Love, love and love!
Jummy Jonas Kaufmann and awe-inspiring Anna Netrebko team for the great duet from Manon, as heard last night at the Waldbühne Berlin.
La Cieca’s allusion, explained:
(Photo by Herbert, by kind permission of anna-netrebko.blogspot.com.)
La Cieca’s [dis]allusion, explained:
[img]http://parterre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/anita_ekberg.jpg[/img]
[img]http://parterre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/anita_ekberg.jpg[/img]
Anita Eekberg…
The whole thing can be viewed again here :
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek#/beitrag/video/1412210/Komplette-Sommernachtsmusik-2011
(thanks Intermezzo)
Will someone tell me why the sound at this live concert sounds so canned? Superior German sound technology? What?
I thought Netrebko sang beautifully but I really want to hear Jonas in person at the Met. I have missed his previous appearances.
However, I disagree about all the lovers of her “trill”. Sorry but I only hear a wide vibrato adn not a real trill.
Go back and listen to Sutherland, Horne, Sills, Caballe for real trills. This just doesn’t cut it for me as a trill.
Caballe mustered up a real trill very, very rarely. On the whole, it was a weird tremulous noise, not even a wider than usual vibrato. I speak, incidentally, as an ardent Caballe admirer. I’d also be prepared to debate the ‘realness’ of Horne’s trill if it wasn’t such a running joke that all anybody ends up caring about is those pesky trills!
[img]http://parterre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/trilling.jpg[/img]
Ha ha- brilliant.
Brava e bis!
Of the singers you mentioned, I believe Sutherland was the only one with a real trill.
I agree, peter.
The trilling games begin….
Trema.
Yeah, sure, like Sutherland could trill in fifths like Ellen Beach Yaw
Trilling is dead.
[img]http://parterre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Deadtrilling.jpg[/img]
Yikes.
How wonderful it is to read you again, Betsy! Thanks for taking time out from your trek through the graveyard to keep in touch!
-- Very best wishes!
Sounds like the audience really got their money’s worth at this concert. And that trill is real, certainly more so than Caballe’s.
I know. Now what on earth is everyone going to talk about during the Bolena chat?
I’m not really sure why Fleming has been dragged on to this thread too. Netrebko is a brilliant soprano and it does seem as if things with her just got a little more interesting- why is it necessary to diss Fleming while remarking on Netrebko’s latest endeavours?
DISCUSSIONS IN WHICH RENEE-BASHING IS (RELATIVELY) RARE
Maeterlinck’s Imagery in “Life of the Bee”
Elephantaisis Among Zambezi River Tribes
The Manufacture of Papyrus
Etruscan War Heroes
That’s about all I can think of.
Really? All that extra time on the veranduh and this is all you have?
Ah, cara Betsy, it’s nice to have you back where you belong.
Trilling depends on style of the time. Most singers can learn to trill; some cannot. In the old days, make that “old,” we used to admire Steber’s trills but lament the ‘stiff’ soprano of Dorothy Kirsten who simply never had a trill — but wait! She did, and very effectively so in a performance of Manon Lescaut where she exhibited, as per Puccini’s score, a perfectly formed trill. So there!
But, really, it’s a matter of what the public and the music directors want. I think it is out of style in present times; I agree Sutherland had it in spades. But start a wave of public acclaim for trilling and soon enough, studios will turn out those ladies, and some men, who can.
As for me, I’ll take more of that final Wozzeck I heard last night in Santa Fe. It was a sensational performance; “final night” freedom to risk and take changes and give your all, and it was masterful at every level. David Robertson covered himself with glory conducting opera in Santa Fe this summer; I hope he will be back.
JIM/sfe
amen, mr.!! last night’s wozzeck knocked me out, the maestro was superb as was the cast! I could barely stand up when it was over! I don’t have high hopes for Last Savage tonight, but you never know
Oh I disagree. Trills are NOT a matter of what the public wants. They might like them,a nd miss them when they are omitted or poorly done, but the display of virtuosity depends on the talent of the singer. The conductor cannot command it to happen either if the singer’s technique to execute the ornament is not there in the first place. (But I knew you know that.) The matter of singers negelecting the significance and occurances of appogiature is also relevant to this discussion.
Here’s an excerpt of Fleming’s boring and bland Manon:
Blame Massenet. He asked her to sing to the table.
Singing to the table is boring? Really?
I am really curious to hear Anna sing Tacea la notte from Trovatore. I remember her saying in that (in)famous f-word interview that she thought the trills in di tale amor section were very difficult to execute after the stacatto singing. I can not find a link to the article though but I think the interviewer said she demonstrated it singing the phrase.
The trills are difficult for her to execute because she doesn’t have a trill.
If you want to hear the trills sung properly go to Youtube and listen to Rosa Ponselle.
Is Ms Ponselle accepting engagements this season?
BTW the pic belongs to the concert at Konigsplatz in Munich and not to the one at Waldbühne, Berlin as it is written.
Best,
C