parterre box

170 comments

• Sanford says:

  The quality of the clip didn’t add the breaths in inappropriate places or the inaccurate coloratura. And quoting from reviews is futile, as proven time and time again by TT. You happen to agree with the reviewer so quoting him/her bolsters your argument, but had you disagreed, it would have been just as easy to quote them and comment about how wrong they were.

  on May 1, 2009 at 11:23 AM
• Klassikfan says:

  # 151
  Quoting a press review is the one thing. But – sorry if I repeat myself – what is the validity of a short clip compared to an enthusiastic audience, acknowledging an outstanding performance with APPLAUSE? Can they all be wrong – 1.100 people in this case – and only those are right who have “always” known that role A is not suited to singer B because singer C is said to have done better?

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:02 PM
• Swiss-Sherlock says:

  Dear Klassikfan – don’t get mousetrapped here. I certainly like this blog, and all the work the adorable La Cieca does. But: If I used my vitriol the same way some individuals do in here, I would say: The comments section gets more and more hijacked by members of the National Unemployed Opera Singers’ Guild, a chapter of the Failed Artist’s Association of America. Sad in a way, but I find it fairly hilarious to follow. And hopfully posting comments keeps them away from the “bad stuff”. And it’s cheaper than a session on the settee.

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:11 PM
• Klassikfan says:

  Well said, Swiss-Sherlock! Getting first class infos here by La Cieca more than makes up for dealing with some (still the minority!) self-appointed experts who seem to be attending an opera with a check-list under their arms, counting and ticking off all the incorrect breaths and missed E flats etc. …

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:27 PM
• richard says:

  ooops, a minor invasion of the trebistas!!!!!!!

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:41 PM
• Sacerdotessa says:

  I think my favorite Violetta to listen to will always be Zeani. Some find her voice a little too tangy sanguine? whatever you call it. But actually everything I have heard she sang the hell out of.

  I wish I ould see/here Patricia Brooks. I have seen the photos and mong she looked like a movie star.

  My first “Traviata” was a local one in Greensboro and heard Christine Donahue. Anybody hear of her? To be honest, I think it was one of her last roles but she was a great Violetta. I an still hear her E’flat ringing.

  This yr is gonna be done with Jennifer Black. Any thoughts?

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:45 PM
• arepo says:

  Actually, I got bored reading the same old, same old. What I was more interested in was what was meant by the remark, “Beczala even got into the act”. What did he do that was so terrible? Sounded good to me.

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:47 PM
• NervOUS Nelli says:

  they used to applaud executions, lynchings, the MOB will always applaud their own recognition of a piece. They read the press coverage, in Germany and Austria she is a rock star. She is PREEEETY, and everyone says she is wonderful. Ah yes, the empress is clothed for some. She is a gorgeous voice with a pretty stupid head for notes. Come on, learn it already. Then throw the hair over the side of a stage. I hate she makes her self vulnerable to this, she should give the detractors nothing to say, or at least nothing really accurate to say.

  Accurate now is she doesn’t know the role and she is absolutely wrong in thinking people aren’t beginning to get mad over the slovenly learning process. This can go sour real quick.

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:51 PM
• scifisci says:

  I don’t think you should write-off posters simply because they disagree with you. It doesn’t take a musical genius to notice the glaring inaccuracies in netrebko’s singing. I have had non-musician friends tell me, after hearing netrebko sing Lucia, that “it didn’t always sound right” or that “it sounded like she skipped some notes”. So please, don’t tell us that it was somehow different in the house—as if the recording magically changed pitches and places where she breathed!
  That being said, Netrebko is also the singer who has most often drawn in opera-neophytes. If I have the opportunity, I always take opera-skeptics to see her, since she almost always wins them over.
  No one is saying that she is a worthless opera singer, but that she has some very serious faults, which may be overshadowed by her other talents (i.e. seeing her live), or may not.

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:53 PM
• scifisci says:

  sorry, my above posts where meant for klassik fan and swiss-sherlock

  on May 1, 2009 at 12:55 PM