ENO is enough
The repertory for the 2012-2013 season of the English National Opera (also known as “Peter Gelb‘s shopping list”) boasts the premiere of a new opera by Philip Glass, The Perfect American, which imagines the last days of Walt Disney. It’s a co-production with Madrid’s Teatro Real and stars bass Christopher Purves as the legendary filmmaker. The company’s program also features nine new productions, including stagings by Peter Konwitschny, Calixto Bieito, David McVicar and Richard Jones. [the arts desk]
But ther BIG question is will Dessay cancel her signing session at the MET SHOP on April 27 at 5:PM -- that’s a decent hour to stay in bed all day to rest up for it.
Is it normal for a soprano to sing Donna Anna and Bertha in the same season?
In 1987 Jane Eaglen sang Berta at the Coliseum and Covent Garden, and Elvira at the Coliseum… Young singers with big voices need to make a living…
I heard Eaglen sing that Berta….that was with Valentini Terrani as Rosina. I was in London and Glyndebourne for 3 1/2 weeks and had an opera, concert or play every single evening. Boheme with Domingo at the Garden and then Manon as well.
Dessi sang Berta early in her career, too. Although Cocky’s right that it’s odd to have a principal like Broderick in the part.
Um -- how to put this discreetly? The UK opera companies apparently find Katherine Broderick hard to cast -- she’s young, but short and stocky -- and she looked terrible in the short skirt she had to wear in Norris’s Don G, especially when jangling her boobs to the coloratura of Non mir dir (or whatever it was in English). I heard a Glyndebourne Touring Magic Flute in which she should have been singing Pamina but they would only give her First Lady because of her physique. She has a voice of huge promise and she might move into Meade territory, but until she does, I suppose she has to sing Berta -- like the young Eaglen she will sing the socks off the top line in the ensembles, although the Rosina of this revival, Lucy Crowe, is also a soprano.
Do you know they gave her first lady instead of Pamina due to her physique, or is that your supposition?
Last time I worked with her, though no Crowe-sized sylph, she really wasn’t THAT big, have things changed recently?
I’m pretty sure her plans lie in the general direction of Wagner, rather than ‘Meade territory’.
I didn’t see Broderick’s Donna Anna at ENO, but she did a fantastic ‘Non mi dir’ at a National Opera Studio show a few years ago and I saw a very fine Nuits d’été at Cadogan Hall too. She has loads of style and the voice has great presence, even if it is not conventionally beautiful. She does sound rather like Rita Hunter to me, so Wagner must beckon. And she can project personality.
Interrupted Melody is starting now on TCM> the story of Marjorie Lawrence with Eileen Farrell’s voce.
As you might already know Marjorie was supposed to have done her own singing for the film, but the producers weren’t happy with the results so Eileen was called in to redo all the vocals. There no screen credit for Eileen -- her royalty would be higher if she didn’t. Years later Eileen was singing a concert and afterwards a lady in a wheelchair came up to meet her and was very cordial. Of course, she was meeting Majorie Lawrence and her work on the film met with her approval.
The version I remember is that Lawrence was miffed not to have her own singing used ( a track had been made) and that when she was wheeling towards her and Farrell “got the hell outta there”, or words to that effect.
Listening to Interrupted Melody made me want to hear Lawrence:
Listen to this:
Thanks, Clita. I was just thinking of her yesterday, as the last thing she sang, according to her autobio, was a concert version of Elektra. I was wondering if there were bits that had survived from that performance. Suppose I should go hunting. I also love her excerpts from Lohengrin with Martial Singher. What a singer.
Glad to know Joan is happy and well, with her feet in the sand and the wind in her hair. Perhaps instead of walking into the waves of oblivion she will stumble across Drummy instead! If TCM puts on “Interrupted Melody”, well maybe they sell it in their shop. Thanks for the headsup.
LuvU—Cammie
Luv U too, Cammie.
One thing is for sure, the Immolation Scene in *Interrupted Melody* is much better than the Met’s. I kinda looks like the ol’ Schenck production. LOL
Like your Drummy idea. Maybe that’s what Joan had in mind.
Looking at this nearly 60 years later, its one of the most inane bios produced by Hollywood. Immolation Scene is a riot to watch. Beautiful Eleanor Parker though, still living at 89.
Papopera: Of all the tacky Hollywood “musical” biographies, I think it is one of the better ones. All the operatic scenes were somewhat believable, sets and all-- as was the singing. Eleanor’s Dalila remedied me of Rise’s!
As for the rest, wadda ya want, Shakespeare? Do you think The Great Caruso was better--or the Hollywood bios of Cole Porter or George Gershwin??? Love Me or Leave Me, I’ll Cry Tomorrow?? The Great Zeigfeld???
I thought The Immolation Scene was excellent--Have you seen Voigt lately and La Machine lately??? At least Eleanor had a real horse for Grane!
Or perhaps a better way to put it is that the Schenk production looked like a Depression-era midseason revival of a production created before the first World War.
TONIGHT WE SING ! Bio of Hurok with David Wayne, Pinza as Chaliapin, Roberta Peters and Toumanouva.
CARNEGIE HALL(1947) with cameos of Damrosh, B Walter, Pons, Stevens, Rubinstein, Peerce, Pinza, Stokowski, Reiner “and much more”
Cammie and Clita:
Please take a listen the Aida excerpts that I posted on this INtermission thread. I owe you a nice lunch if it doesn’t tickle your fancy….
Luvtennis, I did listen to them. Great singing, but a bit weird--holding those notes forever.
Hi Belfagor,
Though have to admit – and this might be heresy – when I have heard and seen ‘Pelleas’ recently, I’ve been more and more aware that the 4th act has the earliest music, and it shows……I do wonder if Debussy had totally revamped it to exorcise ‘the ghost of old Klingsor’ or whatever he said – it distracts me as Acts 1,2 and 5 are perfection, and 3 nearly so – 4 gets all discursive and the seams show, especially with Arkel….
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We’ve discussed this before and I couldn’t agree more though my criticisms have nothing to do with Arkel’s music (which I adore) but with the Act 4 love duet. I’ve never found it to be musically convincing. The combination of a few mushy moments and the lack of flow compared with the Act 3 Tower Window scene or the Act 2 La Fontaine des Aveugles scene create for me the biggest letdown in the whole opera. Of course some passages are gorgeous but for me it doesn’t really ‘stand’ as a great love duet.
And yes we are in the minority. Every opera lover I know has never complained about the 4th act. Some even view it as the ‘magnificent highlight’ of the whole work (??!!).
For those interested here is the compositional schedule for P&M
Act IV scene 4 (late August 1893, May 1895)
Act 1 scenes 1-3 (December 1893 – February 1894)
Act III scene 1 (June 1894)
Act III scene 2 (July-August 1894)
Act III scene 3 (Augut 1894)
Act IV scene 3 (August – Septemebr 1894)
Act 4 scenes 1-2 (January – February 1895)
Act V (April-June 1895)
Act II scenes 1-3 (June – August 17, 1895)
Note how Debussy waited until the very end to begin work on the 2nd Act… (the most perfect of the 5)
Ah Monsieur Wistful, thank you for this -- I had seen it before in my student days, but had forgotten how early the piece as a whole was written. What is especially revealing is how crucial Aug-Dec 1893 was -- as Act 1 is for me one of my especial favorites, (I have never worked out why the Genevieve scene makes me tingle so much, when almost nothing happens) and so disciplined in its declamation and tone -- and the succession of ravishing events in the third scene boggles the mind…….