Cher Public
- “Well, good night, opera-goers. On your way home, buy some...” BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK
- “Yeah, I kind of gave up on opera-L, when I wrote — with what I hoped...” erica
- “Rysanek, try it on Safari: http://parterre.com/la-ca sa-della-cieca/...” bassoprofundo
- “I’ve tried to log into the chat twice, and both times my entire...” rysanekfreak
- “Dear fellow Parterre lovers: please email me at sogalitno@gmail.com if...” sogalitno
Archives
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- January 1999
Popular
- Golden girl
- Von Kopf bis Fuss
- The phantom of the opera-l
- Birthday partita
- They had CVs then
- The face that launched
- Ad "HOC" chat
- Trapped in the closet
- Ecco il Leone
- The Turandot chat
- American to helm American opera company
- So etwas geht selten gut aus
- Lascivious wassails
- Leave it to... Jane?
- Century of progress?
- A vos jeux, cher public
- Ex cathedra
- Now it is your turn to wait
- Philip Langridge 1939-2010
- What not to wear
- The Rosenkavalier chat
- Bright Lights, Big Ideas
- Tee party
- My Hun and only
- Regie round the clock
topics
- anna anna anna
- barihunk
- bazooms
- bel canto
- blind item
- blog bloggity blog
- bobby baby
- broadcast
- camp
- cancellation
- chat
- cher public
- contest
- critic
- diva
- filth
- gala
- gay gay gay gay gay
- happy birthday
- hd
- jj
- l'evasiva
- la cieca ci guarda
- la scoopenda
- man of steel
- mp3
- need you ask?
- nyco
- nyt
- our own
- peter gelb is...
- regie quiz
- review
- sad
- stage direction
- the met
- this diva looks like...
- unnatural acts of opera
- wagner
- youtube
colleagues
- A Liberal's Libretto
- AndrewAndJoshua
- Barihunks
- Cafeteria Rusticana
- Civic Center
- Counter Critic
- Daniel Stephen Johnson
- Diva of the High C's
- Donald Collup
- Handelmania
- Hugo Alvarez Domínguez
- Il Corriere della Grisi
- ionarts
- Iron Tongue of Midnight
- Judycast
- Likely Impossibilites
- Mass Culture Mozart
- My Favorite Intermissions
- No Clocks
- Noh Way
- Opera Bouffe
- Opera Chic
- Opera Music Broadcast
- Operacast
- Operavision
- Out West Arts
- San Francisco Classical Voice
- Sandow
- Sieglinde’s Diaries
- Sounds and Fury
- Superconductor
- The Classical Beat
- The Opera Tattler
- The Rest is Noise
- Trrill
- Una butaca en el paraiso
- Vilane fille
- Wellsungs
- Wenarto
- Willy or Won’t He?
- Wo bleibt Elektra?
- Zachary Woolfe
not TOO bad..and he was a hell of a lot better sounding then that orchestra/and/or its Conductor, whoever they might be…
Was this live, or or studio recording?
Agree, not bad… Georgian, so Gelb surely got him cheap…
http://www.gagnidze.com/index.php?ID_Modul=1&language=en
For what it’s worth, Tony T. commented, in his review (NYTimes) of the NY Philharmonic’s Concert version of “Tosca”, last year…”The Georgian baritone George Gagnidze was an exceptionally menacing Scarpia, singing with robust, earthy power and seductive lyricism when the villain turns on the charm.”
Maybe Nico Castel can offer Sig. Gagnidze some much needed help with his Italian: ['Skarpje] [Vaw Toska] [spaSImo]; hardly world class, but all are wished great success for the opening. Hopefully Gagnidze won’t do the Mark Lamos masturbation moves during the Te Deum just because he’s in New York.
Love his Nabucco more than the dutchman; traviata wasn’t bad either. Hope it’s better than this clip.
yikes. maybe folks will be too sensory overloaded from the red carpet scene & all the perfumes/colognes/aftershave. you would THINK the met, of all places, would… well… ya know. wonder what jimmy is thinking
oops sorry. note to self: bring iPod with callas/gobbi stellar performance & nude colored headphones for discretion and not to detract from my dress
His voice in this clip seems closely miked for some reason, but can’t tell for sure. But he certainly has the Scarpia type of sound. Those of you who have heard him live, is his voice big enough for it in the Met?
no, it isn’t. but his was
Sad when people think only one person can sing a role. Yes, Gobbi was a great Scarpia; but what wbout Guelfi or Stabile. Callas was a great Tosca; but what about Tebaldi and Kabaivanska.
Here’s a confession — I find Gobbi almost impossible to listen to. That strait-jacketed timbre and those short top notes … He might have been a great actor, but I’d much rather have Taddei, for instance.
Commonwealth Artist Peter Coleman-Wright and his better half should be brought in at once. Georgians and Finns– the very idea…
browser: just by posting a clip of a great performance doesn’t mean i think only that 1 person can sing the role. the question i was offering a reply to was whether or not i think his voice is going to be big enough for the enormous Met house. gobbi’s was. and of course others’ as well. perhaps when you wrote “people think” you were referring to others?
All in all, I really enjoyed his Scarpia. Yes he has some pronunciation problems but that is nit-picking when he projects the character that well.
What really annoyed the hell out of me was the disgustingly slow pace of the orchestra–almost like wanting to upstage the singer. It lost all the dynamic flow.
Gobbi’s voice wasn’t particularly big….
But all of this comes down to that fact that there are pretty much NO real italianate baritones singing at the moment – and that’s what you need for Scarpia (and that’s what Gobbi had) – BLADE. Gobbi’s SPEAKING voice could be heard across a room without him putting any weight behind it… The same for Zancanaro…
There is no-one to compare at the moment…
Vicar, is Mrs Coleman-Wright Cheryl Barker, stalwart of Chandos’s Opera in English series? Sopranos singing poor English translations of other languages tend to sound like they are about to spank someone. She certainly does.
browser … It must also amaze you, then, that people think that Hvorostovsky, with his voce sempre soffocata, can pass in a role like Luna. I saw him as Germont last year and he had about three notes with any ring. The rest were all stuck somewhere in his tonsils .
Monty Nostry:
Gobbi was a wonderful actor, but a better musician and singer. And I happen to LOVE the sound of his (dry) voice and especially how he uses it. For me he was the greatest Jago, Falstaff and Scarpia–saw them all in person.
This “only a great actor” thing (charge) is similar to what I used to hear about Callas–as if acting was their only asset.
It’s fine that you don’t like or “get” Gobbi. Can’t love everyone.
P.S. I was also a big Warren fan (not so much on recordings)–the two greatest baritones (Italian repertoire) I have ever seen. And Taddie was great too!
Monty Nostry:
Gobbi was a wonderful actor, but a better musician and singer. And I happen to LOVE the sound of his (dry) voice and especially how he uses it. For me he was the greatest Jago, Falstaff and Scarpia–saw them all in person.
This “only a great actor” thing (charge) is similar to what I used to hear about Callas–as if acting was their only asset.
It’s fine that you don’t like or “get” Gobbi. Can’t love everyone.
P.S. I was also a big Warren fan (not so much on recordings)–the two greatest baritones (Italian repertoire) I have ever seen. And Taddei was great too!
browser,
Not all Italianate baritones have to be from Italy…
I heard Terfel sing the Te Deum at last year’s Tucker Gala and it was all ring. Now, he clearly didn’t want to be there that day, but he still sounded as meanicing as Gobbi ever did.
Also, Christopher Maltman (this year’s Pappageno and last year’s Silvio at the Met) is another masky, dark, aggressive baritone that can put some evil behind his sound and be great in this role eventually, as he was great as Tarquinius.
Also, I forget his name, but whoever covered Alfio last year at the Met had a great Italianate sound. He was also the Tonio in the Pag, and was very creepy.
Lastly, Furlanetto is a bass, but he could have sung Scarpia when he was younger, and when I saw him in Ernani was by far the biggest voice on stage (with Hampson, Radvanovsky, and Giordani).
Clita: Now, Warren is **much** more to my taste as a voice! Sometimes it ‘yawns’ a bit (Milnes, maybe a bit of a Warren imitator did that too), but I find that big, warm sound very moving. And I think George London must have been glorious live. (I know he’s more bass-baritone than pure baritone, but we are talking Scarpias, so I thought I’d drop him in.)
George has a smallish sound which he uses well. He was okay with the Philharmonic. He’s not particularly good on stage, so the match up with Mattila will be… interesting.
22 Maltman as Scarpia?????? Is this the Vicar posting under a new name?
Perhaps with Rebecca Bottone and Ed Lyon as Tosca and Cavaradossi, staged with string quartet in Wigmore Hall.
As non Italian Scarpias go, Bacquier was one of my favorites. Not a glam voice, but a suberb singing actor who could be rough and elegant at the same time, and even in his late prime had plenty of volume for the Met.
Monty: YES, London was a wonderful Scarpia–with Callas, 1956 at the Met!
Maltman? Are you SURE?!
No Italianate baritones don’t have to be from Italy (hence the term ItalianATE); but to suggest that Maltman could even exist in the same league as Zancanaro or Bastianini…
And for those talking about bass-baritones singing Scarpia…the problem is that it goes up very quickly, and down very quickly!
25: LOL.