Posted on 12/06/2010 8:08:25 AM PST by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
Anna Russell - The (First) Farewell Concert (1984) To end a long, hilarious career, classical music comedienne Anna Russell revived some of her best and funniest routines and took them on the road. This special PBS production, taped in Baltimore at the beginning of that 1984 tour, is a treasure for music lovers who understand that the thing they love can be charmingly goofy. The highlight of the disc, and the routine that most fans remember most fondly, is her discussion of the Ring cycle. She tells the convoluted story of Wagner's four-installment epic, with careful attention to its absurdities, and she sings all the roles in a voice ranging shakily but with determination through soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
The youtube version is divided into 3 parts. I will provide the links to the 2nd and third in my first post.
For those of you who liked the PDQ Bach version of Beethoven's 5th symphony, I think this will be right up your alley.
wagner ping
Heard this years ago. It’s hilarious.
I asked Borges for a classical music ping, but I think you own the classical music ping list. Can you ping that list for me?
“the first woman that Siegfried has ever met who is not his aunt” LOL
It certainly is hysterically funny. Anna Russell and PDQ Bach, classical music at it’s funniest! lol
Dear ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas,
Borges has a copy of the list, as well, for future reference, but I’m happy to ping the list.
Classical Music Ping List ping!
If you want on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.
Thanks,
sitetest
“Love has certainly knocked the ginger out of her (Brunhilde).”
Check out the film “Sing Faster, a Stagehand’s Guide to the Ring Cycle”. If you cannot get the DVD, it’s on YouTube.
The San Francisco Opera produced the entire Ring Cycle about 15 years ago, and someone made a documentary about the stagehands who put it together. It was not only facinating, it was hilarious, with the giants stumbling and falling over on their stilts backstage, and the roadies trying to date the Rhine Maidens, but the best was the stagehands trying to relate the story of the entire Ring Cycle in a West Coast Stoner dialect to the cameraman while playing cards backstage between scenes.
I like the Spike Jones version of the Nutcracker Suite too (yes, he did the whole thing). He said he got the idea from listening to Stravinsky conduct wearing squeaky shoes:)
(Getting philosophical) I'm sure I am not the first to have the idea, but love in real life can get pretty ridiculous too, so is Wagner wrong to present it the same way?
“Wagner’s music is not as bad as it sounds.”
— Mark Twain
Love, hate, power, greed, fear, trust, deception, ... all are portrayed in The Ring.
Wagner’s genius lies in the permutation of the basic theme of the Rhine into all the other themes: changing from major to minor, diminished chords for the ring, etc.
The permutations, I think, imitate the real-life permutations of emotions from one state to another, like love becomes hate, power corrupts, etc.
One could spend a lifetime absorbed in all the complexities of The Ring.
Thanks!
Oh yes. Spike Jones, one of the greatest comic musicians ever!
One of her great lines when talking about another singer was: "She has resonance where her brains ought to be!"
And Wagner spent MOST of his life creating it.
Get the Met Opera DVD from the early 80's. Amazing.
If I ever have a chance to see the full cycle, I'll spend whatever I have to for that experience.
From soaring joy, to determination to the darkest of human moments...he covers it all in both music and story.
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