Wednesday, January 16, 2013

What Difference Does Opera Make?

 A report on the effect of playing Schubert's B-flat Sonata as opera rather than sonata:
  • Virtuoso passages are transformed into bursts of fury; the temptation to exhibit mastery becomes the challenge to let emotion rule.
  • Seemingly trivial figures flitting around following such passages become flickering flames released by the eruption.
  • Unease drives.
  • Tenderness is reflective, longed for, deeply simple.
  • Ordinary triads become singular events.