pira pressure
La Cieca has just learned that Salvatore Licitra has withdrawn “for personal reasons” from the Met’s new Trovatore, which opens February 16, 2009. Marcelo Ãlvarez will be Manrico instead, which means he (Ãlvarez) will cancel Adriana Lecouvreur, which opens on February 6. The replacement Maurizio will be announced at a later date once the hysterical sobbing from the Met’s casting office has subsided.
I disagree with the characterization of Adriana as a role for aging sopranos. True that it doesn’t have challenging high notes. And true that it requires a soprano who can dominate the stage, a talent acquired mainly through experience.
Kabaivanska was a very succesful Adriana while still in her prime and far from being an aging soprano. Tebaldi and Olivero were arguably the two best exponents of the role and both sang it when past their prime, but both had been singing the role since they were younger. Caballe was not an aging soprano when she sang the role in the mid-1970′s. Lina Cavalieri was the first Adriana at the Met and I believe she was quite young – and beautiful – at the time.
Come on, let’s not pigeonhole the role.
You’re right, iltenore … It seems that la vraie Adrienne was only 38 when she died. Has anyone seen the 1938 French movie about the actress with Yvonne Printemps or (taken from Wikipedia) … “Dream of Love … a 1928 MGM silent film, directed by Fred Niblo, and starring Joan Crawford and Nils Asther. The film is based on the play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouve. In the film, Asther plays Prince Maurice de Saxe and Crawford plays Adrienne Lecouvreur, a Gypsy performer, in a tale of lost love and revenge.” Crawford was still young and pretty in 1928 …
I had no idea there was a video of kabaivanska singing adriana! She’s wonderful! Does anyone know if it is available in at least passable quality?
Would Adriana not be the perfect role for Karita Mattila?
I vote for Kaufmann first, Calleja or Palombi second.
(Place your bets here that the Met picks Giordani!)
Me thinks that this will be the role to prove to the Met that Gulag-ghena is not the star that Volpe & Gelb are trying to make her out to be. I have no desire to ever hear this woman onstage again. I can’t imagine true opera queens wanting to see this woman in yet another vocally miscast role at the Met. This role does not require someone who is just LOUD – she is a tasteless singer who will not be able to finesse any of the singing that is required outside of the scream match with the Principessa.
Millo? Hmmmm? Could she possibly do it? I haven’t heard her since her last ill-fated Tosca at the Met a couple of seasons back. She certainly has the temperment for the role. She has always tried to channel Tebaldi – can she still channel Tebaldi vocally in that role? I hope she is covering the role – after Gulag’s failure maybe she will feign some illness and we can watch the mad dash of queens to the box office to hear Millo sing it.
I seem to remember reading somewhere (here?) that Millo was offered the cover for Gioconda and Adriana, but the deal was cover only (no alternate performances) so she declined. Can anyone confirm?
One thing I have to give the Vicar of Wakefield. He consistantly comes up with a perverse comical sense for casting roles.
“37. On August 15, 2008 at 1:16 am, The Vicar of John Wakefield gushed:
Fiend and Billingsgate should ring up Dennis O’Neill and John Hudson!”
Alagna and Cura will be at the Met around that time. I actually think that Maurizio may be an ideal role for Cura. (Also Paolo in Francesca da Rimini and Johnson in Fanciulla.) Have either Cura or Alagna done Trovatore before? How about Giordani ?
If what’s left of my memory serves me right the production of Adrianna is older than 1963 – it was purchased from San Carlo for Renata Tebaldi. In Naples it had starred Olivero (who stepped in for Tebaldi at the last minute,) Corelli, Bastianini and Simionato and that would have been November 1959.
Some one has posted excerpts from that performances on YouTube including the last scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNeNuA3Kqj4