The Spanish Panic
The votes are in, and the cher public have chosen wisely, La Cieca thinks. Our listening/chatting experience at 1:00 this afternoon will be Verdi’s Don Carlos (or, as it should be called in this context, Don Carlo) in a performance recorded earlier this year at Covent Garden.
To hear the performance, tune in online to Polskie Radio about 1:00 pm EST; according to Operacast the performance proper will begin at 1:05.
Don Carlos: Jonas Kaufmann; Elisabeth de Valois: Marina Poplovskaya; Rodrigo: Simon Keenlyside; Philip II: Ferruccio Furlanetto; Princess Eboli: Marianne Cornetti; Grand Inquisitor: John Tomlinson; Tebaldo: Pumeza Matshikiza; Carlos V: Robert Lloyd; Count of Lerma: Robert Anthony Gardiner; Voice from Heaven: Eri Nakamura. Conductor: Semyon Bychkov
- The vocal score
- The libretto: Italian; English.
Apparently there is a 20 minute intermission in the broadcast. In the meantime, here’s some youtube.
This is the best singing of the afternoon.
Effin’ goddess – and she was barely into her 30s. If she’d concentrated on Verdi instead of Wagner, we’d be saying: Leonyne who???
conoscisti???
Narrowed the vowel to avoid cracking on the low note.
Same reason Regina Resnik sang “You must investigeet Baghdad!”
Or La Cieca stills sings “Autumn in New York / Is often mingled with peen.”
Please don’t get me wrong, I adored Dame Gwyneth, on pitch or off, loved her Desdemona, saw her Rosenkavalier in Munich with Popp and Fassbaender.
But…why not just go into chest voice for this? Tebaldi sure as hell did.
Biserka Cvejic (love that name)was interviewed on a sirius intermission around the time of the premier of the new Macbeth. Zeljko Lucic was her prize student back in Serbia.
If you’d like to join the real time chat room, we’re at the link below.
http://chat.parachat.com/chat/login.html?room=Parterre_Box_-_Don_Carlo_chat&width=740&height=500&lang=en
And here goes Act 3 – scenario: Kaufmann stretching out on the ground of a darkened almost-garden, happily daydreaming.
I prefer the Italian 5-act version over the French. To me, in French the singers sound like oboes and clarinets, while in Italian, they sound like trumpets and trombones.
I now realize I heard this a few weeks ago, so I have switched over to Saint Francois d’Assise, which I hope the Met decides to do before the year 2040.
Hmmm, nice decription. That’s why I prefer the French, I think. Maybe with an added saxophone.
Has everyone decamped to the parachat?
You could try to point them back here, Cruz.
I think so. and I half agree with rysanek on the 5 act. But i would love to see the met do a performance in French, just like they did the Lucia with the original keys a while back and then reverted to the traditional version latter on
Does anyone know when Don Carlo or Don Carlos is expected back at the Met?
2010-2011: DON CARLO [new, co-production with Covent Garden] with Patricia Racette, Sonia Ganassi (Eboli), Massimo Giordano, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Eric Halfvarson (Grand Inquisitor), dir. Nicolas Hytner.
Massimo Giornano as carlos? he barely could get through Rinuccio and now this? Do they hate him?
VERY lightweight!
I believe this production is due at the Met next season. Per Met futures we get to keep Keenlyside and Furlanetto – along with Racette, Ganassi and Giordano.
I think the big duet between tenor and bass after the death of Posa should be performed. The bass has already stolen the show after his big aria. Then the mezzo has tried to steal the show with her big aria. Then Posa gets to sing a gorgeous double aria before dying. The soprano is going to steal the show with her upcoming big aria, so the poor tenor needs something a little extra to do in order to remind people that the opera is, after all, named after him. I have seen performances with this duet a couple of times, and it is very effective. If you don’t want the star baritone to lie there dead for an extra few minutes, let the king gesture for 8 supers to slowly convey his body offstage and let the tenor and bass sing this very good duet.
Yes yes yes! I so love the Lacrymosa. It’s the only time father and son communicate. If Rodrigo’s death hasn’t moved you, this one should. And the baritone deserves to lie ther for a bit longer. It’s so anticlimactic when they carry him off and continue with day-to-day proceedings like The People Storming In. He should, of course, not be made to change position by the editors.
I’m guessing that’s Racette as Elisabetta?
Yes. She;s coming back to the role. Let’s hope for a broadcast.
A Rossini mezzo as Eboli? Not good.
I hope you’re right about Racette.
Ganassi was great as Eboli when the production was new. Whilst it did seem as if the role was the biggest she could possibly tackle, with no suggestion that she could move into Amneris or Azucena territory, it nevertheless didn’t seem too big for her. You’ll get an accurate veil song which will leave no room for the moaning above regarding this current performance, and she’ll be compelling and exciting in the rest of the role. Voices do develop, and Ganassi’s certainly has more size, line, lustre and even technical facility than it had when she first appeared at the Royal Opera as Angelina etc.
Can she wobble any more? The Cd was fabulous, but my God!