The Mask of Orpheus

[Orphical]

Strong rumours Birtwistle’s masterpiece to be performed this October/November as part of ENO season! Brabbins conducts and Nicholas Kramer directs.

[Joseph K]

Wow!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wow!

[jayne lee wilson]

A very, very special masterpiece... I don't play the recording very often (well, you wouldn't really, would you...or perhaps some particular scenes..) but the very sound and atmosphere of it, especially Acts 2 and 3, are often "somewhere in the back of my mind".

Almost the last big home-taping project I ever took on (to metal cassette) was the 1996 Live Relay.... I recall how nervous I became as the evening drew on, about whether some tape function would go awry... but - I got there. And played it again and again, over the few next weeks. Until I finally got a CD Player and bough the NMC set...

Viewing some of the stills from that production, with the stages on different levels..... how extraordinary being there would have been (anyone?)....
There must be someone here who attended...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Strong rumours Birtwistle’s masterpiece to be performed this October/November as part of ENO season! Brabbins conducts and Nicholas Kramer directs.

From Derek Walker's Linked In page, it looks as if he thinks it's more than just a "strong rumour" - his "Experience" list includes "Staff Director for 2019 ENO production of The Mask of Orpheus"!

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/derek-walker-53362958

Wow - Donnerstag in May; Orpheus six months later.

[Conchis]

THIS is exactly what ENO should be doing.

I dream about the ENO season that balances stuff like TMOO with a 'straight' revival of Desert Song! :)


I've never heard Mask....but I suspect it's he kind of thing I might like if I put in a lot of hard work.

[jayne lee wilson]

THIS is exactly what ENO should be doing.

I dream about the ENO season that balances stuff like TMOO with a 'straight' revival of Desert Song! :)


I've never heard Mask....but I suspect it's he kind of thing I might like if I put in a lot of hard work.

Hard Work? No....
Just submit to its glories, offer yourself up to it....

(visually and/or musically)...

[Richard Barrett]

Donnerstag in May

That's a bit disappointing though, in view of the fact that it's been staged in London before, while five of the operas in the cycle have yet to be performed anywhere in the UK.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That's a bit disappointing though, in view of the fact that it's been staged in London before, while five of the operas in the cycle have yet to be performed anywhere in the UK.

Thirty-five years ago! (And someone who's seen the production tells me it's stunning.)

Absolutely agree that the remaining five should have been done in the UK by now, and that we should ideally be in a culture where we would be complaining that it's over ten years since anyone did Freitag ... but I don't feel any disappointment that we've got Donnerstag (or MoO, for that matter) to look forward to.

[Richard Barrett]

Thirty-five years ago!

Well OK. But the fact that it's been presented by more opera houses than any of the others has a momentum about it which means the others generally get passed over. Of course not all of them can even be performed in opera houses! Still, I've seen five out of the seven and I don't think I'll be travelling to London to see this one again. The Birtwistle, though, is a different matter.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

British performances/productions of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, Prometeo, Al gran sole carico d'amore, Schneewittchen, and Der Hamletmaschine are also long, long overdue, too, of course. Given that when I booked my tickets for Donnerstag, there were already many seats sold, perhaps these two productions will prompt organisers into thinking that, contrary to the "thinking" of the past twenty-odd years, there might well be a considerable audience keen to pay money to hear these works in Live performance.

[Richard Barrett]

British performances/productions of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, Prometeo, Al gran sole carico d'amore, Schneewittchen, and Der Hamletmaschine are also long, long overdue, too, of course. Given that when I booked my tickets for Donnerstag, there were already many seats sold, perhaps these two productions will prompt organisers into thinking that, contrary to the "thinking" of the past twenty-odd years, there might well be a considerable audience keen to pay money to hear these works in Live performance.

True. Although I have actually seen Prometeo in London. (And Robert Wilson's Hamletmachine which makes Rihm's look and sound pedestrian and anachronistic.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Although I have actually seen Prometeo in London.

Oh yes - I'd forgotten it had been done (and, I think, broadcast?)

(And Robert Wilson's Hamletmachine which makes Rihm's look and sound pedestrian and anachronistic.)

I deleted an "and even" before mentioning the Rihm. I have reservations about his work (and would love to see the Wilson version) - but I think it's not unfair to suggest that it is far more worthy of a UK staging/performance than most "new" "operas" that do get staged here.

[Richard Barrett]

I deleted an "and even" before mentioning the Rihm. I have reservations about his work (and would love to see the Wilson version) - but I think it's not unfair to suggest that it is far more worthy of a UK staging/performance than most "new" "operas" that do get staged here.

I suppose so. The last time I saw a Rihm opera in the UK was Jakob Lenz at the Almeida Festival some time in the 1980s. But there have been times in Germany when you couldn't move for Rihm operas. So my desire for them is a bit blunted. The Wilson version of Hamletmaschine was I think the most memorable theatre experience of my life. (That was also in the Almeida Theatre by the way.) And I've always been totally ashamed of myself for missing the first production of Mask of Orpheus.