Is there nothing she can’t do?
La Cieca is always delighted when a legendary lady of the lyric stage reinvents herself. For example, who ever would have expected Montserrat Caballe to make a comeback as Radames?
But La Cieca shouldn’t be so surprised, after all: I mean, ever since Martha Wash took on the role…
Slightly off topic – well not really ’cause it was at the Arena last night for the Trovatore. On the question of amplification – from my seat in the platea I wasn’t aware of any augmented sound and indeed the sound was slightly muffled and not just by the lady next to me who had not heard that Mitch Miller had died.
Also I know La Cieca would be thrilled to know that Renee was in the audience – looking radiant and getting her photo taken with adoring fans.
Well at least Renee chose the right singers to hear.
I’m not crazy about the singing of either Radames, but let’s not be mean.
Well, any meaner than usual.
Costuming these guys is usually a matter of sufficient upholstery rather than making a convincing Egyptian warrior under the best of circumstances, and all bets are of when Regie-fever takes over. We all wish there were enough thin, athletic Radameses to go around. We have to take the ones who can actually sing the role.
And I say this as a former fat guy who remains sympathetic to big-girl opera singers.
More to the point, I think, was the multi-layered caftan in the first example and the “Tyra Sanchez” makeup (on the same singer, different production) in the second.
Oh, I’m with you, dear Cieca--I think they both look ridiculous. The second is not far from this:
Perhaps prematurely I wanted to address the direction I feared the comments might take.
Or this, actually.
That shows what happens to people with little choirboy voices. Being asked to pretend to look like someone’s favorite cloned ‘toy eunuch’, breed from stock in Baroque’s own Village of the Dammed. Perhaps that shade of ‘gliss turquoise’ was the only color available at the salon that day. F……k What a way to earn your keep!
And not very far from this
Only Mme Caballe would demand several “handlers” during “Celeste Aida”.
Perhaps they have to amplify the clapping! If THAT is supposed to be Opera……..I am glad to stay home and put on the recorded greats. Renee’ in the audience???!! Gee, I think she was slumming it for the night. It is easy to costume performers in Aida. Grab those old moth eaten gold threaded curtains for 50 Cents out of the leftovers from a estate at the charity shop.
The second is even more worse (not talking about the singer). Why does Robert Wilson think things like this are eye appealing?
Mod cut out scenery panel ‘sections’ are cheap and the designer remembers being inspired: during ‘free activity time afternoons in school’ as a kid, with paper, scissors and paste. Today it is called ‘being artistic’.
This is the Robert Wilson production that we got saddled with here in Roma last season. As bad in its own way as the Caracalla Aida with the ballet prologue that Verdi forgot to write music for – so they danced it in total silence.
THIS IS THE FULL CLIP
I think that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Think about it. Has anyone seens Montserrat Caballe and Marcelo Alvarez in the same room together?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/2868667608_a9e7401f27.jpg?v=0
On the other hand, has the Met presented ANY soprano in the last season who could SING like La Caballe’??
I’m right with you, darlin! Make fun of the fat opera singers all you want – but, generally, they sing better than the skinny, anorexic wannabes. marilyn Horne was once quoted: “Important voices come in important bodies.”
i would hope that those of us on this forum who SUPPOSEDLY love the art of opera, would be more concerned about the SINGING and not the LOOKS.. Course, I’m not gonna sneeze at the beefy pecs of Nathan Gunn…..
Well, they managed to field at least one soprano who sang Aida as badly as Caballe did.
As badly as Scotto sang Norma? I doubt that. Cabbale’s Aida was phenomenal compared to Scotto’s butchering of Bellini.
But neither was anything near as egregious as your non sequitur, so let’s just call it a draw.
I’d give an Armid-and a leg to hear Caballe live again.
Miss Cieca Ma’am, this is off-topic but you know that moving picture thing of the small red furry creature with somebody’s hand up his backside dancing with a puppet? Can we have that on the site forever and always? It’s my favorite thing !
I completely endorse this sentiment, BAB; but the real reason I’m logging on is to pass on this bit of the AP review of the Salzburg Elektra that just appeared on the NYTimes website, which proves, if proof were needed, your special link to the zeitgeist:
“And lest we think that all evil is banished, he suddenly has spider-like black clad creatures scrabbling from those grave pits as the stage grows dark — and juxtaposing themselves between Orest and his virginal younger sister.”
How do you DO it???
Sometimes, we talk with both sides of our mouth. Of course, the voice counts. But why- acctually the voice has increased is size- the negative remarks about Netrebko’s baby wheight? Have opera stars’ perceptions by opera fans changed for good? We want perfect voices in perfect bodies. That’s not honest for the sake of the art.
CAP, I think it’s human nature, not just opera fans. Humans want it all: perfect voices pouring out of perfect bodies who are also bisexual, available, and into us would probably be the ideal. Re: opera: it’s a musical AND visual art. If it weren’t also visual, we would call it concert music. But if forced to choose between a gorgeous voice and an imperfect body, or an imperfect voice and a gorgeous body, I suspect most of us would choose the former in the opera house. But we don’t want to choose. We’d like to have both, all the time.
I think it’s just plain old schadenfreude. Netrebko has got so much attention (partly because of her looks), that people are pouncing on the fact that she’s a couple of sizes bigger now.
Shoot. I left out the schadenfreude. Ironic, really.
I have seen pictures of Netrebko in the months shortly after the birth of her son where she was appreciably bigger. But I saw her live a few weeks ago in Manon and she was looking fabulous – perhaps not as slim as she was pre-baby, but definitely far more slender than she did when she first got back to work after she had him. Not that it matters terribly much to me, because I think she’s a very talented singer who in her best repertoire is really worth hearing and weight be damned, but there are no two ways about it, the lady is once more very shapely and very conventionally attractive. So I’m sorry for those people who think her looks are the ONLY thing she has going for her and she’ll therefore fizzle out – she’s still got them.
Well, we MAY get over our skinny model as the ideal beauty. Certainly the grand dames of the 1890′s were more amply padded. If we do, this will get everyone off Netrebko’s back. She looks “comfortable” to me and like someone in her thirties should. (Thirties is very, very young to me.) My problem with her is that she always gets a look like she’s afraid the NKVD is about to drag her of the stage and on to Siberia. I like her voice and she makes a wonderful image as a young woman in roles that call for it.
On the other hand, I’d rather a good voice in an attractive singer. After all, even good singers have bad night and end of the career performances that are less than what one might wish. Callas, Scotto and now Dessay have (or had) the ability to scream on pitch. Sorry, I’ll take a lesser light, even one who is honest enough to skip those notes, because she can’t hit ‘em.
I’m an avid AVA fan but Meade is really TOO big. Debbie V, in the interview after the London dismissal, really looked like Jabba the Hut’s sister.
On the other other hand, some complained about Mattila being old for Tosca but in the Met HD, her main squeeze was of her age and who says that the “go to” soprano in tutti Roma has to be under 22? Us older types can be quite romantic. Friends of mine just got married at 83 and 76 and they are a romantic pair.
So, My opinion (and I know it is not everyone’s) is, it is theater. You ask us to suspend belief about the plot but how about giving us a break (especially for the big screen) and have attractive or at least mutual matches for the parts?
People often mistake me for Ms Netrebko.