Trilogy of chatter
La Cieca invites all the cher public to a troika of talk during tonight’s Met season premiere of Il trittico. The performance begins at 8:00 pm.
For vocal scores of these operas, try the Giacomo Puccini page of the IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library.
The librettos:
I was in the house.
Racette was great in Tabarro, good high C.
Lucic…wtf? It sounded like a non-voice until the opening of the aria, and then it went away again. Too straight-toned and whitish, no squillo or excitement. The duet (La notte e’ bella, etc) was uncomfortable and not Italianate-sounding or really anything-sounding. The audience laughed at ’squaldrina’ because of tht title but also because of his awkward manner on stage. They also laughed when he put his cloak over the tenor.
Speaking of the tenor, he was good…good voice, too slavic-sounding for my taste and again not enough squillo, but at least we didn’t get stuck with Licitra.
Blythe sounded a mess in the house, must have been an off night for her, probably fatigued. Loud as hell, and the top was very unstable. She needs to rework the aria about the cat.
The young tenor singing the song vendor (Plenk?) was noteworthy. Pingy, Italianate sound for a lyric. Needs to smooth out the passaggio but he’s probably early 20s.
Racette was great in Suor, kind of biffed the release of the final note in the aria but everything else was so well sung that it wasn’t a big deal. She sounded done after this, though… I worried for her Lauretta.
Blythe was better in Suor, but still struggled on the top.
Schicchi was fun, the set change at the end is a great trick.
Corbelli is good in the this, the voice sounded a bit dry on top, but there are only a couple high notes in the role so he disguised it. Great acting performance from him.
Blythe again sounded hard-pressed to manage even an A-flat in this.
Racette made it through admirably, considering all that had come before. It’s a bigger voice than you would get for this role without the other 2 shows, so I wish she would just sing it out at this point in the night, instead of trying to finesse too much. They should have had her for Tosca.
Schicchi tenor Pirgu sounded great in his first ‘piangerem’. The rest was very unstable, sounded like he was cracking a little the whole time. The voice is small for Puccini (even Schicchi) at the Met. I heard his Traviata in Santa Fe also… it was just okay. He comes off the voice too much which gets him into trouble, causing the instability.
There were minor musical issues throughout and some unusual choices by the conductor. I wonder how much rehearsal he had?
Well I only listened to Tabarro but I was impressed with Zeljko Lucic. He seemed to get a good hand from the audience at the curtain calls.
I also saw the recent Trittico in San Francisco. The SF audience also tittered at Michele’s “sgualdrina.” The supertitles translated the word as “slut.” Doesn’t seem comical to me, but whatever…
San Francisco’s Luigi was stunning, Brandon Jovanovich. I believe he’s making his Met debut this season. Antonenko was not in the same league in my opinion.
I am not Ms. Racette’s #1 fan (though I am good friends with her #1 fan!) but I don’t understand the idea that her voice is not distinctive. I find it instantly recognizable myself. I liked her performances in Trittico but in the past have been most moved by her Butterflys in SF and most especially her Jenufa.
The finest Giorgietta of the postwar period was Betty Fretwell.
It seems La Tinsley would have been 62 at the time of this Turandot!
By the way, is La Cieca’s title for this thread taken from this classic?
httpv://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy1r4_trilogyofterror1975dvdrip_shortfilms
She certainly AIN’T no Birgit……
Nor Eva Turner, nor Joan ‘wonderlungs’ Sutherland not Gwyneth Jones either, or the other Eva.. Marton.
Perhaps the announcement was made just before Pauline Tinsley’s In Questa Reggia’ … ” Please fasten your safety belts, as of NOW! you have been warned!”
This piece can appear at times like: the listener has been unsuspecting being lead into the ‘Driller Killer’s chamber of horrors’.