You, the Gelb
So the gossip La Cieca has been picking up is that at some point there were plans at the Met to open the 2012-13 season with Eugene Onegin featuring Mariusz Kwiecien, Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani. The soprano and baritone were also booked to open the 2013-2014 season with new production of La bohème. Then various things happened and the new Puccini production was canceled in favor of the sacred/cash cow Zeffirelli version, and the Tchaikovsky opera moved back a year using the casting (Mariusz, Anna, etc.) of the scuttled Bohème.
So that left the trio of singers booked for a series of dates including the opening night of the 2012-13 season. La Cieca is told that there is an opera tentatively chosen for that time period, but it’s apparently still iffy enough that nobody is saying a title out loud, at least not where La Cieca can hear it. So, once again, the hive mind of the cher public must be called into play.
What opera do you think would be suitable for the 2012-13 opening night? Remember, cher public, the current Met policy is that opening night must be a new production, which means that the work must not be something that is currently on the Met’s schedule (e.g., it can’t be a new Don Giovanni, because there’s already a new staging on the schedule for 2011-2012) and it’s most likely not something for which the Met has a fairly recent successful production handy (e.g., not a new Don Pasquale).
So, your suggestions for a vehicle for these three singers on opening night, 2012?
Okay, it is so obvious why haven’t we all thought of it? “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” with Netrebko unveiling her Rosina. She should sing the mezzo keys and embellish the line higher. Perfect role for Netrebko and if it was good enough for Patti, it’s good enough for her. Kwiecien and Polenzani are already a Figaro and Almaviva. Add in Furlanetto as Basilio and Del Carlo as Bartolo and you’re done.
OOOPS, not a new production…can’t be a revival.
Please don’t include Patti in the same sentence with Netrebko. Verdi said that Patti was the greatest singer he ever heard and the only soprano to whom she could be compared was Malibran. Do you think he would have said the same thing about Netrebko? Yikes!!
Okay, just pretend it’s Lupone. However, who are you to presume who Verdi would have liked or disliked? Verdi liked Patti because she was a complete actress and detailed stage performer. He preferred Patti to Malibran (whom he saw at La Scala as a very young man in her last seasons there – he found her top very shrill). Verdi might have been delighted with Netrebko’s beauty, stage mobility and commitment. Verdi also admired Gemma Bellincioni, a great stage beauty and dramatic actress but not a great singer (he saw both Patti and Bellincioni as Violetta). Bellincioni was never a perfect vocalist but Verdi admired her dramatic truth.
Both Adelina Patti and Netrebko were complete packages – you might not like Netrebko’s sometimes sloppy approximate singing but she has a major voice.
But it helps if a Rosinia really does something with her words. Anna does err on the mouthful of pirozhki side.
Netrebko has already sung Rosina in St. Petersburg, and she ornaments the “Dunque io son” like mad…it’s quite fun, actually.
What about Carmen?
With Elina Garanca as Micaela. She certainly looks the role and nobody would complain about her being too boring…