Youth will have its chat
Welcome, cher public, to discussion for this afternoon’s Met broadcast of Der Rosenkavalier. The performance begins at 1:00 PM.
For those of you who have the budding energy and vigor to engage in the quicksilver thrust and parry of real-time chat, your doyenne suggests you visit La Casa della Cieca.
For those contributors interested in ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ I think the great performance is the pirate recording from Rome,under Barbirolli,with Constance Shacklock and Jon Vickers in what I believe was his only outing in that role.It’s an extaordinary and revelatory interpretation.It may be difficult to find but it used to be available-and will surely one day -one hopes-be released commercially.
In a properly ordered operatic world, Simionato would be known as “the Italian Shacklock” and Ludwig “the Viennese Shacklock”.
How is it no one has mentioned such key Octavians as Leigh,Veasey, Baker, Barstow and Howells?
Pity also that that fine artist Margarte Ritchie never undertook Sophie…
Vicar, don’t forget that Felicity Lott was Octavian at Glyndebourne in 1980 — Rachel Yakar was the Marschallin and Donald Gramm was Ochs, Haitink conducting. The designer was Erté — presaging Carsen by updating the work to the early 20th century.
“Rachel Yakar was the Marschallin and Donald Gramm was Ochs”
Shame that Anne Evans and Noel Mangin were not engaged!
The Vickers/Barbirolli Gerontius is on Walhall and can be had cheap from Berkshire records. It is the ONLY Gerontius, even though Dame Granite is better than Connie the Shack, who I’m told informed people she had bitten Kirsten’s clit when they recorded Wagner together. Being by nature a povera ancella I only report what I’ve heard, I have no confirmation and in fact rather doubt Kirsten swung. On the other hand, Scandinaivans…
I loved Lott live but I was close and thought she was quite extraordinarily sensitive and detailed but I don’t like her much on the second Kleiber DVD. The best thing about that is the roughly 70 minutes of him rehearsing unaware the pit camera (that relays cues backstage) was on him — he demonstrates an amazing ear for overtones, tuning percussion incredibly and also nurturing the orchestra into giving what he wants with really magical gestures and a sense of humor. The sound is pretty good and one can hear how he shapes the sonority and balances chords, pretty amazing. That’s available cheap at Berkshire too (the rehearsal footage).
I do love the first Kleiber, mainly for his pacing and wonderful work with a secondary orchestra and Gwynnie who is singular and unique until she has to launch the trio. I also love Popp but she looks kind of dumpy. I don’t feel like going into detail about the others.
I definitely feel the Carson update is terrible, too huge in scale for what is an intimate work and humorless too (it ends with WW1 starting, indefensible, pointless and pretentious — rendering what has proceeded the military final tableau a shaggy dog story, which is unfair to the work, self contained and satisfying in itself without need of a an “aren’t I really clever, you betcha” gloss). I also find it only OK as a performance with Angelika Kirschlager looking like a very short aging woman strangely dressed in a soldier’s uniform and vocally wan. And I hardly call that conducting anything remarkable by the standards of Kleiber pere and fils, not to mention Karajan (very different on the film compared to EMI, better I think, and very different again on the DVD, better than the second recording though mightily self indulgent), Bernstein or Thielemann, a right winger and probably anti-Semitic but a masterly Strauss conductor.
I love the Wernicke production (Carson makes many a reference to it), very funny and touching, brilliantly conceived visually with an adroit handling of a chosen period (evidently basically the 1920′s but actually rather eclectic). I also think Renee, Koch and Damrau are all wonderful, also the supporting cast. Vocally the wan Hawlata is no worse than he is on Carson, and on a par with Jungwirth in Munich — but live Jungwirth was very funny, I find him less so on camera and Hawlata mainly benefits from the Wernicke business. Otherwise this suppurating cast is the best after the Karajan movie which includes ME, Hilde Roessel-Majdan as Annina.
I think the Solti DVD is awful, never understand anyone who likes it — horrible conducting, village band orchestral sonority, so-so cast. Empty eyed Dame Dreary (so she squeezes a tear out at the end of act one, big whoop).
Yes, Faninal and Clemens are the Studer troll. It doesn’t understand that by flogging her (!!!! she might have enjoyed that) bad and so-so performances he causes people to forget how good she could be — superb as the Empress and Mozart Elettra, very good Elizabeth at Bayreuth, not quite as good in the house there as Elsa but not bad (that performance belonged to the Snout, Schnaut and Werner Herzog, the audience reaction was priceless.)
Well, Flagstad recorded the complete TRISTAN with Thebom, and excerpts in Paris with Hoengen, so perhaps Shacklock fits right into a pattern!
Meanwhile, MarshGasII ventured:
“I have a very healthy admiration and respect for the many wonderful things that Studer did with the great Behrens in Munich and Vienna”
I think I speak for many when I say that we are left in suspense! What did the two ladies do? Picnic in the Prater? Visit the Lenbachhaus – Kunstbau? Sit and drink Paulaner in historic beer gardens? We are ALL EARS…
>the many wonderful things that Studer did with the great Behrens<. You great Krunoslav maybe Studer gave her multiple orgasms, or put her under a glass topped table and… oh well we need not go there…
Well Krunoslav, very boring to ask me to do your homework when you are so good at looking at databases, your undeniable specialty (what are you, an accountant?) but I will oblige, Studer was a wonderful Sieglinde to the magnificent Behrens Brunnhilde in the monumental Sawallisch Ring at the Bavarian Opera, of course, circa 1987. In the same house they shared the starring roles in Elektra, pairing they also presented in Vienna in the Kupfer production. We know about the ovations!
Well, marshiemarkII herself of course is no stranger to picnics at the Prater having had a lunch last summer with a famous diva at the Schweizerhaus (but please marshie, , no name dropping, it’s in such bad taste!). Neither is marshie a stranger to drinking the historic brew at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, with two German bodybuilders who came down from Frankfurt especially for the occasion, and ending with Paulaner in a dingy room at the homonymous hotel on the Ring (marshie having given up her room at the VJZ for the nuit d’ivresse) but now I am really digressing……….. not opera related.
Meanwhile, MarshGasII ventured:
“I have a very healthy admiration and respect for the many wonderful things that Studer did with the great Behrens in Munich and Vienna”
I would call that admiration and respect very unhealthy and disturbingly obssessive.
Correction: the Erté update wasn’t to the early 20th century, but to ‘Sissi’-period 19th century. Crinolines.
The thing about Carsen updating Rosenkavalier isn’t some senseless, superficial decision. He specifically updated the action up to the time when the opera was written, which strikes pefect sense. I always felt the characters, especially the Marchallin of course, were expressing fin-de-siecle angst and sensibilities. The whole dialogue slips in comfortably into the 1900s. And it works much better with the waltzes, because these didn’t of course exist during the time of Maria Theresa. I always felt the textual sophistication and orchestral colour didn’t sit comfortably within 18th century decor.
Furthermore, Carsen is an absolute genius in expoliting the sheer size of the Grosses Festspielhaus stage. It’s long and narrow. Very difficult to stage in-house scenery, especially the Marschallin’s bedroom. So in act 1 we see many antechambres and the action going on around the bedroom. When Ochs first arrives, we see him arguing with the majordomo before the Marschallin even hears his voice. Very clever. The setting for act III is especially ingenious.
Has anyone seen this recent Semperoper Rosenkavalier DVD directed by Uwe Laufenberg with Anne Schwanewilms and conducted by Fabio Luisi? It looks intriguing (it’s apparently set in the 1950′s, so we’re at the end of a different era)… worth the $$$?
http://www.amazon.com/Strauss-Rosenkavalier-Schwanewilms/dp/B001HBX8PU
Yes, I have it too. The production is honest and simple, now updated to the 1950s, I think I wrote about it earlier. Schwanewilms is glorious, in the lineage of Reining – Della Casa – Te Kanawa. Acted with the allure of a film star, very moving and very musical. Vondunk is again very musical, if a bit unconvincing dramatically. I like Maki Mori’s bold, sparky Sophie. Rydl is a bit over the hill and over the top. The playing is a marvel under the baton of Luisi. Only problem real is that the volume level is very, very low. And I mean v e r y low. I think the Salzburg / Carsen production is more interesting and entertaining. The Dresden / Luisi has perhaps a deeper glow. But production values are rather more modest.
Thanks! Sorry I missed you on this earlier. Sounds worthwhile, and I love Luisi in Strauss, so I’ll put it on the list. I like the Carsen a lot, but haven’t seen the Wernicke yet either… Rosenkavalier is strong stuff, I can’t binge on several productions in a short period of time I can with some other operas.
Renee was Renee. I’m impressed that her voice is holding together so well. She has a flawless technique, if terribly mannered approach. I’m praying these are Graham’s final Octavians. I’m fairly sure they are. The ones on the horizon are slated for… others. She came to grief in many late sections of act 1, and her high notes are endlessly shallow and colorless, if there at all. I fail to understand how this house is completely incapable of casting a Sophie that can sing. 20 years of my hearing this over radio and in the house, I have never heard an adequate Sophie (I didn’t get to hear Miah who may have been an exception, and I like her.)
Eric Culter is a serviceable character tenor masquerading as a lirico. It’s just. Not. Happening. Sigmundsson seemed to be biffing a lot in his upper register, but has the tonal quality I guess is required of an Ochs.
I cut out after the Presentation. Couldn’t take any more.
“Sigmundsson seemed to be biffing a lot in his upper register”
What’s biffing?
Cassy:
nothing in the last 20 years? What about Bonney, Helen Donath, Heidy Grant Murphy (in 93, her peak year), or Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz, Laura Aikin, Lyubov Petrova?
Since you actually say 20 years I am leaving out Blegen and Battle who sang the role in the 80s. But I would say that along with the bad ones, there has been some pretty decent singers cast in the role.
Curious: What do you guys think of Damrau’s Sophie. I don’t know the part that well.
I thought it was pretty impressive.
I never heard Blegen or Battle live, although I liked Blegen (a little short on top) in the Met Anniversary gala video (like 125 or something?) Battle always struggled to sit up there, even in her peak. Though the sound was beautiful there was always a cap there at the top, and she struggled in Sophie and Zerbinetta, even at her very peak.
Never liked any of the ladies you’ve mentioned. Bonney is always troublesome for me. HGM even in 93 cracked her way through the entire role. Petrova is unacceptable in just about every way, as is Aikin. Never heard Donath. Norberg-Shulz when she showed up and wasn’t dragging kids in tow was passable. Maybe it’s impossible to cast. I’ve always thought it would be easy since there’s a million high, floaty voiced sopranos running around when you’re in school and when you start your career, but they all seem to fall out rather quickly. Maybe the Met just catches them too late.
Sophie should not be impossible to cast – earlier we had Berger, Streich, Lipp, Gueden, Muszely, Popp, Stich-Randall, della Casa, Rethy, Schwarzkopf, Loose, Rothenberger, Koeth, Cotrubas, Mathis, Steffek, Grist and let us not forget Patricia Wise who sang 82 Sophies in Vienna alone.
Gruberova and Dessay also sang a few Sophies but did not stay with the role.
My first Sophie was Nadine Connor but when Gueden came along, it admonished any memory of Connor in the role.
Patricia Wise also too her Sophie to NYCO, Houston (I think) and Baltimore, at least in the USA.
There is a recording floating around of her Sophie with Fassbender and Kiri te Kanawa in her only set of appearances in Vienna. Here are the presentation of the rose and the final trio for those who have never heard of Ms. Wise:
http://canbelto.wordpress.com/files/2010/01/presentation-of-the-rose.mp3
http://canbelto.wordpress.com/files/2010/01/final-trio.mp3
Bill!!!!! ONLY WE who know what longing is to quote Goethe, Wolf and that person who could ONLY write waltzes Tchaikovsky (so one of Marshgasll’s FANS has averred) know NADINE CONNER. She was MY first Sophie with Eleanor and Rise and my first Melisande with that barihunk avant la lettre Teddy Uppman) and naturally Gretel and Micaela and Maguerite with Pippo di Stefano scratching his crotch a lot!!!
I remember her as WONDERFUL, though I was quite young for those performances so maybe she wasn’t? I think I was eight for the Pelleas ( it was one my grandfather’s favorites) but loved it so much I demanded a recording and got my prize fighter uncle to get me the p/v from the big library, not that I was equal to it, I just wanted to feel those chords (the invaluable Mrs. Neidermeir had the old Desormiere set on 78′s and lent them to me — oh, Irene Joachim!!!!).
And Judy Raskin and The greatest Rothenberger, and only we who have known longing realize how great a singer Hilde Guden was!!!!!!! (she was also one fabulous Gilda). The Sophies of one’s dreams (along with Lucia Popp).
I was waxing lyrical on here about Gueden’s Gilda just the other day. Absolutely wonderful.
Armerjaquino, Hilde’s sound in the house was pure gold and it was quite a large sound. I remember also her final scene from Daphne with the Philly Orch, sheer heaven.
Lindoro – Kiri te Kanawa sang the Marschallin only 3 times in Vienna – this performance must have been in May of 1987 as her last there was May of 1992 and Fassbaender was not in it. I saw Kiri as Resi there and after Kiri’s Marschallin, everyone viewing the performance went to their favorite Stammstish at a bar or restaurant and compared Kiri’s rendition with every other Viennese Marschallin since the ever hazier memory of Lotte Lehmann – lots of fun and lots of memories. Fassbaender seems a bit out of sorts in these tapes -a bit of a wobble and the voice not evenly produced.
Of course it would appear that the tapes were made by someone in the audience as the sound is quite variable. Wise was quite popular in Vienna (also in Regiment’s Tochter at the Volksoper following Grist and Auger) after her NYCO stint bur eventually transferred to the Hamburg Opera where, I imagine, she ended her career.
Bill!!! You mention Ester Rethy. I AM Ester Rethy. I adore those insane Faust clips with Jussi, also that Liebe du Himmel auf Erden (my theme song) with Lehar. However, my FAVE versions of that aria are the very greatest Maria Reining (early 40′s, thrilling, effortless), Welitsch (a tad late but thrilling) and the insane Leonie Rysanek at a Gala with the Philly Orch where she was so loud and held every very high, high, kind of high and sort of high note as long as she could she enraged Mo. Ormandy and scared the horses I mean the orchestra and the bejeweled audience (boxes, lower level) didn’t know what had hit them. It was right up there with her 1960 Meine Lippen sie Kuessen so Heiss at that crazy Gala (hello Eillen good bye Lily and there’s Big Renata doing ALL of act two Butterfly looking confused — “mah, who are these OTHERS?”). Leonie came down the big flight of stairs VERY SLOWLY and had an orgasm on every step. People were SCREAMING by the end.
I’m glad to learn what Gueden sounded like in the house. I know (and love) her only from recordings. Her Zerbinetta is my favorite–different from others–a Zerbinetta with meat on her bones!
Lucia Popp, Judith Raskin, Kathleen Battle, Judith Blegen, Helen Donath,Barbara Bonney, Barbara Kilduff
I think these are Graham’s final Octavians of necessity, no prayers needed. She had to work very hard to get out the tone she did, and even then some phrases were flat, one just entirely the wrong notes; the problem is primarily the upper third of the voice, so I fail to see how assuming the role of the Marschallin will play to that, do you? Susan is a delightful person and stage personality, and in the right rep. she can still give much pleasure, but mainstream is now not going to be it – no Donna Elvira, Strauss, etc. Time is an amazing thing, eh?
Actually it appears that the Marschallin’s music does not lie that much higher than Octavian, the B flat in the trio an exception. At the Broadcast, commentator Margaret J. said that Octavian was a Mezzo role – I always thought it was a soprano role which in the 1950s or so (Christa Ludwig for example) Mezzos began to usurp the role as their own. After Jurinac and Seefried retired the role of Octavian only a few sopranos (Zylis-Gara, Lott etc.) assumed the role and then they went right on to the Marschallin). Maybe Netrebko could be fun as Octavian if and when she masters the language.
So if Graham is having trouble with the higher notes of Octavian as Ludwig never did, singing the Marschallin is not the solution for Graham (save the need to no longer bounce around in an impetuous manner).
Note – Sopranos della Casa sang her last Octavian in 1972, Seefried in 1970, Jurinac in 1965 – do not know about Gruemmer or Zylis-Gara. I cannot think of any important soprano Octavians today.
Well, Bill, it is definitely a soprano role, but Ludwig, Hertha Toepper and “Frank” Bible were scarcely the first mezzos to attempt it. Think of Stevens, who did it from her Prague years in the late 30s, and people like the fire-breathing Margerethe Ober, Maria Olszewska ( chosen for the potted recording with Lehmann), Supervia and Thorborg.
Krunoslav – Yes and there was Marta Rohs – Stevens sang 2 Octavians in Vienna around 1938 als Gast – but most of the Octavians in those days were sopranos, or at least the majority of them Almost all the Komponists as well were sopranos and many Cherubinos too. Of course now Mezzos sing Zerlina and even Donna Elvira (reportedly one of the next Donna Elviras in Vienna may be Garanca) – and Bartoli has attempted Fiordilgi and Susanna though it did not sound right to me at all, particularly in the ensembles.
Bill the first Oktavian Eva Von der Osten (Wolfgang Windgassen’s aunt, her sister his mother was a less successful coloratura, his father a well regarded tenor!) seems to have been a middle weight soprano who started fairly light but blew her voice out singing Isolde and Sieglinde.
The first Marshallin, Margarethe Siems, originated Zerbinetta, was a famous Queen of the Night but also was the first Chrysothemis!!
The first Sophie, my elder sister, Minnie Nast, evidently sang Eva in Meistersinger and Micaela (she recorded the last also the Rosenkavalier trio) but also sang a lot of lighter roles.
The three roles are not so different in tessitura but casting after the second world war seems to suggest a gradual insistence on both darker and heavier voices for both Marshallin and Oktavian. But if you listen to Reining, Della Casa and Gueden in a performance you have three lyric sopranos whose repertories overlapped (all three sang Eva for example). Schech, Seefried and Streich are all sopranos, though Streich was a ‘coloratura’ specialist.
Lotte Lehmann sang all three roles as did Della Casa and Soederstrom as I believe did the greatest Gruemmer. Jurinac always a soprano (though Fritz Busch thought she might have been a low soprano and she had to fight to sing Fiordaligi, he had first cast her as Dorabella) sang both Oktavian and only later when her voice had shifted downward, the Marshallin.
Evil Incarnate also did Sophie (and Zerbinetta, though she viewed that as the great disaster of her early career and it was the evening’s Harlequin and a fellow party member, Karl Schmidt Walter who persuaded Maria Ivoguen to hear her. Ivoguen told her first to give up. Then she asked for a high fee. Evil had given all her money to join the Nazi party, so one assumes Maria suggested she place her body in the recumbent position and raise some more and then worry about placing her voice). Walter Legge perhaps having Siems in mind probably calculated that Evil could actually sing Marshallin without worrying too much about being heard and after all she had survived a tour of Fidelio in the title role with Karajan in Switzerland.
Though Sophie can be a high voice the other two roles are meant to be contrasting sopranos as are Fiordaligi and Dorabella, Ilia and Elettra, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira and Susanna, Countess and Cherubino. The mezzo Oktavian like the mezzo Komponist is often a mistake since both roles need an ability to move high and sustain some high climaxes. Some mezzos are, to use a cliche, lazy sopranos so they can sing high for a period of time without worrying about it too much. But darker and weightier mezzos often have trouble with both roles especially as they age and their voices deepen.
Thanks Mrs. J.C. always enlightening – I would be surprised if Gruemmer actually ever sang Sophie as she began her career (first season in Aachen – Seefried was there too and they sang in Falstaff together as Flower maidens in Parsifal and perhaps other operas) and Karajan assigned Octavian to Gruemmer right away.
Jurinac very much wanted to sing Fiordiligi in Vienna and Salzburg but Seefried had a foothold on that role (under Boehm, Krips and Kempe) and was the only Fiordiligi in both cities from 1943 until 1957. When Seefried gave birth to her second daughter in the Spring 1957 some Cosi’s were scheduled and della Casa was chosen for Fiordiligi the first to sing Fiordiligi in Vienna other then Seefried in 14 years -Shortly after Schwarzkopf did it and Stich-Randall and even Phyllis Curtin, but Jurinac was never asked. Jurinac had sung Dorabella to Seefried’s Fiordiligi in Vienna and in Salzburg (1947) and I think with the Vienna Opera at Covent Garden also in 1947 alternating with Hoengen(amazingly the first time Cosi was ever performed at Covent Garden) so at Glyndebourne at first, they may have felt that Jurinac was not a Fiordiligi as she had never sung it on stage and in 1949 she did sing only Dorabella at Glyndebourne but the next five seasons (1950-56) sang Fiordiligi at Glyndebourne (while Seefried was doing it at Salzburg).
Conversely at Vienna in 1945 when Boheme was presented as the 2nd production after the war at the Staatsoper in the Volksoper, both Seefried and Jurinac wanted to be the Mimi and Krips chose Jurinac and Seefried was relegated to Musetta alternating with Welitsch with Dermota the usual Rudolfo.
When the new Rennert Verkaufte Braut was presented during Karajan’s directorship at the Staatsoper in 1959 Jurinac wanted to sing Marenka/Marie but Seefried got it and Jurinac, who had done the role in the previous production, never got to sing it thereafter.
Later Karajan assigned Poppea to Jurinac and Seefried was only allocated two performances to 18 for Jurinac.
The two ladies, however, were close friends and sang together in Boris, Rosenkavalier, Figaro, Zauberfloete, Don Giovanni, Cosi, Boheme, Hoffmann,
while alternating as Komponist, Butterfly, Eva, Micaela, Marzelline.
Curiously after Jurinac did switch to the Marschallin she was often paired with Seefried as Octavian and when Seefried sang her last Octavian in Vienna, Jurinac was the Marschallin – there is a pirated CD of that performance not at all in the best sound, and it is lovely – just listening through the static one can feel the presence on the stage of each soprano.
Bill: Elisabeth Gruemmer stopped singing Octavian, and only switched to the Marschallin after completely getting him out of her system. She talks about this in the Rasponi book. Her first Marschallin I know of dates from 1959 (Varvisio, Berlin). Her sensational Octavian for Kleiber dates from 1952, so the switch to Marschallin came relatively early for her. She then continued singing Marschallins until 1974 – there is a recording from that year, live from Cologne, with her, Janis Martin and Lucia Popp. She sounds uncommonly youthful still – too bad the orchestra and sound are both horrible.
The Cologne Rosenkavalier is from 1972, not 74 – it is available from operadepot.
I can’t help thinking that Schafer would be a better casting as Octavian than as Sophie.
Buster – Thanks. We know Gruemmer sang Octavian from about 1941 to at least 1954 (in Vienna) and probably later in Berlin, her main house. She was in the Vienna Opera House ensemble actually only perhaps two seasons 1952-4, otherwise made acclaimed guest performances there until 1966. She does say in the Rasponi inteview she stopped singing Octavian for 18 months prior to taking on the Marschallin (Jurinac also took about 11 months off from Octavian before her first Marschallin in London). Della Casa just sang both to the end of her career and Ludwig, the Marschallin in the Bernstein Rosenkavalier in 1968 continued to sing Octavian as well alternating the roles for 4 more seasons through 1972.
Careful, Mrs. John and Bill. Giving all that information will hurt the youngsters’ self-esteem. Some of the younger crowd have posted that we make them feel unwelcome by parading our knowledge. My own is rather like the lace that Dr. Johnson speaks of: No man has very much, so he likes to wear what he has. When I was inexperienced, it was recommended that I concentrate on *listening* to what the more knowledgeable had to say, but some of the kids nowadays would rather pontificate without threat of any contradiction — all the while wearing their lack of exposure to opera as a shield.
Seriously, I’m learning a great deal from your marshaling of — excuse the term — facts.
Evelyn Lear was also a beautiful Octavian before she tackled the Marschallin. Both at the Met.
Thanks a lot Bill – that narrows it down even further.
Isn’t the Marschallin Graham is supposed to be doing in Houston? They forgive a lot in that theater to local favorites. No doubt she’ll be fine there, as long as I don’t have to hear it.
I just hated Sigmundson over the air especially in act one and for most of act two. And poor Madame Schaefer needs to rethink her rep — that was one hair raising presentation of the ‘roid I mean rose and Susie G was no help there. But I respect Susie G and Renee, they get what they have to work well, and neither is precisely in the first bloom of youth, though the role is now a chancy stretch for Susie G.
“I have enough fans here, that I needn’t worry about you, at least I try to keep some decorum and class.”
You may try, Marshie, but you fail miserably.
well you quite clearly fail miserably at having a sense of humor.
“Well, marshiemarkII herself of course is no stranger to picnics at the Prater having had a lunch last summer with a famous diva at the Schweizerhaus”
Let me guess: Evelyn “Champagne” King?
Of course, Marshie. And I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be having lunch with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.
yeah yeah yeah, very imsginative Enzo, but in fact I did go to the Schenk Gotterdammerung with her husbands’ niece, impressive, huh?
it’s supposed to read: to the LAST Schenk Gotter…..
it’s late, over
MarshGas: Did she leave anything in the cab? Did she tip well?
no Krunoslav, we travelled better than cab obviously, but she was looking for an accountant, as she mentioned during dinner, are you available? she needed expertise with her eastern european holdings, maybe you are qualified?
Didn’t someone on the live chat comment that WQXR had announced Susan Graham was indisposed yesterday? If that’s correct, perhaps that explains some of her effort yesterday.
Hey, can we call you Fiakermarshie?
“…no Krunoslav, we travelled better than cab obviously…”
http://tinyurl.com/y8p75qu
@ 27.3.3.1, Lindoro wrote: “Yes you did, you forgot that that is exactly the same way Studer is thought of by the same people. The only difference is that la Studer got to showcase the reasons why she was a 2nd rater in front of a microphone many times over.”
Why thank you, sweetie dearie, for reminding me to write that I much prefer a 2nd rater fronted by a mic than a conservatory level 5th rater fronted by a HD lens and then blogged about, “triumphantly”, as if *the thing* were the second coming of Tebaldi. But wait, wasn’t Tebaldi on the same camp? Oh well, those 2nd rate days, those were the days! Plus they don’t make ‘em like they used to.
As I said, love her all you want, worship at her altar every day if that makes you happy. Nothing and nobody is preventing you from loving anyone, just don’t come here and make racially and homophobic remarks to make the object of your affections seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread.
We have a set of working ears. We can hear her going flat, we can hear her struggle with the lines and we can hear her tone and recognize the lack of support. If you can love her through all that, good for you, it is your right; but don’t pretent the issues are not there or assume that we can not hear them because you’ll end up looking like, well, like…
Sweetie dearie.
“Oh well, those 2nd rate days, those were the days! Plus they don’t make ‘em like they used to.”
They don’t make them like Flagstad or Traubel, but unfortunately they still make them like Studer and Behrens.
At least Behrens had a stage presence that inundated the stage and in some instances made you forget that you were watching someone yell her voice out.
Is this the same kind of “stage presence” (since we are certainly not talking voice) associated with Racette? LOL!
Those who are able to recognize it, miss it when it is not there….
@ 40.2 enzo wrote: “They don’t make them like Flagstad or Traubel, but unfortunately they still make them like Studer and Behrens.”
This is a fair and reasonable assessment and your point is well understood by me. But while Studer and Behrens were dragged through the mud and back for lesser offenses, today the queens rave about the likes of Racette as if the latter were anywhere close to the former two. But she ain’t and will never be. Do you see?
Racette is doing well now, but no one really “raves” about her. She really has nothing to do with this.
I agree.
LOL. I guess the people and the press in San Francisco count as “no one”?
Sorry, yeah they do count. It’s difficult because from my P.O.V. no one is really raving, but to someone who pays attention to her, yeah, she’s totally the best.
javier, I’ll grant you that she’s not super sought-after, in demand on all the world’s stages. She seems to be doing a circuit of Met, Houston, SFe, SF, and Chicago.
There’s actually nothing wrong with that. The European houses are no better, just older.
Cruz, she’s coming to London for Katya Kabanova this spring, but interestingly to ENO rather than to Covent Garden.
She’s singing it in English? I’m curious: is the ENO house smaller than the ROH?
The Coliseum actually seats 100 more than the ROH, and has a fairly horrible acoustic, too.
It’s certainly a bit of a coup for ENO. They don’t tend to field too many established international stars other than those British and Irish singers such as Murray, Lott, Tomilinson (and now Bell, Connolly, Coote etc) who started out there.
Hmmm. I’m sorry to hear the Coliseum is bigger. I hope Ms. Racette gets enough rest before her Katya. I hope you’ll report back if you attend a performance.
Cruz, I definitely will- a friend of mine has just very conveniently got a job in the box office there.
The other big event at ENO this season is a singer called Amanda Echalaz, who has been very highly praised (I haven’t heard her yet) in a new production of Tosca, directed by one Catherine Malfitano.
Interesting news on all fronts. So far, I’ve tried to listen to works in their original languages, but these two productions could convince me to give them a try. At least on the radio (to start).
I never heard an Italian opera in English, but just listened to fragments of Macbeth in German, from a life performance of Rysanek, in Vienna, I think. Well, it sounds really very weird, like a different opera, since German has a completely different melody (tune? sorry, can’t find the right word). So I guess I’ll stick to operas in the original languages….