The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera (84 page)

Read The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera Online

Authors: Rupert Christiansen

Tags: #Music, #Genres & Styles, #Opera

BOOK: The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera
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What to listen for

Almost an oratorio in style, much influenced by Bach’s Passions, in which the story proceeds largely through a sequence of long meditative choruses and arias in which events are related and then pondered from different perspectives.
The score is richer and more complex, but less immediately accessible and entertaining, than that of
Nixon
in
China.
The image of the sea constantly laps in undulations through the music.
As well as some tremendous fortissimo choruses (at the end of Act I, for instance), there are passages of potent beauty, notably the Act II chorus ‘Hagar and the Angel’.
Amplified sound is used at certain points.

In performance

The inflammatory issue of political terrorism and the refusal to make predictable condemnations of the Palestinian question has made this opera extremely controversial.
The grey, austere and deliberately unemotional original production by Peter Sellars avoided any visual distinctions between
Palestinians and Jews, emphasizing the common root of both religions and their shared experience of dispossession.
The opera does not have conventionally conceived characters (dancers act out much of the story), but its central figure is the ship’s Conradian Captain – neither Jewish nor Palestinian – who stands between passengers and hijackers, unable to control the destiny of his ship.

Recording

CD: James Maddalena (Captain); Kent Nagano (cond.).
Nonesuch 7559 79281 2

Index of Operas

Where an opera is known well in both its original title and its translation, it will appear twice.
Operas mentioned in passing appear in italics.

  • Abduction from the Seraglio, The
    1
  • Aida
    1
  • Akhnaten
    1
  • Albert Herring
    1
  • Alceste
    1
  • Alcina
    1
  • Amahl
    and
    the
    Night
    Visitors
    1
  • Andrea Chénier
    1
  • Anna Bolena
    1
  • Antony
    and
    Cleopatra
    1
  • Arabella
    1
  • Ariadne auf Naxos
    1
  • Arianna
    1
  • Ariodante
    1
  • Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny
    1
  • Ballo in Maschera, Un
    1
  • Barbiere di Siviglia, Il
    1
  • Bartered Bride, The
    1
  • Bassarids,
    The
    1
  • Béatrice et Bénédict
    1
  • Beggar’s
    Opera,
    The
    1
    ,
    2
    ,
    3
    ,
    4
  • La Belle Hélène, La
    1
  • Billy Budd
    1
  • Bitter
    Sweet
    1
  • Bluebeard’s Castle
    1
  • Boar’s
    Head,
    At
    the
    1
  • Bohème, La
    1
  • Bohème,
    La
    (Leoncavallo)
    1
  • Bohemian
    Girl,
    The
    1
  • Boris Godunov
    1
  • Boulevard
    Solitude
    1
  • Burning
    Fiery
    Furnace,
    The
    1
  • Cabaret
    1
  • Calisto, La
    1
  • Camelot
    1
  • Candide
    1
  • Capriccio
    1
  • Capuleti e Montecchi, I
    1
  • Cardillac
    1
  • Carmen
    1
  • Carousel
    1
  • Cavalleria rusticana
    1
  • Cenerentola, La
    1
  • Clemenza di Tito, La
    1
  • Comte
    Ory,
    Le
    1
  • Consul,
    The
    1
  • Contes d’Hoffmann, Les
    1
  • Coronation of Poppea, The
    1
  • Così fan tutte
    1
  • Cunning Little Vixen, The
    1
  • Curlew
    River
    1
  • Damnation de Faust, La
    1
  • Daphne
    1
  • Death in Venice
    1
  • Death of Klinghoffer, The
    1
  • Desert
    Song,
    The
    1
  • Dialogues des Carmélites
    1
  • Dido and Aeneas
    1
  • Don Carlos
    1
  • Don Giovanni
    1
  • Don Pasquale
    1
  • Dragon
    of Wantley,
    The
    1
  • Einstein
    on
    the
    Beach
    1
  • Elegy for Young Lovers
    1
  • Elektra
    1
  • Elisir d’Amore, L’
    1
  • Enfant et les sortilèges, L’
    1
  • Entführung aus dem Serail, Die
    1
  • Ernani
    1
  • Eugene Onegin
    1
  • Evita
    1
  • Falstaff
    1
  • Fanciulla del West, La
    1
  • Faust
    1
  • Fidelio
    1
  • Fiery
    Angel,
    The
    1
  • Fledermaus, Die
    1
  • Flying Dutchman, The
    1
  • Forza del Destino, La
    1
  • Frau ohne Schatten, Die
    1
  • Freischütz, Der
    1
  • From the House of the Dead
    1
  • Gambler,
    The
    1
  • Gawain
    1
  • Gazza
    Ladra,
    La
    1
  • Gioconda,
    La
    1
  • Gypsy
    Baron,
    The
    1
  • Girl of the Golden West, The
    1
  • Giulio Cesare,
    1
  • Gloriana
    1
  • Golden
    Cockerel,
    The
    1
  • Grand
    Macabre,
    le
    1
  • Great
    Gatsby,
    The
    1
  • Greek,
    1
  • Guillaume Tell,
    1
  • Guys
    and
    Dolls
    1
  • Hamlet
    1
  • Hänsel und Gretel
    1
  • Haunted
    Manor,
    The
    1
  • Heure
    Espagnole,
    L’
    1
  • Horseman,
    The
    1
  • Hugh
    the
    Drover,
    1
  • Huguenots,
    Les
    1
  • Ice
    Break,
    The
    1
  • Idomeneo
    1
  • Incoronazione di Poppea, L’
    1
  • Iolanthe
    1
  • Iphigénie en Tauride
    1
  • Italiana in Algeri, L’
    1
  • Ivanhoe
    1
  • Jenůfa
    1
  • Julius Caesar
    1
  • Junge
    Lord,
    Der
    1
  • Kát’a Kabanová
    1
  • Khovanshchina
    1
  • King
    Priam
    1
  • King
    Roger
    1
  • Kismet
    1
  • Knot
    Garden,
    The
    1
  • Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
    1
  • Last
    Supper,
    The
    1
  • Leonore
    1
  • Licht
    1
  • Liebersverbot,
    Das
    1
  • Life
    for
    the
    Tsar,
    A
    1
  • Life
    with
    an
    Idiot
    1
  • Lily
    of Killarney,
    The
    1
  • Little
    Night
    Music,
    A
    1
  • Lohengrin
    1
  • Louise
    1
  • Love
    for
    Three
    Oranges,
    The
    1
  • Lucia di Lammermoor
    1
  • Luisa Miller
    1
  • Lulu
    1
  • Lustige Witwe, Die
    1
  • Lustigen
    Weiber
    von
    Windsor,
    Die
    1
  • Macbeth
    1
  • Madama Butterfly
    1
  • Magic Flute, The
    1
  • Mahagonny
    1
  • Maid
    of
    Orleans,
    The
    1
  • Makropulos Case, The
    1
  • Manon
    1
  • Manon Lescaut
    1
  • Maometto
    Secondo,
    1
  • Maria
    Stuarda
    1
  • Maritana
    1
  • Marriage of Figaro, The
    1
  • Mask
    of
    Orpheus,
    The
    1
  • Masked Ball, A
    1
  • Mastersingers of Nuremberg, The
    1
  • Mathis
    der
    Maler
    1
  • Matrimonio
    Segreto,
    Il
    1
  • Mazeppa
    1
  • Medium, The
    1
  • Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Die
    1
  • Merry Widow, The
    1
  • Mice
    and
    Men,
    Of
    1
  • Midsummer Marriage, The
    1
  • Midsummer Night’s Dream, A
    1
  • Mikado, The
    1
  • Misérables,
    Les
    1
  • Mòse
    in
    Egitto
    1
  • Moses und Aron
    1

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