Richard Rodgers (1902-1979)

[Ein Heldenleben]

Mind you, I once went to a "light music" concert which featured 'Forest Murmurs' and 'The Ride of the Valkyries'. I thought they were harmonious with Sailing By or Carriage and Pair, thus further undermining the whole wretched idea of "light music".

Good music theatre and opéras comiques (of which Carousel is one, really) are infinitely more consciously serious about life and death than the great majority of operas, that popular art form par excellence. Ranking tables with Wagner at one end and Richard Rodgers at the other tell us more about the people constructing them, than about the works themselves.

I might have gone a bit far when I opined that the John Wilson orchestra performance of Conrad Salinger’s arrangement of Rodger’s Dancing In The Dark from Bandwagon had all the emotional intensity of a Bruckner Adagio but I think I had a point .

[LMcD]

Liking the noise is fine, but opera requires you to pay attention to what (let's say) Bluebeard and Judith have to say to one another. Take my word for it, what they say is uncommonly interesting, and is served by the music. It is not some sort of optional extra. Just the same's true with the texts of Orphée aux enfers or The King and I: without knowing what's being said, the pretty tunes don't add up to a hill of beans.

I'm a simple soul who often finds it difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time.

[Master Jacques]

I'm a simple soul who often finds it difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time.

That sounds like a quote from an Offenbachian comic tenor's couplets, one of those addle-pated servants who turns out to know better than anyone else what's really going on!

[LMcD]

That sounds like a quote from an Offenbachian comic tenor's couplets, one of those addle-pated servants who turns out to know better than anyone else what's really going on!

It's a good day when I learn a new adjective, but this particular servant really would like to learn how to follow everything that's going on on-stage while still appreciating the music. The only operas I can follow properly are Peter Grimes and Albert Herring -something for which Britten, and not yours truly, deserves the credit.

[Master Jacques]

It's a good day when I learn a new adjective, but this particular servant really would like to learn how to follow everything that's going on on-stage while still appreciating the music. The only operas I can follow properly are Peter Grimes and Albert Herring -something for which Britten, and not yours truly, deserves the credit.

And Britten, I think, would have passed on your credit to Peter Pears and the other singers whose clear diction was insisted upon, in both those works. BB's word-setting is exemplary, for sure. The music more often than not springs direct from the verbal phrases, just as in Janacek.

When I've introduced people to opera, I've noticed that starting them off on works where there's plenty going on (at modern theatrical pace) will grab them first, after which the music will slyly work its magic, whatever its style. I've found innocent newcomers much more enthusiastic about Wozzeck, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk or The Makropolous Case, than about such older classics as Traviata, Tristan or Tamerlano.

[Sospiri]

It's a good day when I learn a new adjective, but this particular servant really would like to learn how to follow everything that's going on on-stage while still appreciating the music. The only operas I can follow properly are Peter Grimes and Albert Herring -something for which Britten, and not yours truly, deserves the credit.

Apart from some Italian opera, Puccini in particular because of beautiful arias , I have no interest in Opera and prefer musical theatre

[LMcD]

Apart from some Italian opera, Puccini in particular because of beautiful arias , I have no interest in Opera and prefer musical theatre

I must admit I'm all at sea when it comes to Billy Budd or the Flying Dutchman, but derive enormous pleasure from Gilbert and Sullivan and musical theatre. I've never had any problems with Kiss Me Kate, for example.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Apart from some Italian opera, Puccini in particular because of beautiful arias , I have no interest in Opera and prefer musical theatre

In an effort to get back on topic I would say In the case of Richard Rodgers they are pretty much the same thing.When boiled down to its essential elements there’s little difference between Carousel , The Magic Flute and Fidelio. The links between Puccini and musical theatre are particularly strong with so much of what he did “borrowed “ by Broadway and the West End.

[LMcD]

Suffice it to say that for the past 5 days I've dropped everything, as they say, at 4.00 p.m. and settled down for an hour of pure musical delight.

[french frank]

This is the new CotW thread for Richard Rodgers (and musical theatre)

[LMcD]

'Blue Moon' a film about Lorenz Hart, goes on release in the USA in October. Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers and won the Silver Bear Award as Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival. Ethan Hawke plays Lorenz Hart. It was filmed in Dublin to create the illusion of a 1940s New York City theater district.