Mot du jour
"Marcello Giordani is, how can I put this, what Franco Farina would sound like if he weren't awful." -- My Favorite Intermissions
Labels: blog, giordani, maury d'annato, met
POSTED at
8:31 AM
30 January 2008
be a benefactor
previously on parterre
Colleagues
-
AndrewAndJoshua
Barihunks
Cafeteria Rusticana
Civic Center
Counter/Point3.0
DesignerBlog
Diva of the High C's
Donald Collup
Handelmania
Il Corriere della Grisi
ionarts
Iron Tongue of Midnight
Judycast
Likely Impossibilites
Marginalia
Met Futures
My Favorite Intermissions
Night after Night
NYC Opera Fanatic
Operacast
Opera Chic
operavision
PlaybillArts
Premiere Opera
Sieglinde's Diaries
Sounds and Fury
The Last Debate
The Rest is Noise
Trrill
Una butaca en el paraíso
Vilane fille
Wellsungs
Willy or Won't he?
- Subscribe / RSS
19 Comments:
I really thought I was listening to a Berlin opera presentation of the puccini classic.
Giordani god be with him, is amazing. the only thing last night that bore any resemblance to Italian. She is well intended and completely out of her element. The audience went bonkers for HIM and were warm to her, but save us from these koncept-diva's. She should leave this rep alone.
the rest was so awful it doesn't bare mention
I don't think Maury is right, ever. His idea of great singing is Gencer. with a huge glottal stop on the G.
Giordani carried that show and he isn't a farina. He is something much more golden,
I heard the Mattila Manon L from San Francisco not long ago, and all I could think of was that she sounded exactly like Moffo much of the time. But last night, it didn't sound like Moffo as much as I would have liked.
i dont think i've ever heard marcello's top as blazing as last night. His interpretation (as always) is a bit on the bland side. Karita was just so odd...a bit loopy, even during the curtain calls. Her voice is also losing whatever heft it used to have and now has quite an airy quality in her upper register.
I love Karita but her performance last night was bizarre - she acted like Lucille Ball in Act 2 -she even did a cheerleader split which is something I have never seen a Manon do before...
I heard Manon L on Sirius last night. I think Mattila was superb, and technically speaking the best soprano singing, so far, this season. Her phrasing, color, characterization, and voice contol were amazing. Giordani's top was effortless but the passion in his voice was not riveting, and the total lack of vibrato did not project emotion. A little Correlli's throb is needed.
It was painful hearing Karita struggling so much in her upper register. Maybe a winter cold?
I'm not a fan of Giordani's leathery tone. The others, as well as Levine...feh.
I am sorry I was there last night and the only thing they can put on that stage that could be worse is Franco Farina or even worse Giordani's cover Arnold Rawls, another leather voiced hack.Giordani is either stupid or his vocal team are completely moronic. His top has always been there, his middle never has been and this whole role lies in the middle. Mattila was putrid and Duane Croft needs to retire immediately. If warm vomit could sing it would sound like Duane Croft. How Levine didnt throw up his hands and walk out I have no idea. And if he had anything to do with this casting then he should be suspect as well. And if Sean Pannikar is one of the rising stars then we all have problems. Kermit the frog lives.
gianni- is a tenor and very jealous.
crap.
Giordani was really terrific last night. HER? Hideous, unitalian phrasing, not enough voice, singing for the radio. On radio, no PHRASING, at all, could not sing middle voice except with a anna moffo tremelo. What has happened to that voice? Not in the great history of this opera, horrid out of place acting and really just not the right voice. The rest was pedestrian.
Gianni
I have heard Dwayne Croft several times in the house and found him to be musical and a lovely singer. I would love to know if there is a change that has occured in his singing of late that you refer to. Would you mind being a bit more precise as to what has happened to Croft (in your opinion)?
To me, Mattila always sounds like a pumped-up version of Dame Felicity Lott (no doubt another Krunoslav whipping girl) and not at all like an Italianate soprano.
And her diction is usually quite poor.
Wow! I am so sorry to hear all these negative assesments of Mattila's singing. I always thought she was the real thing and I just don't want anything bad to happen to her or her voice. I too agree that she is not particularly Italianate but she is still great. But what I am hearing here is the description of a voice that is in crisis. I hope it is not true and I hope people are just imaginning things.
Dear OMG
No, I was a baritone not tenor but a tenor lover YES YES!!! Jealous of Giordani, Ha Ha Ha Ha. Anyone who was there last night heard that he could barely phonate until well into the opera. Yes he sings Big Loud high notes!! But, that shows nothing, his phrasing was mediocre and other than a good idiomatic! But as a season subscriber to the MET, you cannot tell me there aren't better tenors with a more pliant well founded voice than his. In this repertory I can think of many such as Alvarez, Fraccaro,Aronica, Armiliato, Francesco Hong, Andrew Richards, Marcus Haddock, Forbis, Frank Porretta, Kaufmann, Galouzine, et al. who are much more put together vocally. Instead we have to hear Signore Gola di pelle for 5 operas this season. What a Joke.
As for Croft, Could you not hear how blown out and unsteady his voice is? Last night he had spotty pitch and often brutal tone.
Well, no I could not hear those things in Croft's voice because I was not at the opera last night. And furthermore, I don't live in NYC.
With all due respect to your opinions and your obvious passion, I think you are being a little harsh. I personally do not consider Galouzine or Haddock more put together vocally than Giordani. Now, let me confess that I am not particularly a fan of Giordani but I disagree with the list of singers you mentioned as "more put together" as you put it. In terms of Giordani's overexposure at the Met, that is an issue that I don't know anything about since I am so ignorant of the politics of the opera world.
Actually, M. l'Abbe, I like Dame Felicity Lott a...* lot*, especially as a recitalist. I own several of her CDs and have made it a point to attend several of her concerts. She was also a fine Marschalllin in San Francisco in 1993-- not quite as definitive vocally as some have suggested, but beautifully sung and very intelligently phrased and acted.
One admirable thing about her has been her refusal to sing roles outside of her Fach.
She is one of many fine British singers and no one complains about her getting hired anywhere in the world.
Croft isn't very reliable, but he was solid last night. Not great, but solid, and, well, [i]Manon Lescaut[/i] isn't about to collapse if the Lescaut isn't a star turn.
I thought Giordani sounded wonderful but I did wish that he would sing something other than ff occasionally. The loudness stops meaning so much when there's no contrast.
Mattila, well, I like her and think she did just about the best she could with the voice she has but don't think this is quite her ideal part.
gianni must have quit his little career and now is verry verry bitter. Giordani was a beacon of style last night. The hack tenors you equate as able to deliver are all unable to do so at all. Armigliato has a nice stlye and a voice that is shot as his Chenier in Barcelona well proved.
poor widdle gianni, doesn't sing anymore and it is best. He can't hear either.
Oh, so Gianni is an agent with all those hack tenors?
NOW I get it.
gianni must have quit his little career and now is verry verry bitter. Giordani was a beacon of style last night. The hack tenors you equate as able to deliver are all unable to do so at all. Armigliato has a nice stlye and a voice that is shot as his Chenier in Barcelona well proved.
poor widdle gianni, doesn't sing anymore and it is best. He can't hear either.
Where did I read recently that Mattila is preparing Isolde?
OMG
Why the personal attacks? I am neither singer, agent, nor candlestick maker. I am an Opera Fan!! I am 78 years old and long since been retired from anything but traveling which I do frequently. I have never met any of the tenors mentioned , so that interrupts the mantra of your theory. However, being born in Naples in 1929 to a mother that was a singer and teacher and a father that was a tenor, I have been well trained both musically and in the histrionics of singing. I am not one of my generation that things the Golden years are over. I hear just as much talent on the stage today as then. The difference mainly is style and training or lack there of. As well, we stayed pretty much with an single repertoire. I am also not bitter but bad is bad. And Mr. Giordani's singing the other evening was bad. It should not take 2 acts to warm up. It was all loud, no phrasing, constant strangling to the sound to make up for overt breathiness. It was Not Good and those of us that know the difference, know the difference. Overacting and loud singing is not Puccini. The role also lies to low for him, there is no doubt in that.
Again, personal attacks should be left to smaller minds. I am sure you are a fan of Giordani and that 's great but many of us aren't and for good reason.
Post a Comment
<< Home