Someday their prince won’t come
According to Anne Midgette, baritone Carlos Alvarez has withdrawn from Washington National Opera’s production of Hamlet, to be replaced by Michael Chioldi and Liam Bonner, with their individual dates TBA. [The Classical Beat]
Must weigh in on this Hamlet thing. It’s an opera I’ve known for awhile from the EMI Hampson/Anderson recording, and yes, it has its weak moments (Ophelie’s not-so-exciting first aria for example) but as has been pointed out here and elsewhere (e.g. Opera News article in March) there are some outstanding, quite dramatically riveting scenes (mother/son confrontation; appearance of the ghost; drinking song through the finale of act 1 etc.) which make this a most worthy opera to revive. In fact I wonder if some of the resistance is due to its many understated moments (the “to be or not to be” aria for one) – it’s actually quite a subtle opera in many respects. After seeing the HD transmission on Saturday, I feel priveleged to have witnessed Keenlyside’s performance. It goes without saying it was vocally satisfying (in the movie theatre at least), but more amazing was his utter concentration as he listened and reacted to other characters in the most believable, subtle way. Larmore was a little over the top, but vocally sounded very commanding (jaw tension aside). Maybe she didn’t sound so great live – this is always the problem with witnessing these MET performances in another medium. Anyway, I thought the overall production was so much better than the unfocussed Hoffmann – an intelligent use of the space, chorus, lighting etc. For me, it was probably the highlight of the HD transmissions this season.
#35 et #37 -Mon cher Monsieur MontyNostry —
Vous en avez bien raison!
I was merely making a false comparison to play to the bleachers, re Chabrier, as
many ignoramuses would dismiss him as a ‘minor league’ player, even if his “Gwendoline” was in fact good enough to launch Princesse Edmond de Polignac’s grand salon de musique! She was surely no chump!
M. Chabrier’s opus, “Le Roi malgre Lui” is supposedly quite a beautiful piece, despite it’s convoluted strangulations of a plot. Tant pis pour nous!
Et enfin, malheureusement, je ne suis pas M. Bernheimer, mais
‘una povera fanciulla, oscura e buona a nulla….’