I'm excited about starting this book. For one thing, The Idiot wore me out, and I need to read something other than Dostoyevsky. For another thing, I love opera...and I do not know Handel's operas at all, so I'm anxious to rectify that situation. Also, I know Nathan Link and like him a lot. He was one of my #1🌞's teachers at Centre College. And just a wonderful guy.
I was planning on looking up bits of music as I read, but I may not have to, as there is a Companion Website: https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780197651346/ . That's A nice thing, ennit? xix + 367 = 386...13 days? We'll see.
Okay. Let's go.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,326) March 14, 2024
Read to page 30. A challenging read...and with musical terminology that was beyond me. But I am grasping the main stuff, and I've enjoyed the read.
The first reference to a piece of a Handel opera occurs on page 1 of the Introduction: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Act II: "V'adoro, pupille." Alas, the website accompanying the book didn't provide a link for this one, so I had to go looking. It took a bit, but I finally found it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=16vqP-EAo4M ...with the nice bonus that Renée Fleming was the vocalist on this one. Since this version had no video accompaniment (just a still picture), though, I went looking for another, and found this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cHBSdWftWU . I also listened to a third version courtesy of the library's Naxos streaming platform.
I was a bit confused because the text makes reference to (2.1), thus I was searching through the Scene i arias, but finally found it in 2.2. After listening to it a half-dozen times via the various versions, however, I'm sorry to say that I could not discern the "orchestra drop out" moment Mr. Link referred to in the Introduction. Very strange.
A later reference to the French singer Natalie Dessay prompted me to look for her version if the aria. I found it at https://www.youtube.com/watchapp=desktop&v=QIVc42zTpFY and it seemed closer to what Nathan Link was referring to, as there was a group if musicians playing onstage, but at no time could I discern that the orchestra completely dropped out if the music. Still, this was the mist interesting version if the aria for me, so at least there's that.
Another musical reference: to Handel's Rinaldo / Act 2 - "Lascia ch'io pianga." I found a lovely version of this one, sung by Cecilia Bartoli, @ https://youtu.be/c56qtfgV5f8?si=nzMjJN7XR44fBE_S .
Day 2 (DDRD 2,327) March 15, 2024
Read to page 60.
Footnote 21...which spreads across the bottom of pages 34 and 35...contains not one but TWO references to Scarlatti: Clearte (1715) and Narciso (1720). Hmmm. That would be scanned. I can find no opera named Clearte , and it looks like Narciso was not by "my" Scarlatti, Alessandro, but by his son, Domenico. 😟
Reference that (👆), this: "Amor d'un'ombra e gelosia d'un'aura ("The Love of a Shade and the Jealousy of an Aura"), also known as Narciso ("Narcissus"), is an opera in three acts composed by Domenico Scarlatti to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece. It premiered in Rome in January 1714 at the private theatre of Maria Casimira of Poland who had commissioned the work. The libretto is based on two fables from Ovid's Metamorphoses: Echo and Narcissus (Book III) and Cephalus and Procris (Book VII)." (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amor_d%27un%27ombra_e_gelosia_d%27un%27aura)
Earlier on in this book I noticed a couple of minor proofreading errors. I thought about noting them, then decided not to. But this one (1) made me stop and rethink that attitude: "A sequence midway through the first act of Rinaldo illustrates of the interconnectedness of music and madness in Handel's operas." (56) Clearly there was a struggle between "is illustrative of" and "illustrates," and some after birth remained.
A challenging read today, but not a hard one. Mr. Link's style makes the pages go down like pure aloe vera juice. For instance, did you know that Paul Michael Glaser (the original Starsky of Starsky and Hutch) directed The Running Man? Well, neither did I until I read this here opera book. NL delights in pop culture references...from Rocky to The Truman Show. It helps you to feel more at home as you end your way through musical terminology and philosophy und so weiter.
Yes, I believe this book is just what I needed to revive my spirit after that bad Dostoyevsky experience.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,328) March 16, 2024
Read to page 90.
Sorry to say the errors keeping popping up:
(2) "...there are 'nine visible instruments' the during the Parnassus scene." (65)
(3) "Stampiglia's libretto of setting of 1684...." (68)
(4) "In third act of Verdi's Il trovatore...." (79)
^the
Other than that...what'd you think of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Day 4 (DDRD 2,329) March 17, 2024
Read to page 120.
Went most of today errorless, then this: (5) "The celebratory sentiments expressed here are entirely consistent with what king has expressed in recitative: delight at the impending nuptials." (120) (There should be a the preceding "king.")
The website with musical samples is cool, but the samples are very short--less than 20 seconds FD's there are many references which are not so illustrated. I suspect that the former has to do with copyright restrict and the latter with length consuderations, but I'm now wishing I had suck to my original plan of tracking down every reference. That would have doubled my reading time, though, so....
On with the show.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,330) March 18, 2024
Read to 150. And would ya look at that...I'm almost halfway through this book already. Time flies when you're reading Nathan Link.
Within a few seconds of the start of my reading today, this: (6) "The king to this point in the opera has comported himself with dignity and composure, and moreover has shown a desire for to instill peace and calmness in the aria's hearers...." (121)
And very shortly after that: (7) "...he asks Alessandro to either to release him or kill him...." (122)
And then: (8) "Well I'm gonna to go then." (122)
And: (9) "... A brief survey of twenty-first productions reveals a prevalent strategy...." (129) ^ century
And: (10) "...he uses the opportunity to capture her again once again." (130)
And: (11) "This directorial technique, from the prospective of narrative duration suggests...." (131) I'm pretty sure the "perspective" is the word wanted here.
And by the way...amongst other things, there are references to The Jerk, Do the Right Thing, and The Matrix. I'm wondering how many Handel lovers (also known as Love Handels) are going to get those references...or be pleased by them.
Meanwhile...
Day 6 (DDRD 2,331) March 19, 2024
Read to page 180.
On page 151, Monsieur Link proposes the use of the word sonification to describe music representing the titular character's pain in a dream in the opera Admeto. I thought that meant that NL had coined that term, but I Googled it to be sure. Found that it was indeed an established term (meaning "the process that translates data into sound"), and along the way to that I found this interesting thing on Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonification
(Hit the ▶ button on the video and enjoy.)
In other news...
(12) "...the orchestra seems to directs our focus...." (168)
(13) "...spotlighting of certain scenic element resembles the cinematic narrator...." (fn 70, 168) ^s
Also, mention was made (via a footnote) of A book which sounds interesting: The London Stage, 1660-1800, Part 1, 1660-1700: A Calendar of Plays, Entertainment & Afterpieces Together with Casts, Box-Reciepts and Contemporary Comment. Internet Archive has it! (https://archive.org/details/londonstage166010000unse_y7j6)
Day 7 (DDRD 2,332) March 20, 2024
Read to page 210.
(14) "...the orchestra answers with the same figure it with which it had introduced the first arioso passage....?" (183)
At one point in discussing pieces from three different operas, NL notes that "The orchestrally implied voice seems to narrate its own message." (197) He later refers to this Message as being from an omniscient perspective and as making commentary for the audience. This seems to fall in line with previous comments about the orchestra for the most part existing outside of the stage world of the opera, as being there for the audience and not for the characters on stage. But it seems to go beyond that, too. In terms of occlusion, it suggests this hierarchy:
I'm not smart enough to see why this is problematic, but I'm intuitive enough to see that it is. Feel free to chime in on this, brahs & tahs.
(15) "...asking for her to wait for her to wait for his revenge...." (200)
Hmm. 15 errors seems like a lot. Plus there were at least a couple before page 56 that I didn't make note of. I really need to find a proofreading job.
Speaking of...I barely got back to reading before this happened:
(16) "...the bass, entering a diminished octave below, reverses course makes and its way back upward up from E- natural." (200). v
and makes
A twofer in footnote 32 on page 210:
(17) "...formal discourse is much more likely to name "Ed Wood," "Willy Wonka," or Jack Sparrow than Johnny Depp."
(18) "...performances like Depp's provides a more transparent, or at least translucent, medium for conveyance of the in-story character."
Day 8 (DDRD 2,333) March 21, 2024
Read to page 240.
(19) "...probably memorably only because they were exceptional." (footnote 35, 211)
(20) "...the musical setting deepens so obviously enhances its effect...." (footnote 38, 213) ^ and (?)
(21) "...opera is a "properly" a form of drama..." (231)
(22) "Cleopatra and Ptolemy both intend to best one other through trickery...." (234) ^an
(23) "...it was not uncommon for composer to walk onto the stage...." (footnote 89, 235) ^ the
Wow...five errors in today's thirty pages. That's A lot...and a bit distracting, for sure.
P.S. This:
So reference that last bit, 2333÷365 = 6.391780821917, so I'm only a few months away from being an international expert in something or other.
Day 9 (DDRD 2,334) March 22, 2024
Read to page 270.
(24) "This technique, while quite rare, it is not without precedent." (footnote 115, 248)
(25) "...highlighting his attempt to end to the cycle of contrition, rejection, and humiliation." (251)
Here's a little explication of E major (which comes from Johann Mattheson) which I liked immensely: "E major expresses incomparably well a despairing or wholly fatal sadness; it is most suited to the helpless or hopeless conditions of extreme love, and it has in certain circumstances something so piercing, separating, painful, and penetrating that it may be compared to nothing short of a total severing of the body from the soul." (255)
(26) "...shows that him momentarily unable to complete his declaration." (261)
(27) "Third, they bring about instances that can plausibly understood as fully mimetic correspondence...." (261) ^be
At the top of page 264, the lyrics to an aria are printed in English on the left side. In these lyrics, the word "comes" is repeated many times. One of these times (28) it is spelled coms, and later (29) it is spelled come ("...as if my pains weren't enough, another come, to make me even unhappier....").
Yowza! A 6 error day. And over 30 (including the ones I didn't note in the early pages) in a scholarly work is less than good.
Day 10 (DDRD 2,335) March 23, 2024
Read to page 300. Which means that ill finish the text part of the book tomorrow and will just have the glissary, works cited, and index to go.
Barely got started this morning before I hit my first speed bump:
(30) "His now pauses for breath between syllables." (272)
But I'm very happy to say that that was it for the day.
BULLETIN BULLETIN BULLETIN...THIS IS A BULLETIN BULLETIN BULLETIN. (🎩 George Varlin.) Just got a notice from the library that Vladimir Sorokin's Blue Lard has been shipped. I've been very anxious to read this since I first heard about it. Maybe my next DDR?
P.S. I started watching the Giulio Cesare* (2006, 3h 26m) video I got from the library. (From Remote Shelving, of course.) Seems like this opera is pretty key to Mr. Link's theses in A Poetics for Handel's Operas, so I thought I'd have a go at it. Special bonus prize: it stars one Danielle de Niese as Cleopatra, and if you still think of opera divas as Brunhilda, then check this out:
Makes you want to go out and conquer Egypt, doesn't it?
Day 11 (DDRD 2,336) March 24, 2024
Read to page 330...which is the end of the text. And tomorrow...the rest.
Btw, here's part of the first line of the library's description summary for Blue Lard: "...a dystopian fever dream about cloning, alternative histories, and world domination." They had me at fever dream. Also, here's part of the plot summary: "scientists...work to clone famous Russian writers, who are then made to produce texts in the style of their forebears. The goal of this "script-process" is not the texts themselves, but the blue lard that collects in the small of their backs as they write. This substance is to be used to power reactors on the moon...." Holy Shit! This is making Philip K. Dick sound tame! And I didn't even mention the whole Stalin and Khrushchev having sex sub-plot.
Ahem.
Meanwhile, back in Operaland....
Plutarch refers to love as "the worst of the infectious Diseases...." (316)
Yep.
(31) & (32): In making reference to a previously quoted passage, by Plutarch (referring to Cleopatra: "...stung her beholders the soul." (322)^B * ^to
P.S. Hmmm. My interlibrary loan of Opera as Hypermedium by Tereza Havelkova has shown up in my Requests feed, so it will be in my hands soon. And I ordered a copy of In Search of Opera by Carolyn Abbate, and it will be coming my way. (Both of them were mentioned in A Poetics of Handel's Operas.) I'm going to have to put the hard squeeze on Blue Lard I want to get all of this in before due dates hit.
Day 12 (DDRD 2,337) March 25, 2024
Read to page 367 = The End. A satisfying book. The kind that makes you wish you could email the author and...oh, wait a minute, I can, can't I?
Hi, Nate. I just finished reading A Poetics of Handel's Operas and had to tell you how much I enjoyed it. It was amazing to see how much work you put into this writing. Essentially it's a treatise on music, history, philosophy, and metaphysics with a side order of pop culture. Speaking of which, I really enjoyed the pop culture references--from The Jerk to Rocky and The Matrix, etc. They were not only fun, they also helped to ground me, as it was a challenge for me to keep up with some of the finer musicological points (having no knowledge of musical composition at all). You also chose references that were near and dear to my heart, which made me feel something soft and squishy (Jerk allusion).
And you made me think about some of the operas I have seen. In Of Mice and Men, for instance, wherein Lenny's arias are beautiful moments of clear thoughts, whereas his recitative exchanges were stilted and murky. And All is Calm, which is a cappella. Some interesting implications for the functions of the aria and orchestra (respectively) there.
You also set me off on some other trails. I've just acquired a Blu-ray of Giulio Cesare (2006) from the library, which I'll be watching later today, and I've got an interlibrary loan of Opera as Hypermedium heading my way any moment now. I also ordered a copy of In Search of Opera which I'm looking forward to devouring.
So you've given me lots of avenues of pleasure in your own work and in tracking down a few of the works which you made use of. Thank you!
Looking forward to the sequel you alluded to in the text!
Thomas
P.S. I also loved the online links to musical excerpts. Thanks for that as well.
The End
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