The Queen of Spades from Salzburg

👍🏻
Conductor: Mariss Jansons
Director: Hans Neuenfels

Brandon Jovanovich, Hermann
Vladislav Sulimsky, Count Tomski / Plutus
Igor Golovatenko, Prince Jelezki
Evgenia Muraveva, Liza
Oksana Volkova, Polina / Daphnis
Hanna Schwarz, Countess
Stanislav Trofimov, Surin
Gleb Peryazev, Narumov
Margarita Nekrasova, Gouverness
Julia Suleymanova, Chloe

We called it Pique Dame.  This version of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades on Medici.tv from Salzburg was conducted by Mariss Jansons, the same man who brought us the version from the Netherlands here.

The period is set in the libretto because it says Catherine the Great makes an entrance in the party scene.  Here she is a giant skeleton, so make up your own mind.  For me this production is standard minimalism.  It works like no minimalism I have seen before.  The giant skeleton is the only thing that could be called an inexplicable nonsense, a feature of many modern productions, but it gets over quickly and goes back to the standard plot.  There's no minor character dressed up like Tchaikovsky to distract you from the opera.  There's just the opera.  What a concept.

We watch with no translation and don't mind at all.  Instead of the usual Hermann who stands around like a stick of wood, we have the brilliant physicality of Brandon Jovanovich in this role.  His costume makes him stand out from the crowd and his passion dominates the action.  I realized that I have been waiting for him.

It was lovely to see Hanna Schwarz as the old Countess.  Hermann points a gun at her, and she dies of fright before she can tell him the three cards.  Later she returns as a ghost and tells him the cards:  three, seven, ace.  He plays them and loses on the third card.  Just now I realized for the first time that the ghost of the Countess lies.  The third card was the Queen of Spades.  Well.  I guess I'm slow.

This played without any intermissions and for me without any warning.  Musically it was very beautiful.  Thank you.  I can recommend this version with added translation.  Without translation listen for "dri karti," three cards in Russian.


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The Demon

Conductor: Mikhail Tatarnikov
Director: Dmitry Bertman

Demon: Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Tamara: soprano Asmik Grigorian
Angel: countertenor Vadim Volkov
Tamara's nurse: contralto Larisa Kostyuk
Prince Sinodal, Tamara's betrothed: tenor Vasily Efimov

In the semi-staged performance of Anton Rubinstein's The Demon from Russia we have Dima singing gloriously. There appear to be no subtitles. You may look up the plot in Wikipedia, of course. I watched it on YouTube. It's gone now.

Two weeks ago I did not know this work existed.  The music is not very adventuresome but inspires some wonderful singing by this cast.   The idea here is that someone can be condemned for loving inappropriately.  You would want this for Dmitri.   YouTube includes some other versions, including one with Kristine Opolais.

Iolanta / Perséphone

Conductor:  Teodor Currentzis
Production:  Peter Sellars

These two operas -- Tchaikovsky's Iolanta (1892) and Stravinsky's Perséphone (1934) -- were presented together at Teatro Real in 2012.  Both were staged by Peter Sellars.  I am considering this as the end of my Peter Sellars project.

Iolanta

René, King of Provence, bass, Dmitry Ulianov
Robert, Duke of Burgundy, baritone, Alexej Markov
Count Vaudémont, a Burgundian knight, tenor, Pavel Cernoch
Ibn-Hakia, a Moorish physician, baritone, Willard White
Alméric, armor-bearer to King René, tenor, Vasily Efimov
Bertrand, doorkeeper of the castle, bass, Pavel Kudinov
Iolanta, blind daughter of King René, soprano, Ekaterina Scherbachenko
Marta, Bertrand's wife, Iolanta's nursemaid, contralto, Ekaterina Semenchuk
Brigitta, Iolanta's friend, soprano, Irina Churilova
Laura, Iolanta's friend, mezzo-soprano, Letitia Singleton

Iolanta is a fairy tale sung in Russian.  It was not brought to its full effect in its semi-realistic setting at the Met in 2015.  The magic was missing.  We are presented here with abstractions.  Door frames are topped with mysterious dark objects that sometimes suggest birds.  Instead of a film, we have still pictures.  Iolanta carries a cane, as the blind often do.  Her own chamber music group accompanies her.  I think we may presume they are singing the original text rather than the Soviet approved one.

28 minutes in we have movement just in time for the wonder of Willard White.  I find this abstraction very beautiful, but when they sing of roses, no roses appear.  I like the soprano very much, but the tenor could be better.  This is Sellars' area of expertise.  He isn't here to provide you with pretty scenery.  He's here to provide you with a spiritual experience.

Perséphone

Eumolphe, tenor, Paul Groves
Perséphone Speaker, Dominique Blanc
Perséphone dancer, Sam Sathya
Demetra, dancer, Chumvan Sodhachivy
Pluton, dancer, Khon Chansythyka
Mercure, Démophoon, dancer, Nam Narim

Perséphone is a Greek myth about the underworld, here sung in French.  We are in the same set as the previous work, and visually the two are similar.  There is a tenor, a speaker, a chorus and dancers from Cambodia but no choreographer.  The director seems to have collaborated with the dancers.  The music is serene for Stravinsky.

A line caught my eye:  "never chase after what your eyes gaze on too lovingly."  The story of my life.

The pairing of these two works is genius.  The entire thing is a meditation on beauty.  Life is beautiful.  Love it more.  Do not go into the darkness never to return.  Open your heart to beauty.  Thank you, Peter.

Since I am counting this as the end, I repeat the score card here.  It omits works where Sellars is the librettist.

Score card:

Great things:  Mozart La Clemenza di Tito, Handel Theodora, Bach Matthew Passion, Iolanta / Perséphone
Hits:  Saariaho L'Amour de Loin, Mozart Don Giovanni, Nixon (1st)
So so: Mozart Figaro, Giulio Cesare
Misses:Vivaldi Griselda, Adams The Death of Klinghoffer, Nixon (2nd)
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Eugene Onegin from the Metropolitan Opera

The Prince and Princess Gremin

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Conductor...............Robin Ticciati
Production..............Deborah Warner

Eugene Onegin...... Peter Mattei
Tatiana.................Anna Netrebko
Lensky..................Alexey Dolgov
Olga....................Elena Maximova
Prince Gremin......Stefan Kocán
Larina..................Elena Zaremba
Filippyevna, nanny....Larissa Diadkova
Triquet.................Tony Stevenson

Today was the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD presentation of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin starring Mattei and Netrebko.  This was the third HD presentation of this opera and the second of this production.  I had no sense that I was seeing a repeat.

This time the production seemed perfect.  The first two acts are clearly in a country villa with villagers and land owners.  Larina, Lensky, Olga, Tatiana and Onegin represent the latter.

Every role was cast to perfection.  Tony Stevenson did a star turn singing the couplets at Tatiana's birthday party.  Larissa Diadkova is very attentive as Tatiana's nanny.  Olga and her mother were wonderfully sung by the two Elenas.  Alexey Dolgov as Lensky was perfection as the too immature man who simply assumes Olga is his forever and does not know what to do when Onegin flirts with her.  We will have to read the novel if we want to know what happens to Olga.  Stefan Kocán seems a little young for Gremin but sang beautifully.

But it is the amazing acting of Anna Netrebko and Peter Mattei that brings this opera thrillingly to life.  Anna has gone deeper into the character this time with astounding results.  Peter portrays arrogance and ennui better than any of his predecessors, and then caps his performance with an intense finish.

Here he appears at a party in St. Petersburg in the third act.

It is an opera about love.  I often think that I am happier in my old age because I no longer feel inclined to fall in love.  It is far better to watch others suffer at the opera.  This performance was a level of theatrical and musical achievement that comes only rarely.  Bravi.

Renée Fleming was our hostess.  In two weeks we will see her in Der Rosenkavalier.  We hope that isn't the last time we see her.

________________________________________

Comment from Stefan Kocán on Facebook:

"Dear my facebook friends ,
I just like to say one thing about Gremin.
He is NOT old!
At the end of opera is Onegin 26, [this is in the dialog.] Tatyana let's say 20-22 (?) and Gremin is around/after 30.
Gremin in his aria only refers to an old man and to a young boy in the bloom of youth...
That means the staging of the MET didn't felt short! ...but totally in accordance with Pushkin and Tchaikovsky potrayed Gremin as an adult ( not anymore boy) man with an war experience."

The Ying Quartet

You could call them The Ying String Quartet, I suppose.  They started out as a family enterprise, but now the first violinist is not a family member.  They are Janet Ying (violin), Phillip Ying (viola), Robin Scott (violin), and David Ying (cello).  For our final New Millennium Concert Series program at Sacramento State we enjoyed this excellent quartet.  They are my favorite of the recent chamber music groups I have heard.

String Quartet No. 2 in D Major (1881) by Alexander Borodin
This piece sounds familiar because a couple of the movements provided source material for the musical Kismet.  It's also just very beautiful music from the high Romantic.

String Quartet No. 2 in F Major Op. 92 (1941) by Sergei Prokofiev
This is pleasingly modern but not too modern since it's based on Russian folk tunes.

Quartet in C Major, Op. 59 No 3 (1808) by Beethoven
This is one of the Razumovsky string quartets commissioned by a Russian Prince Razumovsky, thus continuing the Russian theme of the concert.

The selection of repertoire is part of what made this concert particularly pleasing, along with the beautiful romantic playing.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Production: Harry Kupfer

Boris Timofeyevich Izmailov, a Merchant: Anatoli Kotscherga
Zinoviy Borisovich Izmailov, his son: Sergey Skorokhodov
Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, wife of Zinoviy Borisovich: Anja Kampe 
Sergei, a workman employed at the Izmailovs: Misha Didyk
Aksinya, a workwoman employed at the Izmailovs: Heike Grötzinger
Sonyetka, a convict: Anna Lapkovskaja

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Shostakovich streamed today from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  I have seen this opera twice before, both times at the San Francisco Opera.  This is different somehow.  Kampe is marvelous, but the most applause goes to Petrenko.

Staatskapelle Berlin

On our final night in Berlin we visited Philharmonie, the concert hall for the Berlin Philharmonic. The Berlin Philharmonic was on tour, as usual, and we saw instead the Staatskapelle Berlin.  Disney  Hall in Los Angeles looks far odder on the outside, but inside this one is very confusing indeed.  In fact one of our group members got lost, and a search party had to be dispatched.  Here is the view on the inside.

It was a very wowie concert.  We started off with that rarest of pieces, the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto.  I feel fairly certain I haven't heard it before.  A piano concerto is supposed to be a  battle between equals, but in this work the piano wins hands down.  In the first movement the orchestra hardly has a chance to compete.  For the pianist it is notoriously, spectacularly difficult.  Our pianist was Daniil Trifonov, and he never stumbled once.  If you haven't heard of him, watch out.  It was marvelous.

The second half of the program was Manuel de Falla's Three Cornered Hat.  It was fun and very loud.  That might possibly be a problem with really good acoustics.

Rachmaninov Op.4 no. 4

Disappointed in concert last Saturday, I thought I would point out how this is supposed to sound.

Ewa Podleś

The one and only Ewa Podleś sings Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky.

Rachmaninoff at the Sacramento Philharmonic

The program for the Sacramento Philharmonic included other things, too.  The conductor for the evening was Case Scaglione.  His first name means houses in Italian.

Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Pieces.  I think to effectively present these pieces the Philharmonic would need to up their game a bit.  To make their effect they depend very much on sound.

Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in C Major.  Frankly I don't know why they would choose to play this piece, since it is extremely uninteresting.  To me anyway.

Then we came to Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Behzod Abduraimov at the piano.  It was worth waiting for.  Apparently Behzod is a rising star.  He lit into Rachmaninoff's most famous piece like there was no tomorrow.  Conductor and pianist did an excellent job of maintaining coordination throughout the concerto.  Every movement was a gem, exciting, dynamic, thrilling.  And the Philharmonic rose to meet him.  For one brief shining moment they were thrilling, too.

We go to hear concerts for moments like this.  You never know when it will happen.  Thank you.

Fiery Angel

Conductor:  Vladimir Jurowski
Production:  Barrie Kosky

Ruprecht:  Evgeny Nikitin
Renata:  Svetlana Sozdateleva
Landlady:  Heike Grötzinger
Soothsayer:  Elena Manistina
Agrippa von Nettesheim:  Vladimir Galouzine

If you watch a lot of German opera productions, you probably expected something a lot wilder than this for Prokofiev's Fiery Angel from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  It starts as an ordinary hotel room, and the hotel theme carries throughout.

Renata had an imaginary friend as a child, only her imaginary friend was not another girl, or a giant rabbit, but an enormous fiery angel.  Puberty missed this up, since the angel didn't want to become a boyfriend.  Renata spends the rest of her life looking for him.

Our opera begins in the hotel room with Ruprecht musing and the hotel manager coming in for a talk.  Then Renata crawls out from under the bed.  This was my favorite part.  When did that ever happen?  Renata is completely mad.

After Act I, the rest of the scenes are interrupted by various groups.  Act II includes male dancers with lots of tattoos dressed in evening gowns.  Act IV is Faust and Mephistopheles holding their walpurgis nacht.  And finally Act V where people are supposed to be nuns, they are instead dressed as Jesus in his crown of thorns.

I kept thinking this was the perfect opera to follow our House of Usher duo, just to show how it is done.  Musically this is a spectacular piece.  All the singers were good, but Svetlana Sozdateleva was spectacularly wonderful.  Kudos.  She was perfectly cast for this very difficult role.

I am resisting the old person's inclination to reminisce about previous productions.

Iolanta in HD

CONDUCTOR:  Valery Gergiev
PRODUCTION:  Mariusz Treliński
DRAMATURG: Piotr Gruszczyński

IOLANTA: Anna Netrebko (soprano)
COUNT VAUDÉMONT, friend of the Duke:  Piotr Beczala (tenor)
DUKE ROBERT, Iolanta's Fiance: Aleksei Markov (baritone)
KING RENÉ, Iolanta's father: Ilya Bannik (bass)
IBN-HAKIA, Moorish Doctor: Elchin Azizov (baritone)

Tchaikovsky's Iolanta is based on a Danish play which is in turn based on the real life of Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine. For the simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera the story is moved in time to the twentieth century.

People around me expressed confusion about the production, but I didn't experience this.  There is a naturalistic looking set with a single room representing Iolanta's imprisonment that is turned to various positions throughout the opera, surrounded by a few trees and a stack of wood.  Between the stage and the audience is a scrim on which various things are projected, probably the source of the confusion.  The projections begin with a deer running through the woods.  It was immediately clear to me that this was to create the idea that we are in the middle of the woods, far from human civilization.  The projections changed to ominous looking branches when the desired atmosphere was dark and mysterious.  Why is this confusing?

Because the women who surround Iolanta are dressed in uniforms, we assume that she is being kept in some kind of institution.  She talks to Marta, the head nurse, and tells her she is sad.  She then asks Marta why Marta is sad, and though Marta does not tell her, Iolanta concludes that this is due to the tears flowing from her own eyes.  She tells us that eyes must be for tears.  This is the plot, you see.  She does not know what they are truly for because she is blind and has not been told.

A doctor arrives to treat her, and he insists that Iolanta must be told everything.  Father refuses.  Young men arrive with skiing equipment, one of whom is her fiance.  This is the most farfetched piece of the story.  No, not the skiing part--the fiance part.  He has never met Iolanta and talks about how much he is in love with someone else.  He rejects Iolanta without ever having seen her.  He leaves.

Piotr Beczala is left behind to meet and fall in love with Iolanta.  She can't tell the difference between the white and the red roses, giving away the fact that she is blind.  He tells her this and explains about light and seeing.  This is the most beautiful part of the opera.  Light was the first act of creation, he explains.  There is a poetical beauty that is rare in opera.

All live happily ever after.  Iolanta is cured, the fiance and father agree that Iolanta will not marry him, God is thanked, and joy abounds.  A large chorus appears and Iolanta asks what this is.  People, father explains.  Netrebko then comes backstage to tell us it's Valentine's Day, and we should go home and enjoy ourselves.  These are not appropriate Valentine's Day operas.  We knew that.

This was very beautifully done, very emotionally done, with beautiful playing from the orchestra which is exactly perfect for this music.  (You know I don't always think this.)  Gergiev knows his repertoire.  The singers were all gorgeous with wonderful solos for all 5 of the listed characters.  Anna Netrebko sings Russian music like she was born for this. For me she successfully suggested blindness.

I couldn't help thinking about Queen of Spades, an opera that is very familiar to me, and how I have never heard the perfect one.  Anna.  Please.

P.S.  The New York Times has informed me that this opera has been very popular in Russia, that to make it acceptable in the Soviet Union the libretto was altered to omit all references to the deity.  The communists praised nature and not God.  That Netrebko and others of the Russian artists insisted on singing the version they had learned, that is the religiously cleansed version.  The motivation was undoubtedly the lack of desire to learn a different Russian text.  The surtitles translated the original libretto and not the one the singers were actually singing.  Curious.

Others have pointed out that this version of Bluebeard is actually interesting.  I left early on, but perhaps I will go on Wednesday.

Prince Igor

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda
Production Dmitri Tcherniakov

Host Eric Owens

Cast

Prince Igor:  Ildar Abdrazakov
Prince Galitsky (Igor's wife's brother):  Mikhail Petrenko
Vladimir Igorevich (Igor's son):  Sergey Semishkur
Skula (deserter):  Vladimir Ognovenko
Yeroshka (deserter):  Andrey Popov
Yaroslavna (Igor's wife):  Oksana Dyka
Polovtsian Maiden:  Kiri Deonarine
Konchakovna (Khan Konchak's daughter):  Anita Rachvelishvili
Ovlur (Christian Polovtsian):   Mikhail Vekua
Khan Konchak (Polovtsian general):   Štefan Kocán
Yaroslavna’s Nurse:  Barbara Dever

My list says that I have seen Alexander Borodin's Prince Igor at the San Francisco Opera in 1996.  I don't remember.  There has been a massive effort to improve the theatrical viability of this opera and to alter the score to include only music by Borodin. 

Traditionally the scenes are:

Prologue--Igor's army leaves for battle.
Act I scene 1--Prince Galitsky's drunken bash.
Act I scene 2--Yaroslavna's chamber, news that Igor is defeated, enemy is approaching.
Act II--Singing and dancing in Polovtsian camp.
Act III--Igor and Vladimir are to escape, but Vladimir stays for Konchakovna.
Act IV--Igor returns home and is celebrated.

I am looking at the program for this performance live from the Metropolitan Opera in HD and it seems to be incorrect.  I will attempt to explain what happens.  The Prologue is as before, but it is followed by the scene of singing and dancing in the Polovtsian camp.  This is the famous Polovtsian dances and takes place in a field of red poppies.  It is Igor's reality and fantasy mixed.  The enemy general and his daughter are introduced, and she falls in love with Vladimir.

Act II in this version includes scenes where women of the village come to Yaroslavna to complain that Galitsky has abducted a girl from the village.  Then there is a drunken bash with Galitsky where he plans to overthrow the rule of Yaroslavna.  Then there is a scene when the city council meets, declares that Igor has been captured, his army killed and the enemy is advancing.  Galitsky tries to overthrow Yaroslavna, but is killed.

Then there is a scene where Ovlur tries to persuade Igor and Vladimir to escape, but Vladimir stays for Konchakovna.  This is Act III above, but does not appear in the handout. In the end Igor returns to a ruined city and encourages rebuilding.

I felt that these changes were successful, that a level of theatricality had been achieved and that Igor became central.  The choral work in this opera is spectacular.  But in either arrangement bad guys always seem to have more charisma, and Prince Galitsky is wonderfully nasty.

The singing was particularly enjoyable.  I especially liked Oksana Dyka and Anita Rachvelishvili, next season's Carmen.  Her Carmen will be wild.

Dmitri Tcherniakov talks about his production and what it means.  He tells that Igor has had a transforming experience, that he immediately starts in to reconstruct his land, that he wishes to turn his attention to peaceful, constructive purposes, but when we see the dialog on the screen we know that this isn't what he is saying.  He wants to go back to fighting.  This is why the audience is confused.  I don't think this opera will make it into standard repertoire. 

P.S.  All my reviews are a work in progress.  After the Oscars I want to point out the original field of red poppies:  the Wizard of Oz.  Of course, these are California poppies.

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The Nose

Today we were blessed with The Nose by Dmitri Snoztakovich live from the Metropolitan Opera in HD, sung in Russian.  You have no idea how long I've been waiting to tell that joke--stolen from Emily Pulley.

Conductor: Pavel Smelkov
Production: William Kentridge
Stage Directors: William Kentridge, Luc De Wit
Projections: Catherine Meyburgh, William Kentridge
Set Designers: William Kentridge, Sabine Theunissen
Costume Designer:  Greta Goiris
Lighting Designer: Urs Schönebaum
Live in HD Host:  Patricia Racette

Cast

Kovalyov: Paulo Szot
Police Inspector: Andrey Popov
The Nose: Alexander Lewis

The only person to be interviewed for this simulcast was William Kentridge who explained that his own nose was the model for the character The Nose.  He turned to show us a profile.

This performance is an art work on three levels.

I.  The short story by Nikolai Gogol.  The opera plot follows this story, written between 1835 and 1836, very closely.

II.  The opera by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) written in 1929, an early work.  My reaction to this was that I was viewing an opera comique complete with spoken dialog.

III.  The production by William Kentridge, which is fully an art work in its own right.

Before I get too far into this, I feel that 2:15 is too long for an opera with no intermission.  A short period to relax, complete with an interview with Paulo Szot, would have made me enjoy this a lot more.

Every time there was piano music in the score there was a film of Shostakovich playing the piano.  The other person whose photograph frequently appeared was Joseph Stalin whose reign had just started two years before.  At this time Shostakovich had not yet fallen from political favor. 

While his owner lounges around in his bedroom staring at himself in the mirror and feeling sorry for himself, the nose has a full and exciting life.  He participates in swim meets and track and field contests.  He loves to ride a horse, and rises to a higher place in the political hierarchy than his owner.  We see all this in the projections on the set.

There is a lot of crashing and banging in this score full of complex and varied orchestral colorings.  There are many soloists, supers, chorus and actors on the set.  I must say I really only enjoyed the parts where Paulo was on the stage.  He is a wonderful performer with great variety and presence.

I was asked on exiting the theater if I would go again to see Nixon in China, and I reported that I had already seen it 3 times in 3 different productions.  I love it, and they hate it.  Maybe once will be enough for The Nose.

This review is supposed to include an extended discussion of the deeper meaning of The Nose.  All I seem to be able to think of is that if a barber actually cut off your nose, your face would have a hole in it and not a flat piece of skin.  And occasionally I would remember the photograph of the man who is growing a new nose on his forehead.  Nothing was done to make Paulo seem not to have a nose.  Perhaps it is all a dream.

Eugene Onegin in HD

Onegin and Tatiana in the city

I have long been an admirer of Chekhov, the Russian writer of plays and short stories, so when Peter Gelb compared his new Metropolitan Opera production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin to a play by Chekhov, I was prepared to enjoy it.

Conductor:  Valery Gergiev
Production:  Deborah Warner

Tatiana: Anna Netrebko
Olga: Oksana Volkova
Madame Larina, their mother:  Elena Zaremba
Tatiana's Nurse:  Larissa Diadkova
Lenski: Piotr Beczala
Onegin: Mariusz Kwiecien
Gremin: Alexei Tanovitski

I liked enormously the sets for the house in the country.  It created an atmosphere of reality and strengthened the sense of the relationships between the characters.  There was too much contrast in the last act with the bare stage and huge columns.  There was no sense of artistic unity for the opera as a whole.

Lensky and Olga in the country

The beginning and ending had a new symmetry.  As Onegin rejects and coldly dismisses Tatiana, he looks at her face and kisses her before walking away.  Netrebko's Tatiana rises to equal Onegin's coldness and arrogance in the final act.  She tells him she loves him but will not sacrifice her life for him.  She stares him down coldly and then kisses him before she walks away in the snow.  There was a kind of perfection to this.  Perhaps Mariusz is the right singer for this conception after all.

Netrebko sang extremely well, giving the letter scene a special intensity.  Alright.  I'll say it.  She looked terrible in the girl's dress.  But the mature Tatiana's outfits made her look beautiful.  Few singing actresses could bring so much strength to a character. 

I couldn't help wondering how this would all play in the house.  Chekhov is not for the huge theater.  Could the softness of the singing be heard in the house?  Could such an intimate and interior conception be seen, heard and indeed felt in the huge expanse of the Met?  Chekhov's sense of humor seemed to be missing.

Beczala was the best Lensky ever.  My favorite was the Nurse, a wonderful actress.  The sense of it all being truly Russian was very powerful.  I would like very much to see this kind of treatment of Pique Dame which somehow just misses for me.

P.S.  Netrebko seemed to be in the mood to argue with Debbie in her interview.  I wonder what that was about?

PPS.   The plot of Onegin is from Pushkin (1799-1837). I know that. What was being discussed was the PRODUCTION which was moved to the time of Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) which it just so happens overlaps with the time of Chekhov (1860-1904). My remarks referred to the production and not to the opera.   Gelb is the one who brought up Chekhov.  I liked this and went with it.  The production comes from British theater people who are undoubtedly far more familiar with Chekhov than with either Pushkin or Tchaikovsky.

A truly Chekhovian ending would require much more ambiguity.  Instead of perfect symmetry we would need to be left wondering if perhaps they might get together on occasion, just as we are left wondering in the story "The Lady with the Little Dog."  If she is not required to sacrifice her life and her husband, would Tatiana occasionally meet with Onegin in secret?
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Piotr Beczala Sings Onegin

This is Piotr Beczala singing Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin.

Sacramento Opera and Philharmonic

I have tracked down the brochure for next season for the combined Opera and Philharmonic.  We have a lot more details.

August 11, 1:30, the Opera and Philharmonic will combine at Fairy Tale Town in William Land Park for the "Cat and Fiddle Music Festival."  Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is one of the numbers in this family oriented concert.

Oct 19, 2:00 and 8:00, Community Center Theater, "Here to stay:  the Gershwin Experience" concert with Sylvia McNair, conducted by Michael Morgan.

Nov 22, 8:00, Crest Theater, International Stars of Opera Recital, Ruth Ann Swenson, soprano, Frank Lopardo, tenor, Mark Robson, piano.  This is what was meant by Una Sorpreso Lirico! 

January 11, 8:00, Community Center Theater, Michael Morgan conducts Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Stravinsky Firebird Suite and Daniel Bernard Roumain Woodbox Concerto.  Here's a short film of DBR playing an electric violin.



Feb 28, 8:00, and March 2, 2:00, CCT, Verdi's Il Trovatore.  Michael Morgan will conduct.  Leonora, Lisa Daltirus; Azucena, Tichina Vaughn; Manrico, Arnold Rawls; Count Di Luna, Marcus Jupither.

March 14, 8:00, The Assembly (1000 K st.), Violinist Rachel Barton Pine and cellist Mike Block will discuss the evolution of music from Bartok to Metalica.  This is a bold undertaking. 

April 5, 8:00, CCT, concert featureing Dvorak, Glazunov and John Williams.  Michael Morgan conducts and Rachel Barton Pine plays the Glazunov violin concerto.

June 21, 1:00 and 3:00; June 22 1:00 at Crocker Art Museum, Family opera to coincide with a Crocker exhibition.  Robert Xavier Rodriquez is the composer and the words "mariachi music" appear in the text.  I think this is just for fun.

I feel this represents a different perspective.

Eugene Onegin at the Wiener Staatsoper

There's going to need to be a film of this.



This clip of the final scene from Eugene Onegin from the Wiener Staatsoper is to give you something to compare with the Met.

Nadine Sierra

Nadine Sierra, whose Schwabacher Debut Recital was Sunday afternoon, already has her own Wikipedia page.  It tells us, "On February 21, 2009, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Finals in New York."  She was 21 at the time.

This season she is a second year Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera where she created the roles of Juliet and Barbara in the world premiere of Heart of a Soldier last fall.  It is interesting to note that in my review of the 2010 Merola Finale, her performance of the duet from Romeo et Juliette was the only thing I praised.

Enough blurb. If you read that someone has one of these opera prizes, you may assume that they have a big, penetrating voice, and that is very much the case with Nadine.

I don't go to all the Schwabacher Debut Recitals, but of the ones I've seen, this one is the most mature.  She showed off a lot of stuff.

She sang in four languages:  French (Debussy), Russian (Rachmaninov), English (Bernstein) and Portuguese (Villa-Lobos and Braga).   She is American, but her background is Brazil?

She showed off her interpretative skills in these wide ranging songs, and then topped it with her now very grownup rendition of "O mio babbino caro" as an encore.  She has improved on the YouTube film, so don't make any critical judgments based on it.

She showed off her very well developed technique, particularly her excellent breath control.

Her accompanist, Tamara Sanikidze, was chosen to talk about the Rachmaninov Opus 38 songs.  She is Russian, apparently, and loves these songs very much.  Artist bios never seem to tell you these vital bits of information.  The cultural background of the artist is crucial in understanding them musically.

Nadine is still young, but is off to a good start.  She is strong in the thing that for me counts most:  expression.  As she grows older, coaches will attempt to impose their interpretations on her, but let's hope her own personality continues to shine through.

Here's a nice sample of something from an opera.

Netrebko and Barenboim

There are things that only Anna can do. This is from the Berlin Philharmonic, and the songs are by Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. The subtitles are in French.  I don't think I know which pieces these are.

Programme

Anna Netrebko, Soprano

Daniel Barenboim, Piano

Philharmonie, Berlin

Monday 29. March 2010

1. PART

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Worüber in der Stille der Nacht op. 40 Nr. 3 | O chem v tishi nochey op. 40 Nr. 3 | What it is, in the still of night op. 40 Nr. 3

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Verzeih! Erinnere dich nicht an die kummervollen Tage op. 27 Nr. 4 | Prosti! Ne pomni dney naden’ya op. 27 Nr. 4 | Forgive me! Remember not the downcast days op. 27 Nr. 4

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Es ist nicht der Wind, der von der Höhe weht op. 43 Nr. 2 | Ne veter, veya s vïsotï op. 43 Nr. 2 | It was not the wind, blowing from the heights op. 43 Nr. 2

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Klingender ist das Lied der Lerche op. 43 Nr. 1 | Zvonche zhavoronka pen’ye op. 43 Nr. 1 | The lark sings louder op. 43 Nr. 1

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Auf Grusiniens Hügeln op. 3 Nr. 4 | Na kholmakh Gruzii op. 3 Nr. 4 | On the hills of Georgia op. 3 Nr. 4

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Im Reich der Rose und des Weins op. 8 Nr. 5 | V tsarstvo rozï i vina op. 8 Nr. 5 | In the kingdom of roses and wine op. 8 Nr. 5

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Suleikas Lied op. 26 Nr. 4 | Pesnya Zyuleyki op. 26 Nr. 4 | Zuleika’s song op. 26 Nr. 4

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Die Nachtigall wurde Sklavin der Rose op. 2 Nr. 2 | Plenivshis’ rozoy, solovey (Vostochnïy romans) op. 2 Nr. 2 | Enslaved by the rose, the nightingale op. 2 Nr. 2

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Der Wolken Luftgebirg löst sich im Winde sacht op. 42 Nr. 3 | Redeyet oblakov letuchaya gryada op. 42 Nr. 3 | The clouds begin to scatter op. 42 Nr. 3

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Die Nymphe op. 56 Nr. 1 | Nimfa op. 56 Nr. 1 | The nymph op. 56 Nr. 1

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow • Ein Sommernachtstraum op. 56 Nr. 2 | Son v letnyuyu noch’ op. 56 Nr. 2 | Summer night’s dream op. 56 Nr. 2

2. PART

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Sag mir, wovon im dunklen Grün op. 57 Nr. 1 | Skazhi, o chom v teni vetvey op. 57 Nr. 1 | Say, when under shady boughs op. 57 Nr. 1

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • So schnell vergessen (1870) | Zabït tak skoro (1870) | So soon forgotten (1870)

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Trunkene Nächte op. 60 Nr. 6 | Nochy bezumnïye op. 60 Nr. 6 | Reckless nights op. 60 Nr. 6

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Warum? op. 6 Nr. 5 | Otchevo? op. 6 Nr. 5 | Why? op. 6 Nr. 5

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Serenade, O Kind, ich singe dir op. 63 Nr. 6 | Serenada op. 63 Nr. 6 | Serenade op. 63 Nr. 6

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Wiegenlied op. 16 Nr. 1 | Kolïbel’naya pesnya op. 16 Nr. 1 | Lullaby op. 16 Nr. 1

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • War ich nicht ein Gräslein im Felde op. 47 Nr. 7 | Ya li v pole da ne travushka bïla op. 47 Nr. 7 | Was I not a little blade of grass? op. 47 Nr. 7

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • In trüben Tagen op. 73 Nr. 5 | Sred mrachnïkh dnei op. 73 Nr. 5 | Mid sombre days op. 73 Nr. 5

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Herrschet der Tag op. 47 Nr. 6 | Den li tsarit? op. 47 Nr. 6 | Does the day reign op. 47 Nr. 6

ENCORES

Antonín Dvořák • Zigeunermelodien op. 55 Nr. 4 (Als die alte Mutter mich noch lehrte singen) | Ciganske melodie op. 55 Nr. 4 (Kdyz mne stará matka zpívat, zpívat ucívala) | Gypsy Songs op. 55 Nr. 4 (When my old mother taught me to sing)

Richard Strauss • Cäcilie op. 27 Nr. 2