Warhorses and Lullabies
Diana Damrau joined James Levine and the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon for one of Levine’s typically overloaded – er, generous – orchestral feasts. But this deeply involving marathon of German warhorses rewarded those who would submit to its somber, festive intensity.
Performed by the full forces of the Met Orchestra, Schubert’s brooding yet lyrical “Unfinished” Symphony was a rich and robust starter. In the first movement, the dead calm of the cello and bass invocation gave way to hauntingly subdued woodwind melodies and shocking, violent sforzando outbursts from the full orchestra. Here and in the alternately bucolic and nightmarish Andante con moto, the Met Orchestra showed masterful restraint and patience that rendered this familiar music fresh and surprising.
A big bouquet of Strauss’ songs followed, with the German soprano Diana Damrau. She was also an exercise in brand-identity marketing, appearing onstage in the same multicolored, paint-by-numbers dress worn on the cover of her recent album Coloraturas. In “Das Bächlein” and “Ich wollt’ ein Sträusslein binden” I had to close my eyes to know if the bright gem tones I heard were the product of visual suggestion or of sound. Strauss’ orchestrations are lush but colorful, matching Damrau’s lithe, golden soprano.
She gave a deeply affecting performance of “Allerseelen,” in which her sensitive reading of the text sank harmoniously into a lyricism of sublime poignancy, and she revealed proud and bittersweet exclamations of “Habe Dank!” in the one-minute masterpiece “Zueignung.” (After these songs of unusually touching poise, Damrau and Levine seemed as affected by the performance as their rapt audience, briefly pausing to catch their breaths before proceeding with the set.)
After this high point, “Morgen!” suffered, if only slightly. Levine was perhaps too accommodating of his singer, and let the tempo pull apart and lose direction. Poor concertmaster David Chen, who played the work’s famous violin solos with beautiful sensitivity but must have felt like a third wheel chasing their rubati.
In “Ständchen” Damrau took the text “um Keinen vom Schlummer zu wecken” (“so as not to wake anyone”) literally, singing as if to draw her public into a chamber-music intimacy, but lost some presence in cavernous Carnegie Hall. The trick worked better in the lighter-scored “Wiegenlied,” a creepily transcendental cradle song. Damrau’s Strauss-survey ended with the oddball “Amor,” a song of operatic, dazzling coloratura and metaphysical text-imagery, inhabiting the poem with a Zerbinetta-like wink and smile.
The real Zerbinetta (in Ariadne auf Naxos) is one of Damrau’s most famous roles, and one she sang at the Met in 2005, though not with Levine conducting. Nevertheless, the two demonstrated familiarity and camaraderie onstage in the extended bravura scene Grossmächtige Prinzessin! Damrau sang with cavalier confidence and vocal ease through its toughest passages. Though her take on the sly comedienne may betray a tinge of kitsch — for instance when her repeated vocal trills indicate a timid and precious giddiness — but she sells it convincingly, striking poses that melded statuesque classicism and a kind of modern grotesquerie.
Musically, she is of the highest order. If her upper register is not a gentle, creamy sound, neither is it shrill – the vibrant but rounded timbre suggests rich ceramic or silver. Damrau’s artful command of this music roused the matinee audience to an ovation demanding a repeat of the concluding rondo. With this concert already running long, an encore of this sort didn’t at first seem like a good idea. But Damrau took this opportunity to ham around, climbing onto Levine’s podium, motioning to him at the words “Ein Gott!,” planting an improvised kiss on the cheek, and offering other amusing shtick that would have been a shame to miss.
After more bravos for the soprano, the tutti forces of the Met Orchestra reconvened for Beethoven, giving a powerful and urgent, if just a tad messy, performance of his Fifth Symphony in C minor. Levine jettisoned the first movement repeat, and worked over the well-known with exciting tempo retouchings, as in the coda of the second movement, and Schumannesque crescendos that brought our long, Teutonic saga to a fiery and brilliant summation.
Uh, I kind of like the dress. I think it looks fun. But I know now not to admit this to any of my gay friends. Maybe I picked a more apt nickname here than I realized.
Well, isn’t Lady GaGa’s entire design crew gay? [=Haus of GaGa]. Well, she looks ridiculous. They aren’t completely above reproach in the fashion arena, unless you go for gay kitsch…
De gustibus non est disputandum, anyhow.
I agree that the COLORATURAs dress is slightly fun, but you do know I’m biased. I also thought her hair was uberpretty. Much better than when straight.
Hm and she is just precious in pigtails in the ROH production of Hansel und Gretel. Meltin’ the cockles of my heart.
I find lady Gaga fashion sort of appealing in some cases. it is kitchy but it is kitch well done. Damrau OTH always seems like eastern European gal with lots of money. Expensive gowns but not much taste.
In fashion, as in opera singing, it seems that you can’t please all the people all the time. It’s not possible…
To be fair, I didn’t see it in person. I can imagine it being somewhat overpowering, especially because she is, as I remember, not too tall. I like the Harlequin/commedia dell’arte connection with Zerbinetta…
@Betsy Ann, but opera people – gay or not – are jaded and bitter, and it is an agèd sort of bitterness too, since they’ve heard *all* the old LPs…and of course nobody alive today measures up to XXFavoriteDivaXX or Callas, for that matter. Also, audiences today are more annoying and uneducated, we’re all philistines, etc.
Fashion is silly and such a waste of time. I’m of the [sadly incorrect] Point of View that inner beauty can really make a potato sack glow. Like Damrau’s! /drool and burn myrrh on altar.
You have not suffered until you’ve twiddled your thumbs during Fat Talk or Fashion Talk over mugs of low self-esteem and bitchy gossip with your lovable yet neurotic girlfriends. Yuck, dresses and girlification.
Seriously, who are you and what have you done with Drammy. I could swear that you were the one who admiringly asked how we (we being older opera queens) learned as much about opera as we know. some of “us” might be jaded, but a lot of “us” are just experienced. As I explained to you my learning process, it was listening to various records and artists, and to read about opera and music history, and talk to other opera folk to hear their experiences. I have found Parterre invaluable not just because of the conversations but also the podcasts where I have opened up my world to operas I would never have taken the opportunity to listen to. How do I know I won’t like something if I never give myself the chance to hear it? And when people invite me to performances, I never say no, because I might learn something new.
As for the whole gay taste question… I have a lot of gay friends, many of whom I’m never met. I grew up on old hollywood movies, so I’m intimately familiar with Adrian (designer of Wizard of Oz, and The Women, and who later left for New York to be a couturier), Cecil Beaton, Travis Banton, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Yves St Laurent, Sidney Guillarof, Perry Ellis, etcetcetc. I also used to make not only my own dress slacks but also made evening gowns and once made a bridal gown for someone. I designed costumes for productions of Radamisto and Mikado. So yeah, I think I have taste.
hey, I was [semi] kidding about the bitter thing and it certainly doesn’t apply to all ‘opera people’. It’s about half true, isn’t it? It happens to everybody – being well-versed/’educated’ => inability to appreciate subpar things => increase of bitterness.
You g(u/a)ys need to cut out being so good at clothes; makes me feel slightly ashamed for being so fashion unconscious. Ah well, my style’ll be all the rage once “just rolled out of bed in distinctly rumpled and unfeminine clothing” gets back in vogue.
Nice interchange, gentlemen, and I wish I had read it before I responded to Dan above; I have gotten some insights into the situation. But let me address a question to Sanford. Mrs. John Claggart recently posted a brilliant exegesis of her standards and desires, laying out clearly why she liked A and not B, C and not D. Can you do a similar thing with “taste”? You say you have it, but what is it, and where does it come from? To me, and perhaps also to Drammy if I read him correctly, it all seems so ephemeral, subject to every emergence of the “next big thing.”
Taste is the difference between Renee’s concert gowns (usually great taste) and fugly concert gowns. That’s just an example of course. It’s being able to distinguish dreck and schmatte from great design. But everyone has different taste, so as you say, it’s ephemeral. But even more than you know. There is a company who is responsible for analyzing future color trends. So right now, this company is predicting, say, emerald greenwill be hot in a year (fashion works far in advance. Right now designers are finishing up their Fall 2010 collections which will be shown in February). Designers go to fabric house which have based their products on the predictions. A lucky few designers, the big ones like John Galliano at Dior, for instance, may get to design their own fabrics. And then trends seem to arise. If you went to Fashion Week a couple of seasons ago, you’d have seen a lot of miniskirts and a lot of metallic fabric. And then taste comes back into play. Were the right guesses made about color or cut? If no one bought that season, the guess was wrong. And taste comes into play when like or dislike designers ( or singers, directors, stage designers, etc). Prada is hugely successful and some people love her, but I think most of her stuff is hideous. On the other hand, I think Galliano is a genius. So when I look at a gown like Damrau’s, I’m comparing it to great dresses I’ve seen in movies and on runways. But again, it’s my particular taste.
Betsy Ann, I think Sanford here gives you the clearest illustration of taste: it’s individually determined.
I don’t know about the “gay tastemakers” except that, as in many areas of life where human beings are involved, the loudest (or bitchiest) set the standard. Even in the case of Ms. Damrau’s recital dress, not everyone here thought it dreadful or an example of “Eastern European” taste (whatever the F-ck THAT means).
Thanks, Sanford, but not being from New York, my experience is limited to what I see posted here. Before I worked up the nerve to even express myself in a post, there was a picture of Susan Baker of the NYCO Board, her lips drawn back in a horrifying grimace, so that my response was “That poor woman must be in great pain.” But then there was a posting about a roomful of rich women, all of whom had had “enhancements” and all of whom resembled the exotic cats they were holding. That, more perhaps even than the belt-with-jeans instant, has given rise to my original question. Someone, somewhere, must have convinced those women that the look of intense pain was a paragon of beauty to be striven for. I now find, thanks to Camille, that this “someone” is more than likely one Anna Wintour, whom I have just googled. Now I know whose squirmy butt makes the world hop. I assume that Ms. Wintour is NOT included when the phrase “fuckin’ Brit” is used.
May I point out that Damrau is German, so her taste can be, at best, Central European, and not Eastern? And really, equating Eastern Europe with bad taste, and using a German as an example on top of that,I find very rude (and geographically uninformed).
Drammy, don’t you have a Roman you need to be studying?
I just spent a few minutes trolling for Morgen! on iTunes. In about 30 seconds, I heard Jonas (my next husband) Kaufmann (gorgeous Strauss album) and Renee Fleming (also gorgeous). Both voices have a creamier, more lyrical quality to them that I felt Damrau lacked. I think she was simply too light weight for the first 7 songs. Amor and Zerbinetta were a different story. Amor is a trifle, almost like a sketch for the Zerbinetta, but the problem with both showpieces is that, to me, because of the inaudibility issues, the high notes jumped out of the musical line. Things would be soft, then I’d here a trill or part of a run, and then the top would jump out. I don’t know Ariadne well, but I’ve heard Sills, Gruberova, Grist, Battle, and various others sing Zerbinetta’s aria and Damrau just isn’t in their league. But the orchestra was gorgeous. And Drammy is adorable.
YOU are adorable, Sanford. How’d the Whole Foods run go?
Also, Jonas Kaufmann [OW OW] is mine.
On the topic of Damrau, does anybody here know her romantic situation?! When is she going to procreate and make glorious coloratura children?
Granted, I was not there on Sunday but I have seen DAMRAU in every production she has done at the MET and I have never had a problem with audibility sitting in the back of the orchestra. Sorry, Grist and Battle had much smaller voices and I had volume issues with both in the big barn.
Sanford: “I don’t know Ariadne well, but I’ve heard…”
Sanford I plead, remedy this situation now. Strauss’ Ariande is a wondeful multi-faceted opera. I love every moment of it and grab every recorded version of it, I can.
Whole Foods was great as always. I followed a really cute young gay couple who walked in hand in hand.
Sanford: Battle’s zerbinetta was one of the worst choices in her career. I’ve never had any audibility issues with damrau, either at CH or the Met. Keep in mind that Carnegie is not very kind to voices. Everything is very clear, but they rarely make a visceral impact.
I think Battle’s Zerbinetta was the worst choice of her career. Her voice was never the same after her run in the part. Then again, Zerbinetta has always tempted sopranos with a decent (and sometimes not so decent) high E, but it really takes a voice that can also do Queen of the Night. Inasmuch as that is possible, I think Gruberova has owned the part. Other people have visited it and dropped it.
I think the most stunning version of “grossmachtige” is Beverly Hoch’s. The sound is crap, but the technical command is astonishing…and she is one of the very few Zerbinettas to actually trill the high D (or in her case, I believe, the high Eb).
She is everything I want in a great Zerbinetta…point, a great trill, wit, and effortless coloratura.
She released a fairly jawdropping solo recital on one of the budget labels in the 80s, with the Proch varations as I recall particularly memorable. In her one actual operatic recording, Zauberflote with Norrington, she’s disappointingly thin-toned, although the end of ‘Oh Zittre Nicht’ is better than I’ve ever heard it.
My favourite ‘Grossmachtige Prinzessin’ is Auger in a live concert (she does a magnificent ‘Bell Song’ on the same disc) but I can’t find that on YouTube anywhere.
Ms. Hoch sings the original 1912 version…thus the D’s become high E’s and the high E’s become high F#’s. That tape was from the dress rehearsal. It’s really spectacular.
Here ya go, Amerijacquino…it is indeed beautifully sung.
A bathroom acoustic, literally.
Not a bad effort, though she has a way to go before rivalling Leontyne’s recorded version, which I believe Price considered one of her best efforts.
Betty_ANN_BOBOLINK :the one thing no one has mentioned here when you asked about gays, is the plain fact they tend to have what is called a twin wired brain. The quick ability to deduce, or sort out people in a instant of meeting them. Analysing the attitudes and projectd judgements made, the dress sense, the posture, their speech patterns and rhythms connected to the body language.I beleieve it is in the D.N.A. It is a case of you either have it, or you don;t.
More : as far as a performer’s dress sense,it should represent their awareness that they are perfoming for a audience. Thereby show respect of ‘the occasion’ and the position they are placed in. To project ‘the sense of attainment’ they have reached with equally good taste with their performing attire. Impressions and images count when artists are seeking continuing success. Do they for instance want to have a reputation of being a sloppy dresser…..before long people start making quips like ‘it probably reflects their approach to their Art as well’. Taste in clothes at that level speaks volumes about the personality of the performer, before they open their mouth. By wearing something lurid / color clashing or hideously garish and uncomplimently, is off putting to many of the paying audience. Do audiences want a recital or a one person fashion show? The above mentioned distractions raise that question. I.E :Remember those You Tube video clips of the hideous ratty dresses on that Simone Kermes. Yikes!
She needs firstly a clothes consultant to give her some guidance. It would be a tiny amount to pay and the career benefits to her, huge.
Harry , c’mon you’re not serious
with that nonsense .
Let me point out, wladek, that most Hollywood stars neither pay for their Red Carpet gowns, nor do they pick them, their accessories or do their own makeup. There are exceptions, such as the always hideously dressed and supposedly fashion forward Chloe Sevigny. Men and women are paid big bucks and have become celebrities in their own right for dressing the stars. Robert Verdi comes to mind. And they do it because cher public is watching. Image counts in an image-conscious culture. And Hollywood has always taken care of their stars. Back in the day, when magazines like Photoplay, were still around and studios had PR departments, stars and starlets were photographed dressed to the nines. Even supposedly casual shots, at pool parties or the beach, for example, were carefully staged. MGM never let a star/starlet appear in public looking less than perfect. If someone didn’t own suitable clothes, MGM provided them… and furs, jewelry, shoes, etc. Renee Fleming always looks gorgeous and I’d bet she has consultants that she talks to about her gowns. She’s aware of her image when performing in concert. Would that everyone were so aware.
I would prefer that she be more aware of her voice and music
than her image , which is a dime
a dozen . Ms. Podles who looks
like everyones mama no matter
how dolled up, can sing into the
ground a dozen gorgeous
Flemings, and I for one when paying 100$plus for a ticket
want to hear a great singer such as
Podles than some gorgeous mannequin short on talent but
not in cleavage . .
Betsy-Ann: As a straight guy, I can say that over a long career, I have met “gay” men of many stripes. Some could no more choose clothing or art any better than Mrs. Astor’s pet horse.
Some were burly construction workers, but fortunately, we have had many “gay” men who have been interested and motivated to contribute more than their share to the arts. I know of no special DNA or “wiring.” There are other groups who have been disproportionally represented as well. One of them was just featured in some dialog that seemed cloudy in its meaning, at least to me. I don’t belong to that group either but, as someone recently pointed out to me, “you sure do seem to enjoy their output.” I thought that a high complement.
As far as being fashion challenged, I would say that one is no more fashion challenged than graphic arts challenged. If you can’t enjoy a trip to the Met Museum or the Frick, you probably can’t see the difference in clothing either. Otherwise, if you can, than, aside from the latest trend, there seems to me to be no reason why you can’t also see the difference between something that looks good and something that doesn’t. Remember, though, that in their day, the academicians were looking down their noses at the impressionists, so not every bad thing turns out to be a mistake but merely a misapprehension on some viewer’s part.