Marschallin Monday: Distracted

I was gonna start a whole post about how could somebody please just stab Baron Ochs already and send him home, but I got distracted looking for appropriate imagery.

As in:

And:

And finally:

Monday Marschallin: Classic Edition

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.     

I like that glance, there.  Why do I get the feeling she's about to say, "I like the hat"? 

Marschallin Monday: Waiting Edition

Nothing clever to say here.  Other than, is it April yet?

Marschallin Monday: Upper Right Corner Edition

Because it's the upper right corner there that's all that really matters.  "Octavian is the lover of the beautiful Marschallin."  End of story, we wish. 

 
Fleming/Graham, 2000 season.  Click on image for a bigger version.

Road Trip Beautiful

I missed two Marschallin Mondays but that's cool, because I was working on a story (you can read it here), because yes, I am still obsessed with Carol.  Don't you wonder what happened on the road trip, the things we don't get to see?  Well I did, anyway.  Enjoy.

I think we all need beauty.  This was a hard, heartbreaking summer if you care at all about the state of the world, and especially if you work at trying to make it better like I do.  Writing like this was a respite, not an escape but rest and the opportunity to create, and be immersed in something beautiful at times when the world is so not beautiful.  Sometimes that's opera (and my Marschallin) and other music, herbs, farmhanding, movies, sometimes, turns out, it's writing.

I haven't written stories since I was a teenager.  Poetry, journaling of course but not stories.  It's an interesting thing to come back around to (full circle, if you will), and I find I enjoy it.  Sometimes my imagination for the world gets exhausted, and this helps. 

A little more beauty for you, that I discovered.

Hélène Grimaud is spectacular and mesmerizing in her performance of the Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto.  I was supposed to writing but I kept watching her.  Really stunning.

And, a beautiful fanvid for Carol, set to "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

Marschallin Monday: Vacation Edition

Don't mind us, we'll be ignoring the larks and keeping the curtains closed, thank you very much.

Didonato and Schwanewilms.

Marschallin, um, Friday: Favorite Dress Edition

The Marschallin could wear this, no?  We'll just keep to ourselves what we imagine is causing this rather, um, delighted expression.

Monday Marschallin on...Thursday?

The Marschallin is giving the eye to yours truly being too busy to remember to remember her on Monday. I will grovel accordingly, and pray for a gentler schedule in coming weeks.

Seriously?  You forgot about me?  How is that possible?

Marschallin Monday: Preview Edition

 Skip to about 2:15.  This was the "trailer" they showed in April at the "Elektra" HD that made me sit up and say "OH MY GOD" out loud.

Marschallin Monday: Except Its Tuesday Edition

Please, just feed me all the chocolate.  Sigh.

We do love our Marschallins in red, don't we!

Catherine Carby and Cheryl Barker.  I don't know them but it doesn't really matter?  I believe it's from this production.  Key quote:  "It's hard to imagine anyone abandoning such a Marschallin."

Well, that's what I keep saying! #IChooseTheMarschallin

Marschallin Monday: Is it Monday? Edition

Is it Monday?  Sigh.

Basically, I want beauty, but the white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy AKA Baron Ochs won't STFU and get out already.  So, I'm working on that. Hard.  I do wish more Marschallins were involved but -- true story -- a baritone in a regional production of Tosca playing Scarpia reached out to see how he could help the cause.  I kid you not.  Scarpia in the service of justice?  Yes please!

 

Marschallin Monday: Jazzy Love Song Edition

I don't know about you, but I totally imagine the Marschallin singing this to me in the middle of the night.  Don't you?  #IChooseTheMarschallin

Marschallin Monday: Swooning Edition

So yes, I've posted this photo before, and I do so again with good reason!

Guess who has tickets to this production, the day before her birthday, 2017?  That would be ME.  Saved up some birthday money (my parents are amazing and are now responsible for me seeing Renee Fleming live, singing Strauss, TWICE) and I'm SO EXCITED.  This will also be our first Met experience.  I'll just be here swooning from now until then.  So excited.  SO EXCITED.

SO EXCITED.

Marschallin Monday: Farmyard Edition

It's not all about the fancy gowns, you know.  I love a Marschallin who's willing to get her hands dirty.

 The only thing that would make this better would be if it were goats instead of cows.  What better way to ease the heartache of stupid choices of young Octavians?

Marschallin Monday: Ja Ja

I was trying to read a detailed synopsis with annotated thematic references (in this book) while flying to New Jersey today, which was amazingly fascinating (the reading, not the flying).  Until we hit nasty turbulence that made it impossible to do anything but try to breathe and not, well, you know.

So I breathed deeply, hummed overture/Act 1 opening scene themes in my head, because that's as far as I had gotten (which isn't really a bad place to pause...) and thought of this.

Travel messes with my perception of time (die Zeit, die ist ein Sonderbar ding...) and I think it's already Monday, even though it's late Sunday night, and so I'm posting this early.  At any rate I'm at a conference all week so what not have a little early Marschallin?

Marschallin Monday

Back again with Joyce DiDonato and her Marschallin, Anne Schwanewilms.  Joyce looks like she's having fun, no?

Marschallin Monday

Though this one is really about the mezzo.  Also, again with the red. Also, exquisite white-shirt-ness.

Worth clicking on to enlarge.

Joyce Didonato as Octavian, Anne Schwanewilms as the Marschallin.  La Scala, 2011, via Joyce's Facebook page.

Marschallin Monday on Tuesday

I was traveling yesterday, but the Marschallin is never far from my heart. Here are a few clips from the Met HD broadcast in 2010 that started it all for me.  Fleming, Graham, Schafer.

Giggling women in bed behind Placido, overture, and opening scene:

I remember so clearly:  Wait, what?  There are WOMEN IN BED TOGETHER ON MY SCREEN.  How is this happening?  Also:  Renee Fleming captures my heart.

Are there any men in this?  Don't care.

The infamous trio made me weep: 

How can anything be so beautiful, so full of yearning and grief and joy?

Also:  Marschallin, dearest, I'm happy to offer you some comfort.

And also:  I maintain that Octavian is a fool. #ChooseTheMarschallin

Marschallin Monday

My third Marschallin Monday post, and there seems to be a common theme arising:  RED.

Renee Fleming in red? Works for me.  Here's the end of that act (Act 1), which to me has to be one of the most exquisite things ever written:



And in looking for that, I discovered this new promo video for the upcoming Rosenkavalier at the Met in 2017.



I could do without the "it's tricky playing a woman playing a boy" trope but my I'm looking forward to this.

Marschallin Monday

A new feature here at the Window:  Marschallin Mondays! 

To wit:

Magdalena Kožená & Anja Harteros Photo: © Monika Rittershaus

 

 

 

I am here all day for the Marschallin in red.

Photo from this post about the production.  Hunted for YouTube clips but came up empty.