Not what I was planning to post today, but I’m pressed for time. This nifty photo of Gloria Cheng, John Williams, Randy Newman and Don Davis is a promotion for Cheng’s new album, “Montage: Great Film Composers and the Piano.”
Watch a clip (also featuring Alexandre Desplat) here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52WrNa51E-0
With a write-up at filmmusicsociety.org:
http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2015/020915.html
Richard Strauss’ final opera, “Capriccio,” is an extended, though lighthearted debate on the relative merits of words and music. In the case of Arrigo Boito, the two never really came into conflict.
As one of the great librettists, Boito provided the texts for Verdi’s late masterpieces, “Otello” and “Falstaff.” He also worked up a revision of “Simon Boccanegra” and – under the anagram Tobia Gorrio – provided the libretto for Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda.”
But Boito himself was also a composer of merit, if not a prolific one. Although he destroyed his first opera, “Ero e Leandro,” and his last, “Nerone,” was left incomplete at the time of his death (to be finished by Arturo Toscanini and Vincenzo Tommasini), he totally nailed it with “Mefistofele.”
There may be those who look down their noses at Boito’s take on Goethe’s “Faust,” yet the work stubbornly clings to the outskirts of the standard repertoire. Audiences love it. For me it is much more entertaining than anything in Verdi (I know, them’s fightin’ words) and I personally find the melodic invention much richer than that in the more popular version by master melodist Charles Gounod.
Sure, as narrative it’s a little clunky – it’s as if Boito presents the story as a series of tableaux that are just kind of stitched together – and the most hair-raising set piece, the prologue in Heaven, comes right at the beginning. How could it not be all downhill from there? But the composer has the good sense to bring it all back at the end.
What the opera really demands is a strong personality at its core, someone who, through his magnetic stage presence and sheer force of will, can haul the circus train of wonders, boxcar after boxcar, before our astonished ears and eyes.
Feodor Chaliapin, by all accounts, was just such a force. He gained wide notoriety in the title role, for his earthy interpretation and his insistence on playing it half-naked.
In the recent past, Samuel Ramey owned the piece. He too preferred to show a fair amount of skin (though less than Chaliapin) – but really, couldn’t that be said for just about any of Ramey’s roles?
Here’s the stunning – and fun – San Francisco Opera production from 1989. The first 26 minutes will knock your socks off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyGJyXfgFw
Happy birthday, Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Film composer Alexandre Desplat finally picked up an Oscar last night, after his seventh and eighth nominations, for “The Imitation Game” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” He was recognized for his quirky, disjointed and fun score for the latter, which is distinguished by its use of folk instruments such as the balalaika, mandolin and alphorn.
Of course, I can’t help but feel he coasted to victory on the coattails of the classic Mercury Living Presence recording of “Kamarinskaya,” made by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra, which is used during film’s end credits. It was quoted on at least one occasion last night when an award recipient approached the stage.
Still, there’s no denying Desplat worked very hard this past year, having written the scores for six films, including “The Monuments Men,” “Godzilla,” “Unbroken” and “Suffragette.” I had an inkling that he was going to win, but wondered if the double nomination would split the vote.
I can’t say I was all that impressed with most of the nominees, though Gary Yershon’s score for “Mr. Turner” does kind of stick with me, in a desolate, artsy kind of way. At any rate, any year that Hans Zimmer loses is a good year.
Congratulations, Alexandre Desplat.
Desplat’s score for “The Grand Budapest Hotel”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZM7Iz3eDNU&list=PLlq1il6oOJt0EBgxghlYV-Hk1d5YcUegJ
Gary Yershon’s music for “Mr. Turner”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZlrVf3q3Mc&list=PLZeZu8hkpymOOpWl_smRZEZXoi6NrtxEo
“Interstellar,” by The Great Satan, Hans Zimmer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXtOsmwfQXg&list=PLQmB7XebboHxEQ56JWiYGGsTPDyboZsAK
André Rieu needs more brass! Here he is to conduct “The Parade of the Charioteers” from “Ben-Hur.” The Academy Award-winning music is by Miklós Rózsa.
Ordinarily, I’m not a huge fan (of Rieu, not Rózsa), but holy cow, the vulgarity is hard to resist.
Academy Awards Sunday. How can I be so in love with Oscar, and yet have so little interest in tonight’s ceremony? Of course I’ll be watching, but I’ll be thinking of Gregory Peck, Gene Hackman, George C. Scott, Sean Connery, David Niven, the streaker.
If you are looking for some background music to accompany your Oscar preparations, Friday night’s two-hour “Picture Perfect” Oscar Party is now posted as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Though its record 11 Academy Awards was later matched, unfathomably, by “Titanic” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (really?!!), “Ben-Hur” is still the all-time Oscar champ, at least in my book – epic scope, compelling story, amazing craftsmanship, outstanding music, real stunts, a cast of thousands, and no CGI anywhere.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are a lover of classic film music and also an early riser, tomorrow morning’s rebroadcast of “Picture Perfect” (6 ET) comes deep from within the archive. Because of the nature of tonight’s special two-hour Oscar Party, full of references to the 8:00 broadcast of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s “A Silver Screen Salute,” I’ve decided to bypass the daunting editing process and instead selected a tribute to Bette Davis from 2011.
The program will include music from “Now, Voyager” (Max Steiner), “Mr. Skeffington” (Franz Waxman), “All About Eve” (Alfred Newman) and “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” (Erich Wolfgang Korngold).
Davis was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and won twice, early, for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938), though she turned in solid performances for pretty much her entire career. There is little about her style which doesn’t scream “ACTING!” So it seems only an appropriate choice for this Academy Awards weekend.
Listen to it here: http://www.wwfm.org.
In fact, if you read this between 8 and 10 tonight, tune in to catch the Princeton Symphony Orchestra concert. It’s a lot of fun.
BTW – Tonight’s “Picture Perfect” Oscar Party will be archived on the WWFM website as a webcast. However, the PSO “Silver Screen Salute” will not.
Aaron Copland (93) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (139) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (195) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (103) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (154) Mozart (89) Opera (210) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (108) Radio (88) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)