An evening with Aprile
Attached you will find the song lineup for last night’s Aprile Millo recital, though as the saying goes, there were some changes to the printed program.
The first half went more or less as planned, though after the R. Strauss a man exiting the auditorium tripped and fell in the aisle, hit his head on a railing, and was knocked unconscious. A doctor was in the house, so he started to tend to the injury while the house staff called 911.
Meanwhile, Aprile re-entered and started to introduce Lynn Harrell. The audience shouted out to her that there was a man down, so she announced we should remain in our seats to wait for instructions. They took a 30 minute intermission while the EMT were summoned, a stretcher brought in, etc. Then something like the final 2/3 of the recital followed.
My very favorite thing she did all night was the opening of “O sole mio,” that easy, liquid middle voice legato on “Che bella cosa na jurnata ‘e sole…” It’s not bel canto, strictly, because it’s so natural. It’s just simply beautiful singing.
Of the “among,” Aprile elected to sing Fanciulla, Mefistofele, the Zaza duet and the Trovatore duet. Explaining that she was still weak from dieting, she asked our indulgence — which was not necessary for the music sung (the “L’altra notte” in particular was just superb) but rather for the decision to quit while she was ahead in the operatic section and round out the evening with a few (more) parlor songs: “Danny Boy,” a sort of “Wedding of Jack and Jill” piece and then she closed with “Musica Prohibita.”
The middle voice is still lovely, and she needed only about a number and half to sound fully warmed up. She ended most numbers around F or G. She did sing both the written high C in the Fanciulla and the unwritten one in the Trovatore, took a huge if ungainly B-flat (I think it was) in the Zaza, and an absolutely sterling high B in the Boito.
She has indeed lost some weight, emphasized by the tight basque bodice, low sweetheart neckline and crinoline skirt of her concert dress. If you think of Elizabeth Taylor circa 1980 as Leonora in “Trovatore,” you have the effect. The coiffure was quite elaborate, with a big teased wave in the front, a braid embellished with jewels, and a silver lamé mesh snood.
I’ll leave it to the cher public to detail the names and deployment of the dozen or so assisting artists, which included Our Own squirrel’s boyfriend Michael Fabiano.
I am simply not gay enough for this blog. What is a silver lamaayyy mesh SNOOD?
Almost no one’s gay enough for this blog on the day after a Millo performance. (And I thought my bona fides were pretty secure in that department.)
That was the weirdest recital I have EVER been to (even without that guy falling and hitting his head).
She still has a great voice but Millo came off as an giant operatic anachronism.
First, despite all the dieting (”Weight crises,” she called it), she’s HUGE. At times she looked like a drag queen making jokes on stage (she did exhibit a vibrant, engaging personality). I think she could have kept her career had she lost weight. She says she’s dropped 50lb, which is wonderful. She’s at the age most sopranos are in their prime, but she came off as old and crusty–as has-been, rather than a current star. Her mannerisms, accent (where the heck did she get that “I’m European” accent??), and dress (more like costume) came off as antique parody. Certainly she’s one of the last grande dames of opera, but, truthfully, she’s not that old!
I wished she hadn’t cut the operatic selections short. That’s really where she shined, singing Verdi like I haven’t heard it in decades! Instead, the recital ended anti-climactically, without a rousing anything.
Aprile, you want my advice? Slim down. Alot. There’s no need for drastic surgery like Voigt–become a vegan. You’ll be down to your normal weight in about 6-8 months. Then, start up your career again by going around the country and the world. Forget about NYC being home base for now–the MET will continue to ignore you until you prove yourself elsewhere. Continue singing like you do, and you’ll be in demand everywhere. I haven’t heard a Verdiana in so long that I’d forgotten how Verdi is supposed to be sung. You’re the last hope. Take some acting classes–your movements won’t fly on stage in the 21st century. That voice is still golden, you just have to fit into the mold of today’s singer–you’re just a few pounds away.
An EVENT… A HAPPENING…. A LOVE-FEST… but, no, not “weird” – not if you truly love opera, the operatic tradition, and, most of all, if you love and appreciate Aprile Millo!
I’d never expect – and never want – a stand and deliver kind of recital from Aprile Millo. Aprile Millo is not simply a singer. She’s an artist and a treasure and she represents the operatic tradition. Through Millo, we are able to experience what the composers intended us to hear. You can rely on her for that. She is our link!
Was her gown a little over-the-top? Not for Millo! Are her mannerisms a bit exaggerated? Not for Millo. Opera, you see, is supposed to be over-the-top! Think about the plots and how we must suspend disbelief at the opera in order to appreciate the characterizations and the music.
You suggest that Millo take acting lessons!!!!! From Millo, you get deeply felt emotion expressed in her voice, her face, her movements. You want to eliminate that?????
“Old and crusty…” No! Millo is, as is opera, AGELESS.
She is a rarity. And if you were there last night and didn’t feel the connection to the composers and the singers before Millo, then, my friend, you just don’t get it…..!
Thanks for this! I’ve needed a good laugh all day–what a hoot! An instant camp classic! Kudos.
If I want acting, I’ll see Streep. But for musical drama, Millo works for me. I’m late to the Millo bandwagon, and I feel like I seriously missed out on something; as Squirrel said, it’s like going to a reunion for a school I didn’t attend. (Unlike Squirrel, though, I took the chance and went to the reunion). I too would have liked more opera… frankly, I could have happily sat through another 2 hours of music with her. Her stage presence is a throwback to another time, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. She looked gorgeous. And she sounded gorgeous. The first have was a canny way to warm up for the operatic selections, and songs were lovely. She had ample support on stage from talented people, not the least of which was Lynn Harrell. And after the unfortunate gentleman who fell was attended to, she came back out and let it rip. I’m not a huge Puccini fan, and know Fanciulla least well of all of his operas, but even I knew I was hearing something special. The Boito was exquisite. And the Trovatore was incredible. But to me, one of the highlights of the evening was Danny Boy with harp. Oh, my, but I teared up.
As much as opera is focused on telegenic personalities these days, we all know that there are people singing at The Met who are shaped roughly the same as Ms Millo. But there seems to be a double standard for Sopranos and Mezzos. As I have stated before on other threads here, opera is primarily about the music. In a perfect world, everyone looks and sounds like Franco Corelli and Anna Moffo, but we don’t live in that world. If I’m at the opera and I the singing is great but I don’t like what I’m seeing, I can close my eyes and let the music wash over me. If I don’t like what I’m hearing, but it’s lovely to look at, I can’t close my ears, and if I could, what would I be watching? A silent movie?
By the way, I didn’t see her, but Licia Albanese was in the house. To add to the general gayness of the evening, however, I did catch sight of none other than Erika Slesak… Vicki Buchanan in the flesh!!!
And to paraphrase Stephen Sondheim… everybody ought to have a snood.
That sounds like an eventful evening!. What happened to the poor guy who hit his head? I remember one Don Carlo at the Opera in Rome in the mid 80s. When the henchmen killed Posa, the gun shot scared a woman in the audience. We heard a terrible shriek, and the poor woman died of a heart attack.
i’m beginning to think all the all folks that go “down” at the opera are almost a metaphor for the greying/dying audiences/patrons.
i’ve witnessed this happening twice in the past 4 years. it’s clear that dramatic, sweeping staircases and hard metal handrails of opera houses don’t get along with unsteady ‘lil old folks.
after a “die frau” at Lyric, a poor old lady fell down the red, carpeted stairs, and hit her head on the metal railing. it was a terrible sight, as she lay poured down the stairs, head first. sadly, this was the main thoroughfare, so hundreds rushed by as those assisting her attempted to stop the blood flow, and keep her calm. she had a considerable gash. poor thing. what an awful ending to a GLORIOUS night.
then, just 2 months ago at San Fran Opera, on the back marble stairs a women went down face first. people swarmed, a friend screamed out her name repeatedly, because she lay without moving, hands at her side. a male stranger took off his shirt and fashioned it into a pillow beneath her head, and to keep the blood from pooling. that was touching. i went running and screaming “call 911″…i’m not as effective in such emergencies, clearly.
to this day, i wonder how both of those ladies fared. i HOPE they have been able to get back to the opera house, and are USING THE ELEVATORS!!!
wow, just reviewed the program…did she pull off the “sempre libera”?!@#$ that’s a lot to bite off!
There’s no way I can imagine Millo singing “Sempre libera” at this stage of her career. Why was that even on the menu?
Michael Fabiano is not my boyfriend! La Cieca is trying to get my goat.
Nice program though! Zueignung… Ich hab in Penna… Massanet… excellent choices
“you say massanat, i say massenet…let’s call the whole thing off.”
squirrel is of course correct. What he feels toward Fabiano is better described as “bromance.”
The first step, squirrel. Especially since we know you like to store nuts.
when is he going to have his break-out (the “fab”, that is)…has he had his Met debut yet?
I think he’s still in his early 20’s. A big role Met debut is probably fairly premature at this point, but it’s hard not to think about after his performance at the auditions that year.
Does Christopher Bolduc know about squirrel and his nut-chasing in his backyard? And how about that bushy-tailed wife of the squirrel? Some lawyers are going to make a lot of acorns out this!
He’s doing Stiffelio this season (Rafaelle) I don’t know the opera and, thus, whether this is a big role debut or not.
Raffaele is a comprimario role. Is he covering anything?
@6.3.1.3 Indiana : “Is he covering anything?”
Hopefully he’ll start covering his passagio or he’s going to be in trouble. As one of the judges said in ‘The Audition’, “He’s either going to be great or dead.”
Squirrel:
Everyone knows your “goat” is a one-man billyboy. La Cieca will never get him away from you.
was bedeutet das eigentlich?
“The men who stare at goats”
Starring George Clooney — now in theatres everywhere!
sorry, squirrel has no idea what any of you are saying.
One of the dumbest damn films I ever saw;
what a waste of good talent. I want to see
singer Ewen McGregor in opera, preferably
nude!!!
You are also not old enough!
Go to any 1940s movie!!
There was also the Met broadcast matinee of Macbeth in 1988 when an audience member committed suicide by falling off the balcony railing during an intermission.
I wasn’t there, but I remember Peter Allen improving on the air for almost an hour waiting for the announcement that the remainder of the broadcast would be cancelled.
Does anyone have a picture of the concert? Or her dress?
From the descriptions above, it seems like the gown alone was worth the price.
Basically it was this dress, except in black.
Wasn’t she tempting fate by adapting one the Big L’s gowns? (Was that Handel’s Cleopatra, by the way? And are those extensions?)
The photo of Big Lee is as Cleopatra in the Barber opera and the design is by Zeffirelli. I was wondering if the gown Aprile wore was the same one she had as Adriana (why didn’t we hear the Adriana arias? Makes more sense than “Sempre Libera” or “Tacea la Notte” in her reduced physical state!). In the OONY Adriana Millo had a similar black brocade gown but the silver inlay in the center may have been an addition. The hair by the way was a wig.
I didn’t realise that the costumes for Antony and Cleopatra were mock-Renaissance. It must have been hell getting stuck in a pyramid with all that clobber on.
And, yes, I had worked out it wasn’t her own hair. All that would never fit under one of her trademark turbans now, would it?
A photographic negative of the above: dress in black and skin in white.
So from the dress and the description of her hair it seems like she looked like a 1980s drag queen that night. What happened to her career? Getting fat doesn’t seem like a good answer. I’ve heard people suggest that she took on rep. that was too heavy much too early in her career, but I really don’t know much about her and I haven’t listened to many of her recordings.
Patrick McMullan’s agency took photos (from the seat behind me, dammit!) and here are some for sale online:
http://www.patrickmcmullan.com/site/event_detail.aspx?eid=31476
Behold: the gown, the snood, the wig, the cleavage and that Millo magic!
She looks like Bette Midler on steroids. And, boy, would she need the wind beneath her wings.
Holy CRAP! I haven’t seen her in a awhile, but that’s AFTER she lost fifty pounds? I’m in shock.
I don’t like to go after singers’ weight issues but I have to agree with Cassandra’s shock. And La Cieca wasn’t kidding about the dress.
Gran dio, she looks a little like ZINKA now. I hope the poor man who fell is alright, but La Cieca’s description of someone shouting up to an artist onstage “Man down” out here is hysterical.
No drastic weightloss measures like Debbie Voight for sure, perhaps she can be the one to revive the grand ol’ operatic tradition of tapeworm weight loss therapy.
i considered publishing on this site under the name Bantcho (in homage, really) but my exquisite sense of taste prevented me.
Gualtier M –
Your remark indicates that you are familiar with AVA.
Incidentally, Michael Fabiano makes his Met debut this year as Rafaelle in “Stiffelio.”
By the way, if — as Wikipedia indicates — Millo is only 51, why is there all this talk of her as if she were well past her prime? She’s pretty much the same age as Renaaay. Not quite a doyenne yet, I would say.
I have to say that her recordings have never really done it for me. (I’ve never got anywhere near seeing her live.) I can appreciate that it’s a good sound and that she basically knows what she’s doing, but where’s the magic?
Oh Monty, Millo is all about magic especially live. She doesn’t want reality, she wants MAGIC!!!
Yet I’ve seen Millo live, and share Monty’s wonder. Yes, even when in the house for the run of Aidas elsewhere described as “transcendent.”
I don’t argue that she’s got a lovely voice, but I’ve never found her to be a terribly interesting or insightful performer, all that Italianate style notwithstanding.
I’ll take the listing of the Sempre Libera with a grain of salt. She’s never had that agilita. Besides, why would she do it without the Ah, fors’e lui ?
On the other hand, singing Laggiu nel soledad sure took a lot of courage. It’s not really an aria and that high C is murderously difficult. I don’t remember ever seeing it as part of a recital. A bravura showoff. She must have felt very confident. Could it have been intended for those who may be trying to cast Fanciulla in the near future?
Too bad she didn’t also include an aria from Verdi’s Attila.
I’ve never seen Millo live but I have no problem “getting” her. That rich, lustrous tone, the Italiante phrasing, the passion and commitment — everything one would want in her fach.
Millo has everything one would want in her fach except that “special something” imo. I am not sure what I mean by that (is it a special operatic personality? ) beyond the fact that her singing seems to me to be a kind of generic channelling of singers of a certain past era (Tebaldi, Milanov, Stella, etc.) with nothing “special” added of her own–as, for example, Price or Caballe brought to their roles, whether you like them or not. When Price sang Aida or Trovatore, it was pure Price, not kinda Milanov or kinda Tebaldi Milanov–not kinda mid-fifies singing–Price never made me think of those singers or anyone but herself.
That’s why I found Millo’s Aida and Tosca (the only two live performance with her that I have seen) slightly boring. It’s like I have heard that all before, but better.
The “funnest” part of the evening, though, may have been the melee that nearly ensued backstage. There was a list of people who were allowed to go back to see her, and when people got to the stage door and found out they weren’t on the list…. oooh, boy! Finally, everyone was told to go to the atrium and I assume she came out.
By the way, La Cieca, could you tell JJ that the top of his head is lovely? I was in a box directly above him.
a snood is sort-of a bag made of mesh or net worn on the back of the head, holding a mass of hair. Seems to me Gail Sondergaard used to favor them. (That reference ought to establish my own queer bona-fides…)
Snood.
thank you for the enlightenment. I thought I would have to go to bed as ignorant as I was when I awoke. That snood goes well with the doily. Is that a prop from a recent Salome production in Ogunquit?
When will we hear from La Millo, herself? I’ve been checking operavision… Nothing there. Not yet, anyway.
It would be fantastic to hear her reaction to the recital!
Are you reading this, Aprile????
Will JJ review in the Post?
Was the NYT there?
Did the Washington Post
make the trip?
Will PTB reconvene its print
issue to review and
illustrate this
signal event?
Based on these photos, I agree that she’s working an old-fashioned look. I can’t think of a role she could portray convincingly on stage. Definitely not Minnie. Perhaps an opera based on the life of Ethel Merman?
Her weight gain no longer looks to me like from eating too much but more likely a physiological problem, e.g., glandular.
Millo was a great hope at one point. The voice was large, ample. Like her idol, Tebaldi, there was some difficulty accessing the upper register (seeds of doom), but in the 90s youth covered all.
Unfortunately, the years of singing Verdi exacerbated the upper register issues (a wobble started to creep in) and her confidence went out the door. Her mannerisms which were endearing in the early days (is channelling Renata or Zinka today) became intolerable eccentricities (I cannot imagine someone like Gelb tolerating her for more than the time it took to have her escorted from his office).
Also, her near fetishism for Tebaldi and Zinka was ultimately a real problem for her. It meant that she never made a mark as HERSELF.
A good lesson for singers far less gifted than Millo.
By the way, I have everything she ever recorded except for the Luisa Miller. The Aida is the best since Price. The Trovatore Leonora is again the only modern recording that can be even mentioned in comparison with LP, and the Elisabetta di Valois are as fine as any on record.
I alway wondered why Millo has so little regard for Leontyne. God knows she would have been a much better model for career management, vocal longevity and good high notes.
There is not a single opera you can cast Miss Millo properly nowadays and let’s be frank abut that: she is totally unreliable and cannoot sing a whole production run.
I think Aprile’s actual weight nowadays is unimportant. Certainly many singers have been fatter (Montsy anyone? And VdlA also got very large later in life), but Aprile has been very open in her blog that she *feels* fat, that she is trying very hard to lose weight, and that she feels like her appearance is preventing her comeback. It’s kind of like how “fat Callas” never looked that fat to me — she just looked like a sort of overweight, big-boned soprano. But it was important for Maria to lose that weight.