Pregnant with meaning
Expect yet another major cast change at the Met in the next couple of weeks. La Cieca won't spill the details at the moment, but let's just say that the problem is a soprano who got knocked up before the marriage!
Labels: la cieca ci guarda la cieca ci vede, met
POSTED at
11:17 PM
40 Comments:
If it's Bayrakdarian, I am just going to throw myself in the riv. I was so looking forward to her and Roschmann, and now no Roschmann.
(...and I mean it's a safe bet it isn't Hong.)
Look, I once saw Michele Crider sing Aida eight months along, and sing it well. Pregnancy is not a nessecary reason to cry "I must cancel all my work for the next nine months!" If the diva in question, whoever she may be, is only a few months along, as the tone of the gossip leads me to believe, than it is my bet that she will probably still perform.
As to the identity of the lucky mother...I got nothing. We can rule out all of the major sopranos who are married, which leaves us with who? I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up on the private lives of Divas.
Baritenor, for a Parterre veteran you aren't noticing enough... before the MARRIAGE.
Since neither Sir Michael's immortal hoo-ha about the She-Ancient and Mme. Sosostris nor Cimarosa's renowned snoozefest are in the rep this year, this must be NOZZE DI FIGARO.
Since La Cieca's rich, loamy contralto speaks of "the next couple of weeks", I rather doubt it's Bayrakdarian, set to open 10/1, but who knows? Starting 11/10, Harteros and Siurina (Mrs. Charles Castronovo) are due to enter the cast. But Siurina sang Gilda when pregnany, so what's the problem here?
Susanna's pregnancy ( by Figaro or the Count!) could add urgency to the proceedings. Lisa ("not since Audrey Mildmay") Milne in fact *looked* pregnant...
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I was once in the pit for a performance of Carmen with a pregnant heroine.
well it is not Harteros that I can say since she is looking forward to her Figaros here.
Krunoslav: La Cieca should say that the announcement of the cast change will come in the next couple of weeks, not necessarily the actual performance.
Oh, and we all remember when Dawn Upshaw performed Blanche de la Force at about 7 months gone...
Well, it could be Sondra Radvanovsky in ERNANI, the supermodel looks/nondescript voice who's the latest "album cover` babe" in BARBIERE, Annick Massis in the second cast LUCIA, Tamar Iveri or Heidi Grant Murphy in CLEMENZA (being spared the snuffling peeps of the latter would be nice), Diana Damrau or Genia Kuehmeier in ZAUBERFLOETE...
Kuehmeier is married and has several children already so it can't be her. I doubt it is Damrau either since just one week ago talked about her Met Zauberfloete performances.
Bayrakdarian is already married to a pianist who accompanied her this year in a concert at the Pierpont Morgan Library, isn´t she?
Is it David Daniels? Was he on the roster for this year?
Yes, Bayrakdarian is married to her pianist and she is pregnant. But, I think she's in the early stages. Why would the Met dismiss her? She's also singing Susanna in Toronto around the same time (opening on Oct 2).
I once saw a performance of Carmen in which the Micaela was pregnant. It added a new subtext for her return in Act 3 when she came looking for Don Jose.
Krunoslav explained it.
It's the MARRIAGE OF FIGARO cast that's being talked about.
Boy, you queens really don't know much about pregnancy, do you????
It's possible that the singer is not feeling well, if it's the early stages of pregnancy, or perhaps there are some health issues associated with it and the person in question has been advised by their healthcare provider to cancel the strenuous business of singing for a while to protect the health of mother and child, or maybe, JUST MAYBE, the Met DID decide to dismiss the singer, because they don't want a pregnant lady on stage (or on screen - is this being HD'd?)
I don't know that at all, but I suppose it is possible. And just because "Pregnancy is not a nessecary reason to cry "I must cancel all my work for the next nine months!"" (BariTenor) for everyone and for every pregnancy, it might be for some people in some situations.
Ah well. Life happens!! And congratulations to the happy family - best wishes for a healthy and happy baby.
When I saw "knocked up before marriage," I first thought of Santuzza..but Cav isn't in the rep this season. My thoughts then moved to Norma - she who is twice knocked before marriage.
Could Ms. Papian be cancelling?
Many singers have sung during pregnancy. Besides the ones mentioned, I saw Marilyn Horne sing an Arsarce with Dame Joan in Boston in the 60s while (as she told us) five months pregnant.
A pregnant Susanna or Contessa might add a new twist to the story. But a preganant Cherubino?????
"snuffling peeps" my favorite Easter snack :) that's a great turn of phrase.
Singing while pregnant, if prenatal and mother health are fine (thanks sugarmezzo), can be very gratifying, according to many singers (Fleming jumps immediately to mind). It's singing AFTER pregnancy that can be tricky and either causes problems, or can be very impressive (again ... Fleming, with the Desdemonas, always a great role for her no matter what you say about anything else).
Also ... can we talk about how fabulous it is that Damrau is singing Queen of the Night and Pamina ... Lucia Popp is smiling on her :)
Nathan Gunn possibly?
I remember seeing a very pregnant Lesley Garrett playing Zerlina. Rather than ignore it, they integrated it (very funnily) into the production. Though she still looked petite next to Jane Eaglen's Donna Anna.
Denyce Graves was with child at her last Covent garden Dalila. The best performance I've heard her sing in, even if she was trying to hide her waddle.
Unrelated but super weird and totally funny.
http://www.tmz.com/2007/09/18/the-next-pavarotti
And yes, I have heard the very same things about singing while pregnant - that it's actually really great, provided, again, everyone is healthy.
I am only so vocal about this because its always so upsetting to me when the public goes crazy over singers canceling. A very stupid, rude man on the evening news many years back comes to mind, complaining and wondering why Pavarotti was canceling over a little thing like the FLU - his statement was something to the effect of, 'I went to work with the flu last week, what's the problem??' (people like you who go to work while sick and then spread your germs like the plague, you ignoramus.)
While many of the people who read this blog are either singers themselves, or at least, very knowledgeable about singers and singing, the comments referencing pregnancy as no-big-deal kind of make me cringe - I would hate for a singer to have to suffer public backlash over canceling when it's at least POSSIBLE that they may have a very personal and scary situation on their hands, and I just hope that 1) it's nothing like that, and 2)that they are being supported and lauded for their decision to put their health and family first, just in case it is.
Well, for what it's worth, one does try to express disappointment rather than reproach. I'm not going to demand anyone dash out for an abortion so I can hear her Fiakermilli, but you can't fault a person for feeling let down at the long-awaited appearance of a belov'd singer, eh?
And Damrau says it's her LAST Queen of the Night, so I don't want to miss it.
Ah maury... THAT was funny, and I needed the laugh. Thank you =)
A Sieglinda with a bun in the oven might be convincing in the last 2 acts of Wal, and a pooched out Erda might be realistic, since she has been a bambino machine for Wo for eons in the time of the gods.
It's Siurina or Bayrakdarian, no?
No big deal in either case.
A pregnant Lady M. would make sense. She can blame her hormones for all her machinations. (I'll be honest; I just wanted to use the word "machinations").
Could it be Andrea Gruber?
I'm not going to demand anyone dash out for an abortion so I can hear her Fiakermilli
Of course not; that's what "Plan B" is for.
yes they will be Damrau's last performances as the mother in Zauberfloete. Originally she was suppossed to sing the last one in Muenchen but she was ill that night. I heard her in a concert two days prior to that and she was sick with a cold. She knew that many people had made an effort to be at her last performance and was upset but understandably one isn't going to risk that role when you are not well. She told me then already that the two at the Met will be the final ones. Originally she was suppossed to sing all the Pamina's but Muti wanted her for a concert and she asked the Met if she could get out of the last two which they obliged to. Afterwards the concerts got cancelled and she asked again if she could have her Pamina's back and they said they had already found a replacement but if she wanted she could have the mother. The Met was very interested to get her for the Premiere of that production but she had already a contract with Muenchen for what was suppossed to have been a new production of Zauberfloete but then got changed to a revival of the old Everding production. Three times they asked her and she could have only done one performance before she needed to get to Germany for rehearsals so she decided against that and choose to wait until the Zerbinetta to make her Met debut. She recorded both arias and they will be released in November for Virgin and has two DVD's of the opera (Covent Garden and Salzburg). She wants to sing other roles now and that is why she is giving up the role. The high F's are still there.
A couple of decades ago I saw a singer give birth onstage while singing Norma at the Met and she wasn't even pregnant.
I almost forgot The Breasts of Tiraeseus(sic), in which she has something like 500 little Parterre loggers in one act.
Debbie Voigt is not married. . .
Bayrakdarian is about six months pregnant - it's no secret.
She sang for the Lyric Opera of Chicago's parks concert recently and was noticeably pregnant then.
Speaking of "Figaro" cancellations, has anyone heard anything more about what's keeping
Dorothea Röschmann out? This is, for me, one of the big disapointments. A real artist who doesn't oversell herself, it's a real loss when she's having to cancel. Hopefully nothing too serious.
I knew, I KNEW that there was a reason for those billowing robes when she sang Pamina at the Hollywood Bowl this Summer (which she did ravishingly, btw)
I've only heard Roschman when she substituted for Quasthoff in the Cleveland O's telvised Carnegie Hall concert. She was wonderful and I would love to hear more of her.
I'm pretty sure it's Bayrakdarian. But having spoken to her these past few days, I don't think she will pull out. I'm sure Aiylin Perez wouln't mind the stage time though.
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