There is something archetypal about the figure of the Hurdy-Gurdy Man. I recognize him as an image first encountered in my childhood. His origin is Eastern Europe. Why do I think he might be Jewish? The Fiddler on The Roof. The Rag Picker. The Outcast The Stranger among us who has looked upon things we all shy away from and so, we shy away from him all the while knowing he has something wise and terrible to teach us. Someone recently said to me that more than being loved, we need to feel that we belong. I thought about that and it feels right ! Family, Religion, Nation, City Class Sexual orientation Local Sports Team College Fraternity Political party These are things we belong to. We support them. We exalt them. We defend them. We oppose those who attack them. We feel elated when another member of our tribe succeeds. What does it feel like when we belong to no group? Who among us does not belong to any group? The beggar. The homeless The elderly living alone. The black man in a white world. The mis-shapen The grotesque. This is the Hurdy Gurdy man.....the Leiermann The one we fear most because he lives our greatest nightmare. But when we are dying we feel the ultimate alone-ness. We are alive but no longer belong to the world of the living. Perhaps Schubert, who was dying when he wrote this, was making common cause with the Leiermann. Outcasts... together. " May I come along? Will you play my song ?"
How nice to see my friend Arlene Saunders! We worked together many times at Sarah Caldwell’s opera company in Boston in the 70s. And McDaniel is pretty amazing, too!
Dear Mr. Scott, I'm so glad you like the clip and Arlene Saunders. She had a lovely voice and (from what I read about her) a sprightly, somewhat impish personality with a keen sense of humour. I was sad to hear that she was one of the early victims of Covid-19. As to Barry McDaniel - yes, he was amazing, in many respects. Perhaps the best German art song performer that you have never heard of. I also uploaded the full-length video of "Gasparone".
I'm happy that you like it! This is IMHO one of his best TV performances. As to "Die Dubarry", I do have it, but in a rather poor copy (probably PAL->NTSC->back to PAL). Try "www.operapassion.com" for a download.
@@1974Orpheus Agree with you that this was a great performance. Not all operetta film adaptations were good. This one was excellent, in my opinion. Do you consider operapassion a reliable website?
@@shirata1671 I don't really know, as I have discovered them only yesterday. But they charge 4 dollars for a download, so there isn't that much risk involved. BTW: You may find "Die Dubarry" disappointing. The piece is much weaker than "Gasparone" to start with, and the chemistry between Barry McDaniel and Gail Robinson is not the same as with Arlene Saunders. She was 15 years younger, and he sometimes gave me the impression of a man having to cope with his impertinent niece - although he looks gorgeous...
gerade konnte ich auch die Aufnahme mit Fischer-Dieskau hören: McDaniels ist musikalisch auf gleichen Niveau, aber stimmlich weit überlegen. Jeder Ton klingt. DFD ist interessant und rhetorisch... wie immer, wohl zitiert. Barry McDaniels singt mit einer umwerfenden Technik UND zutiefst ergreifend. Selbst die deutsche Sprache wirkt bei ihm nicht deplatziert. Bei DFD dachte ich, "welch hässliche Lieder" und "ok, der Inhalt ist ja auch nicht schön". "Warum singt, er nicht die Originalsprache, wie sie auch von Reuter vertont wurde?"
Groß ist die Venus im Ausnahmefall aber doch. Am 1.12.2018. war sie als Morgenstern so groß wie der aufsteigende Halbmond. Sie war vorher noch etwas größer und einige Tage danach ein wenig kleiner, aber immer noch größer als normal. Leider war es da bewölkt. Am 1.Dezember 2018. war sie in 60 Millionen km Entfernung zu 24% beleuchtet. Sonst ist das noch nicht die Hälfte oder sie ist mindestens doppelt soweit weg. Wäre Venus bis gut 100 Millionen km voll beleuchtet, wäre sie größer als der Mond, nur nicht so hell. Sie war fast - 5 Grad hell. Der Vollmond ist 12, 8 Grad Minus. Der Halbmond -8 bis- 10 Grad, was ich aber nur vermute. Beim Vollmond stimmt es aber. Die Sonne ist 27-28 Grad Minus hell, im Winter steht sie 6 Millionen km näher als im Sommer.
Mr. Mcdaniel was a charming, elegant man. I had three lessons with him (two in Berlin and one in Schwetzingen) when I was a young American soldier in Germany. Our schedules did not match. He was, and still is, the finest Lieder singer I have ever heard.
Thank you for posting this and other numbers. Great underrated singer, in part because he sang little opera in US. I was lucky to see him in Cosi in a marvelous Deutsche Opera performance at the Kennedy Center in 1975.
#24. Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) - Back of the village stands a hurdy-gurdy man, cranking his instrument with frozen fingers. His begging bowl is always empty; no one listens, and the dogs growl at him. But his playing never stops. "Strange old man. Shall I come with you? Will you play your hurdy-gurdy to accompany my songs?" (Wikipedia)
#23. Die Nebensonnen (The Phantom Suns) - He sees three suns staring at him in the sky. "You are not my suns! Once I too had three, but the best two have now set. If only the third would follow, I'll be happier in the darkness." (Wikipedia)
#22. Mut! (Courage!) - He shakes the snow from his face and sings cheerfully to silence his heart's stirrings, striding into the world, against wind and weather: "If there's no God on earth, then we ourselves are gods!" (Wikipedia)
#21. Das Wirtshaus (The Inn) - He comes to a graveyard and wants to enter. But all the rooms in this "inn" are taken; he resolves to go on his way with his faithful walking-stick. (Wikipedia)
#20. Der Wegweiser (The Signpost) - "Why do I take secret ways and avoid the other travelers? I've committed no crime. What foolish desire drives me to seek the wastelands?" He journeys endlessly, seeking peace and finding none. A signpost points the way: "I must travel a road where no one has ever yet returned." (Wikipedia)
#19. Täuschung (Deception) - A dancing light wants to lead him astray, and he is glad to go along. “Behind ice and night and horror” it shows him a warm, bright house and a loving wife within. Illusion is all he has to go on. (Wikipedia)
#17. Im Dorfe (In the Village) - Dogs bark, and all the people are asleep, dreaming of success and failure, finding on their pillows what eluded them in life. ”I am done with all dreaming. Why should I linger among the sleepers?” (Wikipedia)
#16. Letzte Hoffnung (Last Hope) - He gambles on a leaf quivering in the wind. If it falls from the tree, all his hopes are dashed. He falls to the ground himself and weeps over the “grave” of his hopes. (Wikipedia)
#15. Die Krähe (The Crow) - A crow has been following him. It has never left him, expecting to take his body as its prey. "It won't be much longer now. Crow, show me constancy unto death!" (Wikipedia)
He thinks it's friend but it's foe. The last five notes are written stacatto: - it pecks him to death, when he falls. Modern accompaniment tends to over-romanticise the cruelty of nature. The loneliness in Schubert is always omnipresent. Luckily the singer achieves that mood here. I love the way the piano mimics the circling crow. They really do that, esp. above a new lamb being born ready to peck out it's eyes before it ever saw anything. Schubert must have witnessed how evil nature can be. Modern accompaniment probably never does. There is too much distance between piano and leider, I think. Schubert made them a team, not Jeeves and Worster.
#14. Der greise Kopf (The Gray Head) - Frost has turned his hair gray and he rejoices at being an old man. But when it thaws, he is horrified to be a youth again: “How far it is still to the grave.” (Wikipedia)
#12. Einsamkeit (Loneliness) - He wanders, like a sad and lonely cloud, through the bright and happy life around him. “Even when the storms were raging. I was not so miserable.” (Wikipedia)
#11. Frühlingstraum (Dreams of Spring) - He dreams of springtime and love, but wakes to cold and darkness and the shrieking of ravens. He sees frost leaves painted on the window. When will they turn green? When will he again embrace his beloved? (Wikipedia)
#10. Rast (Rest) - Only now that he has stopped to rest does he realize how tired and sore he is. And in the quiet he feels for the first time the “worm” which stings him inwardly. (Wikipedia)
#9. Irrlicht (Will o' the Wisp) - The false light of the will-o'-the-wisp has led him astray, but he is used to that. Every path leads to the same goal. Our joys and sorrows are but a trick of the light. Every stream reaches the sea, every sorrow its grave. (Wikipedia)
#8. Rückblick (Backward Glance) - He recounts his headlong flight from the town and recalls his springtime arrival in the “city of inconstancy,” and two girlish eyes which captivated him. When he thinks of that time, he would like to go back and stand silently in front of her house. (Wikipedia)
#7. Auf dem Fluss (On the Stream) - The gaily rushing stream lies silent under a hard crust. In the ice, he carves a memorial to their love. The river is an image of his heart swelling up powerfully beneath the frozen surface. (Wikipedia)
#6. Wasserflut (Flood) - The cold snow thirstily sucks up his tears; when the warm winds blow, the snow and ice will melt, and the brook will carry them through the town to where his sweetheart lives.
#5. Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree) - The tree, a reminder of happier days, seems to call him, promising rest. But he turns away, into the cold wind. And now, miles away, he still hears it calling him: “Here you would find peace.” (Wikipedia)
#4. Erstarrung (Numbness) - He looks in vain for her footprints beneath the snow where she once walked with him through the green meadow; he wants to melt away the snow and ice with his tears. He has nothing to remember her by except his pain. She is frozen in his heart; if it thaws, her image will flow away. (Wikipedia)
#3. Gefror'ne Tränen (Frozen Tears) - He notices he has been crying and chides his tears for being only lukewarm so that they freeze. They come out of his heart hot enough to melt all the winter's ice! (Wikipedia)
#2. Die Wetterfahne (The Weathervane) - The weathervane on her house creaks in the shifting winds, mocking him and showing the inconstant hearts inside. “What do they care about my suffering? Their child is a wealthy bride!” (Wikipedia)
#1. Gute Nacht (Good Night) - “A stranger I arrived; a stranger I depart.” In May, he won the love of a girl and hoped to marry her. But now the world is dreary, and he must leave, in winter, in the dead of night, finding his own way in the trackless snow. “Love loves to wander-from one person to the next.” He writes “Good Night” on her gate as he passes to show he thought of her. (Wikipedia)
great.. i remember seeing Mr. Mc Daniel in Berlin, at the Deutsches Opera, acting and singing movingly as Harlequin in Richard Strauss' ARIADNE AUF NAXOS.
