requiem and rehearsal
La Cieca’s spy reports on the Met’s pre-season:Â
Lucky me! I won tickets to the Verdi Requiem in memory of Luciano Pavarotti, and then I was given tickets to the dress rehearsal for Opening Night. One of the things I really love about going to the Met at the beginning of the season is that the orchestra is rested and energetic, and they did not disappoint at either of these events. Levine was almost super human in the way he pulled the fire and passion from the orchestra and chorus during the “Dies Irae”. It was a sonic boom that I could feel on my face, every word crisp, every line in the orchestra bright and clear. Judging from the amount of physicality he put into the piece it seems Levine is back operating at full force. The singing of the principals, specifically Frittoli and Giordani, was not up to the same level. While I’m not a big fan of Frittoli I did admire her work in Suor Angelicalast season, but the Requiem requires a more classical line and freedom at the top of the voice than she is able to offer. Beginning at her passaggio the upper voice constricts similarly to Callas on her Puccini album, and the coloration in the middle and lower voice, at least in this piece, mimicked the bottled, covered quality of Callas too. When Giordani doesn’t push his voice for power I find it to be a beautiful instrument, but he was all ham here – swooping, bellowing, and declaiming with little subtlety. He did find tenderness and nuance nearly at the end in “Lux aeterna” that would have benefited him through the entire piece. Abdrazakov sang nice enough but didn’t register much feeling for the piece. Borodina was in luscious voice. Scrupulous musciality, velvet tone, glamorous phrasing – absolutely in top form.
For those who will be watching, attending, or listening to what is being termed “The Fleming Fashion Show” on Monday night here are a few observations about La traviata Act 2. The “What was he thinking”" Zeffirelli production is enhanced by special lighting for the broadcast, and scene 1 does look more like a French country house than the set for Martha Stewart than it did originally. Scene 2 remains a tacky, inexplicable horror with the massive Gypsy Rose shawls festooning the ceiling. As for Ms. Fleming…well…she sang well. For her. Considering the ability she has to suspend time in moments like “Dite alla giovine” with fine, pure singing, it remains a mystery her habit of stopping the vibrato on a note in mid phrase and then sliding off the pitch to the next note. This annoying habit, coupled with her typical “word value caresses” do not mask her lack of ability to convey Violetta’s passion and despair in this, one of Verdi’s most tender dramatic scenes. I would imagine even a conservatory soprano would attempt to define its glorious musical ebb and flow, but it simply is not well differentiated by Fleming. She appears to not possess the ability to convey it.
And now for the fun part – THE FASHION. Scene 1: In it’s own inappropriate way this gown fits in perfectly with the “What was he thinking” production around it. Pink, lime green, and turquoise floral pattern… crepe flowers in similar hues, many of them, lining the decolletage and train… this “designer” gown was more akin to the type of tacky, crazy, Southern socialite that would have been played by Karen Blackin the 80’s than it is to Violetta in the country. Think Scarlett O’Hara’s great, great, great grand daughter drunk on a gallon of Mint Juleps, wallowing in her luxury yet out of touch with how to spend her money on good clothes. The gown for scene 2 was relatively more tasteful – made of black/red taffeta, fitted torso falling into a large skirt and train, yet again the decolletage featured giant red poppies, presumably added to mimic the scrims that opened the scene. I kept hearing Tim Gunn in my head saying “EDIT IT, EDIT IT”. So as not to take away entirely from the attempt at glamour, Renee’s figure looked fantastic. I may regret the gowns that were chosen, but she wore them well and they were tailored to her perfectly. She appears to be in the best physical shape I’ve seen her in, but last I heard Jenny Craig wasn’t giving lessons in good taste.
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…isn’t usually considered in pretty poor taste..if not just generally accepted as something NOT TO DO–for one to review a dress rehearsal?
oh brooklynpunk—
you are so boring. How could anyone with a name like ‘brooklynpunk’ be an arbiter of good taste?
La Cieca’s attitude is this: if a theater invites the public to a dress rehearsal, then the public is entitled to discuss it. If the Met wants secrecy, all they have to do is to close the theater.
I am thrilled to hear that Borodina was in great voice.
Mentioning Callas in a review of Frittoli seems very strange to me.
La Cieca
With all due respect…and not meaning to start a war over it..it just seems that generally accepted practice, out of courtesy to the artists involved decrees not going into critical diatribes over what happens at a rehearsal–of course people will talk among themselves…and it’s cool to provide a teaser or two…but…ahhh..forget the whole thing..
Josephine–I am as far as possible from being an arbitrator of good taste..I absolutley revel in pure loutishness and filth
brooklynpunk
I like you.
Well, brooklynpunk, parterre.com and, before that, parterre box has been sharing news from rehearsals for a decade and a half. So the practice is, if nothing else, well-established. And, let’s face it, what else do you expect on an opera gossip site besides, well, gossip?
When I wrote about the rehearsal this afternoon I didn’t consider this to be a “review”, but more of a preview. Basically all I commented on was Renee’s new frocks and that she is singing Violetta the same boring way we’ve heard her do it before. I didn’t take a real swipe at Renee’s singing as I did with Frittoli simply because it was 11am and a rehearsal. Not really much of a review, and my comments on her voice are certainly nothing new. In the spirit of it being a preview and not a review I also limited my commentary to Traviata Act 2. I’ll let all of you decide about the rest of it come Monday. Happy Fashion Week at the Met!!
Generally agree with your Requiem assessment…a definite WOW by Levine, the orchestra, chorus and Borodina. Abdrazakov really impressed me, and at least on the radio, I felt he sang with a sense of feeling and pathos. The wobble by Frittoli just didn’t go away and Giordani struggled at times. However, I thought the top voice wasn’t his main problem. The mid to lower voice was thin and reedy in a number of spots throughout the piece. Has he just been singing too much of late? The Ingemesco was actually pretty good though and he seemed to get better further into the performance (a trend I noticed as well in last year’s Manon Lescaut and Ernani).
Increase you life insurance Brooklynpunk before your premiums rise ;0)
The venerable Cieca says:
“La Cieca’s attitude is this: if a theater invites the public to a dress rehearsal, then the public is entitled to discuss it.”
But they DIDN’T invite the public. It was emphasized that this was a CLOSED rehearsal, and the principals themselves had trouble getting even their spouses (if any) and their closest associates in. I was present, however, and consider it incumbent upon me not to carry on here or elsewhere about what I saw. I will say, however, that I hardly recognize anything in our original post above from what I did witness. As someone who is not a Renee fan, I have to say that there is very much here to enjoy — and one item that is far the best I have ever heard from her.
And others perform extraordinarily well, also.
As a skeptic about the fashion-show aspect, well, I eat my words.
and brooklynpunk whatever you do, don’t give out your email address or answer your door to anything that looks like a penguin in a letterbox…
To me, Frittoli always sounds like Carol Vaness on a bad night and — something I find especially disappointing — she does so little with her native Italian words. Good-looking gal, of course and loads of cheeky charm, which helped her get through a borderline embarrassing recital at Wigmore Hall a couple of years ago. She attempted songs by Duparc, in a trrrres italiennnn accent and with her nose buried in the score.
Just spotted this teaser for Gioconda on the Met website:
“Six love-crazed characters face off in Ponchielli’s grandest of grand operas, a verismo showcase. The cast is headed by the impressive female triad of Deborah Voigt in the title role, Olga Borodina, and Ewa Podles.”
So, is La Cieca (Ponchielli version as opposed to our beloved hostess) love-crazed? Is Alvise? Is Laura, actually? She just goes with the flow.
And is Ponchielli verismo?
I don’t think so.
Female triad eh?
Have they moved it to Chinatown?
Why not “Space Vixens” if they’re that desperate to sell it?
Such a lengthy review, and not one word about the perfume!
That Requiem was nothing less than the passing of solo artists at the Met. The only touching moment was the sustained silence at the end when it was finally driven home what has been lost.
The entire affair was shocking to me. The stage was set up with the chorus behind the soloists and the orchestra in the pit. An unfortunate decision, as balance was frequently off, the soloists had trouble being heard, and it looked ugly and drab. This is a concert piece, not an opera. Please plan accordingly. There was a vacuum at the front of the stage where the soloists stood. No star power or quality whatsoever. Frittoli was almost disastrous. She wore an absurd frock bordering on slutty. When she could be heard, which was rarely, the sound was tight, unattractive, and pressed. There were myriad attempts at “floated” pianissimi which were overly covered, and the one note that really should be dealt with in that way (end of the a capella section with chorus in her final scena) cacked at the end with an ugly, guttural, flat out. Why this soprano continues to work at this house after her less than mediocre debut is a mystery to me. She seemed to disappear (appropriately) when the house realized she was not what she was sold as, but has unfortunately reemerged in the past few seasons after a middling, overpraised performance in Suor. She needs to go.
Borodina was the only singer who provided consistently fine sound, but even she sounded underpowered, and Verdi is not her friend. She refuses to sing with any sense of Italian legato, and has no feel for the music. She did very little for me. She also looked ridiculous in an ill-fitting too-tight Vampira-meets-Mother-of-the-Bride affair that looked like it had been bought at some Loehman’s in Five Towns. She’s gained weight recently, and it doesn’t look good on her. Why overweight female singers insist on wearing frocks baring their arms and shoulders is beyond me.
Giordani, sigh. Is his recovered technique finally failing again? Despite having the only true Italianate sound on the stage, he struggled through the entire piece, most notably during the Hostias where he seemed practically to choke himself. He got through the Ingemisco admirably though. His singing was consistently worrisome, but he seemed to be genuinely moved by the concert, so one could give him excuse for that. This should not be a difficult piece for him, and it was.
Ildar was negligible. If this is what passes for major lower voiced male singing in this house these days, then there needs to be a complete overhaul of the roster. His voice was ten times too small to sing the piece, he had nothing below a c, the low notes where unheard, and when heard were grainy, and the color was common. He was onstage, and has a career at the Met for no other reason than his association with Borodina. Maybe he’s tall. There were occasional attempts at pretty sound which were passable, but he otherwise made no impression with a soft-grained, smallish sound. C list at best, although the Met certainly seems to give him A assignments.
The chorus was fine, although I expected more. They are clearly well prepared now. They certainly look younger than they have in decades. Obviously there has been much change in the roster there, and a move toward the visually appealing for the broadcasts. There were some strange musical decisions from Levine in the pit, most notably absurdly rushed tempi in solo sections, which ended up being a benefit as it shortened the time I had to listen to them.
All I could think during this concert was, “This is the best the Met can muster for the greatest tenor in the past thirty years? Really?” The whole affair was depressing, and not for the right reasons.
Cassandra:
“She did very little for me. She also looked ridiculous in an ill-fitting too-tight Vampira-meets-Mother-of-the-Bride affair that looked like it had been bought at some Loehman’s in Five Towns. She’s gained weight recently.”
Is this the return of Andrew Porter? What deeply insightful criticism. FYI, Borodina has lost weight recently.
“The chorus was fine, although I expected more.”
Again, it would be hard to imagine more perceptive criticism than that.
Cassandra, do us a favor. Stay at home in front of your computer, and pay attention every week when your Mommy tells you to change your underwear.
Looking at the Met roster, who would the best qualified quartet be?
How about Brewer, D’Intino, Alvarez and Pape?
Or Stoyanova, Blythe, Alagna and Furlanetto?
Or Di Giacomo, Podles, Botha and D’Arcangelo?
Mix and match if you want.
Tenor is the hardest. I’d rather hear Giuseppe Zampieri or Bruno Prevedi than any of these three ( or Giordani)– let alone in-the-day Bergonzi, Pavarotti, Tucker, Bjoerling, Peerce, Vickers, Carreras, Domingo, Cossutta, di Stefano, Gigli, Lauri-Volpi…
messa di voce–
when you ask Cassandra to ‘do us all a favor’ are you using the royal ‘we’ or are you speaking for all of us here? If the latter, some of us disagree with the way you responded to Cassandra. If you live in New York perhaps you can look into some anger management seminars. If you live in Alaska just take out your gun and kill some moose.
More on GIOCONDA:
Orlin Anastassov is now announced for all performances as Alvise, replacing James Morris, who was also replaced in the REQUIEM.
I don’t know Anastassov’s voice ( any reports?) but this role would hardly have suited Morris’ current strengths, and anyone will be better than the dreadful Paata Burtchulaadze last time out.
Well, for starters, the Verdi Requiem was not a dress rehearsal, but the actual performance, so no problems there.
As for the opening night dress for the “Fleming Follies”, it’s a production already in the repertoire, and as “the spy” pointed out, there are NO changes other than Renee’s costumes from what has been done before.
I’ve seen that production of Traviata. It is exactly as “the spy” described it, and it seems remarkably unlikely that there would be any significant change (improvement) from the dress rehearsal (vocally or otherwise).
The dress described can be seen in my blog. It looks like a wedding cake that’s been melting in the sun.
Josephine:
Gee, when I type that I think about Janis Paige in Silk Stockings. Is that you?
My previous post may have been a little rough, but I was responding to such statements as the following:
“All I could think during this concert was, “This is the best the Met can muster for the greatest tenor in the past thirty years? Really?†The whole affair was depressing, and not for the right reasons.”
Let’s look at the facts:
The Met has given a one-off performance of one of the most difficult works in the choral repertoire, with James Levine, world class soloists, augmented orchestra, and augmented chorus.
This was done as a MEMORIAL to the late BIg Lucy, underwritten at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars by the Met.
I am not aware of ANY company in the world doing something comparable during the past two or three decades (La Cieca, please correct me if I am wrong).
Those who attended, such as Cassandra, received free tickets, honorary booklets, and CDs.
Does this mean we cannot criticize the performance?
No.
But the unrelenting negative tone of Cassandra’s posting was, to my way of thinking, not appropriate.
What bothers me most is that nobody on this blog has had the decency to say “Thank you” to the Met.
messa di voce–
I for one say thanks to the Met all the time.
I am sure it is very frustrating for some dip to go a free performance and criticize it unduly. But in the end that particular dip reacted to a performance. Her/his/its mother telling her/him/it to change her/his/its underwear once a week has nothing to do with the Verdi Requiem.
Having said that, I honor your anger in the light of your explanation which you did not even owe me.
Messa di voce – Isn’t Cassandra entitled to her opinion? I understand your point, but we should not make personal attacks.
BTW Thackery “Frittoli sounds like Vaness on a bad night” – BRILLIANT
Yes that WAS– brilliant. During my career I was told that I sounded like Schwarzkopf on Purim.
Dallas Symphony offered the Requiem a few months ago… Ms. Brewer was the least impressive of all the soloists, including Jill Grove, Stuart Neil, and Raymond Aceto. Twas an inspiring evening.
I know Mr. Neil’s reputation precedes him, but the man sang the HELL out of his part without a stich of music all night.
I already made some musical observations about the Requiem in my review in my review above, but I have to disagree with Cassandra on several points. Borodina’s sound was absolutely NOT underpowered; from my seat in the Center Parterre the sound was big and I felt she had plenty in reserve. Verdi is a GOOD friend of hers, and she sang with real Verdian line, unlike any of the other soloists. Her gown may have been unflattering, but her figure has not changed – if anything I thought she looked slimmer than the last time I saw her.
The stage set up they used is a typical concert set up – chorus on risers, soloists at the front of the stage, and orchestra in the pit – why criticize it? It was not “an unfortunate decision” – this is proper positioning for the best sound blend in the house – it wasn’t just an arbitrary decision for this concert, it’s been used multiple times for decades. I don’t know where you were sitting, but I didn’t hear any imbalance in the sound, and there is definitely not a “vacuum” at the front of the stage…perhaps the vacuum is in your ears? Accoustics at the Met are generally excellent as time has proven, and soloists at the front of the stage over the pit maximizes their sound into the hall.
This concert was “In Memory” of Pavarotti, and not a memorial tribute, and was an expensive gift to the public from the Met that was appreciated by thousands of his fans. To call the entire thing “shocking” is an insult to everyone who gave their time to it. Criticize the singers (or in your case inaccurately criticize the conductor, orchestra, and chorus) and the performance if you will, but don’t say nasty things about the endeavor in general. I for one completely appreciate the effort, am grateful for the free tickets, and hope they do many more similar performances. THANK YOU MAESTRO LEVINE, ORCHESTRA, CHORUS, SOLOISTS, AND STAFF!!!
Well, I heard Joseph Calleja sing the tenor part a few weeks ago or so at the Proms in London and he was absolutely fantastic. Far superior to that caterwauling of Giordani’s that passes for great singing in some parts.
Just a small point of correction. The whole “thou shall not review dress rehearsals” rule is only here in the US. It is my understanding that in Europe, at least for a while, reviews were done on the dress rehearsal ahead of opening night in order to give the audience an idea of what they were up against.
I will stand corrected if the prectice has changed, but I clearly remember reading an account of Freni’s Violetta at laScala in 64 in which the reviewers were at the dress rehearsal and they panned her the next day.
I think all this bull crap about what is done and not done on the theater has to st5op at one point.
#18-Cassandra. Thank you. Every word you said was true and you are a hero, in this environment, for saying them.
Thank you. You have my support (if you want it).
Broolyn Punk you are very tiresome. Where do you think you are, in St James Episcopal? Parterre, darling, in case you have not noticed, is the DailyKos of operadom. We are politically incorrect, left wing, crazed and can say anything we want this side of fuck-you. So, grow up!
#20 – alternative casting, interesting!
Whatever happened to the elegant Sig. G. Sabbatini? He’s still singing, methinks. Callaja is lovely, maybe not quite up to that huge hunk of Verdi, just yet?
#25 Miss Messa di Voce, ‘messa’ being the operative term — really, old thing, you are so prissy. I have an humble suggestion for you: revisit that old maxim “live and let live.” I thought Cassandra’s commentary was right based on Sirius radio. Somebody has to keep the met HONEST and it aint-a-gonna be Il Tomassini!
Good luck to you all, you precious lodes of culture.
mrmyster
santa fe
I hear that in some third world countries performances that never take place are regularly reviewed. This practice brings an unusual subjectivity to the art of criticism. I would pay six chickens to read one of those reviews.
mrmyster – How can you say “every word” Cassandra wrote was true when you were listening on the radio and she was in the house live? Much of her commentary is based on the quality in the house, and the balance is entirely different when you’re listening to a miked broadcast performance.
Just this past year Carol Vaness got an unkind review for her performance of Imelda de’ Lambertazzi in Bangladesh. The review suggested that Vaness was having a bad night. It turned out be Frittoli who was performing.
Does anyone know how serious James Morris’ illness is?
mrmyster:
You say:
“#18-Cassandra. Thank you. Every word you said was true.”
Therefore, listening over the radio, you agree with:
“She wore an absurd frock bordering on slutty;”
“She did very little for me. She also looked ridiculous in an ill-fitting too-tight Vampira-meets-Mother-of-the-Bride affair that looked like it had been bought at some Loehman’s in Five Towns. She’s gained weight recently, and it doesn’t look good on her. Why overweight female singers insist on wearing frocks baring their arms and shoulders is beyond me;”
“he seemed to be genuinely moved by the concert, so one could give him excuse for that. This should not be a difficult piece for him, and it was;”
“They certainly look younger than they have in decades. Obviously there has been much change in the roster there, and a move toward the visually appealing for the broadcasts.”
I am not attempting to defend this as a great performance of the Verdi Requiem. I thought it was good, with both strong and week points.
What I find objectionable, and what you defend, is comments such as:
“This is the best the Met can muster for the greatest tenor in the past thirty years?”
Though we can criticize the performance, the GENEROSITY of the Met in offering this is without parallel in recent operatic history (again, La Cieca, please correct me if you can think of anything else similar to this performance “in memory” presented without charge).
I used to sound like Schwartzkopf on Purim, and then for a while, I sounded like Milnes on cocaine, but now I sound like me.
Obviously This is About Renee Fleming and not about Manon, Traviata or Cappricio…. Either in the singing or in the costuming. Love or hate the clothes, they look great on Renee and thats what this is about, showcasing her Voice, her style, HER.
Hi Sweet Sanford- I was wondering if it took a rest on Sunday but sadly it seems to be re-energised instead. With a little bit of luck we might get Fridays off
At least the Met’s got a head start in casting a local for the Monty Python revival of Kismet….the role of Lalume or is it Laloony!
Hey, does anybody know who’s going to HOST the HD movie-cast on Monday? Renee will be otherwise occupied! Karita? Debbie? WHO? WHO? WHO? ‘Would be neat if Alabanese, Stevens, Resnik, Peters were shown on the red carpet ….if they’re able to be there!! Maybe Peter Gelb will take over the microphone! ……discuss……
Susan Graham is hosting I believe
Great! She did a wonderful job on her previous assignment, TRISTAN. Definitely a classy lady!
I will be missing the Cinecast due to an audition. Is it scheduled to be on TV?
I say the more reviews the merrier of any and all dress rehearsals. If they don’t want them talked about they should bar donors and the public. Otherwise, talk away …. all this “i won’t review the dress but I will comment on the dresses and the chandeliers” sounds like a bunch of 3rd grade pussies who think they are superior to all the other fags in class.
Give me an f***ing break.
Does anyone know if they are going to release a DVD of this shindig? I am unable to attend the performance as I am auditioning for the Amato Opera’s upcoming production of La Forza del Destino. On a side note, I am extremely proud of my association with Amato Opera because to my knowledge it is the only opera company in North America without a ‘casting couch’ policy.
“Hey, does anybody know who’s going to HOST the HD movie-cast on Monday?”
I could host the gala *tomorrow*– it’s a question of botox and Mary Lou’s cue cards.
” and there is definitely not a “vacuum†at the front of the stage…perhaps the vacuum is in your ears? ”
I meant vaccum in the context of personalities, i.e. they were severely lacking. Between the well done chorus, and the well played orchestra, there was a vacuum. Although, that could have applied to the singing as well. It may be the concert set up in that house, but that is not how concerts of the Verdi Requiem are normally performed. In fact, when the Met last performed it at Carnegie, there was the normal set up. I understand how the acoustic works in that house, thanks very much.
I’m not going to even bother responding to messadiwhatever’s juvenile attempts at trolling.
“Does anyone know how serious James Morris’ illness is?”
He’s not ill.
Nerva Nelli – re Orlin Anastassov – this youngish Bulgarian first appeared a few seasons ago as the B-casting title role in Verdi’s Attila and was touted for a while as the new star bass in the Christoff-Ghiaurov line, though to my ears he sounded less impressive – to be fair he was still in his twenties, not an age to be singing the great bass roles in a major house – than, say Nicola Ghiuselev. He makes a loud, slightly unfocussed sound, but there is no rich core to his timbre. Shortly afterwards he appeared in several Verdi Requiems in which he ostentatiosly dispensed with the book, and then had the odd memory lapse and bad entry. Last season he was announced – again prematurely imho – as Fiesco in the Boccanegra revival but he fell sick and we were all overjoyed that he was replaced by Furlanetto, who was in town for Don Carlo rehearsals. Does anyone know whatever happened to Roberto Scandiuzzi? I can’t remember seeing him since the previous RO Boccanegra conducted by Solti – I think he’s on the DVD with Agache and Te Kanawa. He was also touted way back than as the new Siepi/Raimondi….I suppose it won’t be long before Schrotty is embarking on this rep.
that should be first appeared at Covent Garden. Is Alvise his Met debut, by the way? I have a feeling he might have sung that in the RO concert performances conducted by Pappano with Urmana and Giordani, but it might have been Halfvarson. My memory isn’t what it used to be.
Alvise is Anastassov’s Met debut.
Cassandra- Is morris still doing Wotan? Pulling out of one event and a production seems like a read flat
Grazie, Regina.
I now recall that I did hear Anastassov in an LSO Verdi REQUIEM in NYC under Colin Davis in 2005. By that time he did know the music and was fairly impressive if not top flight ( Pinza/Pasero/Ghiaruov).
He should certainly be better as Alvise than Morris would have been.
Scandiuzzi, sadly, seems to have gone into a major vocal decline.
“he appeared in several Verdi Requiems in which he ostentatiosly dispensed with the book,”
I forgot to mention that Frittoli also did this at the Met Requiem, a major mistake, considering it didn’t add to her lackluster efforts in any way.
The Wotans are still on Morris’ book.
Scandiuzzi – there is still talk about him not because of his singing, but because of his affair with Andrea Anson (male), who is currently Debbie’s manager at CAMI, and who “retired” from the business for a time because of a scandal where the naughty Italian bass broke his heart.
Ah, opera. So many homos, so little time.
Ah, opera.
Here’s my only comment about the Verdi Requiem…clothing wise…is it appropriate to wear a skin tight see-through (in some places) gown with a train at a 5pm concert, a memorial, no less? These ladies need some help choosing appropriate concert wear. the men had on daytime suits, would’nt a day dress or suit be more appropriate? Just wondering….
I don’t think La Frittoli does demure dressing. At her Wigmore recital she looked like she was in an Italian suburban housewife’s idea of sexy nightwear and I found a fantastic picture of her some time ago at an Italian recital: her decolletage was worthy of Barnaba’s apostrophe ‘O monumento!
I had no idea Scandiuzzi was gay. well, I’d sacrifize for the good of the business, handcuff him and take him out of circulation for a while.
Scandiuzzi is not gay. He is a straight man…who sleeps with men.
oh NO! Scandiuzzi is MOST definitely gay. Trust me!
LVPO
I am sure you are right. I find him terribly attractive.
I must admit to a certain bafflement that their is no mention of the most stunning reports coming out of the “Salome” production, ie, that the principal singer can no longer sing the role, and is making career ending sounds. Hopefully not true, but having heard it from 5 people involved, I’m starting to fear the worst. Any reports?
Yes, I too am baffled there have been no reports from the Salome or Gioconda dress rehearsals. Unlike the gala rehearsal, these were presumably open to the public.
JO.
He is (or at least WAS) terribly attractive and a very nice man too!
I was at both Salome and Gioconda dress rehearsals. If I held tickets to Salome I would try to return them, sell them, or wipe my ass with them, it’s a disaster. Mattila has no voice left whatsoever and If I were Gelb I would have Guleghina on hold for that season opener of Tosca in 2009. If he’s lucky the production will be saved by idiots think her showing her bush is acting. She is just putrid and the Jochanaan is inaudible although staged on the apron of the stage. Joseph Kaiser is the most overrated tenor of his generation and I am now convinced he must be the butt boy of someonehigh up in the house, there is just no voice there. Both Herod and the Herodias take vocal honors.
As for La Gioconda, a mixed bag. Voigt pushes everything up from the bottom and now spreads at the top but she sings this role far better than Isolde which was tragic. Borodina sings reasonably well but has a nasty tendency to scream anything nearing an A natural. Podles is freakish but is a consummate artist. Machado has a beautiful voice that is used poorly and onstage he is about as interesting as curdled yogurt. Guelfi is more Villain than a man blinded by love, his singing is pedestrian at best and the bass is the worst singing I have heard in the house in years.
The music is stunning, sets are beautiful, costumes are gorgeous, orchestra is in good form but the conducting was patchy.
Gianni
I think I know what you mean when you say Podles is freakish. I love her and she is an artist. She sounds like a countertenor which is just fine. Is that possibly what you meant?
Showing one’s bush is more than acting. It is running the United States incompetently.
Whammie
I have just never heard a sound quite like hers. At first it is jarring, and then it grows on you. She makes everyone else on that stage look like a rank amateur. She is a consummate actress and great artist although, I am not quite what to make of her voice.
“I must admit to a certain bafflement that their is no mention of the most stunning reports coming out of the “Salome†production, ie, that the principal singer can no longer sing the role, and is making career ending sounds. Hopefully not true, but having heard it from 5 people involved, I’m starting to fear the worst. Any reports?”
Oh my lord, I could tell you absurd stories (that unfortunately are true) about the same soprano from last season’s rehearsal process for Manon Lescaut. You think Salome is going badly… oh, honey!
Cassandra states:
“I forgot to mention that Frittoli also did this at the Met Requiem, a major mistake, considering it didn’t add to her lackluster efforts in any way.”
Frittoli may have been good or bad, but how can her singing without score be called a major mistake?
Not trolling, just an honest question.
Gianni, you are my new favorite poster. Love. You. Thank you for telling the truth.
As for Podles, I think she is stunning. The voice is overwhelming. If you don’t know her singing, you must get the Naxos recording of her Rossini arias. I had one of the most bizarre and incredible evenings in a theater seeing her tour of that disc in Carnegie Hall. This terrible little squeezebox Polish orchestra (or some such nonsense) followed by this enormous, unearthly, ungodly sound, which had some of the most breathtaking technique I’ve ever heard. It was truly overwhelming. Brilliant coloratura, followed by gigantic high b’s reduced to the tiniest pianissimi in the most terrifying Cenerentola you’ve ever heard. It. Was. Awesome. The claque of queens I was with screamed our throats sore.
She is a great artist, who is a crazy woman, but wonderful to watch and listen to.
Cassandra: the policy here is if you can tell stories, you should.
“Frittoli may have been good or bad, but how can her singing without score be called a major mistake?”
Many reasons. It’s inappropriate and rude when your colleagues all have the score. It’s a concert. Her dress was ugly, and it would have covered up the ridiculous fact that her midriff was showing in a REQUIEM FOR A FAMOUS DEAD TENOR. I could go on and on.
I saw Podles in a concert version of Tancredi and just it was mentioned before the sound takes you by surprise for just a few minutes and then the voice, the technique, the artistry, the stage presence are all overwhelming. I wish New York would see more of her.
“Cassandra: the policy here is if you can tell stories, you should.”
Oh my, which ones?
The Manon? Where to begin…
Should I start with how she was in such a state of panic about how she could not sing the role that she turned into a monster to work with in rehearsal, rivaling some of the Met’s greatest bitch psychos (and not in the good way?) In the first weeks of rehearsal she was staging a scene with the tenor (who is a sweet man, kind) who is obviously her equal in every way, including stardom and power, and was also singing her out of the room. Now, everyone knew she was suffering, but you would not believe how much support was given to her (I’ll get to that in a second.) She was impossible to work with. When I mean impossible, I mean not a staging was listened to, no musical advice was ever taken, and her colleagues wanted to choke her. In one particular instance, the tenor had to place his head on her shoulder in a tender moment (as directed.) She refused to look at him, and literally bounced his shoulder off his head. Hard. Not once. Not twice. Three times. On the third time, the tenor said, not in such polite language I might add, “If it were not for the fact that I respect Maestro Levine and the director, and had friends in the room here, I would walk out that door right now and not come back.” Everyone in the room stopped dead. The rehearsal was ended. They went to their corners, and barely spoke for the rest of the production.
Whatever you can say about this soprano, she isn’t stupid, and she does get hired for these things at top fee, and is heavily promoted. She accepts because everyone pushes her to do them, when really she is most comfortable now in things like Katya. So, she does them, when not really wanting to or being able to pull it off. After the dress, which was nothing short of disastrous, audience in shock, cast in distress, diva at the end of her rope, she declares backstage loudly that she’s leaving the production. Permanently. On a plane that day. Good bye. Next thing you know, Maestro has ushered the diva into her dressing room where, I kid you not, there is at least an hour of actual begging on bended knee, accompanied by the GM.
She soldiered on, ice mistress to all, receiving dreadful reviews, and creating lots of unhappy colleagues.
One would think it was the crazy old days. Divas do exist. Too bad the singing isn’t the same.
Well if Gelb had any Balls whatsoever he would fire Mattila and replace her with anyone. What happened to “I am gonna fire those bitches Gelb” The MET is becoming a bit shabby. I was with 3 lady friends and we were giggling it was so bad. Patrick summers conducts as if he were paraplegic. It was simply embarrassing, the MET orchestra was a disaster-there was no synchronicity between Pit and stage. Mattila’s acting was laughable, my friend Mildred turned to me and said “Is this supposed to be this funny?” I sshhhsssed her and said “no.”
And no desperate nude scene can make up for this disaster. Things like a huge orchestra playing completely out of tune clearly 2 beats behind the stage at times, (PS this was not rubato,) a middle-aged pathetic singing ‘nonactress” who perhaps can do a split but causes instantaneous non stop desire to drink because the singing is so poor. You’ll need the titles for Jochanaan because he is inaudible. My above comments about Kaiser still stands, why is a character tenor singing roles like Romeo and Tamino at the MET? Hopefully Narraboth will be the last role he sings there.
Watch Tony T. praise Mattila to the skies no matter what she sounds like. This had been certified a Great Performance (also by some critics who should know better) and he will not budge from that assessment, especially with the Mey doing a live moviecast.
Hey, mean queens, be a bit kinder. Mattila has given some exquisite performances here at the San Francisco Opera over the years, and though I thought she was miscast and ridiculous recently in “Manon Lescaut,” she did give it her all. I hope the stories about her total vocal distress are wrong, but if not, let me repeat, be kind.
Similarly, though Frittoli may not have set the Met on fire during the “Requiem,” she’s currently giving an exquisite performance in “Simon Boccanegra” in San Francisco with Hvorotovsky. There aren’t that many people in the world who can sing this stuff beautifully at any one time, so really, do appreciate the ones who can.
Gianni:
I am still hoping against hope (from what you said) that Summers can’t possibly sound worse than Gergiev did, in conducting this the last time…I was ready to hurl myself from Family Circle standing room, it was so painful..(and as much as I’ve sort of liked Mattila in some other things, I couldn’t quite understand what all the raves were about..bush, in any shape or form (hear that, W?) doesn’t work, for me….
Joe Kaiser is a gigantic WTF? to virtually everyone in the business. He started out as a less than mediocre baritone who was getting no work, disappeared and suddenly reemerged as a star tenor from the Chicago program? I don’t think so.
This is a career that is the epitome of hype, and a couple of “good” auditions for the right conductors (i.e. Domingo.) Unfortunately for him, he is now getting a reputation for canceling because he can’t sing the roles he’s hired for. Not a surprise, since there was no voice as a baritone either. Based on his recent forays, I don’t expect that he will be around for long. He’s also dopey and porky on stage. It’s a waste of space to even talk about him. He’ll be gone and forgotten before you know it.
As far as Mattila goes, I absolutely give her credit where credit is due. I don’t know how she got through Meistersinger earlier in her career, since her head always looked like it was in an epileptic fit when she was singing, but out in the house, the sound was quite appropriate and lovely, and I felt the same way about Kabanaova. She’s alway been overrated as an “actress”. To me, she’s from the Lauren Flanagan school of operatic acting. When you don’t have the notes, and all else fails, take your bra off, fall to your knees melodramatically, lurch around the stage clasping your hair, and pray to god the audience doesn’t know what’s going on. Surprisingly, it works for a lot of people.
Summers can absolutely sound worse than Gergiev. At least Gergiev can conduct when the music is slavic in nature, or he’s engaged by the piece. This cannot be said for run of the mill, pedestrian Ms. Summers. He would be better off leading NYCO. How he has any sort of international career is a mystery.
Regina – post number 53
http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=1770&row=0
(a very useful website)
#25 – since when is Verdi’s Requiem the most difficult work in the choral repertoire?????
“I saw Podles in a concert version of Tancredi and just it was mentioned before the sound takes you by surprise for just a few minutes and then the voice, the technique, the artistry, the stage presence are all overwhelming. I wish New York would see more of her.”
That New York hasn’t done so * though there have been a good number if concert s and recitals) is directly attributable to the execrable taste of Jonathan Friend, who once stated “Nothing in our repertory suits her”, evidently preferring Gloria Sclachi as Arsace and Ludmila Schemtchuk as Ulrica.
In the years since Ewa Podles has achieved fame on many of the world’s great stages, the Met’s repertory has encompassed Giulio Cesare, L’italiana in Algeri, Semiramide, La fille du régiment, Un ballo in maschera, Siegfried, Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, Elektra, Das Rheingold, Siegfried, Falstaff, Oedipus Rex and Rake’s Progress — all in her repertory– plus Luisa Miller, Pivokaja dama and Rusalka, which could be.
Ponchielli’s Cieca is too little,. hopefully not too late, but what a shame nit to have had Mme. Podles on the Met stage for the last 24 years because of one pernicious administrator.
Well.
It will surely be a relief to see some of these productions (Opening night, Salome, Gioconda) for ourselves. I have rarely seen such unrelenting nastiness. Cassandra: you undermine yourself through the vehemence of your silly rantings. It may be true that Mattila is in trouble (I certainly thought so based on the Manon last season). If so, then it is truly a shame. But it’s not like she has had success in her career (to date) for no reason. You fail to mention in your short list, the fact that Mattila triumphed in both Fidelio and Elektra – both of which were superbly sung AND acted. In fact, it was probably based upon those very significant acheivements that she now enjoys the “diva treatment”.
Of course, after seeing the operas in question for ourselves, perhaps most of the rest of us will agree with your negative assessments. Or perhaps not. Either way, I must say (counter to the rabble-rousing Cieca) that your nasty backstage tales (which haven’t yet been seconded in this forum) would be better kept to yourself. Honestly, whatever tantalizing tidbits they may contain are quickly overshadowed by your manner, which does seem tiresomely whiney. Really, it all comes across as a somewhat desperate stab at the age-old “I know the REAL scoop” angle. Frankly: ick.
Will Voigt step in and do both gioconda and salome?
I don’t find it strange that Podles hasn’t been engaged by the Met. I’ll say upfront that I have never heard her live, and perhaps my mind would be changed if I did. However, I checked out a lot of examples of her work on YouTube after reading many enthusiastic comments about her on here a while back, and I found her frankly bizarre, as well as terribly old-fashioned and fussy in her musical approach, and disconcerting in terms of platform manner. In fact, decidedly provincial. Not somebody I would rush to see. And it isn’t just the Met that has ignored her, if ignore is the right word. From what I can recall of the past decade and a bit when I’ve been paying attention to these matters, the Royal Opera hasn’t exactly been using her at every available opportunity either.
As an aside, I would add that accurate coloratura does not mean, or even imply, a good technique. In many cases I can think of, including Powdles, it is achieved partly through being very tense, which leads to a loss of facility throughout the range, and usually shrinks the size of the instrument too.
I think Podles is one of the great singers of our time, but it looks like the strange arc of her career is primarily her choice (or her manager’s, if she has one). She has not appeared regularly at any of the great houses, seeming to genuinely prefer working in Seattle, Philadelphia, and Caramoor. Her New York appearances are always poorly publicized, and frequently in a format (sharing the program with questionable orchestras and choirs) that many find unappealing. And though I would love to have her back at the Met in a big role, La Cieca seems to be one of the mainstays of her current repertoire and something she likes to sing.
If it works for her, I can’t criticise her. But I don’t think we can’t place all the blame on the Met administration.
Well said Evenhanded and Sfmimike. I agree with both of you and may I add that as far as Manon Lescaut goes – I agree Ms Matilla was far from the “ideal” Manon, but out of the dozen or so that I’ve seen, she was no worse than half of them.
It’s a prick of a role to sing – and one of the most difficult roles to elicit “warm & fuzzys” from the audience. At least she looked ok and although the sound was far from ideal it still wasn’t a train wreck either.
I’ve actually just read an interview with her in which she mentions her agent died and she had had trouble ever since, having had somebody working solely for her, and transfering to a large organisation where she is one of 50 artists on the books. She also talks in general about how she feels nobody understands her voice type. She also says her Met debut as Rinaldo came too soon and I think she was trying to say she somehow didn’t do it as well as she feels she would now.
Re Mattila’s Manon, I’ve always found it weird that an artist like her, who is surely in a position of choice about what she does and doesn’t sing, ended up being cast as Manon at the Met. She clearly found it difficult and must have realised it didn’t really suit her which makes one wonder why she put herself through it.
I hope these reports about the state of her voice are not true. The bits I have heard from her Met Salomes last time around don’t sound that healthy in the parts of the role where the tessitura is high over a sustained period (which is, of course, lots of it), so it doesn’t really surprise me. But I hope we’re not talking lasting damage or end of career sounds, as somebody above said.
I think Mattila would be a fabulous Isolde, I really do. Her voice is large enough, Isolde’s tessitura is not as tough as some of the Strauss heroines, and she doesn’t need to do the stentorian things Brunnhilde does. Even the top notes sopranos are expected to nail in the narration and curse are within her means – there is space around them, and the orchestra gets out of the way.
“Frankly: ick.”
Keep your finger-wagging school-marmishness to yourself. Cieca asked me to relate the stories, and I did.
“and usually shrinks the size of the instrument too.” This is completely inaccurate, and most certainly in her case. I would advise you to see her on stage before you make this assumption. Her voice alone blows about ninety percent of the Met roster off the stage.
Her working very little in major houses has zero to do with her voice, and everything to do with her personality.
Cassandra, for the sake of clarity, I was saying that tension usually shrinks the size of the voice. I wasn’t saying that people who can sing coloratura necessarily have small voices. Podles aside, because as you say I haven’t heard her live (though I stand by my impression – she looks and sounds tense to me), would you really say that my assertion that physical tension tends to limit the size of a person’s voice is ‘completely inaccurate’?
Well.
Cocky – I think Cassandra has made her “credentials” vis-a-vis vocal technique self-evident, so it may not be a productive discussion for you to get into.
From my perspective, Podles actually doesn’t seem all that tense when she sings, no. I have seen her live four times that I am recalling off the top of my head, and she has never seemed tense.
Messa-di-voce makes some very good points in #88. Make no mistake – I am an admirer of Podles’ singing (big time), but there is no question AT ALL that the technique and personna are a bit bizarre (especially the technique). She is not a large woman, and depsite what Cassandra thinks she heard in Carnegie Hall, the voice is not especially large. Podles can of course sound dramatic when needed, but we’re not talking a Zajick-sized sound here by ANY stretch. On the contrary, her overall tone is somewhat fuzzy, and this lack of a tight focus on the coloring tends to blanch out the overall sonic impact – except on the very highest notes where she is forced to focus more and of course sing rather loudly.
It has always been the case with this singer, that the registers are poorly integrated (if at all), and the “gear-shifting” she employs between registers can verge on the comical. This highly unorthodox (and unrefined) approach suits her personality and larger-than-life stage presence to excellent effect in much of the repertoire she sings. But not all. Where this works well for characters like Tancredi, Arsace, and Ulrica (and I imagine La Cieca as well), it DOES NOT work for roles like Isabella, Angelina, Rosina, and worse of all – Adalgisa. I think Podles more or less knows this, as she does tend to concentrate on the former type of roles and has pretty much given up the latter.
In summary, her technical command is impressive – even if one senses that she accomplishes much by sheer force of will rather than well-intergrated and polished technique. Perhaps the force of will behind the singing is what gives you the sense that she is “tense”. I suppose in that particular sense then, she is.
“How he has any sort of international career is a mystery.”
Not a mystery if you hear his conducting of the last act of CAPRICCIO as he did it on Friday.
Thanks for sharing your take on it, Evenhanded, it made for interesting reading.
Speaking of her gear changes, she mentioned those in the interview I read too – she said it simply isn’t possible to negotiate one’s way smoothly through the registers when one has a voice like hers. I would dispute that – I think it could be achieved, but at the expense of a great deal of the character she has which makes her so unique and appealing to many people.
I think there are a lot of different ideas out there about what a technique is. To me, a singer has a great technique when they have achieved maximum physical freedom so that their voice can flow from their body with the minimum of impediment or intervention. So in a sense, it is the opposite of the ‘control’ that so many people seek to impose on their voices. Exemplars of what I’m talking about would be Freni and Caballe. It strikes me that Podles is taking the opposite approach, and seeking to dominate an idiosyncratic instrument and get it as firmly under her thumb as she can, however she can. The results are certainly compelling and allow her to communicate what she wants to and so her technique is also successful – just very much at odds with what I usually think of as good technique.
In re: video hosts for tonight.
I was told that the duties are divided between
Susie G. (inside)
Debbie V. and Mary Jo Heath (Times Square and Plaza-in-exile)
I saw Graham rehearsing her interview with Martha Stewart (with a man standing in for Martha) on Friday. She really is very fine. We should all make very much of her: refined artist, game singer, healthy all-American personal affect. It is she, not The Beautiful Voice, who is best set to take on the public operatic spokesperson role that Sills more or less occupied in this society.
Matilla has done, in the last decade, fantastic work in roles that are really to large for her cool Nordic sound (especially the Salome). That it is inevitably coming apart NOW, does in no way negate the amazing work she did previously – the debut year of the Salome was mind-blowingly good.
Fritolli, at Levine’s behest, has spent the last couple of years trying to beef up her esentially lovely, lyric/Mozart sound, so that she could become the latest in his attempts to “develop” a Verdi soprano. It has failed, and quickly too, but that has nothing to do with her musicianship. She is a superb musician, knows the Requiem inside out, every diacritical, everything – and that’s why she doesn’t use a score; she doesn’t need it. It is sad that her vocal ability is no longer able to express what she clearly knows she wants to do.
Giordani is a disaster in the Requiem – Jimmy knows it, having shepherded him thru one a few years ago in which he literally couldn’t phonate the Hostias in the rehearsals. All Jimmy cares about is having him scream out the Ingemisco, and that’s why he keeps hiring him for it.
I don’t know who Cassandra is, but that description of the Manon rehearsal is a flat out lie. Say what you want about Renee but she is a consumate professional in rehearsal, and having been on the musical staff for Manon I will tell you first hand that it was nothing like that. Spreading untruths like that is unfair and wrong. I like a bit of good gossip just like the next person, but not when it’s totalyl fabricated. I think you can tell from the very bitter comments Cassandra makes in most postings that this is not a person who really knows the art form or cares much about it. This is a person who wants attention and wants to stir up controversy at the expense of the truth.
Well.
Trey: I believe that Cassandra was talking about a rehearsal of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (last season) with Karita Mattila, not of Massenet’s Manon with Renee Fleming.
This confusion nontwithstanding, I tend to agree fully with the latter part of your post.
Umm, wasn’t Cassandra referring to Matilla in Manon LESCAUT, and not Renayyyyy in Manon?
I’m very distressed to hear about Matilla’s troubles in Salome but I will wait to hear for myself (on the radio or via the met website). The descriptions of her singing and the dress rehearsal seem a bit hyperbolic to me.
Count me as one of those who did not find her Manon Lescaut to be a huge disaster — far from it. She certainly wasn’t ideal and the second act was obviously not a good vocal fit. But she still gave a compelling performance and was wonderful in the last act. It was definitely a disappointment when compared the stunning array of successes she has had at the Met — Leonore, Jenufa, Katya, Chrysothemis, Salome — but if the same people who are writing off her Salome are the ones who think her Manon was a disaster, then I’ll wait and see.
Ewa Podles is a regular in Toronto and I’ve been fortunate to see her in recital, in concert and in a few operatic roles in (Giulio Cesare, Jocasta, Tancredi and Klytemnästra).
It is true that she has a strange technique and the breaks in the voice are obvious. Sometimes, she sounds like she’s singing with three distinct voices. The voice IS large. It has a lot of volume but it does not cut nor does it have any steel to it like a traditional spinto.
And most definitley, she needs to be heard live to be fully appreciated. Recordings don’t do her justice (though I would recommend her Rossini arias and her Russian songs and arias recordings). Whatever her flaws, she is a phenomenon and every serious opera lover should attempt to hear her live at least once. She is utterly unique.
“Eva Poodles” pulled double duty last year in Houston… a great Ulrica followed by a hilarious turn as the Marquise of Berkenfield…
Missed her terribly in San Fran’s Ariodante in June.
As told to me by a woman that has directed her: She eats ONIONS in the wings before coming onstage!!!
Onions?? What a way to endear oneself to one’s colleagues! And wouldn’t they severely dry out her throat?
Anyway, I would kill to hear her as Ulrica. In my head, I can hear her sing that final “silencio”.
“I don’t know who Cassandra is, but that description of the Manon rehearsal is a flat out lie. Say what you want about Renee but she is a consumate professional in rehearsal, and having been on the musical staff for Manon I will tell you first hand that it was nothing like that. Spreading untruths like that is unfair and wrong. I like a bit of good gossip just like the next person, but not when it’s totalyl fabricated. I think you can tell from the very bitter comments Cassandra makes in most postings that this is not a person who really knows the art form or cares much about it. This is a person who wants attention and wants to stir up controversy at the expense of the truth.”
I was talking about Mattila’s Manon LESCCAUT for god’s sake. Can you read? I know Renee would never do anything like that. Jesus. The knee jerk reactions to my posts are tiresome. I’m in the business. I was at the rehearsal. Please shut up.
Also, to the person who said Zajick had a bigger sound than Podles? Um, no. I’ve heard both in Carnegie, and Podles voice is much bigger. There’s a reason Podles sings Wagner and Zajick does not. Zajick has a nice big healthy sound, but it is not Wagnerian. Podles’s voice is an undeniable force of nature, whether you find it good singing or not.
Birgit Nilsson recommended gargling with gin to me
Forget onions
Cassandra:
If you’re “In the Business” as you claim, and you speak of your colleagues in such a disrespectfully creepy fashion…even using the pseudonym of a whining banchee that historically everyone found a real pain in the butt and paid no mind to…god help us ALL
I’ve been quite amused by Cassandra- she might be more fun than this evening…
what’s the story here with Cassandra? Isn’t everyone allowed to give their own takes on what they hear in the theater? It is their opinion. Why can’t she give her opinion.?
I stand corrected and offer appologies to Cassandra. I misread your post thinking you were refering to Fleming’s Manon.
I stand corrected and offer appologies to Cassandra. I misread your post thinking you were refering to Fleming’s Manon.
Though I will add that Cassandra doesn’t need to be such a nasty bitch about it…it was a misunderstanding and a simple correction would have sufficed.
If your prophecies were constantly ignored, you’d be bitchy too!
But in the end, I was right, and you all had to admit it.
Regardless of whether I misunderstood which Manon you were refering to your bitchy story is yet to be proven.
Cassandra did not just give an opinion. She is a professional who WAS at that rehearsal and I can vouch for her because I was there too. In fact Cassandra exercised self-control in telling that sordid story. I would have gone nuch further. I would not want to badmouth my colleagues (yes that’s it, my colleagues) but if I were to tell you the truth you would all freeze in horror.
I am sorry everyone, please disregard my last post. I was at the OTHER Manon rehearsal with Renee and I don’t know who Cassandra is. Please carry on.
We always do!
Josephine at 117 and 118, that was amongst your best yet. Yours &c.
CK
I wouldn’t be surprised by La Mattila’s unravelling, though I’m sorry for it. A friend who risked her Leonora described the often beautiful sound as polo-like (the mint with the hole) – there’s no fibre at the core (to mix metaphors).
So what was great? Her Elsa, her wacky Musetta (what a gal), Elisabetta from the acting point of view and the aria to the Countess, but NOT ‘Tu che la vanita’. Surely, Cocky, it would be disastrous for her to do Isolde’s curse stuff in Act One? I’m sure the duet would be beautiful, and even the Liebestod, but…
Scara, my take on Mattila is that she should have been doing bigger stuff all along, not the opposite. She’s never let her voice out in a completely uninhibited, healthy way. If she were to do so, I think people would be gob-smacked. My desire to hear her as Isolde assumes a healthy starting point, so no, I guess she shouldn’t do it now. But I don’t think Mattila has EVER sung to her full potential, or ever got her voice properly sorted out. If she had done so, I do believe Isolde would have been a great role for her.
To take up another of Cassandra’s points, isn’t the reason that Zajick doesn’t sing Wagner mostly because she seems not to want to, rather than anything else? She’s always had a tiny repertoire which she is only prepared to sing in a tiny number of houses and an even tinier number of recording studios. She is in posession of a high quality voice of a very rare type – the bona fide dramatic mezzo – which means she will always be in demand, and so she works that to her advantage which means she nearly always seems to get to stay at home, and rarely has to learn any new music. Nice work if you can get it, although not the most exciting career ever (although this dullness is pretty consistent with how she comes across on stage to me).
She would be more than capable of Fricka, or whatshername in Gotterdammerung – do I mean Waltraute? – or Brangane or Ortrud or Kundry or possibly even Sieglinde. If she expressed the vaguest desire to sing any of them she’d be booked up like a shot.
An interesting take, Cocky; maybe you’re right. It’s a weird paradox that Our Karita has always rather enjoyed throwing herself around on stage (sorry, I did laugh at one of Cassandra’s descriptions, though I laughed even louder at Josephine’s double-riposte) but perhaps the voice has never been trained into the right sort of chuck-around shape? Can any good technician – and a few occasionally drop into this site – explain the polo effect?
Just been watching (’cos I had to) Nadja Michael’s Salome on DVD, and close up the intensity of her performance does carry all the awful tuning and approximate singing. From a distance in the opera house, I winced. I thoroughly recommend the 50-minute ‘let’s make an opera’ documentary that goes with it.
I feel as if I understand it, Scara, but slightly despair of being able to get it across… voices work to their best advantage, as everybody knows, when the singer simply breathes well and lets it out. Assuming a body is perfectly relaxed to start with, the in breath will be deep without the singer ‘trying’ to take a deep breath, the support muslces will engage automatically (they will not be engaged by conscious will) and the singer will sing. The voice will naturally make use of whatever resonating chambers exist in the body and the result will be a sound that is properly rich and complex.
The slightest little manifestations of physical tension in the body will have an impact, and will detract from the sound. For instance, applying a bit too much pressure to chest muslces will kill a bit of resonance from the chest cavity, as will tense shoulders. If the back of the tongue comes up either on the in breath, or during singing, it makes access to the top a shade more difficult. This will have a knock on effect – the singer might really grip with the stomach muscles, or maybe tense and raise the jaw, just to give 2 possible examples, in order to get those top notes out another way. These things often result in a faster, narrower vibrato, which I think is absolutely manifest all though Mattila’s recital disc (the one which includes Lisa, Elsa, Amelia Grimaldi etc).
Mattila does have quite a lot of tension around her neck and shoulders, and I think this simply limits the extent to which her voice can resonate in her own body. This is what I find so frustrating about her – were this not the case, we wouldn’t get the polo mint effect, we would get more volume, far more ease, and she’d have access to a much broader range of repertoire.
I have no doubt that somebody will now come along and tell me the above is totally inaccurate, or possibly that I know nothing about singing, but whatever. That is my sense of what is going on with Mattila, a sense I have gained through working to address a lot of my own tension issues with a really marvellous teacher.
Cocky
Thinking about it, I think you are right. In the sound she has the framework for a very large voice but without a core to it we will never know.
Well…
At least over Sirius cyber-space, tonight’s SALOME, at the MET sounded like a dramatic tour-de-force..no prophesised melt-downs–at least no unintentional ones–to these ears.
I was very less than wild(e)about the last outing of this production, in 2004..in fact , I thought it stunk to high heaven. Tonight, however, I was very hooked in to Matilla’s deranged Princess of Judea. she actually started out in an almost Mozart-ean sound, until she got crazier and crazier.
While I know what we hear over the air isn’t the same as what is heard in the House, I thought Kaiser sounded quite fine—no trouble hearing him—or liking what I heard.
Summers’s reading was much more lyrical than many other conductors might chose…but very beautiful, and very dramatic nonetheless…
brooklynpunk: your take from the radio is similar to that of La Cieca’s spy in the house tonight.
[La Cieca has "promoted" this comment to a posting of its own.]
Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. Mattila’s Salome was one of the greatest things I’ve ever experienced. I was hoping she’d knock ‘em dead.
Several of my friends were also in the house tonight and raved about Mattila which brings up the question about Cassholeandra who in the guise of in the “business” and present at the rehearsals lied lied lied. Why did she do that?
At the Salome tonight, Mattila had all the notes in place, no problem with the high notes at all.
She does not possess a very seamless or caressing legato – amd legato is required in certain stretches of the role – She received a nice ovation at the end but then do not most Salomes ? Others however have sung with more vocal nuance.
Kim Begley may have been the best of the entire cast with precise diction and attractive tone as Herod. Ildiko Komlosi is a bit blowsy as Herodias but her top notes are brilliant – unusual for Herodias as many of those singing the role are a bit over the hill vocally. Uusitalo as Jochanaan improved as the evening went along – the voice is strong but not as sonorous aa a Hotter or Schoeffler nor as beautiful as a Waechter or Weikl. Uusitalo is probably better as Wotan. Kaiser was acceptable. I thought the conducting to be mediocre or maybe the orchestra just did not play with the delicacy required in the lyrical passages or with the warmth of tone which other conductors such as Boehm could elicit. I disliked the production last time round and it hardly improves on second viewing. The house was quite full. Not a scintillating or electrifying Salome but a serviceable performance despite a rather hideous set. Mattila still maintains a very flexible body though I wished at times she would have concentrated more on producing a more even vocal line and a bit less on the physical gymnastics the production seems to require.
Malde’s description is what I heard on Sirius – Mattila is gettng older, she is still a game artist. Last year as the Puccini Manon she just did a lot of screaming above the staff – seemed to have an all-purpose high note of very vague pitch. I did hear some of that tonight in the final twenty minutes. As for the comment that Salome is all “effect music,” well yes!
Sure in hell is — very Oscar Wilde, eh wot? Of course it is not profound, has no “humanity” — it’s not in the story. Salome is the true ’shabby little shocker’ — we’ve heard it about ten zillion times here in Santa Fe — it was Crosby’s bread-and-butter, and I am sick of the damn thing. It can work on two counts – if and when the orchestra is fine and if it is well conducted — such can be very exciting; and when you have an early Welitsch or a prime Nilsson in the role, the vocalization of the final scene can also be very thrilling and effective. But for pete’s sake don’t expect emotional resolution or high humanity – it’s guignol!
mrmyster
santa fe
Just back from the MET Salome and I will say that this was dreadful simply dreadful. Gualtier you need a new set of ears or balls. Horrible performance…. What a disgrace..
Gianni
I can understand why you would take issue with Gualtier’s ears in the light of your disgraceful experience at the Met, even though he is hardly responsible for that. But why does he need a new set of balls?
Your name, Gianni, is actually far more suitable to one of my favorite Christmas carols than Gualtier’s:
Deck the halls with balls of Gianni
Fa la la la la la la la la
I gotta agree with Gianni- I was there last night as well, and found it to be very harsh. There was beauty in the 04 performances, and that seemed to be lacking last evening. Also, the orchestra sounded like a band…
I wouldn’t be quite so quick to dismiss the comments from people at the rehearsals. I think Mattila’s vocal shape is quite fragile at this point, as evidenced by other recent productions. That she pulled it out at the performance doesn’t surprise me, she is a pro. But I would bet we’ll see cancellations, and I’d be surprised if the Met gets a broadcast/dvd worthy performance out of this.
The Orchestra was atrocious last evening. That is saying quite a bit as I LOVE the MET Orchestra. An Orchestra that can make Wozzeck sound simple is a great Orchestra when handled by a capable conductor, it really is one of the great orchestras as I heard, albeit on Sirius, at the Verdi Requiem. There were shadings, phrasings, and small details I had never really noticed before. Perhaps it was Levine’s working on the internal lines more than others, I dont know but I was very touched by that presentation in particular. As for my last quip at Gualtier Malde, I apologize, think you need to keep very high standards in this day and age and this is not a Metropoliatn Opera Standard. And I am sorry all the notes being in place is not good enough for the MET and all the high notes were NOT there there was one note that sho obviously substitututed a G# instead of a B because she was completely shot. Seemless legato try NO LEGATO. Jochanahaan was inaudible and I was on the Grand Tier. Kaiser is acceptable perhaps to Don Basilio but nothing else. The MET cannot continue in this artistic voice or else there will be no standards whatsoever. Gelb needs to stop involving himself in the artistic end of things and stick to PR in which he is excellent. They need a new set of ears that actually has standards and is willing to say this doesn’t cut it.
The orchestra is exhausted at the moment. The preseason rehearsal schedule has been insane and they are working around the clock. Adding the Requiem to the already-full schedule has pushed them over the top. You wouldn’t believe how much they are working right now. Cut them some slack.