ROH: Ring 2018

[Darkbloom]

I speculate that "The Ring" sorts out the audience - I get the idea a lot of coughing is from the bored and inattentive - perhaps I'm imagining it but it often seems casual and is, therefore, inconsiderate. That might include coughing from those accompanying those more interested, etc. Anyone paying and prepared to last the course for these cycles probably knows the score - cough in the loud passages if it can't be averted and if at all possible, and in any case USE A HANDKERCHIEF TO STIFLE THE NOISE.

But I don't think its elitist, in the cast list sheet for example, to ask those who need to cough to use a handkerchief, out of consideration for others.

I tend to think that we're more aware of the coughers if we are finding the performance less than gripping. Our attention wanders a bit and we pick up on noises we would otherwise ignore.

[Ein Heldenleben]

A man sitting behind my wife ticked off the woman next to her for allegedly 'moving her head too much' during Siegfried . The charming woman accused of this heinous behaviour was the director of a major European Opera House....

[Conchis]

Sidebar to the above, but I've just had a look at Slipped Disc and noticed this posting from today:

https://slippedisc.com/2018/10/conductor-announces-marriage-split/

Note the rather sinister (remembering it's Lebrecht) final sentence.

What the hell does this have to do with opera/orchestral music?

Lebrecht is basically just a gossip columnist with a very small audience.

[Darkbloom]

Sidebar to the above, but I've just had a look at Slipped Disc and noticed this posting from today:

https://slippedisc.com/2018/10/conductor-announces-marriage-split/

Note the rather sinister (remembering it's Lebrecht) final sentence.

What the hell does this have to do with opera/orchestral music?

Lebrecht is basically just a gossip columnist with a very small audience.

I like the idea he thinks he has a 'social affairs correspondent' rather than just getting a gossipy email like anyone else. It's a pity he doesn't have a higher profile because I'm sure Private Eye would have fun with him in the same way they skewered Nigel Dempster. And it's usually just as dull as Dempster's was, with breathless reports on the tennis elbow of the Bratislava Philharmonic 's principal cello.

[Ein Heldenleben]

If I can be fair to Lebrecht his coverage of Kranzle's stem cell transplant does include a full transcript of the latter's worthy appeal for more stem cell donors. Not all journalism is trivial....

[underthecountertenor]

I tend to think that we're more aware of the coughers if we are finding the performance less than gripping. Our attention wanders a bit and we pick up on noises we would otherwise ignore.

Or possibly the coughers cough when they find the performance less than gripping. I can only report from my experience of this Ring Cycle that I was very aware of the absolute silence in the auditorium in the quietest passages of the operas. I don't just mean this in a negative 'there was no audience noise' way. The silence was palpable and contributed positively to the shared experience.

By contrast, there were quite a few coughers at the (terrific) Verdi Requiem at the ROH last night. A woman two or three seats away from me had a rasping single cough which punctuated the performance at fairly regular intervals. It would not have bothered me much but for the fact that the chap next to me (who turned out to be a very well-travelled opera enthusiast and quite well-known blogger) felt the need to tut and sigh noisily after every cough.

[underthecountertenor]

I like the idea he thinks he has a 'social affairs correspondent' rather than just getting a gossipy email like anyone else. It's a pity he doesn't have a higher profile because I'm sure Private Eye would have fun with him in the same way they skewered Nigel Dempster. And it's usually just as dull as Dempster's was, with breathless reports on the tennis elbow of the Bratislava Philharmonic 's principal cello.

Generally dull, but with the occasional injection of pure poison.

[LHC]

Sidebar to the above, but I've just had a look at Slipped Disc and noticed this posting from today:

https://slippedisc.com/2018/10/conductor-announces-marriage-split/

Note the rather sinister (remembering it's Lebrecht) final sentence.

What the hell does this have to do with opera/orchestral music?

Lebrecht is basically just a gossip columnist with a very small audience.

He also retains the same cavalier attitude to fact-checking that led to one of his books being pulped because it contained so many inaccuracies. One of his other stories this week concerned Wayne Marshall, who is stepping down as conductor of his orchestra in Cologne. The original story referred to the Oldham-born British Marshall as a US conductor and wrongly named the orchestra as the WDR Symphony; Marshall's orchestra is the WDR Funkhausorchester. So in a story of less than twenty words, Lebrecht managed to get almost everything wrong.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Or possibly the coughers cough when they find the performance less than gripping. I can only report from my experience of this Ring Cycle that I was very aware of the absolute silence in the auditorium in the quietest passages of the operas. I don't just mean this in a negative 'there was no audience noise' way. The silence was palpable and contributed positively to the shared experience.

By contrast, there were quite a few coughers at the (terrific) Verdi Requiem at the ROH last night. A woman two or three seats away from me had a rasping single cough which punctuated the performance at fairly regular intervals. It would not have bothered me much but for the fact that the chap next to me (who turned out to be a very well-travelled opera enthusiast and quite well-known blogger) felt the need to tut and sigh noisily after every cough.

It was tremendous wasn't it ? Having a professional chorus makes a huge difference . Those four way split A flat chords the tenors have to sing really sounded beautiful and some unwobbly soloists for once. And wonderful quad pianissimi - not surprising you could hear coughs - though they weren't audible at home.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The first of three Ring cycles, a revival of Keith Warner's production, commenced this week at the ROH. R3 will broadcast them on 27/10, 3/11, 17/11 and 29/12.

"Bumping" the OP to remind Forumistas that the Broadcasts begin this Saturday at 6:30pm:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000x85

... and Walkure the following week starting at 5:00pm:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00010h2

[Conchis]

"Bumping" the OP to remind Forumistas that the Broadcasts begin this Saturday at 6:30pm:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000x85

... and Walkure the following week starting at 5:00pm:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00010h2

Just noticed Alwyn Melllor's name in the cast list (as Gerhilde). Glad she's back in action! :)

[underthecountertenor]

It was tremendous wasn't it ? Having a professional chorus makes a huge difference . Those four way split A flat chords the tenors have to sing really sounded beautiful and some unwobbly soloists for once. And wonderful quad pianissimi - not surprising you could hear coughs - though they weren't audible at home.

A broadcast to keep and treasure, I think.

Lise Davidsen was back in action last night, and on tremendous form again, as Third Norn. I'm beginning to think that the ROH should time its next Ring Cycle to catch her (surely inevitable) Brünnhilde in its prime.

[ostuni]

I'll try to catch tomorrow's Rheingold on the iplayer on Sunday morning, before going over the river to Greenwich for the live Walküre relay. And yes, Davidsen's Brünnhilde should be quite something, if she takes proper care of her voice over the next few years. Andrew Mellor tweeted a link to the Danish Radio concert with her Four Last Songs earlier this month: absolutely gorgeous. I think the broadcast is still streamable: https://www.dr.dk/radio/p2/p2-koncerten/p2-koncerten-torsdagskoncert-med-lise-davidsen-2/#

[Belgrove]

That was an impressive performance of Das Rheingold. In the past I have been critical of Pappano's conducting of Wagner, but this was a pacy delivery of the score with a strong sense of line, not the point-to-point navigation we have got in the past. He stated in the pre-performance interview that, words to the effect, he's finally got inside the score, and it showed. A major test of his sense of line will be negotiating Wotan's narration in Act 2 of Die Walküre. The orchestra sounded superb in every section, rich burnished strings, delicate woodwinds when needs be and punchy brass. The large cast was strong, my only carp being that Gunther Groissbock's Fasolt lacked the tenderness and pathos that can attend this work's only sympathetic character (Brindley Sherratt as his black-hearted brother was superb). Looking forward to the cinema relay of Die Walküre this afternoon.

[gradus]

Just come back from Walkure at the cinema. I don't ever remember hearing a cast in such good voice throughout. A great evening.