parterre box

45 comments

• Cocky Kurwenal says:

  Doug, I disagree – my reaction to Dessay’s mad scene when I saw Lucia at the Met last March was much the same as ArmerJ’s above. There is nothing wrong with planning what one will do when – I’d just call that professionalism. To me, it looked like Dessay was being utterly spontaneous, and it was one of, if not the most, exciting operatic performances I have ever seen, and I must say, I think Dessay has a nasty raddled screechy voice that has always had underlying technical issues, so I was certainly not predisposed to like it. Unlike in straight theatre, an opera singer can only be spontaneous with timing to a very limited extent, because they are bound by the bar line, the conductor’s beat, and the need to be in time with the other artists on stage. The trick is coming up with something that will work and looks natural within the fairly constrained time allowed, and I think she absolutely succeeded in doing so. I don’t see what you’d call that, if not acting. I found her heart breaking.

  on February 8, 2009 at 10:27 AM
• doug says:

  that’s why i love this art form! i appreciate what dessay was doing, but i saw every choice. for me, i saw the planning and the thought, and that is theatrical death to me. i work in musical theatre, where we have many of the same constraints as you’ve perfectly described them, and i know exactly how difficult it is to create the illusion of the first time. in some ways it’s much harder in opera, and that’s why the payoff can be so much grander. i was just so struck yesterday by the power of netrebko underplaying the mad scene and just letting the text, music (we can argue how well she sang it, but the music served the storytelling in a beautiful way, rather than LOOK, THIS RUN SOUNDS LIKE I’M SCARED and LOOK, I WANT YOU TO KNOW I’M ANGSTY ON THIS TRILL), and staging do the heavy lifting.

  if you watch callas (and god i wish there were more video), of course you know and can tell she has plans. but when she picks up that knife — it IS tosca, you are shocked, and she knows when to let puccini work for her, rather than glomming on lots of effects. AND god knows she started to leave out plenty of high notes in lucia as the years went by (to address those who still can’t let a non-pons/sills/sutherland lucia succeed).

  on February 8, 2009 at 10:42 AM
• Alto says:

  THANK YOU, No. 19. And a possibly even more powerful exhibition of her dramatic genius is at:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQeuDTixuw

  on February 8, 2009 at 11:52 AM
• SueNell Ciel says:

  So, leahzea of the cheap shot, just what was so awful about the conducting? I heard a lot of inspired playing.

  on February 8, 2009 at 12:21 PM
• wotan_in_inman says:

  Pavel #19

  CUTE ! You think Marco Armiliato is CUTE ! ! ? ? You obviously never saw Thomas Schippers. now THAT was CUTE. Conductors these days don’t know how to cute. Smudged eyebrows, inadequate butts. Schippers really knew how to fill a pair of dress pants, and when he stepped on the podium, you knew you were seeing cute. Armiliato is trying to coast on the reputation of his brother who is REALLY cute, but Italians are just not trained in cute these days. They take a pretty good nose and think they can build a whole career out of it. It’s all PR and I think Peter Gelb is behind it because he wouldn’t know cute if it bit him in the heinie. He just knows what fills podiums and he grinds it up and spits it out. Look how he supports Jimmy Levine who struggles to find cute and just can’t make it. I just give up on the posters on this site who are willing to wwas ecstatic over a cheekbone that would barely make it if we really had any standards.

  Cute? Crap, just crap.

  on February 8, 2009 at 1:13 PM
• wotan_in_inman says:

  Sorry about the typo — that should have been “wax ecstatic.” I just can’t proofread when I’m in a snit.

  on February 8, 2009 at 1:18 PM
• DanPatter says:

  Of all the Met HD telecasts I’ve seen in the past three years (and I think I’ve only missed two of them), this Lucia ranks as one of my favorites. I’ve seen the following Lucias live, in no particular order: Sutherland (in her prime and later, too), Sills (in one of her earliest performances), Gail Robinson, Cheryl Studer, June Anderson, Catherine Malfitano, Laura Claycomb and probably one ot two more I can’t recall at the moment. My favorite recordings of Lucia are the commercial Callas sets, her Berlin and Met broadcasts, and – since it was my first Lucia recording – Sutherland’s first.

  I have never been so moved by a live performance of Lucia as I was by yesterday’s telecast. No, Netrebko is not a perfect bel canto technician. She’s a lyric soprano with a truly beautiful voice, and her identification with the role convinced me completely. I was teary-eyed at the end of the second act, and practically weeping at the end of the Mad Scene. Only Callas ever made me care that much, and only in her Met broadcast and second commercial recording, oddly enough.

  Beczala is a find – how lucky we are that he could step in and acquit himself so well. If he tired a tiny bit by the end, well, it’s not an easy role (and as far as I’m concerned they can start cutting the Wolf Crag’s scene again – let the tenor save his voice; dropping that scene would be no loss, musically.)

  Kwiecien was wonderful and the bass (Mr. Boradina, but I can’t remember his name offhand) sang well. Even the Arturo was just dandy – that’s a bitch of an aria to pull off, but he did.

  Armiliato, an engaging man, conducted splendidly.

  All can say about Hostess Natalie is, I sure do miss Beverly Sills. I hope it’s Dessay’s last outing as host.

  on February 8, 2009 at 2:01 PM
• Constantine A. Papas says:

  DanPatter,

  For me, besides Salome, it was also one of the best HD performances. Netrebko is not a coloratura soprano per se, but she has enough coloratura genre to sing convicingly and outstandingly Violetta, Desdemona and Lucia. She even hit the optional E-flat this time. What amazed me was her flowing legato. Her high notes were effortless and secure. Close-up shots showed no strain or facial distortion, as if she were lip-syching! Sutherland’s facial grimaces and distortions- her mighty and unparalleled coloratura notwithstanding- were atrocious.

  on February 8, 2009 at 6:56 PM
• leahzea says:

  where to begin Su Nel Cubaya ciel.?

  He is doing afriana in the same way.It has no bel canto gravitas. The cantilena is not bar to bar, it extends until the end of the entire phrase, sometimes clearly marked by donizetti and definitely by cilea, and perversely ignored, Yje cjoruses were too quick and we was constantly ahead of the singer which is death to any serious expression or artistic collaboration. He must want to get home. So go.

  I have a right to call something awful, and I did. I felt it was like most conductors today and most singers I am afraid, just notes and not the right feel.

  Are we clear?

  on February 8, 2009 at 9:30 PM
• leahzea says:

  oh by the way, it is the Met orchestra, they do play superbly.

  on February 8, 2009 at 9:32 PM