super mario
Member of the cher public Max writes:
Don’t know if you’ve gotten reports on this yet, but Jonas Kaufmann‘s Cavaradossi at the Royal Opera (May 23) was singing like I haven’t heard since young Domingo (only Domingo never had that kind of ease on top). You could feel the waves of sound from his “Vittoria” but it was also so musical, so beautifully phrased with such beautiful clarity of
diction and awesome command of dynamics.He’s German but looks like a Roman god.
Gavanelli was a disgusting Scarpia (but effective in that way), Martina Serafin a surpisingly fiery and full-voiced Tosca and Pappano and the ROH orchestra were splendid.
Here’s a clip of Kaufmann singing “E lucevan le stelle” for German television earlier this month.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/fqaZFcZ7poI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
I was at Covent Garden and Kaufmann blew me over with “Recondita armonia”, “Vittoria”, “La vita mi costasse” and all the rest. Still, he whispered this aria. WHY?!?!?! His voice is big and virile enough to sing it forte. He’s not Marcelo Ãlvarez. He can sing forte.
And yet, in all, like Domingo, but better.
And gorgeous too!
rukidn,
I’m sorry, I guess my magic didn’t work. Sometimes I’m nuts.
Sacau,
a tenor also beeing an artist. No, Never!
You didn’t like it, that’s sad.
Think it over.
The way he sang “E lucevan le stelle” is one way to interpet the way it’s written. There are, at least in my score, no specific dynamics for the solo voice, only a pianissimo throughout the orchestral parts. That said, “con grande sentimento” (written for both voice and instruments) does imply some expansion.
My comment on facial manipulation was to say that usually, at least in my experience, when a singer is artifically darkening their sound or puffing it up, you see it in the facial muscles.
One test for the passagio that I thought he passed very well is the ending of “Recondita armonia” with those repeated F’s that tire many tenors or get them locked into a state from which there’s nowhere to go for the final A and B-flat.
One bit of dynamic shading not specified in the score, but which I liked very much, was after the good forte B-flat in “Recondita armonia” on the name “Tosca,” he sang the final “sei tu” fairly softly. Bergonzi used to do that also sometimes and I think it ends the aria beautifully.
On my comment above about “E lucevan le stelle” and the pianissimo: I was referring only to the first arching phrase “O dolci baci, languide carezze.”
Don’t get me wrong. I do like it when the whisper the first sentences. But then I wanted to hear Kaufmann’s meaty voice. Still, a remarkable performance that made me miss no one. And as I said, Recondita armonia was simply amazing.
Rukidn, facial tension is frequently present when a singer is making a misguided attempt to darken the sound. It also crops up when they are trying to control it, the wrong way, eg late Sutherland.
I must say I agree with The Logical Tenor, above. Kaufmann is about the best we have right now, and yet there is still a massive amount of skepticism and negativity on here. No, he isn’t the second coming of Corelli, or Pavarotti, or some kind of ideal melange of the two, and I don’t think he’ll even be his own man in their league. But he does a bloody good job, we should enjoy him, and be thankful that there is somebody around who can do justice to the composer’s intentions in the scores he is interpreting.
To control it yes, perhaps. But darken, no.
Yes, to darken. Loads of them do it. I’m not saying it succeeds.
we will respectfully disagree