Don Carlos in HD

Conductor -Patrick Furrer

Élisabeth de Valois -Sonya Yoncheva

Eboli -Jamie Barton

Don Carlos -Matthew Polenzani

Rodrigue -Etienne Dupuis

Philippe II - Eric Owens

Grand Inquisitor - John Relyea

Production by David McVicar

Saturday we viewed the live HD performance of the French version of Verdi's Don Carlos. This opera seems to be attempting to imitate reality, so perhaps a little reality is required. This is a calendar of historical events related to the life of Philip II of Spain. 

1527 Philip born 1543 Philip marries Maria Manuela of Portugal 1545 Carlos born, Maria Manuela mother 1545 Maria dies 1545 Elisabeth of Valois born 1554 Philip marries Mary I of England [bloody Mary] becoming her co-regent 1556 Philip becomes King of Spain 1558 Mary dies, Philip returns to Spain 1559 Philip marries Elisabeth of Valois 1568 Elisabeth dies 1568 Carlos dies

1570	Philip marries Anna of Austria
1580	Anna dies
1598	Philip dies

From this we see that Carlos and Elisabeth were about the same age and died at about the same time. Philip was already King of Spain for three years before he married Elisabeth of Valois. So it is unlikely that his coronation took place after he married Elisabeth.

The plot begins when Carlos, who believes he will marry Elisabeth, wishes to meet his future wife and tracks her to the Forest of Fontainebleau, France. They meet and fall in love.  By the end of the scene a political agreement has been reached offstage, and Carlos and Elisabeth find that she is to marry Carlos' father Philip.  This is the context for the rest of the opera, so the story doesn't make much sense if this scene is omitted.

I thought this was a brilliantly and beautifully executed performance.  The story felt right, perhaps for the first time.  This is the most I have liked Sonya Yoncheva whose performance shaped the drama.  I never felt a desire to go home early because it was all so fascinating.

Poppea from Salzburg

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Conductor:  William Christie, with his ensemble Les Arts Florissants
Director:  Jan Lauwers

Poppea:  Sonya Yoncheva (Soprano)
Nerone: Kate Lindsey (Mezzo-soprano)
Ottavia:  Stéphanie d'Oustrac (Mezzo-soprano)
Ottone:  Carlo Vistoli (Countertenor)
Seneca:  Renato Dolcini (Baritone)

Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1643) comes early in the era of Venetian opera, which included women, normal men and castrati in the cast.  It was commercial theater, so the casts were kept small to save money.  I guess 11 people were all, a much smaller bunch than our cast.  They handled this by casting everyone in many roles.  I am here to see the first three ladies:  Sonya Yoncheva, Kate Lindsey and Stéphanie d'Oustrac, all people I like.  Our girls sang pretty much in their standard operatic voices.  I have only seen Yoncheva in Verdi and Puccini, so I was surprised this worked so well.

This opens with a prologue by the gods Virtue, Fortune and Love arguing who is more important.  Part of the orchestra is on the stage in this scene.  Then they move to in front, though the space could hardly be called a pit.  Throughout the entire opera the stage is cluttered with dancers in unidentifiable costumes.  They seem intended to represent something, but we are not told what.

There is partial nudity and foreplay, which I consider progress in the subject of sex in opera.  Yoncheva can do anything, but by the end of the opera the music began to sound repetitive and uninteresting.  3 hours is too long.  It did not lure me from the version with Alice Coote and Danielle de Niese.  There are lots of DVDs to choose from, and I have not seen all of them.

Luisa Miller in HD

Conductor...............Betrand de Billy
Production..............Elijah Moshinsky

Luisa...................Sonya Yoncheva, soprano
Rodolfo...............Piotr Beczala, tenor
Miller..................Plácido Domingo, baritone
Count Walter.......Alexander Vinogradov, bass
Wurm..................Dmitry Belosselskiy, bass
Federica..............Olesya Petrova, contralto  


Yesterday the Metropolitan Opera presented Verdi's Luisa Miller in HD.  I liked it better this time than I did in 2015 in San Francisco.  This is a very fine cast, but perhaps it is Placido Domingo, a man born to musical theater, who makes the difference.  In the other staging everyone seemed like a bad guy, but here we are clear that Miller deeply cares about his daughter and will give up everything for her.  Rodolfo on the other hand thinks only of himself and commits a murder/suicide, something we generally hear about from the newspaper.  His excuse is only a tiny bit better than Otello's.

All over the internet are people wondering why Placido keeps singing.  His scenes with Yoncheva were by far the most spectacularly beautiful of anything seen here today.  He definitely still has it, and this performance is one of his better outings as a baritone.

Plot--young nobleman goes wandering around the countryside in disguise looking for girls, very much like the Duke in Rigoletto or the King in La Donna del Lago.  He knows that makes him a shit, but does it anyway.  It turns out badly for everyone.  It was like a magic trick, but this cast made it work.

La Bohème in HD

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Conductor:  Marco Armiliato
Production:  Franco Zeffirelli

Mimi:  Sonya Yoncheva
Rodolfo:  Michael Fabiano
Musetta:  Susanna Phillips
Marcello:  Lucas Meachem
Schaunard:  Alexey Lavrov
Colline:  Matthew Rose
Benoit/Alcindoro:  Paul Plishka

Today was the HD for Puccini's La Bohème from the Metropolitan Opera.  Michael explained that they don't really get to rehearse.  Nevertheless it was a beautiful ensemble performance with excellent conducting.

Between scenes was a lot of hammering.  My impression was that the workers were repairing the ancient and well used sets.  Each set slides in on the stage machinery.  Garret stage left, Momus stage right and snow scene from the back.  There was a film of this happening.  So why all the hammering?

Sonya and Michael are both wonderful singing actors who play well with one another.  They both have beautiful emotional range which is the secret to great opera.  Or maybe opera has a lot of secrets and this is just one.

She died a couple of seconds before her chord, but I have decided to forgive everyone.  Look.  There is scene painting in the orchestration in this opera.  First you hear the flames going up in Act I when Rodolfo throws his play into the fire.  And there is a chord at the end that signals Mimi dying.  Am I the only one who knows this?

It was lovely to see Paul Plishka who once appeared frequently in San Francisco.  The magic worked once again.

Tosca in HD

"Muori"

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Conductor...............Emmanuel Villaume
Production..............David McVicar

Tosca...................Sonya Yoncheva
Cavaradossi........Vittorio Grigolo
Scarpia.................Željko Lučić

Now wasn't that interesting.  I'm talking about the new McVicar production of Puccini's Tosca in HD from the Metropolitan Opera.  It was originally supposed to star Jonas Kaufmann, Kristine Opolais and Bryn Terfel, and its conductor would have been Andris Nelsons.  So everyone is completely different.  And now I'm going to be frank:  I don't think anyone from the original cast could have improved on today's spectacular performance.  So thank you all for finding something else to do today.  Emmanuel Villaume replaced James Levine in turn and did well.

First of all let's talk about the production which is a replacement for the unpopular Bondy production, which in turn replaced Franco Zeffirelli.  Act I is remarkably similar to Zeffirelli.  It takes place in a church in Rome which anyone may visit.  Act II takes place in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome which is now the French embassy and cannot be casually visited.  Unfortunately for me, my collection of books includes a photo collection of Palazzo Farnese.  This means I know exactly what it actually looks like.  None of these productions even remotely resemble it, but perhaps an exact portrayal would be distracting.  The McVicar is like Palazzo Farnese seen by someone extremely near sighted.

The third act shows us the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo pretty much as it actually is.  Why try to improve on perfection?  For me all three of these sets, though large and difficult to assemble, functioned well as background for our story.  It's traditional and fuddy duddy, but for me it works.

Which brings us to our singers.  Scarpia is the slimiest of slimy villain baritones, and Zeljko Lucic knows how to turn on his dark side.  His voice is also good.

Vittorio Grigolo as Cavaradossi is right in his element.  His beautiful Italian overacting seems like it was made for Tosca.  You believe in his passion for his beloved as never before.  I enjoyed all three of his arias, but especially "O dolci mani."  [Oh sweet hands.]

While interviewing Sonya Yoncheva, Isabel Leonard exclaimed, "You are very brave!"  In this performance series Sonya made her debut as Tosca.  That means she has never performed Tosca before.  A debut in a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera and on the HD series.  Yes.  Very brave indeed.  I have heard her only a few times, and this seems the role that most suits her dark voice.  You will have noticed by now that I love best the dark voices.  For my ears her sound most resembles Callas of anyone I have heard.  Today she was simply glorious.  Viva Yoncheva.  I added her name to the singers list at the left.

Don Carlos from Paris

Conductor: Philippe Jordan
Regie:  Krzysztof Warlikowski

Jonas Kaufmann (Don Carlos)
Elina Garanča (Die Prinzessin Eboli)
Sonya Yoncheva (Élisabeth de Valois)
Ludovic Tézier (Rodrigue)
Dmitry Belosselskiy (Der Großinquisitor)
Ildar Abdrazakov (Philippe II)
Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Thibault)

The most recent operatic excitement on the international scene is the French version of Verdi's Don Carlos presented at the Opera Bastille with the above cited participants.  It claims to be the original French version of the opera, though there is no ballet.  Certain features of the production can be seen above.  Pictures are projected on a scrim in black and white that look like old silent movie films in very much deteriorated condition.  When Don Carlos loses Elisabeth, he points a gun at his head but does not shoot.  He does this again at the end.

The costumes suggest the Spanish Civil War.  My French is not good enough for this.  I would need English subtitles.

I am here for Elina Garanča as Eboli.  She is by far the most lively inhabiter of this role that I have seen.  She seems to have a clause in her contract that says she will smoke and kiss girls in every production.  Just kidding.  It makes you wonder if she actually smokes.  She is very sexy and flirtatious as Eboli.

In general the production explains nothing.  Elisabeth appears at a treeless Forest of Fontainebleau dressed in her bridal gown and prepared to wed.  When the groom changes from Carlos to Philippe, she immediately marries the new bridegroom, apparently by proxy since the man she appears to marry is not Philippe.  The scenes never look like anything they are supposed to be, but names of where we are appear on my screen for every scene.

Philip II of Spain was a real person who lived in the time of Elizabeth I of England and was in fact married to Elizabeth's sister Mary just before his marriage to Élisabeth de Valois.  Here he is shown at his coronation which would have occurred years before.  Oh well.  It replaces the martyrs burning at the stake which we do not miss.

The music is enjoyable and somehow less Italian.

There is a giant film of an ugly face and hands with a small naked body hanging out of it's mouth.  I don't know what this is for.  When Philippe sings that his wife does not love him, Eboli is with him.  She leaves when the Grand Inquisitor arrives.  She returns to do her big aria which is intense and beautiful.

Ludovic Tézier sings his death scene in the prison very beautifully and brings me to tears.  We don't see who has shot him.  Carlos gets out of his cell and does not return to it.  Philippe, the queen and Eboli enter after Posa has died.  When the crowd enters, Carlos escapes.  Eboli sings a few lines, kisses the king in front of everyone, including the queen and the grand inquisitor, and follows after Carlos.  The queen's presence suggests that perhaps she has assisted in Carlos's escape.

The ending is unspeakably awesome.  There are not words for something so beautiful.  The queen poisons herself.  It ends with the picture above.  The performance ends well, but it isn't just the singing.  The mysteriously romantic playing of the orchestra can also be credited.  This is the first I have liked Yoncheva.  Jonas was magnificent.

La Traviata on PBS

Conductor.............Nicola Luisotti
Production............Willy Decker
 
Violetta.................Sonya Yoncheva
Alfredo..................Michael Fabiano
Germont................Thomas Hampson
Flora.......................Rebecca Jo Loeb
Gastone..................Scott Scully
Baron Douphol.......Dwayne Croft
Dr. Grenvil.............James Courtney
Annina....................Jane Bunnell

Verdi's La Traviata in the Willy Decker production from the Metropolitan Opera appeared on my television. This is undoubtedly the greatest of all the operas.  I think it is the most passionate about the two great themes of love and death.  It falls at the end of bel canto and includes one of the greatest of all bel canto arias, "Sempre libera."

This is the final appearance at the Met of this production originally from the Salzburg Festival. I begin to think I will miss it.  There were a few cuts.  This time around it bothered me that Flora was a man.  Why would all those men go to parties where there was only one woman?   But rooms full of Victorian dresses hold little charm for me.

This is a perfect role for Michael Fabiano.  I like Sonya Yoncheva but do not love her as overwhelmingly as I did Netrebko.  The sound of her voice is less to my taste.  She carried the final scene to its heart-wrenching conclusion.

I reviewed this same production here with Dessay, here, and here for Netrebko.

Otello in HD

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Production:  Bartlett Sher

Montano:  Jeff Mattsey (bass)
Cassio: Dimitri Pittas (tenor)
Iago: Željko Lučić (baritone)
Roderigo:  Chad Shelton (tenor)
Otello: Aleksandrs Antonenko (tenor)
Desdemona:  Sonya Yoncheva (soprano)
Emilia: Jennifer Johnson Cano (mezzo-soprano)

Saturday's Met Live in HD featured Verdi's Otello.  Many consider this Verdi's greatest opera.  I think it requires perfection to achieve that.  There is no sense of transition from recitative to aria, which leads to people calling it Wagnerian.  Bah humbug.

Otello has been the subject of a lot of talk since it opened in September.  People who don't know anything about opera are pitching for casting a black singer to play Otello.  Those of us who know things know that there are probably about 5 people who can sing Otello today and none of them are black.  Russell Thomas may develop into a great Otello, but he has already gone on record that he wants to keep his repertoire varied.

So we have Aleksandrs Antonenko, a Russian tenor with a huge voice who brought a lot of angry intensity to his portrayal.  I need an Otello who covers both ends of the emotional range and shows the transition from love to anger.  Željko Lučić as Iago was theatrically quite wonderful.  I would call him a lyric baritone who is stretching a bit to do Iago, but on the HD screen this was irrelevant.

My biggest complaint about both of these men is the complete absence of any Italian phrasing.  Each slid about 3 times in the whole opera.  Netrebko goes to great lengths to learn how to phrase her Italian repertoire, and you guys could do the same.  I wasn't sure if possibly Yannick Nézet-Séguin wasn't encouraging them in this direction.  A brief rehearsal was shown on the movie screen.  Dimitri Pittas shows a much more natural Verdi style, but the conductor was constantly trying to get him to square off the phrasing.  This is incorrect.  It is also the likely cause of the fact that Antonenko did not project as romantic in the early scenes.  It's less important for Iago who is always nasty.

Sonya Yoncheva sang with absolute perfection in her Italian style.  Never too much, never too little.  She was wonderful.  In the intermission she said that she had decided to portray Desdemona as a strong Italian woman.  It was a thing of beauty.  I wasn't sure I would like her, but I was completely won over.  The death scene did make me think of the issue, "Please remember that Otello kills Desdemona, but Antonenko does not kill Yoncheva."  Very important.  In the bows she tried to choke him jokingly.

I didn't mind the movable glass buildings though they did not project any sense of geographical location.  The plot was easy to follow.  This Otello was generally very pleasing.
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