Serial monogamy
La Cieca has just heard that Marcello Giordani goes on tonight (i.e., two hours from now) as Roméo at the Met, jumping in for Joseph Kaiser who presumably is ill. That brings the total number of lovers for Anna Netrebko's Juliette to three after only four nights of the 10-performance run. By the end of December, Anna may be giving Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money!
UPDATE: The Met's website (already!) reports on Giordani's "rescue act" and, incidentally, provides a few minutes of the opening night Lucia on video.
UPDATE: The Met's website (already!) reports on Giordani's "rescue act" and, incidentally, provides a few minutes of the opening night Lucia on video.
Labels: giordani, la cieca ci guarda la cieca ci vede, met
POSTED at
6:08 PM
35 Comments:
"presumably is ill" is a very kind statement. polite as ever, la cieca.
So what's the real reason then, Doug?
From what we hear, Ms Netrebko has no trouble handling a series of lovers, though maybe the height differential between the compact Alagna and the, er, strapping Giordani will cause problems ...
Callas may have told Bing that her voice was not an elevator, but Ms N will be having to go up and down like one.
Have faith in Anna. She can accomodate all sizes of Romeos. I hope she does not put a spell on Giordani. It seems that some of her leading men end up out of commission. Someone discribed her as Anna the impaler!
Maybe Joseph should wear some PJs so he doesn't catch cold at night.
i was there, and peter gelb just said that he woke up with a cold. they were okay together.
Marcello was truly amazing as Romeo. There voices blended nicely together. It was a historic night tonight and those of us who were lucky enough to hear it will remember it always. Giordani is a major voice when it come to this role. As for those who have anything bad to say could really take a lesson from Mr. Giordani tonight. Thank you Marcello Giordani.
I was there too, and thought Giordani did well. Anyone know why they would use someone who didn't know the staging rather than the official cover(s)?
There were a few good moments but I thought in general this opera laid a big egg, and it was NOT Giordani's fault. The direction was bad and the set was beyond awful. Don't get me started on the costumes. The main problem was the direction.
Finally, the first act is too long...almost two hours. People kept trying to leave because they thought the act was over, only to get scolded back to their seats by the ushers.
Just curious, who was the official cover?
PHILLIP CREECH!!!!!!!!(joke)
I heard one of the covers could not be reached by cell phone. It was a big scandal. Finally Netrebko personally called Giordani and said: "either you sing with me or else I will have sex with you." Giordani opted to sing. His wife seemed very grateful for his choice and then they all held hands and sang a chorus of 'we are the world" and they tickled each other until they all threw up.
I heard Giordani sing Romeo at Opera Pacific in 1993, and it was absolutely fantastic. He took the last note of "Ah, leve-toi" lying on his back and managed an incredible diminuendo. Crazy, I tells ya. Of course, that paled in comparison to the high C at the end of the Tybalt/Mercutio scene. Fourteen years later, I still remember that as one of my favorite nights at the opera.
The second cover Romeo (for Kaiser)
was Raul Melo, who is also the first cover for Alagna's Pinkerton.
Anonymous folks,
Please, please, please! take a moment to (at least) click on the "Other" button under "Choose an identity" and key in a screen name. All the "Anonyomous" postings on this thread contain interesting information and opinions; I hate the idea of having to delete them simply because they're anonymous. Please, use a name?
Just came back from NY, and yes Giordani did a fine job as Romeo. He may have been covering in some fashion because he seemed quite comfortable with the staging and the music. Ah, yes, and he did sing the high C at the end of the third act. One further note regarding the performance, from center dress circle Anna's voice sounded huge. And quite beautiful. Her voice reminded me very much of Mirella Freni but larger and more powerful.
I found Dessay extraordinary as Lucia on Friday evening. A fantastic match of singing and acting. (I've seen Scotto, Gruberova, Sutherland, Sills and others in the role. Also Dessay last year in Paris. And of course, I've listened to several of the Callas recordings. I walked out of the theatre thinking that this was the most impressive of all.) Fantastic.
Incidentally, Kwiecen sang the first two acts and was then replaced by someone else making his debut. Didn't get his name.
anon3:
actually those are the first three acts that take place prior to intermission. not just act i.
god, all operas should only have one intermission.
I am most definitely in the minority, but I was not blown away by dessay's performance live. She did some nice things dramatically, but I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed by her voice, which is definitely in decline. It seemed small, strained, and wirey.
Netrebko's voice, however, really fills out the MET quite nicely. I remember being especially impressed by her high D in the elvira-arturo duet from the puritani last year. I was in the standing room of the family circle and when she hit that note everyone was visibly "slapped" in the face. Then again, family circle standing room does offer the best sound, so i'm sure accoustics had a lot to do with it.
Giordani still has the best top in the business. I'm kinda sorry I missed his Romeo (as I missed his unexpected Duke last season) but it was too late to drive into the city when I found out last night. Plus R&J is a tedious opera, there's about 20 minutes of good music out of 3 and half hours. Forcing people to watch 3 acts for almost 2 hours without an intermission should be a crime, I almost left last week.
Netrebko sounded glorious. My friend who doesn't know opera much thought she was miked. I told him no one is miked at the MET (despite all the rumors out there).
As for Dessay, like Callas, she's better seen and heard than just heard. I agree that the voice is in decline. But the soft singing is still superb and her portamento and delivery are impeccable. Then there's the acting, which alone is worth the price of admission.
Everyone's noticing that Netrebko's voice is getting larger, whereas othe sopanos', e.g. Georghiu's is getting smaller. I saw Netrebko at her Carnegie debut and at the Met's second performance of R & J. Her voice cut through the orchestra and filled the space with amazing volume. At Carnegie, she topped Hvorostovsky on occasion, while singing duets.
"she topped Hvorostovsky on occasion"
In front of a whole audience? Damn, why did I miss that concert!
Justanother,
If you have a chance, see the 2006 DVD of the Berlin concert. Netrebko tops Villazon at the end of the duet from the first act of LaBoheme, and tops both Domingo and Villazon in the last note of the last encore "You're my heart's delight" from Lehar's Merry Widow.
I don't know if it's still Met policy but, in the past, if there was any kind of window to work with, they'd seek out some kind of "name" before they allowed the official cover to take the stage.
Alan Kozninn has a story in today's Times about the tenor travails:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/arts/music/08rome.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin
According to the article, Netrebko was there to go over staging with Giordani on Saturday afternoon. A nice change to hear about a cooperative colleague (and I know most of them are).
BTW--has anyone listened to the Villazon/Netrebko Duets cd? It's been out for a couple of weeks and nary a comment in all this frenzy.
Concerning Giordani's Romeo - he was in fantastic voice for this; better than any of the Lucia's he's done so far this season (which started off quite rockily). He did make up tons of french vowels, but that's totally expected and forgiveable when one is pitching in on short notice - anyone care to guess how much scratch he got for doing it? I'd assume his wallet is much fatter today.
As for Trebs, she omitted both high D's in the first act, and the Je Vivre was pretty ragged. The rest was typical and loud.
On Friday, Dessay was vocally laboured thruout, and the final Eb was just not good. Giordani, otoh, sang the best Lucia he has done so far, setting up his good showing in Romeo.
Donna Anna,
I got the Villazon/Netrebko CD duet album in April when it became first available in Europe. It was sold out quickly and this is the second print. Both are in fine voice, and I like it a lot.
TKLogan11809:
You are not correct that no one is miked at the Met.
I suspect that AN is NOT - I have no doubt that her natural voice fills the space nicely.
I ALSO suspect that using "acoustic enhancement" is something that is used sparingly at the Met, but to suggest that it is never done is absolutely incorrect.
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sugarmezzo do you have any proof that microphones are used at the MET? or you just 'suspect'?
if so, you're just spreading rumors and gossip like everyone else.
I have a couple of questions. Why was Kaiser assigned Romeo - a long and demanding role - for his debut when Alagna had already done the role and was in town for Butterfly? Pinkerton would have been a more reasonable debut role for a young debutant.
And again, wouldn't it have made more sense to ask Alagna to do the Saturday evening Romeo? If necessary, Giordani could have done tonight's Pinkerton, which he rehearsed and sang last season.
Seems to me that there were easier solutions for these cast changes.
The NYCO uses mikes for sound ehancement. This is a fact. The Met has repeatedly stated that is committed to natural sound and uses no mikes. Of course, there are mikes on stage but they're used to transmit the performance on the air and for recordings, but not for amplification within the house. If amplification was used there would no difference in the size of the voice of various singers: e.g. Georghiu was hardly audible last year in certain vocal lines, singing Violetta at the Met. Everybody knows that her voice has become smaller and it shows.
It has NOT become smaller...it has always been a smallish voice....
Well, maybe I'm just repeating gossip and rumor. And maybe I'm not. You seem to take this personally - why?
He is taking it seriously because when he made his Met debut...many many moons ago...some mean critics accused him of using sound amplification...they said his immolation scene was louder than Nilsson's and only amplification for account for such a things. He was so devastated by their comments that he left the opera world and started to work in a disreputable restaurant...he has only returned recently to settle some old scores...please be kind to him
sugarmezzo you're the one who mentioned my screen name first and said "You are not correct that no one is miked at the Met" so it's you who seems to be taking it personally.... anyway, you're changing the subject. As I suspected, you have no proof or evidence of mikes at the MET.
My ears have never picked up any amplification at the Met. Doesn't mean that it hasn't happened but I doubt it. If there was ever a time to do this, it would have been Gherghiou's Violetta last season, which was definitely not miked. She could be heard but she was a bit underpowered here and there. (Overall, she was still a splendid Violetta).
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