Comments on: Please, Louise

By: Buster

Buster — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:13:16 +0000

Glad to help. There are more Sapho fans here. One poster even studies with the second most famous Sapho on disc, Dame Ludmilla Andrew.

Huguette Tourangeau I don’t know at all – her Arias from Forgotten Operas looks fascinating! Thanks.

By: Buster

Buster — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:57:33 +0000

Last year the Robert Orledge version of Usher was done in Amsterdam with the excellent Henk Neven. A great success.

By: Hans Lick

Hans Lick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:16:20 +0000

Sills sang Lucrezia when she had no legato, could not hold a note but for ravine-like wobbles, had no ornaments on pitch – I don’t mean she was off pitch, she was never on any identifiable pitch – and she presented it with three mediocrities in the other parts. The tenor was on the next plane back to Italy and never returned. It was I think the last time I ever spent money to hear Sills; I had disliked her for sometime, but that evening demonstrated that she hadn’t a clue what was wrong and no one had the guts to tell her.

Lucrezia requires a soprano who can hold long, beautifully produced notes. Everything else can be faked, the legato no. It’s a cozy role for aging divas (as the first one was), and it doesn’t go very high, but you have to be able to SING. Sutherland had no problems with it at nearly sixty; she looks like the tenor’s mother, but then, she IS the tenor’s mother in that libretto. So it works.

But Sills never could sing that way.

Today I’d say Devia or Swenson or Anderson. A role that’s kind to aging divas who know how to sing in the first place.

By: Hans Lick

Hans Lick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:11:16 +0000

Zaira is terrible. The plot is ridiculous. So is the plot of Capuletti, but we all know and love it, so that doesn’t matter.

By: Hans Lick

Hans Lick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:09:20 +0000

Meyerbeer and others.

I wrote a synopsis (did I put it on my blog? maybe not) for a libretto on Casablanca that would have been ideal for Verdi. The conertato began with Luigi (the corrupt police chief) closing Rick’s to the words, “Son stupefatto, stupefatto….” And there was a splendid trio near the end for Rick, Elsa and whosis, her husband, “Le probleme di tre uomincelli n’accontono a una colline di fagioli.”

Of course my execrable Italian would have to be versified. (Verdi was very strict about syllable counting.)

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:32:20 +0000

Alto, I leave it to the New Yorkers here to weigh in on chamber pieces in the Met. Adès composed PHF for a small venue because, I’ve read, limited financial resources. Maybe he could enlarge (revise) the music for the Met’s orchestra.

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:24:47 +0000

In an ideal world, one would lead to the other.

By: Alto

Alto — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:10:37 +0000

Does the idea that chamber-music effects cannot be adequately presented in the Met stand up? Last season we had a piano recital there, after all, and it was marvelous. I have seen Powder Her Face –at BAM — and have the recording. It’s not my favorite work, but it’s a fine piece and might be a real relief at the Met if well-presented.

By: Alto

Alto — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:57:13 +0000

I still haven’t heard McTeague, but happened to run into Malfitano last night and she was raving that she thinks it’s the most successful recent opera.

By: Baritenor

Baritenor — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:51:43 +0000

1. Cunning Little Vixen – Because it’s actually a masterpiece. Thomas Allen may still sing the Forrester, and if not, get Peter Mattei. I think Diana Damrau would make a fantastic Vixen.

2. Daphne. Fleming actually sings this one pretty well.

3. Mignon. Despite some of the fluffy stuff, I would love to see Graham or even DiDonato add this to their rep on a larger scale. Get Dessay to do Philine, and you’re made.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:45:33 +0000

Cruz,is that Cunning or Cumming? (I got in there before Sanford.)

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:12:11 +0000

Since Powder Her Face is scored for such a small ensemble, I throw my vote to Cunning Little Vixen.

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:10:06 +0000

If it features a blowjob, it could make a nice pairing with Bondy’s Tosca. The Met could assemble a themed package for subscribers called “BJs Throughout the Ages” and include all the productions in its repertory that have a blowjob on stage. Or they could name the series after the GD who used to help the ushers get off. And imagine the special cocktail the bartenders would serve …

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:51:56 +0000

Is that Domingo as tenor or baritone?

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:32:43 +0000

Having heard a few things by Ades, I’m really not sure how much there is to any of them.

By: flamingopera

flamingopera — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:20:29 +0000

I would go for a vote for each opera named here but, because I can’t, I’ll go for:

- Handel’s Alcina (Fleming, Dessay, Graham)
- Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montechi (Netrebko, Garanca)
- Massenet’s Herodiade (Fleming, Domingo)

By: Sanford

Sanford — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:20:08 +0000

Cruz, do we need to have a lesson in how to properly conjugate the verb “to cum”? {arrived} is not proper english.

I’m cumming
I have cum
I came
I will be cumming again shortly
I want to cum again
I faked my cum shot
I’m too high to cum

By: queen amahelli

queen amahelli — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:36:18 +0000

but it is a tiny chamber opera – 4 singers and about 15 instruments – how big can a blowjob be to be enjoyed by 3800 people in the Met?

By: queen amahelli

queen amahelli — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:32:36 +0000

fuzzy chris – you’ll love Mlada: it’s not staged very often as there is a scene of Divination by Horses, requiring a group of white ones and a group of black ones, a witches sabbath on a mountain, which then reveals Cleopatra’s court, and a full scale inundation a la Gotterdammerung at the end – and it requires a dramatic soprano with a stonking top C sharp and a tenor with a top C. Believe it or not there is a DVD available from the Bolshoi, and it may be on youtube – It’s bonkers!

By: Pelleas

Pelleas — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:23:37 +0000

I second all votes for Rimsky, partic. Sadko or Kitezh.

I’m kind of surprised we haven’t seen Rienzi in over a hundred years. That might be (lengthy) fun.

By: richard

richard — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:53:23 +0000

I don’t know if Gergiev still holds that title. Certainly his non Russian work at the Met has been very uneven.

Gergiev did bring the Kirov/MT to the Met with both Prince Igor and Ruslan about 12 years ago. Ruslan is a wonderful fantasy piece and the MT did just a wonderful job of it.

The Prince Igor was more problematic , there is often a problem about which music to use and what order to use it in with this piece but I love it just the same.

By: BelCantoDiva

BelCantoDiva — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:33:58 +0000

Living up to my name, I would vote:
1. Rossini – Otello
2. Donizetti – I Capuleti e i Montechi
3. Rossini – La Gazza Ladra

By: fuzzychris

fuzzychris — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:33:03 +0000

@Queen amahelli – oo, awesome, thank you! I’ve got a major hole in my knowledge when it comes to the Russians.

@Monty – *cackle* Laughing this hard is a great way to start the day..

By: Will

Will — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:31:31 +0000

We had a fine production of PHF in Boston several years ago and it made a very good impression. Not everybody’s cup of tea musically or dramatically, perhaps, but a genuine opera, very good theater, a work of real stature. There’s much more to it than just a blowjob.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:12:10 +0000

Powder Her Face? What would the patrons think about an opera which has a blowjob as its main claim to fame?

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:09:41 +0000

I can think of some so-called leading sopranos who would do well to add the title role in Mlada to their repertoire.

By: queen amahelli

queen amahelli — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:45:01 +0000

Rimsky’s ‘Mlada’ – the title role is for a dancer, and there’s a great campy cameo for Cleopatra as well – also a full opera company piled on top.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:00:23 +0000

naughty!

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:59:30 +0000

cynical!!!

By: Camille

Camille — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:55:18 +0000

SQUIRREL! Check the Archives. They’ve done Ruslan and Lyudmila and Prince Igor at the Met with the touring Kirov; seen ‘em both…Ruslan with a young Netrebko.

That was sometime in the last decade, not ancient history, so it shouldn’t be hard.

Le Coq d’Or was, of course, the property of La Sills at NYCO in the early seventies, when you were still in the squirrel nest, chewing on your baby acorns. Don’t think the Met could have competed with that! It had a great success, so lots of old people have a recollection of it — it toured to L.A., as well.