The YENTA of the Opera!

The annual operatic Halloween story!

2010-10-31T20:24:00.000-04:00

Jussi Björling, publicity shot taken around 1940

This story stars my all-time favorite singer, the incomparable Jussi Björling, who not only had the greatest voice G-d ever put in a human throat (or at least a male throat), he was also more often than not a warm-hearted and and incredibly generous person. His widow Anna-Lisa, in her wonderful biography Jussi, talks about how he loved suprising people with expensive gifts. So, especially considering that he rarely did any opera that could be associated with horror (Faust? Not really, although I think he did Max in Die Freischutz very early in his career), you would hardly think that his name would come up on Halloween, especially since in Sweden, they do their trick-or-treating around Easter!

Apparently sometime in the late 1940s, or perhaps the early 1950s, Jussi was at a party in Stockholm which eventually turned into a singalong, and he was shocked to hear a young man sing art songs in about four or five languages very, very well. Jussi was mightily impressed, and went up to the young fellow (who, like most of the party attendees, was not a professional singer), and said "You know, you are really very good. Would you like me to arrange an audition for you at the Royal Opera?" (That is, of course, the Royal Opera, Stockholm, not Covent Garden). Intrigued, the young man said yes. Well, Jussi arranged the audition, and the high muckety-mucks at the Royal Opera were as impressed as Jussi, to the point where they offered the promising singer a place in the Royal Opera School. He told them he would think about it, but a few days later he came back to Jussi and said "I'm sorry, Mr. Björling, but I don't have the money to live in Stockholm full-time. Besides, I think my path to fame and fortune lies elsewhere." Well, he may have been one of the relatively few people who actually could say no to Jussi, but he was right. Because do you know who that young man was?

Alright, everybody...

One....

Two....

Three...

CHRISTOPHER LEE!

(Now you see what this has to do with Halloween.)

Actually Lee has an absolutely wonderful speaking voice and I'm not surprised he could sing well enough to impress Jussi - I imagine he must be a bass, although I suppose he could be a bass-baritone or even a baritone. His mother was an Italian countess, which accounts for both his facility with languages and his obvious affinity for "high culture", which probably many horror fans (or people who look down their nose at horror films) wouldn't have expected. I think he actually made a recording of songs a few years ago (in his seventies!), but I can't find it. In light of this revelation, I think it's terrible that he never sang in any of his films, to the best of my knowledge.

But can you imagine what might have happened if he had taken Jussi up on his offer? Instead of Saruman in Lord of the Rings, he might have been Hagen, or even Wotan, in Wagner's Ring! Or he could have been the title character in Märschner's Der Vampyr (and probably made that opera very popular) instead of the many Draculas he did for Hammer Horror! Thank goodness, I'm sure he's too classy to have appeared in John Moran's The Dracula Diary!

And King Phillip might not have been a bad idea, either.

On a side note - the actor who possessed the most beautiful speaking voice I've ever heard had to be George Sanders, most famous for his roles as Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe and Addison DeWitt in All About Eve. Not surprisingly, he could sing superbly as well, and often did so at parties, although again like Lee, unfourtunately, he doesn't seem to have sung in any of his films. He was apparently so good that he was actually offered Scarpia by one of the West Coast opera companies (I'm not sure which one), but he turned it down because he "didn't want to be an opera singer". What a pity. That would have been something to see and hear!

Especially if Jussi were the Cavaradossi...

Farewell to a wonderful baritone?

2010-10-13T12:11:00.008-04:00

Earle Patriarco in front of the Metropolitan Opera House, date unknown.

Back in 1999 I discovered the wonderful American baritone Earle Patriarco, when he sang Lescaut on the superb Angela Gheorghiu/Roberto Alagna recording of Manon, conducted by Antonio Pappano. His singing was robustt and immensely characterful, and there were several moments during his portrayal (his sheer disbelief when Manon wants to go to Saint-Sulpice and his bribing of the Le Havre guards - "J'insiste!") where I actually laughed out loud. It was a superbly cast recording all around, even in the smallest parts, but Patriarco came close to stealing the show from Angela and Roberto - not easy! I believe he appeared in several recordings subsequently, and I saw him many times at the Metropolitan Opera since. Per the Met database he has sung 177 performances between 1997 and 2010, debuting as Ping in Turandot (1). Most of the time this was in character and comic parts (Taddeo in L'Italiana in Algieri, Falke in Die Fledermaus, the Marquis D'Obigny in La Traviata (2), Schaunard in La Boheme, and Dancaire in Carmen) but I was fortunate to also see his Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (he was covering the indisposed Simon Keenlyside, injured in a bike accident). While there are baritones who could beat him for sheer voice, I have never seen a more sheerly loveable and adorable Figaro than Patriarco. He also sang Belcore in L'Elisir D'Amore (which on the basis of his Figaro would suit him perfectly!) and Valentin in Faust, which especially in light of recent events, I am very unhappy I missed.

I was looking through my Das Rheingold program last night, noting any new additions to the roster, when I discovered, to my horror, that the newest bass in the Met chorus is...Earle Patriarco. What the heck is he doing in the chorus? My first thought was - he's ill or has had vocal problems - but surely that would be unlikely, with the huge workload the chorus takes on? A victim of nasty backstage politics? I suspect there's a bit less than in the Volpe era of that under Gelb - he seems to be a mensch, whether his underlings are or aren't. After talking with a few people (who know people who know Earle), it looks like it was his decision after all. He has five or six kids and he might have decided a steady chorus gig was better for his family than gallivanting all over the world like most singers do - and possibly the chorus pays better than being a freelance comprimario in other houses (I think it's about $70,000). It seems to be similar to the situation with bass Jeffrey Wells, who gave up singing major roles like Mephistopheles in smaller American theaters to get steady, and better-paying, comprimario work at the Met. Earle also apparently was looking for some local voice faculty jobs, which would also indicate a desire to settle down. And perhaps this isn't all bad - I have to remind myself that there are thousands of singers who would kill to get into the Met chorus. I considered auditioning about 15 years ago, but I'm not a good enough musician and the schedule is probably murderous - I can't imagine singing Turandot the night after I sang Carmen, both very heavy chorus operas that are occasionally performed on subsequent nights. Plus I've heard rumors that they'd fire you if you made the same mistake twice.

What still bothers me is - even if he is in the chorus, why isn't he on the main roster as well? Surely there must be some role, major or comprimario, that he can cover this year (OK, they aren't doing Barbiere or Elisir)? Or is there still a possibility that he could return to the main roster in future seasons? He's given the Met a lot of good work and he deserves to be rewarded for it. If not, his last performance was as Dancaire on May 1, 2010. I wish him to be happy and well, whatever happens.

Actually, it just occurred to me - if Earle is going to be "stuck" in NYC for the next year, maybe we might be able to see him here in recital?

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(1) More recently, Ping is the role that the Volpe administration relegated wonderful Chinese baritone Haijing Fu (my first Met baritone, as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor) to, once they had Europeans they could replace him with in Verdi. And now he's not even getting that...

(2) As the Marquis, Patriarco bombastically attempted to join the flamenco dancers at Flora's party, which considering that he (or the Marquis!) isn't a good dancer, was memorably funny. And former recording colleague Angela Gheorghiu, as Violetta, gave him such a gigantic hug at the Marquis' arrival at Violetta's party that it was clear it was Angela hugging Earle, not just Violetta hugging the Marquis!

The Great Choral Resume

2010-10-12T14:30:00.002-04:00

CHORAL WORKS

Sung with the Stuvyvesant High School Chorus, the SUNY Stony Brook Undergraduate Chorus, Riverside Choral Society, Rottenberg Chorale (later renamed Nashir! The Rottenberg Chorale), Zamir Chorale, St. George's Choral Society, and Berkshire Choral Festival.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Lobet den Herrn

Samuel Barber

Easter Chorale
Sure on This Shining Night
To Be Sung On The Water

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Choral Fantasy
Missa Solemnis
Symphony #9 (Choral)

Leonard Bernstein

Chichester Psalms

David Berger

Hatikvah Hanoshanah
Megillat Haatzmaut

Lili Boulanger

Psalm 24

Johannes Brahms

Eine Deutsche Requiem
Geistlicheslied "Lass Dicht Nur Nichts Nicht Dauren"
"Hallelujah" from Triumphlied
Liebeslieder Waltzes (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 11)
Nanie
Shicksalslied

Yezhekhel Braun

Eishet Chayil
Shir Hashirim

Benjamin Britten

Hymn to the Virgin
Saint Nicholas Cantata

Harry Burleigh (arr.)

"Ezekiel Saw De Wheel"
"Wade In De Water"

Claude Debussy

Salut Printemps
Trois Chansons

Maurice Durufle

Requiem

Antonin Dvorak

Te Deum

Richard Einhorn

Voices of Light (June 2011)

Gabriel Faure

Requiem

Giovanni Gabrieli

Jubilate Deo

Nancy Gailbraith

Magnificat (December 2010)

George Frederick Handel

Israel in Egypt
Psalm 122

Howard Hanson

Lament for Beowulf
The Seven Last Words of David

Franz Joseph Haydn

Heiligmesse
Lord Nelson Mass
Te Deum

Arthur Honneger

King David

Flora Jagody

Ochos Kandelikas

Charles Ives

Symphony #4

Zoltan Kodaly

Missa Brevis

Felix Mendelssohn

Elijah
Psalm 42
Magnificat
Surrexit Pastor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mass in C
Regina Coeli K.281
Requiem

Carl Orff

Carmina Burana

Hubert Parry

I Was Glad

Ariel Ramirez

Missa Criolla

Salamone Rossi

Shir Hama'alot

John Rutter

The Sprig of Thyme (Afton Water, I Know Where I'm Going, The Keel Row)

Camille Saint-Saens

Christmas Oratorio (December 2010)

Simon Sargon

L'Moshel

Robert Schumann

Mass in C

arr. Robert Shaw

"Joy, Joy, Joy"

Randall Thompson

Alleluia
Frostiana

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Hodie
Symphony #1 (A Sea Symphony)

Kurt Weill

Kiddush

OPERA CHORUSES

(all with the Brooklyn Lyric Opera, later renamed the Empire State Opera)

Georges Bizet

Carmen

Francesco Cilea

L'Arlesiana (both alto and tenor!)

Gaetano Donizetti

Lucia Di Lammermoor

Charles Gounod

Faust (also understudied Marthe)
Romeo et Juliette

Rugierro Leoncavallo

I Pagliacci

Gian Carlo Menotti

Amelia al Ballo (in English, also played Second Chambermaid)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Cosi Fan Tutte (in English)
Don Giovanni
Die Zauberflöte (in English)

Giacomo Puccini

Madama Butterfly

Johann Strauss, Jr.

Die Fledermaus (in English)

Giuseppe Verdi

Aida
Un Ballo In Maschera
Rigoletto
Il Trovatore

This list will continue to be updated as I remember more things I have sung (a lot of smaller works, especially the ones sung with the Jewish choruses) or find the music, and, of course, as I add new concerts. I am not counting brief excerpts from larger works (unless they are song cycles, like the Rutter). For example, I have sung "And The Glory Of The Lord" and the "Hallelujah Chorus" from The Messiah many times, but never the whole work. I seem to vaguely remember singing some Praetorius and Schutz in college, but not specific works. I will also offer up some explanations of some of the more obscure works, especially the Jewish ones.

With great regret, I am also not counting works I extensively rehearsed with the Riverside Choral Society (Brahms Songs for Women's Chorus Op. 17, Orff's Cattuli Carmina, Hindemith's Serenade to Music), but never actually performed. At the time I worked for RGIS, an inventory company that didn't realize that slavery ended in 1865 (probably because most of the people who worked there were black!) and would drive us out to huge stores in the Bronx and Long Island and New Jersey and make us work 10 hours or more, often without any break (1), and I couldn't even call my section leader and tell her I had to miss the rehearsals! No great surprise, they kicked me out (2). And I was also having some hygiene issues at the time, which probably didn't help - I was 22 and really stupid. I have tried in vain to get back in. Unfortunately, while I think I have the voice for the really major New York choruses, which Riverside definitely is now (they perform at Carnegie Hall, have big management, and go on tour), my sightsinging skills are quite poor and I can't pass auditions (3). Once I'm in a chorus, I pick up things by ear and have few problems, especially in strong/large alto sections.

(1) Several workers did threaten to go to the Department of Labor over this, to which management replied "Go ahead. We have lawyers."

(2) And, of course, I was so enraged at this that I immediately quit RGIS. My immediate supervisor, who was as much a "slave" as I was, was totally sympathetic and I did get a new job very soon after working at Tower Records as a clerk in the classical department. Management there was almost as bad as RGIS, but the job itself was great and I loved talking to the customers.

(3) Naturally, I have taken sightsinging classes. The problem is since they are in groups, I naturally "cheat" and pick up from what other people are singing. In order to improve, I really think I need to study this privately.

Mingling With The "Gods"

2010-10-06T13:07:00.003-04:00

Das Rheingold

Metropolitan Opera, October 4, 2010 (157th Metropolitan Opera performance)

Music and Libretto (1) by Richard Wagner

New Production

Producer/Director: Robert Lepage (in association with Ex Machina)
Sets: Carl Fillion
Costumes: Francois St-Aubin
Lighting: Etienne Boucher
Video Image Artist: Boris Firquet

Conductor: James Levine

Wotan: Bryn Terfel
Alberich: Eric Owens
Loge: Richard Croft
Fricka: Stephanie Blythe
Freia: Wendy Bryn Harmer
Fasolt: Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner: Hans-Peter Konig
Erda: Patricia Bardon
Donner: Dwayne Croft
Froh: Adam Diegel
Mime: Gerhard Siegel
Woglinde: Lisette Oropesa
Wellgunde: Jennifer Johnson
Flosshilde: Tamara Mumford

Anybody who lives in New York City, and possibly even the surrounding area, is probably aware of the Met's latest publicity blitz. Bus shelters, the sides of buses, and quite a few other things are covered with pictures of Bryn Terfel, costumed as Wotan and carrying his spear, titled "Mingle With The Gods". Well, I was one of the "minglers" on Monday night. Although I have heard a number of recordings (especially the famous Solti one), saw the telecast of the previous production by Otto Shenck (and a few non-Met ones), I have never seen the opera live - the only Ring opera I have seen in it’s entirety is Die Walküre, and I deeply regret not having had the money to see the entire cycle of Schenk's production. Well, virtually the whole world has been waiting for Bryn's Met Wotan (which he's done at Covent Garden - and there was the concert Die Walküre from the Proms), and that plus a promising new production and Stephanie Blythe as Fricka made me willing to brave the hordes of Wagner fans who descend on New York every time a Ring opera is performed here. It turned out to deeply satisfying, far more than I expected (that was, I thought, more from the later Ring operas), and at least musically, one of the best nights I’ve had at the Met in ages.

First of all, I was pretty lucky. The performance, of course, had been sold out for months (and now Die Walküre is sold out as well), so I had to get standing room. I logged on the Met's website at precisely 10AM and went to the performance page, refreshed that page and snagged a standing room ticket at 10:01. By the time I finished the transaction, at 10:08, Family Circle Standing Room was sold out. I suspect Orchestra Standing Room sold out even before that. Unfortunately, online purchase fees, facility fees, and what looked like a mandatory "contribution" (which I whittled from $5 down to $1 - I might have figured out how to get around it if I had more time) turned a $17 ticket into $28. I was too relieved to have the ticket to yell "extortion!" Since I normally buy standing room tickets at the box office where the only thing they charge is the $2.50 facility fee, this usually isn't a problem. And the performance was worth a heck of a lot more than $28. I admit I didn't relish the idea of standing for 2 1/2 hours without an intermission - the last time I stood that long was for Wozzeck, I can't remember when. I did stand through Die Walküre in 1997, but that was a breeze by comparison as there was a "sitting break" every hour and 15 minutes. Naturally, I was very careful not to eat or drink anything until after the performance.

This performance was proof, if any was needed, that no matter how exalted the cast, conductor, or orchestra, recordings do not do Wagner justice - his music must be heard live. Not even the Immolation Scene (with Jane Eaglen) at the James Levine Gala back in 1996 drove home this point so strongly. The orchestra was like a cauldron that Levine stirred with his magic baton, and the sheer raw, elemental majesty emerging from the pit (and elsewhere - where were the anvils?) was astonishing. The opening chords really do sound like the creation of the universe - all the more appropriate considering I just finished reading the biblical creation story in Parshat Bereishit (2). You could hear the leitmotifs swirling back and forth between instruments. For lack of a better term, it sounded truly “3D”. Plus it was a bit of a “shock” to hear some of the leitmotifs (Giants, Magic Fire, Donner’s “Heda, heda, hedo!”, etc.) for the “first time”. Kudos is particularly due to the brass section.

The cast was equally superb, and of the singers, bass-baritone Eric Owens took top honors as Alberich. His voice is huge (easily carrying over the intense orchestration in all but one probably sextuple-forte moment), dark, firm, rich and burnished, and his German diction is superb - I actually noticed it more than the three native speakers in the cast, or Bryn, who is usually a master of it. And he's a wonderful, as well as very physical, actor. One might argue his voice is too beautiful for Alberich (or Hagen, which I hope he does as well - what he could do with the Summoning of the Vassals!), and not "menacing" in and of itself, but that actually makes him almost sympathetic when the Rhinemaidens are teasing him.

I first heard Owens back in the mid-90s when he won a prize in the Licia Albanese Puccini competition, singing a memorable Sparafucile in the duet with Rigoletto (3). He was a finalist in the Met Auditions (not sure if he won) a few years later, and admittedly at that time he seemed a little small-voiced in the Met auditorium, I remember he sang "Arise, ye subterranean winds", which I think is from Handel's Hercules - he is shortly to sing the title role in Chicago. I waited for him to appear on the Met roster for years after (I think he might have been a cover at one point). While he was very young when I first saw him and basses don't reach their full maturity until they're in their mid-40s (not sure how old he is now), I can't help but think that racism might have been a factor in such a long way to the Met, especially under Joseph “Blonde Fetish” Volpe. He finally made his debut as General Groves in Doctor Atomic, a rather blustery comic character role, in 2008. He also sang Sarastro (in the English-language Magic Flute performances?), but I missed that. It looks like Owens is finally getting the career he deserves, and this portrayal is going to raise his star considerably. Some Opera-L posters preferred him to Bryn Terfel for Wotan, and I would indeed like to see him do it one day - although how many singers have done both Alberich and Wotan? Hunding might be more likely - and I think he could make a more sympathetic one than usual. I only hope his success in German and English-language repertory doesn’t “disqualify” him from French and Italian.

One thing I couldn't help but think while watching this - and I'll probably go more into this when I write my inevitable "What's A Nice Jewish Girl Like You Doing Listening To Wagner?" post - was that for all of Wagner's anti-Semitism and the embrace of his music by Hitler (who probably saw himself as Siegfried!) and the Nazis, there is no better allegory for Hitler than Alberich, the "ugly dwarf" who renounces and curses love for the sake of power, enslaves his own people, and has fantasies of world domination. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a production somewhere that actually portrayed Alberich as such, since German productions of almost any opera seem to love to put their villains in Nazi uniforms, whether or not it makes much sense in context of the opera. (4)

I found it a bit odd that the Met Titles referred to Alberich as a "gnome" rather than a "dwarf". I'll have to check the libretto to see if the German word was "zwerg". When I think "gnome" I think the benevolent, one-with-nature Huygen/Poortvliet version, which also draws pretty heavily on German/Scandinavian mythology (their wonderful book Gnomes recently released a 30th Anniversary Edition and was a mainstay of my childhood, as was its sequel Secrets of the Gnomes) or the Dungeons & Dragons version where they're essentially fun-loving and joking. Not to mention "dwarf" more than "gnome" conjures up people who dig for precious metals under the earth (5).

If Bryn "suffered" in comparison to Owens, I suspect that it's simply that Die Walküre is a better showcase for Wotan and the singer playing him - Das Rheingold is much more an ensemble piece and if anyone dominates the proceedings, it's Alberich and Loge. As Bryn himself says in this interview , in this opera Wotan is a character who reacts, leaving most of the “action” to Loge. It's possible he had difficulties on Opening Night, as some reported, although I heard nothing wrong here. I was surprised that there were moments where he was drowned out by the orchestra – this is not a small voice! - but by and large he had both the majesty and internal conflict the role needs. The truth is, there really is no way that Wotan can do the right thing, and Bryn made that clear, as well as showcasing his mercenary quality. For the other gods, Freia is their sister and they love her, whereas for Wotan, she's at best a mere in-law and more likely just a magic apple producer. I still wish his first major Wagnerian assignment at the Met (he did Wolfram in Tannhäuser back in 1997) had been last year's Der Fliegender Hollander, based on his stunning recording of the Dutchman's aria - Juha Uusitalo wasn't bad, but for a role like the Dutchman you need much more than "not bad". And he just did Hans Sachs at the Welsh National Opera (admittedly much smaller than the Met).

Although I’ve admired Richard Croft since I first heard him (as a particularly sweet-voiced and sympathetic Cassio in 1995), I’ve tended to think of him as “Dwayne’s little brother”. Since my Met attendance records were stolen (long story), I am unsure as to whether I saw him as Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte (definitely not the performances with Dwayne, possibly ones with Nathan Gunn), so this is probably the largest role I’ve ever seen him in. He’s not just a great singer’s little brother - he more than held his own as the scheming, unctuous wheeler-dealer. As I said, it’s he and Alberich who really drive the proceedings. While his voice is not as beautiful as it was 15 years ago, Loge is more an acting role than a singing role - it's more important to convince as a bastard than to sound great. I’ve seen a few stories in Norse mythology where Loki/Loge is a more benevolent trickster god, and while here he is clearly evil, it was interesting to see him as the outsider among the gods (he’s half human? Who are his parents?), as well as the fact that there’s clearly a backstory between him and Alberich (his cousin).

Stephanie Blythe was magnificent as Fricka, probably the character I most identified with in her desperately trying to revive her marriage to Wotan and save her sister from essentially being sold into slavery. This is particularly satisfying as I think Wagner is at best ambivalent about her, making her the guardian of the "bourgeois morality" he scorns. I originally thought Blythe, being a true contralto, was vocally more suited to Erda, and then I realized that Erda is just that one aria whereas Fricka is a role. I believe this is the first time I've heard her in a German opera, although I've heard her in German song repertory. (And I’ll have to miss her master class at Manhattan School of Music tonight as I have to both give blood and go to my chorus rehearsal!)

The smaller roles were also very well, even luxuriously cast. Dwayne Croft (Richard’s big brother!) had probably the most memorable single moment in the production with Donner’s conjuring the storm and the rainbow bridge; this is the first time I’ve heard him sing in German. It’s still a pity that illness (GERD? Sinus issues? ) reduced him from being the greatest lyric baritone on the Met roster in the mid-to-late ‘90s to being just very good now. (6) I had first seen Patricia Bardon as Cornelia, the role that Stephanie pretty much owns now, and Erda suited her better – it was nice to have both singers in the same cast. I’m also happy to see Wendy Bryn Harmer breaking into her first major role as Freia. Let’s hear her in some Puccini (I had doubts about mostly-Mozartian Hei-Kyung Hong’s suitability for Liu until I heard her Freia). A little surprised to see Lisette Oropesa as a Rhinemaiden (as I said, luxury casting), now that she’s done Susanna and Lisette and is about to do Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice, but I suspect she was cast as this first. There were also two fabulous giants (although I had difficulty telling which one was which until Fafner kills Fasolt, not to mention the similarity between the singer’s names!) – I actually felt quite sorry for them, even if they are dumb brutes, they’re the working class guys exploited by the rich folk. I remember Franz-Josef Selig’s Pope in Palestrina from the late ‘90s (where he sang an easy low G) and Hans-Peter König’s Daland was the best thing about Met's Hollander revival last year. Adam Deigel brief outbursts as Froh were enough to make me want to hear him as Walther von Stolzing one of these days, although I suspect David is more likely. I’m not absolutely sure of this, but I think he started his Met career in the children’s chorus – which would make him the first adult singer at the Met to do so. While I'm still pretty desperate to hear David Cangelosi as Mime (after his stunning performance on the Domingo/Pappano Wagner Scenes disc, plus his equally fabulous Spoletta), Gerhard Seigel was very good.

On Sunday I went to a double bill of The Wrong Trousers and Topkapi as part of Film Forum's "The Heist" series (7). Since these films showcase a lot of climbing with wires and walking on walls and ceilings, this actually turned out to be a pretty good preview of Robert Lepage's new production, on which I'm reserving judgment for now. I’m enough of a traditionalist to prefer the Schenk. Die Walküre will be a major test, as will later performances of Rheingold this year and in the full cycle. As spectacular as some of the descent into Niebelheim and subsequent ascent looked (and I'm not sure how else one can stage the floating Rheinmaidens) I'm a fanatic about performer safety (since my "real life" job is in worker's compensation) and all the wire work, sideways climbing, and sliding down a steeply raked set raised my alarms. Not to mention that such production requirements on the performers excludes great singers who might not be very agile or have fear of heights (8). A production should expand a singer's performance choices, not limit them. The stage machinery famously got stuck at the gods’ entrance to Valhalla on opening night, but there were no problems now, although it was noisy (I suspect that's unavoidable), Still, I would bear in mind the saying "the more complex the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain".

(UPDATE: Apparently Bryn, and presumably the other singers, had stunt doubles. Whew. Actually there was a moment after one of the “walks” where Wotan went offstage – and came back a bit too fast for him to have taken off the wires, so I should have realized. I guess there won’t be any close-ups during those scenes in the HD broadcast. The doubles should have been credited in the program!)

At least nothing Lepage did got in the way of the story or was outrightly offensive, like Luc Bondy's Tosca production or most European productions of Wagner (or anything else). And I'd give a lot more leeway to a story essentially steeped in myth and fantasy. Just don't make the gods literal 21st Century real estate moguls. Lepage meant the production to evoke the landscape of Iceland, as it's a raw, primal location, almost like another planet, and of course Iceland is one of the major sources of this mythology (9), but I didn't get quite as much sense of Iceland as he talked about. I suspect there will be more of that in the other operas which take place on "Earth" (Midgard?) and we have more dealings with mortals. I think the use of film projection probably is the best way to stage this sort of work, and most of them were very effective. In particular, Donner's lightning bolt (I actually jumped!) and the rainbow bridge was incredible. Also the "fire" surrounding Loge looked very realistic. It was a relief to see Wotan looking like most traditional depictions of him (and the publicity photos had him with his two ravens , not seen here) instead of, say, in a business suit, or even the somewhat "generic" costume James Morris wore in the Schenk production. His "comb over", as opposed traditional eye patch, had a few complaints on Twitter (and Opera-L, I imagine), but it has largely the same effect and obstructs the singer's actual vision less. I don't think I'd want to walk "down to Niebelheim" with no depth perception. I admit some "scar makeup" around his eye would have been nice, but that's probably too subtle to be seen by anyone not the front of the orchestra. The giants looked a bit too much like Hagrid (10) for my taste, but then again, I don't doubt J.K. Rowling got some of her ideas from Wagner and his sources, as she's a real polymath when it comes to mythology and folklore. The other costumes were fine - Stephanie looked suitably matronly, but any regality came from her bearing, not her rather plain gown.

One bit of possibly bad news. I only got a brief glimpse of James Levine, at the end of the performance (couldn't really see him in the pit, nor was I sure whether he was standing or sitting), but he did not look well. Of course, he had several recent surgeries, and he's lost a lot of weight, but still... He took his bow from the side of the stage, apparently unable to climb onto the set platform (which wasn't very high) and stand/bow with the singers. Wishing him a refuah shleimah (that's Hebrew for complete healing, body and soul). Would anyone happen to know his Hebrew name? Has it been made public?

The 2 1/2 hours went by pretty quickly - it would have been a breeze if I had actually been sitting. I stood next to a horn player from the Philharmonic. It would have been nice if there were an intermission so we could continue our conversation. I can't remember his name, but I'd recognize it if I saw it in a Philharmonic program. He hadn't bought a seat because he was in Europe while most of the tickets were on sale. Nice guy from Georgia. Played a lot of Broadway shows before he came to the Philharmonic. I expressed regret that he probably didn't get a chance to play Siegfried's horn calls at the Philharmonic, but he said he occasionally played them in excerpts and he couldn't handle the Met Orchestra's hours. He had the aisle place (which I thought I had) and moved away to stand where he could look down the stairs, so I had a bit of room to move in the stuffed-to-the-gills space.

Ironically enough, after the performance the Met elevators were having problems and wouldn't go down to the concourse where the subway was - they kept going up once it hit orchestra level. Someone from the safety office had to override them. And one was apparently stuck on the Grand Tier (with no one in it, baruch Hashem!) for the whole performance. You can build Valhalla, but you can't get out of it?

Oh, I now have a craving for Golden Delicious apples. We now know what happens when we don't eat our fruit...

Afterwards, I tweeted actor Nathan Fillion (best known for his collaborations with Joss Whedon, especially Firefly) to ask if set designer Carl Fillion was related to him, as I imagine it's not a terribly common name, but since Nathan has tens of thousands of followers and I'm not one of them, he may not have noticed it (or found it interesting). I also thought about tweeting Owens to congratulate him on his performance, but I don't think he's on Twitter - although there are at least 20 other Eric Owenses there, nearly all Caucasian.

Hopefully, I should be able to add some pictures onto this post this weekend.

I'll end with the following: A few years ago there was an article in Opera News about suggestions for making very long operas shorter. The winner was:

RHINEMAIDENS: Give us back our gold!

ALBERICH: Okay! (11)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) Or as Wagner himself put it, “poem”

(2) The universe, by the way, actually does "make music" - on a frequency about 64 octaves below middle C, As in Parshat Bereishit, the “action” moves immediately from the Creation to the doings of mortals, which in the end are what the story is really about. Take that, fundamentalists who interpret the first few verses of Genesis literally! Note I said “mortals” because compared to G-d, the Norse/German deities are indeed mortals (one of the reasons I put quotes around "gods" in the post title). There are also some Jewish sources that say G-d sang, rather than spoke, the universe into being.

(3) The Rigoletto in question was a Chinese baritone named Xiaoping Dai, who I remember primarily because he kept making circular movements with his right arm that looked like he was winding up for a baseball pitch, and his very strong physical resemblance to Chinese-American character actor Jack Soo, best known for playing Sammy Fong in the film of Flower Drum Song and a memorable turn on The Odd Couple as a Chinese baseball player - he and his girlfriend bring Felix and Oscar "food that Chinese like", and Felix is overjoyed because he's going to eat "real" Chinese food as opposed to Chinese-American food. To Felix's and Oscar's shock, the ball player removes lox and bagels from the bag: "This is the 'food that Chinese like'?" "Are you kidding? I love Italian food!"

(4) I’m thinking of a picture I saw from a production of an opera called Der Templer und Die Jüdin by Heinrich Marschner, based on Ivanhoe, which nonetheless had Bois-Guilbert in a Nazi uniform. Actually, an opera based on Ivanhoe is interesting as George Sanders, who played Bois-Guilbert in the film, had one of the most beautiful speaking voices I’ve ever heard and actually was offered Scarpia by a West Coast opera company…

(5) Remember how spectacular the Mines of Moria looked in the The Fellowship of The Ring film? That was a civilization!

(6) Both absolutely delightful, by the way, especially the Wallace and Gromit short. And I now want to eat some Turkish food, which I don't think I've had for years, if ever. It's one of the world's great cuisines and I intend to visit Turkey one of these years. Probably should have tried one of the restaurants around the Met.

(7) It’s also a pity that Dwayne’s wife, soprano Ainhoa Arteta (gone for several years, presumably to be a mom) seems to be cast at the Met exclusively as Musetta. I’ve seen her Musetta at least 4 times. I’m getting bored – I want to hear her do something else – how about Susanna or Despina?

(8) I feel sorry for any soprano who can otherwise sing Leonore in Fidelio but can't handle really tall ladders, as the Met's production requires her to use one to climb into Florestan's dungeon.

(9) I don't know if it's still in print, but you might want to search out Sequentia's wonderful recording Edda (my copy, alas, is damaged), which is Icelandic music from roughly the 12th Century, based on much of the same themes. You could call it the original Ring Cycle. And Tolkien fans will be delighted to know that one of the songs lists Gandalf, Fili, Kili, Bombur, et. al. These myths are Tolkien's principle source as well.

(10) Bryn Terfel has said more than once that he would like to play Hagrid in an operatic version of Harry Potter - "Oh yes! I am Hagrid! Hagrid is me!" Of course, my priority is for him to appear in Doctor Who, which is of course filmed in Wales. He's a far better choice than fellow Wales native and occasional singing partner Katherine Jenkins, who will be in the upcoming Christmas Special, probably as the equivalent of Fan Scrooge. Then again, if producer Steven Moffat thinks Jenkins is an "opera diva" (even she doesn't call herself that), he probably has no idea who Bryn is!

(11) Might actually work if it was Mercedes Lackey's version of Alberich!

How do modern women deal with Don Giovanni?

2008-08-11T14:59:00.003-04:00

Sue the bastard!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/arts/music/09clas.html?_r=1&ref=music&oref=slogin

Absolutely hilarious. A pity this wasn't open to the public and advertised (as far as I know), or even videoed - it would certainly be nice exposure for the singers involved, as well as instructive to lawyers who didn't attend the ABA convention. Doing something like this as a concert performance is a great idea - and I wouldn't put it past some nutso director to do this as an actual production of Don Giovanni.

I should point out, that although this seminar was about class-action lawsuits, not criminal law, most contemporary productions, even the sane ones, make Don Giovanni out to be a rapist, not merely someone who "intentionally inflicts emotional distress". And frankly, I don't think he does it "intentionally", he just doesn't care. And I'm sure somebody in a courtroom setting would comment on the need for an interpreter as the article heavily implies the characters sang in Italian.

On the other hand, using Mimi for a demonstration of medical malpractice? She was so poor she probably never got to see a doctor! (How long was she actually with the Viscount, anyway?) Violetta, an initially wealthy courtesan, maybe. Poor, sweet Dr. Grenvil...

As it happens, while on the bus yesterday I talked with a lawyer on her way home from the convention. She was from Atlanta and bemoaning the high Amtrak fares and luggage storage fees. No mention of the opera - maybe she wasn't one of the 50 people.

This reminds me of some mock court (I don't know what it's called, but it decides such weighty issues as who invented the fortune cookie) that convened to decide whether chicken soup could legally be called "the Jewish penicillin" as a) there's no proof chicken soup is curative/an antibiotic and b) just about every culture in the world has a chicken soup of some sort. Evidence came from a chicken (OK, an actor dressed as a chicken), and a quote from the great rabbi Maimonides (who happened to be the court physician to the Sultan of Egypt) who said "Chicken soup is good for you, but bad for the chicken". As a vegetarian, I'm totally sympathetic. Just like at the Bar Association, the decision was reserved, and everyone went out to their local diner to have some!

By the way, Maimonides, writing almost 1000 years ago, does better than many modern doctors about the human body. Basically, don't eat too much! His texts were used in medical schools for centuries after, making him almost as reknowned as a doctor as a rabbi/philosopher.

Watch this film. Now!

2008-07-11T08:58:00.001-04:00

It won the Best Short Film award at Cannes 2008. Roughly 6 minutes. Time very well spent.

http://en.zappinternet.com/video/nilSqaMboM/HISTORIA-DE-UN-LETRERO-

Deeply moving and thought-provoking.

Povero Maestro Jimmy...

2008-07-09T16:27:00.003-04:00

Per several news sources, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra website, James Levine will have to miss the remainder of the Tanglewood Season (after he just conducted an apparently triumphant performance of Les Troyens a few days ago) due to a cyst in his kidney. Not dangerous, baruch Hashem, but very uncomfortable, so the kidney does need to be removed, and he will take 6 weeks to recover. He should be fine in time for the opening nights of the Met and the BSO in September.

This after the rotator cuff (shoulder) injury that felled him last (?) year. Working in worker's compensation I deal with a lot of rotator cuff tears - up there with lumbosacral (lower back) sprains and meniscal (knee) tears. It can be pretty serious - surgery, many months of physical therapy, and probably at least some loss of use of the arm (I have noticed Levine, admittedly never a "big gesture" conductor, does seem a bit more limited and stiff now). I hope he's OK with his kidney. You only absolutely need one, after all.

Wishing him a refuah shleimah. I don't suppose anyone knows his Hebrew name? Has it ever been made public?

Maybe if I'm really lucky, I'll "bump into" him again while I'm at the Berkshire Choral Festival, but he'll probably be recuperating in New York.

New York Philharmonic at the bat in Staten Island (STUB)

2008-07-08T23:29:00.002-04:00

Again, the E-mail sent to Brad Wilber until I can put up a more detailed review:

"Went to NY Philharmonic concert in a Staten Island ballpark last night - Xian Zhang conducting Mozart's Divertimento in D, Bach Double Violin Concerto (Sheryl Staples and Michele Kim - finally got to hear that live!) and Elgar Enigma Variations, where the audience applauded after virtually every variation even after being warned that they were being played without pause. Those who had cell phones (not me) could also vote for encores - we had a choice between the Russian Dance from the Nutcracker and an orchestral arrangement of "Summertime". No great surprise, the latter won. Fabulous (but way too loud) fireworks display afterwards, and I had a nice conversation on the ferry back with one of the Met's music librarians who was "on loan" to the Philharmonic and will also work Mostly Mozart. But I'm still waiting to hear Maestra Zhang in an acoustically "normal" concert environment."

The "wrath" of Khan... (STUB)

2008-07-03T21:36:00.002-04:00

... Genghis Khan, that is. And even though (to my embarassment), I wasn't the first to think of it, I couldn't resist the Star Trek reference.

Full review of Mongol will be here shortly. But it was wonderful how it painted this man usually demonized as a complete brute as a human being, and showed some of the depth and richness of Mongol culture. No mere "hordes" here. Apparently it's the first of a trilogy.

How do you say !@$$#%$! in Japanese???

2008-07-02T16:22:00.004-04:00

One of my major haunts, besides Lincoln Center, my synagogue, and the internet cafe where I write this blog and watch certain television shows on YouTube is the magnificent Film Forum, which shows lots of classic, silent (often with live piano accompaniment!) foreign, documentary, and "arthouse films". Membership there is $75/year, allowing you to see films that normally cost $11 for $6, and that includes double and occasionally even triple features. One of the best bargains in the city. However, in light of my less-than-ideal-but steadily-improving finances, I let my membership lapse last year because the upfront fee was a bit much. I also tended not to walk past the Film Forum on my way home from work or check their website because I didn't necessarily want to be tempted with what I couldn't afford (I missed War and Peace last November).

Well, I did check their website today, and found out, to my horror, that they were in the middle of a 7-week retrospective of the great Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai (Ran - where he's one of the greatest King Lears ever, Samurai Rebellion, Harakiri, Kagemusha, and many, many, others), the Japanese Lawrence Olivier (1), and not only did I miss some of my favorite films with him, and films I've never seen and wanted to, but ...

I MISSED NOT ONE, BUT TWO CHANCES TO MEET NAKADAI HIMSELF!!!!

Not only did Nakadai appear after a screening of Harakiri (one of my favorite of his films!) on June 20 [okay, that was the night of the Roberto/Angela concert, and I wouldn't miss them even for Nakadai-san (-sama?)], but Film Forum actually had an "evening" (live interview) with him on June 24 (the night I went to the Philharmonic in the Park, but that I would have been willing to miss!), and I didn't know about it! I also seemed to have missed every newspaper article about this - the New York Times, and frankly quite a few other papers, must have had an article on the retrospective, they always do for things like this!

Okay, I didn't miss Ran (2), and they are showing all three parts/ten hours of The Human Condition, and there are one or two other things I want to see - now I'm going to renew my membership and make absolutely sure it stays up to date! But I never met Toshiro Mifune, I never met Takashi Shimura (they're both dead) - I had hoped to meet at least one of the triumvirate of Great Japanese Actors! And I certainly never met Akira Kurosawa! Nakadai is now 75 (and still acting, apparently). What the hell are the chances of him ever leaving Japan again?

GAAAAAAAAAH!

(Not quite "samurai" enough. Maybe I should find some "smiley" on the internet of a Japanese swordsman hacking away and put it here. That would be a better description of how I feel.)

I've decided to see Mongol tonight - it's a big, sweeping epic about the rise of Genghis Khan. But that's a poor substitute for meeting Nakadai!

(1) Although he looks like a Japanese Elvis!

(2) The only reason the film isn't in my permanent collection is that there is some debate about the quality of the DVD transfer.

About time! And how about some more maestras at the Met?

2008-07-01T20:06:00.003-04:00

Among the many things I'm looking forward to next season at the Met, rather high on the list is Orfeo et Euridice starring Stephanie Blythe and Danielle de Niese in the title roles. While I rather enjoyed Heidi Grant Murphy's portrayal of Amor the last time I saw the opera (she looked so cute in her costume!), I'm more excited by her alternate, the immensely charming Chinese soprano Ying Huang (a mostly Mozart specialist and a fine English-language Pamina for her Met debut). Ms. Huang's performances will be the only two of the run not conducted by James Levine (who, as much as I love him, isn't necessarily the best conductor for this repertory). Thanks to my indefatigable best friend Brad Wilber, who runs the Met Futures page, I have just learned that these performances will be conducted by Kazem Abdullah, who I believe is, finally, the first African-American ever to conduct at the Met (1).

Maestro Abdullah has been on the Met roster for about two years now (you don't miss a name like that in the program! although I had assumed at first that he was Middle Eastern) as an assistant conductor, and last season he worked on Die Zauberflöte and Iphigenie en Tauride. I first heard of him "in earnest" last year when I was at the Berkshire Choral Festival and I read an article in one of the area papers about him (I've been trying to find the article online without success) because he was conducting an opera - Cosi fan Tutte, again subbing for Levine. He is a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center which means, presumably, that he is one of Levine's protegés. He began his career as a clarinetist (2) and won several awards as an instrumentalist, as well as a humanitarian award for creating a gay and lesbian jazz ensemble called UMOJA!!. He studied conducting at the Peabody Conservatory under Gustav Meier, who happens to be the conducting teacher of my favorite maestro of our age, Antonio Pappano, and a student of Richard Strauss. There's some interesting stuff that comes up if you search the Web for Abdullah's name. He's had some concerts recently at the Oklahoma Arts Institute and the Indianapolis Symphony (with pianist Gabriela Montero). It would seem from the operas he's already conducted that, at least as an opera conductor, he tends to be a Mozart/early music specialist. I believe he has also worked with Mark Morris, who directs this production.

My main concern is since he is (I assume) in his early twenties that's pretty much babyhood for a conductor, and I'm not quite convinced he's experienced enough for such a huge gig. Then again, I'm sure Maestro Levine is a better judge of such things than I am. Also, since he is essentially Levine's understudy here, he will pretty much have to follow what Levine does with the orchestra and singers rather than being able to put his own unique stamp on things. And needless to say, there are going to more than the usual eyes on him, and I don't doubt at least some critics/commentators/bitchy bloggers are going to make not-so-subtle comments about "pandering to political correctness", or worse.

The only pictures I could find of him as a conductor on the Web were too small and unflattering to show. There is a "civillian" picture on his Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/people/Kazem_Abdullah/652748831). I don't have a Facebook account and probably won't get one.

His performances will be on Wednesday, January 28 (my mother's 83rd birthday!) and Saturday (evening), January 31. I imagine with the buzz he'll get, the many Blythe-lovers out there (of which I am one) and that it's a popular production (Mark Morris probably has more fans than Blythe!), this will sell out fast!

Well, now that that barrier has been broken (although, unfortunately, I think it will be quite a long time before there are any other African-American conductors at the Met, or even before Abdullah himself is a regular there - in general, the assistant conductors don't make the "big leap forward"), is it possible that we might finally start getting a few more maestre (the correct Italian, unlike in the post's title)to go along with the near army of maestri? Since Peter Gelb is actually married to a conductor (Kerri-Lyn Wilson, who has conducted opera in Italy and I think a few other places), I'm sure he'd have no objection to the idea, although I presume it is primarily still Maestro Levine who makes those decisions. Marin Alsop, at this point, is probably the "starriest" name they could get, but I haven't heard of her doing much opera, although I think she did conduct Rigoletto for the ENO a few years back. More likely is that she'll do a contemporary opera, possibly a revival of Doctor Atomic or maybe Nixon in China. I would also very much like to see Xian Zhang, now a regular with the New York Philharmonic (although I have yet to hear her at Avery Fisher Hall, or, for that matter, in any setting which isn't acoustically compromised - and I'm so angry that I missed her Alexander Nevsky last year!) who started as an opera conductor in Beijing and has also conducted at the Cincinatti Opera. And what about Anne Manson, who regularly gets rave reviews for her work both at Julliard and on the West Coast? And those are just the names I know - I'm sure the Met scouts know of many other people I've never heard of!

I also want to put in a word for a female conductor who I think has been terribly maligned by many opera fans and critics - Maestra Simone Young, now, I believe, the artistic director of the Hamburg Opera. Her Met debut received almost universally bad reviews (with, of course, some not very well disguised sexism), and I think the only reason that she wasn't actually drawn and quartered was they were too busy doing that to Roberto Alagna, who debuted the same night. I will concede that she wasn't a great Puccini conductor (she herself has said that she finds La Boheme the most difficult opera she's ever conducted, and she's right, it's not an easy opera!), but I didn't find anything horribly wrong with her Les Contes Hoffman, or on the Cav/Pag broadcast I heard her conduct. She is principally a conductor of German opera, especially Wagner, and what little of that I have heard her conduct - mostly on Johan Botha's Wagner album - is absolutely wonderful. Of course, in the late 1990s, you weren't going to hear Wagner conducted by anyone other than Levine, or possibly then-hot German maestro Christian Thielemann, but if they were going to have her there, they should have played to her strengths, and given her operas she presumably wanted to do. Even still, well, there have been far worse conductors at the Met who have never gotten the critical drubbing she did - but they were Italian and male! (3) So, maybe bring her in for a Der Fliegender Hollander or something, and still let Levine have his Ring Cycle. And even considering Gelb is getting some big star conductors at last, once Levine leaves there won't be that many people who will be able to do Wagner!

Oh, has the Met ever done an opera by a female composer? It occurred to me that with Gelb's appetite for new music and the general reverence held by the opera world for Karita Mattila, might we possibly get a work by Kaija Saariaho, who often writes for her? I was also thinking of Ethel Smythe's The Wreckers, but that's probably too obscure. And another opera I missed hearing due to lack of money - the American Symphony Orchestra did it a few months ago. She's probably most famous for writing "March of the Women", which featured in the BBC series about the British suffragist movement Shoulder to Shoulder.

(1) I find it very odd that James De Priest didn't, considering that he's Marian Anderson's nephew, but whether his lack of conducting opera was his idea or the fact he just wasn't hired for it I have no idea. I think Dean Dixon might have conducted a Met-in-The-Parks, but I'm not sure. I tend to think of him as being in the 1940s, even considering how long lived conductors tend to be. It might have been a Philharmonic-in-the-Parks.

(2) That's a very interesting instrument for a conductor to take up - perhaps he didn't decide to conduct until after his clarinet studies? The impression I get is that the overwhelming majority of conductors are primarily pianists, although there are a number of violinists as well. Zubin Mehta is really the odd-man-out as a double bassist. Of course, Abdullah must be a pianist as well if he does standard assistant conductor things like coach singers. Actually, I think you have to pass a piano test if you want to graduate with any music degree, no matter what instrument (or voice) is your primary means of musical expression.

(3) To be fair to that particular conductor, he has said on a number of occasions that he really doesn't like conducting Italian opera but everyone asks him to do it because he's Italian and he can't really turn down work - the same situation, it seems, as Young at the Met. And despite some hacks that have appeared at the Met, I have nothing against Italian male conductors in general - Maurizio Benini is pretty good for comedy and bel canto stuff, if not ideal for Rigoletto, I think very highly of Marco Armiliato, and Fabio Luisi, is, well, just fab!

Philharmonic Pop in the Park (STUB)

2008-06-24T23:36:00.000-04:00

Bramwell Tovey conducted Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, Sousa's Washington Post March, Liberty Bell March, and Stars and Stripes Forever, with an orchestral arrangement (don't know by whom - possibly Tovey himself?) of Jimi Hendrix/Led Zeppelin's Purple Haze as an encore. Nice fireworks. I had a VIP seat thanks to my best-friend-at-work's boss' sister working for Lincoln Center!

More later.

Friday in the Park with Gheorghiu (and Alagna) (STUB)

2008-06-21T23:04:00.006-04:00

Roberto, Angela, and Maestro Ion Marin taking their bows at the end of the first part of the Metropolitan Opera Summer Concert

Angela Gheorghiu, soprano

Roberto Alagna, tenor

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Ion Marin, conductor

Donald Palumbo, Chorus Master

Long Meadow, Prospect Park, June 20, 2008, 8:00 PM

Verdi: Overture to La Forza Del Destino

Bizet: "Ton coeur n'a pas compris le mien" from Les Pecheurs de Perles

Catalani: "Ebben? Ne andrò lontano" from La Wally

D. Alagna: Air du condamné from Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné

Verdi: "Vedi, le fosche" (Anvil Chorus) from Il Trovatore

Donizetti: "Ah, talor del tuo pensiero ... Verrano a te" from Lucia di Lammermoor

Verdi: Overture to Nabucco

Verdi: "Parigi, o cara" from La Traviata

Puccini: "E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca

Puccini: "Un bel di, vedremo" from Madama Butterfly

Verdi: "Va, pensiero" from Nabucco

Delibes: "C'est le Dieu!" from Lakme

Encores:

Dalla: "Caruso" (Angela)

Puccini: "Nessun Dorma" (Roberto)

Dendrino: "Te iubesc" from Lăsaţi-mă Să Cânt (Both)

"Granada" (Both)

"O Sole Mio" (Both)

Verdi: Brindisi from La Traviata (All)

"Granada" (Reprise, Both)

This is the initial E-mail I sent to Brad Wilber with my thoughts on this fabulous night. I'll elaborate more in the next few days. If you're wondering about the "Judaism" label, I'll also go into some detail about how I fitted my Shabbat observance around this concert.

"Roberto and Angela completely, utterly, wonderfully magnificent. So was the Met Chorus - can you imagine what it's like being serenaded with the Ultimate Jewish Chorus, "Va, pensiero", while watching your Shabbat candles burn? Gorgeous day, too. They have something I think no other singer today has - you really sense that they love to sing! I think the only other singers today I get that from are Bryn Terfel and Cecilia Bartoli. For too many singers it's "I am a professional. I am just doing my job". I do get "I need to sing" from some of today's greats, or more accurately "Io sono umile servo/ancella di musica", but that's not quite the same thing as "I love to sing". To be fair, I don't often hear Ramon Vargas, Marcello Giordani, and Olga Borodina, for example, singing stuff that's fun. And there are the great Ravenclaws of the opera world like Thomas Hampson (and Cecilia) who clearly have deep intellectual identification with poets and composers, but that's not quite the same thing either.

Only negatives - if the Met had done this in Central Park, they might have gotten the 150,000 people they wanted instead of "only" 50,000 (still twice as much as for the biggest singer prior, Patti Labelle, who's quite a bit better known than Roberto and Angela!), the fact that there were no texts/translations (criminal considering the rarities and the fact that no one outside France has heard David Alagna's opera!), and the fact that I forgot my binoculars. Yes, I was reasonably close to the stage (the equivalent of the back of the orchestra), but I couldn't see facial expressions, and while they did have the big screens, they weren't in 3D, and during duets the cameras only focused on one singer at a time during "solo" moments and I couldn't see reactions from the other."

Re the title of this post, variations of which have been all over the blogosphere, I really regret having missed the original of this, Sunday in The Park with George, not only when I went to London, but also when the same immensely-acclaimed production came to New York. (SIGH) At least Roberto and Angela were free. It was worth a million.

"Tosca" in concert at the Philharmonic (STUB)

2008-06-19T23:45:00.000-04:00

... with Hui He as Tosca (excellent, but needs a staged performance to judge her as an actress), Walter Fracarro as Cavaradossi (big, powerful voice, good high notes, but needed much more sensitivity) and George Gadzigne as Scarpia (superb - brutal, calculating, and based on a real police chief in Gadzigne's native Georgia). Lorin Maazel conducting. Interesting to hear with the orchestra on stage, brought out a lot of things I didn't notice, especially with the cantata and the "dance band" fully audible.

More later.

Is this kosher?

2008-04-01T19:54:00.004-04:00

A bit too late for Purim, but just in time for April Fool's Day...

So, it's your first kiss and several questions might come to mind:

Is it the right time?

Is anyone watching?

Does your partner even want to?

Is your breath fresh?

And... Should you use some tongue?

Then you lean in and just go for it!!!

O Ciel Azzuri (?)

2007-10-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

Gorgeous waterfall somewhere in Ethiopia

O ciel azzuri, o dolce aure native ... O verdi colle, o profumate rive ... O fresche valli, o queto asil beato ... O patria mia, non ti vedro mai piu!

(O azure skies, sweet native breezes ... O green hills, o perfumed shores ... O cool valleys, blessed, tranquil refuge ... O my homeland, I shall never see you again!)

- "O patria mia", Aida, Act III (translated partially by Decca and partially by me)

Now I know what Aida is talking about.

OK, it looks rather gray and rainy on this particular day, not quite "ciel azzuri". But Ethiopia is gorgeous. A pity that when one thinks of the country, one tends to think only of desert landscapes and starving people, although I am by no means suggesting one should ignore them.

The picture, by the way, came from a PowerPoint presentation of scenes from Africa that has making the E-mail rounds around work.

I did have a craving for Ethiopian food (shiro and injera - yum!) after Tuesday night's performance. Unfortunately, my favorite Ethiopian restaurant has been closed for ages and I know of none near my home, my work, my synagogue or the Met!

Roberto and Angela (no, not that one!) make a virtually "celeste" "Aida" (STUB)

2007-10-17T13:01:00.000-04:00

The following was an E-mail I sent to my friend Brad of Met Futures fame, which responded to the questions of whether Carlo Colombara, who was listed in the Met Database as Ramfis, sang instead of Vitaly Kowajow, and "Well??? Did you love it??". So this will serve as the "stub" until the full review goes up. Sometime in the next millenium.

"I presume it was Kowaljow, as no announcement was made and there was no insert in the program except for Roberto replacing Berti. Frankly, I don't think Colombara was ever as good as this! Kowaljow is one of my favorite of the "younger" generation of basses (i.e. post-Ramey). Per the program he will be the Colline on the new Boheme recording with Rolando and Anna and he will also be recording something called I Medici by Leoncavallo with Placido Domingo (not sure if Placido is tenoring or conducting)

Did I love it? Mostly. There were moments where it was definitely the best Aida I've seen live, but it began a little ropily. Despite what Roberto said in the "post-game" interview on the Met website, I think he was scared during "Celeste Aida" (can one blame him???) and proceeded very carefully, which I would have minded less if I couldn't "see him working", so to speak. There were a few moments in Romeo like that too. He took it very slowly, no doubt to aid expression, and he and Ono weren't always together (sort of the opposite for Angela Brown in "Ritorna vincitor" - she went too fast!). By and large he made up for it in terms of intensity of feeling and his usual superb diction. Quite to my suprise, and delight, he sang the "Toscanini version" of the ending, with him holding the high B for about two seconds and then finishing with "vicino al sol" an octave lower. I should point out that I don't think I've ever heard a live "Celeste Aida" that wasn't problematic in some way. It's an absolutely killer aria for the tenor, especially coming at the beginning of the opera. You probably know that Jean de Reszke, generally considered to be the greatest tenor immediately preceding Caruso, regularly cut it. Once past the aria, he seemed to relax, albeit he missed a few lines right after. His best bits were at the end of Act II, where he literally pushed Amneris away from him, something I doubt most tenors don't do because they're probably afraid Radames will be executed! Lots of really wonderful little acting details too. I'm still concerned about his growing tendency to use the darkest and roughest colors of his voice to convey emotion. Still I don't doubt he could be a magnificent Met Radames - once he gets the chance to actually rehearse it! I certainly don't think he should retire it, as he was apparently considering after La Scala, although I still think his bread and butter should be Italian and French lyric roles. Oh, all right, anything French. I still want to hear both his Samson and his Rodrigue in Le Cid. I still regret he retired Don Carlos - why, especially if he has Otello plans?

(Note per my usher friend Annie, who thought that Roberto was one of the best Radames' she's ever heard and she's been there for 30 years - a lot of people were really pissed last night at Roberto's withdrawal from Butterfly. There were boos and one man left.)

(Also, Roberto went back to his old, wonderful habit of shaking hands with the prompter - Jane Klaviter tonight. He is the only singer I have ever seen do that, although Annie told me that she saw Frank Lopardo do it once. Probably stole it from Roberto. And Angela (that one!) was probably in the audience as he blew someone a kiss :-) )

Angela Brown - just fabulous. Gorgeous, gorgeous top, wonderful use of messa di voce effects, lots of fire and passion and, particularly in the Nile Scene, specificity. Get this woman a Verdi disc now. And she's singing Tosca somewhere - I'd definitely like to hear her do that at the Met as well as Aida and Amelia (and Elizabetta? Elvira? Leonora? Both Leonoras?)

Dolora Zajick (the shortest person on stage?!) started out almost inaudible, but her Act II confrontation with Aida and the Judgement Scene were just titanic. The Aida/Amneris confrontation was definitely the best I've seen live - although they basically just stood there. Admittedly it is very difficult to stage, and we don't necessarily want to see hairpulling and stuff.

Andrzej Dobber looks about 25 on his publicity photo, but he couldn't possibly be considering his immense amount of experience - apparently a house baritone in Warsaw in addition to a lot of more prestigious European experience. Both physically and vocally, a very lean, dry, muscular Amonasro. The most "warrior" Amonasro I've seen - when he tells the King of Egypt he's a "common" officer, you can see why he believes him. Now we know how he got to be King of Ethiopia.

Reinhard Hagen - excellent debut, looked about 7 feet, would be happy to see him as Sarastro, although I thought one of the giants in the Ring would be the best casting.

And any chance they might actually let Jennifer Check sing Aida??? I heard her as Norma at a Young Artists gala years ago and she was wonderful. I don't suppose she's understudying Papian? It's certainly past time she sang major roles!

Still hate the choreography.

Oh, and I saw James Conlon - he was up in the broadcast booth being interviewed for Sirius - that's right next to the Family Circle ladies room. He's shorter than I am. What is it with short conductors?"

BA BAAAA BA-BA-BA BA BA BA BA-BA-BA BAAA BA-BA!

2007-10-16T16:34:00.000-04:00

My rather pathetic rendition of the Triumphal March, as seen above, is actually entirely appropriate to this post.

I get into work at 8:30 AM and quite innocently open up my E-mail. And, lo and behold, there is a note from my best friend, Brad Wilber, copying a Met Press release saying Roberto Alagna would be singing his first Radames at the Met tonight, replacing an indisposed Marco Berti!

SHWEEEOOOO......THUD.

After getting up from my faint, I check Met website and it's all sold out except for unbelievably expensive tickets and Standing Room. I check my bank balance. No money. (Expletives in as many languages as I can think of) I borrow $20 from sympathetic, vaguely opera-liking colleague (am getting paid tomorrow), run up to the Met on my lunch hour, which I took an hour early because I assumed everyone would be rushing to buy Standing Room once they found out about Roberto, wait half an hour on line and...

WHEW. I get a Family Circle Standing Room place. Apparently not anywhere near the last one, so maybe I was overly panicked. And I have enough for dinner, too! I tell the ticket clerk that I loved her. Since I bought the ticket with cash, I'd better not lose it!

Yay! Not just Roberto and The Other Angela, but Dolora! And Vitaly Kovaljow! And Kazushi Ono is supposed to be good. I hope it turns out OK with Roberto being dropped into the middle of things at the last minute like this. And of course, with too many people wired to view him (and Angela) solely as villains no matter what they do, there will be more negativity about him missing Butterfly last night to do this than him dropping in to save the day here. I should say that after seeing him as Romeo and Pinkerton, I have no doubt as to his ability to sing a role the size of Radames even in this house. I just hope he models on Bergonzi and Bjorling rather than Corelli.

I'll have to return my DVD of Battlestar Galactica (the new one, Season 1, discs 4 and 5) to the video store before I get a chance to watch all the extras, but hey, this is a once in a lifetime thing! Or at least not until at least 2010, which is when the last role Roberto has scheduled at the Met is...

Maybe it's a cliche to say "Butterfly" soars... (STUB)

2007-10-09T16:44:00.000-04:00

... but oh, boy, it's true.

Hitherto, I have liked and admired Patricia Racette, but never went "WOW"! Now I think I see what the fuss is about her (am also, by the way, making tentative plans to see her wife in Carmen across the plaza). Roberto was just glorious - primarily because he actually played Pinkerton as a nice guy, cocky, good-humored, likeable, sensitive (in other words, himself!). If anything, a non-villainous Pinkerton actually makes the tragedy more poignant.I could actually imagine this Pinkerton, had he been assigned to permanent duty in Japan, staying with Butterfly at least long enough for her to have the psychological maturity to handle is leaving. Unfortunately, he has to go back to his duty on the Abraham Lincoln, and "real life" takes over.

But frankly, he needs a haircut, especially with that uniform cap. No American military officer (I imagine especially in 1903) should have hair that long. Something you should know, Monsieur French Tank Corp!

Rest of the cast just fine - I think I would have noticed Luca Salsi a bit more with a less wonderful Butterfly and Pinkerton. Maria Zifchak had about ten times the applause you would expect a Suzuki to get.

More later.

And I thought I had credit problems...

2007-10-09T16:35:00.000-04:00

The following is yet another E-mail that has been circulating around work:

Be sure and cancel your credit cards before you die.

This is so priceless, and so, so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00 when she died, but now somewhere around $60.00. A family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the exchange:

Family Member: "I am calling to tell you she died back in January."

Citibank : "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."

Family Member : "Maybe, you should turn it over to collections."

Citibank : "Since it is two months past due, it already has been."

Family Member : So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"

Citibank: "Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!"

Family Member : "Do you think God will be mad at her?"

Citibank: "Excuse me?"

Family Member : "Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?"

Citibank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor."

(Supervisor gets on the phone)

Family Member : "I'm calling to tell you, she died back in January with a $0 balance."

Citibank : "The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply."

Family Member: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"

Citibank : (Stammer) "Are you her lawyer?"

Family Member: "No, I'm her great nephew." (Lawyer info was given)

Citibank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"

Family Member: "Sure." (Fax number was given )

(After they get the fax)

Citibank : "Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help."

Family Member : "Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. She won't care."

Citibank: "Well, the late fees and charges do still apply." (What is wrong with these people?!?)

Family Member : "Would you like her new billing address?"

Citibank : "That might help."

Family Member : " Odessa Memorial Cemetery , Highway 129, Plot Number 69."

Citibank : "Sir, that's a cemetery!"

Family Member : "What do you do with dead people on your planet???"

And I shudder to think what would have happened had the poor lady been cremated and her ashes scattered over the ocean, or in space...

Poker in Heaven?

2007-10-09T12:52:00.000-04:00

Dolly Parton and Queen Elizabeth die on the same day and they both go before an angel to find out if they'll be admitted to Heaven.

Unfortunately, there's only one space left that day, so the angel must decide which of them gets in. The angel asks Dolly if there's some particular reason why she should go to Heaven. Dolly takes off her top and says, "Look at these, they're the most perfect breasts God ever created, and I'm sure it will please God to be able to see them every day, for eternity."

The angel thanks Dolly, and asks Her Majesty the same question. The Queen takes a bottle of Perrier out of her purse, shakes it up, and gargles. Then, she spits into a toilet and pulls the lever. The angel says, "OK, your Majesty, you may go in."

Dolly is outraged and asks, "What was that all about? I show you two of God's own perfect creations and you turn me down. She spits into a commode and she gets in! Would you explain that to me?"

"Sorry, Dolly," says the Angel, "but even in Heaven, a royal flush beats a pair - no matter how big they are."

A pity when you consider that not only does Dolly sing much better than Her Majesty, she's also a really nice person! Admittedly, so is Her Majesty.

Normally I would not spell out the Divine Name, even in English, but since this was a copy and paste from the original e-mail, I thought that editing the Divine Name would be even worse!

Not QUITE raving mad about Lucia (STUB)

2007-10-02T00:49:00.002-04:00

Yes, Natalie Dessay excellent (her mad scene was actually scary), but I frankly was more impressed by the men, especially the magnificent Mariusz Kwiecen as Enrico. Marcello Giordani also wonderful (and no, Mr. Tommasini, he never bellowed!) as usual, and John Relyea (the next Sam Ramey?) real luxury casting as Raimondo. And now I'm starting to see what the chat boards fuss over Steven Costello is all about, and the Met seems to agree with me because he's actually getting Edgardo later this month!

More later.

Yes, Americans CAN write opera! (STUB)

2007-09-30T00:44:00.000-04:00

OK, Margaret Garner isn't on quite the same level as Porgy and Bess, but it's damned good! I think a lot of the critics who panned it were determined to knock it before they saw it because it wasn't 12-tone serialist or something. All the performances were excellent, but especially Lisa Dalritus as Cilla. I hope the Met is keeping an eye on her. She's singing a number of major soprano roles (Aida, Tosca, Leonora) in Seattle.

And I have to read Beloved.

And am I the only one who thinks Their Eyes Were Watching G-d would make a great opera?

More later.

The Met's star-crossed, star-studded, and star-spangled "Romeo" (STUB)

2007-09-26T00:32:00.001-04:00

Roberto and Anna both mostly great but often way too loud - Anna largely better with dynamic subtlety, but the end of "Amour, ranime mon courage" was ffff! No "chemistry", but considering that they weren't with their other halves and had no real rehearsal (Roberto got back from Marseilles only a few days before), they did very well - they clearly enjoyed working together (rather like Angela with Marcello Giordani). Neither were much helped by Domingo, who had none of the elegance or spirit needed for the French rep and made me very nostalgic for Bertrand de Billy. Isabel Leonard made a wonderful debut as Stefano, all cocky and agressive. Most other voices good too (although Stephane Degout didn't "stand out" so much as I think Mercutio should), although Mark Heller has one of the ugliest voices I've ever heard from a tenor. Tybalt is a nasty fellow, but many beautiful voices have sung the role. Mixed but mostly positive feelings about the astronomy/astrology motif of production. Overall, a very good night, but more rehearsal and a better conductor would have made it a great one. I don't doubt if Roberto takes over Rolando's still TBA December performances, it will be much better. Further details, and photos, to follow soon.

Introducing...STUBS!

2007-09-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

Well, faithful readers (all four of you!), you must have realized that I have done almost no posting in a dog's age, largely because I haven't had the time to write down massive, yenta-ish reviews of everything I've seen and done. So, what I will be doing once the opera season begins this week is to put up posts that might be called "stubs" - at least an acknowledgement that I've been to a performance and maybe a one sentence review. Then, if I have time, I'll expand it at a later point. That way you'll know I'm still alive and kicking.

Reacquainting myself with the OTHER Met!

2007-07-08T22:01:00.000-04:00

I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time in G-d knows when today, and did something I've always wanted to do, namely join the museum. I figure I'll be going often enough that a $60 Met Net membership will pay for itself very quickly, when the "Suggested Admission" is $20. I'm actually a bit embarassed that I don't do more museum-going considering I live in one of the great museum cities of the world, and when I was in London I spent almost all my time in museums (4 hours in the British Museum, of course, is not enough. You could live there and not see everything). When I get the Big Raise in October, that should all change. I definitely want to join the American Museum of Natural History, for the Planetarium if nothing else, and they have what looks like an interesting exhibit on mythical beasts - scientific explanations for mermaids and the like.

I went today because it was my last chance to see an utterly fabulous exhibit on "Venice and the Islamic World". (Will expand later). Note to self: Never go to a special exhibition on the last day - everybody and their mothers wanted to get in!

I didn't have time to do much else except gawk in the gift shop. I mean I do get a 10% discount now, but some of the jewelry and reproductions are very expensive. Some of the books/exhibit catalogs may be worth getting (usually $50 in paperback). I definitely want the Islamic Venice one. My main interest was actually getting some real art for my walls (I have lots of calendars, some very "arty", e.g. Renoir, Van Gogh, John William Waterhouse, Jewish Art, etc, but that's not the same thing. The posters are not too bad, ranging from $10-$25, some on sale for as little as $2, but G-d forbid you actually want to frame them - that will probably add a minimum of $50. They had a digital reproduction of a Mary Casatt painting for $125 (understandable considering the extreme detail), but with a frame (admittedly gilded), it was $425!

Maybe I'll have better luck on Overstock.com? I remember seeing some nice, large framed reproductions for $50-$100...

Preview of Angela's new CD

2007-07-08T21:53:00.000-04:00

While the idiot loggionisti at La Scala are currently booing Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta (predictable - she isn't Italian, she isn't Callas, her husband is "Spanish", she's too famous, and she didn't pay them clapping money), a more sensible audience at the Milanese sewer ... er... theater went pretty wild over a song recital she did there last year, shortly to be released on CD by EMI. Arie antiche, songs by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Massenet and several Romanian composers (the best known of whom is probably Tiberiu Bredicianu) as well as "I Could Have Danced All Night" and (oh, no Angela, not again) "O mio babbino caro". One minute sound bites are here. They're wonderful - never have I heard a more sheerly joyous "Me voglio fà'na casa", a song I associate almost exclusively with tenors, primarily Carlo Bergonzi. Or a warm and seductive "A vuchella" - I think the only non-tenor I've heard sing this is Cesare Siepi (oh, no wait, I also heard his possible "successor" Roberto Scandiuzzi, but the point is, not a woman). And the Romanian material looks very interesting indeed. She seem to be having a lot of fun, figuratively (though not literally!) taking her hair down, which is a bit of a change. And I would frankly rather have her do more stuff like this than sing the same 7 or 8 arias over and over again in every city in the world, even if not everybody follows her around. Her My World recital CD is one of my favorites of hers and when I first heard it I thought she would be a song recitalist to rival Victoria De Los Angeles in scope and breadth. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be happening. In fact my one real artistic criticism of her is that she's conservative almost to the point of timidity (unlike Roberto, who rushes in where fools and angels fear to tread). (1)

To be fair to the La Scala audience, apparently most of them loved her Violetta, but I don't see why any artist - even ones I don't like (2) - should have to put up with that kind of politically motivated garbage from a bunch of hooligans. I am emphatically not one of those who cherish the idea of "opera as blood sport". I have the feeling if she survives this run, she'll probably eventually wind up queen there. I'm still hoping that she and Roberto will be able to do Manon Lescaut there. Or somewhere. Maybe Covent Garden with Tony? They are apparently recording it. And Tony is apparently preparing a new production of the Other Manon with The Other Couple...

Anyway, the CD will be released in both the UK and the US on August 28.
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(1) Actually, her diction isn't always the greatest, but that's a problem with a lot of sopranos and I am, I suppose, ultimately comparing her with Roberto, who has, in general, some of the best diction I've ever heard from a singer (it was the second thing I noticed, after the beauty of the voice), and the best French diction from any singer since Georges Thill.

(2) For example, Luciano Pavarotti wasn't booed for cracking a high B in Don Carlo, he was booed because the loggionisti decided he had become too popular outside Italy. And Renee Fleming, what ever my issues with her as a singer of bel canto (or almost anything, these days), she did not deserve to have people screaming "va, va, puttana Americana!" at her. No, I'm not going to translate that.

Oy

2007-07-06T16:44:00.000-04:00

Beverly Sills, and Regine Crespin? In the SAME WEEK????

And just yesterday I saw a multidisc set of all Crespin's solo Decca recitals (I already have her EMI ones). Maybe that's why J&R had it out, although they didn't say anything.

I'm still haunted by her recording of Ravel's "Scheherezade" ("Asie! Asie")

Baruch dayan emet.

Cardiff adventures, musical and otherwise

2007-06-18T17:27:00.000-04:00

My thoughts on the Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff, and a certain television show produced in Cardiff, will follow shortly. Hopefully within the next week, backdated. Chinese bass Shen Yang won the Main Prize (he's only 23! A baby by bass standards!), English coloratura soprano Elizabeth Watts won the Song Prize, and South African baritone Jacques Imbraillo won the Audience Prize.

And happy Father's Day to all fathers out there. I'm a little distant from this holiday as my father has been dead for 25 years. Maybe next year I'll do a post on all the wonderful father/daughter duets in opera (thank you, Giuseppe Verdi). A pity there are comparatively few for moms.

I do have a new Father's Day ritual, though - watching an episode of aforementioned television show entitled "Father's Day".

The DEVIL take this weather!

2007-06-14T17:42:00.000-04:00

Well folks, my planned sojourns to the Metropolitan Opera's performances in Central Park of La Boheme and Faust on Tuesday and Wednesday were severely hampered, if not ruined, by maleficent (although saying "hellish" would be going a bit too far) atmospheric conditions. Normally, I love going to these concerts because it's a chance to enjoy music in relaxed, informal, and gorgeous surroundings. Not to mention being able to get some grass under my feet and ogle all the cute babies and gorgeous picnic dinners. This year, I was interested in La Boheme mainly because it will likely be my last chance to hear the marvelous Hei-Kyung Hong under Met auspices (she isn't singing there next season and, as I've said before, rumor has it that her contract has been bought out) even though I'm not sure Mimi entirely suits her, for reasons I can't articulate. I would have also liked to have seen Mary Dunleavy as Musetta, a role I don't think she has sung in the house. Faust, once my favorite opera and still high on the list, featured two singers new to the Met family, as well as artists who I had already developed strong liking for.

I should have known on Tuesday. It was raining horribly, and I think even hailing, around 3PM, but stopped pretty quickly. I tried calling the Met right before I left work to see if there was a cancellation, but the line was constantly busy, presumably because everyone was calling for the same reasons I was. When I got home I decided to chance it. So armed with my folding chair, some kiwi fruit, peaches, and plums (but no umbrella!), I went up to Central Park - accidentally taking the E traininstead the C train and having to wait forever while changing at Seventh Avenue! The policemen and park people I talked to seemed to think everything was OK, but once I was about hundred feet into the park, drops started falling from the sky. And falling. Within a minute it was "cats and dogs" territory. I used my chair to fend off some water, but since the rain was being blown by the wind into an angle, most of it wound up on me. I did manage to share an umbrella for a few minutes until the worst of it passed. At roughly 7:10PM, the Great Lawn was pretty empty, and since I didn't see a mass exodus from the rain, I assume most people didn't bother coming in the first place. I had just found a nice spot for my chair and took my sandals off - my brand new sandals which were abrading the skin on my toes and making walking rather difficult - when I overheard someone say that an announcement had been made from the stage that the performance had been cancelled. There would be no rain date unless it rained the next day, and then only for Faust. I was stubborn, and not about to waste the trip to Central Park, so I decided to just sit there and eat my fruit. I was just peeling the label off my very last plum when the park officials ordered everybody to clear the lawn. Oh well.

What really makes me mad about this is that there wasn't any rain after the initial deluge and they could have easily gone on with the performance. Even better, all the allergens would have been washed out of the air, which would have been wonderful for the singers, especially Hong who complained in the recent Opera News about being affected by allergies at these concerts - no doubt that is what caused the slight problems she had in La Traviata last summer. Well, I'll probably be able to see Dunleavy in the house, and I suppose now that since Hong's international career is progressing and I will soon have money, I might be able to see her elsewhere. Washington, or even London, maybe.(1)

Well, there was no rain on Wednesday, but it was awfully cloudy (the scientific term being "yucky"), and once I got into the park, oh boy, there was wind! When I told one of my colleagues my travails of the previous evening, he advised me to bring a jacket, but since I read the temperature as 63, I didn't think I needed one. I generally tend to be quite cold resistant. Wrongo. As it happens, the jacket I would have brought probably wouldn't have helped. I think the wind chill was somewhere in the high 40s. I was actually considering ducking out before the performance started, but decided I at least wanted to get a taste of all the voices. Speaking of taste, I very much enjoyed my dinner of seaweed, avocado, and lambsquarters (at least I think they were lambsquarters, if not it was some other edible weed) freshly picked right there in Central Park. Yes, yes, I can just see the faces you're making. It was delicious. Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah! I wound up leaving at intermission, but I still got to hear a pretty big chunk of the opera - the Met forces played the first three acts, that is, to the end of the scene in Marguerite's garden. While I was largely enjoying what I was hearing, in the end, I was just too cold, and frankly, I'm not sure I love the opera quite as much as I used to. And as it happens, after I got home, I fell asleep before the opera would have ended.

The biggest problem of the evening, besides the weather, was the sound. Usually when I go to these concerts I try to sit as far upfront aspossible, if for no other reason than to try to see the performers. But this time I decided I didn't want to take the time to make my way all the way to the "front" of the Great Lawn. I also didn't want to be too close to the loudspeakers for the sake of avoiding hearing loss. I should have made the effort after all. When the opera started, I could only hear the double basses in the overture, and not the cellos or violins. This is the kind of sound quality I expect at performances ofthe New York Grand Opera at Summerstage, which has a vastly inferior sound system. Even worse, I'm pretty sure the wind interfered with the speakers, distorting the sound further. Oh yeah, and people were talking. Loudly. Despite a reminder from the stage beforehand to talk "sotto voce" and only when necessary. Several thousand people "sottovoce" is still a dull roar, however, and several people were at least forte. In a setting like this, I can understand being on a cell phone to give your friends directions, but not the loud dinnertime conversations while people are singing! I suspect with all the trouble I've had in the house this year with noise issues, I've become overly sensitive and less able to tune stuff like this out than I used to be. Equally likely, there would have been less noise closer to the stage.

Maurizio Benini, although a superb conductor of Barbiere (and presumably, other bel canto and/or comic operas), is basically a routinier for everything else I've heard him do - although, to be fair, at least some of his performances may not have been well rehearsed. This may have been a problem here as well since he and some of the singers weren't quite in sync. I suspect he was deliberately conducting very fast in order to get everybody home at a decent hour - the first two acts took about 40 minutes and the Jewel Song ended before 9PM. I alsonoticed a number of cuts - most of the overture, a chunk of Faust's transformation scene (from "O merveille!" to the chord announcing him as a young man), bits of the quartet in the Garden Scene - which of course are there in the house performances.

David Pomeroy started out badly but improved over the course of the night. He initially had a lot of problems with line and phrasing (likely partially Benini's fault), and his French was, well, not up to the standard of an international house. Quite surprising considering he is Canadian (possibly French-Canadian - isn't "Pomeroy" a French name?) and has sung at most of the major theaters in Canada, although I note, not Montreal ). Since this was his "Met debut" (I only consider it a debut when it is a house debut), he may have been suffering from nerves. His is a very light, lyric tenor, which is a nice contrast to my other Met Fausts - Richard Leech, Roberto Alagna, and Ramon Vargas - and intrinsically quite beautiful. He also had decent high notes, a few nice moments of subtlety (namely the aforementioned "O merveille!") and gave a solid if ultimately unmemorable rendition of "Salut, demeure". Whether he should sing this role in a house the size of the Met is another matter, although I'd be interested to hear him as, say, Hylas or Iopas in Les Troyens. Or Lennie in Of Mice and Men, which he sang in Kansas City (although as far as I'm concerned Anthony Dean Griffey owns this role). I think he might be up for Skuratov in From the House of the Dead when the Met does it in 2009-2010 - how many other tenors have that role in their repertory?

Although I was very curious to hear her, I must admit that I came in with feelings of ... oh, all right, hostility toward Katie Van Kooten,which I admit is almost completely unfair. The soprano spent a number of years in Covent Garden's young artist program, culminating in her being given one performance of Magda in La Rondine alternating with Angela Gheorghiu. Now of course, since she was covering Angela, the British press predictably wrote lots of articles portraying her as the sweet, wonderful, normal person who actually deserves stardom versus the evil diva bitch who owes everything to her marriage and to "hype" - rather ironic considering what little you do hear about Angela these days tends to be vicious, not sycophantic. It naturally got worse when she wound up replacing Angela in Paris as Magda. No doubt had Van Kooten covered Karita Mattila or Renee Fleming or some press darling she would have been completely ignored - I certainly don't remember seeing gushy portraits of any of their covers, as good singers as they may be (2). And of course, she's American and blonde, which is something else the music press and a lot of managements like a little too much. I realize that very little of this is actually Van Kooten's fault, although I wouldn't put it past her management. By and large she broke down my barriers. What most impressed me was that even in a setting like this, she made many attempts at musical subtlety. I also liked the warm, dark bottom ofher voice, and she has a good trill. While I don't think her voice is small, I did have trouble hearing her when she was singing at any volume lower than forte. This may have been miking/acoustic issues, but no one else in the cast had this problem. Despite this, I ultimately found Van Kooten much more interesting than Ruth Ann Swenson, who was my Marguerite last October, and I hope to hear her in the house soon - as long as nobody uses her to bash Angela again.

By the way, it's apparently pronounced Van COAT-ten, in the Dutch manner, not Van COOT-ten. Personally, I think she'd be better off by Katherine or Katerina instead of Katie, as it sounds more formal and "professional", but I imagine she's been through this with her management, and they obviously disagree with me.

There were no disappointments with the house "veterans", although Hung Yun (Valentin) and Kate Lindsey (Siebel) really haven't been at the Met long enough to qualify for that title. I was already impressed by Yun's powerful and incisive Valentin, having seen it in the house. It's a pity I had to miss his death scene. Lindsey really made me sit up and take notice when I saw her as Tebaldo in Don Carlo, and her Siebel, the first time I've seen her in a semi-major role, was equally arresting - warm, lush, and musical, with excellent French. I'm glad to see that the Met is switching her into bigger roles next year (Stefano and Cherubino). She should also be luxury casting for the Madrigal Singer in Manon Lescaut. I'd like to see her go the way of Kristine Jepson, the grossly underrated Suzanne Mentzer, or even Susan Graham.

The biggest veteran of them all, of course, is James Morris. I'll have to check my records, but I believe that he is the principal singer I have seen the most often in my Met-going, certainly in the widest variety of roles (trying to rack up every non-Shabbat performance with Roberto or Angela - and when I have more money quite a few other singers - doesn't count). The growly quality of his voice makes him a very nasty devil indeed - even though I prefer a smoother and more Gallic Mephistopheles (e.g. Pape), Morris' authority and power shine through. Several things I remember from his performances in 2003 were still there, particularly the delightful moment when Faust comes in after Mephistopheles is "repulsed" by all those crosses and asks him what's wrong, and he says "Rien!" (Nothing!) like it really is "Oh, nothing at all!" whereas most basses play this as ticked off. It got a laugh, just like it did back in 2003.

(SIGH) I'll see what I can do about getting to see the operas in the other city parks - Faust in Prospect Park on Tuesday is a definite possibility, although I don't know about La Boheme in Cunningham Park because I have no idea where it is! Certain areas of Queens are more trouble than they're worth in terms of length of travel, especially since the opera is not likely to end much before 10:30PM and it's likely to take a while to get from the park to the subway.

Three things before I go. One is that among all the corporate and political droning that preceded the performance, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer gave a speech where he pronounced "Levine" (as in Jimmy) "luh-VEEN". Yes, I know that's the more common pronunciation, but never mind the fact that he's obviously not an opera fan, as a New Yorker, he should know better! I can't remember whether or not I actually voted for this guy. Also, per the program, the Met will behaving not one, but three open houses next season, including one prior to the Opening Night Lucia di Lamermoor. Finally, I think I heard a rumor somewhere that one of the operas for next year's Parks Concerts will be The First Emperor. While I applaud the desire to bring something new to a wider audience - isn't that really as much of a visual pageant as a musical one? Then again, that's true of Turandot, too. And I want to actually see the opera next April - missed it this season - before I judge it.

(1) Still, I suppose this may be my last opportunity to tell my favorite Hong story. Unfortunately I was not actually there when it happened. On December 31, 1999, the Met presented an "End of the Millennium" Gala (never mind that most intelligent, educated people know that the "end of the millennium" was on December 31, 2000), which basically consisted of pretty much every singer who was in a Met production at the time coming out and singing an aria. Well out comes Hong, and as the applause dies down, her young son - I don't know how old but clearly up late on a special night- yells out, loud enough for the entire Met audience to hear, "Hey! That's my MOM! Hey, mom! Mom!"

Future tenor, anyone?

Poor Hong. Her aria just happened to be the ubersexy "Meine Lippen sie kussen so heiss" from Giuditta!

(2) Possible exception to this is when Erin Wall replaced Karita Mattila on an opening night Don Giovanni in Chicago - but it was a special occasion, and the press was able to laud Wall without denigrating Karita. That's the way it should be.

Der Meisternudist von Nürnberg???

2007-05-25T13:00:00.000-04:00

The title says it all.

Per yesterday's AM New York, an tourist (American, I regret to say, although at least not a New Yorker) walked around Nuremberg ... in the buff, apparently thinking this was perfectly legal and acceptable in Germany. Per the police spokesman interviewed by AMNY, it isn't. Well, I imagine there probably are resorts in the mountains and various beaches where it's OK, but within city limits? The gentleman in question was apparently not on drugs or mentally deranged, he was just a dumkopf. Or possibly auditioning for a Regietheater production of Meistersinger?

Oy-oy-oy-oy-OYYYY!

2007-01-26T17:24:00.000-05:00

Most people seem to assume that the incredibly multifarious Yiddish word "oy" is almost exclusively a negative exclamation, and I believe I have to date used it only as such in this blog. However, the late, great Leo Rosten (the writer of just about every major popular book abut Yiddish) has rightly said that "oy" is not a word, it's a vocabulary. In The Joys of Yiddish he gives 29 uses of "oy" including pain, sorrow, frustration, dismissiveness, surprise, laughter, and outright euphoria. Well, it's with that last emotion with which this entry is tinged, as three things have happened that I really want to kvell about.

1. I seem to have... a secret admirer? a "fan"? a patron, even? There is a gentleman in California (whose name I do know, but I'll leave him his privacy unless he tells me otherwise) who is apparently so enamored of my writing, both for this blog and my virtually defunct Amazon Reviews (which I will start again - one of these days. I hope), that he is buying me gigantic chunks of my Amazon Wish List in appreciation! Well sir, consider this my falling on my knees and kissing your feet from afar. THANK YOU. THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!! And in your honor I will do my best to post more often. Well, I want to do that anyway, but now I have additional incentive. I suppose I am actually getting paid for my writing at last, even if it is by barter!

2. I just found out that Angela Gheorghiu is singing not just four Amelias in Simon Boccanegra at the Met this season (of which I will be attending two), but what is still her greatest role...Violetta! Now this is always an event, especially as I have heard of no plans for her to sing it again in New York anytime soon (although I now wonder about 2010-2011 since she's not doing the Don Carlo). One night only (March 24), unfortunately. My guess is that the originally scheduled Krasimira Stoyanova (who I would also like to see in the role and whose Nedda I will be seeing on Tuesday) was unavailable, Gelb wanted the starriest replacement possible, and Angela, who just happens to be doing a concert in Florida the night before, was more than willing (1). Since I have been out of touch with most of the main operatic news outlets for some time, mostly due to their recent treatment of Angela's husband (2), I only found out about this today from one of the other members of the Yahoo! Gheorghiu and Alagna fan club where I am a now largely absent moderator (3). Angela has been listed as being part of this performance on the Met's website for several days now - since it's a Saturday night performance, I really hope I can get a ticket. This is one of the few Met things that I will happily pay $42 for - and we get not just Angela but Jonas Kaufmann (hopefully minus cold, this time) and Dwayne Croft. Not Earle Patriarco as the Marquis, but you can't have everything.

3. And last but not least...

Derek Jacobi is going to be on Doctor Who.
Derek Jacobi is going to be on Doctor Who!!!!

You know, he's like one of my favorite actors ... ever, appearing on possibly my favorite show ... ever?

I remember being 9 years old and absolutely riveted to the screen by I, Claudius - well, most of it anyway, as my parents wouldn't let me watch the very adult last four episodes (4). Admittedly, this wasn't just because of Sir Derek (and oh, how long I waited to call him "Sir" - I first saw him in 1979 and I don't think he was knighted until 1994 !), as it's arguably the greatest drama ever produced on British television, but it's mainly his fault that I developed an intense interest in Roman, Greek, and Egyptian culture, and took Latin in high school! I also remember his Hamlet for the BBC, so intense that I turned it off when he started yelling at his mother. In fact, I've never quite forgiven my mother for not giving me the money to go see him on Broadway when he came to do "Breaking the Code" (it did wind up on Masterpiece Theater, but that's not the same thing).

Oh, yeah, and Cadfael. I love historical mysteries, especially medieval ones. I still have to read those books. Right now my favorite mystery series is Sharan Newman's Catherine Le Vendeur novels, but that series seems to be either ended or on hiatus after 10 books. One of these days days I hope to be able to tell Sir Derek this story. I was watching Cadfael with my late ex-boyfriend, who was a master of bad puns (note to potential future boyfriends - that's an asset). He said, "Well, we all know about Cadfael (pronouced "cad-file") the monk who's a detective. Do you know about the monk who's a bureaucrat? Cardfile."

Then his work with Kenneth Branagh - he was so wonderful as the Chorus in Henry V (my favorite Shakespeare movie?). In fact when I saw him in Dead Again, where he was not only the most sinister character in the movie but also the funniest, I was thinking how perfect he would be as the Doctor. But I figured, hey, he's one of the greatest actors in the world. He'd probably look down his nose at Doctor Who. And they could never afford him. Boy, I'm so glad I was wrong!

(Well, it is too late at this stage for him to play the Doctor, as he's in his late 60s. I think that the shows producers at this point would never cast an actor much past his 40s, and it's an intensely physical role and production - 13 hours a day, 6 days a week, 9 months a year is more than a lot of actors, regardless of age, could handle.

And if I'm fainting with joy over this, I can only imagine how David Tennant and Freema Agyeman (oh, yes, and John Barrowman, too - Captain Jack is back!) are reacting. David's worked on some very high profile projects and with the RSC, so he may have worked with Sir Derek before. I can't wait to see how they interact, especially as I think David is not far away from being an actor of Sir Derek's stature (the only real issue is the age, not the talent) and will probably have his own knighthood within the next 30 years. If not I will go to Britain and assassinate whoever is on the throne (5).

All that has been revealed about his upcoming Doctor Who appearance is that he is apparently playing a character called "the Professor" who is a good guy trying to help the Doctor save the world from destruction. Of course, the British tabloids have already started rumors to the contrary, and I will not comment on the speculation as to who the character really might be as it will spoil things for readers of this blog who are Doctor Who fans and bore those who are not. I assume his character will be in the two-part (as yet untitled) finale, as he's too "big" a star to appear in anything less. I imagine it must be a really great script and a pretty meaty role, as well, otherwise I suspect he wouldn't do it. Possibly a fabulous death scene. I just hope he doesn't steal the show from the main characters (as Simon Callow's Dickens did in "The Unquiet Dead") Oh well, we'll find out for sure by the end of June, when the episodes air in Britain, and since I assume that the season will begin airing on the SciFi Channel shortly after, we'll know all the details in about 10 months.

Ten MONTHS??

Oy. That's a long wait. OYYYYYYY! (6)

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(1) I suspect strongly that Angela will cancel said concert.

(2) Was he wrong? Yes. Does he deserve crucifixion? No.

(3) If any of you are reading this, folks, I am faithfully reading if not posting. Look how hard it is maintaining this piece of writing!

(4)I finally saw them when I was about 16 and think most of the questionable content would have gone over my head at 9.

(5) Although producer/head writer Russell T Davies has referred to David in interviews as "Sir David Tennant", just as he used to refer to former companion Billie Piper as "Dame". And let's not forget that the Doctor and Rose were knighted by Queen Victoria! (Never mind what happened afterwards) And I'm assuming there's actually still a monarchy in Britain in 2030. Actually I might carry out that threat if Antonio Pappano isn't knighted by 2010 (assuming he's still at Covent Garden or some other British musical institution like the LSO). And what about Patrick Stewart?

(6) Well, I suppose there's YouTube. Sshhhhh.....

How this Jew spent her Christmas...

2006-12-26T19:18:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, not watching the brand-new Doctor Who Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride" straight from England (1). A few weeks ago I was directed to a website that has real-time webcasts of many television stations around the world - including both BBC1 (home of the good Doctor) and BBC2 (home of lots of arts programming and Covent Garden telecasts - the person who told me about this site was trying to get me to watch a documentary they showed on Angela Gheorghiu, which I unfortunately missed because it was on while I was at work). Unfortunately, I checked this site several days ago - and they are no longer carrying any major BBC channels, although they do have some specialized ones for weather and politics and local stuff. At least I did get last year's Christmas Special "The Christmas Invasion" on the Sci-Fi Channel and taped it, and with luck I hope to be seeing the new one this weekend at a meeting of the local fan club.

I often watch the Midnight Mass from Saint Patrick's Cathedral - mainly because they always have a soloist from the Met sing "O Holy Night" (probably the only Christmas carol I find completely irresistable - most of them I can live without unless being performed by a great singer). They've had Marcello Giordani, Ramon Vargas, Ruth Ann Swenson (she's the most common one) and Christine Goerke (2). I also admit that I've often found what Cardinal O'Connor, and now Cardinal Egan, say in their homilies is pretty interesting - I remember Egan a few years ago talking about how Joseph (and presumably Jesus), the "joiner of wood" was actually more of a construction worker than what we would think of as a carpenter , e.g someone who makes chairs and tables and shelves (3). I can't help but think of devoutly Christian Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, who uses Jesus-as-carpenter as a model for his housebuilding work. Unfortunately, I missed it this year. And I have no idea who sang "O Holy Night".

Anyway, I went to an open Jewish choral sing at the JCC, sponsored by one of my former choruses, Zamir Chorale, where we read through some choruses from Judas Maccabeus, Chichester Psalms and some Yiddish songs. Not quite one of the Avery Fisher Messiah Sing-Ins, but about 300 people showed up and we started late because extra chairs had to be set up. Although we had a fabulous boy soloist, better than many on recordings, even (I regret that I've forgotten his name), I think I'm getting sick of the Bernstein. I've already sung it twice and I'm going to sing it again in the spring. Unfortunately, it's become the "token Jewish work" for virtually every chorus. While I understand many mainstream choruses may not be familiar with the gorgeous work of Louis Lewandowski, or know that Schubert actually wrote at least one piece in Hebrew, what about the Sacred Services of Ernest Bloch and Darius Milhaud? Or excerpts from Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road, maybe the greatest "Jewish Opera" ever written? And he wrote a wonderful, jazzy setting of the Kiddush, too.

One of my standard Hanukkah rituals is to play Walter Widdop's colossal 1926 recording of "Sound an alarm" and Bryn's Terfel's "Arm, arm ye brave" every night of the holiday - this usually extends to at least the remainder of the Widdop CD (on Pearl, unfortunately out of print, especially since I lost the case and the CD itself isn't in such great condition), if not always the Terfel Handel Arias CD. To prepare for the sing-in, I bought a recording of Judas Maccabeus (McGegan: De Mey, Saffer, Spence, Thomas, Asawa). Well, at least it was cheap. I haven't heard the whole thing, but what I have heard, especially the "Sound an alarm", can best be described as WEEMPY WEEMPY WEEMPY (remember the Hefty Garbage Bag commercial?). Actually, Guy de Mey (Canadian?) has a lovely, light lyric voice and excellent coloratura, but he sounds like he's at a tea dance, not calling troops into battle. I'd cast him as Jupiter in Semele in 5 seconds flat, but not Judas. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Widdop, possibly the greatest British tenor of the 20th Century. And I wanted to buy the recording with Jan Peerce and Martina Arroyo, but it's now out of print. GRRR....

I also did the "traditional" Jewish Christmas of a movie and Chinese food. Nearly every theater in the city seemed to be sold out for the afternoon, so I went down to the Film Forum and caught a Woody Allen double bill of Play it Again, Sam (do you realize I still haven't seen all of Casablanca???) and The Purple Rose of Cairo (mixed feelings on the ending). I still want to see Dreamgirls, The Prestige, Happy Feet, and The Fountain, but the movie I'm really waiting for is Pan's Labyrinth, which has received ecstatic reviews, a 22 minute ovation at Cannes (!), a Golden Globe nomination for best Foreign Film (it's Mexico's Oscar entry, too, and I'd also be surprised, based on what little I've heard of it, if it's not up for a Best Score Oscar too - but I've never forgiven the Academy for not giving the Best Score Oscar to Star Trek - The Motion Picture in 1979), and no less than Steven King called it the greatest fantasy film since The Wizard of Oz. Very dark, violent fairytale set in post-Franco Spain - shades of Spirit of the Beehive? It must really be something, because "serious" film people tend to look down their noses at fantasy.

Weather was awful, by the way. Cold, gray, and damp. I don't think I've had a white Christmas since I was 5. Certainly not more than 3 times in my life

Oh, and I am now finally the very proud mommy of a brand spanking new DVD player - my first. My Hanukkah present to myself. Now all I actually have to do is figure out how to hook it up to my ancient TV. I think I'm going to need to hook up some extra thing (I think it's called an RF modulator) to the TV and hook the DVD player into that because I think the TV only has one output jack.

My actual DVD collection consists of: The Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (also the first film I bought on VHS), The Court Jester (my all-time favorite film - I've seen it about 100 times and it still makes me laugh), Angela and Roberto's L' Elisir D'Amore, her La Traviata, and 3 of my favorite "classic" Doctor Who episodes - "The Mind Robber", "Ghost Light", and "The Curse of Fenric". Hope I can actually start watching them before New Year's, and maybe even get a Netflix subscription.

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(1) Actually, I now think of December 25th less as "Christmas" than as "Doctor Who Christmas Special Day". Massive apologies to any Christian readers :-)

(2) I was a little unhappy that Roberto Alagna, who I presume is Catholic, didn't do it the one year he was here for Christmas - 2003, right before his Met Werthers. Then again, marrying a woman who is Romanian Orthodox, and a divorcee, may have disqualified him.

(3) I've always found it very interesting that Christian (specifically Catholic) holy relics tend to be the body parts of Jesus (and the saints). Since he was a carpenter (or a construction worker), surely something he made should be holy, like a chair or a table with miraculous powers? Can anybody who is Christian/Catholic give me any idea as to why this is so?

It almost makes you want to commit SUICIDIO!

2006-10-12T08:17:00.001-04:00

Hello Muddah,
Hello Faddah
There I was at
La Gioconda...

(Unfortunately, I can't figure out a song version for what I'm about to tell you that even remotely scans to the "Dance of The Hours")

I started going to the Metropolitan Opera on April 15, 1993, with a Lucia di Lammermoor starring Sumi Jo, Alfredo Kraus, Haijing Fu - I had been to a few things at New York City Opera before that. Beginning in 1995 I began going regularly and by the following season I was averaging about 20 performances a year. I have now been to the Met about 170 times, and probably other opera houses - NYCO, Covent Garden, English National Opera and the Washington Opera - a total of at least 30. In all that time, and all those performances, the worst experience I ever had was - last night.

The day wasn't going all that well to begin with. You probably know by now that New York Yankees pitcher Corey Lisle and his flight instructor were killed when their plane crashed into an apartment building on 72nd and York, right on the East River. Since the first assumption was this was a terrorist act, there were tons of police there, screwing up traffic all over the city. It began to rain torrentially as soon as I left work - and I didn't have my jacket with me because I didn't think it was going to rain until after midnight. I had to go home before the opera to pick up my ticket because I forgot it in the morning. Then I lost my Metrocard (bus fare), although the driver very nicely let me stay on the bus and I found it when I got home.

OK, the performance starts at 7:30PM, which means Irina Mishura begins "Voce di donna" at exactly 8:00. That was made very clear when at least 10 watches beeped during the aria. The last time anything like that happened was back in 1997 when I saw Puritani and Ruth Ann Swenson began "Qui la voce" at 10 PM on the dot. Makes you want to go into the Met with an Uzi!

Well, that wasn't quite so bad by itself, but two people several seats to my right were whispering all throughout the performance, starting with the overture. Try telling them that opera is music, not just singing. To make matters even worse, when Act II began, the family behind me started ruffling through plastic bags and containers, and, I suspect, even eating. Two cell phones - not from this family - went off during "Cielo e mar", adding to the cacophany. I kept glaring at the noisemakers throughout the aria - and shushing them too (so did other people), but it didn't work. During the applause, I turned to one of the kids, who I thought in the darkness was a teenager, but turned out only to be about 10 (If I had known, I would have started with yelling at the parents) and hissed "Thanks for ruining this great aria!". They continued to crackle during "Stella del marinar" and the duet, and kept going until the end of the act despite repeated glaring and shushing and even "SHUT UP!". I probably should have said something to them at that point, but I didn't want to start a fight, so I just moaned with some sympathetic fellow operagoers who weren't happy about these crude, thoughtless people either. I thought about moving, but I wasn't sure where the empty seats were - the house was pretty sold out.

I thought that when Act III began, they would settle down and stop, but no. In addition to the noise they were already making, one of the kids was actually scratching the velvet lining of the railing between the rows! That's something that never even occurred to me! This time when I tried to shush them the father said - very loud - 'What? I can't hear you. I can't hear you."

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

Finally, when the act ended, I decided to actually give them the benefit of the doubt and be polite about all the trouble they caused, as they may have been simply totally ignorant (and deaf, considering that they couldn't hear everybody shushing) rather than deliberately rude. Not to mention, I figured the kids would eventually grow up and if they actually were to become decent opera fans, they couldn't have the stereotype of opera lovers as snobbish and stuckup. I remembered how I brought one of those gourmet lollipops (Linda's Lollies, which comes in about 100 flavors, has about 100 calories, and lasts about 3 days) into Salome back in 2005 and was happily sucking it when after during a break the woman standing next to me told me I was making noise. I had no idea, since I couldn't hear anything. I immediately and profusely apologized, wrapped the candy up, and put it away.

So I turned to them and said, "Listen, I don't know if you realize it, but you are making a lot of noise and you're disturbing people, please be more careful." The father said. "We are trying to enjoy the aftereffect of this great scene and you have problems. Shut up." OK, he didn't actually say "shut up", but that was certainly the tone. Now I know who is really snobbish and stuckup. I was in tears. I then did something I've never done - I actually went to the usher and asked him to throw them out. Now I know this guy and he is not the world's nicest person, so I figured he'd put them in their place. When he tried to tell family to quiet down, the father kept screaming at him and telling him to get his fingers out of his face. I still don't see why he didn't call security, although the final act was about to begin and this guy was making such a fuss it would have further disturbed the performance. I can only wish my regular usher friend Annie was there - she wouldn't have been cowed quite so easily.

That was the last straw. There were now empty seats because people had left due to the opera's length and I suspect these yobbos - so I grabbed my coat and moved three rows down - even 4 rows away, I could still hear them making noise! And the woman who was now next to me kept zipping and unzipping her purse.

As you can imagine, the performance was totally ruined. I wouldn't have minded this all that much if this was a mediocre performance - under those circumstances, this debacle might have been funny in retrospect. But even with the distractions and the rage and the tears and the numbness, I could tell it was a magnificent one. I have the feeling Marcello Giordani, in particular, gave probably the best work I've ever seen from him, which is saying a lot - maybe enough to put his Enzo into the pantheon of Greatest Tenor Performances I Have Heard Live which so far includes Placido Domingo's Ghermann, Ben Heppner's Walther von Stolzing, Roberto Alagna's Don Jose, and Phillip Langridge's Captain Vere.

I hope some kind soul can get me a copy from Sirius. I can't go again as the remaining performances conflict with Simchat Torah and my chorus rehearsal (I already missed one for this perormance!). Even without that, going again wouldn't help all that much because the Enzo is going back to Aquiles Machado (decent tenor, lovable Rodolfo, but likely completely miscast), and as good as everyone else may be, it was Giordani who got the brunt of the noise and I don't think Machado can cure my pain.

It's going to be days at least before I recover enough to comment on the performance itself. And I am going to write to Gelb and ask him while he's advertising the Met to advertise proper operatic etiquette. Although you would think that most of it is common sense and decency.

Oh, and if the Enzo had been The Originally Scheduled Roberto Alagna, the byword of this post would not be "suicidio" but "morte" - as in murder!

Operatic Orgy On The Way!

2006-10-06T13:44:00.000-04:00

On my way to buy a ticket for last night's New York Philharmonic Concert of L'Enfant Et Les Sortileges and Saint-Saens Symphony #3 (The "Organ" Symphony) - a review should follow sometime within the next few millennia - I was finally able to buy most of this year's Met tickets. It took this long because my work friend Alfred (whose first opera, with me, was Angela's Traviata last year - hard act to follow) wanted to come along and we had to agree on dates. It turns out that we're only going to see Simon Boccanegra together at this point (splurging for the Balcony), and if he decides to go with me a particular night we'll see if there are any seats or standing room left.

So here's the list:

10/10/06: Idomeneo (Heppner, Roschmann, Makarina, Jepson)

10/11/06: La Gioconda (Urmana, Borodina, Giordani, Mishura, Lucic, Burchuladze)

10/16/06: Faust (Vargas, Swenson, Hakala, Abdrazakov)

11/02/06: Rigoletto (Pons, Siurina, Calleja, Herrera, Burchuladze)

11/16/06: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Braun, Florez, Damrau, Ramey, Del Carlo)

11/21/06: La Bohème (Villazon, Marambio, Glanville, Coleman-Wright)

11/30/06: Don Carlo (Botha, Racette, Borodina, Pape, Ramey)

12/19/06: Rigoletto (Alvarez, Siurina, Bieczala - debut, Aldrich - debut, Lloyd)

A huge Flute blitz: Both casts of The Magic Flute on the matinees of 12/31/06 and 01/01/07, plus the evening Die Zauberflöte on New Year's Day (Strehl, Milne, Miklosa, Pogassov, Pape, Lloyd )

01/30/07: Cavelleria Rusticana (Zajick, Poretta, Delavan) and I Pagliacci (Stoyanova, Licitra, Ataneli)

02/08/07: I Puritani (Netrebko, Kunde, Vassalo, Relyea)

02/19/07 and 02/27/07: Simon Boccanegra (Hampson, Gheorghiu, Giordani, Furlanetto, and I think Vassily Gerello is Paolo Albani). The first one is the joint Balcony performance with Alfred.
03/01/07: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Morris, Botha, Hong, Ketelsen, Nikitin, Zifchak)

03/22/07: Andrea Chenier (Heppner, Urmana, Delavan)

04/17/07: Giulio Cesare (Daniels, Swenson, Coote, Bardon, Zazzo)

04/24/07: Giulio Cesare (Zazzo, de Niese, Coote, Grove, Thompson)

04/26/07: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Mattei, Brownlee - debut, Di Donato, Relyea, Del Carlo)

05/02/07: Orfeo et Euridice (Daniels, Milne, Murphy). I tried to get tickets to a non-premiere night, but the only performance that wasn't sold out was on a Friday.

Total: $465. Thank heavens I got a credit limit increase. And Alfred was really nice to pay me back right away.

That's still the first round. I definitely want to at least look into The First Emperor, Jenufa, Die Ägyptiche Helene, and Il Trittico, and possibly one of the Giordani Bohèmes. I regret to say that apart from a few $110 Side Parterre Seats in one performance, Madama Butterfly is totally sold out. So is the Villazon/Netrebko Bohème (and I can't go to their Gala because it's the second night of Passover). I guess I has to takes my chances with Standing Room. And I do want to see some things at NYCO and other (non-operatic) venues. I still haven't been able to see Carmen with Rinat Shaham and Latonia Moore - I was indisposed for opening night, and Shaham was indisposed for September 30! Glad I was "stuck" at Barnes & Noble all that night. Poor woman first gets a cold and then her husband's stomach flu! Wishing her a refuah shleimah.

Two amusing notes. The consecutive Idomeneo, Gioconda, and Faust performances have ascending seat numbers - I107, I108, and I109, and the second Boccanegra is I110! Also, when I stopped in the Met Shop, one of the salespeople was wearing a kimono! No, it's not a brilliant Gelb marketing idea, but the woman's own idea, and not intended for advertising Butterfly. She apparently bought it on the street for only $36.

I also had a nice conversation with the man at the ticket window - it takes a while to check through 22 tickets! I regret to say I've already forgotten his name. He's been at the Met 19 years, apparently at the ticket window. I realize that people tend to have looong careers there (sometimes too long, Mr. Volpe), but I was surprised he wasn't promoted or didn't come up from another position. He remembers me coming probably since I started coming in 1993.

Well, tonight begins Sukkot, so a chag sameach to those who are observing it and Ramadan Mubarak to anyone observing that - and if I've forgotten any other faith's holiday, may that be happy too. I will be going to a Sukkot party/Ramadan break-fast at Park Slope Synagogue on Sunday night, which I imagine will be a wonderful followup to the joint Yom Kippur/Ramadan break-fast we had at my beloved B'nai Jeshurun. There will actually be a brief story about this on PBS' Religion and Ethics Weekly, probably at 6PM Sunday. I'll report on both soon, probably in conjunction with my Idomeneo review (you can probably figure out why)

L'Shanah Tovah!

2006-09-22T16:58:00.000-04:00

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs, and your stocks not fall.

And may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol. your white blood count and your mortgage (or rent) not rise.

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, your gastroenterologist, your urologist, your proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your plumber, and the IRS.

May you find a way to travel from anywhere to anywhere during rush hour in less than an hour, and (if you drive) when you get there may you find a parking space.

May this Yom Tov find you seated around the dinner table, together with your beloved family and cherished friends, ushering in the Jewish New Year ahead.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner, may your checkbook and budget balance, and may they include generous amounts for tsedakah (charity).

May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to your partner, your child(ren) and your parent(s). You can say it to your secretary, your nurse, your butcher, your photographer, your masseur/masseuse, your seamstress, your hairdresser or your gym instructor, but not with a "twinkle" in your eye.

May we live as intended, in a world at peace with the awareness of the beauty in every sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's smile and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous part of ourselves.

May G-d bless you with every happiness, great health, peace and much love during the next year and all those that follow.

-- from and E-mail sent by a (non-Jewish) coworker of mine to every Jewish person he knows. I think this is reworked from at least two or three different rabbi's greetings to congregants quoted in various Rosh Hashana anthologies.

Wishing a good and sweet year to my Jewish brothers and sisters and dear friend of any faith. And Ramadan Mubarak to any Muslim readers. Although I think it's a few days before it starts.

And, of course, lots of fabulous music, especially opera!

I am finally...OVERWEIGHT!

2006-09-15T17:52:00.000-04:00

...as opposed to being obese, that is.

On May 3 I weighed 220lbs, and I said, "That's it." Although that's not quite as bad as the 230 I was about 5 or 6 years ago, I was determined at the very least to get myself below 180, the marking point for "obese" at my height (5'5"). Although I was determined to be under 200 lbs by the time I went to London on June 14 and met Lulu and Angela (I missed by about 4lbs), this was almost entirely a health issue, not an aesthetic one. My father died at the age of 57 of heart failure (and since I've definitely inherited his temper, I may well have inherited other risk factors as well), I have a heart murmur (according to the doctor, nothing to worry about - but I still have to take antibiotics when I go to the dentist and let's just say Amoxycillin and my stomach are not on friendly terms!), and before I started this, I was tired, lethargic, depressed, irritable, and occasionally even murderous.

Partially because I've been reading a lot of books about a raw-food diet (I have been a vegetarian - mostly vegan - for virtually all my adult life), and partially because it's extremely cheap, I've been eating almost exclusively fruit from the various stands around work, Lara Bars (made from dried fruit and nuts), Maya Bars (same thing with raw cacao) and splurging for Shabbat dinner on wonderful salads from Bonobo's on 23rd Street and 5th Avenue - they also have a divine raw bell pepper and coconut soup. When they have a Community Kiddush at B'nai Jeshurun after Saturday morning services - usually twice a month - I have the salads and the spreads (humus, baba ganoush, etc) and one chocolate rugelach with fruit. I've also been doing "water only" cleansing fasts on Sunday to clean myself out and counteract any Shabbat overindulgences. So I've basically been eating very healthily. I was less "good" while in London, but that was only four days...

Well, since today is the day before my 37th birthday, I weighed myself - I wouldn't weigh myself tomorrow because I think doing so on Shabbat is a really bad idea - and I am now 178lbs. Of course, I have been regularly weighing myself in the interim. But this is the first time in at least 15 years since I've been down that low. I think I was only under 200 once, during a brief and ultimately unsucessful attempt at Atkins (all that meat did not appeal to me).

With Rosh Hashanah and all the other ensuing Jewish holidays and their feasts, I don't doubt I'll gain some of this back - but I'll be very good afterwards - I have no intention of ever seeing 190 again. Of course, I know that the slower it comes off the longer it will stay off, and considering that I'm now starting to buy new clothes (going from 2X to Large and even Medium) and how many compliments I've been getting, plus - most importantly - the improvement in my mood, I have ample reason to continue on this track.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures, either "before" or "after". Although I'll probably start taking them another 20lbs from now. This has more to do with lack of digital camera than anything else.

Oh, and I have no interest whatsoever in little black dresses!

"Where'er You...DON'T... Walk"?

2006-09-04T18:44:00.000-04:00

Bummer! While looking over the schedule for New York City Opera's upcoming new production of Semele, it became obvious I will probably have to miss it. All the performances conflict with either the Jewish High Holy Days, Shabbat (which, technically, is even higher than the High Holy Days) or my Wednesday choral rehearsals (we're preparing Durufle's Requiem and possibly Holst's Festival Te Deum for a concert November 5). I can't skip a rehearsal for it because I'm already planning to miss one in order to see La Gioconda at the Met with Marcello Giordani. The other two performances conflict with Idomeneo (although I suppose I don't have to go the opening night of the production) and, more importantly, a rally in Central Park to stop the genocide in Darfur. If I do go I'll probably postpone Idomeneo. I'm not that nuts about the opera (20 minutes of plot in 3 1/2 hours), but it's a wonderful cast - I never want to miss Ben Heppner and I'm eager to finally see Dorothea Roschmann.

If I do miss Semele, it would a shame because I've never seen the opera (although I have heard the wonderful recording with Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, et al) and because I have the greatest respect for its two stars, Elizabeth Futral (Semele) and Vivica Genaux (Juno/Ino). I'll admit Genaux doesn't have quite enough of the contralto quality I think the role needs (Blythe! BLYTHE! BLYTHE!), but she's a fabulous musician and I don't doubt she can put forward an elegant, regal presence. Tenor Robert Breault (Jupiter), who I heard under the auspices of OONY - I can't remember in what, but I did like him - is nobody to sneeze at either.

On the other hand, it is a new production. And apparently a "concept production". At least I think this opera, and other operas that are essentially mythology or fantasy, might be able to tolerate that better than something more "realistic".

Oh well. I guess I'll have to console myself with John McCormack's and (especially) Roland Hayes' renditions of the aria I mangled in the title of this post, and possibly Genaux's new album of Handel and Hasse arias which comes out next Tuesday if it's playing on a Tower Records listening station.

At least a friend of mine from work (the same guy I took to see Angela in La Traviata) and I are going to see Carmen on September 14. It looks like a great cast - Israeli mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham in the title role (she's had raves at Glyndebourne in the part) and a wonderful young soprano named Latonia Moore debuting as Micaela. And Mark Duffin, who played a murderous soldier with great high notes in The Mines of Sulphur last year, takes on another murderous soldier with great high notes in Don Jose. I regret I am totally unfamiliar with the Escamillo, baritone Adrian Gans.

Under Construction, or, What's The Opposite Of A Yenta?

2006-08-20T19:35:00.000-04:00

OK, folks, you just may have noticed that I haven't updated this blog since February. As a matter of fact, I got a very friendly comment on my last post to that effect (thanks, Paul!). So much for being a "yenta" who just talks and talks and talks, usually a nasty, incurable gossip (which I am not)... maybe when I get my Big Raise in October 2007 and can buy my own computer, I'll post every day or several times a day. Maybe I should rename this blog to whatever the opposite of a yenta is, but I can't figure out what that is. A commentator to Maury D'Annato's blog suggested baleboosteh, but that's not it either - you can easily be both (1). I have no idea what the Yiddish word is for some one who is shy, quiet, retiring, taciturn... uh, Leo Rosten, in der yenner welt (the other world), can you help?

So, what's my excuse for not being as much of a yenta as I claim? Basically, I don't have my own computer, so I have to pay for internet time, which tends to be expensive. And I either have time only to read my E-mail, or if I buy a whole day at an internet cafe (like I did today), I inevitably get distracted with other things. While in the future my first priority will be to report on things that just happened (my future Met and NYCO visits, that is), I will try to "cheat" and eventually "fill in" all the missing posts, properly backdated. There's a lot of stuff you guys missed...

Not the least of which was my trip to London. Of course, this was primarily for the Royal Opera's Tosca with Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel, Antonio Pappano, et. al. (unfortunately, not with Marcelo Alvarez, but with his probably equally indisposed understudy, Nicola Rossi Giordano(2)). As I expected, this was alone worth the $1,200 I spent on the trip, but I also got to see the British Theater Institution The Mousetrap, Chicago with former Doctor Who companion Bonnie Langford (herself almost a British Theater Institution!), and, as a last minute replacement for several other possibilities (namely Shakespeare's Globe, which I should have gotten tickets to before I left!), a double bill of Duke Bluebeard's Castle (with Albert Dohmen and Christine Rice) and Erwartung (with another Angela, Frau Denoke), also at the Royal Opera. I had a nice hotel in Russell Square between two beautiful parks, the weather was glorious (the sun sets after 1oPM!), and the food was pretty good too - London is a wonderful city to be a vegetarian in, even though there are almost no restaurants open after 11PM. The British Museum is one of the world's greatest treasures, which made me feel proud to be a human being. And I finally got to meet my good friend Lulu. Oh yeah, we got to meet Angela too (Lulu knows her). I was so overwhelmed by the performance I almost cried. She gave me a hug. Too bad no Tony or Bryn as well (3).

Actually, in the case of the London trip, I'd better organize my posts on that by topic, not by date!

The other big event of the summer was my trip to the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield, Massachusetts, where, as I said I would back in February, I sang alto in the chorus for the Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem. In addition to rehearsing for 25 hours and performing this perfect piece for the alto voice, I explored the nearby towns of Great Barrington (lots of great art galleries and craft shops) and Lenox (where I sampled a fantabulous Grand Marnier truffle and almost bumped into James Levine - literally), went to the Berkshire Botanical Gardens (rain made the greenery even more beautiful) and saw Gurrelieder at Tanglewood with Levine conducting and Christine Brewer, Waltraud Meier, Johan Botha, and Matthew Polenzani as soloists. Oh, the BSO also played the Requiem's fourth movement ("Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth") in memory of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Oh yes, and the wonderful couple who drove me to Tanglewood reintroduced me to the wonders of Flanders and Swann.

I hope to give more details on these events, as well as:

The "Good Riddance Gala" for "Uncle Joe" Volpe, aka the Volpego, the Volpexit, and most creatively, Volpedämmerung (which, baruch Hashem, I didn't pay good money to attend, but experienced on WQXR). What a dispiriting experience, just like nearly the entire Volpe era! All right, Natalie Dessay (the highlight), Ramon Vargas, Juan Diego Florez, Dolora Zajick, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Rene Pape were great or pretty close (and it was nice to have the preview of Don Carlo). Roberto Alagna would have been great if he had sung something other than Cyrano de Bergerac - it's a fine opera but not easily excerptible -and what the heck was he doing there, honoring a man who gained much of his recent fame by trashing him and his wife? Everything else was either dead average or unlistenable. The low came at the beginning, when Deborah Voigt sang a novelty song which trashed Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti (4), and of course shoved the whole weight loss thing down our throats. Renee Fleming's overdone, "bad jazz" audition for the Trovatore Leonora made me almost gag (and the latest rumor is that she got the part - and the far superior Sondra Radvanovsky was bought out). And Denyce Graves, who didn't produce one clear consonant, seemed to be auditioning for the Grand Inquisitor instead of any decent mezzo role.
Possibly the New York Philharmonic Memorial Concert at Saint John the Divine, where poor Maestra Xian Zhang had to spend so much effort compensating for the echoey acoustics it was virtually impossible to judge her conducting - and frankly, I think it might just be a better idea to give the free concert at Avery Fisher Hall! I still hope to hear the maestra in circumstances with decent acoustics.
The Anna Netrebko Show (aka Don Pasquale)
Fidelio in the company my best friend, Bradley Wilber of Met Futures Page fame. He knows Alan Held, the Pizzaro, and we got to go backstage and meet him. Unlike Pizzaro, Held is a doll. I guess it's true that actors who play villains tend to be especially nice, because they can work out their dark sides on stage. He's also very tall, and thanks to his high- pitched laugh, I have decided to cast him as Voldemort in my Harry Potter opera. Now all I have to do is to ask Brad to ask Alan if that's OK...
That long-promised Complete Report on Angela's Met Traviatas.
Some more interesting You Tube links I found but could not post several months ago.
Some even older, unfinished posts. Especially the one about Volpe's Blonde Fetish and Racism at the Met. Hopefully with Gelb in charge it will be long out-of-date.

When and if those are all, or mostly, done, I'll edit or delete this post. If I can't do them, then this post will serve as the "report" on these events. Actually I might not need to do some of them, since in true yenta fashion, this post wound up longer than I anticipated.

(1) Baleboosteh is the feminine of baleboss, which comes from the Hebrew baal habayit - "master of the house". Baleboss usually refers to a proprietor of a shop or other business, and a baleboosteh means a) the wife of a baleboss, b) a female business owner, or most commonly c) a really fabulous homemaker, one whose floor you can eat off of. So technically, any of these ladies can be a yenta as well.

(2) No relation, I am certain, to Marcello Giordani, Massimo Giordano, or Nicola Rossi-Lemeni.

(3) I have met Angela before, on at least 3 or 4 other occasions, and only once was she anything less than totally gracious, kind, and completely the antithesis of the monster that certain professional gossip columnists posing as music journalists portray her as. Even then, she was only a little reserved and wary - it was probably her first time dealing with the American public and her sister had just died. Oh, yes, Roberto is a sweetheart, too. Just very shy. Also, when I met him after his New York Philharmonic debut, Tony struck me as a very warm-hearted, loving person, and very modest. Bryn is very outgoing and a lot of fun.

(4) And as we now know, Pavarotti has pancreatic cancer, folks, and even then people knew he was genuinely ill, although they assumed it was the flu.

The great opera star Placido Flamingo!

2006-02-26T15:14:00.000-05:00

After finding that clip of Robin Schlotz on YouTube, to which I was directed to by numerous Opera-L postings as well as by the amazed members of the Yahoo! Gheorghiu and Alagna club, I decided to see what other operatic offerings were available. I regret to say about 90% of what I found when I put "opera" in the site's search function was rank (really rank) amateurs attempting selections from Phantom of the Opera, and a lot of the rest is soap opera stuff! OK, there was Emmy Rossum's screen test for the Phantom film (which I haven't seen yet), and she's not half bad - she interpolated some interesting coloratura into "Think of Me", but it's mostly dire.

But quite to my delight I did find, after about 10 pages of mediocrity, I found two clips with an opera star every child, certainly, should know about: the greatest (and most dangerous), flamingo opera star, Placido Flamingo, a marvelous Muppet introduced on Sesame Street(1) I would guess about 10 years ago. Perhaps more - Richard Hunt, who provided Maestro Flamingo's marvelous tenor voice, has since passed away. Unfortunately, the only pictures I could find of Maestro Flamingo are way too small to be clearly seen here. And I can't find a picture of him with his namesake, although I clearly remember seeing one!

This clip shows a performance of the opera Peligro ("danger" in Spanish) live from the Nestropolitan Opera House ("Live from The Nest", ha ha ha), introduced by a Muppet named Phil Harmonic. The opera itself sounds a little like "That's Amore". Unfortunately, we only get to hear the first act of this masterpiece, for reasons that I will let Mr. Harmonic inform you of.

And this one is a performance (from Pretty Great Performances, live from Barnegie Hall) of the Italian Street Song from Naughty Marietta, where Maestro Flamingo is joined by the Sesame Street All-Animal Orchestra conducted by "world-renowned very good sport" Seiji Ozawa. Yes, that is Maestro Ozawa, not a Muppet version! (2)

(Note: While this may the fault of the computer I've been using, I've found that it takes an awfully long time to download these videos, and they're often interrupted. Once downloaded, however, you should have no trouble replaying them.

Unfortunately, this was all I could find of these delightful "operas" - no La Grouchiata with Wilhelmina Fernandez (and Oscar the Grouch), for example. I am also certain that there must have been a sketch with Maestro Flamingo and his namesake singing together. Not to mention I also would love to be able to find a clip of Meryl Streep taking acting lessons from Meryl Sheep!

I also wish find some of the operas that played on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, created by and starring the wonderful baritone John Reardon. When I was five or six years old I would regularly run home and say "Mama, Mama, there's going to be an opera on Mister Rogers!". Much later, when I was about ten or so, I remember a particular opera about a kitty that wanted to be a star (that is, in the sky), and Reardon was her father. I was absolutely shocked when, after growing up, I bought the incredible La Boheme recording with Jussi Björling, Victoria De Los Angeles, and Robert Merrill, and Reardon was Schaunard! I had no idea he was a "real" opera singer!

(I actually cried when he died, as I did with Fred Rogers)

By the way, speaking of Maestro Flamingo's namesake, I was watching a rerun of The Cosby Show from about 20 years ago where he guest starred. Cliff Huxtable, Bill Cosby's character, is a obstetrician, and Domingo played Alberto, a Spanish colleague who comes to his house for a visit. Domingo, who looks shockingly young (it's been a while since he's had black hair) sings "Besame Mucho", and Cosby's efforts to imitate him are hilarious. After Alberto leaves, Cliff's wife Clair (Phylicia Rahsad) comments on his "rich, strong voice", leading to another round of imitations from hubby!

Domingo (as well as Beverly Sills) also had several quite memorable visits to the Carol Burnett Show, but that's for another time.

(1)For non-American readers of this blog - Sesame Street is one of our oldest and most prestigious children's shows, having been around since I was a baby, maybe before. I'm pretty sure it helped me learn to read - at the age of 2. It is so famous that a great many famous people - actors, singers, musicians, writers, etc. have appeared on it, probably to impress their kids!There are also many different versions of the show in different countries, such as Rechov Sumsum in Israel and Yiftah-ha-Simsim in Arabic-speaking countries. I think the British equivalent (not a clone of the American show like the ones I just mentioned) is TISWAS.

(2) I really hope that a DVD version is released of a marvelous video from Deutsche Grammophon called A Prokofiev Fantasy with Peter and the Wolf. Basically, this is a dramatization, narrated by Sting, with the Spitting Image puppets (probably best known in the US for their contribution to Genesis' "Land of Confusion" video) conducted by Claudio Abbado. It shows what a sense of humor Maestro Abbado has, although that should be evident from his handling of Rossini. Before Peter and the Wolf, the orchestra plays the March in D, during which we see several Spitting Image puppets of conductors - I think Ozawa, von Karajan and Mehta- fighting in the pit until Abbado sweeps in and starts conducting, and then with a morph shot, he turns into a Spitting Image puppet! And this is only the beginning of the fun! The musical program also includes the Classical Symphony and Overture on Hebrew Themes.

Hey, Tony! Have I got a Shepherd Boy for YOU!

2006-02-26T12:55:00.000-05:00

Just listen to this 13 year old boy sing a fabulous Queen of the Night aria!

What fabulous Fs! What energy and intensity! What anger in the voice (if not the face), which so many Queens lack! Only very minor intonation problems! What a beautiful swell on the final "Hör"!

He could give some Queens who have sung in major houses a run for their money!

His name is Robin Schlotz and as of last July when this was recorded, he was a member of the Tölzer Knabenchor. He is now 14 and has probably left. I suspect he'll probably grow into a splendid baritone or bass rather than a tenor or countertenor. What a shame it would be to lose all those high Fs! Maybe if we're lucky he'll wind up like "male soprano" Michael Maniaci*.

To explain the title of this post - one of the members of the Yahoo! Gheorghiu and Alagna club, not seeing the credit on this video from You Tube, thought that he was James Savage-Hanford, who played the Shepherd Boy in the Pappano/Gheorghiu/Alagna Tosca (and was also seen being conducted by Tony in the studio scenes in the film, showing off lots of braces) . What a coup Covent Garden would have if they could cast Robin, and have luxury casting even in this role! The aforementioned, and excellent, Master Savage-Hanford is now definitely too old.

Unfortunately, I'm sure the role of the Shepherd Boy in the Covent Garden Tosca in June has already been cast - the management is very good at announcing smaller parts as soon as the season is announced, unlike the Met who waits until the last minute. And it is unknown as to whether Robin can sing in Italian. Also, especially at this delicate stage in his vocal development, one doesn't want to force him to do too much too fast. Although after that aria, the Shepherd Boy's solo would be a walk in the park!

* Who, by the way, is making his Met debut next April as Nireno in Giulio Cesare.

Celeste Amneris?

2006-02-14T12:56:00.000-05:00

Aida

Music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni
Performance of Monday night, February 13, 2005, the 1,092nd Metropolitan Opera performance of this work.

Conductor: James Conlon

Aida: Andrea Gruber
Radames: Johan Botha
Amneris: Olga Borodina
Amonasro: Juan Pons
Ramfis: Kwangchoul Youn
The King of Egypt: Hao Jian Tiang
Messenger: Ronald Naldi
Priestess: Jennifer Check

Actually, the title of this post comes from an article or in one of the major opera magazines (probably Opera News, but I'm not so sure) to find a way to make a really long opera really short. The winner went something like: "Rhinemaidens: 'Give us back our gold!' Alberich: 'OK!'" The number two winner was "Radames comes out and sings 'Celeste Amneris'"!

Humor aside, Amneris should be "celeste": an antagonist, yes, but not the outright villain even many of the greatest mezzos (e.g. Fedora Barbieri and Giulietta Simionato) make her; someone who you can feel a twinge of pity for that she can't have Radames and who is as worthy of being loved as much as Aida is. After all, as many opera fans know, Verdi was considering calling this opera Amneris instead of Aida. Thanks to Olga Borodina, a serious candidate for the greatest dramatic mezzo of our age, that was definitely the opera's title in last night's performance. I suspect this would have been true even with a superior singer in the title role. In fact, Olga (1) was the primary reason I made a return visit to this opera this season after seeing it in October.

While Olga cannot compete with the equally marvelous Dolora Zajick for sheer blood and gut vocalism (although her voice is hardly small), she more than makes up for it in terms of nuance, tenderness, and humanity. In fact, vulnerability is one of her strongest suits. This Amneris is clearly a woman on the wrong end of a love triangle, flawed by jealousy but by no means a villain. Listening to her is like wallowing in... I don't know... molten butterscotch? Her timbre is incredibly rich, warm, and ductile, with an almost contraltoish bottom, easy high notes, beautiful phrasing and enormous dynamic and expressive variety. If she is not a "great actress" she still exudes nobility and dignity as much as haughtiness. The Judgement Scene is an utter triumph. My only problem is I would have liked to have seen even half as much expression in her face as I heard in her voice.

[By the way, I hope to have a post up in a few days called "Amneris as 'Pharoah's Daughter'". I mean the one in Shmot (Exodus).]

The first time I heard Johan Botha in Italian opera was about 10 years ago on a CD called The Puccini Experience, where he sang (not very well) many of the major Puccini heroes - in fact, my thought at the time was he was really an overparted comprimario. Far more impressive, I thought, were baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore and a then virtually unknown soprano ... named Angela Gheorghiu. I later heard bits of him in Elektra that was much more impressive, and I figured he was simply better in German opera than in Italian. His Met debut was as Canio in Pagliacci, and I remember by being shocked at how good he was on the broadcast. While I have been very impressed with his Met work in German opera, I hadn't had the chance to hear him in Italian live until now (I missed his Calaf last year, purported to be excellent). Like Ben Heppner, whose German repertory he often shares, his is an essentially lyric, clarion voice, and he took a welcome lyric approach to the role. I was delighted that he actually attempted (although, admittedly, did not quite succeed) to sing the final high B flat in "Celeste Aida" piano, pianissimo, morendo. If anything, his Radames was so sweet and loving that I couldn't imagine him hurting a fly, let alone ransacking Ethiopia! I also admit I prefer a fuller voice in this role. I'll be very happy to hear him sing the title role in Don Carlo next year. However, one of my sources sources sources spoke to Mr. Botha and says that he will be singing Otello at the Met in 2007-2008! That I'm not so sure is a good idea, despite Heppner's triumph.

By the way, Botha's reasonably new disc of Wagner arias on the Arte Nova label, conducted by Simone Young, is wonderful.

I tend to think of Juan Pons as a house baritone - he's at the Met less for the quality of his singing than the fact that he's extremely reliable and dependable and he does what he's told. I also suspect that the fact that he is managed by Herbert Breslin had a lot to do with his long Met career - if you wanted Luciano Pavarotti, you had to take the rest of Breslin's roster (2). I often find him very dull, although because he is often loud, he gets lots of applause. I will, however, give him credit for being a good actor, and his hulking presence is a plus as, say, Rigoletto. Here he gave a good, solid, decently acted but ultimately not very memorable performance - I would have particularly liked more tenderness and/or wheedling in the Nile Scene.

Kwangchoul Youn was certainly a great improvement over Paata Burchuladze earlier - with a firm, clear, focused, well-projected voice as well as an air of authority and supercilliousness. Admittedly, he doesn't have the kind of presence that someone like Rene Pape might, but ironically enough, I think Pape has only sung the King and not Ramfis. I certainly don't think Youn could do the kind of justice to King Marke (which he will apparently be singing in 2007-2008) that Pape could, but maybe a harder, colder Marke might work. However, I would love to hear Youn as Colline, because, as a French critic said about Ildebrando D'Arcangelo in the role for the Decca La Boheme recording with Alagna and Gheorghiu, he actually sounds like a student instead of a dean of the faculty (and if you look at his headshot in the Met Season Book, he looks like one too, especially with the glasses). Incidentally, I wouldn't mind hearing Olga's fab (maybe khorosho is a better word) husband Ildar Abdrazakov as Ramfis, although he also sounds like a young man.

Hao Jiang Tian was an excellent King, if not quite as hugely sonorous as Morris Robinson. This is another singer for whom it is long past time for the Met to be offering major roles - the closest so far have been Timur and Colline. Ronald Naldi as the Messenger was his usual pleasant, reliable self.

And then there's Andrea Gruber.

Oy vey.

Unlike some opera bloggers, I really don't enjoy saying nasty things about singers. Per a number of people I talked to, this was by no means her only bad night. I'll be nice and say I just hope she's having a temporary bad stretch or has been adversely affected by the weather. I suspect, though, that singing Minnie - a known "voice killer"- at Covent Garden this past September probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. I will give her credit for intensity and passion, especially in the first act, as well as some interesting acting choices - for example when she said "Mio padre!" after the Egyptians sing "Amonasro!" "Il Re!", she was absolutely thrilled and proud of her father - for most sopranos, it's a moment of terror or at least secrecy. Or her whispered "Sventurata! Che dissi?"And the top of her voice - rather steely - isn't too bad (despite a high C in "O patria mia" that made me wince), and neither is the very bottom. But the middle of her voice is squally, edgy and curdled, and much of her pianissimo singing was very unpleasant. It was a performance where might wish for the High Priestess (in this case the marvelous and still very underrated Jennifer Check - when is the Met going to give her a major role?) to have sung the title role instead! I'm also by no means the only one who was rather desperately wishing for Angela Brown (whose Met debut in this I missed due to financial hardship, but everybody I know raved and I loved her spirituals album), who was unfortunately in Philadelphia wowing audiences as Cilla in Margaret Garner. At least she is supposedly coming back not only for Aida but also for Un Ballo in Maschera in 2007-2008.

It didn't help matters that the wig Gruber was wearing made her look like some comedienne - Chloris Leachman? A taller Rhea Pearlman? Possibly marvelous New Age composer Constance Demby? A pity as her publicity shots show her as a white-haired glamor lady.

I'll just say that if this is not something temporary that Gruber can fix (and I sincerely hope it is), the Met shouldn't rehire her - and if future performances are this bad, the Met should just buy out her contract. After all, if some far superior singers (Swenson, Hong, Radvanovsky) might have that happen (I hope not), why not her? Admittedly, the Turandot scheduled for next year might work - although I'm sure there are better casting choices - but I'm not looking forward to her Tosca.

I actually noticed James Conlon's conducting this time - notably detail and subtlety in the Prelude, and the fact that he took Ramfis' cries of "Radames! Radames! Radames!", and their echoes in the brass, much faster than usual. I also noted excellent support for Olga during the Judgement Scene - which she did not have under Carlo Rizzi in 1999. I still want to hear a lot more of Conlon before I can judge whether he's a fit replacement for James Levine whenever he leaves (2071, at this rate!). However, I have heard rumors that Peter Gelb is talking to Tony...

(1) Yes, she is one of the artists, like Roberto, Angela, Bryn and Tony, who I think of on a first name/nickname basis. Actually, I tend to think of her as "Olllllllllgaaaaaaa".
(2) This is standard with a lot of managements - you want the big star(s), you have to take the lesser names (and occasionally talents). Admittedly, this is how a lot of young unknowns get exposure.

Selig sind

2006-02-11T18:58:00.000-05:00

Well, folks, it's official. After a 3 year absence due to lack of funds, I am finally going to be singing at the Berkshire Choral Festival! I'll be there from July 9th to July 16, and the concert, on July 15th, will be Brahms' magnificent Ein Deutsches Requiem, which I've wanted to sing for ages. Admittedly, this was my second choice, after the Verdi Requiem, but since this was the 25th anniversary of BCF, the people who attended last year got first dibs and signed up then. Two friends of mine from the St. George's Choral Society are going for the Verdi Requiem week, conducted by the legendary curmudgeon Robert Page, under whom I sang Elijah in 2001*. My conductor will be John Alexander, Music Director of the Pacific Chorale. The name and group are familiar, but what they have actually done escapes me - I'm going to have to investigate recordings. Per Amazon they've done a few contemporary pieces like Richard Danielpour's Requiem, but not Brahms'. Actually, my third choice was the Mozart Requiem with a conductor I'm dying to work with, Jane Glover, but my priority is always works I haven't sung over works I have.

Das Grass ist Verdorret - The grounds of the Berkshire School, where the Choral Festival rehearses and performs. Here the choristers are all lined up for a concert.

I just love Brahms' vocal works. Brahms is for the alto voice what Puccini is for the soprano voice. His alto lines are often considerably more beautiful and interesting than the ones he wrote for soprano. When I first "sang" the Requiem - a runthrough at one of the many choral summer sings given in New York City - it felt so unbelievably right. I don't read music all that well and I certainly can't sight-sing (the reason I'm not in more "prestigious" choruses), but I knew exactly what was coming next - it wasn't predictable as much as totally natural and organic. I love the four Opus 17 songs for women's voices, horn, and harp , as well as the Nänie, almost as much. And one of these days I dream of being the soloist in the Alto Rhapsody. Maybe even the two songs for alto and viola...

And Berkshire, even without the singing, is an absolutely wonderful experience. The scenery is just drop-dead gorgeous (the above picture doesn't even remotely do it justice), although sometimes I wish we could be there in the fall when the foliage turns, but then the Berkshire School is in session. You can see stars - and even whole constellations! - at night, which you can't in New York City. There are field trips every day to places like the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Hancock Shaker Village, and we even go to Tanglewood on Friday nights (and this time it's a really great concert - James Levine conducting Guerrelieder!). They also have two voluntary classes a day on everything from the composer of the week to rounds to South African songs. The food is pretty good, too, although someone has to tell the kitchen that ice cream and singing usually don't mix.

The only drawback is that it's dorm living (although I've had single rooms in the years I've been there), and if you're not in the air conditioned dorm (which costs extra and apparently has very thin walls so you can hear everything you don't want to hear) you need to bring or rent a fan. I didn't find this a problem. Oh, and the last time I went, I had tons of mosquito bites on my feet, and no Lanacane. Witch hazel controlled the worst of it until I got to the bus station in Sheffield to go home and found some calamine lotion.

Because I'm under 40 and they desperately want "young people", I get a nice discount - a whole week will be only $500 (as opposed to about $800) plus cost of music (about $10) and transportation (probably about $40). Oh, yes, I'll have to buy a new white shirt and black skirt. I hope I can handle this and London at the same time.

They also have weeks at Canterbury Cathedral (if I'm lucky, maybe next year it will dovetail with something irresistable at Covent Garden - this year it was the Bach Saint John Passion which I will not touch with a 10-foot pole, even if they remove the anti-Semitic elements as some choruses do), and in Salzburg (which almost always coincide with the Jewish High Holy Days). Unfortunately, they no longer have weeks in Santa Fe, where I could have gone to the Santa Fe Opera and seen a spectacular sky, although I would have probably needed to get there early to acclimate to the altitude.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this - and I wonder if the soloists will be anyone I'm familiar with?

* Then again, at least for the altos, Elijah is a very easy work - nothing musically difficult like, say, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (which I've also sung at Berkshire). All you have to do is learn the notes and do what the conductor tells you to. As a matter of fact, Maestro Page said he was very impressed by how prepared the altos were! I imagine, though, for the Verdi Requiem, and for Honneger's Jeanne D'Arc de Bucher, which is where he got his reputation, the situation would be much different.

Tentative "Traviata" twitterings

2006-02-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta in Act III (or as the Met plays it, Act II, Scene II) of La Traviata.

Since I intend to see virtually all the performances of La Traviata starring Angela Gheorghiu (and possibly the February 23 performance with Mary Dunleavy as well), I have decided to wait until the end of the run to do a full and comprehensive review. This probably means after February 27, since her last performance, on March 3, is a Friday night - and I don't think I'm interested enough in seeing José Luis Duval, the second-cast tenor, to violate Shabbat (1).

But right now, I have to say that at last, at last, we have the real thing as Violetta. Angela was just glorious. I can't quite say seeing her portrayal last night was worth the 8 year wait - since I firmly believe that her previous absence from this production was due to backstage skullduggery at the Met and not her (or Roberto's) "whims" or "difficulty" - but it was easily her greatest triumph here (2). Never have I seen a more beautifully sung, physically expressive, deeply felt, emotionally moving Violetta. If anything, her portrayal reminded me of Ferruccio Furlanetto's equally stunning King Phillip last season - so full of subtlety and nuance that someone who wasn't sitting very close or didn't have a good pair of binoculars might not even notice the details (3). My criticisms are mostly picky and can wait until later - although I did miss some of the manic energy she showed on the Solti video (with an inferior supporting cast)

This supporting cast was not inferior. Indeed, this was a wonderful ensemble. Jonas Kaufmann made a quite an auspicious Met debut. His voice is a little darker and more baritonal than I would like for Alfredo, but is rich and warm. He flubbed the high C at the end of "O mio rimorso" (slightly flat), but I suspect that may have been due to the weather, and the overall performance was so fine I was more than willing to forgive him. Frankly, I got more pleasure from him than I did from Rolando Villazon in Rigoletto on Wednesday. He's an excellent actor, vocal and physical who had good chemistry with Angela - and (not that it matters all that much?) he looks like a romance novel cover. Or a fairy-tale prince, which should be very appropriate considering next year's Tamino. Pictures will be provided in the full review.

Anthony Michaels-Moore's voice is much bigger than I would think from his Met Silvios and Marcellos, rich, dark, powerful and warm. He brought out Germont's rectitude, authority, sympathy, and eventual self-recrimination. He may yield to Dwayne Croft for subtlety and a clearer arc of the evolution of feeling towards Violetta, but, but is still a fine actor and also had good chemistry with Angela. Based on this, I wouldn't mind hearing him in some of the really big Verdi roles - maybe even Rigoletto.

Due to the talent and charisma of the singers, and the restaging (especially of Act I, "demanded" by Angela) makes a heck of a lot more sense (4). Thanks to this, the characters of the comprimarii - particularly Dr. Grenvil (LeRoy Lehr) and Baron Douphol (John Hancock) - are a lot clearer. Best of the small roles is the vastly underrated Earle Patriarco as the Marquis.

Oh, yes, Angela's new costumes are gorgeous (but lose the fur, please). Now why was she so "difficult" for asking for them when Divine Renee could bring her own with no problem?

This is easily the best Traviata I've ever seen, and can hold its own with some famous recordings. What a shame this wasn't telecast. And since Angela's future plans at the Met, while mostly mouthwatering, do not include Violetta to the best of my knowledge, go and savor this while you have the chance.

(1) Although per the MP3 files on this website, Duval sounds wonderful, if a little too loud in places. There are a few opera arias and Mexican songs, but it's mostly musical theater songs (Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Oklahoma, South Pacific, etc.) sung in Spanish.

(2)Then again, I say that every time Angela unveils a new role at the Met!

(3) And rumor has it that Furlanetto will be singing Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra opposite Angela's Amelia next season. Oh, frabjous day!

(4) Unfortunately, that stupid stage elevator in the final act going from Violetta's boudoir to her living room to immense applause, destroying "Addio del passato", is still there!

Minor correction to "Idiot" post

2006-02-02T18:12:00.000-05:00

Antonio Pappano is not conducting the June performances of Le Nozze di Figaro - Sir Colin Davis is. Of course, he's not exactly chopped liver, and I've never heard him conduct an opera (unless you want to count the Verdi Requiem as one - I heard him conduct that twice). Tony is conducting the January and February performances, and according to the reviews I've been reading, he's playing the harpsichord continuo as well (I wonder if Sir Colin will do the same?). David McVicar's production, updated to the 1830s (which is when Les Miserables takes place) does look interesting. Pity I won't get to see it, at least this year, without a miracle. The later Tosca performances are now almost sold out.

The Doctor is in at last - and he's making house calls in the US!

2006-01-29T23:35:00.001-05:00

The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) with his TARDIS.

After all the recent operatic tragedies, there is at least some wonderful news on the science fiction front. My beloved Doctor Who, recently resurrected in England with a new series (now in it's second season), is finally coming to the United States! Initially, we fans thought it would be coming only on DVD, and only available in Canada. But then it was announced the DVD would be coming out in the US in February, and then that it would be postponed until July because...the series was going to be shown on the Sci-Fi Channel! The "first" season (I wonder if that really should be the 27th, as it does follow from the old show and the TV movie, with Doctor #9) begins broadcasting on March 17 at 9:00 PM, each episode to have several showings a week. I presume we won't get Season Two until well after it shows in the UK - probably next year.

Now if only the Sci-Fi Channel, or BBC America, would get the old series, as it hasn't been broadcast in New York in probably 15 years. Then again, it is coming out on DVD, slowly but surely.

And for those of you who are clueless about Who, I will go into more information when the time arrives.

How do you say COMPLETE IDIOT in Romanian???

2006-01-29T20:13:00.000-05:00

I have been fantasizing ever since I first heard it announced last March about going back to Covent Garden to see Angela Gheorghiu in her first staged Tosca. On records, she is one of the very best, combining a nearly-Callas level of intensity with a far more beautiful voice. Bryn Terfel as Scarpia is icing on the cake, and, of course, the pairing of Pappano and Puccini is as natural as the pairing of Pepperoni and Pizza (try saying that five times fast!) OK, Marcelo Alvarez is an excellent tenor when he's not singing in French, but we all know who should be singing Cavaradossi. Along with Bryn (who stole the whole evening, as Figaro as well as Scarpia), Angela sang Act II of the opera at the Met's Opening Night Gala in September, providing a tantalizing preview. Although she was slightly inaudible in the middle of her voice during big orchestral outbursts, I don't think this would be a problem at a smaller house like Covent Garden. While I no longer have the "sell your kids to get a ticket-this will be Angela's greatest triumph!" feeling that I did after seeing the Jacquot film, it's still not something I want to miss. Not to mention it's been 6 years since I've been to London, which is way too long for an Anglophile such as myself. Well, now that I'm actually earning some money, this might actually become a reality, although I'll still have to forgo a few things in order for it to happen. No more than bare minimum monthly payments on debts.

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, focus of vacation dreams

Unfortunately, getting tickets to Covent Garden is a pretty difficult proposition, at least for the "hot" shows. I am now very surprised that I was able to get tickets for the February 2000 Romeo et Juliette with such ease - I just called Covent Garden the morning the tickets went on sale. The rules have undoubtedly changed since then. As far as I can tell, you pretty much have to be a member of the Friends of Covent Garden or have otherwise made a donation to the Royal Opera to get a "hot ticket" because those worthies have advanced booking. Having been unable to get tickets for either La Rondine or Faust(1) because all the tickets had been snapped up before they went on sale to the general public, I had considered joining the Friends to ensure I could get tickets for Tosca, or frankly, any future show with Angela (she is apparently doing Faust in September), Roberto, Tony, or possibly one or two other irresistables. But it costs £75 (about $125), which is a little more than I can immediately spare due to my desire to pay down my date and indulge in some New York opera dates. Fortunately, I do have a dear, sweet, young friend in London (the future famous Thai soprano Lullalit Supatravanij) who let me use her Friends account to order my Tosca ticket. Since Friends Online Booking opened on Tuesday, and I went on the site on Thursday, I figure there would be no problem getting tickets.

Until I screwed up.

Initially, I had fantasized about buying a ticket for the last performance on July 8, figuring I might be able to sneak off to Orange to see Roberto in Aida 3 days later. Well, not only would that set me back a further £950 (Over $1500? Oy!), but Angela isn't singing that performance - her last is July 1st and there's too much of a gap between the dates (2). No way I could afford that much time in London. And I've also signed up for the Berkshire Choral Festival and I have no idea what week they actually put me in. I should know in a day or two.

The opening night performance, on June 13th, is a big expensive gala with tickets going up to £1000, and probably even the cheapest seats are about £300, way beyond my price range (despite the additional incentive of a Karita Mattila recital the day before at Wigmore Hall). Also, more importantly, I will be in a concert on June 18 of Jewish music with Nashir! The Rottenberg Chorale at Merkin Hall. Dress rehearsal is Sunday the 11th and and the last rehearsal is the 14th, which would make going to London that week difficult. So, I would aim to get tickets for June 23rd, and possibly also for June 26th, and seeing if there was anything else in terms of opera or theater in intervening days.

So I eagerly went to a Tasti De-Lite near work where you can sign on for much cheaper computer time than at Kinko's, and went to work with my credit card. I didn't want to go beyond £50 if possible, and I wound up spending £45 (about $80), the highest price range available in the Ampitheater (next up was £115 in the Balcony - too much!). I was happy that I got a reasonably good seat on the side (P35), a little higher up than I wanted, and without armrests, but considering that Covent Garden is smaller than the Met and my 12X binoculars, I would probably have no problems seeing or hearing. Plus it looked like a good view of Tony! Unfortunately, I was so excited and in such a hurry (and having some trouble with the booking page) that...

I BOUGHT THE TICKET FOR THE WRONG DATE!!!

June 16th. Two days before my concert. Probably because it was the first date listed on the booking site.

Well, I thought, no problem. I'll just go back on, buy a ticket with the right date, and sell the "wrong" one. Nope. The booking said "maximum of two tickets" and that's not per date as I originally thought, it's per production! So I'm stuck with this one. Fortunately, Lulu already bought her ticket, otherwise I might have shut her out by accident.

Even worse, the June 23 performance had the £50 seats available! And I would have also been able to get a seat for a performance of Le Nozze di Figaro the night after with a good cast and conducted by Tony, no less! Nothing else is going on at Covent Garden on the 15th or 17th, and as far as I know, the only other opera that weekend is at Holland Park. Although I will check the other music venue sites, there doesn't seem to be anything that appealing on first glance. And the regular theater.

Well, the situation isn't hopeless, at least. If I can't get a ticket for the 23rd by regular booking, I imagine there is someone in Operaland who would rather go on the 16th than on the 23rd, and I can swap. Worse comes the worst, I'll just go on that date - at least several other members of the Yahoo! Gheorghiu and Alagna club (where I am a moderator) will be going then, most likely, including Lulu, and I can actually get to meet them. And since I'll be spending less time in London, I don't have to take as much vacation time or spend as much money - although it's still likely to be at least $1,000, mostly for the airfare. I'll just have to fly home on Sunday morning in order to make the concert (less sightseeing time), and hope I'm not too jet-lagged (I'll probably have time to nap), or even worse, that there isn't some kind of flight delay. I definitely don't want to miss the concert - not only is the music very beautiful, but the conductor is a really nice guy and a dreamboat.

But even if everything turns out OK, this is just so embarassing! I feel like Nemorino: "Io son sempre un idiota"! He certainly has more brains than I did (3)!

If I go backstage to meet Angela after one of the Traviatas (considering that Roberto's health is still less than perfect, I'm still not sure how good an idea that is), I might tell her of my folly. It would be a good laugh. And I can ask her my title question.

(Probably "idiota toata" or something)

(1) Actually, I almost did buy a ticket off EBay for the Faust about 2 weeks before the performance, but I was unemployed at the time and couldn't spare the money for the plane fare and hotel.

(2) And frankly, I don't terribly relish the idea of going to Orange - it's one of the most right-wing, anti-Semitic and "Front National" areas of France. The mayor threw all the books by Jewish authors out of the libraries.

(3) And that's leaving aside my argument that Nemorino is far more intelligent than he's usually given credit for!

A belated "Flute", or: How Internet Opera makes me a better Jew...

2006-01-22T21:01:00.002-05:00

Baruch Hashem! I've just discovered that I can listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts (and possibly other broadcasts as well) without having to violate the Jewish Sabbath! I admit that my Shabbat observance is considerably less than perfect, but I don't like the idea that there has to be conflict between my religious obligations and my love of opera. And frankly, since I eat, breathe, and sleep opera virtually every other day of the week, on Shabbat I need to "rest" from that as much as from work. Well, that's all over now. I have in the past year discovered the joys of internet radio, hampered only by the fact that I don't have my own computer and can only listen in a noisy internet cafe. Today I discovered that there is a station that plays the Met broadcasts on Sunday - namely KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska. That's not much of a surprise since if it were broadcast "live" in Alaska it would be at 9AM! I assume the time varies by the length of the opera, but it usually begins 4PM ET. Thanks to the wonderful internet radio schedule site Operacast for showing me the way!

(And it's -13° F in Fairbanks today. Brrrr....)

The performance today, of Die Zauberflöte, seemed, well, average. I think most of the problem was the same as with the BBC Proms Walküre I "reviewed" in July - there was too much background noise and I was otherwise too distracted to notice details. Also the earphones I was using are not of the best quality and there was a lot of feedback on high notes. And I missed the first half hour. Partially for those reasons, I will not comment on Paul Daniel's conducting, even though he was one of the things I was most looking forward to. Today was his debut.

Mary Dunleavy has been a good Queen of the Night at the Met (and I loved her Countess de Folleville in Il Viaggio a Reims at NYCO) but I'm not sure her "promotion" ("demotion"?) to Pamina was such a good idea. She didn't have nearly enough pathos in "Ach, ich fühls", but that may have been a deliberate choice - she seemed more terrified and even angry. The voice itself seemed far too slender could have used more richness. In light of this I wonder if it's a good idea that other coloraturas such as Diana Damrau and Natalie Dessay are taking Pamina on. Violetta will probably suit Dunleavy better, even if I doubt if she's a match for Angela Gheorghiu. Erika Miklosa definitely made more of an impression in the theater when I saw her last year. Here, beauty and accuracy were there, but none of the Queen's torrential anger (admittedly this is a problem with just about every soprano who takes on the role) and not quite enough of the sorrowful mother at the beginning. Anna Christy was not nearly as charming and delightful as Papagena opposite Nathan Gunn's Papageno as she was as Hortense Briggs opposite his Clyde Griffiths in An American Tragedy.

The men were better. My initial predictions of Morris Robinson's Sarastro proved correct - huge, gravelly, powerful, authoritative voice, but he needed more wisdom and benevolence. The Commendatore - absolutely. Sarastro- I'm not so sure(1). Nathan Gunn was a rich-voiced, warm-hearted Papageno, but I missed innocence, naivete, and detail of character. Still, I'm glad the Met is finally giving him some attention and is clearly preparing him for great things. He just won the first Beverly Sills Award - I'm sure $50,000 will come in handy with five kids!

I was surprised how good Eric Cutler was. I've never been a fan of his - I thought his First Prisoner in Fidelio was underwhelming (the role may be small, but it needs a great tenor - I have a recording of a radio concert where Fritz Wunderlich sings it, and I remember reading how Otto Klemperer after being given a list of "star" names for a late '50s production dismissed them and said "Who is the First Prisoner?") and at a Young Artists Gala the Met did a few years ago proved to be the most unromantic Romeo I could ever imagine. Admittedly he has some promise as a lieder singer. He seems typical of too many contemporary American singers - reasonably talented, but gets the work and the plaudits because he's a "nice", "hardworking" guy who does what he's told - in other words, he kowtows to nutcase directors and authoritarian managements and knows how to say all the "right things" to journalists. Definitely not somebody who deserves either the Richard Tucker Award or to be singing I Puritani with Anna Netrebko next year - both prizes should have gone to Lawrence Brownlee!(2) Nevertheless, he may have more feel for Mozart than the above-mentioned operas. Unfortunately, I tuned in too late for his "Dies Bildnis". He otherwise sang quite beautifully, with some (although not quite enough) nobility and feeling. Definitely superior to Gregory Turay, although I doubt to Matthew Polenzani (who I missed) or Jonas Kaufmann (who does it next year).

If I am able to get a ticket - this fantasmagoric Julie Taymor production always sells out - I hope to be able to give a truer evaluation in the theater. I may very well be living at the Met in February - I will probably see all of Angela's non-Shabbat Traviatas (I have my ticket to the first) plus the Villazon/Netrebko Rigoletto, Borodina in Aida and Samson et Dalila, and the Voigt/Licitra Forza.

(1) One bit of very good news - Robinson is now a recording artist! He signed a contract with Decca and he will be coming out with a disc of hymns, spirituals and gospel sometime this spring. I don't doubt this is music he feels very deeply about and can do wonderfully, but can't we hear something other than spirituals from an African-American singer? (I was so happy when Lawrence Brownlee's first disc was bel canto songs!) How about some actual opera or lieder, maybe a disc of Mozart bass roles for the Mozart year? I have the feeling Decca is thinking "crossover!" At least another wonderful young African-American artist, Cardiff Singer of the World soprano Nicole Cabell is getting an actual opera disc from Decca in 2006.

(2) Then again, Mr. Cutler is Caucasian, and despite giving some of its subsidiary awards to African-American singers (and making sure to have Denyce Graves at its gala every year) the Richard Tucker Foundation still hasn't given any major awards to one. I have the feeling they've gone out of their way to avoid doing so. And Mr. Brownlee will only be the fifth African-American tenor to sing at the Met since Marian Anderson arrived when he makes his debut next season as Almaviva. Disgusting.

AAAAAGGGGGH!

2006-01-20T16:49:00.000-05:00

And Marilyn Horne has pancreatic cancer!!!!!!

(Dear G-d, I hope that's not what Roberto has!)

The good news, at least, is that it's localized, and she has an excellent chance of full recovery. There will be no changes to her schedule - including all the masterclasses she's doing around her birthday for the Marilyn Horne Foundation.

I am actually optimistic about Roberto, as Angela has apparently not cancelled either her concert in Philadelphia or the Met Traviatas, even the later performances. Presumably this means Roberto is improving or at least in stable condition (maybe he could even come to New York with her). However, with Roberto out of comission until at least March, Angela is now the family breadwinner - and $90,000 (?) for 6 performances is nothing to sneeze at.

In addition to wishing Roberto (once again) and Marilyn a refuah shleimah, I pray that I will not have to change the name of this blog to "Operatic Illness of the Week"! At least with the Met season starting up again tomorrow, there will be a few other things to talk about.

Not AGAIN!

2006-01-12T17:24:00.001-05:00

I thought after that last awful week we had in the opera world at the end of November 2005 (Cheryl Studer's heart attack, the death of James King, the murder of Deon van der Walt by his own father), there would be an end to tragedy for a while. Unfortunately, we're having a second week of tragedy. Birgit Nilsson died yesterday, and my beloved Roberto Alagna is apparently very sick with some kind of severe hypoglycemia (and I can only hope that's not a symptom of something worse!) and is forced to cancel all his performances through at least January and February and possibly March as well. Not surprisingly, to be with him, his wife Angela Gheorghiu cancelled her concert in Dresden tomorrow, and may have cancelled her appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra the Met Traviatas as well. Not that I can really blame her. But I've been waiting 10 years to see her Violetta!

Baruch dayan emet. And may G-d send Roberto a refuah shleimah.

Further comments to follow. I just hope that superstition isn't true about bad things happening in threes...

What a HORRIBLE week for the opera world!

2005-11-30T20:37:00.001-05:00

In increasing order of tragedy:

Cheryl Studer, a soprano who I've admired for some time, and in fact was the first singer I ever saw in recital, just suffered a heart attack. Baruch Hashem, it seems to be mild, but she's still going to need at least months to recover. I've regretted never hearing her at the Met, especially since their failure to engage her recently seems to be for political reasons, not musical ones. May G-d send her a refuah shleimah (complete healing).

The wonderful American heldentenor James King died on November 20. I am, of course, far too young to have seen him live at the Met (except some brief utterances as Walther von Stolzing in the Meistersinger finale which ended - at 2:oo AM! - the James Levine Gala in 1996), but I have been impressed with the recordings I've heard. My only time really hearing him live was in 1995 or 1996 when he sang - magnificently - the Winterstürme at one of Licia Albanese's Puccini Foundation Galas - and he was 70! Also, I've spoken with some young singers who have studied with him - he was a professor of voice at Indiana University - and they all said he was a wonderful tenor and a really nice guy.

And South African tenor Deon van der Walt, who has sung Mozart roles such as Tamino, Ferrando and Belmonte all over the world - I heard a fine Met broadcast of his Tamino, although I never saw him live - was shot and killed at his winery near Cape Town, allegedly murdered by his father, who then committed suicide. He was only 47. There really are no words.

Baruch dayan emet.

A singing ICEBERG??!!!

2005-11-24T17:43:00.000-05:00

This is not the actual iceberg under discussion, but the photo accompanied the original article on Yahoo. This iceberg is only 700m long and off the coast of Argentina.

Yes, folks. Believe it or not, scientists in the Antarctic have found a 50 kilometer long iceberg that seems to "sing". Actually, it's having a "love duet" with an underwater peninsula - created by its scraping around that land mass they collided. Apparently when the iceberg "got stuck", the water rushing through the crevasses at high pressure created acoustic signals that were picked up by a German research studying earthquakes and tectonic movements on the Ekstroem ice shelf on Antarctica's South Atlantic coast back in 2002 - the study was just published in Science last Friday. While these signals are too low for the human ear to hear normally (ah, this iceberg is a basso!), when played back at higher speed, they sounded like a swarm of bees or like an orchestra warming up, and it goes up and down like a real piece of music.

Here is the link to the original story on Yahoo. Unfortunately, no sound files were provided. Even more tragic, logistics will prevent this talented geological phenomenon from making a Met debut. No doubt, however, considering the slow pace of tectonic change, this iceberg will undoubtedly have a long and marvelous career - assuming global warming doesn't get it first!

Incidentally, in light of my fascination with astronomy, the universe itself "sings". Apparently astrophysicists now believe that the universe "vibrates" on a note about 64 octaves below middle C.

"Saint Exupery" mystery solved! (I think)

2005-11-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

Well, in my quest to find out which saint Antoine de Saint-Exupery is named after, I think I made a breakthrough. Instead of typing "Saint Exupery" into Google, which produced nothing but the author, I typed "Saint Exuperius", and got an index of patron saints. This generated three possiblilities:

1. The aforementioned Saint Exuperius, one of the Martyrs of the Theban Legion, who died in 287 CE at Aaunum, an area of modern Switzerland.

2. Saint Exuperantius, a deacon who was martyred in Spoleto, Italy in 303 CE.

3. The most likely, I think - Saint Exuperance, also known as Exuerantia of Troyes, a nun who died of natural causes in 380 CE and whose relics are venerated in Troyes. It would make sense that a French family would be named after a French saint.

And yes, there are quite a few saints who are patrons of music or musicians besides Cecilia and Gregory (although not specifically opera or any other genre of music); I should also note that Julian the Hospitaller (whom I've actually heard of) is the patron saint of wandering musicians and minstrels, among many other things.. I've posted links if you're interested.

Note that there are thousands of saints listed on this site, and every conceivable topic of patronage. As I said before, I think the Church "decanonized" some of them because there were just too many to handle, so I hope these are still official saints, and that Catholic readers correct me if I'm wrong about any of this!

Saints (including Exupery) and blessings

2005-11-18T20:01:00.000-05:00

Just who is Saint Exupery? I don't mean the author of The Little Prince, I mean the actual Catholic saint that he and his family is named after. I've tried looking this up but I've had no luck - every reference on Google for 10 pages seemed to be about the author. I don't think it helped matters that the Church recently "downsized" a large number of saints recently, including one of my personal favorites, St. Christopher (because he's the patron saint of travellers). So I have no idea if the gentleman (lady?) in question is even still a saint. Even worse, "Saint Exupery" is probably the French version of a Latin original and I'm probably looking up the wrong name!

Speaking of saints, when I worked, all too briefly, in the Therapeutic Recreation Department of Florence Nightingale Health Center (tragically, they closed in July 2005, several months after I left), one of my favorite colleagues was the Catholic chaplain, Sister Alice Goldsmith, a lovely, indefatigable woman of at least 80 who was there ministering to patients virtually every day - and she was a volunteer! She was from one of the more liberal orders and didn't wear a habit. Because I was only there for three months replacing someone on maternity leave, I didn't get to know her quite as well as I would have liked. We could have had some marvelous theological discussions, I'm sure. I do remember being delighted when she was talking about the possibility of the Church naming someone to be the patron saint of the Internet - I don't remember who the candidates were.

And who is the patron saint of opera? St. Cecilia (no, not Ms. Bartoli, although she's close!), of course, is the patron saint of music in general, and I'm pretty sure St. Gregory, who was responsible for Gregorian chant, has some authority, but I'm not sure if there is another one for opera in particular. Although I imagine St. Ambrose ("Sant'Ambrogio"), the patron saint of Milan - opening night at La Scala is always on his feast day of December 7 - could also be a candidate. By the way, the new pope, who I disagree with on just about everything else, is at least a classical music fan.

The patron saint of this blog is Jussi Björling. Okay, he was a Lutheran, not a Catholic, and like many Swedes, not much of a churchgoer. But I don't doubt for a moment that he was a deeply good and spiritual man. And he sounded like ... well, to avoid being blasphemous, I'll say an archangel.

All frivolity aside, I wonder about proper Jewish responses to great music. There is a brachah (blessing) for just about everything: different kinds of food and drink, seeing beautiful or wondrous natural phenomena, meeting different kinds of distinguished people from kings (which these days I would imagine would also include presidents and such) to Torah scholars to secular scholars, receiving good news, even receiving bad news. One of my favorites is the blessing you're supposed to say when leaving the bathroom. But with the exception of the all-purpose blessing Shehecheyanu ("Blessed are You...who has sustained us, brought us to this time, and has permitted us to reach this season"), there isn't really a blessing for experiencing great art or music. I say this blessing:

a) the first time seeing an opera

b) the first time in a particular opera house

c) my first performance of the season, or after an otherwise very long hiatus

d) before a performance with a favorite singer that I've been looking forward to for a long time

e) after a really great performance, especially one that I wasn't expecting to be quite so good.

Still, I think instead of such a generalized blessing, which is generally used for any momentous event, there should be something a little more specific for art and/or music. I suspect there isn't one because the ancient and medieval rabbis feared that they might be glorifying paganism, especially when dealing with "graven images" like painting and sculpture. But if anything, I think saying a blessing for art or music, or meeting a great artist of any sort, reminds one just Who is the Source of all artistic inspiration, putting even "pagan" works in G-d's service. Hopefully it would also put one's love of the arts on a higher plane than, shall we say, some of the real ego, nastiness, snideness that goes on this world or the tendency of some fans to literally worship artists. Jokes aside, I don't worship Jussi Björling, or any other of the artists I have gushed or will gush about here.* My very favorite Torah portion is Parashat Vayekhel, the section of Exodus dealing with the building of the Tabernacle and how G-d inspired the two artisans Betzalel (after whom the main art school in Israel is named) and Oholiav with "divine spirit of skill" - thus the desire to create and experience art is holy (I'll write more about this when the parasha comes up this year, probably in March). I would like to see a blessing for encountering a great work of art that goes something like "Blessed are You...who invests human beings with the divine spirit of skill that you gave to Bezalel and Oholiav" (My Hebrew isn't good enough yet for a Hebrew version). This could also include music, but I might also like to see something involving King David, the sweet singer of Israel, for a music blessing.

Actually, one last bit of possible frivolity before I go. Since Bryn Terfel, in addition to being an incredible singer, is also the king of some eeny-weeny island off the coast of Wales called Bardsey, do I say the brachah for meeting a king ("Blessed are You... who shares your glory with mortals") when I next see him? He's only the king of five people and several hundred sheep, and I don't think the sheep had anything to do with picking him, but when am I ever going to get a chance to say that blessing in front of a "legitimate" king or queen (or even president)?

*I know of a fan who had an altar to Maria Callas. Literally. I think this is the same guy who started playing a tape recorder with Callas singing "Casta Diva" during one of Renata Scotto's Met performances - apparently to punish her for not being worshipful enough of La Divina. Also, there is another fan of a singer who I'd better not identify who has pictures of her plastered on all four walls and the ceiling of her room, and even had her sheets made up with the singer's face on it. The singer, not surprisingly, reacted in horror upon meeting this person. And last but not least is the rabid, vicious, anti-gay and anti-Semitic nutcase who stuffs any chatboard where he can get away with it with The Gospel of Cheryl Studer. A real pity, as Studer is a fine artist (the first singer I ever saw in recital, way back in 1995) who absolutely doesn't deserve this guy. With any luck, she doesn't even know he exists!

Branagh's "Magic Flute" film update: Uh-oh

2005-11-06T17:37:00.000-05:00

Back in early August I reported that Kenneth Branagh, one of my favorite film directors, was making a film of The Magic Flute (I am presuming that since Stephen Fry is writing the libretto, it will be in English, so I don't think we should be calling this Die Zauberflote). I just read a new article that came from The Guardian, and in addition to the previously announced casting (Joseph Kaiser as Tamino, newcomer Amy Carson - a recent Cambridge graduate - as Pamina, Lyubov Petrova as the Queen of the Night, Ben Davis as Papageno, and René Pape as Sarastro) it reports that the conductor will be James Conlon leading the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The film will cost $27 million (£15.2 million) and is being bankrolled by Peter Moores, who has financed all the opera-in-English recordings on Chandos. The soundtrack was recorded at Shepperton Studios in September. That's the good news.

Now to what might be the bad news. I assumed that this would not be a "traditional" production - after all, neither Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing or Hamlet take place in the 16th Century, and he updated Love's Labour Lost (which I haven't seen) to make it a 1930's musical. Since the first two films were brilliant - in fact, I would say Much Ado About Nothing is one of the most beautiful, joyous, life-affirming films of the 1990s, I didn't think a time-transplanted production from Branagh would be a problem. I assumed that however he set it, the film would have the very strong element of fantasy, wonder and mystery which is so necessary in this opera. Indeed, one early report referred to Lyubov Petrova's character as "Queen Elizabeth of the Night", so I thought that it might have been updated to an Elizabethan setting. However, apparently Branagh has decided to set the film during World War I, about as unfantastical, setting I can imagine. The Three Ladies will be field nurses and Papageno will be, instead of a birdcatcher, the custodian of the canaries used to detect lethal gas (so much for his innocence!). Per another interview of Branagh by the BBC, Tamino is a young soldier set off on a journey in pursuit of love on the eve of battle, which takes him to a twilight dream world. OK, that last might possibly work, especially for the tests of fire and water. And I'll admit that you can probably get away with a lot more in film than you can on stage. But, despite my admiration for Branagh, I'm still worried.

By the way, Joseph Kaiser, a member of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, has just replaced the originally scheduled Hugh Smith as Mark in Lyric Opera's production of Sir Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage. Rumors are that Lyric Opera paid almost $100,000 for Smith's contract. I'm not familar enough with the opera to comment, but I think Smith (who, admittedly, I last heard at least 5 or 6 years ago) is an excellent tenor and it's a shame he's not getting more promotion. And director Peter Hall has just pulled out at the last minute due to illness.

More on The Magic Flute (actually, this time it is Die Zauberflöte) front: There is a new recording of the opera coming out on DG (I'm not sure whether it is a live or studio recording - I suspect the former): The Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado with Christoph Strehl (who makes his Met debut in the role in 2006-2007) as Tamino, Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina, Erika Miklosa as the Queen of the Night, Hanno Muller-Brachmann as Papageno, and René Pape as Sarastro. Now that I'm not worried about!

How's THIS for a Halloween costume?

2005-11-01T02:40:00.000-05:00

OK, it's not actually a Halloween costume, but this would have looked fantastic in New York's annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade! I didn't attend, but I did see highlights on the TV news. None of the costumes I saw, some of which were indeed very imaginative and glamorous, could possibly top this one. This is from a performance of Mitridate, re di Ponto, not the (somewhat) familar opera by Mozart done recently at Covent Garden, but a real rarity by Niccolò Porpora, staged at La Fenice earlier this month. It is the first staging of the opera since 1736. The costume, worn by tenor Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani in the title role, was designed by Massimo Gasparon, who directed the production.

I suppose in this day of modernistic, updated stagings (only a few which actually work), we should be grateful that Mr. Zorzi Gustiniani wasn't forced to wear a leather jacket. But, as I've said before, I've become more sensitive than usual to issues of performer safety and comfort, and I wonder if a costume that seems so heavy and unwieldy, with a train that makes Angela Gheorghiu's Met Opening Night and film Tosca gown look miniscule, was such a good idea. However, it might be easier to handle than it looks - costume designers know a lot of tricks for things like this.

If you read Italian (I don't, really), here is a link to site Opera Click for a review and background to the opera, as well as more spectacular costumes.

Thanks to my friend Jean Peccei, who put the picture as the "Front Page Photo" on the Yahoo! Group Opera World, which she moderates with such distinction, as a Halloween gift. However, by the time you read this, the picture will probably have changed.

Daniel Catan - a major opera composer?

2005-10-31T02:17:00.000-05:00

Composer Daniel Catán

I commented back when I first heard that Placido Domingo and Rolando Villazon were going to appear in an a new opera based on Il Postino together that I needed to hear more of the work of its composer, Daniel Catán. Well thanks to the wonders of internet radio, tonight I got to hear most of one of his operas that premiered just about a year ago at the Houston Grand Opera, Salsipuedes, a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies (a broadcast of a live performance from HGO) and Act II of Rappacini's Daughter (from a recording made by the Manhattan School of Music). I am very impressed by what I heard - this opera is a keeper. The music may not be instantly memorable or hummable a la Puccini, but it's passionate and usually gorgeous. Most importantly. Catán's work is actually singable, unlike that of so many modern composers who make unreasonable demands on their performers. There is some "Latin" rhythms in his music, but not consistently, and I particularly noticed quite a bit of scoring for xylophone. He is one of the very few contemporary composers who has multiple stagings of his works, and I think he could grow into one of the 21st Century's major opera composers if he plays his cards right. Certainly having promoters like Domingo and Villazon can't hurt.

Soprano Ana Maria Martinez

I was also very impressed by the performers in both works, but pride of place goes to Ana Maria Martinez, one of my favorite sopranos of the new generation, who sings Lucero in Salsipuedes. Her voice is dark and rich with a mezzoish tinge, and it has presence, pathos, and drama. She will make her Met debut on November 19 as Micaela, but I would love to hear her as Carmen. In fact, if I do wind up going to see Carmen this year (I probably will because I usually attend the performance the night before Thanksgiving), I will be going for her and Marcello Giordani, and not for Denyce Graves, the "star" of the production.

Martinez will have a CD of opera arias coming out on November 15 from Naxos, a label for which she has extensively recorded in their fabulous series on American Jewish music - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Naomi and Ruth is a must. Martinez's husband, tenor Chad Shelton, did an excellent job of singing Lucero's lover Ulises, and it was a pleasure to hear Zheng Cao's warm, velvety mezzo as Magali. The lower voices were also fine. The soprano in Rappacini's Daughter was Olivia Gorra, who was apparently a student at MSM when the opera was recorded, but has since sung Liu at the Met and is on this season's roster as a cover. She's got more competition than Martinez, but I would still be happy to hear her.

(Note: I missed most of the plot synopsis, and I don't speak Spanish, so I really don't know what was going on in the operas. NPR describes the plot of Salsipuedes as a cross between Cosi fan Tutte and Springtime for Hitler!)

Strongly cast, mostly satisfying Met "Aida"

2005-10-30T00:26:00.001-04:00

Aida

Music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni

Performance of Saturday night, October 29, 2005, the 1,085th Metropolitan Opera performance of this work.

Conductor: James Conlon

Aida: Hasmik Papian
Radames: Salvatore Licitra
Amneris: Dolora Zajick
Amonasro: Mark Rucker
Ramfis: Paata Burchuladze
The King: Morris Robinson
Messenger: Ronald Naldi
Priestess: Edyta Kulczak

First three bits of good news - Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, who was injured during last week's Falstaff, is fine. I wasn't able to find out exactly what happened to him, but it didn't seem too serious - in fact I think he was all right the day after the performance. Second, for the first time in the regular season (I'm not counting the Opening Night Gala), the house was actually full - good news even though I couldn't get a seat. And my new binoculars arrived from E-Bay, enabling me once again to see details of facial expressions even from Family Circle Standing Room. I expect that when I go for Rigoletto and La Traviata, where I hope to get Balcony seats, I'll be able to look down the singer's throats!

Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian, publicity shot (I couldn't find any pictures of her as Aida)

I regret that I was unable to see Michele Crider in the title role, but I was prevented by both the Jewish holidays and by my chorus rehearsals. Although I was at Crider's Met debut as Butterfly (big, passionate voice, but clearly nervous and trying very hard not to trip over her kimono) and also saw her Leonora in Il Trovatore (where the voice was still impressive but she clearly had technical problems), I have never hear her sing Aida, which many say is her best role. Hasmik Papian, however, proved to be a more than adequate substitute. Her voice is a bit brighter and more lyric than I like in this role, albeit quite beautiful. There was some scooping and her Italian diction is a bit odd (probably the Armenian accent), but she is a wonderful actress physically and vocally. Her word-painting, particularly in "Ritorna vincitor" and the confrontation with Amonasro, was quite telling and some of her pianissimi in the Nile Scene ("La tra foreste virgini") were exquisite. I can understand why she had a recent triumph in Detroit as Norma. As a matter of fact, there are rumors the Met is doing Norma in 2007-2008 - I wonder if she'll be in the cast? I can't immediately think of anyone who could do justice to the role at the Met, although I would love for Angela Gheorghiu to try it in a smaller theater. Possibly Christine Goerke (fellow SUNY Stony Brook alumna!), who like Papian has had very good reviews for the role in regional houses. Although I wouldn't mind seeing what Jane Eaglen, who has been absent from the Met for a while, could do with the role under and actual conductor rather than an "insulator" like Carlo Rizzi... Actually, if there really is a Norma, I suspect that it will be for house darling Renée Fleming, who recorded (not well, I think) "Casta Diva" and is probably the biggest star they can get for the role.

Salvatore Licitra as Radames

Although I hadn't been that eager to hear Papian before the performance, I was eager to hear Salvatore Licitra live for the first time - the "plazacast" of his Met debut as Cavaradossi (where, as everyone knows, he replaced a flu-ridden Luciano Pavarotti) doesn't really count. At that time I thrilled to the warmth and beauty of his voice, particularly in Tosca's Act I Love Duet, enough that I was willing to forgive him some inartistic moments no doubt engendered by the circumstances of his debut. I was also mostly impressed with his first solo disc (the less said about his pop "duet" album with Marcelo Alvarez, the better), and would have been more so if it had been conducted by someone other than the aforementioned Mr. Rizzi. However, there were quite a few reports, mostly from Europe, that indicated that he could be a quite variable singer.

Admittedly Licitra did not seem quite warmed up for "Celeste Aida", which, of course, is what the majority of the audience is most interested in. This is a standard problem for any tenor considering that this very difficult aria is the first thing he sings. In fact, Jean de Reszke, considered by many to be one of the greatest tenors of the 19th Century, regularly cut it. His first high notes were tight and seemed to be coming from the back of his throat, though the final high B was vigorously sung and equally vigorously (and too automatically) applauded. I suppose it was too much to ask that Licitra would actually take this note "piano, pianissimo, morendo" as Verdi wrote it. Once past the aria, he was fine. On his solo disc he bore an uncanny vocal resemblance to Luciano Pavarotti; this is less evident on stage. While much of his voice was as warm and beautiful as it was in 2002, what most impressive here was the clarity and naturalness of his Italian, at a level that probably only a native can have. He's a fine actor, if just a bit physically stiff - he interacted believably with all the other cast members and his facial expressions were very convincing, but he needs that last touch of individuality and imagination. I regret that he and Papian sang the final "Si schiude il ciel" fortissimo rather than gorgeously pianissimo as many of the best interpreters (notably Milanov and Björling) did.

For better or worse, Licitra seems to be the Met's new "star tenor" around whom new productions are planned and who can get pretty much whatever he wants. His future engagements reportedly include Luigi in Il Tabarro for the new production of Il Trittico in 2006-2007 and Manrico in a new Il Trovatore in 2008-2009 in addition to Canio, Gustavo, and Dick Johnson. As talented as Licitra is, I think his ascent is largely due to political reasons. Joseph Volpe is pushing Licitra because Licitra made Volpe (not the Met - Volpe!) "look good" in the debacle of Pavarotti's Tosca cancellation, and no doubt incoming Met GM Peter Gelb, the former head of Licitra's record label Sony, will be equally generous to someone he knows and presumably loves.

Amneris is Dolora Zajick's greatest role, and by her admittedly titanic standards, her portrayal of Amneris this performance actually seemed ... almost small-voiced at the start - possibly an unannounced cold, or a slightly different manifestation of whatever was affecting the men. Nonetheless, hearing her "blood and guts" voice and portrayal is a joy in an era of too much vocal politeness, and she is genuinely exciting, never vulgar. I do think that Amneris is a much more sympathetic character than Zajick makes her, despite her pain in the Judgement Scene and remorse at the end. Most mezzos, including titans such as Fedora Barbieri and Giulietta Simionato, make Amneris into the villain of the piece, which I'm not quite sure is what Verdi wanted - after all, the opera was almost called Amneris. So far, though, Zajick's only serious competition in this role seems to be Olga Borodina, a somewhat smaller scale but very human Amneris.

Mark Rucker as Amonasro (opera house unknown)

I first heard Mark Rucker back in 1991 or 1992 as Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera, in a telecast from Philadelphia (with Pavarotti as Gustavo, of course - why else would it be telecast?) and was very impressed. I have been wondering for years when he would come to the Met and assume that he would have been there years ago if he wasn't African-American*, especially considering some less than stellar Amonasros in the recent past (Pons? Nucci? Sorry.) I figured if I noticed him, why hadn't the Met, who no doubt has tons of scouts? Well they finally did notice him when he sang Don Carlo in La Forza del Destino with the Collegiate Chorale, probably because they were there to see Licitra as Don Alvaro. Rucker was scheduled only for this one performance of Amonasro (same as for his debut in this role last season - just like every African-American singer except for Crider and Denyce Graves) and - whoopdeedoo! - he has two performances as Don Carlo, again opposite Licitra. Like virtually all the male soloists except Licitra, he seemed to be affected by dryness of voice (the weather might possibly be the culprit here). Because of this, I wondered if maybe the Met got him too late. If the voice wasn't overwhelming, Rucker was a good stage actor and clearly had considerable experience in the role. The good news is that per his website, he will be back next season for both Tonio in Pagliacci and the title role in Rigoletto. Let's hope he gets more than one performance of each this time. At least he isn't being relegated to "black" roles. The sound bites on his website of his Rigoletto sound very promising - powerful, dramatic, and passionate.

Paata Burchuladze has been a decent Grand Inquisitor in the past, but I usually haven't been very impressed with him and here he did nothing to revise my opinion of him upwards. His voice is hollow and his Italian is virtually unintelligible. He's reportedly doing Alvise in La Gioconda next season - for goodness sakes, Met management, if you can get Violeta Urmana, Roberto Alagna, Olga Borodina and Larissa Diadkova, can't you get a really world-class bass, or is four big stars enough?

Morris Robinson as the King of Egypt

Frankly, the role of Ramfis should have been sung by Morris Robinson. I first heard this phenomenal young bass in small roles (Mercury in Les Troyens and Second Nazarene in Salome), and immediately wanted to hear him graduate to the big ones. The voice is huge, even cavernous, well-focussed, and most importantly, instantly memorable. Tonight, however, like several other cast members, he was a bit dry in the beginning, and sounded better when singing from the front of the stage - the King is usually towards the back. Robinson sounds like many of the "black basses" of the past, such as Gottlob Frick, Matti Salminen, and maybe even Boris Christoff. And to those who might think that is a tasteless or even a racist pun, he is the only African-American bass I have ever heard who sounds like that - they tend to have very lyric voices - Paul Robeson, in my opinion, sounds a lot like turn-of-the-20th-century French basses such as Edouard de Reszke. However, the good news is that Robinson seems to be a singer the Met wants to promote, as he has represented them in various 9/11 commemoration events and has had quite a bit of publicity. His first major role, Sarastro, comes up in January and February 2006. My immediate impression is that this isn't that good an idea. Yes, Robinson's voice is amazing and he absolutely should be doing major roles, but so far I haven't heard the wisdom, warmth, and kindness Sarastro needs, even if he has the power and authority - he sounds like a villain. However, I'd cast him as the Grand Inquisitor, Fafnir, Hagen, or Kaspar in five seconds flat, and maybe Phillip in 10 years. Osmin or the Commendatore would probably be the best Mozart roles for him now, and I would love to hear him sing the "Tuba mirum" solo from the Requiem. He deserves, and will probably get, major stardom.

The usually reliable, and often excellent, comprimario tenor Ronald Naldi seemed affected by the same dryness as the other men as the Messenger, but Edyta Kulczak was an excellent Priestess. I am a little surprised that the Met is casting Kulczak, who is nominally a mezzo, in a soprano role, though she had no trouble with any of the high notes. Then again, 4 of my Met Priestesses either achieved or are on the way to stardom - and one of them is also a mezzo, Michelle De Young. The others are the aforementioned Christine Goerke, Sondra Radvanovsky, and Indra Thomas.

Oddly enough, James Conlon's conducting made absolutely no impression on me whatsoever, good or bad. Admittedly, I usually only notice conducting when it hits one of those extremes. But considering that Conlon is seriously rumored to be James Levine's replacement as Artistic Director when he leaves in 2011, I want to hear something that I can notice!

The production regularly gets slammed in the press and by some fans for its "Zefirellian excess", but I think that this opera, at least in the house the size of the Met, needs to be a spectacle, even though I usually hate it when the audience applauds scenery or the stage elevator. After all, much of the opera, and not just the Triumphal Scene, takes place in public. I would like to see a more intimate Aida, as it's essentially only about three people - Aida, Radames, and Amneris - but I'm worried that the overwhelming passion would be lost and the intimacy might be joined to directorial stupidity. (Robert Wilson directing Aida? Good grief, Tony, I practically worship you, but what were you thinking?)

Although I admit that I'm hardly a dance expert, I believe that the choreography is some of the worst I've ever seen at the Met, mostly terribly unimaginative and even silly (like the foot flexions timed to orchestral chords in the Triumphal Scene ballet or randomly waving arms in the Dance of the Moorish Slaves). I admit over repeated viewings - this is my sixth visit to this production - the Dance of the Moorish Slaves has grown on me. No doubt it is an attempt, successful or not, to recreate actual Egyptian dance. However, no fault for any of this can be laid at the dancers' feet (sorry) - they did a superb job with what they were given.

One very picky thing - while I certainly wouldn't want the Met to do an Al Jolson on her, I think Papian could have used a little more black makeup as Aida - she looked more very well tanned, possibly Arabic or even Egyptian, than Ethiopian.

I will try to see the spring performances as well, mainly for a repeat of Olga Borodina's Amneris, but I would also like to hear Johan Botha as Radames. He's no actor, but he has a lyric, clarion voice very reminiscent of Ben Heppner, and I have yet to hear him live in Italian opera. Next up at the Met: Cosi fan Tutte on Tuesday.

Finally, an amusing note. Apparently in the performance of Aida prior to this one, the horse that was drawing the chariot carrying Radames in the Triumphal Scene, er... had an accident. Or didn't think Licitra was worthy of being carried by him. At any rate, one of the extras in a loincloth came on with a bucket and a shovel. Hey, who knew that plastic was invented in ancient Egypt?

* I will be posting a tirade about the Met's treatment of African-American singers, especially the men. Eventually. By February for "Black History Month" at this rate!

"Falstaff" not quite so "Immenso" without Bryn

2005-10-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

Falstaff

Music by Giuseppe Verdi, Libretto by Arrigo Boito

Performance of Saturday evening, October 22, 2005; the 175th Metropolitan Opera performance of the work; the final performance of the season.

Conductor: James Levine

Falstaff: Louis Otey (substituting for Bryn Terfel)
Ford: Roberto Frontali
Alice Ford: Patricia Racette
Meg Page: Maria Zifchak
Nannetta: Heidi Grant Murphy
Mistress Quickly: Stephanie Blythe
Bardolfo: Jean-Paul Fouchecourt (replaced after Act I, Scene I by John McVeigh)
Pistola: Mikhail Petrenko
Dr. Caius: Peter Bronder

Most of the professional reviews of the Met's latest revival of Falstaff were utter raves, saying it was not only the best performance of this opera in years, but one of the Met's greatest achievements in years, period, raving about the quality of the ensemble. Since I had already seen the production in 2002, and was not totally enamored of the casting of Frontali and Murphy, these reviews were what put this on my "must-see" list. The fact that a near orgy of buying musical events in late September considerably drained my purse, plus the Jewish High Holy Days, meant I had to delay Falstaff to either the October 15th or October 22nd performance. Unfortunately, I just "didn't feel like going" on October 15, so if I wanted to go at all, I had to go to last night's performance.

My eagle-eyed friend Brad Wilber, who runs the wonderful Met Future Season's page, let me know on Thursday that he had looked at the Met website and found that Terfel had cancelled - whether due to illness or wanting to go home to his family in Wales early, I have no idea - and was being replaced by Louis Otey. Despite an almost-ideal female cast, I was considering forgoing the Falstaff because of this. New York City Opera was performing Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-Bleu, an opera I had never seen live(1), and Saturday night was my last chance to see it. In the end, it was my Shabbat nap that made the decision for me - I woke up too late to arrive on time for NYCO's 7:30 performance!

Baritone Louis Otey, headshot (I could not find any pictures of him as Falstaff)

I first saw Otey about 12 years ago in The Student Prince at NYCO, as Dr. Engel (the title character's wise old tutor) and I think I've seen him there a few more times, although I can't be sure because I don't keep the kinds of records of my NYCO visits that I do of the Met, and they don't have an easily accessible performance database. I've definitely seen him at the Met as Fieramosca in Benvenuto Cellini and Carbon in Cyrano de Bergerac. It's hard enough under any circumstances to come into a performance at the end of the run, especially when it's a relatively unknown singer replacing a superstar, but Falstaff is probably the worst opera for this to happen because it's such a well-coordinated ensemble effort. Matters were not helped when at the end of the first scene, the pause to change the set went on, and on, and on, until finally the stage manager came out and announced that Jean-Paul Fouchecourt was injured during the scene change and to save time, they would be having the intermission now. As you can imagine, some of the performances energy was dissipated because of this, and the performance still ended almost half an hour late (2).

No doubt because of all that, it took some time for Otey to fully integrate himself with the rest of the cast, and initially his voice wasn't quite big enough to ride over the orchestra. After the enforced break, however, either he was more warmed up, or Levine was better able to judge how far to take down the orchestra to better accomodate him. The problem ultimately was though Otey has a good, solid bass-baritone voice and he's a decent actor who eventually interacted very well with his stagemates, he simply doesn't have an instantly recognizable instrument or the overwhelming presence and charisma that someone like Terfel can bring to this role, and what this role needs. It was also too obvious that this Falstaff was a relatively slender man in a fat suit.

Roberto Frontali was a real surprise. I first saw him as a bright, likeable Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 1995, but on both broadcasts and recordings - most recently a duet disc with the wonderful Ramon Vargas, he has been something of a dull dog, especially in Verdi. Seeing him live for the first time in 10 years, I was shocked by how fine a Verdian he seems. It may simply be that microphones, whether studio or stage, don't do justice to his voice. Frontali's voice here had real core, presence and bite, and "E sogno? O realta?" was a dramatic tour-de-force. He also did a good job of capturing Ford's officiousness, and later chagrin and repentance.

The Merry Wives of Windsor (l. to r.): Maria Zifchak as Meg Page, Heidi Grant Murphy as Nannetta, Stephanie Blythe as Mistress Quickly, and Patricia Racette as Alice Ford.

The Merry Wives were indeed a fabulous group. While I don't think Patricia Racette has the je ne sais quoi that makes a great soprano, I have always seen her as a thoughtful, intelligent artist whose performances are always worth attending, although not necessarily running to. Her radiant top was effective here in conveying both high spirits and pathos. While listening to this I kept thinking that she would make an excellent Elisabetta in Don Carlo. And since she's done Butterfly in both Houston and on the West Coast, is it too much to ask that she does it at the Met? We're not exactly drowning in great Butterflies, especially as the most worthy candidate (you know who!) will never do it!

Unfortunately for Maria Zifchak, Meg Page is a role where it is very easy for the singer to get lost in the ensemble, the same happened with the wonderful and grossly underrrated Suzanne Mentzer in my previous outing. Nevertheless what I was able to make out from her was of very high quality.

Other than Frontali's Ford, the other big surprise for me was just how good a Nannetta Heidi Grant Murphy was. I tend not to like "soubrette" voices, as much as I may admire the artistry of those who have them, preferring a fuller sound - Barbara Bonney is as light as I normally would like in this sort of repertory, although I am quickly warming to the marvelous Isabel Bayrakdarian. Murphy previously struck me as particularly "white-voiced" as Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, even though that did serve to bring out the character's innocence and sweetness. These qualities, as well as romantic ardor and mischief, were more than evident here, but this time Murphy's voice seemed fuller than on previous outings, and unlike Camilla Tilling in 2002, totally even throughout her range. Her "Fairy Song" in the last act was truly magical.

As her lover, Matthew Polenzani didn't have quite the level of honeyed sweetness I would like (his pianissimi need a little work), but sang beautifully and was both ardent and totally believable. So far he's the most promising American lyric tenor in some time - I only hope that he doesn't ruin his immense potential the way Paul Groves and (sniff!) Gregory Turay seem to have.

As far as I'm concerned, however, the star of the show was contralto (yes! a true contralto, not "just" a mezzo-soprano) Stephanie Blythe. While her performance of Mistress Quickly in 2002 was excellent, here it was spectacular. Here she showed a rich, plummy, booming sound, with magnificent comic chops - particularly in the scenes with Otey and the moments where she is spoofing Falstaff to the other Merry Wives, as well as her "witchy" behavior in the final act - and the ability to truly command the stage. Blythe is probably greatest American singer under 50 before the public today - and the only one who actually deserves all the attention she gets, if not more. A protegee of Marilyn Horne, Blythe is rightly called by many people her heir and even sounds uncannily like her. I first noticed her ten years ago when she was still in the Met's Young Artists Program, thrilled with joy over her star-making Cornelias in 1999 and 2000 and have watched her continue to grow. Note that you might want to read my review on Amazon of her stunning Handel and Bach disc; unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to buy her Brahms/Mahler/Wagner lieder album.

While John McVeigh couldn't make Bardolfo memorable the way Fouchècourt did in 2002 - the difference between Act I and what followed was palpable, he sang and acted the part well. His voice is perhaps a bit too sweet for this ne'er-do-well. Mikhail Petrenko sonorous, dark grained bass did make Pistola memorable. British tenor Peter Bronder, who made his debut on the first night of the run, created an incisive portrait of Dr. Caius and I hope to see him back at the Met in other character roles.

The "refurbishment" of this production done for the 2001-2002 "Verdi Season" was my first encounter with this production. Basically. Considering that Nicolas Hytner created an absolutely wonderful production of The Magic Flute for the English National Opera, and some excellent Handel stagings, what could have he come up for Falstaff which would have aroused such ire not only from James Levine but also from Met Technical director Joseph Clark?

If not the "performance for the ages" that this might have been with Terfel's presence and without Fouchècourt's injury, it was still a rewarding evening. I would also like to see more of Otey at the Met, and not necessarily just in comprimario roles. The King of Egypt in Aida would be an excellent fit for him - and maybe more Verdi work at New York City Opera?

(1) I did see a concert version of the opera, mainly because Marion Capriotti, a friend I have since lost touch with who is a wonderful contralto, sang the Nurse. She also sang the Mistress of the Novices in NYCO's Suor Angelica, covered the Alto Voice in Moses und Aron at the Met, and substituted for Florence Quivar in a concert performance of Massenet's Cleopatre. I can't remember who sang Ariane, or even which company presented the concert at Alice Tully Hall.

(2) Something similar happened back in February 2000 when I went to London to see Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu sing in Roméo et Juliette at Covent Garden, among other operatic delights (La Boheme with Ramon Vargas and Elena Kelessidi, also at the Royal Opera, and H.M.S Pinafore at the Savoy Theater). After Act I the stage machinery got stuck and the backstage staff had to spend about half-an hour repairing it, forcing an extra interval. A lot of the energy was drained out of the performance and it ended 45 minutes late - Tito Beltran, the Tybalt, went home early without taking a curtain call. Fortunately, I had a ticket for a subsequent performance that really was one for the ages.

How nice!

2005-08-29T02:02:00.000-04:00

I went up to Avery Fisher Hall this morning to purchase my ticket for the New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Gala with Angela Gheorghiu. This is the first day that tickets for the season went on sale so the line was pretty long, rather to my horror as I had to be at work at 11:00 AM and I pretty much had to be out of there by 10:15 if I wanted to be sure I'd be at work on time. To my delight, Philharmonic employees were passing out pieces of pound cake and water or soda to the people on line! I suppose this was being done because it was the first day, but it was an extraordinarily thoughtful gesture, and the cake was superb, really rich and buttery. It reminds me of stories about how in the days of Rudolf Bing's rulership of the Met he used to order coffee to be served to the people on the Standing Room line in the wintertime. Not a gesture I would have expected from him, and I can't remotely imagine Joseph Volpe doing something like that! Admittedly, I think the standee line is inside on the concourse in the winter.

This almost makes up for having to drink the dreadful water that comes out of Avery Fisher Hall's fountains. I had considered writing a protest letter to the Phiharmonic demanding that they get a water filtering system or a water cooler, but, as I should have realized, they're trying to force the patrons to buy the bottled water from the refreshment stands.

There were other tickets I would have liked to buy for the Philharmonic, such as concerts conducted by Marin Alsop and Xian Zhang, but I only had so much money, and Angela, of course, was the priority!

(I did get to work about 5 minutes late. No big whoop. They're pretty relaxed on Sunday.)

I AM EMPLOYED!

2005-08-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

I FINALLY A GOT A NEW, REAL JOB!!!!!

Nope, not a temp job, not a temp-to-perm job, but a real, full-time, permanent job working as a Claims Service Representative for the New York State Insurance Fund. Even better, it's a civil service position, which means if you basically come to work on time and do a decent job, they can't fire you. There is a two year probation period, but I still think I'd have to have a pretty major screwup before they'd get rid of me - apparently only 2 or 3 people have been let go before the end of the probation in the past 10 years. I've probably got a job for life! And fabulous benefits! And a PENSION!

Yes, this was the interview I mentioned in my August 1st post - there was also another interview for a Resource and Reimbursement Specialist with the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. This actually looked a little more interesting considering I did briefly work in the development office of a non-profit that provided services to the developmentally disabled, and the office was within reasonable walking distance of my house. But they never got back to me. I got a call about a week and half ago from NYSIF asking me if I was interested in the job and of course I said yes, but the manager said he had to send a bunch of paperwork up to Albany to confirm it. Since (I suppose) there was always the possibility that the high muckety-mucks in Albany might have said no to my appointment, I decided not to count my chickens until they were hatched. Well, the manager called today and formally offered the job, and I start on September 8. Basically, I'll be a case manager for worker's compensation cases, making sure the injured claimant gets benefits and medical care if warranted. There are a lot of complicated legal and medical issues involved, not to mention tons of forms and procedures, and there will be about 3 months of classroom and on-the-job training before they start giving me a caseload.

For fifteen years since leaving college, due to my wanting to have an acting career, the bad economy, my own immaturity and the occasional stupid decision, my work experience has been mainly low-paying market research jobs and temporary secretarial work. I have spent a lot of time unemployed and even two months on welfare. I've never made more than $27,000 a year and often much less. Well, that's all over. Let's just say that my starting pay, as a trainee, is about $34,000 - and that's going to go up to $46,000 when the traineeship ends in two years! Plenty of money to go to opera in cities besides New York and maybe even follow certain talented singers around within reason. And maybe do such unimportant things as paying off my debts and getting my own apartment.

The only downside is, as I said when I went for the interviews, that I'm actually not getting my first paycheck until October (they hold the pay for the first few weeks until you retire or otherwise leave - no idea why, some union rule), so no "luxuries", really, except for standing room for the Met's Opening Night. It'll be a while before I can buy tickets to Rigoletto with Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko (and Carlo Guelfi) and La Traviata with Angela Gheorghiu, the two operas that I consider worth sitting in the Balcony for as opposed to my usual Family Circle Standing Room. As it is I've been working lots of overtime at my current job and will still work nights for a few weeks - quite to my shock, the management there loves me and is begging me to stay! It's nice to feel needed.

And I just hope that the actual job is interesting, and that I'm not condemning myself to 30 years of slavery.

(By the way, one of my colleagues at the proxy solicitation firm is a manager at NYSIF during the day, and he's been giving me a few pointers - apparently even a manager's salary can't cover the cost of raising five kids in New York City, so he needs a second job!)

For those of you who are old friends but new to this blog, I know a lot of you have followed my job woes for a long time, and so I say: thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your support!. YAHOOO! Baruch Hashem!

Kenneth Branagh to direct "The Magic Flute"!

2005-08-11T15:50:00.000-04:00

Well, this looks like something to look forward to!

Since Kenneth Branagh burst on the scene in 1989 with his adaption of Henry V, probably the greatest adaptation of a Shakespeare play on film (and oy, how I regret that I never got a chance to see it on the big screen!), I've been a big fan of his. I doubt that this will be a "traditional" production set in ancient Egypt or some generalized "mystical" setting or even, like many productions, set roughly in the time of the opera's composition. After all, neither Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing or Hamlet take place in the 16th Century, and he updated Love's Labour Lost (which I haven't seen) to make it a 1930's musical. Since the first two films were brilliant - in fact, I would say Much Ado About Nothing is one of the most beautiful, joyous, life-affirming films of the 1990s, even a time-transplanted Flute shouldn't be a problem. Interestingly, one report referred to Pamina's mother as "Queen Elizabeth of the Night", so Branagh might be putting this in an Elizabethan setting. This might actually work - remember that the Queen of the Night is a critical allegory of the Empress Maria Theresa, and Elizabeth was just as much a tyrant (albeit a somewhat more benevolent one) as she was. As long as this film has the sense of fantasy, wonder and mystery which is essential in this opera, we shouldn't have a problem.

And remember how I said that Stephen Fry would be a wonderful librettist for a Harry Potter opera? Well, now he'll have the experience, as he is adapting the libretto here. As I said in that post, he is a big classical music fan and one of the classiest, wittiest people in the business. I only hope even he can do something with lines like "Great Sarastro, we admire your wise discourse" (I don't remember the German here - that's the Ruth and Thomas Martin translation.

The starriest names in the cast are likely René Pape (the real "divine René") as Sarastro and Lyubov Petrova, whose Met roles include Zerbinetta, Oscar and Sophie in Werther, as the Queen of the Night. Joseph Kaiser, a member of the Lyric Opera (of Chicago) Center for American Artists and a winner of this year's Met Auditions, will sing Tamino. He sang "Dies bildnis ist bezaubernschön" at the Auditions Concert, and while the voice is a little nasal for my taste, he's a superb actor. Russian opera, such as Lensky's aria "Kuda, kuda", seems to suit him a bit better vocally. He also sang Rodolfo in Baz Luhrmann's Broadway version of La Boheme.

The others are perhaps a little more cause for concern. Ben Davis, who sings Papageno, is like Kaiser a former member of Baz Luhrmann's Boheme, but his only other credits are in Broadway musicals (Les Miserables and Thoroughly Modern Millie) and I'm not sure this is necessarily the right voice for an opera, especially considering the extensive miking that goes on on Broadway today. Amy Carson, who is described only as a "newcomer" will be singing Pamina.

No word on remainder of cast, conductor, orchestra, or release date as of yet. Stay tuned.

Domingo and Villazon together: is this a good idea?

2005-08-04T15:48:00.000-04:00

I just heard that the Los Angeles Opera has commissioned a new opera based on the film Il Postino, to premiere in 2009. It will be written by Mexican composer Daniel Catán (best known for Florencia en Amazonas, a recent operatic composition that has had wonderful reviews, good audience response, a complete recording, and probably most importantly, multiple revivals) and star Placido Domingo, who will create the role of Pablo Neruda, and Rolando Villazon, who will create the title role of Mario, Neruda's personal postman.

I have some skepticism here. I probably won't be able to make any kind of reasonable judgement of the opera until I both hear more of Catán's work and see the movie the opera is based on (and maybe even read some Neruda!), but I wonder if this is a good idea. Vocally, Villazon is so close to Domingo that he might as well be a clone, and I think that this is the main reason (plus the fact that he is Not Roberto Alagna) that he is getting so much gush. More to the point, I don't think there will be enough vocal contrast between the two singers. If the tenors were portraying father and son, that might work. It might have been a better idea to have a baritone sing Mario, or perhaps to have in the role one of Domingo's other Spanish-speaking protegès, such as Aquiles Machado or Tito Beltran, both of whom have lighter and more lyric voices than Domingo or Villazon.

And yes, folks, we all know that Placido Domingo is in fabulous voice for a man his age. He's in pretty darned good voice for a man half his age. As blasphemous as others may deem this, I think that he should retire now while he is still in such good voice and we're all saying "Placido! Why did you leave us? We love you!" rather than "Luciano, go away already!" And frankly, he's in the way of a lot of younger tenors - at the rate he's going, he probably won't retire until Roberto Alagna and Ramon Vargas and Marcello Giordani and Jose Cura and Marcelo Alvarez are close to or even past 50, and poor Ben Heppner nearly 60. I think the reason that Villazon (and possibly Juan Diego Flòrez) might prevail in these artificially created "tenor wars" is that they are the only ones young enough not to be swallowed up by Domingo's shadow.

Nevertheless, there is something to be said for star power - almost certainly this will lead to a sold out house and possibly a recording of the opera. I must admit the concept is intriguing, and I do like both singers. And as always, I'd much rather see a singer, even one I don't always like, have a triumph than fail and have nasty people tittering behind their back. Most importantly, the more new operas get performed, the greater chance that at least one of them will be worthy of becoming a classic of the new century.

Addio, diletta California!

2005-08-01T18:48:00.000-04:00

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna with Placido Domingo, in his capacity as Boss of the Los Angeles Opera, after a performance of La Boheme last December.

It turns out that I will not, after all, be going to Los Angeles in September to see Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu (and fantastic Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecen as Silvio!) in Pagliacci. In the end, I really don't have the money. My long-term temp job (calling up company stockholders and asking them to either vote proxies for annual meetings or to participate in stock tender offers) is going through a slow period, and although I bless my bosses for keeping me and my colleagues working, the only way they can do that is by reducing our hours. I also just went on some interviews for jobs at various state agencies (I took the "Professional Careers" New York State civil service test back in February and got a virtually perfect score), and was told if I get the job, I won't actually get my first paycheck until a month later! That means October minimum. So if I get one of these jobs, I'll have to save up to last from leaving my current job to the first paycheck in the new one, and if not, well, I just hope things at this one pick up quickly.

I will content myself, hopefully, with Angela's Tosca at the Met's Opening Night Gala and her Violetta in February. Assuming, of course, Joseph Volpe doesn't have some scheme to throw her out Kathleen Battle-style in order to make himself a "hero" to the press to coincide with his leaving. And there is the New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Gala and possibly the Philadelphia Orchestra's gala in January. Roberto, unfortunately, is going to have to wait for Enzo in La Gioconda in Fall 2006 (although if I really get some kind of monetary windfall, I might consider going to see him in Aida at Orange next July). Unfortunately, he is not doing Tosca with Angela at Covent Garden (Marcelo Alvarez is). I have the feeling this is the fault of his manager, about whom the less said the better.

And Roberto has a new coming out this fall of music associated with French pop-operetta singer Luis Mariano, which looks like a cross between Marcelo Alvarez' Gardel CD and Susan Graham's French operetta CD. And hopefully by Hanukkah I'll have a new TV and a DVD player and can enjoy him and Angela that way...

Harry Potter And The Muggle Opera Lover

2005-07-28T15:29:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in my first post to this blog that I would be overjoyed to see a good operatic version of Harry Potter. Many of the greatest operas, after all, are essentially myth and fantasy, and the saga's struggle between good and evil, vivid characters, humor, and emotional resonance would make it an ideal subject for an opera. There was an irresistible post on Opera-L a few months back about imaginary Harry Potter operas written by the great composers, such as Mozart's Harry Potter and the Marriage of Figaro and or Wagner's Harry Potter and the Mastersingers of Nuremberg ("ten Galleons says that Ron can't succeed in a Muggle singing contest"). What I am proposing, however, is an actual opera, or more accurately a cycle of 7 operas, based on the Harry Potter books. And while I would not want this to be used merely as a gimmick to bring children and teens into the opera house, their extra participation would be a nice bonus.

Who to compose? The most likely candidate might very well be Patrick Doyle, who is actually replacing John Williams as composer on Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Doyle (who is Welsh) is not only one of the best composers working in Hollywood, but he has an excellent feel for vocal and choral music. I have long thought that he should write an opera. A few years ago I heard that he had been commisioned to write an opera about the late Queen Mum, but I don't know what if anything has become of that. He also has a rather pleasant tenor voice, by the way. I believe he has sung in all the films he has composed for - I know for a fact that he was in Henry V (where he led off the stunning "Non nobis, Domine") and in Much Ado About Nothing he played the musician Balthazar in addition to singing "Sigh, no more ladies" and "Pardon, goddess of the night". Maybe we can give him a small role in the opera! Another possibility might be Rachel Portman, another fine film composer who just wrote an opera based on another great "children's" book, The Little Prince. I do think, though, that the "Double, double toil and trouble" chorus from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban should remain in the opera and perhaps be further adapted and expanded, with due credit being given to John Williams. As a matter of fact, as I mentioned in my previous post about my operatic encounters at the movies, I'd be interested to see what Williams, who has had some fine choral writing in some of his recent films, might make of an entire opera.

Joanne Rowling would have to have a hand in the libretto, of course, but for co-librettist I would nominate Stephen Fry. He is of course intimately familiar with this universe as he is the voice for all the British editions of the Harry Potter audiobooks. Not only that, but also as an actor and as a writer he has plenty of science fiction and fantasy experience in addition to Harry Potter. Most recently, he was the Voice of the Book in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I am delighted to report that he is writing one of next season's episodes of Doctor Who (now if only we can get the new Who in the US!). I believe that in America he is most famous for various incarnations of Lord Melchett in the four Blackadder series, which is sort of historical fantasy and has the same kind of humor as Harry Potter. He is also a classical music buff who hosts a show for Classic FM. Having had some experience with this radio station and their wretched "magazine", I imagine he's the classiest thing on it!

I don't care who directs/produces it, as long as it isn't a "Eurotrash" director who will put lots of unnecessary sex and violence in it and is someone who will remain true to the spirit of the books. And someone who understands children. Tempted as I may be to have Antonio Pappano conduct anything, I'm not sure this would be his cup of tea - to the best of my knowledge, unlike some other conductors, he has never programmed film music in his orchestral concerts (1). Maybe Simon Rattle, who conducted Doyle's score for Henry V.

Now to the part that we're all really interested in - the casting! When I proposed the idea to a young soprano friend of mine, she volunteered to sing Hermione, on the condition that Juan Diego Florez played Harry and Roberto Alagna played Ron! Weelll.... I suppose that if you put the right wig and glasses on Juan Diego he would sort of look like Dan Radcliffe and Roberto is a redhead, albeit he would probably have to wear a pretty serious pair of elevator shoes to be tall enough for Ron. But at least until we get up to Order of the Phoenix or Half-Blood Prince when the character's voices change (2), the children should be sung as children - either by trebles for all or mezzos for the boys and sopranos for the girls.

Also, since these operas will be in English, I really think that the singers should all be native English speakers if not actually from the British Isles, at least for the first production, except for foreign characters such as Madame Maxime. Although considering his very strong resemblance to Jason Isaacs, I was thinking of Dmitri Hvorostovsky for Lucius Malfoy(3)! And I'm sorely tempted to drop the English-only rule and have Rene Pape as Dumbledore.

There is, of course, one absolutely essential piece of casting, and indeed he was the inspiration for the whole idea. Bryn Terfel absolutely, positively has to sing Hagrid! As a matter of fact, he agrees with me - he was quoted in BBC Music Magazine recently as saying "Oh, yes! I am Hagrid! Hagrid is me!". Yes, I know Terfel's native language is Welsh, not English, but especially considering that Hagrid is from the North Country, that's probably close enough. The problem is that I think I would also want him for both Dumbledore and Mad-Eye Moody, especially the latter.

If we do have adult women sing all the kids, I'm thinking of rising young Handel soprano Emma Bell for Hermione. There are also some fine young British mezzos who could handle the various young men (Harry, Ron, Draco, etc), although I'm not sure which should go with which: Alice Coote (the heir to Janet Baker?), Victoria Simonds, and Christine Rice. If we go with kids, they should be unknowns. What happens, however, when we get to the operas for Order of The Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and the as-yet-unnamed seventh book? Should Hermione be a mezzo or a soprano? I think Harry and Ron should have different voice types, but I'm not sure who should be the tenor and who the baritone. At this point I'll say Harry should be the baritone and Ron the tenor, because that seems to be the way Daniel Radcliffe's and Rupert Grint's speaking voices are going.

Since Herr Pape has been barred, a proper British choice for Dumbledore would probably be John Tomlinson. Another possibility, although probably better for a revival than a premiere, would be Willard White. If he doesn't sing Dumbledore, he'd be luxury casting as Kingsley Shacklebolt. I think Felicity Palmer, with both her authority and comic chops, would be an excellent choice for Professor McGonagall. Of course, we have to put Simon Keenlyside in almost any British opera, and I think he'd be ideal for Lupin. Maybe Della Jones for Professor Sprout. And the shortest tenor we can find for Flitwick (unfortunately, again, the name that comes to mind is not an Englishman - magnificent French character tenor Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, who I think is barely 5 feet tall)

The most important gaps at this point are Snape and Sirius. I think a baritone for the former and a tenor for the later, but I can't think of any names right offhand. Also, a good comic bass and mezzo for the Dursleys - Della Jones for Petunia, possibly.

I'm also vacillating about whether Voldemort should be a countertenor (due to his extremely high-pitched laugh) a character tenor, or even the more traditionally villainous baritone or bass. Possibly in the "first" opera, where Voldemort and Quirrell could be a dual role, a countertenor might be an interesting idea.

Peter Pettigrew should definitely be a character tenor - Graham Clark (one of the best Mimes) would probably be a good choice, although the young American David Cangelosi (a very promising Mime and a fabulous Spoletta in the Benoit Jacquot Tosca film) or the Fillipino Rodell Rosel, who just won the Met Auditions, is a member of Chicago's Young Artist Program and I have no doubt is on the brink of a major career might be even better - Rosel's English is virtually unaccented, too. Four-odd months after the Auditions Concert, I can still hear him singing "Aria of the Worm" from John Corigliano's The Ghost's of Versailles in my head. Perhaps Mr. Rosel can sing Pettigrew and Mr. Cangelosi Barty Crouch, Jr.

Now for cameo roles. Deborah Voigt for the Fat Lady. No, that is absolutely not meant as a personal attack and of course now she would have to wear a lot of padding. I thought of Voigt because in the movies the Fat Lady is played by Dawn French, who wore a wig that made her look a lot like the soprano on the cover of her Obsessions album. You may also remember that the Fat Lady, per the Prisoner of Azaban movie, is something of an opera singer. I am very tempted to nominate one particular friend of mine - not a singer- as Luna Lovegood because she's even more cuckoo and otherwordly, but that's too nasty. Although I said that I would be willing to have a French singer portray Madame Maxime, I'm beginning to think that the best choice for the role is an American, Stephanie Blythe. She has an excellent rapport with Bryn (they've been Falstaff and Mistress Quickly together many times) and her sung French is wonderful. She is also a magnificent comic actress with an enormous presence. And she is, physically, a very big woman - not just wide, but tall, probably almost 6 feet (I remember how in Rodelinda Renée Fleming looked like an absolute waif by comparison!). As for genuine Frenchwomen, how about Natalie Dessay in a blonde wig for Fleur? Or perhaps, to make up for not having Roberto Alagna as Ron, perhaps his genuinely blonde sister-in-law, Nathalie Manfrino? Powerhouse Bulgarian basso Vitaly Kolwaljow would be appropriately scary as Karkaroff, and although he's Polish, not Bulgarian, the handsome and talented Marius Kwiecen would be fine as Krum.

Lastly, I nominate my aforementioned young soprano friend Lullalit Supatravanij (she's Thai) as Cho Chang. This is "blind" (deaf?) casting as I haven't actually heard her sing yet! For those who would insist on an established professional, there are some fabulous singers now coming out of the Far East, mostly China and Korea, although they are mostly lower voices (1997 Cardiff Singer of the World Winner mezzo Guang Yang, wow!), not the soprano I think Cho should be. The wonderful Ying Huang (when is she coming to the Met?), maybe. And we can let Lulu sing Hermione in the revival.

This, of course, is all off the top of my head. No doubt more ideas will come into my head as I keep rereading the books, seeing the movies (especially Goblet of Fire in November), and encountering more "English" singers at the opera.

(1) I should point out that backstage after his New York Philharmonic debut, I did see Tony being very sweet to a girl of about 9 or 10, presumably the daughter of a friend. So he clearly likes children, even if he and his wife don't have any, and he has apparently lead youth orchestras with great skill and enthusiasm. So he undoutedly has the "child-friendliness" required.

(2) I am actually rather surprised that JKR didn't deal with the issue of the boys' voices changing in the books. Although her wizards speak (or think) rather than sing their spells, it occurs to me that a voice suddenly going up or down in register might affect an incantation, possibly to comic effect. So far music itself doesn't seem to have been dealt with much by JKR either, apart the enchanted harp and Hagrid's flute being used to put the three-headed dog Fluffy to sleep. Admittedly, Dumbledore "enjoys chamber music" (it was never specified whether as a performer or as a listener) and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone creator Nicholas Flamel is an opera fan. Also at least in the movies, Hogwarts has a chorus. We also hear from popular singing witch Celestina Warbeck (who in Half-Blood Prince strikes me more as an Ella Fitzgerald-type than the Kathleen Ferrier-type I had originally envisioned). Unfortunately, the wildly popular "Weird Sisters", which in the book version of Goblet of Fire seem to be sort of a new-age folk type of ensemble (lute, drums, cello, bagpipes), reportedly will be a punk band in the film.

(3) Actually, a few years ago, I think I ran into Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the Lincoln Center area, and for several seconds wasn't sure whether it was him or Isaacs!

More than just the Placido Domingo show

2005-07-27T20:58:00.000-04:00

Because I do not have my own computer, my only access to the Internet is either at work or at various internet cafes. I can only use my computer at work for personal pursuits during my lunch hour, so I usually spend most Sundays at an internet cafe called "Netzone" on 32nd Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue. This is basically the only place I can listen to internet radio broadcasts and anything else with sound. There are only two drawbacks to being here - one is I tend to get distracted from my actual "work" (i.e writing and E-mails and occasionally critiques for the various science fiction writing forums) with the many wonderful games on Yahoo and MSN or with surfing, the other is that Netzone plays a lot of very loud music, mostly either rap (complete with profanity and racist lyrics) or candy-apple rock (in Korean, yet! Although there was a nice riff on Grieg's "Solveig Song" in there somewhere), which interferes with listening to classical music and opera no matter how loud I turn up the computer or the earphones. It's usually OK when the broadcast is at reasonable volume, but a lot of singer pianissimis, as well as orchestral subtleties, get lost. Still, this cafe charges only $15 for a whole day (up to about 16 hours), it's comfortable, and the only remotely similar-priced internet cafe (EasyEverything on 42nd Street) is a rip-off where half the computers don't work and there's no access to internet broadcasts at all.

It was under these circumstances that I was listening to what seemed to be an otherwise superb reading of Die Walküre from the BBC Proms on Sunday - the BBC, bless them, archives their broadcasts for up to a week. In addition to the noise distractions, I was also concentrating on writing this blog's first post, so I wasn't giving the opera quite the attention it deserved. Also, there were several server problems that made me have to start the broadcast over from the beginning and fast forward - unfortunately, the BBC's media player fast-forwards only in increments of 5 and 15 minutes and doesn't rewind. Therefore, what follows is more random thoughts than a true "review".

That said, I could see why the reviews in the British press were raves. I've already mentioned how much I love Covent Garden's new Music Director, Antonio Pappano (universally known as Tony). Having heard him conduct excerpts from Tristan und Isolde, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung on the two Wagner discs he did with Placido Domingo, I was eager to hear how he would handle an entire Wagner opera, especially considering that it was as a Wagner conductor that he first won international acclaim when he replaced Christoph von Dohnanyi for Siegfried in Vienna in 1993. Some critics who saw Pappano conducting the same forces at the Royal Opera House the week before complained that while he got all the individual moments right, he didn't "connect" them enough to bring out the architecture of the entire opera. That might actually be true, but I think, again, that if I sensed that at all it might simply be because I couldn't give the opera my full attention. Pappano's usual qualities - passion, drama, warmth, immediacy, sympathy for and intense support of singers - made the performance electric, particularly in the love music of the first act. I was also struck by just how much the opening sounded like a driving rainstorm, with each cello note an individual drop beating on a rooftop.

As eager as I was to hear Pappano conduct this opera, I was even more eager to hear Bryn Terfel sing his first Wotans. While I'll admit he came off better than he did on his Wagner album under Abbado (a great conductor, of course, but I'm not quite convinced of him as a Wagnerian), he didn't sound like he has quite enough power and authority to be ideal for the role yet - a bit of a surprise considering the magnificent Dutchman monologue he recorded on his Opera Arias CD with James Levine, and his voice seemed a little smaller than on other broadcasts/recordings or in live performance. This might be due to the size of Royal Albert Hall - 6,000 seats. I did notice some telling word-painting, and if I were intimately familiar with the opera or had a libretto in front of me I would have been able to appreciate it more. Wotan's Farewell, though, was magnificent, full of passion and sorrow (I personally, would have taken the last "Leb'wohl!" pianissimo, but that's really picky). And his cry of "GEH!" when he kills Hunding sent chills up my spine. Still, whether Wotan will indeed be Terfel's greatest role as many thought at the beginning of his career, or if he will be this century's first great Wotan, still remains to be seen.

As for the title role, I was at Lisa Gasteen's Met debut as Aida in 1997, and was very disappointed that she did not come back until just this past season - as Sieglinde. She was a little shaky in the "Hojotoho!"s, but the rest of the role is virtually at mezzo level. She struck me as very competent but not overwhelming; she was most impressive during the Death Annunciation scene. Incidentally, it was at this point when the computer got "stuck" and RealPlayer was playing the exact same phrase over and over again. I would like to give Gasteen another chance with Brünnhilde, and ideally to hear this under better circumstances, but I think Verdi suits her better. I'd like to see what Violeta Urmana or possibly Nina Stemme could do with the role.

I find Waltraud Meier far more convincing in German soprano roles than in French mezzo roles. For one thing, her lower register is the weakest part of her voice, often sounding rather curdled. I don't know whether this was planned or not, but the quality of Meier's voice suggested that Sieglinde is a not a sweet young innocent but a middle-aged woman who had been trapped in a miserable marriage to Hunding for many years, rejuvenated by her love for Siegfried. I prefer a brighter, fresher, "younger" voice in this role, but Meier's characterization more than made up for any vocal flaws - rather like her Eboli on the DVD of Don Carlos. I am now very interested to hear her Kundry in Parsifal, reputedly her greatest role, when she does it at the Met in May 2006.

I remember being shocked at just how good a singer of Wagner Placido Domingo is when I saw him do Siegmund at the Met in 1997. His two aforementioned Wagner albums with Tony only escalated this impression, and his Parsifal (also at the Met, in 2004) was nothing to sneeze at either. I don't think his Siegmund here was quite on the level if the one at the Met but still very, very good. As a matter of fact, I think I prefer him in German opera to Italian or French, at least at this point in his career. Even though German isn't exactly his best language, Domingo's voice is more sheerly beautiful than that of many heldentenors, and he brings a lyricism to this music - particularly wonderful in the first act - that some of them can't or won't. And yes, as we all know, he's 64 and sounds 20 years younger. Certainly his cries of "Wälse! Wälse!" make this horrendously difficult moment sound like the easiest thing in the world. His best work, though, like that of Gasteen's, was in the Death Annunciation scene, in Siegmund's rejection of Valhalla because he would never see Sieglinde again.

I confess, though that the singer who most made me sit up and take notice in terms of sheer voice was Rosalind Plowright. I had not heard much of her as a soprano, but I know she had an excellent reputation - she recorded Il Trovatore with Domingo under Giulini about 20 years ago. She recently (I think within the last 5 years) made the transition to mezzo-soprano, and it suits her very well. I didn't notice details of characterization, but the voice is rich, warm and powerful, almost contraltoish. I'm definitely going to seek out more of her soprano work. Erik Halvarson was an appropriately black-voiced, nasty Hagen. The Valkyries were all very good but nobody stood out from the others.

What really bothered me here was the fact that the BBC announcers seemed desperate to turn this into The Placido Domingo Show. Even worse, they can't even pronounce his name properly! The first syllable has the "a" in "car", not the "a" in "cat", guys! * I am aware that Domingo was the biggest star in the cast, although Bryn and Tony are well on their way up there and Gasteen and Plowright are certainly very well thought of in England if not quite major international stars. And yes, this was Domingo's very long-awaited Proms debut, and I doubt that there is really anyone else today who can sing Siegmund as well as he can (except possibly Ben Heppner, who I don't think will do it). But I found the implication that no one else involved with this concert was worthy of interest, or that everyone listening has to be a slavering Domingo fan with no interest in anything but their idol, including what he is actually singing, insulting - and frankly, it diminishes Domingo as well. Unfortunately, in the case of the Proms audience, I suspect it's at least partially true - apparently there were quite a few people who left after Domingo was finished in Act II to try to get his autograph (and missed "The Ride of the Valkyries"???). I am not certain because I fast forwarded most of the intermission features, but I believe that Domingo was the only member of the cast interviewed (everyone else was "talking heads"). On the other hand, everybody else was very well applauded, and Tony got the biggest hand of the night - even the announcer admitted that he was the hero of the hour.

Again, since I was listening to this on a Sunday and the broadcast "expired" the day after, I deeply regret that I was not able to listen to it more than once or go back and review certain things. I'm sure that plenty of people will have recorded the broadcast and I can borrow or trade for someone's copy, so I can listen to this in more detail with a libretto. I'm looking forward to it. Who knows? There might even be an "official" release of this broadcast sometime within the next 50 years. Even if not, there will be DVDs coming of the staged performances of the entire cycle. Worse comes the worse, if the production turns out to be ridiculous, I'll just listen with my eyes closed.

*And by the way, it's Ro-BEHR-to, not Ro-BUR-to, Alagna!

Recent operatic encounters at the movies

2005-07-27T00:52:00.001-04:00

I suppose that my most recent series of "operatic encounters at the movies" began on Memorial Day, when I went to see Revenge of the Sith. As I stated in my first post, sagas like Star Wars and Star Trek and Babylon 5, with their huge scope, grand passions, and mythic depth - not to mention wonderful musical scores! - are quite rightly referred to as "space operas". More to the point for this particular post, the film actually has a scene in an opera house! Anakin Skywalker (the soon-to-be Darth Vader) meets with Chancellor Palpatine (the soon-to-be Emperor) at the Galaxies Opera House, although it seems that George Lucas is interested more in the opera house as the place where the rich and powerful gather than the state of the arts in the Republic. That might have been interesting actually - Palpatine's megalomania destroying the Republic culturally as well as politically - just like every totalitarian state that ever existed did with its arts - and unfortunately, what a few people in the US are trying to do too. It also seems to be rather common in mystery and suspense movies to have a scene in an opera or theater box to show the contrast between the quiet, sinister conspiracies and the huge, festive public space.

What Anakin and Palpatine are actually "watching" while they discuss the possibilty of eternal life, however, is not an opera - more like a huge sphere with sinuous lights moving across it. In the novelization it is described as a "Mon Calamari ballet". Interestingly enough, John Williams' score for this scene (on the soundtrack CD as "Palpatine's Teachings"), consists of choral basses singing very long notes at the bottom of their voices - a lot like some Russian choral music, but to far more sinister effect - not surprisingly considering that Palpatine is slowly but surely drawing Anakin to the dark side of the Force. Actually, I believe all three movies in the prequel trilogy have quite a bit of very good choral writing in them - it would be interesting to see if Williams could compose a full-scale choral work or even an opera. I must give the wonderful singers of London Voices and their director Terry Edwards their due.

By the way, there is a music critic in Los Angeles who I usually have a lot of respect for, Jim Svejda, who thinks Williams is a big fraud and a plagiarist - his argument is that the Star Wars main title sounds like - get this - the big fanfare at the end of Act III of Manon Lescaut! Sorry, Jim, no dice. Williams is far more thrilling and bombastic here, and I don't think they are remotely in the same key. It's no closer than many other compositions by a lot of other composers. Although I will admit that the wonderful "love theme" introduced in Attack of the Clones bears a strong resemblance to various Russian themes, namely Scheherezade and possibly the Second Polovetsian Dance from Prince Igor.

One of the central plot points of Batman Begins is that the young Bruce Wayne, ambushed by a bat colony while hiding in a well, becomes absolutely terrified of bats - which is why to face his fear, he takes on the form of a bat as an adult crimefighter. While still a child, he is taken by his parents to a production of Mefistofele, and we see the Witches Sabbath scene. When Bruce sees the black-clad demons in this scene descending from the flies on ropes, he instantly sees them as bats. Unlike what some people on Opera-L have said, this is not a "regietheater" production that actually presents the demons as bats (actually, that's not a bad idea), but a "traditional" production that just hits Bruce where it happens to hurt most. It's as if I were to see a person costumed in black with a lot of fringes as a tarantula. Bruce recoils in terror and he and his parents leave, and his father comforts him by saying "A little opera goes a long way". Understandable under the circumstances, perhaps, but I was a little annoyed by the way this seemed to reinforce the stereotype of opera being only for very rich people who go primarily to show off just how rich they are, even though the elder Waynes are clearly wonderful people. The Gotham Opera House (I presume that's what it was called) is much smaller and somewhat seedier looking than its real life New York counterpart - certainly the area outside the house where Bruce's parents are murdered is! I'd be interested to know if the production team actually filmed this in one of the smaller European theaters or if they built a set. By the way, they used the classic recording of the opera with Norman Treigle conducted by Julius Rudel, which was lip-synched to by actors - Patrick Pond, Poppy Tierney and Rory Campbell as Mefistofele, Marguerite, and Faust respectively.

But that's not the only connection to opera that this film has. Unlike a lot of moviegoers, I almost always stay through the end of the credits (and some of these are long - Return of The King had almost 10 minutes worth!), mostly to enjoy the music but also some movies have twists or jokes either during or after. I was quite surprised that listed in the special effects crew as a digital compositor was a gentleman named - Giuseppe Tagliavini! Now I wonder if he could be related to Ferruccio Tagliavini, one of my favorite lyric tenors, or perhaps to the lesser known Franco Tagliavini. I'm not sure whether either of these gentlemen had children. Even if Tagliavini is a common name, it occurred to me that in addition to being a tenor Ferruccio was also a licensed electrical engineer (in fact, that's what he wanted to do with his life and his father forced him to be a singer; according to Robert Merrill, he was able to use his engineering skills to earn a fortune in the construction business), and that's a skill or an interest that might be passed down to a son (or a nephew). I'm not sure exactly what a digital compositor does - I presume it probably has something to do with computer animation - but it sounds like it needs a good mix of both artistic and technical skills.

One of my very favorite places in New York City is probably the best revival/art house movie theater around, Film Forum. They recently had a series called "Hollywood Before The Code", basically films made before about 1934 when the Hays Code that forbade anything remotely sexual or "immoral" from being put into the movies. Although what's in these movies is extraordinarily tame by modern standards, they still had a good deal of sexual innuendo (even - gasp! - homosexuality) and dealt with other things that were extremely scandalous at the time, such as adultery, unwed motherhood, and abortion. The first of these movies of interest here is the 1931 version of An American Tragedy. As many readers of this blog will no doubt know, the Metropolitan Opera is presenting the world premiere of Tobias Picker's opera based on the novel. Although there is no operatic music in the film, it might offer a clue to how this 800-page novel (which I will read prior to seeing the opera) will be adapted - a great deal of material in the book will have to be cut. It focuses on the central story of Clyde Griffeths' romance with and murder of Roberta Alden and his subsequent trial, without going too much into Clyde's background and life before he starts his "rise to the top" and life in his uncle's shirt factory. I will also try to see the 1951 film adaption of this book, A Place in the Sun, before I see the opera.

Several weeks after An American Tragedy, Film Forum presented a double bill of A Farewell to Arms and Morocco as part of the same series - the former deals with sex out of wedlock and pregnancy, the latter is famous (infamous?) as the film where the tuxedoed, top-hatted Marlene Dietrich kisses a female nightclub patron - again, not nearly as tittilating as I expected. The films have both a very young Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou in common. Since A Farewell to Arms takes place mostly in Italy, it was appropriate that we should here some opera - one of the soldiers is a tenor who sings "Vesti la giubba" and "La donna e mobile". I thought the tenor sang rather well, although his comrades dismissed his ability. Later in the film, a tenor, presumably the same character, is listening along with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes to some street puppeteers putting on Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Rosina/Figaro duet taken at double-speed, and lamenting that this opera was his debut and he would never be able to sing again. Unfortunately, I don't think this actor/tenor was identified in the credits. It also wasn't much of a shock to hear the Liebestod in the scene where Helen Hayes' character is dying. But the big suprise was in Morocco - early in the film we hear a muezzin - that is, the man who calls the Muslim faithful to prayer - not reciting, but actually singing the adhan (said call to prayer) in a gorgeous tenor voice. The melody actually reminded me of a lot of Jewish music, particularly that of Moroccan (obviously!) or Arabic origin. Indeed, the tenor sounded a lot like one of the great cantors like Moshe or David Koussevitzky. Unfortunately, I could find no credit for the singer or this particular music on IMDB.

The final encounter was in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where Mr. Tagliavini once again showed up in the credits. And on my way into the Food Emporium on 68th Street and Broadway, where I purchased a big chocolate bar to be consumed during the film, I almost bumped into Veronica Villaroel - quite literally!

Incidentally, according to his entry on IMDB, Mr. Tagliavini started his career with a lot of Italian films and has been featured not only in Batman Begins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but in Troy, Alexander, and Kingdom of Heaven, and is also working on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!

Last minute addition: I just found out the soundtrack album for Wong Kar-wai's new film 2046 features Angela Gheorghiu singing "Casta Diva" - presumably taken from her CD of the same name. I don't know if this film is quite my cup of tea, despite rave reviews and the presence of two actresses I adore, Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi. Both ladies, however, will be starring in the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha. Maybe if we are lucky, that film's soundtrack might have Angela singing "Un bel di"?

Free frolics in Central Park

2005-07-25T23:08:00.000-04:00

Richard Thomas as Touchstone and Brian Bedford as Jacques in the Public Theater's As You Like It

As You Like It, by William Shakespeare
Delacorte Theater, Central Park, July 2, 8:00 PM
with James Waterston (Orlando), Lynne Collins (Rosalind), Jennifer Ikeda (Celia), Richard Thomas (Touchstone), Brian Bedford (Jacques), David Cromwell (Duke Frederick/Duke Senior), Al Espinosa (Oliver), et.al.
Directed by Mark Lamos

We New Yorkers are blessed to have such prestigious arts organizations as The Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the Public Theater* that give (mostly) world-class performances in the city's parks for free. Although during the regular season you can stand at the supposedly "elitist" Metropolitan Opera (in the Family Circle) or at New York City Opera for $15, and usually be able to sneak into a seat during the overture or at worst intermission, many other musical and especially theatrical events strain the purse of impecunious arts lovers such as myself. Even very small, Off-Off-Off Broadway theaters charge at least $35, never mind $60 to $100 for a Broadway show. Not to mention that first-run movies are over $10 now, and most not worth a third of that price. So these chances to see "high culture" of genuine quality for free is something that should be grabbed and not taken for granted - and given how many people attend these events (or try to, in the case of the Shakespeare In The Park productions), it gives lie to the assumption that opera, classical music and classic theater are only for the rich and stuck-up.

I've had a deep and abiding love of Shakespeare ever since childhood. It was one of the things that inspired me to major in English in college (after I failed physics and astronomy quite miserably and the Challenger exploded, derailing my original astrophysicist/astronaut plans), and certainly what inspired me to attempt an acting career. Of course, as with 95% of the people that try for one, said career proved impossible when I didn't have enough money to put food on the table, let alone audition. Now anytime I see a really good production of a play, let alone a Shakespeare, I get terrible "withdrawal pangs" from acting - which is why I avoided it for far too long. I was delighted to have the chance to see As You Like It in the Public Theater's production, as I had never seen a production of it on stage before this (although I think I saw a production on PBS, probably from the Royal Shakespeare Company, about 20 years ago), and indeed had not read the play in 15 years, let alone the literary and theatrical criticism. This might leave some to believe me a less than ideal judge of this production. But that might be beside the point in this case: I think that there would be few productions of a Shakespeare play recently that would be a better introduction to a Shakesperean neophyte (which I am definitely not).

First, I regret that I misplaced the program so I can't identify all the members of the cast and production team. Should I find it at a future date I will edit this post accordingly. There is nothing on the Public Theater's website. Also, as you have likely noticed, it is almost a month since the actual performance and my memory is a bit dim.

One thing you are pretty much guaranteed when you come to see a Shakespeare in the Park production is that you will get at least one "star" player, usually someone well known from film or TV. Here the "names" were Richard Thomas (of The Waltons fame) and Brian Bedford, whose name I know very well but I can't place exactly where I've seen him (looking at IMDB, I'm thinking Murder She Wrote). His bio in the program wasn't much help, basically saying that he's had a couple of hundred roles in theater, film, and TV! I spent almost as much time racking my brains to figure out where I saw David Cromwell (a stage veteran) before - it may just be that he bears a strong resemblance to Doctor Who's Jon Pertwee.

The production was absolutely beautiful. Certainly there could be no better backdrop to a staged Forest of Arden than Belvedere Castle and the lush greenery of Central Park. I have had mixed feelings about some of Mark Lamos' work at New York City Opera (Tosca updated to the 1940s? Doesn't work, and never mind the part that was cut before I saw it of Scarpia ... er... playing with himself during the Te Deum) , but here it was superb. This is probably what could be called a "traditional" production in that it clearly took place in the 16th Century and there were no "concepts" that the director wanted to foist on the audience. The Forest of Arden is here clearly a place not only of transformation but of regeneration and healing, rather like the forest in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was particularly struck by the scene when the desperate Orlando comes on brandishing his sword and threatening Duke Senior and his "court", only to be met - to his shock and embarrassment - by instant generosity and compassion with every member of the company eagerly extending food toward him. More to the point, everything was clear and understandable, probably the most difficult thing to pull off in Shakespeare, and it was obvious that Lamos cared deeply about character interaction. The set was simple, with a structure that I later read was a Renaissance sundial, blazoned with the Latin words for "Here we are in Arcadia". Trees were brought on by the cast for scenes in the Forest of Arden. Costumes were beautiful too, even if Celia looked a little ridiculous in her Aliena guise (that might have been deliberate), and I wonder if Touchstone really should have worn his motley into the forest. Additionally, there were some nice touches with the "horses" ridden by the noblemen (actually part of the costumes!) and Silvius' sheep, which neighed and baa-ed to great comic effect. Lovely music as well (a pity I can't remember the composer), including some very nice settings of the play's songs, although "It was a lover and his lass" couldn't stand up to Roger Quilter's.

While this was a very strong ensemble cast, pride of place goes to Mr. Bedford as Jacques - interestingly enough, the name was given an "English" pronounciation as "JAY-queez" instead of the correct French. Particularly striking was his interpretation of the famous "All the world's a stage" speech. He began it as a skeptical question (All the world's a stage? And all the men and women merely players?), but Jacques is clearly entranced by the idea and delights in convincing himself of its truth, growing more in empathy and compassion as the "player" grows older, the "sans eyes, sans teeth, sans everything" brilliantly juxtaposed with Orlando carrying on the aged, dying servant Adam. He also has a very warm, soft, cultured, very beautiful baritone voice - I wonder if he sings, too?

Lynn Collins, as Rosalind, is clearly a star in the making. Giving a very extroverted portrayal, she was the center of attention every moment she was onstage and was hilarious and believably masculine as the page Ganymede, capable of both wit and tenderness. She made a splash recently playing Portia in the recent film of The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino as Shylock. Based on what I saw here, I don't know whether she had quite the wisdom and gravity that Portia needs (some critics complained about that in her Rosalind), but I will wait to see the film to judge. Incidentally, she bears a strong physical resemblance to Cate Blanchett. James Waterston (yes, Sam's son, and he looks strikingly like him) was a sweet, innocent and somewhat callow Orlando, wounded by his brother's hatred of him but who grows into a worthy husband for Rosalind. Richard Thomas, while very funny, energetic, and sexually charged in the scenes with Audrey, didn't strike me as having the deep wisdom underlying Shakespeare's fools. I was surprised, however, to see how well he moved - he must be well past 50 now. It was an interesting touch to have both Duke Frederick and Duke Senior played by the same actor even though the characters aren't twins (perhaps a comment on what Frederick could have and should have been?), and David Cromwell did splendidly as both the cold tyrant and his gentle "Robin Hood" nemesis - often coping with some very quick costume changes. Jennifer Ikeda made an appropriately devoted, somewhat ditzy Celia, and Al Espinosa made Oliver believable as the hostile schemer and the repentant, eventually loving brother to Orlando and suitor to Celia.

Of the "smaller" players, the best were Helmar Augustus Cooper (I hope I remembered that name correctly!) as the shepherd Silvius, the Audrey and the Phoebe (now those are roles that I would love to play!), and the actor who played Amiens, who sang all the play's songs.

The biggest flaw in the production, I think, lies in the play itself, as one of the most important transformations - that of Duke Frederick from a tyrannical usurper to a religious penitent - takes place offstage when it should take place onstage.

I should also use this space to applaud the Public's continuing devotion to ethnicity-blind casting (although I wonder if they have had or ever will ever have women doing "male" roles). I remember being enraged when I read a theater critic who will remain nameless sneer at the Public's wonderful production of Tartuffe because it had - horrors! - an (excellent) African-American actor in a "white" role (I think it was Cleante - whichever character is the wise, reasonable counselor opposed to Tartuffe). Well this "gentleman" is now retired, I believe, and good riddance! Let's hope such ridiculousness ends with him, and more theaters nationwide follow the Public's example - and I've noticed that even the Royal Shakespeare Company now has quite a few actors of African decent on their roster.

Since this was July 4th weekend, it seems that everyone and his or her brother or sister who didn't leave the city seemed to be on line at the Delacorte for tickets. Fortunately, I went with a good friend who is disabled, so she was able to go to the front of the line and get something immediately. We had front row seats! And in one of these six-degrees-of-separation things, she actually knows Richard Thomas - she used to be a dancer and his parents were her teachers! Unfortunately, we did not go backstage afterwards.

By the way, mazel tov to Mr. Waterston and his family on the birth of their new daughter, I think her name is Sophia (I overheard one of the other actors talking about it before the show.

Next at the Delacorte in August - a musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona??? Sounds interesting, and if it's half as good as As You Like It was, I'll be on line with bells on. And next year we will be getting Meryl Streep in Mother Courage!

*And perhaps not as big-budget, but often marvelous, are Vincent La Selva's New York Grand Opera and the Naumberg Orchestra

Conductor Xian Zhang

Karen Gomyo*, violin

The New York Philharmonic

Xian Zhang, conductor

Great Lawn, Central Park, July 13, 8:00 PM

Wagner: Overture to The Flying Dutchman
Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole
Tchaikovsky: Symphony #5

The Delacorte Theater, where the Public Theater presents its Shakespeare and other classical offerings is, of course, an actual theater, with both the slight degree of formality and lack of massive space that implies. Just as necessary are the more relaxed and almost "do-it-yourself" atmosphere of the Metropolitan Opera's and the Philharmonic's Parks Concerts. Here you can stretch out, literally kick your feet up, eat, drink, and be merry without the normal social constraints of an opera house or concert hall. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the Met's offerings this year, but I didn't want to miss the Philharmonic as well. The soft, sweet-smelling grass, the cool breezes, the often inventive and elaborate picnic dinners, the overwhelming excitement of the huge crowds (usually well over 100,000 people, even in bad weather) and the joy of seeing babies and children delight in their first exposures to great music more than make up for the negatives, such as people talking during the music, said children crying, the long speeches by corporate executives and government dignitaries, airplane noises (more on that below!), and, if you're really unlucky, people smoking in your face.

As with the Shakespeare, I had some very good luck here. I managed to bring my folding chair right up to the barrier that separated the VIP section from the rest of the crowd. About 10 minutes before the concert, one of the holders of the VIP tickets came up to me and asked me if I wanted a ticket! Apparently she had three friends who didn't show. I eagerly accepted and moved my chair as far forward as they would let me, on the side of the 7th or 8th row of seats (the seats are for the patrons, but the VIP area as a whole is basically for family and friends of the musicians and other Philharmonic employees). It was delightful to actually be able to see the conductor and the soloist at an event like this, although I regret not bringing my opera glasses because I couldn't see their faces. Not to mention the line for the port-a-pottie was much shorter.

Like many others, I first heard of Xian Zhang when she won second place in Lorin Maazel's conducting competion (by the way, what ever happened to the first-place winner, Thai conductor Bundit Ungrangsee?) . I was overjoyed to see a potential great conductor who is a woman - and I am delighted to report that there are a growing number of them!. I heard her for the first time at the Philharmonic's Memorial Day Concert at St. John the Divine (playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet), and what I heard there and at this concert makes me want to seriously watch her career. She has both the authority and the collegiality to create a very strong rapport with the orchestra, a clear passion for and knowledge of the music, and a very athletic, physical stage presence. What I am not yet sensing, however, is the quality that makes a great conductor - a truly individual stamp on a work, the ability to make you hear a piece in a totally new way, to astonish. However, she's only 30 or 31, which is toddlerhood by conductor standards. Also, it is probably unfair to judge her in the often difficult acoustics of an outdoor concert, or the huge, echoing space of St. John's - in both cases I think she was making tempo changes to accomodate this - so I think I want to hear her in an indoor space such as Avery Fisher or Carnegie Hall to truly judge her. Certainly Zhang has an excellent career ahead of her - she was just promoted from Assistant Conductor to Associate Conductor of the Philharmonic, and will be shortly Music Director of the Sioux City Symphony. She also seems to be in demand as a guest conductor. Best of all, she has been getting some very nice reviews for her opera work in Cincinatti, and according to her bio her first professional engagement was conducting Le Nozze di Figaro at the Beijing Opera - could we possibly be seeing her at the Met within the next 10 or 15 years?

I enjoyed the Tchaikovsky Fifth, but I admit that I don't know the symphony well and can't easily make comparison with interpretations by other orchestras and conductors. Also, I don't like the work itself quite as much as I like the Fourth. I'm a little pickier about the Wagner, and while I think the opening could have used a bit more punch and elan, there was still plenty of tension and drama as well as the feel of the sea. Kudos to Zhang (or whoever actually planned the concert) for programming this, as it had not been played by the Philharmonic in almost 20 years. Shieh-sheh, Maestra!

Violinist Karen Gomyo

I regret that my enjoyment of the Symphonie Espagnole was slightly hampered by two things. First, I have the recent, incredible EMI recording with Maxim Vengerov and Antonio Pappano running through my head, and almost anything would come up short after that. Pappano's specialties include infusing just about anything with the tremendous individuality and fire that so far elude Zhang, as well as coaxing gorgeous, radiant sound from orchestral strings sections. And Japanese-Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo, making her Philharmonic debut, has a beautiful tone and a fine technique, but as with Zhang, I didn't yet sense anything truly individual or wildly interesting. Then again, it's probably grossly unfair to compare her with Vengerov, one of the most imaginative violinists I've ever heard, who truly makes different "characters" of each movement in this symphony. (You might want to see my review of this disc, now on Amazon, for further details) That said, I would like to hear Gomyo again, and some of my disclaimers about how the sound challenges may have affected Zhang's conducting may apply to her as well. The other problem, unfortunately, is something that probably couldn't have been avoided in an outdoor setting - at the end of the third movement, when Gomyo played a gorgeous high pianissimo, a helicopter chose just that moment to roar overhead (what was it even doing in Central Park's "airspace?). Both violinist and conductor tried to stretch out this lovely note to "defeat" this noise, but their efforts were unfortunately in vain.

I was a little disappointed that there were no encores.

All Philharmonic concerts in the Parks end with fireworks, and these were excellent, produced by Bay Fireworks. Not quite the Grucci July 4th display, but a very enjoyable 7 minute capper to this lovely evening. Unfortunately, some of the best displays disappeared into the low-lying fog that suddenly appeared half an hour before.

I regret not having attended the final Parks concert of the season on July 19th, but the heat index was pushing 110° (45° for those who think in Celsius), and there was supposed to be major, terrible rainstorms coming that night. Well, weather forecasts can be wrong, and it wasn't rained out after all. It was an all Dvorak program withe the Cello Concerto and the New World Symphony, with Lynn Harrell as soloist and Lorin Maazel conducting.

By the way, there is a very nice interview with Zhang currently available on Andante. And her name is pronounced Shee-YEN Jhong.

NUUUU??? So what's a yenta????

2005-07-25T02:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back! For those of you who might have noticed, I actually started this blog way back in March - and then had no time to tend it. So I deleted the old posts, gave it a new template, and am starting over. For those of you who have no knowledge of Yiddish (which I will assume will be mostly non-Americans, because Yiddish has so thoroughly penetrated American English), a yenta is someone, usually an old woman (not me, folks, I'm 35!) who talks, and talks, and talks, and just won't shut up! Usually spelled Yente, it actually used to be a pretty common Yiddish girl's name, probably from either the French gentille or the Italian gentile. Unfortunately, there was apparently there was one woman with the name who was such and energetic gossip that the name became forever associated with that quality. I very happily admit that I often won't shut up either. So I will spend lots of time here talking, and kvelling (gushing), and probably kvetching (complaining) a little, too, about things operatic.

But the one aspect of yenta you will not find here is that of the nasty, superficial gossip columnist. I notice many rabid opera fans - or rabid fans of anything, frankly - tend to love that stuff. Too many of them engage in behavior, especially online where they can hide behind pseudonyms, that is utterly insulting to the cats and female dogs it's named after. Now like any opera fan, I have very strong opinions, and yes, there are singers and people in the business I dislike, but I do my best not to engage in personal attacks against anyone. The only time it might possibly happen is if I'm defending someone, but again, I'll work very hard to avoid it. And certainly I won't make nasty cracks about singers' private lives - the only "divo/diva dish" you will see here will be recipes!

What can you expect from this blog? Hopefully reviews of just about every opera and classical music concert I go to, broadcast I listen to, or CD I hear, as well as theater, film, and possibly dance, and non-classical music. During the regular season, I stand at the Met roughly once every week, and try also to go to vocal recitals as well as New York City Opera several times a year. Hopefully I will also have more opportunties to go to the opera outside New York City. I am especially floored by the musical thrills (if not the stage productions) produced by Covent Garden under the directorship of its new maestro, Antonio "Tony the Genius" Pappano, and hope to actually hear him conduct an opera live, which I haven't done since his only previous Met appearances with Eugene Onegin in 1997. While several of his other projects next season look more than interesting, the essential is Tosca with my beloved Angela Gheorghiu. I am also making every effort to go see Angela with her equally splendid hubby Roberto Alagna in Los Angeles in Pagliacci, which will have the added bonus of Frederica von Stade and John Cheek (who I've actually sung with!) in La Grande-Duchesse du Gerolstein, and hopefully a trip to the theater to see Kate Mulgrew in her one-woman show about Katherine Hepburn, Tea at Five, which I didn't have the money to see while it was in New York.

I am also an amateur choral mezzo (actually, probably a true contralto) and will post reports of my own singing activities. I currently am involved with the Saint George's Choral Society, which rehearses and performs at Saint George's Church between 16th and 17th Streets about halfway between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, right across from Stuyvesant Park. We will be singing Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass in the fall (probably mid-November) and Rossini's Petite Messe Sollenelle in the spring (probably mid-April). I will also be reauditioning in the fall for The Rottenberg Chorale, a Jewish chorus I sang with a number of years ago. I also go and sing in the Berkshire Choral Festival whenever I can afford it (not this year, unfortunately) - that's where I sang with Mr. Cheek, back I believe in 1998, in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Not suprisingly considering the title of this blog, Judaism, cultural as well as religious, is extraordinarily important to me. My observance of my faith is progressive and postdenominational, and obviously that informs much of my thinking, but although I might post occasionally on Jewish topics, I'm not sure this is quite the spot for extensive divrei torah (literally "words of Torah", a biblical discourse or a sermon). Of course, whenever opera and Judaism coincide, I will definitely discuss it, i.e the "biblical" operas or possibly even Yiddish Gilbert and Sullivan (!), and I'm also preparing a post on how Rossini's Le Comte Ory relates to the prohibition on men wearing women's clothes, which I'll post when the appropriate parasha (weekly Torah portion) comes up. Actually, I am researching finding arias, songs, or other classical compositions to coincide with each parasha and will start posting when the cycle begins with Bereshit sometime in late October. I got the idea while listening to bits of a splendid new disc of Schubert sacred songs (the final volume in the Hyperion Schubert Edition), which not only has Schubert's only song in Hebrew, a setting of Psalm 92, but a song called Hagars Klage (Hagar's Lament)

My other great passion is science fiction and fantasy - reading it, watching it, and now attempting to write it! And of course, there are so many links between opera and SF/Fantasy - did you know that the entry on opera in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is 11 pages? That's just a list - not an explanation, just a list - of operas with fantasy elements, which believe it or not includes Pagliacci because of the commedia dell'arte in the "play within a play". Obviously, so much of opera has its origin in myth and legend just like most great fantasy, and operas such as The Makropolous Case and Aniara are science fiction. And of course, it's not for nothing that sagas like Star Wars and Star Trek are called, well, space opera. You will probably also see book reviews, film reviews, maybe video game reviews, as well and comments on some of my favorite alternate universes (e.g. Star Trek - all five series, Doctor Who, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, etc) here, although I am tentatively planning a separate review blog for Star Trek tentatively titled Linear Existence.

I'll also post various miscellany as I see fit, although I'll try not to overload the blog with it.

Coming soon (within the next few days) : A review of the Public Theatre's Shakespeare-in-the-Park production of As You Like It and the New York Philharmonic's July 13 Central Park concert, some recent operatic encounters at the movies, comments on my latest operatic stash from EBay, possibly a review of the splendid BBC Proms Die Walküre I just listened to with the aforementioned Maestro Pappano, Placido Domingo, Bryn Terfel, Lisa Gasteen, Rosalind Plowright, and Eric Halvarson. Oh yes, and even the Ring would pale before a seven opera Harry Potter cycle, and I'll give you some ideas and possibly casting. And at some point I have to write a spoof song (otherwise known in SF fan circles as a "filksong") called "The Yenta of the Opera" to the tune of "The Phantom of the Opera" Readers are welcome to try this on their own ;-).

Alright already! Enjoy!