it takes a villars
Heldentenordiva Jon Villars (center, in mohawk) “basically fired himself by walking off the stage” at a public dress rehearsal for the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Fidelio. According to a report in The Globe and Mail, Villars stormed off stage immediately after conductor Gregor Buhl “loudly sang out a few phrases of the tenor’s part” during the second act. Jumping in as Florestan will be Icelandic tenor Jon Ketilsson and later Richard Margison.
As an accompanist, I always try to catch singers when they make mistakes. But surely when an entire orchestra and chorus is involved and one is in the middle of a (quasi-)performance of an ensemble number, it should be up to the one errant singer to make the necessary adjustment (as opposed to having the universe adjust to him). I don’t understand why this is a “singer vs. conductor” issue, it’s just common sense. I know singers think the world revolves around them, but you know what, it really doesn’t.
blythe certainly sang like a goddess (although she did get a little tired in the middle of che faro … understandable, as she was unstinting in her use of chest throughout the afternoon). however, she doesn’t really make the impact you can in this piece with her VERY limited acting. this is NOT a size-ist remark … not at all … i found her and de niese a very believable couple … but having experienced daniels (in the chicago production) break my heart, this was a more purely musical experience. de niese, actually, took acting honors … her recits and aria were very moving. murphy was a disaster. and palumbo deserved every cheer — some of the best choral work i’ve ever heard at the met. and finally … did mark morris really need to wear pearls and a pink pashmina?
Sorry, guys, I go back to Birgit Nilsson in 1966 who lay on the cistern platform in that incredible black crow feather wig and sang the beginning of the last section of Salome’s final scene with her head thrown back over the edge. A) Birgit Nilsson was known for working hard in rehearsal but didn’t do things she felt were bad for her, and B) She looked and sounded fantastic. And let’s not forget Jeritza who famously sang Visse d’Arte flat on her stomach, which Puccini loved.
Singers don’t have to stand still in the middle of the stage looking straight at the conductor to perform well.
Having performed Fidelio many times before, I can attest to the fact that the finale is one big potential train wreck. Everybody’s on heightened alert for the last 10 minutes or so of the opera. Conductors and singers know this – or they should – which is why it’s so essential for them to have worked out early on what to do if something goes wrong. It’s hard to know what Buhl thought he was accomplishing by taking over Villar’s line. In my experience, this sort of thing only adds to the confusion, mainly because everyone on stage gets distracted by all that caterwauling emanating from the pit. I think a far better approach would have been for the conductor to look at Villars directly while holding up his left hand as a signal to stop singing until he’s cued to come back in. After that, the two of them could have hashed things out in private, away from the rest of the company.
tenore23 from YouTube posts an example of Villars as Florestan.
Speaking of the simulcast…I thought Blythe was fantastic. I have to admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of dance in opera, and so most of the time my mind wandered when the dancers were the main focal point.
#54 – speaking of the Orfeo simulcast, I was bored stiff and very disappointed by Blythe. NOT a role for her. She looked so coarse and uninteresting. She was not on form at all, I felt. The voice is getting much too baritonal and hooty from mid register on down; she seemed today to bring the “chest” tone way to high, and when she finally would go into ‘head’ voice it was dynamically weak and a whole different color. I think there are problems there. I was told she was not well, and she surely sounded it — plus there was little dramatic force in her work today. DeNiese is all about De Niese, which I guess is OK for the role, though I thought the voice a bit throaty; and that New Jersey hausfrau they had for Amor was simply a bad joke. She looked and sounded like Gracie Allen. Jeez, Louise, can’t they do better than this? Di Donato should have been singing the title role rather than serving as mere hostess.
In all, a hon-hum afternoon.
MrMyster, having seen Blythe in the house last Tuesday, I listened again this afternoon to see if she could possibly be as dull, as uninvolved with the music as she seemed then. Alas, it was true. This is simply not a part that speaks to her, or that she is capable of bringing to life. She might have been singing the phone book.
Technically, however, I disagree with you – she seemed in splendid form all through the performance (on both occasions). But none of it meant anything, and when Daniels sang it, it was a cry of anguish and despair.
I also liked De Niese more than you did – she was acting quite intensely, both as a singer and a player. Her confusion for once made this incomprehensible role make a bit of sense. (I hate what the librettist did to a wonderful myth in this opera.)
Murphy – yes, isn’t she awful? I guess she’s the only Met singer who will get in that flying harness, huh?
revisiting the met archives … orfeo followed by cavalleria? that must have been truly shocking!
My memory of David Daniels in the first season of the production are of a totally committed, involved, and enormously moving Orfeo. My experience of him goes back to his breakthrough role as Nerone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at Glimmerglass in 1994. His voice, even then, had a presence and dramatic quality enough that I referred to him as a heldencountertenor. The man is a treasure.