Salzburg Zeitung - 2013 - First Edition

The Salzburg Pfingstfestspeile has undergone quite a few changes since its first inception in 1973 as a celebration of the Baroque.  Initially it concentrated on orchestral works of the period with the odd excursion into the operatic or choral.  It was often regarded as the poor step-sister of the bigger (and better known and financed) Summer Festival until 2007 when Riccardo Muti took over as artistic director.

Under Muti the Festival, in theory, became a celebration of things Neapolitan, though even then the relationship between the stated mandate of the Festival and what was programmed was often tenuous at best.  There were several constants - the Festival began with an operatic rarity from the 17-18th century conducted by Muti and ended with a choral work - cantata, mass, oratorio - from the same period again with Muti at the podium.  His Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra were always in the pit and the singers were often younger singers making first appearances on the world stage.  The concerts scheduled between the two "main" works were varied in content but always high in quality.  However by year four I had found the programming had become a bit tired and there was the odd concert in 2010 that lacked real interest.  We skipped the last year (2011) of his directorship, though we did see the opera from that year's Festival - Mercadante's Il Due Figaro -  in a later performance at Ravenna.  

We also missed the first year (2012) of Cecilia Bartoli's directorship.  Her's was a controversial appointment - La Ceci has always had her detractors, but then what diva hasn't?  Rather than a predominately baroque theme last year she chose to build the programming around Cleopatra.  This allowed her to display both her interpretation of Handel's heroine in Guilio Cesare with an all star cast but also offer a varied programme of arias inspired by the historical siren.  For the remainder of the Festival she was able "to call in her markers" as an regular Festival goer remarked to me today and get some of the bigger names to present orchestral, vocal and choral programmes.  According to Festival publicity 2012 was a banner year for attendance and profits.

The programme for this year was announced - as it has traditionally been -  on the final day of last year's festival and we mulled over the idea of coming for 2013.  We mulled it over for two days then ordered our subscriptions with that air of optimism you always do when planning things a year ahead at my age.  

The theme for the 2013 Festival was announced as being one concerned with Opfer - a German word that can mean Sacrifice, Offering or Victim.  I must admit I was a bit leery as this was also the title of Bartoli's album that was being released shortly thereafter.  There had been rumours that the Decca machine was pretty much manipulating things at the Festival as a sort of classical product placement.  But a quick scan of the on-line brochure assured me that it was a varied and in many ways exciting series of performances.

So here's our line up for this weekend:

May 17:

LiebesOpfer (Love's Sacrifice):  

Bellini's Norma in a new critical edition by Maurizio Biondi and Riccardo Minasi based on an original manuscript - with Bartoli as a mezzo Norma and frankly lighter voices than we are use to in this great "romantic" work.  It should be an interesting break with tradition.

May 18:

MusikalischesOpfer (Musical Offerings) - András Schiff playing Bach, Mozart and Beethoven - piano pieces linked to Bach's Musical Offering BWV 1079.

May 19:

BiblischesOpfer (Bibical Scarifcie) - Jommelli's Isacco Figura del Redentore.  A bit of a return to the baroque origins of the Whistun Festival with a setting from 1742 of the story of Abraham and Issac.  

FrühlingsOpfer (Spring Victim) - Three ballets by Stravinsky:  Les Noces, Le Sacre de Printemps and The Firebird.

It's the 100th anniversary of the scandal that was Sacre and the Ballet of the Kirov says it will be reconstructing the original choreography that cause such a riot in the Paris of 1913.  I'm still trying to figure out how Firebird fits into the sacrifice theme but any opportunity to it and the Kirov... 

May 20: A day crowed with events.

PolitischesOpfer (Political Sacrifice)

Where the Mariinsky Orchestra is Valery Gergiev can not be far behind - or in front in this case.  A fascinating programme of two works that had political repercussions for their composers: Sofia Gubaidulina's Offertorium and Dmitri Schostakowitsch's Symphony #13 - Babi Jar.

ReligiösesOpfer (Religious Sacrifice)

The marvelous with Hagen Quartet plays Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross - with Alfred Brendel (!!!!) doing the meditative readings.  

VersöhnungsOpfer (Reconciliation Offering)

Brahm's Ein deutsches Requiem bears no resemblance to the traditional mass for the dead but speaks to the reconciliation of the soul with its god.  This performance should be interesting on many levels:  it features Cecilia Bartoli, René Pape and Daniel Barenboim conducting his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.  Made up of young musicians from all over the Middle-East, and I do mean all-over, it is reconciliation in the true meaning of the word.

I must admit that looking over the programme - particularly that busy Monday - that we would have to sacrifice a few things ourselves - like aperitivo and eis caffe on the terrace of Cafe Bazar or dinner in the Sketch Bar at the Hotel Bristol. But somehow I think we can fit it all in.

May 17 - 1866: French composer Erik Satie is born.

Shoe In

I know that based on a few past postings there was a dreadful rumour out there that I was a retifist but I'm not really into shoes.  No honestly!  I mean I like shoes but I'm not like one male co-worker who at last count had 32 pairs of some of the coolest shoes I've ever seen.   I'd be surprised if I have more than half that and even then I find myself wearing the same ones all the time.

Take those great Italian brown leather sneaker style pair that I wore over on the flight on Monday.  They are amongst my favourites.  I found them quite by accident one day when wandering through the streets of Rome.  They are stylish, look great and are extremely comfortable and I wear them all the time.  Only downside is that the laces are a bit long.  Fast forward to Tuesday morning as I am transferring from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 at London's Heathrow and I'm using one of those moving sidewalks.  Now I don't know about you but as a kid I was always afraid I was going to be pulled into the escalator when I reached the top.  Same with those moving sidewalks when I reached the end.  I just knew if I didn't get off quick I'd end up going round and round like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  

Turns out that's not what happens at all.  When one of those suckers grabs - oh lets say a slightly long shoe lace on a pair of stylish, great looking and extremely comfortable Italian brown leather sneaker-stye shoes - what it actually does is send you crashing face forward and rips through the leather eyelets and traps you until someone hits the emergency button.  Result is one very embarrassed, shaken-up traveller with one shoe needing some very particular and creative type of repair.   And also a traveller with no brown shoes to wear when the occasion demands.

Again fast forward yesterday to a shop on a side street in Munich where we stop to pick up a few postcards.  As well as postcards the rather funky lady there stocks all sorts of fun and silly stuff - clothing, nick-knacks, cushions, table cloths and... shoes!  Really great shoes by Maruti!  And as I paid for my postcards my eyes feel on a pair of their washed shoes that though they aren't anywhere like my Italian brown etc. pair are brown, stylish, look great and extremely comfortable.   Now understand I had no intention of buying shoes but damn these had my name on them.  And while I was trying them on Laurent saw a pair that just screamed "Buy me Beaulieu".  What else could we do - beside we both believe in helping the local economy when we're visiting a country.

So here for your viewing pleasure are two pair of very stylish, great looking, extremely comfortable and dare I say trendy shoes.

Willym's shoes: if Maruti's publicity is to be believe these shoes are washed
and have some sort of special finish.  Much like my hair they will
continue to change colour as they age.

Who says blue doesn't go with brown? I think Laurent's
new shoes look pretty damned cool.

May 16 - 1891:  Richard Tauber, acclaimed as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, is born in Linz, Austria. 

Sidd in Spargel

Since our friend Lara introduced him to us Sidd has been on two trips with Laurent and I and two with me to England.  Unlike a few of our friends we haven't been able to take him to exotic places like Tripoli or the North Pole but we have shown him a few bits of the world.  We've also sponsored one of his relatives - you may remember Jööhann his cousin from Sweden who now has a job at Foreign Affairs - to come to Canada.

Sidd thought the smell of pizza as the Flight Attendant
came down the aisle with the trolley very appetizing.
He thought it tasted pretty good too.

As always where there is Sidd there is food, drink, sights and a camera.  I was going to get a photo of him in,  what seems to be his accustomed seat, Business class on the flight from Ottawa to London but he waved the camera aside.  Been there!  Done that!  Move on!

He wasn't too thrilled with the wait in Heathrow - and that silly episode with the shoelace put a bit of a kink in things - well actually took the kink out and had me landing flat on my face.  However he did experience the service on Lufthansa from London to Munich and seemed to enjoy his pizza and trying to make eye contact with the friendly fight attendants.  Once we had checked in at the Eden Hotel Wolff and we had unpacked, much like us, he decided that a nap would be in order.  After all it had been a bit of a journey: 17 hours to be exact from door to door.

But needless to say he woke up in time for diner.  And of course it's May in Bavaria and there's a saying in Germany that a day in May without asparagus is like a ... well May day without asparagus!  Well okay it really isn't a saying but it probably should be!  May is spargal season in Germany - and Austria too - and the markets are filled with plump white stocks of asparagus and they are on the menu of every restaurant in town.   At this time of year spargel season is hard to miss!  And neither Sidd nor Laurent and I missed.  Last night it was dinner at the hotel - asparagus, boiled potatoes, hollandaise sauce perch for me and a schnitzel for Laurent.  Sidd had a bite of each and pronounced them good - as was the local Riesling that washed it all down.  And the rhubarb compote (another seasonal treat) with sour cream gelato that finished the meal was found more than satisfactory.

Spargal, schnitzel, boiled potatoes and hollandaise sauce!
Many a gnome has made a meal of less.

You have to admit those are some spargal spears!

But there's always room for rhubarb compote, sour cream
gelato - and the mint leaf makes it healthy.

And there's small chance that after all that flying time even
this cafe-latte would keep Sidd awake.

At that point Sidd was all set for a good night's sleep and an early morning wake-up call.  We may have seen Munich before but to Sidd it was all new and exciting.  He had places to go and things to see.

More Travels with Sidd can be found by right clicking the link.

May 15 -  1858: Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.

Lunedi Lunacy

I don't talk about work a great deal because a) it's boring and because b) I'd have to kill or at least paralyze you for life after I told you what I did.  But I can guarantee one thing if I had written the previous sentence at work the position of the repeated "because" would have been cause for discussion.  Should the "because" really have come before the alpha tag or would it have been better after?  And was it really necessary to repeat it or would a single "because" have been sufficient? 

Yep I work with a bunch of language nerds!  The air temperature in our office can rise on the placement of a comma or the number of bullets on a PowerPoint as readily as it can when the kettle boils for afternoon tea.   And be assured that no point of grammar takes precedent over a "nice cuppa" in what we affectionately think of us our "college dorm".   But that's a story for another day.

So for the gang at the office who make my days, and a good few of my evenings, enjoyable here's a few lunacies that I feel somehow you'll understand and probably agree with.*  And okay that last one isn't about language but lets not pretend it's not something we've never done!**

*Yes I know I ended a sentence with a preposition but how often have I said it's a silly rule that was applied to English only because it was a Latin rule and the codifiers of English grammar where all bloody Latin scholars at Oxford!!!!  So drop it okay?  Tea anyone?

** Yes I know a triple negative - Geoffrey Chaucer used the multiple negative in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales to describe the Knyght: He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde (line 70).  Two centuries later, Shakespeare used it in Twelfth Night:  Nor never none / Shall mistress be of it, save I alone (Act III, scene i).  If it's good enough for Chaucer and Shakespeare then it's bloody well good enough for this crowd!   Anyone want one of Jenn's Costco biscuits?

13 May - 1848: First performance of Finland's national anthem.

 

Salzburger Zeitung - 2013 Edition

Yes it looks like we'll be making it back to Salzburg for the 2013 edition of the Pfingstfestpiele.  Its been a bit touch and go the past few weeks - are we going or are we not?  I won't go into the sordid details except to say that the procedure at the Heart Institute last week determined that I do have a heart and that it is functioning, after a fashion, and should I follow a programme of exercise, diet and medication will for awhile yet. 

Now I'm not sure if the schnitzel at Triangl, Bazartost at Cafe Bazaar or Salzburger Nockerl at Hotel Bristol are on that diet but we shall have to see.  But I'm sure that a climb up the Kapuzinerberg and a stroll through Hellbrun Palace are considered exercises.  And the programme that Cecilia Bartoli has created for this year's festival is sure to be as soothing and healing as any medication a doctor could prescribe.  So I'll just look on this as following the doctor's orders.

Actually this trip was planned almost a year ago - the tickets for the Whitsun Festival go on sale a day or two after the current festival ends.  In a gesture of mad optimism - and let's be serious about this you have to be optimistic to book these things a year in advance at my age - I booked tickets for a rather full Whitsun weekend (more about that later).  As the months progressed the vacation plans became more elaborate with each passing week until we had a full two weeks of traveling in Germany as well as five days in Salzburg.

If things had been going according to plan this morning we would have gone to services at Dresden's Frauenkirche and about now we would be entering the Semperoper for a performance of Halévy's rarely performed La Juive - yes David I know another bloody French grand opera!  And tomorrow we would be boarding a paddle wheeler for lunch at the Meissen Factory.  However the "best planned lays of mice and men" often go up the tubes - to mix and mangle my metaphors.  As it stands now tomorrow evening (Monday) we will be heading to either Frankfurt than onward to Munich or London and onward to anywhere in Germany where we can catch a train to Munich.  Such are the vagaries of travel on airlines passes.

We'll be traveling with our little buddy Sidd and he's been given strict instructions to have me write a bit about our experiences at this year's Festival.  So hopefully at his urging I'll be posting another edition of Salzburger Zeitung.

May 12 - 1754:  Franz Anton Hoffmeister, German composer and publisher of the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi and Von Dittersdorf, was born.

Mercoledi Musicale

In my post yesterday about my first visit to Stratford I mentioned that the Beatrice for that production of Much Ado About Nothing was the Scottish actress Eileen Herlie.  Miss Herlie had a fascinating career.  Though 16 years younger than Olivier she played Gertrude to his Hamlet in his 1948 film version of Shakespeare's tragedy.  She was to repeat the role in the 1964 Broadway outing with Richard Burton - though at least this time she was 7 years older than her son.  That famous production was directed by John Gielgud who had directed her previously in the West End in Medea.  She was a member of Gielgud's classic company in his season at the Lyric Hammersmith and played frequently on the West End.

Fame - or infamy depending on your point of view -  came early in her career: in 1946 she appeared as the Queen (left with co-star James Donald) in John Cocteau's exercise in intellectual melodrama, The Eagle Has Two Heads.  As the Queen of an unnamed Ruritanian country she performed what was one the longest speeches in the history of the English stage.  Ronald Duncan's translation contained some 2,982 words; her twenty-one minute tirade ranged from memories of her dead husband to an invitation to a young poet, who resembles her dead beloved, to assassinate her.  It was a performance that left opinion divided and very few on the fence - it was either a tour de force of acting or a theatrical pony trick.

Herlie was to divide critics, and audiences, throughout her varied career.  Harold Hobson adored her but she was the victim of Kenneth Tynan's acid tongue on more than one occasion.  Her Medea was memorably sent up by Hermione Gingold as "the grreat tradddgic awktress".   A transfer to Broadway of Thorton Wilder's The Matchmaker brought her to North America in 1956 and she stay there until her death in 2008.  During that time, in New York and on tour,  she played classics, modern (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), comedy, melodrama and musical comedy.

Eileen Herlie in  publicity photo for her
role as Myrtle Fargate in All My Children.
She was to play the role for 32 years.

Musical comedy?  Yes, though she really didn't have much of a singing voice the one thing Eileen Herlie had was presence.  In 1960 she held her own against Jackie Gleason and won a Tony nomination for Take Me Along, a musical adaptation of Eugene O'Neil's Ah Wilderness.  Two years later she appeared with Ray Bolger in the ill-fated All American.  With a script half-written by the young Mel Brooks - he failed to delivery act 2 and director Joshua Logan had to take over - and a story tailored to the talents of a fading star the show didn't stand much a chance of success.  But what it did have was Eileen Herlie and a lovely song that was to become a standard, Charles Strouse-Lee Adams'  Once Upon A Time.

Though it has been recorded by everyone from The Four Tops to Tony Bennett there is something quite touching and lovely about Bolger and Herlie's delivery on the original cast album.  Neither of them had great voices but they, and to my mind particularly Herlie, bring to it an aching melancholy of young love past, perhaps lessons learned and maybe even a quiet acceptance of the way life has turned out. 

In 1976 Eileen Herlie all but deserted the stage for the world of television soap opera.  She was to play the role of Myrtle Fargate on All My Children until three months before her death in 2008 at the age of 90.

As I said earlier - her's was a fascinating career.

May 8 - 1886: Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.