parterre box

84 comments

• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  Well, I saw Violeta Urmana sing Elisabetta a couple of years ago in Turin! Her persona is not really right for the role, and the timre perhaps doesn’t have the requisite radiance, but she is a singer of refinement and it didn’t sound like a case of sledgehammer and nut. To my ears, Elisabetta is at least, as Leontyne would say, a juicy lyric.

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:06 PM
• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  … ‘Tu che la vanita’ is surely a big sing (and I’m beginning to think these days that it is maybe Verdi’s greatest soprano aria, even if it it not a display piece). Those magnificent phrases in the opening and closing sections surely need to be filled with ample tone.

  Crespin was offered the role by Karajan, but felt it didn’t have enough to offer. She regretted that decision later, and so should we! I’m pretty sure I have a recording of her doing ‘Tu che …’, though unfortunately not in the original French. Must dig it out …

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:13 PM
• dorion says:

  The only certain thing about tomorrow is that the curtain will go up at 1pm, the rest is pure internet gossip. Not even Gelb knows who’s really singing until about noon.

  I’ve read enough nonsense on this site the last 2 weeks not to trust it, including that character gloating that he predicted that Villazon was going to rest up the entire week so he could be in shape for the HD, and that’s why Filianoti stepped in etc etc. He even linked to his prediction.

  If Kwiecien does cancel, there goes the only decent Netrebko scene, the confrontation with her brother in act 2. She has better chemistry with Kwiecien than with Villazon himself, as we’ve seen in Pasquale. The interesting incestuous touch won’t be the same with another baritone. All this drama made me decide to attend the matinee, I was going to stay home and listen to the broadcast. But there’s nowhere else to be but the house tomorrow.

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:14 PM
• brian says:

  i thought that radvanovsky was an affecting Elisabeth de Valois in 2005 at the Met.
  and Urmana was a great Eboli.

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:15 PM
• ika says:

  i also liked radvanovsky as Elisabeth in San Diego. She was great

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:21 PM
• Drammy says:

  Satisfied, I do not live in New York either…I am still confused [well not confused, just a bit peeved] that Netrebko’s Lucia is sold out in two shakes of a lamb’s tail and Damrau never had a single full house. Different priorities, one supposes ;-]

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:21 PM
• MICHAEL says:

  Anna has the face of a star, Diana has the face of a horse.

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:29 PM
• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  Radvanovsky really has something (though I know she’s not to all tastes on her), but Elisabetta — as heard on the radio at least — didn’t play to all her strengths. Somehow it needs a tone that is more, as the French say, ‘pulpeuse’. I remember reading that she didn’t quite ‘get’ the role when she did it at the Met, but I think she’s due to do it again in Paris at some point over the next couple of years.

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:29 PM
• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  Well, MICHAEL, as Joan Sutherland is reputed to have said to June Anderson: “The top E flats are in that jaw, dear.”

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:31 PM
• MICHAEL says:

  June, that΄s an interesting case. I΄m searching for some of her pirates, the trovatore, the bassarids, the capriccio, the bolena. Any help? I heard her live in an open space 1 1/2 year ago. Quite good, better than I expected. She never had a trill, by the way. Unexpectedly, she is great in the carnegie mazeppa.

  on February 6, 2009 at 4:40 PM