Comments on: Opera is a meritocracy

By: Valmont

Valmont — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:12:26 +0000

I’ve never been to Santa Fe, but if he can be heard in the Family Circle at the Met, I think he can sing Albert. Albert is a young man after all, so a light leggiero timbre is perfect, a la the Nemorino below.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:37:14 +0000

I liked the film’s behind the scenes information, but that’s about it.

What I found frustrating were the shifts and wild inconsistencies in style. For instance, they follow Mikey Fabs as he walks the Streets of Philadelphia a la Springsteen (although I don’t recall the Bruce wandering over to Spruce and into the AVA), while theres’ a voice-over narration of some kind from the kid. Does Froemke do it for anyone else? Nope.

I understand that the Fab was one of the stars of the movie, but is it really in the interest of a documentary filmmaker not only to dedicate an inordinate amount of time to one person (which isn’t a problem, really, if the kid’s so interesting, which he is, and others got a lot of camera time, also) but–and here’s the real crime–to treat that subject with a more attentive cinematic style and technique and tell his story differently than the others?

But I also acknowledge that Froemke’s directorial balls may have been squeezed by the Met, who probably bankrolled a good portion of it, and most definitely had say in how its process is portrayed. How does a filmmaker balance the demands of the money bags against those of her own artistic integrity?

No one was expecting it to be a revolution in documentary style in the vein of Leon Gast’s 1996 examination of the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle between Ali and Foreman, the awesome, jaw-on-the-floor, mouth agape, incredible suspenseful and moving “When We Were Kings” (which was awesome because it interwove dictatorial politics in Zaire with the music of Miriam Makeba and the boxing storyline–sorry I love this movie), although Froemke could have explored the dictatorial politics of the Met–is Peter Gelb the opera world’s Mobutu Sese Seko? But, even though she had to deal with the fact that she was really making a fluff piece for the Met, she could have given us something a little less…blaah…

By: Dawn Fatale

Dawn Fatale — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:16:25 +0000

The Audition is now available on Met Player as well.

By: Gualtier M

Gualtier M — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:50:23 +0000

McKinney is currently singing the Heerrufer in “Lohengrin” in Houston right now with his bass partner on the Barihunks blog – Gunther Groissbock.

By: bassopretendo

bassopretendo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:27:42 +0000

Odd to me that he is singing bass-baritone now. He certainly sounded like a baritone to me in the film. Whatever…

By: ilpenedelmiocor

ilpenedelmiocor — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:30:06 +0000

I didn’t completely understand why Ryan McKinny didn’t make the final cut — first of all, drool: http://www.ryanmckinny.com/ryanmckinny.com/Home.html

But beyond that, I remember him having a really big bass-baritone voice (barihunks indeed) in the movie.

Anyway, I picked up an extra nosebleed ticket for the matinee of Barbiere at LA Opera in December (I’m actually going to make up for the Di Donato-Florez-Gunn Chicago Lyric production I got cheated out of two years back when Florez conveniently claimed to have swallowed a bone and cancelled all his engagements the month before he got married) to hear his Basilio.

Because during the movie, when I figured out he was doing Ford’s (for me) thankless aria for the final, I thought “Why isn’t this guy singing ‘La calunnia’?” — you know, come un colpo di cannone and all….well, now he is. I’ll let y’all know how he does, as well as whether His Nasality decides to show up this time for the evening performance.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:59:37 +0000

Next week?!
Man this season is flying by!

By: KingFlorez

KingFlorez — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:06:02 +0000

Is anyone supremely excited for Lisette Oropesa and Annette Dasch in Figaro next week? I sure am!

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:57:52 +0000

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:25:05 +0000

Bingo! Alek is attractive in person. He also has a wonderful, warm voice, but then I’ve heard him at SF War Memorial and in a much smaller venue for a recital. I don’t know how he’d sound outside. Or is the SFe Opera space friendlier to voices than most open air theaters?

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:17:01 +0000

From descriptions of his voice, I have to wonder why Aleck Shrader
is cast by Santa Fe as Albert Herring next summer; it is hardly a
high leggiero voice, though it should be a young one — and I assume
Shrader is attractive in apperance. Santa Fe usually requires that.

By: Sanford

Sanford — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:47:54 +0000

alek Schrader sang with Paulo Szot and Lisette Oropesa. Some fine moments and a lot of promise. And voyeurism requires neither schadenfreude nor envy. I thought your choice of words was perfect.

By: whatever

whatever — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:18:25 +0000

probably, though netflix does frequently let one “save” a film to one’s queue even when no release date has been announced (i have five such movies in my queue currently).

By: operablogger

operablogger — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:15:06 +0000

I echo No Expert’s appreciation for highlighting this film, and I look forward to owning the DVD once it’s in wide release. I was hoping the added features might include entire arias rather than the excerpts featured in the movie — although admittedly some of the excerpts are fairly lengthy. Alek Shrader matriculated from the Denver-area Met Regionals into the finals, so I had the pleasure of hearing him sing four arias (two each in the Colorado/Wyoming Quarter-Finals and CO-WY-UTAH Semis), and it was apparent from the moment he opened his mouth that he deserved to go on to New York.

By: No Expert

No Expert — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:26:55 +0000

I really enjoyed this film. Thanks for bringing it to our attention again. All of these talented competitors sing with passion and conviction. Plus you get to hear so many musical excerpts…from Handel to Cilea…from “Casta Diva” to “Hurr Hopp Hopp Hopp”! I hope it comes to Amazon soon.

By: Krunoslav

Krunoslav — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:23:52 +0000

“…everybody is looking for a package.”

..she’s been reading the Barihunks page!

By: squirrel

squirrel — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:02:02 +0000

I think it’s a slow roll-out for the national release. It is available through the Met Gift Shop

http://tinyurl.com/lkcoyl

Wide commercial release is… La Cieca, do you know?

By: whatever

whatever — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:51:01 +0000

i wonder why this dvd isn’t showing up on netflix?