Lend me a tenor
La Cieca hears that bodacious Bryan Hymel will make his Royal Opera debut in June as Don Jose, jumping in for an ill (but recovering) Marcus Haddock. Two months before, Hymel will sing his first Énée for Netherlands Opera under the baton of John Nelson in a production by Pierre Audi.
Closer to home, Hymel sings tonight for Opera Orchestra of New York in a program hosted by beloved Metropolitan Opera commentator Ira Siff.
If this technology to hear Sirius webcasts and to comment instantly on opera blogs had existed back in the 1950s, I guess we would have been saying things like “Leonie should stick to Senta, Sieglinde, and Elizabeth and should never sing Brunhilde or Isolde.” Although I think I would have been typing, “She should be singing Marie in Tote Stadt and Irene in Rienzi.” (Please don’t ban me retroactively for typing it now.)
Would we have warned Corelli that he was singing too loudly too early? “He should sing Ernani, not Pollione and Calaf!” And would we have predicted that Nilsson was going to burn out within five years?
You just can’t predict who is going to be Rysanek versus who is going to be Voigt…who is going to be Leontyne versus who is going to be Susan Dunn or Roberta Knie…who is going to be Dimitrova versus Elena Souliutis or Ursula S-F.
It’s not unreasonable to say “So and so should be singing Mozart in small European houses, not Verdi at the Met.” We’ve all read about so many singers who burned out early. I think a lot of this is just concern and worry on our part, not a desire to become casting agents.
Sorry to hear about Haddock. Hope he recovers and returns to the stage (Carreras did it). I much prefer his timbre to Hymel’s slightly-too-white sound.
I believe Roberta Knie’s career ended because of real medical problems, not vocal problems. I saw her Isolde in chicago with Vickers in 79 and she was wonderful. but remember there was some real medical crisis involving surgery,etc. that ended her career. Don’t remember the details. On the topic at hand, heard Hymel last night at a gala honoring Renata Scotto at the New York Athletic Club. He knocked out Nessun Dorma with real stage presence and nailed it. I am not going to judge him based on one aria though, but I enjoyed his performance, The most impressive singer however was Angela Meade. This is a real Verdi soprano who seems to be ready for the big time. She was impressive.
That’s interesting given the fact that Meade just sang Lucia at AVA.