parterre box

18 comments

• Hippolyte says:

  Iolanta is my favorite Tchaikovsky opera and contains one of the most beautiful love duets ever written where Vaudemont falls in love with Iolanta and eventually discovers her blindness which has been hidden from her by everyone in the kingdom she lives in. His realization that she is blind is an astonishingly moving moment. Unfortunately I can’t listen to the youtube clip at my work computer but having a live recording of Beczala in the role and having heard Netrebko sing the duet with Villazon I can only imagine they should be rather well-suited to it. Since Baden-Baden has been televising a lot of its productions lately (the Wernicke Rosenkavalier and the Wilson Freischutz) perhaps this will show up too.

  on July 21, 2009 at 10:42 AM
• Amnerees says:

  At least Netrebko knows how to sing this music beautifully. Check out her performance on the Betrothal in a Monastary DVD (1998), and you’ll hear what we’re missing. She should be singing Russian repertory.

  on July 21, 2009 at 11:07 AM
• Hans Lick says:

  Amnerees, I so totally agree with you. (And yes, I have her B-in-a-M.) She is flawless in Russian music. (I consider her good but flawed in Italian music.) The dream role for her would be The Tsar’s Bride; that and Snow-Maiden and Maid of Orleans are the superb Russian operas of which we are being sadly deprived. Gergiev would be splendid conducting them, too – I’ve heard him lead Snow-Maiden.

  Iolanta isn’t nearly as good as those three, but of course it’s much cheaper to perform.

  on July 21, 2009 at 11:38 AM
• mrmyster says:

  Well said, Amnerees! My thoughts exactly. In Russian rep. A. N. is truly extraordinary, and she should appear more often where she shines the brightest. I envy Baden Baden this event; friends from there report being overwhelmed by it — and what does it matter about the tacky costumes when the music is so good; besides, they aren’t THAT bad are they? She appears a bit thick in the waist, though not unattractively so. It’s just marvelous how well her voice sounds in Russian music — it takes on lustre and colors not otherwise much evident!

  on July 21, 2009 at 11:55 AM
• scifisci says:

  It’s not fair! Europe always seems to get the best of Netrebko!

  on July 21, 2009 at 12:08 PM
• Le_Chiffre says:

  I’ve also heard fantastic things about this run of Iolanta from friends. Trebs sounds great in this clip, and I’m very pleased to read that this production is so well-received. I want singers to do well, and be cast well in rep.

  Three cheers for this production.

  on July 21, 2009 at 12:34 PM
• Le_Chiffre says:

  Clarification: I haven’t read any official reviews, so the ‘well-received’ bit above refers to comments and anecdotes.

  on July 21, 2009 at 12:35 PM
• richard says:

  HL @ #3 “The dream role for her would be The Tsar’s Bride; ”

  She has actually done this. The first time I saw her was at the SFO about 10 years ago; she sang the role with Hvorostovsky and Borodina (in Olga’s earlier, much more sensational form than she is now). I loved it.

  on July 21, 2009 at 1:01 PM
• Krunoslav says:

  3- Hans, I wish I understood what you see in the formless Meyerbeerian mess of THE MAID OF ORLEANS, which has exactly one memorable aria plus about 20 minutes of good orchestral music. IOLANTA is a far superior work. I have seen them both staged several times — IOLANTA never without most of the audience crying, it is melodic and terribly moving. There are *worse* operas then ORLEANSKAYA DEVA (Rimsky’s PSKOVITIANKA, for example) but it is really not any kind of masterwork.

  on July 21, 2009 at 4:14 PM
• chicagokok says:

  she seems to be slimming down.
  smart move

  on July 21, 2009 at 9:22 PM