parterre box

58 comments

• Chenier631 says:

  At a backstage interview with Alagna during a broadcast at the Met this past season, I think, he clearly stated that he and Angela would no longer perform onstage together anymore in the future. He went on to say that performing together made them both extremely nervous, and that they couldn’t give their best performances that way. So, he said, thay decided to cancel any future dates where they performed together.
  I am surprised Angela didn’t publicly say that as well when the Carmen cancellation was announced.
  And, I would doubt she will show up for just two performances.
  Let’s stay tuned…..

  Chenier631

  on August 14, 2009 at 11:32 AM
• La marquise de Merteuil says:

  I do believe there is a difference in singing with someone you don’t like and someone you have had romantic feelings for. And particularly if the break-up is very public and messy. The worse the break-up the more impossible it is to do your job.

  Anyone who has had an affair with a colleague, in any business arena, knows how difficult it is to stay focused on the job at hand if that person is right there in front of you. So why should it be any different for opera singers?

  I’ve heard AG live a couple of times and she made no impression on me. I don’t know who made her think she is a Carmen. Maybe the same person who persuaded Bartoli that she is a Norma??

  on August 14, 2009 at 12:02 PM
• quoth the maven says:

  Quanto–quite the opposite. Garanca had landed a DG recording deal and the clear commitment of Peter Gelb before anyone here had really heard of her. Before that, she was recording for Virgin Classics (the Mozart arias CD was quite bad). I was told that she was aggressively promoted in Vienna, perhaps because she might have been la favorita of the intendant there. In the case of the Met, Gelb has clearly decided that she’s a marketable property, worthy of adding to his babe-ocracy. I don’t think any of this is really a case of “the public [making] the stars.”

  on August 14, 2009 at 12:04 PM
• aloki miyeyi says:

  From the Met website:
  Saturday, January 16, 2010, 1:00 pm
  Nézet-Séguin; Frittoli, Garanca, Alagna, Kwiecien
  This is the the hd telecast.

  As far as fading careers are concerned, AG has performances listed on her web site through Dec 1010. She will be at the Royal Opera House, on tour with the Royal Opera House in Japan, and back in London for her run of performances of Adriana Lecouvreur.
  The official site for RA lists nothing after May 2010, which is occupied with his French tour in support of the Sicilian album. Of course this does not mean he has no further bookings, but more likely reflects a concentrated promotion of the new cd.

  There is a lot of opinion on this site regarding the talents and performances of both artists. I find Ms Gheorghiu persuasive in the right role on a good night. On a good night the timbre and the veiled quality can combine with a detailed presentation and a quality of reticent emotion, and this can produce a moving and artistic result. On a bad night, she can appear tentative and mannered, and outside of the role. Mr Alagna is a similar mixed bag, and I have enjoyed many performances, but there is almost always a quality of self-involvement in his stage deportment which keeps him outside of the role.

  In any case, he is much more suitable for Don Jose than she is for Carmen. In my piano/vocal score of the opera there are many accomadations for the soprano, usually involving alternate high notes for the lower ones more suitable to a mezzo interpreter. For example near the end of the Habanera the soprano can reach high c in her turn on Prends garde a toi, and in the Seguidilla there are many higher alternates. There are many other examples, for instance in the ensembles involving Mercedes and Frasquita, the soprano Carmen can exchange with Mercedes, and in the finale to Act II the soprano has higher options to her solos, and can double Mercedes again.

  Marston has the first “complete” recording of Carmen, which is sung in German, and Emmy Destinn makes full and very exciting use of the the alternates, and throws in a few of her own. I haven’t listened to the Moffo or Price recordings in a long time, but I don’t recall noticing widespread use of these soprano notes; as I recall they both just try to get husky and sultry on the bottom, to no great effect. I have not heard the Gheorghiu recording, so I don’t know what she does to disguise her unsuitability for the role, but I suspect close miking is her solution.

  on August 14, 2009 at 12:28 PM
• quoth the maven says:

  Lots of sopranos other than Price and Moffo have of course sung or recorded Carmen–not just zwischenfach ladies like Jessye Norman, but unambiguous sopranos–notably Emma Calve (a Pamina and Countess) and Geraldine Farrar (a Juliette and Butterfly). De los Angeles recorded it, then sang it late in her career. Crespin sang it, but I suppose when she was segueing into mezzo rep. Not to mention Callas–although at that late stage, when her top was deserting her, recording the role might have been a defensive maneuver.

  I’m sure I’ve forgotten many, many other examples.

  Which isn’t to say that the role would suit AG. Just that it isn’t out-of-the-question for a soprano to tackle it.

  on August 14, 2009 at 12:39 PM
• casualoperafan says:

  About audibility at the Met – actually Family Circle has more or less the best acoustis in the joint! From there anyone is easily audible.

  However from other locations in the house, and depending on the repertoire, Angela Gheorghiu definitely does have audibility issues especially in the lower and middle parts of her voice.

  She is not alone in that regard and to her credit she does not push her voice which actually I respect. She needs to be careful of the rep she sings at the Met and probably Carmen was a very poor choice for her in that particular theatre as far as the live performance in the house is concerned.

  I do not mind a soprano Carmen – actually it can be interesting and different – but the soprano needs an especially good middle and low registers where is not where Gheorghiu shines. On the recording she is OK but that’s all fake. Similarly on the HD she would have been great but that is somewhat fake too. In the house I think it will be disappointing from the vocal aspect.

  In an interview a few weeks ago, she said she currently has engagements through 2015. These are not announced but that that is not unusual really. I believe that she is booked that far in advance, it is pretty standard for people at that level.

  That doesn’t mean her career isn’t fading however. It depends on where the engagements are, who with, etc. Either case with her body of work behind her she will be able to find work as long as she wants it, I suspect!

  on August 14, 2009 at 12:46 PM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  Being launched into stardom does not equal New York. The Viennese were crazy about Garanca from the start and she had in fact relatively little experience, but then you have to start somewhere. I find her very superficial, but then I find most performances these days that way. I remember the portier at the Staatsoper telling me how Barbara Kilduff was “gejubelt” the previous evening as Zerbinetta and where did that get her?

  on August 14, 2009 at 1:11 PM
• quoth the maven says:

  Quanto–you’re right. My POV was distinctly provincial. But I think the point is: here in NY, it isn’t the public that has put Garanca in two highly visible new productions within one season, but Gelb’s priorities.

  on August 14, 2009 at 1:18 PM
• casualoperafan says:

  In recent years NY does not “make’ too many stars? It seems not. It seems like they are “made” elsewhere and then imported here.

  It seems like European acclaim and recording contracts are still, for the most part, what “makes” them.

  on August 14, 2009 at 1:29 PM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  Think about it… Domingo is right: “the public makes the stars”

  on August 14, 2009 at 2:19 PM