another thrilling twist
… in the “Tenor-Go-Round” saga at the Metropolitan Opera. (La Cieca was going to say “Musical Tenors,” on the model of “Musical Chairs, but decides not to on the ground it’s an oxymoron. Anyway.)
So now, according to a photo from metopera.org, it appears that Edgardo will be sung tomorrow by…
… Neil Shicoff.
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Guys, this is all very well, but opera is not only netrebko or placido or renee or lucia. Opera is literally half my life and I like to explore rare works besides the repertory pieces. I have not heard anyone being interested in unknown operas that have recently been performed and that it΄s difficult -if not impossible- to find and listen. Last year sigurd’s salammbo was played in france -I think marseille- and it’s impossible to find a pirate. Ditto massenet’s ariane which was played in saint-etienne. I hope decca releases halevy’s clari because of cecilia-voix du cabinet- bartoli. I’ m also looking for mercadante’s pelagio and thomas’s le caid. Why all the interest is focused on a singer or a repertory opera we have heard a million times, while we are not interested in pieces we don’t know? Do we really love music or we just love bashing the prima donnas?
Well, I still go to the opera in the hope of hearing something good. No, Netrebko’s Lucia wasn’t in the Callas-Sutherland league, but neither of those ladies are around to steal her work. It’s sad, but life goes on. Damrau and Dessay aren’t La Divina or La Stupenda either, but I am glad to have seen them as Marie and Lucia. They are among the best singers for this rep today, even if they aren’t perfect. People complained about Callas and Sutherland when they were performing. Some opera queens are never satisfied. I heard AN’s Giulietta in the Paris Capuleti last season and that is probably her best bel canto role to date and I’m really looking forward to hearing the recording and Covent Garden performances with Garanca. Promises to be one of the vocal highlights of the season, whatever the naysayers think. I think those who would rather hear Annick Massis – lovely Comtesse Adèle in Count Ory at Glyndebourne and Matilde di Shabran in the Teatro Rossini in Pesaro – are deluded in thinking she could be a star Lucia at the Met.
Michael, your point is well taken, but the reason she engenders so much discussion is precisely because this role is so well known. Had she picked an obscure opera, most of this discussion wouldn’t have happened. But when you step into a role that has been so closely associated with the likes of Pons, Sutherland, Callas, Sills, Moffo, etc, who each not only sang it exquisitely but brought something unique to it *and* sang it in appropriate bel canto style, it would be unrealistic to think you didn’t know you were opening yourself up to so much criticism. But as long as you mention a wish list of obscurities:
Gretry
Ettienne-Mehul
Gounod (Philemon et Baucis)
Chabrier (Le roi malgre lui)
Rossini (Otello)
Haydn
Vivaldi
Way back in #39 I made a comment that was disparaging of Ms. Netrebko’s actions and preparation for the HD Broadcast. I should not have made that statement and am sorry that I did. May she and all forgive me.
167 Karnal – You got it right ! I’ve heard them all LIVE!
in concert or opera from Korjus who could bury them all
just in technique to Maynor, to Melchoir to Flagstad to Kiepura to Vickers to Callas to Tebaldi right up to to–day with Beczala
who follows in the great tradition.
As for “queens ” it seems a subject you are more versed in than I ,so I leave it to your expert knowledge .
Netrebko and Beczala are good friends, and I thought she deferred to him during the first intermission. During the curtain calls, it looked as though she deliberately stayed back to give him a solor bow. Whatever. The theater was packed, it looked and sounded terrific, and much as I thought I’d miss Rolando, I didn’t.
Contrary to apparent popular thought, singers are (or should be) musicians, as well as theatrical performers. While she is a beautiful girl (not a real actress imo, but others here disagree), she is in no way a musician – she slouches piggishly thru the music in a way that wouldn’t get her out of a 3rd rate conservatory in Rostov-on-Don – can you imagine if a violinist or pianist gave such a performance? They would be laughed out of the the first concert hall, never to be heard from again. But we are supposed to accept such lazy, slovenly work, because she’s beautiful, and can manufacture a huge tone (the manufacturing of, btw, which is the basis of all her technical problems, but I digress). There are standards of quality, and they are important to some of us. She doesn’t measure up.
balabanov: La Cieca might find your argument more convincing if you could be more specific. Expressions like “slouches piggishly” are not musical terminology.
We get that you don’t like the way Netebko sings; you’ve said that dozens of times. But you’ve never made it clear what specifically strikes you as “lazy, slovenly,” perhaps because you’re spending way too much time kicking Straw Anna (“we are supposed to accept such lazy, slovenly work, because she’s beautiful, and can manufacture a huge tone”).
La Cieca has never been inside any conservatory on Rostov-on-Don and she’s not up on the latest rankings, so she’d hardly know what the standards are at the third-rate schools there. It does seem to La Cieca, though, that singers, particularly gifted ones, are often not held to the same stringent standards of technical perfection that instrumentalists are, so it’s at best disingenuous to act as if this “problem” has suddenly cropped up with the advent of Netrebko.
So, care to specify which phrases strike you as slovenly or whatever other adjective you care to apply? Care to expand upon what these “standards of quality” are, and how Netrebko fails to “measure up?” Otherwise, it’s just more of the same old spouting, and frankly it’s kind of a bore.
Just finished listening to the Sirius bdcast of a 1956 Forza with Milanov. Wow! She was in terrific voice that day. Now, that was singing!
Over the weekend, I listened to Caballe’s studio Lucia. Despite the fact that it’s a studio effort (with re-takes, etc.), she still managed to smudge some of the scales. So, I guess she, too, was a “lazy pig” (and a “whore” to boot!).