[EricDH]

The Tulip-shaped glass is good but I prefer the Glencairn whisky glass.

I have a few of these too. Perfect for a nice single malt...

Although alcohol is sold here in the middle east at "Norwegian" prices, I always have at least one bottle of single malt. And a bottle of Jameson as the cheaper alternative....

 

[Pandahead]

Coaster shmoaster!

 

[wink]

Shot warmer for the win.........

 

[stled]

Coaster shmoaster!

Outstanding!

 

[D2Girls]

looks dangerous

 

[wink]

Looks intoxicating..................................

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Parsifal will have to wait for a future post. It was amazing, and I'm still processing.

My reaction to Elixir is that Donizetti was better at picking libretti than Puccini. I saw Boheme on Friday for the first time in awhile, and dramatically I was not impressed. I felt as though I had yet to know Rodolfo or Mimi by the time the drama ended. Musetta was better, as was Marcello. But both the soprano and tenor do not seem given, by the text, the opportunity to emerge as three dimensional characters. I had the distinct feeling at intermission that we were missing an act of the opera. In act 3, Mimi recounts how Rodolfo has gotten irrationally jealous. Fine, but why is she playing narrator? Why tell rather than show? I get why Act 2 exists from the perspective of developing Musetta, but why do I hardly get anything at all about the lead characters? I feel like I don't know them, like my connection to them after the opera is that of hearing, secondhand, from a friend, about two people that casually saw each other and then broke it off. And then someone died. The frivolity of Act 1 pre-Mimi, Act 2 (including the ridiculous Parpagnol), and Act 4 (pre-Mimi) seems to serve no dramatic purpose at all; it's like I stepped into a sitcom.

Why is this the most-performed opera ever written? Is it just Puccini's lyricism? Is the opera-going public just really basic? Do people go for spectacle and tunefulness rather than a functional plot?

I feel like I get Donizetti much more. The music is on the same level as the text. They're both very catchy. The story is shown to us in real time rather than told to us. We aren't missing any parts of the story. We aren't filled in after the fact. Everything that we see is necessary to the plot. There's no fat in it. (Pretty Yende was a superb Adina; her acting ability and her supple, lyric coloratura make her an obvious choice for much of the bel canto repertory. The rest of the cast was likewise gifted at acting, but she stood out.)

Now, Boheme is about as long as Elixir, but there's nevertheless a lot that an editor could cut, a lot that's just about creating atmosphere. Dvorak is criticized for emphasizing atmospheric effects rather than character, but for all Puccini's association of melodies with characters (too basic to even breathe the word leitmotif) Boheme has an overriding indistinctness. Everyone is poor, the boys are kind of still in middle school. We get it.

I think it is a crime to have added a second intermission between acts 3 and 4.

I hope to avoid future performances of this thoroughly lackluster opera. It is better heard in excerpts, in concert, or else on record while you're doing something more interesting, like cooking dinner, or writing an essay on why La Boheme suffers from a bad libretto.

 

[Operaphile-]

**deleted post **

 

[Operaphile-]

I’d disagree with the statement that Boheme suffers from a bad libretto. It sounds to me like you suffered from bad direction and/or bad acting. The clues to Rodolfos jealousy and temper are, in fact, in the text, even as early as act one *with Mimi. A good director should bring these out. I’ll admit that I’m not overly excited to see another production of Boheme. I’ve seen plenty and I’m generally bored. Sometimes it strikes me as too saccharine. That doesn’t mean I don’t walk out singing the music, I do, but it’s hard to create something new with Boheme. To me, *that’s it’s weakness. There is plenty of talk about “the perfect opera” and Boheme is often put up as a contender, and there’s certainly a case to be made. It’s hard to screw it up. Sadly, that may have been what you witnessed.

I’ve not yet heard Ms Yende but friends who have say she lives up to the hype. Donezetti can be thoroughly delightful but you need good singing actors, but in Donizetti that’s often what you get. Donezetti is the popcorn or opera and goes best with good company and a glass or two of white wine. It’s meant to be enjoyed, not move you to tears. When done well it does both.

Moral of what I’ve said: don’t give up on Boheme or Puccini, but look for committed actors.

But an intermission between acts 3 and 4 is ridiculous.

 

[wink]

Let’s see how I enjoy Bohème.

May I suggest, on a bed of shredded Kale and carrots topped with a nice butter sauce......?
Perhaps, followed by a carafe of chablis.......

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I’d disagree with the statement that Boheme suffers from a bad libretto. It sounds to me like you suffered from bad direction and/or bad acting. The clues to Rodolfos jealousy and temper are, in fact, in the text, even as early as act one *with Mimi. A good director should bring these out.

I didn't dislike the acting at all, or especially the direction. The Zeffirelli production, though, is excessive and campy. It distracts from the libretto—though setting the second act amid such hubbub makes the jealousy and temper hard to discern.

The crux of the problem is the subtitles. They cut eighty or ninety percent of the libretto, including the comments to which you refer, and the more they translate the faster it flashes on the screen. I imagine Rodolfo's comment "Sei mia!" at the end of the act might have been elided, the only suggestion of jealousy that I see there. Certainly telling someone you've known a half hour that they are yours is possessive—though the case for jealousy and temper is not obvious to me in the first act—only in the second, and only now that I actually read the libretto. Please cite the lines in Act 1 that I may be missing; I just read the first act, but nothing really stuck out. Are you thinking of this passage from che gelida where in reference to his poetry, dreams, and fantasies he comments?

Talor dal mio forziere
ruban tutti i gioelli
due ladri, gli occhi belli.

(I do not speak Italian, but it is variously translated "But sometimes my strong-box / is robbed of all its jewels / by two thieves: a pair of pretty eyes," and "Yet sometimes from my safe, / all my gems are stolen / by two thieves, a pair of lovely eyes!" — feel free to offer your own translation if these are inadequate.)

The second act is where I think you can really make a case for this. At first, kind of being a dick:

Mimì
(ammirando la bacheca di una bottega)
Bel vezzo di corallo!

Rodolfo
Ho uno zio milionario.
Se fa senno il buon Dio,
voglio comprarti
un vezzo assai più bel!

(Rodolfo e Mimì, in dolce colloquio,
si perdono nella folla)

Translated: Mimì (Admiring the showcase in a shop) This is a beautiful coral necklace!
Rodolfo I have a millionaire uncle. / If the good Lord wills it, / I will buy you a necklace / that is twice as beautiful! (Rodolfo and Mimì, deep in sweet conversation, get lost in the crowd)

The next time we see him comes the most obvious invocation of jealousy, and I underline the relevant text because it's so difficult to translate.

Rodolfo
(con dolce rimprovero, a Mimì)
*Chi guardi?

Mimì -- (a Rodolfo)
Sei geloso?

Rodolfo
All'uom felice sta il
sospetto accanto.

Mimì -- (a Rodolfo)
Sei felice?

Rodolfo -- (appassionato a Mimì)
Ah, sì, tanto!
E tu?

Mimì
Sì, tanto!

Rodolfo: Who are you looking at?
Mimi: Are you jealous?

Then comes the difficult part. One translator renders it: "Suspicion lurks not far away, waiting to pounce on a happy man." Another: "The man who's happy must be suspicious too." A third: "The man in love is always jealous, darling!" I'm of course indebted to any native Italians who might offer their own rendering for the general edification.

Update: my godmother who studies Italian Renaissance art tells me she likes he second one, but would soften it to: "The man who's happy is suspicious too"

Mimi: Are you happy?
Rodolfo: Yes, very! And you?"
Mimi: "Yes, very!"

The jealousy is most clearly stated when Rodolfo remarks, seeing Musetta's shenanigans:

Rodolfo -- (a Mimì)
Sappi per tuo governo
che non darei perdono
in sempiterno.

Rodolfo -- (to Mimì)
Know this now, for your future
knowledge that I would never find
it in me to forgive constantly.

Mimì -- (a Rodolfo)
Io t'amo tanto,
e son tutta tua!...
Ché mi parli di perdono?

Mimì -- (to Rodolfo)
Ah! but I love you very much
and will be yours forever!
Why do you speak to me about forgiveness?

The dynamic recalls the third act of Otello, which had premiered some nine years before Boheme in 1887, and which Puccini would have been intimately familiar with—it was the highlight of Verdi's career, and probably remains the highlight of all Italian opera, with the possible exception of Poppea. The remarks add up to someone with the potential for suffocating jealousy. Yet even here I think I stand by my central critique of Boheme, that Rodolfo's temper and jealousy—and more to the point, their relationship as such—is only gestured at speculatively and retrospectively, and not definitively illustrated in some hypothetical missing act between acts 2 and 3. The night in Paris is, after all, literally their first date. What the phuck? Is that all we get to see of them pre-break up?

That said, the production's 2nd act privileged the spectacle and glamor of Paris above all—the jealous comments were stifled by the gaiety surrounding them, by the cross-talk of the other characters, and by the subtitles not drawing the audience's attention to the most important thing happening dramatically: the flaws in Rodolfo's character.

 

[Rtg97229]

I used to contribute also over at ASR but stopped a few months ago. It seems like the same few guys contributing showing how wonderful they all are and clearly showing biases on a few topics. Not worth my time. While I value measurements, to dis products you claim to measure and then say there is no need to even listen to the unit makes no sense to me at all. And yes, I an an Yggy owner. Best DAC I have listened to and I have heard quite a few.

Yeah I tried to talk with Amir over on that forum being as kind and agreeable as I know how to be. My experience was that Amir and some of the followers over there get very defensive over someone asking questions. I would have expected a "science" based forum to appreciate an EE who works in test and measurement asking questions about the test setup. Given Amir's replies and lack there of I still have no idea if he even knows how to use his equipment. Either way his forum is not a place I wish to spend time. Some of his followers seem reasonable but too many act like cult followers.

 

[astromo]

Yeah I tried to talk with Amir over on that forum being as kind and agreeable as I know how to be. My experience was that Amir and some of the followers over there get very defensive over someone asking questions. I would have expected a "science" based forum to appreciate an EE who works in test and measurement asking questions about the test setup. Given Amir's replies and lack there of I still have no idea if he even knows how to use his equipment. Either way his forum is not a place I wish to spend time. Some of his followers seem reasonable but too many act like cult followers.

I read your dialogue. I thought you were extremely diplomatic and was impressed by your intent to actually be helpful. I also think your summation of where you ended up and your estimation of the views you encountered is a fair assessment.

I'd agree with your suspicions of test equipment user competence. I can't see anything in the views of people reporting test data coming from that forum to inspire confidence.

 

[artur9]

The crux of the problem is the subtitles. They cut eighty or ninety percent of the libretto,

I find opera subtitles both good and bad. They help but selectively leave out portions that I feel are important from the little I can puzzle out of the Italian by knowing Spanish.

Will someone please invent the babblefish for opera use? Please? Otherwise, learning German, French, Italian and Russian idiomatically seems to be de riguer!

 

[artur9]

My experience was that Amir and some of the followers over there get very defensive over someone asking questions.

There's this and they really really seem to be the kind of people that have to have the last word. You can see that in his response to my example about measuring the right/wrong thing. His response did nothing but obfuscate/deflect the point and added nothing to furthering the discussion. One can see that type of behavior over and over on that forum. It's like all they know is how to create an echo chamber.