14 書香人生 B O O K S & R E V I E W S SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES Hardcover: US Classical DVDs Surprise Civil War ending comes three years early Military historian John Keegan focuses on the Proms in London. The DVD dates from September last the big picture in his sweeping year, and thus contributed to events marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death in 1759. one-volume analysis of the deadliest Andreas Scholl, singing in a high woman’s register, is conflict in US history Arsace. Another character, Rosmira, is a woman disguised as a man (sung by Tuva Semmingsen). Such anomalies were BY Joe Mysak par for the course in early 18th century operas in which BLOOMBERG emasculated “castrati” played an important part. Today their roles are often taken by counter-tenors, and Scholl February 1862, General was dubbed the finest counter-tenor of his generation by IN Ulysses S. Grant captured forts PUBLICATION NOTES Opera News. Tenor or baritone voices are relatively rare in Henry and Donelson in Tennessee and this production — one of the best is Emilio, leader of the won the American Civil War. warlike Cumae (Bo Kristian Jensen). Partenope herself, a It took almost three more years and thousands of lives, but female character unambiguously played by a woman, is very the capture of the two earthwork strongly sung by Inger Dam Jensen. structures was key to all that came In a bonus track the director, Francisco Negrin, and set later, argues British historian John and costume designer Louis Desire, discuss the production Keegan in The American Civil War: A with none other than Andreas Scholl, here playing the part Military History. of interviewer. The view is expressed that perhaps Handel “Possession of the Tennessee was trying out a new style, something lighter and more River, if it were used correctly by the North, would give access to southern ironic than audiences had experienced in his heavily treated, Tennessee, northern Alabama, and the myth-based “serious” operas. He may consequently have upper Mississippi, and lend support to played with the operatic conventions of the day, and the operations down the Mississippi River director and costume designer take this as a go-ahead to itself,” Keegan writes. “The capture of play with the work even more. Thus a stage battle at one Forts Henry and Donelson effectively point becomes a game of musical chairs. marked the end of the opening stage The supposed date of the production is timeless, says of the Civil War in the West.” Surprised? I was. Most histories of THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR Desire, though it’s clearly modern in essence. And Negrin describes how he’s brought characters on stage who weren’t the subject tend to rank the capture BY JOHN KEEGAN of the two forts as marking the there originally to help the soloists establish comic aspects emergence of Grant, and not much 396 PAGES to their roles. Quality comedy is harder to achieve than tragic more. For many writers, and not just KNOPF drama, he points out, but the plus is that 18th century comedy those with a sneaking admiration for has a lot in common with the present era — not taking sexual various Confederate commanders, the passion too seriously, and often ironic and playful, unlike the Civil War is more of a close-run thing. You almost wonder how or even if the The reputation of General 19th century when comedy largely took a rest. North won at all. Grant has seen a revival in recent PARTENOPE BY BRADLEY WINTERTON Musically attractive though it is, Partenope, or any Keegan, a former lecturer at the years, and Keegan is a partisan. Handel COntRIBUTING REPORTER Handel opera, is not where anyone newly curious about Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, He considers Grant “the greatest Royal Danish Opera In a recent interview on Deutsche Welle TV, Kent Nagano, the art form should start. The Baroque 18th century is Decca 074-3348-5 and author of such works as A general of the war, one who would the Japanese American conductor who’s music director of an acquired taste, whereas some of the more established History of Warfare (1993), The Mask have excelled at any time in any the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, was asked what his classics are so powerful it’s almost impossible not to fall for of Command (1987) and The Face of army,” followed by his friend and reaction was to the current resurgence of interest in opera. them on first acquaintance. Battle (1978), is a big-picture writer. colleague William T. Sherman. He He’s more comfortable with the calls the Confederacy’s Robert E. I must say that any such resurgence was news to What opera DVDs, then, should be considered an movements of armies and decisions Lee “a gifted battle-winner” whose me. Nevertheless, I started wondering what kind of new essential beginner’s library? I offer the following six by generals than with vignettes that defects included a lack of boldness, audiences, judging by recent opera issues on DVD, might as unreservedly recommended. None are new, and all romanticize people and places. excessive sensitivity to the feelings be drawn to the medium. Going by the proliferation of have been previously reviewed in this column. Mozart’s The overview format favored by of his subordinates and a failure to chic parties and generous libations of champagne in recent Nozze di Figaro, a film directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle Keegan is distinctly old-fashioned in insist upon his own judgment. productions, I concluded that some of the newly affluent — with Hermann Prey and Mirella Freni (DGM 073-4034-9); a day when writers spend hundreds And then there’s this, presented young financiers and investment analysts, perhaps, anxious Kenneth Branagh’s World War I film version of Mozart’s of pages on the heroics of a single early on without elaboration: “The engagement. The emphasis on the armies of the Civil War were the worst for something to mark them out from the still-struggling The Magic Flute (Lien Yin DVD-9 in Taiwan); Wagner’s Die personal over the strategic has tailored of any great conflict, and the masses — might be involved. Meistersinger von Nurnberg with Ben Heppner, James obscured the story of the war, effect was heightened by the almost So, as it’s early in January, and still feels like a time for Morris and Karita Mattila, on balance the finest opera DVD which was essentially written with universal abandonment of shaving.” surveys and round-ups, I’ll today look at one new DVD, and of all time (DGM 073-0949-0); Verdi’s Otello with Renee the North’s successful blockade of If The American Civil War has then go on to ask what opera DVDs all these newcomers to Fleming and Placido Domingo — as with the Wagner, from Southern ports and the isolation of a defect, it is the book’s less-than- the genre, assuming they exist, should regard as must-sees. New York’s Metropolitan Opera (DGM 073-0929-2); Puccini’s the Confederacy. The North’s eventual chronological, sometimes jumbled The music that tends to receive the party-going treatment Madame Butterfly with Ying Huang and Richard Troxell — victory was inevitable. narrative style. What this approach lacks in Before the Appomattox finale, isn’t the usual Verdi-Wagner-Puccini repertoire, but earlier, Puccini’s finest score, recommended less for the singing than suspense, it makes up for in clarity a grab-bag of chapters covers such 18th century music — in other words, operas in the Baroque for its effectiveness as a film: the treatment of the Humming and concision. Even buffs steeped in subjects as black soldiers in the style. Certainly a new DVD of Handel’s rarely performed Chorus is quite sensational (Columbia Tristar 05670); the subject will find value in Keegan’s Union army, Walt Whitman and the Partenope, first seen in 1730, opens in just that style. and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s observations and conclusions, quality of medical care, the war at Partenope is meant to be a princess and the mythical Pagliacci, two incomparable short films by Franco Zeffirelli, especially about the nature of battle. sea, life on the home fronts and the founder of Naples, and we first hear her receiving each starring the young Placido Domingo, on one disc (DGM For one thing, there were lots obligatory “Could the South Have supplications and hearing breathless messengers. But what 073-4033-2). This is the top recommendation for a first-time- of them: 10,000 between 1861 and Survived?” Some of these chapters 1865. For another, they were often are compelling, even provocative, we see is her in a modern setting, flouncing about on a table, ever opera experience. indecisive, chiefly because both sides and yet here they seem presented as watched by her fellow partygoers, glasses in hand. Asked who his favorite composer was, Nagano named lacked the cavalry and artillery that afterthoughts. The production originated at the Royal Danish Opera Johann Sebastian Bach. Unfortunately Bach didn’t write would have forced the issue. Finally, The one-volume approach is in Copenhagen, and was later seen in a concert version at any operas. there was the question of terrain. refreshing and, these days, unusual. Many of the bloodiest battles were Those who are looking for more can fought in relatively confined areas always go find full-length treatments of marked by dense vegetation. the Iron Brigade, or Collis’s Zouaves. Hardcover: US Any relation to biography is pure fiction (in a way) Nobel and Booker prize winner J.M.