More music
Slightly delayed: I've seen the Wise Guys :). Last weekend, in Rennerod, which is located am Arsch der Welt, as I was told by a stranger on the Limburg am Lahn train station. Apparently, the German public transport system agrees: it took me the better part of the afternoon to get there by train and bus, and only two hours to get back by car. Interestingly, despite this unfavourable location, the audience consisted mainly of people not from Rennerod, if I remember the poll results1 correctly.
The show was as good as usual, funny, well-sung, generally well-presented, with a nice mix of old and new songs. Unfortunately they again didn't sing Achtung! ich will tanzen; I've been hoping to see this one for three shows now, but hitherto in vain. The other slight drawback was that the audience was clapping the rhythms of most songs very enthousiastically, which made the songs themselves a little hard to hear at times. On the other hand, the audience's Schunkeln during this song was all the more real :), especially as it was a standing concert.
I have also seen Don Giovanni, which was refreshingly easy to follow, both story-wise and musically. On the other hand, it did at times seem to become just a comical series of very well-performed songs. It strongly reminded me of professor Kügle's2 remark that Mozart effectively integrated the opera seria and opera buffa genres: most of Don Giovanni's scenes were obviously intended comically, whereas Donna Anna and consorts seemed to come from the standard early 18th-century Italian opera.
On the whole, I felt that it was a very suitable opera for newbies like me, precisely due to this mixing of comical and serious genres, and the relative lightness of the music. There is probably much more to be found in there that I didn't notice yet, but it was nice to see nonetheless.
1They always conduct a small poll on the audience's geographical and age distributions and familiarity with their music.
2From Utrecht, taught the course on Western music history I took at UC which is the source for most of my amateur musicological ramblings ;p.
The show was as good as usual, funny, well-sung, generally well-presented, with a nice mix of old and new songs. Unfortunately they again didn't sing Achtung! ich will tanzen; I've been hoping to see this one for three shows now, but hitherto in vain. The other slight drawback was that the audience was clapping the rhythms of most songs very enthousiastically, which made the songs themselves a little hard to hear at times. On the other hand, the audience's Schunkeln during this song was all the more real :), especially as it was a standing concert.
I have also seen Don Giovanni, which was refreshingly easy to follow, both story-wise and musically. On the other hand, it did at times seem to become just a comical series of very well-performed songs. It strongly reminded me of professor Kügle's2 remark that Mozart effectively integrated the opera seria and opera buffa genres: most of Don Giovanni's scenes were obviously intended comically, whereas Donna Anna and consorts seemed to come from the standard early 18th-century Italian opera.
On the whole, I felt that it was a very suitable opera for newbies like me, precisely due to this mixing of comical and serious genres, and the relative lightness of the music. There is probably much more to be found in there that I didn't notice yet, but it was nice to see nonetheless.
1They always conduct a small poll on the audience's geographical and age distributions and familiarity with their music.
2From Utrecht, taught the course on Western music history I took at UC which is the source for most of my amateur musicological ramblings ;p.
posted by Olivier at 2:18 PM
2 Comments:
If i were more knowledgeable about music I would write something intelligent here, but I'm not. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Do you already know whether you'll be joining us this summer for a short time in poland?
je grote broertje
Ja, dat weet ik al: ik kom niet. Het klinkt erg leuk, maar helaas zit ik hier tot 27 juli vast, en ga van 2-4 augustus naar een metalfestival bij Hamburg. Dan zou ik dus een dag heen en een dag terug reizen, en drie dagen daar zijn... zou allemaal een beetje kort en weinig ontspannend worden. Helaas.
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