Comments on: Wo bleibt der Chat?

By: Byrnham Woode

Byrnham Woode — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:26:43 +0000

Susan Neves, who is doing the ELEKTRA Overseer is probably covering something at the MET right now. She has done this part there before, however, and debuted at the MET back in 1993 as Third Norn and Helmwige. As short, dramatic roles go, these are some of the toughest.

She was 2nd cover for NABUCCO its second season, and when neither Guleghina nor Gruber was up to the broadcast, Susan had a sensation. She’s done well in regional houses and in Europe, but I don’t know why her status at the MET hasn’t grown.

By: ilpenedelmiocor

ilpenedelmiocor — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:55:01 +0000

My God, Dame Gwyneth slides into those notes like a trombone; pitch by gradual approximation.

By: Camille

Camille — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:30:50 +0000

Chere La Cieca,
You may backhand me if you feel I am impertinent but I have felt concern, of late, as to what those blue ‘dos do to wash out your lovely, pristine complexion. The Elektra ‘do, although very stark in colour, suits you much better and is rejuvenating and becoming to you.
Just came from hair salon so I’ve got ‘dos in mind.

Love Camille Beauchamps

P.S. Probably still @ your peak of perfection as a Champagne blonde, however.

By: schweigundtanze

schweigundtanze — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:27:29 +0000

I’m not quite sure what to say about this. I was most interested in the production for about the first 5 seconds, then it became clear it was a bunch of chicks in prom dresses and some goth bitch standing in front of a wall. That’s a shame, because the opening part with Elektra in the opening with the lights was visually intriguing (a la the Met Tristan). I think it also has to be the slowest, most subdued excerpts I’ve ever heard from the score. Dalayman sounds nice, but where’s the fire and the energy?

By: Chanterelle

Chanterelle — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:15:06 +0000

My bad — didn’t look at your posting date. Webcast is tomorrow, Saturday.

By: sharky

sharky — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:07:31 +0000

Hmmm . . . in the house, Bullock sounded terrific – never overparted, I didn’t strain to hear a single note. The Recognition Scene was stunning – absolutely beautifully sung – and played from the orchestra. I was in tears through the entire scene – from the moment Orest fell to his knees – followed by Elektra crumpling to the floor. Powerful stuff. The highest notes are a big problem – more willed than sung and once touched (barely) let go of. Didn’t bother me in the least. Voigt sounded better than she has in 5 or 6 years. Palmer was stunning. Nikitin was a major disappointment (but decent actor) . . . this brief role has gotta SOUND good though (Held, Dieskau, Grundheber, Krause, Ramey, Weikl, Hynninen . . . ) it did not. Wolfgang Schmidt may win the award for the very worst Aegisth in history . . . in a long line of bad ones he was godawful. Luisi needs to change some pacing – but was splendid otherwise. Bullock looked great onstage and all the interactions worked just fine for me. Wonderful night at the opera!

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:46:13 +0000

I’ve answered some of my own questions. Someone I know studied with Sandra’s mother at Virginia Commonwealth University. She apparently moved around some as a regional singer in Germany and then decided to teach.

As for Sandra’s husband, many people have found the relationship bizarre and it’s been commented on frequently in the press. To take me to task for a question anyone would ask is… strange, to say the least.

By: Chanterelle

Chanterelle — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:38:49 +0000

#40 rogwood: seems like Sveriges Radio P2 changed its programming and is currently broadcasting an orchestra concert. I really wanted to hear Dalayman essay this, though I can’t imagine her being demented enough. But Emma Vetter is the one to watch, er, hear, apparently.

By: pavel

pavel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:29:37 +0000

As unworldly as you may consider her, Sandra Bullock does speak German, as can be seen in this clip of her accepting an award:

By: armerjacquino

armerjacquino — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:18:17 +0000

Where’s the neurosurgeon? And some people ARE rocket scientists, you know. I don’t quite get your argument that it’s revisionist- after all, it’s not as if the mother was any kind of name. If you think ‘granddaughter of a scientist, daughter of a very minor singer’ is Hollywood revisionism, they’re setting the bar pretty low.

As for your speculations about her choice of husband and what it says about her- well, I’m not sure what you’re saying, but I’m pretty sure I don’t like it.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:47:03 +0000

Wow, Thanks Sanford, this reminds me of precisely what we did not get at the Met last night, and a wonderful cure for my Elektra hangover.

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:45:05 +0000

Since you’re only reporting what is written on Wikipedia I’m not quite sure whether to accept the veracity of it, but doesn’t this sound like a bit of Hollywood revisionist history? It sounds a bit too PR-ish to me. I mean, the opera singer in the family… maybe, but also a rocket scientist and a neurosurgeon and living in Nurnberg for years? Sandra Bullock -as much as she’s a lovable movie star personality- doesn’t come off as quite as worldly as that. She married a motorcycle repairman who used to be a roadie and is the epitome of white trash.

It all sounds like fiction and a bit fishy to me. Is any of this actually verifiable? Not that this is a topic worthy of discussion here.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:38:26 +0000

hmm how can I describe that.. like putting one foot in front of the other very heavily, pounding one’s fists, and giving the hips a suggestive little wiggle? Sorta like the Ewoks dance at the end of Return of the Jedi, except much slower.

The whole production strikes me as rather Planet of the Apes. Debbie and Susie have little charisma for acting in this piece and it all just made a rather worthless impression to me. Except for the orchestra and Dame Palmer’s contribution. I don’t love Elektra (love almost all the rest of Strauss) and so I’m to be taken with a large grain of organic french fleur de sel.

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:29:08 +0000

Where?

By: Verdilover

Verdilover — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:24:40 +0000

Well, one day Jimmy won’t be here anymore. As will all of us.

By: Gualtier M

Gualtier M — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:09:01 +0000

Sandra claimed that her mother Helga had a voice like Maria Callas. No recordings and no reviews are extant though.

By: Sanford

Sanford — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:43:22 +0000

From Wikipedia:

Sandra Annette Bullock was born in Manassas, Virginia, the daughter of Helga D. Meyer, a German opera singer and part-time vocal coach, and John W. Bullock, a voice coach and executive from Alabama.[2][3] Bullock’s maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist from Nuremberg, Germany.[4] Bullock lived in Nuremberg until age twelve, where she sang in the opera’s children’s choir at the Staatstheater Nürnberg.[5] She frequently traveled with her mother on her opera tours, and lived in Germany and other parts of Europe for much of her childhood. She is fluent in German. Bullock studied ballet and vocal arts as a child, taking small parts in her mother’s opera productions.

By: Violetta

Violetta — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:23:24 +0000

LOL So even the younger Brits can’t quite pass muster yet?

By: Baltsamic Vinaigrette

Baltsamic Vinaigrette — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:39:40 +0000

Not sure about her mother, but Sandra Bulock’s father John has worked as a voice coach among other things. Jennifer Larmore is just one of the starrier names to have studied with him.

By: The Vicar of John Wakefield

The Vicar of John Wakefield — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:15:05 +0000

Felicity Palmer is in the great tradition of Edith Coates and Connie Shacklock. Bullock is a fine, hardworking British artist even if not a match for Tinsley, Shuard, Hayward-Segal or Green in this particular role.

The wretched American soprano should devote hours of study to Marie Collier’s masterful recording of Chrysothemis.

By: rogwood

rogwood — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:45:08 +0000

Dalayman’s role debut tomorrow night in Stockholm will be broadcast on Swedish radio P2 http://www.sr.se

By: Quanto Painy Fakor

Quanto Painy Fakor — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:28:54 +0000

Yeah, right! Like Jimmy is going to turn over all his blue knit shirts and white towels to Luisi, monogramed like Penny Marshall

By: Camille

Camille — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:26:23 +0000

Squirreley — if you are still up, could you describe the Totentanz a little more? Thank you, mein Freund. Was it anything like the Behrens aerobics routine?

By: Alto

Alto — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:23:26 +0000

Isn’t the dancing SUPPOSED to be wierd? This is not a balanced psyche we’re talking about here. Poor Elektra is no ballerina. And memory is fickle, but her dance reminded me very much of Nilsson’s — as, incidentally, did Bullock’s whole appearance and demeanor. I assumed that this was not accidental.

By: mandryka

mandryka — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:14:54 +0000

Curtain calls. They just dropped the curtain and turned on the lights. End of ovation.

By: Camille

Camille — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:14:36 +0000

Ditto Debbie’s Elsa

Forget what she looked like — immaterial — a great sounding Elsa with immaculate musicianship. Those high B naturals in the big duet were some of the most ungodly beautiful vocal sounds I’ve ever heard.
Never to be forgotten.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:38:58 +0000

In the house Bullock has a nice “picture” of Elektra but the sound was nowhere big enough, and she was covered a lot of the time. The orchestra was having a very good night and Mr Luisi seems to be a truly apt Straussian as most of you heard. For my money, Felicity Palmer was the star what a dame she is!

Other than that, there wasn’t any magic happening onstage except for some very hilariously weird squaredancing from Ms Bullock, which may give me nightmares.

By: Alto

Alto — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:15:22 +0000

Well, arepo and rommie, I’m with you. I was in the house, Row H, and I can’t quite imagine what people were hearing on the broadcast. I’m not new to ELEKTRA by a long shot, and this was one of the most convincing outings of it I’ve seen. I actually got tears in my eyes twice. Not perfect, of course, and I have to believe that the testimonies to the effect on the radio are valid. But, girls, in the house it was powerful.

By: rommie

rommie — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:45:49 +0000

arepo i highly agree with you. im a relatively new comer to the opera-going thing and even listening and all this gossip. i havent listened to the electra, but for example Aida, Lucia, Boheme…all of these I’ve enjoyed quite a bit.

but what’s annoying is when people who have seen great ones tell you “well i dont know how many [insert opera here]s you’ve seen, but i saw [correlli, tebaldi, price, sutherland, callas, bjoerling, caruso, ponsell,pasta, malibran] and they make this production suck.”

By: arepo

arepo — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:31:09 +0000

Sometimes I actually consider it a blessing not to be familiar with an opera. Tonight’s performance for me was shattering. How fortunate that I didn’t have any pre-conceived prejudices like so many of you sadly have here.

It must be an awfully painful experience for you. (On the other hand, maybe, you are actually all enjoying it and having more fun this way?? Dissing can be so fulfilling.)[g]

I loved it and Felicity Palmer (a huge favorite of mine) was superb — actually they all were really. The prince of the piece was the composer himself. The music was transfixing.

I cannot wait for 3 weeks to pass so that I get my turn up close in the Big House.