Comments on: Vicar’s delight

By: Krunoslav

Krunoslav — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:22:14 +0000

Lucy Crowe’s contributions to Minkowski’s new ODE(s) TO ST,. CECILIA set shows a clean- scrubbed voice with no seeming ability to inflect even English words with meaning. Classic Kirkbyfying.

Bring back Lililan Watson and Tessa Cahill!

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:54:47 +0000

Why do you all seem to get so worked up about what Brit critics write about performances in London? Do you think we bother about Tommassini’s reviews of singers at the Met? If Fiend and Billingsgate set so much store by what London critics write, that’s hardly the critics’ fault, is it?

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:52:36 +0000

I’ve seen Isoloski’s Marschallin in Cologne, Bastille, San Francisco and now Covent Garden. It worked best in Cologne and was acceptable at the ROH. At the Bastille and SFO she was barely audible from the middle of the orchestra stalls, outsung by Joyce DiDonato (in SF) but not Angelika Kirschschlager (Paris), who you had to strain to hear, too.

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:49:28 +0000

Couldn’t agree more – but no-one at the ROH will be able to agree on what kind of new Rosenkavalier they want. A regie one which might make a splash for three weeks and possibly one revival, or something they can play for the next 25 years. That’s the problem the world’s Traditionshäuser have today…same at the Met, I imagine. judging by the howls of protest at the Bondy Tosca.

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:47:12 +0000

Lucy Crowe certainly didn’t sound in her best voice on the opening night. Isokoski’s voice sounded smaller than it has here before although she did some exquisite things. The Silberne Rose phrase at the end of Act I was a collector’s item. Koch is a good, not great Octavian, same goes for Peter Rose’s Ochs, I guess your recent Rosenkavs were a good deal more starry. Crowe is a talent – a clean bright lyric-to-light soprano and an excellent actress. It’s not only the Brits who think highly of her: she is singing Sophie in Berlin next year and in Munich in 2011. I’d rate her less highly than Miah Persson in the role, but higher than Christine Schäfer.

By: Often admonished

Often admonished — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:23:34 +0000

and whose *voice* has not a trace of etc…

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:54:40 +0000

One thing’s for sure, it’s about time that kitsch (in a bad way) Schlesinger production of Rosenkavalier was retired — and his equally overblown ROH Hoffmann. Relics of the 1980s at their worst.

By: The Overseer

The Overseer — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:42:29 +0000

“Lucy Crowe is the English critics’ delight: a clear light soprano who sings in tune and whose voice has not a trace of sexual interest.” Well she is certainly not my delight. I didn’t attend opening night, but at the dress rehearsal I thought her top unreliable, the bottom reasonably secure, whilst the middle suffered from a sort of hollowness. All very disconcerting and all very colourless. In the space of a few days I doubt if it changed that much.

By: Hugo Santos

Hugo Santos — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:40:44 +0000

Very well put, Lindoro.

By: No Expert

No Expert — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:01:23 +0000

A spoonful of sugar, baby, a spoonful of sugar

By: Alto

Alto — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:53:02 +0000

It’s easy to see why you’re often admonished:

http://tinyurl.com/yjnt2uq

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:50:07 +0000

How is that possible? Even Julie Andrews’ voice betrayed a trace of sexual interest as Mary Poppins.

By: Often admonished

Often admonished — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:28:45 +0000

Lucy Crowe is the English critics’ delight: a clear light soprano who sings in tune and whose voice has not a trace of sexual interest.

By: Often admonished

Often admonished — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:27:06 +0000

“working” on what?

By: manou

manou — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:58:12 +0000

http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2009/12/a-faded-rose.html

I was also at the rehearsal and this seems pretty fair – but I am going to the performance on the 15th and things may have improved by then.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:20:32 +0000

I have seen Isokoski a few times and the results were startlingly varied. Though the Marschallin was certainly the best of her best work.

The Vicar must be very, very proud!

By: Lindoro Almaviva

Lindoro Almaviva — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:17:59 +0000

Soile Isokosky not being a good Marchallin? Sorry, that sounds like bullshit to me. It’s like saying that Sutherland scooped and slided her way through Lucia.

By: tannengrin

tannengrin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:14:09 +0000

Too few or too many gay friends:

By: 98rsd

98rsd — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:55:37 +0000

Sorry about the poor editing on my part…

By: 98rsd

98rsd — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:55:02 +0000

Do you British readers know they’re constantly being fed this hogwash?

You should have been at the Wigmore Song Competition this year where a (to put it kindly) modestly gifted young baritone (English) won top honors. Oh, and he had been working with Graham Johnson, one of the judges.

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:47:34 +0000

Do not for one moment believe Rupert C. He is the man
who wrote last year that Christine Brewer was “newly
slimmed-down..” Haw!

By: richard

richard — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:37:18 +0000

As the saying went during WWII, “Buy British!”