Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


"Very fun." -- J. Bottum, Editor, FIRST THINGS

"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

"Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich

"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

"Fabulous!"-- Warlock D.J. Prod of Didsbury

Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


E-mail me

 
New cardinals

The red hat for new Philadelphia Archbishop Justin Rigali is very good news. Some thought he wouldn't get it this time because Philadelphia has a retired cardinal still living, but OTOH I think the Holy See has wanted Rigali in the College for a long time. He never got in while he was Archbishop of St. Louis, but now he's in, which I suppose means that it's St. Louis, as a see, whose star is falling, not Rigali. (St. Louis Archbishops Carberry and May were cardinals. Others too? Wright?)

New Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley didn't make the list, but then, he's new to the "archbishop" title, unlike Rigali. Next time, no doubt, no matter who's Pope.

Here is the list, thanks to De Fide Oboedientia.

A few others:

Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice: Balthasarian.

Archbishop Marc Ouellet of Montreal: writes for Communio; probably another Balthasarian. No doubt the next Conclave will be a "theodrama"!

Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa: former Ratzinger aide, no?

Archbishop George Pell of Sydney, Australia: throw some dissidents on the barby, mate!

Archbishop Keith O'Brien of Edinburgh, Scotland: hmm, hard to say what he's there for (unless perhaps for Cardinal Pell's barby?)

Archbishop Julian Herranz, Ponitifical Council for Interpretation of Legislative Texts: hey, works for me!

Plus, lots of Third World and Eastern European archbishops. Now I've gotta run before the Archbishop and Cardinal-designate Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, Croatia, whacks me with his crozier for calling him Eastern European. The Croats are proud of the Habsburg associations and central European ties. (By ties I mean associations, but as it happens, the Croats appear to have invented neckties, formerly known as "cravates.") "Eastern", to them, means (shhhhh) Serbian.

Good day's work, Holy Father!


posted by Cacciaguida at 11:35 PM

 
Oppression

The Faculty Appointments Register provided by the Assocation of American Law Schools says "Choose One", followed by "male" and "female." Not yet updated, I guess.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:47 PM

 
Mets record preserved

By helplessly winning their last game of the season, the Detroit Tigers capped a miserable season by failing even to equal the Mets loss record of their debut season, 120 games.

WE'RE NUMBER ONE!
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:24 PM

 
FCS was great. Highlights incluced the keynote address by John Finnis, the bestowal of the Cardinal Wright Award on Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (yes, Gene was with her), and the Sunday Mass celebrated by Bishop Loverde. More if I get a chance.

posted by Cacciaguida at 4:05 PM

 
The Bostonians, 2003
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:04 PM

 
Will I see you this weekend at the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars conference at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va? WHY NOT?
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:30 AM

 
Seems grad school has hit The Rat hard: no posts for almost a month now. We miss you, Ratty -- without you, the axis is cleaner, but duller!
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:23 AM

 
Cacciadelia (my daughter) at the podium

Tongues: Tongues are not just for talking. They're also for checking your teeth. Like, you can run them over your teeth and make sure you don't have too many.

Cats: Cats can creep along really slowly and quietly [demonstrates, wearing self-made paper cat mask and ears], and pounce [demonstrates]. And the mouse is taken aback, and he probably says, "What is this great furry thing that is pouncing on me?"
posted by Cacciaguida at 9:47 AM

 
Williams v. Pryor, or, the evacuation of morals laws continues

What's next after Lawrence v. Texas? Well, since the Massachusetts court is holding back its same-sex marriage decision for reasons unknown, the next issue in the counter-Comstock crusade is the right to traffic in sexual stimulation devices. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit heard arguments on this issue just yesterday. (Via How Appealing, of course.)

Here is the District Court opinion that the state of Alabama (Bill Pryor, Attorney General) is appealing. I want you to notice two things:

1. The court completely misunderstands the burden of proof in the "history and tradition" analysis that prevailed in (some) substantive due process cases before Lawrence. The court seems to think Alabama has to show that there is a long tradition of banning the devices in question. Wrong: it's the plaintiffs who are arguing that the statute violates a constitutional right, therefore it's their burden to show that such a right exists, and therefore it's their burden -- since there's no textual "masturbation clause" in the Constitution -- to show that such conduct is nonetheless one of those rights "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty" and "so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental."

The basic rule is, the legislature can legislate, unless the Constitution says it can't. If the Constitution doesn't explicitly say that the legislature can't pass the kind of law at issue here (and, you know what, it doesn't), then the plaintiff has to show some non-textual reason, based on history and tradition, why the Constitution should be read as if it did. Showing that the late 18th century was less puritanical than the late 19th century, and that the 20th century was still less so -- all of which the court argues at great length -- does nothing to show that the public traffic in sex toys is a fundamental right.

All of this may now be moot, since Lawrence may spell the end of history-and-tradition analysis in the area of non-textual rights.

2. Notice the authorities the court cites: Judge Posner's Sex and Reason; John D'Emilio, heavily relied on in Lawrence; and -- Michel Foucault. Yes, whole paragraphs of Foucault's supposedly historical writings on sex have now been cited as fact by a federal court, where they can now be cited by lawyers and academics as law.
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:51 PM

 
Discovered via Eve:

Godspy: Faith at the Edge -- a new Catholic e-zine where I've already found a number of articles that I may blog about.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:31 PM

 
Discovered via an e-mail from Heritage:

* a blog about de-democratization in Russia
* a related website.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:27 PM

 
Just so you know

* Foxnews.com: An Air Force airman named Ahmad I. al-Halabi has been charged with espionage and aiding the enemy -- charges that could carry the death penalty -- a military spokesman said Tuesday.

*CBSNews.com: At first, the Army said it arrested Army Capt. Yousef Yee, one of only 12 Muslim chaplains in all the U.S. military, because of "suspicious behavior" at a customs checkpoint and the discovery of unauthorized files in his bags, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart. Now, officials say they actually began focusing on Yee earlier as part of a larger espionage investigation at the maximum security prison for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

These aren't the first such stories. And these guys can't all be Captain Dreyfuses!

N.B. The link behind the reference to Dreyfus is to www.who2.com, which, when I visited it just now, had a banner ad at the top that said: Who Were Your Ancestors?

Two answers:

1. What are you, Farinata degli Uberti or something?

2. If you must ask, I had a grandfather named Dreyfus whose family, like that of the Captain, came from Alsace.


posted by Cacciaguida at 7:33 PM

 
Lord Blake, RIP -- war hero, Oxford don, solid conservative, biographer of Disraeli and historian of the Conservative Party, and active member of the House of Lords.

Only flaw that appears in the obit: he favo(u)red proportional representation over first-past-the-post. But prop rep gives seats to fringe parties, and creams the two-party system. If you want National Front and Trotskyite MPs, a month of coalition dickering among minority parties after every election, and power in every piss-ant party with a seat in the Government to bring it down with one hissy-fit -- in short, if your model of parliamentary politics is Italy or Israel -- then you want prop rep every time.

(I believe Israel has mitigated the worst features of prop rep by switching to direct election of the PM, the remainder of the Knesset being filled, as before, by a non-district-based, at-large party list sytem.)

Anyway, Lord Blake remains the go-to guy for Brit-Con history.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:56 AM

 
MSNBC.com: WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, has told American interrogators that he first discussed the plot with Osama bin Laden in 1996 and that the original plan called for hijacking five commercial jets on each U.S. coast before it was modified several times, according to interrogation reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:24 PM

 
"Safe and legal"
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:19 PM

 
Greetings to Elizabeth Carnell, a very interesting young medievalist who links to me!
posted by Cacciaguida at 1:58 PM

 
Back again -- again!

Hurricane notes:

* As Woody Allen would have said, it's one of nature's most amazing displays, with the posssible exception of a moose singing "Embraceable You" in spats.

* You know it's windy when the grass on the lawn is doing the wave.

In the end, all we lost was a couple of roof shingles, and, of course, electric power.

Got back from Mass etc. this morning ("Mass etc." = Mass, go get paper and bagels, return to parish to pick up kids who are in CCD and/or confirmation prep, go home) at about 11:30 and the power still wasn't on. Then, at about noon, on it came.

There are still powerless areas in our region, though. Please pray for the people there. (And insert bishop joke here.)

It would have been a lot worse if:
* the post-hurricane temperatures had not been within the bearable range
* the water pressure had gone out
* the phones had gone out

None of this happened. Instead, life was fairly normal by daylight. We had dinner by candlelight (our gas oven turns out to have an electric igniter, but the gas stove worked fine), then Elinor read Tolkien out loud by candlelight. After that it was nominally bedtime; I listened by walkman to the recording of Mefistofele that I grew up with.

This recording features bass Cesare Siepi (Mefistofele) and tenor Mario del Monaco (Faust) at their absolute peak. Add Renata Tebaldi as Margarita -- but why couldn't she have sung Elena too? Floriana Cavalli, who does the honors in the Classical Sabbath scene, has a nice voice but lacks the high note near the end.

After years away from this recording, I now think the real star is conductor Tullio Serafin, whose slow and clear approach allows Boito's grandeur and simplicity to show through. The recording is also testament to the glory days of the chorus and orchestra of Rome's Accademia di Santa Cecilia, which some say have long passed (does anyone know?). Originally released by Decca/London in 1959, the stereo sound quality is superb.

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:38 PM

 
So, Texas's American League baseball team is sponsoring a "Gay Day."

Well -- I've always depended on the blindness of Rangers.


posted by Cacciaguida at 3:41 PM

 
Holy Father accepts resignation of Richmond Bishop Walter Sullivan. No successor named as yet.

UPDATED TO ADD: Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore will be apostolic administrator until a new bishop is chosen. Decisions about spinning off a new diocese may also be pending.
posted by Cacciaguida at 11:24 AM

 
Hurricane Isabel and American legal education
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:28 PM

 
Parishioner's Corner

You know the "Pastor's Corner" feature in some parish bulletins? Well, here's today's Parishioner's Corner.

1.
Choir: "Why are you downcast, o my soul?"
Parishioner: The choir needs to ask that?

2.
At our parish we do baptisms during Mass. Of course it's great to see Satan's hold pried loose from yet more human beings (we did two this morning). But time issues do arise. We've largely mooted out the old issue of infant baptism: by the time the baptism is over, the child has reached the age of reason.

3.
Pastor: The parish picnic is coming up soon.
Parishioner: No doubt.

posted by Cacciaguida at 6:27 PM

 
In Britain's once-respected Spectator, a "former parliamentary candidate" and "approved candidate for the Conservative party," who "teaches Philosophy and Religious Studies" (God knows where), says "the EU is a means of undoing the Reformation and extending Vatican sovereignty over Britain."

This is a joke, right?

If not, I'm abandoning my long-held Thatcherite Euroscepticism.

Hat-tip to The Wanderer for unearthing this one.
posted by Cacciaguida at 12:30 PM

 
"Interrogation"

An article in the current Atlantic Magazine says (after many interviewers with "specialists") that psychological pressure, not "smackey-face" or worse, is most effective. To the extent the author endorses what he writes about, his reasoning is nakedly consequentialist -- as in, whaddya want, another 3000 Americans killed (add a few zeros, perhaps), or one very disoriented A-rab? -- but the piece is challenging and informative.

Not yet on-line, but here's an interview with the author.
posted by Cacciaguida at 8:50 PM

 
More on Terri Schiavo -- Toogood Reports: The War Against Terri
posted by Cacciaguida at 6:36 PM

 
Ever panic because you're afraid they'll find out? Good news: God already has! Eve on coming to the Faith
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:43 PM

 
Church music: splendid rant by Elinor

You know, not only is most Church music goopy, even in "good" parishes and "good" dioceses -- but the music at indult Tridentine Masses really isn't any better, at least to judge by the one near me. It's just '50s-goopy instead of '70s-goopy. The only way in which it's better is that there's less of it per Mass.

Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony -- or no music. That's what I say.

The Oh-but-it's-ha-a-a-ard issue: Yes, Renaissance polyphony is difficult to do well, but small chunks are manageable for choirs that have any musical sense whatsoever. (Perhaps that rules out most parish choirs.) Gregorian chant is not difficult at all: it was created to be sung my monks, few if any of whom entered the monastery because of their singing ability.
posted by Cacciaguida at 4:33 PM

 
CNN.com: 9/11 picture gallery
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:00 PM

 
Terri Schiavo update

One of Terri's nurses says of husband Michael, who wants Terri's feeding tubes removed:

"He's been trying to kill her -- that's the bottom line," said Carla Sauer Iyer, a 39-year-old registered nurse who cared for Terri Schiavo at a nursing home in 1995 and '96. She says Terri has said words such as "Mommy," "help me" and "pain."

Click here for Wesley Smith's take at NRO.


posted by Cacciaguida at 2:23 PM

 
IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!

Statler: It's good to be heckling again.
Waldorf: It's good to be doing anything again!
Both: Har har har har har!!

-- Statler and Waldorf, as the ghosts of "Jacob and Robert Marley" in A Muppet Christmas Carol

For five days I was unable to access this blog. No need to go into all the details, but I felt it prudent to establish a blog-in-exile, which I call Can Grande della Scala. (Go there if you want to read my posts from the last five days.)

Blogger has now corrected the problem, and here I am. All honor to Blogger!

I'm leaving Can Grande up, and it's where you should look for me if (1) this happens again and (2) you want to find me anyway.

Thanks to all readers, and especially the many who commented on the Sept. 1 opera post. As soon as I can I'll post some further reflections prompted by those comments.

For now, LONG LIVE THE RESTORATION!


posted by Cacciaguida at 9:37 PM

 
"Opera Appetizer" -- amplified and corrected

As Father Jim kindly says, the Washington Post's opera appetizer in last Sunday's edition, by Tim Page, is sort of up my alley. It's a good article. Here, now, are its faults and omissions. Are you sitting? Good, then we'll begin.

The "undated" picture of Callas as Tosca is clearly post-1954, as shown by the relative lack of girth exhibited by "La Divina" in the photo. Her Scarpia, btw, is Tito Gobbi.

Price and Callas are certainly two of the greats still within living memory, but one should also get familiar with Renata Tebaldi and Zinka Milanov. Their recordings are widely available on budget re-issues.

(General warning about budget re-issue sets: they sometimes (but not always) lack a libretto, that is, the printed text of the opera, what on Broadway we call the "book." This makes it hard to get to know an unfamiliar opera. Otoh, libretti can probably be found on the Web.)

Pre-Mozart opera has never been much my thing, so I won't comment. Page is right to include Mozart's LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, and the recording he recommends (Prey, Mathis, Janowitz, Fischer-Dieskau; cond. Böhm) is certainly one of the best. I would also recomend Solti's (Ramey, Popp, Te Kanawa, Allen) and Levine's (Furlanetto, Upsaw, TeKanawa, Hampson). The Giulini recording that Page mentions is not one I know, but it is very well-reputed, and selling at a very good price.

Page's other Mozart choice is DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, bka THE MAGIC FLUTE. You know what? I, personally, am ready to give FLUTE a rest for a while. Oh sure, it has some excruciatingly beautiful music in it, especially the "Heil sei euch Geweiten" chorus in the last scene. But the faux-profound Masonic symbolism gets old really fast. "Queen of the Night," my ass. Your Masonic librettist wasn't being any too subtle here, Wolfie. (Still dig her two arias, though!)

Instead, my second Mozart choice would be DON GIOVANNI. "You invited me to dinner," says, to the libertine, the ghost of the father of one of his near-conquests. "Now you know your duty: will you come to dinner with me?" I.e., will you repent, and be saved? I recommend this recording because Cesare Siepi was so splendid as the Don (I saw him do it at the Met -- sing Don Giovanni, I mean). The Amazon reviewer prefers this one, and he may have a point. Among more recent recordings, the one starring Bryn Terfel is probably a stand-out. (It was the last complete opera recorded by Sir Georg Solti.) Another fine Don, at the opposite end of the baritone-bass spectrum from Siepi: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, with a splendid supporting cast.

Rossini: I share Page's enthusiasm for CENERENTOLA, and for both the Bartoli and Berganza recordings. Still, if you're just starting, you've got to let Rossini be represented by his universally acknowledged mega-hit, THE BARBER OF SEVILLE. (Yes, the one where Bugs Bunny commandeered the wordless overture for "Welcome to my shop/Let me cut your mop....") In choosing a recording, please defy the recent tradition that reassigns the light-mezzo role of the teenage heroine Rosina to a chirpy high soprano. Here, as with CENERENTOLA, your best choices are Bartoli or Berganza.

Bellini's bel canto masterpiece NORMA: can't argue with Page's allegiance to Callas here, but I'd like to put in a good word for the Sutherland recording (the earlier one), which is also graced by a very underrated and underrecorded tenor, John Alexander.

As Page points out re Verdi's LA TRAVIATA, there are some people who simply have to have Callas in everything. Fortunately, most of the names in common use for such people are much shorter than that.

How much Verdi to include in a basic list is a puzzler, but phooey on Page for leaving out RIGOLETTO and IL TROVATORE. RIGOLETTO, a staple of my childhood, became almost too much for me to bear once I had a daughter. But it raised opera as such to a higher level, both melodically and dramatically. There are many great recordings, but check out Verdi's tragic jester-father as portrayed by Leonard Warren, or Robert Merrill, or Cornell MacNeil (with Joan Sutherland as Gilda).


Leonard Warren as Rigoletto


Robert Merrill as Rigoletto

TROVATORE -- a severe silly-libretto problem here, plus, the Marx Brothers did quite a number on it. But it's full of great arias and dramatic confrontations, and when a decent tenor nails the high C in Di Quella Pira, you'll follow him into battle too. Try the one with Milanov and the great Swedish tenor Jussi Bjoerling. Also, this budget release with Price, Corelli, Simionato and Bastianini is great.

Page's recommended AIDA recording happens to be the one I first learned this opera on, and yes, it's great. Leontyne Price, still young, is in glorious form; Jon Vickers lacks Italian style, but somehow you don't miss it; Robert Merrill is his usual fine self; and you get an extra-special Ramfis in Giorgio Tozzi. In the pit, Solti shows that this perhaps-too-familiar score has unsuspected depths in it. There is, however, one serious weak link: Rita Gorr sounds much too grandmotherly to be Princess Amneris.

Want to hear Tebaldi in her prime, and let Giulietta Simionato show you what Amneris should sound like? Try this one.


Giulietta Simionato as Amneris

Then, you know, I have an even greater AIDA at home in my tower. It took me a long time to find it, precious. One AIDA to rule them all....

All right, now -- Wagner. Page discussed TRISTAN UND ISOLDE and DIE MEISTERSINGER, which is fine, but why leave out the RING altogether? If the four-opera RING cycle is a bit much for an "appetizers" piece, at least give readers DIE WALKÜRE, the lyrical and symbol-rich second opera of the cycle, and the perennial audience favorite. Once you've beheld the rule-bending love of Siegmund and Sieglinde, and the tragic breach between the god Wotan and his favorite daughter Brünnhilde, you'll want to go back to the (short) first opera, DAS RHEINGOLD, to see the crimes that led to the passionate, sad events of WALKÜRE, and then go on to see the world-saving deeds of Siegfried and Brünnhilde in the last two installments, SIEGFRIED and GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG (Twilight of the Gods).

For purposes of this post I don't have to go into the question of the best complete RING recording, since the best WALKÜRE ever recorded is a stand-alone, and what's more, budget-priced. It's the 1962 Leinsdorf recording starring Birgit Nilsson, George London, and Jon Vickers. Get it, and let the forests of the sagas, the love of heroes, and the noble anguish of the Aesir engulf you.


Brünnhilde the Valkyrie, as drawn by Arthur Rackham

As for Page's other Wagner recording selections: for TRISTAN, he favors the old Furtwängler recording. You can't go wrong with it. Ludwig Suthaus is a little short of an ideal Tristan, but Kirsten Flagstad, as Isolde, is justly a legend among Wagner sopranos. Though the supporting cast hardly matters in this opera, here we have an unusually good one, with long-haired and suave-voiced Blanche Thebom as Isolde's maidservant Brangäne, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau -- whose voice must barely have changed, this is such an old recording -- as Tristan's bud Kurvenal; and beloved, black-toned Josef Greindl as King Marke.

An alternative TRISTAN: though I'm no Karajan fan in general, I'm partial to his TRISTAN starring Jon Vickers, and with Helge Dernesch still sounding gorgeous as a soprano, before her switch to the low mezzo repertory. This recording also features a baritone Melot (the ex-friend of Tristan's who shops him to the King) -- so much stonger than the usual tenor -- and not just any baritone, but Bernd Weikl.

Re MEISTERSINGER, Page is absolutely right: the one with Thomas Stewart as Sachs and Gundula Janowitz as Eva. Shame on Page, though, for failing to mention this recording's other stunning asset: Sandor Konya as Walther! (I'll write more about Sandor when I blog about LOHENGRIN recordings.)

Mussorgsky's BORIS GODUNOV: Page is definitely right to include it. However, skip the recordings featuring Boris Christoff. The man had an ego grossly out of proportion to his harsh Slavic voice. How much of an ego? Well, in both of his commercial recordings of BORIS, he sings all three of the opera's leading bass parts (Tsar Boris, the saintly monk Pimen, and the sloshed monk Varlaam), despite the fact that Boris and Pimen appear together in the penultimate scene. Oh, excuse me, make that the last scene, not next to last, b/c it was intolerable to Christoff that there should be a scene after his death scene. Twit.

No, no: the recording you want is the one starring Martti Talvela. Talvela's gorgeous deep bass voice towers over Russia, and while there are some weak links in the supporting cast, conductor Jerzy Semkow brings nobility and passion to the rather austere "original" scoring. This recording was made in Poland, and unless I'm much mistaken, the orchestra really gets into the Act III Polonaise! Problem is, this recording is now hard to find. Berkshire Record Outlet may still have some copies at a good price. (You should know about BRO anyway.) Otherwise, use the e-mail link at left to get in touch with me. (That's not a picture of me -- it's a symbol of my dedication to getting great recordings into the hands of people who want them.)


Martti Talvela

Another good BORIS, if you don't mind Rimsky-Korsakov's well-intentioned re-orchestration of his roommate Mussorgsky's work (and it's rather lovely, in fact) is the one starring Nicolai Ghiaurov -- every bit as Slavic as Christoff, but eminently listenable. Interestingly, Martti Talvela appears in this one too -- as Pimen. And a greater Pimen you'll never hear.

CARMEN -- can't avoid it, though imho it can't hold a candle to Bizet's other, less-known opera, THE PEARL FISHERS. And no, thank you, we don't need Callas here. Back into bel canto and Verdi and Puccini you go; there's a good girl. For CARMEN, you want the one featuring the Met's best exponent of opera's greatest gypsy: Risë Stevens. In case you can't find that one (and I couldn't, on-line), I hear good things about this one, which boasts an authentically Spanish Carmen (Teresa Berganza, discussed supra re Rossini).

For PEARL FISHERS, I can't find the old recording I like, but this one should be good.

Tchaikovsky's EUGENE ONEGIN: sorry, but imho it sucks. Lame from beginning to end. Get it outta here. Friggin' SWAN LAKE is more convincing.

On to Puccini. First, TOSCA. As Page notes, the earlier of the two Callas recordings -- the one with Giuseppe di Stefano in the tenor lead, is considered the gold standard. Having learned this opera through that recording (preparing for my world debut as the Shepherd in Act III!!), I do not seek to disturb the consensus. But I would put in a good word for this one, with Price, Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes, all doing some strong vocal acting as well as fine singing, unde Zubin Mehta's theatrical conducting. Also, if (like me) you enjoy hearing all the juicy goodness squeazed out of long emotional passages through the use of s-l-o-w tempi, you need to check out the TOSCA conduced by the late psychiatrist-conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli. No slouch of a cast, either: Mirella Freni, Domingo, and Sam Ramey (a bass singing the baritone role of Scarpia), and a cameo by Bryn Terfel in the small part of Angelotti.


Sherrill Milnes, better known for voice than for acting,
delivered a powerful Scarpia for Maestro Mehta

Why didn't Page include more about TURANDOT, Puccini's last opera? This ultimate male fantasy packs a wallop from the crash of the opening chords to the straight-arm hymn to all-conquering love at the end. Joan Sutherland, who never sang Puccini's ice-princess on the stage, made a smashing recording of the role under Zubin Mehta, with Luciano Pavarotti as her death-defying suitor (hence the "World Cup Song" -- the tenor aria Nessun Dorma, as sung by Pav). An interesting alternative recording is this one, in which Alain Lombard takes a Debussyan approach to the score -- different from Mehta, but efffective -- and Monserrat Caballe, the slave-girl Liu in the Sutherland recording, is promoted to the title role (with Freni as Liu), and delivers it very well, thank you. Whichever you choose, just remember -- the riddles are three, death is one!


TURANDOT at the New York City Opera.
Soprano unkown; set and
costume design by the incomparable
Beni Montresor

"CAV & PAG" -- i.e., the traditional double-bill of Mascagni's CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA ("Rustic Chivalry") and Leoncavallo's I PAGLIACCI ("The Clowns"). Definitely right to include this. PAGLIACCI contains the anguished tenor aria "Vesti la Giubba," known to millions of older TV viewers as "No More Rice Krispies." It deserves better treatment, for it's about a serious dramatic subject: how can an actor perform in a slapstick comedy when his heart has just been broken by the infidelity of his wife -- who is also his co-star?

The border-zone between play-acting and reality is brilliantly explored by Leoncavallo, who wrote his own libretto, based on a case that his father, a country judge, once tried. In the prologue, the character who becomes the villain in the opera warns the opera-goers that he appears before them, not to assure them (like Bottom in MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM) that the tears and blood are just make-believe, but just the opposite: this really happened once, and the composer shed real tears as he worked. In the final scene, the on-stage "spectators", watching the clowns do their show, remark with increasing alarm at the "realism" of the "acting." Oh-my-God this is a great little opera; and CAVALLERIA is no slouch either.

No quarrel with Page's Corelli recommendations, but the gold-standard classics are the old ones starring the astounding tenor Jussi Bjoerling in both operas. In CAV he's partnered by Zinka Milanov and Robert Merrill; in PAG, by Victoria de Los Angeles, Leonard Warren, and, again, Merrill. (PAG calls for two baritones: the lead, i.e. the malevolent clown Tonio, who sings the Prologue, and the second, who sings Nedda's lover Silvio. Baritones often graduate from Silvio to Tonio; Merrill certainly did.)

Do you want another reason to stick with the Bjoerling PAGLIACCI? Get this: The very last line of PAGLIACCI is "La commedia e finita" -- "The comedy [or drama -- the Italian word "commedia" is ambiguous; cf. Divinia Commedia] is over!" But, whose line is it? Leoncavallo assigned it to Tonio, the baritone character who sang the Prologue, and who played a villainous part in the action by ratting on Nedda b/c Nedda had rejected Tonio's own advances. In the final scene, Tonio hands Canio the knife with which Canio will end up killing Nedda and Silvio. From Prologue to final curtain, Tonio is the Master of Puppets, as it were. No one else should sing (speak, actually) that final line.

But -- Caruso took that line for himself, and tenors have done so ever since. There's no reason for this other than sheer tenor-vanity. Well, Bjoerling generously ceded back the closing line to Leonard Warren. This is the only recording, as far as I know, that respects the composer's wishes in this matter.


Jussi Bjoerling: the Swedish tenor who
had no equal in Italian and French roles

Richard Strauss: Page made a good choice with ELEKTRA, and with the Solti recording. Besides Birgit Nilsson's Elektra, Regina Resnik's Klytemnestra is also outstanding. This is also one of the few complete recordings, which means that some of Elektra's scariest imprecations at Klytemnestra, often omitted, are included here; likewise some of the creepily sensual passages in which Elektra tries to persuade her more feminine sister to help her do the great deed -- avenging Agamemnon's death. (In the end Orestes comes home and takes care of the necessary butchery himself, so it's OK.)

This is one opera that has fared very well on recordings. The Böhm recording starring Inge Bork that Page mentions is back in print after a long absence from the market. Jean Madeira's Klytemnestra is a major selling point here. Sinopoli's recording features the gorgeous Elektra of Alessandra Marc, partnered by Deborah Voigt as li'l sis' Chrysothemis. Both of these have the minor "standard" cuts, however. Sawallisch's recording is the only absolutely complete one besides Solti's. Eva Marton is in good form as Elektra, and Cheryl Studer is a Chrysothemis to die for.

But you can't can't can't introduce Strauss without also discussing SALOME: like ELEKTRA, a lurid one-acter, this time focusing on the martyrdom of John the Baptist ("Jochanaan") as re-told by Oscar Wilde. In fact the libretto of SALOME (and in opera we always pronounce it SAL-o-may, never sa-LOH-mee) is simply the German translation of Wilde's play. Wilde's "take" was that asking for the head of John as the reward for the dance was not the idea of Herodias (though she applauds it), but of the "daughter of Herodias" herself (Josephus tells us her name was Salome) and that she did it out of frustrated physical passion for John.

By now it should be clear that when I hear the "Bloom theory" about rock music, I sort of chortle knowingly.

Anyway, SALOME has some of the most gorgeous late-romantic, big-orchestra swelling tunes you've ever heard. That's part of the dramatic wallop: post-TRISTAN passion welling up from the orchestra while the heroine embraces the severed head and cries, "At last I have kissed your mouth, Jochanaan!"

A great recording under Böhm has just become available again: with Gwyneth Jones as Salome, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Jochanaan, Richard Cassily (an under-appreciated Wagnerian tenor) as Herod, and Mignon Dunn (an under-recorded dramatic mezzo) as Herodias, there are no weak links. But consider also Cheryl Studer's Salome under Sinopoli: Salome is supposed to be 14 or 15, and only Studer comes close to creating this illusion. With Bryn Terfel as Jochanaan, and Leonie Rysanek -- once a fine Salome herself -- as Herodias, this is another winner.


An ominous moon hovers over Herod's corrupt
court in the Kirov Opera's production of SALOME


Enough of Strauss know. I'll write about DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN (which I call, appreciatively, "HUMANAE VITAE -- THE OPERA") some other time.

Berg's WOZZECK. Another good choice. Being composed atonally (i.e., without resolving into any definite key), this music is harsh and forbidding to many first-timers -- but hey, no one who likes Metallica has any cause to complain! I've grown not only to appreciate WOZZECK as drama -- that's the easy part -- but also to find it beautiful as music. But you want a conductor who nudges this score as far as possible in a romantic direction: that would be Barenboim. The Naxos recording that Page recommends is probably excellent (the Naxos label offers high-quality classical performances for shoestring budgets), but I haven't heard it yet. The singers in it are unknown to me, except for Katarina Dalayman (Marie, Wozzeck's tragic girlfriend), and she's excellent.

Berg's other opera, LULU, has yet to win me over, so I join Page in leaving it out.


Hermann Uhde, the Met's first
and perhaps greatest Wozzeck

Re American opera, of which there has been an abundance since the 1940s, here's what you do. First, take all the "minimalists" like Philip Glass; position them carefully at edge of cliff; kick sharply; videotape and replay often. These guys do nothing but depress land values. A broadcast of Glass's SATYAGRAHA was the only occasion in my life when I've turned off an opera because it's so ugly. I've listened to a fair amount of Berg and other modernists; I saw Ginastera's DON RODRIGO when I was eight. When it comes to modern styles of composition in opera, I'm tough, OK? But this Glass thing -- turned it off because it was too ugly to listen to.

So what's the good stuff in American opera? I don't know Virgil Thompon's MOTHER OF US ALL, which Page recommends, but I'll admit it to the charmed circle b/c a recording of it is available starring one of my favorite mezzo-sopranos, Mignon Dunn.

The others American operas that I recommend? First, the ones with American settings: Douglas Moore's THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE (love and betrayal, and fortunes made and unmade, in the Colorado silver boom of the 1880s); Robert Ward's THE CRUCIBLE (based on the Arthur Miller play about the Salem witch trials), and Carlisle Floyd's SUSANNAH (about the dark side of rural evangelical revivals -- not exactly friendly to our evangelical brethren, but very beautiful).

A recent entry that shows a lot of promise is A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, by William Bolcom, also based on an Arthur Miller play. It was done at the Met last year, starring the glorious baritone Kim Josephson.


Scene from Bolcom's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
Kim Josephson as Eddie Carbone
Catherine Malfitano as Beatrice, r.
(not sure who's singing Catherine, l.)

Second, the ones with non-American settings. Menotti's AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS. Spare me the snears about how it was made for television; Shakespeare wrote for his groundlings, when he wasn't writing for his paying patrons, so stick your elitism where de sun don' shine. AMAHL is a gorgeous and moving little opera.


Gian Carlo Menotti, composer of AMAHL
and many other operas

Then there's Sam Barber's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. Yummmm! Note especially the duet "Take O Take These Lips Away."


Samuel Barber, composer of
ANTONY & CLEOPATRA and VANESSA

OK -- that's it. Go wild. (But not as wild as Salome or Elektra!)
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:21 PM

 
Parents in the middle, as usual

Kids starting school in Britain are dumber than ever, and the government knows exactly whom to blame.

Yes, the "blame parents first" tactic, beloved of government officials, frosts my shorts. That said, the article makes some good points about what parents may be doing wrong: too much TV, not enough discipline, and so forth.

So, as a parent, here are my questions for any government that issues a report blaming me: If I discipline my children as you suggest, will you refrain from sending in your social workers to take them away? And if I cut down on their TV, can you assure me that neither you nor I will be in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which the UK has ratified, though the US has not), Article 13 Section 1 of which says: "The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice."?
posted by Cacciaguida at 3:05 PM