The Scottish folk song "The Last Rose of Summer" is not the first time it has appeared in a movie.
In the late 1970s, the West German film The Handsome Boy became a sensation here. In addition to the plot twists, we went to the cinema over and over again to watch "Handsome Boy" and interlude for the movie. Heinche's actor's voice is beautiful, but what I remember the most is the song that sounded in our ears when Heinche saw things in his dead mother's boudoir, that is, "The Last Rose of Summer".
Therefore, when the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra promoted the solo concert of soprano René Fleming on the evening of October 25, it began with the text "People who have seen "Three Billboards" are no strangers to René Fleming, and in the opening song of the movie, "The Last Rose of Summer", her voice has a bright star"
René Fleming singing The Last Rose of Summer
It started with a long story, and it was quite surprising to me. To be honest, when I watched the movie "Three Billboards", my attention was completely attracted by Cohen's sister-in-law's performance, and I did not think to delve into the star-studded "The Last Rose of Summer", which was sung at the beginning of the movie, who performed it.
The shanghai symphony orchestra's publicity made me stunned for a while. Fans who have seen "Three Billboards" know that it is not a story that can be matched with delicate roses, even if it is the last rose of the summer when it is lonely and open. After the murder of her daughter, the murderer was delayed in catching her, and the mother, hating the slackness of the police, decided to set up a billboard to confront the local police who did not act. How can such a story be "prefaced" to "The Last Rose of Summer"? So I re-watched Three Billboards.
René Fleming is indeed a soprano singer with a world reputation. When she deals with "The Last Rose of Summer", which she sang for "Three Billboards", the breeze is more leisurely than the melancholy of the cocoon, which makes the ensuing gray storyline always projected by a bright light. Yes, René Fleming's minutes of singing equalizes the brightness and darkness of the entire film.
René Fleming herself, too, brings her own light, which I felt when I attended the "Listen to Fleming Friends and Media Meetup" on the evening of October 24. That night, 60-year-old René Fleming, dressed in a red dark plaid dress, spoke brightly with everyone about his singing career, the hardships and experiences of his amateur writing, and the talent and effort required to become a singer, and so on. The daughter of a music teacher, the ideal of playing small is to be a music teacher like her parents, and she did not expect that talent would help her to become a busy singer who traveled all over the world to perform operas, sing art songs, and perform Broadway musicals all year round. However, from such a smooth road to success, how can René Fleming sing well the work of the ill-fated composer Richard Strauss? "Caprice Finale" is the highlight of the concert on the evening of October 25th!
René Fleming chats with fans at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Before going to the concert, I didn't dare to preview René Fleming's singing video online, for fear that I would hesitate to go to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to listen to the concert.
René Fleming is no less than the level of singing at his peak, so that I, a music fan who has never liked vocals very much, have to admit that the beauty of the singing voice is irreplaceable by any instrument.
However, I don't quite understand why the concert arranged the highlight of my opinion, Richard Strauss's Caprice Finale, in the first half.
Many of the works of the German composer Richard Strauss have been inspired by philosophical and literary masterpieces, such as "Zarathusla", "Don Juan", "Don Quixote" and so on. When Richard Strauss, who was 74 years old in 1942, set out to write his last opera, did he ever think of the Russian writer Herzen's "Past and Caprice", which was popular in the Western world? There is no such transcript, but every time I open the computer to enjoy Strauss's one-act opera, for some reason I can't help but think of Herzen's masterpiece.
Herzen's recollection of the past stretched from the Great Patriotic War of 1812 to the 1860s, so Herzen's capricciations were also complex, involving only the characters from the princes and ministers to the peddlers. With the rafters of an artist and political commentator, Herzen shows the reader how a noble soul can clean itself in the waves of history and the rolling red dust.
Richard Strauss, the outstanding composer of the late Romantic period in Germany, who came to the world half a century later than Herzen, spent his early career in a flat river, but the two world wars almost ruined his family, and his somewhat vague political positions during the Second World War left him in an uncontrollable melancholy in his later years. Upon learning that Weimar's Goethe House and the Dresden State Opera were destroyed, the composer had a nervous breakdown. Under the meticulous care of his family, Richard Strauss decided to compose the opera Caprice.
Since it is an opera, it must have a plot: in 18th-century France, the composer Flamand and the poet Oliver fell in love with the young widow Countess Madeleine, and the poet and composer mocked each other's art, arguing about poetry or music, which was the greater art. To please Madeleine, Oliver recited a newly composed sonnet to Madeleine, and Vlamand immediately composed it into music. However, the good intentions were not well rewarded, the poet complained that the composer had destroyed the rhythm of the poem, listened to the poet's complaints, and the composer fought back, mocking the poet for not understanding the beauty of music. The tit-for-tat confrontation between the poet and the composer left Madeleine with no choice, because she had no way to tell which was more important than music and poetry. At her brother's suggestion, she decided to have Oliver work with Flemand on an opera... An opera in which love is reduced to a foil, and poetry and music become the more important themes, Richard Strauss creates a completely ignored storytelling, so that the opera, which lasts for more than 2 hours, is densely woven with recitation. In addition to the main characters participating in this "controversy between music and poetry", even the servants discussed this issue while cleaning the room. But which of poetry and music really plays a leading role is an age-old conundrum, and where is an opera that can give the answer? So, Caprice ends in Madeleine's brooding, beautiful monologue. It is not the answer, but Madeleine's thinking.
On the evening of October 25, the last track of the first half of the concert, René Fleming sang Madeleine's thoughts with a voice as clear as the stars and as delicate as flowing water. In 25 minutes, I heard Richard Strauss's brilliant life and the twists and turns of his life. Excellent singing, even after a 20-minute intermission, I could not enter the second half of the repertoire, and I had to rub shoulders with Verdi's work with great regret.
I have wondered how René Fleming, who has been on the road with a smooth career, can sing Richard Strauss's Caprice Finale? However, René Fleming perfectly sang Richard Strauss's expectations of Madeleine's 25-minute monologue. How did she do it? After returning home, I missed the night to read her autobiography "Inner Voice - The Growth of a Singer", where is there any horse Pingchuan? René Fleming just prefers to show her sunny side in public.