That Pink Floyd's Roger Waters should write an opera is not all that surprising. In the group's heyday in the 1970s its music was often called "tomorrow's classical music," though I don't suppose many thought that prediction would come to pass in quite this way. Anyway, the two-CD work, Ca Ira ("it will be," or "there's hope") will be given its official launch in Taiwan early next month and Taipei Times has been granted a preview.
It's nothing if not ambitious. It aims to tell the story of the first four years of the French Revolution, an enormous task. The staging is imagined as a circus. Bryn Terfel narrates (as the Ringmaster, while also playing the King), and Ying Huang (the Butterfly in Frederick
Mitterand's wonderful film of Madame Butterfly) is Marie Antoinette, as well as "the voice of Liberty, Reason and the Republic." West African musician Ismael Lo stars in a scene set in the Caribbean.
The method is declamatory, rather than the traditional one of telling a story through the interaction of characters. Waters makes full use of an orchestra in the 19th century manner, but there's also a chorus of demanding London children as in The Wall and a lot of sound effects -- guns being fired, pigeons flying away, bells, military drums and wind. This is nevertheless a lot more like Andrew Lloyd Webber than The Dark Side of the Moon.
My feeling is that Ca Ira will be very successful in the way Evita and Les Miserables were. But at the same time it seems much better than either of these, both musically and dramatically. The lyrics (by Waters) are excellent and the music could become memorable on repeated hearing. Needless to say, such an important product has led those responsible to pull out all the stops. The performances are first-rate throughout and the sound quality is cutting-edge. Who said the history of opera was over (even though some will judge that this isn't really opera)?
It's always nice to have a chance to revisit, and to reiterate one's praise for the Pierre Boulez/Patrice Chereau Der Ring des Nibelungen. This famous 1981 set of the anniversary production of Richard Wagner's tetralogy at Bayreuth has now been reissued in boxed form, together with The Making of the Ring, an hour-long film about the production, with interview material from Boulez, Chereau, music critic William Mann, leading video director Brian Large and soprano Gwyneth Jones. Of particular interest is the history of Ring
productions at Bayreuth since Wagner's day and the reminiscences of Friedelind Wagner, the composer's descendant.
This set has always been eminently desirable. Even though the rival and much more traditional James Levine/Metropolitan Opera set has a lot going for it musically, this Boulez/Chereau cycle, now in 5.1 DTS Surround Sound, remains incomparable as a dramatic and imaginative experience. It was one of the 20th century's key productions, in any genre, and anyone with the
remotest interest in such things who doesn't know it should rush out and buy it forthwith. Its splendors are almost unlimited.
You might sometimes wonder why some classical artists get recording contracts and some don't. In the case of pianists it might depend these days on whether or not they have caught the ear of Martha Argerich, as EMI is running a whole series of debut solo piano albums by people she endorses. By adding Argerich's name to a new release the public are encouraged to trust an unknown. In the case of the Venezuelan Gabriela Montero their trust is unlikely to be misplaced.
A two-CD set is offered. The first is a selection of items from a range of
composers including Rachmaninov, Scriabin, De Falla, Chopin and Liszt, and includes the Argentinean Alberto Ginastera (1916 to 1983). The other, much more unusually in classical circles, contains 12 improvisations. Montero often does these as encores. It's this disc of improvisations that is particularly remarkable, with her style ranging from jazz to what could be described as classically-inspired fantasias.
Aimez-vous Brahms?(Do you like Brahms?) asked Francoise Sagan a long time ago in the title of a novel. I don't know what I would have replied at the time, but the older I get the more I enjoy him. There was a time when I took it for granted he was something of a fat cat, purring luxuriously with his sonorous harmonies and full orchestration, the perfect composer for business executives. Now I see him differently, as a somewhat withdrawn, introspective individual who pursued an unfashionable interest in pre-Romantic music and collected original manuscripts of Schubert songs.
A new CD from EMI of his three Violin Sonatas reinforces the view of Brahms as unostentatious and inward-looking. These beautiful works are given sensitive and delicate performances here, and in addition there is the movement Brahms wrote, aged 20, for the Sonata FAE. (frei aber einsam, free but alone), in which each of the three movements was written by a different composer. Altogether fine sounds and flawless interpretations.
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and