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Daniel P Quinn's avatar

Astonishing masterpiece by Ravel/Colette. While the David Hockney production was a failure at The Met, the one at LaScala by Max Bignens was a triumph, in black and white with a goggle wearing gas masks Chorus evoking WWI and the musicality of the direction by Jorge Lavelli in 1978. Unforgettable decades afterward.

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Daniel P Quinn's avatar

Thanks

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PJ Alexander's avatar

Thank you for this. Sabine one of my modern favourites. Especially love the duets she did in recent years with Lea Desandre. But I hadn't heard this before, wow. Aware of all the technique involved and yet it looks like it is just falling out of her body.

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Rebecca's avatar

I owe you a huge thanks for this. One of my first musical memories is of my kindergarten music teacher playing us opera clips and for years it's haunted me because I couldn't remember which one it was. Turns out it was the ballet production of this opera by Jiri Kylian Ballet! And the fire song was the one I remembered most, it scared me when I was a child. Thanks for solving this nagging mystery for me!

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Opera Daily's avatar

❤️

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Daniel P Quinn's avatar

Grazie Lei

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Guy Stalnaker's avatar

Thanks for highlighting this lovely work. Would be an interesting study to compare works in different genres that use anthropomorphic toys, or perhaps animals, some of which interact with children to reveal or remind us of truths we sometimes miss or forget like Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" (or E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"), Williams' "The Velveteen Rabbit," Pixar's "Toy Story," Sondheim's "Into the Woods," Grimm's Fairy Tales..

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Opera Daily's avatar

Ohhh that would be so interesting! Going to put that one on my list of topics :-)

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David Charles Randall's avatar

What's it about.. childhood obstinance.. and World War One..Masterpiece. And what a masterful performance of Fire!

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