Glyndebourne On the Big Screen(s) and Some New Tolkien Linguistic Goodies!!!

Its been a while...but I have been busy in the opera front. I write today about two exciting and very different initiatives of note:

Glyndebourne on Screen - this is an exciting new intuitive we have at Glyndebourne that is bringing some of our Glyndebourne opera productions to cinemas throughout the UK, United States, Europe and Japan. Now you can experience our current productions of Handel's Giulio Cesare (in a landmark production by the visionary opera director David McVicar), this summer's hit Hansel and Gretel and Rossini's Cenerentola in stunning high definition 5.1 stereo surround sound. The experience of seeing opera on a large screen o is a unique one - where else can you see a really tight close up on a singer as they are performing such a moving aria as Cleopatra's - Lascia ch'io pianga and Da Tempeste sung exquisitely by Glyndebourne's Cleopatra - the excellent Danielle De Niese.

And if you can't get to one of the close to 100 cinemas we are appearing at - you can also view excerpts from the operas on Telegraph TV iincluding the ability to embed these clips and email them to friends - a great way to get an opera party together to go to one of the Glyndebourne Screenings!!!! Here is an example of what you can experience:




On another completely different front - after the excitement of the publishing by the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship of Parma Eldalamberon 17 containing Tolkien's guide to all the "foreign" words in Lord of the Rings there has been a bit of a pause in Tolkien linguistic analysis for the summer. Now the autumn (when it grows dark and there is more time for reading ans study) heralds forth two excellent works for study - the first is the published version of Thorsten Renk's Pedin Edhellen Sindarin Course which has been available as a PDF for some time but can now be purchased as a book to save one from killing many trees by printing out the work. I am half way through and I find his development of an actual course on Sindarin very well constructed with careful consideration (shaded in grey) for areas that are asterix conjecture - it also incorporates findings made from PE 17 including a much more fleshed out version of Tolkien's concept of the verb "to be" and personal pronouns.

Over at E.L.F - they have posted on a new article on their online journal Tengwestie by Helios De Rosario Martinez called Early Ilkorin Phonology. This article analyzes the develop of one of Tolkien's "minor" languages which he developed in the early phase of the development of his mythology - starting with the Book of Lost Tales and into the period when he was at the University of Leeds. Ilkorin is the language of those elves who "never saw the light of Kor" and therefore represents Tolkien's thoughts on that language who lingered in Middle Earth and did not have their tongue mingled with the Valar and/or Elves on the West. In the article Martinez states that Ilkorin was most likley a series of languages that included the language of Doriath (the language of Thingol and Melian).

It is quite interesting to see how Tolkien potentially modeled the phonological and morphology of this language and the development of proto-Germanic including parallel vowel shifts in key stages of its development. Martinez also states in his conclusion that "Ilkorin was supposed to be the germ of the languages of Men and that it changed less than the other tongues of the Elves." This got me thinking about one of Tolkien's languages that I am most interested in - the first language of Man - Taliska - which according to what we know about the language was based on Tolkien's love of Gothic. I did query this to Lambengolmor - the Tolkien linguistic mail group -and was told by ELF editor Carl F. Hostetter that we should revisit this question when the information on Taliska is finally published - Carl indicated that he was working on editing this but that it was going slow (I volunteered to help) - so perhaps in the near future we can compare the language of Taliska with Ilkorin to see how much the Elves who stayed in Middle Earth in the first age had an impact on the development of the languages of Men - the languages we speak to this very day!!

The Tolkien books keep coming - and I am eagerly awaiting my order of The Proceedings from the 2005 Tolkien Society Conference in Birmingham which seems to be coming via Entish post!!!!

Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at English National Opera

Went to English National Opera on Friday night to take in the first new production of the season - Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci. I have been in love with the score from both of these one actors for quite some time and have seen several productions - including Franco Zeferelli's massive cast of what looked like a thousand production at the Metropolitan Opera. Also when I was at English Touring Opera we did a really intimate production of Pagliacci with a band of five that really conveyed the lyrical quality of the score accompanied with some beautiful Neapolitan songs. This new production is directed by Richard Jones who I am a big fan of - especially his production of The Trojans at ENO which recast the fall of Troy into the American idiom of the fall of Kennedy's Camelot and his chilling production of Hansel and Gretel. I am very excited that he will be coming to Glyndebourne again (with the imaginative designer Ultz) next summer with a new production of Falstaff.

Cavelleria is a good old fashioned revenge story set in Sicily (you might remember it was used by Coppola in Godfather Part 3 as the backdrop for all the revenge that went on at the end of the story as scores was finally settled - who could forget the poisoned pastries!). The story takes place on Easter morning and Jones sets it in a Sicilian social club - a box set with a small kitchen for teas and coffees. This box gives the production a claustrophobic feel and you do not get to the see the usual large church on the hill that the Easter morning village go towards in the glorious chorus praising the resurrection. Cav (as it is know with its partner Pag) is a true verismo opera - a movement that became popular with composers like Cav's Mascagni and in Puccini operas like Tosca - which attempts to give a slice of life with very little background to the story (no long Verdian or Wagnerian narratives of what has happened before as we hear in the later parts of the Ring and in Trovatore). The lead roles were song beautifully by Jane Dutton (Santuzza), Peter Auty (Turiddu) and Roland Wood was an excellent Onegin and Don Giovanni in past English Touring Opera productions blew me away as Alfio. ETO has two great new productions coming up this autumn - La Tragedie de Carmen and Rusalka and its worth a visit to the site to see some really good previews of both productions that will tour the UK starting in October.

Note: interesting parallels between Santuzza and another opera heroine set during Easter time Wagner's Kundry (sacrifice, redemption - note to self to research).

The second half of the evening was the reverse side of the coin -- Jones' Pagliacci recast this story which is said to have been based on a true story of an actor killing his cheating wife and lover on the stage during a performance - to the 1950's with a travelling troop of actors putting on a cheesy bedroom romp called "Ding Dong" - this is a production to be seen and I will not give too many of the staging away - it packs quite a punch with beautiful singing by Mary Plazas as Nelly and Geriant Dodd as the Kenny the head of the troop who sings the famous aria Vesti La Giubba (you know, Riddi Pagliacci!) in a dank regional theatre dressing room as he struggles to go on the stage after finding out his wife is having an affair. The star of both these productions in the ENO orchestra and chorus under the baton of Edward Gardener - who gets an incredibly powerful and poignant sound from them. A must see!!!! And I am looking forward to the new production of Handel's Partenope next week.
On the Tolkien front - I was very please to see in a London bookstore yesterday the new edition of Tales from the Perilous Realm with illustrations by Alan Lee - five stories (Roverandom, Farmer Giles, Tom Bombadil, Smith of Wooten Major and Leaf by Niggle) that I look forward to revisiting. Also, I have Tolkien Studies Vol 5 on the way.......so many books so little time.

Its been one month for me at Glyndebourne Opera - a truly amazing and innovative mecca in the rolling hills of the Sussex downs where we are in the process of launching the 2008 Glyndebourne On Screen programme - which will bring three Glyndebourne operas to cinemas in the UK, US and Japan in 5.1 high definition and surround sound - Hansel and Gretel, Giulio Cesare (with the excellent Danielle De Niese as Cleopatra) and Cenerentola coming to a cinema near you!!!
And for Richard Strauss lovers - I just sat through one earth shaking listening session of the glorious Renee Fleming's new recording of Strauss' Four Last Songs and other works - this is one for the IPOD and good to have more Strauss from Renee - she was born to sing his works!!!

Basta for now!!

Back from the Summer

Hello, out there. I am back after a long busy summer which let me get through a good pile of books (not all!) and change jobs. The literary focus of my summer has been getting to know the works of William Morris - a very important influence on Tolkien whose works include several great historio-romantic stories set in the times of the fall of Rome - The Roots under the Mountain and The House of the Wulfings (set in the forest of Mirkwood) and I very enjoyable series of journals Morris kept when he travelled to Iceland in 1871 and 1873. Morris had a great gift for description and as I read his description of the volcanic landscape of places like Thingvellir I could here echoes of Tolkien's description of Mordor - well worth a read.

In addition to literary pursuits I also exchanged variety theatre to have the extreme luck to be working at one of the most beautiful opera companies in the world - Glyndebourne Opera - set in the rolling Sussex countryside - my office looks out green hills and the ba'ing of sheep. Glyndebourne is one of the most innovative opera companies in the world and as we just finished mounting an excellent world premiere opera based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Of Lovers and other Demons - For me and many others, Glyndebourne is truly Valhalla (with some more Wagner to come).

So in the coming weeks I shall be quiet busy getting Glyndebourne under my skin and will try to keep faithful to this blog with items on Tolkien, languages, etc - so more too come!!!