The Salzburg La Bohème

Instead of going to the HD of La Traviata, I went to a party where the film of Puccini's La Bohème from Salzburg in 2012 was shown projected on the wall.  I liked very much seeing the faces up close.  Mimi isn't lighting her candle, she is lighting her cigarette.

Conductor: Daniele Gatti,
Production:  Damiano Michieletto

Anna Netrebko (Mimi)
Piotr Beczala (Rodolfo)
Nino Machaidze (Musetta)
Massimo Cavalletti (Marcello)
Alessio Arduini (Schaunard)

The production is supposed to make you think of Paris.  There are many reminders.  I love this wonderful cast and enjoyed seeing it again.

I have only enjoyed the Traviata red dress production when it was done with Netrebko.  Perhaps I will watch my DVD.
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Il Trovatore from Salzburg

 

Conductor:  Daniele Gatti
Production:  Alvis Hermanis

Leonora:  Anna Netrebko
Azucena:  Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Manrico:  Francesco Meli
Count di Luna:  Plácido Domingo

Il Trovatore from Salzburg started earlier in the morning than I expected, and I missed the first half.  I'll have to pay more attention in the future.  I listened to the audio of the first half.

I think the way this looks is amazing, but it does not meet my requirement that the staging should explain the plot.  This staging explains nothing and is maybe as senseless as the Bayerische Staatsoper version here.  The stream also had no subtitles.  So memory has to do all the explaining.

We're in a museum with spectacular European art works, and the characters are people who work for the museum.  They switch into and back out of period costumes.  Perhaps the staging explains that Leonora and her adventures exist only in the mind of A. Netrebko (someone pointed out that the name tag on her blue suit says "A. Netrebko.")   I found it mildly amusing that while the tragedy is playing out, there might be art lovers sitting on the benches.

Netrebko and Domingo both premiered in these roles in Berlin last season.  They are both stage creatures who bring a lot of theatrical energy to their roles.  I love Anna and find that she almost achieves the greatness here that she desires and will do so in the future.  She occasionally diminuendos unnecessarily and loses a bit of control.  Her trill has very much improved.  Her voice, which is spectacular in this repertoire, is more beautiful than Callas, Radvanovsky or even Harteros, but she does not quite conquer it physically.  

Placido.  Well, he's my age and I am generally astounded that he sounds as good as he does.  He is doing a better job of sounding like a baritone these days.  He was supposed to be old in Nabucco, but di Luna is supposed to be an age similar to Manrico.  It doesn't work.  He uses his voice to great theatrical effect, but the sound is that of an old man.

In the bows Gatti was vigorously shaking the hand of Francesco Meli, a real, honest to god Italian tenor.  Others have said he was blah, but I'm not sure he doesn't just seem so in comparison to Netrebko and Domingo, basically the definition of not blah.  He's young.  I found him promising.

I missed the best parts of Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

I must mention that brightly colored nail polish was part of the costuming.  I'm happy to see Netrebko is still climbing on the furniture.

Post Script.  I'm incredibly picky here.  This is actually amazing.  Watch it on medici.tv now.

Die Meistersinger from Salzburg

Conductor:  Daniele Gatti
Production: Stefan Herheim

Hans Sachs: Michael Volle (bass-baritone)
Walther von Stolzing: Roberto Sacca (heldentenor)
Eva: Anna Gabler(soprano)

The production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Salzburg Festival takes place in Hans Sachs's mind. I can reach no other conclusion. He clearly loves Eva very much and then imagines a young knight for her to marry. If you came to this version from the Bayreuth version, as I recently have (see here), you might wonder what opera you were seeing. This version is much more traditional.

Only one bit I liked better in the Bayreuth version--when Walther rejects the Meister robes, in Bayreuth he has just signed for millions to become a rock star. Here he just thinks he's too good for it. This provides Sachs with the opportunity to praise German art.

The story doesn't really emphasize Sachs until the middle of the second act. Have I imagined the opening scene is usually cut?

Sachs, sung by Michael Volle, is everything here. He laughs. He cries. He falls down in terror or in sorrow. He embraces his Eva and then gives her away to another. I have tried to imagine this production without Michael and simply cannot. He receives the highest accolade--I have simply never before cried at Meistersinger. The first scene of the third act was especially intense.

So it is Sachs himself who imagines the glorious song that wins the prize. Doesn't that make more sense?

Roberto Sacca as Walther sang the prize song well, but was not so good elsewhere. I still remember him as a lyric tenor. If we are to make him a blond, he could perhaps have bigger hair.

Anna Gabler as Eva was beautiful and very passionate.

The audience booed Daniele Gatti, the conductor, and the mediocre-sounding orchestra by implication.  Since I am more inclined to like Meistersinger, I would consider it a flaw that the music did not sound as I expected. But my heart was only for Michael.

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Parsifal

You're not going to believe this.  I hardly believe it myself.  I loved it.  I am speaking of the simulcast of Parsifal from the Metropolitan Opera.

Conductor:   Daniele Gatti
Production:   François Girard

Parsifal:   Jonas Kaufmann
Gurnemanz:   René Pape
Amfortas:   Peter Mattei
Kundry:   Katarina Dalayman
Klingsor:   Evgeny Nikitin

Daniele Gatti was the key.  He has been conducting Parsifal all around the globe for the last 5 years and has managed to sublimate the annoying passage [this refers to my personal annoyance with the use of the Dresden Amen as a leitmotiv--see here] into the overall texture of the opera, making it the key to understanding it all.  You see, Wagner's Parsifal is so corny as to completely transcend corniness.  Gatti conducted without a score and was simply magnificent.  I was very surprised to hear hints of impressionism in the score.  One can't help wondering.

All the tempos were painfully slow.  By the time I made it out to the parking lot it had been over 6 hours since the opera started.

The story arc of Kundry is interesting.  In Act I she is the messenger of the Knights, a person who seems always to do what she is told while facilitating their destruction.  She is a kind of eternal woman like Emilia Marty.  As Herodias she laughed at Jesus and was punished with a curse that she would never die.  During the time of the opera she is a slave of Klingsor.  In the second act she tries to seduce Parsifal.  The harder he resists, the harder she tries.  Parsifal defeats Klingsor and releases Kundry from her curse.  In the third act she washes his feet and he baptizes her.  In our production she takes the grail from its shrine, holds it aloft and dies.  Katarina Dalayman was our Kundry.  Describing her part, she said, "It has no real tessitura."  This means it doesn't emphasize any particular part of the range and instead covers the whole voice.  Her concept of Kundry's character was impressive and very enjoyable.

I moved Gurnemanz up in the cast list because he is the narrator and sings more than anyone else.  René Pape could do this part in his sleep.

Parsifal means pure fool.  He is raised alone, like Siegfried, and knows nothing of life.  He doesn't know he isn't supposed to shoot a swan and makes his entrance having done just that.  He is suddenly enlightened just as Kundry kisses him.  This is Jonas Kaufmann who clearly loves this opera a very great deal.  This is only his second time singing it, but it lies deep in his soul.

The style of the production reminded me of the latest super hero movies like Avengers.  They are the people of great strength of character who go around in drab costumes on dark sets.  Parsifal is a great super hero who performs feats of mystical power.

Both our Germans, Jonas Kaufmann and René Pape, wanted to greet their relatives watching in Germany. 

It was all deeply emotional throughout, a marvelous cast with great commitment.  Is it possible to have a spiritual quest without following any particular religion?

Perhaps this was the Parsifal for me.  Congratulations to all.
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The Salzburg La Bohème

I love this. "The flowers I make unfortunately have no smell."

You can watch the whole thing on YouTube. They live under an overpass and have a small Christmas tree. "Hast du Feuer?" The subtitles are in German, and this is the only pickup line I know in German. She looks like Priscilla Presley and he a bit like Dylan. It reminds of my long ago youth.

I keep looking for someone to follow my three loves, but so far no one can hit the home run.

Massimo Cavalletti who sings Marcello is pretty incredible.

 

And adorable. It passes the crying test. The announcer at the end says "That was for the first time in the history of the Salzburger Festspiele Puccini's La Bohème.



[See Kinderkuchen History 1890-1910]

Aida in HD

Unfortunately for today's Aida simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera, I have tucked away a VHS tape of the original broadcast of this production when it was new in 1988. In those days James Levine conducted everything that made it onto TV and Placido Domingo played all the tenor roles.

And in those days Dolora Zajick sang Amneris. Zajick's voice now shows more intensity throughout its range. It was a joy to hear her today.


Johann Botha played it for beautiful legato while Placido was going for youthful enthusiasm. Contrary to popular trends, all the singers were thinner twenty years ago.


They weren't afraid of black face in those days--Aprile Millo is quite dark. Violetta Urmana was as white as I am. I liked her very much as a soprano, more than I had as a mezzo. Her voice is completely rebalanced for this new Fach.

I kept wishing they were broadcasting From the House of the Dead instead. Maybe I've done enough Aidas.
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Moses und Aron

I have bought a DVD of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron from the Vienna State Opera, and it is definitely not a chick flick. It reminds me a little of Anna I who sings and Anna II who dances by Kurt Weill. In this case it's Moses, Franz Grundheber, baritone, who talks and brother Aron, Thomas Moser, tenor, who sings. These two are the only real characters. They are set against the chorus and occasional individuals who break out from the crowd of Jews.

They argue over the nature of God who Moses sees as invisible unimaginable, eternal, omnipresent and omnipotent. It is as if Abraham had never existed. This image of God is presented as the invention of Moses who relies on his brother to present his vision to the crowd. The people have turned to the Egyptian vision of God and cannot believe in this abstraction, but when Aron turns the rod into a serpent, they believe.

The main argument is between the two brothers who appear intertwined both together and in opposition. Aron doesn't seem completely convinced.

The production is minimalist black on black. Each individual in the crowd carries a large photograph of himself and the word ICH [German for I] is drawn on the walls. Worshiping idols is the worship of self. It is unrelentingly abstract and modernist.

They agree to flee into the desert, turn their pictures to the floor and erase all the ICHs from the walls. This doesn't last. When Moses goes up onto Mount Sinai, doubt emerges in a whispered singing and talking fugue from the chorus. They complain loudly that without their old gods there is no law and order.

Aron relents and agrees to give them back their old gods by putting up a giant word ICH. They put on gold outfits and go back to worshiping themselves. Some men commit suicide. Moses comes back with the ten commandments and is pissed.

I'm not high minded enough to like this. The pagans seem to be having more fun, but even they are pretty boring. Remind me--why exactly is it that people like Schoenberg? I rather like Pierot Lunaire and have created midi files for it [the idea was that Sprechstimme is probably as close to actual singing as I could get now], but this is dense and square like blocks of wood. I feel my idea that opera is a chick flick is validated by this.

Schoenberg's Moses und Aron
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