Pearl Fishers
Some people claim that this opera is better than "Carmen".
It's not.
Some people talk about the beautiful songs.
I heard some nice music, some nice, melodic strings of notes.
But I didn't hear any thing that stood out from the general sonic output that I would consider a song, or a tune.
In fact, I didn't see or hear that it had enough artistic integration to be called a finished work.
There was "nice music" but no real brilliance.
There was some nice singing.
There was some nice ballet.
And some impressive gymnastics.
The latter two going a long way to cover up the truly absurd libretto.
The story of which concerns a couple guys trying to pretend they are hetero who get into a lovers spat over an imaginary woman.
One needs to be a dedicated opera lover or the pieces mother to appreciate.
Roy Orbison did a better treatment of the theme with his "Leah"
I, on the other hand, whether I'm considering a piece of music, or a painting, or a building or an automobile, think in terms it's of global artistic integrity.
Being a fan of the automotive arts, I can appreciate a Skoda, a Twombly, or an Alldays and Onions, along with the Ferrari and the Porsche (356 series) of even the heartbreakingly lovely (original) Lotus Elite.
So I imagine that true opera lovers will cling to what they can salvage from this disconnected mish-mash of artistic genres.
And more power to 'em.
My favorite part was when I realized that the conductor of this trolley was none other than the despised orchesterfuhrer of the more than despised Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
I immediately began calculating a proper trajectory for lofting one of my shoes.
I had almost determined that it would take a 45deg launch to land on top of his shiny little head when I remembered that I was wearing the shiny, roomy, comfortable Kenneth Cole's that I got from St Vincent's for seven dollars and decided that discretion was as Falstaff described.
Anyway, I have no real animosity toward the short little trumpeter, it's just that he is the outward face of the SSO, toward which I do have animosity, not to mention outright hostility and even the ever popular HATRED.
I think it would be a blow for freedom and justice if the collection of social flotsam that calls itself the Seattle Symphony Orchestra were shipped to the democratic (and now Christian free) paradise of Iraq.
The whole sixth floor.
So that was last night.
Tonight it's the Chamber players with my all time favorite flutist Paul Taub.
The flutist who played my "Quasimodo's Dream Waltz" is an all time favorite, too, but for different reasons.
posted by Lane Savant at 11:34 AM
60 Comments:
Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) is an opera in three acts by Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique du Châtelet) in Paris. Bizet's most successful opera apart from Carmen, it is notable for its colorful and exotic orchestration, and for its great friendship duet, one of the most famous in all opera. It is still regularly performed.
The action takes place in Ceylon.
The local fishermen elect Zurga as their leader. Nadir returns to the village, and he and Zurga recall how their friendship was once threatened when they both fell in love with an unknown priestess. They swear eternal friendship. The priestess Leila arrives for a vigil of prayer for the safety of the fishermen, and Nadir recognizes her as the woman he and Zurga had loved. In the night, he goes to her and they acknowledge their love for one another, but they are caught by the high priest Nourabad. For breaking her vow of chastity, she and Nadir are condemned to death. Zurga, feeling jealous and betrayed, discovered that in the past Leila had saved his life, and sets fire to the village to allow the two lovers to escape. The opera closes when Zurga is killed on the order of the high priest of Brahman, when he discovers Zurga's plot.
Your review was boffo in its bellicose accuracy.
Fact that you could not even identify any glob of noise as a "song" was priceless, considering the reputation of this opera. I like the description of things as an "absurd libretto". Kind of reminiscent
of the absurd libido exhibited by Schwartz most of the time. You might have made the 6pm news if you had launched one of your shoes at the conductor. And this incident might have been the catalyst of reopening the inquiry into the grievous
injustices perpetrating upon the person of Palmer, enit?
Škoda Auto ( pronunciation (help·info), IPA:ʃkodʌ) is an automobile manufacturer in the Czech Republic. In 1991, it became a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The Twombly was a cyclecar manufactured in the US by Driggs-Seabury between 1913 and 1915. The cars had water-cooled four cylinder engines, two seats in tandem, and an underslung body. Few of them are still around.
The oddly-named Alldays & Onions was an English automobile maker, it manufactured cars from 1898 to 1918. The cars were sold under the Alldays name.
Alldays & Onions Pneumatic Engineering Co. of Birmingham, was a company founded in 1889 by the merger of the long established Onions (dating from 1650) and Alldays (dating from 1720) engineering companies. Like many such companies they turned to bicycle manufacture and sold a range under the Alldays name. They also started making motorcycles in 1903 under the Alldays-Matchless name; these had no connection with the London based Matchless company, and in 1915 presumably following representations from them, the name was changed to Allon. Manufacture of these continued until 1927.
In 1898, the company produced its first car, the Traveller, a quadricycle made in private and commercial forms, steered by a wheel. It had an unsprung rear end, power generated by a 4hp De Dion single-cylinder motor. However, series production did not start until 1903/4 with the 7hp model. Larger commercial vehicles of up to 5 tons were also made in the years preceding the first World War and saw service during the conflict.
Gee, it has been awhile since I looked up some of the incredible and esoteric references you toss out at we dummies. It was fun too. I like the concept of shipping the whole sixth floor, the Cuckoo's Nest of Benaroya Hall to the welcoming arms of Iraq.
Glenn
See, my friend, you too can be a music critic!
The only Pearl story I remember was THE PEARL by John Steinbeck; quite a different plot.
.............Trueman Cappotte
I agree with 200% on this critique, Lane. This opera always gets more press and makes more money than it deserves. Good thing for the promoters you aren't King.
..............Edgar Poo
I thought operas were all in Italian. Whoever heard of a French Opera? Certainly not in Texas, French fries yes, opera no.
...........George W. Bush
I drove a Skoda for a time; freaked everyone out.
............Elton's John
I owned a brand new Twombly in Boston, and everyone thought it was the car of the future.
..............Whodeenie
Dey tell me dat you don't get so many fags in da Opera, witch surprizes me since most of dem have verry high voices.
..............Vinnie
I actually liked The Pearl Fishers. French is a second language to me, and the story is so romantic, and the songs so sweet.
...............Emily
Gag me with a spoon, Emmy. That is so saccharine it turns my colon to mush.
..............Edgar A. Poo
What would a drugged up troll suffering from chronic depression know about Opera?
............Emily
Hey, I know what I like, and that puts me on Doug' s team, and in the Savant corner, squarely opposed to the SSO thugs.
..............Edgar Poo
Lighten up, Savant, i was a third of your age when I wrote it.
...........G. Bizet
No, I do not want a Walnetto!
.......Ruth Buzzi
Moo!
.......Bossy
Wait 100 years, punk, and look up Lane Savant in Wikipedia, and what will we find? Bezet clicks up a rich and useful career. I will brook no criticism from some yahoo who lives on a street called Redwing.
.............George B.
Sock it to me! Sock it to me!
........Goldie Hann
Had a terrific weekend. Melva and I saw REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, which turned out to be damned good, and LAST CHANCE HARVEY with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, which was damned sweet. Then we ate in a new restuarant called THE MEDITERRANEAN GRILL, which specializes in Greek food, and had a wonderful dinner; a total date night with the wife, enit?
I was able to finally exhaust the possibilities found on Joy Harjo's blogsite, and even left a comment on it, and became a blog follower; but she has a blog block, so I don't know if she accepted the comment or not. I also waxed nostalgic and posted a plethera of pics of the Beatles on FFTR. Check them out, fun stuff.
Glenn
I've been checking out your overwhelming output on FFTR, and although I like the poetry and comments you put on it, how do you expect anyone to keep up? You post at least a dozen things on it per day. And if the site is so good, and it might be, why don't more people leave comments on it?
.........Eddy Emerald
Very good question, Eddy. Since I can't figure out how to monitor the hit counter, I never know who is, or who isn't checking in and reading all that good stuff. Doug tried to find the counter on it, or in it, but to no avail. Setting up a blog is a kind of egocentric trip actually, done for oneself; any intrinsic value seems to be secondary. Even the superblogs like Alex Shapiro's and Joy Harjo's are kind of skant on the commentors. The exception is the hot blogs, like Jannie Funster's, where several dozen people check it daily, and most of them leave comments, myself included. It's like a gang that hang out at a local tavern, a clubhouse; some click, some don't. Or maybe my blog is too something, esoteric, too rife with symbolism, too liberal, too into poetry and rock and roll lyrics, too much me; who the hell knows?
Glenn
Ad leest dis blog has got a bunch of dudes and dudettes dat like to leeve many comments most days. Dat makes dis one a "hot blog" don't it?
.........Vinnie
What makes this blog cook is the blog master, Lane Savant. He, and his alter ego, Palmer, say the most outrageous crap, and get the rest of humanity all stirred up. One would assume that one of the few classes he ever took in college was Turd Stirring 101.
...........Kurt Vonnygutt
Find another site where the master professes his love for me. And good luck on that one.
..........Emily
Gee, Emmy, you don't think he is jesting, do you?
......Edgar Poo
Of course he isn't jesting; perhaps jousting a bit with my affections, but he does not kid around when it comes to his love life.
...........Emily
I don't think anyone really knows when he is bullshitting or not; not even him.
.........Eddy E.
Many of us are just grateful that he sets up a forum for the Gay World. It is hard to find a straight blog site that does that.
.........Tiny Tim
The only thing "straight" about this site is the humor, it goes through you like crap through a goose.
.........George Patton
I like it wen he duz the Opera criticizmms. Udderwize how wud da rest ofus ever find out what da hell dat's all about?
.........Vinnie
Though an outrageous suggestion, perhaps, but any of you could educate yourselves on the classic music scene and opera. Then you would be able to see the BS he packs in his sonorous pissing and moaning.
...........Jerry Schwartzz
Bite me, Geraldo! It is much easier to jist reed his stuff, and let him do da work onit. Anyone can see dis guy knows his music crap.
..........Vinnie
Sock it to me, sock it to me!
.......Rude Buzzy
I love to read all about classic car stuff here. Palmer knows about that stuff.
.........George Fourmen
I love it when he sits on my face and pumps me for all I'm worth.
........Fidelio
Christ, Fidelio, that was rude. Don't you have any shame?
..........Emily
Spokes and sprockets yes, shame no. You are just jealous that he doesn't go on long romantic rides with you.
..........Fidelio
There have been very few gay references or responses on this string of comments. Whatsamatterforyou?
.........George Mickel
Actually most of the ocmments Lane makes, makes me want to moonwalk.
........Mikel Jack'son
Personally I think a couple of rough punks had their way with him in the shower room when he was a soldier in Fairbanks. In fact, I'm sure of it.
........Elton's John
You know, Alice, that would explain a lot of things.
..........Tiny Tim
For God's sake, the posting was about THE PEARL FISHERS, and some exotic old cars, and my Anger with SSO. Where do you folks get off calling my manhood into question?
.........Lane Savant
There is no question about your manhood, honey, they are just cranking your chain.
...........Trueman Cappottee
Do you think I was taller than Bobby Blake? Everyone was taller than Alan Ladd. Look at the pics that Glenn posted on FFTR. Even in SHANE, when Ladd is on a horse, his stirrups are up so high, it looks like a kid's saddle. Frankly I'm surprised they didn't just put him on a pony and be done with it.
.......George Custer
I just had a poor self imagem, Custer. Being tall isn't everything. Besides, I was three inches taller than you were on my shortest day.
.......Allen Lad
There were giants in this world, and there were shrimps. You punks were shrimps. Get over it.
.........Shack
Actually a shorter man is more attractive to the womens of dis world.
........Herve V.
I guess you are not slamming little people. That would violate ten kinds of PC, and really piss me off.
.........Billie Bartee
Just ask how much tail I scored working with Mike Myers on those three films of his.
........Mini Me
There are gay dwarves and midgets in this world too. Several of them tutored me as a youth.
..........Tiny Time
Shrimp faggots....sounds like sumtin dat you eat in a Greek restaurant.
..........Vinnie
You might be surprised what one can find to "eat" in a Greek resturant. Just don't bend over in the men's room!
..........Lee Liberace
I am still amused by the photo taken by our security men of Lane Savant dressed up in pie tins and homemade armor, holding a long lance of some kind, with a pie tin helmet, and Anonomann standing next to him, screaming epithets at Benaroya Hall, as if the gargoyles would respond to such rancor and bellicose bellering.
...........Gerry Schwarts
If you had paid attention, putz, you would have come out and faced me. I threw down several gauntlets. But with you being a devout coward, there was never any question of you facing me like a man, instead of a pompous insect.
............Lane Savant
What da hell is dis? Is dis guy seriass? He ain't livin in da reel world, dat's for sure. I guess dat's da answer to all stresses. Jist puckerup and make some kind of "OOO" sound, and put youse leg over yer hed, and try not to fart.
.........Vinnie
He is new to the blog, Vinnie, so back off a bit. His intentions were good. There is a lot of anger and stress expressed within these comments.
..........Emily
Bite me, or blow me; you chose.
..........Edgar Poo
There it is.
........Eddy E.
Great Oriental wise man say,
Yankee, go Ommm!
.......Ping Kong
Hallo, Lane!
You'd be shipping a lot of Seattle's misty air to Iraq if you shipped "the sixth floor" of a building that has only five floors, and I don't think you want to ship "the Seattle Symphony" to there (the Symphony is the excellent musicians, who make great music despite limited leadership, but the orcjhestra's administrators and board.
Tschuess,
Anonomann
Actually, the board made a public point of calling itself
"The Symphony"
Back when the lawsuits were flying in '04 or so.
...........Lane
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