Misc

The commenters to Jonas Kaufmann on YouTube always compare him unfavorably with Fritz Wunderlich. Well, they're both German and they're both tenors, but as far as I can see that's all they have in common. They're sort of at opposite ends of the Fach. What is the point of comparing them?

From the House of the Dead

From the House of the Dead by Leoš Janáček was virtually completed in 1928 when the composer died. It turns out I don't have to go to New York. I think this film from 2007 from Aix-en-Provence is the same production. Yes.

The film reunites Patrice Chereau and Pierre Boulez who did the centennial Ring together in 1976. At the Met it is Salonen conducting. New for the Met are Peter Mattei as Shishkov and Willard White as Gorianchikov. Many of the rest of the cast are the same as the DVD. It uses the edition prepared by Sir Charles Mackerras, the father of all modern Janáček, and John Tyrrell.

Enough journalism. No one tops Dostoevsky, the source of the plot, for unrelenting grimness. I used to read a lot of Russian literature when I was much younger, and loved it. Now this opera is simply too dark, though there is a brief turn toward the light at the end.

We are in a men's prison, and the opera consists almost entirely of prisoners telling their grim stories of violence.

The music is wonderful, just the right balance of dissonance and consonance to please. But there are no sopranos to thrill us and charm us as there are in Jenufa.

It definitely violates the three baritones rule. [Never go to an opera where three of the characters are baritones.] In fact they all seem like baritones, even when they're not.

The captured eagle is freed and flies away. Thank God.
#ad

About Turandot

According to Concert Opera Boston:

"A question that has followed Turandot around for decades concerns the proper pronunciation of the title character’s name. The name Turandot apparently is derived from the Persian “Turandokht,” meaning “daughter of Turan,” Turan being a region of what was then Persia, later called Turkestan. The name Turandokht and the fact that Gozzi’s play was entitled Turandotte imply that the final t should be pronounced. However, according to Rosa Raisa, who created the title role, Puccini pronounced it without the final t." The stuff you read.

There's lots of information on the internet about the ending of Turandot.

From the Metropolitan Opera is this:

"Alfano was given a year to write Turandot’s final act, as Toscanini wanted the piece to premiere on the anniversary of Puccini’s death. Alfano hastily completed what he could, using Puccini’s drafts and incorporating his own style when the drafts were unclear or when no music existed at all. Alfano heard the complete orchestrations of the first two acts just twenty days before his own draft was due; there simply was no time for him to completely familiarize himself with Puccini’s orchestral intentions for the work.

"Alfano’s final act was famously rejected by Toscanini, who cut large parts of his work. At the 1926 premiere of Turandot at La Scala, Toscanini conducted the opera until the moment of Liù’s death, then set down his baton and announced, “Here is where the opera ends, because at this point the Maestro died.” Although Toscanini and others did later conduct most of Alfano’s ending, it was not until 1982 that the piece was performed in its entirety. The complete version has since become quite popular."

Apparently we normally hear the shortened version composed by Alfano and severely cut by Toscanini.

I am researching all this because I had such a different take on the opera from the performance in the simulcast than I have ever had before, and because I realize the part that was different for me was the parts composed by Alfano. Was I hearing something different, or was the performance just that different?

Footnote:

I asked the Met and received this answer: "The short of it is that Alfano was forced to edit and cut his original ending by Puccini's publisher, Tito Ricordi, and conductor Arturo Toscanini. This second version became the standard and is the one performed at the Met and virtually everywhere else."

What this means is that my reaction was to the performance.

Everything is on YouTube, including a recording of Alfano's original ending.





The lengthy footnote on the film includes this interesting paragraph:

Puccini died without completing Turandot. He left behind 36 pages of sketches on 23 sheets for the end of Turandot, together with instructions that Riccardo Zandonai should finish the opera. Puccini's son Tonio objected, and eventually Franco Alfano was chosen to flesh out the sketches. Alfano was chosen because his opera "La leggenda di Sakùntala" resembled Turandot in its setting and heavy orchestration.

Plea

Anna, come back to us. We miss you.

Met Turandot

Turandot.............Maria Guleghina
Calàf...................Marcello Giordani
Liù.....................Marina Poplavskaya
Timur.................Samuel Ramey

I have seen the Zeffirelli production of Puccini's Turandot from the Metropolitan Opera before: once with Placido Domingo on television and once in the house with Andrea Gruber. It's very beautiful and worth seeing again. I admit to being a little freaked out by the men creeping around the stage, but the rest is gorgeous.

Marina Poplavskaya was a wonderful Liu, but I've seen equally wonderful singers in this role. Marcello Giordani was a powerful Calaf, but I have witnessed other wonderful tenors in this role.

But this is the first time the ice princess has come to life for me. She is terrified of this stranger as she has never been before. When Liu kills herself in order not to reveal the name, Turandot feels this as she has not felt anything before. She feels herself fall in love and the loss of her power with genuine terror. We hear the words "my first tears" as we have never heard them before. This is a deeply emotional Turandot who sees her life crumbling before her eyes. We feel her fall in love. And we see him see her fall. We know as he does that it is safe for him to tell his name, that with this word his triumph is complete.

The Turandot of Maria Guleghina is acted like nothing I have ever seen before. Brava. And the singing was also good.

HD

In the theater often the sound came and went, though not during "Nessun dorma" as I had bet someone, and occasionally the picture went with it. Boo. Pull yourselves together, gang.

The HD surprise, who will host, was really a surprise: Patricia Racette. She has moved up a rung, hopefully due to her fabulous Trittico in San Francisco. She was excellent.

She interviewed Charles Anthony who sang the Emperor. He's been at the Met for over 50 years.

She interviewed members of the brass section because of their recently released CD.

She interviewed Marcello and Maria together and brought out the wonderful rapport between them, part of the explanation for the beauty of this performance.

Let's hope we see her again in this role.
#ad

General Horne

No offense to Bartoli, but we older folks had our own pseudo castrato in the magnificent Marilyn Horne. She performed Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso in San Francisco, too, where this film is from.  I was there.

She balanced her voice in her throat with such precision that she could do virtually anything with it.

GQ

Jonas Kaufmann won the GQ classical music man of the year 2009 award on November 3. Picture was stolen from Parsifal's who probably stole it from somewhere else. Apologies. Classical music isn't even a category in GQ Brittain, as near as I can tell.

The men of the GQ awards all have a certain look to them which fits Jonas very well. Thin. Wild hair. Wait a minute! They gave an award to Mickey Rourke.

Salome as Dracula

Conductor - Nicola Luisotti
Director and Choreographer - Séan Curran 

Garrett Sorenson - Narraboth

Elizabeth DeShong - A page

Greer Grimsley - Jokanaan

Nadja Michael - Salome

Kim Begley - Herod

Irina Mishura - Herodias

There was actual blood on the floor for the Salome at the San Francisco Opera. All we needed was for Salome to kneel down and take a lick and we were in a Warhol Dracula movie. Very creepy.

This woman, Nadja Michael, has already two videos you can buy of her performance as Salome. She was sick on Friday, but Gockley persuaded her to perform for the matinee on Sunday. I got the impression that she was struggling with her voice a little, but the over all effect was intense and stunning. If you want visible nudity, you will have to stick with the divinely fearless Maria Ewing, but for serious creepiness Nadja is your girl.

She is my second pushed up mezzo in a week, and this seems to be a workable trend. Remember Violetta Urmana was the first. Pushed up mezzo is far better that pushed down lyric soprano.

The production took a slightly different perspective from others. We are in a space away from Herod's banquet with Jokanaan's prison chamber at the rear instead of its usual position below the stage. The stage was filled with a large circle of light. The movement of the drama depends entirely on the singing actors to bring it too life. This is in sharp contrast to the busy, cluttered art deco stage used at the Met recently, which for me didn't work at all.

Big voices dominated: Nadja Michael has reserves of power. The Jokanaan of Greer Grimsley was a stunning blast of force, with just the right pomposity in the tone to create the feeling of a Biblical prophet. Irina Mishura as Herodias has a huge voice.

Kim Begley as Herod was just a senile old man infatuated with his step-daughter. Excellent.

This is a character drama, and it is the interplay of all these obsessed characters that makes it work as theater. Salome is obsessed with Jokanaan. Jokanaan is obsessed with God and the new messiah. Herod is obsessed with Salome. Herodias is obsessed with getting rid of Jokanaan. Naraboth is obsessed with Salome. All must make their impression to get the greatest effect.

It was all quite astounding and made my heart palpitate. Maestro Nicola Luisotti was our conductor.

[See Kinderkuchen History 1890-1910]

Pushing

Speaking of pushed down voices, as I was in the Salome review, we have nowadays the tenor problem. To whom it may concern: the search for dramatic tenors should begin in the baritone Fach and not start with lyric tenors whose careers you then destroy.

Rolando Villazon is definitely pushing his voice down to get a thick tone in his recent Handel album. This is sad because it could have been just his thing.

Paul Groves was doing this at Santa Fe, and I thought maybe a couple of the apprentice tenors, too. This is to be on the alert for. If the Santa Fe apprentice program is messing with the technique of their charges, then best to steer clear.

I never hear even a hint of that at Merola.

Being a pushed down tenor worked for Mario del Monaco, but think how much better pushed up baritone worked for Placido Domingo.

Angela in Jakarta

Read here an interview with Angela Gheorghiu.

And of course Opera Chic has all the dirt here.