The smooth and the rough
Snippet from yesterday’s Carmen telecast.
Cher Public
- grimoaldo: Yeah, I missed both of those too. Very good, very funny, con...
- CruzSF: Congrats to DharmaBay and iltenoredigrazia. I don't know HOW...
- OpinionatedNeophyte: *sigh* The far more interesting "racial edge" to the story i...
- grimoaldo: There was an amazing production of Showboat by Ian Judge don...
- OpinionatedNeophyte: Oh yes Monty, didn't you know? Its in the Opera-L bylaws tha...
- grimoaldo: Searing finale of Luisa Miller with Taro Ichihara Eduard Tum...
- whatever: any chance that very interesting and rather wilberesque cale...
- Angelo Saccosta: Sorry, Signor Tenore. I thought I was still talking to Samir...
- Angelo Saccosta: Yes, Samira. May Jane Phillips Matz first wrote about her in...
- operacat: CAMILLE -- The Houston Opera website which is doing the Zamb...
colleagues
- A Liberal's Libretto
- AndrewAndJoshua
- Barihunks
- Cafeteria Rusticana
- Capital New York
- Civic Center
- Counter Critic
- Daniel Stephen Johnson
- Family Circle
- Handelmania
- Hugo Alvarez Domínguez
- Il Corriere della Grisi
- Intermezzo
- ionarts
- Iron Tongue of Midnight
- Judycast
- Jumping Clapping Man
- Likely Impossibilites
- Mass Culture Mozart
- Met Futures
- My Favorite Intermissions
- New York Post
- Opera Arts
- Opera Bouffe
- Opera Cake
- Opera Fresh
- Opera Music Broadcast
- Opera Rocks
- Opera Tales
- Operacast
- Operavision
- Out West Arts
- pArts
- Poison Ivy's Wall of Text
- Sandow
- SFCV
- Sieglinde’s Diaries
- Superconductor
- The Classical Beat
- The Classical Review
- The Opera Tattler
- Una butaca en el paraiso
- Vilane fille
- Wenarto
- Willy or Won’t He?
- Wo bleibt Elektra?
- WQX-Aria
- Yankeediva
- Zachary Woolfe
blog advertising is good for you
Today's Events
Upcoming Events
Topics
- anna anna anna
- barihunk
- bel canto
- blind item
- blog bloggity blog
- bobby baby
- broadcast
- camp
- cancellation
- chat
- cher public
- contest
- critic
- diva
- dvd
- filth
- gala
- gay gay gay gay gay
- happy birthday
- hd
- jj
- l'evasiva
- la cieca ci guarda
- la scoopenda
- maestro levine
- man of steel
- mp3
- need you ask?
- new york post
- new york times
- nyco
- our own
- peter gelb is...
- regie
- review
- sad
- the met
- unnatural acts of opera
- wagner
- youtube
“La fleur que tu viens de me jeter.”
oh, in between lines I fell asleep, so sloooow, and my carmen is way more beautiful
Fischi:
Hmmm sounds like a pretty “mixed reception” for La Dante
Barenboim is such a pedestrian conductor. Where’s the elegance? Where’s the pace? This is even worse than his Manon. He needs to stop trying to be Furtwaengler.
Are there no limits? “Barenboim is such a pedestrian conductor” must be the most chutzpah-laden sentence ever posted here. I suppose it was to be expected after what was said about, oh, Gardiner, Norrington, Brueggen, Christie, etc. yesterday.
Indeed. While he is stylistically unsuited to Carmen in many respects, and gave a leaden and rather puffed-up performance yesterday, he is def. not “pedestrian” in any way, on the contrary he is quite an exciting conductor where subtlety and finesse is not a paramount concern.
If a conductor can make Act II of Carmen turgid, then he’s pedestrian. It’s one of the most exciting spans in the operatic repertoire when done with flair, panache and sensitivity. Tristan is probably another matter.
Alto, are you saying Danny B is NOT a pedestrian conductor? Is that it? I think he is an amazing pianist; a sensational egotist, and a real routiner when it comes to most repertory. I found his Met Tristan extremely uneven last yet; some good stuff, some not, you never knew what was coming next. I also feel he is not much in tune with singers. Let him conduct Tschaikowsky’s ‘Pathetic’ — that is about his level. Now, when it comes to the Beethoven sonatas, that is another matter. He’s a curious mixture isn’t he? The Carmen mezzo seemed to have no upper voice at all, and the tenor was very flat after delivery a decent p. Bb. So it goes. Nothing is for sure in the blood sport of opera!
there is a solid point lurking in these comments.
talent is not enough, and it is no guarantee. mr barenboim is a hugely talented man and a deeply interesting thinker. sometimes this is manifest in his conducting and sometimes, disappointingly, those other features of his personality subvert the objective.
OMG! The missing candelabra from Tosca!
“Mixed reception”? Very timid applause over all and very loud and prolonged boos for Dante according to my ears.
Barenboim is a great conductor, he just needs to stay away from French opera because he doesn’t have a clue, not that French opera has a clue anyway.
As for Kaufmann, did he borrow that hair from Bozo the clown?
In the world’s fashion capital, Signora Dante deserves fischi for the Lily Munster gown and hair.
Very upsetting to see people booed like that on such a wonderful occasion as the opening of La Scala. They should never have dragged Emma Dante back out for another bow. How sweet of the Carmen to kiss her during the major booing.
It does seem that Barenboim by now should know the drill for handling a booed director, i.e, let her take one quick bow, then pull her back into the line and continue company calls, stifling the boos. Shoving her out to take additional calls seems pointlessly cruel to me.
From what I hear from people who have worked (and more) with him, Barenboim is not the kindest of men.
The booing wasn’t unanimous so if she had only taken one call and disappeared it would have made her seem weak. I heard many applauds and cheers, but they were competing with about 50 dogs howling.
uhh.. did you see the look on her face? she was holding on to Daniel *yes we’re that close* for dear life!
uhh…yea. yea, i did. yea…
Hopefully she wont come to take a bow on the second show, or it might be even worse. The prima is rarely the unkindest audience.
In todays “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” Barenboim explains why he took Dante out for a second curtain call. He claims that he did it to defend her and the product. FAZ cites him with the claim “I am from Israel, the land of prophets and I guarantee to you that this production of Carmen will become a legend. I am extremely proud to have been the conductor to this staging.” (“Ich komme aus Israel, dem Land der Propheten, und ich kann Ihnen garantieren, dass diese Carmen zur Legende wird. Ich bin sehr stolz, diese Aufführung dirigiert zu haben.”)
The FAZ (Jan Brachmann) liked everything, Jonas Kaufmann (“geradezu fiebrige Süße des Singens”), Anita Rachvelishvili (“erdiger, schwarz-schlundiger Mezzosoprano” [I have no idea, what that could possibly mean]), the production (“behutsame und klare Inszenierung”), and Barenboims conducting (“straff wie einfühlsam”).
In other news, I just found out that Arte will also broadcast Jonas Kaufmann as Werther at 26 January from the Bastille. Personally, I am very much looking forward to it.
and with product I mean production, obviously
Far from the charismatic prodigy of his youth, the recent RAI telecasts have shown that Barenboim is now an old man prone to extensive “Plauderei” (chin-wagging) – very unbecoming at best. Just watching him in the brief rehearsal segments on the pre-opening RAI program and the intermission of the prima made me think how horrible it must have been for Emma Dante to have him around rehearsals. The bizarre gestures and signals he sometimes sends to the orchestra these days can’t be compared to, say, the meaningful miniscule gestures of a Fritz Reiner, and the camera does nothing to flatter what Baremboin is doing in the pit these days for Bizet.
LOL I found “product” quie fitting in this context.
Well literally it would of course be earhty, black-pharynxed mezzo soprano, but read aloud it sounds somewhat like black bubbling goo from the slimy depths of anatomy to me.
As for arte, I really hope they’ll return to putting their opera broadcasts back on the +7 website.
You know? this kind of reaction comes with the territory. You have to be prepared for it no matter what.
That been said, even if Bareboim put her up for more booing, I’ll give her credit for facing her detractors. Most directors who get booed in Europe take this Plebeians, you don’t understand true genius. You are all beneath me attitude that it is almost funny.
I will give her credit for facing them. You can see how she is a little scared and disturbed about it. Seems like she was genuinely going the people would like her ideas. Obviously some did and some didn’t.
I have not seen the telecast. I will be watching it soon, but by the looks of it, seems that there were some good ideas and some not so good (Michaela becoming the mother, is that true? The wedding dress?).
Overall, it looks like a traditional production. The Carmen is one of those artists that you have to see to get the whole thing. Aurally she was OK on the webcast, adding the visual part helped. Not all that bad I’ll say based on this aria. We’ll see about the rest.
How does that Carmen get her hair to wing out like that?
Both hair tosses yielded the same lock across her face!
rachlachschvili and squirrel have the same stylist, fyi
That looks like AR is wearing her own hair, though, left to her own devices, she favors a more flattering coif a la Malfitano.
I can not wait to see her in a copy of the one Malfitano wore to the Met Centennial Gala. She looked the ripe ‘ol age of 65 while sounding all of 25 as Juliette.
I can see why Barenboim chose her. She looks so much like him, they could almost be father and daughter.
Haven’t seen the production, so maybe shouldn’t comment – but it didn’t look offensive. Has it become a fashion to boo EVERYTHING now – or am I missing something?
I thought that there is a long tradition of booing at La Scala, even on opening night (I base this belief in readings I’ve done).
I can list a few opening night disasters for Scala off the top of my mind:
Traviata 1964. Freni doesn’t do that well and gets booed.
Vespri Siciliani 1970. Scotto doesn’t do well and gets booed too.
Lucia 1983. Pavarotti booed – scandal in the media.
Luisa Miller 1989. Riciarelli off prime is booed to the point of almost not making to the end of the opera. Fist-fight in the foyer.
Aida 1976. Bergonzi goes terribly flat at the end of Celeste Aida. Someone screams “Stonato!” on the end of the aria.
Carmen 1984. Verrett is not in good shape, and gets booed to the point that she finishes the performance in tears.
8 years after she was swept by the audience to her car after Macbeth….
Other legendary Scala fiascos:
I Lombardi 1984: Dimitrova badly booed
Anna Bolena 1982 Caballé was almost lynched. The opening night had been delayed one week because she was indisposed (she had mumps) and when she sang, it was an epic disaster. She cracked the high C on the recitative (altare infiorato), does a decent job with Al dolce guidami, and then cracks a couple of notes in Coppia iniqua. The audience was infuriated and called her every name in the book. The most heard insult was “grassona”. They had to lower the iron fireproof curtain.
Madama Butterfly 2002: Dessì gets booed at the end.
Lucia di Lammermoor 1992: Tiziana Fabbricini gets booed right in the middle of the Mad Scene.
I vespri siciliani 1989: both Chris Merritt and Cheryl Studer get booed.
Attila 1990: Studer again booed.
And the most recent: 2006 Aida, with Alagna’s infamous walk out
And just last year inauguration, Don Carlo, where Gatti seems to get most of the boos.
In the Luisa Miller Verdilover mentioned, Ricciarelli, right after the third act with the baritone, said to the audience “Dio vi stramaledica”. Furious opera lovers waited for her at the theater’s stage door, and as she was leaving someone said loud “After tonight, all she can do is go walk the streets”. Her husband kicked the guy, actually he kicked the wrong guy (not the one who had said that phrase) and the whole thing even went to court. I think that must be the most chaotic opera night I have experienced.
These are the ones I saw. I am sure there must be others.
And Pavarotti got a 2nd helping of Boos for showing up to sing Don Carlo and not knowing the part.
And a certain American diva gets her share for singing a high G on Lucrezia Borgia.
Verdilover, where did you get your info about Verrett? thanks
Well I had listed opening night booes. And I dont think this Carmen will fare bare on the second night of the run.
Rommie, I am aquainted with people who took part in that performance.
But you can read a little about it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/10/arts/carmen-at-la-scala.html
I believe that her sucess at the Macbeth might have raised expectations to levels that she could not achieve. Probably if it were another singer then, reaction might have been different.
i envy a lot of you, who are acquainted with some of the people we worship (and even make snide remarks about) on here.
like really.
Verrett got her share of boos in Un ballo in maschera, in the late 70s. I think the year after Macbeth. In an interview she said she had strong doubts about singing Ballo, but Abbado convinced her otherwise.
was there ever any Gran Diva who didnt get murdered by the loggionisti?
There are a few. But this talk about the 1984 made me search youtube, and I found this particular very nice interview:
Thanks for the interview – Verrett seemed very dignified and still “abbastanza” content with her performance. Raimondi mentioned trouble outside as well – was there a demonstration?
There are also clips here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qg55ANc5e8
I believe that Freni didn’t make it to the Traviata Première. After a stormy dress rehearsal, she may have been replaced by Moffo.