Simon, pure
“Pre-performance applause often signals gratitude for past glories. In this case, it was only a preview of the stomping and cheering following that night’s performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra — well-deserved acclaim for a masterpiece of conducting.”
So says Our Own JJ in the New York Post.
I like Levine in a lot of rep but he’s probably at his finest in Verdi. His Otello with Domingo/Scotto/Milnes is an old favourite.
I would say he is at his (operatic) finest in his various 20th-century passions, plus Berlioz and some Strauss. (The Strauss operas he conducts are “20th-century” too, of course; I’m just making a distinction between those and, say, Berg.) In Verdi, I like him more in the late works (and I do count the revision of Boccanegra) than in anything up to and including the Rig/Trav/Trov trio.
Agreed. It’s mature Verdi where Levine really excels.
Last nite’s performance sounded mighty fine, on the broadcast!
The Band was …SMOKIN …!
AND..I was mighty glad to hear Fritolli in much better vocal condition then she has been as of lately, at the MET…….
Excellent review JJ- I’m really pleased to see Maestro Levine getting some well deserved praise for once. I think he and the Met orchestra are consistently about as good as it can get.
I was happy too- but don’t understand the “getting some well deserved praise for once”… The MET orchestra and Levine are consistently revered, both here on this site and in general.
On an unrelated note I am heading off to Tosca tonight– will any other parterrians be in attendance?
Yes, indeed, Volpe was bad, bad, bad, very bad.
Sorry to be so dense, but is this in reference to Levine not getting attention? I thought he and Volpe got along just fine – or maybe it’s an inside joke?
It’s presumably in reference to the mention of the Volpe era in the review itself.
Of course. Sorry, I missed that.
Volpe had his highs and lows, as with Bing and Gelb and all the rest. In fairness, he disliked Giancarlo del Monaco’s Boccanegra (and Forza) too.
I wish the Met had the Peter Stein Boccanegra seen on the Abbado DVD. THAT would make for fluid scenic transitions! I’d love to see it again with the cast described in the review. Or, indeed, with any cast I could enjoy hearing. *All* of the Met/Covent Garden combinations of the last couple seasons had a better male contingent than Guelfi, Konstantinov, and La Scola.
Met chorus: Am I alone in finding the raggedness increasingly less unexpected (or, more expected) this season? I don’t remember noticing it in Boris, but I did in Don Carlo and Fanciulla, and someone told me it was so in the Trav he saw.
That’s odd…I think the Chorus has sounded really terrific this season. A continuing renaissance under Donald Palumbo’s leadership. Listen to some of the broadcasts with the pre-Palumbo chorus and you’ll REALLY hear raggedness. It really is like night & day what they sound like nowadays. Maybe someone with inside info can enlighten us about whether this has been achieved through changes of personnel or whether this is basically the same chorus that sounded so awful under Raymond Hughes, Palumbo’s predecessor.
In fairness, he disliked Giancarlo del Monaco’s Boccanegra (and Forza) too.
And yet he went ahead with both productions at huge expense, for operas that (in his time as well as ours) can be revived only once or twice a decade. The next time anyone gripes about Peter Gelb’s casting singers for “star power,” just try to remember how far up Pavarotti’s and Domingo’s asses Volpe was.
We got it.
Gelb = wonderful
Volpe = terrible
No, you don’t get it, but please don’t let that prevent you from making flip comments.
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In other words, in the mid-1990s, he did with two operas what his successor and Lepage are in the process of doing with four.
Yep, he’s got rhythm!
Cathy loves Jimmy too:
oops!
I loved the Boccanegra performance. The sound over the Sirius system was sublime. I don’t know why it sounded so much better than usual. I loved the singing from all 5 principals. I love an enthusiastic audience.
I don’t know if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but Bradley Wilbur has updated again, and Diana Damrau is now listed for some Traviatas in the 2012-13 season.
YES!!
uwsinnyc- certainly don’t want to make more of it than what I meant…just let’s say over the years I’ve seen plenty of comment (in here) about Jimmy that was less than what he deserves in my humble opinion. Not so long ago several commentators even suggested his retirement would be a good thing.
I can tell you no matter what a few locals? might say or think- around the world Maestro Levine is revered and some of us think he is a huge part of everything that makes the Met the great house that it is. I dread the day he steps down.
Just finished reading TT’s review of SB in today’s Times and — you know how much I abhor seeming snide — but I think he cribs from our Blind (but Perceptive) Madame’s Chambre du Chat, where that night’s comments seemed especially on the money and memorable.
And now I see those same comments reproduced in Tony’s review.
Those who were there, please check this out and tell me if I’m right or paranoid. Or both, of course:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/arts/music/22simon.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1295700068-sO0N22xj3pizqMwAQr/ZPg
Maybe TT is in fact a pseudonymous participant in La Cieca’s chat — on his silenced Blackberry from his press seat at the Met. On the other hand, he doesn’t have enough opinions to be a parterrian.
Yes, yes, but how was Simon Rattle?
“He led a virile performance, marked by hard, well-muscled, and propulsive strength.”