Ganesha's Aria - Somtow's "Ayodhya" sung by Michael Chance

[albedomusic]

I usually don't listen to 21st Century Classical or Opera, but this really appeals to me. I especially enjoyed the performance by Michael Chance.

[banchasu]

Beautiful. Other-worldly! Thanks you for posting.

[Maestro2500]

I'm not a huge fan of Michael Chance whatsoever, but I think his voice was perfect for this role.

[purcellist]

Michael Chance's Ganesha arias "bookending" the opera prove absolutely brilliant! Bravo bravo!

[Cntr10r]

Given allowances for not being able to see the richness and texture of fabrics in a video - I know part of the consideration was how they would cast a shadow, in keeping with traditional Eastern dance and shadowplay. The production had to overcome such adversity. I'll do as granddaddy Deller said... forget the rest... just listen to the music. Imagiine creating such an otherworldly role like Ganesha! Michael Chance, you rock! Or whatever the classical music equivalent would be... "you Bach"?

[jeweladdict72]

hideous costume design! i mean seriously! hiring someone the caliber of Michael Chance you would think they would have given the production and costume design some more thought.

[lapanen007]

Now I know! This should have the music for the Lord of the Rings movies. This would have been soooo much better.

[lapanen007]

wow, thank you mr. Somtow. This is quite hc stuff. Makes me "feel it" and thats something =)

[Devadhyanah]

Is there any possibility a score will be made available for the public to purchase?

[Gentario]

I don't like it. His voice is similar to James Bowman in this performance.

[musxzart]

i am still having shivers listening to this. by far, one of the greatest countertenor aria in the 21st century. i wish to sing it one day too!!! Congrats Somtow!!!!

[32Styx]

It's so great to hear that Chance's voice is still as excellent as ever! In fact, his voice seems to have opened up and has become more 'lush' especially in the low register. And this is a great aria for him to sing both vocally and dramatically!!!

[Oebalus]

oh my god, that is a beautifull aria for countertenor, Thank the amazing composer of this opera for he has turned back his eyes to the countertenor voice and write something both beautifull and deep, I hope I can sing it one day.

[imbiggy]

This has got to be my favourite and most beautiful part of your opera...

I like how you intergrate The Ching and the Diatonic Gong Wong into your orchestra... I Certainly want to hear more of that... were there problems composing for Thai Instruments?

I also like (what I assume are) the sitar drones, But I'm a little stiff on my ragas. Which one did you use?

[somtow]

no problems composing for Thai instruments as such, just a bit of a glitch at first when I asked them to be tuned in the diatonic scale of D; for some reason they turned into a B flat transposing instrument by mistake ...

the Indian instrument is a tamburas (3 string drone) tuned to D and A. I don't know the names of the ragas I used here. The most striking one is one I heard on a Subbulakshmi album when I was a much younger, which I couldn't get out of my head.

[imbiggy]

Subbulakshmi! Hence the Tamburas! It makes so much sense now.

Is that the one you used at 3:52? if my pe

[imbiggy]

Pardon me. Must have mistyped. It sounded like you used this one: -

D E G# A C# D'

[somtow]

ah, THAT one is not a raga at all, but it appears all through the opera. It is the Balinese PELOG scale. This aria actually combines four musical worlds: Balinese, Indian, Thai, and also early baroque (as Ganesha is a classic deus ex machina in a Monteverdi opera and the music explicitly tells us so...

[Maestro2500]

@somtow I am a Freshman majoring in Countertenor Vocal Performance in the East United States, and I would love to make this aria a part of my repertoire next year. Has the music been released to the public yet?

[tacv]

magic...

[DrGarri]

Someone should have told Sucharitkul that this would have sounded much better if it had been composed at least a major third lower, poor Michael Chance, he does a good job considering the murderous tessitura of the piece.

[somtow]

It's interesting that you should say this. Michael himself improvised a cadenza that took the aria much higher, up to an F#, and sang it on 2 of the 3 performances (though I don't think it's in this version).

[DrGarri]

I like Michael Chance's professionalism and his voice. I've heard him sing many things very well. I just don't think he sounds his best in the tessitura of this piece, which, of course, is quite different from range. That he interpolated an F# in a cadenza is one thing; singing many notes above a B throughout an aria is quite another story altogether.

[DrGarri]

Any countertenor will tell you that the tessitura that Handel composed for the alto castrato Senesino is perhaps the most comfortable (normally from C to C). The highest note Handel wrote for Senesino was an E, which at A=415 is actually an E-flat. Mr. Chance sings Handel beautifully and doesn't sound strained. It is a pity that he does sound strained in "Ayodhya" (especially at the end of the aria), since the aria is profoundly beautiful.

[somtow]

You're right, of course. When I was a kid, Charles Brett was one of my teachers. I used to bring him songs I wrote and would play them to me, accompanying himself on the piano. Sometimes he'd say, "I'm not a bloody soprano, you know!" And yet, these days, I get the feeling the countertenors are shifting upwards. The ones I've heard in competitions, workshops, etc. seem to have their voices centred in a higher place. Thank you for your kind words about the aria itself.