Something for Worship Leaders

 Considering how often the choruses and bridges of Christian Contemporary Worship music get repeated, I suggest that worship leaders have a Rosary to count those repetitions.

I'm only half-joking here. How can we Evangelicals criticize the Rosary for being repetitive when we do the same thing with our praise choruses?

The BRADLEY

 

A sad song, yes, but one of my personal favorites to play around this time of year. And Lee Murdock has become one of my favorite singers.

When You Drop a Logic Bomb on Yourself

Earlier this month I was in the waiting room at the music school waiting for my turn with the accompanist. One of the other singers was a mezzo-soprano who singing None But the Lonely Heart in Russian. I instantly knew that she had to be a fan of Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and this was confirmed the following Sunday after the recital.

How did I mage to come to this conclusion? Well, as far as I know there is only one such recording of None But the Lonely Heart in Russian*, at least this side of the Bering Strait. Said recording is done by Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Since that is AFAIK the only recording of the song in Russian, anyone who sings the song in Russian must have knowledge of Russian opera, and as such would also know about Russian opera singers, including Dima. 

Its rare that I make such successful guesses, but one must savor them when they happen.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*The sheet music I got was in German with English translation, I had to write in the Russian lyrics myself.

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR at Madison Opera 2021

 I stopped doing full reviews of operas as I found them quite exhausting. But, I've let this blog lie fallow for months, and I felt like I did have a few things to say about the performance yesterday afternoon at Madison Opera. I won't do a big review, though, just point out a few things I liked or disliked.

Lucia di Lammermoor hs long been a favorite of mine. The story is based off Sir Walter Scott's gothic romance The Bride of the Lammermoor, which was in turn based on a real-like incident from the Seventeenth Century: Janet, daughter of James Dalrymple, Viscount of Stair, was bullied by her overbearing mother into breaking off her engagement to Lord Rutherford and marrying Lord Dunbar. Disaster struck on the wedding night, and while no one's quite sure what happened, the most well-known theory is that Janet stabbed her husband and died insane two weeks later.

    This was my second time seeing it live. Unlike the one in 2008, only one guy was wearing a kilt (Normanno), and the setting was updated to the 1880s. 

 I had not seen Ms. Jeni Hauser in fifteen years. Last time I saw her was Spring of 2007 when she was student teacher for my Sophomore Year choir class at Sun Prairie High School. I'd heard her over the radio in a recorded performance as the doll in Le Contes d'Hoffmann back in 2017, but it's not the same thing. So it was lovely seeing her again, if only from the nosebleed section. 

The Mad Scene is the big reason I love this opera, and Ms. Hauser did not disappoint. She came into the room in a bloody nightgown and a knife in her hand (which the understandably freaked-out Normanno had to wrench out of her grip). The director must have been reading or watching Hamlet recently because Lucia did an Ophelia in and started playing with flowers and throwing them around. Ms. Hauser made the singing seem effortless; I still have a beast of a time trying to work the coloratura in some of the pieces I work on. 

It's not everyday you hear someone praise a single member of the chorus, but I would like to give a shout-out to my voice instructor, Katie Anderson. Granted, I couldn't tell which one she was until Act 3 (I think she wore a purple dress in Act 2, but I can't swear to it), but it was fun seeing her antics in that Act 3 chorus.

If there is one quibble I have, it's that Normanno started off kind of weak at the very beginning. I could barely hear his high note in the opening chorus. He got better after that, but it was still annoying. I'm used to hearing Normanno loud and clear when he and some guards are searching the premises for Edgardo. 

Thankfully, my boyfriend wasn't shaken by this one as he was by Carmen and Rusalka. 

Song to the Moon

 Another Halloween performance video (done on the 26th but schedules happen). Am strongly considering doing more performance videos even outside Halloween. Also, have been trying to figure out how to give the opera Rusalka a happy ending without going the Disney route. (I'd seen it before, so I knew what would happen, but it upset my boyfriend, hence why we're trying to rewrite the ending.)

Translation: Moon, high up in the sky, Your light sees afar. You travel over the world Seeing into people's homes. Oh moon, stay a while, Tell me where my love is. Tell him, oh moon, that my arms embrace him, That he, at least for a moment, should see Me in his dreams. Shine your beams on him, Let him know I wait for him. If this Human soul dreams of me, Let the vision awaken. Oh moon, do not fade.

Der Holle Rache

 

So, after nearly a decade of being online, here at last is a performance by Yours Truly. This video was taken by my boyfriend yesterday at his Halloween party.  

                     Translation:

                      Hell's vengeance boils within my heart.

                     Death and despair flame around me.

                     If through you, Sarastro does not feel the pain of death                 

                    You shall be my daughter no more.

                     Disowned be forever,

                     Forsaken be forever,

                     Destroyed be forever,

                     By all bonds of Nature,

                     If through you Sarastro does not become pale.

                     Hear, gods of revenge! Hear a mother's oath!

TURANDOT Online Encore

 

This was the encore me and my boyfriend tried to go see back in 2016, but we couldn't make it. So we watched it on the night of Thursday the 13th.

Turandot centers around a Chinese princess who will only marry the man who answers her three riddles; if he can't, he'll lose his noggin. An unkown prince, Calaf by name, comes along and solves the riddles and thus wins the right to marry Turandot, but she is still resistant. Well, then the prince gives her a riddle: see if she can guess his name before dawn. The whole populace is kept awake on pain of death, but the loyal slave girl Liu sacrifices herself to bring about Turandot's redemption.

This opera is one of my favorites, and it's not hard to see why. The music is some of Puccini's best and it has some of the best moments in opera ever. The ending feels a bit rushed, but that was due to Puccini dying before he finished the opera. Nonetheless, it has remained a mainstay of the operatic repertoire; the famous Riddle Scene and Calaf's aria "Nessun Dorma" being the most popular moments in the whole opera. I myself have sung the slave girl Liu's final aria "Tu Che di Gel Sei Cinta" in recital back in 2015 (too bad I didn't get a decent enough video). 

And this production is awesome. Franco Zefarelli wanted a Chinese opera style for the production, and it works. The dancers, supernumeraries, the makeup for Turandot, it's all super awesome. My only beef is why is the Emperor not the one wearing the veil of stars while his attendants do? Small quibble of course, but still.

I think the Met will have a hard time finding a replacement production. This one is so iconic for the company that a new production will need to be especially notable.

I Dreamed Of Dima

I dreamed you still lived
And I knew you as a friend,
That I embraced you.

But I still knew then
That you had died three years back.
How strange dreams can be.

Writing Music

It's harder than I thought it would be. I'm having to go back and redo the entire thing. But so far it's also very satisfying to do.

Trying Compostion for the First Time

I will now attempt
To write my very own songs. 
Let's see how this works.

Dmitri

Your silver hair, your ardent dark eyes,
Your suave baritone that drove women mad,
I sent you many thousand sighs.

Such beauty rare, and such a bright star;
But I never met this man of great fame.
I loved you, only from afar.

Three years have gone since you passed away.
And yet still your star continues to shine
Inspiring the singers of today.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updated 4-5-10

Così Fan Tutte In Three Haiku

            
Young folks in love,
Their friend is quite the cynic.
So they make a bet.

The men pull a prank
To fool the ladies to test
Their fidility.

A lesson learned:
Do not take things for granted,
Not even your love.


                            

Anakin's No Whiner, YOU Are, Werther!

Stop wasting your time 
With this moping and doping! 
Just get over it!

She's married, that's life.
Five minutes of a toothache
Would restore your sense.
 

Onegin's Mistake

      
     The Prince loves her
     Whom I lectured years ago
     When she wrote to me.

     Why did I scold her
     As though she were only five?
     My chance has flown by.
   

     

TMSR: Baseball Fever

Here is the follow-up to my rant about Promsie U. This time I will be talking about a kids musical that I was in when I was ten. It is called Sermon on the Mound and it was the first musical I had done. And of all the musicals aimed at kids under age twelve, this was one of the better ones.
         Sermon was written by Celeste and David T. Clydesdale and centers around the Eagles baseball team. They are finishing up spring training and the regular season starts that afternoon. Commenting on the action are sports casters Dizzy Deano and Jackie Rawlings*. The new rookie is a young man named Mac Wire. He is thrilled to be on a professional baseball team, but struggles with his confidence. As the story progresses he learns about putting on the Armor of God and leaning on Christ as his "Head Coach", and that the ones God chooses for His team are the ones who know they cannot do it on their own.

Unlike Promise U, Sermon on the Mound does a much better job both story-wise and with what it intends to accomplish. There are four reasons why I say this.

1) The songs fit the theme better and are integrated a little bit more.
     I counted at least three story songs in Sermon and they feel like real encouragement and not just empty platitudes. Some like "Playing Right Field" are sung by the characters themselves, others are sung by the chorus. But they are much more integrated into the theme and aren't just preachy. "If the LORD is our Head Coach" is a declaration of trust and "The LORD's Prayer" is sung by both the chorus and the team. They feel like part of the story. "The LORD's Prayer" segues beautifully into the song "Home Run", which is probably the tensest song in the whole show.

2) The characters feel real.
    For example, Mac Wire is excited to be playing his first major season game, but is also dubious as to whether or not he can do it. His character is very well fleshed out and I find him relatable even after eighteen years. The hot dog vendor is the one who gets to sing "Playing Right Field". He is one of the sorts of characters I love to see in a story; the working-class guy at a low-paying job who is very wise and encouraging. We get a few one-off guys like a lady named Ruth Babe and Assistant Coach Goodman. But even there, they're not just throwing platitudes, they still sound like people.

3) Character conversions are treated with respect.
    "Casey Back at Bat" may be one of the most blatant pieces of fan-fiction ever written, but it is also one of the best depictions of a changed life in any of these kids musicals. We learn that Casey's pride was what caused him to strike out not just once but twice, and evidently  his career suffered after that. Eventually he decided enough was enough and accepted Christ, and now he's making a comeback with the Eagles. He's even seen helping his teammate out. This isn't just a case of everything is hunk-dory, but an example of a changed life. And when you're writing Christian musicals for kids, this is absolutely critical.

4) The overall message is well-handled.
    Sermon's main theme is spiritual warfare using the analogy of a baseball game. Sure, the baseball uniform, glove and bat may be curious stand-ins for the Armor of God, but as a visual aid, it's not bad. In fact, Sermon treats the issue of spiritual warfare with surprising respect, and gives us the lesson that the best players are those who know that they cannot do anything without God's help, and spend the most time with their 'Head Coach". 

So I've shown what makes a Christian kids musical good and what makes it bad. To sum it up, the ones that are good are the ones that treat the chosen topic with respect, have a good story and characters, and make make sure the songs fit. The ones that suck are ones that have little to no story (or turn it boring), lame characters, and are both preachy and disrespectful of the chosen topic. Sermon of the Mound will always be better than Promise U. Although you could just do what Sister Wynona Carr did and just make one song about it.

 ____________________________________________________________________________

 *I don't know if that is a reference to either Jackie Robinson or J.K. Rowling. 

**Something I myself have only come to understand within the past decade.

TMSR: Rewriting THE MAGIC FLUTE

The Magic Flute may be one of Mozart's greatest operas, but it is riddled with so many plot holes that it's hard to understand. The Masonic elements compound the problem even further. Seriously, how are we supposed to find something if we have no idea what it is we're looking for?

There is a lot of information that is not present. Why does Tamino immediately believe the guard's word that the Queen of the Night is a liar? This one can be solved rather easily. During the opening scene when Tamino is attacked, Sarastro can secretly be the one who kills the serpent while the Ladies think it is them. While the women are distracted by the handsome prince, Sarastro takes the monster's ears. Later at the Temple, the guard shows him the serpent's ears, proving that the Queen has not told the truth. Otherwise Tamino comes off as an easily led moron.

Sarastro needs to be more than just some blandly benevolent nonentity who hardly does anything.I talked before about a graphic novel version that suggested that Sarastro stole Pamina because he neglected the Queen and didn't want his daughter to suffer because his mistake. So what if this is a divorce situation being fueled by a lack of communication? What if Pamina is caught in the middle of their quarrel? What if the Queen wants to kill Sarastro because he has broken her heart? 
       There is also the business with Monostatos. Sarastro really needs to do more than just give the creep fifty lashes for attacking Pamina. Monostaos needs to be sent away completely or even executed. Is Sarastro loathe to take another person's life, even when his own or someone else's is in danger? Or is he just too soft-hearted?  

If Mozart hadn't thrown in all that Masonic mysticism and ritual I think the story would be perfect. I can only take so much of the constant utterances of "Oh, we can't tell you yet," and "You're not good enough yet," before I want to punch Sarastro or one of the priests. Sarastro needs to be clear on what needs to be done from the get go.

There are many different ways to fix the story. These are just a few.

TMSR: YOU KNOW NOTHING, VAL DICTORIAN!

I am going to rant now about a musical that I was in when I was eleven-years-old. Most people will not have heard about this one because it is written for kids who are either in home-school groups or big church groups.

This musical was written by Kathie Hill and is titled Promise U. Ms. Hill's work tends to be okay at best (at least from my own experience), and at worst it is simply glurge. And Promise U falls hard into that second category. What a piece of drek! There are five reasons why I say this:

1) The plot does not exist.
    The setting is at a college called Promise University and the whole student body has gathered for a pep rally/study hall Cram n Jam. They are learning about "Precious Promises to Famous Followers of the Past 2,000 Years" or P2F2P2K. Leading the group is the cocky DJ Stan "The Man" and a sexy nerd of a cheer captain Valarie Dictorian. They go through seven so-called Famous Followers, do a cheer after every song and it all culminates in Stan becoming a Christian with everything all hunk-dory at the end. 
    That's it, there's no conflict or anything. All it is is just talking about various people from history and a promise that applies to them. There's no beginning, no middle, and no real end either.

2) The characters are shallow.
     They are little more than cartoony mouthpieces uttering platitudes in stained glass attitudes. A new character comes in every time another "Famous Follower" (oh, give me a break!) is introduced. These characters are not really given a personality so much as they are given a quirk, and these quirks get old really fast. For example, Dee Caffeinate's only trait is her coffee obsession, and Val Dictorian comes off as a condescending know-nothing-know-it-all. 

3) The evangelism is all too easy. 
    Stan admits he's in over his head at the end, but it comes out of nowhere and doesn't feel real. All he has seen and heard was what everyone else was chanting. His character is so flat that I do not believe his life has been changed after accepted Christ. No one talks about dying to yourself and giving up whatever idols are in your life, something that is essential to the Christian life.

4) THE Promise is left out.
    The "Precious Promises" are true, but no mention is made at all of the promise that was made in Genesis Chapter 3 and continues through the end of Revelation; the promise of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection and the hope of eternal life with Him in Heaven. The promises are reduced to cutesy sentimentalism that do not require sacrifice of anything. This is a big "No" when writing Christian pieces. 

5) The Followers were treated without respect.
     If you're going to do a case-study of various Christians throughout history, then the topic needs to be treated seriously. This is not the case in Promise U, instead the Followers are treated with more sentimentality than respect. This is particularly bad with the case of Pocahontas. I'm not going to knock her faith just because it sounded it like the writer was merely speculating. But if she was in fact a strong woman of faith, then she needs more respect than just the Christian version of a Disney Princess!

 In short, Promise U was garbage. It is disrespectful towards Christians of the past, is insulting to kids' intelligence, and it had nothing to offer but preachy nonsense. 

Met Broadcasts

The Met Radio Season started last weekend but I didn't turn it on as it was Akhenaten Phillip Glass, and I like Glass' music about a much as I like the news Star Wars movies (i.e. not at all). So I will turn it on tomorrow, they'll be broadcasting The Queen of Spades, which I like. 

I have not been able to enjoy them as much as I used to because my two jobs require that I be at work on Saturdays. But I still love them a lot, just not when they play operas that I hate. 

 

The Mad Soprano Rants: Love In Vain/Despairing Songs

I Don't Know, But...has two recent blog posts about what he refers to as "evil songs". These include songs like "Sweet Dreams", "Owner of a Lonely Heart?", etc.. 

I am not surprised that these songs are described as evil, because quite frankly they are. The thesis of "Sweet Dreams" is that love is a lie and people are only looking to use and abuse people. The music is ghastly as are the lyrics. It sounds like someone has been so badly hurt by a luckless relationship that they have given up on ever knowing love. 
        "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is even more disturbing with the line "Better than the owner of a broken heart". If I may steal from the recent opera The Enchanted Island, hearts that love all will be broken. You cannot love without risking pain. C.S. Lewis once noted that the only place where you are safe from the pains of love is Hell. I myself have heard it said that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.
         I have sung many songs about unrequited/spurned love, but they were more about how the narrator couldn't go on living without the beloved or dying on a kiss. They never crossed the line by saying that love was a lie or that it was better to never love at all. People need to know that they are loved, and it starts with one person making the decision to love someone. This is not limited to just romantic love, but to friendship and familial love as well. 

Granted one person hearing "Sweet Dreams" might say, "Right on," while another says, "I love a sad song." But it's still very sickening to hear such nasty and wicked lyrics oveer the radio. 
          

New Statue

He would have been fifty-seven today, had cancer not taken him in 2017. It still hurt to think about it. 

A statue of Dmitri Hvorostovsky was unveiled in Novodevichy Cemetery today. It's amazing how much of an icon he is over in Russia. But here in the U.S., he's hardly known at all unless you're a Russian immigrant or an opera geek. 
        I really have no words to describe just how much Dima meant to me, but it was through his performance over the radio of Eugene Onegin that I fell in love with opera to being with. With that dark velvety voice, that piercing dark eyes, and that white mane, what women wouldn't be swept off her feet by him? 

What makes his loss all the more painful is that he was fifty-five when he passed. Now that shouldn't be too unusual, but we all had the hope that Dima would sing until he was eighty. So it does feel like he went too soon.