A tenor for all seasons
La Cieca hears that Barry Banks will go onstage at the Met shortly — tonight, in fact — jumping in as Almaviva for an ailing Lawrence Brownlee.
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Reggiani: What does any one of us know? NULLA
Clita! Nulla?? Never!! You are not our Aunt Nulla!
Your are Auntie Wiseacre and we treasure you.
And to you and Lucky Pierre, yes yes silly
little Barry Banks was in Ermione with Kunde
and Pendatchanska — but in Santa Fe, when I
heard them. Kunde and Miss. P. sang rings
around Banks, and so did the delicious Sra.
Mingardo, the Italian contralto, and why do we
never hear of her any more? Banks was just
awful….a bantam capon in heat – I never heard
such an awful sound. Back then (eight years?),
Kunde was singing like a God! Seven high Cs
in Act I, every one of them perfect, so nice
looking and manly; Alexandrina P. was a dream –
everyone in awe of her. And there was a third
tenor whose name I forget — all I can say is,
Good Luck with Armida, and I do so hope
Pendatchanska is Renee’s cover! With a
performance or two.
Greetings to you all from Palm Springs – I am
just nipping in to comment on Banks, as I
knew Fr Wakefield would be concerned. Put in
just a few words: English tenor Banks is poison!
(In my humble opinion, that is!)
LOL.
Well, your opinion is, as often, ill-considered.
I agree about Banks. I was there last night and his appearance is straight out of munchkinland, his voice ordinary, and he ended “Ecco ridente” on a high note. (I immediately thought of Roberta Peters. This is not a compliment.)
Speaking of cancellations, Levine has canceled some concerts in Berlin. This is kind of old news but I just saw it, can’t remember it being mentioned, and think the health of Jimmy is of interest round here, so:
http://www.zeit.de/newsticker/2010/2/25/iptc-bdt-20100225-795-24028722xml
Roughly translated: Levine has canceled his three concerts that were to take place next week for health reasons. The appearance will be later rescheduled, the Staatsoper said. The “heavyweight” maestro (I swear that’s what it says, “schwergewichtige”) had to have a back operation in New York four months ago. It was said to have gone as planned. But there were changes in his recovery plans, which are under strict supervision by a doctor. “At the advice of his doctor, Levine is currently neither conducting nor traveling,” the Staatsoper said.
The following paragraph just describes the concerts. One was at the Staatsoper, a benefit for the renovation of the building. The other two were regular concerts with the Staatskapelle Berlin, which Barenboim will conduct instead. (Nice of them to have such a great cover on hand. Even one who is their music director.)
“Schwergewichtig” has the double meaning here of “heavyweight” and “overweight” I think!
That’s what I thought. I was just surprised, I can’t imagine an American paper mentioning weight so openly.
I love reading German papers, they teach me so many new words.
That is typical German journalism actually – they always state the obvious and skewer their subjects, on the idea it’ll make people think they’re being thorough and impartial…
was banks one of the two tenors in the NYCO’s ermione a few years back (with kunde and pendatchanska)?
the met better keep him around for armida…
Banks is already part of the Armida cast of tenors.
see above
Diana Damrau’s Rosina was raised by gypsies and is certainly una bastarda if she was noble by birth–but my god what a magical night tonight.
id take her over di donato any day as Rosina.
DiDonato sings really intelligent cadenzas and embellishments and fit in with the Rossini style. Damrau is a soprano so she sings higher (if you like that), but even for a soprano Rosina she’s 3rd rate.
Agreed! I finally agree with javier.
Tasteless cadenzas, narcissitic drek worthy of Erna Sack. Little taxtual use, no tonal charm.
I just don’t get what the Damrau fuss is anymore.
re: 14.1.1, I never DID get it.
call me a philistine, but i saw didonato last year for the first run of barbiere and i was dead bored. and with damrau last night, just the histrionics i fetl fit so well with this gaudy-ass production that it made it work for me. and nothing out of the embellishments yesterday seemed unintelligent or tasteless. although once again, her movements made her look like Simone Kermes.
maybe im a sucker for the high stuff. but then i wouldnt like ramey’s wobble-infested lowlowlowlow goodness. which i do.
well, last night i listened to some of it on the radio, and i’m pretty sure she used one of didonato’s cadenzas in her ‘una voce paco fa’ but she didn’t execute it as well. i think she’s liked so much because of the histrionics for sure. i read a review of her marie in fille du regiment somewhere that i think describes her histrionics perfectly. the reviewer used the word ‘retarded’ or something like that to indicate that her marie was a dumb as a box of rox (not funny). just low brow histrionics. while she was running around stage being a moron she couldn’t do the music any justice because bel canto is about singing…not ‘acting’ (or whatever they call it these days).
i doubt those were didonato’s cadenzas. i’ve heard those cadenzas before from callas and horne and others.
i saw the whole thing last night and i thought she SANG it marvelously. she may be under-directed a lot of the time to the point where she just improvises (and thus becomes hammy) but she has the goods to (and does!) deliver.
Banks is so annoying, with all those “w” sounds inserted before syllables, worse than Elmer Fudd. At least he doesn’t hold his shoulders as high as Juan Diego.
Get me a tenor!
Banks was horrible last night. He is about 4 foot tall in elevator shoes and Damrau who isn’t very tall herself towered over him. His little tenorino is very nasal and ugly sounding. Very little applause for him and even a boo or two. Of course the aria in the last act seemed to go on longer than the whole Ring with him singing in it. I do hope Brownlee sings on Thursday. Amazing that Damrau can pop out high notes like nothing even with a cold. But even she couldn’t get me back there to here that joke of Banks again.
Wow – then even Maria Stader (4’9″) would have been too tall for him. Stader is always called diminutive instead of petite. Not nice.
Did anyone here read Maria Stader’s autobiography? Nehmt meinen Dank? Is it worth checking out?
Wikipedia quotes Opera news:
“Even in concert, she frequently had to stand on a platform or box in order to be seen properly by the audience.”
A box?
yes, hearing barry banks last night made me realize that ‘armida’ may be in trouble. i don’t know much about the tenors who have been cast (except for brownlee) but none of them are very attractive. renee is going to surrounded by short, pudgy, middle aged…
good luck renee.
With any luck Mary Zimmerman’s Konzept for the production will include costuming Armida as Snow White.
Oh, dear, the whole project is endangered because a know-nothing (aging) twink doesn’t find the tenors hot…
Maybe the tenors should also resort to Photoshop for some enhancement.
banks’ head shot is a blank canvas. i’m sure la cieca could use photoshop to make him look like her twin sister.
wow… javi, must you be so bitchy?
IIRC, van rensburg is quite tall and not bad looking. brownlee is quite cute. i can’t recall who the others are.
i now remember i have seen banks twice, both at NYCO, in the ermione and the donna del lago. i’m not a fan of his voice, the tone is not very attractive to me, but he’s a competent singer.
Left after Act I last night, since I was there just to hear Brownlee, really. Banks seemed pretty much the same as he did in the fall–not offensive, per se, but not all that attractive a sound. Damrau was a bore, though at least not as irritating as in Fille last week. The Low Boys were best, with good old Ramey a particular treat, I thought. Then again, I can’t say what happened in Act II, and don’t feel bad about that.
many horrible people have sang at the Bayerische Staatsoper so Banks would fit in there quite nicely. But everything about him last night turned me completely off. The voice, the look, the acting (nonexistant). I guess I am lucky to have avoided him so far but do have a ticket for the Armida. Hopefully he won’t have much to sing there. I would love to see him opposite a really tall singer like Graham or Harteros. He must come up to their knees. If you don’t have a Florez or Brownlee or someone in that category then for God’s sake cut that last aria. It was cut most of the time anyway in the past. It was painful to have to sit and watch him attempt to sing that. Ghastly actually.
I’ve never quite understood why complaining about someone’s weight is anti-vocal and philistine but complaining about someone’s height- about which, unlike weight, he or she can do nothing- is apparently fine.
Even so, I’m kind of mystified by Banks’s career at the Met. He’s a classic ENO artist and I’ve been disappointed by all of his appearances at Covent Garden. They seem to rate him less highly than the Met does as he has only sung Narciso in Turco among the Rossini leads at Covent Garden, but no doubt he will be cast in one of the tenor roles in the DiDonato Donna del Lago when it comes.
You all make great points about the continued “cold” situations changing the casting. I’m sitting here with my Met 2010-11 season subscription renewal, truly torn whether to even bother. Who knows who will end up actually performing for any of these? In all the years I’ve been going, I’ve never seen this many cancellations of lead performers. Even with exchange privileges, the combination of the increased pricing and the decreased level of vocal proficiency leads me to hold off. And to just continue the rant… they’re doing Wagner for Opening Night – the ultimate crowd-talking, noise-making, pathetic-excuse-for-a-date night.
The MET is having no more than the usual difficulty with cancellations this winter. Doesn’t anyone remember the parade of replacements that went through TRISTAN the last two seasons?
I’ve always considered it nothing more than a guideline to be given casting A WHOLE YEAR in advance – much less the five years that companies use to plan their productions.
A singer can be fine on Tuesday and unable to sing at all on Friday. Those who plan their operagoing far in advance really have to take the casting on faith – and with more than a dollop of salt. This is why impresssari search high and low for good, willing understudies – and even more, for prominent singers willing to share a role in a revival.
We complained about cast changes when I was a kid, and it meant getting Curtis-Verna or Amara instead of Tebaldi or Milanov.
As for opening night with WAGNER (shock and horror). The MET has opened with Wagner about three times in the last 30 years: TANNHAUSER (’78), LOHENGRIN (’84) and the last time DIE WALKURE was new – opening night in 1986. Into every opening night party maven’s life a little variety must come. And this time it’s called DAS RHEINGOLD. It’s even short (as Wagner goes).