Council chamber
La Cieca welcomes cher plebians and cher patricians alike to a chat during this afternoon’s Met broadcast of Simon Boccanegra. The performance begins at 1:00 PM.
Intermission features today include the Toll Brothers Metropolitan Opera Quiz with moderator Teddy Tahu Rhodes testing Michelle Krisel, Neal Goren and Michael Capasso. Backstage, Renée Fleming (“La Dappertutta”) interviews Adrianne Pieczonka, Marcello Giordani, Placido Domingo and James Morris.
The real-time chat is, as usual, over at La Casa della Cieca.
Renée Fleming (”La Dappertutta”) interviews Adrianne Pieczonka
“Dyke, ya know…”
I didn’t know.
Let’s see whether Renaay (hyped Mozart-plus soprano who sings Amelia) subtly patronises Adrianne (highly respected jugendlich-dramatisch-rather-than-spinto who sings Amelia).
What decade are you living in?
Renee hasn’t sung a Mozart role in ten years, and her only performance of Amelia was fifteen years ago.
But she sang the duet from Boccanegra last year and she sounded just about the same as she did 15 years ago. Pretty amazing actually.
Thomas the Chastiser — I chose the term ‘Mozart-plus’ carefully, because she ain’t no spinto. And for some reason I thought she had sung Amelia in London in the 2000′s. She certainly sang it in London, as you so kindly reminded me, in the mid-90s.
What was your point? They’re two completely different voice types singing completely different roles. No one ever said Renee was a spinto.
And Amelia Bocanegra is not necessarily a spinto role, it is more of a lyric/full lyric role. Swenson, Kiri and Gheorgiu have taken on the role and done it well.
Oh, wow , you are giving me a hard time. To my ears, these Verdi ‘full-lyric’ roles (Amelia, Elisabetta, Desdemona) voices are better taken with a voice of spinto or near-spinto substance which can actually manage the delicate stuff too, rather than a lighter lyric sound that can’t soar over ensembles and cut through at the declamatory moments. A real Aida should be able to sing Amelia too. The weight of Pieczonka’s sound seemed good to me, even if its quality is more Germanic than Italianate.
While I’m on the subject of big voices and finesse … I’m not saying that Violeta Urmana is anybody’s idea of an authentic Verdi soprano (and she doesn’t have the freedom and beauty at the top for Aida), but she sang Elisabetta in Don Carlo a few years ago in Italy and met all the demands of the score in **technical** terms, including those tricky rising phrases in Elisabetta’s first aria — a point where many more beloved sopranos cheat like crazy! And Urmana has an Isolde-sized voice rather than being a natural Contessa Almaviva.
I shall take my bastings for this , but Simon Boccanegra (MET, 94? 95?, with Dame Kiri) was the work that taught me to dislike Verdi operas with preposterous plots (henceforward, VOPPs). And to be clear, yes, I realize that practically all operas have something preposterous going on, but in many of them one already takes the plot so lightly (I’m thinking Rossini here) or so mythopoeically (Wagner) that it just doesn’t matter. But Verdi needs to be taken seriously as semi-realistic drama, and at his best (Traviata, Ballo, Otello of course, etc) it works brilliantly. But then he takes up these ridiculous and implausible libretti (generally featuring long-lost children) and wastes his music on them. Maybe be the sentimentality of these plots makes up for their inanity for some listeners, and doubtless many more couldn’t care less about plot and just want isolated moments of passionate singing, but I cannot count myself among their number.
An horrid way to start your Saturday, I know, but I toss this rant out there to let like-minded VOPP haters know that they are not alone amidst all the dishing of Domingo’s baritone. I shan’t be listening, though I’ll try to catch TTR hosting the Quiz.
Morris’s wobble is wide enough to drive a truck through. The duet with Giordani sounded like two male tomcats in heat. Much more of this and I’m switching to “Wait, wait, don’t tell me!”
They went to the Bert Lahr school
of singing don’t you know -and it’s not
fair to insult tomcats in whatever staet .
Healing balm to my Forza-loathing soul, LMM. IMHO Forza should be performed/recorded in highlight versions only. Between the overture and Pace, pace, mio dio, I find myself hard pressed to care. And of course we cannot overlook the ever-popular Rataplan….
Miles, I pretty much agree with you — but once upon a time in the 1990s I heard Aprile Millo sing Amelia Grimaldi and it was marvelous. She had the tonal quality, knew how to phrase and shape the music — and we were all a lot younger:) I don’t recall who else was in the cast, I guess Levine conducted. But I remember leaving the Met opera thinking it was enjoyable and that everyone did well, especially Millo. And Verdi sounded eloquent. I found the problem today was: a way over the hill Levine, esp. through Act I, and largely mis-cast singers, not really Verdi. Today I was bored – usually I am not with Verdi. Ho hum. Even Santa Fe’s Boccanegra in 2004 was far more effective than the Met today. Marcello Giordani, by the way, is having some very effective vocal moments in Act II — glad I don’t have to watch him, but he is a Verdi tenor. Maybe he is the only Verdi voice in the cast.
Master Miles – certainly plot counts, but here is my real beef about this sort of B+ Verdi opera: reported action. From the Prologue onwards we are simply told about things that have occurred elsewhere, earlier times, or in any case off stage. Too much reported action make an opera awfully difficult to bring off. I expect Verdi would agree (and Wagner). I don’t need to hear this opera again for a long time – not until a new generation of Verdi singers comes along, presuming that may happen. It may not.
mrmyster, who was in that SFe 2004 Boccanegra? Esp., as Amelia?
Cruz: Pat Racette surprised all by singing Amelia quite strongly in SFe in ’04 — first time I had heard her in an Italian spinto role and she was good – better than the Canadian lady today, but I will say A. P. warmed up in Act II, and sounded well on Sirius radio. Others in the S. B. Santa Fe cast included tenor Marcus Haddock who was ok, while Michaels-Moore and Mark Delavan shared the title role, Delavan delivering a real Verdi tone and lots of energy and gumption. In fact, the late August final evening of the season was a sizzler Boccanegra performance with Racette and Delavan singing up a storm. Corrado Rovaris conducted well — wish he had spelled Levine today! It is a bit of a local tradition that the final week of the opera, with evenings often getting really windy and chilly and the feel of Autumn in the air, can be the most vivid performances of the season — the final night, especially, all the stops are out; can be fun, esp. if you have seen the show carefully done earlier in the summer. Mark Delavan was (is) a fine Verdi baritone, the real thing; I wonder how many people are aware?
Interesting. You all know how I feel about Racette. I’ve only heard Delavan in Tosca (on the radio) and in Wagner (here in SF). With the new resident conductor here promising more Verdi all the time, maybe I’ll be able to hear them both in works by the composer.
We had Boccanegra here two seasons ago, with Dima as SB, B Frittoli as Amelia, and Haddock as Adorno. A very good night at the opera, actually.
Well, I know people who did not like ‘Duplicity’ in spite of Julia Roberts. You think ‘Alzira’ in an ‘Avatar’ setting will do better? Maybe Simone should dress like Obi-Wan Kenobi? I will try to think about all this during the afternoon if the work is not absorbing enough.
Cannot connect to the chat – frequent problem I am afraid.
it requires a java update. for some reason the chat won’t work for me in ie or firefox, but when i tried in google chrome i was able to install the java update and it worked just fine.
Just left chat, and I saw that you had connected. I was going to suggest that it might be a problem with Java ( which often has to be updated) but I guess you managed anyway!
Thank you both!
Dya know, I wonder about Pieczonka’s Amelia. I saw her Elisabetta and I was so unmoved. It sounded calculated and the act II romanza was short-breathed. She was such a nimble Alice some years ago. Maybe she’s not a ‘natural’ for the Italian repertoire. I guess Amelia’s entrance aria, which is a killer, and written with a very cruel hand (much the same can be said of ‘celeste Aida’) will not be one of her best moments.
Nevertheless an obviously intelligent artist very much to my liking.
That was an accurate prediction if ever there was one. But I agree, I remain sympathetic to her talents as well.
As a baritone this is an insult to all who sing this role. Domingo sounds nothing like a baritone. Why would the Met agree to this? I’ sure Dopper could have sung this role with ease. Ego, Ego, go away. His conducting is par at best let him sing the tenor roles he has left and get on with life. You can’t do everything. Everyone else in the cast is ok but this is really insulting to all.
I agree his singing tonight is an insult to baritones. All I can hear is his trying to sound as an Othello. In a wrong role.
I am not too familiar with this opera– except the soprano aria and duet
Who is this currently singing?
that’s funny and so true!
“And to be clear, yes, I realize that practically all operas have something preposterous going on, but in many of them one already takes the plot so lightly (I’m thinking Rossini here) or so mythopoeically (Wagner) that it just doesn’t matter. But Verdi needs to be taken seriously as semi-realistic drama, and at his best (Traviata, Ballo, Otello of course, etc) it works brilliantly. But then he takes up these ridiculous and implausible libretti (generally featuring long-lost children) and wastes his music on them”
Well I think Verdi’s interested in human interrelashionships and communication so he was looking for librettos with good “situations” and themes that might evoke his creativity (trauma, social outcasts, parenthood and loss) rather then good all-around stories.
Well put—this is a far more even-handed description of the “isolated moments of passionate singing” I referred to.
But am I alone in noticing the prevalence of cheap sentiment in Verdi, particularly of the lost-child/child-in-danger variety? It would seem he would have been all over JonBenet and that flying-Jiffypop kid like a cheap suit.
Of course, with a moniker like mine, can I really complain about this? And since I brought it up, can anyone around here report on my namesake’s opera in Houston (currently in rep with Racette’s Tosca)?
I would disagree with you about the “lost child” issue, because what Verdi generally concentrated on was not the loss per se but but reconciliation after loss, or resignation to loss. Even Azucena does not dwell on her grief over the death of her child. In the “Condotta” she remembers that she was unaccountably moved to pity for the baby she was about to murder, as her music modulates into an unexpected major key. Her reaction to her murdering her own child is simple horror, not any sort of blubbering self-pity. Her real obsession throughout the opera is with her own mother’s demand for vengeance.
I have to say I don’t find much evidence of cheap sentiment in Verdi, as opposed to, say, Puccini, who never misses a change to rub our noses in a pathetic situation.
Brilliant La Cieca!
What would idiots on this list make of Howard Hawks’s ‘The Big Sleep,’ any Iris Murdoch novel, any Ross MacDonald mystery (wherein most juvenile leads find out their parent(s) is (are) not who they think they are) or something as elaborately plotted as Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’.
When Bertolucci introduced his movie ‘Partner’ at the NY Film Festival he said something to the effect – ‘People always ask me what my movies are about. Well tonight the Metropolitan Opera is performing Il Trovatore. That is my world – that is my art’
I have no difficulty with the plotting or atmospherics
of Trovatore, Forza or Boccanegra. BTW, Shaw is particularly eloquent on the merits of Trovatore
The overwhelming power of opera doesn’t lie in good taste or verisimilitude. Let’s face it, The Turn of the Screw is more than a little icky in its own chilly, f**ked-up, Brittenish way. Talk about lost children!
You know, sometimes I wonder if people are saying something like the condjecture that Mrs. August Belmont is a relative of Belmonte from Abduction.
Wow, that’s Pieczonka singing Amelia? I was looking forward to hearing her; have to say I’m pretty disappointed — she really butchered “Come in quest’aura bruna.” Too bad.
And Giordani already sounds like he’s ready to croak.
[insert appropriately grumpy old man comment about the purported golden age of opera]
Don’t know what this sounds like in the house, but it sounds perfectly pedestrian on the radio. Sigh.
Agh, “Come in quest’ora bruna”
Don’t know why their are Giordani haters around as his sound is a pure Italian tenor you get these days. Domingo sounds as if he’s singing one of his tenor roles down 2 steps. This isn’t good anyway you listen to it. Pieczonka, really sounds good nice lyric sounds with just enought spinto in the voice to carry it over.