Conductor: Henrik Nánási
Director: Michael Cavanagh
Ferrando: Ben Bliss*
Guglielmo: John Brancy
Don Alfonso: Ferruccio Furlanetto
Fiordiligi: Nicole Cabell
Dorabella: Irene Roberts
Despina: Nicole Heaston
The San Francisco Opera is currently showing Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. Starting this season if you do not want to go into a crowded opera house, you can for a fee watch the opera at home on live stream. I would like to suggest that it should be possible to make this available to play later for the same fee. This would allow friends in Europe to watch it. It's the middle of the night there.
This production began in 2019 with Figaro as part of a Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy and will continue to its conclusion later this season in Don Giovanni. All three operas are set in the same basic house structure. In this opera the house is now a country club with sports, dining, and other facilities. I felt that the concept worked very well. In the picture above the guys are in the men's locker room. I liked the look of it and felt that it served very well to clarify the story. The singers were expected to be rather more athletic than is generally a good idea.
My only problem with it was with the music. The music sounded very much like a performance of a Mozart symphony--intense and dramatic. It wasn't exactly bad, but didn't make me feel like I was seeing a comedy. My overall take is positive. This opera is often hated, and I overcame my tendency in this direction. It was good to see Ferruccio Furlanetto.
Elsa Dreisig: Fiordiligi, soprano
Marianne Crebassa: Dorabella, mezzo
Andrè Schuen: Guglielmo, bass
Bogdan Volkov: Ferrando, tenor
Lea Desandre: Despina, soprano
Johannes Martin Kränzle: Don Alfonso, bass
This year isn't just the Beethoven year, it is also 100 years of the Salzburg Festival. They were determined not to just skip the whole thing like almost all the other festivals, so they reduced it as far as possible. There are quite a few concerts but only two operas, down from 10. We are concerning ourselves with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.
This is a regie production which provides virtually no context. We are in white rooms with no furniture. The clothing is the usual modern black outfits, except for the guys. They start out in the usual black suits, but when it's time for them show up in disguises, they are in the above outfits. If you have no idea what goes on in this opera, you still won't. They are supposed to be in disguise, but they would know who they are. Obviously. Despina's first act aria is cut. In fact the whole performance is at least a half hour shorter than usual. I notice that Dorabella has a tattoo on her ankle. So these are modern children.
In their funny outfits after the poison gag the guys woo the same girls they did at the beginning. This is not how it's supposed to work. They switch back and forth. Hmmm. These guys are not in disguise. They are just messing with them. The girls get pissed and the boys split.
This production seems to have its own plot. The guys are back in their dark suits way before they usually are. I don't think I like any of these people.
But the music is gorgeous. The soprano ornaments her arias. Have I ever heard this kind of ornamentation in Mozart before? I don't think so. The tenor is also lovely.
No one is fooled at any point. They end up in the beginning arrangement, but it could have gone either way. I still want a trick ending.
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Conductor...............James Levine
Production..............Jonathan Miller
Figaro..................Bryn Terfel
Susanna.................Cecilia Bartoli
Count Almaviva..........Dwayne Croft
Countess Almaviva.......Renée Fleming
Cherubino...............Susanne Mentzer
Dr. Bartolo.............Paul Plishka
Marcellina..............Wendy White
Don Basilio.............Heinz Zednik
Antonio.................Thomas Hammons
Barbarina...............Danielle de Niese
The Metropolitan Opera has rerun free of charge the 1998 telecast of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. I would have seen the original, of course. It was in the center of my infatuation with Cecilia Bartoli. Watching it again I find that it is a Figaro for the ages. There is not even the tiniest hole in this cast. Even Barbarina features Danielle de Niese making her Met debut at 19.
This opera features the Countess in two glorious arias-- Porgi Amor and Dove sono--sung gloriously by Renée Fleming.
This film still has the most hits for Cecilia Bartoli on YouTube and the second most for Fleming.
The Met cast Bartoli into more or less the same Fach as Kathleen Battle only with a comic slant. In her career she was known for her very successful coloratura singing, and this provides the explanation for the replacement of Deh vieni non tardar, an entirely legato aria, with something with at least some coloratura.
Bryn is perhaps my all time favorite Figaro, and Cecilia and Bryn's flirting is the best ever seen in this opera.
It was a surprise when it was announced that Cecilia would sing the
role of Susanna, a role I don’t think she has sung since. There was a
huge scandal because she insisted on performing different arias. I know
“Un moto di gioia” is one of her favorites. Her choices, especially
the final aria, are very successful, but she does not sing “Deh vieni
non tardar.”
I have felt since I first saw this film
that I never really understood this opera before. In a world where
everything had to be about status and privilege, where the operas were
clearly divided between elevated moral dramas about the upper classes
and comedies in dialect from the lower classes, Mozart has brought us
real people from all the various classes of his era, people with serious
problems, people like us. I don’t think I really understood how deeply
serious Figaro really is.
Cecilia is key in the
success of this entire performance because she makes you feel how much
Susanna loves Figaro and how much she hates the idea of sex with the
count, how much she loathes his attentions while successfully masking
her emotions from him. This is the content of the Marriage of Figaro, not just the jokes. I have read the book this is based on, but it is Mozart and da Ponte who give true life to these people.
There
is a wonderful rapport between Cecilia and Bryn which they exploited in
a duet album and dvd. This rapport is at its best here. They are
exciting and very charismatic together.
As if this were
not wonderful enough, there is also the fabulous countess of Renée
Fleming, who needs only to sit around being miserably regal while
singing two of the most gorgeous arias ever written. Gorgeously. She
is in top form.
It is a succession of perfectly
executed scenes by ideally cast singing actors. When was Figaro’s
discovery of his parents ever so perfect? The count and countess are
effectively upper class while Susanna and Figaro are common, as it
should be. The entire production is pure perfection in singing,
conducting and ensemble acting, and never becomes stale.
As one who has long adored Cecilia and has seen a lot of her stage work, this is her masterpiece.
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.
Hans Sachs..............Michael Volle
Eva.....................Annette Dasch
Walther von Stolzing....Johan Botha
Magdalene...............Karen Cargill
David...................Paul Appleby
Beckmesser..............Johannes Martin Kränzle
Pogner..................Hans-Peter König
When the Metropolitan Opera presented Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in December of 2014, I must have been in Ohio for Christmas. The Met is streaming it today, and I realize this is my first time seeing it. The Sachs was supposed to be Bryn Terfel, I think. I generally love this opera, but I'm afraid this version is not working for me. Paul Appleby's David is excellent, but so far he's my favorite.
Agrippina.............Joyce DiDonato
Nerone, her son.........Kate Lindsey
Claudio, her husband the emperor.....Matthew Rose
Poppea, her rival..........Brenda Rae
Ottone..................Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
Narciso.................Nicholas Tamagna (countertenor)
Pallante................Duncan Rock
Deborah Voigt announced that Handel's Agrippina, 1709, was the oldest opera ever presented at the Met. As I mentioned after the last time I saw it, it was composed for Venice early in the era of Neapolitan opera. That means lots and lots of da capo arias and a happy ending. What is more Venice than Naples is the mixing of comic and serious elements. The Venetians weren't fussy about that stuff.
This is the most I have enjoyed a Baroque opera maybe ever. This is regie, of course. The clothes are modern with lots of WWII military uniforms. There is a bar scene where all the characters seem to meet by accident. Maybe it's on the frequently mentioned Campidoglio. When Rome conquers England, they return with Elizabeth II's crown. One of the scenes showed the ceiling of the Pantheon which brought some character to the mostly abstract sets.
What makes this a great opera is the well designed plot. No matter how difficult the complexities are for our heroine, she conquers them all.
I was going to say there is no hit tune until Nerone sang "Come nembo" while snorting cocaine. This is known because Bartoli recorded it. The most unusual thing about this production is the staging of the character Nerone. I think we are to presume that he is a very athletic, well-tattooed juvenile delinquent. He loves his mother and acts up continuously. Kate Lindsey said she had to train for this role. We believe her. Her rendition of "Come nembo" was excellent.
The music was always excellent, but no one topped the magnificent Joyce DiDonato who created a wonderful, perfectly believable evil character and topped it with gorgeous singing.
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.
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Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus comes from the Wiener Staatsoper and streams on OperaVision. Catch it while you can.
Conductor Franz Welser-Möst
Director Otto Schenk
Gabriel von Eisenstein Kurt Streit
Rosalinde Michaela Kaune
Frank Alfred Šramek
Prinz Orlofsky Zoryana
Kushpler
Alfred Rainer Trost
Dr. Falke Markus Eiche
Dr. Blind Peter Simonischek
Adele Daniela Fally
This is as authentic a production of this the most famous of German operettas that you are likely to see, both theatrically and musically. This is the most I have liked Franz Welser-Möst. Of course, the orchestra he is conducting could play this in their sleep, but nevertheless it was stylistically quite wonderful.
The cast were all unfamiliar to me but were filled with joy and great comic intensity. Who wouldn't want to go to a party where everyone was having this much fun. Es lebe Champaigne der Erste. We get all the old jokes. The Viennese understand this better than anyone else.
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Conductor Henrik Nánási
Director Michael Cavanagh
Set Designer Erhard Rom
Figaro Michael Sumuel
Susanna Jeanine De Bique *
Count Almaviva Levente Molnár *
Countess Almaviva Nicole Heaston *
Cherubino Serena Malfi *
Doctor Bartolo James Creswell
Marcellina Catherine Cook
Don Basilio Greg Fedderly
Don Curzio Brenton Ryan
Barbarina Natalie Imag
* San Francisco Opera debut
The new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the San Francisco Opera is made for me, or perhaps for anyone who for all their life has experienced architectural dreams. My mind invents buildings that don't exist in reality. The building of this new production is in the style of American colonial Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the time of the Revolutionary War. Because it's Pennsylvania, a colony founded by Quakers, and not Virginia, I think we may presume that the servants are not slaves of the Count Almaviva.
The American Revolution concept only occurs occasionally. In one scene the Betsy Ross flag is unfurled quickly, and when Cherubino is assigned to the army, he appears in a George Washington style army uniform. The Count appears in a variety of colors including red, so we are not quite sure which side he is on.
In the pre-talk the host mentioned that this opera observes The Unities which require a play to have a single action occurring in a single place and within a single day. I learned about this in school long ago and have not heard of it since. Observing the unities doesn't happen very often in opera. I'm tempted to make a list. The place is in and around the Count's house. The action is getting Figaro and Susanna married, and this is accomplished in a single day. There is an irrelevant subplot involving the Count's page Cherubino and his sudden, overwhelming interest in women. The staging suggests a pairing with Barbarina, but we know he will go on in this direction.
Susanna, Cherubino, Figaro
We were treated to conceptual continuity throughout. The handling of all plot elements was smooth and painstaking. The production contributed to this by providing curtains decorated in the architectural style and easily movable scenic elements. The curtain comes down, and we quickly move to the next scene. There was great attention to detail.
Obstacles to the wedding are many. The count has become interested in Susanna and moves forward with his desire to force himself on her. He threatens to refuse to allow the marriage. He also helps Marcellina in her desire to marry Figaro who has borrowed money from her. Spoiler alert: she turns out to be his mother. I enjoyed that my rule of colorblind casting was observed. A comic element was added to the story when the two white actors, Marcellina and Don Basilio, were found to be the parents of black Figaro. "Suo madre?" This obviously long time couple were included in the wedding ceremony.
By far my favorite bit of this production was the Count. He was the biggest asshole I've seen in the part. He gets his comeuppance in the end, or you might find he has gone too far.
I had a strong impression toward the end that this opera might be thought of as a symphony with the voices orchestrated into the texture. I don't know if I could explain this. I might be describing the conducting which was done by a man who previously led Strauss' Elektra here. The singing was consistently excellent and blended more than usual with its accompaniment.
It isn't my favorite, but for overall quality and a complete lack of confusion about the plot it wins.
Our Cast
Sir Richard Cholmondely (Lieutenant of the Tower): Timothy Power
Colonel Fairfax (under sentence of death): Anthony Tavianini
Sergeant Meryll (of the Yeomen of the Guard): Mike Baad
Leonard Meryll (his Son): Samuel Palmer
Phoebe Meryll (his daughter): Paige Kelly
Jack Point (a Strolling Jester): Charlie Baad
Elsie Maynard (a Strolling Singer): Jadi Galloway
Wilfred Shadbolt (Head Jailer and Assistant Tormenter): Eric Piotrowski
Dame Carruthers (Housekeeper to the Tower): Lenore Sebastian
Kate (her Niece): Rebecca Cox
Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard played last night by the Sacramento Light Opera Theater. If I stay in Sacramentlo long enough, Perhaps I will see them all. This work is alternately called The Merryman and His Maid, which refers to the two strolling players. The action takes place inside the Tower of London during the reign of Henry VIII. The yeomen guard the tower, as they do today. They managed some excellent uniforms for them.
There is much to be explained here. Some questions:
Why is Colonel Fairfax under sentence of death? Wikipedia says sorcery.
What are Strolling players doing inside the Tower (not tourist attraction then)?
Why does Colonel Fairfax want to get married before he dies? Wikipedia says doesn't like heir.
etc.
Plot: Wilfred loves Phoebe, Phoebe loves Colonel Fairfax who is scheduled to die the next day. Leonard wants Fairfax released because he saved his life in battle. Leonard, his father and his sister hatch a plot where Leonard will hide and Fairfax will pretend to be him. Phoebe steals the key from Wilfred and off we go.
Side story: Fairfax wants to die married so his evil relation will not inherit his estate and offers a bribe to any woman who will marry him. Elsie marries Fairfax in secret, Leonard hides and Fairfax appears in disguise as Leonard.
We end up with three happy couples and one very sad Jack Point.
The diction could have been better. The songs were titled but the dialog was not. I should have returned to the old days and read the plot before. The music was excellent and well done. My favorite singers were Anthony Tavianini and Jadi Galloway, the main couple.
👍🏻 BonAppétit! by Lee Hoiby, the one act opera about Julia Child, streamed today from Des Moines Metro Opera. It's presented with dinner.
Here is the official menu for the evening, provided by the chefs at the Iowa Culinary Institute:
Chilled Vichyssoise; Pissaladière; Asperges et Tomates en Vinaigrette;
Suprêmes de Volaille aux Champignons; Boeuf Bourguignon; Salmon
Choulibiac; Cheese Soufflé with essence of Truffle; Ratatouille; Rice
Pilaf with Summer Vegetables; Le Gâteau au Chocolat ‘Eminence Brune’;
Pain au Levain.
It may not be possible to describe this. The accompaniment is on the piano. The musical style can be described as modern recitative. "If you have a self-cleaning kitchen like mine," she says. This is because invisible gremlins scurry around and fix any problems. In Julia's version we never saw them.
It is utterly charming, a bit more manic than Julia herself, but loads of fun. She whips her egg whites into perfect peaks. It runs 30 minutes like a real television show. They're putting it on YouTube, so look for it.
I have recently begun to complain about the absence of American opera on streaming platforms, so take advantage of this rare opportunity. It's coming to Opera Parallèle in the Bay Area in the new year.
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Apparently Julia Child is relatively unknown outside the United States. Besides being a television star, her main claim to fame was that she translated European recipes into the measuring systems used in the US.
Conductor: Ryan Murray (new opera theater director)
Stage Director: Gia Battista
Piano: Renee Harris
California State University Sacramento performed two operas last night.
Game of Chance
by Seymour Barab
First knitter: Taylor Graham
Second knitter: Katie Thorpe
Third knitter: Valerie Loera
The representative: Justin Ramm-Damron
This is the second time for this opera at Sac State. So what is the attraction? Three women are knitting their lives away and wish for something else. The attraction is that each of them gets a nice solo scene. A man comes to take them away to their dream. At the end they are discontented and wish they had asked for more. As a person who became a systems analyst in her 40s, this seems absurd. Why settle? There's not a lot that can be done with this opera.
fichu
Amelia Goes to the Ball by Gian-Carlo Menotti
Amelia: Angela Yam
The Friend: Valerie Loera
The Husband: Michael Carey
The Lover: Aaron Gallington
The Chief of Police: Justin Ramm-Damron
First Maid: Taylor Graham
Second Maid: Monica Serrano
This is fun. There is nothing in this opera that is actually about a ball. It's all about getting there. At the start the maids are helping Amelia dress while her friend urges her to hurry. I have included the above so that all may see what a fichu looks like. Amelia searches for hers without success, thus causing the delay.
Before she finds it husband arrives home. He accuses her of having a lover, which she admits on the condition that he will take her to the ball. He lives upstairs. Husband goes looking and lover enters. The Lover was played very much for laughs. Aaron Gallington was an amusing physical comic with lots of odd looking gestures. The opera ends with husband knocked out and taken to the hospital, lover accused of theft and taken off by the police, and finally with Amelia going off to the ball with the Chief of Police. We have to assume that all is well.
This opera is a vehicle for the woman who sings Amelia, in our case Angela Yam who was impressive.
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.
Uberto....Donato Di Stefano
Serpina...Patrizia Biccirè
Vespone..Stefano Di Luca
I tried to watch this version of Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, 1733, roughly contemporary with Handel's Orlando, but it was just people standing around singing with no translations. The music is charming, but I wanted to know what was going on.
So I turned to this DVD from Accademia Barocca de I Virtuosi Italiani.
We are at the beginning of the rococo. This one staged the opera as though we were at a circus where Uberto was the manager and Serpina one of the acts. She refuses to get his chocolate and then threatens to marry a nasty military man who will probably beat her. The third character seems to be a mime. The music is still charming with the usual mixture of arias and recitatives. There was a huge war over this in Paris in the days when there was still opera rioting. It had something to do with Jean Jacque Rousseau. Serpina tricks Uberto into marrying her, turning la serva into la padrona. From our perspective it doesn't seem like much to get excited over. #ad
Fiordiligi..............Carol Vaness
Ferrando...............Jerry Hadley
Dorabella..............Susanne Mentzer
Guglielmo.............Dwayne Croft
Despina.................Cecilia Bartoli
Don Alfonso..........Thomas Allen
In 1996 I recorded Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with Cecilia Bartoli in her Met debut as Despina when it came on public television, but my son taped over it. This quarrel came near the beginning of my wild infatuation with La Bartoli. I decided to keep him anyway. So this year he gave me a year of Met on Demand making this my first opportunity to watch it after all these years.
This production ran at the Met until very recently. It is visually inert, but this means nothing when Cecilia is on the stage. Her face alone is filled with liveliness. She is constantly in motion. I do rather like the men's disguises.
Cecilia does recitative like no one else. I wish very much that her Met career had been longer. Her wonderful theatrical magnetism dominates every scene she is in, though this role doesn't show off the coloratura she has become famous for. As a doctor she wears a large red nose.
Musically it's rather blah as well. These are all good singers, so more could have been expected. In those days Levine was the only conductor we saw. He doesn't find anything interesting in this score.
Towards the end Cecilia is in her notary disguise with giant eyebrows and a giant mustache, far more spectacular than those worn by our Albanians. She provides what life there is in the production, but I would recommend it for this alone. At the end our Despina realizes that she has been used and throws down the money Don Alfonso has given her.
This comic masterpiece has to be the most unusual Met debut by an already wildly famous singer ever.
Selene Zanetti (Marie)
Pavol Breslik (Hans)
Günther Groissböck (Kezal)
I was in Smetana's Die verkaufte Braut long ago. I played Marie's mother. We did it in German exactly as it is here in this live stream from the Bayerische Staatsoper. I even have my old score here near the computer. Since I began blogging, I have only seen this in London and on DVD. It is a sentimental favorite. In English we call it The Bartered Bride.
The plot concerns itself with love, of course. Marie was promised in a contract with Kezal to marry only "Toby Mischa's son." Who is an idiot who stutters and has a pet pig. She likes Hans, played by one of the sexiest men on the opera stage. They give away the plot in the credits which may explain why people think there is no plot. This is sort of the male version of Cinderella.
My heart leaps at the familiar overture. The music is lovely, the singing is terrific and Günther Groissböck is a hoot, the best possible Kezal. It's wonderful to see this now and then. I hated the set.
Conductor
Christian Thielemann
Production Otto Schenk
Arabella:
Kiri Te Kanawa
Zdenka:
Marie McLaughlin
Adelaide Waldner:
Helga Dernesch
Matteo
David Kuebler
Mandryka:
Wolfgang Brendel
Count Waldner:
Donald McIntyre
Fiakermilli: Natalie Dessay
For my first full opera on my year of Met on Demand I have chosen Kiri Te Kanawa in Strauss's Arabella, I believe from 1994.
They have given her a handsome, passionate Mandryka in Wolfgang Brendel. I promise not to review everything I watch, but this has to be an exception. This is by far the most traditional production I have seen for Arabella. The world has changed, and I don't suppose there are counts and countesses everywhere anymore. There is certainly no Austrian emperor today. So a traditional production seems suitable.
It is fun to see Natalie Dessay pop in for a moment.
Arabella wants the some enchanted evening experience where you suddenly fall in love across a crowded room. Mandryka is even worse. He falls in love with a photograph. The mystery of Arabella is the Zdenka/Zdenko character who falls in love with one of Arabella's suitors, a young man named Matteo who sends Arabella flowers every day. She knows she has to marry money, and she knows he doesn't have any. No one pays any attention to Zdenko/Zdenka, a girl pretending to be a boy. She almost ruins everything. She writes love letters to Matteo. She seems almost invisible. Even her mother pays her no attention.
For me I love to see the same piece performed in very different ways. I probably saw Kiri in this in San Francisco, but now I am more familiar with the opera. Kiri is at the sweet end of the range of emotions. Perhaps Anja Harteros is at the other.
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.
Jonas Kaufmann (Eisenstein),
Elisabeth Kulman (Prince Orlofsky),
Andreas Schager (Alfred)
Rachel Willis-Sørensen (Rosalinde)
Nicola Hillebrand (Adele)
and the Staatskapelle Dresden
I'd guess we did about 40 performances of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, so I pretty much know the whole thing by heart auf Deutsch. No need for subtitles. It's not really my Fledermaus in English. So Jonas Kaufmann's first Eisenstein is a present to me via medici.tv.
An early favorite is the ensemble where they pretend to be sad and completely fail. "Oh yeh, oh yeh." This Orlofsky is something else. She/he doesn't take no for an answer. (If they cast a man as Orlofsky, I leave.) The substitute Adele is excellent.
I was underwhelmed by the Rosalinde until she started into the Csárdás which was just right. The soloists get champagne but the chorus doesn't. We would never have stood for that. It's also nice to hear such excellent German diction. I miss Germany.
Jonas is fine as Eisenstein who is actually a high baritone, but the music for him isn't the focus of attention. It's mainly an acting role, which we know he is also quite good at.
Thank you all for a happy new years eve performance. Alles gute.
Conductor:
Patrick Summers
Director:
Leonard Foglia
Clara, Angel Second Class:
Kearstin Piper Brown
A Voice:
Patti LuPone
Angels First Class:
Sarah Cambidge,
Ashley Dixon,
Amitai Pati,
Christian Pursell
George Bailey:
William Burden
Mr. Potter:
Rod Gilfry
Uncle Billy Bailey:
Keith Jameson
Mary Hatch:
Andriana Chuchman
Harry Bailey:
Joshua Hopkins
I saw Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life yesterday. We missed Golda Schultz as Clara. Her replacement was often covered by the orchestra. The picture above is Clara getting her Angel First Class wings. Obviously this is an opera based on a movie. Other such operas are Orphée by Philip Glass and The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès, which seemed to work better.
I wish I liked this, but I didn't. There were too many words, words not clearly enunciated by all but William Burden. This meant much staring at the subtitles which were slightly small for me. Too much talk, not enough arias. There were even long stretches of spoken dialog so more words could be fit in. When Clara gets her wings, she needs an aria. When George and Mary get married, they need a duet. I could go on and on. It ended well, but it was too long to wait for this.
I don't pan many things. After all, I loved Moby Dick. No thank you. This seems to be strictly for people who love the movie.
