Yesterday, the radio opera was Wagner’s “Die Walküre”, which you have heard part of, though you may not know it. “The Ride of the Valkyries” has been used in so many commercials you would have to refrain from watching any television got decades to have avoided it. You’ve seen me discuss “mad scenes” which were very much in fashion when the “bel canto” school was dominant in opera in roughly the first half of the 19th century. I don’t think any of the bel canto mad scenes conpares with Sieglinde’s madscene in this opera. Not the music, but the insanity. She has just had sex with her twin brother, from whom she has been long separated. She is tortured with guilt – necause she has just committed incest? Heck no. She feels guilty that she has ever allowed anyone but her brother to have sex with her (like she had a choice, having been kidnapped). While in Wagner’s imaginary universe, that all makes its own kind of sense, it seems to me nuttier than a fruitcake. The music is nothing like Bel Canto. But – I think it was during CoViD, when the Met was allowing people to stream free a different opera from its library every day, I watched Jessie Norman (may she rest in peace) play Sieglinde, and she conveyed the insanity in her movements – and also in her vocal tone. And now I can’t un-hear it. Let’s move on to some good news. There was a lot this week.
In case this is a little too obscure to recognize, it’s “Adelaide’s Lament” from Guys and Dolls.” I love that show, despite the fact that the keys it is written in are very awkward for string players.
Dog
