Ravel's Sheherazade

[Oliver]

There is a clear distinction between the AE Housman poems and those of Klingsor. Housman was deeply repressed and would have been shocked by any discussion of his sexuality while Klingsor was, in modern parlance, "out." Ravel was setting poems that were acknowledged to be homo-erotic; VW et al weren't. And this is why the replacement of the tenor soloist with a mezzo was significant.

Incidentally, between these two opposites lies Szymanowski's King Roger. The final version of the text was the composer's own and the homo-erotic subtext is evident. Is there any other music more homo-erotic than the Shepherd's song in Act 1? Or is it merely the sub-text of the opera to which I am responding as a gay man?

[Ferretfancy]

There is a clear distinction between the AE Housman poems and those of Klingsor. Housman was deeply repressed and would have been shocked by any discussion of his sexuality while Klingsor was, in modern parlance, "out." Ravel was setting poems that were acknowledged to be homo-erotic; VW et al weren't. And this is why the replacement of the tenor soloist with a mezzo was significant.

Incidentally, between these two opposites lies Szymanowski's King Roger. The final version of the text was the composer's own and the homo-erotic subtext is evident. Is there any other music more homo-erotic than the Shepherd's song in Act 1? Or is it merely the sub-text of the opera to which I am responding as a gay man?

The opening of King Roger in the Simon Rattle recording is one of the most stunning sounds I'm able to reproduce in my living room. It's an amazing work in so many ways, I've never been lucky enough to see it staged.

I sometimes wonder whether Pasolini knew the opera. It seems a little unlikely, but in his film Theorem the concept of a beautiful young man arriving as a stranger to change the lives of all the other characters certainly has parallels with it.

[Oliver]

Agreed. That opening is wonderful. And Rattle somehow makes Brummies sound like Poles! The problem (I assume) for performances of the opera (apart from being in Polish, of course) is that its length- about seventy minutes- is too long for a double-bill, assuming an appropriate "partner" could be found, and too short for an evening in the opera house. Three sets as well. The opera speaks particularly eloquently to gay men of my generation, I suggest. And I recall Rattle saying much the same in an interview when his recording was released.

Pasolini preferred to employ classical music in his films. When the central character in Accetone, a pimp, is attacked and abused, we hear the final chorus from the St Matthew Passion. Jesus is executed to the sounds of Mozart's Masonic Funeral Music .....I could go on, Pasolini being a an interest of mine. And yes, I agree with your comments about Theorem. Both the opera and the film involve men and women confronting their innermost desires with honesty, whatever the cost.

[Flosshilde]

The problem (I assume) for performances of the opera (apart from being in Polish, of course) is that its length- about seventy minutes- is too long for a double-bill, assuming an appropriate "partner" could be found, and too short for an evening in the opera house.

I've seen it twice - a long time ago by ENO, & more recently at the EIF from the Mariinsky. Both seemed a perfectly good evening's worth. Tosca isn't very much longer.

[Simon B]

OT, but:

King Roger: On at a place near (some of) you, soon:

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/krol-roger-by-kasper-holten

Though I was under the impression it was by Szymanowski, not Kasper Holten - this URL being a microcosm of the warped priorities in this respect that seem to apply in the curious world of opera. Anyway, that's even more OT...