Comments on: dernier cri

By: OhNO

OhNO — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:35:18 +0000

netrebko has a real voice. Dessay is fanny brice. all mugging to distract from the white toned, horrid shrieking that passes as acting choices. I did NOT like the Met Gala sepre libera because it was anything but. It was caught in her tiny little world of over nuanced “supposed” great acting and singing. She runs a lot….with a very limited color she is a limited courtesan except when in a dye shop.

By: Alto

Alto — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:16:30 +0000

” … I can see him pulling it off at a small venue. Singing it at the Met is a bit of a stretch.”

I wonder why people keep making this superficially obvious statement as if by reflex? The acoustics of the Met are such that a voice that can be heard at all can be heard all over the house. Many smallish voice (Von Stade? Blegen? Battle d’ans passés?) have been starry there.

Now, not being suitable for a part is another question, of course. But it always seems to me that if they can’t do it at the Met, they probably shouldn’t try it in “a small venue” either.

By: Dubist Derlenz

Dubist Derlenz — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:25:06 +0000

Despite all her faults (scooping into almost every note, mugging that puts Bartoli to shame, a poor trill, etc.), I much, much prefer Ms. Dessay over Anna Netrebko. Talk about a fraud.

By: NYCOQ

NYCOQ — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:53:40 +0000

Lawrence Brownlee (high F) [YouTube]

By: kashania

kashania — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:34:53 +0000

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.

By: ellerveira

ellerveira — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:30:59 +0000

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.

By: Condanna O Screater

Condanna O Screater — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:32:47 +0000

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.

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:21:01 +0000

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.

By: Gualtier M

Gualtier M — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:04:20 +0000

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.

By: kashania

kashania — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:02:41 +0000

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.

By: Condanna O Screater

Condanna O Screater — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:57:01 +0000

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.

By: NYCOQ

NYCOQ — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:54:25 +0000

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.

By: kashania

kashania — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:37:09 +0000

I don’t imagine Dessay being too shy to say anything. I think she’ll song as long as she has a voice left.

By: SuorAngelica

SuorAngelica — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:34:12 +0000

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.

By: javier

javier — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:05:27 +0000

This opera is so over-performed! Don’t get me wrong, I like “Traviata”, but it seems like everyone is singing it this summer. After Netrebko and Fleming, Dessay is the last soprano I would want to hear because she just doesn’t have the voice to sing the last 2/3 of the opera.

I think Dessay looks good as a redhead and I’m sure that she sings the first 1/3 of the opera (the belcanto section) the best.

It would be a shame if she retires soon, but I can’t say that I would miss her because I lost a lot of interest in her after her MET “fille du regiment” and “Sonnambula” because I don’t like the way she sacrificed the music for gags.

By: Condanna O Screater

Condanna O Screater — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:14:10 +0000

Dear #27, If the woman has had two major surgeries on her vocal cords it may well have something to do with the savage misuse she makes of them. Maybe she should have some compassion on us. I have rarely heard something more hors style than her Lucia in Paris. It was embarrassingly vulgar and cheap, but she was elated and convinced she had done bel canto proud. Not one humble enough to understand what it takes, à la Devia.

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:57:27 +0000

When Mlle. Nat told an interviewer she “prefers to sing Violetta in French,” there was your clue. But, all hands tell me she pus on a good show and one gets his “money’s worth.” Probably true, but not an evening for the Muzio, Steber, Ponselle crowd.
I have not head the Galli-Curci recording referred to above in #26, but assume it is pre-electric and one can tell very little from such. Even Gilda was too heavy for GC, though she sang it a lot, and she would go flat constantly under pressure. She was quite noted for her out-of-tune singing, and even recordings. It was all blamed on her goiter surgery in the early 1920s after which her voice was reportedly never the same. But, then, Sayao would sing Violetta quite often and her voice was as light as all those mentioned above, and as one critic pointed out, she always sang Act II flat as it was too heavy and she had to push. It was obvious that Miss Nat as Violetta is a stunt — the question is how well she could pull it off, and locals I trust say she giv es a good show, on the whole. So. Poof….what does it matter? It’s only opera.

By: ellerveira

ellerveira — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:32:29 +0000

Please, please, a wee bit of compassion. The woman has had, what?, two surgeries on her vocal cords and she works very hard learning her roles. She has done many very fine things. Let’s tone down the attacks and be a bit kinder.

By: aloki miyeyi

aloki miyeyi — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:56:55 +0000

Florezrocks
“Her role in Hamlet next season is relatively small….”
Opelia is a small role relative to Violetta – howso? The London performance is preserved on Unnatural Acts of Opera for a comparison. It is Keeleyside and Dessay, as the Met performances will be.

mrmyster
“Galli-Curci”
A large chunk of her Act II, the scena and duet with Germont Pere is available, with Guiseppe DeLuca. It is beautiful singing, and a very fine example of vocal acting by voices of discreet size. And Bidu Sayao was apparently an effective small voiced Violetta.

Krunoslav
“not the least of which was hiring her Baron Douphol- worthy husband to sing Germont.”
May she use her clout at the Met to have her husband in the Hamlet; otherwise we may have Robert Lloyd and his skeins of wool as the London performance does.

By: arepo

arepo — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:16:58 +0000

All I want to know is, how does she say “E tardi?”

By: Maio Millo

Maio Millo — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:32:55 +0000

#14…………..”guppy pretending to be a whale” and #15………”Leonie Rysanek you’re not” pretty much sums up what this fraud is all about……..And, overacting never compensates for anything!!!! Compensation doesn’t really exist anyway, does it? Please spare NY the “patchwork” Traviata!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: taminophile

taminophile — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:27:11 +0000

When I first heard that Nat was doing this role, I thought it was stunt casting. You can’t deny it gets butts in the seats. My contact at Santa Fe told me things that agree with the comments above–inaudible in places, weak in the soaring lines. On a different note I have to say I’m intrigued by the description of the production, though.

By: calaf47

calaf47 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:18:28 +0000

Roberta Peters did sing Violetta in Philadelphia (her first), in Florida and Utah. She never sang the role at the Met.

By: Condanna O Screater

Condanna O Screater — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:06:34 +0000

“Dessay” and “sexy” in the same sentence? Puh-lease. Her husband with a pillowcase conveniently slipped over his head might cater for some more refined tastes, but Natalie? Are we losing our grip on reality here?

By: Byrnham Woode

Byrnham Woode — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:48:31 +0000

I believe Peters sang Violetta late in her career at a few regional houses. She didn’t do it at the MET; that’s true.

By: manou

manou — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:41:40 +0000

Just to say (superfluously) that the title of this post is pure genius.

By: armerjacquino

armerjacquino — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:38:53 +0000

Wait- there’s an Act IV? What happens in that, then?

By: Often admonished

Often admonished — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:35:01 +0000

Roberta Peters never sang Violetta.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:09:27 +0000

And, Krunoslav, I suspect the little Nat is no Rosa Raisa.

By: Krunoslav

Krunoslav — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:44:53 +0000

Let’s be serious. This gentleman is a *local booster*, not a critic. Dessay is big business in Santa Fe and would not be criticized in such a forum. Her Amina there, while not as fraudulent as at the Met, was no triumph, though it was received as such; and I agree the decent Pamina was nothing to remember. At least she didn’t feel the need to emit her now trademark scream in that role. Earth to Natalie: Leonie Rysanek you;’re not.

The company has jumped through hoops for this appearance, not the least of which was hiring her Baron Douphol- worthy husband to sing Germont. Shades of Giacomo Rimini ( though he was doubtless a considerably better Germont).