Christa Ludwig (1928-2021)

The great mezzo Christa Ludwig has died.  I have actually blogged about her on numerous occasions.  I see only one listing for her at the San Francisco Opera.  In 1971 she sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier to Sena Jurinac's Marschallin.  I think I did not attend.

I love this wonderful picture of Joyce DiDonato and Susan Graham at the Opera News Awards 2014 bowing before Christa.  What a great picture.

I'm going to post some of my favorite films, which I have mostly posted before.  Here she is with Bernstein singing "I am so easily assimilated."

 

And here at last is the perfect performance of Bach's "Erbarme dich" by the great Christa Ludwig.  The tempo and the phrasing are all masterpieces.

I'm trying to cover a lot of ground in these selections.  Here is Christa singing "Nur wer die Sehnsicht kennt" by Tchaikovsky.

My favorite Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde with Leonard Bernstein and the incomparable Christa Ludwig.
Der Einsame im Herbst

 

Von der Schoenheit


Abschied part I

part II

part III

We are currently doing Fidelio in different incarnations.  Here is Christa.



My heart leaps. Doch. Die Liebe wirt's erreichen. This is the most rubato in Beethoven I've ever heard.
She was a very great artist.  Spend some time listening.

Joyce

This is the recital from the Metropolitan Opera starring Joyce DiDonato with Carrie-Ann Matheson on the piano and the ensemble Il Pomo D'Oro.  I'm going to tell who accompanies each piece.

• “Addio Roma” from Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Il Pomo D'Oro

• Didon’s Final Scene from Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Matheson.  I am very impress with Carrie-Ann Matheson as accompanist.
  

• “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” by Gustav Mahler, Matheson.  Wonderful Mahler.  Sing more Mahler for us.
  

A clip from Maria Stuarda is inserted here while Joyce takes a break.

• “Oh Shenandoah” Traditional

• “As with rosy steps the morn” from Handel’s Theodora, Il Pomo D'Oro

• “Illustratevi, o cieli” from Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Il Pomo D'Oro

• “Dopo notte atra e funesta” from Handel’s Ariodante, Il Pomo D'Oro.  This is the most heavily florid piece on the program so far.  It's nice to hear Joyce sing some coloratura.
  

The second pause comes here.  They have put in an interview concerning Dead Man Walking.

• “I Dream a World” (World Premiere) by Kenyatta Hughes, arranged by Craig Terry, with text by Langston Hughes, Matheson and cello.

• “Intorno all’idol mio” From Cesti’s Orontea, Il Pomo D'Oro.

• “Voi che sapete” From Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Matheson.  This is the role Joyce made her Met debut in.
  

• “La vie en rose” By Louiguy, arranged by Craig Terry, Matheson.  And now for something completely different.  Joyce has given herself much to enjoy. 
  

• “Canción al árbol del olvido,” Op. 3, No. 2 by Alberto Evaristo Ginastera, Matheson.

• “You'll Never Walk Alone” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, arranged by Craig Terry, Matheson.

This is all about lonliness, isolation and leaving.  She has chosen each piece for love, and it is a great success.  Sing what you love.  

I Capuleti e i Montecchi from Zurich

 The Companion, Giulietta, Romeo

Fabio Luisi Conductor
Christof Loy Staging

Joyce DiDonato Romeo
Olga Kulchynska Giulietta
Benjamin Bernheim Tebaldo
Roberto Lorenzi Lorenzo
Alexei Botnarciuc Capellio
Gieorgij Puchalski The companion

Everyone is streaming these days.  Today was Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi from the Zurich opera in 2015.  Joyce performed this role in 2012 in San Francisco, but it is rather astounding how much more intense she is here.  There's something about watching opera two feet from your eyes that makes it seem more personal, more real.  Her Romeo here is intensely emotional, far more than the other characters on the stage.

Background tells us that there are two R&J operas:  Gounod's and Bellini's.  Gounod's opera is French and derives from the Shakespeare play.  The Italian Bellini designs his play around Italian history.  I previously wrote:  "We studied the Guelphs and Ghibellines in my class in Florence. The Guelphs, represented here by Giuletta's family the Capuleti, support the Pope, and the Ghibellines, represented here by Romeo's faction the Montecchi, support the Holy Roman Empire. So you see it isn't just two families that don't like each other. It's a war that went on in Italy from 1140 to 1289."

Christof Loy has made of this history a minimalist regie production with the usual black suits for all the male characters.  The women all seem to wear white dresses which we confuse with wedding dresses.

There is one other regie feature--The companion.  He's an androgynous figure with long hair who dresses sometimes in a black suit and other times in a black dress.  He says nothing but seems to fill holes in the plot.  When Romeo pulls a gun and tries to get Tebaldo to shoot him, The companion disposes of the gun.  When Giulietta needs lifting, he is there to do the job.  [Why do directors assume that tenors can lift sopranos?]

You want this opera for the music.  It is glorious here, beautifully conducted and beautifully sung. 

I couldn't face Butterfly.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

👍🏻

Conductor...............Maurizio Benini
Production..............Bartlett Sher 

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.

I find this is highly recommended.

Comment

Apparently if you had a "what the hell was that" reaction to Agrippina, that is exactly what was desired.



We had a preview of Kate Lindsey's athleticism in San Francisco in 2015 when she played Cherubino in Nozze di Figaro and turned cartwheels on stage.

Agrippina in HD

👍🏻

Conductor...............Harry Bicket
Production..............David McVicar

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.

Joyce rehearses Morgen

I love films of people rehearsing. The only problem with this short film is that it's only a fragment.

Winterreise

This recital by Joyce DiDonato, mezzo, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, piano, of Schubert's Die Winterreise has a gimmick.  This is a long letter from her beloved which she reads as she sings.  This overcomes the masculine oriented text and allows her to read the text.  Interesting.  It also allows her to dramatize more than normally is done in a recital.  She begins seated and stands later on.  I think Joyce enjoys Lieder as theater.  Why not?

She is performing with the lid all the way up on the piano, something that doesn't often happen in a piano vocal recital.  This may be the explanation for my experience of poor balance between voice and piano.

I love this cycle and enjoyed Joyce singing it.  It won't pull me away from Jonas Kaufmann's version.

Joyce on medici.tv

This is sort of bizarre.  Who would think of such a thing?  We all started out with a small blue book called Classic Italian Songs.  It came in different keys.  I got my first copy in a high school voice class where we sang, yes, "Caro mio ben."  I very quickly graduated to choir.

I haven't wandered too far off the subject.  Joyce DiDonato is singing them with a jazz ensemble backup.  They are originally scored for figured bass.  You knew that.  So why can't a jazz ensemble realize a figured bass as well as the next person?  This is in New York.

Now she's added one of those tango accordions to her ensemble.  She wanders off to other songs after a while.  It's fun.

Cendrillon in HD

A carriage in the form of the French word for carriage.

👍🏻
Conductor...............Bertrand de Billy
Production..............Laurent Pelly

Cendrillon (Lucette)....Joyce DiDonato
Prince Charming.........Alice Coote
Fairy Godmother.........Kathleen Kim
Pandolfe................Laurent Naouri
Madame de la Haltière...Stephanie Blythe

Today we were treated to the first production of Massenet's Cendrillon ever to appear on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.  We begin with a French conductor, a French production and a Frenchman to speak the only spoken dialog heard in the opera.  The rest of the cast is not French but is nevertheless spectacular.

The story divides into three contexts:  1. The home of Pandolfe, his wife Madame de la Haltière, his daughter Lucette and his two stepdaughters.  2.  The palace of the King and his son Prince Charming.  3.  A dream-like fairy land populated by the Fairy Godmother and her minions.

Silvesterkonzert der Berliner Philharmoniker

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
SIR SIMON RATTLE JOYCE DIDONATO

Antonín Dvořák Carnival Overture, op. 92
Igor Stravinsky Pas de deux from Apollon musagète
Richard Strauss Orchestral Songs Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano
Leonard Bernstein 3 Dance Episodes from On the Town
Leonard Bernstein Take Care of this House Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano 
Dmitri Shostakovich Suite from The Golden Age, op. 22a

I am here for Joyce, of course.  The Strauss songs were truly wonderful, both for Joyce's singing and for Sir Simon Rattle's conducting.  So Strauss conducting is not dead after all.  I found this on ARTE.

Take Care of this House is suitable both for 100 years of Leonard Bernstein and for the blessing on our own White House.

Norma in HD

 👍🏻 
Conductor...............Carlo Rizzi
Production..............David McVicar

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

Semiramide from Munich

👍🏻
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.

Selfie of the Week

I might ask you to guess who this is.  On February 26 she will live stream from Munich, presumably in this outfit.

Trouser Roles Ranked

Laura ‏@petrarchian
@JoyceDiDonato Trouser roles ranked by aptitude in bed.


Reply to @petrarchian @JoyceDiDonato 


1. 
   
   Joyce DiDonato ‏@JoyceDiDonato 44m44 minutes ago
   .@petrarchian Octavian, clearly ... Romeo ... and Cherubino, he just doesn't know it, yet.
   3 replies 1 retweet 15 likes
    


Laura ‏@petrarchian 41m41 minutes ago
@JoyceDiDonato Very good answer, would be curious about Komponist, though.
1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
 




Joyce DiDonato ‏@JoyceDiDonato 37m37 minutes ago
.@petrarchian Too into his music ... but MAYBE after that encounter with Zerbinetta ...
0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
 
1. 
   
   2. 
      
      @JoyceDiDonato @petrarchian Not to mention Isolier ;-)
      • Likes 2
      • 
       Shiven Limbachia ‏@ShivenLimbachia 44m44 minutes ago
   Joyce DiDonato ‏@JoyceDiDonato 40m40 minutes ago
   .@ShivenLimbachia @petrarchian Oh - no question.
   0 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
   4. Brenna ‏@bee_yes 44m44 minutes ago
      @JoyceDiDonato @petrarchian With Siebel at the v bottom of the list
      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
   Joyce DiDonato ‏@JoyceDiDonato 40m40 minutes ago
   @bee_yes @petrarchian Poor Siebel ....
    

Richard Tucker Gala

Instead of making us wait until the end of the year, the Richard Tucker Gala live streamed from Carnegie Hall on medici.tv today.  What a fabulous concert.  The singers were:

Jamie Barton
Javier Camarena
Joyce DiDonato
Joshua Guerrero
Renée Fleming
Anna Netrebko
Kristine Opolais
Nadine Sierra
and this years winner Tamara Wilson
Asher Fisch conducted the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Yusif Eyvazov was expected but broke his foot.

And here is the program:
Wagner: “Entrance of the Guests” from Tannhäuser
New York Choral Society

Wagner: “Dich, teure Halle” from Tannhäuser
Tamara Wilson, soprano
This was an excellent introduction to Tamara.

Renée Fleming, soprano
Massenet: “Adieu, notre petite table” from Manon
followed by
Leoncavallo: “Mattinata”

Rossini: “La danza”
Javier Camarena, tenor

Donizetti: “Regnava nel silenzo” from Lucia di Lammermoor
Nadine Sierra, soprano

Dvorak: “Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém” (“Song to the Moon”) from Rusalka
Kristine Opolais, soprano
Unfortunately for Kristine there were two other sopranos on the program known for this aria.

Verdi: “Tu al cui sguardo onnipossente” from I due Foscari
Tamara Wilson, soprano
New York Choral Society.  Tamara was excellent in this, too.

Saint-Saëns: Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Samson et Dalila
Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano.  For me this was one of the highlights of the evening, sung in a wonderfully smooth legato.

Rossini: “Ah vieni, nel tuo sangue” from Otello
Lawrenece Brownlee, tenor
Javier Camarena, tenor
Two Rossini tenors in competition.  I think it was a tie.

Giordano: “La mamma morta” from Andrea Chénier
followed by
Cilea:  "Io son l'umile ancella" from Adriana Lecouvreur 
Anna Netrebko, soprano
Netrebko was in form and remembered to thank first the cellist and then the violinist for their solos.  She received a bouquet and then left.

Heggie: “Si, son io” from Great Scott
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
This was particularly and surprisingly beautiful.

Bellini: Finale of Act I from Norma
Tamara Wilson, soprano
Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano
Joshua Guerrero, tenor
New York Choral Society

Donizetti: “Seul sur la terre” from Dom Sébastien
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor

Puccini: “Un bel dì vedremo” from Madama Butterfly
Kristien Opolais, soprano

Handel: “Son nata a lagrimar” from Giulio Cesare
Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

Bellini: “Vieni fra questa braccia” from I puritani
Nadine Sierra, soprano
Javier Camarena, tenor
I liked Nadine and Javier in this.

Bernstein: “Make Our Garden Grow” from Candide
Tamara Wilson, soprano
Joshua Guerrero, tenor
New York Choral Society

The concert lasted 2-1/2 hours.  I skipped another concert for this and found that it was worth it.  This is a slightly lighter mix of arias than is usual for a Richard Tucker Gala.  There was no intermission.

You can watch this now on medici.tv.

Werther from the ROH

Conductor:  Antonio Pappano
Production:  Benoît Jacquot  (same as Paris)

Werther: Vittorio Grigòlo
Charlotte: Joyce DiDonato

It was interesting to me when the announcer explained that it took a long time for Massenet's Werther to become truly popular.  Now it is the most frequently performed of Massenet's operas, passing Manon.

I am not going to write a long review.  This is the same production as the one I saw in Paris.  The music was French enough, but the acting was a bit over the top.  I love Vittorio, but I don't feel that I want Werther to be quite so mad.  Maybe I truly love this opera only when it is Jonas.  I want him to be unhappy but not mad.

Christine Goerke wants to be sure that reviewers don't blame the actors for the acting.  The director, Jacquot, must have approved it.  Some will prefer it this way.

Joyce says...

"Make me listen." 

Yes.  The ones you love are the ones who make you listen.

Grammy Nominations

I'm showing only the classical vocal awards.  For the full list look here.

Classical Solo Vocal Album

"St. Petersburg," Cecilia Bartoli; Diego Fasolis, conductor (I Barocchisti)

Verbier

I just caught on medici.tv Joyce DiDonato with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.  They performed the Berlioz Les Nuit d'ete.   There was a sense of personal originality in Joyce's interpretation that I liked very much.  Vous le vous allez au pay des amours?