Opera on 3

[Guest]

Live "ha - ha" from the Met - Tomorrow at 14.00 hrs. Massenet's Werther with Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch.
Now it is being relegated to monday afternoon. Catch it if you can!

Most other countries in europe heard it live yesterday evening, or at the most an hour delayed to shorten intervals.

[Flosshilde]

Since it's a recording, why not broadcast it on Thursday, the usual afternoon for opera?

[Bax-of-Delights]

Enjoying the music but the introductions - oy vey - a scripted verbal tennis match.

[Flosshilde]

I'm afraid that I can't not think about Thackeray's poem -

THE SORROWS OF WERTHER

WERTHER had a love for Charlotte
Such as words could never utter;
Would you know how first he met her?
She was cutting bread and butter.

Charlotte was a married lady,
And a moral man was Werther,
And for all the wealth of Indies,
Would do nothing for to hurt her.

So he sigh'd and pined and ogled,
And his passion boil'd and bubbled,
Till he blew his silly brains out,
And no more was by it troubled.

Charlotte, having seen his body
Borne before her on a shutter,
Like a well-conducted person,
Went on cutting bread and butter.

[DracoM]

Well, it was certainly a brilliant sing by Kaufmann, mighty demands, and he met them mightily.

Totally agree about timing: I kept asking why ON EARTH this is not t he Opera on 3 from the Met on Saturday evenings I cannot fathom? Is it cheaper to broadcast a taped perf than relay a live one? I can see too that 'Werther' is long: would the Met do a matinee of it that the BBC could take? Because it would have to be a matinee to be taken live, surely? But at the Met, in a live perf, the interval between Acts 2 and 3 would be a good one.........which would have made it a very long evening?

If the Beeb had wanted to shorten it for an evening slot, then surely why not axe some or even all of the Juntwait/Siff waffle? Or is that part of the contract? And they left on a huge amount of the applause - a good five minutes as far as I could tell.
BUT maybe..............
This also comes from formulaic broadcasting, from desperation that the poor dears can't be left all on their own to listen for the whole evening to 'opera', and not even one of those nice Italian favourites.

[Honoured Guest]

Daily Live in Concert from the SouthBank Centre for the whole of Radio 3's two-week residency, which started on Saturday.

[Flosshilde]

and not even one of those nice Italian favourites.

French, actually.

The Beeb seems to have decided not to broadcast the Met Mats on Saturday willy-nilly, but to broadcast a concert if it seems to be more interesting (presumably). The Met Mat has so far been broadcast Monday evenings if not Saturday; today's broadcast is a break with that pattern. As I said above, if they are going to broadcast a recording in the afternoon, why not on Thursday, which is the 'normal' afternoon slot for opera? (perhaps they think that if they broadcast it as close as possible to the performance date it'll be less not-live than if they broadcast it a few days later).

(presumably it was deemed more important to do a live broadcast of the John Lill concert tonight)

[slarty]

Most of the German radio stations started the Werther broadcast at 7PM local time here, which is an hour behind the live performance, which allows them to cut out the interval/s.
I find this to be much more of an event as it still has the feeling of being live, and by the time they get to the last act, it is live and they have saved an hour of broadcast time.
I don't think that the BBC is obligated to take the Juntwait stuff - they just do - Next up from the Met is Wozzeck. As of writing it is not scheduled for the Beeb yet.

[Pulcinella]

It was Live in HD in cinemas on Saturday, in real time.
Sadly I was not able to go, nor can I to the next live transmission (La boheme, 5 April) as that's the second night of our Spring concerts that I'm singing in!
Even with gushing backstage interviews these transmissions are infinitely better than having to put up with the radio presenters. And it's great fun to watch all the scene changing.

[slarty]

Just about everything with Kaufmann at the Met seems to come out on DVD within a year, and this production will look great in that medium.

[CallMePaul]

I have seen Werther twice in Manchester, once by Opera North when it used to come to the Palace, and once in a student production at the Royal Northern College of Music. It is not overly long and would have fitted the Saturday evening slot fine. I also remember when R3 took the Met Opera Quizin the interval - surely this could still be done at minimal cost. The questions and answers were always very stimulating! German stations would have a problem with this because of the language (never assume that a German speaks/ understands English even though a good many do) but surely could put on their own German language interval features?

I do hope that we can hear Wozzeck live. I work and so cannot listen to it in the daytime. It is a marvellous opera that I have only seen live sung in English, and the translation used totally ignored several of Buechner's and Berg's puns, particularly in the first and third acts. When I saw it in Glasgow conducted by (not yet) Sir Simon Rattle with his first wife Elise Ross singing Marie, many in the audience were shocked at the bluntness of the final scene, yet for me that is the best performance of that scene that I have ever heard. The children's strong Glaswegian accents seemed entirely apt and were the best thing in the production, with the possible exception of the conducting.

By the way, if my memory serves me right, Carlos Kleiber conducted this opera at Covent Garden in the late 1970s. Does anyone know if the production has been preserved for posterity? CK began his career in German opera houses but very little of his operatic repertoire was recorded.

[slarty]

By the way, if my memory serves me right, Carlos Kleiber conducted this opera at Covent Garden in the late 1970s. Does anyone know if the production has been preserved for posterity? CK began his career in German opera houses but very little of his operatic repertoire was recorded.

Hi Paul,
Carlos Kleiber conducted Rosenkavalier - Elektra - Boheme and Otello at Covent garden from 1974 until 1990. I saw all but the Boheme. His last performance of Wozzeck was at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1972. We never saw his Wozzeck at CG. That would have been something!

[DracoM]

I know it's French, actually!! That wasn't the point I was trying to make!!

[Stanley Stewart]

I trust that a DVD of this production will be forthcoming after hearing the riveting broadcast. I gather that Richard Eyre and costume designer, Rob Howell, have updated the action of Werther from the 1770s of Geothe's novella to some 100 years later, around the time of Massenet's composition, otherwise it is a straight- forward telling of the story. I shall long remember Jonas Kaufmann's tender evocation, especially of the Romantic ballads of Ossian which inspire Werther to meditate on the tragedy of love ("Pourquoi me reveiller") which not only brought down the House at its conclusion, but the house next door as well! My MD recording brought the programme within 2 hrs 40mins so I presume that the usual interval features were edited. I've retained the intros; Acts 1 & 2 will slot nicely on to a CD-R with Acts III & IV on the second CD.

I became a Werther devotee when I first heard the opera at The Coli, 1977, with Charles Mackerras conducting and Janet Baker as Charlotte and John Brecknock in the title role. The following day, I took an extended lunch break to trek the West End trying to locate the EMI La Voix De Son Maitre recording with George Thill and Ninon Vallin without success but finally succeded at Collett's Bookshop on Charing X Rd - I gather the 'Russian bookshop' has been demolished along with the nearby Astoria Cinema in the draconian renovations underway in this area.

In the next few years, the Thill recording appeared on a References/EMI CD set; Philips released the ROH cast/Colin Davis; Jose Carreras and Frederica von Stade on CD and EMI Classics transferred the 1969 recording, Orchestre de Paris/Georges Pretre to CD in 1991 with Nicolai Gedda and Victoria de los Angeles. The 1979 DG recording, Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orch/Riccardo Chailly, paired Domingo & Elena Obratztsova and EMI Classics, LSO/Pappano, (1999) with Roberto Alagna & Angela Gheorghiu, Historic recordings on CD include a Melodram set from 1953/Mario Rossi with Magda Olivero & Agotino Lazzari - Olivera quite superb. A great Opera Recordings CD set from 1949 features Giuseppe Di Stefano & Giulietta Simionato My collection also includes a 1953 LP set, Artia International Opera; Charles Richard as Werther and Suzanne Juyol, Charlotte - all rich pickings.

[Flosshilde]

I know it's French, actually!! That wasn't the point I was trying to make!!