Done Giovanni
“An eagerly awaited production of Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni —staged by Tony winner Michael Grandage (Red)—limped into the Met Thursday dead on arrival.” [New York Post]
Cher Public
- MrGuy1804: You are right on the money. I was not terribly impressed with any of the singing. There were a few... 12:29 AM
- Camille: That was fun, thanks! I had completely forgotten Eastern Airlines, the Wings of Man. With a name like... 12:22 AM
- Henry Holland: Thanks! Too bad they didn’t do Der Zwerg instead of the (wonderful) Puccini. The LA Opera... 12:09 AM
- Camille: Thanks Blue, for the review. Lord, what are “earthy colorings”? 12:06 AM
- Gualtier M: Here is Carmelita Pope in the actual 70′s era Pam commercial at 2:36 in: httpv://www.you... 12:03 AM
- CruzSF: kashania, please tell us more about these performances. Who? How presented? And don’t neglect the... 12:03 AM
- bluecabochon: Lucky you, Bob! I;d see it again if I could. Here’s TT’s New York Times review:... 11:53 PM
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Okay, apropos of everything and anything…
I saw Mattila’s U.S. debut as Elvira in 1987 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She had a lovely creamy sound but wasn’t the crazed stage animal she became about five or six years later. I would have loved it if she went back to either Elvira or Anna at the Met. Mattila’s Met Donna Elvira’s were in the museum display Zeffirelli production in 1990 with Carol Vaness. Studer came in the 1991 revival with Patricia Schuman and Roberta Alexander as Elvira.
I found Vaness’ Donna Elvira more dramatically involving than her Donna Anna, as perfectly sung as the Anna was. She had more to say as Elvira and it fit her ageing voice in the mid-nineties (after that back injury after the fall on the treadmill that seemed to start the vocal decline).
The review in the Post is pretty spot on. I saw the sorry spectacle last night. The boring production basically threw a wet blanket over the cast. The bad production dominated in a negative way. The dark dreary McVicar “Anna Bolena” production did not have that effect. Netrebko was able to carry the “Anna Bolena” to success through her vocal and personal star charisma. No one in the “Don Giovanni” – more of an ensemble opera – was able to work that kind of magic.
Depending on whether you consider the Bartlett Sher “Barbiere” a success or failure – he had a great cast that was directed to a fare-thee-well in the premiere run – that was a successful from scratch production. The Minghella “Butterfly” was an import. The “Satyagraha” also seems to be a co-production. Also the Zimmermann “Lucia” is controversial but was more successful than either of the Volpe era new productions. That opera like “Norma”, “Trovatore” and others seems to be cursed these days. Directors just can’t handle that over the top romanticism.
A minor correction: Mattila’s U.S. debut was in Washington DC in 1985 as Donna Elvira.
Just a case in point: Peter Mattei’s Don Giovanni has been seen in the Zeffirelli and Marthe Keller productions. Last night, Mattei was almost bland as the Don. Whereas in the hated Zeffirelli production he was an amoral sexual dynamo. He was still good but not as good in the Keller and a bit of an attractive cipher last night.
As for the Zeffirelli production, the sets were pretty. After the first year, Lesley Koenig and Stephen Lawless pretty much redirected it with some first-rate casting. It actually played well and didn’t get in the way of the singers. Now I have friends that disagreed with me about the Zeffirelli production but it now looks like a classic in the light of what followed.
THANK you, Gualtier, for putting into words what I had been trying to articulate to myself since last Thursday. This “new” production did none of the singers any favors, and succeeded in neutralizing in Mattei the wonderful, apt qualities previously seen in his earlier work.
I hope Mattei is inspired enough in the upcoming La Scala production by Robert Carsen to rebound as an “amoral sexual dynamo” or some *other* Don equally fascinating.
Thanks, Gualtier. Yes, I agree. I don’t understand the need to update for updating sake. Why change popular productions? Yes, I know some productions get tired and you have to give an audience a reason to come back…. but…. you better be darn sure you really do give them a reason to come back. I’m not sure who is deciding that some of these new productions will thrill audiences.
From the review:
He should put his foot down, though, about the hideous miking of the Commendatore (Stefan Kocán) in the graveyard scene, which sounded like a middle-school public address system.
__
Listening to the broadcast, I wondered if that was electronically amplified. Sometimes I have seen and heard Don Giovanni performances where the graveyard utterances of the statue are naturally amplified through a megaphone or something of the sort such as might have been used in Mozart’s day. I agree it is disgraceful and possibly the thin end of the wedge. Once they start using mikes for one singer for whatever reason, maybe they will do it again!
The need to remember Lyric’s new slogan!
They need to, I mean.
Excellent paper. Sharp as ever! Brava La Cieca!
The last sentence is a killer, btw.
I’m maybe being naive, but why Gelb doesn’t invite a very-VERY-VERY good young American director, Thaddeus Strassberger, to mount one production “now” — when he’s at his creative peak?
He’s a real gem and while he’s producing the shows in smaller theaters, Eyre, Wadsworth, Sher, Serban… ‘decorate’ The Met. Strange!
Cheers
Not to mention the Alden brothers. He could also hire Paul Curran (has he?) or Stephen Lawless who have been a boon for the American provincial houses.
Well…one of the Aldens (David, I believe) is doing a new BALLO at the MET next season, and then all the queens on PARTERRE will be up in arms about Regie Verdi! Bitch, bitch, bitch, moan, moan, moan…
yAy!FOR DAVID ALDEN who is also directing the Rossini Maometto II at Santa Fe next year.
Let’s hope they don’t do to Maometto II what Graham Vick did for Mose in Pesaro. Rossini deserves the best.
BUT remember Vick’s first Mose at Pesaro – a triumph.
you forgot the “groan, groan, groan”, sterlingkay!
Curran’s Britten productions have been some of my favourites.
I don’t care for Strassberger, I find, like Pascoe, his work to me seems far too much led by his designs rather than direction.
Strassberger’s DC Hamlet also did an absolutely bizarre thing in Ophelia’s mad scene where they dropped the curtain and did a pause so they could rig Futral up in a pretty stage picture for the coda. It was visually striking, but its a bit odd to put a five minute pause at the end of an aria in order to put the soprano in a harness.
Or Robert Carsen? The man has one of the best track-records out of any opera director in the world. And he’s had a previous success at the Met with his Onegin Best of all — he’s an OPERA DIRECTOR, not a film or theatre director trying to adapt to complicated art form.
“Like.”
I’ve often wondered about Carsen’s relationship with the theater. Why isn’t he more active there? He has a wide range and seems to be able to adapt to different environments. Even when he reins himself in and does what is for him a more conservative production (like Carmelites for La Scala with Muti), it’s distinctive and imaginative. I like the Met Onegin as you do, but I know it was controversial when new, and probably has been better served by some of the revival casts (including the one on DVD, which is really good) than at the premiere with Gorchakova and Chernov. Volpe was pretty dismissive/snotty about it in his memoir. Is the new regime just not interested in him, or did he have a bad experience?
The Carsen Onegin at the MET is easily one of my favorite productions of the last 25 years. Even Volpe can luck into an occasional great production. I still remember some people complaining that there were no apples and I realized how reactionary the MET audience is.
It’s funny that Volpe should be dismissive of one of the only good (dare I say great?) new productions to come out during his regime.
Even Volpe..? How about the Volpe productions of Ghosts, Voyager, Rusalka, Cosi, Moses, Fidelio, Frau, Gambler, War & Peace, Meistersinger…? There are failures and successes for everyone.
Iltenore–
Funny, the only VOLPE production from the ones you listed that I would call an unqualified success would be the Wernicke FRAU. The Schenk Meistersinger and Rusalka are typical of his later work– Disney-pretty and no character work or detailed staging. Park & Bark. The Lesley Koenig COSI?!?!? please…
The Moses und Aron was a MUSICAL success but the Graham Vick production failed to solve the “static” nature of the piece.
I just went through the 16 years’ worth of new productions that Volpe supervised (thank you MET archives!) and came up with the following successes (in my opinion): FRAU (Wernicke), KATYA KABANOVA (Miller) LADY MACBETH (Graham Vick), ARIADNE AUX NAXOS (Moshinsky), EUGENE ONEGIN (Carsen), and MAGIC FLUTE (Taymor). The list of HORRIBLE productions is much longer (including 2 LUCIAs, 2 FAUSTs and 2 DON GIOVANNIs). Six good productions in 16 years.
sterling, you liked some productions and others liked others. The ones I mentioned are not my favorites but those I sort of remember getting generally good reviews across the board. But it doesn’t matter. My point is that not all Volpe’s productions were bad just like not all Gelb’s productions are either good or bad. Or Bing’s or anybody else’s.
Remember too that productions are sometimes wonderfully received and then years later decried as terrible. Tastes change. Productions deteriorate. One example that comes to mind is I Puritani, which to the best of my recollection was very well received when new with Sutherland and Pavarotti. Last time it was revived I remember posters here calling it old fashioned and worse.
I’m also wondering what happened with Carsen. What did he do to irritate Volpe so much? And why haven’t we seen him recently?
Absolutely–he’s not always great, but who is?
I am also a fan of his Met “Onegin” and will be sorry to see it go.
My guess is since it will be Netrebko’s first staged EUGENE ONEGIN, the MET wanted it to be a new production. Also, it will probably be released as a DVD and they didn’t want to film the same production from the very popular Fleming-Hvorostovsky-Vargas-Gergiev DVD. It was supposed to be Minghella’s second MET production. Deborah Warner, who is now directing it, is very good (her production of DEATH IN VENICE was stunning)…..we shall see
Yes, I vote for Thaddeus Strassberger, too!
Loved the Huguenots he staged at Bard Festival, two summers ago. All except the birdcage and the gratuitous sex scene.
Strassberger directed a perverse, disturbing (in many of the wrong ways*) Fidelio in Boston a couple of years ago in the wake of what I thought was an exciting, successful wrestle with the gigantic Les Huguenots at Bard. He may not yet be at his creative peak but I will agree that he is definitely a director to watch and wish well. The raw material is very good.
*Pizarro as a Catholic Bishop and sexual predator ruling a monastery of Fascistic priests being just one example.
I agree, Will – that was an *awful* , misjudged staging, with gratuitous sexual torture scenes and yet another inconsolable Marzelline stealing focus in the finale.
Very fine Leonore though from Goerke, who was gotten some brickbats here lately. I thought her Ortrud in Hosuton was also REALLY good and look forward to the Eboli in French there.
Sorry to disagree Will but I think that idea is excellent in so many ways, and it is a reason that TS would be a breath of fresh air. His idea was original and it is in synch with what we’ve been learning over the past decade (and more) about the predator priests. Imagine how it was during the times of inquisition, or even much later –even during the Franco rule– when the church was politically untouchable and the judge of socially acceptable moral conduct! Wasn’t that a form of terror for all the numerous victims?
What I am trying to say is that THIS kind of ideas would spur discussions, the productions would have an impact that goes far beyond the good musical quality, and it would change the routine of all those “nice” (flat) Met productions. It wouldn’t please everyone! But do these tired production –essentially staged by the decorators– please everyone?
Armida, Boris Godunov, Carmen, Rheingold… just the recent example of what I could see and found dull and intellectually regressing.
Just now, I received in my inbox a notice from OONY with fulsome blurbs about the upcoming Adriana Lecouvreur. Example: “He is surely the most charismatic, magnetic, dark-toned tenor since Domingo and he held the house by the throat”. Daily Mail Online.
Hope Domingo doesn’t read that. He’s liable to revive his Maurizio, again!
“An eagerly awaited production of Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni —staged by Tony winner Michael Grandage (Red)—limped into the Met Thursday dead on arrival.
The limping dead? Must be a zombie Giovanni.
Surely it could have limped into the Met and then dropped dead as it arrived…!
I don’t think so, Manou, but I grant you that it depends on your definition of “Arrived” and your definition of “The Met.” It could have limped into the stage door, and then dropped dead just before the curtain opened. But if you interpret The Met as the physical building itself, or perhaps even the immediate environs, then it would have to have been lying dead out in the courtyard, and surely someone would have noticed a recently-perished opera just lying there. Couldn’t they have called the paramedics?
Zounds! Zombie or Zeno’s paradox?
Perhaps, in an era of tight city budgets, a luxury tax on metaphors is in order.
Of course with Zeno’s paradox it would never have arrived there at all (except of course for the obvious flaw in the Zeno reasoning).
However, I would go along with Betsy and agree that defibrillators should have been available. And of course she is right about tightening up definitions – maybe we should remember Bill Clinton’s masterful elucidation: “it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is”
I shy away from the zombie suggestion. My experience with zombies is that they regularly express themselves with “aurghh” in an unpitched utterance. I was listening closely, and I heard only one “aurghh” and it was distinctly pitched.
Let us not forget that zombies are dead people turning up again – do we not think many posters here would welcome this as they could have their dream casts again?
The only problem will be to get the right dead divas to return.
Zeno, I think, can be recuperated cinematically: in the first shot we have the Don Giovanni production, limping and limping but never quite reaching the stage door. This could be drawn out to the length of a Bela Tarr sequence, say 35 minutes. Then we suddenly cut to the second shot where the already-dead production is seen sprawled out upon the floorboards of the MET.
Perhaps the faint tinkling of a stage-door bell can be used to mark the mysterious passage of going from both almost-arrival to arrival and from life to death.
Mr Sielberg/croche – here is your storyboad:
http://www.unleash-your-vision.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/glasses-crutches.jpg
followed by
http://withfriendship.com/images/b/6873/some-of-the-dead-at-pompeii.jpg
That’s all really quite moving, Manou – but where’s the tinkle?
Betsy will have a ready answer for you – but you might not like it.
Here I go out for just one evening, and y’all hold a Night of the Limping Dead without me.
Life – um, death – um, OK, well, that in-betweeny stuff – is just so unfair.
It is true we could have done with more Battyness.
Thank you for the historic clip of my idol and role model, Oedipe.
(I mean the guy who says “Rats! Rats!!!”)
Ratzinger! Ratzinger! (back to the red shoes).
“limping dead” = “dead man walking”
The great Terry Gilliam is doing wonders with the new Damnation of Faust at ENO. Just watched it online. The reactionaries here won’t much like but everyone else will. No Zombies in it but plenty of Nazis. When a film director knows what he’s doing the results can be splendid as with the Minghella Butterfly.
Gilliam’s films are operas. Tried to watch on BBC but the site said it was only available to residents of the tight little island. Any suggestions?
Move across to the little island?
I adore opera, I like using the net – but bringing THAT fate upon myself?
NO!
Just as well – immigration rules are being tightened up…
But I also have an Irish passport. They couldn’t keep me out.
I downloaded it from the Demonoid site. Took about 45 minutes. Pure HD picture and stereo surround sound. Includes a great interview with Gilliam with his thoughts about Berlioz. Great stuff.
Too bad Demonoid is closed to prospective users!
Yes, BUT, you can do 5 free downloads per month without registering. They just don’t advertise that. Search under “Gilliam.”
Downloading now. In 1.5 hours it should be available, so thanks for the tip! I had no idea.
They say one needs an invitation code, I can’t get past the home page.
Merci beaucoup! I followed your guide and it all went as you said. I never would have imagined that Demonoid allowed guest downloads.
You’re most welcome. I discovered it by accident before I became a member. I have tons of invitation codes but no longer give them out since getting burned.
JJ’s review is spot-on except for being too nice about the mostly bland music-making. As for inviting directors who know little about opera….well, AT in the NYT says “why not? opera is theater” – and as long as you think that’s all opera is, and that anybody who’s done any kind of a thing is competent to do any other kind, right, why not? (And why not invite sports reporters to take over the music reviews? after all, “criticism is writing.”) This probably won’t change until somebody questions the idea that an operatic evening should basically be shaped by the person designated as the stage director – a newer idea than some people seem to realize, and one whose results can’t be said to have stood the test of time yet.
Tancrid: Interesting points. Don Giovanni is, of course, a conductor’s opera. He makes it or breaks it, and a strong cast (which the Met more or less offers) is party to that. In so perfectly invented an opera as the Mozart-DaPonte scores, less is very often more. I have seen extremely sparse productions of the Don that simply flew off the stage and consumed one. I sense the Luisi Don is growing and perhaps by the time it is nationally seen via HD Moviecast, it may be a worthy show on all counts. Let’s not bury it yet, Mme Cieca!
Oh, and Tancridi, I 101% support your recommendation tht an “operatic evening should be . . . shaped” by someone other than the stage director.
You properly said it for all Parterreworld to see. BUT how do we think that might occur at the High End Retailers of Lincoln Center? One answer: By having a very strong music/artistic director, not the general director. And how likely at present is that likely to happen? Not very. So look to the regionals and festivals for really good work. I wonder why San Francisco and Chicago have turned dullish and uninteresting of late? Some will dispute that they have, but I find it so and can only fault the general directors, not the profession. This Time of Regieoper has just about run its course, methinks!
Several posters have offered very interesting recommendations about how Gelb might improve the quality of the Met’s new productions. I can’t help but think that these folks are artists more than accountants, and I assume Gelb to be the reverse. If enough tickets are sold, will artistic criticisms matter much to him?
Of course not. And it could be worse. The new Vienna DonG last year was worse dramatically and much worse musically but they filled 99.8 of capacity for opera so I’d imagine Meyer is sleeping just fine.
Let’s face it: Mozart, like Wagner, wins every time.
La Cieca, your line: “Mojca Erdmann, making her debut as peasant bride Zerlina, turned shrill when audible” still has me cracking up! That’s one for the ages.
great review.
on another note, does anyone know who the tenor was who substituted in Act II for Stephen Costello in Bolena last night? Smallish voice but so fresh and beautiful sounding.
Taylor Stayton was the tenor in the 2nd act of Bolena last night.
uwsinnyc, how can you tell us THAT, and not tell what happened?????, so the poor boy had a crisis? he was such an improvement on the HD from what I saw at the Opening Night I thought the perennial nay-sayers were finally proved wrong, but obviosuly it did take its toll?
thanks peter. i googled him; he’s cute(ish) to boot!
MarshiemarkII, no real crises to report. He was apparently sick from the start. Same with the mezzo; both were replaced after the first Act II.
MORE BREAKING NEWS:
October 19, 2011
Casting Update News
Jay Hunter Morris will sing the title role in the new production of Wagner’s Siegfried which opens on October 27 and continues on November 1 and 5 matinee. He replaces Gary Lehman who has withdrawn due to illness. The November 5 matinee will be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series.
Morris, who made his Met debut in 2007 as Števa in Janá?ek’s Jen?fa, sang the role of Siegfried this past summer at the San Francisco Opera. Other Wagner roles in his repertory include Walther in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (San Francisco Opera), Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer (Atlanta Opera), and Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, which he will sing for the first time next year at the Welsh National Opera. He has also performed in numerous works by contemporary composers, including Howard Shore ’s The Fly, Elliott Goldenthal and Julie Taymor’s Grendel, André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Moby Dick.
Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads Robert Lepage’s new production of Siegfried, which also stars Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde, Bryn Terfel as the Wanderer, Eric Owens as Alberich, Gerhard Siegel as Mime, and Mojca Erdmann as the Woodbird.
Krunoslav, why have you (or why have the Met) elided mention of Our Own Pat Bardon, the finest Met Erda since Kirkby-Lunn???
She’s not even as good as Gerry Decker, O Dea Nerva.
Aaaagh! After Lehman saved the MET’s ass on a couple of occasions and I was happy that he was finally getting his moment in the sun with the HD transmission.
Damn. I liked Lehman’s Tristan and was looking forward to his Siegfried. (Yes, I was at the performance when he hit his head.)
The announcement says that this Morris guy has Tristan in his repertoire but that he will not sing it until next year for the first time. Does that make sense?
The shrill Zerlina as the Woodbird?
Siegfried #3. This production is cursed.
Other than “uncut” my least favorite operatic word is limp.
Is Jay Hunter Morris the Siegfried that all you San Fran/California people liked in their ring?
If you had seen Lehman, in perfectly good health, speaking on a panel in the Opera House yesterday afternoon, you would have seen this coming. He took the role as one big joke. Where is Klaus Florian Vogt when we need him.
“The shrill Zerlina as the Woodbird?”
She looks like a TV babe and she has a big DG contract.
De Niese…
Machaidze…
Grigolo…
It’s Gelb world. You do the math.
Louann, Morris was indeed our Siegfried in SF. The voice seemed smallish, as Peter has already said, but he is the only Siegfried I’ve ever seen where I didn’t have to keep reminding myself, “OK, that’s just dumb tenor behavior yet again, it’s not written into the character.” He was engagingly boyish, and fun, and he did not run out of steam.
Andie, what do you mean? You think he hasn’t learned the role? Overconfident?
Yes please explain Andie. He seemed in perfectly good health yesterday but today he discovered he is going to be ill nine days from now and stay ill for weeks?
How did you see this coming? He took the role as one big joke? Is that necessarily a bad thing for the young Siegfried? Do you mean that you think he was really fired or had pressure put on him to become ill all of a sudden?
Have a look! not shabby -- he’ll be good in the HD, but inaudible at times in house. Luckily Luisi is conducting, he can control the orchestra well enough….
I have heard that Lehman has been struggling vocally, and time is very short, so they went with the Siegfried who has actually sung the role before. He may be back in the Spring, as they made no announcement about that run.
I saw the SF Ring and Morris was excellent, and was an especially fine actor in a well-directed production. This production’s director is more concerned with the machine than with humans, so as far as acting, the singers may be relying on their own insight and experience and whatever they can cook up together.
From Andie’s interesting account: “Lehman was asked by Gelb to describe this experience and he talked about how difficult it was to remember which prop to pick up — sword, flute, horn.”
Cripes. That’s almost a Tenor Barbie joke. “Acting is TOUGH!”
I would love to hear more of him (Stayton) in the lighter repertoire. It’s not a big voice at all, but very mellifluous
Another AVA grad…!--and one who can actually sing the role….
You know BP I was going to say that all I heard in Stayton’s voice is Costello part two. And then I went back to 2006 to discover that all of the seeds of Costello’s “inexplicable” downfall were in evidence back then. I never realized how Villazon-like the voice was until returning to these earlier recordings.
As uws says Stayton needs to sign lighter repertoire, Mozart etc. in small houses.
Costello’s “downfall”??? Premature much? But that’s the way with some hysterical opera queens. I heard an underwhelming vocal performance from Costello on opening night, a much improved one the second week of the run and a very good performance on the HD (though not perfect). The man is barely 30 years old for goodness sake!
I can’t wait for the gloom and doom queens to declare that Angela Meade’s best days are behind her after her first BOLENA.
Sorry, I had to work. Here’s the way it went (if anyone else was there, correct me.) Lehman was asked by Gelb to describe this experience and he talked about how difficult it was to remember which prop to pick up — sword, flute, horn. He also had not seen the virtual bird which LePage has designed to replace a human. Lepage said that they were going to use a laser beam on the bird so Lehman didn’t run into it. Lehman said often, and with real feeling, how grateful he was for Luisi’s help. Retrospectively he seemed to want to make clear that his failure was not Luisi’s fault. (Luisi by the way seemed very comfortable with everyone on stage. Wish he were artistic director, but Gelb isn’t going to give up that role, even after the Siegfried disaster). Gelb asked the big question about doing the role, to which Lehman clearly was expected to answer, “This is a very difficult role, but I will give it my all. The HD will be great.” Instead he said, and everyone I talked to noticed this, “I am going to try.” Gelb pressed him, and he kept repeating, “I am going to try.” Based on no knowledge whatsoever, I would guess that his representation persuaded Gelb to cast him, that Lehman himself has always been ambivalent, that he found himself in over his head and said he couldn’t do it. My gut feeling is that he was not fired. I think he quit.
oh my Andie, that is quite a story.
Thanks for being there and bringing it back to us. I can’t imagine anyone saying in that situation “I will try”.
Wow, already this season — major substitution in Anna Bolena (Garanca’s pregnancy), the unfortunate cancellation of Mariusz Kwiecien due to his back and I hope to God he is truly able to sing the HD, and now this major upset. Well, at least Kaufmann is back in form and is sure not to disappoint.
Forever on and on though, Guleghina goes on like the Energizer Bunny.
Who was the mezzo?
Katherine Goeldner
Here’s a “summery” [sic] of reviews of Morris in Siegfried in SF:
http://thewagnerian.blogspot.com/2011/05/sf-opera-siegfried-review-summery.html
Of Jay Hunter Morris’ Siegfried (WNO Tristan in 2012) there was a difference of opinion. Although none of it could be described as being in anyway in the “negative’, “size of voice” was noted.
“Tenor Jay Hunter Morris, undertaking the title role for the first time, was adequate but never quite electrifying, his singing tender and thoughtful but one or two sizes too small for the task”. said SF Gate, but went on to say, “What Morris did accomplish, though, was to inject a welcome note of humanity into a character who can too often seem thuggish and crude”. However, SF Classical Voice said: “Morris sang a fine Siegfried, his voice focused and clear, softly burnished and, though not the strongest or most penetrating in the Heldentenor business, still consistently musical, expressive, and spirited”. This was repeated by the SF Examiner: “In the title role, Jay Hunter Morris has the best qualities of a heldentenor, with a forward sound, edge and natural high notes. He had a good day, in spite of what was lacking: a voice big enough to be both heroic and able to cut through the orchestra at all time”. It should be noted that with regards to comments about Morris shear vocal power, the SFCV reminded us that he is a very late replacement for Ian Storey and sang through the role in rehearsal for the first time only 1 week ago! As SFVC says, “Yet his youthful physical buoyancy, near-heroic posture, and convincing naivete amid brutality (how American!) were a delight. Perhaps by the time he essays the role a second time on June 17, in the first of SFO’s three complete traversals of the Ring, he will have found the means to forge his sword with the power of a hero.”
I am really looking forward to seeing this Siegfried more and more. I wonder how he will pair with Ms. Voigt?
I only saw Morris as young Siegfried in the 3rd cycle, but based on what I heard (and what others described after the first cycle), I do think he grew more into the role as he gained performance experience. He did better than many at making the character naive, instead of annoyingly chidish. And I was never worried that his voice would die before the final curtain. I hope he does well at the Met. We need all the decent Siegfrieds we can get. SFCV produced an online documentary about creating the SF cycle, which featured an interview with him. He seemed very sincerely thrilled to be singing Siegfried.
louannd–I’m wondering about that same thing, too. It seems to me to be rather late in the rehearsal schedule for a replacement (given the headache of the “machine”), but hopefully things will gel for DV and Mr. Morris by the time I see them at the November 5th matinee in the house.
Marshiemarkissima,
Stephen Costello had a joint recital at the Morgan Library with his lovely wife Ailyn Perez for the George London Foundation on Sunday Oct. 16th. I didn’t go (I want to hear her badly – never had the pleasure) however there was a fan there who posted on Opera-l. He said that Costello struggled through a set of Tosti songs with overloud dynamics and strain. Perez walked away with the afternoon. Then Costello was supposed to sing “O leve-toi soleil” and dropped it from the program and didn’t sound so good in his second set. He was quite disappointing. I suspect the cold set in after the HD transmission.
Wow, thank you all, that is so sad. He is somebody one wants to like. The voice is very beautiful and projects very well in the house (I think florezrocks asked that in an earlier thread). I don’t think it’s a big voice, but it projects largish, which is already a huge plus at the Met, and he sings very musically. One really rooted for him at the Opening, despite evident signs that he was in some sort of trouble (nerves???). And trust me I am talking only and strictly of his musical gifts, not one of the ones that find him cute at all, my type is much more along the lines of the gorgeous ILDAR
. Anyway, it was nice to see him do so well on the HD, and now this. It must be so mortifying to be replaced mid-stream……..
By the way Carissssimo Gualtier, you should not miss the sensational Layla Claire this Friday at Carnegie/Weill Hall. She really is the real thing also.
I have to say, having heard Costello a few times in the past, out west, he was so confident and romantic with a soaring voice(with his wife in the opera, too) as Gounod’s Romeo, it is really unnerving to watch him struggle in this Bolena.
Ailyn Perez always catches me off guard because you see this very engaging, and tiny, young woman come onto the stage, and then out comes this VERY rich, velvety and lush sound though it is not a large voice. Her weakness, if any, is the upper passagio, which seems to just be a matter of gaining experience and security. I have seen her do Marguerite twice, and the second go-round showed amazing improvement over about six months time. She was also a wonderful Juliet.
Funny, just read this on Layla Claire, whom I recall as a very good (small house, for the moment) Anna at a Tanglewood DON GIOVANNI under Levine:
http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/classical-opera/2077891/live-preview-layla-claire
Wow Kruno, that’s a wonderful article!!!!!!
Thanks!
She is a really special girl, and what I have heard so far, indicates it should be a glorious night!