Remember, La Cieca is just the messenger
Writes a spy:
Today at the final dress, it was pretty obvious why Reneeeeee would cancel her Normas – the “Sempre libera” was SCARY bad – completely off the voice for the mewing and really sloppy coloratura, and then she had to go back on-voice to try and get to the Bb/B/C/Db area. The repeated C’s were especially hair-raising, and she didn’t actually get up to the pitch on any of them in the whole aria. A friend [also] watching the dress said it was uncomfortable and worrisome to have to listen to her try and get through it. While she can still produce creamy sounds in her basic rep, her ability to sing fioritura (which, while totally wrong for bel canto, was impressive at one time) is basically gone.
studer’s traviata, as bad as fleming, but it seems the marschallin has returned from the grave (what a shame!!!)
Is it possible that hey sounded bad because they were not singing in full voice for the dress rehearsal?
Yeah, Levine “loves bel canto”. Just about as much as he loves adult women.
The difference being that he can actually be persuaded to do bel canto once in a while.
I hesitate to recount third-hand info, but it seemed that LA Opera fully intended to remount the Marta Domingo 20′s interpretation for Fleming. I’m murky on whether she saw the production or just design sketches, but then dug in the heels. If the company had fully planned on mounting the old production for her, they surely wouldn’t have had to scramble at seemingly the last minute to unearth it and refurbish it at a cost which wasn’t budgeted originally. Fleming may have said that the 19th century look was contracted all along, but I believe the company was surprised. The “bare arm” conversation was borne out of the reaction to the 20′s production’s costuming. By the way, no one forced me to attend. I have absolutely no hassle with Miss Fleming, and, til that point, had never heard her live; I try not to snipe arbitrarilly…
balabanov11, sorry but in this instance you don’t know what you are talking about, your suppositions aside…
James Levine is a great conductor, and loves singers, but that doesn’t make him THE authority on what singers should sing what rep any more than Renee is THE voice. He makes mistakes. The Met is a great opera house, and they make mistakes.
I saw Renee in Rosenkavalier in 2000, and it was some of the most divine singing I have ever heard. I saw her in the Trav a couple seasons ago at the Met, and left after the first act because I literally couldn’t stand to hear anymore of the horrible horrible singing. I saw her Rusalka in 2004 and she was inaudible any time the orchestra was playing, and while some solitary notes were that beautiful luscious creamy sound we all used to love, her line was non-existent, and it just wasn’t beautiful music making – THIS, for me, is the real problem. She claims to be a musician first and a singer second, but I find her inability to produce consistent tone and line distracting and un-musical. She really needs help.
There are excellent DVDs of La Traviata like Stratas’, Georghiu’s, and now Fleming’s, among others. There is one- Netrebko’s from 2005 Salzburg Festival-though, that it will remain unique, for it captures something missing from the others, and it will be difficult to replicate in the future: intimacy. The protagonists bare their souls in a chamber music set-up, denuted from staging that has become the norm for generations.