N’est-ce plus Manon?
La Cieca hears that Natalie Dessay has walked out of the current Liceu production of Manon, leaving Inva Mula to sing the company’s new production of the Massenet opera. (Given the tight stagione scheduling, though, surely they will need another soprano to alternate.) Our insider whispers that la Dessay found Rolando Villazon (Des Grieux) something less than sympathique, in the sense of “it’s either him or me.”
FYI: Dessay sang yesterday (Wed.), although she was announced before curtain up as “recovering from laryngitis”. She noticeably held back the voice a little on this performance (the all-important live tv relay is on Sat., and she wants to be 100% for that, as it will also be recorded for a DVD release). Villazón did not try to attempt any smorzature, mezza voce, or any vocal embellishments (he came a cropper on previous performances) and sang the “Ah! Fuyez” in a rough verismo style (whatever!), which is the only way he can cope with the tesitura.
I have only heard Villazon live once, at the Met in December, and he was wonderful. The voice was in fine shape, expressive and with luscious shadings. I heard the Manon from Berlin and had no trouble with his French. What does concern me is the pace he sets for himself. Looking at his schedule, it’s small wonder that there are vocal problems and to read that his temper is flaring up. If he got booed at Liceu, that would be a 180 from the Elisir performance that scored him a bis and the clear adoration of the audience.
I also had the opportunity to meet Villazon and he was warm, generous, interested and interesting. I hope that he can do whatever it takes to regain his voice, develop a technique and get some rest.
re: Mrs.JohnClaggart’s account of crespin decking corelli: do people have other tales/gossip of backstage bad behavior? i heard somewhere that bonisolli reduced poor dimitrova to tears because he wouldn’t stop feeling her up in rehearsals for a Fanciulla… what a horrible man.
Well, I know of a happening when, durring a run of Elisir in the late eighties, Pavarotti reduced his cover to tears for darring to be heard practicing the aria while the Pav was in ear shot.
Ah, singers and their hangups. My favorite fighters are Fremstad and Gadski, but that was a century ago. And do not forget the tenor in Meeting Venus who could not sing unless someone reminded him of the bombing of Dresden.
Well, My all time favorite is the Battle-Vaness Battle of the Dressing Room. (For those who don’t know, it was when Battle, singing Susanna at the Met, attempted to Claim the Primma Donna dressing room usually assigned to the Countess. I think it was Vaness, I could be wrong.
Mrs. Claggart-
You dissed Mr. Dessay (Naouri) in a previous Post. Do You know something I don’t?
Baritenor, you’re right. It was Vaness. The incident is chronicled in Volpe’s book “The Toughest Show on Earth.” Battle threw all personal belongings of Vaness outside of the dressing room, and this incident initiated Battle firing after which Met’s stagehands wore T-shirts with the imprint “We won the Battle!”
Sorry, Constantine, you ( or Volpe) has this all wrong.
Vaness it was ( Kathy’s famed line was ” Who let that bitch into my dressing room”?, which she waited hours to deliver to the arriving, innocent Vaness) and what this precipated was Vaness waiting through the full run of FIGARO shows, ending in Tokyo May 31, 1988, and then taking Kathy to midstage post-curtain call and saying, without shouting but so others could hear, “You are the WORST colleague I have ever had and I will NEVER, EVER sing with you again”, the reasons for which Battle pretended not to understand.
The actual Kathy firing- years later, reflecting how protected she was by the Music Director and CAMI– was precipated by her run-in over tempi with Thielemann at a ROSENKAVALIER rehearsal in 1993 (the sublime-voiced Helen Donath replaced her, to the audience’s gain) but cemented by her mean behaviot to Rosalind Elias and other colleagues at rehearsals for FILLE DU REGIMENT in February of the next year.
As for those legendary T-shirts, they were generated at San Francisco Opera a year or two (?) before the Met FILLE incident.
What a shame that she was not invited to display her wonted warmth as the Duchesse de Crackenthorp next season– perhaps in a version with all dialogue cut and Revolutionary Outrages being visited on the Duchesse by a mob led by Mme. Lafarge–bet Roz Elias would be interested)–capping the drama.
Baritenor, I ALWAYS get into trouble when I dish living people so let’s just say I know here has been stress in the marriage (and of what marriage wouldn’t that be true?).
Mr or Ms Pappas I’m beginning to think you might be delusional, which is fine, I’ve been happiest when I’ve been delusional.
First of all, Volpe fired Battle because there was NO sale for the Fille de regiment revival she had demanded. She’d acted up plenty before then, but she had grown too expensive and if she wasn’t going to move tickets, can her ass was his attitude.
The Figaro debacle happened in Tokyo, some years before. Vanness screamed at Battle during the curtain call: “You are the biggest bitch and worst colleague I’ve ever faced”, the other singers applauded her and there was much bad feeling.
The Battle tee shirt was printed by the back stage staff at the San Francisco Opera, after her last run there (also in fille I think).
There are other Battle stories, but I think she was mentally ill and needed help not hatred but careers are such that that isn’t understood.
Secondly your dizzy account of tenors not having ‘natural voices’ is nonsense. It is contradicted by common sense for one thing. But since I worked in teachers studios from the time I was 15 until I was 24, I HEARD many ‘natural’ tenors, who had not had lessons and who simply sang like well — tenors. You are wrong about Domingo, he never sang professionally as a baritone. As a teenager he took parts in his parents’ Zarzuela company that could be sung by either tenor or baritone. He studied and sang professionally as a tenor.
Bergonzi blames his studying as a baritone on his provincial background, it seemed a less risky choice. But he was naturally a tenor, as a baritone he had no range, could not manage an f and he had no resonance. Within a month of vocalizing as a tenor he had a high C, more power and more resonance. He needed more polish of course but his voice fell into place so to speak.
I heard him tons of times in the late 50′s onward and he had a good C and B — big notes and easy. The B flat forte was splendid and he could sometimes do the diminuendo on the B flat capping “Celeste Aida” and sometimes couldn’t.
You talk as though sensation based technique is the only one. It’s not and it can lead to problems. It is by far not the only way to develop a voice but I don’t have the time to go on now.