Higher and higher
On the recommendation of tipster La Malipasta, La Cieca presents a snippet or two from a January 14 performance of Meyerbeer’s Il crociato in Egitto at the Teatro Fenice. Heard in a duet from the first act of this rarity are two sopranos of differing genders, Michael Maniaci and Patrizia Ciofi.
Part One Ah non ti son piu caraPart Two Non v’e per noi piu speme
Having heard some European male sopranos recently I can understand that disdain. However Maniaci is different – he can sing properly throughout his range. Which ex CT? How does one become an ex-Ct? You mean reverted to root voice or just retired?
If you mean people like Manzotti I agree….he ruined several recordings of very rare opera’s including Pergolesi’s Prigoniero and Treatta’s Ippolitto.
You can be an ex ctenor if you take up a career as a very successful conductor – need I say more – and acquire a reputation for pleasantry to rival Battle’s.
Check out the homage site at http://www.meyerbeer.com for a discography. Opera Rara (UK) has done two terrific Meyerbeer bel canto works in their entirety. “Il Crociato” is on 3 disks with the fantabulous Bruce Ford in the heroic tenor role. Then there’s “Margharita d’Anjou,” which features one of the most exquisite soprano/violin duets I’ve ever heard in opera,or elsewhere.
I listened to the whole thing. Maniaci can sing throughout his whole range? I found both of them to have very fluttery, wobbly sounding voices (vibrato is simply too fast and intrusive on top), and ascents to the top sound awkward for both of them. Also, neither of them possess a particularly attractive timbre, although that may just be the recording, which is rather muffled.
Too baroque for bel canto? Sounds funny… baroque IS bel canto…
Hmmmm? Bitter exCT now conducting…must be Rene Jacobs
Flavio83: Uh, uh, bel canto is NOT baroque, or vice versa, you got me all confused. Do you categorize Mozart with Bellini and Rossini? See, there IS a difference.
opéra chanteuse,
Ciofi’s a bit too baroque-sounding for bel canto?
I must totally disagree. Ciofi is definitely a very light voice and has, IMHO, a scintillating timbre but it only makes her bel canto repertoire more fresh.
The fact that late classical and romantic opera is, in general, more lavishly conceived than baroque doesn’t need to be interpreted by dressing it up with more lavish voices … at least on the other side of the big water it’s not necessarily the way, luckily (theatres around Italy are *not THAT lavish* , you know … isn’t it agonising to have to make yourself heard in virtually a half-stadium… )
Notably, Ciofi sings almost exclusively Italian bel canto, rarely allowing, and she regularly pleases us with it. Her Lucy was splendid. Her Marie was splendid. Her Fanny was splendid. Her singing is splendid. Definitely among the clearest I ever heard.
…
And in case Trebs(my favourite spinto wannabe) has trouble with any of the stuff she seems to aspire to futurely / presently / has lately aspired, she would only need to *watch*, not even listen. Ciofi in action is a mobile technical workshop (but those faces she makes!!! OMG!!! LOL).
But anyway, Ciofi vs Trebs?… totally astray
Forgive me for being an asshole, but I’ve been carrying a certain rage since some jerk named AC (his idiot blog is linked here) attacked ‘bel canto’.
It’s a popular term, and even Philip Gosset uses it in his great book Divas and Scholars. But the proper term is prima ottocento.
It’s important because this was a definite school and in fact it was crucial to the invention of romanticism in music.
Rossini was papa, first period Verdi brought up the rear. It lasted 60 years, but the influence of one of its composers lasted far longer.
The composers included Rossini, Pacini, Mercadante, Vaccai, Costa, The brothers’ Ricci, the Italian Meyerbeer, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi.
They moved farther and farther away from the form bound opera seria or drama giocosa of Mozart, or the operas of Haydn, or the less sophisticated work of Gluck. Instead they invented their own forms, which involved less repetition, greater exploration of sonority, a freer harmonic sense, and the use of shorter musical forms to make more ‘realistic’ dramatic realizations and reversals.
Rossini had started this is in the 1790′s with his wonderful farse; Pacini (much too little studied) wrote 70 operas and tried many formulas to liberate himself from the classical models. Mercadante probably invented the rhythmically driven ‘big tune’ made to seem inevitable by the orchestra pounding out a waltz, march, mazurka or what was called a polacca (for cabalettas). Donizetti and Verdi took this much farther, but it actually influenced Chopin, Berlioz, and Schubert just for starters.
The great talent though (after the world genius Rossini) was Bellini. He pretty much invented the romantic elegiac mode, that was heard throughout the 19th century. He did this through a free harmony, flexible rhythms, exploration of sonority and of course through those long, expertly built and brilliantly sustained melodic lines.
He influenced Chopin directly, they were friends, and Chopin — who hated just about all living composers – admired Bellini. So did Wagner, so did Verdi.
The end of Norma, with his rising sequences and increasing orchestral sound, its clever repeats of melodic material is heard as an obvious model for the end of Gotterdammerung, the start and end of the love duet in Tristan, and is heard as far away as the Fifth symphony of Tchaikovsky, and most of the music of Glinka. I could go on and on and bore people more but I just had to get it out of my system.
But it is important to remember ‘bel canto’ (io tremo) was a school with enormous influence, and was by Mozart’s standards for example, avant garde (also crude).
Mrsjohnclaggart, are you refering to me? If you are, I didn’t “attact” the bel canto repertoire. I adore Bellini, perhaps, even more than Verdi. I was simply having a hard time classifying Mozart with bel canto.