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Things you wouldn't know if you didn't watch the simulcasts....

Matti Salminen was a tango singer in his native Finland before switching to opera. Of course you were all already aware of the great Finnish tango tradition.

Michelle DeYoung is even taller than Susan Graham.

The entire broadcast of Tristan und Isolde was directed for HD by someone named Barbara. This was a new approach and worked very well for the particular production. At least one section of the screen would show the whole stage so you wouldn't miss the lighting effects that were so important. I thought it worked most of the time. Shrunk down to a small screen it would not work at all. There was a lot of panning in and out, too.

Deborah Voigt and Robert Dean Smith had absolutely no rehearsal time together, but had at least met before.

I Puritani contest

I did a chart of the current I Puritani mad scene from YouTube to try to get an idea of the differences between the voices. I have modified the original contest selection to include Maria Callas 1949, Cecilia Bartoli 2007 and Natalie Dessay 2007. Only the cabaletta is considered. All of these performances are on YouTube. [Maybe not any more-can't currently find Bartoli.]

I tried to evaluate them by categories:

My opinion of their tone.
How slurred are the fast notes.
How much scooping and sliding.
How many added notes, trills, etc.
How do they treat rhythm and tempo.
General style.

There is wide variation in each category.

Tone



Lucia Aliberti was vying for the Maria Callas award, due to the strange darkness of her tone. Most have strong but not dark voices. Occasionally she actually sounds like Callas.

Goerne’s Dichterliebe

I never performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe (poet's love); it’s not supposed to be for women. Lotte Lehmann who taught Lied interpretation thought this was bullshit. She sang whatever she wanted. But nevertheless, it is a work that I have studied and tried to sing and play on the piano. I know each song almost by heart. “Ich grolle nicht” is probably the only one I actually performed. Dichterliebe is the peak in the song cycle world.

Why? It is made up entirely of fragments, snapshots with no beginning or ending, the perfect example of Schumann’s art, the reason he is revered above all others. It’s like haiku—capture all there is to say about one thing in just a few notes, and then move on. The poet Heinrich Heine is as perfect in his expression as Schumann is in his settings. What expresses falling in love better than “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai?” What song is more bitter than “Ich grolle nicht,” or more tragic than “Ich hab' im Traum geweinet?” [It’s mistranslated on Wikipedia—my tears are still flowing.] What other song cycle can claim irony such as “Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome” and “Allnächtlich im Traume?”

It’s like a collection of tiny diamonds.

Matthias Goerne is the first to establish a major career from Lieder since Fischer-Dieskau, and has recorded all of the big cycles. I’ve never cared for the voice of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau—it’s just too kind of sweet and whiny for me. He’s regarded like a god, but I just don’t like him, though old age has softened this. Goerne’s voice is not especially pretty. He growls and groans his way along, but I like this growl better than Fischer-Dieskau’s whine.

There is not room for great effects as there is in opera. Interpretation consists of finding the same fragment of perfection as the poet and the composer. Goerne has found the perfection of Dichterliebe. Each song is as it should be.

He is aided in this achievement by the astounding piano playing of Vladimir Ashkenazy. He’s far more assertive than what I am used to, but I think for Schumann this is right. The piano must feel equal to the voice. I love it.

Liederkreis is on the same recording, but I don’t know it nearly so well.


Well, I guess I do know this one.
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Isabel and McGegan

The rich cultural life of greater San Francisco includes a group called the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra led by Nicholas McGegan. The concert mistress of this group is the eminent Baroque violinist, Elizabeth Blumenstock. The program lists the pedigree of each player's instrument. Ms Blumenstock plays a Guarneri.

I did not need to go to New York to hear Isabel Bayrakdarian, a soprano in whom I am currently interested, because she came to Berkeley. She popped into my inbox because the Chronicle review of her concert here compared her to Cecilia Bartoli, triggering a Google alert. I can't really be considered a Baroqophile, but it's a lot cheaper to go to Berkeley than New York.

The program of this concert was very musicological, worthy of a Bartoli concert. The theme of the concert was German music in the Baroque that wasn't by Bach. There was an awful lot of it.

Isabel sang opera arias written for the character of Cleopatra, both with Caesar and with Anthony.

Carl Heinrich Graun (1703-1759) Cleopatra e Cesare (1742) [Listed as Cleopatra e Cesare in the program and as Cesare e Cleopatra in the notes. Which is it?] Written for Berlin, text in Italian. This was accompanied by its overture.

Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra (1725) Written for Naples, text in Italian.

George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) Giulio Cesare (1724) Written for London, text in Italian. This is the great da capo aria "Piangero," the only thing on the program I had heard before. It was preceded by its overture.

Johann Matthewson (1681-1764) Cleopatra (1704) Written for the Hamburg Opera, text in German. The Hamburg Opera was the first commercial opera outside Venice, and Matthewson was one of its main composers.

Isabel closed with the death of Cleopatra. The works varied widely from the intensely ornamental of Graun, through the very lyrical Handel "Piangero," to the dramatic Mattheson. She was best at the ends, best in the intensity of her fioratura, best in her dramatic expression, but insufficiently legato for the intensity of "Piangero."

We should note here that Matthewson in 1704 is still in the middle Baroque, and this may explain the interesting variety of his pieces. I swear she sang something in this section that wasn't in the program. It had the text "Gute Nacht." It was very sweet.

To complete the program there were two concertos:

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) Concerto No. 161 for Flute, G major [Can't find a date. This may have been written for Frederick the Great and is Quantz's most famous piece.] The flutist is Janet See, who played on a Baroque transverse flute. The orchestral flutists played recorders.

Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) Concerto in F major, S 234 Dresden. The outer movements were for two natural horns, played pointing up into the air. The slow movement was a concerto for flute, again with Janet See.

I found the entire concert interesting. There is a recording of the arias.

She doesn't remind me of Bartoli at all. For one thing she's a soprano. Unfortunately, I am every day reminded of the vast differences between the cultural life of San Francisco and Sacramento and am spending a lot of money and time traveling back and forth.

Hunt and McGegan

Undoubtedly I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area when Lorraine Hunt Lieberson began her career there and knew nothing about it.

The extensive discography for Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra includes several recordings by Lorraine, including a lovely version of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. It's charming and very theatrical. Lorraine ornaments a lot more than Janet Baker.

The other people on the recording don't quite achieve Lorraine's heaven. The sailor and even the following chorus are done with heavy lower class English accents. Cute. Silly. I like the witches. The incredible theatrical viability of this work are everywhere apparent in this recording.
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Stolen from someone

I was interested in these comments from an interview of Vesselina Kasarova:

WP: What is your secret in keeping your voice so fit and flexible even after two decades?
VK: The most important thing to me is the piano - crescendo and decrescendo, the dynamic juggling with the voice. If I cannot do that anymore, then I know I must have done something wrong. I want to have total control of my voice. I don’t want my voice to dictate to me what it can give. I want my voice to do what I want it to do. I am a very intuitive person. Intuition, as I understand it, is always also intelligence. Accordingly one learns from one’s own mistakes and one thinks it over. Rest time is also important for me.

WP: You also took some risks nevertheless. For example; in a single season at the Zurich Opera you sang Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini and the Oktavian in Der Rosenkavalier . Would such a wide range of role wreck a voice?
VK: I sang my first Oktavian when I was 39 years old. Those who risk wrecking the voice on that role are ones who starts singing him at only 25. Besides I am very careful with this part. I have only sung Oktavian in Zurich and in a Japan tour of the Zurich Opera so far. And I don’t know at all whether I will sing him again. All the Richard Strauss repertoire - I never sang The Composer in 'Ariadne auf Naxos', much less the Dyer’s Wife in 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' ... that'll never happen. As far as the vocal style of speech-singing goes, I don't like it anymore.

Dr.B: Wow. I don't think I would have suggested Dyer's Wife for her in any event, but her Octavian is wonderful. It would be a shame if she never sang it again. At the end she seems to be rejecting the whole Strauss style. Try singing it like it's Mozart. That might work.

Wide range of role does not wreck a voice. Pushing, especially pushing with leaking air. Over singing. Extending into repertoire that is too high and heavy. These are the usual reasons. Wide range of role should help, I would think. She jumps immediately to discussing Strauss and ignores the other three composers as obviously not a problem. One could ask more questions here.

If one is coming to Strauss from Mozart and Rossini, perhaps he seems heavy and ruinous. I am always reminded of Gwyneth Jones who came to Strauss from Bruhnnhilde and Lady Macbeth. For her voice Strauss was a balm. I think Kasarova's voice could do a little heavy singing as long as she doesn't overdo it. My take on her is obviously quite different from her own.

Here is the link to the original interview in German.

Peter Grimes in HD

Peter Grimes............Anthony Dean Griffey
Ellen Orford............Patricia Racette
Captain Balstrode.......Anthony Michaels-Moore
Mrs. Sedley.............Felicity Palmer
Auntie..................Jill Grove
Niece...................Leah Partridge
Niece...................Erin Morley
Hobson..................Dean Peterson
Swallow.................John Del Carlo
Bob Boles...............Greg Fedderly
Rev. Horace Adams.......Bernard Fitch
Ned Keene...............Teddy Tahu Rhodes
Conductor...............Donald Runnicles
Production..............John Doyle

Natalie Dessay, our hostess for the simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera, asked Anthony Dean Griffey to describe his preparation for the title role of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. He replied that his whole life was preparation. "I was born to play Peter Grimes." I would have to say that I agree. His voice was if anything better in the part than Peter Pears, the singer the role was written for, and his large looming presence adds just the right note of fear and loathing. I've seen him before--last year in the LA Opera production of Mahagonny. He is a lyric tenor with power to back it up when he needs it. He is a man born to be Peter Grimes.

It is taught in school that this is Britten's masterpiece, but how is one to know when one has never seen it before?

The production was excellent. The set consisted of a floor to ceiling wall of doors which could be constantly repositioned to create different effects. The doors looming over the hero help to create his paranoia and sense of isolation from the crowds of villagers who never seem to leave him alone. It also helped to control the masses of people on the stage and prevent the chorus from confusing us about the characters. The essential choral work was massive.

Anthony Dean Griffey refused to answer Natalie's question about whether or not Grimes was guilty, preferring ambiguity. I suggest that unlike the law life is always ambiguous.

I particularly liked the first part of the second act where Grimes and Ellen talk while words from the Book of Common Prayer are recited in the background.

The always beautiful Patricia Racette was simultaneously gentle and powerful in the critical role of Ellen Orford. We aren't sure what she sees in Peter Grimes.

Everyone seemed perfect, including Jill Grove as Auntie the pub mistress, John Del Carlo as Swallow and Anthony Michaels-Moore as Balstrode.

Also born for Peter Grimes is the Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles. His work was full of love. In his brief interview he explained how Britten had composed for the movies, how the orchestra creates the feeling of the storms at sea that are crucial to the action.

I rarely come out of an opera feeling that there aren't here and there tiny bits that could be improved. Not so here. Benjamin Britten would feel proud of this wonderful production of his masterpiece. We believe now.
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Anna Bonitatibus

Anna Bonitatibus is someone I heard twice at the Zürich Opera, first in Julius Caesar with Cecilia where I described her as "a small woman with a penetrating voice in the role of Sesto."

Then I saw her in Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. I said:

"The dynamism of the coloratura in this work is extreme. Perhaps Handel worked with some incredible singers in Rome in 1707. The most incredible of all is pleasure, a role that was sung by Cecilia Bartoli in the opera's last mounting here, and whose arias form the framework for her Opera Proibita tour. In this mounting it was sung very well indeed by Anna Bonitatibus, a personal favorite."

She was just terrific.

I don't know why I never noticed this before, but she can be purchased from Amazon. For instance, there is a DVD of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia where I assume she is the star.

She's in a bunch of Handel CDs, including Deidamia, Tolomeo, Tamerlano, the last also on DVD.  There is also a bit of her on YouTube. I am surprised and pleased.

And here's her picture with hair in her face.

20 Tenors

I feel obligated to comment on this list of the all time top 20 tenors from the BBC music mag:

20. Sergey Lemeshev
19. Wolfgang Windgassen
18. Alfredo Kraus
17. Anthony Rolfe Johnson
16. John McCormack
15. Franco Corelli
14. Peter Schreier
13. Juan Diego Florez
12. Carlo Bergonzi
11. Tito Schipa
10. Peter Pears
9. Nicolai Gedda
8. Jon Vickers
7. Beniamino Gigli
6. Lauritz Melchior
5. Jussi Bjoerling
4. Fritz Wunderlich
3. Luciano Pavarotti
2. Enrico Caruso
1. Placido Domingo

I am leaving out number 20 because I never heard of him. He's Russian. That's all I know. The remaining fall into a few well defined categories:

Italians
Enrico Caruso
Luciano Pavarotti
Beniamino Gigli
Carlo Bergonzi
Franco Corelli
Tito Schipa

Swedes pretending to be Italian
Nicolai Gedda
Jussi Bjoerling

These singers represent the Italian tradition, and it's a matter of taste whom you prefer. Tradition would emphasize Caruso. Many consider Franco Corelli the finest Italian tenor who ever lived, and I would definitely move him higher in the list, certainly above Bergonzi. Pavarotti is a brilliant example of the tradition. I have always had a weakness for Bjoerling.

An equally well defined tradition is:

Germans
Fritz Wunderlich
Peter Schreier
Wolfgang Windgassen (I'm counting him as German)

Miscellaneous tenors pretending to be German
Lauritz Melchior (Danish)
Jon Vickers (Canadian)

I think I personally prefer Vickers, but would not wish to slight Melchior. A proper list must include these.

The magazine is British so there are singers in that category that we might otherwise ignore, not being ourselves British:

British
Anthony Rolfe Johnson
Peter Pears
John McCormack (Irish)

I had a teacher who loved John McCormack and made me listen to him. It's not a style that particularly grabs me. I would leave all of these out of my top 20.

That leaves a few Spaniards:

Juan Diego Florez
Placido Domingo
Alfredo Kraus

We should all pause briefly to note that not a single Frenchman appears in the list, unless you count Windgassen. No one pops into memory for preferring French style and repertoire. Or perhaps Alfredo Kraus falls into this category. The Spaniard with the German last name emphasized French repertoire.

Juan Diego Florez, actually from Peru, at 35 is by far the youngest in this list. He is the only representative of his generation and is more or less a one off. The repertoire of the long ago Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854) slips onto his voice like a hand made glove. There are others in his Fach, but no one is so spectacular a coloratura tenor in all of recorded history. Where you place him in the list will depend on how highly you regard the bel canto repertoire.

That leaves Placido Domingo. I see from the comments on La Cieca that many would leave him off entirely. How can this be? I propose that it is the purity of his musicianship and the extreme difficulty of placing him in any of the stylistic categories that creates this problem. He sings a lot of Italian repertoire, but isn't exactly Italian. He has always sung a lot of French opera, but isn't exactly French. Now suddenly in his old age he is a Heldentenor without ever sounding exactly German. He must be in any top 20 list, and even any top 10 list, but where? He is not the best Italian, not the best German, so what is he? I've always said he was the sexiest man ever to walk onto an opera stage. Perhaps he is the best Placido Domingo that ever was.

Here are a few tenors not in the list:

Italian style if not nationality:
Giuseppe di Stefano
Mario del Monaco
Robert Alagna
Francisco Araiza
José Carreras
José Cura
Salvatore Licitra
Chris Merritt
Rolando Villazon

German style if not nationality:
Ben Heppner
James King
Jess Thomas

In his period Mario del Monaco dominated the Italian scene. James King was also excellent. Of the modern guys you can make up your own mind.

Paris Clemenza di Tito

I decided I should give the Paris Opera Susan Graham DVD of La Clemenza di Tito another try. The production is very formal and palely classical. The costumes are periodless--vaguely nineteenth century. There is real fire on the stage for the riot. The cast includes Christophe Pregardien, Catherine Naglestad, Hannah Esther Minutillo, Lorenzo Regazzo, and Sylvain Cambreling.

Susan Graham is very intense for the music, perhaps, but sang the part far better than Kasarova, reviewed elsewhere. Vitelia is noticeably too low for Catherine Naglestad. Christophe Pregardien as Tito is pretty mediocre. Basically you would want this for Susan Graham who is showered with flowers at the end.

But what the hell was that baked potato with the woman sitting in the butter for? It went across the stage for no apparent reason during the first act. I hate that.

I am so pleased to have found this picture of it.

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