You think?
New commenter androgenous says, “I think we are getting a little ahead of ourselves by dismissing Calleja. Rehearsals have been long at the MET and I would presume that if Calleja was found to be inadequate they would have thrown him out or at least had a better replacement.”
La Cieca realizes she is trampling on the God-given right of anonymous internet tough guys to authoritatively predict the trajectory of an entire career based on hearsay about one act of a rehearsal sung by a sick man, but she’s taking androgenous’s side here. If you axe-grinders must grind your axes (despite the lack of any solid evidence), maybe you should grind them elsewhere. The “dogpile on the tenor” game here is, frankly, making La Cieca nauseous.
THANK YOU!!!! Finally, a voice of reason.
I second this. Or third it. Well, wherever I am in line, I heartily agree.
well I heard Zampieri many, many times from 1981 to
the early 90’s in different venues. Minnie at La Scala, Tosca in Stuttgart and Zuerich, La Wally in Bregenz, Salome and Odabella in Wien and countless Verdi roles in Muenchen. The voice was large and carried quite well. She was one of my favorite singers at the time along with Popp and Varady. I recall the first time I heard her was on Allerheiligen (1.11.81) as Amelia in Ballo and from the moment I heard her entrance in the first act I loved the sound of the voice. She needed a full orchestra and the piano wasn’t good to do her big voice justice. She had an easy top and very good middle and low notes. She could vary the dynamics from a mere whisper to full forte oversinging the whole chorus and orchestra of Aida. She had a good trill and could start a note softly and gradually swell the note. I heard many of the Verdi roles and here her voice was great. She did an amazing Manon Lescaut as well and she managed to make you believe she was this young girl in the beginning. She was a great actress on stage and NEVER phoned in a performance. She always gave 150%. She was not a generic soprano like so many of them are today. She was very much loved in Wien, Muenchen, Zuerich and Berlin but also sang in Spain, Portugal, London and Italy. I wouldn’t know which role to call her best since I dind’t find any of them mistakes but she did best in active roles. I personally loved the Ballo, Salome and Odabella but of course also the Minnie and Lady and Aida were quite special. The voice was larger than Varady’s and carried a bit better IMO. Also what I thought was very unique was her pronounciation of the Italian language. She is from Padua and I love to here her way with the words.
Good lord, I’ve missed all the dramz. What the hell are you people yammering on about?
I’ll say this about the situation (and be uncharacteristically generous in the process) and I haven’t seen the dress, and I don’t particularly care for Calleja:
It. Was. A. Dress. Rehearsal.
A ton of singers I know right now (including myself) have colds. It’s going around. It’s that time of year. People are allowed to mark in dress rehearsals, even if they are at the Met. Granted, he probably wanted to get through it, especially as it’s a new production and the role is new and Hoffmann is punishing and difficult, and one would like to have that extremely limited time on stage to figure out pacing, dealing with the orchestra, the no doubt ridiculous staging, costumes and wigs.
Let’s wait to hear the production before making sweeping declarations about his epitaph.
You bitches try singing Hoffmann at 11:00 am with a cold (or even slightly under the weather, for that matter.) I’d love to see you try.
I’m sure Calleja knows a lot is riding on his Thursday performance. He likely came to the conclusion that singing the rest of the opera on Monday while somewhat ill would a) set off y’all saying he can’t do it (not that he entirely avoided this by not singing the whole thing) and b) compromise his performance on Thursday, when the stakes are much higher. Seems like a smart move.
Allright, I admit, i was a bit hasty to judge his voice based on an hour of music. I guess it was easy to do given that I was so unexcited to hear him in this role. I still have my tickets for a later date… in the hopes the production is salvageable, i will hold off on giving them away. Maybe a whole performance of Calleja will alter my pre-conceived notion of him in this role.
At least, i really hope so.
I’ll join Pelleas, Casssandra, and Zerbinetta (what a kinky menage-a-trois that would be!)in supporting our doyenne’s reasonable directive to give it a rest, girls. Calleja’s a great talent facing a major challenge in a big international house. And, though I realize that some minds are made up long before the event, at least let him get through the prima before the vultures start circling.
Eloquent. Especially the last paragraph.
thank you, there’s a MYTO recording of Donizetti’s Belisario from Buenos Aires in which Zampieri is absolutely phenomenal. She’s a more genuine and complete artist than, say, Scotto who could only really be satisfactory in the lyric rep.
Some minds around here are made up about twenty years before the event. For what it’s worth, he sounded radiant until the hoarseness crept in at the end of the Olympia act. I wondered if he might be singing too hard and am relieved it is a cold.
I try.
nauseated.
That too.
I love that everyone feels comfortable enough to share their opinions – and why not, it’s pretty much anonymous. But, I get the sense that some of those commenting are more concerned with saying something “controversial” (read: bitchy) and less concerned with giving an educated opinion on the matter at hand. Let’s take our cue from La Cieca: she is not afraid to express, but she checks herself before she wrecks herself.
Now, as far as yesterday’s rehearsal is concerned – I thought it was a very dreamy Hoffmann. If you wanted to see the heroines as if they were true-to-life characters, this was not your production. If you were able to step back and see that these were intoxication-induced interpretations of Hoffmann’s ideals of love, you left satisfied. The production is visually stimulating when there is less dramatic meat in the score and is discernibly sparse when the drama is sizzling away… and by drama, I certainly mean histrionics. After all, Antonia is sung by Netrebko.
So many times, directors see the three tales as three operas within one opera wrapped up loosely in the epilogue. These tales of Hoffmann are brought together into a single cohesive story – all the while gracefully amplifying the differences between the heroines and thus, between Hoffmann’s ideals of love.
Calleja? Eh… he may or may not have made the choice on his own. Management may have made the decision for him. Regardless, I thought he was turning into a fine Hoffmann!
As one who is sometimes less than charitable, I have to say to Cassandra and La Cieca: Amen. If he’s sick, then one should not judge his performance too harshly in a rehearsal (if at all). Let’s all wait until later in the run to hear him sing it at his best.
Brava, Cieca. And it’s not just Calleja, either. By the sound of things Annette Dasch hasn’t had a great run in Figaro, and she’s not a singer I particularly admire. But someone who sings Mozart in Salzburg and Munich is surely at least worth a go for a house like the Met, and no matter how much one might dislike her singing, comments like ‘vile’ ‘bitch’ and ‘night club singer’ are just out of order.
well I never called her a vile bitch or night club singer but have heard her twice and once she was average (Pamina) and once bad (Donna Anna). Now what I don’t understand is why for example Salzburg would stage Armida when they don’t have someone really special who can sing it. I know for a fact that she wasn’t the first choice since it was offered to someone else who told them thanks but no thanks since that is not where she thought her voice was going. I at first thought it a bit foolish maybe to turn down a new production and opening of the Festspiele at that but this singer seems to be a pretty smart person at making choices what she can and can’t sing. So Dasch was at best the second choice (or maybe even further down the line). But why not work around what a great singer wants to do instead of putting on an opera and then seeing who we can get and maybe if we go through the a list we end up with a b list. Shouldn’t the top houses only offer the best, especially a festival? And is anyone going to say she is the first choice for Donna Anna today? She did the Elvira as a substitute in Verbier and that was slightly better and more suited to her voice than the Anna. I bought her first CD of Barock Arien and thought the voice was ok. I then bought the much hyped Armida CD and found that worse and then I said that is it for me. No more CD’s and unless she comes with some really great people to make up for it I would try and avoid her. But how she for example ended up with a recording contract and people like Isokoski, Harteros, Roeschmann and Stoyanova don’t is beyond me. All 4 are better Mozart singers by a long shot. Dasch is fine for Koeln or Bordeaux but shouldn’t be in the first houses unless she is a replacement. And why did Gelb get so nasty with Isokoski if he can only replace her with someone like Dasch or Emma Bell. Isokoski can still sing rings around both of them. Is his obsession with beauty so great? I have a feeling that we won’t be seeing much of Roeschmann either since she probably is too plain for his tastes as well.
Agree!
I’m not crazy about unreasoned bashing in any case, unless it’s, you know, really funny, but I find myself wondering which part of Calleja’s situation makes bashing him nauseating…that he was sick, that it was a rehearsal or that he’s a tenor and not a soprano.
I’m going to Roeschmann’s recital this Saturday eveneing, and am so excited.
The Met needs to bang on her door to do more things, especially Mozart. It could be that she prefers to sing in Europe, but she got good reviews as Donna Elvira last season and she is a first rate Mozartian.
she just had her second (I think at least her second) child so perhaps she prefers to stay closer to home. Her rep isn’t huge either. She also seems to sing a lot of concerts and Liederabende. Less rehearsals so she can stay at home more and doesn’t need to be away for months on end like when you do a new production. She is a regular in Salzburg and then she can take the family with her. Schaefer said something very similiar that she is going to limit herself to opera and will mainly sing in Berlin where she lives and Salzburg in the sommer. The recently deceased Soederstroem had the same strategy except wasn’t a Salzburg regular. I guess for singers with families it is more difficult to juggle the whole thing.
I hope my post wasn’t misinterpreted. I WAS a big Calleja basher when he came out in 2004 aged something like 9 with an interesting voice but nowhere near the hype he was getting. His duke and Nemorino astounded me as some kind of metamorphosis this year (talk about Kafka) and I travelled to see Anna primarily for their joint Boheme in Munich this very spring and there he was absolutely magnificent. Two high Cs (aria in original key) and a voice that reminded me a lot of the great Jussi.
Roschman’s Ilia at the Met a couple of seasons ago was just riveting to listen to. I thought she was one of thye best Ilias I’ve heard on a broadcast. She also sang a Marschallin here in the states (Detroit, maybe?) and I have the broadcast, but have not had a chance to listen to it.
I find Roschman riveting, but also painful at the same time. She has lost her high C and I think the B is going too. She skeaked both high C’s in the Covent Garden Figaro. The rest of the role was within grasp, but those high C’s gave her nightmares from the looks of it.
Somehow she reminds me of Freni. Short and stocky but so full of passion when she sings. it’s like music takes over her body. It saddens me that her voice is now compromised by the shortening of the high register.
also for Figaro she has problems with the breath. She was the worldsbest Susanna for a number of years but I guess she wanted to move on as they say. I think she could still sing a lovely Susanna since the music is kinder to her than the Countess’. Yes when the C goes that is difficult then to come up with roles. So maybe she is someone like Seefried. I think she would have made a great Oktavian and should have left the Marschallin to others. Alone physically she isn’t suited to the role which requires a certain glamour that she doesn’t have. Elvira is probably the best role for her now. It doesn’t lie too high and she isn’t as exposed as Countess. She is very musical and it is a shame that she is limited.
Joseph will be fine…let him rest up, turn up the mics, and let er rip.
The voice has a very fast beat to it and somewhat airy. I’m hoping he’s better when I see him on Decebmer 30th. Speaking of singer check out Elinor Ross’ YouTube clips. Never hear of her until the other day and boy what a voice.
…or that he’s a tenor and not a soprano.
For me it was mostly because I felt his Met debut as Macduff was historic, his Nemorino approached the sublime, etc., etc. I do think that sites like this have encouraged a certain snarkiness about singers, some of whom probably deserve it while others maybe don’t. But my real question (although a vague recollection tells me this may have been hashed out here long ago) is how did rehearsals get to be fair game for reviews in the first place. (Granted that Gualtier’s was beyond reproach.) Much of the responsibility must lie with Gelb for raffling off bags of tickets to dress rehearsals like this one. (Maybe partly sour grapes on my part, since I entered the drawing but didn’t win.) At least it suggests they were confident about the show and the casting, and weren’t expecting a disaster — that’s assuming there’s any logic in anything he does…
Roeschmann’s Fiordiligi at Covent Garden was also short of a note or two at the top, and her Vitellia at Salzburg was, let’s say, optimistic casting on the management’s part. She is a fine artist and her Salzburg Elvira was certainly better than her RO Countess and Fiordiligi. Södeström wasn’t a Salzburg singer perhaps because she sang regularly for many years at Drottningholm and Glyndebourne during the summer. With luck Glyndebourne will issue audio recordings of her Komponist, Cpariccio Countess and Intermezzo in the near future. I think she also sang Octavian to Caballé’s Marschallin in 1965 which they will have taped several times over.
oops Capriccio
I am a Facebook friend of Joseph Calleja, here are some of his recent posts to clarify matters:
11/28: Fighting a sinus/pharynx infection but looking very forward to Hoffmann next week. Fingers crossed!!
Yesterday 12/1 at 6:15 p.m.: The worse seems to be over……good rehearsal today and looking forward to the big night! Fingers crossed.
I am delighted to hear it! I will be looking forward to hearing it tomorrow.
I don’t think it has to do much with Calleja as with overzealous bashing. A singer’s performance, given while under the weather during a dress rehearsal, should not be the basis for statements saying that the role is “clearly too big for him” or “he’s in over his head”, etc.