Saturday, January 02, 2010

Live Offerings, Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year! The highlights for this afternoon include two different performances of Verdi's Macbeth from the same December run in Vienna, with Simon Keenlyside; a Meistersinger from the Liceu in Barcelona, with Robert Dean Smith and Véronique Gens; Hansel und Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera, with Miah Persson and Angelika Kirchschlager; from Opéra Bastille in Paris, Giordano's Andréa Chenier, with Marcelo Alvarez. Here's the lineup:

  • Deutschlandradio Kultur & DR P2 - From the Vienna State Opera, a December 7th performance of Verdi's Macbeth, with Simon Keenlyside, Erika Sunnegardh, Stefan Kocán and Dimitri Pittas, conducted by Guillermo García Calvo.
  • HR2 Kultur - From Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, a March 23, 2009 performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger, with Albert Dohmen, Reinhard Hagen, Bo Skovhus, Robert Dean Smith, Norbert Ernst, Véronique Gens and Stella Grigorian, conducted by Sebastian Weigle.
  • Metropolitan Opera (on numerous stations) - Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, with Miah Persson, Angelika Kirchschlager, Rosalind Plowright, Dwayne Croft, Philip Langridge, Jennifer Johnson and Erin Morley, conducted by Fabio Luis.
  • Radio 4 Netherlands - Chabrier's L'Etoile, with Jean Paul Fouchecourt, conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce.
  • Dwojka Polskie Radio - From the Vienna State Opera, a June 2009 performance of Gounod's Faust, with Soile Isokoski, Zoryana Kushpler, Roxana Constantinescu, Piotr Beczala, Kwangchul Youn, Boaz Daniel and Hans Peter Kammerer, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
  • France Musique - From Opéra Bastille in Paris, a December 18 performance of Giordano's Andréa Chenier, with Marcelo Alvarez, Sergei Murzaev, Micaela Carosi, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Stefania Toczyska, Maria José Montiel, André Heyboer, Igor Gnidii, Antoine Garcin, David Bizic, Carlo Bosi, Bruno Lazzaretti, Ugo Rabec and Guillaume Antoine, conducted by Daniel Oren.
  • KBIA2 & KOHM - NPR World of Opera: From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Tchaikovsky's The Tsarina's Slippers, with Olga Guryakova, Vsevolod Grivnov, Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Matorin, Sergei Leiferkuss, Maxim Mikhailov, Vyacheslav Voynarovsky, Alexander Vassiliev and John Upperton, conducted by Alexander Polianichko.
  • MDR Figaro - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, an August 23, 2009 performance of Verdi's Don Carlo, with Jonas Kaufmann, Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, Sonia Ganassi, Ferruccio Furlanetto and John Tomlinson, conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
  • Radio Oesterreich International (OE1) - From Teatro Comunale in Bologna, an August 9, 2009 performance of Rossini's Zelmira, with Kate Aldrich, Juan Diego Florez, Marinna Pizzolato, Alex Esposito, Mirco Palazzi and Gregory Kunde, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
  • Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From Czech radio archives, a 1964 performance of Dvorak's Jacobin, with Richard Novák, Jindr(ich Jindrák, Antonín Švorc, Milada Šubrtová, Karel Berman, Oldr(ich Spisar, Antonín Votava and Helena Tattermuschová, Marie Ovc(ac(íková, conducted by Jan Hus Tichý.
  • Klara - From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, with Changhan Lim, Juan Diego Florez, Pietro Spagnoli, Joyce DiDonato, Alessandro Corbelli, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Jennifer Rhys-Davies, Bryan Secombe, Christopher Lackner and Andrew Macnair, conducted by Antonio Pappano.

Happy listening.....

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Saturday, August 08, 2009

Live Offerings - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - Part II

More live offerings today:

  • Espace Musique & Latvia Radio Klasika - From Paris, a rebroadcast of a March 12 performance of Massenet's Werther, with Rolando Villazon, Susan Graham, Adriana Kucerova, Ludovic Tézier, Christian Jean, Christian Tréguier, Vincent Delhourne and Letitia Singleton, conducted by Kent Nagano.
  • KBYU - From Los Angeles Opera, Wagner's Die Walkure, with Plácido Domingo, Anja Kampe, Eric Halfvarson, Vitalij Kowaljow, Linda Watson, Michelle DeYoung, Ellie Dehn, Susan Foster, Erica Brookhyser, Ronnita Miller, Melissa Citro, Buffy Baggott, Jane Gilbert and Margaret Thompson, conducted by James Conlon.
  • Klassikaraadio - From Tallinna XXIII Rahvusvahelise Orelifestivali, Handel's Theodora, with Kädy Plaas, Charles Humphries, Teele Jõks, Mati Turi and Uku Joller, conducted by Toomas Siitan.
  • KUHF - From the Metropolitan Opera on February 22, 2009, the Met Opera National Council Finals Concert 2009.
  • Radio Clasica de Espana - From Théâtre Municipal in Lausanne, a December 3, 2008 performance of Verdi's La Traviata, with V. Tola, S. Pirgu, S. Catana, B. Hool, C. Cornu, B. Bernheim, M. Mazuir, M. Signorini, B. Capt, Y. François, J. Etchepareborda and N. Woldi, conducted by P. Arrivabeni.
  • RTP Antena 2 - From Teatro Régio in Turin, an October 18, 2008 performance of Cherubini's Medea, with Anna Caterina Antonaci, Cinzia Forte, Erika Grimaldi, Luísa Francesconi, Sara Mingardo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Giovanni Battista Parodi and Diego Matamoros, conducted by Evelino Pidò.
  • WETA - From the Metropolitan Theatre of Lausanne, Handel's Faramondo, with Max Emanuel Cencic, Sophie Karthäuser, Marina de Liso, Insung Sinn, Philippe Jaroussky, Xavier Sabata Corominas, Fulvio Bettini and Johann Ebert, conducted by Diego Fasolis.
  • WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From Los Angeles Opera, the Verdi Requiem, with Adrianne Pieczonka, Stephanie Blythe, Arturo Chacón-Cruz and René Pape, conducted by Placido Domingo.
  • XLNC1 - from Los Angeles Opera, Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, with Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, Anthony Dean Griffey, Robert Wörle, Donnie Ray Albert, John Easterlin, Mel Ulrich, Joe Stevn Humes, Catherine Ireland, Karen Vuong, Rena Harms, Natasha Flores, Sharmay Musacchio, Priti Gandhi, Derek Taylor and Mark Kelley, conducted by James Conlon.
  • Bartok Radio - From Magyar Állami Operaház, a June 28 performance of Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani, with Fekete Attila, Sümegi Eszter, Rácz István, Fokanov Anatolij, Vadász Dániel, Ulbrich Andrea, Tóth János, Daróczi Tamás, Horváth Ádám, Cserhalmi Ferenc and Derecskei Zsolt, conducted by Matthias Stegmann.
  • Cesky Rozhlas 3-Vltava - From La Scala in Milan, Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, with Carmela Remigio, Patrizia Ciofi, Nicola Ulivieri, Alastair Miles, Annick Massis, Juan F. Gatell, Daniela Barcellona, Dmitrij Korc(ak, Fabio Capitanucci, Bruno Praticó, Alessandro Guerzoni, Enrico Iviglia, Paola Gardina, Aurora Tirotta, Annamaria Popescu, Filippo Polinelli, Patrizio Saudelli and Fabrizio Mercurio, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
  • NPR World of Opera - From Royal Albert Hall in London, Purcell's Fairy Queen, with Lucy Crowe, Claire Debono, Anna Devin, Carolyn Sampson, Robert Burt, Ed Lyon, Sean Clayton, Adrian Ward, and Andrew Foster-Williams.
  • Lyric FM - Opera Ireland's production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa with Valeri Alexeev and Sinead Mulhern.
  • Sveriges Radio P2 - From Drottningholm, Monteverdi's L'Incorinazione de Poppea, with Ingela Bohlin, Charlotte Hellekant, Matilda Paulsson, Christopher Ainslie, Lars Arvidson, Malin Christensson, Rickard Söderberg, Thomas Walker, Lars Johansson Brissman, Johan Christensson and Daniel Carlsson, conducted by Mark Tatlow.
  • Dwojke Polskie Radio - From Aix-en-Provence, a July 20 performance of Offenbach's Orpheus aux Enfers, with Pauline Courtin, Julien Behr, Mathias Vidal, Vincent Deliau, Marie Gautrot, Jérôme Billy, Paul Cremazy, Emmanuelle de Negri, Soula Parassidis, Marie Kalinine, Estelle Kaique and Sabine Revault d'Allonnes, conducted by Alain Altinoglu.
  • Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro San Carlo in Naples, an April 23 performance of Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, with Peter Simonischek, Jane Archibald, Valentina Farcas, Yi Jie Shi, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke Kristinn Sigmundsson and Giulio Barbato, conducted by Jeffrey Tate.
  • WDAV - NPR World of Opera on a one week delay: From Houston Grand Opera, Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen, with Lisa Saffer, Hector Vasquez, Jennifer Root, Ekaterina Gorlova, Fiona Murphy, Meredith F. Flores, Alina Slavik, Jon Kolbet, Allan Lawrence, Maria Markina, Laurie Lester, Rebeka Camm, Albina Shagimuratova, Alicia Gianni, Ryan McKinny, Bradley Garvin, Beau Gibson, Liam Bonner and Tamara Wilson, conducted by Patrick Summers.
  • ABC Classic FM (Australia) - A double bill: From Göttingen Handel Festival, Handel's Acis and Galatea (arr Mendelssohn), with Julia Kleiter, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Slattery and Wolf Friedrich, conducted by Nicholas McGegan; and from the Baltic Sea Festival, Janacek's From the House of the Dead, with Esa Ruuttunen, Robert Künzli, Tuomas Katajala, Gabriel Suovanen, Dan Karlström, Jussi Myllys, Petri Bäckström, Anna Danik and Hannu Niemelä, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
  • Concert FM (New Zealand) - From Göttingen Handel Festival, Handel's Acis and Galatea (arr Mendelssohn), with Julia Kleiter, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Slattery and Wolf Friedrich, conducted by Nicholas McGegan.
Happy listening . . . .

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Monday, May 04, 2009

Selective Listening

Sam Shirakawa heard the Met's first Götterdämmerung of the season, but he didn't see it. He explains:

WAGNER: GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG
METROPOLITAN OPERA
25 APRIL 2009 Season Premiere

Have you ever felt glad that you didn’t get into an opera performance you really wanted to attend?

Through quirks of fortune, I was unable get to the Metropolitan Opera’s first performance this season of Götterdämmerung--which happened to take place on last Saturday´s broadcast matinee. So I tuned in to the radio at home--late--just in time for the Brünnhilde-Siegfried Duet that caps off the Prologue.

Ugh!

In my recent report on the Met’s first Siegfried of the season, I said that Christian Franz in the eponymous role had learned to refrain from squawking out notes, an annoying proclivity that had marred his previous performances, when I had heard him elsewhere as Siegfried.

I spoke too soon.

Apart from barking out note-less words here, there, and a lot, Franz was also afflicted on this occasion with a nasty wobble that often straddled at least two semi-tones.
Incipient motion sickness I was beginning to experience from that wobble was little helped by Katerina Dalayman’s squally Brünnhilde. She hit the top C in the duet squarely on target, but her mid-size voice appeared to be laboring fruitlessly under the weight of the role.

What to do?

Listening via radio or computer allows you do other things at the same time or just tune out. So, I opted for the latter and went outside to enjoy a beautiful spring afternoon--pitying, from time to time, those sea-worthy Wagnerites consigned to stay afloat in their seats at the Met.

When I returned home, the live performance was over, but a delayed transmission of the third act was about to begin online by way of a European station [Editor: Ireland's Lyric FM]. The Rhine Maidens were in good shape. A good omen maybe? If it was, Franz’ pneumatic delivery of the Hunting Narrative fell short of it. Some tender moments, yes, but I nonetheless found myself craving Siegfried's demise.
The Funeral Music came as an ear-cleanser. Levine’s Spell held the Met Orchestra in thrall. Great playing.

The phone rang, so I didn’t hear much until Brünnhilde’s Big Moment.
Dalayman had the energy for her Immolation Scene but not the gravitas. Rarely have I been so grateful for Brünnhilde to catch fire; this is no role for a pleasant, pushed-up mezzo. Several years ago, I heard Dalayman as Lisa in Pique Dame in Munich, and she was wonderful. She should stick with roles in which she sounds wonderful.

Judging from snippets I heard, John Tomlinson as Hagen was a study in malevolence, Margaret Jane Wray was a good Gutrune and Iain Paterson, making his Met debut as Gunther, was a revelation--a singer on the threshold. Don’t be surprised if he soon becomes a star Amfortas, Dutchman, and, of course, Sachs.

I am told the Schenk/Schneider-Siemsen/Langenfass production is not being dismantled after this season. Is the Met hedging its bets on the new production of the Ring, set for 2010? No matter. If the news proves true: O tidings of comfort!

© Sam Shirakawa

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 25, 2009 - Part I

Today is the last of the Met's Matinee Ring Cycle, Götterdämmerung, and also the final broadcast of the season from the Met. James Levine was ill on Thursday evening and did not conduct Rheingold, so we hope he is feeling well enough for today's marathon performance (the Met website still lists him).

Many stations in the Met network will start next Saturday with an eight-week series of operas from Lyric Opera of Chicago and other will segue to NPR World of Opera - stay tuned as our Saturday page for next week fills in as we figure out who's airing what...

Here's the rest of today's live lineup:
  • Metropolitan Opera (on numerous stations) - Wagner's Götterdämmerung, with Christian Franz, Iain Paterson, Richard Paul Fink, John Tomlinson, Katarina Dalayman, Margaret Jane Wray, Yvonne Naef, Wendy White, Elizabeth Bishop, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Lisette Oropesa, Kate Lindsey and Tamara Mumford, conducted by James Levine.
  • Dwojkie Polsjie Radio, DR P2, Radio 4 Netherlands, Radio Clasica de Espana & Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro Real in Madrid, a performance of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, with Christine Rice, Kobie van Rensburg, Cyril Auvity, Sonya Yoncheva, Ed Lyon, Luigi De Donato, Xavier Sabata and Terry Wey, conducted by William Christie.
  • Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Aachen, a March 29th performance of Mozart's Lucio Silla, with Juan Tralla, Antonia Bourvé, Iva Danova, Eva Berard, Michaela Maria Mayer and Louis Kim, conducted by Marcus Bosch.
  • France Musique - From Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, with Bernard Richter, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Allyson McHardy, Stéphane Degout, Françoise Masset, Jennifer Holloway, Bruno Calucci, Jaël Azzaretti, Francis Lis, Jérôme Varnier, Emiliano Gonzales Toro, Aurélia Legay, Nicholas Mulroy and Nicolas Letilleux, conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm.
  • KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: From Washington National Opera, the American Premier of Maw's Sophie's Choice, with Angelika Kirchschlager, Rod Gilfry, Gordon Gietz, Corey Evan Rotz, Clayton Brainerd, Erin Elizabeth Smith and Trevor Scheunemann, conducted by Marin Alsop.
  • Radio Oesterreich International - From the Vienna State Opera, a February 13th performance of Verdi's Stiffelio, with José Cura, Hui He, Anthony Michels-Moore, Gergely Nemeti, Alexandru Moisiuc, Benedikt Kobel and Elisabeth Marin, conducted by Michael Halász.
  • Sveriges Radio P2 - From Berwald Hall in Stockholm, an April 18th concert performance of Torstensson's Expeditionen, with Charlotte Riedijk, Göran Eliasson, Mats Persson and Olle Persson, Niklas Willén.

More to follow in few minutes.....

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Sunday, April 19, 2009

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Sam Shirakawa attended the opening performance of this season's run of Siegfried at the Met, on Saturday afternoon/ Here's his squib:

SIEGFRIED

METROPOLITAN OPERA
18 APRIL 2009 Season Premiere

Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs has, in my view, two major inciting incidents. The first takes place in Rheingold, when Alberich curses love and steals the ring. The second incitement happens in the third act of Siegfried, which the Metropolitan Opera mounted for the first time this season at Saturday’s broadcast matinee -- the penultimate installment in the first of three Ring Cycles this season. Wotan’s mortal grandson challenges him at the proverbial crossroad and breaks his spear, thereby ending the god’s control of the world he created.

None of the nine Ring productions I’ve witnessed makes much of the spear-breaking. Except for a lightning flash in some stagings, it’s over in a blink. Wagner doesn't make much of it either: no anguished soliloquies, no Mozartean ensemble numbers, not even a da-da-da-dum from the orchestra to denote Destiny Descending. And yet, it marks the Beginning of The End, for which Wotan longs during his tortured narrative in Day One of the saga. Siegfried is now at liberty to go his merry way and do whatever he wants.

So what’s a liberated, horny teen love-child of an incestuous union to do? Commit incest, of course. And who better to guide him through the ins and outs of banging, than the archetypal Older Woman, namely his equally virginal but knowing great-aunt, Brünnhilde. (We’re not privy to the party that proceeds after the curtain falls on Act Three, but presumably, they know instinctively what goes where, when it comes to doin’ what comes unnaturally.)

Siegfried has occasionally been dubbed the “happy opera” of the Ring Cycle, given it’s flame-throwing dragon, chatty bird, nasty ogres and Sleeping Beauty. But while it has its sanguine moments, it’s really a somber setup for the six-hour tragedy to come in Day Three of the saga.

I’ve often complained that Siegfried has too many men barking at each other for far too long, before we get some feminine ear candy. But thanks to James Levine’s priorities, which places cantilena always at the top, we heard some wonderful singing from the guys bickering and bellowing during the first two acts on Saturday afternoon.

For me, the big pleasure of the afternoon was Christian Franz, making his Met debut as the eponymous hero. I’ve heard him several times over the past couple of years -- mostly in Berlin -- and was little impressed with his tendency to bark out phrases for emphasis, in much the way you expect from the Drum Major in Wozzeck. While he still yelps out some notes, this is essentially an all but reborn Christian. A Heldentenor in the Melchior vein Franz is not, but who is? Nearly always tone-perfect, he managed to maintain the requisite energy for this killer role all the way from the Forging Scene to the exhausting Awakening Duet at the finish.

The second major pleasure of being in the house on Saturday afternoon was hearing and seeing Irene Theorin as Brünnhilde. The role is comparatively small, but its pitfalls are huge, and Theorin avoided them all. Appearing even more radiant than she had looked in Walküre, she soared confidently from strength to strength, making the fitful transition from goddess to woman seemingly effortless. Hers is not a mega-voice, nor is it an emotional button-pusher like, say, Susan Boyle’s. But it shows a telltale sign of emerging major Wagner sopranos: a predisposition for grandly invigorating the dynamics Wagner prescribes. Its grace under pressure and the two bang-on high Cs reminds me of how Gwyneth Jones sounded all too rarely.

The sound of James Morris as Wotan/Wanderer was focused, on pitch and by turns effectively condescending in the Quiz Scene with Mime, cunningly brutish in dealing with Alberich, and just plain desperate in Wotan’s big scene with Erda in the third act.

Robert Brubaker is a bit tall to qualify as a dwarf, but his unctuous way with a whine makes him a memorable Mime. Richard Paul Fink turns Alberich into a fascinating portrait in slime.

It struck me as unfortunate that the role of the Fafner in dragon form (sung off-stage) prevents John Tomlinson from singing on stage. If his days as a top-notch Wotan and Sachs are behind him, he still has plenty of mileage left to portray backbench Wagner heavies.

The much-missed Lili Chookasian spoiled me for anybody else singing Erda, but Wendy White brings a dark, slender imperiousness to her brief appearance scolding Wotan for making a mess of Everything. Lisette Oropesa as the Woodbird sounded as if she had been placed too far off-stage, but the young native of the Big Easy has the right stuff for bigger things to come.

The legendary Wagner conductor Reginald Goodall often said the big challenge in taking on the Ring is finding the right basic tempo. After years of imposing phlegmatic pacing on his readings of late Wagner, James Levine at last has found the right basic tempo that works for him and his listeners. And the relatively brisk pacing he’s taking currently enlivens the tetralogy immeasurably. You can feel the pulse arching over the entire work. There is finally a sense of inevitability in his Ring that makes it Levine’s Ring once and for all.

© Sam H. Shirakawa

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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 11, 2009 - Part II

Lots of Handel today - Orlando, Partenope, Acis and Galatea, and Tamerlano....Klara is probably not alone in running a Handel marathon over the next two of three days.

Here's this afternoon's lineup:

  • Bayern 4 Klassik - a 2008 performance of Handel's Acis and Galatea, with Julia Kleiter, Christoph Prégardien, Michael Slattery and Wolf Matthias Friedrich, conducted by Nicholas McGegan.
  • Deutschlanadradio Kultur - From Deutsche Oper in Berlin, an April 9th performance of Respighi's Marie Victoire, with Takesha Meshe Kizart, Markus Brück, German Villar, Stephen Bronk, Jörn Schümann, Simon Pauly, Martina Welschenbach, Gregory Warren, Nicole Piccolomini, Yosep Kang, Anna Fleischer, Stephen Bronk, Krzysztof Szumanski, Nathan Myers, Tomislav Lucic, Thomas Blondelle, Andrew Ashwin and Hyung-Wook Lee, conducted by Michail Jurowski.
  • DR P2 - From the Vienna State Opera, a February 13th performance of Verdi's Stiffelio, with osé Cura, Hui He, Anthony Michaels-Moore and Gergely Németi, conducted by Michael Halász.
  • RAdio 4 Netherlands - From the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, with Hans Peter König, Anja Kampe, Thorsten Kerl and Bryn Terfel, conducted by Marc Albrecht.
  • Sveriges Radio P2 - From last season's Bayreuth's Festival, Wagner's Parsifal, with Detlef Roth, Fujimura, Arnold Bezuyen, Friedemann Röhlig, Julia Borchert, Ulrike Helzel, Clemens Bieber, Timothy Oliver, Julia Borchert, Martina Rüping, Carola Guber, Anna Korondi, Jutta Böhnert, Ulrike Helzel and Altsolo Simone Schröder, conducted by Danielle Gatti.
  • KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: From Bavarian State Opera, Verdi's Macbeth, with Zeljko Lucic, Nadja Michael, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Dimitri Pittas and Fabrizio Mercurio, conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
  • Klara & Espace 2 - From Theater an der Wien, Handel's Partenope, with Christine Schäfer, Kurt Streit, David Daniels, Patricia Bardon, Florian Boesch and Mattias Rexroth, conducted by Christophe Rousset.
  • Latvia Radio Klasika - A February 5th performance of Handel's Orlando, with Viljams Tovers, Dominika Labelle, Daiana Mu-ra, Suzanna Ri-dena, Volfs Matiass Fridrihs, conducted by Nikolass Makgegans.
  • NRK Klassisk - From Berwald Hall in Stocjholm, a September 28th performance of Haydn's Creation, with Dorothea Röschmann, Mark Padmore, Thomas Quasthoff, conducted Daniel Harding.
  • Radio Oesterreich International - From Washington National Opera, an April 2008 performance of Handel's Tamerlano, with Placido Domingo, David Daniels, Sarah Coburn, Patricia Bardon, Claudia Huckle and Andrew Foster-Williams, conducted by William Lacey.
Part III to come....

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Live offerings for Saturday April 11, 2009 - Part 1

The first couple of offerings start at or shortly after Noon Eastern Time:

  • France Musique - From Opéra Bastille in Paris, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth From Mtsensk, with Vladimir Vaneev, Ludovit Ludha, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Michaël König, Carole Wilson, Alexander Kravets, Lani Poulson, Valentin Jar, Alexander Vassiliev, and Nikita Storojev, conducted by Hartmut Haenchen.
  • Metropolitan Opera (on numerous stations) - Wagner's Die Walküre, with Gary Lehman, John Tomlinson, James Morris, Waltraud Meier, Irene Theorin, Yvonne Naef, Kelly Cae Hogan, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Laura Vlasak Nolen, Jane Bunnell, Claudia Waite, Lann Sandel-Pantaleo, Mary Ann McCormick and Teresa S Herold, conducted by James Levine.

More listing in a few minutes. Stay tuned....

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Lehman in for Botha today

News Flash! Johan Botha is ill and Gary Lehman will be singing Siegmund in this afternoon's Met Broadcast of Die Walküre...

Live offerings to come in a few minutes.

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Friday, April 10, 2009

DIE WÄLKURE - Season Premiere

Sam Shirakawa, peripatetic Wagnerian that he is, was at the opening night of Die Walküre at the Met on Monday night. His squib:

Season Premiere 6 April 2009
Metropolitan Opera

The Muses were in attendance at the Met on Monday night. I never thought “riveting” would be an appropriate way to describe James Levine’s reading of any score, but absent a lapse here and there, his umpteenth traversal of Wagner’s [who else’s?] Die Walküre was indeed riveting. The pacing seemed livelier, the dynamic thrust more propulsive than ever before.

After a briefly tentative start, James Morris sang possibly his finest Wotan at the Met to date. Few veteran singers get to show what they have learned over the years, because their voices give out before they get the chance. Morris is one of the lucky ones. Drawing from a wealth of acquired and innate reserves, he rendered a deeply moving account of an embattled god, forced to sacrifice two of his most beloved children. On Monday, though, his soft and heartbreaking farewell to his love child was overshadowed by the orchestra. Too loud, Jimmy!

The much anticipated curiosity of the evening was the debut of Iréne Theorin, a hastily recruited Brünnhilde, replacing the indisposed Christine Brewer. The Swedish soprano has an ample voice that’s evenly distributed from top to bottom, and she showed no signs of strain in scooping up to those treacherous Bs and Cs in the valkyrie’s signature war cry. What her voice lacks at this point in her young career is a personality that is distinctive and lingers in the ear. Withal, Theorin proved herself an effective actress on her first showing, and she needed no extra makeup to highlight her estimable comeliness.

The same can hardly be said of Jan Botha’s appearance. The stage lights may have been kept on extra low wattage to mask his corpulence. Ah, but the rotund sound of his Siegmund! Think Jon Vickers meets Franz Völker: seductive, sweet and potent. Too bad Wagner kills the Wälsung off at the end of the second act.

Too bad, too, that the composer also kills off Hunding almost at the same moment. Especially when the role is so deftly portrayed by John Tomlinson -- another veteran Wagnerian, who’s made a well-deserved name for himself as Wotan and Sachs over the years. As an acquaintance sagaciously commented during the first intermission, Tomlinson purveys a depth of understanding about the role that makes Hunding far more complex than a brutish cuckold. And it’s not all about the singing, about which: no complaints. The way he listens to Siegmund’s tale of woe and becomes aware that he’s giving hospitality to his arch-enemy; the way he makes his long-suffering trophy wife stand up so that he can sit down.

And speaking of that long-suffering wife, Waltraud Meyer is back again as Sieglinde. I’ve always liked her, but I don’t care for mezzo-Sieglindes. I long for that slightly girlish inflection that real sopranos bring to the role. But Meyer was in full possession of her dark powers on Monday night, and satisfied customers gave her huge ovations.
Yvonne Naef is a cooly bitchy Fricka in her Virginia Woolf encounter with Morris. When she quits the stage with no loss of perspiration, you know it’s Game Over.

The eight Valkyrie Sisters -- all in great shape.

Monday’s cast is set to appear on the broadcast matinee. Theorin will also appear in Siegfried, which is fortunate. But not, apparently, in the broadcast of Götterdämmerung, which is unfortunate.

A sidebar to Monday night’s performance: It was marred by the cacophony of cellphones beeping and jangling throughout the performance. The hall frequently sounded like an intensive care unit. Isn’t it time for a full-page ad opposite the cast listing in the program, telling patrons to shut off? Or maybe the security personnel at the entrances should make it mandatory. Even better, why not create a firewall around the building to prevent incoming calls? If Wotan could do it for Brühnnhilde way back in those pre-digital days of yore, certainly the Met management can do it for its public now.

© Sam Shirakawa

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Saturday, April 04, 2009

Live Offerings - Saturday, April 4, 2009

Four main items of interest for this afternoon: the Met's L'Elisir d'Amore with Gheorghiu and Giordani; La Monnaie's La Grande Macabre, by Ligeti, with Chris Merritt; from NPR World of Opera comes a Mariinsky Theatre performanc of The Maid of Pskov, with an all-Russian cast, conducted by Gergiev; and from Dwojke Polskie Radio, a recent performance of Werther with Rolando Villazon (who will be returning to the Met's L'Elisir cast this coming week) and Susan Graham. Also, three Met broadcasts from earlier this season are airing again: Il Trovatore with Radvanovsky, Doctor Atomic with Gerald Finley, and Dvorak's Rusalka with Renée Fleming.

  • Radio 4 Netherlands, Musiq3 & Radio Tre (RAI) - From La Monnaie in Brussels, Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, with Chris Merritt, Frances Bourne, Ilse Eerens and Werner van Mechelen, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
  • Metropolitan Opera - Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, with Massimo Giordano, Angela Gheorghiu, Franco Vassallo, Ying Huang and Simone Alaimo, conducted by Maurizio Benini.
  • Dwojke Polskie Radio - From the Opera Bastille in Paris, a March 28th performance of Massenet's Werther, with Rolando Villazon, Alain Vernhes, Susan Graham, Adriana Kucerová, Ludovic Tézier, Christian Jean, Christian Tréguier, Vincent Delhoume and Letitia Singleton, conducted by Kent Nagano.
  • KBIA2 - NPR World of Opera: From Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov, with Alexei Taovitski, Irina Mataeva, Nikolai Gassiev, Gennady Bezzubenkov, Yuri Vorobyev, Mikhail Vishnyak and Varvara Solovyeva, conducted by Valery Gergiev.
  • MDR Figaro - From Thomaskirche in Leipzig, a March 21st performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, with Sally Matthews, Anna Zander, Martin Petzold, Stephan Genz and Egbert Junghanns, Georg Christoph Biller conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Thomanerchor Leipzig.
  • Klara - From Grand Théâtre in Geneva, a performance of von Weber's Der Freischütz, with Nikolai Schukoff, Alexander Puhrer, Peter Wimberger, Jaco Huijpen, Olga Pasichnyk, Ellie Dehn, Jean Lorrain, Rudolf Rosen, and Feodor Kuznetsov, conducted by John Nelson.
  • Latvia Radio Klasika - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera's November 8, 2008 broadcast of Adams's Doctor Atomic, with Penny Woolcock, Gerald Finley, Sacha Cooke, Meredith Arwady, Richard Paul Fink, Eric Owens, Earle Patriarco, Roger Honeywell and Thomas Glenn, conducted by Alan Gilbert.
  • WDAV - NPR World of Opera (one week delayed): From Vienna State Opera, Verdi's Stiffelio, with Jose Cura, Hui He, Anthony Micheals-Moore, Gergely Nemeti, Goran Simic, Peter Jelosits and Elisabeth Marin, conducted by Nicola Luisotti.
  • Concert FM (New Zealand) - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Verdi's Il Trovatore, with Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
  • ABC Classic FM (Australia) - Another chance to hear the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Dvorak's Rusalka, with Renée Fleming, Aleksander Antonenko, Christine Goerke, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Stephanie Blythe, David Won, James Courtney and Kate Lindsey, conducted by Jirí Belohlávek.

Happy listening . . . .

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Passion Punch

Sam Shirakawa was at the Met on Tuesday evening for the season premiere of L'elisir d'amore. Here's his squib:

L’ELISIR D’AMORE

METROPOLITAN OPERA
SEASON PREMIERE
MARCH 31,2009


When the Metropolitan Opera mounts a good production, new or old, there’s nothing like it.

On Tuesday night, the delightful setting of Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore by John Copley and Beni Montresor returned to the schedule with Angela Gheorghiu as the village belle Adina and Massimo Giordano stepping in for the ailing Ramon Villazon as Nemorino.

There was little doubt beforehand, that Gheorghiu would succeed. What I found surprising was how well she succeeded. If the reports that she can be a vixen are true, she certainly has channeled that penchant into an irresistibly coquettish Adina. She moves about the stage as if she owns it, interacts both musically and dramatically with her colleagues, as though she’s known them forever, all the while making flawless runs up and down the scale. Thinking back on her glamorous but somehow vague portrayal of Magda in La Rondine earlier this season, she seems infinitely more comfortable as Adina. I for one am dreading her Carmen, set for next season. Don’t do it, love! Don't! If you must do it, have them replace the Card Scene number with “Dunque io son...?” You know-- that thing from The Barber of Seville?

While some critics seemed to miss Villazon on Tuesday -- he’s supposed to be back for future performances -- Giordano proved to be an able deputy. His voice is big bright and flexible, and he too has comedic talent. But a peculiarity in his coloratura technique is worth mentioning: Certain notable sopranos of the past, Leyla Gencer, for instance, may have gotten away with aspirating vowels --- instead of ah-ah-ah-ah (correct), ha-ha-ha-ha. But Giordano sounds as though he’s just hyperventilating. Otherwise, he has the right stuff and delivered an unusually impassioned “Una furtiva lagrima.”

Simone Alaimo meanwhile aspirates a quantum of fun with every word he utters as Dulcamara and with every move he makes. Franco Vassallo embodies an attractive pre-nuptial foil as Sergeant Belcore. Ying Huang sounds like an aspiring big-league Adina.

It’s easy to dismiss any conductor leading L’Elisir as a timekeeper, but Maurizio Benini’s light touch with tempi laced the passion punch with plenty of Asti.

Hard as it may be to believe, the lovely storybook sets by the late Beni Montresor (1926-2001) date from 1991. Some sets at the Met, thankfully, never look outdated.

© Sam H Shirakawa

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

One for the Price of Two

Sam Shirakawa attended this past Monday's performance of Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci at the Metropolitan Opera. As always, we hereby present his take:

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA

I PAGLIACCI


METROPOLITAN OPERA 30 MARCH 2009


A reviewer of the Met’s current Cav/Pag revival complains that Franco Zeffirelli’s 1970 production is beginning to look old -- maybe too old.

Rubbish.

In fact, the sets and costimes, which Z also designed, are beginning to look exactly as they should have when they were brand new -- sun-bleached, dusty and a bit tatty.

Depending on what you think of the Met’s current casting policy, though, some patrons may feel shortchanged: Cav/Pag is usually cast with two tenors, one for each opera. In the current run, Roberto Alagna sang Turiddu and Canio in a few performances, and now Jose Cura is taking over to do double duty.

I skipped Alagna because he doesn’t pique my interest in either role. Cura is another matter. His voice is sufficiently “brown” to bear the pressures both roles impose with the kind of swagger they demand. The animality in Cura’s sound -- brash but vulnerable -- sparks the imagination.

As it turned out on Monday evening, he seemed more involved as the rake Turiddu than as the cuckold Canio. I had the impression that he was rushing the tempo in Pag and looking for a peg on which to hang his costume, rather than sinking into the morbid brooding that drives his character to tragic action.

His Turiddu, on the other hand, rocked with chauvinistic testosterone, brandishing portamento like a deadly weapon. There was more there in Cura's Turiddu, possibly because his Santuzza is far more compelling as a foil than his Nedda.

I first heard Ildiko Komlosi about ten years ago in Mannheim, when she stepped in on short notice as Octavian. She was a pleasant though somewhat reticent surprise on that occasion; she was a wow on Monday night. Komlosi has spent her time expeditiously and her talent wisely in the intervening decade. She sounds like she’s targeting the gap left by Cossotto and Verrett. From the way she cut loose in “Voi lo sapete” and in the protracted duet, she's aiming in the right direction.

Nuccia Focile has a pleasant stage personality, but her vocal profile sounds like it’s in transition from lyric to spinto. Only in the final moments of the play-within-a-play did she finally display the conviction she earlier was trying to muster.

Which brings me to the pair of elements that glued Monday evening’s performance together. Alberto Mastromarino also did double duty as Alfio in Cav and Tonio in Pag. You might want a bit more deadly assurance in the former and a larger dollop of grease in the latter, but his account of Tonio’s prologue had just the right cautery, topped off with an ecstatic A natural.

Pietro Rizzo drew marvelous playing from the Met Orchestra and reminded me again of what wonderful music both scores contain.

Cav and Pag are incessantly derided as warhorses, but when they are treated with the care that the Met is giving them at the moment, they are exciting to ride again and again.

© Sam H. Shirakawa

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

TOXIC ASSETS

Sam Shirakawa attended the Opening Night of this season's run of Das Rheingold at the Met on Wednesday evening. Here's his squib:

Das Rheingold

Season Premiere 25 March 2009
Metropolitan Opera

If Das Rheingold is on the boards, it must be springtime now and Ring time again at the Metropolitan Opera. Otto Schenk has returned to supervise the final incarnations of his grandly representational production dating from 1987. The new version of what one critic has called “the ultimate mini-series” is set for 2010 and promises to be something entirely different.

This year, there are extra performances of Rheingold and Walküre to supplement the usual three cycles beginning at today’s matineé broadcast and continuing through early May. Expect to hear a lot of Japanese, German, Brit-English and Russian spoken during intermissions. Even in these wretched economic times, the Met remains Mecca for financially intrepid Wagnerites.

The first performance of Rheingold this season turned out to be only the 150th time the company has mounted the work -- by far the least performed of the four Ring operas.

Many of the singers who appeared at the premiere of this production have long since retired, but in an age when change happens too fast and too often, it is comforting to many to have James Morris back once again as Wotan. The incursions of time have diminished his vocal powers, but he was able to summon the requisite strength at the most critical moments -- especially in “Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge” -- the god’s articulation of relief at the completion of Valhalla. The rest of the cast was about as fine as money can buy these days: Yvonne Naef (Fricka), Wendy Bryn Harmer (Freia), Jill Grove (Erda), John Tomlinson and Franz-Josef Selig respectively as Fafner and Fasolt -- all in fine form. In a cast of equals Kim Begley (Loge), Richard Paul Fink (Alberich) and the trio of Lisette Oropesa, Kate Lindsey and Tamara Mumford as the Rhine Maidens were incandescent.

The other holdover from the production’s premiere, of course, is James Levine. Of some 20 odd times I’ve been present to hear him conduct Rheingold in the house, Wednesday evening’s performance was arguably his finest to date -- primarily because he seems to have discovered, finally, the recondite magic and sad sense of wonder in the work, which he palpably missed in his previous excursions into Nibelheim.

All of which led me to reflect afterwards on what take-away the performance may have offered. If nothing else, Rheingold, indeed the entire Ring, is about the Grand-Daddy of all Toxic Assets. The forged ring ultimately ruins everybody in a cumulative tidal wave of devastating collateral. The dire warnings of this intermittently hummable tale, adumbrated so seductively in swathes of wicked harmonies, continue to go unheeded, as the world sucks itself into the Augean stables of fiduciary feculence.

Sooner or later, though, what may get even worse gets better: We are, it seems, living out the Shakespearean-Wagnerian Dialectic. But how long in really real time is the journey between that deceptive E flat pedal which begins the infelicitous tetralogy in whose midst we now find ourselves -- and our arrival enfin at the redemptive D-flat Major coda that only the love which transcends understanding can win?

© Sam H. Shirakawa

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Mortal Longings

Sam Shirakawa attended the Opening Night of Rusalka on Monday night. Here's his squib:

Dvorak : Rusalka Season Premiere

Metropolitan Opera
9 March 2009

Why would an immortal want to shuffle onto this mortal coil? An answer is to be heard in Antonin Dvorak’s most famous opera Rusalka, now on the boards at the Metropolitan Opera.

Why, Love for a mortal, of course!

But renunciation on such a scale demands commensurate sacrifices. Once the beautiful water nymph Rusalka falls in love with a mortal prince, who has taken a dip in her pool, if you’ll pardon the expression, she must give up all her supernatural perks in order to join him in the earthly universe, as well as submit herself to being stricken mute.

As fairy tales would have it -- The Little Mermaid for example -- her beloved prince rejects her. Why any guy in a marrying frame of mind would snub a prospective spouse who can’t talk back or sass him is a mystery librettist Jaroslav Kvapil never solves. And the impediment also creates a problem for Dvorak because it prevents his lead character from uttering a peep for a significant portion of the opera.

But when Rusalka does speak, she sings gloriously, especially when she’s portrayed so movingly by Renée Fleming, who has also taken the role with success in the Met’s past two revivals of Otto Schenk’s delightful 1993 production. Now that she’s mistress of the part, the question is whether you like her interpretation. She’s not nearly as other-worldly as, say, Gabriella Beňačková, but you’re hard put to reject the passion she puts into a character, who gets the cold shoulder from the mortal to whom she is fatally attracted.

The object of Rusalka’s affections is taken by Aleksandrs Antonenko, making his Met debut. There’s no doubt that the young Latvian newcomer can interpret beefy parts, but the question is whether you like his voice. If you’re used to big-vibrato tenors from the former Eastern Bloc, Antonenko’s voice, despite an occasional squeeze at the top, will please you. If you’re accustomed to rapid-fire vibrato in your heavyweight tenors, you may find him an acquired taste -- though worth the required patience.

Stephanie Blythe drew audience appreciation for her humor-laced inflections as the witch with the right potion for what ails you. As the Foreign Princess, Christine Goerke effectively rendered a different kind of witch. Brenda Patterson made an impressive showing in her Met debut as one of Rusalka's playmates.

Apart from steering the performance with rhythmic incisiveness, Jiri Belohlávek inspired the Met Orchestra to produce waves of gorgeous sound.

Rusalka may be a fairy tale, but it speaks to every age. The Met’s revival also arrives at a moment in our history when it offers more than pretty music: The water nymph renounces her anxiety-free existence for an environment fraught with danger and damnation -- all for the sake of love. And what she ultimately gets is not love requited but its true and withering flip-side: indifference. Her story belongs to the long tradition of tale-telling that exposes the human soul alone, sliding into an alien societal conundrum, deprived of the assets and skills necessary for survival. Depressing maybe, if you care to view the tale as solely reflecting the maze of impecuniosity through which humankind willy-nilly is now groping. But it’s ultimately cathartic too, for unlike Rusalka, we are not, at least for the moment, alone.

Note: The Met's Rusalka has been performed whenever Schenk's Ring Cycle is mounted. Especially on matinee Saturdays. Are some or all of the sets by Gunther Schneider-Siemssen for both productions interchangeable? If yes, it's a shrewd move. Whodda guessed? And is Renée a standby for one of the Andrew Sisters in Walküre...?

©Sam H. Shirakawa

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Sunday, March 08, 2009

The Met Audience: Live! ...and booing!

We have been hearing great things about the singing, but ghastly reports abnout the production from several friends who have attended the new production of La Sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera this past week. So we were interested to see what Sam Shirakawa might have to say about Friday evening's performance:

Metropolitan Opera
6 March 2009

Well, whaddaya know! The audience at the Metropolitan Opera can boo badness as boisterously as baseball fans berating Barry Bonds.

Such was the widely reported spectacle performed by the crowd attending the March 3d premiere of Mary Zimmerman’s ill-conceived production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula. At the second performance, which I attended, the audience made its displeasure known as the house lights came up for the intermission. Rarely have I heard such hissing and hooting at a Met performance since Ponnelle lifted the skirt on his short-lived Dutchman in 1979.

If you’ve sought out what you’re reading now, you probably already know the details of what elicited the discontent. Mary Dearest has shifted the opera’s locale from the Swiss Alps of the early 19th century to a present-day rehearsal loft -- probably somewhere in Manhattan’s Cast Iron District or Soho -- where a cast, dressed mostly in modern garb, is walking through what appears to be a traditional 19th century production of Sonnambula. Its loose plot involves the impending marriage of a lovely village lassie to her simple boyfriend. Here’s the twist Mary Dearest added to the plot: The lead singers happen to have the same names as the characters they are playing, and they too are romantically involved. Tah Dah! Parallel universe. Sort of. Get it?

Frankly, no.

If the original plot were tighter, the conceit might work. But the libretto as written by Felice Romani (based on a drama by Eugene Scribe) is so implausible from the get-go, that it can hardly bear the imposition of an added synthetic narrative. It’s also hard to know at what junctures the two plot lines diverge or dovetail. Maybe we’re not meant to. Waking, sleeping, dreaming, sleepwalking and so on. Get it?

No again.

As impatience sets in, you begin to suspect that the present-day plot element is simply a cynical ploy to save gargantuan costs for period costumes and scenery. As distraction creeps in, you begin to speculate upon the vast number of operas, operettas and musicals that could be similarly mounted.

So... here's my proposal for the Met management, that would surely ameliorate the company’s current financial crisis: Fit EVERY upcoming new production into the rehearsal room framework posited by Mary Dearest’s concept. With its huge parquet flooring, Daniel Ostling’s flexible unit set would also function as a sounding board to throw the voices out into the house -- much like the tall slabs of scenery for the Met’s new Trovatore. And wouldn’t ya know, there’s even a protracted package-throwing sequence, whose blocking could be cloned for the pillow fight that closes Meistersinger’s second act!

But let’s think out of the box for a moment: How about chucking Zeffirelli’s much-too elaborate Boheme for a stripped down rehearsal version, in which Rudolfo and Mimi fornicate during their love duet? What about a rehearsal version of Carmen-as-Flashback, in which Don José murders his real-life live-in girl friend during the prelude to the first act rather than at the opera’s final moments? But at THIS rehearsal, he uses a real knife. Stop me! Pleeeez!

So how was the performance otherwise, Mrs. Lincoln?

Pretty cruddy, actually, she might aptly reply.

With the exception of the Teflon Tenor, of course.

Juan Diego Florez seems indestructible. In fact, he just keeps getting better and more refined. He’s honed that distinctive burr that gooses the ears, and he’s drained his top notes of that adenoidal honk that’s been giving some of his wussier critics dyspepsia. Standing, sitting, or reclining imperturbably in the midst of the imbecilities being perpetrated around him, Florez simply waits his turn to stand and deliver what opera has always been about in the first place: Great singing. He's really got the Whole Package, folks.

On Natalie Dessay, I run hot and cold. I run hot when she crawls along a table top trilling her brains out. Golly gee! Can that gal multi-task! But I run cold when she lunges at high notes and misses. On her good nights, Dessay too embodies the Whole Package, but its wrapping is beginning to fray at the creases. This becomes increasingly apparent, when she mounts a trajectory that propels her gradually over the orchestra pit, where she sings a generally affecting “Ah, non credea.” The altered ambience into which she is thrust, however, is not kind.

Having intended to become a dancer, Dessay moves as though blessed by Terpsichore herself, but her occasional reversions to that cutesy wind-up doll shtick from last season’s La Fille du Regiment are turning old fast.

Michele Pertusi is a sonorous Count Rodolfo. Jennifer Black is serviceable as Lisa. Jane Bunnell looks too young to be convincing as Dessay’s foster mother.

The less obvious culprits behind the cruddiness of this woeful production, though, are conductor Evelino Pido and his sluggish tempi. It’s hard to tell what he’s driving at -- rapture? lyricism? Whatever the aim, the end-effect is worthy of no less than the goddess Dulness in The Dunciad.

And finally, the ventilators in the lighting eyrie above the Family Circle are still droning too loudly -- not nearly as bad as before, but still loud enough to prevent you from hearing Mme. Dessay essay a pianissimo. Since seats for this location are soon going to cost 33 percent more, surely Mr. Gelb can assign part of this obscene increase to remedy the problem once and for all.

©Sam H. Shirakawa

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Comfort Food

Sam Shirakawa was present for the premiere of the Met's new production of Il Trovatore on Monday night:
IL TROVATORE

METROPOLITAN OPERA
16 February

Premiere New Production

Once upon a time, when opera was an affordable passion, I regarded Il Trovatore as Verdi's Smorgasbord, a cucina toscana laden with comfort food. Who cared if a mezzo was day-old, a baritone bland, or a soprano overcooked? Trovatore has so much melody to munch on! In those halcyon days, Trovatores were also as plentiful as pizza parlors. Easy to cast.

Now that the Metropolitan Opera is about to bang its neediest patrons with a 33 percent price increase, though, Trovatore is turning into white truffle. And casting a competent quartet of leads has long since turned tougher than lining up a Marfa in Mauritius.

Then too, the Met has had little luck with mounting Trovatore in the past 20 years. Remember that awful production by Fabrizio Melano for Joan Sutherland in 1987? Graham Vick's attempt at producing an opera in 2000 lasted two seasons.

If third time lucky and multiples of three exert a positive influence, David McVicar's elaborate production was unveiled Monday night on the occasion of the Met's 600th performance of the opera. Except for the final scene, the Met now has a palatable if not delectable mounting of the opera. Thanks to a revolving stage (whose gears need a grease job -- it squeaks and creaks alarmingly), scene changes take less than 30 seconds. Thick high walls -- separating Charles Edwards' innocuously realistic sets -- also serve as massive sounding boards. They bounce the voices out into the house to create marvelous reverb enhancement. (The wide stairs dominating the unit set of the Met's I Vespri Siciliani and the oval wall in the second act of Tannhäuser create a similar effect.) But the final scene fails to make sense. It's supposed to be a prison dungeon, but it's unmistakably the gypsies' camp of Act II. A lot of press was given to the influence of Goya on the current production, but the only vestige of the Spanish master I could discern was the scrim, covered with cartoons of horrified facial expressions, that's used as the house curtain.

Of course, attractive resonant sets serve no purpose unless they're amplifying world-class voices. It's hard to imagine a more tantalizing cast than the one the Met has convened. I first heard Sondra Radvanovsky as Leonora at the Met almost ten years ago to the day. She was good but green. She is now at the threshold of a huge career that sadly keeps receding before her for some reason. She should be up there with Anna, Karita and Renee, but she's still Sondra Who? Hers is one of the few voices before the public today that has a distinctive instantly recognizable timbre. It may not appeal to all tastes. A quick poll among acquaintances during intermission wrinkled some noses. But I can't get enough of it. There's room for some work on the lower register, but the middle and top are firmly in hand. The interpolated high notes are thrilling. "D'amor sull' ali rosee" has a way to go before it smacks down memories of Leontyne, but the anticipation it aroused at the premiere was compelling indeed. Radvanovsky, as I've commented before, is about as close to a real Verdi soprano as we're likely to get.

Reporting on a recent Adriana, I wished that Borodina would cut loose a bit more. Delora Zajick's Azucena, however, bolted with her usual high-gear elan. She's capable of endless nuance, but fortunately for those who like their Azucenas wild, she left her fennel at home.

Marcelo Alvarez' Manrico tends to swing toward the lighter side, but his way with "Ah si, ben mio" and the stentorian declamations that followed elicited an ovation that only a happily surprised audience can confer. He merits more work at the Met.

Dimitri Hvorostovsky as Luna is also capable of deliriously nuanced vocalism, but he might do well to remember that Luna is, and always will be, a meatball role. Put in some more Parmesan, Dimitri! and take the cue from the character's name: Be looney, a la the late and still lamented Lenny Warren!

Perhaps the little-noticed surprise of the premiere was the admirably lyrical conducting of Gianandrea Noseda. But his work, too, could use a fistful of peperoncino. You're Italian, Gianni, so don't fuggetaboutit!

"The characters are always on their feet, singing their hearts out," proclaims the program note. Actually, in McVicar's production, Leonora and Azucena spend a lot of time on the floor. Radvanovsky even hits a high note just before she collapses on her back. Which only goes to suggest that among the celebrities in attendance at the premiere was the spirit of Magda Olivero, who will be 100 years young next year. Were you there in 1975, when she sang the first part of "Vissi d'arte" flat on her back, after Ingvar Wixell as Scarpia threw her to the floor? Scrumptious!

© Sam H. Shirakawa 2009

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Monday, February 16, 2009

Adriana Lecouvreur

And another squib from Sam Shirakawa, who attended Friday evening's performance of Adriana Lecouvreur:
ADRIANA LECOUVREUR

METROPOLITAN OPERA
13 FEBRUARY 2009

SHRINKING VIOLET


That's right. If you're a star soprano, you can't be a shrinking violet, especially if you're headlining a cruddy opera like Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur. You need to believe there is more to this trash heap of notes than the two lovingly composed arias Cilea set for its legendary creator Angelica Pandolfini [whose elusive recordings constitute the Avalon if not the Holy Grail among record collectors. Read the riveting interview with Sir Paul Getty by Richard Bebb]. More than believing, though, you need conviction. Caballe had it. Scotto too. So did Tebaldi, although I never heard her sing the role live.

Maria Guleghina -- the Met's current Adriana -- has a plethora of belief and conviction, but from the get-go, she's severely handicapped in portraying the immortal diva of La Comedie Français: She must make her entrance speaking a few lines before launching into song. Whadishesay? Mind you, a lot of suspension of disbelief is required at this point -- indeed throughout the whole plot. The setting is backstage at La Comedie Française, where French is the lingua franca, but the text of Cilea's opus, of course, is in Italian. Guleghina's sung Italian diction more than passes muster. But her spoken Italian?

So unintentionally stunning is Guleghina's elocution, that it's hard to comment on how she delivered her first aria -- you know, the one in which the eponymous diva declares that she is but the humble handmaiden of genius. Having only partially recovered by the time her fourth act aria came up, I can only say that the Ukrainian-born Met favorite left me with the impression of an unusual Adriana.

An unusual performance of another sort was rendered by Olga Boradina as the Princess. She was oddly detached in a role that screams for some "trucking."

I must confess now that I attended this performance partly out of morbid curiosity: to hear Placido Domingo attempt Maurizio -- his debut role at the Met in 1968. Amazingly, he can still do it. Domingo has become a walking object lesson in style, musicality and vocal technique and proves that age does not necessarily wither. The squillo -- that wounded animal sound -- still squeezes out of the upper register, the phrasing is indeed more natural than in his salad days, and he's gained the aura of a compelling stage-presence. That was not always at his command.

Roberto Frontali made the most of what he could out of Adriana's love-lorn suitor Michonnet.

Marco Armillato is conducting a lot at the Met these days. Is he taking charge of its Italian wing? His reading of Cilea's loose score -- maybe it's just lousy -- is tightly disciplined, if not always dramatically taut.

Something is missing from Mark Lamos' production. The sets could also use a few more walls. Maybe that's what's missing -- not enough scenery to chew.

The Met has assembled just about the best star cast that money can buy in these moribund days of the economy and romantic lyric theater. But where to buy that touch of wonder that sparks enchantment?

Speaking of money, the Met is upping its ticket price in the Family Circle from $15 to $20 next season. That's a 33 percent increase. Not enchanting. Other price ranges apparently remain unchanged [editor's Note: prices for the partial-view balcony box seats are also going up]. Why is the Met financially penalizing most the people who can afford opera least? This decision may well be a cynical move to capitalize on subscribers who are moving down in the world from the Dress Circle and the Balcony. A five dollar increase in less superior seats is still cheaper than staying where they are. This is outrageous, but nobody seems to care. Very well. Both the callous Met management and the silent stalwarts who keep opera going long after the fat cats have slunk away will each get exactly what they deserve. The Met will get less reliable patrons hopefully grabbing up the cheapest seats, while those who previously bought them will have no opera at all. Trickle down... down... down.

© SAM H. SHIRAKAWA 2009

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Heavenly Harps

We were unable to post to this blog for about ten days, so now we make up for some of the lost time with a couple of reviews from our friend, Sam Shirakawa:

HEAVENLY HARPS

CONCERT:
MARIKO ANRAKU, Metropolitan Opera
JESSICA ZHOU, New York City Opera
NANCY ALLEN, New York Philharmonic
REBECCA RINGLE, mezzo-soprano
WEILL HALL 28 January 2009

Harps may sound heavenly, but they're hellish to play. I should know, because I'm a recovering harpist. You have to tune constantly, a pedal slip can instantly turn Mozart into Mayhem, strings can break with no warning. These are just a few of the angelic thoughts swirling through a harpist's mind while performing.

All that plus a challenging group of works must certainly have been on the minds of the principal harpists from the Big Apple's three most prestigious musical institutions, as they presented a concert Wednesday evening at Weill Hall. But you'd have never guessed it, as Mariko Anraku of the Met, Jessica Zhou from the City Opera, and the Philharmonic's Nancy Allen sallied elegantly through a delightful assortment of uncommon music for two and three harps, as well as a familiar work featuring mezzo-soprano Rebecca Ringle.

In fact, it was Ringle's participation in Manuel De Falla's Siete canciones populares españolas in a transcription by legendary harpist Carlos Salzedo that added extra spice to an unusual musicale. Ms Ringle is currently making her way through the operatic circuits, notably as a Valkyrie, but her true calling may be as a recitalist. She has an unusual claret timbre that retains its erotic resin from bottom to top. Blessed with a commanding stage presence, she communicated the full range of moods in the seven songs.

The preponderance of the heavy lifting throughout the evening was shared by Mss. Anraku and Zhou, starting with Cesar Franck's Prelude, Fugue and Variations in an arrangement by Dewey Owen, a Sonatine for Two Harps by Jean-Michel Damas, and a delightful self-arranged rendition of Ravel's Mere L'Oye. Nancy Allen joined them at the end of the concert for two substantial works by Francis Poulenc -- Fresco, Bela Bartok -- Hungarian Peasant Dances, and an encore -- Seguedilla by Isaac Albeniz.

The bitter-sweet take-away from this concert is how badly composers, especially great composers, have neglected the harp, thereby denying demonstrably virtuoso artists such as Anraku, Zhou and Allen opportunities to purvey their artistry to a broader public. Mozart hated the harp, Richard Strauss liked the instrument but never mastered writing for it, Salzedo tried in vain to persuade Stravinsky to compose at least one major work for harp, and he was similarly rebuffed by other composers. So harpists must rely on transcriptions or compose their own music.

A pity because the harp has a wealth of tonal possibilities that has yet to be fully explored by a major composer. And that confines wonderful harpists like Anraku, Zhou and Allen to the shallows of a still-uncharted musical sea.

©Sam H. Shirakawa 2009

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

YOU SAY NETREBKO, I SAY NEBTREBKO...

Sam Shirakawa is back with his first squib of the new year....

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR | Metropolitan Opera | Monday, January 26, 2009

So were they fabulous?

In a word: No.

That was the gist of my brief chat with an acquaintance shortly after Monday night's Met Lucia. (By now, you must know who "they" are.)

Despite an economy that appears to be collapsing by the minute, the crisis failed to prevent a sold-out audience from attending Anna Netrebko's first Met Lucia. The crowd was presumably also there for her frequent stage partner Rolando Villazon, performing Edgardo, also for the first time at the Met.

For all the hubba-hubba swirling around the opera world's current super-primadonna, who once spelled her surname Nebtrebko, it was Rolando -- he always spelled it Rolando -- who unintentionally elicited the breath-taking moments during a messy performance. He showed signs of vocal difficulties in the first act, but by the middle of the middle act, the symptoms were acute. In the middle of the finale ensemble, he "just stopped," as one Met regular rightly put it during the 40-minute intermission that followed. Indeed, that breath-stopping pause was long enough to make you gag.

At the start of the third act, the Met's GM Peter Gelb stepped on stage to ask the audience for indulgence. Rolando muddled through without further incident, and he received a big hand at the curtain calls, but it remains clear that he has yet to surmount the highly publicized problems that recently caused him to take an extended sabbatical.

Anna, meanwhile, was not invulnerable to the "fraught" conditions visited upon this performance. The coloratura passages were clean, but the high notes were, with one exception, off-target. All in all, her first Lucia was less a descent into madness than a middling effort to transcend an ailing tenor and some scrappy orchestral playing led by Marco Armiliato.

Separating themselves admirably from the downward slide, though, were the orchestral soloists: Harpist Mariko Anraku, flutist Stefan Ragnar Höskuldsson, and armonica soloist Cecilia Brauer.

By the way, Ildar Abdrazakov as Raimondo sang flawlessly. But who noticed?

And by-the-by, too, the aforementioned 40-minute intermission is required at every Lucia performance -- as the program now notes in boldface type -- by the complexities of mounting the last act sets in Mary Zimmerman's production. The centerpiece is an enormous flying staircase. But it serves merely a series of utilitarian rather than dramatic purposes -- to provide a means of access to a room in the Wolf Crag's Castle, to enable Lucia to ascend to the bridal chamber with her ill-fated husband, to allow her to descend deranged therefrom without him, and to permit the Ravenswood lackeys to carry her lifeless body back upstairs again after she drops dead from a high note.

Is it worth the interminable wait?

In a word: no.

© Sam H. Shirakawa

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Sunday, November 30, 2008

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at the Metropolitan Opera

Sam Shirakawa has been to the Opening Night of the Met's run of Tristan und Isolde:

28 November 2008

A surprise saved Friday night's season premiere of Tristan und Isolde at the Met from terminal boredom:

René Pape has sung King Mark over a dozen times at the Met, and it would seem that he's old news. He is still too young for the part, but surprisingly, he is even more astonishing every time you hear him, and he turned out to be the glue that held a patchy performance together.

Headlining the new news, of course, was the house debut of Daniel Barenboim. It seems he's performed everywhere, except at the Met. He has recorded Tristan commercially, and numerous live performances and broadcasts of his forays into the work can be found on tape.

Remember that sampling of his way with Tristan back in 1989, when he assembled Hildegarde Behrens, Gary Lakes and L'Orchestre de Paris for a concert version of Act Two at Avery Fisher Hall?

If you don't remember, that may be the key to the disappointment I, at least, felt at Friday's performance. That long ago performance was not memorable, and neither was Friday night's.

Forget about those knee-jerk complaints that may come up: the orchestra was too loud, the sound synthesis was overly brass heavy, the textural contrasts were exaggerated. These are all signature characteristics of the Barenboim-the-Conductor brand. A lot of people love it and buy it, especially on CD where digital technology can produce aural miracles that have little to do with the source material. But no filter except denial can disguise the zits, warts and whoopsy-daisies exposing themselves mercilessly within the real-time exigencies of a live performance. On Friday, there was plenty of rhythmic smudging among the singers and vast stretches of listlessness that prevented the performance from taking off or shaping up into an organic whole. This, despite the Met orchestra playing as though its life depended on it. [During rehearsals several orchestra members commented on how exited they were to work with Barenboim.] Fabulous as the Met Orchestra always is, and no-less so for the wonderful English Horn solo by Pedro R. Diaz, it was left to Pape to provide rescue and respite.

Evidence of the Gestalt that Friday's performance was producing could best be seen in the droves of people departing, even during the first intermission. Does this say more about the departed than about brand DB? Barenboim brings them in, oh yes, but for those many who left, it apparently was not a night to remember.

Barenboim was not entirely to blame, unless he approved the casting, which he almost certainly must have. After all, he led the opera just two months ago with three of the principals -- Katarina Dalayman, Michelle DeYoung and Gerd Grochowski -- at Berlin's Staatsoper unter den Linden, where he is Music Director. (And another lead singer in that short string of performances is also in town at the moment.)

Let's face it folks: Dalayman is at best a B-line Isolde. Despite some attractive singing in the softer passages of the second act love duet, she failed to summon mortal rage in the cursing climax of the Narrative and delivered a diffident Liebestod. Her top notes were squally, her middle range middling, and her lower register thin. Dalayman was a laudable Brangaene when she made her Met debut in 1999, and I marveled at her Lisa in Pique Dame in Munich several years ago. Net-net though: Katya Darling, Isolde is not the way to go.

Peter Seiffert as Tristan is an appealing Wagner tenor and an effective stage personality, but he is developing a worrisome beat in his voice -- which also is showing signs of wear. He tired toward the end of his third act delirium. A few seasons ago, he sang one of the finest Tannhäusers that the Met has heard since the opera was revived in 1976. Why is he now palpably ruining his voice?

Michelle de Young reprises her well-received Brangaene from last season. She is one of the Met's brightest young singers, and she might well take a hard look at Dalayman's misstep in considering what roles she would be ill-advised to undertake.

Gerd Grochowski made an objection-free debut as Kurwenal. Stephen Gaertner was a serviceable Melot.

While Barenboim deservedly has won acclaim for his Wagner, I have always thought his true life resides at the piano. He is scheduled to perform Liszt's operatic transcriptions at the Met on 14 December. Now THAT should be a treat.

©Sam H. Shirakawa

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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Live Offerings - Saturday, November 15, 2008

Some promising live, live offerings: Marshner's Der Vampyr from Bologna; Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov from English National Opera; and Opera Ireland's performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

More chances to hear historic Met broadcasts: Beethoven's Fidelio from 1966 with Nilsson, King, et al; Verdi's Otello with Vickers, Te Kanawa (Met debut) and Stewart.

From Houston Grand Opera (all part of the WFMT opera Series): Mozart's Magic Flute and Abduction from the Seraglio, Britten's Billy Budd.

And THIS, just in (as of 1PM EST): WRTI in Philadelphia has preempted its airing of the WFMT Opera Series Billy Budd to offer us the Academy of Vocal Art's performance of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, with Angela Meade (who filled in so affectingly for Sondra Radvanovsky in Trovatore at the Met last season), Taylor Stayton, Olivia Vote, Ben Wager, Cynthia Cook, Nicholas Masters, and Noah Van Niel, conducted by Christopher Macatsoris. Starts at 1830/1:30PM. NOT TO BE MISSED!!!

Take a look and listen:

  • Espace Musique - From Pacific Opera Victoria, Blitzstein's Regina, with Kimberly Barber, Kathlenn Brett, Robyn Driedger-Klassen, Doug MacNaughton, Gregory Dahl, Dean Elzinga, Lawrence Williford, Tracie Luck, DeAndre Simmons and Louise Rose, conducted by Timothy Vernon.
  • LRT Klasika - From Vienna, Gounod's Faust, with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
  • KBYU - A rebroadcast of this summer's Bayreueth Festival performance of Wagner's Parsifal.
  • CBC Two - A double bill: From Los Angeles Opera, Puccini's Tosca, with Neil Shicoff, Adrianne Pieczonka, Juan Pons and Robert Pomakov, conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong; and from Opera Australia, Puccini's Suor Angelica, with Nicole Youl, Hye Seoung Kwon, Milijana Nikolic, Elizabeth Campbell, Dominica Matthews, Rosemary Gunn, Elizabeth Ellis, Adele Johnston and Teresa La Rocca, mezzo-soprano, conducted by Andrea Licata.
  • Deutschlandradio Kultur - From Gdansk, Poland, a June 28th performance of Siegfried Wagner's Der Schmied von Marienburg, with Marek Kalbus, Till Schulze, Anton Leiß-Huber, Christoph von Weitzel, Karl Schneider, Maacha Deubner, Johannes Föttinger, Therese Glaubitz, Ralf Sauerbrey and Rebecca Broberg, conducted by Frank Strobel.
  • DR P2 - From Lausanne, an April 25th perforomance of Hande's Julius Cæsar, with Andreas Scholl, Yannis Francois, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Max Emanuel Cencic, Elena de la Merced, Christophe Dumaux, Riccardo Novaro and Florin Cezar-Ouatu, conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
  • France Musique - From l'Opéra Bastille in Paris, an October 13th performance of Janácek's La petite renarde rusée (The Cunning Littel Vixen), with Jukka Rasilainen, Michèle Lagrange, David Kuebler, Roland Bracht, Paul Gay, Elena Tsallagova and Hannah Esther Minutillo, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
  • Radio 4 Netherlands, Radio Clasica de Espana & Radio Tre (RAI) - From Teatro Comunale in Bologna, a live performance of Marschner's Der Vampyr, with Harry Peeters, Carmela Remigio, John Osborn, Detlef Roth, Roberto Tagliavini, Manuela Bisceglie, Paolo Cauteruccio, Donata D'Annunzio Lombardi, Thomas Morris, Mario Bolognesi, Gabriele Ribis, Conal Coad, Monica Minarelli, Adrian Sampetrean and Karl Heinz Macek, conducted by Roberto Abbado.
  • RTP Antena 2 - From l'Opéra Bastille in Paris, a March 8th performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller, with Ana Maria Martínez, Elisa Cenni, Ramón Vargas, Vincent Morell, Andrzej Dobber, Ildar Abdrazakov and Kwangchul Youn, conducted by Massimo Zanetti.
  • WFMT Opera Series (on numerous stations) - From Houston Grand Opera, Britten's Billy Budd, with Andrew Kennedy, David Brooks Horn, Tommy Ajai George, Ryan McKinny, Richard Sutliff, Philip Cutlip, Beau Gibson, Chad Freeburg, Rodell Rosel, Liam Bonner, Jeremy Galyon, Phillip Ens, Joseph Evans, Wesley Landry, Daniel Belcher, James J. Kee, Gwynne Howell and David Ziemnicki, conducted by Patrick Summers.
  • WQXR - From Houston Grand Opera, Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, with Karen Armstrong, Paul Groves, Andrea Silvestrelli, Heidi Stober, Nicholas Phan and Richard Spuler, conducted by William Lacey.
  • XLNC1 - From Houston Grand Opera, Mozart's The Magic Flute, with Rebekah Camm, Eric Cutler, Patrick Carfizzi, Albina Shagimuratova, Raymond Aceto, Jon Kolbet, Alicia Gianni, Chen-Ye Yuan, Tamara Wilson, Maria Markina and Jamie Barton, conducted by Steven Sloane.
  • BBC Radio 3 - Live from English National Opera, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, with Peter Rose, John Graham-Hall, David Stephenson, Brindley Sherratt, Gregory Turay, Yvonne Howard, Jonathan Veira, Anton Rich, Sophie Bevan, Ann Grevelius, Deborah Davison, James Gower, Paul Napier-Burrows, Charles Johnston, Philip Daggett, and Robert Murray, conducted by Edward Gardner.
  • Bartok Radio - From Teatro Regio in Turin, an October 9th performance of Cherubini's Medea, with Anna Caterina Antonacci, Cinzia Forte, Sara Mingardo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Giovanni Battista Parodi, Erika Grimaldi, Luisa Francesconi, Diego Matamoros, conducted by Evelino Pido.
  • NPR World of Opera - From Washington National Opera, yet another chance to hear Handel's Tamerlano, with Placido Domingo, David Daniels, Sarah Coburn, Patricia Bardon, Claudio Huckle and Andrew Foster Williams, conducted by William Lacey.
  • Lyric FM - Live from Opera Ireland, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Yunah Lee and Keith Olsen, conducted by Bruno dal Bon.
  • NRK Klassisk & NRK P2 - From Opéra Garnier in Paris, Gluck's Iphegenie en Tauride, with Mireille Delunsch, Stéphane Degout, Yann Beuron, Franck Ferrari, Salomé Haller, conducted by Ivor Bolton.
  • Radio Oesterreich International - From the Metropolitan Opera, an historic broadcast of Beethoven's Fidelio (January 22, 1966), with Birgit Nilsson, James King, Geraint Evans, Otto Edelmann, Mary Ellen Pracht, Charles Anthony and Sherill Milnes, conducted by Karl Böhm.
  • Sveriges Radio P2 - From this past summer's Bayreuth Festival, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
  • Espace 2 - From the Metropolitan Opera, an historic broadcast of Verdi's Otello, with Jon Vickers, Kiri Te Kanawa, Thomas Stewart, Jean Kraft, William Lewis, Andrea Velis, Robert Goodloe, Paul Plishka and David Holloway, conducted by James Levine.
  • Klara - From Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, an August 29th performance of Strauss's Elektra, with Larisa Gogolevskaya, Elena Vitman, Elena Nebera, Vasily Gorshkov, Eduard Tsanga, Pavel Shmulevich, Ludmila Kanunnikova, Ludmila Kasyanenko, Andrey Popov, Andrey Spekhov, Irina Loskutova, Olga Legkova, Kristina Kapustinskaya, Maria Uvarova, Tatiana Kravtsova and Lia Shevtsova, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Happy listening . . . .

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Damnation Redux - Friday, November 14, 2008

Some comments on Sam Shirakawa's squib on the Met's new production of The Damnation of Faust, based on my own observations at Friday evening's performance:

G and I sat near the back of the Family Circle, but off to one side. I was not aware of the whirring of the projectors from the lighting booth above the Family Circle, so I suspect Sam heard the racket because he was sitting closer to the center of the Family Circle. Since Opening Night, the Met may also have worked to dampen the noise.

I agree with Sam about the the two-dimensionality of the production. This was especially obvious in the dance sequences where the dancers all moved laterally to and fro across the stage, but the stretches of stage they had to work with amounted to wider than normal catwalks.

Some of the video effects were striking - one of the more arresting images came late in the second act: as Méphistophélès stalks Faust to seek his signature on the deed, one by one the trees with their fall foliage wither as Méphistophélès advances across the stage towards his quarry - chilling and effective.

As for the singing, Susan Graham was wonderful throughout, perhaps the best I had ever heard her, with warm and plangent tone, long-breathed phrasing and generally good diction. Patrick Carfizzi, as the drunkard, Brander, made the most of his aria, with admirably clear diction. I have always loved Carfizzi's voice and presence and wonder why he has not been given meatier roles (I suspect he could handle Méphistophélès with more panache than John Relyea did tonight).

Relyea looked smashing in his red leather suit and feathered cap, but I wish his singing had more of the French suavity required for the role. His serenade in Part III passed without note (or applause). After such a promising beginning as a young singer, his singing has become more throaty and constricted over the last few seasons. Marcello Giordani's singing was coarse and unstylish all evening, and his diction was unintelligible.

Sam is right about James Levine's conducting, and I also agree with Sam that it was distracting to watch the reflection of him conducting in the onstage screens all evening. I am sure no one in the production staff ever went upstairs to see if there would be reflection problems for those sitting in the gods....

Altogether a mixed bag - Berlioz's music and his orchestrations are constantly dazzling, and the ending was sublime, but the singing was more disappointing that one might wish. Still I wouldn't want to have missed this extraordinary event.

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