It was one of those "dusk to dusk" days in Cascadia: grey, damp, drizzly and dark. The Gloom is here.
The other day, looking into a dark patch of thick forest nearby it suddenly "dawned" (i use the word with circumspection) on me what the "Black Forest" must have been like: dark, foreboding, impassable and inescapably enveloping once inside -- the lair of witches and erlkonigs. I shuddered.
Up over the line for dinner the following day, I asked asked my German friends if the Black Forest was still anything as dark and foreboding as the forests here. "Neh," they said, in an tone that said, "nothing close."
About a year ago, I wandered with Nicki into one of these wooded thickets. It was Spring and not as dark by half. Still, within paces I completely lost my sense of direction and went into an instant panic. Imagine what it was like when full continents were so covered.
In all events, the gloom was such that I needed a little brightening up. As it turns out the NY Met's Meistersinger conducted by Levine was on U-Tube. What a cheerful production.
The other day, looking into a dark patch of thick forest nearby it suddenly "dawned" (i use the word with circumspection) on me what the "Black Forest" must have been like: dark, foreboding, impassable and inescapably enveloping once inside -- the lair of witches and erlkonigs. I shuddered.
Up over the line for dinner the following day, I asked asked my German friends if the Black Forest was still anything as dark and foreboding as the forests here. "Neh," they said, in an tone that said, "nothing close."
About a year ago, I wandered with Nicki into one of these wooded thickets. It was Spring and not as dark by half. Still, within paces I completely lost my sense of direction and went into an instant panic. Imagine what it was like when full continents were so covered.
In all events, the gloom was such that I needed a little brightening up. As it turns out the NY Met's Meistersinger conducted by Levine was on U-Tube. What a cheerful production.
[Full Four Hours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LILqOT9Ov4w]
A music buff i chat with opines that Wagner is Haute Kitsch. But he and I are agreed that this minimalist Wagner Moderne that has been orthodoxy at Bayreuth is just plain crap. Wagner was a Romantic par excellence; this does not work.
Several months ago he and i fell to incredulous gasping at a modernist Flying Dutchman which finaléd not with the fated couple ascending into heaven, but with Senta falling flat on her face from a fire escape onto the pavement below. Puleeze.
It's a shame about Levine though. He's obviously seriously ill and it's sad to see this happen to such an ebullient and emphatic conductor. Compare his conducting of the Met's Tannhauser a decade or so ago.
It's a shame about Levine though. He's obviously seriously ill and it's sad to see this happen to such an ebullient and emphatic conductor. Compare his conducting of the Met's Tannhauser a decade or so ago.
