Conductor: Bruno Campanella Director: James Robinson
Giannetta: Ji Young Yang
Adina: Inva Mula
Nemorino: Ramón Vargas
Belcore: Giorgio Caoduro
Dr. Dulcamara: Alessandro Corbelli
This version of Donizetti's L’Elisir d’Amore from 2008 at the San Francisco Opera is completely new to me. How is this possible? We are in Napa in California before the US entrance into WWI. Uncle Sam is recruiting for the army. For people from California this completely works. Farms, wine, a rich lady farm owner. Yes. Adina and Nemorino are singing and eating ice cream. They just nibble, or we would worry.
Ramon Vargas is the perfect Nemorino, overflowing with cheerfulness.. This performance includes the greatest of all comic Italian baritones--Alessandro Corbelli. He seems like the ideal con man. This is charming and fun. This is Inva Mula's only appearance at the San Francisco Opera. She is not my favorite Adina but projects the too good for Nemorino aura required. Stylistically she is dead on.
There is an ice cream truck and a motorcycle with a side car. Belcore has boxing gloves instead of a uniform. All the young men put on military uniforms as volunteers for the war. It's fun and transfers effectively to Napa.
This is Natalie Dessay in San Francisco in 2008 singing Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. I attended and reviewed at that time. This is Donizetti's most popular serious opera, but perhaps I only like the comedies.
I've seen 6 different productions of this opera by now, and my favorite by a wide margin is the Zimmerman version with the fountain and the ghost. The ghost is my favorite. I understand they are retiring it, which seems very sad to me. This one from San Francisco is rather dull.
I am enjoying Filianoti more this time. The singing is fine. I have only seen 6, so from the ones I've seen, I prefer the one with Lisette and Javier I saw in 2018. I apologize for all this comparing.
The most fun part of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia from the San Francisco Opera is Michael Fabiano in a wild blond wig. We are used to him bald, but with hair he is completely gorgeous. Sigh.
The production and singing are enjoyable, but it is clear that Lucrezia creates her own tragedy. She has searched for Gennaro and has finally found him in Venice. He shows her a letter from his mother. No matter how dire the circumstances, she never tells anyone that she is his mother. Not even him. She's willing to risk killing him but not this. She would not risk her own status. It's ok for men to have illegitimate children, but not women. So everyone dies. One does not identify with this story.
People don't give Peter Gelb enough credit. In this production of Roberto Devereux, from 2016,he has chosen the perfect cast.
Elisabetta:
Sondra Radvanovsky (soprano)
Sara, Duchess of Nottingham:
Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano)
Roberto Devereux:
Matthew Polenzani (tenor)
Duke of Nottingham:
Mariusz Kwiecien (baritone)
He has also chosen the great Englishman, David McVicar, to create this wonderful production. Of the three queens, I prefer this one because it isn't so dark and drab.
I like Sondra Radvanovsky in other operas, but this is her masterpiece. The opera comes to life because of the wonderful intensity she brings.
The plot is nonsense, of course. Elizabeth was a truly great queen who would never have allowed the execution of one of her courtiers on anything so trivial as sex. My understanding is that Devereux tried to overthrow the queen, the precise meaning of being a traitor. I doubt that having a girlfriend qualifies. It wouldn't make an opera, though.
Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn).......Anna Netrebko
Giovanna (Jane Seymour).........Ekaterina Gubanova
Enrico (Henry VIII).............Ildar Abdrazakov
Riccardo (Lord Richard Percy)...Stephen Costello
Mark Smeaton....................Tamara Mumford
Lord Rochefort..................Keith Miller
Sir Hervey......................Eduardo Valdes
In the announcement before Donizetti's Anna Bolena, 2011, began we were told that this was the first time this opera had played at the Met. When Beverly Sills sang her three queens, it was across the plaza at City Opera.
We are not to see the happy time when Anna Bolena married Henry VIII. Instead we come in at the point in her marriage where he has already moved on to his next wife, Jane Seymour. In this context she as portrayed as loved by many men, but still remaining faithful to her husband. The sets are dark and uninviting, but much love has gone into creating costumes that are true to the period of Henry VIII. In this era of modern black business suits in virtually any opera, we are grateful.
Donizetti is the closest to Verdi of any of the Italian composers. This could be early, or even middle Verdi. There is much bombast. Everyone earns a big aria. The top three singers are all Russian, so we are treated to some magnificent Russian style singing characterized by big voices and big production. Perhaps this is what prompts Stephen Costello to sing in this big voiced style. It's the heaviest I remember for him.
Netrebko wished to sing this. It is probably the intensity of emotion that attracted her. The duet with Gubanova is especially dramatic. Ildar makes Henry an angry asshole. Seen from this perspective, he does seem like a megalomaniacal pervert.
Dear Anne Boleyn, Someone has written this opera for you, and now some other people have made this wonderful performance. I think it's the best we can do for you.
What we love so unreservedly about Anna Netrebko is how completely she commits to the inner emotions of her performances. She gives it all. Viva.
Figaro..................Peter Mattei
Rosina..................Joyce DiDonato
Count Almaviva....Juan Diego Flórez
Dr. Bartolo.............John Del Carlo
Don Basilio.............John Relyea
The Met is streaming Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia that originally played in 2007 while I was driving across the country. I don't seem to have had much enthusiasm for it, but seeing it now I like it a lot. This is such a marvelous cast. Every one is among the best in their class. At this point in my life Mattei may be my favorite Figaro. He plays the role with great vigor. There is a strange, ghost-like man who wanders the stage. The main trio are young and lively, great singers, actors, musicians.
This opera was originally called Almaviva and ended with the big aria usually heard as the finale to La Cenerantola, here sung by the tenor. Later Rossini removed it from this opera and assigned it to Angiolina, a coloratura mezzo. In modern times it is only rarely heard in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and only when a company wishes to particularly honor a tenor. Juan Diego's performance is excellent.
Director
Damiano Michieletto
Conductor
Evelino Pidò
Don Pasquale
Bryn Terfel
Norina
Olga Peretyatko
Ernesto
Ioan Hotea
Doctor Malatesta
Markus Werba
Occasionally operas from the ROH play in a local movie theater here. This time we saw Donizetti's Don Pasquale with Bryn and Olga Peretyatko. This is an excellent role for Bryn. This is regie, of course. When Norina receives a message from Ernesto, it is by way of her mobile phone. Ding.
This opera works pretty well in a modern setting. She's not an imprisoned woman like in so many other Italian comedies. Instead it's the young man who is being disinherited for wanting to marry the girl he loves. In Italian comedies love always will out. One tires of the young people tricking the nasty old man plot. One is after all old oneself.
Marie......................Pretty Yende
Tonio......................Javier Camarena
Marquise of Berkenfield....Stephanie Blythe
Sergeant Sulpice...........Maurizio Muraro
Hortentius.................Paul Corona
Duchesse of Krakentorp.....Kathleen Turner
Today's HD from the Met is Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment, a revival of the Laurent Pelly production. I didn't think this was possible, but it was even more fun than with Natalie Dessay.
Tonio is a Tyrolean, and Marie is a found child raised by a regiment of the French army invading Tyrol. Marie does laundry and peels potatoes. She also wanders off into a neighboring village where she meets Tonio. Pretty Yende does the best job ever of seeming to be a young woman raised by a troop of soldiers. She swears, though I noticed they didn't translate this.
This was also an historic occasion: we had the first bis (encore) in any HD performance. Of course this was for Javier Camarena's performance of "Ah mes amis" with the famous 9 high Cs. So with a bis that makes 18 high Cs. Dare we say it? He is the new king of the high Cs.
This is such a marvelous cast with gorgeous singing and lively acting that swept us along. We laughed and cried and rejoiced when aunt/mother allows Marie and Tonio to wed. Wonderful.
I missed the sprouted potato found with Marie's souvenirs in previous performances.
Constant searching has led me to a film of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri from Whitsun at Salzburg in 2018. This is regie, of course. The subtitles seem to be in French. We are in Mustafa's bedroom where his wife makes advances while husband Mustafa is sleeping. He doesn't like it. Lindoro comes in with a vaccuum, smoking, wearing dreads and a tattoo. There is lots of nice music for Lindoro and Mustafa. The houses in the street all have satellite dishes.
After the guys leave, Cecilia comes in riding on a camel. Camel raises tail, Cecilia holds nose. This is an opera comedy that seems actually to be funny. Corbelli runs out of one of the stores to save Cecilia from bandits [cops?] waving guns? She says he is her uncle and shows her passport. Isabella is a contralto and is fairly easy for Cecilia. Everything is charming. I'm so glad she is singing this and that I am finally seeing it. My traveling days may be over.
In the next scene Isabella meets Mustafa and critiques his figure. In a row behind them are men smoking hookahs and blowing the smoke out onto the stage. Lindoro and Isabella see each other. Stuffed chairs roll around the stage. Isabella tells Mustafa he already has a wife.
This is fun. It is wonderful to see Isabella played by the essential Italian woman. Cecilia has long been my favorite Italian.
In the prelude to act 2 there are annoying banging sounds which turn out to be people slicing vegetables. The male chorus, clearly Mustafa's flunkies, carry boxes of electronics. Is Mustafa selling them, stealing them, what? Mustafa is arranging a meeting with Isabella. Cecilia enters smoking, but I don't see smoke. Sight gags. Smooching.
Taddeo takes off his trousers and is wearing Superman briefs. We have as many sight gags as you could possibly want. I am enjoying this very much. Suddenly male chorus all have guns and shoot them off. Perhaps Mustafa is an Algerian mafioso.
Back in Isabella's apartment she is taking a bubble bath with people all around, including us, of course. Mustafa enters in his night clothes and tries to get an eyeful. Isabella is waving bras around and singing. It is a fact that this is my first time seeing The Italian Girl in Algiers with a real Italian girl. So we know what has been missing. The aria ends and Lindoro wheels the bathtub off stage. Isabella soon reenters in her nightgown. Taddeo assumes the lotus position. Everything is getting out of control when Elvira enters. Mustafa passes out.
We see clips of La Dolce Vita where Anita Ekberg gets into the Trevi Fountain, the ultimate Italian woman film. I don't know what the general reception for this production was, but I am loving it. It is colossally silly with the spectacular Cecilia Bartoli in the middle. I find that I am shockingly unfamiliar with most of the music in this opera.
In the final scene the male chorus are all dressed as soccer players. Isabella feeds them from a giant pot of pasta. She sings "Pensa la patria" to Lindoro who is also Italian. This is at last familiar, probably from one of Cecilia's albums. She flirts with everyone. Mustafa is to be made a Pappataci. He goes back to his regular wife and the Italians all sail off for Italy. Bon voyage. Everyone lives happily ever after. Isabella and Lindoro are doing Titanic at the end, but let's assume their fates are different. How many icebergs can there be in the Mediterranean?
For me this production was perfect. Yes, it's modernized but I found the changes never to be a distortion of the story. After all, an Italian woman is an Italian woman in any era. I also thought the cast was as good as it gets, most of all our Italian woman, Cecilia Bartoli.
👍🏻
We were discussing the current queen of opera Sondra Radvanovsky, and I suggested we sing "God Save the Queen" when she came out for her bow, forgetting entirely that the opera starts with that same tune. I am speaking of the current production of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux from the San Francisco Opera, a wonderful performance of a less than entirely wonderful opera.
Conductor: Riccardo Frizza
Director: Stephen Lawless
Elisabetta (Elizabeth I): Sondra Radvanovsky
Roberto Devereux, Earl of Essex: Russell Thomas
Sara: Jamie Barton
Duke of Nottingham: Andrew Manea [Adler]
Lord Cecil: Amitai Pati [Adler]
Walter Raleigh: Christian Pursell [Adler]
This opera is questionable from a plot perspective. The above listed characters are all members of the British upper class. It is fairly easy to describe the relationship aspects of the story.
Elizabeth and Roberto have a secret relationship. Since Nottingham knows nothing about it, we may assume that this is truly secret. Then before leaving England to lead a war in Ireland, Robert starts a love relationship with Sara, a young woman in the court. Robert goes off to war, and while he is away, Sara's father dies. An upper class woman cannot be left free in the world, so Elizabeth arranges a marriage for her with the Duke of Nottingham. No one is aware that she is in love with Essex.
Essex returns from war where he has been unsuccessful to find that Sara is married. Meanwhile Elizabeth hopes that he still loves her. An emotional mess ensues, the kind of emotional mess that can only happen in an Italian opera. Long ago Elizabeth gave Robert a ring which he was to send to her if he was ever in danger.
Robert goes to see Sara. So why isn't he locked up in the Tower of London? She gives him a love token which her husband recognizes.
The part of the plot that makes no sense is the political part. In real life Essex is supposed to have tried to overthrow the queen, which would make nonsense of her part in the emotional, operatic plot. So the charges are trivial and relate to him being overly merciful toward the Irish. So he is executed for no apparent reason. The ring doesn't arrive in time. It's even more complicated than what I have described.
This is Queen Elizabeth's most vulnerable moment, and it happens in her old age. She died in her 69th year. It is mysteriously wonderful how Sondra Radvanovsky fits this role. She is tall and regal, and has a large, commanding voice. You believe that she is the absolute monarch who has fallen in love in her old age. It is difficult to imagine any other soprano bringing this role to such spectacular heights. She should sing it in your city, too.
The production which comes from Canada made the complex plot very clear, clearer than the recent Met production. Sondra's supporting singers, primarily Russell Thomas, Jamie Barton and Andrew Manea, rose almost to her magnificence. I don't think this is a great opera, though it is leading the path to Verdi, but it is a great opera for Sondra Radvanovsky. Brava.
Lucia: Lisette Oropesa
Edgardo: Javier Camarena
Enrico Ashton: Artur Rucinski
Raimondo Bidebent: Roberto Tagliavini
Lord Arturo Bucklaw: Yijie Shi
Alisa: Marina Pinchuk
Normanno: Alejandro del Cerro
I've never actually seen a live bis in an opera before (they do them all the time in concerts in Italy, usually of something you'd rather not hear again). When I realized what it was, I burst into tears. And an ensemble, the sextet, on top of it. I'm seriously loving this. Everyone is a shit except Lucia. She's already pretty insane before the mad scene. We had a glass harmonica.
I am speaking, of course, of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor streamed live from Teatro Real Madrid. The set is like your high school gym. There's a radiator. I think the theme is "you'd go nuts too if everyone you knew was this awful." We're doing a play within a play. At the end of the mad scene the chorus claps very slowly. It's not at all like the loud shouting from the real audience. The production does nothing to explain the opera but focuses entirely on the atmosphere.
The singing and for me also the acting were very good. I love Lisette, but she will need to stay light in this role. I came for Lisette and Javier, two of my favorites of the young singers, and they did not disappoint. Javier wears a kilt in this, a first for me.
Lisette has also performed the ROH Lucia which I reviewed with Diana Damrau. This version will be available on OperaVision for a while. If you missed the live stream, watch it now.
I have to add a comment. Lisette's physical training gives her a kind of absolute control over the phrase. It's stunning.
Sacramento State Opera Theater presented two short operas with a common theme: one or more characters are in disguise. The great disguise opera is La Cenerentola where the Prince and his valet exchange places. Both roles are well developed.
There is a small orchestra positioned behind the singers. I have been in this theater when it had a pit, and the remnants of the pit are still visible. So why don't they use it? The supertitles were virtually invisible, and other signs of disrepair were all around.
Conductor: Ryan Murray
Director: Omari Tau
Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard (1946) by Pierre Petit
Sylvia, a young Parisian Angela Yam, soprano
Lisette, her maid Tatiana Grabcluc, soprano
Dotante, a young Parisian Nathan Halbut, baritone, guest artist
Sylvia is expecting a visit from her betrothed, a man named Dotante. They are betrothed but have never met, apparently. Sylvia and Lisette change places, which consists primarily of putting the maid's outfit onto Sylvia. When a young man arrives, he claims to be Dotante's servant. The two pretend servants get along very well and decide once the disguises are revealed that marriage would be a good idea after all.
This is a relatively modern piece and is therefore through-composed. The music was sweet and charming. I liked both of the young women in this work, and would have liked to hear more of Tatiana. Angela is beautiful and appeared also in the next opera.
Il campanello di notte (1836) by Gaetano Donizetti
Serafina, a young bride Angela Yam, soprano
Don Annibale Pistacchio, an apothecary Justin Ramm-Damron, bass
Enrico, Serafina's cousin Jordan Krack, baritone, opera theater alumnus
Spiridione, Don Annibale's servant Jacob Burke, tenor
Madama Rosa, Serafina's mother Valerie Loera
Don Annibale, an old man, has just married Serafina who is much too young for him. Their family members are celebrating the nuptials. A cute bit of business occurs when Don Annibale and his new mother-in-law dance together and she leads. Enrico arrives and has a long duet with Serafina for the most operatic section of the piece. She is not encouraging, and Enrico leaves after toasting the groom. This scene would have been improved with visible supertitles.
Don Annibale dresses for bed with his new bride, but before anything can happen, Enrico arrives in three disguises, each needing a prescription. From here it is a major slapstick tour de force for Enrico. He looks and acts like an idiot in all three of his disguises. The audience screamed. The most amazing thing about this opera and probably the explanation for why you have never seen it lies in the lines for disguise number 3: they have a long list of ingredients for the prescription which they recite like a patter song. How is this even possible? Jordan Crack carried this entire opera.
It was Donizetti and therefore featured extended sections of secco recitative played on an electric piano. It was too loud. I always say sing with the music, not the conductor. Here there was no choice. The conductor faced the musicians at the back, even when playing the electric piano. The singers either faced each other or the audience. No one got lost or confused.
This is fun, and you will never see either of these operas again.
Semiramide, Queen of Babylon, widow of King Nino, soprano: Angela Meade Assur, a prince, descendant of Baal, bass: Ildar Abdrazakov Arsace, Commander of the Assyrian army, contralto: Elizabeth DeShong Idreno, an Indian king, tenor: Javier Camarena Oroe, high priest of the Magi, bass: Ryan Speedo Green Azema, a princess, descendant of Baal, soprano: Sarah Shafer Mitrane, Captain of the Guard, tenor: Kang Wang Nino's Ghost, bass: Jeremy Galyon
This wasn't my first time with Rossini's Semiramide. My first time was probably the only time it played at the San Francisco Opera in 1981 with Montserrat Caballé, Marilyn Horne
and James Morris. I sat next to a woman who was a Caballé fan, and we alternated sighing for the two female stars. This in spite of the weirdness of the costumes. Richard Bonynge conducted.
I bought a film from the Bel Canto Society filmed in 1980 with a very similar cast which included Sam Ramey. The singing is amazing if you'd like to hear it.
And then a year ago I watched a stream from Munich starring Joyce DiDonato and Daniela Barcellona which I enjoyed very much for the singing but which was modernized.
Let's just say I had certain expectations today. For one thing I expected not to like it. Instead I got surprises.
Semiramide is Rossini's last opera seria. It may in fact be the last opera seria at all. This form of opera means serious opera, has serious subject matter, consists of endless rows of da capo arias and ensembles, and usually has a happy ending. The singing is the point. You can see from the pictures that this is the first time in my experience that any effort was made to make the costumes look Assyrian. In Marilyn's version the soldiers looked a bit like playing cards. In Joyce's everyone seems like modern middle-eastern. Today's costumes may not be pretty, but they are trying to be period.
I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed Angela Meade in this role. She has a steelier voice than either Caballé or DiDonato. In fact that could be said of the other singers as well. DeShong is steelier and heavier than Horne or Barcellona. Camarena is heavier than Brownlee or Ariaza. The result is a shift to a much more intense and dramatic work altogether. All are working together to set a tone of intense tragedy.
There's only one problem with that: all that intensity can become tedious. Sometimes I appreciated it, and sometimes I didn't. Bonynge and company focused on beautiful singing above all else. This is pleasing in an entirely different way.
I was surprised by Ryan Speedo Green. What a voice. I was surprised by the clarity of the plot. I saw the Commendatore from Don Giovanni in Nino's Ghost. I liked it in a surprising way.
We saw in HD today the excellent Bartlett Sher production of Donizetti's L’Elisir d’Amore. I've seen this production before and know that the top hat worn by Adina proclaims that she is the landlord of this country property seen at the beginning of the opera. Matthew was Nemoriino the last time.
Something happened this time that hasn't happened for me: in the second scene in town before Dulcamara arrives Adina and Nemorino tease and play with one another. Clearly she already has eyes only for him. What we with our egalitarian perspective don't notice is that penniless Nemorino is far too much lower in class for land owner Adina. I felt tremendous rapport between Pretty and Matthew in this performance, and it changed the dynamic of the opera for me. Pretty is charming and beautiful.
This is the sixth time I have blogged about this opera, and I think I have enjoyed this one the most. It was extremely cheerful, and I think I prefer it that way. The prompter's arm was seen as he struggled with the elixir. Lidia Bastianich appeared in the intermission to tell us about her new pasta dish called "pasta d'amore." Food and opera are her great loves. She did standard opera bragging by telling that her first live opera was Aida at the old Met with Leontyne Price and Franco Corelli. Dulcamara ate the pasta on stage.
Norma...................Sondra Radvanovsky
Pollione................Joseph Calleja
Adalgisa................Joyce DiDonato
Oroveso.................Matthew Rose
Clotilde................Michelle Bradley
Above is the staging for "Casta diva" from Bellini's Norma live in HD from the Metropolitan opera. The goddess to whom she prays is the moon, so the scene must appear to be moonlit. This is the greatest complaint about this production, that the sets are too dark. Our screen was quite large and generally easy to see, except for the very beginning, before the moon-rise, which was almost black.
My Normas have been Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballe, Cecilia Bartoli and Sondra Radvanovsky, whom I heard first in San Francisco. For me this version was best of all for the acting. I loved Cecilia's Norma for this quality, but here it balances across the cast.
We know we are at war by the presence of bodies. What is to be their position toward the Romans? Norma recommends reaching a peace with them, but we know that her motives are suspicious. She probably recommends peace because of her relationship to Pollione, the Roman proconsul. In the first act religious ceremony Adalgisa assists Norma in the rite.
In Norma's house Adalgisa reveals that she is in love with Pollione and has promised to go with him to Rome. Norma does not reveal to Adalgisa until later that she has two children by Pollione. The increase in the significance of Adalgisa and the increased strength of her tie to Norma changes the emotional dynamic of the opera.
So when Norma calls her followers together again, she recommends war. We see Norma's range of emotions, especially her rage against Pollione. She knows someone must die, but is not sure who should be killed. She finally arrives at herself as the person at fault. Adalgisa appears at the end to watch her lover and her friend walk off together to their deaths.
Sondra was magnificent, a giant, intense performance still wonderfully sung. Joyce was also magnificent in both singing and acting. I even liked Calleja. When watching the old timers long ago, one hardly knew there was a plot. Here we get the best of both worlds--a traditional staging with a lot of emotional interaction and magnificent singing. #ad
Violetta.................Sonya Yoncheva
Alfredo..................Michael Fabiano
Germont................Thomas Hampson
Flora.......................Rebecca Jo Loeb
Gastone..................Scott Scully
Baron Douphol.......Dwayne Croft
Dr. Grenvil.............James Courtney
Annina....................Jane Bunnell
Verdi's La Traviata in the Willy Decker production from the Metropolitan Opera appeared on my television. This is undoubtedly the greatest of all the operas. I think it is the most passionate about the two great themes of love and death. It falls at the end of bel canto and includes one of the greatest of all bel canto arias, "Sempre libera."
This is the final appearance at the Met of this production originally from the Salzburg Festival. I begin to think I will miss it. There were a few cuts. This time around it bothered me that Flora was a man. Why would all those men go to parties where there was only one woman? But rooms full of Victorian dresses hold little charm for me.
This is a perfect role for Michael Fabiano. I like Sonya Yoncheva but do not love her as overwhelmingly as I did Netrebko. The sound of her voice is less to my taste. She carried the final scene to its heart-wrenching conclusion.
I reviewed this same production here with Dessay, here, and here for Netrebko.
👍🏻
Conductor: Michele Mariotti
Production:
David Alden
Semiramide, Queen of Babylon, widow of King Nino:
Joyce DiDonato
Assur, a prince, descendant of Baal:
Alex Esposito
Arsace, Commander of the Assyrian army:
Daniela Barcellona
Idreno, an Indian king:
Lawrence Brownlee
Oroe, high priest of the Magi: Simone Alberghini
Azema, a princess, descendant of Baal: Elsa Benoit
Mitrane, Captain of the Guard: Galeano Salas
Nino's Ghost: Igor Tsarkov
The role of Semiramide in Rossini's opera Semiramide is usually sung by the same people who sing Lucia, people like Montserrat Caballé, Joan Sutherland, June Anderson, etc. It was, however, composed for Isabella Colbran who is generally considered a mezzo-soprano. (Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra,
Otello,
ossia Il Moro di Venezia,
Armida,
Mosè in Egitto,
Ricciardo e Zoraide,
Ermione,
La donna del lago, Maometto II, Zelmira, and Semiramide are the operas written for Colbran.) After her success in La donna del lago, Joyce DiDonato clearly wanted to try her hand at another Colbran role.
I experienced a lot of technical difficulties with this stream from the Bayerische Staatsoper and finally ended up listening on my iPhone, not an ideal medium for watching an opera.
The cast for this opera was simply spectacular. DiDonato and Barcellona sing beautifully together. It is one of the great bel canto operas with an endless stream of gorgeous music. It may well be considered Rossini's masterpiece.
As with most of the streams from the Bayerische Staatsoper, this performance will probably disappear forever. This makes me sad.
I have only a short comment after hearing parts of I Puritani on the radio from the Met. Diana Damrau is exactly this kind of singer. I doubt that she would want to limit her repertoire to bel canto, but she and Javier Camarena were glorious.
👍🏻
Conductor:
Karel Mark Chichon
Production:
Amélie Niermeyer
Léonor de Guzman:
Elīna Garanča (mezzo)
Fernand:
Matthew Polenzani (tenor)
Alphonse XI:
Mariusz Kwiecień (baritone)
Balthazar:
Mika Kares (bass)
Don Gaspard:
Joshua Owen Mills (tenor)
Inès:
Elsa Benoit (soprano)
We are experiencing a live stream of Donizetti's La Favorite, in French, from the Bayerische Staatsoper.
If you have Elīna Garanča, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecień, you do La Favorite. These three are a marvelous trio of singing actors. We get the full on masculine pig behavior from Mariusz, perhaps in honor of our American pig candidate. This is, of course, Regietheater. You know, mostly black modern clothing, no particular set. There is a section in Act II where Léonor and Alphonse are alone and seem to be watching television together. This can only have been a ballet. So he responds in a very manic way to what he's seeing alternating with pawing her. She finds the whole thing boring. At one point they laugh. She tells him that she came to him from her home expecting to be married.
This story conflicts with its presentation in this production. Alphonse is constantly molesting Léonor in every possible context. It is simply unbelievable that Fernand does not understand what this means. She marries in black. Too many clues, Fernand. We're not buying it when you "suddenly" understand. He's claiming his honor is lost. She's saying his soul knows the truth, so why is his pride so inflamed? Now she's slinking off in her slip. The chorus is pommeling her with flowers.
Fernand returns to the monastery and Léonor prays. All three of our singers are wonderful. She's back, but this time she has on a black watch cap and another black men's suit. I am seriously loving the singing here. The ending is marvelous. One loves most of all the sounds of their voices, which were beautiful together.
Ten years ago I said about this opera:
"It is only recently that women have broken out of their categories.
Before that there were good girls and bad girls, angels and whores. It
makes a whole opera plot that a whore is mistaken for an angel. You
can't always tell, you know.
"In opera angels are sopranos and whores are mezzos. We realize there
are exceptions, such as Manon, but generally whores are mezzos. Carmen,
Dalila, Maddalena, and Leonor in Donizetti´s La Favorite. She
is the king's mistress, and when Fernand falls for her, she refuses to
tell who she is. She deliberately lets him think his whore is an angel.
"The opera has a simple beginning--a priest who has not taken his final
vows falls for one of his parishioners--and a simple ending--she saves
him from hell by dying. In the middle it gets pretty complicated. The
king wants to divorce his wife to marry his mistress in spite of the
pope's opposition. Fernand also wants her, and when the king promises to
grant him any wish, Fernand wishes for Leonor. The courtiers still
consider her a whore and tell Fernand now that it is too late and he has
married her that he has lost his honor. From there everything just
goes to hell. "
