oony, meeny, miney…
In news that La Cieca is pretty sure has fallen far below Jeffrey Vanderveen‘s radar screen, a further casting rumor for next season’s Rienzi at Opera Orchestra of New York has emerged. As if Lauren Flanigan (Irene) were not superstar enough to supply name recognition for the company’s 47th production of the Wagner opus, the role of Adriano, written for the 19th century’s foremost singing actress Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, will be sung here in New York by none other than … Eva Urbanová?
Oh, what fun Mmes. Flanigan and Urbanová should have backstage, swapping stories about their triumphant Met performances as the Foreign Princess in Rusalka! And how much more enjoyment will we, the public, take in recalling a time when OONY presented operas people actually wanted to hear featuring singers people actually had heard of!
UPDATE: On the other hand, La Cieca hears that we just may get Sam Ramey as Creonte in Medea, which would certainly be luxury casting. Though, again, it doesn’t help that Rienzi any.
I think that some people are confusing Urbanova with Urmana. Urbanova actually had/has a high-placed loud dramatic soprano. A Slavic hochdramatisch. Now she ain’t young and her Met roles may not have been her best ones but she was a vocal force.
Urbanova premiered her Ortrud at the Met in the premiere season of the Wilson “Lohengrin” production with a glorious lyric Johan Botha and a much-improved from the premiere Deborah Voigt. It seemed to me when I heard Deborah Polaski and Eva Urbanova alternate as Ortrud that season by combining the two they would make one great Ortrud voice. Polaski had the full, resonant middle voice but would run out of steam in the climaxes of “Entweihte Goetter!” (sic?) and the final outburst in the last scene. Urbanova sounded gray and dull in all the low-lying middle and low sections but really delivered those two high sections thrillingly.
I also wonder about the choice of Leonid Zakhozhaev as Rienzi, was his Siegfried with the Kirov that good? Imagine a “Rienzi” with Botha or Jonas Kaufmann or Robert Dean Smith in the titelrolle, Urmana or Blythe or Zajick as Adriano and Anne Schanewilms or Soile Isokoski as Irene. With a Thielemann in the pit to make all those processional marches in 4/4 time sound different from each other. Now you are cooking with gas…
If Zakhozhaev was the Kirov’s Young Siegfried last summer, the answer is no, he wasn’t that good. In fact, he was not good at all.
Gualtier, I don’t think Violeta Urmana would take on a mezzoish trouser role these days. She has moved on to higher things. She certainly has the soprano notes and a strong technique (floats etc), even if her top register lacks body and glow compared to the rest of the voice.
Which leads in nicely to a question to Krunoslav about the gloriously redoubtable Grace Ann. To whom was she referring at the time?
Talk about mangling marches, I shall never forget how amusing Eve’s first RIENZI was in the concertato at the text “Rienzi, dir sei Preis, dein Name hochgeehrt”. That “hochgeehrt” was downright funny with a huge accent on “Hoch.” It was one of those you had to be there moments.
To agree with the first comment, Urbanova stole the show every night in L.A.’s “Jenufa,” and Mattila was good. Urbanova was absolutely vocally consistant; she never marked in the rehearsal process, and always seemed to have voice to spare. Though perhaps not in the very first blush of youth, I think that she’s only in her late 40′s. I’d give her a listen, were I in NY…
I’m already asleep:
“Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ will be an opera”
MILAN, Italy — First it was the film and the book. Now the next stop for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth is opera. La Scala officials say the Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli has been commissioned to produce an opera on the international multiformat hit for the 2011 season at the Milan opera house. The composer is currently artistic director of the Arena in Verona. La Scala also announced …
dare i suggest that La Cieca might have added a ‘mo to the title of this post???
urbanova was born in 1961 so that would make her 46 or 47 (depending on the month of birth) … i once saw her as the foreign princess too and she was indeed very very good. her recital with czech opera arias is quite pimpressive. it is not a beautiful voice but a voice with lots of character, a real force of nature. and she knows how to nail a high note! though admittedly i have not heard her live for about 6 years…
When I heard her Turandot, those high notes were quite piercing. She cut right through in the high C chorus. No, she’s not that old but I think that she has shortened her career by singing too many dramatic roles. It’s been a while since I heard her but I don’t think she’s a genuine dramatic soprano. Her voice has the abiltiy to cut through a thick orchestra which has allowed her to sing dramatic roles. But I think she never was a true dramatic soprano and is paying the price now.
Which leads in nicely to a question to Krunoslav about the “gloriously redoubtable Grace Ann. To whom was she referring at the time?”
She was talking about herself, in an OPERA NEWS interview circa 1981, and ( Ciera) she absolutely positively used the phrase ” The Number One Lady Singer in Europe” – this at a time when Caballe, Freni, Ludwig and Rysanek, to name just four , were still very active in Europe.
My guess is that Larmore was in mind for Adriano but after she fizzled as Tigrana Eve decided to look elsewhere.
Zakozhaev struck me as a Loge or Froh, not a Siegfried or Rienzi.
But who wants to hear RIENZI anyway?
Better she should have Urbanova do Smetana’s DALIBOR