A big hand for the little lady
Sweet Betsy again rounds up the Saturday afternoon listenables. La Cieca leans toward Manon naturellement, but she should warn you that she’s off like Des Grieux’s cassock at 3:00 pm to jump on the Caramoor Caravan. After the jump (not onto the Caravan!) the complete list of what’s singing who.
1:00-4:30 BBC 3: The Royal Opera House Manon with the Venus-of-the-Steppes and Steps-on-his-Penis. (Do I really need to list anything else?)
1:00-5:00 CBC TWO: Mireille from Paris. Runner-up to Trovatore for the Confusing Opera Plot award. It gets a better performance than it deserves.
1:00-4:00 DEUTSCHLANDRADIO KULTURE: Gretry’s Andromaque. If you like things that are off the beaten track, but not so far off you can never find your way back again, this is a contender.
1:00-5:00 FRANCE MUSIQUE: Iphigénie en Aulide, Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie in Brooklyn, Iphigénie Does Dallas, and If a Génie Meet a Génie Coming’ thro’ the Aeschylus.
1:00-5:00 NPR World of Opera: Pelléas and Mélisande from Duisberg. Not a bad performance, considering that Ozawa conducts the whole show from his hotel suite in Munich.
1:00-5:30 WETA: Il trittico from the Castleton Festival. For my money, the only serious rival to the Manon. It will be interesting to hear what kind of show Maazel is paying for over there.
1:30-5:30 BARTOK RADIO: Francesca Zambella’s production of Christmas Eve, better known as Vakula the Smith, better known as I Cherevichki, better known as The Tsarina’s Slippers, better known as WTF Is This Crap, and not known at all as Happy Herman the Walrus Bender, this is the show that set East-West relations back at least a decade.
1:30-5:00 WFMO: L’elisir d’amore from Chicago. Like an infestation of bed bugs, once Nicole Cabell and Giuseppe Filianoti get into your computer, you can never get rid of them.
2:00-5:00 CESKY ROZHLAS VLTAVA: Il trovatore from the Liceu, the infamous production in which everyone is nude all the time, including Fiorenza Cedolins. Of course, you won’t be able to see all that on the broadcast.
I vote for the Iphigenies. Those are lovely works, and we don’t hear them nearly enough!
Mireille? Are you kidding? I adore Freni & owner her commercial recording on LP. This was the only LP opera set I ever sold. Ever. Gounod did so much better elsewhere.
I would be curious to hear Griglio in a French role: I love his basic sound & squillo as in the Lucrezia Borgia from DC…….but………….
CARAMOOR for Angela Meade’s NORMA?!?!? I’m green with envy and will pay anyone for a CD copy!!!!!
Since you were obviously drunk from your sauv blanc during last week’s chat when you said “F&^k Britten” (yes I’m telling the world) I don’t trust your opinion (except for agreeing with needing a copy of the Caramoor CD) anymore. So I vote for the Grétry. Vive la France!
I drink only one glass of wine w/lunch, thank you.
smiley face. I do adore Freni too.
I hope someone records that Norma with Angela meade so the rest of the world can listen to it.
Word! Angela Meade is so underrated. Sizeism rearing its scrawny anorexic head once again. The real travesty is there is nothing of this woman on youtube out of some dusty school productions from way back. The hell? No one snuck a recorder into that supposedly amazing Met debut? Pass me the Meade!
Not to take anything away from Ms. Meade, but she is still quite young for the repertory she is growing into. It may be that she is choosing what engagements to accept carefully and judiciously instead of just jumping at every offer — particularly since most such offers for an emerging young singer are going to be jump-ins with little preparation. It doesn’t do anyone’s career a favor to appear suddenly at a major theater with even a pretty good performance; given the choice, a singer is better advised to plan her triumphs carefully rather than to rely on chance and luck.
I will be most interested to read what the Parterreans will have to say about Meade’s Norma. Although I’m more than willing to be convinced, I saw her Semiramide last year and thought it only okay. That said, to be even “okay” in Semiramide is quite an achievement, but from where I was sitting she sounded a bit shrill and white on top. (Big voice, though, and ample agility.) If she is merely “okay” as Norma, that too will be an achievement for a singer her age, and I hope she will be even more than that. Fingers crossed. I see the second perf on July 16. Good luck, Angela, and remember: Norma non mente!
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Why would anyone want to snuck a recording into the house when the Met had their own microphones? Angela Meade’s debut at the Met happened on a Sirius broadcast of Ernani:
Ernani {83} Metropolitan Opera House: 03/21/2008., Sirius Broadcast live
ERNANI {83}
Giuseppe Verdi–Francesco Maria Piave
Ernani………………Marcello Giordani
Elvira………………Angela Meade [Debut]
Don Carlo……………Thomas Hampson
Don Ruy Gomez de Silva..Ferruccio Furlanetto
Giovanna…………….Wendy White
Don Riccardo…………Ryan Smith
Jago………………..Keith Miller
Conductor……………Roberto Abbado
Production…………..Pier Luigi Samaritani
Set Designer…………Pier Luigi Samaritani
Costume Designer……..Peter J. Hall
Lighting Designer…….Gil Wechsler
Stage Director……….Peter McClintock
Broadcast live on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio
Didn’t we have a chat on that day because it was the opening night of the run and a free Sirius night? I am sure a recording of that night is
available somewhere. I mean, I don’t know but there has to be
something somewhere a soul searching for this could possibly have the hope to
find.
Just saying, I certainly do not know everything but a man can hope, right?
There is a very convincing Mireille with Renée Doria from 1962. When it was done in Paris last year, every seat was sold within hours. Sorry I missed it, so I will definitely listen tomorrow.
I am green with envy as well. I have a ticket for the performance, but I am in Comox BC right now for the Music Fest instead of NYC gosh darn it…
The AVA presented the first two acts of Norma in Philadelphia last winter with Angela Meade . I had been hearing about her for several years from my center city neighbors, so I decided to go. She is terrific. Big, flexible, well supported voice. It’s been many years since I was so impressed with a new singer.
I’m gonna tell you this, if you want an afternoon of filth like no other, then the contender is Trovatore. I have a copy of the opening night telecast and lemme tell you, it is filth on top of filth on top of filth. (that means it is fantastic for an actual chat)
I would vote for the Trittico. I am no fan of Nebby and would not want to listen to that. Now, I think that whomever listens to the Castleton performance needs to be aware that the website does not indicate that all operas will be performed on that day. For what I could understand, Tabarro and Schicchi will be performed on Friday and Sunday and Suor Angelica will be on Sat; this presumably the only one to be broscast on that day.
Check it out for yourselves and let me know if I am reading it correctly.
Saturdays broadcast is a taping from the opening night last week that included all three operas. A good review by Anne Midgette can be found at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/07/castleton_festival_opens.html
Besides wanting to side with Cieca, like the obsequious lackey I would love to be, I’m interested in hearing Grigolo, who’ll be debuting at the Met next season. AND, I adore Manon!
For more on Grigolo (this was posted before):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/7814721/Vittorio-Grigolo-interview-for-Manon.html
What with the World Cup blood-feud grudge match between Spain and the Netherlands coming up, I’m sorry there’s no performance of Don Carlo(s) (or Thyl Claes or Karl V) being broadcast.
Cherevichki is worth a miss. Tchaikovsky with no tunes (yes, really) and a bloodless performance. At least radio will deprive you of the sloppy, flaccid (if visually decorative) production. It was not a good evening at Covent Garden.
Agreed, Tsarina’s Slippers/Cherevichki was deadly dull. The fact that many of the singers were not up to Royal Opera standards didn’t help, but the libretto is weak and oddly balanced and the score seems far less inspired than one expects from Tchaikovsky.
Not forgetting
http://www.bayerische.staatsoper.de/421-ZmxhZz0xJmw9ZW4-~info~aktuelles~aktuelles.html
There is also
http://www.bayerische.staatsoper.de/421-ZmxhZz0xJmw9ZW4-~info~aktuelles~aktuelles.html
Let me try this :
http://www.arte.tv/fr/3299378.html
have tried to post another link to this Tosca broadcast on Saturday (slightly later) but the system (El Sistema) will not let me…
So, will this be a free webcast on video? This is tomorrow!
Hmmmm…Lindoro – spread the word – though it will cost Euros I will pay.
http://opera-cake.blogspot.com/2010/07/broadcast-from-salzburg-and-bayreuth.html
another link web cast not free from Bayreuth and Salzburg…
http://www.siemens.com/entry/cc/en/festivalnight.htm
That’s interesting. I might have to cough up some $$ for these. I will have to read further, but I didn’t see how much it will cost.
How about the Tosca? Will it be free?
Lindoro – Tosca is free.
…courtesy of BMW.
It looks like Tosca starts at 1 PM eastern time?
RE: Il trovatore from the Liceu, the infamous production in which everyone is nude all the time, including Fiorenza Cedolins.
Dear Doyenne, this is a joke, right? Somehow I think I can contentedly go to my grave having never seen Marco Berti nude.
and what is wrong, pray tell, with a bear showing his stuff? Why do we only have to see naked men that look like a porn star?
You may do as you wish, of course. I said that I, repeat I, would forgo the view. I speak only for myself.
In Trovatore, wouldn’t the bear be strumming his stuff?
But at least let it be a hot bear. If Bryn wants to show his stuff, I’m all for it. Marco, not so much.
Hmmm. I didn’t see that one coming. Chacun à son gout!
In that I agree, Berti is not a hot bear, but then, tastes are like colors, there’s one for every skin tone.
kashania: I must say you are easily pleased. Terfel……………Geez! Well I suppose some twisted people out there probably must find the ‘Tele Tubbies’ also HOT.
I’m trying to be egalitarian here. Bryn isn’t necessarily my cuppa but, if we’re talking bears, let’s have a bear with some sex appeal.
Opera bears with sex appeal? Sounds like a future Parterre YouTube contest.
A nude TROVATORE makes a lot of sense. It exxplains, for instance, how Azucena got the two babies confused.
Actually, that would be impossible. One of them, a royal catholic baby, the other a gypsy with no discernible religion….
Let’s just say that it would be obvious who the Catholic baby was.
I don’t think anything could explain how she got the babies confused. But it doesn’t matter ‘cause it’s probably a Maguffin, or McMuffin, or something. But I for one am always happy to see a bear’s McMuffins.
Ya lost me, Lindoro.
For cryin’ out loud, Batty, we’re trying to have a serious discussion here and you keep dragging in fast food.
Royal Catholics monogram?
OK, BAB’s lemme give you a mental pic:
A catholic baby in the 14th century would have been circumcised, as it was the tradition in heavily Catholic countries up to the 20th century. Spain being a VERY catholic country, I would venture a guess to say that royal, or aristocratic babies would have followed the circumcision rule.
Gypsy babies were not circumcised. Gypsies were not considered Catholic by the church, I think they had been excommunicated because of their use of “magical arts” or something like that.
Now, imagine Azucena, in a frenzy with 2 naked boys in front of her, one circumcised the other not. Which one do you think she would have recognized as her own son?
Royal Catholics crest tattoo?
I think we need to check Verdi’s score to confirm this “uncircumcised” thing.
“. . . in a frenzy with 2 naked boys . . .”
I’ll be on the veranduh.
LOL! Why didn’t I see that one coming?
Well, I’d have to say that if i had the 2 right boys naked in front of me, i would also be on a frenzy.
Time for some more iced tea.
What if baby Superman had landed in a Jewish neighborhood? That would really have blown his cover. Speaking of which, did Dean Cain ever get back from Tahiti?
This all begins to make sense: I always wondered why Manrico never sings “Di quella pira” uncut.
Did Zinka Milanov ever do full-frontal? Other than that one FORZA, I mean?
Zinka in full frontal? Please tell the story.
Surely someone else knows the story better than I. Mexico City, 1952.
Oops, gotta run. My taxi’s here.
I just threw up in my mouth.
Sex and Zinka – yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not that she didn’t have a wonderful sex life. . . .
Actually, I always thought getting the babies confused was quite believable. She was hysterical at the time, and babies are small. Easy mistake.
Plus she was a crazy homeless lady. . . .
The baby mix-up part of Trovatore always reminds me of urban legend of the baby sitter who microwaved the baby.
Uh-oh. I can just see the next Bieito regie production – the set dominated by a gigantic microwave …