 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2010-12-04 17:29
...been watching the Met's cerca 1990 dvd of Wagner's Ring.
One of the camera views into the pit shows the clarinets one of whom
is really young. Anyone know who he was.
There are a number of bass clarinet solos throughout...Wagner was a wizard!
I bought the disk that enables you to go direct to all the clarinet solos in the Ring...quite interesting at times.
Clarinet Redux
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2010-12-04 17:35
That broadcast was my first experience of the Ring cycle as teenager...still love it.
The clarinet section was as follows:
For Das Rheingold, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung:
Roger Hiller, Sean Osborn, Mitchell Weiss, and Jim Ognibene (bass).
Walkure: the same, except Joe Rabbai on principal.
(Tip of the hat to Sean Osborn, who was almost certainly the 'young guy' you see in the section, and sent me this info a couple of months back).
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2010-12-05 21:51
LOL...amazing.
Did you realize how big a deal that Ring Cycle was when you were performing it, Sean, or was it just another night at the opera? Twenty years later those performances have become a reference point for many of us...thanks for the memories.
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The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2010-12-06 20:09
Yeah, and the performance and staging still hold their own as the best!
Contrary to popular opinion, I suppose, I think the Met Orchestra performed clearly superior to Solti's much lauded Decca Disks. ...love those Wagner tubas and Levine's tempi and insipired tradtional approach.
Clarinet Redux
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Author: seanosborn
Date: 2010-12-10 16:38
Eric,
My colleagues made sure I knew what a big deal it was. It's pretty tiring to put on, also. The thing I most remember from my first Ring, was that everyone else had just finished recording the cycle, so they all knew it very well. Consequently, and uncharacteristicly, we had few rehearsals, so I felt pretty lost. I managed to hold my own though, and the next time through, I played principal on Siegfried and Goddamnitslong, I mean Gotterdammerung.
I have now played the Ring cycle 24 times. I have played third also now, and hope to someday play the bass part to get them all! I enjoy many parts of it, and think Gott is a masterpiece.
I encourage you all to watch this spring and next season as the Met mounts new productions which will be movie-cast live in HD to theaters around the country.
Cheers
Sean
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2010-12-14 13:51
Thanks for this write up Sean. You certainly did hold your own, especially under the circumstances. By the way, I just introduced my kids to that Ring cycle this past fall (mostly Rheingold and Siegfried) and they were entranced--I hope to take them to some of the local cinema broadcasts of the Met here in Cleveland.
For what my opinion is worth, I think the Met (and other ensembles) will reach a new generation through this sort of thing. Can you imagine hearing kids quizzing each other on lietmotifs at the bus stop? I've overheard mine doing just that since showing them those video tapes from '90. Can't imagine what they'll be like after surround sound and theatre environment.
All the best,
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-12-14 14:47
Eric Seddon wrote,
>>For what my opinion is worth, I think the Met (and other ensembles) will reach a new generation through this sort of thing. Can you imagine hearing kids quizzing each other on lietmotifs at the bus stop? I've overheard mine doing just that since showing them those video tapes from '90. Can't imagine what they'll be like after surround sound and theatre environment.
>>
I've also seen kids respond enthusiastically to opera, and to classical music in general, simply because they had the chance to hear the music. When kids can watch the musicians making the music, too, it's an even more powerful experience. Interest in classical singing seems to be spreading. Several TV commercials feature legit operatic voices now, and not always as parody.
My own first reaction to opera was a little bit on the negative side because of the *type* of first exposure I got when I was about two years old. One of my aunts (my mother's sister) sang coloratura soprano. She had the lighter type of coloratura, not the Broadway belter or the megawatt Wagnerian with the heavy vibrato (she sang Yum Yum in The Mikado, other Gilbert and Sullivan roles and a lot of baroque oratorios, for instance), but even so, it was a real chest-tone coloratura and she could nail it to the back wall of a concert hall if she wanted to. Mom sang contralto (she and her brother and sister used to sing together as the Wrany Trio on radio in the early 1930s), but it was a darker voice than my aunt's and Mom was careful to sing half-voice around little kids at close range. Though I'd met Aunt Mary before, she lived on the opposite side of the continent. I only slightly remembered her. I really had no idea what was coming, the first time she stood up next to the family piano. I expected her to sound like Mom. Instead, Aunt Mary launched full-voice, with her arms spread wide, red-lipsticked large mouth suddenly gaping, full of gleaming white teeth, in the living room, from a distance of just a few feet -- I ran and hid! We ended up close friends, but that introduction, before I got to know her very well, was overwhelming for a toddler.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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