An option that should be dropped
Dimitra Theodossiou “takes” a high E-flat at the end of Odabella’s cabaletta.
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Even La Stupenda’s E-flat isn’t perfect but it’s a thrilling performance nonethless. Nice to be able to follow the score.
Wow! That’s one of the most exciting performances I’ve ever heard by Sutherland. Truly! Just one quibble . . . the low e-flat on the word “davina” (3’18″) actually bothered me more than the impassioned high e-flats. She just sort of dumps it out and carries onto the next acrobatic passage.
Yeah, I wish she had sung more dramatic coloratura repertory like this instead of insisting on doing the Tweetie Bird thing all the time (which she was of course also very good at). I think she’s perhaps the best Donna Anna I’ve ever heard, and it’s so great to hear an Odabella without all the distracting register cracks everyone else produces.
A friend of mine who heard her Donna Anna live said that in the final ensemble, when Sutherland began to sing, she obliterated everyone else. I, too, think that she should have sung more dramatic coloratura roles. She only sang Anna Bolena out of Donizetti’s queens (I think) and even then, didn’t get to it until well into her career. I think she and Bonynge spent too much of 60s (the most interesting part of her career) playing it safe in the standard coloratura roles, with Norma being the only dramatic coloratura part she sang regularly. She could have spent that decade doing the type of rep that Gencer/Sills/Caballe were singing. And I think some early Verdi roles would have been very exciting.
Sutherland sang and recorded Maria Stuarda in the early 70′s. She felt that Elisabetta in “Roberto Devereux” had too much low declamation for her voice. Visually she was right for Queen Elizabeth I.
In the mid-eighties Sutherland sang in a revival of “Fille du Regiment” at the Met with Kraus. Andrew Porter lamented that a soprano who could and should be singing “Vespri” and other heavier Verdi roles was singing Marie while Freni and Scotto, natural Maries were singing Elisabetta in “Don Carlo” and Lady Macbeth.
Compare with Cristina Deutekom who sang a lot of Verdi including a kick-ass Abigaille with Muti.
Now that’s some truly horrible singing (or rather, wobbling and screaming!). I was bracing for the high e-flat which THANKFULLY never came.
Oh dear, please forgive, my comment was meant for Violeta Urmana.
Yeah, I was running errands in the car yesterday during the broadcast and only able to catch bits and pieces of it, but since I couldn’t see anything, I kept thinking, “Wow, this sounds a lot better than I expected it to after all the carping on line.” Except for, notably, Urmana. I thought the men all sounded great (except for Ramey, whose wobble now spans at least five demi-tones). It gave me hope that the Met can actually put on some Verdi without shame once they find a dramatic soprano who can sing it.
Rhythmically speaking, I think Ramey’s wobble moves in quarter note triplets.
What people put up with today! Is this THE MET standard today? A whoopeee ‘ah-ah-arrh’ fest. Don’t singers ‘come down’ dead on pitch on a note anymore….instead of making a couple of feeble jumps up and still do not hit the note.. I suppose this is called ‘characterful’ singing. They can keep it.
ot: so excited for kaufman’s cavaradossi.
Kermes singing Leonora
Finally, I know what Sylvia McNair’s Aida would have been like.
isn’t it interesting that sutherland seemed to always be grumpy/indifferent towards her fans…
Having used her memoirs as an infallible insomnia cure over the course of a year, I have come to the conclusion that Sutherland is just too no-nonsense to tolerate any adulation and opera chit chat whatsoever. No drama, no weaknesses. I mean, the book was – if I remember – well over a 1000 pages, and completely devoid of sensation. Page after page of how she and Ricky had a lovely salad featuring shaved parmesan after such and such a debut. And not the slightest hint of having anything to say on the subject of Ricky and his handsome friends, other than how very jolly everyone is. Love her to pieces, and I humbly accept she would much rather knit an afghan than listen to me natter on.
Why would Sutherland need to write about her married life? She didn’t write a tell all, she wrote a chronicle of her very long career. I use her book for reference all of the time. It has a complete performance history log in the appendix. Very useful.
Sorry Javier – my flippancy clearly hit a nerve. I agree – I was actually delighted to find her completely disinterested in conveying any aspect of her inner emotional life. While I still argue that her memoirs could have benefited from an editor’s hand in dealing with such subjects as dinners eaten and flowers gardened, I love her complete lack of narcissism. She has no need for exhibitionism or adulation – we will never see her on Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew, and that is as it should be.
Or Emma Kirkby’s Lady MacBeth…
The long-lost Nellie Melba Brunnhilde.
Yes, but I might pay to hear her Lucia or Elvira in I puritani – she’s an oddball, but quite an interesting one. I like the sound more than I do Anna Christy’s for example.
I think it’s kind of odd, but actually quite lovely.
I have a confession — I keep mixing up Simone Kermes and Annette Dasch. Why is that?
Maybe someone can now find a recording of Hayley Westenra singing Abigaille.
Whatever happened to portamento? I despise that HIP-style nudging into notes.
“I keep mixing up Simone Kermes and Annette Dasch. Why is that?”
I think a thread about who each one of us “keeps mixing” would be interesting. In my case it is Gabriella Tucci and Antonietta Stella, and also Mattiwilda Dobbs and Gloria Davy. Oddly enough I know the difference between Nancy Shade and Ellen Shade, and also between Sarah Walker and Sandra Walker, so my confusion isn’t audio-based.
Massimo Giordano. Marcello Giordani. Marcelo Alvarez. Carlo Alvarez. Until I’d heard all of them, I had a lot of trouble keeping them straight, just because of their names.
When I was at Attila, I heard at least two or three people under the impression that it was Marcelo that had dropped out, not Carlo. Or that Carlo was a tenor. Or something.
And as for Simone Kermes, she should give Andrea Bocelli a call, they could breathily sing Verdi into mics together, and she could probably teach him a few things about phrasing. (I like her in Baroque music, though, and she’s endlessly entertaining.)
oops, evidently I am STILL having trouble. CarloS.
Great idea, JGP. I saw Ellen Shade as the Kaiserin once. But I vaguely get her mixed up with Ruth Falcon, whom I also saw as the Kaiserin once. And I get Ricarda Merbeth and Manuela Uhl mixed up too, though I have only read about them, never seen them — and heard Merbeth on YouTube.
Simone Kermes is a one-off, weird but compelling. Annette Dasch is a pretty, but bland blonde and the opposite of compelling. Elsa might well be an ideal part for her at Bayreuth this summer opposite Kaufmann’s Lohengrin.
I think that someone just told Kermes that it was one of Gilda’s long lost arias from Rigoletto.
It is about the only part of this role – maybe with the opening aria – she could sing.
Love her – but this is no where near what a Leonora should sound like …
Verdi goes Baroque…
La Cieca, I hope you are not parodying my august singing career with this graphic!