Is this the happy couple?
“Renee Fleming and Timothy Jessell arrive for the formal artist’s dinner for the Kennedy Center Honors at the United States Department of State December 4, 2010 in Washington, D.C.”
More (circumstantial) proof after the jump.
A junior member of the cher public writes:
Fleming attended our interschool choral festival last Saturday and left right after it so that she could make Armida. But that man, Timothy Jessell, was definitely there as well, and I thought they were holding hands during the performance. And we all know that nobody would ever go to a high school chorus concert that includes Trinity’s godawful group unless they were a member (or soon to be member) of the family.
If they settle in the DC area where he reportedly has his practice does that give her a shot at Placido’s former job? Or rather,at whatever the job is now?
Totally OT,
Did anyone here go to R&J last night? Just wondering how Hong performed in the role. She is a lovely singer and made a real impression on me as the Countess in the Marriage of Figaro. Would love to hear from anyone who was there.
ZW answered this question, beautifully!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/arts/music/05romeo.html?ref=music
What a yummy picture of the two of them in bed!
I was there and wrote a review too:
http://poisonivywalloftext.blogspot.com/2011/03/romeo-et-juliette.html
I think overall Beczala’s voice is too slender and cool, and his stage presence too reserved, for this role. Hong took some time warming up but eventually sounded beautiful and decades younger.
Can somebody please fix his collar and bow tie?
Hehe.
No,I wasn’t there but they broadcast the performance on Sirius and I heard the audio of it.
– That was something like the 361st peformance Hong has sung at the Met since her house debut in 1984, which was several years before the house debuts of those two constantly-referenced characters on this blog, D. Voigt & R. Fleming, both of whom I believe made their house debuts in the early 1990′s. Granted Hong, in contrast to those other 2 singers, sang many comprimario roles during her tenure.
– Yes, Hong’s volume is somewhat (but not a great deal) diminished and her lower register is a bit dry (reminds me of Kabaivanska toward the end of her better singing days). But it was a very beautifully sung performance Hong gave last night: delicate, aticulate and sincere. She is a consummate musician and she created a very romantic vocal soundworld with her exquisite phrasing and soft pianissimos… to such a degree that I haven’t heard from those other two characters I mentioned above in many years.
– I don’t know how she still does it. I was in the prime of my life when she made her debut; now I’m retired and so naturally I was worried about her so I recorded it with the speakers off and waited until this afternoon to listen to her. I needn’t have worried at all. She was a very gentle, romantic and moving (in a soft and passive way, which I liked) Juliette vocally, just as I remembered seeing her visually (at the Met in the same role in April 1996 with Leech as Romeo).
– Beczala didn’t sound right from the beginning. Both he and Hong seemed a bit unsure of quite a few tempii entrance at certain points, so the performance sounded more like a rehearsal than a prima (back to the old days of “instantopera?” Beczala, who sounded strained from the beginning, cracked on the famous high note at the end of Act 3 (the one that Corelli used to bring the house down with), struggeld with it for a bit at fortissimo volume, the same way Ben Heppner did in that famous Met broadcast of Lohengrin.
Yes, that crack just broke my h4eart.
He did sound dry and strained prior to that awful moment.
Beczala also sounded strained and exhausted when I heard him sing Edgardo in late January. I assumed he was just sick but now I’m worried and hope he’s OK! We need him!
No wonder he sounded exhausted. I heard him at the end of January as the Duke, when he took the part after ill Calleja, and soon after I heard Beczala as Rodolfo in La Boheme. In both pieces he sounded great. (I wondered who could sing it better these days.) In Europe we can just envy that best singers from Europe are on your stage.
At least something: in July we are going to hear Beczala as the Italian Tinger in Der Rosenkavalier at Festival M.unich
quoted you on my blog…
http://operaticstlouis.blogspot.com/2011/03/rene-fleming-and-six-tenors-in-rossinis.html
thanks!
Renee’s new style influence?
[img]http://parterre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/carroll-baker[1].jpg[/img]
I thought it was J. Lo
http://news.instyle.com/2011/03/02/jennifer-lopezs-american-idol-green-dress/
I guess we can expect even more pointless Renee Fleming ‘gossip’ as it looks like the number of working divas is declining precipitously.
With Deborah Voigt and Angela Georghiu falling away(apparently), who are we left with: Netrebko, DiDonato, Poplavskaya(?)…
Too few to keep the chatter industry going!
Here’s hoping a fresh, exciting voice triumphs as the upcoming Brunnhilde for the sake of the audience, Wagner, and this site!
Here’s hoping a fresh, exciting voice triumphs as the upcoming Brunnhilde for the sake of the audience, Wagner, and this site!
Well, we could actually chat about the people who really matter in opera, the composers, and their creations rather than ephemeral female singers and amazingly enough, we could actually chat about composers other than Wagner and 19th century Italians! I know, I know, but I’ve heard rumors that there’s great operas written by people other than them!
Renée looks strangely like Mae (Boop-Oop-A-Doop) Questel who played Aunt Bethany in Christmas Vacation.