The New Face of Opera

Nadine Sierra in Rigoletto at the Paris Opera.  We had her first.  She is growing into her gifts.

And here's another new singer I like very much, Lise Davidsen.

Emerging Stars Competition

The San Francisco Opera is conducting an emerging stars competition with 14 candidates from this season.  I am arbitrarily dividing them into two categories:

Those who have made their Met debuts

• Lawrence Brownlee Don Pasquale W-yes 1972 Met-158
• Leah Crocetto Aida W-no Met-7 
• Brian Jagde Aida W-yes Met-6 
• David Pershall Andrea Chanier W-no Met-7 
• Irene Roberts Dream of the Red Chamber W-no Met-36
• Heidi Stober Don Pasquale W-no Met-23 
• Ellie Dehn La Boheme W-no Met-21 
• Anthony Clark Evans Madama Butterfly W-no Met-14

Those who have not made their Met debuts

• J’Nai Bridges Andrea Chenier W-no Met-no 
• Arturo Chacón Cruz La Boheme W-yes 1977 Met-no 
• Vincenzo Costanzo Madama Butterfly W-no Met-no 
• Erika Grimaldi La Boheme W-no Met-no 
• Sarah Shafer Don Giovanni W-no Met-no 
• Michael Sumuel Don Giovanni W-no Met-no 

I have bolded those I am sure I have seen.   The list now includes La Boheme.

The number after the Met- refers to the number of entries for that person in the Met archives.  I might think they are all fine singers, but I think any winner of an emerging star contest should have appeared at the Metropolitan Opera already.

I want to object to the inclusion of Lawrence Brownlee on the basis that he is already an established star of very high quality.

Leah Crocetto is a gifted singer and so is Brian Jagde.  Either one would make an excellent winner.

From the list of those who have not yet sung at the Met my favorite is J'Nai Bridges with her gorgeous mezzo voice.

So who is your favorite?

Bis at La Scala

Nadine Sierra

Opera Bobb tells us:

"Ciao, Opera Mavens. At the end of the La Scala Rigoletto second act last night, the standing ovation audience demanded former Adler Nadine Sierra (Adler 2011-2012) and Leo Nucci repeat the final aria (conducted by SF Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti)."

Nadine is a raging success everywhere these days. For my encounters with her in San Francisco:

Her performance in a Merola final here.
Her Schwabacher debut recital here.
She sings Lucia here.

And now see it for yourself.

 

New People

People I heard for the first time this year.  The first is Angel Blue.  She is the real deal.

Le Nozze di Figaro

Conductor: Patrick Summers
Director: Robin Guarino

Figaro: Philippe Sly (bass)
Susanna: Lisette Oropesa (soprano)
Countess Almaviva: Nadine Sierra (soprano)
Cherubino: Kate Lindsey (soprano)
Count Almaviva: Luca Pisaroni (bass)
Bartolo: John Del Carlo (bass)
Marcellina: Catherine Cook (soprano)
Basilio: Greg Fedderly (tenor)
Barbarina: Maria Valdes (soprano)

The San Francisco Opera has revived Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro yet again.  It's a very traditional production such as the just retired one from the Met.  Susanna accompanies "Voi che sapete" on the guitar. Stuff like that.

I went for the very fine cast.  Some of the cast members are repeats from the last time:  John Del Carlo, Catherine Cook and Greg Fedderly.  Of the younger cast members Luca Pisaroni has moved to the elder statesman Count role.  The singing for everyone was excellent.

I think this version is designed around the Susanna of Lisette Oropesa, she who runs marathons.  There is a lot of athletic activity.  Cherubino doesn't just hide behind the chair--he runs wildly around the stage, even turning a cartwheel.  Susanna and Figaro wrestle around in the garden, and she does a martial arts throw at one point, sending him over on his ass.  Philippe Sly's Figaro is up to the task.

It's interesting that while the production is the same as last time, the directing is completely different.  It was designed for the maximum amount of confusion, at least for me.  Perhaps I should consider not trying to follow the plot.

The tempos were brisk but I did not witness the loss of coordination reported elsewhere.

Leah

Leah Crocetto will be singing this, Liu in Turandot, at the Met next season.  The simulcast will be Stemme and Hartig.

Michael Fabiano's Met Rodolfo

Michael was a huge hit at the Met.  I'm not sure I'm supposed to post this, but enjoy.

Salzburg Cenerentola

 

Very 1950s. 

I did not say I wouldn't post any more pictures.  She (Cecilia Bartoli) is in costume, and maybe he (Javier Camarena) is too.  Toi toi toi.

Or maybe not.  It's a rehearsal.  You can't tell anymore.

I want to express my joy in the continuing glory of Cecilia Bartoli's fabulous career.  She is in my heart even when I stay home.  There is an article in the New York Times today about the soon to begin Whitsun Festival and her management of it.  This article says she would like to sing opera in American again.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Buffet Don Magnifico

P.S.  I think every currently active Rossini singer in the world is performing.  Tenors alone included Juan Diego Florez, John Osborn, Javier Camarena, Edgardo Rocha, Barry Banks and Lawrence Brownlee.  And didn't I see José Carreras?  Also Cecilia Bartoli, Vesselina Kasarova, Joyce DiDonato, Carlos Chausson, Alessandro Corbelli, Massimo Cavalletti, Franco Fagioli, Michele Pertusi, Ruggero Raimondi, Erwin Schrott and I'm sure a lot more.

Rossini's Otello on DVD

👍🏻
Conductor: Muhai Tang
Production: Moshe Leiser & Patrice Caurier

Otello: John Osborn, tenor
Desdemona: Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo (originally Isabella Colbran)
Elmiro (Desdemona's father): Peter Kálmán, baritone
Rodrigo (man chosen by Elmiro to marry Desdemona): Javier Camarena, tenor
Jago: Edgardo Rocha, tenor
Emilia (Jago's wife): Liliana Nikiteanu

This DVD of Rossini's Otello (1816) from the Zurich Opera records the same series of performances I reviewed here from a live stream on medici.tv.

The plot of this opera is not the same as Shakespeare or Verdi.  It is clearly an opera seria but shows none of the traditional traits.  Twelve years before La Muette de Portici changed opera forever, the two main characters die.  This was unheard of.  My researches tell me that this opera was provided with an alternate happy ending, but we in the English speaking world would be outraged.  There are four scenes.  All of the action takes place in Venice rather than Cyprus.

Act I
In the Doge's palace Otello is presented to the Doge as the hero of a recent battle where he recovers Cyprus for Venice.  He has already married Desdemona, but this is a secret.  Desdemona's father Elmiro has a candidate to marry her in Rodrigo.  Otello announces that he and Desdemona are already pledged to one another, enraging Elmiro.

In this version Desdemona contributes however innocently to her own doom.  She writes a letter to Otello and encloses a lock of her own hair, but the letter falls into her father's hands.  In order to prevent an argument with Elmiro she tells him the letter is intended for Rodrigo.  Jago tells this version to Otello who believes him.

Act II  Scene 1
We are in Desdemona's room in the palazzo. She tells Rodrigo she is Otello's wife. 

Act II Scene 2
We are in Otello's hangout, a dump with a pool table and refrigerator.  Not only is Otello black, but he is not from Desdemona's social class either.  There are simply too many things against him, hero or not.  There are small issues of continuity in this scene but they shouldn't distract from the incredible singing.  Jago stirs the pot.  The ever hovering Emilia is there to save the situation.  Desdemona has a mad scene here and pours beer over her head.  P.S. I now interpret this as defiance of her father who has come to take her home.

Act III
We are in Desdemona's room in the palazzo.  She writes "Nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice"  ["Nothing is Sadder than the Memory of Happiness."] on the wall.  She sings a very beautiful rendition of the willow song.  She kisses Emilia because she knows she's doomed.  When Otello arrives, she is angry and defiant with him, very different from Verdi.  Otello kills her then himself.

John Osborn as Otello is in black-face.  Since race is the whole point of the story, this seems right.  Black-face is a comic minstrel tradition only in the United States, so criticizing a French/Swiss production for doing it would seem pretty silly.  It is shocking how much Otello hates Desdemona. 

Cecilia is taking on heavier repertoire these days, and Otello seems on the heavy end of her abilities but still well within her grasp.  She is very intense here.  Someone asked me about her the other day.  She was everywhere for a while and then suddenly she was gone.  I explained that her Columbia Artists Management manager moved back to Europe and she along with him.  I followed her there, at least in spirit, but for most Americans she ceased to exist.

This is an outstanding sample of her work now, her emotional intensity turned to serious drama.  This is bel canto at its most serious extreme.  For people who hate regie it won't work, but I'm not one of them.  Perhaps you aren't either.  Love it along with me.
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Bis

Love this guy. Too bad we won't see him. This is a film of Javier Camarena's encore at the Met.

Education:  "bis" is what you shout in Italian if you want an encore.  In Italy an encore is the same piece played again.

Leah Crocetto at Mondavi

Leah Crocetto with her accompanist Mark Markham appeared at Mondavi Center in Davis last night.  She sang:

"All the things you are" by Jerome Kern
"Rejoice greatly" from Handel's Messiah

Three songs by Samuel Barber
"Sleep now, oh sleep now," "Sure on this shining night," and "Nocturne"

Three songs by Richard Strauss
"Die Nacht," "Morgen" and "Cäcilie."  I apologize for having a coughing fit in the middle of this group.  I got out as fast as I could.  My cough drops didn't work.

Marietta's Lied from Korngold's Die tote Stadt.  This piece is becoming common for me.

Intermission.

Eternal Recurrence by Gregory Peebles.  This is a piece written for Leah.

Three songs by Fernando Obradors
"Con amores la mi madre," Del cabello mas sutil," and "Ciquitita la novia."

Encores
"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" by Jerome Kern
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas" from Meet me in St. Louis.

Leah has a voice of operatic proportions, and she chose pieces which suited both her voice and her musical loves.  The music included classic American pop songs, including one done expertly in dialect.  I'm seeing a lot of Obradors lately.

The new cycle by Gregory Peebles would have been helped by printed text.  We couldn't tell when the songs ended.  I would describe the style of this group as post modern.

She sang what she loves, and we loved it too.

Rock Stars of Opera

Noah Stewart points out this article in the November issue of Details magazine called Rock Stars of Opera. A short blurb appears for each of five young American tenors.  I am listing them in the order shown above.

Alek Shrader

I have seen Alek in Thomas Ades' The Tempest and in Rossini's Barber of Seville.  He is a lyric tenor with great flexibility.  In San Francisco he was sometimes difficult to hear, but this happens a lot for us.

Stephen Costello

I have seen Stephen in Moby Dick, at the Richard Tucker Gala with his wife, in Anna Bolena with Netrebko and in La Boheme in LA.  He is a lyric tenor of great sweetness.

Michael Fabiano

Michael is the most spectacularly gifted of this group.  I have seen him as Cassio in Otello with Botha and in Lucrezia Borgia with Renée Fleming.  He is IMHO a spinto tenor with a bright, almost Pavarotti-like tone.  His phrasing is also mature and sophisticated.  For him the sky is the limit.

 Noah Stewart

I know Noah primarily from the years when he trained at the San Francisco Opera.  He appeared there in the world premiere of Glass' Appomattox.  Then he was swept up into the Katherine Jenkins world in Great Brittain.  He works out and appears frequently in Hunks lists.  He recently won Operagasm's sexiest man award.  Right now he is in Madrid singing Purcell's The Indian Queen.  I think he needs to find his path.  All of them have commercial releases, but only Noah has his own album.

Bryan Hymel

I have seen Bryan in Faust at Santa Fe and in Les Troyens in HD.  He also sang Les Troyens at the ROH with Pappano.  Les Troyens is a big chunk to bite off, and Bryan was outstanding.  I'm going out on a limb here, but if you are looking for the Domingo type tenor that can sing anything, Bryan may be your man.  In any event he is the heaviest voice of this group and needs to choose his repertoire with this fact in mind.  Maybe I need to hear him live more.

I have posted all of them before.  They are all in the part of their careers where they are trying to find their niche.

News for Today

The big news in the opera world today is the smash hit performance of Angela Meade and Jamie Barton at the Met in Norma.  To hear what a truly wailed Norma sounds like look for the audio clip here.  It is remarkable how well their voices go together.  I hope they like each other because I think there may be many more Normas in their future.

Other important news:  I have heard only good things about Fliegende Hollander at the San Francisco Opera.  I'm going on Halloween.  And on the following day on PBS is Moby Dick.

Heidi Melton online

Here is a fun interview with Heidi Melton by Rhoslyn Jones about what it's really like to be an opera singer.

Michael Fabiano

I apologize for not posting him sooner.  I love his bright open tone.

Jamie Takes it All

At last there are films of Jamie's final at Cardiff Singer of the World.  This is so you can see what the fuss is about.

Jamie Barton has taken everything at Cardiff Singer of the World.  Listen here for a sample.  My entire acquaintance with her and enthusiasm for her singing came from her appearance at the Richard Tucker Gala.  I can't help being partial to mezzos because they always sing pieces I used to sing. Also, can it be a coincidence that she sings all this British music?  I think not.  Here is Purcell arranged by Britten.  These two clips are from her final competition performance.





In other news, we know from Norman Lebrecht that Jonas Kaufmann has switched labels from Decca to Sony and will soon release a Verdi album at Sony.

Jamie wins the Song Prize

Here are the five finalists at the Cardiff Singer of the World contest:  Jamie Barton, USA; Olena Tokar, Ukraine; Marko Mimica, Croatia; Teresa Romano, Italy, and Daniela Mack, Argentina.

I know that Jamie Barton won the song prize because she posted it on Facebook.  Congratulations.

Daniela Mack is a former Adler Fellow and will sing Rosina next season at the San Francisco Opera.  She won the fourth night.

Fascination

My current fascination is the fast rising mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard.  This photo is from the Canadian Opera Company production of La Clemenza di Tito.  The emotional variety just of the photos is remarkable.

But remember I recently called her "adorable" in The Tempest.

But that term would not have applied at all to the intensely somber performance she gave in Griselda.  It's hard to think it's the same person.

I'll have to go see her in something.

Pretty

Currently appearing at the Metropolitan Opera in Le Comte Ory is this South African soprano, Pretty Yende.  The New York Times says she is from Mpumalanga, while The Huffington Post says she "grew up in Cape Town."  Above she is singing the Song to the Moon from Rusalka.  And below is Come per me, sereno from La Sonnambula.



You can surely guess what I like about her.  She works at La Scala and is completely on top of her Italian style.  So far she is famous for falling flat on her face at the beginning of the first performance of Ory.  Remember, there is no bad publicity.

Jamie Barton

Here is some Jamie Barton for your pleasure.  The screen also shows her schedule.