Expect Mandryka to send his second! Don’t you realize that Harteros is the *greatest soprano of our day* in *everything she undertakes*???

I saw Harteros in her first run of Violettas. She was respectable. I assume she’s improved.

Leonard was great at performing the role, but vocally she still doesn’t erase memories of Von Stade. But I guess that’s expecting the impossible. The flowers were neat.

Burden was a close second on the applause meter. He’s always interesting. That mournful, haunting voice was really something. Perhaps Rose was in better form the night I saw him.

Anyway, no point in comparing incomparables. But both are the classiest, and Harteros still has a long way to go. Just you wait for her Elisabetta.

As for sheer loveliness of sound, we’ve also got Schwanewilms. The Golden Age is not past.

High C’s–I was in Santa Fe this year the week after you. That’s a great venue for hearing David Daniels, though he complained about the elevation. The Billy Budd production was exceptional, and Peter Rose’s Claggert was incredible. He got the biggest applause, though at intermission I overheard a woman in her 60′s lamenting over her failure to bring her camera so she could have taken pics of Billy’s pecs. Not as many people fled the Adriana at intermission as I expected. The second act saved the work. It got a standing ovation from most of the audience. BTW, Teddy Tahu and Isabel Leonard were pretty cozy at the Apprentice Scenes concert.

Not at all. On the whole, I think they treated it with respect and were faithful to the music; I thought the Miracle in particular was a coup de theater, and superior to the Met’s version. Schicchi was laugh out loud funny. As I said above, a few questionable choices here and there, nothing Regie-like, and for the most part traditional and nicely done. They were still fussing with lighting and tech stuff, and the singers were mostly singing half voice (Sondra went full blast), so it remains to be seen how it turns in out in full performance, but I was happier with what I saw here than what I saw at the Met HD last year. I am looking forward now to seeing a full blown performance in two weeks.

I take it Friedkin and Woody didn’t turn the whole thing into complete crap. I’ll be seeing it next weekend.

I know some people here have said she has pitch problems- not evident in that performance- but is that all people object to? She sounded the real deal to me.

I heard her in the dress rehearsal for Trittico in LAO just last night. It was my first exposure to her, and while she was not my cup of tea, (she was a bull in a china shop as Angelica), I can see why folks either love or hate her. Otherise, aside for some (minor) directing choices that I thought were off the mark here and there, LAO’s Trittico is impressive overall and I think the locals are in for a treat. It was still a rehearsal, but I liked what I *saw* here more than what I saw at the Met’s HD a year ago. We’ll see how it plays once they go all out and in full voice.

Why anybody would want to see that Sonnnambula is beyond me – I agree, total snooze fest, and Dessay is just wrecked, a one trick pony who can only sort of half do her trick these days.

Relyea is a solid, musical singer with very decent French. He will make a deluxe Wagner. Plus, his strapping presence onstage guarantees a happy Tony T.

But I keep waiting for them to announce what big star they have hired to bring a huge personality and a memorable voice to MephistophelesРhard to step into the shoes of its early New York exponents, Pol Plan̤on and Maurice Renaud!

sorry about the there/their error in my earlier post … with advancing decrepitude, I find myself increasingly screwing up my homophones online …

that line would have glossed quite differently in a younger day, i assure one and all.

spectacularly off-topic, i know, but this struck me as the least inappropriate of the current threads on which to post my question.

i have followed this interesting troupe for a number of years, and there website to date remains moribund respecting plans for the (nearly) current season. any info on what’s happening down there?