She’s no longer a gypsy, part deux
Angela Gheorghiu will not sing Carmen at the Met this season. Says the diva:
“To make so important a debut as Carmen, I want to be as prepared dramatically as I am musically. Therefore, I will postpone my role debut until a later date when I can work intensely with the Richard Eyre production.”
Kate Aldrich will sing the performances on April 28 and May 1. More big news after the jump!
UPDATE: Gheorghiu family news always seems to travel in pairs, doesn’t it? Well, here’s the other shoe dropping: La Cieca hears that Roberto Alagna will sing next season’s Met production of Don Carlo, replacing the previously cast Massimo Giordano.
Who is tonight’s Micaela? Jennifer Black? Better than
Frittoli – you cannot be serious.
The Italian soprano is a distinguished international singer,
now older and a bit frowsy. She should not have been
cast as Micaela in this production. BUT Miss Black would
be second rate in the NYCO production of anything.
Forget it.
Kovalevska.And she is better.
I saw Carmen in the house with Frittoli and although I enjoyed her performance, Kovalevska sounds wonderful and more youthful. Borodina is very good tonight – but she sounded out of breath during the dance sequence.
No wonder
. I really admired Garanca for not sounding out of breath then.
Indeed, no surprise, since Borodina dances and Garanca does not. Foolproof way of not getting out of breath in a dance sequence, that.
Better than….? Miss Black? To my ear, about the same
level.
Than Frittoli? No way. Frittoli had no business singing in this
New York production, but she’s a distinguished singer and she
has had an accomplished career.
Ah…so. I heard Acts III and IV. In the earlier run the conducting seemed better; tonite the conductor would let singers take over the arias and slow down the pace and the shape — and it just lacked excitement. For me there was Boradina — and then everyone else. She remains an elegant singer, beautiful tone, beautiful attacks, nice phrasing, sometimes a bit of drag and she must have tried the conductor — but she was consistent; she has been a great singer, and you surely could hear it tonight against all those younger amateurish singers. Miss K. was tremulous and fluttery as Micaela – about at the Jennifer Black level — and the voice so monochromatic; TTRhodes is really not a good singer — the voice has no edge, it is rough and inconsistent; I don’t know what to make of Jovanivich — sometimes it was good, often he sound pushed and strained, with ragged releases. The voice does not sound well lined up, and sometimes it seemed unsupported. Once again, there seemed to be too much vibrato. As a very wise and famous old (late) voice teacher pointed out to me, and I paraphrase: You hear a great many young singers today with far too much vibrato, instability in the tone — that is because they have not sufficiently consolidated the voice and built support before taking on big roles. And….I would say that just about sums up what we heard tonite, save for Olga from the Volga and she remains a mistress of her art, even in later maturity
I am so pleased to have heard her again! G’nite.
Borodina deserved a better cast and definitelly a better conductor who seems unable to keep the orchestra and chorus together even in an opera they know extremely well.
The tenor sounds like he should be singing roles such as Aegist and Herod in provincial houses in Germany, in fact he seems to have ALL the problems the old McCraken had and absolutely none of the virtues (including the powerfull ringing voice). The baritone was already getting hoarse during the Toreador Song, or perhaps he calls himself a bass, not sure, but terrible anyways. Micaela did not offend, which in this cast is already a very good thing. Frasquita yelled, but at least some voice came out, Mercedez is below criticism.
Oh, the guy singing Zuniga did well for Zuniga. Wonder how he would fair in bigger parts (probably not as well…)
BTW: Low point for me was the children’s chorus. These kids need to eat some oat-meal or something before singing or is everyone being trained to sound like an unmiked Charlotte Church?
who was the conductor? when i saw it two weeks ago, with altinoglu, vizin, jovanovich, frittoli and kwiecien; the cast, chorus and conducting were all pretty good (with the caveat of mariusz being too underpowered in my opinion).
Altinoglu, I think. After the comments above, I think like I should apologize that i liked it. Or blame it on the very late hour
Pierre, it was Alain Altinoglu – about whom I know zero.
He did a few nice things, esp. in the purely orchestral moments,
but over all I wonder if he is really a theatre conductor. Shape
and drama, architecture and tension — to use the jingoistic
words, were not much in evidence.