Point/Counterpoint from the wellsung twins:

Jonathan: “Renee Fleming is a disaster as Rodelinda. What the hell is going on? WHY does she sing this rep? It was like one big slur that lasted for four hours. I did not hear one consonant, and there was no sense whatsoever of where one note ended and another began. It was just this sort of formless, free-flowing sound that sort of skated over Handel’s music–the music that was hiding somewhere under this drool-bag of vocal drivel . . . . Also, I resent that somehow people have convinced themselves that it is good–or even that it is vaguely acceptable. The crowd of deaf (evidently), bravo-screeching Renee devotees were really pissing me off.”

Alex: “. . . she sounded like ass last night. It was like all of her most infuriating qualities on steroids. The most weak, contrived, covered sound you can imagine. Utter, baffling lack of precision (which is doubly inexcusable in Handel). Total sacrifice of any phrasing or larger line to trying, and failing, to make everything precious. Diction so wretched and lazy I spent the whole evening annoyed that I couldn’t understand what she was saying. And I don’t know a lick of Italian. And she seems to think the obligatory Beautiful Voiceâ„¢ moment at the end of each aria makes up for the ten minutes of dreck that came before. I’m not buying it, lady.”

Please excuse La Cieca, but she’s totally farklempt. They grow up so fast!