Just saw the details of next year's broadcasts on Steve Smith's blog, here (http://www.nightafternight.com/night_after_night/2008/04/high-definition.html).
So they're doing Salome, yayyy! :D
--Bruce
Three things I notice.
1. The Opening Night Gala sounds awful. Fleming and Vargas are two of my least favorite contemporary opera singers; I saw Vargas in Houston this year and he struck me as being incredibly boring. And to think they're having Fleming back later in the year! I didn't realize people took her seriously - but then again, I don't know much about opera ::) .
2. Patrick Summers, the Houston Grand Opera's director, will be making an appearance.
3. Looks like they loved the Dessay-Florez pairing!
Doctor Atomic?! DOCTOR ATOMIC?! :-* 0:) :D ;D
Sorry, had to get that out of my system! I am stoked for that, wow. I can't wait to actually see that on the big screen!
Quote from: bhodges on April 22, 2008, 11:53:35 AM
So they're doing Salome, yayyy! :D
--Bruce
In October. I'll be visiting my family in Ohio in October! Yay indeed!
Quote from: Greta on April 27, 2008, 04:28:19 PM
Doctor Atomic?! DOCTOR ATOMIC?! :-* 0:) :D ;D
In November. This might just persuade me to stay in the States an extra week. I would like to see it.
Sarge
I'm seeing the MET broadcast of Salome this Saturday, and can't wait! Apparently Patrick Summers, the conductor who replaced Mikko Franck, is getting better and better as the run goes on: reports from last night were quite positive. Still mixed reports on the set, but no mixed reports on Karita Mattila, both with clothes and without. ;D
Anyone else seeing it?
--Bruce
Quote from: bhodges on October 08, 2008, 10:55:25 AM
Anyone else seeing it?
--Bruce
Bruce, Just how close do you intend to get to the screen? Do they have box seats in your cinema? You'll go blind you know.
Mike
Quote from: knight on October 08, 2008, 11:11:29 AM
Bruce, Just how close do you intend to get to the screen? Do they have box seats in your cinema? You'll go blind you know.
Mike
;D ;D ;D
I think right up close, on the front row, might be appropriate--with popcorn, of course.
--Bruce
Quote from: bhodges on October 08, 2008, 10:55:25 AM
Anyone else seeing it?
I'm hoping to see it (the opera, not whatever else y'all are talking about 0:)), if my local theatre ever gets the start time right. This is the first season they've carried the Met HD theatre broadcasts, and their website shows a 1:00 starting time, rather than the noon one it should be here in the Central Time Zone. I imagine they'll really love
Thaïs, which'll start at 11:00 a.m. here.
Quote from: bhodges on October 08, 2008, 11:19:41 AM
;D ;D ;D
I think right up close, on the front row, might be appropriate--with popcorn, of course.
--Bruce
IMAX and 3D too, you will have a neck injury.
Well, do give us a report. It is definately one to see.
Mike
Brucie Baby,
I suddenly recalled that the cinema in Cheltenham, which is about 16 miles from here, shows the Met broadcasts. I panted as I went onto the site, scrolling down....I CAN see Mamma Mia. They even have a showing on Sat where you sing along. How fantabuloso is THAT!
Scrolling, I see, yes there it is and a snatch at only £15 a ticket. I think Grimes at his exercise was £21 a ticket.
So, booked, I will be there with Jane, 6pm UK time. We will have dark chocolate truffles and some champagne that releases its bubbles silently. I do hope we are not right next door to the bawling Mamma Mia great-unwashed-crowd. Opera Fans turn very nasty if thwarted in the tiniest way.
Off for me blue rinse Fri PM.
Mike
OMG, that's great! :D
PS, sending you mail...
--Bruce
Bruce, got it...though my filter tried hard to prevent all that nudity pouring into my in-box.
Mike
Quote from: knight on October 08, 2008, 12:11:10 PM
Bruce, got it...though my filter tried hard to prevent all that nudity pouring into my in-box.
Mike
;D
--Bruce
Quote from: knight on October 08, 2008, 12:11:10 PM
Bruce, got it...though my filter tried hard to prevent all that nudity pouring into my in-box.
Mike
You keeping it all to yourself, not sharing with your friends? :'(
You know me, my generosity is like my feet; crushing.
Mike
Quote from: Brünnhilde forever on October 08, 2008, 01:09:29 PM
You keeping it all to yourself, not sharing with your friends? :'(
Lis, you have mail... :D
--Bruce
Isn't email a marvelous invention??
No, no damage to eyesight because it's the wrong gender! >:D
But I do thank you after all! :-*
Opera Broadcasts in the East Wenatchee movie theater? Are you off your rocker? They don't even know what the word 'opera' means, unless it's the Grand Ol' Opry or however you spell that crap!
I shall find, via the Budapest radio station, the broadcast from BBC Radio 3 of Peter Eötvös new opera Love and other Demons. Reviews are mixed, but Nathan Gunn is singing and Vladimir Jurowski is conducting. I have already been told that Gunn will not reveal his chest, so I am not missing anything by only listening, not watching! :P
Quote from: Brünnhilde forever on October 08, 2008, 01:27:16 PM
Opera Broadcasts in the East Wenatchee movie theater? Are you off your rocker? They don't even know what the word 'opera' means, unless it's the Grand Ol' Opry or however you spell that crap!
I shall find, via the Budapest radio station, the broadcast from BBC Radio 3 of Peter Eötvös new opera Love and other Demons. Reviews are mixed, but Nathan Gunn is singing and Vladimir Jurowski is conducting. I have already been told that Gunn will not reveal his chest, so I am not missing anything by only listening, not watching! :P
Oh sorry...oh well... :(
But the Eötvös with Gunn and Jurowski could be at least a suitable distraction. I'm a big fan of Jurowski, who among other things did the
Hansel and Gretel here last December.
--Bruce
Even better yet - you guys can stick to your years old antique Met productions, my mailman just brought me something glorious:
Two DVDs from Opus Arte - AKA Royal Opera House! - one is the world premiere of Harison Birtwistle's Minotaur, and the second is Rameau's Castor et Pollux, a brand new production by my favourite director Pierre Audi.
I am delirious - see you next month! :P :-*
Well, don't go posting nudies of that Minotaur; great hairy thing.
I do admire your questing; no resting on your laurels and putting your feet up to The Merry Widow. Do give us reports IDC.
Mike
I admire the questing, too. Lis, I'm especially interested in that Birtwistle, which got pretty much raves all over.
--Bruce
Ach! What I won't do for my friends! I already had the Castor and Pollux Act I in the machine, but not pushed the 'play' button yet, when your post arrived. I took off the Castor disc and put in the Mineotaur, as per request!
I shall return and report! :-*
She just lives for her friends that one. A life of self sacrifice on behalf of Bruce and me. Humbling really.
Mike
Sarastro linked this site elsewhere. Here is a trailer for the Birtwistle.
http://www.roh.org.uk/video/
Mike
Mike, that trailer shows Don Giovanni, no Birtwistle.
But I just finished watching the first act and have to take time out to be able to sleep tonight. Mike, take your son David to the performance, he'll love it!
Music is tremendous, loud, dramatic, love it, but oy vai, all that blood! I just might join the vegetarians for a few days, weeks, months.
But Tomlinson is not frighening at all, in fact he is the least frightening thing on stage, except Ariadne of course, kind of on the cuddly side. Please keep in mind, these are very fresh impressions, straight away from the monitor, no time to digest or recover.
I'll have a banana for supper, a feature of the Minotaur gave me the idea. - he he he >:D
Unfortunately, HD theatre viewers will be getting a censored version:
Why the Met won't show Karita Mattila naked in the HD broadcast of 'Salome' (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2008/10/why-the-met-won.html)
Quote"You'll see the camera pan away from her as she does the dance," a Met spokesman told Culture Monster. "Either it will pan discreetly away to the audience, or it will do a close-up of her face."
The decision not to show the nudity came from Met general manager Peter Gelb, who, the spokesman said, "decided early on that the 'Salome' broadcast would not feature nudity."
The spokesman added that the Met markets its HD broadcasts as family-friendly events and that Gelb and the creative team are treating the scene in a way that is sensitive to the artists while still being true to the original piece.
::)
What, I ask you, is more "family-friendly" than breasts?
Salome, with its pervy storyline and bloodletting culminating in a necrophiliac finale does not seem too much like a family friendly opera. Mere breasts are the least of it.
Mike
That is exactly what has been running through my mind ever since yesterday, when I found out they are going to cut away during the nude scene. And "scene" is almost inaccurate, since she's nude for barely two seconds.
--Bruce
And you actually pay good money for this censored edition of a great Richard Strauss opera? Have you written to the prude Mr. Gelb and told him to . . . . never mind, he wouldn't get to read your letter anyhow.
I'll spend my afternoon watching the uncensored production of Minotaur. I paid not quite $30. and can watch it any time I want, and drink my bubbly without worrying about the bloke next to me! Now that's living, my Lovelies!! ;D
Quote from: Brünnhilde forever on October 09, 2008, 11:59:30 AM
And you actually pay good money for this censored edition of a great Richard Strauss opera? Have you written to the prude Mr. Gelb and told him to . . . . never mind, he wouldn't get to read your letter anyhow.
I'll spend my afternoon watching the uncensored production of Minotaur. I paid not quite $30. and can watch it any time I want, and drink my bubbly without worrying about the bloke next to me! Now that's living, my Lovelies!! ;D
;D
The Birtwistle looks great. I was just in Virgin awhile ago (bought the Met
Peter Grimes) and forgot to see if they have it yet.
--Bruce
A picture of the Minotaur where you can see most of Tomlinson's face:
Quote from: bhodges on October 08, 2008, 10:55:25 AM
Salome this Saturday
A friend of mine had been there (live) and told me it was so so.
What exactly was it that was so so? The bits I will get to see, or the bits I will not get to see. Also, is your friend's opinion worth paying attention to?
Whether or not, the money is committed, we will be going....and so so will not cut it.
Mike
Quote from: Sarastro on October 09, 2008, 11:50:39 PM
A friend of mine had been there (live) and told me it was so so.
Interesting...I wonder if he saw one of the first performances in the run? Patrick Summers, the conductor, took over for an ill Mikko Franck at the last minute and (so I heard) didn't really hit his stride for the first couple of performances. But now I've been hearing nothing but great reports, at least for the musical values. Some don't like Jürgen Flimm's production (I do), which of course is another matter.
From today's
New York Times: "[Mattila's] singing of the daunting final scene is a
tour de force of depraved eroticism and rapturous lyricism. With the director Jürgen Flimm's arresting modern-dress production, Patrick Summers's vigorous conducting and a supporting strong cast, this
Salome comes across once more as a landmark for the Met."
--Bruce
From today's New York Times: "[Mattila's] singing of the daunting final scene is a tour de force of depraved eroticism and rapturous lyricism
To preserve family-friendly viewing, perhaps the camera will stick to a view of the Chagal for an hour and 40.
Mike
Quote from: knight on October 10, 2008, 10:21:54 AM
To preserve family-friendly viewing, perhaps the camera will stick to a view of the Chagal for an hour and 40.
;D
Or this:
(http://www.hammer.ucla.edu/resources/1842/41110D.jpg)
(but maybe not this:)
(http://www.blastmilk.com/decollete/gallery/salome/salome-moreau05.jpg)
Quote from: bhodges on October 10, 2008, 09:50:17 AM
Interesting...I wonder if he saw one of the first performances in the run?
As I wrote, she was there last Saturday, Oct. 4th. She said that the voices were great, but the production featured a lot of unnecessary fuss and was very dull. So, the overall impression is ambivalent but leaning more to "so so" - not bad but not extremely exciting.
Of course, people are different, but I more or less trust the friend. I'd like to see it myself, but since I moved far away from LA area and have a class meeting that day, I will miss the telecast.
Anyone knows if they are going to run any online podcasts?
That is how it is going to look like, I believe:
(http://kuvat2.iltasanomat.fi/iltasanomat/iDoc/1600159-400_karita.jpg)
But only in the theatre. I, in my cinema seat, will not have my eyes sullied. My wife will be spared her blushes. We will only get Salome kissing the decapatated bloody head; and as I am sure we all agree, that is a much less egregious and shocking exposure for the Family Audience to cope with.
She looks just fine; but worth unto half the kingdom?
I hope there are some good whistle-along tunes.
Covent Garden did something similar with their Rigoletto outdoor screening. The orgy scene was filmed to exclude the simulated sex, we watched reaction shots instead. They also were obviously simulated.
Mike
Quote from: Sarastro on October 10, 2008, 10:34:11 PM
That is how it is going to look like, I believe:
(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:kFmYxCD1wATpbM:http://photos.igougo.com/images/p320136-Kona_HI-Warning.jpg)
I'll have the
Moreau, thanks.
Quote from: knight on October 10, 2008, 11:24:49 PM
orgy
sex
Whereas it could probably be historically true, I do not think it is necessary to show orgies or nudity onstage. I am more concerned about the vocal image a singer portrays than claptrap effects. I am old-fashioned, I know. :)
As far as I am concerned, opera is about rather more than the sounds. If not, then move it into the concert repertoire. To the extent that any of these productions have artistic insight, then they should be left to show it. If it is crap, then taking the camera elsewhere will not show up the vacuity if there is merely a sensationalist approach.
We are not really looking at historical accuracy. We are looking at an art form that his heavily filtered and used history towards its own creative ends and I have no argument with that. I don't go to the opera for a history lesson. I do however go to get a rounded theatrical experience. I hope in any grownup opera to find out about the psychology of the characters, whether we can find relevance there to mirror our own society or highlight how it is different from our behaviour and mores now. Also, the music has to be great, or I just don't bother.
I have been asked to go and watch Wolf Ferrari's Jewels of the Madonna in February; an unacknowledged masterpiece? I doubt it. But as well as the above, I will occasionally stick my toes into the arcane and hope for the best.
Mike
Salome: 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
Quote from: bhodges on October 09, 2008, 11:42:03 AM
That is exactly what has been running through my mind ever since yesterday, when I found out they are going to cut away during the nude scene. And "scene" is almost inaccurate, since she's nude for barely two seconds.
I wonder if the DVD release will be similarly censored?
They already have a performance in the can from an earlier season. This has been promised for a long time with the issue dates passing without the product appearing.
A several years younger Mattila might be an advantage for repeated viewing.
Mike
Thanks for the report, Mike. I have something to say, but later, it is already too late here.
That DVD of an earlier, uncensored, Salome with Mattila probably won't ever be released because Gelb and his Met Society crowd are pushing the movie theater presentations; to hell with us world wide opera lovers not within driving distance to one of those theaters. :(
Lis, It is something of a mystery, but it seems unlikely that worldwide sales would be shelved in favour of a few thousand cinema tickets. But if that was the reason, perhaps a release will now happen. The Peter Grimes has been released.
Mike
Quote from: knight on October 14, 2008, 06:25:30 AM
Lis, It is something of a mystery, but it seems unlikely that worldwide sales would be shelved in favour of a few thousand cinema tickets. But if that was the reason, perhaps a release will now happen. The Peter Grimes has been released.
Mike
Gelb (or maybe it was Volpe?) addressed the unreleased
Salome a year or so ago. Something about the union agreement at the time would make it too expensive. He said it would
never be telecast or released. The same applies to the recorded, but never televised or released performances of
Wozzeck (from 2001, with Struckman and Dalayman, Levine conducting) and
Ariadne auf Naxos (2003, with Voigt, Dessay, Marginson, Dessay, Levine). Don't know if I really buy that explanation (you think they could work something out), but that's what he said, according to someone who was there.
Yes, Wendell, I too read the union explanation. And then there was the one stating Matilla's wish it not to be released, which of course would not explain the moldering in the basement all those other performances. ;)
This season we've got the Met broadcasts to here in Finland too but the ticket prices are outrageous! 30 euros for one opera screening! What the heck? The cheapest tickets for the Finnish National Opera are 14 euros (yes, nosebleed seats but the sound up there is wonderful). I think the actual DVDs of the Met broadcasts cost less, something like 15-20 euros. >:(
Quote from: Siedler on October 17, 2008, 10:53:37 AM
This season we've got the Met broadcasts to here in Finland too but the ticket prices are outrageous! 30 euros for one opera screening! What the heck? The cheapest tickets for the Finnish National Opera are 14 euros (yes, nosebleed seats but the sound up there is wonderful). I think the actual DVDs of the Met broadcasts cost less, something like 15-20 euros. >:(
Last year at one of these HD Met showings I overheard 2 men talking. One said he would like to charge more money per ticket. The other one said that the Met forbids that as it is trying to increase the number of opera lovers. Our USA price
is $22 with $20 for seniors.
Quote from: Anne on October 17, 2008, 10:06:18 PM
Last year at one of these HD Met showings I overheard 2 men talking. One said he would like to charge more money per ticket. The other one said that the Met forbids that as it is trying to increase the number of opera lovers. Our USA price
is $22 with $20 for seniors.
Greedy, aren't they? These things last up to 3½ hours, with intermissions, so they may have patrons hitting the snack bar, where the real money's made, two or three times.
:D You're right. They are greedy.
Quote from: knight on October 11, 2008, 01:14:03 AM
As far as I am concerned, opera is about rather more than the sounds.
I know you are right, but again, at my point of view, the artistry of the singer is in singing, in the sounds he produces. Just watching Netrebko makes me jerk thinking nowadays opera is faaar more than the sounds. 8) Too far.
I have my tickets for tomorrow's Damnation of Faust; is anyone else going?
Mike
It was a funny sort of day, the chaotic timing of things meant that I ended up sitting waiting for the start of Faust while gobbing a hot-dog. The oddness continued when the cinema broadcast started without sound; clearly someone somewhere tried frantically to sort things out. This involved a couple of quick glimpses of a black gospal choir in full flood. However, right as Levine entered the pit, the sound came through.
It is not the fault of Berlioz that people decide to stage music he designed for the concert hall. He wrote 'scenes' from Faust; these parachute you into moments along the way; most of the story lies in between these scenes. So, how do you stage Faust and Mephistopheles flying over the planes of Hungary, as the famous march is played? I doubt if the solution is to have soldiers march backwards slowly across the set. This I felt was the one jarring note in an imaginative, highly theatrical evening. One that solved many of the problems of translating the concert to the opera house. One where it was clear the cinema audience became increasingly absorbed as the opera unfolded in front of us.
The set consisted of a four level walkway, gauze in front, perspex back walls to it. Then the surfaces were used to project behind and in front with the singers being the filling in the sandwich. Back to front the acting area would only have been about 15 feet, but the full width and height of the proscenium was busily used. Apart from those multilevel backward marching soldiers, the stage was filled with fantastic images. The set could be at once transformed from a church with kaleidoscopic stained glass windows, with living Christs on crosses, to a storm tossed woodland where, as Mephistopheles walked across the set, the branches above him writhed and shed their leaves leaving starkness and ruin.
The skills of members of the Cirque Du Soleil were deployed to provide soldiers who marched up the wall of the set at 90 degrees to it, then fell pieta like into the arms of their womenfolk below, to resurrect and go off to war again, then die again. It was an arresting imaging to go with the music. The same men ran up and down all over the surface of the set, dressed as devils to seduce the female Sylph dancers.
But what of the music? Levine paced it well, no gear changes, no odd speeds and he aided and abetted Berlioz who is the master of the passionate rush, when the lovers are almost discovered. Again, as with the Salome, I thought the orchestral sound picture was flattened. The blend again submerged the woodwind; especially annoying in Berlioz and echoing the same complaint I had with a much older Met recording by Levine of The Trojans. Also, here we have the large, lush international sound. There is not the French sound that for instance Elliott Gardiner achieves in his recording. But the pacing and sound was dramatic, passionate and in the delicate music, layered.
Graham was superb as Marguerite. She looks her age, again the camera close-ups do not permit you to suspend your disbelief, but she was the tragic heart of the evening. Marcello Giordani in the title role sounds too Italianate to me, he has most of the notes. But Berlioz writes cruelly high lines for the part and a French tenor of the kind that presently seems to be extinct would be preferable. Like most tenors, his acting is rough and ready, he is eager to please, but is fairly much a lump of wood. The third in the trio, John Relyea was at the other extreme in terms of agility and acting. It was a pantomime villain version and played superbly to the hilt. He has a beautiful dark voice, all the range and colouring there and he used it all. Dressed in a burnished red leather suit; he dominated the stage just as he needed to.
The chorus was superb, what a body of singers. A particular highlight musically and visually was the passage from the seductive 'Voici des roses' through to the end of the Ballet of the Sylphes. Here the chorus sang in a graduated tone with delicacy and they almost equaled the best version of this passage I know of, on the Gardiner discs. Visually, having punted across the first floor of the set, now a canal, the boat tipped Faust into the water, immediately the projections showed a spectacular underwater Faust swirling round and round, bubbles rising to the surface. A real visual coup.
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.
One thing I wish they would drop; the backstage comings and goings. It breaks the spell; especially with Ugly-Betty again tramping about after the diva, each handing the water bottle back and forth between them. With such magic on display, why do I have to watch the chorus walking off and chatting quietly to one another in between scenes?
(http://media.thestate.com/smedia/2008/11/08/19/753Opera_La_Damnation_de_Faust.sff.mi_embedded.prod_affiliate.74.jpg)
Mike
My thanks, Luv! I can see, smell and hear the enthusiasm emerging more and more as the performance proceeded. Cirque du Soleil doing the fly-on-the-wall act? Faust in the water? How did all this manage to get on to the habitually staid and conservative NY Met stage?
And what's a hot-dog doing in England? Ran out of Banger-n-Mash?
:-*
Quote from: Brünnhilde forever on November 22, 2008, 03:26:06 PM
Cirque du Soleil doing the fly-on-the-wall act? Faust in the water? How did all this manage to get on to the habitually staid and conservative NY Met stage?
And what's a hot-dog doing in England? Ran out of Banger-n-Mash?
:-*
Bangers and mash in the cinema would be a rare treat. Jane and I were amongst the youngest there. It would be good to see a better cross section of people. I think the next broadcast is Thais on 20th Dec. I have the discs, but somehow the music does not make an impression on my memory. Perhaps seeing it will help.
All this innovation at the Met! I admit, it also surprised me. Perhaps the wind of change will be blowing. There is going to be less sponsorship coming their way I guess; so a pared down house style might be needed.
Mike
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!
:-*
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
Quote from: knight on November 22, 2008, 02:08:05 PM
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
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!] :)
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
Quote from: knight on December 05, 2008, 10:57:12 AM
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'.
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
Quote from: knight on December 05, 2008, 11:05:36 AM
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 ;)
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
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
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...
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
Quote from: knight on December 21, 2008, 01:57:08 AM
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
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
Quote from: knight on October 11, 2008, 01:04:18 PM
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!'
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
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.
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.
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
Quote from: knight on January 25, 2009, 10:23:54 PM
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
Quote from: Sarastro on January 26, 2009, 10:46:53 PM
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
Neither link is working unfortunately
Quote from: Tsaraslondon on January 27, 2009, 12:59:17 AM
Neither link is working unfortunately
Sorry I copied wrong. There have been other reviews posted since yesterday. I'm seriously worried about Villazon.
http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0901D&L=OPERA-L&D=1&T=0&O=D&P=217309
http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0901D&L=OPERA-L&D=1&T=0&O=D&P=217953
http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0901D&L=OPERA-L&D=1&T=0&O=D&P=219950 (yeah, Netrebko's a mediocrity!)
And here's is the list of the responses, you can read more:
http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind0901D&L=OPERA-L&O=D&H=0&D=1&T=0
Sarastro, Thanks......think I may stay home and extract my teeth without anesthetic in preference. I doubt I can rearrange things to get there anyway and it reads as though I am better off without.
Mike
Would you like to read what our friend Mr. Tommasini thought of the disputed performance?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/arts/music/28luci.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Quote from: knight on January 28, 2009, 12:01:56 AM
Sarastro, Thanks......
Some pirate snippets on youtube, Mike. :D It is really
bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MoAMJGZBuU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZJUz0FbpnE
Thanks for the links, Sarastro! :-*
I watched both of them and because I am not a musician, my reaction is that I have heard worse, have seen fatter sopranos, and forgive Villazon those few seconds of rest before continuing. But what do I know? I don't compose and don't review and don't perform operas, I only love them! ;D
Perhaps one needs to be there to judge, but that NYT report reads like a whole lot of special pleading. Listening to her, I don't think it a disaster, but to my ears she is frequently marginally flat. The singing lower down is better than what happens towards the top of the tessitura. Smudged notes in the colouratura passages and a truly awful payoff of a flat note. But she parts company from the pit quite often. Is that insufficient rehearsal? Whatever, I don't expect that problem at what is the top of the opera profession.
Mike
I listened to the mad scene. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good. Quite apart from being under the note a good deal of the time, she sounded under rehearsed and under prepared. Could it be that she is now so famous, that she no longer sees the necessity for proper study and preparation. Renee Fleming, another Met favourite, comes in for a lot of carping both on this board and on many others, but, though she admittedly has her mannerisms, no one could accuse of her of behaving unprofessionally, or not being fully prepared before tackling a new role.
It wasn't terrible, I agree. Just ordinary Netrebko but a bit worse. Since she has gained weight and doesn't sound well, some her fans have turned against her. That is not surprising since her PR campaign accounts for people who want to see a cute face and some stream of notes accompanying it. Suddenly they've realized she's not as good as they thought.
Quote from: Sarastro on January 29, 2009, 06:02:48 PM
It wasn't terrible, I agree. Just ordinary Netrebko but a bit worse. Since she has gained weight and doesn't sound well, some her fans have turned against her. That is not surprising since her PR campaign accounts for people who want to see a cute face and some stream of notes accompanying it. Suddenly they've realized she's not as good as they thought.
I wonder if her weight gain has anything to do with her pregnancy. Didn't she have a baby last September?
Quote from: Anne on January 29, 2009, 06:45:45 PM
I wonder if her weight gain has anything to do with her pregnancy. Didn't she have a baby last September?
Of course she did. That is why her fans should be understanding. Partially, it played its roles in the reviews...
Besides, it seems to me the voice itself has become softer, very nice.
I just listened to those covert recordings from the Met... oh. my. god.
I have never been one of those who strongly disliked Netrebko, but this was awful. Why is she even singing Lucia in the first place anyway? I may be young but I have never heard such a bad performance! I'm so tired of this treatment that young opera sensations get: sing everything from every repertoire and make money. Not your Fach? Who cares! You're hot!
Glad I didn't go to -this- broadcast in particular
Nice E-flat btw. Oh wait, I mean D! *Cough*
Listening now to Sutherland's first recording of Regnava nel silenzio, and the Mad Scene (recorded shortly after her first success in the role at Covent Garden), effectively puts Netrebko's effort into context. At this stage in Sutherland's career, the voice was much more forwardly placed and, consequently, her diction is a good deal better than it was to become. Though she doesn't achieve the psychological complexity of Callas, she is much more dramatically attuned than was often the case later on, and the vocalism is, of course, stunning.
Some more about today's Lucia:
QuoteI tuned in late (on Sirius) and it appears the Met is presenting the
premiere of a new opera - "Donizetti Defiled, or The Murder of Lucia".
Apparently it's a new, microtonal work where the singers sing tuned a
quarter-tone below the orchestra pitch.
QuoteOk I have held my powder until now and I based on Nebs performance tonight I fear for the future of the Met as a real artistic institution to be taken seriously beyond all the hype, smoke and mirrors. Apparently because someone like Ms. Netrebko can put "fannies in the seats" as one lister put it she is able to sing whatever she desires regardless as to whether she can sing it well or not.
In times past certain artists knew their limits and contained their repertoire within those limits.? Now it appears that if you have that certain "star quality" you can sing in any opera, especially if it can be "marketed" as Netrebko's First Met Lucia" or some other gimmick.
Do not misunderstand me, I have seen and liked Netrebko in the past, but clearly the bel canto works are not for her and she should have gotten that hint after the Puritani.
Tonight I heard a darkened tone, smudged coloratura, amateurish runs and scales in the mad scene and NO top notes. Well, she had one good e flat at the end of the act one cabaletta.??
Filianote was just somewhat less strangled than in the Rigoletto, but from the tape I heard of Villazon he is still about a year away from blowing his voice out like Villazon has apparently.? But Gelb was able to "market" the love couple.? Hope the marketing efforts will pay down the $25 million shortfall projected for next year.
QuoteThe real award of the night goes to Ms. (definitely not Mrs.) Anna Netrebko. I would personally like to thank her for helping me hear some of the intricacies of Donizetti's score, particularly during the mad scene. You see, usually during that famous ten or so minutes, sopranos have this annoying tendency to sing the high notes. The problem with this is that the audience focuses on those elevated pitches and thus loses out on the orchestration under them. Ms. Netrebko was so deferential to Donizetti's score that she decided to forego practically any note above a B or so just so we could hear the orchestra. In addition to this, she decided not to finish the phrasing in many of her lines, and she ran out of breath several times... just so we could hear the orchestra. The end of "Ardon gli'incesi" was actually dropped! What creativity and respect for Donizetti. Really, thank you Anna!
Time to bump this thread again. Several weeks ago, we went to the Butterfly broadcast; but there was vision and no sound. I resisted the temptation to stand up and ask whether there was a Butterfly in the house. We waited it out until the entrance of the soprano happened in silence; then literally started a stampede to get our money back. As a gesture of goodwill, as well as the refund, we were given tickets to tonight's Sonnambula broadcast.
Let's gloss over the fact that out tickets showed a 6pm start, when in fact it started at 5pm. We missed about the first 20 minutes. In future I will double check.
A pity we missed out, but we did nevertheless enjoy a terrific and musical performance. Here is the premise of the production.
Set in a contemporary rehearsal room where a traditional Swiss village style production is being prepared. The main duo happen to be played by a couple whose names are the same as those of the opera proper. The spurned fiance of Elvino is the stage manager of the production.....the events within the opera come to life in the lives of the characters playing them.....Oh Jees, give us a break.....what complete baloney. This conceit starts to fall apart when you consider the likes of the chorus opening Act 2. They speculate whether going to see the Count would help clear suspicion from Amina. Then off they go to find out, did she or did she not come across to the Count? Well, now are they genuinely concerned to avert the likely tragedy, or are they rehearsing the production?
How come the stage manager becomes a character in the opera? When she brings Amina back in from the window ledge, is she in character, or is she the stage manager anxious for her fellow artist?
Why set all this guff and layering up?
Anyway, let's sweep all that away, what the production did allow was for all the characters to interact very genuinely. The stage movement was fluid and focused on the story, emotions, the humour of the situation.
I don't think this cast could be bettered. Dessay still looks youthful, she is charming, humorous and heartbreaking. Her vocal technique is completely exceptional, as is her acting. The sleep walking scene was mostly played out from a plank of floorboarding that projected her far over the pit, she simply stood and delivered; but effectively and movingly.
Florez is her equal; glamour, a good actor, a really superb voice and good taste. Their duetting was a particular highlight. The pit was in the safe hands of Evelino Pido who ensured the verdant orchestration was brought out, often magically. But to me the real find here was the baritone, Michele Pertusi as the Count, a sympathetic and commanding stage presence was allied to a beautiful dark voice with useful bottom notes.
In the first act the sound was basically overpowering; this was sorted out for Act 2, there, the sound mix was comfortable. I enjoyed this at least as much as any of the earlier broadcasts. With its happy ending, wonderfully injected with humour and joy, we left the cinema on a high.
Peter Gelb previewed the broadcasts planned for next year, based on the revised, less adventurous,season. Aida, Carmen, Hamlet with Dessay, Rosenkavalier with Fleming, Boccanegra with Domingo in the name part! I know he laid down some baritone arias over 20 years ago; but they have not seen the light of day. Perhaps this signals yet another new direction in his remarkable career. I look forward to that production.
One more opera this season, Rossini Cenerentola. We will try to be there at the right time, and we will hope that both sound and vision coincide.
Mike