Out there, in the dark
All of you who said, “Oh, Kiri te Kanawa could never do Norma” are feeling pretty silly right now, aren’t you? Of course, La Cieca doesn’t mean the Bellini druidess, a role the Kiwi songbird never could have mastered even at the peak of her career, whenever that might have been.
No, this Norma is the creepy aging diva who refuses to go away: “I promise you I’ll never desert you again, because after Der Rosenkavalier we’ll make another opera, and another and another. You see, this is my life. It always will be. There’s nothing else – just me and the prompters and those wonderful people out there in the dark…” [NYT]
Ruxton @33 said: Her gowns are always stunning and show great taste
Agreed, I like this “concert gown of white crepe, 5 February 1967″ very much indeed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz/2522717208/
If Dame Kiri is assuming the mantle of Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, surely the rest must be cast with Kiwi singers too:
Teddy Tady Rhodes for William Holden
Donald McIntyre for Eric von Stroheim
Marie Adele McArthur for Nancy Olson
Jonathan Lemalu for Jack Webb
Simon O’Neill for Cecil B. deMille
Patrick Power for Buster Keaton
Malvina Major for Anna Q. Nilsson
Fortunately Heather Begg’s scenes as Hedda Hopper are already a wrap.
Sometimes it seems as if every discussion on here gets round to the question of how appropriate a soprano was or would have been to the role of Norma. Dame Kiri never sang it, and never really threatened to in any serious way. Nobody thinks she was or is tempramentally suited to it, basta.
She does have an odd way of handling her press, and can be extremely curt and icy. That comment about not having any plans to die is a case in point!
I wouldn’t necessarily write her off as totally past it, based on my recent concert experience of her. She can be extremely variable in terms of vocal quality, even between different pieces across one evening. I saw her give a recital which she opened by crooning some Vivaldi and Handel, which was scarcely audible and not pleasant in the parts one could hear. She followed these with the Countess’s arias and another Mozart concert aria, all of which sounded kind of OK, provided one made concessions for her age. But then she sang some Berlioz and Puccini, and suddenly seemed 10 years younger. It wasn’t just that she was negotiating her way around the music more easily, the actual timbre suddenly cleaned up, became richer and bigger, and sounded like the Dame Kiri of yore.
At the macro level, I’d say her singing on her Puccini arias disc on Erato in the mid-90s was fairly rancid, causing me to feel she’d gone off and was already past it, but then in 1997 I heard her do an Amelia Grimaldi in which she truly did sound like she did in the mid 1980s. So I think she may well have a few surprises up her sleeve, and could still be capable of some beautiful things in the right pieces of music.
Hehe Buster I love it
That was her Catholic period when she was a pupil of Sister Mary’s – what else would a good Catholic girl wear on stage in those days!
I’m flattered that you had to go back as far as ’67 to find a shocker- kinda proves my point
At least she’s gone from virgin white to deep purples and reds with frequent touches of blacks and glitters. Must get out my old crepe number now and give it a whirl.
Hndymn and the other Te Kanawa fans here: Bravi.
Her great decade began in 1975; in those years she was a MATCHLESS Countess, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Desdemona and Amelia Grimaldi, a superb Pamina and Marschallin as well. Not an ideal recitalist, but better at it than Rene Pape. (Not saying much, but no one seems to want to point out how bad he was.) Violetta was a mistake, but she was the only Violetta I’ve seen — the young [sic] Galupe-Borszkh aside — who actually seemed to be dying in the final scene, and no I don’t mean theatrically dying. I never now hear a Fiordiligi or an Elvira without a sigh: Will I ever again hear them sung as gloriously as Te Kanawa (and her only serious rival at the time, Vaness) sang them? Was there a creamier, more perfectly phrased Mozart or Strauss diva on the planet? Not then, no. It didn’t hurt (well, with this crowd, maybe it does) that she looked impossibly gorgeous. (But she never took herself too seriously – splendidly down to earth.)
I remember, out of many glorious occasions, sitting in the front row at Salzburg for a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic under Abbado with Dame Kiri singing “Non temer, amato bene.” I truly thought I was going to float away on wings of song. After the second or third curtain call, she gave me a look – I must have seemed to be having stigmata – I mean, Bernini would have loved me in that pose – of “What are you ON, boy? Get over it.”
But yeah, she was that good.
On retiring or not retiring: It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. Why MUST the thing be permanent? If she finds she can still do it and misses the greasepaint, why shove her out the door? Everyone is sentimental here about Behrens, and she must have sounded like shit those last tours. I was at No Orchids for Miss Blandish last night at Film Forum, a major Legion of Decency shocker of 1948, last night, and they introduced the original American distributor and also one of the minor actors. The distributor said, “My friend here, a great actor, now retired –” and the actor (who looked terrific) said, “What!!!!” I mean, he’s not 90 yet, he’d undoubtedly take the work if offered. Why complain when Kiri comes back for a role like Vanessa? You’re lucky to have someone who actually looks the part of an aging beauty.
As for Sutherland’s Norma: you don’t get it from recordings; in person it was NOT just a vocal spectacular (though it sure was that), she had real diva presence, someone major was on that stage, and the action swirled around HER. It was a genuine interpretation, if not the most exciting or subtle imaginable. Only Caballe has come close to it (or bettered it) in the forty years since.
Pavel: I too am looking forward to the Dutchess at the Met with Kiri. Should be fun. She has a rather biting wit so I think it will be a fun night.
I think the “O quante volte” was truly lovely. I like Kiri in bel canto but perhaps I’m in the minority.
Glad you like it too Ruxton. It is probably zerfressen von den Motten by now, but it would be great for the V&A.
White is notoriously difficult for recital dresses. The only truly succesful one I saw was on Sylvia McNair. The loudest collective sigh from the audience when she stepped out on stage. Just gorgeous. 1996?
Te Kanawa had one of the most beautiful voices around and she used it with great taste and elegance. No, she wasn’t the most probing artist but I also think that her coldness as an intepreter has been exaggerated over the years. It’s not as if she couldn’t sing with feeling. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about her Violetta and I’m sure she had a few other mis-fires, but for the most part, she stuck to what she did well and did it very well indeed. And I second the comments about her technique.
I hope that the Met will one day release the Rosenkavalier with Kiri/Troyanos/Blegen/Moll/Pavarotti.
Hans Lick: Apparently, Sutherland was on fire for her Met broadcast of Norma in 1970 (with Horne’s Met debut?). I’ve heard people remark, after hearing the broadcast, how surprised they were by her show of temprament and her enunciation of consonants!
Te Kanawa did sing eight consecutive Met Violettas in the fall of 83. However, I remember that she withdrew from her scheduled Saturday broadcast the next February and was replaced by Adriana Maliponte. In between, Rosario Andrade sang several performances; I don’t know if any of those had been announced as Te Kanawa’s.