Donizetti queens report
Today is the dress rehearsal/preview of Anna Bolena at the Met, and naturally La Cieca has infiltrated the event with a veritable phalanx of spies. After the jump: all your latest Anna Netrebko related news.
SPOILERS BELOW!
4:30: “Although Donizetti is one of my least favorite ‘standard-repertoire’ composers, I enjoyed today’s Anna Bolena at the MET. McVicar’s production is very simple and straightforward—nothing that the Sybil Harrington Trust would object to funding (although this was paid for by Mercedes and Sid Bass), with ravishing costumes against very simple monochromatic sets. Mumford was an astonishingly boyish Smeaton, nicely sung although not as impressive as her Paulina last season. Gubanova was awfully ‘plain Giovanna’ asSeymour, and not particularly suited to this repertoire with a very raw top. Abdrazakov, a striking-looking Enrico, lacked the bottom notes but was incisive and secure throughout the rest of the range—I liked him a lot.
“I’d never heard Costello before and was very impressed by his singing, although the end of his first aria went a bit awry. His stage deportment is quite another matter—I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a more awkward and disengaged performance on the Met stage. If he ever made eye contact with anyone on stage, I missed it, and his hang-dog posture and vague expression got really tiresome by the end—and what was with the house slippers for ‘Vivi tu?’
“The eponymous diva of the moment started out sounding uncharacteristically rough—the first aria and cabaletta going for little. After that, she seemed to find her form and character and gave us a highly dignified and impassioned Queen, in opulent voice for the rest of the performance. Her launching of the stretta of the Act 1 was exciting as was her soaring D at the conclusion. I indeed heard the rising series of trills in the final cabaletta—not all of them fully voiced but at least attempted with some speaking more clearly than others—evidently she had worked on this sinceVienna. Other than the long interruption before the final scene due to a stage elevator snafu, the most spontaneous moment was when Netrebko broke character during the huge applause after ‘Al dolce guidami’ to acknowledge the English horn player in the pit.
“Spoiler: This time the McVicar executioner stays clothed.”
3:10: “The Queen is dead! It’s fine, though McVicar has some kitschy ideas. For the final scene, there’s the chorus of women in front of a wall, then the wall goes up (that was the crash we heard earlier), looking almost exactly like the transition into the Tomb Scene of Aida. The executioner is on top of the wall instead of Amneris. The ladies separate, and Anna is kneeling with back to audience, giving the impression she has already been beheaded. There’s an open door with a smoke effect she sings into, she wanders for a while. Then Keith Miller and Costello arrive in various states of undress, Smeton fully dressed but all bloody. Before last pieta, there’s this big fussy business of Anna putting her hair up in a bun, marching upstage to the door, then turning and waiting for the orchestra to drop out before singing a high B-flat. There doesn’t seem to be much sense of musical choices, how to make the most effective points in the music. The chain of trills didn’t work. She sounds fine, but I just don’t think bel canto is her strong suit.”
3:05: “Nebs nailed the mad scene. Once set went up, effective and quite handsome. Set is black white and red all over. Final image is of giant red satiny curtain (covers entire stage) falling as symbolic beheading. Effective and big!”
2:45: “Suggested headline: ‘Old Man Yells at Stagehands to Sabotage Met Opening Night’” [Apparently this is the "Franco Zeffirelli" moment of the production: the prison rises up on the stage elevator, or fails to rise, as the case may be. - LC]
2:25: “Singers pretty damn good and solid all through second act. Set malfunction at beginning of last act. Loud boom, set couldn’t rise. ”
2:20: “Huge crash backstage at the beginning of the mad scene. Work lights came up and the music stopped. 15 minute break announced.”
1:10: “Initial thoughts post act I. Halfway through the act it seemed that this opera was being hijacked by the men of Tudor. The opening scene was a bit disappointing with a Nebs entrance seemingly designed as a star entrance which wasn’t received as such, i.e., no entrance applause, and than an opening scene where she didn’t seem ‘on’.
“This was followed by Jane Seymour’s bedchamber in which Ildar as Henry was unbelievably hot, sexy, sensual and vocally amazing. This was a scene where he made Jonathan Rhys Meyers‘ Henry on Showtime look like a princess. The lovely 80ish year old woman next to me fanned herself during this scene- he controlled the stage and Ekaterina G. while good seemed to melt into the background.
“Next the park scene where Stephen Costello was in great voice and the audience with was him. Nebs returned and from here on, she was the Queen in all respects. Vocally anything tentative an hour ago was gone and you couldnt keep your eyes off her. She ended this scene by planting a big kiss on Ildar (Henry) that was charged to say the least.
“Her next scene with Costello was lacking the sexual chemistry that she had in that one moment with Ildar. They seem to not be melding together yet, and McVicar may want to work on manning up Costello especially with Ildar’s smoking hot king.
“The end of act ensemble was well done (albeit cut) and Nebs ended the act with a strong assured high D center stage that made it clear that even with the strong male competition it was still her show!
“Production-wise, the set is drab and Spartan (McVicar’s Tudors don’t have much in terms of home decor) but the set is movable and let’s the act play nonstop (no interminable set changes here.) The man knows how to keep up pacing and how to move the action on this stage. Costumes are where the money seems to have been spent- luxurious and really good looking from royalty to courtiers.
“One quibble- those two ugly wolfhounds who were paraded around Zimmerman’s Lucia (and even got some press out of it) are back! Do they have a deal that they must be in any new production of a Donizetti opera at the Met? Should we assume we will see them next season in Maria Stuarda and L’elisir?
“Orchestra was ok- overture was treated with too much omm pah pah playing but got better from there.”
12:50: “Sets are somewhat modern (minimal) but traditional (period). Very safe but effective. No props other than candelabras, a few throw pillows and one bed. Dark brown, greys and black seem to be color scheme Moving walls, trees for forest descending from flies. Smooth ‘a vista’ transitions between scenes. Costumes for chorus are pilgrim chic: black and white. Netrebko is singing quite well: smooth, huge voice, though her acting is somewhat stilted. Guberova is belting and quite shrill at times – ‘Slavic edge’ if you will. Costello looks and sounds hot as hell. Mr Borodina is solid but bland, but looks good from dress circle. Isobel Lenard Tamara Mumford got a mid aria applause in scene before Anna enters. Orchestra sounds together as does chorus.”
12:37: “Anna sounds absolutely great, the voice big and luminous, though her singing does not, I think, have a lot to do with bel canto style. It’s beautiful but not electrifying. The part of Enrico is a bit low for Ildar, but he sounds fine. Stephen Costello is singing very well, not scooping, in tune. The production, well, looks like Anna Bolena: muted color, ornate walls that slide and reveal rooms within rooms. Otherwise it’s mostly people standing around singing; thus far there’s nothing you could call a coup de théâtre.”
12:25: First reports coming in!
8:45: Honey, it hasn’t even started yet. Relax, enjoy your brunch, and check back later.
(Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera)
One of the best things I’ve ever heard from her was a performance at the Proms in which she did some Korngold, ‘Wunder des Heliane’, which was just wonderful. Seems to me she has sung in Britain quite a bit, and successfully, too.
I’m going back to La Cieca’s Institute for YouTube Importation, to refresh my skills, so that I might import those things once more. Her Proms appearance in that would be worth that effort, ich denke.
No flirting with ardath Camille Belle, remember we are girlfriends….. plus ardath is one of my favorite posters here, so double jealousy. Since I am more of a Wagnerian, and bel canto is his fancy, we do not interact much about opera (I like his politics and weltanschauung!, sorry OT) but now that I am so into this Bolena thing, I LOVE the fact that with his great knowledge of bel canto he was still able to GET the glorious Netrebko, whom I am liking more and more by the hour. I am so excited, like a little high school girl before the prom (retiring type you know).
Your mention of Giudici ad Anna brought chuckles, as I remembered Tyne Daly, whom I saw just recently, in the Palco Funesto scene of Masterclass, she was so FABULOUS, did you see her?
Madamigella MarshieII,
I am a nympho-chatter.
This girl can’t help but talk with them all.
No, I did not see Tyne Daly, nor shall I, as I have a big problem with Masterclass.
Marshie, are your pearls white, grey, or black? I like them in all colours. May I suggest you go to Gumps in San Francisco, where they have some real Tahitian beauties?! You may look them over onlline, if you please,
I will be there in spirit, on Monday, listening in to the broadcast, dressed up in my best. Give a loud brava so I can hear you!
Thanks for your enthusiasm for La Garanca as my opinion of her has really dramatically increased after having heard the Seymour. I look forward to the Bellini, my fave!
girls please no fighting over little old ardath there’s plenty to go around. Cammile yes I’m in heaven but not flying to San Fran to see Lucrezia, which I saw in Washington. Not that I wouldn’t like to. Giuseppe oh yes, where would he be without our Gaetano? Entire phrases and melodies lifted, entire dramatic setups, and not only in early Giuseppe, but all way up to middle and late Giuseppe, Otello and Falstaff. I deeply love Giuseppe however, always have, Ballo (my personal favorite of his) is a variation of Maria di Rohan and I must admit a superior one. But it’s easy to be superior when most of the work has already been done.
Verdi disliked Donizetti not only because Gaetano’s music haunted him but because Strepponi had been Gaetano’s lover and bore him a child, stillborn and named Adelia, Donizetti then wrote Adelia for her which she sang the title role of when it opened at Teatro Apollo in Rome, 1840.
But the bad blood paled in comparison to the repulsion that Bellini felt for Donizetti, a feeling Gaetano had no knowledge of. Gaetano saw him as a friend and admired his genius, there was even a legend that Lucia had been composed to honor Bellini after his death, not true of course, the opera had already been written, rehearsed and ready to open (Sept 26) when Bellini died (today in fact, Sept 23). Donizetti did write a gorgeous Requiem for Bellini after his passing, recorded by Pavarotti and others. Sometimes I feel like I’m living in the 1830s, maybe I did, or maybe I’m like that character in Midnight in Paris.
Allright, the more the Mary (pun intended) then, but then it has to be a quatro because we can’t leave out darling Kashie, so it’ll be a foursome then.
Wow that was a fascinating little dissertation on Gaetano ardath, and I didn’t know how Bellini detested Gaetano, wow. If I had to choose, of course I’d take Bellini hands down, plus he was a favorite of the greatest Richie W, but this Bolena is really taking a life of its own. My favorite line in the whole opera is Un suon sommesso tramandan esse come il gemer……, what a sublime little verse that is and then the preghiera, wow viva il bel canto. Glorious. I am sure Anna will be sublime there.
Camille, the pearls are black! Superchic! And lots of taffeta and pique’
Pas de quatre or a quadrille for us.
Have a wonderful rentree into the beau monde, MMII and don’t let anyone impair your enjoyment. If you ever happen to again see the greatest mrsjohn, give her my love. There is nobody like her.
Black pearls are the most exquisite. You have taste. Alles gutes in Zeit und Ewigkeit.
Gee I wonder if MrsJC will be there, it’s be fun meeting him!
marshiemarkII omg who doesn’t love Vincenzo. Though it’s up for discussion who wrote better music, Gaetano certainly wrote better operas, except for Norma, the other ten Bellini operas are very silly. And he never attempted comedy, in which Gaetano was so successful. Wagner did admire Bellini, but knowing Wagner I doubt he would praise him if Bellini were still around and competing. Competition back then was fierce and there was a LOT of backstabbing. The Norma prima for instance was a fiasco because Pacini and his supporters sabotaged it.
Wagner (and Berlioz) resented and disparaged Donizetti because he was the most performed composer in Europe in the 1830s and 1840s. Wagner was starving in Paris at the time and couldn’t get his operas produced. He was employed by Schlesinger from 1840-1842 to make piano arrangements (of La Favorite and others) and hated it. Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini (1838) flopped miserably just as Donizetti’s operas began to dominate every major theater in the French capital. Well you get the idea I’d better stop, I could go on the whole weekend….
Please do go on….. I learn so much from you!!!!.
Don’t you adore Un son sommesso tramandan esse… I am listening to La Maria right now, and there is no heaven like this….. what glorious music. How did Anna do this? Lots of pathos?
Gaetano was court composer in Vienna, right?
ardath_bey–
his “Adelson and Salvini”, from which the aria that MMII loves so much “Dopo l’oscuro nembo”, is taken from, was a sort of comedy. There was at least some Neapolitan schtick and a typical patter song, I think, written in dialect. I think that’s about it, though.
Sicilians are just not the fun type. Too many invasions from too many different directions! Paranoia strikes deep!
Camille Belle, you were in my mind again today, I went back to Barney’s this afternoon to get my last little pocket square, black and white silk, and as I was entering the 60th St entrance, the display right to my left by the door has a pair of well, shoes….. by Louboutin, I can’t escape you!!!!! hilfe, and then I came back for more Maria as Bolena, and then the divine Garanca, the entire CD, there are so many treasures in that disc, lots of Donizetti, Dom Sebastien sublime!. I wonder what our ardath thinks of that disc……
Camille yes, Adelson e Salvini is a semiseria, which is as you know a drama with elements of comedy (Linda di Chamounix is the prime example) so Bellini never wrote a real comedy.
marshiemarkII correct, Gaetano was appointed by the King of Austria to be court composer in 1942, the same position that Mozart held, after the success of Linda di Chamounix.
marshiemarkII don’t hate me but I have the Garanca cd SIGNED by her, we once discussed that gorgeous recording during one of the rehearsals of Carmen. I told her that she’ll live in my heart forever simply for having recorded not one, but two arias from L’Assedio di Calais on that album.
ardath I am green with envy
will you be there tomorrow?
Is the pope catholic?
ardath I will be in row S orchestra, tomorrow I’ll know the seat numbers….
I was not able to attend the dress rehearsal of Anna Bolena yesterday, but I did see Stephen Costello sing the role of Percy two times in Dallas less than a year ago, and he was superb in every way. Here is a clip not of Anna Bolena, which I do not have, but of the little duet near the end of Gianni Schicchi where Stephen sounds as gorgeous as a tenor can sound to my ears. He is joined by wife Ailyn Perez, and together they soar to a high Db, which sounds more than ample to me. I feel sure Stephen will be terrific on opening night on Monday, and I will be there. http://youtu.be/FYJHkwnCa9Q
Netrebko will have a resounding triumph as Anna Bolena based on what I’ve seen and heard at the final dress rehearsal. It’s already a vast improvement over the broadcast/telecast of her assumption of the role in Vienna this past April. To anticipate the nay-sayers, she must have put in a lot of effort on the technical side of bel canto and it pays off handsomely. Hers is not the voice of a soprano leggero but more of a dramatica d’agilita, and the added technical sureness has improved the “agility” part of the equation to stunning results. The mad scene is truly the high point of the opera and Netrebko ran away with the honors. In the cavatina “Al dolce guidami” she NAILED every single trill, and tossed in a high C for good measure to end the cadenza. The house erupted as expected to the point that Netrebko herself had to break character, and grinning like a cheshire cat, she clapped back toward the orchestra. And if she only grazed over the ascending trills in the cabaletta (as only Maria Callas could!), she gave them a respectable shake both times, and it would be curmudgeonly to nitpick such a gamely attempt at facing (rather than avoiding) the challenge. Brava Anna!
The rest of the cast provided strong support, with only wimpy-looking and wimpy-sounding Stephen Costello as the weak link often struggling for pitch and volume above the staff. His droopy Percy was no match to the smoldering hunk Enrico VIII of Ildar Abdrazakov (gee, I can just imagine Tomasini reaching for his smelling salts as he trots out a thesaurus for all the synonyms of “strapping”, “hulky”, “hot/sexy”), his voice rang out authoritatively whether as king or lover and his high-testoterone presence burned up the stage in ways that his Attila didn’t quite catch fire. Gubanova has never sounded better to my ear, much to my relief, and plain-looking though she is (next to Netrebko) she gave a gutsy and vibrant portrayal of Giovanna Seymour which emphasizes the inner turmoil/conflict/guilt rather than external seductiveness (something that Garanca excels both physically and vocally in Vienna). Tamara Mumford’s Smeton was gorgeous to see and to hear, her dips into the contralto range sweet as honey. Keith Miller’s Rochefort is another hulky presence with a booming voice to match. And Hervey was entrusted to the reliable Eduardo Valdes.
The production is somber (some might even find it drab) but elegant (the costumes are stunning!) and flows well between scenes so I like it a lot. There was a mechanical mishap just before the mad scene which necessitated a 15-minute break, but the fix was worth the wait, and it would make for some spectacular effects if going smoothly during the actual run.. The score is so gorgeous, and with this production and this cast, the MET is sure to have a big hit (as if it needs anything other than Netrebko’s name to sell out those performances). Angela Meade might have better bel canto chops, but she’ll have some pretty big shoes to fill here. It’s a luxury to have 2 world-class Bolenas around for this run! (The cover is Olga Makarina, who might not have the vocal and physical glamor of the other 2, but isn’t chopped liver when it comes to bel canto either … she did cover and go on for a couple of performances for Renee when the MET put on Il Pirata several years ago).
Really hated the production. From my family circle seat the chorus costumes looked like recycled nuns’ habits; detail was lost. Anyway, Tudor courtiers should be wearing the bright colors befitting their exalted rank, not the unrelieved black of the middle class. (They also would have for the most part hated the real Anne Boleyn and not sung sad songs about her, but that’s another argument.) At least Henry got his cloth-of-gold outfit for Act II, and the other main characters were credibly richly garbed.
The sets appeared to be cheap plywood, especially those thin doors. (The windows were good, I’ll grant that much.)
Ah, but Anna Netrebko was wonderful once she warmed up. The audience waited for it, and was rewarded. Her girlish bounce of happiness during the final bows was charming; there’s still plenty of the younger Anna left. This will be a triumph for her.
” Anyway, Tudor courtiers should be wearing the bright colors befitting their exalted rank, not the unrelieved black of the middle class.”
And your authority for this dictum is …?
And, besides, this is an opera, not an archeological treatise. In an opera, there are ways of distinguishing the leading characters that are distinct from those of a Tudor court.
Alto, England had sumptuary laws that regulated by social rank not only the colors, but also the kinds of cloth, kinds of fur, and embellishments people were allowed to wear. Holbein did wonderful paintings of important people of that era, such as Thomas Cromwell, who wore black because their social rank (despite their political power) did not allow them to wear brighter colors. Only 20 years later, the English courtiers laughed at the all-in-black Spanish courtiers who came with Philip II when he married Mary I.
I’m not objecting to the many historical inaccuracies of the opera’s plot. The drabness of the production didn’t sit well with me, and since it was historically inaccurate it bothered me all the more. I would have been fine with them doing it all in 19th century garb to match the period sensibility displayed therein.
We each have our sticking points, and bad costumes and sets annoy me.
Jenny Tiramani, the costume designer of this piece, mentioned that black was a very expensive color to achieve in those days, the fabric had to be dyed three times in different color dips in order to get the intensity of black. You can see why it was restricted to court wear.
http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/vogues-first-look-anna-netrebko-takes-center-stage-in-anna-bolena-at-the-metropolitan-opera/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=Fashion+Instant
Forgot to post this link aboutthe costumes, with pictures, in Vogue.
I’m sure Anna looks better than that Tiramani referenced photo in Vogue, which makes her look positively plump, probably too much Tiramisu!
I suppose, considering the recent obsession with wearing all black all the time, plus Anne Boleyn’s French stylishness, plus the modern French love of the little black dress, plus the Holbein portrait of her that appears to be of her wearing black, the color black seemed like a very reasonable costume choice. Except it wasn’t so special and offered very little visual contrast when almost everyone was in black and the sets were so dark, too.
Was all this detailed costuming Vogue is so happy about (invisible to those in Family Circle without binoculars) meant for the HD audience instead? HD camerawork usually only delivers extreme close-ups or partial views, and the lighting comes across differently. Hmm. Maybe.
Bets_Ann,
Where is Psoriasis Valley, Wyoming? Near the Old Faithful Geyser?