the morning after
The operatives were busy over the midnight hours:
“Act 3 was a mixed bag. The opening showed Villazon in much better form, with solid phrasing. The Mad Scene started out beautiful, Netrebko spinning out haunting legato. She was completely involved and engaged. Then she fell apart at the flute solo, sounding under supported and wavering off pitch dangerously. She never recovered through the end of the scene. She sounded as if she had just run out of energy and attempted no high note, which may have been a blessing. Villazon ended the show beautiful, showing us what he can sound like — though there were two large cracks. The voice was nonetheless much more secure. Kwiecien was by far the best thing about the show, displaying a healthy voice and fantastic acting from beginning to end. His was the only stellar performance. Also, if I am not mistaken, which having sung this scene before I am quite sure I am not, the whole Act 3 scene was taken down a whole step.”
“You were not wrong to sign off when you did — Act II was the high point by far in all respects. With my wretched Blackberry no longer impeding my thoughts, I’ll thus conclude — Act III featured the most extensive and most exposed singing of our poor Rolando, and his near-miss on the Act II A was repeated on a couple other notes — though he did hit notes of equally difficulty without incident. Maybe he’s just that good an actor, but peering at him through my binoculars, I really did feel at the beginning of the last scene as though he were in mourning for himself. I’m too sad for him to be any more critical — though the incredible energy he displaying during the curtain may prove my theory wrong. Netrebko’s mad scene certainly lacked the bel canto qualities one expects, but her singing was secure — with the exception of the last note, where she paused before dropping down.”
“Well, first off there were no Ebs to miss in the Mad Scene because there were no Ebs, which was probably a good thing because any time Netrebko went above a C?(I don’t have the ear or knowledge of the score that other members of your public have but let just say anything “high”), it was shaky or abandoned, one time rather awkwardly. Other than that omission/decision, which resulted in a bit of a shock I think at the end of the scene, it was a nicely sung, although rather un-”bel canto” Mad Scene. Villazon had some small problems during the Wolf’s Crag scene that he compensated for by just backing off. Same during the final scene. His first aria (“Fra poco…”) was actually nice, although I am guessing based on posts from the other night that it was indeed transposed down, and frankly if I hadn’t heard Bezcala do such a beautiful, powerful rendition of this two months ago I might
not have noticed it was lacking. And at the end he sang all the “Bel Alma”‘s which was an improvement over Monday as well. I would say that it is unlikely either will be replaced. Netrebko seemed to be getting her legs back and by next Saturday will probably be just fine for the
broadcast, although not terribly exciting. Villazon just can’t sing full out for long periods of time. But it didn’t sound like phlegm was the issue tonight. The response to both Anna and Rolando was huge from
the crowd, proving that to the majority of today’s opera fans (at the Met at least), these performances are about what people expect or are looking for. My personal recommendations for the HD broadcast would be to tell people to turn off their *#$&(% cell phones (there were at
least five loud rings tonight, including one phone that must have belonged to the patron who dropped their hearing aid on the floor in family circle, it was deafening) and also to consider looking to the
covers for the trumpet players because the first fanfare of the opera is seemingly beyond whomever was attempting to play it last night and Monday. Also could Colin Lee please do double duty a la Plishka in Boheme and sing the role of Normanno as well as Arturo. Michael Myers seriously needs a microphone. It is ridiculous and just starts the whole night off on a bad foot.”
ashton/dorion—i completely agree. As an instrumentalist I often find it rather appalling what I see at the MET. Could you imagine a pianist or violinist at the NyPhil not being able to play an arpeggio or execute a cadenza? I sometimes get the feeling that some singers like netrebko, never developed the type of disciplined practice habits which instrumentalists have developed to ensure that they have the technical facility to play anything—the kind of discipline which scotto, sutherland, callas, sills had. None of their technical accomplishments were “miracles”, they were the product of hard work.
The last thing anyone should worry about during the Mad Scene at the MET is whether the soprano is able to sing what is written in the score. When I saw netrebko on Monday, I came out wishing that I had seen any other soprano as long as she was able to sing the notes. There is simply no other way to generate excitement in the Mad Scene. No screams, fainting, etc. can make up for the sheer thrill of hearing a soprano negotiate those difficult passages accurately and with facility.
Just as a reminder, this is how Villazon sounded when the Met decided to hire him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmYreF_gsp8
I’m not saying that this excuses his poor singing now, but I’m sure most of you realize that singers are now booked up to 3, 4 or even 5 years before the actual performances.
Re: 21 scifisci – Voices are not like instruments, in that you can’t just take your voice to the violin shop to get it repaired. Likewise, you can’t sing on a million dollar instrument to get a better sound. Voices are temperamental and it’s not always a quick adjustment that needs to be made. So, a comparison between the arpeggi of an instrument to those of a singer is a little bit of an apples to oranges situation.
Again, I’m not saying that I think this singing was good or excusable – I’m simply pointing out that the Met booked these singers on what was happening 3 or 4 years ago, before Villazon’s “crisis” or Netrebko’s pregnancy. And given the financial situation currently, it’s not really the time to be buying out expensive contracts.
I remember a singers roundtable many year ago where the panelists were asked what they did when on the day of a performance they didn’t feel secure about their voices. Licia Albanese’s answer was simply that she would cancel. She either sang her best or she didn’t sing.
Please. I was there Monday night and it was every bit the disaster reported here. But let’s not get too overly sentimental about the past. You want to talk about diction? Sure, Netrebko sings Italian about as well as I speak Russian, but has anyone ever heard Domingo sing in English? Or Ramon Vargas sing in Russian. They might as well dispense with actual words. As for the 1970s, perhaps that was a golden age, but everyone was talking about the end of opera back then too. Sutherland was a miracle, to be sure, but you never quite knew if the train was going off the tracks pitch-wise — but that’s what made seeing her such a great dramatic experience. Caballe, who for my dollar had the better voice, might as well have been singing in concert for all the “acting” she did. IF there was a down period in opera, it was the 1990s, when the roster of decent tenors and sopranos was in seriously short supply. Notwithstanding the problems of Messrs. Villazon and Filianoti, there is a very deep pool of talented tenors out there.
Hello! I am new to this forum and I have to say that I like very much to read so many different points of view about the same artists and the same opera.
Here are my two cents:
1) I think that the main problem here is that, no matter what Netrebko and Villazón do, they always end up being the ones who get all the starry treatment and the recordings and DVDs. Honestly speaking, do we need them to record every damn opera in the repertory and have them on CD, then DVD and then blueray? OF COURSE NOT!!!
For once, I would have loved to got to a CD shop and buy a Lucia di Lammermoor on DVD with Damrau and Beczala and not with Netrebko and Villazón who have a dozen of CDs and DVDs out. It’s just not fair for other artists who deserve to be recorded on DVD and CD as well.
2) I totally agree with all the people that say that a performance at the MET shouldn’t be seen as “well, they might get better”, “well, they didn’t give the high notes, lowered the arias half a tone or a tone down, didn’t perform at their best…but they are good, no? I mean, they are Netrebko and Villazón!”. It is sad to see that they can get away with anything they do and other singers are just criticized and bashed without mercy for less. That is quite unfair!
3) Everyone is free of listening to which ever singer they prefer but there are certain things that should be basic in a performance and, if they are charging so high prices for seeing this opera with “the starts”, well…IMHO, they are even more obliged to be at their best because there is an audience who pays to see quality and, let’s face it, not everything that shines is gold.
4) Congratulations to La Cieca for letting everyone say what they think. It is also good that the audio clips were posted in Youtube for everyone to judge what happened. Funny to read that people think it is some kind of vengeance… I see it more as a “listen yourself and make your own judgement”.
Régine, singing a Tosca in Barcelona in her prime, cracked ONCE during Visi d’arte and some of the crowd whistled.
She never appeared at the Liceu again.
(I accidentally omitted Crespin’s surname. We were certainly not on first-name terms.)
A mishap by a serious singer is very different from a singer not capable to do justice to a role. A crack by Crespin anywhere would have received (almost ?) unanimous sympathy. La Cieca posted some years ago a clip of Nicolai Gedda cracking awfully at the end of La Donna e Mobile. It was very sad because Gedda was a thorough artist, not to mention that he had terrific high notes. It was an accident, an unfortunate occurrence, the same as if he had fallen down or become ill. He deserved nothing but sympathy, which I hope he got.
benw wrote : “…..I’m not saying that I think this singing was good or excusable – I’m simply pointing out that the Met booked these singers on what was happening 3 or 4 years ago, before Villazon’s “crisis†or Netrebko’s pregnancy. And given the financial situation currently, it’s not really the time to be buying out expensive contracts.”
I agree with you in Villazon’s case; as for Nebs, let’s not blame it on the pregnancy, she ain’t the greatest bel canto singer, and everyone new it years ago.
I had a ticket for her Lucia in LA (five years ago??). I had never heard her, so I went and listened to her bel canto CD and, guess what, I immediately cancelled my trip to LA!
#16 “This is the MET once one of the finest opera houses in the world.”
But these two singers are doing this repertoire in London, Vienna, Paris, Barcelona, and every other house that can get them. What would you consider the finest opera houses in the world? Glimmerglass? Wexford?
I’m not praising Netrebko and Villazon, but I think it’s ridiculous to claim that by presenting them the Met drops from the top rank of houses.