Met Opera movie theater broadcasts, 2008-2009

[Brünnhilde forever]

In the back of my mind, barely 'hearable' is something from Thais frequently being used as a program filler at our NPR radio station, but I couldn't tell you more about either. No doubt you'll refresh my memory next month!

[knight66]

Lis, That would be the 'Meditation'; a violin piece with orchestra. Lorin Maazel has performed and possibly recorded it. I think it is the only part of the soft-centre score that has been extracted for use in the community.

There are acres of ballet music, I wonder how the Met will deal with it?

Mike

[bhodges]

The ride to the abyss was imaginatively handled on stage, though as so often, I wished the TV director would have allowed us more full-stage views, the stage production, by Robert Lepage surely will win prizes for being innovative and exciting. Perhaps in the theatre, it distracted from the music. But I went home happy and looking forward to Thais on the 20th December.

Thanks for the vivid write-up, Mike.  (Not sure if I'm going to see this at the moment since too many other things are calling.)  And interesting that you want more full-stage shots, since overall that is my main wish, too.  The directors are generally using lots of close-ups, which is wonderful, but they need to remember to do more of those long "establishing shots," too.  That was my main complaint with the broadcast of Peter Grimes, which was otherwise excellent.

--Bruce

[Solitary Wanderer]

They've just released the operas for next year starting in January '09.

Salome
Dr Atomic
La Damnation De Faust
Thais
La Rondine
Orfeo Ed Euridice
Lucia Di Lammermoor
Madame Butterfly
La Sonnambula
La Cenerentola

I've Bolded the ones I'm most interested in, although I plan to try to get to all of them.

Monday La Boheme [for the 3rd time this year!] 

[knight66]

The first four are this year. The Thais broadcast is on the 20th Dec. So, I am afraid the first three have come and gone. If you read the preceding page, you will see reviews of the Salome and Berlioz.

You have not by any chance been hibernation have you?

Mike

[Solitary Wanderer]

The first four are this year. The Thais broadcast is on the 20th Dec. So, I am afraid the first three have come and gone. If you read the preceding page, you will see reviews of the Salome and Berlioz.

You have not by any chance been hibernation have you?

Mike

Hi Mike:

They screen them here in New Zealand from January '09. I got the new list yesterday. The '08 season is still running here so I haven't missed anything 

By the way they're charging NZ$30.00 and NZ$25 for 'seniors'.

[knight66]

Well, my apologies. I thought they were beamed universe-wide at the same time. I would be interested if you could write up your opinions of what you see.

Mike

[Solitary Wanderer]

Well, my apologies. I thought they were beamed universe-wide at the same time. I would be interested if you could write up your opinions of what you see.

Mike

Yeah there is some confusion. The first one I saw I was under the impression that it was literally live ie: beamed direct from the Met in real time. But when I looked at the Mets website I saw that this couldn't possibly be the case.

So they're 'live' but with a delayed transmission so to speak. I must confess that I was a little disappoined at first, but having said that they're still wonderful.

The brochures and marketing are a bit misleading 

[bhodges]

In the U.S. the broadcasts have been so popular that after the live ones, they usually show them again--now recorded, of course--a few weeks after. 

PS, I notice that the next La Scala broadcast (video) is this coming Sunday:

http://emergingpictur.setupmyblog.com/?p=73

They are not showing it live here, but the rebroadcast in January.  I'm curious to see how companies other than the Met are handling these.  Also just found this Shostakovich Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk from Florence (taped in 1999) coming in February:

http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/2774

--Bruce

[knight66]

Thais: Sat 20th December.

Over 20 years ago, I was in chorus for a short concert tour of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. The Dido was Janet Baker, the Aeneas was a young man none of us knew. He had a healthy voice and sang very loudly indeed. In fact he overwhelmed the music; but it did not matter too much as Aeneas has not got a lot to sing in that opera. Last night I was forceably reminded of that singer again, it was Thomas Hampson on both occasions and, as years ago, I very much wanted to turn the volume down.

Of course, this was a telecast where a pin being dropped would sound like small arms fire, nevertheless, often I was wondering just what volume was marked into the score, was it really so relentlessly ff or fff?

The highlight of this opera is the entire second act, the music that sits either side of it is much less inspired. But that second act is worth the entry price on an occasional basis. There is also a duet in the first act between the two main characters, that fairly flew and I was grateful for the great skill of Lopez-Cobos who steered the piece terrifically well.

This is an strange opera, Thais and the priest Athanael never mutually fall in love; she taunts him in the first act, then has a convertion experience during the Meditation and thereafter is untouchable. The star crossed lover is the fundamentalist Athanael, who is tempted, holds himself in check, but eventually and impotently falls out of Agape and into Eros with the former courtesan. She dies in virtual sainthood, he lies stricken with his faith in tatters

I think the piece creaks and is only really worth reviving as a curiosity. I cannot think of any opera composer who has brought off this idea of apotheosis where the dying heroine sees angles, cherubim and seraphim.....it all sounds limp, even overworking of the theme from the Meditation does not really contribute to a satisfactory denouement. Thais is supposedly ravaged by physical suffering and she simply dies because of the physical trials she has been through. Fleming was not permitted to look less than ravishing and brimming with health. Never has a potential nun worn such carefully applied lipstick. But really the whole thing sits beside pantomime, so realism is quite beside the point.

Fleming looked and sounded wonderful. Very slim, dressed by Lacroix and with her cascade of hair, she was captivating. I simply could not, would not, fault the singing; coloured carefully, high sustained notes at pp, plenty of juicy tone, great arching phrasing, she was terrific. Hampson also looked great, a real presence on stage, he sounded just fine when he was at less than full blast, some grit has entered the voice, but it is still a wonderful instrument.

The production is spectacular; sets that stick with the opera's ancient timescale with a slightly modern twist; the costumes were a mix of Egyptian and 19th cent evening wear. It fitted OK, no jarring, but neither did the update add anything at all by way of a concept.

Again, we hardly ever got a full view of the stage, normally just when the curtain came down. The warmest applause was for the Meditation and the violinist playing it. At the end although the crowd reacted warmly, they did not linger long. More perhaps being slightly underwhelmed by the music than a comment on those who served it up to us.

Mike

[T-C]

Mike, thanks for this review.

I love Massenet music, and although for my taste Thais is not his best opera (I prefer Manon, Werther, Esclarmonde or Cendrillon, just to name a few), it has, as you have pointed out, its spectacular moments. The story of the opera is very typical of the romantic period and maybe much less acceptable today, but as you probably know, a great libretto does not necessarily makes a great opera and vice versa...

I love the Thais recording with Fleming and Hampson that Decca made some ten years ago, so it's really intriguing to know how the two sound in these roles today. Hopefully, this Met production will appear on a commercial DVD soon along with the Le Damnation de Faust production that you have described a month ago...

[knight66]

TC, How good to hear from you. I hope you are well in the widest sense of the word.

I also have the recording, the Met orchestra certainly played up to the exotic aspects of the score. BTW, the Met production provides a real belly dancer in the second act.

Mike

[zamyrabyrd]

Thais: Sat 20th December.

... Last night I was forceably reminded of that singer again, it was Thomas Hampson on both occasions and, as years ago, I very much wanted to turn the volume down...Of course, this was a telecast where a pin being dropped would sound like small arms fire, nevertheless, often I was wondering just what volume was marked into the score, was it really so relentlessly ff or fff?...Fleming looked and sounded wonderful. Very slim, dressed by Lacroix and with her cascade of hair, she was captivating. I simply could not, would not, fault the singing; coloured carefully, high sustained notes at pp, plenty of juicy tone, great arching phrasing, she was terrific. Hampson also looked great, a real presence on stage, he sounded just fine when he was at less than full blast, some grit has entered the voice, but it is still a wonderful instrument.

Wow. I like both Hampson and Fleming--seems like a good pairing. When he sings Lieder he doesn't necessarily sing loud, or louder than necessary. Maybe he feels the need to be more operatic in opera? Just a thought.

ZB

[knight66]

I have heard Hampson in other operas on DVD, he has been fine. Of course these broadcasts completely flatten the sound picture, so it is difficult to know whether he had to try to penetrate a thick texture; I think it is more about the bombastic character of the part. But we were almost on overload with a little distortion creeping in.

He is a well known lieder singer, so I know he does do 'subtle'.

Mike

[Solitary Wanderer]

I've been, I saw, I was not conquered. Sarastro's friend was right...so so. Though I still enjoyed the experience and will go to more relays.

It is not remotely like going to the opera, despite which some in the cinema audience applauded; which made me think they were only allowed out for the day. Here the sound is in your lap, the visuals are down the larynx. I have no idea what the balance would have been in the theatre, but as broadcast it was up close at all times. Even when Kim Begley sang from the back of the stage, he was right in my ear. So the sound perspectives were completely flattened. This robs the feeling of space and the excitement of watching someone pit their voice against the wall of sound Strauss often devises.

The orchestra sounded generally loud, even during passages that are delicate. The pacing was not altogether to my taste. I felt the score came across as episodic, especially in the dance itself. Moreover, it wound down in the last 20 minutes, which were often just too slow. Nor was the conductor able to pull off that miracle at the end, once Salome has had her way with the head, the soundworld goes cold, when the moon silvers the score.

I was content with most of the production. A 1960s James Bond baddie's palace on the edge of a stylised desert with an incongruous miner's cage topped with scaffolding....of which more anon.

There seemed to be some marginal reference to modern conflicts, as Islamic black dressed angles gathered in numbers and stood stock still surveying the disintegration of the Court. Herodias was played as a lush declining into alcoholic disinterest. There were really no dynamics between Herod and Salome, they occupied a shared space, but we were told nothing beyond, him wanting her to dance, she manipulating him to get her way. I saw no subtext to this production, no exposure of the psychology of the characters. Salome was played as a spoilt bored teenager with morbid tastes and a good deal of determination.

The singing was first rate all round, the acting was another story.

Mattila is famous for this part, she was accorded a standing ovation. She sings up a storm and has all the notes. Just before Jochanaan is executed, she forced her voice and suddenly it was occluded; but her tone cleared for the final scene, which she played and sang to the hilt.

Here, I assume distance lent enchantment. The constant right up the nose camera angles exposed her mid forties age mercilessly and her coyness and teenage temper tantrums were almost as grisly as her dancing. She may be supple, but she is far from being an elegant mover and I felt inclined to watch her dance through my fingers. Squirmingly embarrassing, the woman galumphs. There was a woeful attempt at pole-dancing using the scaffolding. The clothes she was put into formed good grounds for suing the management, she could hardly have been less advantageously dressed. If her face was to convey ecstasy, then up close, it looked like a painful kind of eroticism.

All the bit-part women were like social X-Rays, which pointed up her spare pounds, absurd really, as she is not fat, just not slim. Up close her mother looked like her sister and frankly a good deal more appetising.

Kim Begley as the Tertrach sang well, no shouting, but as an actor, he was channelling a slightly testy Father Christmas. He was not in the least neurotic or lascivious, there was nothing decadent about his manner. When asked for the Head of the Baptist, he pursed his lips....a disconcerting administrative problem had come his way. Also, he bounces on the balls of his feet when singing....a jaunty Tertrach then.

The Jochanaan of Juha Uusitalo was a massive presence with a wonderful full, dark voice only slightly weak right at the bottom. There were titters around me when prone, taking up a fair acreage of the stage and looking like he had been rolled in mud, Salome sings of his wasted body like an ivory pillar, but then finding such a singer would be like discovering hen's teeth.

I am sure this will read just like a long list of carps. But I was swept up in it all, there were genuinely thrilling moments and I think a lot of what I disliked revolved around the closeup style of the camera work.

One final carp....we were treated to some backstage moments where Deborah Voigt knocks on Mattila's door and tries to draw her out and get some comments from her; I hope that scene reaches YouTube, what a hoot; as was the subsequent camera tracking, preceding Matilla, a member of the management and her very own dead ringer for Ugly Betty all the way through the backstage and onto the set. What was all that about?

Roll on Damnation de Faust in November. I will be there and perhaps will get the hang of this kind of IMAX style of presentation; though I do wonder what it will do to Stephanie Blyth's Orfeo later in the season. I may just keep my eyes shut for that one.

Mike

Great review Mike!

I've just got back from Salome and share your thoughts/concerns. It certainly wasn't one of my fave Met broadcasts thus far. Mattila was too old for the part, the pre-performance door knocking was cringe inducing, there were laughs at our theatre also at the prone Jochanaan...

...somehow Cosima Wagners words came to my mind after she witnessed the premier, 'utter madness!'

[knight66]

Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice 24th Jan 09

Stephanie Blythe and Danielle de Niese star in Mark Morris's production; James Levine conducts.

The last time I saw this piece was at the Edinburgh Festival. I could have cried with boredom. I really wanted to escape at half time, and it is a short opera. I do love the music, but a poor production is difficult to survive. Nor musically was it satisfactory. Michael Chance was made to stand at the back of the stage and he could not project into the theatre over the HIP orchestra, which itself was sluggish and tired sounding. It was a dismal evening.

That Edinburgh production was also choreographed by Mark Morris. I cringed while watching Morris himself, tossing his long locks about, stomping round like a sweaty carthorse, in a very short chiton and holding hands in daisy chains of dancers weaving about seemingly aimlessly during all the ballet music. I was very much hoping he had now retired from the stage.

He surely must have, though his short interview prior to curtain-up found him in full-on theatrical mode. Arms akimbo, wearing a baggy cardigan and a hot pink pashmina; he explained that the chorus represented all the people in history, many identifiable, Lincoln, Henry the VIII etc. They were there as underworld companions, supporters almost for Orfeo in his trials.

The edition used was the original Italian one, so some favourite numbers, such as the Dance of the Blessed Spirits were missing. It was played in one act straight through. Levine was at the helm and set a cracking pace with well sprung rhythms. As is clearly the norm now, everything was terrifically loud in the sound mix; again, almost no glimpses of a full stage picture. The orchestra sounded healthy in all respects, but Orig. Instrument enthusiasts would have been hiding under the bed.

Morris had found a way to keep the singers out of the way of the dancers. The 100 strong chorus...that sheer scale tells much about the weight of textures, was piled up in three tiers looking like fancy dress party goers who strayed into a Victorian lecture theatre to watch the dissection of a corpse. They sounded resplendant, but apart from some hand gestures had no room for maneuver. This worked just fine I thought, it looked good and was a practical solution to, as I said, keep them out of the way.

The main event of course was Stephanie Blythe's Orfeo. She looked like Orson Wells gone to seed.
I remember Margaret Price appearing at a concert with a dress that had floating feathers round the neck; she was the dead spit of Miss Piggy; yet as soon as she opened her mouth, she transcended the look, she drew you in and what she looked like was irrelevant. Blythe managed the same chemistry. It is a remarkable voice; reminiscent of Marilyn Horne. She has not the top notes Horne had under her belt, but there is a similar weight and colour and a wonderful directness. The audience roared when she took her curtain call, I was not surprised. Her assumption was very strong. 'Che faro' yields to a lot of approaches, this was head-on direct, impassioned.

The Euridice was Danielle de Niese, she looked perfectly stunning. I wondered how her voice came across in the theatre, it is not a large instrument. Her reception was polite. On film she made a strong impression and her singing was expressive and sweet toned. Of course she has not a great deal to do; but I thought she deserved more warmth from the crowd.

The ballet music at the end was utterly joyful; but there were the Mark Morris dancers to watch. I know next to nothing about dance, but I can see he injected a number of his trademarks. He and the production as a whole were clearly much liked by the crowd. I know it has overall had excellent reviews; but I just find the whole deliberate clodhopping approach works against the elegance of the music.

The sets looked marvelous, the production solved some problems, though I did wonder whether Morris just took an easy way out by eliminating having to work with the chorus by removing it physically. He also provided a new problem for himself. If there need be any internal logic to such an entertainment, then the claim that the chorus were historical creatures of the underworld sat oddly in that final jubilant scene where they all seemed to be now inexplicably above ground in the pastoral ending.

Blythe is like a force of nature and would be worth queuing to hear in anything. Despite my carping, there was a lot to enjoy and the completely full cinema audience seemed to go home happy. For me Mark Morris goes onto my tick, done; indeed....overdone list.

4,000th post

Mike

[Anne]

Mike,

Thanks so much for that great review.  Sounds like it was worth seeing and hearing.  I would definitely like to buy the DVD if/when it comes out.  Big disappointment that Dance of the Blessed Spirits was omitted.

[Brünnhilde forever]

Great review, Mike! 

It's a small world because I received a review just like yours from my friend Tom in Missouri. Unrestrained praise for Blythe and de Niese and polite restraint from giving Mark Morris a thumbs down for his dictatorial directing, promoting his dancers over the singers. It is an opera, as I remember, not a ballet; shouldn't give the reign for directing an opera to a Balletmeister, they have huge egos! 

Some day in the far, very far future this Burg might give me the opportunity to also go to the movie house and watch an opera. I exchanged emails with the owner of our four movie houses, he is in Yakima, 100 miles South of here, and he assured me doesn't even dare propose the screening of operas in his area, much higher population than ours, in fact the Spokane houses might stop their contract, lack of audience. Luv, it's Eastern Washington, 'Cultural Wasteland'. - Don't blame the population though, blame the American school system putting sport above culture! -

Tell you something: Tomorrow afternoon I shall watch in my music room my Orphée et Eurydice, a DVD from a Bayrische Staatsoper performance with Vesselina Kasarova! Love that woman! Not only can she sing, she looks stunning in a tux, wears one in more than one of her performances I have on DVD; La Clemenza di Tito one example.

[knight66]

Lis,

You have my sympathy. I get cultural withdrawal symptoms if I am in the country for more than a week. Luckily my job now takes me to London most weeks. Having seen the photos you post of where you live, there are compensations.


I am not sure whether we can get to Lucia or not, but I hope to.


Mike

[Sarastro]

I am not sure whether we can get to Lucia or not, but I hope to.

Hopefully, not to Netrebko's Lucia, the most recent reviews (after today's first night) state a disaster:
http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=in...=D&P=217309
http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=in...=D&P=217953