Soon and later
UPDATE: Gregory Kunde is now listed on the Met’s site for the prima of Puritani.
La Cieca hears that Eric Cutler did not sing the dress rehearsal of Puritani (anyone there to confirm/deny?) and, though his name’s still on the Met’s site, he won’t go on for the prima Wednesday. Thoughts?
And the tittle-tattle about (of all things) the 2012 Met season continues to filter in. The latest: the Donizetti “Tudor cycle” shared amongst Angela Gheorghiu (Anna Bolena), Anna Netrebko (Maria Stuarda) and Renee Fleming (Roberto Devereux [??!!]). All that, plus new productions of Guilliame Tell and Rienzi. Or, on the other hand, Earth may collide with a giant comet, so hold off on locking in the dates quite yet.
Re Charlie B’s comments above:
Is it possible, I wonder, that Trebs carefully planned to drop the “underprepared” comment to Midgette, the result of which is that a bad performance in this role can now be more or less excused by that underpreparedness, rather than revealing what, perhaps, she really knows is the case: that her voice is not cut out for a number of the roles and venues she’s signed on to perform–is not, indeed, as good as the buzz about her suggests it is? Despite the shock and outrage expressed by some posters here, I suspect most opera-goers will just shrug and say, “Well, it’s too bad she was underprepared, but she’s still fantastic (and beautiful) and so I’ll go see her again in the next role.”
To be clear, as far as I know, Scotto never sang Puritani. She knew better. It took an artist with the immense taste of Freni to pull it off in a lyric way, and she made little compromises (nothing like the huge CHANGES of Netrebko). I love listening to Sills sing it, I am so moved by Callas, and Milnes told me that his jaw dropped hearing Sutherland do it, especially in the ensembles, where he was prompted to sing better because of her genius.
Anyone else heard Moffo’s? I rather like it. Netrebko would be so lucky.
Sils Fan Marketing. Modern Marketing and ‘shock and awe’ have happened to opera. As wonderful a singer as Pavoratti is, there was a lot of unhappiness in the opera world when he chose to go the pop culture marketing route. He opened a door.
This is why in a previous post I found that Netrebko was the perfect example of why singers faithful to their art don’t succeed. If they don’t follow Netrebko’s path, and subject themselves to the mercy of the marketers and managers, they won’t have a career. They spend all their money and their young adult lives training correctly, to be told that they are ‘too old,’ and there must be something wrong with them if nobody ‘wanted’ them before.
Netrebko probably does what she does because she doesn’t know how to stop it, and that in all likelihood, it will be the end of her career to say “NO, I need more time on preparing that role.” Of course, her career will be shortened because of the vocal abuse, but how to do it another way? And it sounds like instinctively she is aware that it is all horribly wrong.
If these major houses are all so desperate to find real voices amongst the thinning trees, then why do they do absolutely the worst thing possible to find that? Why not look in the strange out of the way places, where the voices have been developed and nurtured?
I wouldn’t worry Netrebko in 2012. I don’t see her lasting that long. And I see a lot of people making money off of her, not her making a lot of money.
I suppose I could have more compassion for her if she didn’t look like such a vamp all the time. Casual is fine, but the tackiness is just…oh, I don’t know, the crowning of her as opera’s Brittany Spears.
What really bothers me about the unprepared comment to Midgette is the fact that the Met has been clamoring for months that “Anna Netrebko sings Elvira Walton (and her famous mad scene) in a production revived especially for Ms. Netrebko.”
Does it not strike anyone at the Met as odd that even though they brought it back just for her, she clearly did not feel the importance of preparing it properly?
just read the Times review – typical Tommassini, and exactly what an above poster predicted – it came down to “she can’t sing coloratura and she has no top notes, but I’d like to fuck her so she’s great”. The review is pathetic in that he has no problem listing the various faults of all the men, but for Trebs he has nothing but excuses and “isn’t she lovely”. What a sham.
Scotto never sang Puritani. She knew better
Far more likely is that she was never offered the role under the right circumstances. She certainly sang a host of other Bellini parts, finally including Norma. I would think that one reason she didn’t get the right offers was that in Italy the role was “owned” by Mirella Freni and elsewhere by Joan Sutherland, and up until the mid-1970s, Scotto did not wield clout comparable to these two ladies.
balab,
i seriously doubt thomasini wants to fuck anyone named anna…
thanks for the info. He’s such a tasteless, uneducated boob that I guess I just assumed he was straight.
The Donizetti “Tudor Trio” is a misnomer. There is still one more Donizetti Queen Elizabeth opera that needs to be included to complete the “Quadrathon” — “Elisabetta sul Castello di Kenelworth”. then it will be done. Amen!
I must defend Tommasini from some ignorant comments. He is a brilliant, practicing musician, and I doubt you are.
He is the best trained musician both in theory and in practice (piano) the Times has ever employed. He supported himself as a concert pianist in Boston and was nationally famous for his mastery — digital and mental — of very difficult contemporary scores. But I heard him play an all Schubert program that was breathtaking (and his notes were brilliant).
He also wrote one of the great composer Biographies, about Virgil Thomson.
I think he is a poor reviewer of opera, probably because it is not a great love of his. I assume he hears the musical dead wood of Bellini, the absence of modulation, the endless note spinning, the square harmonies in concerted passages and the slim pro forma orchestration and tunes out (compared to a massive genius like Rossini, Bellini is not even as good a tune smith as Richard Rodgers and had less musical culture than Cole Porter, whose harmonic sophistication is endlessly fascinating).
Not EVERYONE fetishizes voices and Tommasini is probably registering that Neb sounds good most of the time, looks great and hung her head over the orchestra pit. From that point of view his writing is kind, encouraging, but not a rave.
The Times did employ a ‘specialist’ in bel canto, Will Crutchfield, who while straight talked the talk of opera queenery much better than Tom ma (who is NOT straight). Maybe they should have sent Midgette, not that she deserves any prizes or maybe have brought in Gosset.
But the Gelb name means the first stringer must go (however since the Times never fires a full time employee I doubt Tomma would be in any jeopardy if he had published a pan).
Mrsjohnclaggart @hotmail.com