parterre box

83 comments

• Will says:

  tenoredigrazia (#10) — Hong has sung several scheduled complete runs of operas at the MET, just many years ago. At some point in time, total professionalism and a rock solid vocal technique became not as interesting in certain circles as glamor, sexiness and provocative unpredictability, so the MET went with that and artists like Hong and Ruth Ann Swenson were marginalized. Ironic that it’s Hong who’s going to step in now and, as a previous post suggested, make the audience grateful they saw and heard the substitute rather than the star (although I have to say I respect Angie’s Violetta very much indeed).

  on April 14, 2010 at 7:15 AM
  • La Cieca says:

    At some point in time, total professionalism and a rock solid vocal technique became not as interesting in certain circles as glamor, sexiness and provocative unpredictability, so the MET went with

    Trash like Maria Callas?

    La Cieca will say it one more time: I don’t go to the opera to to impressed with “total professionalism” any more than I fall in love with a man because he is meticulous about keeping his checkbook balanced. I go to the opera, and Traviata in particular, to be overwhelmed. Hong and Swenson are not in any way overwhelming artists. Useful singers, yes. Charming, lovely people to be around, well, Hong is, probably.

    And for what is surely the hundredth time, La Cieca asks: if the Met is “marginalizing” these incredibly gifted and valuable artists, then why aren’t they in constant demands throughout the rest of the world? Why isn’t Swenson singing Beatrice di Tenda and La Straniera at La Scala, and Hong singing Thais and La Rondine at the Paris Opera? Or, for that matter, Princeton, NJ?

    on April 14, 2010 at 7:57 AM
• LogeLizard says:

  And lest anyone think there’s anything new in the phenomenon of house singers appearing to get short shrift, please remember Lucine Amara. It was ever thus.

  Well I remember when Amara was scheduled to sing a broadcast Mimi. Opera News even ran a feature suggesting that she was finally getting her due. Then, apparently, Caballe had the whim to sing Mimi, so the management bounced out Amara in favor of the star. Oh the irony.

  on April 14, 2010 at 8:19 AM
• richard says:

  Will
  I asked the question of “singing all the performances in a contracted Met run” in ref to AG. Not to speak for ITDG
  @10 but when I read his comment, I assumed he was adding his question on to mine and was referring to AG, not Hong.

  Hong is very dependable and predictable and professional but I’m with LC on this, I don’t go to performances to see “dependable”. I expect professionalism but in ADDITION, I want excitement, creativity and just to be caught up in the performance.

  Loge Lizard mentions Amara. She’s a bit of a cult figure these days, but trust me, I saw her many times. She was one of these dependable, professional ladies but was totally without magnetism on stage. You could certainly rely on her to sing her role well and with musicianship. She was an attractive lady too. But her voice and stage presence didn’t generate any electricity. Bing pretty much admitted this in his autobiography and referred to her as “low profile” or something along that line. But he made the matter worse by overexposing her.

  on April 14, 2010 at 8:53 AM
• casualoperafan says:

  Pretty often one notices artists cancelling the performance before a big broadcast. They rest up and stay fresh.

  AG is notorious for that.

  Plus, she will have the benefit of getting feedback on what Abel does with the score and if it is a disaster she might bail out again.

  At this stage, I never expect her to complete a full run!!

  BTW anyone else notice Alagna’s recent article where he refers to her as his ‘ex-wife”? Looks like maybe the split is a fait accompli.

  on April 14, 2010 at 9:37 AM
• Krunoslav says:

  I don’t think it’s fair to lump Ms. Hong with Ruth Ann (the dull being the damned).

  Hong is a far superior Violetta to RAS and though very different from AG , less intense, is a valid one on her own terms. There are also roles in which she is better than AG, like Liu. Angela however I’d certainly take over Liu as Mimi.

  And there are roles like Ilia and the Countess, probably beneath AG’s notice but also out of her stylistic ken, in which Hong has excelled.

  on April 14, 2010 at 10:28 AM
• Krunoslav says:

  (I meant to say that I prefer AG’s Mini to Hong’s.)

  on April 14, 2010 at 10:30 AM
• Krunoslav says:

  mimi, whatever

  on April 14, 2010 at 10:30 AM
• spiderman says:

  Another Diva cancellation:

  Netrebko is cancelling all three performances of I Puritani in Vienna “due to illness”.
  (rather “due to missing coloratura and e-flat”)

  on April 14, 2010 at 10:46 AM
• Gualtier M says:

  An opposite reaction to Krunoslav – I prefer Hong’s Mimi to Gheorghiu. She had more charm and ingenuous though I love Gheorghiu’s dark timbre and stylish phrasing. Both Swenson and Hong were a bit overexposed at the Met. However, Swenson supposedly sounded lovely as Musetta earlier this season at the Met. She has sung at Covent Garden, Berlin and other international theaters with success. There may be a bit of age discrimination going on here. But that is also part of her fach – Dolora didn’t have to worry about losing parts when she hit fifty. Neither does Rene Pape in about 5 or 6 years. Lyric sopranos and lyric mezzos get traded in for younger models in their forties.

  The Met was smart to sign up Hong who has always been a good soldier about stepping in. I also found Hong’s Ilia and Pamina in the early nineties to be close to perfection. Her Mimi and Liu were world class. She has a wealthy husband and large family and isn’t driven to run around the world chasing big fame and money. However, she is wonderful to have around and the Met was wise to hire her and she keep her around for more assignments. Magda in “Rondine” would be a fine role for Hong since it has elements of Mimi and Violetta – two of her signature roles. Plus an older woman who looks young onstage works in that part since Magda is a woman of the world masquerading as an ingenue.

  on April 14, 2010 at 11:14 AM
• La Cieca says:

  Gualtier, I agree. If careers could be made up of performances nobody heard and stuff that happened 20 years ago, Hong and Swenson would be equally eligible for the title of prima donna assoluta del mondo.

  on April 14, 2010 at 11:21 AM