Opera on the web

[Chaszz]

Those not aware of it may be interested to know there is a site that publishes schedules and links to broadcasts of opera on the web...
http://www.operacast.com

Depending on where in the world the station broadcasts on the web from, and where you are, the link may or may not be good. But I've been enjoying some of the broadcasts. The Ring or other recordings from Bayreuth are generally on Fridays at 2:00 PM New York time, just in time to give a nice finish to my work week.

[Rod]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
Those not aware of it may be interested to know there is a site that publishes schedules and links to broadcasts of opera on the web...
http://www.operacast.com

Depending on where in the world the station broadcasts on the web from, and where you are, the link may or may not be good. But I've been enjoying some of the broadcasts. The Ring or other recordings from Bayreuth are generally on Fridays at 2:00 PM New York time, just in time to give a nice finish to my work week.

At 2pm on a Friday I'm still in a frenzied state of depression in my office, by about Saturday night I begin to recover. I doubt, however, that exposure to the Ring cycle would improve matters...

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[spaceray]

Wagner has always given me the creeps,It makes me uncomfortable and I can't listen for long,needless to say I haven't explored much of his music,I realize many many people love this composer but I could never really enjoy it for some reason.

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Wagner has always given me the creeps,It makes me uncomfortable and I can't listen for long,needless to say I haven't explored much of his music,I realize many many people love this composer but I could never really enjoy it for some reason.

Spaceray, try:

http://www.zigmund.com/SI.mp3

Let me know how you like it.

[Chaszz]

As an artist growing up, I read about the lieflong classical-romantic rivalry between the 19th century French painters Ingres and Delacroix. Ingres, the classicist, held up the composer Gluck as a standard for all artists to emulate.

Well, I've never heard Gluck until now. Today operacast.com pointed me to a performance of his opera 'Alceste' on French internet radio. What a revelation! It is so great I cannot get up to go to the boys' room.

[spaceray]

Hi Chazz, How kind you are to try to persuade me to enjoy Wagner,I downloaded your offering and have listened to it three times.A friend came to tea yesterday and we listened together ,I believe that she had the response you were looking for ,she says it sounds like a beautiful sylvan fable,however ,I regret to say,to me it sounds like there is a guy with an axe behind the door ready to leap out at me.I'm not entirely sure why I have such a negetive response to this music perhaps some association with something nasty from the long distant past.

[Rod]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Hi Chazz, How kind you are to try to persuade me to enjoy Wagner,I downloaded your offering and have listened to it three times.A friend came to tea yesterday and we listened together ,I believe that she had the response you were looking for ,she says it sounds like a beautiful sylvan fable,however ,I regret to say,to me it sounds like there is a guy with an axe behind the door ready to leap out at me.I'm not entirely sure why I have such a negetive response to this music perhaps some association with something nasty from the long distant past.

You should not judge this music by any distant negative 'associations' (as we all know exist with Wagner) you may have but rather the music itself. On the other hand I have always said that an artist who as a person was a wretch will always have this revealed by their wretched art. In the case of Wagner I almost always get an oppresive and overbearing sensation listening to his music. Even when he has a good idea his treatment of it ultimately becomes grotesque. More commonly the music just fails to inspire, with long stretches of monotony.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Rod]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Hi Chazz, How kind you are to try to persuade me to enjoy Wagner,I downloaded your offering and have listened to it three times.A friend came to tea yesterday and we listened together ,I believe that she had the response you were looking for ,she says it sounds like a beautiful sylvan fable,however ,I regret to say,to me it sounds like there is a guy with an axe behind the door ready to leap out at me.I'm not entirely sure why I have such a negetive response to this music perhaps some association with something nasty from the long distant past.

You should not judge this music by any distant negative 'associations' (as we all know exist with Wagner) you may have but rather the music itself. On the other hand I have always said that an artist who as a person was a wretch will always have this revealed by their wretched art. In the case of Wagner I almost always get an oppresive and overbearing sensation listening to his music. Even when he has a good idea his treatment of it ultimately becomes grotesque. More commonly the music just fails to inspire, with long stretches of monotony.

------------------
"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Hi Chazz, How kind you are to try to persuade me to enjoy Wagner,I downloaded your offering and have listened to it three times.A friend came to tea yesterday and we listened together ,I believe that she had the response you were looking for ,she says it sounds like a beautiful sylvan fable,however ,I regret to say,to me it sounds like there is a guy with an axe behind the door ready to leap out at me.I'm not entirely sure why I have such a negetive response to this music perhaps some association with something nasty from the long distant past.

Well, spaceray, I'm glad you tried anyway. Your friend indeed hears it as I do, what a lovely description of it. On the other hand, YOUR description, while perhaps not fitting the music, does do some justice to the composer's morals and personality....

[spaceray]

Originally posted by Rod:
You should not judge this music by any distant negative 'associations' (as we all know exist with Wagner) you may have but rather the music itself. On the other hand I have always said that an artist who as a person was a wretch will always have this revealed by their wretched art. In the case of Wagner I almost always get an oppresive and overbearing sensation listening to his music. Even when he has a good idea his treatment of it ultimately becomes grotesque. More commonly the music just fails to inspire, with long stretches of monotony.

Perhaps I should clarify,I don't know ANYTHING about Wagner, his life,personality,politics or music,my negative assocciation has to do with my childhood tormentor's love of Wagner and not my knowledge of the composer,or more correctly lack of knowledge.So Wagner was a bully and a bad guy?

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Perhaps I should clarify,I don't know ANYTHING about Wagner, his life,personality,politics or music,my negative assocciation has to do with my childhood tormentor's love of Wagner and not my knowledge of the composer,or more correctly lack of knowledge.So Wagner was a bully and a bad guy?

He was a leading and active antisemite. This means not just a garden variety antisemite, as was unfortunately the custom everywhere in 19th century Europe (even to a small extent amongst Jews). He was a very active and vocal one, a best-selling author and pamphleteer on the subject. His nationalistic operas and racist ideas later inspired Hitler. Hitler was welcomed ardently into the bosom of the family by Wagner's son and daughter-in-law as early as 1923 (the composer was dead for forty years by this time), when the future dictator was little more than a street agitator and almost unknown to most Germans. The chief Nazi was honored and welcomed at Bayreuth, the Wagner family-run opera festival, nearly every summer thereafter until his death.

Wagner was also a philanderer who borrowed huge sums of money with no intention of repaying them. He also had affairs with his friends' and creditors' wives not behind their backs, but in front of their eyes.

In spite of all this the public flocked to his operas and still does. Bayreuth, to my regret, is sold out for eight years to come. Even some Israelis go there. All these people must enjoy being bored, or else hear something in the music which perhaps eludes Rod.

…Who was the early tormenting figure who inflicted Wagner on you?

[spaceray]

My tormentor was a parent.
But understand that it was not the music that tormented it was the person while the music played in the background. This is now all in the very long distant past ,happily I grew up able to have normal human relationships despite the trauma I endured .
Nevertheless I expect I shall always associate Wagner with something unsavory and unpleasant.From what you say about this composer maybe this is fitting. Music can be pretty strong medicine that can make one feel variously better or worse depending on the association .I try not to be close minded about music I'm not familiar with and like to explore uncharted (for me ) territory that often reveals new delights(Similar perhaps to your experience with Gluck.)