parterre box

96 comments

• harry says:

  We will have to get Kathleen Turner’s Serial Mom from the John Waters film onto Renee ‘to tell her a few things when to and when not to wear white’.

  FlorezFan barked:
  Renee was wearing white before Memorial Day.

  on April 28, 2008 at 10:34 AM
• harry says:

  Donna Anna I agree about the Dessay Orfee aux enfers, on video. Leaving aside all discussion on voice for the moment: for sheer movement, gesture, style,agility,impishness, antics…Dessay commands and owns the stage. It is not often you see an opera singer ‘able to grab a production by the balls and run with it’ singlehandedly. She has a gifted inbuilt acting talent which no amount of applied training can make up for.

  on April 28, 2008 at 11:01 AM
• harry says:

  Leaving aside Sutherland’s singing attributes and ‘mooning’ diction faults, to suggest she had acting abilities or ‘could move people with a characterisation’ is laughable. She presented herself on stage as ‘Big Jaw Mc Graw’, moved to a stable position and sang.She like Pavarotti were the big ticket. Her Fille du Regiment was simply high camp, a gross obese ‘teenager’….It was an ‘enjoy the joke, Joyce sort of thing….remember this is after all JOAN you are seeing, feel privliged and be grateful’. As Desdemona , she could have punched Otello into the orchestra pit when he tends to get ‘shirty’ with her,and as for her poor Violetta getting comsumptive ‘pigs flew’.

  on April 28, 2008 at 11:30 AM
• DirkVA says:

  “Frankly, if I had the choice between Dessay acting her heart out and singing effortfully and Sutherland sending herself up and filling the house with glorious sound, I know which I’d choose!”

  But yah don’t, Blanche!

  on April 28, 2008 at 11:55 AM
• Perfidia says:

  Sheesh. Did Sutherland spit in somebody’s kasha?

  on April 28, 2008 at 5:47 PM
• Cocky Kurwenal says:

  I was recently sent a DVD of Sutherland and Pavarotti in a gala from the Met to review. It is from 1987, I think, and includes Act III of Trav, bits of Lucia, and the final act of Rigoletto. Apart from the fact that Sutherland was way better vocally than I was expecting (late studio recordings are pretty terrible to my ears, but clearly she was more comfortable being able to sing out in a large space at that stage), I also found her a very moving actress. I mean it. Her Violetta was incredibly tender and expressive. Somebody earlier said ‘in her own terms’ and I guess I agree – there is more than one way to skin a cat. It is also something of a generational thing – Dessay’s acting is far more modern in style.

  I saw Dessay at the Met as Lucia in March, and I must say it was, for me, an incredibly arresting portrayal of the mad scene – possibly the most convincing and disturbing acting I’ve seen in any operatic performance. I am not a fan of the woman and think there are some pretty acute issues with the voice – they were always going to catch up with her and I really don’t think it will be long now before she has to stop altogether. Taking on Melisande smacks of desparation to me – maybe she’ll be convincing dramatically, and good with the text, but it strikes me as a cop-out vocally, and one taken with scant regard for what an audience deserves to hear in that role. But I digress.

  I guess all I wanted to say was that Sutherland really pleasantly surprised me with her dramatic portrayal of all 3 heroines. The thought of a 61 year old Gilda was preposterous to me until I saw her do it. I’m 28, I never saw her live and although I’ve listened to her a great deal, I haven’t watched much footage of her. I find the stuff like the excerpts on the Ed Sullivan Show rather mooney and wan, so maybe it was something about real live theatre and being in the right context that allowed her to function as a convincing actress. Certainly, I have seen Sherrill Milnes in interview talk at length about the impact she had on him in their Lucia duet, as a complete artist. It is too easy to dismiss her as talentless from an acting point of view – she is just from an older school. And for me, her acting comes more from within than without, which I cannot say about Dessay who always seems to be responding to ‘clever’ ideas from directors. If Dessay has more skill as an actress, I think Sutherland had great instincts for it, and the latter makes for a more genuine interpretation which, to me, is consequently more moving.

  on April 29, 2008 at 8:37 AM