Comments on: Sex, Lies & Octavian

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:27:47 +0000

It’s certainly easier to listen to all those big people with big voices on the radio.

Thanks for the heads-up at Norma on Sirius. I’ve not heard this opera yet (because I like to have the libretto on first listen and I don’t own a recording of this yet). Caballe seems to be enunciating well enough for me to make out the words, so while I don’t know exactly what they’re saying, I can at least tell who they’re addressing.

The duet at the end of Act II was just beautiful.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:20:51 +0000

By the way, isn’t this a moment for our dear friend the Vicar to expound on the line-ups at the dear old Coli c 1972?

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:37:09 +0000

Jay, who needs all those big people with big voices when we can have little people with little voices these days?

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:14:43 +0000

One of the 1976 Caballe/Verrett Normas capped a weekend that began with Puritani on Friday night and continued with Aida on Saturday matinee. Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Placido Domingo, Cornell McNeil, and Caballe and Verret, all in about 27 hours. It rarely got any better at the Met than this.

By: parpignol

parpignol — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:12:18 +0000

MontyNostry: she’s not sounding very vulnerable right now in the duet with Pollione; if I were he I would head back to Rome on the next chariot; but she’s going to soften in the duets with Norma. . . I am really loving this performance. . .

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:06:11 +0000

right you are! so nice to be retired…

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:59:58 +0000

parpignol — can the fabulous Shirl do sweet and vulnerable, though?

By: parpignol

parpignol — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:55:27 +0000

easier than traveling to Vienna: Caballe and Verrett are singing a 1970s Met Norma on Sirius right now; I heard it once already this week, tremendous stuff!

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:53:33 +0000

MN: Renee is OK for me, but I find JDD to be always exciting. There’s a spontaneity in her performances that … hmmm … La Fleming sometimes lacks.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:41:22 +0000

Allerseelen … Reich’ mir die Hand …

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:40:24 +0000

Don’t expect much, except some pumpkin soup!

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:37:32 +0000

Sure! I’ve never spent Halloween in Vienna, so why not?

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:31:55 +0000

cruz — cool, let’s all go to Vienna and camp out in the Stehplatz line! Sigh… the old days!

The Isokoski Desdemona which I saw was also ruined by one russian conductor who seemed to cruise in and lead the performance without so much as introducing himself to the cast. It was all over the place, wishywashy and BAD. I didn’t really blame her entirely.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:30:30 +0000

Isokoski is also due to do Contessa and Marschallin in London this season.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:29:14 +0000

ellerveira … Joyce DD has the most stunning technique. No sliding around there. Every note is in place and she can trill and purl with the best of them. I am no Renaaay fan, but I find the actual colour of her voice more beautiful than JDD’s — or at least, it used to be until she started colouring each note separately — but I know which of them I would rather listen to (and look at) for an evning. JDD is wonderfully HONEST.

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:24:10 +0000

squirrel: Isokoski seems to be hanging out in Vienna, from now until May (at least, she’s singing Lohengrin, Figaro, and Rosenkavalier there over these months).

I have to admit, I can’t imagine her as Desdemona either.

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:16:40 +0000

ellerveira: I think the word you are looking for is “ubiquitous.”

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:16:16 +0000

cruzSF -I’m glad to hear this! Isokoski was absolutely amazing as the Marschallin in at Vienna State Opera. I had found her ill suited as Desdemona in Paris and wasn’t sure about her, but boy am I now!

By: ellerveira

ellerveira — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:12:42 +0000

I wonder how many hold my invidious opinion that DiDonato is a better singer than Fleming. Better voice, better technique.

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:03:29 +0000

Kruno: I saw that Rosenkavalier with Isokoski and DiDonato in SFO. Both of them were very good — DiDonato was dazzling — and that performance transformed my fling with opera into a full-fledged love affair. I hope both of them return soon to SFO.

By: parpignol

parpignol — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:47:34 +0000

maybe I haven’t been following the threads closely enough, but with all the Rosenkavalier discussion, it seems as though the previous Marschallin from the last run of Rosenkavaliers (about 5 years ago) has been somehow quite forgotten; am I the only one who thought that Angela Denoke was a memorable Marschallin, beautiful voice, a little small for the house but very well deployed, restrained and elegant characterization, fine Viennese style (to my sensibility); has she been somehow completely eclipsed or forgotten?
and one word for another forgotten Marschallin from years back: Evelyn Lear!
anyway, I’m going tonight. . .

By: CerquettiFarrell

CerquettiFarrell — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:44:27 +0000

I referred to Serafin over here something like 5 months ago and then ppl shushed me and said she had no top. True, she doesn’t, or rather that her top is extremely constricted, a la Polaski. But nevertheless on the basis of her youtube clips she seems to me to be an artist of real worth, having a substantial instrument, and the musical and theatrical know-how.

By: Krunoslav

Krunoslav — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:43:12 +0000

MontyNostry — My spies were at the first Serafin performance and said she was even better vocally and dramatically than Isokoski, who was very good if restrained. On Youtube she sounds very good; I too wonder she is not better known.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:44:57 +0000

Kruno — did you see Serafin? She seems an interesting singer. A fine Marschallin who is also a fine Maddalena — and a fine-looking woman. I’m sort of surprised she is not more famous, though I haven’t seen her live. Her father, of course, is an operetta legend in Austria. He has sung more Danilos than anyone else in history!

By: Krunoslav

Krunoslav — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:53:57 +0000

21 — Outside of Manhattan — if that counts for anything– Joyce di Donato sang and acted the whole part beautifully at SFO opposite Soile Isokoski (and, later, Martina Serafin).

By: elvino

elvino — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:33:37 +0000

transforming the ironic, moody aristocrat into a Lifetime movie drama queen

. . . so much for constructive criticism . . . for a moment i thought i was reading Martin Bernheimer . . . what, i wonder, is the true reason behind jj’s seemingly hateful renee fleming obsession?

By: ellerveira

ellerveira — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:07:04 +0000

I’d suggest using DiDonato as Octavian. She did a marvelous Presentation of the Rose with Damrau in concert.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:03:05 +0000

i second mrmyster’s request for the scoop on La Brewer and Der Rutenberg

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:55:01 +0000

Susan looks great, Susan is great: but it would all
be greater yes with a bit of a slim-down. I’d say
twenty less would be a big improvement.
Just a thought.
Meanwhile, anyone here attend the Brewer concert
at Zankel? Reactions?

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:57:41 +0000

I wasn’t sure whether that was a dig at La Scoopenda, instead. I guessed right.