WOZZECK - (Amsterdam) Louis Gentile as TAMBOURMAJOR

[operadude48]

This is just bad.

[Laroling]

If you accept music doesn't need to be 'pretty' all the time in melody, but can also have its dramatic purposes, you can listen to everything I believe. If you see marion crane being stabbed in the shower you might choose between pretty music to make it seem silly...or to make it horrifying; stabbing and screeching atonal violins. I believe even more in opera because it's both theater and music, music doesn't need to be 'pretty', just like with the movies. It will be haunting in its own way.

[rumpwrestler]

Anyone who thinks this music is difficult is somewhat behind the times. This is like the end of the late Romantic Period on LSD. It's a masterwork, brilliant, and a superb opera. I've seen this opera in most of the world's major opera houses and the public(s) were most enthusiastic. Within a few years WOZZECK will be one hundred years old.......

[jbrown91287]

This music may be difficult to listen to, but part of that is the history of what was going on when this opera was conceived. The rise of the National Socialist party was beginning, and the first performance of this was in Berlin in 1925. This music reflects what society was going through, the break down of the known and the comfortable, with WWI close at our heels. it may be hard to listen to, but it is a huge turning point in music composition as we know it.

[stefankolosko]

you are a good singer and actor!!

[johnmannno]

Lordy folks! If y'all think Mr Berg is "aweful" for your ears, what, prithee, d'you think of Webern? Or George Crumb? Or..GASP!! JOHN CAGE?!?! Alas, classical music is dead, or at least dying...alas...

[LJBSasha]

I can't deny that Berg CAN be awful for one's ears (though he's the kindest of the 2nd Viennese School), but at least he, Webern and their master Schönberg WERE genuine composers and musicians believing in what they were doing. John Cage is NO composer whatsoever - just a philosopher and satirist who was out to question the whole idea of music!

We otherwise must look to Prokófjjev, Shostakóvich, Britten, Poulenc, Messiaen, the 2nd-Viennese School and PERHAPS Pärt, Rutter and Taverner...

[rumpwrestler]

@LJBSasha You're an asshole. John Cage and Stravinsky were the two top, important composers of the 20th Century. I knew both of them personally. As for Berg, he's easy to listen to for those people who love adventure, are not puny opera going jerks who want 'tradition' (whatever that is).... Grow up.

[LJBSasha]

@rumpwrestler: with all respect, I'm entitled to my opinions just as much as you!! Stop your puerile sexual invective!!

Otherwise, I'm OK with Ígorj Fjódorovich Stravínskiy: yes, he was also a genuine composer believing in what he was doing. - no problems with him. However, I DO honestly and thoroughly despise Mr. Cage: anybody could do 4'33", even the most unimaginative!! Cage doesn't deserve a single thought or penny - it's just like that 'painting' "Voices of Fire"!!! YOU grow up!!

[yourockets3]

@LJBSasha I disagree on Cage. I dont' think he's the best, but he surely was a great composer ( and musical thinker). 4'33'' is a masterpiece, if you can listen to it. the point is not thata anyone could do it, but that no one did it before and that no one could do something similar after it without being ridicolous. such simple, strong and deep ideas stand alone by themselves. ever you heard a live performance of this piece?

[LJBSasha]

@yourockets3: No, I've not heard a "live" performance of "4'33"" - and given what I know of it, there's no point in attending a thing of the sort!!! That nobody did it before means nothing: novelty wears off very quickly, so once its shock value's gone, it's visible as the titillation it really is. For a piece of real music to survive, it has to speak to both the emotions AND the intellect - and beyond a specific time-period!! Cage most certainly with such drivel does NOT do so!!!

[yourockets3]

@LJBSasha it's a pity I have to anwer in a language that isn't mine - it is very difficult. you had to listen to sucha performance - I hunderstand your point of view, but it's wrong: too close. I'm not talkimg about novelty: I'm talking about poetry. cage opened a new space for music - a new space for listening. 4 33 make you aware on what music is, open your hears - it the world's score meaning it let sounds come and reveals them to the listener. this is phiosophical music.

[LJBSasha]

@yourockets3: First, let me assure you that your command of English, aside from a few spelling/grammatical mistakes, is amply acceptable.

Al meno, io posso Loro dire che il vostro inglese è meglio che il mio italiano, ed anche che ho passato tredici anni della mia vita come ragazzo a Roma (adesso è 33 anni dopo che ho partito da quella città per sempre). Però, non ho nessuno pazienza per la filosofia - nella cosa ditta non credo!! [Sono un pochettino fanatico come cristiano.]

[yourockets3]

@LJBSasha Thank :) your italian is comprehensible and it's such a rare thing to find someone who speaks italian out of italy. We can agree that all things are put in some sort of cages, but there are tihghter ones and wider ones. I think usually is a good exercise to try to open ours cages. Each of us has he's insurmontable walls, and this is right - we don't have to accept everything. what I'm asking you is not to dig cage's music, but to accept it from a critical point of view

[yourockets3]

@yourockets3 secon part :) I am forced to accept that Michael Jackson was a creat professional even if I think his music was closer to shit than to music. and I'm forced too to admit he had great musicl talent ( I'm a musician I can evalutate this sort of things...). I think that in 2011 it' impossible to assume Schoenberg provocation on Cage ( "is a philosopher not a composer"). listen at least to sonatas and interludes ...

[yourockets3]

and thought can move emotions - but this isn't the point. you think there's something called music - I think there are several thungs called music. you say that music for survive have to tlak to emotion and to intellect - you put music in a cage ( :) ). Medioeval music was intended to be for mind only, rock for the body ( and emotions), tibetan chant for praying. it's not a point of agree or disagree. Cage is a composer you like it or not - at least because each composer/musician feels that.

[LJBSasha]

@yourockets3: Perhaps music - like MANY, many things - does end up put into a cage of some sort; however, let's face it: the best music speaks to BOTH the mind and the emotions. If music of mediæval times was supposedly written only for the mind (something I doubt very much), enough of it still speaks to the emotions (and no less that of the Renaissance as composed by Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria or Byrd, which openly does!). It's not like what Stravínskiy was deliberately trying at times.

[LJBSasha]

We can also note that even what was written in the Golden Age of Romanticism (1820-1910 more or less - with Puccini dying in 1924, Elgar in 1934, Rakhmáñinov in 1943, Richard Strauß in 1949 - & Shostakóvich taking some of its language and so keeping it alive until 1975!!) was by no means uninteresting for the mind when written by truly great composers with the best of intentions. Certainly what Wagner, Debussy, Berg & Shostakóvich did operatically fascinates both the mind as well as the emotions

[yourockets3]

@LJBSasha I agree on this point, but I prefer not to decide what music is before listening to something. there's music for brain, music for emotions, music for body, music for prayer, music ... and music for a mix of these things. I repeat myself: one is not obliged to appreciate all, but should learn to recognize them.most of sacred polipohny of ars nova was based only on speculative criteria no less than structural music of the '60s and 70s.our emotions are subjectives.someone's moved by maths

[LJBSasha]

John Cage: thinker, maybe; composer, NO!!! If you feel otherwise, @yourockets3, with all due respect we'll simply have to agree to disagree. Experimentation for experimentation's sake dies very quickly - in fact, the very perception of something needing to be like that is a major reason in my opinion for the current moribund and irrelevant state of "classical" music.

[derwozzeck]

One of the most powerful productions i have seen. Houses in all shapes and sizes return in every scene. And a marvelous peace of music. Maybe difficult at first but hang in there, you will get rewarded in the end.

[nibelungensohn]

Seems like a good production. I like how the sloped house exterior is used for dramatic actions. The Drum Major here comes off as an obnoxious asshole as he should be. The orchestra seems pretty good too. Well done.

[bouncingalong1001]

i love berg - this is a beautiful production and sounds wo

[LJBSasha]

Sorry folks: Signor Gentile and his partner (what's her name?) sing very well indeed and the orchestra is excellent. However, those "modernistic" productions are positively ANATHEMA to me!!!

I'm NOT a "Socialist Realist", but yours truly DOES want his visual elements to be natural, following what the composer specifies in the score and not twisting things to follow the narcissistic desires of some creep calling himself a "stage director" and out to make a name for himself at all costs!!!

[bouncingalong1001]

Bergs music is wierd and wonderful. So emotional! The video is really interesting. Great!

[moew99]

bergs music can be really aweful for my ears, i'm composing too and that is sooo weird! The setting is nice!

[renethel]

omg thank you! finally there's sum1 who feels the same way about berg's music!

[nibelungensohn]

Try the Berg Violin Concerto recording by Mutter and Levine. It might change you mind.

[renethel]

maybe. but nothing can change the way i feel about his operas. a violin concerto sounds more promising though.

[rumpwrestler]

@nibelungensohn That is one of the most sublime of works. As are LULU and WOZZECK