However, if Peter Clark says that the Met is going forward with the Decker travesty then that I am sure is what they are doing. Poplavskaya, probably a Friend/Billinghurst fetish could get one of the scheduled revivals as could Kovalevska. Word going around is that Dessay is being pursued to replace Netrebko in the Decker “Traviata” with Villazon still in place (he has only been released from his Hoffmann contract – and Calleja’s image in now replacing his image in the promotional images on the Met site.) Frankly this “Traviata” is smelling like a disaster already.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgZ0nVIN2tQ

Frankly, I don’t believe for a moment that the Decker Traviata will ever come to the MET. It’s strictly a press announcement to be followed months later by a different production altogether (Iolanta/Aleko would be my hope) done for Netrebko. With the loss of both Netrebko and Villazon, what would be the point? And how many other sopranos are there out there (particularly those who both sell tickets and would look good in those short dresses)? And haven’t we been Traviata-ed to death at the MET lately anyway?

1. anna need to sit down and shut up for a year! she doesn’t need to be singing any heavy stuff right now! she needs to find her voice again. take off for a while take care of the child! she sound and excuse my french but she sounds like she has a 12 inch you know what in her throat! She can not pull of anna bolena! she can probally pass through it but not give its true excitment like Sills, Sutherland, Gencer.
1a) Faust maybe but she need to lighten up some and have that light sound
1b)Travatore maybe idk she should be singing verdi
1c) German maybe it will not be good for her voice now maybe 7 years from now
1d) Lulu hell to the no she should not sing it! she can hardly do a high e flat! come get real!

2) dessay just did the role come one let her get into the water! let her get use to it. Yes i would love to see her in more Handel, shes great in that and more mozart. She’s great in bel canto too! well her scream in lucia scared me to death but effective. I think she will do fine in Puritani.

3) as for ms. fleming I think she should go onto the strauss stage more lush roles. I think shes coming towards the end of her singing career. just a bit.

4) I think the Met and other opera companies shoud do 2 things

a) Use singer that you already have! come on your treating then like used tissues! reuse them! They are still good! like Ruth Ann, H.H.H, you know.

b) use young singers! let them grow and bloom. And you wonder why there voices cant carry out into the MET.

5 and final point lol i dont have a final point lol i have a story so i had a dream the kristen chenoweth did zerbinetta, despina, susanna, and rosina! maybe?

There are a lot of important questions surrounding this cancellation. Will they cancel the importation of the Willy Decker grey corrugated wall, red sofa with big symbolic clock regie production? I heard from the horse’s mouth that this was planned not just for the traumpaar at the premiere but for a few later revivals. With who? (Dessay? Schafer? Kovalevska? De Niese??)

So what will they do? Put on another opera for Trebs and Rolly? (Boheme? Elisir? Romeo et Juliette?) Or will they still bring the Decker “Traviata” in and recast it with Miss X? What about just reviving the old Zef mach II with Gheorghiu, Fleming, Hong or Dunleavy?

Of course if Anna thinks that her effectiveness as Violetta in the Decker konzept ist kaput then how about her appearing in the Zef mach II? She might be the girl to actually dominate that production! (I think that Gheorghiu, Stoyanova and Gallardo-Domas did well in it).

Lots of big questions here without trashing Netrebko. What will Gelb do?

I for once would like to see the production with someone else rather than Nebby-Villazon. The one reason why I don’t own that DVD is because THEY are singing in it. I would welcome another couple (I’m just not a fan of either) and maybe some adjusting of the staging. The premise sounds good and the idea of the clock a good one. The whole Violetta dying on top of the clock is ridiculous, let’s keep the clock ticking and bring a chaise for Violeta to die.

Of the eurotrash productions that we have been treated, this seems to be one that actually had some thinking on it, at least for most of it.

P.S. Right now, she is touring with a recital program of Russian songs, first at Mannheim, then in Salzburg (with Barenboim).

“Netrebko’s Violetta death is rather premature, and I may be wrong. With her sold-out performances and success in Salzburg, LOH and in SFO, she nay not sing Decker’s production at the Met, but it’s hard to believe that she has written off Violetta for ever.”
………………

Maybe it’s hard to believe for those who worship her every move and note , but I for one welcome the timely move to a heavier Fach. I’d like to hear her Suor Angelica and Manon Lescaut too.

Meanwhile, Mlle. Dessay and the Met should drop the idle fantasy that she is going to be an acceptable PURITANI Elvira in a few years and let her sing something better suited to her vocal estate and need to be hip onstage, like perhaps Despina or Perichole.

One horrible (yes, we recall, Dr. Papas, SOLD OUT AND CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED — by fools) PURITANI telecast was enough, surely…

An ideal production would even change the seasons from Spring to Summer to Winter as the three acts proceed. This would also show that the story takes place all within one year.

Traviata is in 3 acts, as stated above. Act 2 is in 2 scenes. I will venture a guess that the intermission after II-i was probably inserted to give the Violetta another break. Obviously in the age of saving money at all costs there are all sorts of different ways of doing the intermisions. Doing only 1 at the end of II-i seems to be popular on smaller houses.

All this talk about anyone soaring over the ensemble in II-ii is ludicrous. First of all, it is an ensemble and the sopranos are doubling Violeta’s music (not the text) and it being the Concertato Finale, no one actually should stick out, unless in their solo moments or in the small asides right at the end of the ensemble. The whole idea is to show the strength of the ensemble singing of the soloists and the chorus. Anyone sticking out should be shot.

Furthermore, if you look and listen to the ensemble, it is not Violeta who has the melody in it, the melody is carried by Alfredo, so there’s an even more potent reason for Violeta not to dominate the ensemble.

I’m no fan of Dessay. I have seen her as Lucia (Chicago) and Marie (Met) and I thought her acting hammy and full of Look at ME acting. I was not terribly impressed and since then I have thought she is seeking the label singing actress to compensate for some vocal inadequacies.

YOU may call her what you wish, but greatest singing actress of our times? Up your meds and get plenty of rest and still you need help.

Forgive them, they know not what…..

before she went down the bel canto path (to my shagrin), i thought she’d make a perfect arabella and agathe…and eventually marie therese. so, i’m glad she may yet explore something at least in that fach.

1. Faust’s study
2. Kermesse
3. Garden
4. Church scene/Death of Valentin
5. Walpurgisnacht ballet/Prison

What is sometimes called “Act 3″ of Traviata (i.e., the party at Flora’s) is the finale to the second act. According to Julian Budden, the set for the country house is meant to be fairly shallow, with the scenery for Flora’s already in place behind the backdrop. The changeover between the two scenes should be practically instantaneous.

If a production of Traviata takes only a single interval, that must surely be before the final act.

Ummm…wrong. Traviata is written in 3 acts.