HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tmohan@iastate.edu (Thyagarajan Mohan)
Subject: Re: lineage of amRtha-varSheNe [was Re: Amrita Vahini ?]
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 18:59:08 GMT

In article <1bdbb2INNlo0@gap.caltech.edu> kanga.caltech.edu!vidya (Vidyasankar Sundaresan) writes:
 

>3) Vijayasri (sgrgmpns - snpmgrs) as a janya of Mela 45  
>(Subhapantuvarali), and not Melas 46 or 47.
  
      I hear the raga Vijasri as a janyam of JhaalavaraaLi,39th MaeLa;dhaivath 
varjam in varaLi.Is there any other raga with the same name like the Amritha-
varshini quoted by Krishna.I'm referring to the raga of `Vara naaadha'. 

 

>S.Vidyasankar

Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical,rec.music.indian.misc
From: gopinr@rs6312.ecs.rpi.edu (Ravi Shankar Gopinath)
Subject: Raag and film for "Tu hai mera prem devta"
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
	"Tu hai mera prem devta
	 In charnon ki daasi hoon main"
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 23:13:00 GMT

Singers:	Manna Dey and Mohd.Rafi

Thanks
Ravi Gopinath

Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: ramamani@narissa.UVic.CA (Subramanian  Ramamani)
Subject: Ragas needed for the tamil songs...
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 06:20:20 GMT


Film			Song

Kavikuyil		Kuyile kavikuyile (SJanaki)

Pagalil Oru Iravu	Thaam the'theem the' aadum ullam paadum kaaviyam
			Thaalam theem the' theem the' melam theem the'
			(SJanaki)

some new movie		Kannaaaa Vaaa Kavidhai solven Va thalaivaa

Achani			Thaalattu Pillai onrai thaalatu (SPB & PSuseela)

Mullum Malarum		Adi Pennae' ponnunjal aadum izhamai.(jensy)

Nizhalgal		Poonkadhave' thaazh theravai. (Deepan & Uma Ramanan)

Mellapesungal		Sevvanthi pookalizh seydha veedu (Uma ramaman & Deepan)

Katrinilae varum geetam kandaen indru poomagal natiyam (sjanaki)

Manvasanai		aanandha thaen sindhum pooncholaiyo (Malaysia, SJanaki)

Padagotti		thottaal poomalarum (TMS & PSuseela)

Agal Vilakku 		aetho ninaivugal kanavugal (yesudas SP Shylaja)


Subu Ramamani
ramamani@sirius.uvic.ca

PS: Since the songs are connected to ragas it was posted here.
The subject warned about it.  flames > /dev/null
From: NABXDS@rohvm1.rohmhaas.com
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Chitra Visweswaran - SRUTI
Date: 7 Oct 92 16:38:23 GMT
Organization: Rohm and Haas Company

=========================================================================

             SRUTI (the India Music and Dance Society)
                           proudly presents

                      A Bharatanatyam Recital
                                 by

                   Chitra Visweswaran and troupe

Date:  Saturday, October 10, 1992
Time:  6:30 pm
Place: Plymouth - Whitemarsh High School
       Germantown Pike East
       Plymouth Meeting PA

Admission:  Members: $13.00    Students:  $8.00  Non-members: $15.00

For Tickets and information contact:

   Dr. M.M. Subramanian   Dr. Viji Swaminathan      Mr. Sudhakar Rao
   (215) 356-5181         (215) 643-2145            (215) 277-1607

or

   Dr. Dinakar Subramanian
   (215) 245-4780

__________________
Dinakar
From: tmohan@iastate.edu (Thyagarajan Mohan)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Re: laya
Date: 15 Oct 92 03:18:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bw57vB.8Fq
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA

In article <1992Oct14.173942.29746@nynexst.com> naik@nynexst.com (Jay Naik) writes:
>
>
>From: srini@engin.umich.edu (Srinivasan Pichumani) :
>
>>I don't have a good definition, but the term "rhythm" is a decent translation.
>>
>>In musical usage, laya subsumes all concepts like beat(tAla), tempo(kAla), 
>>gait(gati) etc. And to confound matters, it can stand for these individual
>>terms also.                               
>	
> 	I think, in practice (and in classical writings), 'laya' is closer to 
> 'tempo'  than to the all expansive term 'rhythm'. 
> 
>     Rhythm conveys the idea of a regular recurrence of time-ordered events,
> whereas tempo, the pace of such a sequence of temporal events. In this sense, 
> 'taala' is similar to rhythm as laya is to tempo. In classical writings one 
> comes across definitions of taala as 'a measure of time-divisions' 
> (kalaa-kaala pramaaNam) [shaarngadeva] or 'a method of dividing time' 
> (kaala prayojya). So, taala refers to the division of time into time-units 
> (maatraa) and their arrangement in a recurring pattern. taala can be traced to 
> the 'chhandas' (metre) of Vedic chants. And surely it also has its roots in 
> pre-Vedic musical traditions as well.
        
         Now,shall we consider the `laya' as the combination of both these terms
  i.e rhythm and tempo?Tempo also refers to the speed in which the music is
  proceeding;speed  incorporates time for any quantification.Taala is of course
  very important for Layam;your statement looks as if there's some difference 
  between the two which is not true.The tempo in unit time(the time for one 
  complete cycle of a taala)may be termed as Laya.If this unit sets well in the 
  mind of the artist performing the concert,then he/she is said to have Laya
  Jnanam(knowledge).
  
>     shaarngadeva defines laya as 'quiescent interval between events' 
> (kriyaantara vishraanti) and the three laya's, vilambit(a), madhya and
> drut(a) have the temporal proportion of 1:2:4. 
        There's know difference in Laya,the three are the Kaala,The Vilambitha
  kaala,madhyama kaala and Drutha kaala.The unit,a base cannot change similar to 
  Sruthi.These three bear the ratio 1:2:4.
> laghu, guru and pluta, which are related to each other in a different proportion> of 1:10:15.
  The Laghu has five divisions whereas guru and plutha are contants.Hence
  they can't maintain the same ratio.
> 
>	
> cheers,
>-----------------------
> Jayant Naik 
>
        The Laya is relative w.r.t the nature of the songs.The other kaalaa
 i.e the Sowka kaala which is slower than Vilambitha kaal has been used in songs
 packed with words.One can see this in Muthuswamy Dikshithar's comositions.He has
 handled all these four Kaalaas
 
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: shiv@bnr.ca (Shiv Naimpally)
Subject: Re: A question 
Reply-To: shiv@bnr.ca (Shiv Naimpally)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 19:14:41 GMT

In article <1992Oct14.173545.4902@eng.umd.edu>, vinchhi@eng.umd.edu (Chetan K. Vinchhi) writes:
|> 
|> Hello netters.
|> I recently borrowed a cassette that contained, among other ragas, Raga Sagar.
|> The artist was Pt. Shivkumar Sharma.
|> Now, I hadn't heard of a raga of that name. Also, the list of pieces
|> on the cassette were hand-written. Could someone confirm that such a 
|> raga exists ? What kind of a raga is it ?

It was probably not Shivkumar Sharma, it was probably the santoor player
Ulhas Bapat. He played Sagar when he came to Ottawa a few years ago and
it is also on one of his commercial releases. Sharma's santoor
has all its strings tuned to the raga he is playing - he can never
play a wrong note. Bapat's santoor is different, each octave has all
12 notes in it. Raga Sagar is a kind of Raga Mala with many different
ragas in it, but in such a way that ragas of different scales are played.

I personally found it horrible sounding since many dissimilar ragas
with radically different scales were played one after another. After
the concert I asked him why he played it when it sounded so bad, and he
also admitted that the juxtapostion of the ragas was not particularly
pleasing but that the main reason he plays it is to demonstrate that 
his santoor has 12 notes per octave, ie. it is possible for him to
hit a bad note and it is his skill that allows him to play without
hitting the wrong string. He also said that playing Raga Sagar serves
to distinguish him from Sharma - Sharma could never play Raga Sagar
using his current 'tuning to the raga' method. 
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: jcampana@epas.utoronto.ca (John Campana)
Subject: Mega Concert in Toronto
Organization: University of Toronto - EPAS
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 02:08:38 GMT

M-DO (Multi Cultural Dance Organization) presents:

Aruna Narayan Kalle (Sarangi) accompanied by Swapan Choudhuri (tabla)
Swapan Choudhuri and Trichy Sankaran (tabla and mridangam duet)
Chitresh Das (kathak dance)

October 25, 1992
5.00pm
The Bickford Centre
777 Bloor Street West
Toronto

Info: (416) 962 8154

Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: vinchhi@eng.umd.edu (Chetan K. Vinchhi)
Subject: A question 
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 17:35:45 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: vinchhi@modulation.eng.umd.edu


Hello netters.
I recently borrowed a cassette that contained, among other ragas, Raga Sagar.
The artist was Pt. Shivkumar Sharma.
Now, I hadn't heard of a raga of that name. Also, the list of pieces
on the cassette were hand-written. Could someone confirm that such a 
raga exists ? What kind of a raga is it ? (mood, time of the day it is played
etc. Technical details may be lost on me because I am a novice at classical music)

Thanks in advance.
Chetan
From: srinivas@elements.rpal.rockwell.com (Sampath Srinivas)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Looking for MDR krithi recording
Date: 14 Oct 92 22:02:46
Organization: Rockwell International Palo Alto Lab
Distribution: rec
Reply-To: srinivas@rpal.rockwell.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: carbon.rpal.rockwell.com


I am looking for recordings of "Tyagaraja Guru", Raga Kedaram,
composed my M. D. Ramanathan, Rupakam taalam. I have a very nice
recording by Shankaran Nambudri (INRECO 2771-C-454) but I would love
to have more recordings of the same, especially by MDR himself.

In general, where does one go to find MDR recordings (i.e him
singing) ? I looked recently in the commercial market in Madras
and Bombay (Giri trading and various other stores) but I couldnt
find much at all. I have 2 HMV releases and one terrible recording
on some label called Vani (basically a bootleg recording of some
Mylapore concert).

Sam
--
---
 Sampath Srinivas                                 srinivas@rpal.rockwell.com
 Rockwell International Science Center, Palo Alto, CA         (415) 325-7174
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: vijay@ucs.att.com (Vijay Dodd)
Subject: Re: L.Shankar's concert in Boston
Organization: AT&T Universal Card Services, Jacksonville FL
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 23:20:02 GMT

>This "singing along" must be fairly recent as he did not do it
>before. I happened to get hold of one of the newer recordings of 
>Shankar's where there are at least three singers doing this in 
>chorus: I did not think it sounded good at all.
>
>-- rst


Singing along does not sound too bad. Mysore T Chowdiah used 
a seven stringed violin (as opposed to four stringed violin),
which sounded a lot like somebody humming with a four stringed
violin. Some ragas are more appealing that way.

Vijayasimha D N.
From: mrangasw@lynx.cat.syr.edu (Muralidhar Rangaswamy)
Subject: Concert Review
Organization: Syracuse University
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 15:30:16 EDT

I had the pleasure of attending the concert of Savithri Ramanand sponsored
by SPIC-MACAY, Syracuse. It was an evening of delightful and enjoyable music.
Smt. Savithri was ably supported on the violin and Mridangam by Mysore Satish 
and Mysore Venkatesh, respectively. The aim of the concert was to bring out
as many different ragas, krithis, talas and compositions by different
composers. Though there were not many people in attendance, those who did
attend the concert stayed until the end of the concert, which spanned almost
3.5 hours.

The concert began with a varnam in the raga Valachi. An effortless and fast
paced composition in the raga Hamsadwani (I cannot remember the krithi)
followed. The next piece Jagadananda Karaka sent the crowd into raptures.
This was followed by Ikanaina Naa in the raaga Pushpalatika. I was impressed
by the ease with which the raga was handled. The next item in the raga Mohanam
had a short and sweet alapanam and the krithi of Mysore Vasudevachar i.e.,
Raa Raa Rajeevalochana was rendered. I have not heard many singers sing this 
song in concerts. Savithri's swara prasthara was show-cased in this song.
Renditions of Annapurne Vishalakshi in the raga Sama and Varalakshmi Jaganmatha
in Shankarabaranam followed. Very elegant kalpana swarams in Shankarabaranam
were evident in the rendition. The next song was Muthuswami Dikshitar's
krithi Kancha Dalayadakshi in the raga Kamala Manohari. 

Then came the best piece of the concert - the ragam tanam pallavi (RTP) in 
Shanmukha Priya. I cannot find adequate words to describe Savithri's dexterity
and fluency in handling this rather difficult raga. The RTP also contained 
the Tani where Mysore Venkatesh was simply superb on the mridangam. He had an 
excellent sense of Tala and Laya in his presentation. 

Alayepayudhe Kanna in the raga Kanada and Krishna Ne Begane Baro in Yaman
Kalyani followed the RTP. Roga Harana Kripasagara in praise of Raghavendra
Swami in the raga Bhagyashri and a Hindi Bhajan in the raga Sindhu Bhairavi
were very pleasing. The tillana that followed was in the raga Gambhiravani
which was fast paced. Then came another good piece i.e., the Utsava Sampradaya
kriti of Thyagaraja: Seeta Kalyana Vaibogame in the raga Kuranji. The concert
concluded with the usual Mangalam.

Summarizing, I can say that I sat through 3.5 hours of top quality music.
One had to be present at the concert to experience the kind of joy I did
after the concert. My apologies for making this post so long.

Muralidhar Rangaswamy


 


Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: asrini@sanjuan (Anand Srinivasan)
Subject: Re: please identify the raga
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria B.C. CANADA
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 17:22:10 GMT

In article <krisna.718903516@cs.wisc.edu> krisna@cham.cs.wisc.edu (Krishna Kunchithapadam) writes:
>ramasubr@ecn.purdue.edu (SUBU Ramasubramanian) writes:
>>> asrini@sanjuan (Anand Srinivasan) writes:
>>> |> I heard this song today, probably a Thyagaraja krithi...
>>> |> starting "Sudha Madhurya Bhashanam(?)"  Could somebody
>>> |> post which raga it is on?
>>> It is a raga called "Sindhunamakriya".
>
>Sorry if I sound picky, the correct name is: Sindhu Ramakriya,
>-- kRShna

A question connected to this song (though not connected to ragas
but am posting since the thread is here).  The song i heard was
sung by a male singer along with S.Janaki in a movie suspected
to be "Manadhil Urudhi Vendum".  Could someone identify this
male singer ( a carnatic vocalist ).

Anand S
From: ramasubr@ecn.purdue.edu (SUBU Ramasubramanian)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Re: please identify the raga
Date: 12 Oct 92 02:10:50 GMT
Reply-To: ramasubr@ecn.purdue.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

In article <1992Oct11.212237.13497@sol.UVic.CA>, asrini@sanjuan (Anand Srinivasan) writes:
|> I heard this song today, probably a Thyagaraja krithi...
|> starting "Sudha Madhurya Bhashanam(?)"  Could somebody
|> post which raga it is on?
|> 
|> Anand S
|> 
|> PS: I am a novice in Carnatic music. If it was too trivial
|>     sorry to waste the bandwidth...


It is a raga called "Sindhunamakriya".

Thanks to Ramki at Austin. 

Subu
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: shiv@bnr.ca (Shiv Naimpally)
Subject: Re: Lyrics needed for Ramachandra Prabho
Reply-To: shiv@bnr.ca (Shiv Naimpally)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 19:25:40 GMT

Maybe we should get an ftp site for lyrics. There certainly seems
to be enough demand !
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: msluyter@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Michael Sluyter)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Is there a FAQ? If not, please help....
Date: 15 Oct 92 20:22:43 GMT
Organization: University of North Texas

Hello, 
As a classical Indan music lover, I was happy to find this group.  But being
totally new to it, I don't want to ask a bunch of silly questions.  So,
if there's a FAQ that anyone knows about could you send it (or it's location)
to me?  If not, I'd like to know where one can get a hold of good CD's.
They're almost impossible to find at the record store.

Thanks,
Michael Sluyter
From: pjn@mimsy.umd.edu (P. J. Narayanan)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Re: lineage of amRtha-varSheNe [was Re: Amrita Vahini ?]
Date: 14 Oct 92 19:07:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: mimsy.61149
Followup-To: rec.music.indian.classical
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <1bdbb2INNlo0@gap.caltech.edu>  writes:
>In article <krisna.718922348@cs.wisc.edu> krisna@cs.wisc.edu (Krishna  
>Kunchithapadam) writes:

>I) Ragas which omit the ri in both ascent and descent, but have all the  
>other swaras in either the ascent or descent, are usually classified under  
>the parent raga which has chatusruti rishabha e.g.
>
>II) Ragas which omit only the dhaivata in both ascent and descent, but  
>have all the other swaras in either the ascent or descent are classified  
>with the melakarta raga having the suddha dhaivata e.g.
>
>S.Vidyasankar

I doubt if these rules hold good either. If one looks hard enough, one
can find sufficient exceptions. A couple of exceptions to the second
rule are:

	Kedaram:	Sankarabharana janyam and not Sarasangi
	Manirangu:	Kharaharapriya janyam and not Natabhairavi
	Pushpalathika:	<same>

I would think it is safer to assume that the omitted notes are the
Sudha (i.e., from Sankarabharanam's scale) versions [like in Rule I
above], unless there is a strong suggestion of the janaka ragam
(like  Gowla -- it has a strong suggestion of Mayamalavagowla).
However, this rule is as ad-hoc as any can get.

PJN

BTW, Vijasree has sudha gAndhAram and is a janyam of Jhalavarali and
	not Subhapanthuvarali, as someone else also pointed out.
	Rule II holds, though.
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: vishwa@beach.csulb.edu (Viswanath Nanjundiah)
Subject: Aarohana and Avarohana of 'Ahir Bhairavi'
Organization: Cal State Long Beach
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 00:47:59 GMT

Could someone please mail me the 'aarohana' and 'avarohana' of the raaga

'Ahir Bhairavi' ? Is it the same in both South and North Indian
musics. Thank you.  vishwa

Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: asrini@sanjuan (Anand Srinivasan)
Subject: Re: Amrita Vahini ?
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria B.C. CANADA
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 05:05:00 GMT

In article <janaki.718860723@cs1.bradley.edu> janaki@cs1.bradley.edu (Venkata Nemana) writes:
>Hi Folks!
>
>I had a small doubt...
>Are the ragas Amrita Vahini and Amrita Varshini the same?
>If not, what's the raga of "Sri rama Padama.. Nee Kripa 
>chalune.."?
>Can somebody give the details of the above ragas..
>Thanks.
>
>-Jani.

Sometime back someone posted all the melakartha ragas and
some of their janyams out of which surprisingly there were
two Amrithavahinis, for different melakarthas.  I guess 
one of them might be Amrithavarshini (pure guess!).
please correct, if i am wrong...

melakartha.                  no.    janya ragas.

Natabhairavai               -20     Gopikavasantham, Hindholam, Jingla
                                    Manji, Amrithavahini, Saramathi
                                    Anandhabhairavi, Bhairavi, Gokilavarali
                                    Jayanthashree, Nagagandhari


Chitrambari                 -66     Amritavahini

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anand S
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: kulki@cs.toronto.edu (Dattatraya Kulkarni)
Subject: Re: Pt. Datar vioin concert in Milwaukee
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Distribution: usa
Date: 13 Oct 92 20:36:51 GMT

I had the opportunity to attend his "raag-maala" concert in 
Toronto. It was the first time I ever listned to Violin in
Gayaki style. He played, Shudh Kalyana, Mishra Kaafi, Bageshri
and Bairavi. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Do not miss the chance!
(Mishra Kaafi was recieved so well that, in the interval, 
audience were enquiring about his recordings of it; there were
recordings of behag, shudh kalyan etc however)

--kulkarni


Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: bala@ulysses.att.com (Bala Krishnamurthy)
Subject: Gandharva Ved Maharishi
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 12:43:49 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Keywords: Musical group 

has anyone heard of an indian musical group, "Gandharva Ved Maharishi" ?
i heard from a south american friend that they performed in santiago
recently. are they a religious/hindustani/random/...?

curious,
bala



Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
From: lfiddick@nyx.cs.du.edu (larry fiddick)
Subject: Re: L.Shankar.....
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 03:37:31 GMT


when can those of us in southern california, particularly santa barbara,
expect to see any of them? anybody know their concert schedules?\
From: pjn@mimsy.umd.edu (P. J. Narayanan)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical
Subject: Re: laya
Date: 14 Oct 92 19:11:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: mimsy.61151
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <1992Oct14.155041.5347@bmerh85.bnr.ca> shiv@bnr.ca (Shiv Naimpally) writes:
>I would have to disagree. Rhythm is the translation of 'tala'.
>Laya is the tempo, which is why madhyalaya means medium fast,
>but the tala (rhythm) could be anything - it could be dadra,
>it could be ektal, etc.. Tala encompasses accent and meter, while
>laya is the tempo.

Yes and no. One use of the word laya, as you correctly point out,
is synonymous with tempo. However, the word "laya" in a very
fundamental way refers to all aspects of rhythm as Srini said.

PJN
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: chem91@Elroy.UH.EDU ("Bill Harrison (713)-743-2789")
Subject: Re: Beatles and the canon
Reply-To: chem91@Elroy.UH.EDU
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 21:57:10 GMT

[...]
>
>Well, I know people who don't know Beethoven, either, believe it or not.
                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I certainly *do* believe it (sad to say). As a personally-conducted, highly
unscientific survey, I'd say only 10% of Americans would be successful in
identifying the "famous bits" of LvB.

>
>(everyone *does* know White Christmas and Tiger Rag and Tea for Two
>and God Bless America); but that's not the point of a canon.  The point
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>is that people who do a certain, well-established *kind* of music will
>do just *that* music.  
>

Every American, that is... :=)

Bill
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\               /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
| Bill Harrison,            \             /       "Be as radical as... |
| University of Houston, TX  >-----------<         reality itself"     |
| CHEM91@JETSON.BITNET      /             \                V. I. Lenin |
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/               \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
From: hudu@well.sf.ca.us (Scott Marley)
Subject: Re: Opera in the vernacular
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 08:13:27 GMT


While I'm sympathetic to the idea that bel canto operas are better off left
untranslated (for one thing, the plots are often so ludicrous that you're
better off not knowing too exactly what's happening at any moment!), still,
I once saw =Lucia di Lammermoor= performed in English by a cast that gave it
a great deal of conviction, really getting into the melodramatic acting, not
holding themselves back from it as more often happens.

And it was gripping theater.  It blew me away, really.  I had gone assuming
it would be something of a hoot, and ten minutes into it I was completely
absorbed in every absurd twist of the plot.

Obviously, just doing =Lucia= in English is not going to create that sort of
experience all by itself.  But it does seem to me that the experience
couldn't have happened without the translation, without that immediacy.  And
I sure do wish operagoing were full of a lot more evenings like that.

Scott Marley
hudu@well.sf.ca.us