Duke season
Quoth the Met press office: “Piotr Beczala will sing the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto on Thursday, January 27, replacing Joseph Calleja who is ill.”
Quoth the Met press office: “Piotr Beczala will sing the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto on Thursday, January 27, replacing Joseph Calleja who is ill.”
Not a bad swap. Replacing the best current exponent of the role with the second best.
Where did that come from? Beczala is second to none today, especially a tenor with the most annoying and unsteady vibrato in the business.
OT: Surreptitiously -no official annoucement, as far as I know-, Dessay is out of the next two Giulio Cesare performances. Hmm…
There goes that Peter Gelb again. Doesn’t he know he’s supposed to put on the assigned cover rather than find the best artist available? It’s the cover’s feelings that matter, not the audience’s. When will he ever learn?
Nonesense! When you can get an artist like Beczala -- you do it! The audience should be cheering for this substitution.
Bad luck, Arianna.
Try putting ‘I AM USING IRONY’ in 24pt bold next time.
I am far from an expert but I always seem to sense a disturbing wobble (if that’s the word) in calleja voice. if i could get over that i would quite like him as he has a nice legato and sweetness to his voice.
in the cover situation i can quite understand going with a “star” if one is available. i know i appreciated hearing alagna in tosca earlier this season (cannot remember the assigned cover’s name but i did always like him although its been years since i have heard him sing).
Who is calleja’s assigned cover?
And does anyone know if villazon is actually singing in Werther in Lyon?
Villazon was never expected to sing Werther in Lyon -- he is however scheduled to sing it at Covent Garden in a couple of months.
(not sure where to stick this, but here it is…)
sondra brough down the house last night in tosca at the met. anyone else there? it is still not a great assumption (but still pretty good), she finally threw herself at the role, was much more committed and (as much as she can) reckless, bringing out a much more vivid portrayal of the fiery diva. the VDA was done really well, and the applause went on for so long that armiliato put his hand up to his baton and joined in. the orchestra was too loud, however, at times, including after the execution, and as before, “ecco un artista” got swamped and was inaudible. well, at least, with sondra, she sings “avanti a dio!” as it is (mattila always swallowed the last “o” and it came out as “avanti a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…” and trails off). i still don’t like the shove that tosca gives the soldier running up to her, it’s silly and not believable. but lots of things are in this ill-conceived production.
i have no luck with struckmann. when i saw this on 1/14, he sang really well in act 1, dominating the chorus in the “te deum”, a total monster of a villain, only to lose his voice in act 2. last night, he sounded ok at first, if leathery and gruff, but soon seemed to be running into trouble, so he decided to spare himself and could not be heard in the climax of “te deum.” but at least he was able ot finish without losing his voice. alvarez started out a teeny bit tight, but then sang with his customary, distinctive sound. still one misses the loud ringing top notes but he was, as usual, a sensitive and elegant singer. plishka is a wonderful grumpy sacristan, and i wish he got a curtain call. it’s my 2nd time this season hearing the boy soprano neel ram nagarajan, who sang the off-stage shepherd boy, a much less annoying part than his previous one (yniold).
from a different angle, and from a very good seat last night, i could see the stuntwoman appear at the window and initiate the jump as the lights went out. i thought she actually jumped — but then if the met is going to go to the trouble of getting a stuntwoman to jump, why cut the lights so quickly, so that no one sees the jump? the first time i saw this weeks ago, i only saw (from a different angle) the profile of (what i thought) was a dummy appear at the window, then blackout. can anyone confirm that the stuntwoman actually jumps? there was no sound whatsoever of that, so i wasn’t totally sure.
(and both delicious security guards — the blond and the asian one — were there last night checking bags. yummmm….)
oh yes, another one from the crazy files: when i see sondra’s long face and high cheekbones, it somewhat reminds me of verrett’s tosca, even though they don’t sound alike.
The fact that Calleja cancels performances when he is ill will give him a long career. He missed a Hoffman performance that I attended last year — disapointing but, his cover, David Pomeroy, managed to salvage the evening.
another singer i never heard of until now, janice dixon. an american that sings mostly in germany. anyone here heard her?????
http://www.janicedixon.com/english.html
Just listening to her in Abigaille’s aria — not bad at all, if a bit rough round the edges. What a mishmash of roles she sings, though! Maybe the result of being a contract singer in singer …
Tosca), Marschallin, Senta,Elsa, Sieglinde, Chrysothemis, Ariadne,Abigaille, Desdemona, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi,Lisa,Tatjana, Eva.
Talking of Abigaille, I found this the other day. She’s not an Abigaille (and the gentlemen chorus look like they are carrying Judith Leiber evening bags), but she sings well. New York-based, it seems.
oh yeah, how does one pronounce calleja? i know he’s maltese but it’s a spanish name, so just wondering how he pronounces it.
Call-ay-a, I believe. I could be wrong, though!
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calleja
“Based on historical evidence, the Maltese version of the surname is likely not related to the Spanish version. The first written appearance of the Calleja surname in Malta predates both Aragonese rule (1283–1412) and Aragonese/Castilian rule (1412–1530) of the Maltese island—appearing in 1271 AD with the spelling Calleya and Caleya.”
Not to be confused with Proust’s cattleya, of course.
Gosh, that’s on Wikipedia too, manou. I’d forgotten about ‘faire cattleya’. Still, it’s 30 years since I read Proust. Marcel might have liked Joseph -- he’s a strapping chap like Charlus’ chauffeur (if I remember rightly).