the art of the doyenne
La Cieca continues her salute to the diamond birthday of Renata Scotto with a new episode of Unnatural Acts of Opera. The podcast features the first act of La sonnambula as performed at the Teatro la Fenice on May 26, 1961.
Renata Scotto (Amina), Alfredo Kraus (Elivino), Ivo Vinco (Rodolfo), Rosa Laghezza (Lisa), Marisa Zotti (Teresa). Teatro La Fenice, Venezia, Nello Santi, conductor.
Surely Our Own Sally Potter could have come up with something better for a Sally Silver/Justin Lavender/Alastair Miles/Ann Murray/Sarah Tynan “Commonwealth” cast working in English!
Vicar — You are preaching to the (British) converted.
I don’t think anyone who loves opera, British or otherwise, thinks that Sally Potter should be directing anything more in the genre.
And you’re right, bel canto in English is a complete waste of time.
Brroklynpunk,
Barry Banks didnt sing Elvino in Caramoor. The tenor was John Osborne then. Barry Banks sang Arturo the following season. Both Amina and Elvira were sung by Sumi Jo (which could give a lesson of belcanto to Dessay, IMO).
In any case, Banks was a fine Arturo.
Ah, the old ‘opera in English is a waste of time’ gag.
So, presumably, is Callas singing Wagner in Italian, or Jurinac singing Butterfly and Tatyana in German, or Rethberg’s Verdi?
I prefer opera to be performed in its original language, as I’m sure we all do- but I can more than see the point of performing in the vernacular, too. There’s an element of snobbishness in the ‘anti’ camp, I think, summed up by Ethan Mordden’s wonderful phrase about Handel’s London audiences (I’ve quoted this on here before) ‘smugly gaping at the alien art’.
Inquest- I’m not, by the way, accusing you personally of snobbery or smugness; just realised it could look that way.
How sad it is to think that the world of opera has gone from Joan Sutherland to Natalie Dessay. That is a telling example of the decline in operatic singing. I think even today’s audiences would recognize the difference. Of course they’ll go wild for Dessay, but I suspect they’d go wilder for Sutherland. And I’d rather hear Kraus than Florez, and Siepi than Pertusi.
With greater voices, a silly production wouldn’t matter so much.
armer —
I specifically said ‘bel canto in English’. I really can’t imagine Bellini in anything but Italian. I dislike Verdi or Puccini in English, but can sort of see the point.
And maria, though I agree that Dessay is a come-down from Sutherland in vocal terms — Dessay is actually rather modestly gifted as far as the voice itself is concerned, just very clever with what she has — surely Sutherland was a real one-off and, in her own wonderful way, a bit of a freak. Dessay is much more in the traditional coloratura line, though much less euphonious than many other tweeters.
Inquest: In this connection, I seem to remember that Wagner once wrote something to the effect that “there must be a German school of bel canto,” in the sense that the style of singing is strongly influenced by language. So that the “German bel canto” would be beautiful, fluid, accomplished vocalism, but the specific techniques would be different from Italian singing. In other words, a German bel canto would consist of something more than Italian artists performing German words; it’s a whole different approach to legato, portamento and so forth.
The idea would carry through to English bel canto as well: English words set to Bellini are inevitably going to be neither good English nor good Bellini.
So glad you have provided an expert and eloquent rationale for my opinionated instinct, Signora.
oooh, la cieca, here’s your beloved editress again. elvino is misspelled above. mille baci.
somewhat related question: has anyone heard scotto’s zaira? Is it an opera worth hearing?