The season approaches
With only 117 days remaining before the start of the Met’s 2010-2011 season, Olga Borodina has withdrawn from the revival of Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Stepping into the gondola will be Enkelejda Shkosa. Yes, that’s right, the lineup of Hoffmann ladies will be Elena Mosuc, Hibla Gerzmava, and Enkelejda Shkosa — at a $420 top.
Poor Mr. Filianoti…….HE should cancel too.
May we suggest Villazon? [/sarcasm]
Thank you for mentioning that paragon of tenorial excellence. My pals over at the Jussi Bjorling site have informed us that Rolando on the BBC show “What Makes a Great Tenor” cited as great tenors (among others) his daddy PD, Luciano (no argument there) Alagna and Chris Merritt. Left out of the discourse were the immortal Swede, Gigli, DiStefano, Tucker, Corelli, Bergonzi, Schipa, and God knows whomever. I would love to strap Rolandino in a chair and force him to listen to the 1939 Covent Garden Trovatore with Jussi singing Ah si ben mio and the cabaletta. Chris Merritt?! Roberto Alagna?! Vergogna!!!!!!!
Tim
I’d bet Villazon was enlisted to talk about a younger generation of tenors than the Swede et al belong to. No need to get a coronary, they are still immortal.
He played Corelli as Manrico, talked about Caruso and Gigli, and mentioned Merritt specifically in a discussion on Rossini tenors.
Why are all these singers cancelling the Met more than THREE MONTHS in advance???? Pretty soon the Met season will be much like the Cincinnati Meistersinger.
My guess is because they are in serious vocal trouble. Being a star has nothing to do with being able to sing these days, apparently. Witness the recent Dutchman, Senta and Tosca.
What a waste of Mosuc’s abilities! She sings all of Hoffmann’s women beautifully – but in the authentic Offenbach music that the MET continues to ignore. The only people who benefit from this casting are the landlords and hotels that house tripple casting.
Enkelejda Shkosa may be an unknown to many. However, she is terrific on recording. She has has recorded the Iago/Otello (Rossini) duet – singing the role of Otello (following in the footsteps of Malibran). So, she is used to gondolas and may end up being great in the role.
And FWIW, Shkosa’s a fine Suzuki on the recent Gheorghiu-Kaufmann-Pappano Butterfly CD.
Shkosa jjhas also impressive in person – she is a regular at Pesaro, where she sang (in 1999) the Marchesa Melibea opposite Juan Diego Florez (their second-act duet was the highlight of the performance). No one will ever replace Valentini Terani in my heart, but Shkosa was very good indeed. I also heard a radiant Isabella in Palm Beach (conducted by Alberto Zedda, no less). She also made the most of the smallish part of the Countess d’Arco in the 2008 Covent Garden Mathilde di Shabran.
I’ve only heard Mosuc on video clips and webstreams, but what I’ve heard I’ve liked.
Lucky you to have heard Shkosa in person in Pesaro – for her duet with Florez to be the highlight of Viaggio says something – it is an opera with so many delightful ensembles. Were you ever lucky enough to hear Valentini Terani in person?
I did get one opportunity to hear her in person, but it was not in Rossini – it was as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff with the LA Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini in 1982. The LA Phil and Deutsche Grammaphon gave Giulini, who apparently didn’t like recording opera in his latter career, carte blanche in choosing his cast, and the results were very good indeed (even Ricciarelli, who was in good voice for the 1982 run).
I’ve been lucky in my in-person Quicklys – the other one was Podles in Berlin, 2001.
(Aside: 1982 was an astounding year for a young music lover like myself in Los Angeles: not only did we have CMG, we also got Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena).
A bit out of subject but…it has been quite a while since the last Sieglinde update…
which one of those dudes pictured is James Jorden?
I know it’s not the one in the middle as that’s a deadringer for my sister in 1970-somethiing.
What I love is how they’ve so carefully posed the forearms. What were they thinking?
Apart from the fee, why would a big star like Borodina want to sing a crummy role like Giulietta anyway? She doesn’t even get her aria in the edition used at the Met, does she?
It isn’t much of a part, is it? Particularly in the version that the Met uses.
One reason Borodina might have signed on for it is that
hubby Abdrazakov is singing the villains. They did Damnation of Faust together last season at the Met and I believe they are going to do a revival of Kovanshchina in 2011-12. I believe they also do joint concerts/recitals.
And at this point perhaps she’s looking for roles that don’t include too many top notes.
With that hubby, I be she is singing high C’s at home all the time.
The Giulietta aria that y’all are talking about is a Coloratura aria, written if i remember well, for the same singer who performed Olympia, or at least the same voice type. I’m not sure Borodina would be too happy with it.
http://canbelto.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/vousnejouezpas.mp3
Remember also that the met is traditionally 20 years behind the learning curve in just about anything. It is now that they seem to be ready to embrace “reggie” productions, so I think it is a fair expectation that they will stubbornly use this fiasco of an edition for 2 main reasons:
1. It is Levine’s and I doubt levine is ready to give it up; plus that means that they do not have to pay royalties on it, right?
2. The other edition is still non-standard, so the chorus & orchestra(likely) and the principals would have to learn new music. I think they will be bullied into changing it when the situation is reversed and singers complain that they have to learn new music for the Met’s edition.
Add to this the traditional casting of Giulietta as a mezzo, and we might have a situation of the met digging their heels on a loosing battle. We’ll get the good edition maybe in 15-20 years.
Thank you, Lindoro, for that clip. I think you’re spot on about the Met being behind…but i guess it makes sense considering the sheer number of operas they have to put on each season.
OT: Do you still have that link to the website that listed all the forthcoming opera dvds?
Absolutely!
http://sites.google.com/site/stridonolassu/
Thanks!
G. Filianoti just did an excellent ( Hoffmann in Paris, at the Bastille, The clear stamp, the easy treble, the precise pronunciation, the stamina, draw Hoffmann completely convincing.
You’re right! Filianoti is fantastic and fearless below:
I gotta comment on this. This is the fourth video in a row in which the gestures seem to be organio; by that I mean they spring from the same thought impulse that is creating the word/tone. A few days ago I was playing Marilyn Horne’s “Ah, quel giorno.” Vocally impeccable of course, but the few gestures were totally meaningless — left forearm out to the left. right forearm out to the right. etc. I’ll give a little credit for the change to directors who seem to care what happens theatrically. Oh certainly Callas’s gestures were all organic, but very few singers followed her example. And of those who did, almost none were male. Vickers and then . . . who? Of course, the downside of this is going to be that anyone using the time-honored schweinerei of both hands clasped over the heart is going to be laughed off the stage.
Did you happen to notice that the gestures weren’t his, but someone standing behind him? Makes a difference, you know….
Yes, that was taken into account.
Shicoff, Langridge, Desderi, Allen, Raimondi, Wixell, Hagegard, Alagna, Kaufmann, Hrovstovsky, Mattei, Finley, Schrott, D’Arcangelo… and that’s just off the top of my head.
This is the best singing I have ever heard him do. I heard him in Lucia in San Francisco two years ago, while he was apparently having vocal troubles, and much of it wasn’t pretty. I heard his Nemorino in LA about a year later, and he seemed to have worked out much of the issues, but I remember him going flat on the very last note of “Una Furtiva”, marring an otherwise pleasurable rendition of the aria and an excellent performance on the whole. It seems like he’s past the stuff that got him into such trouble at La Scala last year; he sounds refreshed and renewed here, and acts it wonderfully (Not hard to do in this wonderful production by Robert Carsen, but still…) This gives me hope for the upcoming Revival. If his Hoffmann is up to snuff, and since Abdrazakov is generally reliable and we have no need to worry about Kate Lindsey after her fine performances last year, that leaves only the sopranos to worry about.
On a more interesting topic, according to Rupert Christiansen in the Telegraph:
“the CD is about to go the way of the word processor and fax machine.”
see http://tinyurl.com/2ds4ysc
I think you meant “On a more outdated topic…” This has predicted for at least the last 5 years, but maybe longer. Downloads and Blu-ray are the new CDs.