Alphabet associations - I

[Resurrection Man]

That made me laugh so much, it made me a little hoarse! Persevere with Kismet

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Wooden" "hoarse" = Les Troyens?

[Resurrection Man]

"Wooden" "hoarse" = Les Troyens?

Right topic...but not that particular opera about it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

King Priam?

Troilus & Cressida?

[mercia]

post #32079 gave a "you are right" to my Oedipus suggestion

so I have been looking for operas concerning Oedipus - is that the same story as the Trojan Horse ?

[Resurrection Man]

post #32079 gave a "you are right" to my Oedipus suggestion

so I have been looking for operas concerning Oedipus - is that the same story as the Trojan Horse ?

Sorry, mercs for any confusion. That reply was to Caliban. I said "You are right. The river begins with a T"

So for clarity, we are looking for an opera to do with the Trojans. A song about the Thames will also help. As will Kismet. Need to go out for a while but will check in later.

[Nick Armstrong]

So for clarity, we are looking for an opera to do with the Trojans. A song about the Thames will also help. As will Kismet. Need to go out for a while but will check in later.

Useful summary, Rezza, thanks... but I can't get this. Not helped by an even thicker head than usual trying to combat some form of lurgy

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Useful summary, Rezza, thanks... but I can't get this. Not helped by an even thicker head than usual trying to combat some form of lurgy

No, nor I - and Ferney Manor is lurgy-free (I', going to regret tempting Fate with that!)

Ah, yes Fate - or Kismet: one of the adapters was called Wright; Troilus & Cressida was by Walton ...

[Resurrection Man]

No, nor I - and Ferney Manor is lurgy-free (I', going to regret tempting Fate with that!)

Ah, yes Fate - or Kismet: one of the adapters was called Wright; Troilus & Cressida was by Walton ...

Well done....so we are now looking for two more Messrs Wright.

[mercia]

when you mentioned about nobody being on a roll I thought of Ol' Man River [don't know whether I was meant to]

I think Old Father Thames was written by Raymond Wallace & "Betsy O'Hogan" aka Lawrence Wright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu167V5ImjE

elsewhere on the internet it says that Lawrence Wright wrote ballads as "Horatio Nicholls" and Irish songs as "Gene Williams"

[Resurrection Man]

when you mentioned about nobody being on a roll I thought of Ol' Man River [don't know whether I was meant to]

I think Old Father Thames was written by Raymond Wallace & "Betsy O'Hogan" aka Lawrence Wright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu167V5ImjE

elsewhere on the internet it says that Lawrence Wright wrote ballads as "Horatio Nicholls" and Irish songs as "Gene Williams"

Well done, mercs...indeed it is Lawrence Wright ....under a pseudonym (sneaky, huh? )

All that's left is our Trojan composer (who is very modern)

[Nick Armstrong]

Lawrence Wright ....under a pseudonym (sneaky, huh? )

Very!

Not a puzzle that was capable of solution 'off the top of one's head' I think....!!

Likewise - for me at least - the final element: I take this to be the psudonym-free but nonetheless somewhat obscure Maurice Wright http://www.mauricewright.org/Biography.htm

Zeus wears a paisley dressing gown and watches the war on television in Maurice Wright's new opera, The Trojan Conflict. More often he plays his cello in a quartet of gods and goddesses that includes Hermes, the winged messenger, on French Horn. Wright has slivered the main events of Homer's tale into cogent scenes and interludes, which begin with Zeus' decision to have Paris decide which goddess gets the golden applethe beauty contest that started the Trojan War. About an hour and a half and many laughs later, the Trojan Horse arrives via a filmed projection, and the two-act opera is over.

Wright wrote the words and music for The Trojan Conflict in two months. The result, however, is not in the least slapdash, but ingenious and cohesive. The music is the best part, beginning with the instrumentation, which balances a quartet of synthesizers with cello, horn, oboe and viola.

Zeus' acoustic group sits center stage in front of the television, since we're meant to view the proceedings as from a Mount Olympus living room. To the quartet's right is the synthesizer band; to its left are Hera, Aphrodite, Achilles and a chorus of Greeks and Trojans who enact the 10-year war. As they do so, a video camera records the goings-on, which also can be viewed from Zeus' screen.

Composed in a searching but not overly dissonant modern idiom are Paris' whining aria, "Why me?," and the solos of Hera, Aphrodite and Athene as they bribe the silly Paris. Later the music convincingly flows into different styles, from choral exchanges that sound like Renaissance madrigals to Paris' and Helen's syrupy love duet mimicking turn-of-the-century operetta.

The synthesizers, used sensitively and avoiding excess clatter, give a modern chill to the war scenes and a colorful nostalgia (bells, organ and harpsichord sonorities) to the festive ones. Some of the most effective writing occurs for the full ensemble, which in climactic moments has depth and warmth because of the acoustic instruments. Of several fine choruses, the most striking was the male ensemble preparing for battle; the music has a darkness and pulse reminiscent of late Stravinsky.

The Philadelphia Inquirer 4/89

[Resurrection Man]

Well done, Caliban...he is indeed the man. I think Ferney deserves the next letter as it was he who discerned Mr Wright to begin with. Is that fair?

[Nick Armstrong]

Well done, Caliban...he is indeed the man. I think Ferney deserves the next letter as it was he who discerned Mr Wright to begin with. Is that fair?

Entirely fair

Meantime, I just whipped up a swift dish of coleslaw, for my own sanity more than anything else!

A W to link Kismet, a Grecian story and a river.

Kismet: one of the adapters was called Wright
Maurice Wright's electronic opera 'Trojan Conflict' - the Greek story
Old Father Thames was written by Raymond Wallace & "Betsy O'Hogan" aka Lawrence Wright

It was all Greek to me

Go on Ferns

X, Y or Z you lucky fella!!

Or are you going to wimp out and hasten to the safe haven of A ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Entirely fair

Well, you would, wouldn't you!

Or are you going to wimp out and hasten to the safe haven of A ?

We're never "at home" for the Norfolk "Wymppe-Outtes" at Ferney Hall!

Very well, then:

X marks the spot for Mary in part two of a Birtwistle production but not by Carl Davis; and 1AM; but Cavalli did it first (once with Lully).