News from the underworld
A Happy Shade whispers to La Cieca about the Met's Orfeo (opening tonight):
"This show is awesome. The dancing is really interesting and fits the music very well. Donald Palumbo has really worked tirelessly to make the chorus sound as good as possible, giving notes and comments all through rehearsals. I’m told from long-time members that note sessions during dress rehearsals were quite rare. David Daniels is great in this part, and he sings it so well. Maija Kovalevska is a hottie, and has a beautiful voice. She is tall and striking and pairs physically very well with David. And Heidi Grant Murphy has perhaps the entrance of the season. I won’t give it away, but your jaw will drop. Mine did .... Bring your spyglasses to try and figure out as many of the 'dead characters' in the chorus as you can!"
Labels: countertenor, daniels, met
POSTED at
12:28 PM
49 Comments:
I COMPLETELY disagree, about the production at least. I saw it on monday morning and I felt that the dancing ruined it. Not only did it have nothing to do with the music, but it was loud and disruptive. The dead characters were very interesting and detailed, and musically I thought it was wonderful. I didn't feel that david daniels conveyed the tragedy, pathos or repose of orfeo as well as the late LHL would have, and the part seems to lie too low. The euridice is fabulous as is Heidi grant murphy, though she has quite an unflattering costume.
I look forward to seeing it myself on May 9th, whatever the advance notices! At least as tribute to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (and also because I have a hunch it will be spectacular). Scifisci, I find it hard to believe that Mark Morris' dancemaking would have "nothing to do with the music" - nearly 100% of the time it has EVERYTHING to do with the music.
well i suppose you will have to see for yourself. Only occasionally did it service the music, but i suppose you will have to see for yourself
i'm sorry but NEVER will i attend another opera with a -- UGH -- countertenor. give me a mezzo or contralto any day over daniels and all other CTs... i can't stand that voice category.
I'm with you, Todd.
Can't stand that undersupported crooning and mewling. Maybe, maybe in Britten, when the scoring and the context are more specific, but certainly not as a substitute for a castrato part. My ears simply cannot adjust. I've never heard a countertenor sing coloratura yet that's matched what the finest contralto can do--like Larmore, Carolyn Watkinson, Horne, and the rest...
There is a very good reason why men singing in falsetto ( the guys in Boheme, Bartolo, etc etc )usually get big laughs.
pacenoia:
the same reason that "opera singing" in general gets big laughs, i.e., ignorance.
speaking of countertenors, did anyone see lawrence zazzo in giulio caesar? I thought he was fabulous and had a much more powerful voice than daneis.
So I am not *in love* with the Countertenor soud in general, especially recordings prior to the 80s. But to claim in any way that David Daniels has a voice that can be associated with "undersupported crooning and mewling" is RIDICULOUS. Daniels, along with several others (Asawa, most notably) has CHANGED the concept and notion of the Countertenor. David Daniels, with whom I have had the incredible opportunity to work, has a gorgeous voice, a rock solid technique, and a beautiful palette of colors in his voice. His Oberon is BY FAR the best I have ever encountered. The way he spun out "I know a bank..." just slayed me everytime I heard it, and he is great in other roles too. His Rodelinda performances were strong and hot blooded. His Giulio Cesare, although not to *everyone's* taste (ref: the Paris Opera/Jennifer Larmore incident cum catastrophe), is musical, beautifully phrased, but most importantly supported, colorful and full voiced.
Other counter-tenors have latched on to this way of performing, and it is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting voice types in terms of interpretation.
You want a Mezzo in the role, then wait until somebody does a performance with a Mezzo in the role.
And as far as scifisci saying: "I didn't feel that david daniels conveyed the tragedy, pathos or repose of orfeo as well as the late LHL would have." I honestly have no idea how to respond to that. Will anyone ever be Lorraine Hunt Lieberson again? No, and that is what made her a great artist. The comment would sound vaguely appropriate if she had pulled out of the production, or been fired from it. but under the present circumstances, I just don't know how you can fault DD!
I was at the prima tonight and I thought it was wonderful...musically, just about
perfect....the big news is the MIRACULOUS job the new chorus master, Donald
Palumbo, has achieved in his first production with the MET chorus. Hard to believe this
is the same group that has wobbled and screeched its way through the other operas
this season. I overheard a MET staffer on the way out saying that the chorus prima
donnas are already kvetching that Palumbo made them go down to List Hall to
rehearse whenever they weren't needed on stage. He's apparently quite the task-
master but the results tonight were SPECTACULAR. Can't wait to hear the chorus next
season.
As for the production I thought it was great...very simple and elegant and Morris'
choreography was ---as it has always been in my experience---utterly musical
I did not mean to insult DD particularly, as I've not heard him "live." From what I've read, he's a very accomplished and committed artist. My preferences are entirely personal, as everyone's is who listens to serious music. I cannot opt for the countertenor sound, as it just gets up my nose. Much of what I've heard does sound undersupported to me. Moreover, I think it's the most unnatural sound to come out of singers in general--perhaps because it sounds so undersupported. The fact that it's probably not is not quite the issue with me. It's entirely probable that the technical underpinnings of countertenor singing now are very different than they'd been. As for countertenor singing post-1980, I am going to concede humbly that I have not heard that much of it, because the general sound just doesn't appeal to me and never has. I've lived through James Bowman and Paul Esswood in Handel, and I would rather hear Baker and Watkinson--and that's just me. That said, I'm old enough to spot trends in singing, and things do change in style as well as interpretation (just listen to the Mozart recordings done in the early 50s, for example--or what passed for 'correct' Rossini singing a generation or two ago).
Has anyone noticed the weird way that DD moves his head when he's doing coloratura. If it's fast paced stuff, it looks like he's having siezures.
Tubsinger, Daniels's sound is anything but undersupported. Ditto the many excellent countertenors on stages today. You would be surprised.
Also wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the prima last night.
I'm not faulting daniels, but more lamenting the loss of LHL! I'm glad the chorus is finally being whipped into shape! They sound fabulous in the opening of orfeo and hope they continue to sound that way. I guess mark morris' choreography just isn't my cup of tea.
Sterlingkay, I don't doubt that there are a couple of people complaining about lots of rehearsal, but BY FAR the majority of choristers are ecstatic about what's happening with them. They can't be dragged into List Hall when it isn't scheduled (union), so I'm not sure what was meant by this.
Tubsinger, I respectfully suggest that you give the current crop a try before talking about "unsupported mewling". It's quite different than what came before....it's like saying you can't stand cars but you've never been inside anything other than a Model-T -- an exaggeration, to be sure, but you get my point.
Sterlingkay: That's great news about the chorus. As far as I'm concerned, they've needed to be whipped into shape for years. They're nowhere near the level of the Met Orchestra.
i'm sure daniels has great technique but having heard him live twice (Rinaldo at NYCO and Rodelinda at the met), i can tell you, no, it's not gorgeous. that's my opinion. chacun a son gout. i'll take podles any day. the CT voice is just so palid and boring in my opinion. Rinaldo had 3! one of them -- whose name i won't mention -- was absolutely horrendous. in Rodelinda, when you have a full-voiced tenor in contrast, you can't feel much for the CT hero.
Still giggling like a schoolgirl at JUSTANOTHER's line:
(ref: the Paris Opera/Jennifer Larmore incident cum catastrophe),
There's nothing more awkward than a cum catastrophe.
Joe
Counter-tenor singing is a cop-out. Male soprano is a whole other thing entirely. The falsettists sound is incredibly easier to produce than the a well modulated, mature classical instrument that combines the head and chest voices. I thoroughlly believe that is no way akin to the castratos instrument or technique and therefore is neither artistic or viscerally thrilling to me.
I'll bite-
What WAS the Paris Opera/Jennifer Larmore incident-cum-castastrophe?
Baritenor--thank you for asking! I was curious to know what the cum-incident was too, but I was afraid to ask.
I've heard several counter-tenors live. Andreas Scholl was remarkable at Tanglewood because his voice was, by far, the biggest of the 4 soloists. It sort of blew me away.
By contrast, Michael Chance had some minor (but chronic) pitch problems and a disappointing whiteness. I'd grown to revere his singing on the JE Gardiner records, especially the Bach passions. But it may also be that he's in the autumn of his career. Plus, he's sort of a transitional figure, post-Deller, pre-Daniels.
LPR
Although I enjoyed the music and singing at the premiere, I didn't care for the staging.
I repeatedly found myself distracted from the singing by the way the chorus was dressed as dead historical characters.
I mean I'm watching Orfeo pour out his heart about how he can't live without Euridice and I glance up...Hey, is that ABE LINCOLN? Isn't it kind of inappropriate to have him in a box at a theater?...And that guy on the end--is he supposed to be Mark Twain or Einstein...Napoleon looks taller than I would have imagined...Oh hey, there's some guy singing down on the stage...
pardon my ignorance... but if you want to have a man in this role -- and i know that for some, including me, a mezzo or contralto sounds better than a CT but still doesn't look as good, in general -- isn't there a tenor version for this role? or is that considered a bastardized version?
Does Orfeo end Act One with that bravura aria that may or may not have been written by Gluck?
The mystique of human voice as an instrument is its naturalness. Countertenors' voice built on artificiality is emotionally barren, monochromatic and tedious, even with an immaculate technique. I'll take Horne any time. Her "Rinaldo" in the early 80s at the Met still reigns in my mind.
Rysanekfreak: no bravura aria. I'm finally beginning to get the versions straight in my head, and I believe it's the Paris version that has "L'espoir renait dans mon ame," though I know Italian versions that feature the same, I suppose translated for the benefit of a singer who wanted to get the bells and whistles out.
Constantine A. Papas:
This is probably the first time I have ever heard the terms "Marilyn Horne" and "naturalness" mentioned in the same sentence. La Horne was a stupendous singer, but as manufactured a voice as there ever was.
As per the Paris Giulio Cesare Catastrophe: I hope I can remember the details accurately, as it was a while ago. It went something like this:
David Daniles was singing Giulio Cesare. While he was singing (he has those 2 entrance arias), there was an obnoxious and persistant grumble coming from the rafters. No one could really figure out what was going on, but it was very bothersome and it was ruining the performance. So they stopped to figure out was going on.
It turned *somebody*, they never figured out who, had planted a boom box that was playing Jennifer Larmore's interpretation of giulios Cesare (the CD with jacobs conducting) very loudly. It was apparently a plant to protest a counter-tenor singing the role... The boom box was removed and the opera went forward. It rattled everyone, clearly. When David Daniels spoke to me about it years after that, he still had a twinge of bitterness about it...
Speaking of Larmore, what has she been doing of late?
Todd,
The role of Orpheus was rewritten for a tenor for the Paris version of the opera (also expanded in various ways), since the French wouldn't use castrati. IMO, it would be an unpleasant mish-mash to use a tenor in the lead role in anything but a production of said French edition.
re: Paris "catastrophe"
As reported here at parterre.com in October 2002:
A "Phantom of the Opera" moment halted the premiere performance of Giulio Cesare at Paris's Opera Garnier last month. According to a reliable source backstage at the Opera, soon after Cleopatra's first aria, the gala audience was startled to hear the voice of Jennifer Larmore thundering from somewhere in the auditorium. But Ms. Larmore was not on the premises: sharp-eared fans recognized her singing from the CD of Cesare she recorded under the baton of Rene Jacobs.
Finally Maestro Marc Minkowski halted the (onstage) music, leaving singers David Daniels, Bejun Mehta and Stephanie Blythe standing thunderstruck in the wings. For half an hour the recording blared on, as intendant Hughes Gall and security forces scoured the celebrated auditorium. Finally, hidden beneath a dusty eave, they discovered a cassette deck and speakers set to "autoplay." Word dans la rue is that the disruption is the work of disgruntled members of the French musicians' union.
The word "incomparable" has never more correctly been applied than to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. In the wake of her untimely death, it was canny of the Met to hire Daniels as her replacement. Sure, he's a box office draw but, more importantly, any mezzo would have been a pallid replacement. (Yes, I have seen Podles live.)
I doubt I am alone in imaging how crushing LHL's "Che faro" would have been. The sense of life losing all meaning after the passing of the beloved.
As for Larmore, she just sang a program of arias with Chicago's Music of the Baroque to smashing reviews. Evidently, she's also lost a good deal of weight. More than one person commented that she bore a strong resemblance to Teri Hatcher.
I have been relieved to read that there are quite a few people other as well as me who seldom enjoy the countertenor voice. This just seems to be a personal reaction and bears no connection to the musicality - or otherwise of the counter tenor in question. The only role where it works for me is Oberon in Britten's "A Midsummernight's Dream". Everytime I see an opera recording where a principal role is sung by a countertenor, I have to put it to one side. Perhaps one day I will adjust, but that day has yet to come. To put a sideways slant on the voice-type comments, early music tenor Rogers Covey-Crump was once listed in a programme as Rogers Covey crumptenor.
I actually perfer a tenor Orphee. Am I alone? But if a high voice is used, I have no quams with whatever the Singer's sex is. And Daniels is definetly hitting this one out of the park.
Speaking of CT voices...what's up with Brian Asawa? He seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. For those who dislike the voice you all should check out his recording of OBERON or his DARK IS MY DELIGHT cd's - the sound ravishing and utterly unearthly. His was the counter tenor voice that first brought that fach to my attention.
But then again, I love the counter tenor sound. I think it really has to do more with the androgyne thing too. There is just something so subvervise about that sound coming out of a man's throat or a woman in tousers.
NYCOQ:
Brian Asawa sang several performances of Giulio Cesare (as Tolomeo) here in Seattle this season, and I have to say that he's not aging well. The voice is not projecting so much, his acting embarrassingly campy, and he's sporting quite a paunch these days. Incidently, Podles was the Cesare and was pretty good, although her coloratura occasionally got away from her and she kept asking for quicker tempi when she was mostly slowing down! But she's incredibly expressive and gives her all at every performance. Truly a unique voice. The 2nd cast Cesare was Anna Burford, a brit making her US debut. Very good--and succeeded in looking more like a boy than Ewa.
i found a review in the NY Sun (yuck...) on the Orfeo...
http://www.nysun.com/article/53790
and i quote:
Hunt Lieberson died last year and undoubtedly would have made for a powerful and beautiful Orfeo, taking her rightful place among the best performers of the role in memory: Grace Bumbry, Kathleen Ferrier, and Janet Baker.
did anyone here catch bumbry as orfeo? that must have been her one and only trouser role.
Please do not confuse the terseness of my post with any criticism of the current counter-tenors musicality, musicianship, or artistry-especially David. I am amazed at his ability to move the voice. I think that voice and type of singing fares much better on record- my observations deal mainly with live sound. On a personal note- many condolences to David Daniels on the recent loss of his father- who was a very fine, fine man and my voice teacher.
Talking about Bumbry, her jumping from soprano to mezzo was not someting to cheer about. On a Met tour in the 80s, she sang Tosca on Monday and Camen on Friday. Both performances were forgettable.
how does amazing grace's vocal choices have anything to do with her orfeo? And yes, some of her excursions into soprano territory were unwise, including tosca, but her carmen is in many ways unmatchable, as is her amneris, ebolis, santuzza, azucena, etc. And yes, her salome too.
what's so unusual about singing Tosca and Carmen? many dramatic sopranos have done it.
have you heard bumbry's Selika, Norma, Salome, Medea, Abigaille or the Forza Leonora? she put many sopranos to shame.
bumbry's orfeo was on sirius recently. quite wonderful. and I am afraid I am in the anti-CT camp. I know if you are gay you are suppose to be ohing and ahhing over David Daniel's but he just sounds like marilyn Horne without the balls. I would rather have Podles in the role.
Well after seeing Saturday afternoon's performance. I can say that I enjoyed it immensely. I did find the chorus distracting.
Back into the mezzo as Orfeo fray. Of course Dame Janet, but there is a remarkable recording that Shirley Verrett did back in the 60's. It certainly wouldn't pass muster with today's early/baroque music crowd, but the inging is scrumptious.
I will say that even though I am a huge fan of the CT sound; I would like to hear the role live with a mezzo or (hoping against hope) La Podles. Lord knows it's worth reviving next season - INSTEAD of that hideous Frist Emperor.
Yes, I know that most of my posts mention how much I hated the First Emperor. I was so traumatized by it's awfulness that I still can't let it go.
The first time I saw a CT do Orfeo was at Wexford back in the late 60s early 70s. I believe his name was Kevin Smith - I'm packing for my move to Rome and can't find the programme - and it was a truly dreadful production by Siegfried Wolf Wagner and sadly Mr. Smith was of the hooty schools of CTs. Between him and the production I was turned off a CT as Orfeo. But then I had seen Verrett and Lorengar at Covent Garden with Solti conducting. It was definately not a period production - musically or dramatically - but its 30 years or more later and I still remember it. Those cries of Euridice in Act 1 and the tension of those moments before the glance and Che faro - Verrett had it all. And though I would not have thought of Solt as a conductor of Gluck it was a riveting performance.
I found that missing from the broadcast on Saturday - from the singing and the conducting.
Grace's recorded ORFEO is no pleasure-- better Shirley's, Marilyn's or Maureen's if you're aiming for that vintage. ( Better Podles or Fink today).
As for FORZA, the late Robert Jacobson was right: "In this repertory Miss Bumbry is a figment of her own imagination". That holds true for TROVATORE (Met Parks) and ERNANI ( Lyric/Chicago) too.
That said, the Abigaille, Jenufa and Salome are all very creditable.
Dear La Cieca,
Talking about "naturalness" of voice, there are certain differences based on anatomical and physiological givens. The diffrence between female and male vocal cords is lenght and thickness, man's being longer and thicker. Castrati, due to "arrested" develpement maintained shorter and thinner vocal cords resemling those of a woman, whereas the vocal cords of countertenor are fully developed in size and thikness of a man.
The strings of a violin do not produce sound but simply vibrate. The vibrations transmitted to the body of the violin, which acts as a resonator, produces the sound. A Stadivarius is strung with the same strings like any other fine violin and vibrate the same. The quality and naturalness of the sound can be manipulated by a player to reach the potential of any resonator.
A singer can sing only while exhaling. The diaphragm pushes the air upward and the vocal cords simply vibarate but do not sing. For a singing sound you need a resonator. The entire head- skull, facial muscles, palate, uvula, lips-becomes the resonator and produces a singing sound. A countertenor- like a fiddler by changing the touch on the stings and bowing- can manipulate the resonator and quality of sound. Phycioligically and anatomically speaking, with all repect to countertenos, mezzo-soprano's voice is more "natural" and as close as possible to castrati's.
Talking about vibration of the vocal cords, the frequency is beyond human comprehension. It can vary from 400 to 1000 vibrations per second when a soprano hits a high C!
Many thanks for your insight and services you provide to opera fans.
re: La Grace
i don't know, i have CDs of her live Forza from the met and the chicago lyric's Ernani, and she sounds pretty good. her coloratura in the Elvira part was quite astounding. on the other hand, i also have another Ernani from hamburg, and she doesn't quite pull it off as well...
another of her better soprano roles was Gioconda.
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