 | HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE HISTORY OF
OPERA 1: An
opera is a theatrical piece where the feelings are expressed in music.
To follow the history of opera is to follow an evolution of feelings.
We will start with renaissance and baroque music: Monteverdi’s
“Orfeo” and Händel’s “Alcina”. Next, two masterpieces from
the Italian virtuoso belcanto school: Rossini’s “Cinderella” and
Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”. Then Spanish and German
operetta: “Zarzuela” and Lehar’s “The Merry Widow”. Finally
French Romanticism: Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” and Saint-Saëns’
“Samson and Delilah”. |
| HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE
HISTORY OF OPERA 2: (Participation
in course 1 is optional.) Our point of departure of this opera journey
is 19th Century Italy and the so-called 'belcanto' style. As a
counterpoise to
the ever spreading odious practice of requesting castrato voices
especially three composers tried to show how much the human voice can
accomplish on its own, without surgical intervention. Even though text
and drama became sometimes of secondary importance to the voice, the
belcanto opera developed to become a popular event, almost a challenge:
how well will they sing, how high will they venture (in tones), how
many embellishments and warbles will this or that singer accomplish?
These “show” events were often set against extremely varied or
very “gothic” texts. From this period of romantic song we will
examine Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia” and “La donna del
lago” (“The Woman of the Lake”). Bellini’s “Norma” and
Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore” (“The Love Potion”). Then
we will go further into Romanticism opening towards west and east to
Gounod’s “Faust”, Offenbach’s wondrous “Hoffman’s Tale”
and Janaçec’s “Katja Kabanova” as well as Dvorak’s “Rusalka”.
|
| THE EXPERIENCING OF
MUSIC - THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF MUSIC: About
music, about listening to classical music, about images in music and
music in images. About being able to “see with one’s ears”:
classical music contains atmospheres, colours, scents and feelings,
landscapes and symbols. It illustrates life and the world; countries,
towns, children, humour, fear, redemption, love and friendship. About
interpretation: the personal power of expression of the great virtuosi
– about the art of listening one’s way into the human being. |
| THE HISTORY OF MUSIC:
The
history of music perceived as an expression of consciousness rather
than as the result of social or political conditions. From the intense
magic of Gregorian choir songs – through Bach’s musical cathedrals
to Mozart’s clearsight and Beethoven’s revolutionary feeling of
self. The conflict of late Romanticism between Wagner and Brahms, the
descriptions of homecountries at the change of the century and
journeys into unknown worlds. |
| DREAM LANGUAGE, MYTH-LANGUAGE AND CLASSICAL MUSIC: Not
the eyes but the dreams are the mirror of the soul. Dreams are a kind
of “answer book” of the mind, our dreams know what is going on,
they show us the
path to take, they offer warnings and explanations. But if we
want to listen to them we must take ourselves seriously – and this
is difficult. An obvious angle of observation (a broom is no phallic
symbol but an object with which we sweep the floor) turns dream
language into an understandable language. And music can clarify the
atmospheres of the dreams. |
| A JOURNEY THROUGH THE
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNES: Who
are we? What is consciousness? Are we actually immortal, or whatever?
It is possible to answer these questions clearly by means of the
description of the seven layers of consciousness through which the
human individual experiences the world. From physical reality –
through instincts, feelings, everyday life, psychosomatic contexts and
dreams – to parapsychological phenomena and spiritual worlds. We
discover that the consciousness is wonderfully logical – and
fundamentally trustworthy: Life is Life-enhancing and Much
Can Be Explained. |
| THE HUMAN CONSCIENSNES
2: the course covers different models of the human consciesness,
and describes how to explore the human mind through music - and what
happens when using the 'fairy-tale model'. then the doors open up to a
journey in the mind, an 'individuation process'. This process shows
the direction toward happines - toward the good, the true and the
beautiful (Plato). |
| MOZART'S OPERAS,
MOZART'S WORLD: The
account of Mozart’s life – illustrated by the symbolism of his
seven great operas: “Idomeneo” – about parents who sacrify their
children in order to save themselves. “The Abduction from the
Serail”: the long journey to find love begins. The expression of
love is entangled in matrimonial intrigues – illustrated by the
dramatic author with the x-ray eyes: “Figaro’s Wedding”. On the
edge of the abyss: “Don Giovanni” – now despair has been reached.
“Così fan tutte”: the fear of the conditions of love is concealed
in humour. The victory at the end of the journey, the faith in the
strength of love: “The Magic Flute”. |
| BACH, BRAHMS,
BEETHOVEN: Each
in their own way, Bach and Brahms were musical architects with
masterly form as their specialty. With his dramatic sequences of
sound, Bach was capable of establishing an almost direct contact
between God and human beings. Brahms added elements of human warmth,
humour and gipsy folklore to the structures of his golden masterworks.
Beethoven was revolutionary behind his shell, the symphonic composer
with the piano for his one-man-orchestra. The kindly idealist with the
complicated personality. |
|
CHOPIN, SCHUMANN, LISZT: How does one confide one’s
innermost feelings to the piano? During the last century, the answer to this
question unfolded with a romantic intensity of which we have never heard the
like, before or after. In those times, they were not afraid to show their
feelings. The life and works of Chopin played by the greatest virtuosi of
the 20th Century. Schumann’s symphonies, songs and piano journeys into the
world of imagination. Liszt: the giant of the piano, the philosopher, the
patron of arts and the abbot. |
|
| THE WORLD ACCORDING TO VERDI:
Verdi’s music is simple and
easily accessible – at the outset it is easy to grasp. But once
Verdi has caught our attention, he begins to add temperament and
deeper feelings. He can build an opera so that – without realizing
how it happened – the listeners discover themselves involved in
situations of high dramatic tension. The course is a presentation of
Verdi, his life and works: operas, choral music, etc. |
| WAGNER: THE DUTCHMAN,
TANNHÄUSER, LOHENGRIN: The fairytale of love begins:
“Die Feen”. On his way to the final myth mastership, Wagner tries
his hand at a “hit”: “Das Liebesverbot”. But his
contemporaries do not accept him. Only with “Rienzi” does Wagner
create something they care to listen to. And then Wagner
goes his own ways with the first mastership operas: “The
Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin”. Here, we
are not having to do with opera in the usual sense anymore, but with a
whole new kind of art: the musical drama. |
| WAGNER: THE RING OF THE
NIEBELUNG - A CONSCIOUSNESS DRAMA : An analysis of action, music
and psychology of this multi-dimensional work. With the “Ring”,
Wagner intended to gather text, music, theatre play, scenario and
movement into one single drama. He succeeded – but great myths and
works of art often express more than the creator knows on the
conscious level. Through the understanding of the ring symbol itself
as being a knot of the consciousness – the whole work is resolved.
Wagner has struck the ore of the deep commentary of dream language to
the struggle between the light and the darkness, between good and evil.
This drama is about ourselves. |
| TRISTAN, THE MASTERSINGERS,
PARSIFAL: “Tristan und Isolde”; the
love opera of all love operas: the Celtic myth, music as liquid
feeling. “The Mastersingers from Nuremberg”: the art about art,
music as a synthesis of form and content – as the mediator of
friendship, festiveness and warmth. “Parsifal”: about
re-establishing the inner light, about trusting the consciousness; the
redemption after the struggle with destructive sex and treason
disguised as trust.
|
| PRESENTATION OF RICHARD
STRAUSS 1: Richard Strauss is an
aestheticist of music and a sound equilibrist. At the same time he is
insatiable in his urge to compose over a vast spectrum: he can compose
the taste of a glass of beer, if he wants to – and he even masters
the description of deeply complicated personalities such as Salome. He
paints mountains and valleys, philosophy and mountebanks. He is also
the greatest opera composer of the 20th Century. His symphonic works,
songs, the operas “Salome”, “Der Rosenkavalier”, “The Woman
Without a Shadow” and “Capriccio”.
|
|
RICHARD
STRAUSS 2: “Elektra”, „Ariadne auf
Naxos”, “Arabella”, “Die Schweigsame Frau”, “Ein Heidenleben”,
“Sinfonia Domestica“, highlights from his
remaining operas, concertos, choral works, songs. This course can be
followed independently of the first part of the course.
|
| SIX OPERAS ABOUT LOVE: “Carmen” – or about what
happens when one mixes up blind infatuation with love. The wonderful
love at first glance in “La Bohème”. Verdi: “Don Carlos”,
about the problems connected with marrying one’s son’s beloved.
Love in circumstances of political opposition garbed in beautiful
music in Verdi’s “Aida”. Beethoven: “Fidelio”, about the
ideal love that overcomes everything. And at last: the idealized love
under humorous opposition: Richard Strauss: “Ariadne auf Naxos”.
|
| SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC: About the universal, humane and
psychologically clearsighted features of Shakespeare’s works. The
story of his life and contemporary society as well as an analysis of
action and psychological contexts of “Hamlet”, “Romeo and
Juliet”, “Macbeth”, “Othello” and “The Merry Wives of
Windsor”. The story is illustrated by music: central are the three
Verdi-operas, “Macbeth”, “Othello” and “Falstaff” and also
Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” – interspersed with music from
Shakespeare’s own times and works of Mendelsohn, Tchaikowsky, Elgar,
Richard Strauss, Liszt, Berlioz, Prokofiev, Wagner and
Vaughan-Williams, among others.
|
| PUCCINI AT HIS BEST: Or – when opera is Opera.
Puccini’s music is “languorous” in the very best sense of the
word – i.e. it is an expression of tender feelings. Puccini’s
melodic lines have the effect of carrying us with the music on an
immediately accessible level of feelings, and several of his operas
have become public property – “so cold is the little hand”. But
behind Puccini’s melodic “schwung” we find an extraordinary
capacity of depicting personalities – and this element makes the
plot of his operas relevant and immediate. This is especially the case
of his four best known works: “La Bohème”, “Tosca”, “Madame
Butterfly” and “Turandot” but it also characterizes his less
known operas. From
“Edgar” and “La Rondine” – to “The Girl from the West”,
“Manon Lescaut”, “The Cloak”, “Gianni Schicchi” and
“Sister Angelica”. The course offers the possibility of
experiencing Puccini from one extreme to the other – as presented by
the very best singers.
|
| RUSSIAN ROMANTIC OPERA:
There is a special scent of
tradition, icons and landscapes to Russian classical music. The
Russian “soul” is a particular atmosphere that wells forth from
the romantic opera. First
in Glinka’s “Russlan and Ludmilla” and then in the better known
works such as Tchaikowsky’s “Eugen Onegin” and “Queen of
Spades”. Mussorgsky’s “Boris Gudonov”, Rachmaninoff’s three
operas “Aleko”, “The Miserly Knight” and
“Francesca da Rimini” as well as in Borodin’s “Prince Igor”.
All composers are presented through a vast number of musical examples.
|
| THE LORD OF THE RINGS -
THE 3 LAYERS OF THE MYTH: As a continuation of the
one-evening lecture “Tolkien’s Ring Universe”, in this course we
go through the congruence between “The Lord of the Rings” and the
description offered by dream language of ancient “mystery
initiations” (individuation processes). Tolkien’s works and
Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung” are compared, thus making it
possible to unveil what the very ring symbol is covering up: a hideous
psychological mechanism capable of constructing a false consciousness
atop the real one (thus making the individual “invisible”). |
|