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:
Sombody please commission these new operas for Racette:
Pirgu is much better than he sounded tonight…quite a strong lyric tenor. Check him out on youtube.
I saw him with Ms. Dessay in Traviata. Not a huge voice but I enjoyed his Alfredo very much.
Hey Y’all
Was in the house tonight. From my seat up in the rafters, all the voices sounded pretty damn good except the Baritone in Tabarro who was just a great big ole bore.
Nice work from Racette – not legendary but totally worthy of the house. O Mio Babbino Caro was slow as hell. Shoudn’t it have that magical kind of floaty tempo in between two and six? This was a grueling six. No idea where they got this Ranzani guy.
chin chin
Buoso Donati
Was in the house tonight as well and thought Racette kind of ran out of gas by Schicchi (her “O mio babbino caro” being maybe the weakest moment of all), but that she was amazing in Suor Angelica and very good in Tabarro. I thought Schicchi is one of those operas that works much better in the theater than on recording. I thought that the ensemble tonight overall was of a very high level. Corbelli as Schicchi, Blythe as Principessa, and Antonenko as Luigi deserve special mention.
The production and sets were opulent but never tacky, the intermissions were long but not that long and the opera ended on time.
Here’s a shallow question: how did Racette look tonight? As voluptuous as in SF (see videoclip on previous thread)? Did the dresses flatter her as in SF (except for Suor Angelica, I guess)?
And did she look tired by Schicchi’s start? Those of us listening on sirius also detected a little fatigue by “Babbino.”
Racette looked okay but not great in all of them, which is fine by me. I don’t think Giorgetta and Angelica and even Lauretta are supposed to be glamour pusses. She’s a bit pear-shaped, and her face was always somewhat plain. She’s one of those performers who can really disappear into a role though, and it’s not until the curtain calls that you start even noticing or wondering what she really looks like.
She’s one of those performers who can really disappear into a role though.
That’s one of the things I really like about her.
I’ve always sort of hated the operas in “Il Trittico” but had never seen them together before Racette just did them in San Francisco this fall in her out-of-town debut in the three roles. Racette was not only a phenomenal performer all night, but the supporting cast was obviously a lot better in San Francisco than New York. Paolo Gavanelli in “Il Tabarro” and “Schicchi” was simply great, Brandon Jovanovich as the young lover in “Il Tabarro” was perfect luxury casting, and Ewa Podles as the Princess literally blew an explosion into the middle of the opera (in that awful “Suor Angelica”) and Racette stepped up to match her in a pair of performances I haven’t seen since Soderstrom and Sena Jurinac were doing “Jenufa” together. Too bad the Met is such a sausage factory and didn’t do as good a job in their subsidiary casting.
just back from the opera: huge success for Racette, very committed performances, great Puccini sound, best of all in Suor Angelica, but in all of them she was having some trouble controlling the very top of her voice, and yes she almost flubbed the last note of Senza Mamma; Pirgu sounded very good to me in the house; Lucic was disappointing; Blythe was splendid throughout; the production is quite satisfying; I enjoyed coming back from the intermission and ending with the comedy, which had brilliant ensemble work; and I really liked the debut conductor, thought he was getting some great work from the orchestra. . .
and much as I liked Racette, I think that in Suor Angelica Frittoli was even better. . .
I’m very dismayed to hear that Racette’s having trouble with her top notes. I hope she’s just ill or something and it’s not a sign of more permanent distress.
I thought that Blythe was best in Schicchi, but will admit that I was completely into Racette during the first two operas and so might have been blind (deaf?) to Blythe’s charms earlier in the evening.
I take that back. I noticed that Blythe was also very good in Suor Angelica.
Most definitely a success d’estime. As someone mentioned above…I too found frittoli more effective in Angelica. She really went all-out and pushed her voice to its limit, unlike Racette who had to manage it due to the length of the evening. But who knows…she just may have not been in great voice tonight….I will see it again and reserve my final judgement.
Did Frittoli sing only Suor Angelica during the last run, with other sopranos for Tabarro and Schicchi?
Guleghina sang giorgetta and some young russian soprano sang lauretta. I’ve heard racette make more of an impact in butterfly, which is more difficult than the trittico heroines, and makes me think she just wasn’t in very good voice last night.
FYI: Olga Mykytenko sang Lauretta during the 2007 Schicchi (I just found in the Met Archives online — thanks again to messa di voce).
“Dyke, ya know.”
Trumpet player too, ya know.
But what’s her revolution in dance?