parterre box

96 comments

• Hans Lick says:

  Okay, now I’ve listened to the clip.

  No, the E-flats were not good, and she’d be wise to take them down. Also the shriek is ridiculous and NOT bel canto. But I don’t see why people are so fierce about this. It’s no sort of disgrace.

  I recall my first Rigoletto (9/19/68, debut of Aragall and Judith Forst), when Peters ducked the high notes after Caro Nome and the quartet. I was very disappointed (I was a kid and I’d been listening to the first Sutherland recording), but I knew even then that they were not written by Verdi. And Peters just didn’t have them any more. Did she owe me a pie in the face? She did not. (She sang wonderful Adinas and Oscars that same season.) Ten years later, when I knew a bit more, I heard Ashley Putnam’s Ophelie at NYCO and was impressed that she omitted high notes she didn’t have. The result was a far finer performance. Netrebko should consider that, or simply transpose it down. (As Sutherland transposed the Queen of the Night, by the way, never having had a reliable F.)

  Other than that, Netrebko sounds rather lovely here – I’d certainly rather hear her Donizetti than Dessay’s. But I’d rather hear Damrau’s Lucia than either of theirs (it was a very good one last fall the night the set broke and she had to improvise a new staging of the mad scene), and I’d rather hear Devia’s Donizetti than any other soprano now singing him (to my knowledge). Based on the Maria Stuarda last year, she has perfect command of the style, the technique and the POINT of the whole thing.

  Has Radvanovsky ever sung Lucia? It’s higher than Lucrezia, and more exposed, but not by that much.

  on January 28, 2009 at 5:11 PM
• E says:

  It is sung down a half step, which is the exact key that the following tenors always sing this piece in in live performances: Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras, Bergonzi, Tucker, Peerce, Labo, Konya, and many more. The only tenors I recall singing this is the original key are/were: Gedda, Kraus, Giordani, and perhaps one or two more. It is virtually tradition to lower this 1/2 tone. It is NOT lowered a full tone as some were saying before the performance.

  on January 28, 2009 at 7:03 PM
• E says:

  I further think it is a terrible thing to publish this on Youtube, for, IMHO, the sole reason of being vindictive to Villazon. I have published live performance recordings for more than 40 years, and would never publish a performance- not even a note- that showed any singer off badly. This was done with purpose and a nasty kind of glee, and it disgusts me completely.

  on January 28, 2009 at 7:10 PM
• mrmyster says:

  #87 “deaf or bribed…” the writer in the Times. Well, in a way both, Mr Klingsor — and I commend your brief posting: it’s on the right track.
  The Times is very beholden to the NY business establishment, for obvious reasons beginning with advertising, and the want to “sell” NY arts performances. It’s just about that simple. Tony T. hears what he wants to hear and writes pro-establishment reviews that always put a favorable twist on things. I have often written this here and I’ll say it again as regards Tommassini: He is whore to the New York arts business establishment.”
  Shocking, but true — and in the end, very boring.
  I love your postings Klingsor and Hans Lick. Keep ‘em coming.

  on January 28, 2009 at 7:38 PM
• merefoix118 says:

  OMG the Malibran Lucia version is cracking! Don’t get the Bartoli machinery started, dunce!

  on January 29, 2009 at 8:06 AM
• Cantantelirico says:

  There is nothing quite like tearing down the idols we once build and worshiped.

  on January 31, 2009 at 10:04 PM