parterre box

63 comments

• Bluessweet says:

  Here’s perfect diction by two of the greatest singers of their era. See it CAN be done!

  on May 6, 2010 at 2:13 PM
• Bluessweet says:

  Betsy-Ann

  Understanding Vladek is easy, once you break the code:

  Take the very fist word in any sentence and substitute WAGNER. Continue to the penultimate word, where you substitute LEITMOTIV. For the last word, insert MUSIC DRAMA. If you loose count or your place, just substitute THROUGH-COMPOSED. It’s so easy.

  on May 6, 2010 at 3:52 PM
  • BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

    Sorry, I lust you at “very fist word.”

    on May 6, 2010 at 3:56 PM
    • BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

      oops, type lost for lust.

      on May 6, 2010 at 3:57 PM
      • Bluessweet says:

        Vladek will fist you when ever you want.

        on May 6, 2010 at 3:58 PM
      • wladek says:

        Slow day to-day, makes one
        almost wish to hear from N

        on May 8, 2010 at 9:48 PM
    • La Cieca says:

      A typo about a typo, but still:

      

      on May 6, 2010 at 4:01 PM
  • kashania says:

    This place is on fire today. LOL

    on May 6, 2010 at 4:29 PM
• BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

  . . . then again . . .

  on May 6, 2010 at 3:57 PM
• mrmyster says:

  What do you suppose is that typeface for “Le mot du jour?”
  It is so 1910; just right for Oscar. Art nouveau something
  I guess.

  on May 6, 2010 at 4:13 PM
  • BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

    It is wild, isn’t it.

    on May 6, 2010 at 4:16 PM
• La Cieca says:

  Here’s Netrebko singing the whole thing.

  I trust in later performances she will pay a bit more attention to the high B, which is a great note that she tarnishes by trying to kneel too soon!

  on May 7, 2010 at 12:38 AM
  • Lindoro Almaviva says:

    Actually not bad. I didn’t even mind the B, I thought it was strong. Seems to me she is pushing a bit.

    Overall, a fairly decent performance; not a bad role for her.

    on May 7, 2010 at 2:17 AM
  • nachdover says:

    Thanks for the full aria. Seeing the whole thing, I think she sounds lovely, and I’m not bothered by the B. The role is indeed a good fit for her, vocally.
    When I saw the first clip posted, I was baffled as to why LaC put it up. In a snippet of less than one minute, it got on all my nerves. It highlighted what has to be acknowledged as a weakness (the French diction). Because it’s Netrebko, and a compelling personal glamour has always been a particular strength for her, my first thought was that I’d rather see her play a bad girl, and “Dang, that baby weight is really stubborn!” There was a horn fart from the pit, shortly echoed by a comical car honk, the videographer panned to the crowd as soon as the aria proper was underway, and I was worried by what seemed an ungainly ascent to the G as the clip was ending.
    A personal bugaboo for me was the dropping the shawl and dragging it around the stage. This is the director’s fault, and probably doesn’t irritate most people. But Christ! Zeffirelli goes to great lengths to render, in painstaking realism, a forbidding, treacherous landscape. Then he brings the good girl from the humble village there, and, in her unease and fright, does she clutch her shawl tighter about her? No, she drags it around in the scorpion-infested dirt. “Yep, folks- not a real locale at all. What we have here is a stage that was just swept.”
    And all of that in 59 seconds!
    One question- Is that a wire at 6:31-32? I am sure she has plenty of voice for this. If it is a wire, could that about the telecast?

    on May 7, 2010 at 10:12 AM
    • wladek says:

      She is about as nuanced in this
      as a mack truck – more like
      baying at the moon or as
      noticed the “horn” from the pit .

      on May 9, 2010 at 10:17 AM
• La Marchesa Attavanti says:

  If all goes as planned, I’ll be seeing her as Micaela in a few weeks at the Mariinsky during our visit to St. Petersburg.

  Looking forward to it and I’m betting she’ll honk her tits off on that B there.

  on May 7, 2010 at 1:00 AM