A Lark Ascending

I'm always amazed by the ingenuity of many of the stage sets - just taking a small space and using lighting and minimal props to convey a range of scenes and atmospheres. There was a beautiful section in the middle of 'Jenufa' yesterday with a stark, dark stage with just a cot illuminated. Slowly, so you hardly noticed it, an illusion of snowing was created until by the end of the act the whole stage seemed to glow white. I know some directors get it in the neck for distorting the opera by presenting a Monteverdi opera as if it was in Taliban era Afghanistan; but in general I think they do a tremendous job. I've never been a theatre goer so this is probably quite normal in the world of drama. But I find it quite magical.

One rather strange thing I've noticed of late - live relays of opera from Covent Garden etc in the cinema. Where I live - a sleepy market town in the middle of nowhere - a new cinema got built a while back (I've only just noticed it!) and they've got Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, Parsifal, Manon Lescaut advertised alongside ballet and various Shakespeare plays. Unfortunately on a mid-week night which make it nigh on impossible for me but it's still encouraging.

Try listening to Rimsky-Korsakov and pretending it's early Stravinsky. Not difficult.

And with Wagner - and others - you don't have to eat it in one go. I usually spread the longer operas over a couple of days with a long break between acts. Means you come to each act really fresh. Doubt if Wagner would approve. But then I'm not sure he'd approve of people arriving knackered after a day at work to try and take in 4 1/2 hours of his painstaking work. There's also a cost thing. Even a Blu-Ray comes in at around the price of the cheapest seats in the provincial operas here.

A year since I had my grumble in the opening post. In that time I've listened to a lot more opera but wouldn't change any of those statements - just got better at suspending disbelief. The Blu-ray/DVD option has been the real thrill for me. A mixture of having the visuals and the lyrics coming up in real time, preventing you surrendering to the temptation to read ahead in the longer passages. You're also not zig-zagging between keeping up with the Czech that's being sung and then darting to get the translation in a parallel column. To say nothing of the horror following a libretto when a dozen people start singing at once, intermingling the same phrases. I usually find I'm three pages behind. One of the great joys is that it's a bit like the late-80s with CDs. There's lots out there on Blu-Ray/DVD but still lots of gaps even in the 'core repertoire'; the less renowned/contemporary field still has huge areas to be mined. So opening the music magazines has regained a sense of anticipation - instead of just the expected different versions of things already out there in different forms, there's the hope of something you really want to see/hear for the first time being announced. Interesting times.

About as good a definition of a critic as I've come across. ********************** I think he's right about contemporary media over-obsessing on the easily popular. But that's a by-product of a market-driven culture. What counts is what sells. You see it in the 'Arts' sections of UK newspapers and culture programmes which once were dominated by opera and classical music (not, to my mind, a good thing either) but now tend to aim for the resurrection of David Bowie or the social significance of Britney Spears (see this week's New Statesman; last week it was Lady Gaga) as a preference. Why, even high ranking politicians have been known to claim they have the Arctic Monkeys on their iPod! My problem with his piece is that he still seems to want to segregate high art from popular culture. When to my mind they are a continuum (and a 3D one at that). Better to think of music that is not very complicated grading up to music that is very complicated (and sometimes the former would seem to be far more effective than the latter - given, at gunpoint, the choice of keeping your mid-20thC John Lee Hooker or Milton Babbitt CDs, what would you go for?). It'd be nice if the media would pay a bit more interest to that at the latter end because most of it isn't that complicated and could be very rewarding to considerably more people. Of course the arts crowd constantly shoot themselves in the foot by insisting that the less obvious stuff is something quite separate, very hard and deserving of very special treatment. That might have worked in days gone by but without a return to the social structures of previous eras it just won't hold beyond that particular crowd. But I suspect, despite all their complaining, they quite like it that way. The complaining gives them the reassurance that they 'have better taste.'

Borgen. Still keeping me gripped. Hope there are more ECM dramas to follow!

One of the benefits of occasionally using the iPod random. Amazing how often you get a 'What is that?' moment, get it quite wrong and then want to re-explore. Random radio listening can do the same. I often have that happening to me when I tune into BBC Radio 3 in the car. (Don't expect much of 'Arbour Zena', David. There are some nice moments, but it suffers from what I think of as 'block string writing' - all the strings seem to be moving at the same time, creating a wearying texture.)

Don't miss the band record released around the same time. Just as engaging.

Another beautiful one. Not recommended for the office Xmas party.

I first saw him in late '76 when he did his revival of 'Under Milk Wood' with narration. I seem to recall his profile was raised, reaching people of my age (round 21 then) - he was playing with the likes of Keith Tippett so the name got attention there. There was a BBC documentary about him in 1977 I remember seeing whilst on teaching practice down in Cornwall. He was being presented as a hip, elder statesman (can't have been much more than late 40s!). Always enjoyed hearing him speak or reading interviews with him. He was always very down to earth.

Try listening to 'A Boy Was Born' after midnight in Christmas week. The way those voices just seem to weightlessly lift and freely intermingle is positively spooky. Enjoying another Britten disc for this time of year:

Might it have been in Bethlehem? That stable probably needed fixing up and they might have been singing in their break.

Stan was probably best known in the wider jazz world for his 60s/70s jazz records - 'Under Milk Wood' being justly renowned. But he was firing on all cylinders right to the end. The run of recordings he did for Trio records are remarkable - duo, trio, quartets with Bobby Wellins and Peter King, recordings with younger players and a gorgeous vocal recording that stretched over two discs with Norma Winstone and Wellins. My other favourites are the ones he did on his own Steam label in the 70s/80s with Art Themen in the sax chair. Have a look here for a discography: http://www.stantracey.com/discog.htm The duos with Keith Tippett have already been mentioned; the one with Louis Moholo-Moholo and two with Evan Parker are also marvellous.

Yes, Hyperion know their stuff and would have chosen carefully. I don't know a great deal about Boughton but suspect he was part of that world (or the early 20thC version).

Very odd! Early 20th C English Choral with a few famous Xmas songs woven in, some folk-yokely bits and a section that sounds like country and western! Boughton was a bit of a lad - sort of William Morrisish socialist but with ambitions to do a Bayreuth in Glastonbury based on his own operas. His festivals collapsed in the 20s. Something a bit odd in the recording - can't work out if it is the balance or some careless instrumental intonation. But makes a nice Xmas alternative. [i see Michael Hurd's book about Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals is being republished in January - one I'd like to read.]

Very sad. The first jazz musician I saw and one I've followed ever since. His recordings have given (and will continue to give) immense pleasure.

What's defenestration got to do with Scotland? Are they claiming that as well as all the oil?

I think you mean Johan. Think it got mistranslated as Jan over here. Just checked one of my old 17thC history text books and it definitely says Jan. There's a great name for a rock'n roll band there - Jan van Oldenbarnevelt and the Stadtholders. Though I always liked the idea of a Czech punk band calling itself The Defenestrators.

Indeed. That was where we went window shopping (records were nearly twice the price they were in England at that time).

Rheindahlen Also very flat. We used to get Dutch TV which was great (for we Brits) as it was all US and UK programmes with Dutch subtitles. German TV was dubbed. I could be making this up but I half-remember watching 'Van der Valk' with Dutch subtitles. Now, what about Jan Van Oldenbarnevelt and the De Witte Brothers? And stadtholders? It's all coming back.

We used to go shopping in Venlo and Roermond back in the 70s from the RAF base (Royal Air Force, not Red Army Faction) my dad was based on. Things were cheaper than in Germany.

I could be wrong, but I thought you were a teacher Givn the sped we nok thinz out on boreds' like this Im surpised we dont get lots more grammer and speling miss-takes, Or, to quote a poster on another thread:

I like the idea of a Steve Reich Xmas album. 'Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the...Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all..., Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle...'

I ordered this for Xmas last November but it arrived in mid-January. So I only listened to it today. Lovely record. Given it's all in Swedish and unfamiliar I suppose I can play it in July. Ranarim were a great Swedish folky group with the divine Ulrika Boden as one of their singers. A voice to melt the coldest icicle.