That’s why they don’t sing at the Met
La Cieca presents the first in a series of speculations why seemingly talented and well-respected artists don’t get hired — or rehired — by the Met.
One reason a soprano might not sing at the Met is that, when she does have an engagement there, she waits until 15 minutes before curtain time, already costumed and wigged, to announce that she has “pulled some neck muscles.”
But she doesn’t cancel right away, instead insisting on being allowed on the set as late at 8:00 to vocalize in order to decide whether she can go on. (Now, you understand, the audience is already in the house so they can hear the singing behind the curtain.)
Meanwhile, the cover has been summoned from the canteen at 7:50. But as of 8:10, the diva and her entourage still can’t make up their collective minds whether she is up to the task, so someone in Met management (they’re all there, and they’re all pissed) makes an executive decision.
A quick, sheepish announcement is made before the curtain and the performance finally begins. The soprano and her manager slink out the stage door, right about the time the cover — still being sewn into her costume — sings her entrance lines.
No management, no matter how patient, is willing to put up with this sort of tsuris for a second-cast repertory performance in the last weeks of the season — especially on a day when a star bass-baritone fell and injured himself at a dress rehearsal and had to be replaced for the final act.
And whether the story outlined above is correct in every detail or not, the fact that a Met insider was eager to share it with La Cieca first thing this morning means that major feathers have been ruffled.
And that’s why she doesn’t sing at the Met.
SFP – were they in the bath or the bed? Please tell all,
and send photos. This has possibilities. I hear BABS is
a cougar and surely Cruz is a sweet young chicken!
YUM!
Actually, in the “beyond,” if you catch my meaning.
which accounts for the cows
You two had me LAUGHING. OUT. LOUD. in the middle of the street. Thanks.
Good times!
Cruz, you walk in the streets reading Parterre? And I thought *I* was an addict
!
Liana, I’m afraid you’re not alone. BUT you are in good company.
Ah, but I still manage to read it solely at home! Well, upon reflection, probably only because I don’t have an iphone or anything of the kind
.
‘In the bath or in the bed’
Every movement, every breath
And you hardly feel a thing…
Speaking of blowjobs, does James Morris’ contract still stipulate receiving one during each intermission?
Ah HAH ! Now we know why intermissions are getting so much longer these days. It’s just taking a little more time.
When the Met used to go on tour, Morris would cruise for puta, packing heat, since he drove around in some unsavory parts of town. Morris and John Waters hail from the same, hon.
The White Trash Basso? Whatever happened to his affair with
Renata Scotto?
SCANDALOUS!!!!!
Have I missed comments on the Italian opera situation? Haven’t seen any.
Are Italy’s conservatories still functioning? They sure haven’t produced many good singers in the last twenty or thirty years. Dessi and Frittoli the last Italian sopranos to hit the international market? D’Intino in the mezzo range? Any top baritones or basses? I suppose we’ve had a few Italian tenors that have sounded good at least on some occasions, e.g, Licitra, Giordani, Filianoti. Is Alagna a product of Italian or French training?
Have they’ve been striking for 20 to 30 years? No wonder the opera houses are in a mess.
Italian conservatories continue to produce good singers. You say “international”: I believe you mean “working in the US, and especially at the Met”. In the last 20-30 years Patrizia Ciofi, graduated from a provincial conservatory like the one in Livorno, has been one of the very best coloratura sopranos to grace opera stages. She doesn’t sing at the Met, but is widely known all over Europe. Maria Luigia Borsi is also a graduate from Livorno, a very accomplished full lyric soprano. She also sings all over Europe, including the Salzburg Festival under Muti. She was second cast to Poplavskaya in Otello, and much much better than the Russian soprano. What about Sonia Ganassa? And Anna Caterina Antonacci? No Met, but just about every major European opera house and concert hall. Other names: Serena Farnocchia, Amarilli Nizza (whom the Met could certainly use instead of Voigt for Fanciulla), Desiree Rancatore, Eva Mei, and especially two true contraltos like Anna Bonitatibus and Sara Mingardo, who sing Baroque all over Europe. Antonino Siragusa could have easily appeared in the Met Armida. Michele Pertusi is the greatest Rossini bass right after Ramey. And so on…
Mingardo has a tiny voice – you had to strain to hear her at Glyndebourne in Giulio Cesare.Bontitatibus could probably get away with Cherubino at the Met, but nothing more substantial.
I heard Sara Mingardo sing in Rossini’s Ermione exactly
ten years ago this summer. She had one of the most
luscious natural contralto voices I’ve heard — and she
was in full command of it. Her tone easily filled the
2200 seat opera house. What she sounds like now, I
do not know; but back then she was very special.
I heard Mingardo in Tamerlano – I had good seats and still struggled to hear her. I also heard her in the Beethoven Missa in the Barby a few years ago and her voice was tiny then too…
Wonderful recording artist though …
What has become of Carmella Remigio and Stefania Bonfadelli?
One ’90s soprano who seemed to be more flash than real talent was Anna Rita Taliento.
I don’t know Taliento at all, but I love me some archives, so I went on an article search for her and found this from a Sydney Symphony performance of Stabat Mater (reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Reviewed by Peter, McCallum. 2007. “No one wants to run from Rossini.” Sydney Morning Herald, The, May 19. 23. Newspaper Source Plus, EBSCOhost (accessed May 7, 2010).
#34.2 – The best singers as a rule
are no longer from Italy -though some are not too bad – the great
Podles in her sixties? can still give
them all a lesson in the “art” of the
singer-though if reading here one
sees most so called opera lovers are stuck with sopranos
chirping their endless mad lucys.
No, by “international” I didn’t mean the Met or the US. I think many of us are aware of singers having succesful careers in Europe and elsewhere. Some of us even travel abroad.
Of the singers you mention I’m familiar with Ciofi, Antonacci and Mei. Antonacci I agree seems to be a singer of exceptional quality. Mei I like but I’d say she’s past her prime. Possibly not. Haven’t heard her in a while. In any case is she Italian? I personally would not put Ciofi in the same category as the other two. I like Ganassi very much but thought she was American. Siragusa is good and I believe has already sung at the Met. Sorry but I’ve heard Pertusi and he’s no Ramey.
Incidentally, I wasn’t trying to criticize Italian conservatories or singers; I was rather lamenting what I perceive a lack of new and exciting singers coming out of the Boot. There’s a certain Italian tradition that is lost and that pains me.
Most of the Italian tradition of
singing were just bad habits as
Arturo Toscanmi observed, even with some stellar examples being
the exception .
Toscanini -correction before Nelli
pounces out of the wood work.
It was Mahler, dork.
Poor Nelli , so predictable and
as usual misinformed.
Well, I for one love many of those traditions.
Ah yes! Those traditions and Vladek has many of his own.
Tenoredigrazia – Eva Mei is definitely past her prime and she sings quite a few roles that are beyond her vocal capabilities – Violetta for instance. I’ve heard her as Elettra, Vitellia and Donna Anna and in all three she sounded like an overambitious soubrette. Good actress, though. Pertusi is a good artist, but the voice is second-rate as you say. Antonacci is not a big-house singer for the roles in which she has excelled. She was wonderful as Ermione at Glyndebourne and Cassandre at the Châtelet in Paris, but many complained that her Covent Garden Carmen was underpowered. I saw it at the Opéra-Comique where it fitted the theatre like a glove and she was mesmering. Ciofi is a bit in the Mei category but her Donna Anna at Covent Garden was highly effective and her Gilda very good. I’ve seen her Traviata in a small Italian house and while it was well sung, it didn’t strike me as a great performance of the role. She has a bigger European career than Mei whose work seems to be confined to Italy and Zurich and concerts with Harnoncourt.
Uninvolved: Yes, we heard of Stone’s run but not the T shirt.
Since you seem to be a Philly lurker, you might want to stop in to Holy Trinity tonight (Friday May 7, 2010) to see the AVA’s “free for All.” They have no graduating recital this year, because:
“The “free for all” concert replaces AVA’s traditional Farewell Recital for graduating resident artists, held at the end of each season. This year’s only graduating artist, baritone Christopher Bolduc, is currently performing with Fort Worth Opera.”
Bolduc is singing Belcore there, a better gig than any graduating recital, don’t you think? That’s ok; we’ll see an amazing gang of singers tonight. La Traviata is on for us next Wednesday at OCP.
Since is a day-after response, I hope you receive it.
Actually, I’ve been an AVA volunteer for the past 10 years but this year I wasn’t able to either attend any of the productions or do any volunteer work because of a personal situation which kept me here in the burbs.
I did receive that AVA email regarding the free concert and was surprised that only one singer was graduating this year. Sometimes AVA really has attrition from the incoming classes. And then there was the year that Ailyn Perez, Keith Miller and James Valenti (among others who I can’t recall right now) graduated in the same class.
I will be at the same “Traviata” in case you would like to meet up (we could have a secret signal or something).
Not may secrets at my end. We attend Michael Bolton’s pre-opera lecture and then, after a pit stop at the Parquet ladies room, go to our seats. (First row, Center, Family Circle) I will have a Realtor’s pin in my lapel and the most attractive woman in the house on my arm, perhaps the most attractive in the entire Philadelphia region. It would seem that you are not on the young side, what with your vounteering at AVA some time ago and you will find us to be north of seventy.
Since David Brenner, another Philadelphia native, was on the View today, you can always tell us you are a friend of David’s. Aside from that, I forgotten my old secret society handshake, so I don’t know what else to say.
Sounds good to me. I’m in my mid-fifties, female, with chin-length blondish-brown hair. Been digging around for my Opera-l pin but can’t find it so I’ll look for your Realtor’s pin.
If she’s that much into soap opera-I don’t ever wish to see her at the MET. Here in this country we think more of people. This is a Italian thing anyway–I guess thats the way they act at LaScala. She’s too old anyway–I’d rather see her husband or boyfriend of whatever he is. She’s just here because she’s at the end of her career.
Have I come late to the fair?
Why is Pittsinger out of “Lulu”?
He is listed in the Season Calendar.
And what of Morris? Will he be replaced?
I would guess Pittsinger is back in SOUTH PACIFIC. They’ve let him out a lot lately to do MET appearances in ZAUBERFLOTE, TOSCA and HAMLET. Guessing that this might be his first LULU, he would have needed to be at a lot of rehearsal, which might have interfered with SOUTH PACIFIC.
Mind you, this is total speculation on my part.
As for Morris, it’s 90 minutes til curtain. We’ll find out soon. Tom Fox is a fine performer, if that’s who goes on instead.
Pittsinger was ill.