of the book take place.

Monday June 17th

• The Fidelio discography has again been updated - also the Wagner page. Olivier is working heavily these days and presented a complete commented discography of the Ring, already published. We’re still studying how the page is going to be, so I ask your understanding if the design (or something like that...) is not totally functional yet. While working on the page, I am listening to Kempe’s Götterdämmerung. Although the recorded sound is not perfect (the orchestra is a bit lacking space and definition), hey, Kempe’s tempi and sense of forward movement are admirable! And the cast is very very nice. I think Nilsson is fabulous here, better than for Böhm and for Solti. Ingrid Bjoner is a very good Gutrune and Hans Hopf is really solid and commited as Siegfried (a really nice performance) - there is also Grace Hoffmann’s Waltraute and Thomas Stewart’s Gunther plus Gottlob Frick’s Hagen in very good shape.

Sunday, June 16th

• I went to the movies today. Daren Aronovsky’s "Pi". Nice movie. He is someone who always primes for production design - this one is in rather "unclean" b&w with some bizarre angles and some 40’s-like sceneries (especially those b movies crazy-scientist-like computers). Some things are repeaters from "Requiem for a Dream" - soundtrack, the fast sequences when he takes the pills and the hallucinations. Another interesting thing is that, in a film where he is supposed to be such an above-average scientist, the mathematics discussed sound desperately like second grade! We were appalled when the Archimedes’ "eureka" story was being told and the genius mathematician just listened to it as if he had never heard about it... Anyway, the film has really nice ideas and they are nicely presented, but me and my friend Maria Rosa, we were disappointed by the end. It seems that he took the easy solution. When he gets hold of that great mystic mystery, "nothing" happens in his way of seeing the world - as it was supposed to happen. We were expecting a "Matrix"-like scene such as when Keanu Reaves sees the "code" everywhere or something like that. When he mentions that when he watched directly into the sun and was blinded by it - we didn’t see it in the film when he faces such a stronger revelation. He keeps quite rational about the whole thing. It seems as if the author lost the patience in the end of the film. Also, there are lots of similarities with Umberto Eco’s "Foucault’s Pendulum" - only Eco developed his story to a better end. Anyway, both Maria Rosa and me liked the film - but we were frustrated that the ending was not as interesting as what the beginning promised us.
I also bought René Jacobs’ Dido and Aeneas - I’m a bit disappointed. This made me feel like starting its discography.

Friday, June 14th

•Today I got a nicest e-mail from Mr. Doug Han who corrected me on some information about Lucia di Lammermoor. Thanks to his generous help, the introduction to this discography has been altered to accomodate the respective information. The Mozart page has also been retouched.

Thursday, June 13th

•Today cable TV was showing Milos Forman’s Valmont - I couldn’t resist watching another time and re-opening the oldest discussion - is it better than Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons? Well, today I had the final conclusion. No, it is definitely not! Forman’s film is pure Fragonard, while Frears’ is Georges de la Tour. Where is the chiaroscuro in Forman’s film? Where is the spiritual Angst? Where is the ambiguous? Are we talking about a baroque modus operandi or not? As much as the images are beautiful and the cast is very very nice - no, Frears’ is the real tribute to the baroque, beyond being one of the most perfect films technically speaking I have ever seen. First of all, Forman’s changing of the original ending is too much for the larger audiences to my taste. Choderlos de Laclos’ most intriguing of books - a book where you simply can’t trust what you read and has to make your way in the darkness - intends (pretends?) to be a cronique des moeurs (or at least, this is what the editor says), but it is the good old myth - the untamed feminine principle proposing the old "decipher me or I will devour you" and leaving behind a trail of destruction until the tamed principle appears to put everything in perspective. As the Queen of the Night, Mme. de Merteuil is the one who ends on leading the "spiritually sleepwalking" Valmont to encounter the feminine in himself when meeting the pious Mme. de Touvel, who takes him to redemption/death and to the ultimate doing away with the primitive destructive element. In this frame, the frame of symbol, which is the very idea of baroque - the symbolic, the theatrical, the Janus-like - it is Frears’ larger than life, highly stylized approach that goes straight to the heart of the matter - with the wonderful monstrous portrayal of Merteuil, the doomed impersonation of Valmont and the characterization of Tourvel as the angel. And with the cathartical deeply baroque ending - Merteuil’s unmasking at the opera house. And there are also the wonderful palaces and costume, mathematically used, the golden/dark lighting, lots of Handel, the perfect shifting from scene into scene - a perfect work of art.
Also, a Tosca discography was added to the Puccini page - and the review of Knappertsbusch Fidelio now appears in the respective discography.

Monday, June 10th

 

•I’ve just arrived from the Teatro Municipal, where the Piccolo Teatro, from Milan, offered a thoroughly delightful performance of Goldoni’s Arlecchino, Servitore di Due Padroni, directed by the late Giorgio Strehler. The theatre was complete and in the end there was standing ovation. I couldn’t buy the performance book and unfortunately won’t be able to name anyone but the Harlekin, a virtuoso performance by Ferruccio Soleri, who plays this role for decades. The rest of the cast was lovely - those fabulous Italian actors with perfect technique and the uncanny ability of changing entirely the mood of a scene with one inflection of their voices. I’d been to the Piccolo Teatro once in Milan, where I saw a fabulous Merchant of Venice directed by Stefan Braunschweig and could experience the power of theatrical acting in Italy. And it was really fine to be able to see it again - and here in Rio.
The review for Klemperer’s Fidelio has been added to the discography. I’ll be working next on Halasz and Knappertsbusch.

Sunday, June 9th

•I’ve been working on the Fidelio discography. The Böhm/Orfeo was added today and by Sunday I intend to have finished Klemperer and Halasz.
Something weird - someone reached this page through google writing "Barbara Bonney nude or naked"! Although she’s a lovely soprano, I guess she should be kept dressed. Anyway, Barbara, one can always use photoshop if you decide to show it to the world!

Saturday, June 8th

•The Puccini page has been updated - Olivier just finished a wonderfully flavoured text about La Fanciulla del West. The only official recording we could not find was Matacic’s - so if anyone would like to contribute recording a copy for us, we would be more than happy! In the meanwhile, we’re still looking for it! Also, I took a look at the Mozart page and re-wrote my review on W.Christie’s Zauberflötte.

Friday, June 7th

• More Wagner. First of all, I have to correct some injustices I made. After listening to Janowski’s Rheingold, I decided to take a look at the Walküre - and was really impressed by the tempi, the richness in woodwind and the engagement of the singers - there is some real drama going on there! The studio-bound sound perspective prevents that some theatre atmosphere go on there, but this is Wagner conducting of the first rate. It is a beautiful in-between Karajan and Böhm somehow. BTW, I decided to publish here an interview with Maestro Janowski me and my friend André Vital made when he was here in Rio in 1997.
Because of those things, I made some changes in the Wagner page, also about Haitink’s recording of the Ring and the Jochum Meistersinger.

Wednesday, June 4th

• Back to Rheingold. I am REALLY impressed with Böhm - there is such an energy, an enthusiasm in what he does here! And paraphrasing Harnoncourt, his orchestra doesn’t paint, it speaks! I was writing today about conductors who conduct together with the direction of stage direction and how wonderfully it works - and I think Wieland and Böhm may have been a nice team.
This takes me to the Mehta Nozze di Figaro. I was a bit shy myself to express my admiration for this recording, but then I took it to two friends, who were skeptical and than amazed the same way I had been. Among the many niceties in this recording, the sense of THEATRE translated in musical terms is perfect. In which other recording is made so clear that Susanna is playing an act in Deh vieni? Maybe because his repertoire is so gigantic, Mehta has been underrated, but that is unfair - he is an excellent Straussian and has produced beautiful recordings in Italian operatic repertoire - and even a beautiful Mozart recording. I listened to the opening of his performance of Schönberg’s Moses und Aron from Florence and it was really nice too.
Wednesday here at the Theatro Municipal, Mozart’s Schauspieldirektor was presented semi-staged, although a piano was used instead of the orchestra. The numbers were sung in German, but the dialogues were recreated in Portuguese. They were wonderful and every singer was a great actor too. It was really fun... Crowning the very good cast was my friend Monica Maciel, as Mme. Herz, who offered a sensational performance. I told her we had the impression of listening a Margaret Price with Edita Gruberova’s top notes. There was loveliness and vocal richness in her performance that amazed every member of the audience. I had to ask her if the extreme top notes she had to sing now and then were high c#, and she said "No, honey, those were high f’s!". And I told her that they sounded like top c’s so big and rich and easy they were. But that has always been her hallmark - when she was in Maastricht, everybody repeated how impressive her in alt’s were. I hope the Municipal casting direction won’t be stupid and hire Monica more often.

Friday, May 31st.

•I like artists who are brave enough to work where others are afraid to look at. Petr Weigl is one of those guys - he is always dealing with combinations which are really unlikely to work, but he makes them work. I’ve liked his opera films, but I think his Winterreise is a jewel. The whole idea is a brainstorm - there is the Schubert song cycle performed by Brigitte Fassbaender (a sensuous and intelligent performance) while a kind of Robert Altman thing takes place - lots of parallel stories with one common feature - all of them take the same carriage on a journey to Prague. However, the stories are told completely out of cronologic sense and, as characters don’t utter a single word, we see a collection of impressions, intertwined by a kind of idée fixe - a gothic room with Fassbaender dressed as a nun turning pages with the sheet music corresponding to the songs, a dark man in an armour and two youths - a boy and a girl. I understood the nun to be the poet, because she sings the songs and her being dressed as a nun representing her retirement from the world, but I read a text (the only one I found - there is almost nothing about Weigl online) saying she is Destiny. The dark man is Death. The girl and the boy represent lots of things. I saw them as Innocence lost - since Death gives them an apple, some golden coins, they appear dressed in different ways, as Adam and Eve and different characters from different moments of History. The fact is that all the stories have to do with death and desire - the most interesting being about a couple and their mysterious relation with their neighbour. However, although I felt urged to share some interpretations, this is a film to be felt. What images! Today I noticed why I liked it. I have a book of tales by the Brothers Grimm with watercolours Russian artist Anastassja Archipowa and I have always been mesmerized by her Kaspar David-Friedrich atmosphere. This film has this water colour, overtly symbolic and elegant quality. I think it to be a feast to the eyes, to the ears and to the heart. It sounds a bit of a sacrilege to say that I would like to see Weigl directing a film unrelated to music - in order to concentrate exclusively on his images. It is a shame there is so little about him on the web!

Monday, May 27th

•Lots of stuff today. First of all, two videos. The first of them was Levine’s Les Troyens from the Met. I’m not a fan of Berlioz. With the exception of the Fantastic and the Nuits d’Été, the rest doesn’t appeal to me. However, after watching the Met’s La Prise de Troie today, I couldn’t help thinking Levine’s energetic approach helped me a lot to enjoy the work a bit more. The production is ugly - pointless sceneries, horrid costumes, poor direction, blunders etc. I found Jessye Norman’s Cassandre to be appropriately magnetic, although switching registers seemed to keep Norman’s middle notes unfocused. Domingo was in very poor voice - he is singing through technique and self-confidence alone. The second video was Zeffirelli’s Cavalleria Rusticana. Although I am not a total fan of Zeffirelli’s, sometimes we just forget what this man can do. Exquisite settings, beautiful costumes, believable sceneries, wonderful direction and a great cast. I found Obrastzova to be in great shape for Santuzza - she gives her heart and soul to the role and the melodramatics were far from unconvincing, so honest was her approach. Vocally, it’s an exciting big voice with some very very powerful top notes that can scale down here and there for the more meditative moments (not lots of them); Domingo’s voice seems also tailor-made for this role and he looks the cad to perfection; Bruson was in firm rich voice, but my favourite was Fedora Barbieri’s Mamma Lucia. I am really impressed with her acting - which speaks so much in its economy.
Then some Wagner CDs. Lots of Rheingold scene 1. We started with Dohnányi’s, which has beautiful orchestral playing (especially French horns) and real clarity. Dohnányi lets things get loose now and then and Gabriele Fontana is an awful Woglinde, but Ildiko Kómlosi is a beautiful Wellgunde and Franz-Josef Kapellman is excellent as Alberich. Then, we went to Swarowsky’s. The orchestral sound is not exactly polished, but its artifficial engineering enabled amazing clarity. There was more "go" than in Dohnányi, but he tends to get lost to when things are more fluid. I liked the Alberich, although he was recorded really close . Next step was Furtwängler RAI. Despite a good recording and a great Alberich from Neidlinger and Woglinde from Jurinac, the cautiousness in the performance is almost embarassing - it’s slow and uninflected. A pity. Just to remind of what Furt could do, we went to a marvellous super-Romantic, passionate Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde/Siegfried duet with a volatile Kirsten Flagstad and a hearty-toned Melchior. Back to Rheingold - Karajan’s. I still think the strings are too impressionistic, but the balance of woodwind is exemplary and there is real theatrical sense going on. The Rheintöchter are wonderful and, although Kéléman takes too many liberties, I like his Alberich. I was ready to say this could be a favourite Rhinegold scene 1, but then I picked Janowski’s. THIS is certainly my favourite. It’s MARVELLOUS - the Staatskapelle Dresden offering supernatural playing, Janowski providing absolute clarity and dramatic purpose, Eurodisc a natural balance (and although singers are somewhat closely recorded, it doesn’t interfere in the spaciousness of the orchestra) and a trio of Rheintöchter involving Lucia Popp and Hanna Schwarz has to serious competition. Nobody gives the necessary weight to Woglinde’s explanation about the renunciation of love as Popp does. And Nimsgern - he’s perfect. What else can I say? Janowski goes back to the top of my list. I’ll be comparing Karajan and him this week.

Sunday, May 26th

•Richard Eyre’s Iris was quite a surprise for me. I didn’t know anything about the story and was totally open to any possibility when I started to see it. I don’t have to repeat how wonderful casts in British movies are - everybody knows it, but I am glad that Kate Winslet was clearly making some money with Titanic and soon after went back to the serious filmography she has been building throughout her career. The newspapers here in Rio were telling that this was a sad movie - and, indeed it is - what is defined in the film as "sailing into darkness" as an image of philosopher and writer Iris Murdoch’s mental decay due to Alzheimer is anguishing enough, but it is also a positive film, because of Iris platonic way of dealing with life and the way she used it in her own life. There is so much beauty and subtlety going on there, that thinking about the film later moved me and made me like it even more. A favourite scene - when Iris jumps off the car and her husband John, on trying to catch her, has to jump in the nearby wood too in order to avoid to be hit by another car. They notice they fell close to each other and embrace and he is happy to see that she is ok. Then, with utmost effort and in a flash of sanity she says "I love you". When the camera looks up, there is this wondrous view of the moonlit sky through the branches of the trees and one cannot avoid thinking that how wonderful every little corner of the world can be when looked by the right eyes.
Also, the Mozart (da Ponte works) and Wagner pages have been updated.

Friday, May 24th

•Sometimes, I just forget how exciting things can be in Vienna. Thanks to Ivan again, I could listen to a Tristan und Isolde’s act III from the State Opera, a performance an acquaintance of mine, who dislikes the house acoustics, attended and considered to be "decent". However, the broadcast goes far beyond that - it is impressive. The level of vertical and horizontal clarity achieved by Semyon Bychkow (whom I saw conducting a beautiful Heldenleben here in Rio) is amazing. I appreciate a lot the way he is einverstanden with his singers - they are pulsing on the same beat. In this matter, Gösta Winbergh, the lamented Swedish singer, gives a masterly performance. Never forcing his beautiful lyric voice, by virtue of perfect technique, intelligence, tone colouring and natural projection, he makes the role his own and is convincing throughout. I also enjoyed a lot Mihoko Fujimura’s Brangäne - what a beautiful voice! In the other hand, Waltraud Meier, although more engaged than in the Barenboim CDs, is in very poor voice and is careless about pitch. It is a great pity that the Liebestod turned out so poorly - the orchestra is subdued and Waltraud is out of sorts. A pity - a bad ending to a marvellous 3rd act. It makes me feel like listening to the rest of it!
I also watched the documentary "The Golden Ring" on DVD today - I was in my friend André’s house and he chose German narration. It was interesting because the Austrian speaker had a very clear diction with well-defined vowels and some interviews are more interesting in German than in the English version. I only don’t know what to think of Fischer-Dieskau - what a character he is! He seems like a Freudian case, with tons of mannerisms, a permanent nervous quasi-smile in his face, a certain blasé attitude, self-contained spoken voice, that cigarette... The recording of the Wolf songs with Schwarzkopf, him and Gould must have looked like a ménagerie! It is particularly weird in the recording of Götterdämmerung act II trio. Nilsson is concentrated on what she is doing, Frick is really living his role, while F-D is always looking at himself, smiling etc. Now I understand why his characterizations were made also from outside instead of being the result of true expression. Anyway, I like his Gunther - it has lots to do with him. And Claire Watson - I think she was a lovely singer. Pity that is so little of her to listen to, especially when there are things like Marie Collier’s Chrysothemis or Hildegard Hillebrecht’s Ariadne...

Friday, May 17th

•Today I finally saw Walter Salles’ "Behind the Sun" (in Portuguese, "April Thorn Apart". There is some bad reception to the film in Brazil, basically because it was made clear that the film was meant to get a "foreign film" academy award: it has a suffering child, intoxicating direction of photography and a universal clichéed plot. Moreover, Brazil was probably the last country to see it. As the Academy demands that the film to be seen in his own country to nominate it, they showed it for ONE week in a secondary city and only in May 2002 the film reached Brazilian audiences. I confess I went with the purpose of saying it stinks. But the fact is that - even if there is the artifficiality all over the place - the film is really moving and entertaining. There is sophisticated photography going on, but the action is not interrupted because of that. On the contrary, it enhances a story where people are very small compared to traditions as overwhelming as the landscape. And the boy is a true find - Ravi Ramos Lacerda gives such a charismatic performance that I think that the success of the film owes a lot to his spontaneous and engaged performance.
This is also Pelléas et Melisande’s day - I took the Minkowski to my friend Ivan’s place convinced that he was going to be impressed. So he was - he said he had never listened to a Pelléas as this one. The richness of the orchestral playing and the sense of tension (albeit coupled with amazing lyricism) offered by Minkowski makes it a real drama, and not the delicate dream-like story we’re used to hear. And there is the fabulous Mahler Chamber Orchestra to make things even better. The cast has full-blooded performances and Magdalena Kozena’s direct Mélisande is disarming. Anyway, my other friend Ivan made it possible for me to listen to other Pélleas from Munich. Marcello Viotti conducts opts for a more traditional approach - the atmosphere is more soft and diaphanous, although the Münchner Rundfunkorchester offers some rich sounds. But the singers are a bit favoured by the recording and some important orchestral details are lost backgroung. Anyway, the main roles beat entirely the already impressive cast joined by Minkowski. Véronique Gens’ Mélisande predictably outshines most rivals. Her characterization tends to be direct as Kozena’s, but the voice is richer and the phrasing is more detailed and the result more feminine and varied. However, I am starting to realize I like Maria Ewing’s Melisande more than I thought - there is an Ava Gardner-like sensuousness that, even when it is on paper innocent enough, it’s always about sex. I think this is a most irresistible approach. And the Pelléas is also remarkable. Brett Polegato’s elegant baritone has tenor-like colours here and there, but his line is really clean. His experience singing baroque and classical repertoires (even for Minkowski) must have helped him a lot - as it helped Gens. And José Van Dam, a veteran Golaud, proves he really owns the role. I thought him here better than for Abbado - the performance has a naturalness and velvety quality missing there. The minor roles, however, are better taken in the Minkowski. Anyway, those are nice complementary performances - I don’t think I’ll be buying the Haitink with these two.
Last thing - there is a problem with www.reopera.tk. It is not working for the moment. We hope to be solving this problem soon.

Thursday, May 16th

•Olivier’s cast and mine have some points in common - we chose the same Mime, Sieglinde and Fafner. Also, there are singers playing different roles - he chose Dohmen for Wotan, Urmana for Fricka and Lang for Wellgunde. I am also borrowing two names from his cast: Eike Wim Schulte for Donner and Susan Anthony for Gutrune (instead of Inga Nielsen).

Wednesday, 15th May

•Today I bought a new disc. My friend Marcos lent me his CDs of Advent Cantatas by the Aradia Ensemble on Naxos and there I recognised some cantatas I just had to buy. I thought that the performances were not bad, but the acoustics were too resonant, the tenor and the basses were shallow and some tempi were slow. The Bach-Cantata site recommended the Herreweghe, but the price was two times the Gardiner. I am still curious about the Herreweghe, but my budget only allowed me Gardiner... :-( Anyway, I disagree about the guys at the Bach-Cantatas site. They say this version is superficial and too jump-y - I think that what they call "deep" may have to do with a Romantic vision of Bach, since they compare to old recordings etc. I thought Gardiner’s conducting to be very nice and the Monteverdi is a sensational choir. He’s generally accused of fast tempi, but, for example, "Auch mit gedämpften schwachen Stimmen", the soprano aria of BWV 36, was pretty slow. The acoustics could be less resonant (but it’s not the empty-hall thing of the Naxos) and Olaf Bär is too light for this stuff, but Nancy Argenta, Petra Lang and Anthony Rolfe-Johnson are really really good.
I also saw an excellent and weird film on TV - Bertrand Blier’s "Preparez vos mouchoirs" - from 1978. What first caught my attention was a very thin Gérard Depardieu, but then the story was amazing. Depardieu plays Raoul, a guy who is married to Solange, a woman who cannot get pregnant and had become insatisfied about everything. He meets Stephane, a school teacher fanatic about Mozart, and proposes him to share his wife with him. Everybody is ok about that - although Solange keeps uninterested but for her knitwork. The guys spend the whole day speaking about "What if Mozart were here, what he would do?" etc etc and there is Mozart in plenty in the soundtrack. Then they end meeting a 13-year old boy, Christian. And guess what? Solange finally feels interested by something - she just starts an affair (and don’t think it was something spiritual...) with the boy. Actually, the scene where the boy "seduces" her is one of the best pieces of acting by someone that age - the boy, now a well-established actor close to his 50 - R. Liebman, is just sensational. The film never gets vulgar or predictable - it is always creative, a bit crazy and the images are just sensational. It’s wonderful and it makes us feel nostalgic for the days where one could just have a crazy idea and make beauty with it.
Ha! Last thing! Olivier and I, we are playing "let’s cast a Ring". He is working on his cast, I’m on mine. I’m open to suggestions . So far, this what I got: WOTAN - René Pape(technically, we should wait 10 years, but this would be a studio recording:-); ALBERICH - Albert Dohmen(I haven’t chosen him for Wotan, because the voice lacks a bit nuance, but has power in plenty) LOGE - Robert Gambill; FROH - Jorma Silvasti; DONNER - someone young with top notes. MIME - Kim Begley (faute de mieux); FRICKA - Petra Lang; FREIA - Melanie Diener; ERDA - Anna Larson; FAFNER - Eric Halfvarson; FASOLT - Franz Hawlata; WOGLINDE - Dorothea Röschmann; WELLGUNDE - Angelika Kirchschlager; FLOSSHILDE - Vesselina Kasarowa; SIEGMUND - John Keyes; SIEGLINDE - Karita Mattila; BRÜNNHILDE - Nadine Secunde; HUNDING - Halfvarson; SIEGFRIED - Johann Botha; WALDVOGEL - Sumi Jo; GUNTHER - Wolfgang Brendel; GUTRUNE - Inga Nielsen; HAGEN - Jean Philippe Lafont; WALTRAUTE - Violeta Urmana;1st NORN - Anna Larsson; 2te NORN - Iris Vermillion; 3te NORN - Anne Schwanewilms

Tuesday, May 14th

•Another excellent movie - Jennifer Jason Leigh’s and Allan Cummings’ "The Anniversary Party". Having worked in a Dogma movie, Jennifer could learn a lot about films which concentrate on actors and their creative contribution, the advantage of working in a short period, of avoiding technical effects and of speaking about PEOPLE. I like the way both she and Cummings also knew how to refuse some of the Dogma stuff - such as the "abdication of acknowledgements" or the dirty digital camera shooting. For "The Anniversary Party" is made on digital camera - take note, a Sony DSR-500 - and the images are as great as any art movie made the conventional way. I also like the idea of inviting stars for these roles - because this is not only the truth Jennifer and Cummings have to share with us, but this is also the reality about those actors. That is why it is so believable - it is easy to laugh and cry with those people - not because we are glamourous as they are, but because they are being true to themselves and, therefore, universal.
What I also like about this film is that to do a beautiful "people focusing on people" film and one with real artistic aims, one doesn’t have to look "marginal" - I think it is always nice to go mainstream, when one does it with this only purpose. When opera went popular, I didn’t think of it as "the death of opera" but "rebirth of opera". That’s what happening with American film, through the influence of those great "side comments" of movie making which make the whole difference. Wholly recommended.

Monday, May 13th

• If you want to see a nice comedy, then take a look at the French film "Le Placard", where Gérard Depardieu is simply fabulous!
A Puccini page was published - so far there is only a discography of Turandot - there are tons of recordings of Puccini operas and one has to work hard to cover all that. Moreover, some recordings are hard to find! Due to the generosity of some friends, who have been lending or recording stuff for me, we could do wonders in pages such as the Handel’s - sometimes, I have to control myself in order not to buy stuff I am not completely interested in, but which would complete the discography!

Sunday, May 12th

• Today I had the opportunity to listen to the Japanese DVD of Levine’s Walküre. I had already listened to the Brazilian and American releases, the former being the worst edition, but, taking in account the fact that I heard all these editions in high-end equipment, it is amazing how the Japanese discs are better than the rest. The voice of some singers simply change - the worst victims being Behrens and Ludwig. Anyway, as I heard today, the level of clarity obtained by Levine is simple amazing. And, even if one dislike this or that singer, what a cast they gathered here! I have to confess that, even if the tone was not as glamourous as it used to be, Christa Ludwig is the model to every Wagner singer. It is all perfect - her technique is flawless, her accuracy and musicianship, her dramatic imagination and her acting - all perfect. The economy of her gestures and the way they are connected to her musical points - what a marvel. How lucky we are to have Christa Ludwig! And there is James Morris. Some object to his legato-ish Wotan. Don’t count me in! Today, without subtitles, his diction could be tested - what a lovely rendition of the text, each word coloured with Lieder singer subtlety plus a de luxe voice - what top and low notes and homogeneity and richness. This video, despite its conventional sceneries, costumes and stage direction, deserves to be considered a classic for its musical values. I wonder if Universal was wise giving so much prominence to the Boulez DVDs. Sure, I generally prefer Boulez’ ideas to Levine’s and the Bayeuth orchestra, but the recorded sound there gives such prominence to singers - and here the orchestra has such wonderful pride of place! Even with its idiossincrasies, however, I understand that Chéreau’s direction has the edge on the Met’s production - it looks like a film, the cast has thorough physique de rôle (maybe not the Siegfried, ok), the sceneries are beautiful, but...
More Wagner... I have no preference for traditional or modern stagings. I like good stagings. But why traditional Rings are always given to secondary artists? I mean - the stage direction, costumes and sceneries are rarely something one can say "Oh, my God - this is BEAUTIFUL!". I saw the Met Ring live - the sceneries tended to be beautiful (Siegfried and GD particularly), but they were so clichéed. The costumes made singers look ugly and the acting, better not talk about it. The effects, however, were wonderful - especially the Gibichungen Hall falling apart and the Rhine invading the whole thing, but, some days later, I saw a Rusalka there which could bring tears to the eyes so beautiful were the sceneries. I was told the Peter Hall Bayreuth Ring was amazing in its fidelity to Wagner’s instructions, including the horses flying in Die Walküre. In this sense, the Karajan Rheingold is a valuable item(according to a friend who saw the production, really faithful to what was done on stage, but for the 'disappearance" and "transformation" camera effects). Also, as expected from La Scala, their Ring was really pleasant to the eyes, although in such an abstract way. It is funny calling "traditional" a production which, although not futurist, is so unfaithful to what Wagner asked. I loved the rocky landscape in act 1 and the flowery field in act 3 - they were beautiful and the horses 'flying' were nice too - but what was the point? What would I like for the Ring these days? A "Kaspar-David Friedrich"-style Ring, totally romantic - the kind of thing people applaud when the curtains open; an "Adolphe Appia"-like Ring, inspired in his stagings but adapted to modern technical possibilities and, finally, the rebirth of the Wieland Wagner staging. I think his genius shouldn’t be forgotten and Bayreuth should, as a tribute to him, re-stage his Ring, taking profit that most people still rememeber the instructions and can re-create even the stage direction. Watching Jessye Norman filling a horn with "invisible" mead made me think that Wieland had a point on keeping staging in its most essential, accordingly to the symbolism of myth...

Friday, May 10th

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• The Mozart and Wagner page were updated - also the "about me". Listening to many recordings of Siegfried these days, I was surprised to notice how poor are the techniques of all those singers. Basically, they are completely careless about their low and middle registers and focus only on their top notes. No wonder they are so colourless in the former two and awkward in the latter. It is funny to listen "How wonderfully this Heldentenor darkens his voice for the top notes". I am sorry, but this is a description of a vocal flaw. One doesn’t darken a top note - a top note has a natural colour, which should be consistent with the color of the voice in the rest of the range. Also, one doesn’t force a note to make it bigger. The sound of the voice unbothered is also the best sound it can offer. No wonder Wagner is sung so lousily today - all voices work on tricks and shortcuts. If one wants to sing Wagner, one has to have a naturally big and/or projecting voice and that’s it. That is why a Franz Völker could sing a Siegmund - there was no adaptation there. It was his "real" voice. Don’t think I am speaking of golden age vocalists - listen to René Pape and it is all there!

Thursday, May 9th

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• These days I have been comparing the Amsterdam Siegfried with other performances, but ended on focusing in Karajan’s. I had forgotten how interesting this recording is. I read that he wanted to follow dynamic instructions the most faithfully he could and that the score is rich in p and pp. So, as strings and brass are playing softly most of the time, one can hear woodwind wonderfully. Also, the atmosphere he creates there is really magic and takes one by surprise more than once with its mood shiftings. I am re-thinking my opinion on Gerhard Stolze - I still prefer a Mimi sung without bizarrerie, but he is actually firmer voiced than most Mimes. In Solti, he was unbearably over-the-top, but in Karajan, I don’t know, I am going to think a bit before saying what I think... And Jess Thomas, for a non-German speaker (as first language), his care with tone colouring following the text is amazing, even if the voice is rather gray. Anyway, I tend to like Jess Thomas. As for the Hänchen Siegfried. Constantijn tells me the orchestra here, the Rotterdam instead of the Nederlands Philarmonic, is best - but, I don’t know - the string section disappoints me. I find their playing overcautious and the first scene in Act I was kind of muffled and, despite Hänchen’s apt tempo, things lacked the energy found in Janowski or even in Karajan (I mean, even in his lower dynamics atmosphere). The Wanderer/Mime scene also lacked momentum in my opinion. But Mime’s description of fear and the forging song are superb. I still have to listen to the rest. So far, Heinz Kruse is a most likable Siegfried - in very fresh voice. He tends to "speaking" effects, but he does it so naturally that one hardly notices it. Graham Clark was not in his best shape, though. He is clearly getting tired and tired and is overusing of grotesque effects (maybe to disguise the less-than-optimum quality of his singing that night). More later.

Tuesday, May 7th

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• More on the Amsterdam Ring 99. Today I could listen to Götterdämmerung. First of all, Hänchen’s sense of forward movement and structure guarantees that some scenes which tend to loose their way, such as the Gibichungen Hall scene and the Siegfried as Gunther/Brünhilde scene, are kept wonderfully in focus. Waltraute’s Narration, here in flowing pace, is also very nice. Most of all, this opera, which tends to lack homogeneity in live performances, is kept really in place. Most unfortunately, the last act has some drawbacks. First of all, the balance between brass and strings doesn’t work in the Funeral March, where the former are particularly loud, covering the latter almost entirely. Things are more problematic in the Immolation Scene, where important thematic phrases on strings and woodwind completely disappear under brass loudness. Also, some phrases seem to be taken more deliberately in order to keep everything in order. Such misfire was unexpected to me, since Hänchen’s most distinguished feature was his perfect control of the balance between his understanding of structure and the possibilities of his musicians. Here, his forces betrayed him. As for the cast, there are some distinctive performances, particularly Heinz Kruse’s Siegfried, boyish in sound, in firm voice to the end. Jeannine Altmeyer’s Brünnhilde developed a lot artistically speaking. She sings with untamed energy and emotion. The "wedding" scene finds her really thrilling (BTW, Hänchen highlighting of the harmonic twists there is masterly). Pity, that high notes sounded too high for her then. I was told some were replaced in the tape by Secunde’s, who shared the role with her. I am inclined to think that this may have happened in the Siegfried, since here most high notes are below pitch. Eva-Maria Bundschuh is miscast as Gutrune - she sounds like Siegfried’s grandma. I liked Anne Gjevang’s Waltraute - her rawness dramatically apt. Henk Smit’s Alberich and Kurt Rydl’s Hagen suffer from total lack of firmness. Rydl’s singing is particularly testing - it is impossible to tell which notes he is singing and he cannot articulate clearly. The Norns are excellent, but the Rhinedaughters, taken by more famous singers, are far from ingratiating.
There is a new "article" on "This Week" - this one about movies.

Sunday, May 5th

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• Thanks to the help of Constantijn and Roelof, I have been able to listen to the Hartmut Hänchen Ring in Amsterdam. So far, I could only listen to the Walküre. I like what Hänchen did here very much. His approach is really fresh and spontaneous and this very honesty makes the score shine really brightly. And the orchestra is good too. I also like the fact that it is not a heavyweight performance, but a rather classical in the sense of harmonic clarity and articulation. I adore Nadine Secunde’s Brünnhilde. I think it to be a sensational performance. She has in common with Crespin the heartfelt expressive phrasing. She sings it trying to sound the most moving and beautiful she can - and she does that. And her top notes are beautiful! And it is a live performance. Altmeyer still sounds very close to what she did almost 20 years before for Boulez, but she has intonation problems in the top notes now. Reinhild Runkel’s Fricka is also top class - it’s a very witty performance too. As for John Keyes - he is just a force of nature. The very first tenor I have ever heard who REALLY sounds like a bass and goes to his top notes as if it was nothing much... It’s really impressive. It is a pity about John Bröcheler’s Wotan. He’s not a bad singer (his mezza voce is beautiful), but he is amazingly overparted. He sounds "higher" than the tenor here, BTW! :-))
I also updated some stuff here - the links and the Fidelio and Fledermaus discographies.

Saturday, May 4th.

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• In one of the articles in "This week", I made a list of favourite names in classical music - and Magdalena Kozena and Marc Minkowski were there. I’m glad to see that I wasn’t mistaken. I had the opportunity to listen to their Pelléas et Mélisande from Ferrara, with the wonderful Mahler Chamber Orchestra. All I can say is - wow! That’s the definitive version of this opera. It has such a palpable emotional quality and theatrical sense - it just transports you to other world. Minkowski’s conducting has nothing to do with the usual bloodless approach. It has such a drive and a responsiveness to the dramatic situations, wrapped in the most sensuous orchestral tones one could think of, the most coloristic playing imaginable - some effects were completely new to me. I hope DG will have the nice idea of releasing this. And the cast is very very nice. Kozena plays an all innocent Mélisande. Her straightforward young-sounding character has nothing arch or seductive about it. And it sounds more intriguing and mysterious for that! I can’t say I don’t miss the sexual thing of a Maria Ewing in the role, but Kozena’s approach is fascinating in its honesty. Jean-Sebastien Bou’s Pelléas has nothing testosterone-free about it. It is sung with real conviction and virility and his dark voice is really pleasant. He sounds more the brother of Golaud here, especially when François Le Roux, a once famous Pelléas, is taking the role. The voice lacks a bit weight, but not power and he is really in his text. Marie-Therèse Keller and Jerôme Varnier are spontaneous and pleasanat Geneviève and the Yniold is efficient too. To make thing betters, the recording, taken from a concert performance, is simply magical and the richest possible.

Wednesday, May 1st

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• Some DVDs today. Haydn’s Creation by P.Schreier - outstanding René Pape and an excellent Prégardinen - Mathis was good for her age, but what’s that dress?! Also, a heartfelt performance of Mozart’s K421 by the Hagen SQ. Ozawa’s Neujahrskonzert - a festival of beautiful sonorites, but sometimes I felt that a little more charm would be welcome. BTW, R. Barthes would have fun with this "institution" - the Neujahrskonzert, wouldn’t he? Lots of tropical plants, foreign people, smiles... isn’t it a bit morbid? Something like "let’s pretend we’re happy one day per year..."? Finally, one of those Waldbühne with a excellent matching of J.Levine, the Berliner Philharmoniker and R. Strauss. Ben Heppner never sung better in his whole life.

Saturday, April 27th

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• I don’t remember if I mentioned anything about the opera Cesare e Cleopatra, by Graun, one of the most delightful musical surprises of this year. I bought the Jacobs’ recording, splendidly cast and conducted, and has been having a very good time listening to these highly melodically and expressive arias. I am addicted to "Voglio stragie and sangue voglio" - it’s really fun! I also today went to the movies - Mike Hodges’ "Croupier", an evidence that a films is made of a great script and good actors. Clive Owen, whom I saw for the first time in an interesting with Alan Rickman and Saskia Reeves (can’t remember the name) and re-encoutered recently in Gosford Park, is really really nice in the main role. The dialogues are wonderful, the plot is intelligent and, although the story is not particularly original, the way chosen to tell it is so thoroughly balanced that no one can resist to it.
Ah, last thing. If you don’t know the Bach Cantata Website, you don’t know what you’re missing! It is one of the best sites about music around. I have been reading their discussions, but was a bit shy to take part. Yesterday, I send them a letter about Abbado’s Messe H-moll and they invited me to join the list. I think it will be a good opportunity to learn a lot.

Friday, 26th April

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• My friend Ivan called me today. He went to the Turandot yesterday. According to him - and he is completely reliable - the tenor who was indisposed the day I attended the performance was in great voice. He described it as Jon Vickers-like, only not as big and lacking a bit technique. He agreed with me about the other things.
I also visited today a shop I hadn’t visited for ages - Marcabru. They’re a small shop, but everything they have is very nice. So, I couldn’t resist and bought an excellent disc of Strauss Orchesterlieder with Gundula Janowitz and the Academy of London. It also features a Metamorphosen - an exquisite performance. I bought a disc of songs by Liszt and Schumann with Barbara Bonney and Antonio Pappano. I thought Pappano’s playing to be perfect. I could only listen to the French songs and I have to confess that Kathleen Battle in her Carnegie Hall recital could still teach Bonney a trick or two, but it’s a beautiful recital. I have listen more to it. And there was Minkowski’s Gluck’s Armide - fabulous performance. Mireille Delunsch is GREAT. If I was to cast a Nozze di Figaro today, Delunsch would be the Countess and Patrizia Ciofi would sing Susanna. Later, I visited my friend André, whose collection has been of enormous help to the Wagner discography. We listened to some amazing recordings. Bruno Seidler-Winkler’s Walküre act II with Hotter’s Wotan and Martha Fuchs’ Brünnhilde. I thought the conducting to be absolutely perfect - this was probably the best conducted ho-jo-to-ho I have ever heard. And Fuchs has very clear articulation too. Listening to the young Hotter one can clearly understand the legend around him. It is a pity that his placement got gradually more backwards until it was a complete yawn. Someone should have told him when he could have fixed that. Also - Furtwängler’s Walküre act III from 1936. One of the most exciting pieces of Wagner conducting. Wotan’s arrival in this recording is THE thrilling Wagnerian experience. Bockelmann’s diction is a dream come true, but nobody can assess Kirsten Flagstad’s artistry without listening to it first. It’s just too good to be true - the youth in her tone and the naturalness with which her second octave expands is unique. When she names "Siegfried", the voice gets so soft - it’s too much for words.

Monday, April 22nd

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• Today, after a failed attempt to see an expo in the Fine Arts Museum, I decided to see David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive with a group of friends. The film starts as a kind of mystery film and developes into a half-psychedelic thing. I was a bit puzzled, but then we started to debate and, thanks to Lia’s intelligent comments, we managed to get to a conclusion. In my opinion, the most "difficult" thing about the film is that it mixes passages taken "from the point of view" of Diane’s subconscious and some actual facts, which served as raw material for her "fantasy" (wonderfully portrayed by "artiffical-on-purpose" lighting, setting, directing, soundtrack and, above all, acting from the excellent and beautiful Naomi Watts). There are, of course, hints, such as the story of the two guys in the café and the whole sequence at the blue theatre. According to post-modern fashion, the film has tons of references and symbolism. There is an interesting article which tries to explain everything about it - but they decline to explain the blue box, commenting that someone made some connections with feminine sexuality. I don’t think the connection to be absurd. Non-Brazilians will have a fun, but some authors used a word to refer to Pandora’s box that in present Portuguese means "vagina". So I guess it is not that absurd! I think that the blue box really refers to this essence of femininity that has to do with creation and destruction. It is not a coincidence that the "fantasy" colapses when the significant key (let’s be Lacanian) is introduced in the box. Let’s say that the problem about Diane was the lack of a "key" - her emptiness and the fact that her whole life depended on "another". Therefore, in her delirium, she is depended on. Anyway, this is a must-see film - and one that demands some diggestion. You just have to put your impressions in order before saying you liked it or not.

Sunday, April 21st

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• I have just arrived from the Theatro Municipal, where they are presenting Turandot, the review is available here. In the afternoon, I also took profit of the afternoon to see a nice Italian film by Mimmo Calopresti, called "I prefer to listen to the sound of the sea".

Saturday, April 20th

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• Following the suggestion of my web designer friend, Lia Caldas, I decided to make some changes in the opening page. From now one, it is supposed to be a really lighter version of what people call web log. Don’t worry, I won’t be telling my life here :-) It’s only that some things related to the subjects of interest of this site and the site itself are going to be published here.

Regarding the Wagner page, I reviewed some reviews, since I listened a bit to Boulez’ and Böhm’s Rings this week and I noticed that I changed my opinion on some things - most notably about Leonie Rysanek’s Sieglinde (yes, it still has lots of imprecise pitch and note values all around the place) and Manfred Jung’s Siegfried. Böhm’s Walküre itself - I haven’t realized how important this recording is. It has a raw energy about it that makes it absolutely irreplaceable.

I am also glad to tell that the Deutsche Grammophon site published, under the section "catalogue spotlight" an article I send them (and for which I was given the excellent Handel cantata CD with Magdalena Kozena) about R. Strauss’ operas in DG catalogue. As I was limited to 500 words, I had to make things short and ended on forgetting Böhm’s Daphne! I also wrote that the Böhm FroSch was from Salzburg, when it was actually recorded in Vienna. A guy from Spain pointed out those mistakes, but I didn’t write about the Keilberth’s Arabella, because it is out of catalogue and DG asked us to write about what IS in their catalogue.

Finally, I would really like to recommend the Danish film "Italian for Beginners" - I was impressed with the way that Dogma can be used to portray ordinary people in such convincing and moving a way. Their dislike of effects and all kind of aesthetic make-up can really enhance the human element in a film. The result was simply impressive: I was sad that the film wasn’t longer. INUTILIA TRUNCAT!

Friday, April 19th

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