Copycat iniqua
La Cieca is delighted to hear that the Opéra de Paris and soprano Natalie Dessay just last night performed an hommage to Maria Callas by recreating one of the most famous nights of La Divina’s career. Unfortunately, that “night” was January 2, 1958, and in the intervening half century, opera management still hasn’t learned its lesson.
Just as on the notorious night of the “Rome Walkout,” no cover was available at the Opéra when Dessay was unable to continue singing — even though she has been complaining of a sore throat for the past three weeks. And so the second act of La sonnambula was not given, and the audience sent home.
Se non e vero, e ben troavato.
Hardly surprising that ONLY Dessay, the true reincarnation of Callas as a great singing actress would have the dedication to make the great sacrifice to learn Amina, despite the score and libretto being horrible and laughable, beneath contempt really.
Those Parisians should be RELIEVED that they didn’t have to suffer through Bellini’s insufficiently hip Act Two.
Who is Dessay’s cover for Opehlia at the Met?
If there was no cover, management should at least have played a recording of La Divina’s Act Two for the audience.
It’s mind-boggling that a company like l’Opéra de Paris does not have covers. I can understand a little opera company in the deep provinces not being able to afford a cover, but l’Opéra de Paris? And here people complain if they get Brownlee instead of Florez.
Was the audience refunded?
Ercole, never mind the company. On past evidence someone will be popping up any minute now to say it’s all Dessay’s fault.
“No refunds after half the show has been played.”
It’s the policy of quite a lot of theatres…
Some refuse to refund even after a few minutes of performance. It is well known what open air theaters do. When it threatens to rain, or it is already lightly drizzling, they start the performance and interrupt it only after 5 minutes, so that they are not required to refund. It happened to me at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago a few times. It was already drizzling, and the performance started and a few minutes later the orchestra folded their instruments and left.
Sipario: Ladies and Gentlemen, the encounter with La Zia Principessa was too exhausting for Madame X, who finds herself unable to continue. The remainder of Suor Angelica is cancelled.
Following a brief intermission we will perform Gianni Schicchi up to the entrance of Lauretta, then, in the words of the great Tracy Ulmann, you can all GO HOME!
Many European companies do not hire covers unless they are doing a work that is not part of the core repertory. The thinking is that if they know by the morning of the performance that the singer is not feeling well or might cancel, they can fly a singer in from elsewhere in Europe in time for the performance. Most European companies will release a singer who is under contract for a single performance.
So, in this case, it seems that there was a clear gap in communication between management and Natalie Dessay or that management’s Rolodex failed them.
It’s “not a lie to say” that the diva wasn’t up to the part. Hopefully the nodes aren’t returning.
Ive read some articles talking abnout the new chick flick Valentine’s Day, and mentioning other “all star” films from the past. None have mentioned this film Is paris Burning? What a cast!
Singers are at the mercy of the elements, viruses, and bacteria. Sometimes one feels perfectly fine when you walk into the theater and during the middle of the performance you just can’t go on. I could always tell during my career when something was not quite right because the adrenaline would start to fade and fever or lethargy would overtake me. Things happen that are beyond the singers control and the management of any theater should be prepared for it. Particularly, when a singer has been very forthcoming with information that she has had several problems with the voice and has informed them she has been ill. Shame on Paris.
Reminds me of the oft’ told story of Carol Vaness’ debut at NYCO as Violetta. She put her hand up either before/during/after “Siempre Libera” and said to the maestro that she just couldn’t continue. Mayhem insues – the cover (yes, they had one) hadn’t learned the part – Beverly was enraged. But someone suggested Ashley Putnam who was sitting in the audience. She was there to support her friend Carol’s debut. Ms. Putnam hadn’t sang the part in a couple of seasons and said what the hell, the hardest part of the opera for her was over and she jumped in after a quick warm-up. Too bad Sumi Jo or Eglise Gutierrez weren’t sitting in the audience in Paris.
OT: the kind of regie opera I would be able to stand:
http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=217:die-entfuehrung-aus-dem-serail-welsh-national-opera-13th-february-2010&catid=8&Itemid=16
BUWAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAA! hahahahahahahahahhahahahah. COUGH, COUGH. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Completely laughable. Everyone who went deserved what they got. Why are they commemorating a CANCELLATION that happened more than 50 years ago? There is nothing to celebrate here. There isn’t even any real homage going on, just an attempt on the part of the company management and Dessay to cash in on Callas and her “legend”. Otherwise, they probably couldn’t sell any tickets. Couldn’t the prospect of Dessay in one of her currently signature parts draw an audience in without dropping the Callas name all over the place? With all due respect to Dessay, whom I like in things like Olympia and Amina (but not Lucia or Violetta), this is just crap. Overproduced, overhyped, overpaid crap.
Um, it’s la Cieca who’s calling it a homage. Dessay just cancelled because she was ill.
TQBNIAC
TQBNIAC? Are you sending a secret Polish message to Liana?
If that was the case, manou, it should look more like TRZBNIAK or alike. It still doesn’t mean anything, but is more in the spirit of the language
. There is no q in our alphabet!
OMG ! TQBNIAC ! “Tittering Quietly But Nastily In A Corner.” Duuuhhhhhhh — uuhhh!And of course there’s no Q in Polish: it’s mostly linseed oil. Duuuhhhh —uhhhh. Wait til I tell Ashton Kutcher.
A language without a Q cannot be taken seriously (especially in a former Communist country).
In good old American English, we have three, maybe four letters for the same sound. But what the Hell, we are RICH ! ! !
In French we have enormous numbers of letters that we never pronounce at all – but what the Hell, we are PRETENTIOUS!!
One solid K is good enough. Who needs a Q? Plus, we have, let me count, 8 special characters I can’t even mention here, because a ? would appear instead
Ooooooooo, secretive! Like the OGPU. Which, Manou, stands for “Oh God, Pretentious Upstarts.” Duuuhhhh — uuuhhh !
So that’s the reason why she is in rough voice in the video! i was just watching some of it with a friend and we were both noticing how rough she sounded.