parterre box

96 comments

• Leonardo d'Olandia says:

  What a bummer for you guys in NYC!

  It’s a pity that Rolando’s voice still is in decline (started four years ago…).
  It looks like Anna Netrebko has to get another manager, who knows better what to do with the voice (learning and daring to say “no” to Mr. Gelb).

  Best whishes from overseas.

  on January 28, 2009 at 6:01 AM
• Cocky Kurwenal says:

  Well, other than 4 more Lucias in Vienna, Netrebko is spending the rest of the season singing far more congenial repertoire – Giulietta in London (still bel canto, but a bit more of a realistic prospect), Traviata (lets hope she doesn’t go for the e-flat!), Mimi and finally, thank God, Iolantha in Baden-Baden for which she is pretty much ideal. Lets hope Iolantha is well enough received to indicate to her management that THIS is what she should be using her talents for. I love the opera in any case and it would be great if it got a bit more of a foot hold in the repertoire, troublesome though its length is.

  What do people think the chances are of either Netrebko being replaced as Anna Bolena, or an alternative opera being mounted as Netrebko’s season opener in 2011? They’ve probably made too much of a fuss about it already to substitute anything (or anyone) now, and it isn’t as wide of the mark for her as Lucia is, but I’d still prefer somebody with a more dramatic voice and a more precise approach for Anna Bolena.

  on January 28, 2009 at 8:54 AM
• Nerva Nelli says:

  “Ms. Netrebko was spellbinding. In the hushed pianissimo passage when the delusional young woman believes she and her beloved Edgardo are at last united, she created vocal magic, imbuing lines with spectral colorings that matched the eerie sounds of the glass harmonica, played by Cecilia Brauer. Her earthy, subdued expressivity had me thinking of Callas.”

  How can this man not be ashamed to be a shameless apologist for Gelb’s stsr system and the record company darlings?

  The LUCIA review is proof if ever such were needed that Tommasini is not fit to review operatic performances.

  Previous Callas comparisons by him include Flanigan and Hunt Leiberson, plus there have n=been more, along with all those “cool Nordic sounds”.

  A disgrace.

  on January 28, 2009 at 9:41 AM
• tom222 says:

  Something I mean quite serious:

  Why is everybody bashing Netrebko left and right!? We all know she is no second Callas, we all know where she delivers her goods and where not. But at least she gives a little attention to opera. If there are about 100 people who get really interested in the art form we all love so much, isn’t that a good thing!?

  on January 28, 2009 at 10:00 AM
• Sanford says:

  I have two other suggestions for Lucia, one of which will most assuredly get me flamed, but I don’t care.

  Erika Miklosa – she already looks a little crazed when she sings and she’d have no trouble with the coloratura.

  Young Ok Shin – She’s sung Lucia at the Met already

  Or…. how about transposing it into mezzo keys and letting Bartoli claim it’s the Maria Malibran version.

  on January 28, 2009 at 11:42 AM
• kashania says:

  Sanford: YES!!! A Bartoli Marlibran Lucia is the real answer. Bravo!

  on January 28, 2009 at 11:52 AM
• klingsor2000 says:

  For those of us who were there, the Times review really does suggest that the write is either deaf or bribed! Many have long felt that theTimes reviews are aimed at the masses who have NOT seen the performances, so they can write freely. And for the few who were there and know how false the Times reviews are? — “so WHAT”!!?

  on January 28, 2009 at 2:10 PM
• iltenoredigrazia says:

  There’s a more accurate review in today’s The Washington Post by Ms. Midgette.

  Was the glass harmonica used or not? I doesn’t sound like it on the sound clip. But the review above refers to it…

  on January 28, 2009 at 2:34 PM
• Cocky Kurwenal says:

  It was, in the mad scene, just not for the cadenza, which used the flute for some reason. You can just hear it in the background in ‘spargi d’amaro pianto’ (sp?).

  on January 28, 2009 at 3:07 PM
• kashania says:

  Yes, Midgette’s review is far more exacting and much more reflective of the audio clips I’ve heard on this site. Midgette has become a changed writer since leaving the NYT, which makes me wonder even more about the NYT and the editors. How much of non-specific, bland, let’s-not-criticise-anyone “criticism” is actually the result of what’s been taken out of the NYT’s reviews by the editors?? I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories but I’m starting to believe that this whole Gelb influence on the NYT theory may not be so far-fetched.

  on January 28, 2009 at 3:14 PM