Now it is my turn to chat
Could there be any more “parterre” a way to spend a Saturday afternoon than listening to a broadcast from half a century ago of what must surely rank among the queerest operas ever written? Don’t bother to answer that, it’s a rhetorical question, and while we’re on the subject, you do not know how to read! You have never known what love is!
Oh, pardon me, cher public, but you know how La Cieca gets. Anyway, let’s meet to discuss the Met broadcast of Vanessa, starting at 1:00 this afternoon.
The usual suspects no doubt will tend to gather at La Casa della Cieca.
I too like the clear enunciation. I don’t need to follow the libretto (much).
There was a concert performance in London, basis for the chandos recording under Hickox, with Christine Brewer (who delivered rather excitingly I recall), and Susan Graham – but the poignancy of the final scene was somewhat undermined by a line about (I approximate) -’caring for the azaleas and the parakeets’ – sometimes English diction in operas needs to be fuzzy.
As for diction, Leontyne sings ‘Do not utter a word’ on one of her early ‘prima donna’ albums, and it is one of her greatest interpretations: the diction is superior to Steber’s, and her voice is in pristine shape.
I always thought it odd that Bing had let Steber go, when he allowed Tebaldi to go on long past the point when anything above the staff was merely a thin, unsupported, flat scream. Anything after about 1970 from her is painful and embarassing to hear. There’s a video from around 1970, (Bell Telephone Hour?) Andrea Chenier final duet with Tebaldi and Corelli from around this time that is HORRIFYING from Tebaldi. Corelli still sounds quite good and it must have been painful for both of them to do it. And Lord (and the rest of the world) knows Callas’ last performances there were far past her prime days as well (and he undoubtedly knew that). Yet he dumped Steber, who had done him great service, and sung at Bayreuth too, if I recall correctly.
And after being dumped, she helps him with the famous single FANCIULLA (1-17-66) and participates in the closing gala at the old house.
Between Tebaldi and Steber it may have been a matter of which one was still selling tickets, which was still intensely beloved by the MET public.
No one dumps a Steber, was she having problems then of alcohol abuse? Was she unable to continue? Bing was difficult but not stupid. This is far from horrifying Jatm2063. They both sound magnifcient.
vhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26zyzaBvEBU
I am brilliant in this. You who are young should have SEEN what I did with the role.
It was *Virgil Thomson* who made rude remarks about Old Wine and Old Bottles, not Irving Kolodin who recognized how often Mr. Bing wasted the talents of one who would sing all the Verdi roles and Carmen at the Garden and during the Festwochen and then come home to face Marcellina.
No, dearly Lady Quickly, I don’t wish to be rude, but it WAS Irving
Kolodin who said that of Barber’s Vanessa, Old Wine in Old Bottles.
In the Saturday Review magazine; I have the clipping.
I agree, the Old Lady in Vanessa is not much of a role, is it?
Sort of like those Janacek old dames who just seem formidable
but don’t have to sing much. I always thought you should have
been doing Erda at that; Blanche could not sing one drop of it -
terrible; you would have owned he part.
MrMyster bows and leaves the room, backing up.
Hmmm–the only Janacek old dame who doesn’t have that much to sing is Kabanicha and she doesn’t SEEM formidable to me–she IS formidable. Kostelnicka has lots to sing. Is there some other older matriarch in Janacek that I’m missing who has little stage time?
Grandmother Burya? I don’t know any Janacek operas well, so I could be completely wrong. That being said, I have seen Jenufa three times, once with Leonie.
last time I saw Jenufa at the ROH, Grandma B was essayed by Eva Randova no less (Silja was the Kostelnicka and Mattila the Jenufa) – ten years previous Randova was the Kostelnicka, absolutely riveting, far more complex than Silja, not a single note in tune all evening but a complete star turn.
Miss Mila’s mad mother in Osud (Fate) who throws herself out of the window at the end of Act I if memory serves.
I meant to add that Mme Silja sang Mila’s Mother in the recent Vienna Staatsoper production of Osud.
that opera is totally mad – but the music is irrepressible! A kind of precursor to 8 1/2…..
Off-thread, but I’m just listening to Porgy and Bess on BBC Radio 3 with a wobble-filled cast under Harnoncourt (as per the commercial recording). Angela-Renee Simpson is undoubtedly the outstanding performer.
Try as I might to like it, I think P&B is just not a very good opera. Yes, some of the numbers have great tunes and some of the musical effects are effective, but it’s fragmentary and broken-backed — and just not very interesting. Not bad for a first try, and pioneering in a number of ways, but not a masterpiece of music drama.
‘ … some of the musical effects are effective’.
Whoops, I do wish there was a preview function on this site. You know what I wanted to say.
… and I still think the main ‘Porgy’ theme sounds like Tom and Jerry.
Monty, Grandmother B. would be a good answer to my question. The most impressive performance of it I’ve ever seen was in the first season of the current production at the MET. Shiela Nadler made the line of family matriarchs crystal clear from herelf down through the Kostelnicka to Jenufa who, in Mattila’s performance, had grown into great strength by act three. The weakness of the town’s mayor and the conflict within the Burya men was thrown into huge relief by seeing Grandma as one of an indomitable line rather than just an old granny.
Callas: She never did anything contemporary. Not only was Vanessa offered, but Bohuslav Martinu wrote Ariane especially for her, tried several times to get her to do it but she wouldn’t consider it at all. Reputedly her reason for rejecting Vanessa was that she saw the story was really about Erika. And of course, in Elias’ hands, that’s the performance that impressed everybody.
Ultimately, I think Callas’ idea of opera ended with Puccini.
Isn’t that everyones Idea of opera?
will, i still remember sheila nadler as the GM, someone i had never heard of before. but she was quite effective in that role, very still and frail, but vocally imposing. i saw that production 2x, the first with barbara dever, who could not have looked more distinct than nadler, and who was much less effective (both times with mattila, but the 2nd time, with a much better cast — in addition to nadler and mattila, silja and silvasti).
…and there was that joke, made by Poulenc himself at a live TV recital (now on EMI) with Denise Duval, that ‘La voix humaine’ was conceived for Callas, because by 1959 she had fought with everyone and therefore it was safer to put her on stage by herself….
Well I think P&B is a great score but needs the right people, right orchestra, right conductor. Harnoncourt is interesting in a way, but far from idiomatic. Both Gershwins had great dramatic instinct, and when done proud by performers, everything slids into place and the length justifies itself. I especially love the cleansing, purifying effect of the various sellers after Bess’ tragedy on the island. There’s so much debussy there. Of course, the Harnoncourt is ludicrously cut. I wouldn’t cut anything! It’s not so much about tunes, rather the way in which everything is held together, balance and contrast.
I will say that my attachment to this opera is a bit sentimental. I was going through a horrible breakup with my first boyfriend when I first saw a live performance and just BAWLED like a baby during Erika’s big scena and I completely lost it during the quintet. True it’s too much schmaltz and just bit quite enough musically in too many places, but this peice will always have a place in my heart.
And DAMN Miss Elias stole the show, but in every performance I have seen Erika steals the show. I can see why Callas stayed clear of it. Charlotte Hellkant was my first Erika, but for the life of me I can’t remember who the Vanessa was.
Sory I meant “not quite enough in too many places”. Please bring the preview option back
Joanna Meier?
I saw Hellekant opposite Elizabeth Holleque in DC. Could that have been yours. NYCOQ?
… but what a shame that ‘O Lord, I’m on my way’ — which is always a spinetingler — isn’t developed into a proper ensemble. It’s over almost before it’s begun. Just imagine what Verdi could have done with it!
I think it’s a good idea they cut it short – eyes to the future – thre are so many rousing numbers as it is. Most beloved it the act I finale – “O de train is at the station” with the musical imitation of wheels and steam engine.
CF, I agree with you on most things, but I think we are going to have to agree to differ on diffuse old ‘Porgy’ …
indeed. And good old Mozart
Apart from ‘Come scoglio’ and ‘Mi tradi’. And I quite like Clemenza too, for some reason. Just don’t make me ever sit through Zauberfloete again.
OK, Mi tradi, my favourite Mozart aria. I’m beaming. Good. Here is lovely Ms Yakar. Still the best IMHO
BTW the only singer I know who breaths the correct, musical and ‘Mozartean’ (and very difficult) breaths in the coda sequence – 3:15 onwards. It means singing through “per lui… pieta” and breathing between the 2 couples of eight notes. Very difficult, but after you hear this, the usual breathing sounds antimusical and illogical.
Then you haven’t seen a good
performance , certainly not
lately at the Met .
I did listen to the whole thing, and I’m glad I did since I don’t have the recording. Loved the alliteration, “Vanessa, Wozzeck and vodka”, there are worse fates. In this year’s Met Engagement Calendar there is a nice photo of Steber in the Abduction. Well, next Saturday we can all dish Domingo’s conducting, no Levine he.
Steber had a lot to offer as a teacher (in spite of George London who disapproved of what she was teaching her students), and is a very sad thing that
Juilliard fired her because of her undignified appearance in the Continental Baths. Later, Eleanor and Blanche sang a Sunday afternoon ‘tea concert’ at Mr. Getty’s Hotel Pierre, which might have been closer to what Juilliard would have approved!
What was undignified about her appearance at the Continental Baths? Given the mores of the time, it’s always struck me as an effortlessly classy thing to do. Good on her.