dernier cri
“Natalie Dessay … in a fuchsia dress and lace-up high boots, flaming red hair piled high on her head …. swung her arms above her head, stretched, and then literally screamed out what sounded like wild joy and barely bridled lust.” [Santa Fe New Mexican]
Re the “stunt” aspects to Mlle. Dessay’s current work: do you suppose she wants to retire from opera but is too shy to say so?
I’m fortunate enough to have known the great comedienne Nancy Walker, and Ms. Walker would have found Mlle. Dessay’s mugging over the top–there’s a lot more to comedy than pratfalls. As Edwin Booth(or Edmund Kean or Edmund Gwenn or even Sir Donald Wolfit) supposedly said on his death bed, “Dying is easy . . . comedy is hard!” So’s coloratura . . . I guess I’m questioning Mlle. Dessay’s commitment.
I don’t imagine Dessay being too shy to say anything. I think she’ll song as long as she has a voice left.
It may be more than trying to get hubby work. She has stated that they try to work together as much as possible and to be around their children as much as possible. Yes, there are opera singers who care about their egos and their children at the same time. Also, doesn’t “Mr. Dessay” have a tendency to stray when “Mrs. Nouri” is away?
All of my cattiness aside, I wish her luck in this role and I hope to get to see her characterization of Violetta. The Siempre Libera at the Met Gala was astounding (and yes, I know that there is much more to this role than Act I). I, too, am one of the people that didn’t “get” her until the Lucias at the Met and I thought her Marie was brilliant. The less said about the Amina, the better. but if there is any singer out there who can act/mug/embody/become/be (let’s hope sing) Violetta in the second and third acts then it is her. I cannot wait to see the Hamlet next season. Well, a large part of that has to do with Keenlyside. I have been in love with him since the Trisha Brown L’Orfeo at BAM over a decade ago. A very underated singer. Defnitely in the Mattei & Finley category of baritones who are being overshadowed by the abs and pecs of vocally lesser baritones.
Dessay has declared for quite some while now that she wants to take up real acting. She considers herself primarily as an actor already, albeit a singing actor. I wonder, however, how her onstage hystrionics which in the opera milieu can be taken as “acting”, if slightly overdone, will transfer to the theatre stage.
Even Dessay fans (like myself) have to admit that her voice is not going to last very much longer to sing lead roles at the major companies. Once her top is gone, she’ll be good for Melisande, some chansons and not much else. A bigger voice would allow her to take up character roles (and act up a storm) but with her voice type, there aren’t a lot of options for her. I think she realises this and is trying to lay the groundwork for a second career.
About a year ago, Dessay was talking up a play she wanted to do on the Paris stage. She mentioned that she wanted to do it in about “five years”. I think that by 2012 or 2013 she will be ready to say “Finis” to opera and transfer to the spoken theater.
Meanwhile, Brad Wilber’s Met Futures page mentions that she is to sing Elvira in “I Puritani” at the Met (perhaps with Florez???). That role is too heavy and demanding for her voice in its current state and that revival is in about two or three years from now.
I think you guys have the right angle on the fading Dessay, tho’ I hate to say it as she is such a nice and jolly person, and she is beloved at Santa Fe Opera due to her kindness to young singers, and her work with them. I think she still has a lot to offer In The Right Role.
Somewhat the same is true of Laurent Naouri; he was a very fine Toreadore — he had a magnificent suit for the final scene, made by “the best bull ring tailor in Madrid,” and the role lies well for his voice. His Falstaff was an embarrassment and his attempts to sing lieder in the SF Chamber Music Festival did not work out well. Yet, I saw him act and sing in a Rameau extravaganza at Paris and he was a marvel. So, he too has something to offer — in the right role. Germont? Not the right role. Violetta, not her right role.
A summer’s fun and they are well paid and have the best house in the opera compound. So …. why not? They arrived with Nanny and kids ready to hang out. And Santa Fe is soooooo
pleasant right now.
Lest I be accused of Dessay-bashing may I recall her heartwrenching Ophélie in Barcelona. She has had some truly wonderful things to offer at some stages in her career which I have been blessed to see, but she has not consistently made the right choices and may now be suffering for it. I hope she has a painless transition to the stage and makes her dream true.
Well she may be as “right” for Violetta or Elvira as Florez is for Arturo (I Puritani). He does the role from time to time but I think his voice is too thin to do it well. And then he doesn’t even attempt the famous high F that might justify his doing Arturo.
I thought that Florez had declared Arturo too heavy for his voice. I agree that one needs a more robust voice for the role but I can see him pulling it off at a small venue. Singing it at the Met is a bit of a stretch.