‘Zoo story
No, Ann Murray will not perform the role of the Marquise de Berkenfield at the Met, as announced previously when Felicity Palmer withdrew from the role. With Jean Rigby and Rebecca de Pont Davies booked up years in advance, the Met will muddle through somehow with Meredith Arwady, who hails from a place implausibly called “Kalamazoo.”
did anybody go to the met tonight? how was miss di giacomo?
excellent voice, excellent musicianship….she would be much better than poplavskaya or racette in the verdi repertoire, but she is seemingly very tentative and doesn’t really throw herself into the drama. For now she lacks star quality and charisma but really does have quite a stunning voice.
One final ill considered post: what you say about Di Giacomo, O scifisci, could also have been said of the younger Milanov, engaged with little enthusiasm mainly because she had the size, range and stamina for what had been the Ponselle roles — it was thought that despite those substantial gifts she had an unreliable technique, terrible tuning (really sharp much of the time), bad Italian — a language she really didn’t know and had trouble pronouncing — and was stupid to boot. However in those days they engaged people who were right for the roles and coached them — sometimes it took, as eventually it did with her even if some of the problems remained right to the end. Nowadays qualities other than rightness for rep and size of house seem to be more important and singers who might just develop are shrugged off or told they are lucky to get cover contracts and the odd end of run performance.
Some of those, the lucky ones, go elsewhere learning as they work, and sometimes do very well, others wilt on the vine. It takes vision and a belief in the perfectibility of talent (even with the realization that that belief can be misplaced) to run a great opera house with standard, demanding rep. And that vision has been lacking at the Met since the best days of Bing (and was even more in evidence under Gatti and even Johnson — not that they didn’t make mistakes, or take things other than the vocal gift of given soloist into consideration).
“Star quality and charisma” are in the eyes and ears of the beholder. I haven’t heard a more enthusiastic ovation for any singer this season than Di Giacomo enjoyed tonight, although by the end of the performance last Tuesday she had completely won over the audience. Compared to last week, I thought that tonight she did commit herself more uninhibitedly to the drama, sometimes to good effect but, occasionally at a small cost to some beauty of tone. I do concur enthusiatically with your praise for her vocalism and her musicianship. They are unmatched, in my opinion, by anyone I’ve heard currently performing in the Verdi repertory. (I haven’t heard either Harteros or Olga Gorchakova perform Verdi, but I would certainly hope to.)
There is no Olga Gorchakova.
Galina Gorchakova has long disappeared from international rosters after a fallout with Gergiev (what ever happened to her?), the other soprano would be Olga Guryakova then.
Guryakova starred in the tedious Cherevichki at Covent Garden in December. She’s beginning to sound like a small-scale Gwyneth Jones, but without the laser beams at the top.
Did I dream it, or did someone with a German accent loudly boo Miss di Giacomo, yelling “Harteros is the ONLY Verdi Sopran!”
I saw DiGiacomo’s first night. I was impressed by the bloom on the tone and easy play throughout the registers. However, looking at the bio in the program, I was surprised how scanty her schedule is. It just showed an Elvira at NYCO and Palm Beach Opera and the Caramoor, OONY and NYCO assignments plus her Met debut in the bit role of Clotilde in “Norma”. She had a Scala contract for Lucrezia in “I Due Foscari” and that’s it for international houses. That’s all she has sung since 2006? This is a big girl but she didn’t look too bad onstage. How can such a high quality voice be ignored during a time when an agile spinto voice capable of handling Verdi is desperately needed? The mind boggles.
“she would be much better than poplavskaya or racette in the verdi repertoire”
So would many sopranos, I would wager!
Spiderman: I’m very embarrassed. You’re absolutely right, of course. I meant Guryakova. In mitigation, it was very late here and Roger Federer seemed to be in serious trouble.
Mrs. John, there is a slight delay between making a comment and having it show it up in the feed. I found your reference to me in that feed.
BTW, I’m not “hyping” Valerie Masterson. Of the youtube videos I found, I liked her rendition of my favorite Mozart aria.
Just what in the hell is your problem?
It would be nice if sirius would let us hear important debuts, like di Giacomo’s or Jovanovich’s tonight, instead of the same casts repeatedly. Oh, well, I shouldn’t complain. Jovanovich will be heard on Feb.1, and on Feb.9 with Teddy!!!
True,
and as a PS to that – wouldn’t it be great if the “second cast” performances got reviewed ( NYTimes, Post, here..)? The young singers could use the exposure, and I would be willing to bet it would help ticket sales for the “off” nights.
Arwady had already been engaged for the last three FILLES this season when Palmer pulled out. Murray was only scheduled for the first three (there are just six). Of course, Murray had the broadcast. But no more.
I, too, thought Arwady was wonderful in DOCTOR ATOMIC, and I’ve heard she is very funny as the Marquese. There’s an Erda there someday.
“where do they dig up all these british fossils to sing at the met????”
Anne Murray is Irish not British.
What is it with the anti-British comments on this site?
And you might also ask when Jean Rigby last sang at the Met? As it happens, Arwady came to London with the Met production of Dr Atomic and got rave reviews. The anti-British remarks on this site are paranoia sometimes bordering on xenophobia. It seems that anyone who had a vaguely British-sounding name is a target for the bile of the Anglophobes on here, whether they are Irish, South African, Australian. Only Canadians among mainly English-speaking non -Brits seem exempt but that seems to be because a lot of the posters here think they are Americans.
I know I’m missing the point here, and possibly fanning the flames, but I love Jean Rigby. She seemed to be in everything I went to see as a babygay- her Amastre in the Hytner Serse was astonishingly good, and I’m pleased to see on YouTube that it’s not just a rosy glow of nostalgia- still sounds pretty good to me. Her voice always reminded me of Elias (I think she would have been quite an Erika- ENO should really have done it with Rigby and Lott round about 1990)
I remember, aged maybe 15, seeing a heavily pregnant Rigby sing Das Lied Von Der Erde at Smith’s Square. The Princess of Wales was in the audience, and I have never seen anyone look so bored in my life.
And has Rebecca de Pont Davies ever sung at the Met?