Basta diva
La Cieca is sure she doesn't wish ill on anyone, but Maria Guleghina's return to Norma tonight is turning filthy already.
Labels: filth
POSTED at
8:37 PM
04 December 2007
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52 Comments:
I am still relatively new to opera and no expert by any means, but even I could tell that this was awful. Even my cat left the room when casta diva came on!!!
Will there be a sound-byte or two for those of us who don't subscribe to Sirius?
Well, I am certainly not new to opera...but engaging Guleghina for Norma is the only thing that lessens my attraction for Peter Gelb.
So, it's 9:03 in NYC, end of Act I, sc. 1., and so far this Norma ain't nearly, nowwwwwaaaay, as filthy" as the Gouhl. first attempt. There is a certain sense of "the run is almost over let's see what we can do"--and, always excepting the miserable maestro Benini, it is somewhat better, as heard on Sirius radio. In the house, dunno. I hope someone will come out of the performance and post. Zajick is back on form and largely in tune and singing WELL.
MUCH more refinement than before. As for Maria G.,this is about 100%better than Attempt Number One.
She still does not command much coloratura (who few can with Bellini's awkward writing?), and pitch is a movable feast :( I gotta say, Miss G. leaves a lot to be desired as a musician; maybe it's her unreliable technique.
Stay tuned.
###
yes, it's not a great performance, but she sounds as if she's still ill (she cancelled the previous performance) THe top is shaky
le poor ello:
About one Sirius broadcast per week (including this one) is broadcast for free via Real Player. Just click on the link LaCieca provided in her post.
Besides the horrendous singing of Guleghina, the whole thing sounds very slow and flaccid to me. No energy or forward movement at all...
EGADS.
Sorry I asked.
wow-- Nice High D to cap it all.
Still nowhere near a polished performance, but she seems to be getting better as it goes on...
Ooh, Vera Galupe-Borscht (sp?) on the Saturday matinee broadcast!
Why blame Gelb? Why not blame Deborah Voigt? She's the one who backed out at the last minute and left the MET holding the bag. Who else could they get at such short notice?
Blame the formerly fat diva who seems to think she can sing Italian opera.
Oh well....here we are: Act I is over. Merci bon dieu!
But, why should we expect anything worthwhile from this cast?
Benini undermines any excitement, any thrills, with his stolid non- propulsive tempi and his general dim approach to this score, one which requires a special bel canto touch. I don't think La Guleghina sounds as "sick" as her first try last week; she's no way great, but she's better and there are decent moments. They do not include that stab at a high Eb at the end of Act I. Quelle Squeek! Minnie Mouse strikes again.
So, we'll see what Jackie Horne has to say. Stay tuned.
MrM
I am a Guleghina lover, but this is just BAAAAD. I don't know if I can listen to Act 2.
Just got a call from my friend Bill at the Met..a history of 40+ yrs of opera going...he's in shock and needs cpr...he's in the Grand Tier....can anyone help?!?! Needs oxygen & valium to get thru the second act..thanks
"Nice high-D>" I thought it was
a failed high Eb. Did not sound
nice 1800mi. west on Sirius radio.
Thank God for Jackie Horne. She brings a touch of class to the intermission because she has subject matter and she even discusses elements of bel canto style; glad someone around there knows enough to comment! Her comment on what the performance needs directly relates to what Benini is not supplying -- propulsion, movement, accent....shape.
Thunk!
Keep in mind, Gelb is not the artistic director of the Met; that was Levine. And he is not on the job. Gelb has little to do with the artistic side. Obviously the Met needs fresh blood in the artistic department; someone on site and with energy and vision. And taste. And knowledge. And awareness of who can sing what. Etc.
OK, back to the performance, or whatever you call it.
MrMyster
just appalling! not even provincial.
HazMat Papian is somewhere just laughing her head off!
Poor Guleghina -- she's so baaaad.
We don't even talk about tonal quality, pitch or musicianship.
Maybe once upon a time ... no longer. Surely she will not be back at the Met after this season, and let us hope Norma is not also.
I don't need to hear it for a long long time.
Time for a bowl of chicken soup,
for 'recovery.'
MrMyster
scifisci--
i love the word 'provincial'....
as I am reading these blogs I am listening to Norma with Sutherland and Horne...so, don't tell me it is bad to talk about the "good old days."
As bad as she was in the "Casta diva" (the only good thing was her recitatives), Guleghina is improving in the performance. In the duet "Mira, o Norma" she and Zajick blended her voices well. Let us hope at least we would hear a moving "Deh, non volerli vittime". There is no singer now for "Norma", let us face it!
Sutherland and Horne! That was as near as perfect as we would expect to hear ever!
Horne wisely did not comment on tonight's performance. Maggie G. obviously knows what a travisty this is, but as a MET employee must put the best face on it. Even the usually tone-deaf MET audience was fooled tonight. There must have been only three people who applauded the Casta Diva. Marie G's family maybe
Hey ---- Bruce, don't beat up on
'provincial.' We like to call it 'regional,' and much of the best opera presented today is in the American provinces!
Hell, Santa Fe Opera would not
present anything like this Norma tonight -- at least not deliberately. Sad thing is, the Met has all the money in the world; they can buy any singer or conductor they want -- they just do not have the taste to know what to do! Yes, Ms Graham -- "the good old days" is where Norma still reposes.
MrMyster
Province, New Mexico
I meant to say the usually tone-deaf MET audicent was NOT fooled tonight.
Is the prompter more audible than usual tonight?
In all fairness to her, she is *MUCH* better in the second half. The voice is much steadier, and the soliloquy that follows the Mira O Norma was fabulous.
Any other thoughts?
Would it be fair to say Gulegina has the largest voice of any singer today?
Yes, I agree re: the prompter... They should play around with the mike placement to minimize prompter noise.
No, leave the mikes where they are. Maria needs all the help she can get. However, I must say, she is better this time than the first attempt. But, she should drop the role.
I didn't bother. The first time was enough. Anyway, Bocelli was on PBS presenting his Tuscany outdoors concert with Sarah Brightman and Heather Headley, the best alternative under the circustances; God forbid! Was Norma scheduled before Gelb took over? Without a good Norma, this opera can be so boring.
Mark, wait a minute: Did you say that Debbie Voigt had been sched. for these Normas and backed out at the last minute? First I've heard of that. I see No Way that D.V. could sing Norma -- even back in her pretty good Aida days; hers is not that kind of voice. Tell us more, were you serious? I've been wondering why the Met sched. this opera when they clearly have no one able to sing it. Tell...tell!
MrMyster
Perhaps the Met should have used one of those Weather Channel divas. At least they know their highs from lows.
Mark--How is Debbie to blame for this? She's singing Strauss in Chicago, something she was scheduled for since the Lyric announced their season. I saw her on Friday.
Santa Fe may be regarded as provincial by some, but it's consistently the most interesting company I know of.
Maybe Debbie Voigt shouldn't sing Norma, but she would have done a better job than what we heard tonight. As would have Renee.
Retire the opera until a decent Norma comes along.
guleghina most definitely does not have the largest voice around. It is large, yes, but not immense. And, it is only large in her upper register. It sort of just blasts away and is not always resonant. "Largeness" of voice is always tricky to talk about. Projection vs. amplitude, having a strong "core" vs. resonance in the upper register. For example, Karita Mattila. Has a voice of good size, but does not really have a strong core but rather a voice that carries very well. It gets especially tricky when dealing with fach. i.e. netrebko has a large voice yes, but would we want her singing tosca? On the other hand, it is pretty easy to talk about and identify smallness of voice i.e. gheorghiu/dessay.
How a dramatic/Wagnerian soprano, like Voight, can honestly manage to sing Norma, the epitome of coloratura genre? To my non-musical and pedestrian mind, it does not make any sense!
I can't believe someone would call Bellini's writing awkward. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bellini, of all the bel canto composers, probably wrote the most fluid music for the voice. That was back in the day when singers could really sing this stuff. Norma is routinely miscast, and evenings like tonight are the result.
No one has anything to say about the rest of the cast?
Where's TKLogan when you need her?
TKLogan could not be here for a variety of reasons -- all of them spicy
Yes, this was to be Voigt for this run when it was first scheduled 4 or 5 years ago. No, she couldn't sing it but she can't sing Maddalena, Gioconda, the Leonora Forza, or Tosca either but has that stopped her?
And anyone who thinks that Mr. Gelb has nothing to do with artistic matters is either naive or completely stupid.
TKLogan has been found dead upside down in a gentleman's lavatory.
The only rumors I heard when they first started whispering about reviving NORMA were that it was thought that it might be for Gheorghiu and Bartoli. That of course never happened. Then there was some talk of having Eaglen try again; she was mediocre in her initial Met Normas but compared to the three women ofered this season, I would have preferred Big Jane. I never at any point heard anything about Voigt being considered as Norma. Though I did hear there was some discussion of Millo for a couple of Lady Macbeths.
TKLogan is very much alive, I assure you.
This was the worst thing I've heard on Sirius since I started subscribing. The only thing that stuck in my mind was how loud the prompter was. Maria G's screamed high notes and coloratura gargling were shocking. Olive Middleton at age 79 was better than this.
Listening last night was saddening because Guleghina's was at one point a truly formidable voice.
Unfortunately she abused it endlessly, and even now, instead of trying to preserve what is left, is going to be singing more Abigailles and... Turandot! What will be next? Elektra?
I listened to the Casta Diva again this morning and the cabaletta has to be one of the worst things I have ever heard in my life.
Mark:
La Cieca must say she finds that explanation (i.e., that this revival was planned for Voigt) unlikely. She is currently in Chicago for DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, a production that surely must have been in the planning stages for a number of years. It's also unlikely that Voigt would introduce her Norma at the Met -- all her other new roles she has premiered in other venues.
The more reasonable explanation I heard is that the NORMA revival was put together in the wake of Guleghina's big success in NABUCCO in 2001.
Double yikes! I listened via RealPlayer as far as the Casta Diva then had to get ready for the restaurant. While showering, I performed Casta Diva at least as well as Guleghina did, I'm quite convinced. But hey, at least Maria showed up and presumably did her best, so good on her for that. I'm just glad I wasn't paying. (Tho I missed her, my true love Dolora she did well for the world audience, yes?)
I was in the house last night, and Sweet Jesus it was bad. Funny enough, "Casta Diva" wasn't as awful as I anticipated (the first ornament wasn't smudged like one usually hears) but she got through it by crooning. The cabaletta was downright ugly, running out of breath, bad intonation, frightening attacks and sweeping notes under the rug. Applause was tepid throughout the evening.
Then Dolora came out and gave what should have been the standard that evening. Sadly whenever she sang with the unwieldy Maria, the intonation got piccante: their numerous chains of thirds came out more like augmented seconds. She blew Maria's C out of the water at the end of the Act 2 duet.
Farina was serviceable as Pollione, nothing more. The Clothilde made me sit up and take note; it was Julianna di Giacomo, who made a beautiful debut as Leonora at Caramoor this summer.
In the final scenes, Maria tried to emphasize the dramatic end of the role with lots of gutteral attacks, full chest deployments, whoops and scoops. I felt like I was at Gran Scena, except THEY WOULD SING IT BETTER. Her attempts at Italian "style" sounded like Soviet-era Bolshoi imitation. The Dolores van Cartier getup didn't help either. In the end I was utterly bored, but wanted to stick it out to hear a piece we probably won't hear for another 10-15 years at this rate.
And as with Barbiere, Benini knows only fast fast and faster. The loss of drive and articulation at his frantic speeds deprives this music of its character and made it sound like a cartoon. Plus he robbed Maria of one of her few really good high notes by cadencing too early. A friend told me he did the exact same thing two weeks ago. Shame on him!!
Off-ish topic, but related to a couple of comments above about wrong voice, wrong role.
Help me out here, knowledgeable ones…
I often read folks comment about “this” singer not being right for “that” role, based perhaps not on the weight of the voice or agility, but the tonal color (and maybe temperament). I most often hear this in the context of un-Italianate singers singing Italian opera. (e.g., Debbie Voigt not being right for “Gioconda” or Mattila being wrong for Verdi)
Is it just a matter of what people are accustomed to hearing? Mattila’s no Italian, but the San Francisco “Manon Lescaut” broadcast I heard makes me want to hear it at the Met (and not just for her acting). There is a more Nordic cast to her voice and less warmth than some more vocally effulgent sopranos, but, for me, the voice works in this role).
Also, is there anything wrong with a singer wanting to sing more nuanced Italian rep for the chance to work (not work on, that's for rehearsal or recitals) other parts of their voices?
Please discuss….
"Constantine A. Papas said...
How a dramatic/Wagnerian soprano, like Voight, can honestly manage to sing Norma, the epitome of coloratura genre? To my non-musical and pedestrian mind, it does not make any sense!"
Yet Norma has been sung by dramatic/Wagnerian sopranos all throughout its performance history. It may be argued that it is best served by another type of voice or that it is not what the composer wanted, etc... however one cannot deny that the performance history of famous Normas include names such as Lilli Lehmann (who said the role was more difficult than 10 brunhildes), Rosa Ponselle, Gina Cigna (who was not successfull as Norma at the Met, but did have a success at the role elsewhere and was the first to have the role recorded), and the two most famous Normas of the century were Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland, both of whom sang Wagner early in their careers. Callas for example was singing a run of Walkure when she was asked to sing Puritani and got her big success.
One must remember though that what we think of "wagnerian" singing today might be quite different from what was thought back then. Today we associate dramatic singing with voluminous, dark, round voices, with great depth, while in the past dramatic singing had mostly to do with the extraordinary brilliance and penetrating quality of the voice, which may be naturally bright or naturally dark.
Of course it must be said that the demands made of a Norma are quite different from the demands usually made by the dramatic/wagnerian repertory. For instance, two of the most famous Wagnerian sopranos of the century (Flagstad and Nilsson) considered doing the role but backed off it. It must also be said that singing Norma with the "modern" approach of dramatic/wagnerian soprano singing valuing amplitude, depth, extreme roundness and darkness of sound and a veiled diction will probably make the role unsingable.
Constantine --
Years ago (over 100), Lilli Lehmann -- who COULD sing Norma and Brunnhilde (her mother coached Norma with Wagner) -- listen to her Martern aller Arten on disk, recorded at age 59 for perfect coloratura articulation -- casually opined that singing Norma was tougher than the three Brunnhildes. What she probably meant was that Bellini's orchestration leaves the singer very much out in front, having to carry the evening, unable to hide in the orchestral woodwork for a note or a phrase if necessary. Also, Wagner lets his singers go out for coffee between the big scenes.
In any case, EVER SINCE, idiots have interpreted her words to mean "Anyone who can sing Brunnhilde is, ipso facto, a Norma." Ergo Ed Johnson offered it to Flagstad and Bing offered it to Nilsson, both of them far too bright to agree. But Rita Hunter and Jane Eaglen were dumber, and someone here recommended Brewer. It just isn't so. The entire vocal preparation to sing such roles is different. (Callas and Sutherland never sang the three Brunnhildes. Neither -- though she probably could have -- did Caballe.)
Similarly, since Nilsson was a great Brunnhilde and a great Turandot, Turandot has been offered to every singer since who could get through a Turandot, and the roads are strewn with utter flops at the part (Eaglen, Linda Kelm) or qualified failures like Marton. (A part both Sutherland and Caballe could handle, though.)
Emilio: Interesting question. There IS an Italianate flavor and style that Italian composers wrote for, a sensuality to vocal production, and non-Italians sometimes fail to achieve. Sutherland was called "la Callas fredda" (cold Callas) when she first sang in Italy. Nilsson's Italian recordings (I only heard her in German, aside from Turandot and Tosca, both of which were ice cold) are very much lacking in Italian sensuality, and Mattila, though a qualified success as Manon Lescaut (I heard her with Galouzine, who was completely on the wrong planet in an Italian role), would, I think, be very unwise to attempt Tosca or Turandot on a large scale. Voigt, for me, sounds utterly miscast as Aida or Leonora -- she wasn't bad as Amelia, however. (And Mattila was terrific as Amelia Grimaldi, come to think of it.)
In contrast, many a Latin singer (Crespin, Tebaldi, de los Angeles) sounded glorious in Wagner.
Russian-trained singers before the present era often sounded downright weird in Italian parts too. This has somewhat abated (Netrebko -- though she was still wrong for Puritani --, Borodina, Abdrazakov, Hvorostovsky if he'd learn how to breathe properly). Curiously enough, Poles and Bulgarians have always been able to sing Italian well, so I suspect it's something about official conservatory training on Russian operas that twisted Russian voices in another direction.
Was listening to excerpts from Elektra this morning and had a thought: Would Guleghina make a good Elektra?
Her no-holds-barred aggressive approach, and the steely, sometimes acidic sound, would be in keeping with the character; and she certainly has the volume. And it couldn't wreck her voice any more than those thousands of Abigailles she is singing has.
I don't know if she has ever sung in German though...
Thoughts?
Vecchia Scuola, Hans Lick,
Thanks for your remarks. All the singers you mentioned- dramatic/Wagnerians- singing Norma and bel canto repertoire- belong to the past, were trained differently, and the expectations of the public were diffrent. In the area of specialization and voice placement, tessitura alone wouldn't do it unless color, timbre, and fluidity have been mastered. A vocal coach, nowadays. will have a hard time transitioning a Brunnhilde to Norma withhout compromising voice expressiveness and chracterization; and smart singers know and accept that. Once they settle on the dramaric stuff, they will never go back to bel canto. Domingo, maybe he can, but he will never sing Rodolfo again at the Met or elsewhere. Heppner, the heroic tenor of the time, was vocally strange and colorless in his recent attempt of Andrea Chenier at the Met. Do you think he'll do it again, or will sing Faust in the future? Everybody can sing everything but it does't make it right.
Guleghina has no business singing Norma. I for one cannot fathom her fame. Sure she sings loud and louder, but what's the purpose when the singing is not related to text or pitch? The Met must be populated with tone deaf administrators because they keep hiring this woman and putting her in high profile roles. Her Lady Macbeth was approximate singing at best and this Norma was simply bad.
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