Hippie Crap

Today was our last official meeting of the Musicology Internship and Dr. Solvik gave us a ton of things to have ready for today. Unfortunately, 1 hour and 30 minutes is not enough time to go through everything, so all of that work which I did, including completing a thematic analysis of the first 500 measure of Mahler's 1st symphony, was for naught. I mean, not completely, I did learn and all that blah di dee blah hippie crap, but still.

Writing that made me realize, I have been away from the RC too long. I am becoming a real student who cares about things like grades and recognition and silly stuff like that. What happened to my inner hippie, who loves the blah di dee blah hippie crap?!

Salome

For the past couple months, I have been reading up on my Strauss, the Richard version, for my program notes on his opera, Salome. Today was the actual production at the Wiener Staatsoper! Jane and I got all gussied up for our box seats - that is right actual seats! - and went to the opera at the same time as regular people, not three hours ahead like we do for standing room! Our seats were not as partial view as I had expected, since we got them for only ten euros, and if we stood up, then the small bit that we couldn't see sitting was visible. But just being in the box was a huge part of the fun, having our own private room for coats, and the velvet everywhere, that isn't worn down and old like the velvet in standing room!

I have to write a newspaper-esque critic as the second part of my assignment, and won't bore you with the details, but here is a short run down on the production. The set and costumes were Jugendstil with a very Klimtian feeling, probably to pay tribute to the major artistic movement at the time when Strauss was writing Salome. A bit overwhelming at times, it was effective and made for an absolutely beautiful set.

Salome was played by Christine Naglestad, a stunning soprano with incredible power and control. Her portrayal of Salome was spot on vocally, with a growling low G and chilling pianissimo upper register that contrasted sharply with her dramatic hich C which penetrated Strauss' giant orchestra with ease. Her dance for "Dance of the Seven Veils" left something to be desired, but was not too bad comparably. My only real disappointment was her treatment of Jokanaan's head, which she carried around stage like it was a feather. She really did not sell the fact that it was meant to be a human head.

The rest of the cast was fairly strong, except for Herod, whose vibrato was so large you had no idea what pitch he was actually singing. Overall though, this was one of the best productions that I have seen at the Staatsoper and probably my favorite show, which bodes well for the possibility of me writing about Strauss for my honors thesis next year!

Practicality

Yes I realize this blog makes it seem as if my life revolves around food. In a way it does, but here is a little bit about some other fun things happening in my life that are not food related.

I can't remember if I have mentioned this before, but I was accepted into the musicology internship here under Dr. Morten Solvik and for the first time I am getting a real look into legitimate musicology. So far, I am working on transcribing and translating a handwritten letter from Arthur Seidl, written in the late 1800s, meaning it is written in Frakture, a cursive-esque handwriting that looks nothing like modern handwriting. Fortunately, my handwriting is weirdly similar in a lot of ways. I am not sure what that says about my handwriting, but my roommate claims it means I am a genius. I wholeheartedly agree. But really, the letter is very difficult to read, his Es, Ns, and Ms, all look the same and sometimes he gets lazy and will write the same letter 5 different ways. But by now I've gotten pretty good at reading it, that said I am only half way through the first page.

Another project is a transcription of a setting of "Wanderers Nachtlied" by Hans Rott, which my colleagues and I finished a basic copy of and got into Finale. Then today in class, Dr. Solvik ripped our edition apart! We made several silly mistakes and a few Finale ones, but major props to Daniel, who put it all in for us, and we cannot figure out where the postlude is. Rott simply wrote down what looks like "hehe" and "Aß" and left a measure blank. Where is the missing postlude? I have no clue and have to find it before next week.

Third project: choose a concert, write programs notes for the concert, attend the concert, and then write a newspaper critic. I chose the Wiener Staatsoper production of Richard Strauss' "Salome," since I am thinking about doing the operas of Strauss for my honors thesis and I plan to begin my research while I am here. I began my research and have probably about 8 million books out from the library, each contributing about 2 pages worth of info, except one very large book taking apart all of Strauss' operas. I bought my tickets for the performance already and got two box seat, partial views for 10 euro!

We also have a bit of intern-esque work, just things that need to get done, but it isn't too bad and I am learning a lot from the experience!