photo fop
A layout (in the very nearly literal sense of the term) of “seven international opera stars who are putting to rest the ‘fat lady sings’ cliché” graces the current issue of Vanity Fair. Since nobody actually reads this magazine, La Cieca will link to the photo of the The Low BMI Septet.
Now, it’s one thing that Anna Netrebko is Photoshopped in from a different day, a different location and what may well be a different universe from our own, and don’t ask La Cieca why Mariusz Kwiecien is simultaneously checking his fly and treading on the train of Maija Kovalevska’s gown. (No wonder she look so pissed!)
But just when you think it’s not humanly possible for Nathan Gunn to take a gayer photograph, the barihunk confounds us yet once more, with a pose that falls on the butch scale somewhere between Madame Recamier and April Stevens.
Or maybe Mr. Gunn can just throw in the towel and start programming “Teach Me Tiger” as an encore at his recitals.
And yet nether Edgar Evans nor Una Hale ever graced the Met stage. Pity!
Hallelujah, armerjacquino, yes ! Today’s Mozart, Rossini, some Strauss, maybe even Donizetti, is being done as well as anything ever was. But it is time to put some Wagner and Verdi on the shelf until we can do it well and cast it deep.
And not being afraid of any damned can of worms, I say that the highly vilified Bartoli, Terfel, Mattila, Hvorostovsky, Hampson, Vargas, Florez, Fleming, and Netrebko need bow to none WHEN THEY ARE CAST PROPERLY. Shicoff may be over the hill, but he and Gruberova are not minor artists.
But if there are no Wagner and Verdi singers, then don’t do Wagner and Verdi.
Bill, I followed you attending Met performances by a decade, and I remember that the weekly announcements of performances and singers was still going on. The 1963/64 season was the first time that the Met issued a complete schedule of performances at the start of the season. No singers, though. There were also quite a few changes as the season went on. (Traviata replaced some Sonnambulas; Tosca was added to the repertoire.)
Singers at that time were booked for so many weeks, so many performances from a list of roles. The selections were then made from week to week depending on box sales, reviews, etc.
I remember seeing Tebaldi’s first contract some years ago and it specified her debut in Otello by a given date followed by a number of performances with the latest by a certain date. Also availability for rehearsals so many days before debut. And if I recall correctly, one matinee broadcast. Roles that she would be available to perform were (again, to the best of my recollection) Desdemona, Violetta, Mimi, Aida, Maddalena, and Tosca. Don’t remember if the Forza Leonora was also included.
Talk about flexibility. I understand that even the subscriptions sometimes ended up with repeat performances of some works.
I would never compare Fleming to Lehmann, or Bonney to Schumann. And where are the great singers for Frau and Elektra?
As far as Mozart and Rossini are concerned, we don’t how the singers of those eras sounded and therefore we can’t make a reasonable comparison with today’s singers.
At any rate, opera to me is Verdi and Wagner, and therefore I’m out of luck.
Lehmann had a terribly unreliable top, and was very short of breath. Schumann’s voice was miniscule. They were great singers but if they were active today they would be torn apart on sites like these.
maybe i’m the last to know but botha has canceled today (saturday) and gary lehman has taken over.
I’m glad for Gary. After hitting his head last year in Tristan, I felt he deserved a broadcast. I hope he comes through with honors.
Itenorad – I believe you are exactly correct – in the earlier Bing years singers were given a list of roles they should have prepared for the season and unlike Fleming today for example, were expected to sing a number of different roles within a short period of time. It was even tougher in houses such as Vienna where singers were members of the ensemble or at least had a Residenzvertrag and were supposed to be prepared to sing quite a few roles. In 1946 or so Jurinac sang 145 times in one season – she and Seefried and many others often sang two leading roles on consecutive evenings something which most singers today would eshew (well we all remember that one Saturday Steber sang two roles – I think Fiordiligi and Desdemona – though that was not the original scheme). I recall that in 1972 or 1973 Rysanek sang seven different and varying roles in Vienna in a 30 day period during the Festwochen and that included Strauss, Wagner, Ballo, Medea. Few singers today would do that sort of thing though Netrebko has 4 roles scheduled in Vienna in a 6 week period next season. Your recollection regarding Tebaldi’s first contract at the Met sounds quite typical for the time. Tebaldi did end up singing 4 roles her first season Desdemona, Mimi, Maddalena and Tosca all within 5 or 6 weeks. Aida and Forza were added the next season.
Amerjaquino – Rosenkavalier is an opera which can be splendidly put on these days for there are good Marschallins available, fine Sophies and a pack of impressive mezzo Octavians (Garanca, Kirschschlager, Koch, Graham, di Donato I suppose though I have not heard her and others). My favorite trio actually is the old Boehm DGG from Dresden with Schech, Seefried and Streich. It is spacious and the singers blend together magnificently (Seefried and Streich throughout the entire opera) and the voices can be differentiated. I would have thought the Schwarzkopf, Ludwig, Stich-Randall trio would be wonderful but there is too much flutter in all three voices so the blending is less effective. In Vienna during those days most of the Oktavians were sung by Jurinac, Ludwig, Seefried and occasionally della Casa together with a plethora of fine Marschallins and a true bouquet of superior Sophies, Lipp, Rothenberger, Streich, Gueden, Popp, Stich-Randall and others. But occasionally a certain combination misfired as when I heard Ludwig’s Octavian to Streich’s Sophie – both individually superb but Ludwig was simply too loud to blend exquisitely with Streich’s delicate soprano – Jurinac and Seefried were better partners for her.
And yes. Sciscifi, there are good singers today who may be compared with those of the past. I think Soile Isokoski evokes the same musicianship and vocal allure as a Gruemmer for example. The recent Arabella I saw in Vienna with Schwanewilms and Kuehmeier brought back memories of Janowitz with Popp (or della Casa and Gueden/Rothemberger). Klaus Florian Vogt is a most interesting tenor in the mode of Julius Patzak. Laszlo Polgar’s Gurnamenz in Budapest last week was stupendous – maybe not erasing memories of Gottlob Frick or Kurt Moll but of that level. The wonderful young tenor Szabolcs Brickner in Budapest may well be the next Wunderlich.
I saw 4 Onegins recently in 6 weeks with totally different casts – all the Tatianas were really fine in different ways, Karita Mattila, Eva Batori, Tunde Franko (as glamorous as Netrebko for sure), and Tamar Iveri – all first class and we have still Fleming and Netrebko who do the role – maybe none as thrilling as Welitsch in the letter scene (on recording) or Benackova who essayed the role though never in NY but all 4 in different ways lent something truly positive to the role. It is so that I cannot think of any Verdi baritones or sopranos who thrill me at the moment – few Sieglindes can lure me into the house as those as varied as Jones, Rysanek, Janowitz etc might have. Yet a Tannhauser in Budapest, Janos Bandi, sang thrillingly and certainly erased memories of all those horrid Tannhausers we have had in the recent past. Botha sings it in Vienna next season and vocally he should have no trouble with it but Bandi truly acts and can blast forth like no other though at times I wish he would moderate the voice a bit more. And here we are only talking of things seen in the last weeks. And I agree we did not have a Bartoli in the past (though surely I might have preferred the legendary Teresa Berganza who eluded me on the stage for the most part – just not in the right place at the right time). I think Garanca’s Octavian was as good as any I have seen since Trudeliese Schmidt who was one of the best after Seefried/Jurinac. It is rare that one has one’s socks knocked off by a new unknown voice (as I was by Margaret Price in her first Donna Anna in Koeln or Benackova in Vienna) but we do have some very fine voices around now – just maybe not as many all in one place at the same time. And maybe it will take a long time before we can again hear a Nilsson, Windgassen, Hotter Tristan or the same in Walkure with Rysanek added on or a Verdi opera with di Stefano, Corelli, Berganzi, del Monaco with a rich Baritone, a Stella, Milanov, Tebaldi, Price, Callas or a strong mezzo like Simionato. Or the wonderful basses, Siepi, Ghaurov, Christoff etc. But as some of the younger readers may envy some of us older folks ( I shan’t name names, Mrs. Claggert) for what we may have seen or heard, we surely can also be envious of you younger guys who have 50 years of listening pleasure ahead of you.
And, by the way, wasn’t the difficulty that Lotte Lehmann had with her top notes more after 1935 or so. She sang Sophie when she was young and many other roles which required a strong upper register (Turandot even though she thought Maria Nemeth, her alternate in Vienna, was more suited to the role).
Bill: thank you so much for your postings.
Hagen: we breathlessly await your transcription of last night’s interview where Voigt stated that Gelb said he would fire here if she didn’t have weight reduction surgery.