First Met broadcast of the season
Rolando Villazon not apparently in his very best form but La Cieca is very impressed with a) his willingness to sing out and take chances even when he is less than 100% and b) his well-supported legato that is the basis of even his most vehement singing. Anna Netrebko found a way to interpret Gilda as a lyric. The sound a little glassy when close-miked, but the singing always has meaning. Very interesting how she slowly straightened out the tone as the character died, a little less vibrato on each phrase. If Joe Volpe is wondering why more people aren’t willing to spend $250 at the opera, he can take a hard look at Carlo Guelfi. No voice! (as Charlie Handelman would say) and so he (Guelfi, not Handelman) tricks out the performance with whoops and gasps and the whole Benoit shtik. Ascher Fisch knows how to make Verdi go; La Cieca would quibble only with his eclectic choice of cuts. Though goodness knows no one would want to hear Guelfi faking yet another verse of “Ah veglia o donna.” It warmed the cockles of this old heart to hear such campery on the Quiz; Stephen Blier is such a dear mad old thing. And if the rest of Volpe’s book is anything like the pap he read today, they’re going to have to give away insulin with every copy. And what’s the deal with him sucking up to Renee Fleming — is she supposed to serve as an example of his masterful casting abilities? (La Cieca was at that Pirata and the poor dear was pretty damn near inaudible, and that hysterical Susannah you all saw!) Was that business about the “heart shaped face and melting eyes” creepy or what? La Cieca was totally ready to hear Uncle Joe go on about Renaay’s “pert pouting breasts” and “firm supple thighs!” Oh, and listen for the claque next week during American Tragedy: they sure know when those arias dribble to an end!
ITDCS, by no means did I imply that I took – or take – reviews at face value. Not at all. My point was that they directed my attention to actual musical aspects of the performance that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.
That’s also one reason why I enjoy this forum, I get to see the things that people who know more than I do pay attention to.
Incidentally, since you mention that your voice may resemble Gedda’s, Gedda did not really move into heavier repertoire later in his career. He made his Met debut as Faust in the mid-50s and 30 years later, towards the end of his career, he was still singing in Traviata, the Abduction, Don Pasquale, Lenski in Onegin, Lucia, etc.
He did sing in Vespri at the Met in the 70′s but I believe that was a rare digression. I remember reading an interview with him many years ago where he said that he had sung Lohengrin at Bayreuth one season and immediately realized that it affected his voice. He didn’t try it again.
And ITDCS–I entirely agree with you on SB. I was just too chicken to admit to everything I think about her. Also, some evidence of her now-past option of an operatic career may be heard perhaps best when she sings (motet, I know) “Alleluja.”
(Tebaldiani attend SB’s concerts??)
Enough about her, though. Uhh…isn’t Callas great? My brother had thought very highly of SB’s “Ebben? …” until he heard a recording of Callas singing it (side-by-side, no less), entirely displacing the ranking. Hah! Callas wins again!
Absolutely ITDG…I understood what you meant. I was just elaborating on the topic in that critics of today comment mostly on looks and superficial things more than anything else…they tend to be less informed and much more swayed by the glitzier aspects of operatic careers rather than the stuff that is meaningful.
You are right about Gedda…and overall his voice at my age was much larger than mine is…I probably won’t ever venture singing the role of Faust until I’m at least 35/40…it gets very heavy towards the end…I will probably sing Alfredo and the Duke before I even touch something like Faust. Romeo and Edgardo are still a long way away for me. But Gedda did sing roles like Arnold in Guillaume Tell and Cavaradossi and whats-his-face in Manon Lescaut. He also sang certain arias and duets (Aida and Forza to name only two) in recitals and concert work…things that I really won’t ever be singing. But Gedda was a very smart man who planned his career and his repertoire very wisely. He knew at a young age to say no when Karajan asked him to sing Bacchus in Ariadne. Bacchus is so deceiving because it is rather short and it sits high…so a tenor like myself or Gedda or Florez would look at it on the page and think “Well, that looks like it sits in a comfortable range for me…much like the Italian singer in Rosenkavalier…” But he was wise to reject the offer because he knew that it was far too heavy and would have destroyed his instrument. Other individuals like Ricciarielli, sadly, took his invitations to sing heavy Verdi roles and pretty much ended their careers. Freni even commented how singing Ernani and Aida were two major mistakes in her career due to him.
I’m happy to stay with the lit I’m in now. I keep getting told by people that I’ll be singing the heavier rep sooner than I think…my instinct tells me to stay my course and that when I know I’m ready to sing the heavier stuff, to wait at least 2-3 years before doing it.
I didn’t get to hear the Met broadcast (no stations where I am carry it), but I have seen both Villazon and Netrebko live in the theater. There is no excuse for Netrebko. She’s fun to watch, and for short pieces the voice is loud and beautiful (damned with faint praise much?), but the technique is so faulty I don’t want to imagine her in a a Gilda-length role. As for Villazon, though, that’s another thing. I was taken aback when he first took stage (Mr. Bean is an apt visual comparison, or maybe some weird computer composite of Harpo, Groucho, AND Chico), but as soon as he began to sing I thought, “this one’s the real thing,” which is a rare thing for me to think. And the atmosphere throughout the house altered as soon as he sang. THAT I haven’t experienced since before many of you were born. The voice was beautiful, individual, personal. I was put in mind a bit of Schipa, a bit of Kraus, probably because of the beautiful support. Even in his scenes with Dmitri Hvorostovsky (whom I had gone to see, I and every Russian lady over the age of 85 in the Bay Area), he stopped seeming like a funny looking little guy as soon as he sang. So, maybe in the year between then and now he has sullied the voice, maybe he had a bad night, maybe the Duke is a role infelicitous for him, maybe the radio waves are not his friends (not all voices broadcast to best advantage, after all), but a year ago he was something real. I hope the hype surrounding him doesn’t break him.