The dancing alternated between “let’s trip daintily in the merrye month of May” and “Flashdance anguish.” Ms. Blythe sang with worrying muscularity for most of the night, and “Che faró” was just dull and emotionally flat. She has done some extraordinarily affecting singing, and is a true musician’s musician, but something was just off here. DDN sang with no particular distinction other than utter incomprehensibility. She would be well served to seek some differentiation in vowel sounds.

But the biggest shonda was Heidi Grant Murphy. How ragged and flimsy her voice has become! On top of it all, she was forced to wear an outrageously unflattering costume that made Amore look like a cashier named Barb at Costco.

Eh, I got a cheap seat and it only took an hour and a half out of my night.

Mrmyster – you DO tempt me – never been to Santa Fe – heard Brewer as Dyer’s Wife in Chicago, she sings like FLAGSTAD, so she ought to be one hell of an Alceste. (which is the right destination, there and back again, yes?)

The only other time I heard Blythe give less than her splendid best was in the concert Mignon for OONY – as Blythe always expresses certainty, essential conviction so well, she did not seem able to connect with this waif of a character who is uncertain about everything – her race, her ancestry, her position in society, even (arguably) her gender. She is a fragile character and Blythe does not portray fragile well. It goes against her natural grain. (I felt this, too, about the Liu of Stoyanova, another singer I greatly admire.)

Well, they didn’t fall out of the Dr. Atomic cubbies, did they?

RE the Orfeo production: I can’t understand why the rows of balconies for the chorus have those grills that obscure them from tit to toe. (Perhaps to prevent falls?) You can scarcely see their wonderful costumes. This production is a good idea sabotaged by poor execution (unlike the Damnation of Faust, which was a bad idea with predictable results).

That’ll do, as a cast.

http://www.amazon.com/Gluck-Euridice-Podles-Rodrigo-Merced/dp/B00000I6MH

Any word on Netrebko’s Lucia? How did the rehearsals go? Anyone going tonight to provide a report?

I have said it here before, but I was told Ms. Podles eats ONIONS like apples in the wings…

As mentioned before Heidi Grant Murphy vocally seems to be at the end of her tether – almost cackling at times. Any young soprano with a sweet voice would be preferable.

Cotrubas was an absolutely cherishable artist.

After hearing both the first night of Orfeo live at the Met and then the Broadcast, I still feel that Blythe, an admirable artist with a formidable voice, is too harsh in the lower register, utilizing an overabundance of chest tones for Orfeo (such chest tones might well resonate brilliantly for dramatic effect in certain Verdi mezzo roles, but when overdone seem just a bit too strident for Gluck).
But this may be the method Blythe always utilizes for lower notes – her natural tone as it seems, at least for her, rather effortless.

That said, I was in the House on Saturday and was bored stiff. I agree with Hans Lick. And, as if in proof that he’s right about what sort of affect she’s best at, her one rousing moment for me on Saturday was the triumphant moment at the very end. There she really shone.

As for the Euridice, I’ve already almost forgotten the performance. And I wish I could forget the Amor. She stalks my nightmares. HGM used to be harmless and, I suppose, dependable — hence her staying employed, if it’s not all about companies needing the considerable skills of her husband. But, oh, what a miserable display on Saturday!

I detest the production. How many shows does that make now that have the scaffolding-type set? For all Mark Morris’s undoubted interest in music, who can listen to Gluck and have a vision anything like that lackluster sight before us? When the back of the stage opened to show the lovely blue sky, I wanted to shout out with pleasure! My eyes for starved for the non-dreary.