Rubinstein's Demon at Bard 2018

[edurban]

In his pre-concert talk on Dvorak's Dimitrij today, L Botstein mentioned that next summer's staged opera will be Anton Rubinstein's the Demon.  A must-see, imho.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes. I like The Demon. Would love to hear Botstein conduct it.

[Christopher]

I saw it a few times at the Stanislavsky in Moscow: you come away unable to hum a single tune (indeed, there's aren't really any "tunes"), and yet totally mesmerised by the atmospherics of it.  It's not really music that you would listen to at home on a CD, but on stage (if staged well) it really is quite something.  I would happily go and see it again. 

[scottevan]

Having seen the new production at Bard, I can absolutely recommend it to any lover of Rubinstein or Russian opera in general. It hit all the marks: vocal, choral, acting, orchestral playing, and in particular the production. Not only was it staged well, it was staged superbly, with an authentic feel to the placement of the original Lermontov tale (the Caucasus.) In fact, the Act 2 ballet featured authentic, and wonderfully choreographed, Georgian folk dancers.

I agree partially with Christopher's statement about the tunes. It's not as full of them as most Russian operas, but several of them (especially from the ballet) are still in my head two days later. Best of all, this is one of the few operas (outside of Wagner) with a highly literate, nuanced libretto, complex characters (even the Demon has his sympathetic moments) with the result of a real dramatic impact. Combine that with a great production, and you have everything that an opera is supposed to be. My companion said it was by far the best opera she'd ever seen.

[Alan Howe]

How about the music, Mr Jorden? You're paid to review it, not write PC nonsense! More fool the NYT for printing this rubbish.

[eschiss1]

in the actual review as against the snarky summary, he does do that, however well or poorly https://www.google.com/amp/observer.com/2018/07/opera-review-2018s-caramoor-festival-summerscape-and-teatro-nuovo/amp/. Conclusion here: don't trust snarky summaries.

[eschiss1]

also: Observer. Not NYT.

[eschiss1]

Well, you never claimed it was more than a summary. It was Mr. Howe who extrapolated and assumed that the reviewer made no reference to the music or the singing, whereas in fact there are substantial criticisms of both. (Not necessarily ones he will agree with, but they are not brief.)

[Alan Howe]

Eric,
Please do re-read what I actually wrote: I didn't say that Mr Jorden failed to review the music - simply that that is what he's paid to do, not air his PC credentials - to the clear detriment of Rubinstein's opera.

Apologies, though, about getting the newspaper wrong. My comment should have read: 'More fool the NYO for printing this rubbish'. I'm with John Boyer here.

And with that, back to the music and performance - which Mr Jorden has successfully distracted us from discussing...

[scottevan]

And with that, back to the music and performance...

Thank you, Alan; I was about to suggest same. I aired my thoughts about both music and performance, and am curious: did anyone else actually attend a performance?  Those I spoke to who did attend were uniformly wowed, and asked the inevitable question: why haven't we heard more of this work? (True, there are the inevitable answers to that, but it's still a question I hear a lot, particularly after the consistently fine performances from Botstein and Co. at the Bard Music Festival...)

[eschiss1]

Given that the NYO has since 2016-odd been an online-only newspaper, you may be wrong about the "paying" part for all I know (hence his describing himself first off as a blogger?)... but agreed about returning to things more specifically diabolical.

[eschiss1]

commenting to remind people that there will be a concert performance of The Demon @ Queen Elizabeth Hall (London...). on 30 Jun 2019.

[Alan Howe]

On the subject of the opera, the Naxos/Wexford recording is pretty well performed and sung. Oh, and it's a fine work, isn't it? The best of Rubinstein is to be found here, I'm sure.