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.
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.
Labels: 2012, fleming, gheorghiu, la cieca ci guarda la cieca ci vede, met, netrebko
POSTED at
6:54 PM
87 Comments:
If Cutler is not going to sing this wednesday, who´s going to replace him?!
Gregory Kunde sang the dress rehearsal and may possibly sing the whole run. He was originally scheduled to sing only the last two or three performances.
I can live with Kunde, but if Cutler doesn't sing it will be a major disappointment...a relatively new voice in this incredibly difficult role. I absolutely LOVE Puritani, and I hope listeners will be impressed with the idea that, success or not, Netrebko had the cojones to sing Elvira! I'm still anxious to hear the opening.
I was at the dress rehearsal of PURITANI...aside from a couple of questionable high notes, Netrebko sang and acted the hell out of the role. She will have a huge success. Cutler sang the first act but he sounded under the weather and was replaced by Gregory Kunde whose voice is a bit dry but, boy, does he have amazing high notes. I was led to believe that Cutler has been sick for the last couple of weeks and missed quite a few rehearsals. But he sounded hale and hearty at the midnight mass from St. Patrick's on Channel 11 last night, so I don't know who will actually sing the PURITANI prima....when I checked at the box office most of the performances were close to sold out....
If the Met does revive "Rienzi," and I hope they do, I just want them to do the absolutely complete uncut version that the BBC did in 1976.
There are some long operas ("Semiramide," "Les Troyens," "Don Carlos," "Les Huguenets") that seem to go by faster when they are not marred by huge cuts. I put "Rienzi" in that category. Once it starts, it flies by.
I do NOT want Renee Fleming singing "Roberto Devereux." Will she even have a voice by 2012?
So now we're booking 6 years in advance? Is there one opera house or one particular singer that is responsible for this business of booking this far in advance? Does anyone remember in what year it started?---the early 1980s? The late 1970s?
It seems to me in the 1960s, Bing was booking about 18 months in advance.
I just watched a great five-part Caballe interview on Youtube where she, in 1970, was speaking of knowing five to six years in advance. I was surprised to find that was true even then, because in my mind, that was an 80s/90s development. I guess when you're Caballe...
Of great, pertinent interest in the interview was Caballe talking about resisting singing Norma and then finally giving in because she didn't think it was fair that the world not hear Norma. It's hysterical now that people like Fleming and Netrebko are considering the role when Caballe, who for me was one of the five best, didn't feel she could ever do it justice!
I wonder who will sing Tell...three GREAT singers needed. Actually, I think I'd really like a Radvanovsky Mathilde.
Patricia Racette sang in "Tell" in San Francisco. She was good.
On one of those Callas tributes that they play on PBS a lot (pledge months), Caballe mentions visiting Callas in Paris and asking her (Callas) if she thought she (Caballe) should sing Norma. Callas took her to the piano and had her sing a passage from "Norma." (Caballe does not say which passage except that it was not one people would expect.) Caballe sang it for her and Callas said that yes, she (Caballe) could and should sing Norma.
Callas also said something to the effect of "If you sing Norma, you can be a great Norma for five years. If you sing Adalgisa, you can be a great Adalgisa for thirty years." I think it would be wise for both Fleming and Netrebko to sing Adalgisa first.
So, what's all this about a comet, or is that just one of La Cieca's jokes? :Laughs Nervously:
I have a friend who just signed a contract for 2014. It amazes me how far in advance these people work. I barely know what I'm going to do tomorrow- I can't imagine knowing my plans for the next eight years.
I think that Radvanovsky would make a wonderful Mathilde- definitely something I'd pay money to see. I also think that she probably has a great Norma in her somewhere down the line. I'd love to see her and Zajick singing Norma/Adalgisa. I'd pretty much sell my soul to see that, actually.
I don't really want Fleming to sing the Donizetti either. What a train wreck that could be. But maybe she'll clean up her act by 2012? Stop all of the swoopy business and sing like she did at the beginning of her career? I hope somebody gets it into her head soon that all of the stuff she's doing now doesn't work. Because it would be a real shame to waste an instrument so beautiful.
Gregory Kunde sang a ringing, splendidly solid (yes, solid, not falsetto) F (yes, F) in Credeasi misera in act 3. The ovation that he got put a smile on Netrebko's face. Cutler bailed out after act 1, which he marked, almost entirely. He sounded like a contralto when he did sing in full voice, it was announced he's recovering from bronchitis, hmmm he knew he was recovering from bronchitis before he came on for act 1, so the story's a bit fishy. But his agent deserves an award for having secured 4 performances of a role everyone thinks he can't sing.
La Netrebko has to work on two top notes at the end of acts 2 and 3. The rest, as far as I'm concerned, is superb. I heard a level of delicacy and detail in her vocal delivery that was missing in everything she's done so far. The acting is very physical and, once again, daring and dazzling, that's why she's a superstar. She sings her mad scene cabaletta in act 2 on the edge on the pit, lying down, belly up and with her head sticking into the pit, her long hair reaching down to the players. That'll drive the audiences wild, of course, and I'm nuts about her, yes, but I'll be the first to trash the woman if she messes up on 12/27.
Franco Vassalo's voice is magnificent, he reminds me of Pablo Elvira a lot, but his Riccardo is a work in progress, stiff, let's hope he improves for the premiere.
I asked tenor Eduardo Valdez 'wasn't that incredible?' (Kunde's F) to which he replied 'incredible?? that was f*c*ing magnificent.'
Well, Cutler and Kunde BOTH sound interesting to me, so I'm looking forward to the broadcast when it comes (for me in the UK!)
Netrebko was pretty impresive in Vienna last month in "La Sonnambula", and I got the feeling from the broadcast that it was electric if you were actually there. (Austrian Radio streamed it, allowing a personal record to be made, so if anyone who missed it would like to hear it... my e-mail is below).
AND FOR ME THE REALLY BIG NEWS FOR TODAY is that BBCRadio3 is broadcasting the Royal Opera "Carmen", with my current operaworld-saviour heart-throb JONAS KAUFMANN as a much-praised Don Jose. It will also be streamed online by the BBC, starting at 7.30pm British time (2.30pm in New York) - you can use their player or paste the URL into your own.
My e-mail is:
home14@btinternet.com
wow, a high F? sounds effing exciting! (sorry, couldn't resist) It's good to hear positive buzz about netrebko's puritani. I for one think that at least compared to sonnambula and that awful gilda, this role is much more suited to her. I certainly hope her gleaming high notes are intact by the time I see puritani...they are some of her greatest assets and she should use them more often! Her voice is certainly not of the type that thrills in the bel canto repertoire without high notes!
speaking of high F's, i am listening to june anderson's 1987 live recording of beatrice di tenda, and in the finale it sounds as though she is hitting a high F squarely, but I think she is actually hitting an E because the recording sounds sped up. Anyways, does anyone else have this recording? It's magnificent, and even if all the high notes are in reality a half-tone lower, it's still astonishing!
As form Reinzi...who the hell will sing that, Heppner?
--
There are some long operas ("Semiramide," "Les Troyens," "Don Carlos," "Les Huguenots") that seem to go by faster when they are not marred by huge cuts. I put "Rienzi" in that category. Once it starts, it flies by.
--
This is a VERY astute point. I work in musical theatre where in tech and previews it's traditional to make many small "cosmetic" cuts to keep the pace moving. I often find myself the Cassandre (to allude to one of the works you named) in saying that snipping, especially in the musical numbers, makes the piece strangely less satisfying and often do make the piece feel longer. This is also true for me in the spoken dialogue section of some singspielen--when it's so functional, you don't get why it's there sometimes and it gives it a bloated sense.
Wagner is lucky these days; the bel cantos are not there yet in terms of respect for the work. They should be!
Very interesting reports. I heard Netrebko's Vienna Sonnambula on the radio and thought it was dull as dishwater. She doesn't interpolate ANY high notes at all. I think that's pretty unheard of. The finale -- which should be electric -- is boring. I've been told that she isn't going to interpolate any high notes in the Puritani. Can anyone who was at the dress rehearsal tell us what she did? Merry Christmas!
Scifisci, I've heard it said that Joanie's voice ended pretty squarely at E flat, despite the brilliance of those E flats. So I bet you're right. The recording of O Zittre Nicht is, I understand, a tone down.
When will there be another entry that is NOT about Renee Fleming?
It's getting tiresome.
Renee this, Renay that....
Will we discuss Renee's sleeping habits next?
I would have expected both Cutler and Kunde to be able to handle Puritani quite well. Light voices with the high extensions. Who else could sing the role these days? Barry Banks? JDF? Hopefully we'll get to hear both Cutler and Kunde over the several Sirius broadcasts.
Renaay's sleeping habits have already been discussed previously, around March 2006.
Rienzi with Deborah Voigt sounds like a dream coming through. Heppner and Botha should be able to handle the tenor role.
A friend of mine had gone to London to do his Christmas shopping and was staying at a hotel near to Covent Garden. Deciding not to go and hear the new social inclusion opera by the ROH Educational Outreach Team he went to bed early and was having a delicious dream in which he was singing Mime and getting knocked about something terrible by Jonas Kaufmann's Siegfried, and could see the muscles gleaming on the Rene Papp Fafner, when the dragon started to roar and bellow. The noise was terrible: nothing like the score, and the Woodbird (who in the dream was played by Juan Diego Florez) fell out of the tree. The noise got worse and worse and eventually he woke up to find the room was being shaken by the snoring coming from the next suite. It was truly terrible. Even the drum in Nielsen's Fifth Sympony would have been unable to drown it out. The snoring went on for hours and my friend had a miserable night.
Next morning as he was getting ready to check out he heard MORE noise coming from the same suite as the snoring. This time it was a soprano, doing arpeggios and scales and brief snatches from "Vissi D'Arte" and "Brunnhilde's Immolation" and "Casta Diva" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" and so on. My friend says he had never experienced such an AWFUL rattle. Much much worse than the snoring. In fact the snoring seemed quite soothing now. Except that it was the same person making both. He was in such a fury that he demanded from the hotel management to know who the occupant of the suite was, and - you've guessed - it was none other than Renee Fleming!!!
But on a more pleasant note, after the broadast of the Met's "Don Carlos" I visted Rene Papp's own website. It has some lovely press photos of him, and he has a very engaging appearance. I also read elsewhere that next year he will be singing Hans Sachs, and the year after will sing Wotan ina "Ring" under Barenboim. He sounds and looks SUPERB - has anyone met him, or does anyone know anything about him? The Met, he says, is his second home. Is he liked and loved there? It looks to me that he is on the up and up, having gone pretty far already. I would love to hear his Hunding!
btw - is anyone else listening to the ROH "Carmen" tonight?
Netrebko at the dress -
If you think someone lying down on the stage with their head draped into the orchestra pit is the end all and be all of operatic performance, then you will love her. If, however, you are looking for clean fast fioratura, the ability to trill, a secure top in alt, and the correct notes being sung (she had at least two large entrance errors, and made up some of the rest), then this will not be to your taste, at least as evidenced by the dress rehearsal. They've had the weekend to beat the role into her head, and she's not stupid, so maybe at least by the opening she'll know it. But Sills, Sutherland, even Freni, it ain't. Cutler IS very sick - his teacher, Diana Soviero has cancelled her schedule to try and work him thru it so he can do the opening, but no word yet. Kunde was GREAT in the last act, and the F was amazing. It would not be downgrade for him to do the opening at all.
So balabanov and others-
I take it that seeing the bigscreen broadcast of the Puritani may not be great, save for if Kunde is performing, but it would be a hell of a lot better than the Tan Dun opera...?
Wow, it seems that my wish is coming true: Gheorghiu as Anna Bolena! Yeepee!
Charlie B; is it possible that awful rattle you heard in Renee's room was Simon doing Her? If we wait for 5 years to get a production of Willi Tell, who will be there to do the big tenor aria--Chris Merritt?
Well, I won't be surprised if Netrebko's Elvira is hailed by critics (and by that I mean Thomassini). However, I heard a rumor (from a VERY reliable insider source) that Netrebko barely knew any of the score at the first rehearsal - which is why I am not surprised at mentions of wrong entrances and made up notes...
oh please not chris merritt. he was beyond dreadful in the Guillaume Tell that San Francisco did about ten years ago. My least favorite tenor still "singing".
Gregory Kunde was at Juilliard when I studied there in the 80's, and he was good then (looks AND voice). I'm pleased that he will sing Puritani and I hope I get to hear him in the broadcast!
Eric Cutler sang a superb Arturo (by all accounts -- I was in town but they whisked me off to the islands) in Vancouver last August. I was very much looking forward to hearing him; have never been wild about Kunde. But I'll give him a chance to hear what Netrebko can do with Elvira. I liked what I heard of the Vienna Sonnambula -- except for the tenor.
Why isn't Stoyanova singing any of the Donizettis, or Norma or Stiffelio for that matter? She's the only soprano who has ever made Anna Bolena sound worth doing to me. (Sills and Sutherland having utterly failed.)
The story I heard many years ago is that Caballe went backstage when Sutherland sang her first U.S. Norma (in Philadelphia) to congratulate her, and JS said, "When you sing it, they won't come to hear me sing it any more." MC replied, "I could never sing it -- I don't have the high notes." "You don't need them!" cried Joan. "They're not in the SCORE." (Both ladies made it sound so easy that far too many other people took it on. High notes are the least of Norma.)
The tenor aria in Tell was sung magnificently by Marcello Giordani in Carnegie Hall a year ago. He's perhaps the best tenor in the heroic Franco-Italian (i.e. Meyerbeer) repertory just now.
Pape is passionately beloved by the Met audience, but he's more a bass-baritone than a bass -- stick with Stephen Milling for Hunding. (I'd like to hear him as King Philip too. Or the Inquisitor.)
Rienzi makes me shudder even to think of it. Why not Les Huguenots? That, at least, is a terrific opera.
Pape is actually a Wotan, or will be one soon. He's signed to do the role somehwere in the next few years, and I know he's had his eye on Sachs for a while now. I'd love to hear him sing the Dutchman... Now there's someone worth throwing yourself into the sea for!
Many thanks for the comments on Rene Pape. He is very dashing and on his website manages to project charm and devilment. It's hard to believe he grew up in Soviet-dominated East Germany (he was in his mid-20s when the Wall came down). He now lives in Berlin and performs a lot there - apart from the Met he doesn't seem to travel a whole lot.
He lists Hunding among his roles, but it's probably some good time since he sang it (likewise Fasolt). He has just added Boris to his repertoire and apparently is working on "Les Contes d'Hoffmann". No sign yet of the Flying Dutchman - could it be lack of suitable Sentas? (;
The news about Wotan I trace to June 2006. It looks as if it won't be till 2010, but then it will be the full works - Wotan in a complete Ring Cycle that Barenboim is planning as a cooperative venture between the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and La Scala (plus tour). The report added of Herr Pape: "He also will appear as Sarastro in Kenneth Branagh's upcoming English-language film of Mozart's The Magic Flute." I'll get rolling my trouser leg.
Not being a New Yorker I don't suppose it really affects me as much as many here, but I do agree about "Rienzi" - not much fun or even an oddity. A full-throttle Meyerbeer would be miles better, but casting would be a bit more of a problem, I would have thought. After all, "Les Huguenots" used to be subtitled "La Nuit de Sept Etoiles" or something like that, didn't it? What about "Le Prophete"? Contemporary relevance too!
Charlie B -
Rene Pape is lovely. Smart, sensitive, just damaged enough to make you adore him, and brilliant in every way. Brilliance as a musician that you can literally see pouring out of him. The voice, of course, is amazing. But he is truly a great musician. Strong personality, friendly and outgoing, good mind for theatre, keen mind for drama, and a born communicator. Some of this you can learn from watching him on stage, and some you can learn from watching him offstage. Nice guy who deserves all the success he's got.
I've just finished reading the gag-inducing puff piece on Netrebko in today's Times by Anne Midgette, timed to coincide with tonight's prima, of course. Midgette, who must be doubling as her publicist, calls her "opera's biggest megastar since Pavarotti".
When asked about future roles she may be considering, Netrebko says she's not sure about the three queens because you "need a very good technique and I don't have this yet".
It wasn't really a puff piece on Netrebko - the singer admitted that she came to the Met "woefully underprepared" for Puritani and that she had not sung well in any of the Don Pasquale's.
Someone mentioned Ken Branaugh's Magic Flute film. Does anyone know if that will ever see a US release?
Oh, and I feel pretty bad for Eric Cutler. This could have basically "made" his career. But If we had to get a replacement, I'm glad that we're getting Kunde, who is fantastic (see his recording of Cellini for proof.)
Not a puff piece on Netrebko? LOL
I'm glad she admitted to not singing well in any of the Don Pasquales, though. Can I get a refund?
Let's be fair, now...Netrebko says she was not happy with herself in the "Pasquale" DUET...she does not say she did not sing well in any of those performances. She was referring to a very specific part of the role. I find it refreshing that she can be so honest and demanding of herself. We bemoan the lack of candor and the standard-issue responses in these star interviews, the lack of self-awareness (just think of Alagna claiming he sang "like a GOD" in the Scala AIDA), then when someone comes along and tells the truth and admits to some insecurities everyone pounces. You just can't win.
I see nothing wrong with Fleming in ROBERTO DEVEREAUX, she would make a fine Sara.
Did anyone see Anne Midgette's article on Netrebko where she quotes Netrebko as admitting to being "woefully underprepared" for her upcoming Elvira in I PURITANI, and then complements her on being a serious artist. Just what is Anne's definition of 'serious artist' if an underprepared soprano gets this sobriquet?
And why was Netrebko so underprepared? This is a major event for her, a High Def movie house around the world showing etc.. and she's underprepared? Is this respect for her art, for her colleagues and for the audience, let alone Bellini?
My personal jury is still out on Netrebko -- I've only heard her a couple of times. The voice is lovely, a cool, "blue" voice (as Sutherland's was -- also Anderson, the second best Elvira I've ever heard, close to perfect), which is a rare thing -- most sopranos are warm and red-orange. (I like a spectrum.)
I'm not sure about the security of Netrebko's top and her coloratura, and she may be sacrificing vocal preparedness to her acting instincts (which are certainly closer to Callas than to Sutherland!). But I enjoyed the interview and, like Midgette, I'm impressed with her candor, her standards and her choice of models. I'd like to hear her as Amina AND as Manon Lescaut. Norma -- she's SO right to wait a few years, and almost everyone who's sung it in the last 25 years has been SO wrong even to try.
I can easily see Pape as the Dutchman or Wotan, roles baritones also sing. But he's not a true bass. (However he has the brains and chops -- and let's not forget looks -- to make anything he does interesting.) (How would he do Frauenliebe und Leben?)
A Prophete for Blythe and Botha (or Giordani) would be nifty, Petrova as Berthe. But if we're going to bring back Meyerbeer, why settle for 3 1/2 stars? Huguenots with Giordani, Stoyanova, Zifchak, Milling as Raoul, almost any coloratura but Reneigh as the Queen, Stephen Powell as Nevers, Kowaljow as St. Bris would be fabulous. You know it would.
This article was particularly revolting in its blithe arrogance - "I'm young and pretty, Sutherland was a freak of nature, so why should I have to do any work to prepare these roles? Please give me my 10,000$ per performance now - I've got to go ruin Manon somewhere in Europe next month". Does it ever occur to these people that they are paid exorbitant amounts of money, and really should be producing a viable product? Of course why should they, when being lazy is so profitable. What a sad commentary on the state of opera today.
"I find it refreshing that she can be so honest and demanding of herself."
Imagine how demanding of herself she would have to be to have learned her MUSIC?!!!
What a crock.
Hans Lick,
I totally agree with you about Netrebko. I have always thought of her voice as blue or grey in color, as in steel, rather than red or orange, as in fire. For that reason alone I have had my doubts about audience acceptance of her in bel canto roles traditionally sung by "fiery" sopranos. However, like you, I appreciate the spectrum of aural experience.
Just heard what little was left of the role of Elvira in Trebs version of it up thru "vergin".
This is a travesty. The role has been cut to shreds to avoid all the difficulties... and she sounds like crap anyway. Off by a measure at one point....no agility, dodged fermatas on the B's, no top D, no ornaments since the repeats were all cut. But hey....just hang in there...word has it she is gonna drape herself over the orchestra pit for the mad scene. As Zinka said..." if you can't sing, you have to do something". Might be the most overhyped singer of our generation. What a pitiful sham.
Kunde is having big trouble too. I was expecting better.
OH COME ON.
The problem is not Netrebko, it's Summers' clueless conducting. Netrebko is NOT off pitch, and, yes, it's cut, but she's doing just fine. Kunde is a disappointment. But lighten up, folks, we're hearing a live Puritani, reasonbly well sung. I've heard Callas, Sutherland, Scotto, Cuberli and Gruberova as Elvira, and Netrebko is right in that mix.
Summers is conducting as if this were DREAMGIRLS...or maybe BRIGADOON.
Agree. The conductor is making a beautiful opera sound boring.
As for Kunde, it's got to be nerve-wrecking singing this role live, for all to hear and tape for posterity. Hope he steadies himself.
Right. It is the conductor's fault every one of Trebs' runs is a smudged mess and it is all his fault she can't trill to save her life. The flatting must his fault too.
mad scene ended and the trained seals squawked like lemmings. What a sham. This fraud made utter hash of the score. Guess the more notes you leave out the more you get paid....a desperate, stupid, amateur attempt. The hair must have looked great falling into the pit.....
Right, pace. And the clearly thrilled audience is just a bunch of dolts who don't understand your artistically superior ear.
C'mon.
Oh, come on, pacenoia, it was not THAT bad!!
At least she wasn't off pitch in the first half of the mad scene. And yes, agreed, she should not sing this rep because she just does not have the technique to sing the coloratura cleanly and therefore has no way to put any expression into it (for which it was intended). Further, she should not put any variations into the score which she cannot sing or because she cannot sing what is written!!
Not sure about the hysterical laughter before the cabaletta...I never thought of Elvira as hysterical mad but rather desperate mad!
What I find most concerning though is, that the public show no sign of distinction and buy the trebs hype completely, bordering on hysteria.
Uwww! What chance has a singer without the hype to rise to the top then if the public is as uneducated as this???
Average performance, no stand outs. As for Netrebko: WRONG WRONG rep - AND please NO Norma for her! Occupt yourself with mimis etc.
At least the lemmings are consistent....they just cheered the bass/bar duet after the baritone literally crashed into the wall on his a flat.
Play trebs version of those two arias back to back with ANY other soprano famous for this role and you will see she simply can't even begin to negotiate this music. To top it off, she is lauded in the press for admitting to not preparing adequately. When you sing this poorly it is always good to have an excuse....
I'm not happy.
For starters, Sirius was playing a selection from Wagner's (sic) "Elektra" well past the hour. When they finally realized they were supposed to be inside the Met, "Puritani" had already begun. Even if we missed only 20 seconds of orchestral music, it's the principle of the thing.
I didn't know who was singing, for sure.
The baritone is trying high notes he really doesn't have. Kunde has hit one clunker and I'm afraid of Act 3.
Missy is also hitting clunker high notes. At one point, she sounded like Roberta Peters doing a party imitation of Renata Scotto. (And what is with the announcers? I don't think Scotto's early triumph in Scotland was in "Puritani." It was in "Sonnambula." And I don't believe Pavarotti sang "Puritani" with Sutherland at the Met, did he? I'm too lazy to check the Met database. I thought it was Blake.)
Anyway, the score is being cut to ribbons. I love all these gorgeous melodies; I just wish we could hear them the way Bellini wrote them, not the way whoever decided to cut and paste them.
Well, I'm with pace on one point--the last baritone note of "suoni la tromba" was waaaaay off. Yikes! I'm saying a prayer for Kunde's Act Three.
Oh yes, Pavarotti was Sutherland's tenor when this production had its premiere in 1976. I was there for one of the performances. Sherrill Milnes and James Morris were also in the cast. And yes, those were spectacular performances. The stuff legends are made of. Hopefully it will be broadcast by Sirius in the not distant future.
Needless to say this cast doesn't come anywhere close. None of these singers are giving performances to remember.
ouch !
Not a happy ending. Poor Kunde.
Click here: YouTube - The Great Joan Sutherland
oops....sorry, go here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwhiKxAGRjs
I'm not listening to the performance the rest of you are, which I am sad about, since it sounds so thrilling... But I would like to comment on the fury some of you seem to have about un"der"prepared singers.
I am not suggesting that top opera singers aren't paid well for what they do. And I am not suggesting that it is ok for them to show up unprepared, more for their colleagues than for the audiences.
BUT, for her to admit that she was less prepared than she would have liked to have been means she knows what kind of musical preparation it takes for a big role. Singers used to LIVE WITH THEIR VOICE TEACHERS and additionally have FIVE COACHINGS A WEEK FOR THREE YEARS with the conductors they were doing the role with before performing it. Ok, so perhaps that's a slight exaggeration, but here's the thing people, that's a SLIGHT exaggeration.
Today, singers are being rushed from role to role, with very little time to learn them, and even if a singer knows all the notes, they might not have it in their voice and in their body. They may not have a solid technique, and may have to choose between working through a role and getting some badly needed physical rest before going on to the next gig.
Again, not having solid technique is bad for us, bad for them, and bad for the art, but it's REALITY. Would any of you turn down a bucketload of money for a great job because you didn't have enough time to spend three years learning it?????? At least she's AWARE of it. That's a step. AND she's only 35 - wait a few years, let's see what happens.
Hello all. I just came from the 'Puritani' performance and I must say, what a disappointment.
First of all, like most heterosexual male opera fans, I love Trebs. However, I realize her shortcomings and can admit that this role was cut severely to service her limited vocal means. Still though, what a dynamite performer!!! The draped hair during 'Vien diletto' was everything I thought it would be and more.
Vassallo sounded like an odd mix between Pablo Elvira and Tito Gobbi, the latter's influence becoming apparent when he decided to sing entire phrases in straight tone. His high notes were really unnecessary.
Mr. Kunde... Oh, Mr. Kunde. 'A te o cara' was rough and his emission throughout the entire first act was pushed, pinched, and forced. He even had to sing several notes in falsetto (not even particularly high ones: A's, Bb's) He did settle down a bit during Act III (probably because he had all of Act II to rest up) The high-F was brutal, especially coming off of it. I have heard him sing those notes before and no, they're not full voiced, as some have claimed. They're definitely a reenforced falsetto of some sort, because he was never able to connect those two registers without a noticeable break. Regardless, give the man his dues for tackling such a beast of a role.
In my opinion though, the best rendition I've heard (though I wasn't even alive for it) was Enrico Di Giuseppe's in '73 or '74 with Sills at NYCO. He also tried the F once (came up a half-step short LOL) but no one can sing the role like that anymore.
Hans lick - if you want to hear how Anna Bolena is supposed to be sung...you must listen to Gruberova and Devia. End of story.
The Met/Sirius also put the Met "Puritani" out live on RealPlayer, to which I was able to listen, although the quality (of the stream!) was very poor. I was surprised by what a low-grade affair it was. It sounded like one of the British provincial companies had been forced to work with middle-ranking artists they had in the company or could afford to buy in. I have to say this was in no small part due to Kunde, who sounded every bit the understudy. In the circumstances this has to be forgiven, although it cannot be overlooked.
Having taken a look at Netrebko's official website, she appears to be more of a German concert artist than an opera singer. Like a number of others (there are several, tenors, successful in Britain with CDs and TV programmes but never seen in the opera house) this is based on good looks and appeal to the middle-brow CD-buying public's tastes (popular arias -- typically Verdi and Puccini -- and ballads). By performing with Rolando Villazon, she hits the women as well as the men, who it would appear make up a larger market segment. Such singers are praised to the sky to lift their visibility for sales to people otherwise generally uninterested in classical music. They do not, in reality, possess the technique needed for the opera house, and so if they do venture there, things have to be cut and altered for them (as they can be without any problems at all for the concert stage); difficulties that cannot be overcome are not attempted, which notices (it is covered up by showy-looking tricks in the concert hall, where the programme is carefully chosen anyway). She has some ringing high notes - they can be sounded long and often and without relevance to the music in the concert hall. In the opera house they just sound naked.
Frankly, if the middle-of-the-road market is there, especially in Germany, good luck to her. What I don't understand is the need to do the bel-canto repertoire on stage, and in the USA. Is it because the market for the kind of thing she does in Germany would appear to be saturated in the US, and her name is way less of an asset than in German-speaking Europe? Or is it that the young, full-blooded but vulnerable, sexually available heroines of Bellini are more of a turn on for reaching the hot male market than Mimi or Violetta (who are morally, medically and physically unattractive)?
If there was a case for her to sing on the Met stage, it would indeed be in standard repertoire. But of course, the Met has loads of others who can and want to do this, and the roles are spoken for. Or is it just to feed the concert programmes, where a few selected arias can be delivered any old how, without worrying about operatic technique or traditions, or the rest of the role as written?
Frankly, the biggest test of sincerity is why she sings no Russian roles on stage in the US. Why not Tatyana - instead of Renee Fleming? The fact is these operas, mostly quite modern and obscure, don't provide the sex-pot publicity she thrives on. And why no Rossini? Too difficult by far?
(Please forgive typos etc as I've posted this without proof reading it!)
What a mess the whole affair was.
I won't repeat the laundry list of the particulars-other posters before me have done that very well.
But I do have a question: "Where does one put the blame?"
If the MET can't cast it properly, why do they mount new productions or revivals of it? For ticket sales? Wouldn't they fill the house with a C cast Boheme just as well?
Does Netrebko have that much pull? And if so, why? From what I just heard, it can't be from a vocal standpoint.
One of the posters implied she's being rushed from role to role and that it's not her fault. Then whose fault is it? If she's not it control of her own career, then who is?
And "she's ONLY 35" ?! Does this mean vocally? She's not a mature singer by 35?!? I've heard Sills sing "Caro nome" at 9 years old with more technique then what I heard from this Elvira tonight.
This is the MET for God's sake. If you're not prepared for a an important role at the MET, then when are you?
To think Sutherland had to plead for her '76 MET Puritanis. And Sills even in her late vocal condition in 1977, still had a real technique to rely upon for her S.F. Puritanis.
If this is the state of bel canto right now, I vote for putting Puritani on the shelf along with Norma for 40 years too.
God help us if the MET really goes ahead with the Three Queens.
Some if this is venting, but after listening to the state of opera the last decade or so, I am curious if someone can tell me what's happened.
Altho it is inevitable that somebody will yodel "you had to be there", it was interesting to read comment after comment on other forums such as "what kind of audience would cheer Kunde like that?" ....uh...the same group that would cheer Trebs butchering of the score? Or "Did she deserve that ovation? No way."
Mike Silverman of the AP wrote this morning:
"It ought to be a good thing when Anna Netrebko lets down her hair...."
"Yet there was something artificial about the moment when - in the middle of the Act II mad scene from Bellini's "I Puritani" at the Metropolitan Opera on Wednesday night - Netrebko staggered to the front of the stage and lay on her back with her tresses dangling into the orchestra pit."
He goes on to add that in doing this Trebs "struck a false note" and that she seemed to be "overcompensating for the fact that she simply couldn't conquer all the vocal challenges...."
Bingo.
If Cutler takes over for the Jan 6 bcast, and if Nibs is still playing Rapunzel over the pit it will be interesting to see what they sound like by then.
I feel Kunde redeemed himself with his high notes in "Credeasi misera" (or whatever the correct title is). The big money note was there and it was loud. But the audience response at the aria's conclusion and Kunde's solo curtain call was not very enthusiastic.
And I found it very strange that there was zero audience response at the end of "Son vergin vezzosa," yet they went ape-shit at the end of the Mad Scene. Were they merely applauding her hair?
I can't wait for next week's Sirius webcast to see if Cutler sings, if the baritone can fix his high notes, if Missy can put some bel in the canto.
I just came across this review of the Netrebko/Villazon/Hampson "Traviata" DVD on a Washington DC blog. Apart from being complete nonsense, it is nonsense about purely visual matters.
"And we react to her [Netrebko], because she is – foremost – stunningly beautiful, sexy and attractive. “We,” because classical music, more so still than other trades, is largely driven by the actions and opinions of men, “we” because those among us that are not heterosexual lustmongers who have channeled their urges into expressing through or appreciation of art are homosexual aesthetes similarly taken in by grace and good looks. “We,” because the kind of beauty generated by Netrebko in this particular setting is of a kind that transcends gender and sexuality. We all react to that which pleases the eye and imagination. And when the visual feeds into heart or groin, the ear will nod in timid agreement, little matter the fare it is served. In a sense, Netrebko is like a restaurant of great repute with the finest décor – where the food is good (never more) but all the right people meet. We take it as the greatest joy – and rightly so: let’s not feel guilty for being charmed by that which was designed by nature (and marketing people) to charm us."
http://nectarandambrosia.blogspot.com/
Rysanekfan: And I found it very strange that there was zero audience response at the end of "Son vergin vezzosa," yet they went ape-shit at the end of the Mad Scene.
For one thing, Netrebko ended the "Polacca" downward, i.e., without the traditional interpolated high D. For another, the playoff of the piece was done as written, meaning that the music slowly winds down and leads into the next scene.
Obviously the situation at the end of the Mad Scene was quite different: high note, followed by loud concluding chords.
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