Monday, April 09, 2012

D.I.D. - Day 9

One of my favourite programmes on tv was Morse. I'd never read one of the books and still haven't because the book and the tv episodes have some major differences. We went to see performance of music from Morse by Barrington Pheloung, the composer of the theme music at which Colin Dexter, author, compered. From then on we spent as much time looking out for his cameo role in each episode as we did studying the story line.

My favourite episode was Masonic Mysteries. It revolves around a case that involves the Masons and more importantly for me, around a performance of The Magic Flute. Up until this point I had no interest in opera but one of the lines in the show referred to characters called Monastatos and Sarastro and I was interested to know who they were and how the story worked.

The next day I was down to the library and I borrowed a copy of The Magic Flute and read the English translation. Mozart in general is an easy listen and this proved the case as it isn't Grand Opera, where even the "spoken" parts are sung. Normal opera is a little more like a musical. The standout piece of music is a well known aria for a colleratura soprano. A fairly rare breed. Even if you don't like opera you can appreciate the skill. Listen and you'll see why!

The Queen of the Night Aria

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is the best version of that aria that I have ever heard, her voice is perfectly suited to it. Surely it must be the most difficult to perform?

Many years ago, my daughter's school had a visit from several members of the ENO who were going to perform part of the Magic Flute and I was invited by the music teacher since he knew that I was fond of opera. It was marvellous to be so close to such voices and I treasure the memory. I was also able to speak to them afterward.

kennamatic said...

That must have been interesting for you and for your daughter and schoolfriends. I don't think people realise how powerful opera singers voices are. To fill a theatre with no amplification takes some doing especially keeping it on pitch.

I was lucky enough the other year to be in the chorus of one of my groups when we had a female singer who, although possibly never making it to the Royal Opera, should have a career out of performing. She was a step up from anyone else I've ever performed with. It was an honour to share the stage with her.