What Makes Music so Unique? Consider the question from the point of view of an eager Music History Major and see what he comes up with. Join me as I review and discover the amazing world of classical music from schools to orchestras, opera houses, etc.
When I decided to visit Central Park today while in New York City, I did not imagine that my experience would be enhanced by a simple smart phone app.
I was wrong.
When the New York Philharmonic announced a new sound installation that lived in a smart phone app, I didn't think I was gonna be moved by it.
I was wrong.
The installation in question is from Ellen Reid, the Pulitzer Prize winning composer of p r i s m, and her app is Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK. Using GPS location services and a soundtrack of original compositions by Reid and works by Ellington and Beethoven, the app creates soundscapes based on where you are in Central Park. The music in this SOUNDWALK is performed by musicians from The New York Philharmonic, the Young People's Chorus of New York City, Poole and the Gang, and a special SOUNDWALK Ensemble led by Ellen Reid. This is not her first attempt at this kind of installation nor will it be the last. Ellen Reid already has a walk designed for Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs, NY and is currently developing walks for Philadelphia, PA, Vienna, VA, and Jacksonville, OR with respective performing arts organizations.
The introduction of this app comes at a time when people are unable to enjoy the New York Philharmonic, or any large ensemble, in person due to social distancing guidelines. The experience is based solely on the user's location and how they traverse the park; No two visits will be exactly the same. So I decided to give it a try. Below is my best recollection of my experience using the app.
First thing to know is that the app is free to download on Apple and Android devices. Click here to do so. Once you download the app, you just select "Central Park" in the app and it will open a map. Once you physically enter the area around Central Park, the music will begin to play. (For best results and stronger battery life during use, it is advised to download the walk in the app ahead of time over wifi). As you move through the park, you activate different "zones" that have different audio tracks assigned to them. Sometimes they overlap based on how close you are between them.
I started out at Columbus Circle, the southwest entrance to Central Park. The music started off in an almost dissonant fashion, mimicking the traffic of the area. Then as I walked deeper into the park, the music was more peaceful, more layered. First it was just instrumental, but the further in I moved to the baseball fields, the more pronounced the vocal lines sounded.
Passing an empty and locked Sheep Meadow, I was presented with trumpets and strings, reminiscent of Charles Ives' Unanswered Question, except with a definite answer.
Moving along West Drive, I eventually came to the split in the road with the statue of Daniel Webster. The lake invoked a sparkling string soundtrack that I followed along the edge from the road to Cherry Hill Fountain, to Wagner Cove, and along the water to Bow Bridge.
Once I arrived at Bow Bridge, I passed a busker playing the accordion, and the music almost seemed to mesh with it. But it was in the rambles that the music changed dramatically. The app's luscious soundscape suddenly changed to a suspenseful one. Harp and winds and voice combined to perfectly score my interaction with a very large rat. And as the woods got darker, so did the tone of the music. But the light began to show as I arrived at the oak bridge and towards the Natural History Museum, where the quiet dissonance began to show once again.
I barely got to explore a quarter of the park with the app, but what I did experience was wonderful and somewhat magical. Ellen Reid has taken a normal daily activity and enlightened it with this musical installation. I'll definitely be going back to Central Park to try and explore as much as possible with the app to get the full experience, and probably several days worth of exercise in the process. I am highly recommending that if you are planning to walk thru Central Park anytime soon, download this app and enjoy it.
There comes a time where you just need some sugary sweetness in the form of an opera, and then you find the most filling and delightful of dishes with no empty calories. I’m of course talking of the tale of Cendrillon, Jules Massenet’s version of the Cinderella story, which finally made its Metropolitan Opera Debut on April 12th, 2018.
This production, which premiered at Santa Fe Opera and Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, is produced by Laurent Pelly. Under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, who led the orchestra with mastery and great detail, was an all star cast of some of the best singers and stage prescience. Joyce Di Donato, now playing Cinderella at the Met for a second time, was the main pull for advertising prior to the opening, having played the role in the Santa Fe production. It reminds me how lucky we are to have singers like her, who can successfully go from Baroque to Bel Canto to late romantic with ease. She was vocally and physically delicate, drawing you into her character throughout. Her counterpart, Alice Coote as the Prince, has excellent chemistry and brought a youthful romance to the stage in scenes of pure magic.
Meanwhile, the sugary goodness of this production comes from its storybook setting, thanks to sets by Barbara de Limburg, which makes the audience feel like they’ve been transported into a book, the standout costumes of Laurent Pelly, ranging from absurd to stunning, and the choreography of Laura Scozzi, who takes the motion filled music of Massenet and gives it a silly and fun life that it so desperately needs. The audience laughed at the dance numbers with men in big Restoration era wigs, kicking their legs and holding back their arms. Ladies were balleting and shaking it from head to toe no matter what they were wearing.
With the exception of Cinderella, the prince, and Pandolfe (Laurent Naouri), Cinderella’s father, everyone is is so stylized and over the top. And it’s brilliant! Stephanie Blythe as the stepmother is a showstopper with her comedic timing and great low end of her range. Kathleen Kim as the Fairy godmother is a dreamlike wonder, with vocals that never touch the ground, especially in her blue fairy inspired outfit.
I only have a few logical problems with the story. If the household has servants, why is Cinderella doing a great deal of house work? If the prince is told Cinderella’s real name, why not just look for her instead of trying out the shoe? Why does Cinderella believe the details of the dance she is told?
Despite that, this production is wonderful and fun for children of all ages. It’s magical, fun, funny, and a cure for the blues at the end of this opera season. Go see it while you can.
The conductor is about to begin when a man with a cucumber runs up to him, pushes him off the podium, and then proceeds to raise up his cucumber baton to the audience as the stage goes black and messy piano variations on Auld Lang Syne are heard over the sound system. Thus opens Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest.
Based on Oscar Wilde's hilarious play of the same name, this opera made its US Stage debut last night at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The production, with cast and direction from the Royal Opera, was part of the NY Philharmonic Biennial, the orchestra's festival of modern music and young talent. And there was no shortage of great music last night.
Being a fan of the play, I was curious to see what the opera would add or subtract from the play's satire. Luckily, Mr. Barry has removed very little from the play in the process of writing the libretto, keeping the spirit in tact. The costuming, however, has moved to the modern day, highlighted by having the priest dress in a bicyclist outfit and a neck brace. Despite the costumes and phones removing the physical setting from the original time period, it still keeps its mannerisms strong.
The orchestra is working overtime for this show by whistling, shouting in unison, stamping feet, and most of all, not letting the fact that they share the stage with the actors distract them. The percussionists Christopher S. Lamb and Daniel Druckman are especially to be acknowledge for their gun wielding, plate smashing, and große hammering. The show even includes prerecorded piano playing (which opened the show) and chamber male choir (spouting philosophies in Act 1).
The music is a wild ride with variations on Auld Lang Syne all over the place. Repeating dialogue with dancing to mimic Gilbert and Sullivan's "When I go out of door", French horn and viola trilling to evoke bees, and settings of Ode to Joy as lyric and patter songs. The score is vast and yet so small, the orchestra under Ilan Volkov's direction does it's very best to showcase Gerald Barry's creativity.
(Score courtesy of Schott and Hal Leonard)
With minimal set design, meaning steps and a white backdrop, the physical comedy and personalities of the actors really steals the show. Claudia Boyle as Cecily kept her voice over the staff most of the performance, being the bratty sort of school girl that can match Barbara Hannigan's Mystery of the Macabre performance. It was a perfect counterbalance for Hilary Summers as Miss Prism, whose contralto register and mid word pauses showcase an absentmindedness with old age. Simon Wilding as Lane/Merrimen does most of the stage managing work, even getting to stomp boots on tables and throw the last few dinner plates. I do feel bad for Kevin West, whose speaking role of Reverend Chasuble is a little reduced in this adaptation, removing the dialogue between him and Miss Prism.
At the work's core though are the four main city folk: Benedict Nelson as Algernon, Paul Curievici as Jack Worthing, Stephanie Marshall as Gwendolyn, and Alan Ewing as Lady Bracknell. Each one is superb, working off each other and leading the emotional and comical high points. Jack's collectiveness stays strong and put under pressure by Bracknell's uptight attitude, Gwendolyn being overly directive, and Algernon's slobby self.
My favorite point in the show has to be when Gwendolyn and Cecily meet for the first time and do not look at each other while performing sprechstimme through megaphones. Then when she learns about Cecily's identity, Gwendolyn exclaims her discontent while the percussionist throws a dinner plate after every word. Think of SpongeBob in Rock Bottom and you can see that this is doing that right. Even the audience will applaud during a humming pause to acknowledge how great that moment is.
If you get a chance to see this while it's still in NYC, I highly recommend it. (Performances June 3-4 at Rose Theater at Jazz in Lincoln Center) Otherwise, a full performance with the same cast is available to view for free via the Royal Opera's YouTube page. You too can learn "the vital importance of Being Ernest".
Last night, March 24th 2015, I was able to procure a ticket for the Opening Night of the newest production by David McVicar, Donizetti's Roberto Devereux. Below is some background information for the Tudor cycle, followed by my review of the performance.
Background: Roberto Devereux is the third opera by Gaetano Donizetti about the lives of the Tudors in England. The trio of works also includes Anna Bolena, about Henry VIII's ill fated second wife, and Maria Stuarda, about the Queen of Scots' imprisonment and execution. There is a fourth opera preceding these called Il Castello Di Kenilworth, but it is often ignored when performing the cycle the operas.
Over the past 6 years, The Metropolitan Opera has been preparing for the full Donizetti Tudor Cycle, the product of David McVicar. It started with the 2011 production of Anna Bolena with Anna Netrebko, and 2013's Maria Stuarda with Joyce Di Donato. The cycle would conclude with performances in the 2015-2016 season with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky taking on the title roles of the first two operas, leading up to the role of Queen Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux. General Manager Peter Gelb's plan has been to revive opera popularity in the US by creating new productions with the help of directors like McVicar, Bartlett Sher, Robert Lepage, and Richard Eyre. However, this is the first "cycle" of operas under one director since Lepage's Ring Cycle, which received rave reviews for its performers but mixed reviews for its hulking set.
The McVicar cycle, however, uses different sets for each opera.
Review:
Right when you walk into the auditorium, you are greeted with a dark palace of Nonsuch, featuring the burial coffin of Queen Elizabeth I in white porcelain as two statues, representing time and death, look on from the sides of the main door. So far in this cycle, the most shocking image we have seen pre-overture has been the curtain for Maria Stuarda, featuring a lion and a griffin fighting. And as the overture plays in this opera, we see the courtiers of Elizabeth, played by the Met Chorus, gather on stage as the coffin is taken away. The courtiers then disperse in groups until the stage is set with a royal chair and the courtiers gather behind the columns and in the balcony, separated by sex. As the show goes on, these people do not disappear, but move around in the same spaces, looking on at private scenes of the Royals, clapping at the ends of arias and scenes, and then receiving bows from the main performers at the end of the show. At first, I just thought the chorus was eager to see everyone perform and clapped as you would in a rehearsal, but then they kept doing it, maintaining their role as chorus and audience. However, there are no other aspects to this production to suggest it would be a show within a show, like Sher's production of le comte Ory. The actors do not even address the chorus/audience until the curtain call. I can see it as symbolic of the fact that this is suppose to be after Elizabeth's life and that anything that wasn't public was more or less exaggerated on by a curious public.
We are even presented with very minimal scene changes, especially since the first two acts are presented without intermission or pause. The back panel of the stage, with three doors and the two statues, moves forward and backward to change the size of the space. The intimate spaces, the Nottinghams' quarters, are the most forward on stage, while the throne room and house of peers are the farthest back. In the final scene in Elizabeth's private quarters, the large space suggests that what should be the most intimate space for her majesty has become a public, as more and more people enter. And finally, after Devereux's execution, the back panel disappears into the rafters as we are given a larger space and the reappearance of Elizabeth's burial coffin.
The final moments of the character once again on the way to the grave has been a connecting factor in all three productions. Anne Boleyn removes the bun from her hair as she accepts death and walks toward the scaffold and ending in a red curtain falling in front of the audience. Mary Stuart removes her gown as well as her hair when she makes her way to the scaffold in her final scene. And now, as the scaffold for Robert Devereux has been offstage, we see that Elizabeth's death comes in her removing her dresses, hair, jewelry, until she becomes an old woman in white makeup, white hair, and white night rail. She is as plain as she can possibly be and turns to see her coffin before passing out and dying. This is the chilling finale I have come to expect in this cycle, especially as the chorus sings of James' ascending the throne.
Other than all this thoughtful and well designed execution of ideas, the best part of the night was the cast. Sondra Radvanovsky, following both operas, transforms into the powerful but bitter old monarch that is Queen Elizabeth I. Vocally and dramatically, she was the star of the show, especially knowing that this is an Elizabeth in her old age becoming more and more like her father, losing those she has favor towards, and unlit matey losing her royalty in her final moments. And fortunately, the supporting cast of Elīna Garanča, Matthew Polenzani, and Mariusz Kwiecién also provided a powerhouse of great performing. In fact, the bromance of Matthew and Mariusz has been on fire this season following their performances in The Pearl Fishers back in January. In more minor roles, we have Brian Downen, making his debut as Lord Cecil, and Christopher Job as Sir Walter Raleigh. Both men were excellent provided the right attention to their vocal lines and characters.
With Maurizio Benini's great conducting of the orchestra and singers, the incredible costumes, and the tone set by the designers, I can say without a doubt that this production is one of the best in the Met's recent history. My only complaint would have been the cop out of Elizabeth dying of a broken heart. But that goes to the composer and librettist. McVicar presents it as her reaching the end after three long operas and decades of her reign. It is a perfect end to the Tudor Cycle and I hope that in the years to come, there will be more great sopranos willing to take on these roles and that people will see these works from a new perspective.
Donizetti's Roberto Devereux plays at the Metropolitan Opera until April 19th. Visit metopera.org for casting info and tickets.
This past March, The Metropolitan Musuem of Art presented a newly commissioned work. It wasn't a painting or a sculpture, but a 25-minute opera from the company Opera Erratica. The work, which played every half hour in the Vélez Blanco Patio, was entitled La Celestina, based on a Spanish Renaissance novel by Fernando de Rojas.
The opera tells the story of a young Calisto, a man who has fallen for a beautiful woman named Melibea. In order to win her love, Calisto sends his servant Sempronio to the witch Celestina so that he can procure a love spell. What Calisto doesn't know is that his servant makes a deal with the witch to trick his master out of more money as well as obtain the love of Elicia, one of Celestina's whores. Using a magic thread and spool, Celestina gets Melibea enchanted enough to have her meet Calisto in private. After payment is given, Sempronio and another servant try to get their money but Celestina refuses, forcing the men to kill her. After being discovered, the two servants are executed and Elicia takes her revenge by killing Calisto when he falls off Melibea's ladder. Melibea then takes her own life, bringing the witch's curse to full circle.
How does one group perform an opera every half hour for almost two weeks? Well, it turns out that all the music and visuals were recorded ahead of time. This work is one in a new trend of installation operas, combining prepared multimedia with a specific location to create a unique experience. The Vélez Blanco Patio follows the architecture of the 16th century, providing a time specific setting for the wall projections, which combine animation with shadow puppetry to visually tell the story. The music was recorded on multiple channels and played from several speakers in the room, with each voice or instrument corresponding to a different sculpture.
The sculptures as narrators is a concept which has been used before, let us not forget the Muses in Disney's Hercules. But unlike the cartoony nature of moving mouths, the statues are from the actual museum collection and placed around the room, highlighted only by spotlights. The characteristics of each statue are significant of the role they play in the opera. For example, all the bass viol music is attributed to the Orpheus statue, who is portrayed playing the viola del braccio. King Phillip the Second is a bass and Caesar is a countertenor, a little Easter egg for the dedicated opera fans.
The main debate that is presented at the start of the opera is "How did it happen?". The audience is presented with the visual of five deaths, which occur in the opera and the statues argue over whether the fault is black magic, the devil, love, or jealousy. Phrases from this section return very often, prompting some kind of moral for the ending. In the end, it is love that brings about the ends of the characters. Love of money, sexual desire, and honor, are all downfalls for these people as we are treated to magical thread spun by Celestina.
In between, it was a visual and musical delight. The music, written by Matt Rogers, greatly evokes the Renaissance style while creating the right amount of cacophony. The usage of lights and projections in that darkened patio room prompted fear and empathy for the story, although sometimes it was hard to determine what was being sung or said. With the imbalance of volume in the music, I needed to listen to opera twice in order to better hear the music. The visuals had no problem relaying the story. The scale of both the romantic and political tones of the era are perfectly presented throughout.
Overall, the work is great and it is a shame that it may be a while before it is presented again. While no recordings are available at moment, it doesn't mean that it won't ever come to pass. Alone, the music would make a wonderful stereophonic opera experience. The real thrill, however, is certainly following the model of groups like On-Site Opera, in which one needs to be there to truly experience the production. If more productions from Opera Erratica make their way to NYC, you bet that I will do my best to see them.
I am currently taking a break from using this blog for the month of January. I am writing for another blog, Hofstra Opera Musings. Check it out to learn more about Schubert and his two works that I will be a part of. Die Verschworenen, a one act opera based on Lysistrata, and Die Winterreise, a song cycle about death and isolation.
As an avid opera goer, I find nothing more exciting then a well written villain. From hostile takeovers, kidnapping, manipulation, and murder, there are some incredible villains in the great history of opera. I have compiled a list of my personal favorite moments where the villain gets to shine. These picks are either scenes or arias or a combination of the two. For this list, I have picked ten operas and at least one villain from that opera. My focus will be on opera from the classical era up to the early-mid 20th century, since these are more prevalent in the public eye. I disqualify villains from comic operas and operettas in order to focus on dramas and tragedies. My list does not reflect the views of any other particular person or organization. In no particular order, here is my list of ten great opera villain moments.
1) "Credo in un Dio crudel", Iago from Verdi's Otello
There is no uncertainty in the opera world that Iago is one of the great villains to ever be penned. The second to last of Giuseppe Verdi's great operas, Otello follows the great moor of Shakespeare as his jealousy leads him to commit murder. Who leads him to this downfall? His "trusted" ensign Iago. In the original play, he is more of a trickster and less of a cold hearted demon. He is racist, manipulative, and competitive. In the opera, Iago is passed over for the appointment of captain by the Moor general Othello. In revenge, he makes up an affair between Desdemona, Othello's wife, and Cassio, a captain in Othello's fleet. In his famous aria, distancing himself from Shakespeare, he declares his belief in a cruel god, who wants nothing more but for men to suffer in this life and the next. This is the epitome of evil for any operatic villain.
2) "La Veau d'Or", Mephistopheles from Gounod's Faust
Historically, there has been no greater force of evil that man fears more than eternal damnation at the hands of the devil. None has been more prevalent than in the legend of Faust, a german scholar who sells his soul for youth and knowledge. The devil Mephistopheles has appeared in many adaptions, but Gounod's Faust was so acclaimed, it ushered in a new age of french opera. In his famous song of the golden calf, Mephistopheles sings an ode to the greed of man, while simultaneously creating a frantic orgy. He knows the sin of the earth and revels in how easily man is led astray.
3) "O Beauty, O Handsomeness, goodness.." Claggart from Britten's Billy Budd
Benjamin Britten's opera, based on the story by Herman Melville, follows the recollection of british Captain Vere's days as a captain during the days of the French Revolution. After taking on new recruit Billy Budd via impressment, John Claggart, master-at-arms of Veer's ship, orders his spy Squeak to get the young man in trouble. When his plan fails and he sees Billy's innocence and loyalty, Claggart curses goodness and beauty, stating that he will destroy the boy who brought it on the ship. In the second act, he frames Billy for conspiracy to mutiny. When Billy is charged in front of Vere, he stammers and kills Claggart with a single punch. This ultimately leads to Billy's execution.
4) "Schweig', damit dich niemand warnt"/Wolf's Glenn scene- Caspar from Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz
This is the only combination of two separate moments from the same opera. Der Freischutz is considered the first great romantic german opera. When a hunting ranger named Maxwell fears that he will be unable to pass a trial shot before his wedding, he seeks the help of a fellow ranger Caspar to help him obtain magic bullets. Unbeknownst to him, Caspar is the cause of Maxwell's unlucky streak, due to some supernatural assistance. In the finale of Act 1, Caspar sings of how he will use the magic bullets to exact revenge on Maxwell for stealing his former love Agathe. In the Wolf's Glenn, Caspar calls on the devil, portrayed as the Black Huntsman, to give him one more day to find a replacement soul, Maxwell. The rest of the scene involves the creation of the magic bullets, summoning wild creatures, demons, and spirits to the land of the living. The day of the wedding, the plan fails. The final bullet, controlled by the devil, misses its intended target and kills Caspar.
5) "Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen", The Queen of the Night from Mozart's The Magic Flute
Yes, this list has an overload of testosterone. But that doesn't mean we don't have great female villains in opera. None can match the pure evil that is The Queen of the Night. Sopranos of all ages envy this role for its difficulty and her power. In the first act of the opera, Tamino is sent on a quest to save the queen's daughter from the evil Sarastro. By the time we see he again, we find that the queen is actually the villain, and Sarastro the good guy. In her famous aria, she orders her daughter Pamina to kill Sarastro or be killed herself. It is one of Mozart's greatest arias and remains a classic to this day.
6) "Va, Tosca", Scarpia from Puccini's Tosca
None of Puccini's villains is as sadistic and lustful than Baron Scarpia, chief of police for the city of Rome. He is after a political prisoner and the affection of Floria Tosca, an opera singer. Knowing that her boyfriend Cavaradossi is an accomplice and a political ally for the prisoner Angelotti, he uses her emotions to his advantage. After tricking Tosca into thinking that her lover is having an affair with another woman, she confesses to Cavaradossi's whereabouts. When Scarpia believes that he has both the prisoner and Tosca in his sights, he sings of his love of Tosca, which is distracting him from the Te Deum performed in the church. This is some of Puccini's most chilling writing.
7) Revival Scene, Olin Blitch from Carlisle Floyd's Susannah
What is a villain without power? And what greater power than a religious god? In this classic american opera, a young woman is judged by her townsfolk for her supposed sin. Along comes Olin Blitch, a revival pastor, who comes to town to judge the wicked and save the good. At a revival meeting, Blitch gives a sermon aimed at Susannah of how God punishes the wicked. After public humiliation, he rapes her. After Susannah's brother kills Blitch in revenge, she ostracizes herself from the rest of the town. Many situations like this were based in the cold reality of life in the southern USA, and touched the souls of many facing the wrath of Senator McCarthy's Red Scare.
8) "Quel vecchio maledivami", Sparafucile from Verdi's Rigoletto
This is one of the two duets I have on this list. Sparafucile is an assassin who introduces himself to Rigoletto, and is later hired to kill the Duke of Mantua...unsuccessfully. He lives to kill for cash uses his sister to seduce his victims. Before this meeting, Count Monterone places a father's curse on the Duke for raping his daughter, and on Rigoletto for mocking him. After Rigoletto's own daughter Gilda has been saved from the Duke and Monterone only reverses the curse on the Duke before his execution, Rigoletto has no choice but to have the Duke assassinated. But, after Sparafucile's sister falls for the Duke, he decides that he will kill someone else (Gilda) and take the money. He has no moral center to anything but family and money. I consider this an important moment
9) "Son'io dinazi al re?", The Grand Inquisitor from Verdi's Don Carlo
The second scene involving two characters is the meeting of the Grand Inquisitor with King Philip of Spain in Don Carlo. The Inquisitor is so full of himself that he essentially tells the king to kill anyone who dares defy the kingdom and the church. In this case, he means his son Carlo and his friend Rodrigo, a revolutionary. He is the ultimate power in the case. His influence is the reason so many people died by the hands of the inquisition. He goes into depth of how god is commanding him to rid the world of evil. And of course, the dark deep bass is terrifying enough as it is.
10) "Bin ich nun frei?", Alberich from Wagner's Das Rheingold
No other villain casts a shadow that take four operas to bring to an end. Alberich is the main antagonist of the Ring Cycle. He is a dwarf who takes the enchanted rheingold to fasten a ring to give him unlimited power, but only by denouncing love. Wotan, king of the gods, kidnaps Alberich, takes all his gold to pay a debt to some giants, and cuts off his hand to take the ring. Angered, Alberich places a curse on the ring. It will bring death and destruction to whoever holds it until it is returned back to him. He is mentioned in Die Walkure, plots to take the ring from a young warrior in Siegfried, and commands his son to kill Siegfried and take the ring before being dragged down to his death by the rhinemaidens in Gotterdammerung. His curse lays down the foundation for the rest of the cycle.
Well, that's my list of some of the best villain moments in opera. If you agree, disagree, or have your own favorite that wasn't mentioned here, feel free to comment down below.
