tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post3889358448730582127..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Devilish music-drama in Zurich and LucerneDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-77393154167496195452018-04-04T15:42:25.648+01:002018-04-04T15:42:25.648+01:00I blush to say it was my first proper acquaintance...I blush to say it was my first proper acquaintance with Schumann's Faust-Szenen, which of course were not devised to be staged, and came at just the right time when I'm totally in love with his music following the Gardiner experience. So even the stretches of Schumann-as-usual I found attractive. But there's some wonderful originality, too: the Garden Scene, Ariel and the Spirits, Faust's death, the solo cello in the redemption sequence. And comparing that with Mahler 8 is fascinating. Plus it's all to Goethe's text, which distinguishes it from Berlioz's fanciful treatment (which of course damns Faust) and Gounod's schlock (though that has some good music, of course).<br /><br />Bryn is still the phenonomenon he always was (sprang fully formed as a bass-baritone; there was little his Guildhall teacher, shared with J for a while, could give him). It doesn't matter that the sound is a bit rougher; the charisma and the Lieder-singing gift for pointing the text, the magical pianissimos, are all still there. You should get another chance soon. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-72348929384309299462018-04-01T03:17:51.588+01:002018-04-01T03:17:51.588+01:00I have not been lucky enough to hear Terfel live. ...I have not been lucky enough to hear Terfel live. He was to have been in The Ring I saw, but bowed out. The Schumann sounds to have been quite the event. (I wasn’t even aware he’d written a Faust.) The photographs alone are quite dramatic,Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.com