Related links: /view/283594.html? wtp=tt
Gluck: Comments by Pared Edna
/kloc-The middle and late 8th century is a fascinating and confused era: Baroque is particularly popular, classicism is born, and various music styles, theories and experiments emerge in an endless stream on the European music stage, colliding with each other, separating and merging, and exploring a new and unknown era.
It is in this era of great integration and innovation that Gluck was born as a world music master. The German-born composer traveled all over Europe when he was young, and was widely exposed to the music traditions and fashions at that time. In Germany and Bohemia, he received a good music education. In Italy, he was influenced by the pop style of orthodox opera. In England, he witnessed the decline of orthodox opera. In France, he saw the direction of innovation from lyric tragedy. In Austria, he composed the first "Reform Opera" Orflo and Eurydice.
In the era of Gluck's "reform" of opera, the grand opera has obviously reached the end of the road. No one cares about the narrative that explains the conflict of the plot, and the aria is changed at will by wayward big-name singers. Even composers themselves often have nothing to do but let nature take its course and even do as required. A group of "vocal acrobatics" ignored the dramatic plot on the stage and blindly performed their dazzling skills, which aroused the audience's fanatical worship.
Naturally, more and more composers and literary critics began to criticize traditional drama creation, and Italian screenwriter Carl Dzabic was one of them. Many years before Gluck consciously introduced "innovation" into opera, the loyal follower of Algarotti once pointed his criticism at Metasio, the Taishan Beidou in the opera script field. He published the famous "On Pietro Metastasio", denouncing the lack of dramatic power in his creative thinking, and advocating removing flashy decoration and complicated structure, so that music can serve poetry and plot.
Inspired by Calzabigi's plays, Gluck wrote two representative works, Alceste (1767) and Paris and Helen (1770), following Orflo and Eurydice (1762). Since then, these works have been collectively called "three major reform operas" by music historians.
In the sense of musical innovation, Orflo and Eurydice is far from a shocking work. Most of the music languages used follow the tradition, and some "new" techniques are neither original nor unique. For example, the recitation of string accompaniment, as well as the use of ballet and chorus, appear in a large number of lyric tragedies of Luli and Mora; The difference between fuzzy recitation and aria makes the music structure subordinate to the needs of drama conflict. Even Hasse practiced in his later operas, not to mention Omeli and Tretta.
Therefore, it is puzzling that among the three "reform plays", Oflo and Eurydice, which has the least innovation, has been staged the most since ancient times. Alceste is a truly bold and innovative work, far less beautiful than the popular French version on the opera stage. Paris and Helen, the most beautiful and moving of the three plays, has been unknown for more than 200 years, and there are only a handful of opportunities to stage it.
Fortunately, after Schneider's Capriccio and Zagrosek's Orpheus, McCreesh led his Gabrielle spouse &; Players and a powerful star cast released the latest recording of this work in June this year, and finally gave Gluck opera lovers a classic version.
Different from the traditional treatment, Calzabigi's and Gluck's operas do not want to show the "background of the times" like the Trojan War, but focus on the inner emotional world of the protagonist, which makes the play completely a "psychological" opera.
The characters in this play are extremely simple: the main characters are Paris, Helen and little love god Cupid who becomes Helen's bosom friend. At the beginning of the story, Helen didn't marry Menes, the king of Sparta, but only his fiancee. Paris came to visit, fell in love with her at first sight and openly pursued her. Although Helen is in love, she suffers from engagement and is afraid of being laughed at. Therefore, she could not bear to blame Paris. The weakness of love not only made her struggle, but also made Paris miserable. So the goddess of love tricked her into telling Helen that Paris had gone aboard. Helen was really angry and cursed Paris for her insincerity and weak love. Who knows that Paris suddenly appeared at this time, and Cupid also announced his identity as a god. At this point, Helen had to admit that she had secretly promised herself. At the moment when she reached out her hand to Paris, there was thunder and dark clouds. Angry Athena appeared in the clouds, loudly warning the couple what kind of disaster awaits them in the future, but after listening, they were indifferent and still vowed to love each other forever no matter what.
Compared with the first two operas, Gluck's use of "innovative musical language" in this play is more ingenious and skillful. There are only four types of string accompaniment in recitative. Arias not only completely break the routine of returning to the beginning, but also are constantly interrupted by dialogues and chorus paragraphs of other characters according to the needs of the plot. Beautiful, fluent and emotional recitation and natural, simple and touching aria are integrated in one go. Bold ballet and chorus with different styles are only connected and embellished, which is more dramatic.
Strangely, when I first started listening to this opera, I couldn't help thinking of Wagner. Gluck's Paris and Helen caused a shock in the hearts of the audience at that time, perhaps just like the feeling of later audiences when they first listened to Tristan and isolde.
If you think about it carefully, these two operas do have some similarities: the plots of both operas are extremely simple, with few characters, and the power of music is completely used to reveal the psychological state and changes of the characters in the operas.
The difference is that Wagner constructed a grand structure with no novel brushwork, and used all means to mobilize the maximum energy of vocals and bands, making endless lust surge like a flood, and finally making the audience crazy and completely anesthetized by uncontrollable and unavoidable pain.
And Gluck's music pays more attention to digging the psychological feelings in the characters' hearts and expressing subtle emotional impulses. With unexpected simple and pure musical language, the sweet sadness, ecstasy, stinging pain, happy struggle and lingering thoughts of the protagonist caught in love tribulation are skillfully expressed incisively and vividly, and no one can surpass its delicacy and touching atmosphere.
However, even in Gluck's time, audiences who have long been accustomed to the gorgeous aria in ordinary operas will find his operas boring if they can't adapt to this delicate and meticulous taste. It is not surprising that there are so many sleepy audiences in Gluck's opera performance.
Of course, today's audience will face the same problem. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to appreciate Gluck's opera, and a competent conductor who can show keen and delicate dramatic power in Gluck's opera.
Before McCreesh officially recorded this opera, he had performed it on the European opera stage for three times, so he accumulated some experience. In the choice of role translation, considering the harsh demands of the difficult role of Prince Paris on the singer (the original play used a eunuch, which was the last time Gluck wrote an opera for the eunuch, and soon after, he went to France without the tradition of eunuchs and began to write a French opera that eventually made him famous in the world), McLeish did not use a tenor, but used a mezzo-soprano Magdalena Ke? Well, the other three characters all use sopranos: Susan Gleton sings Helen, Caroline sampson sings Cupid, Gillian Webster sings Troy at the beginning, and Athena sings Athena at the end.
No opera can make people sincerely admire Gluck's creative genius in the "pre-Paris" period more than this Paris and Helen. I have listened to this record for more than seven times since I bought it back. Listen to it in one breath every time, because it would be a crime to stop such music from flowing!
Whether it's the meditation of O del mio dolce ardor and Spiagge amate in the first act, the passionate desire of Le belle immagini in the second act, the sweet melancholy of Quegli occhi belli through "singing" in the third act, or the Di te scordarmi, e vivere in the fourth act! The pain of death, the incomparable Magdalena Coe? Ená perfectly presents all the touching details in this masterpiece with its delicate and touching singing skills. After listening to her voice, there is no need to think about this role.
Helen of Susan Griton is elegant, dignified and restrained most of the time, but at the critical moment, she can give full play to the dramatic power hidden in this role with amazing passion, especially in the third act of Taimela Leo! The exquisiteness and vividness of "Reading Letters and Answering Letters" and the fifth act from Onnipotenti Numi! The inner monologue of Donzelle semplici's confession is the most exciting and shocking. The only drawback-perhaps my personal taste-is that her nasal voice is too strong and she always looks like Helen with a cold. If the contralto is ok, it is a pity that the soprano voice has this feature.
And between the Prince of Troy and the Queen of Sparta (quasi-), who seem to be shivering and crying on the stage at any time, all the long "dialogues" and duets are even more tense and stirring from the beginning of heavy thinking to the later anger!
Caroline sampson's voice of Cupid is beautiful, beautiful and witty. In performing this role, she and Magdalena Ke? Ená really achieved both singing and acting, especially in the perfect grasp of those subtle details. She portrayed the image of little love god, full of deception and arguments, so charming that the real Cupid would be ashamed. In the first act, her duet horse with Paris ... Zhicheng? It's so beautiful that people can't get tired of hearing it. The next aria "Nell's Idea" is very gorgeous, kind and beautiful.
Gillian Wenster's Troy solo Come sdegnare and Dall'aurea sua stella were particularly impressive as soon as they came up. Finally, Athena's aria T'inganni, il tuo destino, which lasted less than three minutes, was hearty, perfect, creepy and enjoyable, but it was too short.
Gabrieli Consort by McCreesh, the master of ancient music & Needless to say, all the instrumental performances are brilliant, and the recitation and aria are all exciting, which fully shows the profound dramatic power of this opera masterpiece.
Because there is no manuscript, this production is based on the only printed score left by 1770 when it was first broadcast. So at the end of the record, McCreesh also attached a different treatment of the last music, which he deduced by himself. With the passage of time, the weight of the chorus was increased, which really sounded in line with the tradition at that time.
I'm afraid this recording is too successful to be surpassed by other versions in a short time. On the other hand, if Paris and Helen can appear on the opera stage more frequently from now on, McCreesh will undoubtedly contribute.