eternal night?
A loyal reader writes:
I wanted to let you know that the Tristan prima was a disaster. Only because of the Tristan (which, I guess we can’t relegate to a minor consideration), since it was otherwise mostly okay — if you can accept zero visual dramatic sense in the whole expedition. (As an extreme illustration of this last, the audience laughed aloud as the couple quaffed the potion. I wonder if this has ever happened before in history anywhere in the world. Granted, this was partly because of the ludicrous lighting effect, but I don’t think the man, woman, or child exists who would have laughed under any crazy staging whatsoever when Nilsson and Jess Thomas took their medicine. No, ma’am.)
Mr. Master (since I don’t aspire ever to know him well enough to call him “John Mac”) is, without any doubt, the most repellent thing I’ve ever witnessed on the Met stage, and I’m a hardened veteran. I’m not one of your “lookists” when it come to opera. But I have never seen such an ungainly, repulsive mass of flesh supporting such an unpleasant visage on any stage. He had great trouble getting up and down (which, on a set without furniture, he was required to do often) . . . .
And the sound! His voice sounds completely untrained. And if it is, in fact, as nature left it, nature should be ashamed. He seems to have a very defective ear as well, since he sang drastically out of tune. The love duet was a torture on pitch grounds alone. Voigt must have died a thousand deaths.
And the sound! His voice sounds completely untrained. And if it is, in fact, as nature left it, nature should be ashamed. He seems to have a very defective ear as well, since he sang drastically out of tune. The love duet was a torture on pitch grounds alone. Voigt must have died a thousand deaths.
This doesn’t constitute a thorough, fair account of all aspects of the evening, but I did want to say that, in 37 years of Met attendance, I’ve never witnessed such boos as the poor man received at the end of this debacle. The shrug with which he received them did, I feel, do him credit, however.
Our own JJ is assigned to review the February March 14 performance of Tristan and so your doyenne will have no comment until that critique appears in Gay City News.
It was a sad night for Tristan, but Voigt had her moments and DeYoung rocked the house!
Well.
If Voigt had her moments, I’d like to know when they occurred. I listened on and off (had LOTS of work to do) until the wee hours, and was pretty much horrified by what I heard. I’ll avoid commenting on the unfortunate Tristan – afterall, he was a “replacement”. Voigt on the other hand, is supposedly a “star”. AFAIC, she has been on a steady decline (IMO) for the past ten years or so, and last night she hit a new low. Her voice is entirely inappropriate for this amazing, beautiful role. It has become so grainy and strained – especially in the upper middle (the most important register for this opera). And her PITCH. Good heavens: there were times last night that I thought: “If this is the best the MET can find, why bother?” And I’m not usually such a pessimist. A sad evening for opera in general.
I was at the Dress on Friday where Mac Master sang and he was totally cashed by end of Act 1. Dry and raspy sounding. The 30 min. intermissions didn’t seem to help him recover. He also had some major memory issues, which I hope were corrected last night. Unfortunately he seemed to drag Debbie down with him when he was in distress (I guess the opposite must be true of the old adage “singing with a great colleague makes you sing better”). A fellow audience member countered that Mac Master was dramatically much more engaging than Heppner, but honestly, what good is all the emoting in the world when you don’t have at least a serviceable voice to back it up? It was rather painful to witness.
“As an extreme illustration of this last, the audience laughed aloud as the couple quaffed the potion. I wonder if this has ever happened before in history anywhere in the world.”
It has happened every time I’ve seen this production. You’d think they’d take the hint and change it. Going from a dim light to a bright white light would work, and not be funny. What did people who were listening on Sirius think about the laughter?
I heard the titters online last night, and I just assumed it was for the usual reasons: either a silly bit of stage business or an unfortunate translation in the titles that unexpectedly proved humorous to the audience. And yes, you would think that management would rush to remove whatever ruined a moment like that…
I also think that last night performance went bad, but the first act was okay, MacMaster sang it well. The disaster came right from the begining of the second act: did anyone notice that Voigt didn´t sing her first two lines in the second act? MacMaster collapsed in the last pages of the duet, he was not singing at all, only trying to go on and shouting all the time. The third act was painful to listen
I guess I’m fortunate that I only managed to listen to the first act and bits of the second, because I thought Voigt, who I’ve always found a little bland, was better than I’d ever heard her in that first act, and I was pleasantly surprised by Mac Master’s singing. Oh well.
So what does all of this portend for the hi-def broadcast in two weeks?
And has anyone seen or heard the new Peter Grimes yet? I have my tickets for the hi-def this weekend.
I’m listening to the Met on Sirius (free 3 day trial) right now, and during an act break of Alceste, Margaret mentioned how Rose Bampton, who had begun as a coloratura soprano, and then, after a bout of laryngitis, became a mezzo. What Margaret actually said was that Rose became a mezzo and contralto -and was able to sing both ranges-. Famous Quickly, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the ranges pretty similar? Isn’t it a matter of color and tessitura?
Just chiming in to say that I saw “Tristan und Isolde” in its first season with Heppner and Eaglen and there were isolated giggles when the lights flamed a bright red after they drank the potion.