Ring commitment?
Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke is the frontrunner to direct the 2013 Bayreuth Ring, Handelsblatt reports. (If the name sounds familiar, it may be because Haneke was announced to direct Cosi fan tutte at NYCO during the 2012 season projected by Gerard Mortier.) Dark horses for the prestigious Green Hill gig include Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Christof Loy.
Meanwhile, here in New York, La Cieca has obtained an exclusive photo of the Met’s new production of Die Walküre, depicting Bryn Terfel and Jonas Kaufmann on the set for Act 2 of the music drama:
Oh, all right, seriously, then, here’s some video from the dress rehearsal:
I was never the biggest Voigt fan, but I did enjoy her Isolde here in Chicago: not the best, not the worst, but better than I thought it would be based on the Met Isoldes.
I also think she held her own with Brewer ( I was not overly impressed with her) in FroSch at LOC. I did think Voigt’s Salome was not that good.
So, tomorrow evening, we will hear her Brunnie and decide.
I don’t, however, think that Voigt is a singer who engenders hate.
She is a lovely, funny woman–and I like her as a person.
I listened to the hour long compilation of excerpts from the dress posted on another thread, which means the hojotohos and bits of Act III, and apart from a real howler of a final high note from Voigt right before she gets tucked in on her rock, I thought she was fine. Of course, it’s nothing like the Brunnhilde she could have come up with 5-10 years ago, which I think is why everybody is so cross and bitter towards her, but as others have pointed out, it was pretty much on a par with many other recent Brunnhildes. Had she not set such fabulously high standards with her work in her younger days, I think we’d all just be moaning about another mediocre Brunnhilde, and doing our usual ‘but who in the world CAN sing it in this day and age, etc, etc’ and largely letting her get on with it. She doesn’t deserve to be the focus of all this venom and hatred.
your quote above is almost as funny as tommasinni’s “i can’t think of anyone else in the world that can sing minnie as well today.”
deaf and delicate, aren’t you?
Ummm, try Walkure Act 1, Mr. Tommasinni. Westbroek.
Nonsense, Lucky Pierre. Nothing I said implies gushing enthusiasm for Voigt’s Brunnhilde. The best thing I said about it was a qualified ‘fine’, along with a ‘mediocre’.
Don’t read meanings into things that are not there, stop calling people deaf (and whores, and morons), and I have no idea where you’re getting the delicate from.
On the other hand, if she hadn’t set such very high vocal standards early in her career, she wouldn’t have the career that she’s enjoying now. Anyway, I’m not one of those dumping on her. I think she’s hovering around OK these days. She can still deliver some good moments and the voice is sizeable.
i’m sorry, but a brunnhilde who falls apart so completely in what should be one of the climaxes of the role is not “fine”. She cheats and rushes her way through that final section and it sounds like her voice is in shreds. And this is the walkure brunnhilde, how the hell is she gonna sing the immolation scene at the end of GD? Please, people, listen to the clip of the dress rehearsal posted in the other thread from around 44:00 to 45:15 and tell me that all of us who are criticizing debbie are just nasty bitter queens.
Ring news from San Francisco: Jay Hunter Morris is the new “Siegfried” Siegfried this summer, replacing Ian Storey, who’s staying on as the “Gotterdammerung” Siegfried.
Wow. Maybe we can have a different Siegfried for each act.
that is just awful, just like the minnies. hearing it makes me imagine her vocal chords just flapping, rather than vibrating. the low/middle register is just gone. utter filth.
Also, compare it to this:
httpv://youtu.be/2VPBiWqgMDs
httpv://youtu.be/gOC6RLL5JzA
The Met should have the best cast possible for a new Ring, plain and simple, and I think it’s a shame Stemme was not secured, despite her not being a “Met star” (whatever that means….).
oops, the vids didn’t embed correctly:
Complete nobrainer, of course.
Stemme has been building her Brunnhilde slowly and carefully though, hasn’t she? One opera at a time. I think she’s doing all three for the first time in SF later this year. It’s entirely possible that she wouldn’t have wanted to present her first full-cycle Brunnhilde in the glare of a Met new production.
Of course, had Stemme been contracted for this four or five years ago, the Parterriani would be OUTRAGED that the Met was casting someone with no Brunnhilde experience for a NEW RING and OBVIOUSLY Gelb did it because HE HATES OPERA.
oh wait, he IS casting someone with no brunnhilde experience (staged) for a new ring…..so i’m not really sure what kind of point you’re trying to make.
Probably when Voigt was contracted to sing the 3 Bruennhildes in this new Ring at the Met
it was assumed she would have had experience in the role as she had previously been contracted for the new Ring in Vienna which took place in phases in the last seasons.
Voigt dropped out of the Walkuere and Goetterdaemmerung early and was then slated to sing only the Siegfried Bruennhilde in Vienna in their new production. Much later she also dropped singing in the Siegfried and Stemme who had sung the Sieglindes in Vienna agreed to sing the Siegfried Bruennhilde as well and it was a success.
So Gelb probably, at the time, did not hire a Bruennhilde who was to have had no experience in the role. Stemme, as it was, eventually turned to the other two Bruennhildes but will not sing all 3 in Vienna until 2013.
Voigt, after unsuccessful Marschallins and Toscas in Vienna, and what was indicated to be a rather disastrous Salome and a poor Fidelio (Staatsoper in Japan) , has not had further engagements in Vienna. But previously Voight’s Ariadne there, Kaiserin and Isolde were successful. So Voigt deliberately and willingly dropped out and Stemme accidentally filled in with her first Bruennhildes (Siegfried only at the time). It may be some time in the future before Stemme is again on the stage at the Met but she has plenty of important upcoming engagements elsewhere.
With engagements of singers for important productions now being signed five years in advance, no Intendant is able to absolutely perceive who may experience vocal decline in the interem and conversely only the most astute of Opera managers/Intendants can successfully predict the blossoming of a younger or less experienced singer five years in advance. One can hardly blame Gelb if Voigt turns out to be less good than one might have fathomed half a decade ago.
I do not think Gelb is to blame for this. He is not an artistic director or administrator. But I think it was fairly obvious even 4-5 years ago than debbie’s voice was in decline. Does anyone remember those toscas and forzas? Not great stuff.
Thanks Bill. I’m always amazed at Parterriani’s ability to catapult new talent into productions that were contracted years ago (see Meade, Angela.).
stemme is not new talent. She has been around since the mid-90′s and a valued star in europe for over a decade.
And who mentioned angela meade? She is getting anna bolena and elvira in ernani next year. I doubt you will find anyone on here who is saying that she should be getting more than that.
No, Stemme isn’t a new talent (when did she win Cardiff? 93?) but my point was more about long contracting periods and had Gelb cast Stemme for this Ring in 2006, she hadn’t done any Brunnhildes (some small house Wagner though) and probably would’ve been greeted with howls of outrage amongst some Parterriani because unless he casts their personal favourite, Gelb hates opera. Voigt, as Bill points out, at least had some very high profile Brunnhildes on the schedule which didn’t pan out, leading to the current situation.
Re: Meade, a few months ago you couldn’t mention a bel canto without someone piping up “why haven’t they cast Meade?” (usually in contrast to Trebs, as if the two were at all equitable at the box office). During Voigt’s last outing it was Matos who was the automatic alternative, as if she was sitting by the phone just waiting for Gelb’s call. Then of course there’s Can Do No Wrong Hong.
well, i don’t know about what probably would have happened if stemme was contracted, all I am saying is that a mistake has been made with regards to casting Debbie. What’s the big problem??? And yes, meade is an excellent singer, thus she is getting high profile assignments next year at the Met….it seems to me that you’re arguing a very strange point that really has no relevance. And yes, Matos was leagues better than voigt, that is a fact. Why are people to be blamed for wishing she was singing the entire run?? I was there for both of her performances (sheer luck the second time) so I can attest to it, especially since i’ve also heard voigt do it live, and it was bad. I’ve also heard stemme sing brunnhilde live and it’s as good as they say. And I’ve heard angela meade sing the countess, elvira, and norma live so I can attest to her formidable abilities as well. What is wrong with someone saying “It would be nice if singer X, who is currently singing and has the role in her rep, could replace singer Y who is god awful”?
I would have been thrilled with Stemme, based on her Met Dutchman and Bayreuth Isolde.
I am not happy about Voigt, based on the dreadful Met performances of the past few years.
Yeah, she’s already contracted with our company. You all can have her next year. And the cast is already in town for rehearsals.
You re just nasty bitter queens….
This game looks like it could be of interest some. I am useless at this sort of thing.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/04/21/135597858/how-well-do-you-know-your-wagnerians?ps=mh_frimg3
ok so I listened to the yt excerpts the met posted and my initial impressions were the following:
Kauffmann sounds fantastic (and he looks great too) though the fact that what we are getting is amplified sound worries me because it seemed like he was pushing a bit; I hope his voice stays in good shape. Nothing too alarming though and it was a very short clip.
Westbroek sounds great too though she looked a bit uncomfortable physically…if anything she just looked really concentrated on the vocal emission which made her look a bit tense, but this was a rehearsal…
perhaps more alarming is that wig she has on..does not suit her at ALL!
Terfel doesn’t sound bad to me, but I agree with the review posted on the other thread that said his performance was uneven vocally because it does sound like he is shouting when he sings the higher notes; they are not as controlled as they should be, although he didn’t sound/seem to be struggling which means the sound isn’t (that) unhealthy. Plus, he does have great stage presence, which doesn’t compensate for the singing but by not looking as uncomfortable as some of the other singers one can feel more at ease.
As for Voight, well after hearing that dreadful clip of her in Fanciulla someone posted I was actually pleasantly surprised by this clip. She looks uncomfortable but she doesn’t sound nearly as bad as I thought she would, but again this is only a small part of the whole Opera…and she did seem to be cutting the high notes short.
I’m looking forward to the HD presentation and I really hope this turns out well…
Not ideal casting, that’s for sure…aside from E.M.W and Voight none of the other singers shown above are as well-suited for Wagner.
Also, why didn’t they post a video of Blythe singing? She is fantastic!
Haneke? How lovely. If he’s the greatest film director today then I must be Donald Duck. Quack. Quack.
Perhaps we’ll get lots of vaginal mutilations like in that abortion of a film he made “The Piano Teacher” — easily the worst film I’ve seen in the last 20 years.
Spare us this guy.
Saved! Handke talk is just talk. Eva Wagner-Pasquier was quoted in the Austrian press (Die Presse) as saying “I haven’t any idea where this came from.”
I rather liked his “Trump Tower” Giovanni in Paris. Everything takes place in glass high-rise and Giovanni as a “Mad Men” type.
I should have wrote Michael Haneke…