I like all kinds of music but the music that generally affects me emotionally is opera. Even hearing the duet between Rodolfo and Mimi in ‘La Boheme,’ and the closing bars with theme music to her ‘tiny hand is frozen’ when Rodolfo realises Mimi is dead can move me to tears.
What was more moving was a rendering of the Ukrainian National Anthem sung by performers at the end of the Ukrainian Opera’s performance of ‘La Boheme’ at Sunderland Empire in 2023. Emotion welled from the stage, enveloping the audience into what these Ukrainians felt about what was happening to their country.
I like Wagner. Approaching the Middlesborough flyover bridge in the car, it was sunset and we were listening to Wagner. We could see smoke billowing up from towers. What looked like flames flickering from distant factory chimneys reddened the sky. As we began crossing the bridge, the entry into Valhalla began. I turned up the volume as we drove across the bridge. There were no Valkyries, and definitely no ravens to eat the flesh of the dead, but at that moment the music was spellbinding.
Not so at a production of “The Valkyries” at Newcastle Theatre Royal many years ago. These Valkyries were not warrior maidens brandishing swords and shields, who had ridden through the air returning from battle after selecting the noble dead to go to Valhalla. No, these Valkyrie maidens were not on horses, they were on stilts. There was no battle armour. Instead, they were dressed in bright purple gowns supposedly long enough to hide their stilts. They wore large conical purple hats to make them look even taller. Lumbering onto the stage they just stood and sang, more like purple people eaters than Valkyries. Moment gone.
I am emotionally sensitive to music. My husband is not. Research by ‘Nature Communications’ concluded that nearly 54% of people’s sensitivity to music is due to genes rather than learned behaviour. My other 46% learned behaviour probably came from singing powerful Methodist hymns after attending Sunday School from the age of three, and then chapel where my auntie played the organ.
The emotion of music – or not
Getting musically emotional during a performance doesn’t always work, or if it does it can come down with a bump. In a performance of Tosca, the music, acting, singing and knowledge of the plot was reaching its emotional climaxes. Tosca goes to Barone Scarpia’s apartment. He is intent on seducing Tosca using the ploy of promising her Cavaradossi’s freedom. Tosca agrees to his demands in order to save herself and her lover. There was a piano on stage adorned with a candelabra, with three lit candles on top. Music intensifies as Scarpia strides towards the piano to reach Tosca on the other side. The music builds up. Emotions abound within me knowing that Tosca, rather than receiving the lustful embraces of Scarpia, will give him a fatal stab wound. Then my husband’s voice whispers in my ear:
“Don’t worry, its only Liberace. He’s going to play the piano.” Moment gone.
The opera continues building up to the climax: supposedly the execution of Cavaradossi will not be real as the bullets fired by the soldiers on Scarpia’s orders before he died will be blanks. But Scarpia had deliberately not issued these orders he had promised. Shots fire. Tosca with horror realises that her lover is dead. The music heightens emotionally as Tosca ascends the parapet and leaps off in anguish. Another whisper in my ear:
“Don’t worry. There’s a trampoline at the bottom. She’ll not die, just jump up again.”
It is a good job he was silently concentrating on his driving as I entered Valhalla after crossing the bridge at Middlesborough.
We heard the excellent Hartlepool Male Choir recently. One of their numbers was from the musical ‘Les Misérables.’ ‘Bring Him Home’ is Valjean’s prayer to God to protect his adopted son Marius who has gone off to fight in the French Revolution. I got caught up in this emotional song but afterwards, despite the wonderful singing, my mind wandered to Terry Pratchett’s ‘Nightwatch.’ It is the 30th Anniversary of the Glorious Revolution when his hero John Keel died and Sam Vimes is sent back in time to the barricades.
This led to thoughts of one of my favourite characters, Carrot, so named as Terry Pratchett said, not because of his red hair but because of his shape. He had the “kind of tapering shape a boy gets through clean living, healthy eating and good mountain air in huge lungfuls.” Carrot Ironfoundersson was adopted by dwarfs after his parents were killed by bandits in the forest. He was found as a baby, along with a ring and a sword with royal connections, by the dwarfs. It would have been magical if Terry Pratchett had lived long enough to write another novel of how Carrot became the rightful King of Ankh-Morpork.
Back to the music. The concert ended with the choir giving a harmonious rendering of ‘Nessun Dorma.’ We once had an adorable, musical Jack Russell. His favourite joining-in operatic song was indeed, ‘Nessun Dorma.’ As the crescendo in the finale grew more intense, so did the dog’s emotions, joining in at the end with a wonderful howl, hitting just the right note, for a dog that is. Much more sensitive to music than my husband!
