From: vnguyen@husc8.harvard.edu (Vinh Nguyen)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Bottom ten operas
Date: 5 Sep 92 22:00:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Sep5.180014.15404
Reply-To: vnguyen@husc8.harvard.edu
Originator: vnguyen@husc8.harvard.edu

What a pity that my system has been acting up lately and made me
miss many an interesting thread on opera on RMC.  But I'm glad
to be back (with a vengeance <smile>).  

Hmm, my indisputable top choice for the WORST OPERA EVER will go
to Philip Glass's AKHNATEN, a three-hour of inflated emptiness
masquerading as avant-garde sophistication under the silly cover
of minimalism.  If Wagner has "discovered" the Eb chord and put
it to wonder in the 3-minute opening of Das Rheingold, then Glass
is aping such a discovery of the C chord and damn it to atrocity
all through 3 hours of worthless pretension to music making.

In article <78732@ut-emx.uucp>, 
amadeus@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik) writes:
> Kiran Wagle writes:
>> How about the No Musical Merit Whatsoever standard:
>> All of Puccini except Turandot
 
Should one make such a sweeping statementwhen one hasn't listened
to all of Puccini (which seems to be the case here).  I can't comment
on this either, myself having yet to traverse the whole Puccinian
cycle.  But based from what I have heard, not all of Puccini could
be deemed so worthless which however a stringent standard.  Here's
my take on Puccini (for the ones I've heard).

Top Ten (or Twenty) contenders:
Tosca
La Boheme
Madama Butterfly
Turandot

Top Fifty contender:
Manon Lescaut

Top Hundred contenders:
La Fanciulla del West
Gianni Schicchi
La Rondine

I haven't heard Suor Angelica, Il Tabaro, Le Villi, and Edgar to judge
them.

> What?!?  Oh, no.  I can't agree.  Perhaps I should be a more exacting
> critic, with all my years of music school training, but anything that
> invariably stirs me to singing (as does _La Boheme_) has oodles of
> Musical Merit -- whatever *that* is supposed to mean.
> 
> Is it not cool to love _Boheme_ so dearly?  Should there be a _Boheme_
> recovery group?  _Boheme_ survivors, maybe?  "Hello, my name is Susan
> K., and I love _La Boheme_.  I get goose bumps every time Rodolfo
> touches Mimi's hand in that dark little garrett.  I'm on the edge of
> my seat during 'Addio, senza rancor.'  And I practically have to be
> helped out of the theatre at the end, because I've tired myself out by
> sobbing so quietly when I wanted to bawl.  I love _Boheme_.  Is that
> so terrible?"
 
Thank you for your passionate defense of La Boheme.  I also cringe
at certain parts of the opera when I THINK about it, but when I
actually HEAR it then I'm just inevitably swept away by the music
and drama.  Why should we be ashamed to be heart-on-sleeve!  Isn't
that better then not having a heart at all to respond to larger-than-
life music and emotions!

> Seriously, I have noticed an attitude among some so-called "serious
> musicians" of "Oh, it's just Puccini; what kitsch [or whatever the
> Italian word for kitsch might be]."  Anybody have any idea why?  (No
> fair saying "Because it's kitsch.")
 
Yeah, and the same people who masquerade themselves on the bandwagon
of avant-garde, modernist, experimental (and other nauseating labels)
operas of worthless value and intentions.

Why crucify Puccini when there are so many abominable performers
around who made a perversity out of performing his works to death?
But then I would still prefer a stale Puccini than a hyped-up Glass!

Vinh Nguyen

> Just someone who's foolish enough to think that a muff might save a
> life...  :)
> 
> -- 
> -----Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik-------------------------------*<:-)-------------
> "Queens never make bargains."  -- The Red Queen, _Through the Looking Glass_
> -----amadeus@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu--------------The University of Texas @Austin---
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical