Wagner Rarity At 18:30 Tonight !

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gn38r

I have heard most Wagner operas but I have never heard this one before ::

"Das Liebesverbot"

Enjoy !

[vetuste_ennemi]

Provocative title, Mikey. It's not about gay marriage, is it?

[mikey4444]

I'm sure I don't need to translate "Das Liebesverbot" for you, but for the benefit of others......."The Ban on Love"

Its set in Sicily and based on Measure for Measure

"Der Ring des Nibelungen" it isn't but the overture is smashing !

[Jackdaw33]

Never heard it before? Knows the plot? Knows the overture?

[douglas9401]

The only one I'm familiar with is the one in which Elmer sings Kill The Wabbit.

[mikey4444]

All in my Radio Tree ink above Jack.

Its fairly cracking so far. Apparently Wagner disowned it later in life, but on the evidence so far, I really can't see why !

[Mamyalynne]

Anyone can look up a plot to decide whether to listen and the overture will be over by now.

[mikey4444]

Mamy...the plot is not always the best way to judge an opera...take
"Il trovatore" for instance !

An opera that has been described as the easiest opera to stage on the world....all you need is the 4 best singers in the world !

[stuey]

The libretto.

[mikey4444]

Afternoon Stuey...I never took you for a Wagner fan !

[Mamyalynne]

I know it isn't, my answer was a response - never mind.

[stuey]

I like some parts of some operas, Mikey. I was just referring to the fact that the libretto contains the essence of the plot as it is the "wordy" portion of any opera as opposed to the music part.

[mikey4444]

Stuey...I have attended 100's of operas over the last 40 odd years, and its quite common for most opera houses to include surtitles, so that we can get the drift of any performance.

But I have noticed, time and time again, that these surtitles are a very truncated version of the actual libretto. So, the full libretto is not always terribly useful for the enjoyment of the performance as a whole. We can get the flavour.

For instance when Mimi's candle goes out, in "La bohème" the singers tell us all we need to know .....Che gelida manina !

That is sometimes true even when an English opera is being performed in English, like "Peter Grimes", or maybe "Billy Budd"