The next meeting wiil be July 8 at 3:00 at Mariel’s house where the opera "Ariadne auf Naxos" will be the topic of discussion.
If you wish to attend contact uwcstudygroups@gmail.com.
UWC Meets Teatro Colón Meeting Notes
On July 8 we met at Mariel’s home for another lesson by our opera expert Elena Levin, this time presenting the opera by Richard Strauss "Ariadne auf Naxos". Elena gave us background on Strauss’ life, noting that he was very favorably looked upon in Germany. We watched a performance by the Metropolitan Opera House of New York with two African-American artists of the highest quality in the lead roles, Jessie Norman and Kathleen Battle. Men taking women’s roles frequently happened in the old theater where it was considered improper for a female to be an actor. In this opera a female takes the part of a male character, an example of how a change in outlook brought about change in the place of female performers in later years.
The original opera took place in two acts and lasted about six hours. When first per- formed a conflict arose concerning these two parts. The conflict was finally settled by shortening the performance considerably and calling part one the Prologue and part two the Opera. We enjoyed an interesting and unusual opera with laughter, drama and enchanting music. We did miss Kathryn’s presence whose back stage comments always round off the afternoon’s performance.
P. Caviezel