Wednesday 9 June 2021

AMARYLLIS IN GARDEN, 9/06/21


The Amaryllis in my garden this morning





 

Saturday 1 May 2021

William Morris: May Day 1892

CHANTS FOR SOCIALISTS

 by 

WILLIAM MORRIS








THE WORKERS

O Earth, once again cometh Spring to deliver
Thy winter-worn heart, O thou friend of the Sun;
Fair blossom the meadows from river to river
And the birds sing their triumph o'er winter undone.

O Earth, how a-toiling thou singest thy labour
And upholdest the flower-crowned cup of thy bliss,
As when in the feast-tide drinks neighbour to neighbour
And all words are gleeful, and nought is amiss.

But we, we, O Mother, through long generations,
We have toiled and been fruitful, but never with thee
Might we raise up our bowed heads and cry to the nations
To look on our beauty, and hearken our glee.

Unlovely of aspect, heart-sick and a-weary
On the season's fair pageant all dim-eyed we gaze;
Of thy fairness we fashion a prison-house dreary
And in sorrow wear over each day of our days.

THE EARTH.

O children! O toilers, what foemen beleaguer
The House I have built you, the Home I have won?
Full great are my gifts, and my hands are all eager
To fill every heart with the deeds I have done.

THE WORKERS.

The foemen are born of thy body, O Mother,
In our shape are they shapen, their voice is the same;
And the thought of their hearts is as ours and no other;
It is they of our own house that bring us to shame.

THE EARTH.

Are ye few? Are they many? What words have ye spoken
To bid your own brethren remember the Earth?
What deeds have ye done that the bonds should be broken,
And men dwell together in good-will and mirth?

THE WORKERS.

They are few, we are many: and yet, O our Mother,
Many years were we wordless and nought was our deed,
But now the word flitteth from brother to brother:
We have furrowed the acres and scattered the seed.

THE EARTH.

Win on then unyielding, through fair and foul weather,
And pass not a day that your deed shall avail.
And in hope every spring-tide come gather together
That unto the Earth ye may tell all your tale.

Then this shall I promise, that I am abiding
The day of your triumph, the ending of gloom,
And no wealth that ye will then my hand shall be hiding
And the tears of the spring into roses shall bloom.

Tuesday 27 April 2021

Richard Wagner, PARSIFAL, Wiener Staatsoper, April 2021

 





CAST (Unfortunately, I couldn't find an entire cast list, so only the major characters are listed here).

PARSIFAL                                                    Jonas Kaufmann
AMFORTAS                                                  Ludovic Tezier
KUNDRY                                                       Elina Garanca
GURNEMANZ                                               Georg Zeppenfeld
KLINGSOR                                                   Wolfgang Koch

YOUNG PARSIFAL                                       Nikolay Sidorenko
(Actor, silent role)

Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna State Opera
CONDUCTOR                                              Philippe Jordan
DIRECTOR                                                   Kiril Sereberennikov

____________________________________________________________________


This is a very striking production of PARSIFAL, which has considerably divided opinions, although the majority verdict is in favour.....I will say at once that I absolutely loved it, although I was puzzled at first by the unfamiliarity of the setting.....which is a prison. I will just highlight a few salient points of the staging.





    In the second two images, we see Kundry as a Prison Visitor/journalist, who takes photos of the prisoners. Well, what has this to do with Wagner? i take it to be a metaphor for an all-male community like the Grail Temple, which is perhaps as much of a psychological prison as anything else. It was very well-staged, with close attention to detail and showing the prisoners as individuals, although of course they become a chorus again in the Grail Temple scene. Gurnemanz (Georg Zeppenfeld) is portrayed as a senior (long-term) inmate, who has curious, close relationship with the prison guards, and - tattoos Grail images onto the bodies of some of the inmates, Apparently there is an intense Tattoo Culture in Russian prisons. (I am indebted to  Paul Padillo for this information).

    This sets the scene - it is disturbing in many ways, but then PARSIFAL is a disturbing opera, it has never been easy to interpret. The first two acts are staged as if the older Parsifal (Jonas Kaufmann) is re-living his youth.....the younger Parsifal is a silent role played by actor Nikolai Sidorenko. The older Parsifal sings from the front of the stage, and sometimes he even lip-synches to Gurnemanz, because he is remembering everything. 




   
 I should say at this point that all three acts are set indoors, so the references to Nature must be imagined. In fact this works surprisingly well for the Good Friday music.....better than I expected......although we can't see the beauty of the meadow that Parsifal talks about, we can hear it the music, and obvious Parsifal and Gurnemanz can see it in their imaginations. The fact that everything is set indoors leads to a rather witty staging of Klingsor's Castle.....he appears to be the proprietor of a fashion magazine, and the Flower Maidens are all models.....with Kundry perhaps as a senior journalist. Again, unexpected, but it worked very well in the context.



    A few more detail of the staging are worth mentioning.  Just before the Grail Scene, the prison officials are inspecting the parcels that have been sent to the prisoners......first of all they find a menorah, which they examine with some puzzlement ......(who would have sent a menorah, and why?) and then they finally unpack the Grail.

    The end of Act II is especially striking, in that is is KUNDRY who destroys Klingsor (she shoots him, with the gun that she had previously been aiming at Parsifal).



 I can see that purists might have a problem with this....why is it a gun and not the Sacred Spear?  Because it reinforces the point that the whole confrontation has been a journey of self-discovery for Kundry as well as Parsifal.....she is transformed by the experience, and is thus able to become the agent of Klingsor's destruction. Elina Garanca conveys every aspect of this very complex character, not merely beautiful singing (and not always beautiful.....sometimes the tone of voice exactly parallels the inner torment!) but good acting......and she's a very attractive woman!!!


In this scene, as before, it is the younger Parsifal whom she tries to seduce, while the older Parsifal watches.......as the scene reaches its climax, he does obviously become very angry.
    For me the absolute climax of the performance was Ludovic Tezier as the tortured Amfortas. This was conveyed with such intensity of expression that I could hardly watch it......I don't recall EVER having seen such a performance, almost terrifying.....



    Whether we agree that Kundry survives at the end and is reconciled with Amfortas, as the image above suggests, must remain open to question......perhaps it is not entirely impossible.
    At the end, as usual, I was left with tears in my eyes at the sheer beauty of the final music.