Final curtain
Join La Cieca tonight for a chat saluting the Met farewell (and 2,928th performance) of character tenor Charles Anthony.
It’s also a good excuse to hear Lise Lindstrom‘s Turandot again, as well as Frank Porretta‘s only broadcast Calaf this season.
And (so rumor has it) there may be another farewell tonight as well: not of a person, but of a thing.
Real-time chat, as usual, at La Casa della Cieca.
Looks like Rolando Villazon is OUT from the Met for the foresseable future. He is NOT in next year’s Traviata.
and good news
Piotr Beczala is replacing Villazon in the new Manon with Netrebko!!
Some changes that Sieglinde hasn’t caught up with yet – [Satire]
Changes for season 2010-2011
Mr. Gelb has announced several changes to the casting that has been circulated via the internet:
Angela Gheorghiu will replace the previously rumored Rene Pape in the title role of a new production of Boris Godunov. Ms. Georghiu commented “I made it clear to Peter that a season without me taking the title role in a new production was unacceptable. Whether I can sing the role, or even bother to show up, is unimportant. But Gheorghiu must be announced as the star!”
Alessandro Corbelli will take the role of Wotan in a new production of Die Walkure. Gelb comments: “A psychic informed me that one of Mr. Terfel’s children would have a hang-nail during the production period, so we began to search for a substitute. Knowing that the former Wotan of choice, James Morris, is adding Don Pasquale to his repertoire, it only seemed natural to me to cast a famed Don Pasquale as Wotan. This did necessitate some other changes to maintain balance, so Anna Netrebko will sing her first Sieglinde opposite the Siegmund of Matthew Polenzani.”
A new production has also been announced – the Metropolitan Opera will present its first production from the Gilbert and Sullivan canon: The Gondoliers. The Gondoliers will see the return of some beloved Metropolitan singers after long absences.
The roles of the Italian Gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe, will be sung by Marcello Giordani and returning baritone Leo Nucci. Placido Domingo will appear as the Duke of Plaza-Toro, in his 3,000th role at the Met. Beloved soprano Montserrat Caballe will return for several cancellations in the role of the Duchess, which will be sung by Marilyn Horne. Gianetta will be sung by Anna Netrebko, and the roles of Tessa and Don Alhambra will be played by the husband and wife team of Olga Borodina and Ildar Abdrazakov. (The dialogue for the scenes involving these characters will be performed in Russian.)
I certainly hope this is not farewell to the Zef Turandot, although I do see it is cancelled on Sieglinde’s page the next time it was scheduled. That production is essentially as perfect as one can find for that particular opera. I mean, let’s face it, Turandot is not really something that benefits from a “thinking man’s” staging…the opera is grandiose and ridiculous, and the sets either share that viewpoint or seem ridiculous in comparison. Out of all the things at the Met that could use new productions, replacing the very well-selling Turandot production with something less worthy seems like money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Last, worst filth of the Oughties:
Holy Turandot! At first I thought why is Michael Bolton singing Nessun Dorma with Sharon Gless!
That is really creepy! They should be fined by the Puccini estate.
Sweet Jesus! I realize he doesn’t have a clue, but what’s her excuse? No, really, WHAT?!?
Her excuse, if excuse can be called, is that in Italy, in the last 20 years, La Katia has become a household name, and shows up on TV every single time opera has something (even remotely) to do with it. No, I take it back: she shows up even when opera has nothing to do with it. She is no longer an opera singer; she is a tabloid star (because of her marriage and divorce to Pippo Baudo). So every excuse is good for her to show up on TV. Right now she is in the jury of a reality show very similar to the one Villazon is doing in the UK. Previously, she herself took part in a reality show called La fattoria (The Farm House) where she had to show her skills at milking cows, while constantly quarreling with the other participants etc etc. Here is an excerpt
A few years ago she even made her movie debut with the lead role in La seconda notte di nozze, and I must say she was quite convincing. I believe she won theDonatello’s David award as best actress, which is the Italian equivalent to the Oscars.
And this is one of her most recent appearances as a singer. The video is awful, but the sound…says it all
Thank you, Ercole, for the run-down of Madame Ricciarelli’s recent “achievements.” When I visited Italy two years ago in December, I got in the habit of watching the cheesy late afternoon talk shows on RAI 1, and I loved that she is a constant fixture on them. I suppose it could be worse, but it does come as a shock, given the really lovely work she did early in her career.
Good god. All issues of taste aside, what a sad wreck of a once utterly beautiful voice.
nb I am not talking about Michael Bolton.
kashania commented: I’m also fascinated to see Roberto Devereux (with Radvanosky) on the books.
A couple of years ago when announcing the Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda productions, Mr. Gelb was asked about Devereux. His reply was that there was nobody around qualified to sing Elizabeth. Obviously, Ms Radvanovsky has impressed him strongly enough for him to change his mind in a big way.
Thanks. Mr. Anthony (ne Caruso)
You’ll be missed!
i just got back from the big barn, for zeffo’s overstuffed, tacky shop of chinoiserie about the principessa di gelatto.
frank porretta has a very peculiar voice. he sure can belt it out, but the sound production is quite constricted, so that most of the time it sounds quite muffled. anyone else noticed that? he got a big hand for sure after “nessun dorma”, although the big climatic high note (C?) was arrived at after an initial hiccup. he also did not belt out the high C in the duet with turandot — i could hear her but not him.
grazia doronzio was a very moving and beautiful liu. lise lindstrom — tall and thin, the gelb type — was a very womanly turandot, even girlish. her low and middle registers were however a bit opaque and less supported than her high notes.
a good performance overall. the first intermission lasted 45 minutes however. does it take that long to change that set?
Actually, the sound of the tenor reminded me of Kauffman (don’t shoot me, please), at least as it came across on real player.Muffled indeed, but anyway, much better than Giordani.
liana, i won’t shoot you (although i should because you are just a baby and these boards are for old dinosaurs, you know) but i don’t hear kauffman in porretta at all. i haven’t heard kauffman live yet but only on youtube, and i’m looking forward to maybe catch him in carmen (hopefully you-know-who will cancel). porretta’s voice is not as dark and not as rich as kauffman’s. i don’t know about comparing porretta to giordani, i think giordani’s voice is brighter. chacun a son gout.
nerva, we should have met for drinks last night! quel dommage.
hey, there are some babies here, you know, and probably even younger than me. And, since when it’s allowed to shoot babies? You should raise them and teach them instead, I would think
liane, mein liebchen, i wasn’t going to shoot you but you are the one that gave me the idea.
actually, isn’t it a little too late for children to be up? children should be in bed by now. where are their parents?
i’m listening to giordani’s nessun dorma now. much freer, ringing top, more secure high notes, and brighter sound than porretta’s. but the boy is young, and promising.
I think I qualify as a teenager in Parterre years, so I can stay up a little later
. I heard Giordani on the Turandot HD, and I thought that in his voice there were just ringing high notes, but absolutely nothing else. On the other hand, if my memories are correct, he was also Pinkerton in the HD of Madama Butterfly, and I actually liked him there.
Doronzio has a pretty tone but not enough lift or expansiveness to fill out the arias, esp. in Act III. She should be doing Drusilla or Servilia in a small house, maybe Lauretta at most.
There was a page in the program about Charles Anthony but no one from Gelb’s management appeared: no ceremony, no statement. I was shocked by this. He was I believe the only singer still on the roster to have appeared the Old Met; and sang more performances than anyone ever did for the company; and they couldn’t arrange a 10 minute retirement ceremony?
Vergogna!
Lotte Lehmann once said to Strauss on Intermezzo: “the enthusiasm over my success as Christine was doubtless greater than that of the actual opus.” Strauss agreed.
Michael H. Kater quotes this in his Never Sang for Hitler, which I just finished (thanks very much for the tip, Camille!)
I also don’t like the opera. For Popp, I keep it around, but even after ten hearings or so, I am still not wild about it.
Christine Brewer, by the way, cancelled her spring Four Last Songs for Yannick Nézet-Séguin – she is now replaced by Dorothea Röschmann.
Except I saw it live at Glyndebourne with Elisabeth Soderstrom, and she was so adorable in it that it worked – and the final duet is very schmaltzy if you’re in the right mood…….
Thanks Queen Amahelli – any chance that performance will be issued on CD? All these marvels coming from Glyndebourne – a Denise Duval Mélisande…
A very similar opera I really love, but which is even rarer on stage, is d’Albert’s die Abreise. Luckily there is the Janos Kulka recording, which is great.
Wrong thread – sorry.
No Johan Botha currently listed for the next years at the Met. Though stout, few tenors today have his endurance or beauty of tone in certain roles he sings. Seems he will be utilized less also in Vienna (his main house) in the future under the new director. Also no Klaus Florian Vogt – two of the best lyric Wagner tenors in the World not at the Met ? Well we have Kaufmann and occasionally Heppner. Botha’s Wagner roles include Siegmund, Walter, Lohengrin, Eric, Parsifal and beginning this Spring in Vienna Tannhaeuser plus is there a better tenor for high Strauss roles such as Apollo ? I have only heard Gould in Frau ohne Schatten in Dresden and found him average, less beauty of voice than Botha, Vogt, Kaufmann or Hepner.
I guess Botha didn’t get the weightloss memo. Or he has chosen to ignore it. But if he is too chubby for the Met, then what about a certain mezzo? Miss Brewer did herself in there by showing up and not knowing Brunnhilde last season. It was not her waistline that opened the back door for her. It doesn’t make sense. Botha sings beautifully, and has a sort of puppydog cuteness even. And the voice is powerful, sweet, even and reliable even in the most demanding moments.
I’ve seen Botha twice, and I think his main problem is a stage presence made for radio. For me, it wasn’t just a matter of weight. His voice is beautiful and he has endurance. But his acting is dead cold. We often discuss/debate here the importance of the singing and the music in opera. I don’t dispute the priority of those 2 elements. But acting is important, too. Otherwise, opera would be written solely for audio recordings.
Specifically, I feel that Botha has 2 facial expressions in character: wide eyed stare and wider eyed stare. He has 3 basic physical body positions: pointing to the left, pointing to the right, and no pointing.