parterre box

178 comments

• armerjacquino says:

  Cocky, I was thinking more of a very special gala FLEDERMAUS, with Pav as Alfred, Von Stade as Orlovsky, Cotrubas as Rosalinde, and Behrens coming in als gast during the party scene to sing the Bible-reading scene from WOZZECK.

  on February 28, 2009 at 6:38 AM
• harry says:

  Watching Behrens perform in so many operas with those (to me) peculiar acting gestures and movements: reminded me she appeared to be morphing Gloria Swanson playing Norma Desmond.

  on February 28, 2009 at 8:27 AM
• marshiemarkII says:

  Cocky you are welcome, as I said it was a fascinating conversation, to see her slowly start recalling, and then she got very animated, apparently Ubaldo was quite a character, “the crazy sicilian” she called him affectionately. I agree that the Mozart original is more stark, but also more “square” right?, in a way very unlike Mozart, the harmonic half step is so much more like what he did in the latter operas like Don Giovanni, etc. Maybe it was just on overisght, that they “fixed”, sacreligious as that may sound. Of course the connection to Bach to me is even more important, because it is then within a tradition of central european music that you must understand to sing Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner or Strauss. The complete DVD of Idomeneo is sublime, Behrens exquisite in Act II in the Placido el Mar scene, her lines “Soave Zeffire….” take your breath away. The DVD was originally in Pioneer PC Classics in wretched sound, but the new DG version is fantastic!!!!!!! stay far away from PC Classics in general. Yes the ovation for Behrens was amazing, it was supposed to be Luciano’s night and all the applause went for her. Speaking of ovations, I put on last night my DVD of the Elektra from 1994. What a performance that was!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the ovation is truly the largest most demented ever at the Met. If you are ever in NYC we could arrange a showing.

  on February 28, 2009 at 9:54 AM
• marshiemarkII says:

  I agree that Dame Joan going up to C sounds inappropriate, but I disagree with the Vestale, I always expect the high C because Maria makes everything sound right the way she does it. Once Maria did it a certain way you cannot go back. When she couldn’t get the high C it just sounds like poor Maria, she didn’t have it that night. I adore that aria by the way (Tu che invocco..) since I was a kid…….

  on February 28, 2009 at 10:05 AM
• Cocky Kurwenal says:

  Well, we’ll have to disagree on that last point then – my favourite of her performances of that Vestale number is from Hamburg in ’59 (or is it Amsterdam? I had them both on the same VHS) where she also sang Lady Macbeth, Rosina and Pirata. True, her voice wasn’t obeying her completely that night and so maybe she did descend to the final c out of necessity, but it was clearly decided in advance and done with such conviction and I actually prefer it to the LA rehearsal take where (unless I’ve imagined it) I think she goes up.

  Thanks again for a fascinating chat. I’m actually in NY the week after next but it’s meant to be a quick romantic get away with my non-opera loving chap, so as I’m already dragging him to the Met I think he’d kill me if I went off to watch a tape of Elektra! Some other time

  on February 28, 2009 at 12:26 PM
• marshiemarkII says:

  Cocky I responded but my post disappeared in the ether. I said that the Vestale video is indeed from Hamburg 59, and she had a cold, causing the fierce crack in the Macbeth, with that look of terror to Rescigno. But Maria the more in extremis vocally, the more I love her, an allowance I make for no other singer (not even Behrens). The hich C in Vestale is from the Dallas Rehearsal, also in 59 and there were other earlier performances in Italy.

  The invitation to see the Elektra 94 DVD stands anytime. The sound is astonishing for an astonishing performance. Enjoy NYC!!!!!

  on February 28, 2009 at 2:52 PM
• mrsjohnclaggar1 says:

  I am not a Callas fetish but [...] condescension toward her is just more of the same. Callas NEVER stopped working on her voice, at least until depression took over in the mid 60′s. There were many who knew her very well Alberta Masiello who would play for her as she worked all night or a pal of mine Mario di Maria who in despair produced those terrible concerts with De Stefano (both Callas and Pippo needed the money, he more desperately). But Callas ALWAYS worked, ALWAYS

  on February 28, 2009 at 3:12 PM
• mrsjohnclaggar1 says:

  MORE knew what had to be there and was intolerant of her problems. Nothing of the sort could be said of the lucky fraud Behrens, proof that the world is ruled by the Demiurge, a monster who rewards the ungifted and the ghastly. Behrens just came out and shrieked. Maria worked on phrases over and over. I was present when it all clicked in and we’d be stunned — but she couldn’t repeat it and the despair was deep (Mario invited me a couple of times, especially when John Ardoin was in town, an old friend).

  When people would say, ‘but you are Maria Callas, you have only to BE and they will love you,” she was deeply offended. I was even there the night she demanded Mario play the Tebaldi Santuzza (it was my recording, he had borrowed it from me without telling me why) so she could try to hear what Renata was doing to see if she could do it herself (Renata is very chesty in that recording and is pretty hairy toward the top but the sound is still very firm). Maria did have a big chesty adjustment even late but she didn’t know how to get out of it and the sound would cut out around the f (earlier she had taken it MUCH higher but her chords would no longer support that). So she didn’t risk it as some others would have.

  I never adored Callas’ sound and was not a big fan, and I did notice the prescription bottles around (that she was kinda high the few times I saw her in a group occurred to me) but I have NEVER seen someone suffer to make music with her voice, not a quavery faked sound that the fools thought was right, but music as vocal sound as Maria did. For that I have a profound respect. She was also very honest; Behrens in art is profoundly dishonest with her approximations and untuned screaming. With Maria it more or less went on her, with the occasional exception but she had been able to work miracles on what I think was a less spectacular endowment than many people think. The other one took the money and the obeisance of morons like this one as her birth right.

  on February 28, 2009 at 3:25 PM