Tears in Heaven
You may recall, cher public, that last December La Cieca had some rather unhappy holiday tidings for a pair of Met sopranos. Well, it looks like history is repeating itself. La Cieca hears that two Met sopranos, both in the same Fach (though a different Fach from the two divas discussed in the December item), are to be bought out of all their forthcoming Met contracts. Expect much weeping in Aremberg when this news is made public.
Mescheriakova sang Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco in Europe last season (april 2005), at least half of the notes, the rest she faked. She was the third soprano asked for this production (after Miricioiu stepped out due to ill health and some French soprano that was even worse than M.)
Audrey Stottler is highly underused at the Met
frittoli is giving two concerts in london this autumn … one with orchestra (mozart/verdi/puccini) in november and a song recital in october (strangely enough including beethoven’s ah perfido … with piano accompaniment?!) and i am looking forward to that. strong vibrato but i kinda like her….
last time i saw her in verdi’s requiem last year she was a bit unfortunate as she must have had a cold – she cracked on both soft high notes in the agnus dei … but the rest was absolutely fine and sung with great fervour (though after the cracking she was a bit cautious in the final libera me) and line and most of all feeling (when she wasnt singing she was sometimes ‘mouthing long’ with the chorus).
lets see how she is in autumn – maybe she was going through a rough patch? lets hope she doesnt cancel…
i meant heavy vibrato of course…. not strong vibrato! i should learn my english again!!!
in addition to Hong, Swenson and Murphy who have no contracts after the current season. Radanovsky was bought out of her contract for the new production of Manon Lescaut (it is going to Matila) and rumor has it that Millo has been bought out of any further bookings past this season. Radanovksy was also being bought out of her contract to sing Leonora in Trovatore (Fleming is probably getting that one) so the current rumor is definitely Radanovsky and Millo. They are still counting rather heavily on Gruber and Gulegina in the future. I do not believe Eaglen has any future contracts with the MET either. I know Cassanova is also no longer singing with the MET because he was tired of only being offered covers instead of first casting and recently made his Vienna opera debut in La juive to rave reviews. He is being cast in first casts in all the major opera houses and had decided to not accept the sad offerings from the MET
You have convinced me, Paddypig.
It’s Radvanovsky and Millo.
But I don’t understand why with Radvanovsky. The last time I saw her was the Houston “Trovatore,” and she really excited the normally sedate uninvolved house. There was practically an audience frenzy after “D’amor sull’ali.” And her Met broadcast of “Vespri” certainly had its exciting moments.
But if Mr. Gelb would rather have Renee and Karita, I can understand that too. He is thinking of the box office.
In an interview at the time of her Royal Opera debut last season Radnavosky said she was looking for a home in London, given the success of her debut and presumably on the back of future bookings here and in europe. Both Fleming and Mattila are booked for future seasons so there is room for them all. London’s gain and NY’s loss by the sound of it.
Castronovo was a very small scale Alfredo here last season so I doubt if he at least will be back.
I have heard for years that the “Manon Lescaut” was for Mattila, with no mention of Radvanovsky (R). I know R’s reps, and they have NEVER mentioned this opera – which is not to say that paddypig is wrong. Still, the buying-out must go back a while.
If this is true about R and Millo, then the people making the decisions are asses. Millo does not seem to have too much gas left in the tank, but why not let her sing her handful of performances a season? Her fans turn out, even for otherwise B-list shows, and her best work is still ravishing. R’s “Vespers” was one of the musical glories of the past decade at the Met.
I guess you have to dance nude or have a huge publicity machine behind you to be in favor at Gelb’s Met. There’s nothing wrong with either of those things, but they should not be the only factors taken into account when doing casting.
For what it’s worth, my money is still on Frittoli, because she has cancelled so much, and because I hear talk of nothing after “Suor Angelica,” if she’s even still on for that.
baryton francais – when Ms Stottler was seconding la Marton in a stadium production of Turandot here, I was sitting next to her in rehersals. In one of the breaks – because we were sitting “kinda alone”- I tried to engage her in a short conversation and pay compliment to her undoubtedly beautiful voice – but she remained as warm as a refrigerator.
Kinda put me off her a bit- perhaps the Met is waiting for her to have a personality transplant?
She was probably focused on getting the blocking, etc. I know I don’t want to be all that talkative when concentrating. Perhaps the Met is not waiting for personality transplant, but instead waiting for her to have a weight transplant, ala Debbie Voigt (that would be along the current line of how they are casting…).