Don't want to be a prima donna, donna, donna
"Believe you me, there is a lot of drama in the opera world, and you have to rise above it .... I really don't get into the drama. ... I don't cause scandals and I don't throw fits. For me, the thing to be admired is to be on time, be prepared and to give it 100 percent." That's Jennifer Larmore speaking "with a faint Southern accent" to The Cincinnati Enquirer. The mezzo firmly asserts "she's not a diva" in the very first paragraph of the piece.Interestingly, there are lots of numbers in this article -- such as 500 (times Larmore claims to have sung Rosina), 90 (pounds she has lost in the past four years since gall bladder surgery) and, alas, 15 (top ticket price, in dollars, for her recital tonight University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; students get in free). La Cieca will to the reader to explain why, sometimes at least, it may better to be a diva after all.
POSTED at
11:07 PM
17 Comments:
I found Larmore a disappointing recitalist in her initial Tully attempt in 1994, but she's had more than a dozen years of life and career experience since then and I'd give it another try. At least she is a serious musician who has tackled a broad range of idioms.
Those paying $15 to hear her, or five times that, are getting better value than those paying $250 to hear Elina Garanca sing Rosina with NO VERBAL INFLECTION WHATSOEVER.
I don't care how good Garanca looks in or out of designer clothes-- this is not an important, or at least nowhere near a finished artist, and for the Met to book her as Angelina when they failed to take Joyce Di Donato because Mr. J. Friend said, "Oh. that's a STAR part here" shows that something is very amiss.
You're implying $15 is too little at a university concert? And free for students? How can this be a negative? this is a subsidized concert for STUDENTS...This makes no sense, but coming from Parterre Box, I'm not surprised.
Nerva, you are so right about Garanca (excuse lack of sedilla).
Her words were blank when she was runner-up at Cardiff Singer of the World in 2001 and she hasn't improved much on the verbal front.
Her sound is strong, if not especially distinctive and I also detect a bit of tonal looseness in there somewhere.
Joyce DD is in another bel canto class.
Sorry La Cieca but that last paragraph is a tich confusing - is there a perhaps a word missing?
The recital was very, very good. Although the web site indicated there would be baroque works on the program, there were none. She was best in the French selections: Ravel's Sheherezade was exquisite and the Debussy chansons, especially Beau Soir, were beautifully limned miniatures, sung with restraint and delicacy.
She sounds fine: tonal clarity and accuracy that were pure pleasure. If she's performed Rosina 500 times, she didn't sound tired of Una Voce Poco Fa, which she tossed off with gorgeous roulades and obvious zest.
She didn't need all the shtick she threw in--slinking in for the Habenera, batting her big brown eyes during Voi che sapete-- but the audience loved it. I found the Mozart arias the least successful but she blazed as Carmen.
Her program officially ended with "I Want to Be a Prima Donna, Donna" and I know that's not the actual title. But anyway.
Her encore was "Brazil" sung in flawless Portuguese and it was more a showpiece for her amazing accompanist, Antoine Palloc.
She looks mahvelous but I didn't like her first half gown, a deep red iridescent clinger with scallops over the chest and arms. Fashion sense prevailed in the second half with a black sheath and a jacket of silver and white spangles.
CCM (the College-Conservatory of Music) offers this guest recital annually, and the tickets are $15, thanks to a generous sponsor. Nice way to see Susan Graham and Stanford Olsen, among others.
i was appalled by garanca last night. Her voice is neither especially beautiful, large, colorful, technically brilliant or used with any intelligence. At least with all the hype netrebko gets, you get an exciting stage presence and a great, though flawed voice. Garanca was SO BORING AND SQUARE. No where NEAR the league of didonato and damrau as either a singer or actress. I almost could not believe that this was the same production I saw last year.
As for larmore, they should give her another shot at the met, cuz ya know, she lost weight.
I think the same about Garanca´s Rosina: a complete uninteresting performance. And we should hear this singer and no the splendid Joyce di Donato as Angelina next season?!
Wow, it's heating up for a Renee-like hate-on here! I have to wonder at why Larmore seems to draw such ire from La Cieca and others. As far as I can tell, she is still singing well from recent recordings. I last heard her about 10 years ago in recital, and vocally, she was quite wonderful: amazing tone, great attention to the text and a vivid (sometimes too vivid) stage presence. Is it perhaps her offstage manner that bothers people? I get the feeling that some people in the know (Mrs John Claggert, whose posts I LOVE!) hinted at some especially diva attitude on Larmore's part. I just get the feeling that here is yet another singer, in her prime vocally and interpretatively, who is getting the short shrift job-wise because she's no longer the hot young thing. She is a beautiful, mature (by no means "old") woman who I think could still bring a lot to the bel canto rep onstage for which she is so justly famous.
I interviewed Ms Larmore a couple of years ago and she was delightful.
OK, I know that a real pro will be on best behaviour during an interview, but she seemed both honest and thoughtful - and she certainly looked slim and lovely.
She did admit to being very straight-talking, so maybe that has got some backs up in the prickly backstage world ...
Garança IS a boring artist as her Covent Garden Dorabella indicated. In Aix she shone because she was really the only world-class voice on stage - but listen to her Mozart record and the new DG album - DULL. DULL. DULL. By the way Nebsie has cancelled tomorrow night's traviata at the ROH - the third she won't have done.
I'm so glad that Nebs is canceling if she's sick. If she sang after recovering from what sounds like a really bad illness, everyone would be talking about how much she sucks and they can't understand why she's such a big star.
Ok, now I am DYING to hear Garanca for myself.
And I would like to thank scifisci for his very astute comment about Nebs - yes, it is a flawed voice, but it is also a GREAT voice, and getting better all the time.
Not to put words in anyone's mouth but my guess (perhaps I'm projecting) is that what La Cieca objects to is the "not a diva" tic. It's a bit of a posture a lot of people assume in interviews, lately, and occasionally one might get nostalgic for an older generation of singers who didn't make such a fuss out of looking like a home girl. This is my guess because La C has written about the glamour of such high maintenance singers as Gheorghiu who, one suspects, would never try to come off as the girl next door, and why should she? She is, or at least for a while was, a big deal and a pain in the ass, and perhaps the combination can be more enjoyable to watch--from a distance, certainly--than unassuming and resolutely not a diva, especially in roles that require a fiery temperament. Needless to say, there are singers who are easy to get along with and can pitch a watchable fit onstage, but I suspect they don't make such a song and dance of not being divas.
Of course, our dear Renee is one of the champions at claiming she is not a diva.
I suspect that the real, nicely brought-up Renee genuinely isn't impressed by all that couture gowns/stretch limos/desserts-named-after-you stuff; however, the CEO of AmericanDiva Inc (aka Ms R Fleming) sees all that stuff as vitally important to the brand.
Where does the truth end and the strategically conceived projection of a commercial image begin? One thinks of that fabulous German word 'Selbstdarstellung' ...
It was Dawn Upshaw who really started working the "Undiva" thing, no?
If Upshaw could sing in tune, she wouldn't ever have needed that marketing strategy
How many times do you people have to be told?
Renée Fleming is not just one of opera’s most celebrated sopranos, but perhaps its most convincing actress. A consummate artist, her one and only role when she stands in the spotlight is to breathe so much life into the opera’s main character that audiences lose themselves in her unforgettable performances. That is the passion of Renée Fleming.
I heard Larmore in recital in June 2006 in Saint Paul, and my thoughts are identical to what Donna Anna wrote a few posts above: Larmore was almost flawless, and worthy of the highest praise. It was one of the finest recitals I have ever heard.
I would think that companies would be lined up to engage her.
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