Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site tekecs.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!tektronix!orca!tekecs!jeffw From: jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: Dec. 15 Metropolitan "Elektra" broadcast (and love of music) Message-ID: <4231@tekecs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 20-Dec-84 12:45:48 EST Article-I.D.: tekecs.4231 Posted: Thu Dec 20 12:45:48 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 23-Dec-84 07:55:48 EST References: <263@olivej.UUCP> Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR Lines: 43 This broadcast was a special experience for me. For the last 10 years or so, I have acquainted myself with operas I was curious about, not only by listening to performances, but by playing through the piano scores. I had read through "Elektra" two or three times before the Met broadcast, but I had never heard it performed. Well, it's experiences like this that make me wonder why people bother with drugs. Although I recognized things were going on which I didn't care for (see below), I was so caught up I was close to tears through the whole thing. And I listened to it on a cheap FM alarm radio! And I didn't even see it! Aaargh, music is heaven... All in all though, I agree with Greg's assessments of the performance. Especially I found myself irritated with Levine's pace, in which it seemed many of the beauties I discovered from playing the work were swallowed (my poor radio didn't help). It also gave the impression there was too much singing crammed into too short a time, which I am sure Strauss did *not* intend. Compare this experience to the one I had a few years ago when there was a TV broadcast (with subtitles) of "Otello". I had only the vaguest idea of this opera before then. I had heard it was a masterpiece - "even if you don't care for Verdi ["Falstaff" is the only other Verdi I can handle], you'll like this, etc." And I had accompanied the setting of Desdemona's prayer. So I sat down, curious, to watch, and to listen, in front of my old B&W TV with lousy sound. Someday I will write in a worthwhile fashion about the land where I go when I listen to music, but for now suffice to say that, by the climactic end of the third act, I was so absorbed that, when the final cadence in C is punctuated by that E major blast (which I could discern as a motive even on first hearing), I nearly had a heart attack. I get a chill now just thinking about it. I seem to remember screaming out "did you hear THAT?" to no one in particular. Since then I have read through the piano score several times, loving every minute of it. Someday, I will see Salome. Yes, I also like it better than Elektra, but I wouldn't put down the "Dance of the Seven Veils" - it's the relief and the tease that enables Strauss to construct an otherwise unbroken climax from the middle of the opera (C# minor cadence) to the end. Oh well, back to work... See, I don't always criticize! Jeff Winslow