#david et jonathas

[anniflamma]

David's last line from David Et Jonathas.

I still can't believe that a 1600s opera could make me feel emotions

[archiveoftragedies]

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was actively trying to make David et Jonathas as queer as he could, I like to think he'd be proud his work has aged so that now it's not only gay but also trans, truly the greatest visionary of our time

[alatabouleau]

Someone: So, what's your current comfort show? Me: It's complicated-

[attila-werther]

see louis xiv is very. hm. dislike. but. le Roi Soleil. that is free imagery. that is free terrible awful horror imagery for free, right there. however the everything about him kind of. eurhghh. you know? the age of absolutism. augustus inspires the same kind of 'ugh I want to take a shower,' feeling in me when I hang around that part of history for too long. however. the cardinals. the cardinals and the musketeers. (leans back in chair) (steeples fingers) the french david and jonathan opera.

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Highlights from the last two opera performances I went to, that had nothing to do with the (both times, excellent) productions:

The elderly bootlegger who filmed large parts of the performance on his phone, with his screen brightness turned to 345%. This (and rightly so) annoyed the lady seated behind him, who snapped her hand-held fan shut, and brought it down onto his shoulder with a force that the protesting creaks of the wooden fan could be heard creaking in protest over the music. The guy, incensed enough, turned left and right, but never around, and appeared not to have made sense of what had just transpired for the rest of the performance. The lady looked on, visibly contented with her revenge. The whole interaction was just as 1754 as the opera.

The other opera was performed in a church. Halfway through the Biblical story of David et Jonathas, a thunderstorm rose, causing thunder and lighting to 'enrich' the performance just in time for one of Saul's parts. I shall leave it to you to decide for yourselves in what heavenly powers you believe, but if they do, they evidently have a sense of humour.

[pfalztexter]

Heinrich vor Canossa

Das Historiengemälde Heinrich vor Canossa von Eduard Schwoiser aus dem Jahr 1862 zeigt einen ungebeugten, trotzigen Heinrich vor dem auf ihn herabblickenden Gregor. (Quelle)

Petrus Abaelardus - Planctus David super Saul et Jonatha:

[trostworte]

La dernière rencontre des deux amis, la mort de Jonathas dans les bras de David sont une des plus émouvantes pages jamais composées. Les quelques mots échangés, dérobés à la mort imminente, sont portés par une musique qui, elle aussi, va se perdre peu à peu dans le silence. Le chant, en presque constante suspension, se raréfie progressivement jusqu'à l'extinction de ses ultimes vibrations.

Catherine Cessac, Marc-Antoine Charpentier p. 241 ed. 2004, au sujet de l'acte V scène 4 de David et Jonathas.

[tinypiratebastard]

[itsjustcommon]

David and Jonathan embracing with an inscription below 'David et Jonathas' (lower left). Saul threatening David with an arrow, with an inscription below 'saul et david' (lower right)

[shimyereh]

Evens for the opera asks? Thank you!!

Thank you! Here they are, finally. (Under the cut for length.)

#2, 4, 6, 8, 10: [Already answered!]

12. Favorite clueless tenor?

It’s a tie between Hoffmann (Les contes d’Hoffmann) and the Duke of Dunstable (Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience).

14. A mezzo-soprano character you love?

Marfa in Khovanshchina. The three basses may be more politically/historically significant, but Marfa is the heart of this opera (and she gets some fantastic music!).

16. Create a hypothetical opera adaptation off of a classic novel (and cast it if you want!)

Edward Rutherfurd’s historical novels could be interesting material. (*checks shelf* I have two: Sarum and Russka.) The structure is a series of novellas, with each novella set in a different historical period, but always centered on a particular location and the same set of (fictional) families, so that you’re following them across time and seeing how they’re affected by history. You’d have to narrow the scope for an opera, maybe choose one particular novella, or a small set of scenes across eras where there are strong thematic parallels. I haven’t engaged with these books in a while, but I remember being moved to set passages to music when I was reading them, like arias from a hypothetical opera.

18. Best tenor/baritone relationship?

Skula and Yeroshka in Prince Igor are not particularly nice people, and I’m not sure I even find them sympathetic, but I’ve always thought they have a certain potential for Shenanigans. (*checks libretto* …oops, Skula is technically a bass.)

20. Favorite tenor singer?

I like Shicoff and Lemeshev a lot. They have pretty different timbres, so I like them in different sorts of things. Shicoff sings with so much passion, and has darker colors in his voice. Lemeshev is my go-to for a lot of Russian rep, including art songs. A lighter lyric voice, very well-suited to Lensky.

22. An opera that you do not vibe with. :(

I tried to watch Shchedrin’s Dead Souls when the Mariinsky had it up a few weeks ago, but I couldn’t quite get into it. It looked like a very dynamic staging, and I was curious about the folk music elements (I performed an aria from one of his other operas in a college recital once, and that was very folksy, too) — but this score didn’t catch my ear enough, and I was short on time while it was streaming, so I gave it a pass.

24. Favorite opera couple?

I’m not much of a shipper, but I think Ganna and Levko in May Night are a solid pairing. I also find Konchakovna and Vladimir in Prince Igor endearing, but maybe that’s less about character dynamics and more about how fabulously the voices blend in their duet. (Depending on the timbre of your mezzo and your tenor, it can be hard to tell who’s singing which lines! I love that.) I want to ship Olga and Lensky, but some productions of Onegin make that easier than others.

26. Favorite soprano singer?

I heard Krassimira Stoyanova in a few things recently, and thought her voice had some really interesting colors.

28. A character who deserved better?

So many. But isn’t that kind of the point in tragedies?

30. A Shakespeare play you’d like to see as an opera?

The Henry VI plays would be a *mess*, but I’d love to see someone try.

32. Your favorite secondary/minor character in an opera?

The Muse/Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann. Genderbending trickster sidekick whose goal is to get Hoffmann to stop falling in love with doomed ladies and focus on his writing. This character appeals to me in a lot of ways.

34. What would a gender-swapped version of your favorite opera (or any opera of your choice) look like?

Fun fact: There’s a discarded stanza from near the beginning of Ch.3 of the novel where Pushkin considered having Onegin fall in love with Tatyana after their first meeting, instead of the other way around. Maybe a gender-swapped Onegin could play off of that alternate storyline in some way? (I’m picturing a massive rewrite of the opera, with themes repurposed in meaningful ways. It would be highly controversial to a lot of people, but if done well it could be great fun.)

36. Favorite opera trope?

When they hang a lampshade on the tropes. Gilbert & Sullivan are very good at this.

38. Favorite mezzo-soprano singer?

Olga Borodina. A luxurious voice, somehow dark and bright at the same time.

40. You can steal one costume from an opera production to keep — what is it?

A few years ago, the local opera company had a costume sale to clear out some of their storage. I got this cravat for very cheap. It goes well with a number of my waistcoats and I have found many occasions to wear it.

42. Talk about an opera that you don’t normally talk about.

I watched a really interesting production of Charpentier’s David et Jonathas several years ago. The ballet sequences were repurposed into a series of staged flashbacks, which (among other things) introduced Saul’s wife and showed her death before the events of the main story. Then, in the scene where Saul consults with the Pythoness, the tenor who played the Pythoness was dressed as Saul’s wife. But his mannerisms made him read as some kind of otherworldly trickster. There was very much an unsettling sense of what are you and why are you wearing her face? The chorus women were also all dressed as Saul’s wife, and they drifted mindlessly around him as the walls of the set kept shifting and repartitioning into different rooms. The effect was fantastically creepy and contributed to the theme of Saul’s madness. I have no idea what this scene is usually like in a more traditional production.

44. An opera character you’d want for a best friend?

Muse/Nicklausse, again.

46. An opera you love more for the plot than for the music?

I saw the local opera company do Britten’s The Turn of the Screw a couple years ago. It was a very compelling piece of theater — wonderful acting from all the leads, shapeshifting dreamscape of a set. The music made very little impression on me.

48. Most musically difficult role you’ve seen/heard thus far?

Hermann in The Queen of Spades. He’s onstage almost constantly, and sings in every. single. scene. That must take incredible stamina.

50. An opera you’d recommend to opera newbies?

Maybe I’m not the best person to ask. I know what I like and I’m always excited to share my faves with people who seem interested, but the set of operas I’m familiar with is a little skewed. (As you can see by my other responses!)

[opera asks]

[jm-fan-street-team]

IT’S RAFFLE TIME!!!!  

Starting today and ending October 16th at 12:00pm ET (yes, we are doing this @isaacfoundation fundraiser in honor of John’s 42nd birthday!), you can enter a raffle to win this official Current Mood hoodie (size is XL, and it runs true to size)!!!

The drawing will be conducted in the afternoon on October 16th.*  One winner will get the CM hoodie, and four winners will get runner-up prizes that have been donated to us by JM fans:  a little “Heart of Life” wall hanging made by a member of our team, the Jonatha Brooke CD that John posted about recently on Instagram (see his post above), two JM Christmas ornaments made by a member of our team, and a David Ryan Harris guitar pick.  (*Each entry received will have an equal chance of winning the five things.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RAFFLE RULES:

You can enter the raffle for $10 US dollars, and it is open to anyone in the world.**  (**Please understand that if you are entering the raffle from a country other than the US, we are happy to ship to you... but if for some reason your package gets lost in transit or snagged at Customs, we have no way to track it down for you.  So, you must enter the raffle at your own risk.  Since we will be donating all proceeds to The Isaac Foundation in honor of JM’s birthday, there will be no refunds of your donation. However, we have shipped overseas to many winners in the past, and nothing has ever been lost in the mail so far.)

You may enter the raffle once per day from now ‘til JM’s birthday, for a maximum of 15 entries per person, or $150.  Other members of the same household are not prevented from participating.

Entries will be accepted via our PayPal account only, and must be received in US dollars.  If you are not in the US, please use PP’s conversion feature to make sure that your entry comes through properly.   Be sure to send your donation as a “payment to family or friends” and not as a merchandise purchase.  We will track the entries and update you periodically on how many entries we have so far (keep an eye on our Instagram page, for those updates).  Any entries that don’t come through properly will be returned to the sender.

Send your $10 entry to our PayPal:  jmfst@yahoo.com.  Entries are accepted starting now, and until noon Eastern time on October 16th.

In the event that we don’t have enough participation, the event would be cancelled at our group’s discretion, and all donations returned to the senders.  (Of course, we really hope we don’t have to do that, because we’re giving away some great stuff here!!)

All raffle receipts, net of the cost of the hoodie and shipping of raffle prizes, will be donated to The Isaac Foundation’s general MPS research fund.  Thanks in advance for helping us fund a cure for MPS!

Good luck!

PS Please see the Disclaimer in the right margin of our page.

[anniflamma]

"But may I flatter myself to believe you have returned to me faithful?"

Tisk, tisk… Jonathan, is that really the first thing you ask when your boyfriend comes back from war?

[phillipmedhurst]

258.3/402 "Amitié de Jonathas et de David" (1 Samuel 18:1) • invenit James Tissot • pinxit Louis de Parys • excudit Maurice de Brunoff apud Philip de Vere • praesentat Phillip Medhurst on Flickr.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmqZXxcX

[demoura]

CONCERTO DE HOMENAGEM A MICHEL CORBOZ

HÁ 50 ANOS : no dia 17 realiza-se um Concerto de Homenagem a Michel Corboz . Não estarei presente mas aqui lhe reitero o meu agradecimento .!

A 17 de dezembro de 1969, Michel Corboz dirigia o seu primeiro concerto enquanto Maestro Titular do Coro Gulbenkian, cargo que tem desempenhado com inexcedível competência e dedicação, contribuindo para a inegável qualidade e prestígio internacional deste agrupamento.

A entrada de Michel Corboz no universo da música encontra-se profundamente ligada ao seu fascínio pela voz e pelas obras escritas no domínio da música vocal.

Depois de fundar o Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, em 1961, as inúmeras distinções concedidas e o acolhimento entusiasta da imprensa às suas gravações das Vésperas e do Orfeo de Monteverdi (1965 e 1966) marcaram o início de uma longa carreira que evoluiu naturalmente, sem ambições particulares, enriquecendo-se todos os anos com uma nova obra.

A discografia de Michel Corboz conta com mais de cem títulos, muitos deles distinguidos com prémios internacionais do disco. Neste domínio salientam-se as grandes obras sacras de Bach e de Mozart, La Selva Morale de Monteverdi, as oratórias de Mendelssohn e os Requiem de Brahms, Fauré, Duruflé e Verdi. Na Ópera de Lyon recriou Ercole Amante de Cavalli, obra composta para o casamento de Luís XIV, bem como David et Jonathas de Charpentier. No domínio da ópera, dirigiu L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria e ainda Orfeo de Monteverdi.Em Dezembro de 1999, Michel Corboz foi condecorado pelo Presidente da República Portuguesa com a Grã Cruz da Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique.

[grafinyademonsoro]

Jean-Philippe Rameau, “Les indes galantes” (Bavarian State Opera)

L`Amour, Zaire - Ana Quintans

Phani - Anna Prohaska

I should probably also post some stills from Charpentier`s “David et Jonathas” with Ana, as she was incredible in it (and yes, that opera is exactly what one would assume it was about from the title alone).

[lesser-known-composers]

Peter Abelard - Dolorum solatium, "Planctus David super Saul et Jonatha" · Augsburg Early Music Ensemble