Boris Godunov in HD

Boris Godunov...........René Pape
Prince Shuisky..........Oleg Balashov
Pimen...................Mikhail Petrenko
Grigory.................Aleksandrs Antonenko
Marina..................Ekaterina Semenchuk

Conductor...............Valery Gergiev
Production..............Stephen Wadsworth

Perhaps 4.5 hours of Boris Godunov live from the Met in HD is easier for us on the west coast.  9 a.m. to 1:30 doesn't seem so bad.  Especially not when you are watching the absolutely spectacular René Pape.  The entire role of Boris, especially when sung by René, is a mad scene, it would seem. He's been watching too much Anna Netrebko mad scenes, or perhaps Natalie Dessay.

I understand we were seeing an uncut version so there were probably a few scenes I had never seen before.  My main previous memory of this opera, in San Francisco possibly in 1983, is of the chorus work which was spectacular.  It is one of the more powerful choral operas and was again spectacular today.

I notice that on its last appearance in SF in 2008 the role of Marina was completely cut.  The scene with Dmitri, sung brilliantly by Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Marina, sung today by Ekaterina Semenchuk, was wonderfully sexy.  Sex at the opera always keeps things moving.

I liked everything about this.  The last scene after Boris is dead does seem a bit superfluous.  I flagged this opera as eagerly anticipated and it was definitely worth it.  Magnificent.

After trashing Rheingold, am I required to comment on the production?  It did what productions are supposed to do:  provide an illuminating context while not trying to take over the story.

Dover Beach

Dover Beach is a poem by Matthew Arnold set by Samuel Barber.  I heard it at a local concert Saturday in honor of the Barber centennial year and was surprised to find that I had never heard it before.  It is astoundingly somber.

I am similarly surprised to find that I like this version by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

The pictures are of Dover Beach in England.

Thiebaud

The Crocker Art Museum is currently doing a Wayne Thiebaud exhibition.  These women twirling batons is an example.  The new wing and the art on exhibit are worth the trip.

Echo Klassik Awards for 2010

Sängerin des Jahres:  

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 Joyce DiDonato -Colbran, The Muse

Sänger des Jahres:

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  Jonas Kaufmann -Sehnsucht

Operneinspielung des Jahres - (17. - 18. Jahrhundert)

Juan-Diego Florez -Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice 

Operneinspielung des Jahres - Opernarien & Duette

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  Cecilia Bartoli -Sacrificium

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  Vivica Genaux -Antonio Vivaldi: Opera Arias – Pyrotechnics

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  Bryn Terfel -Bad Boys

My favorite

For me this has always been my favorite Joan Sutherland.

Joan Sutherland

Dame Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) has died.

One of my earlier opera experiences was of Dame Joan singing in I Puritani in the Sacramento's barn-like Memorial Auditorium.  The San Francisco Opera used to do out of town performances in Sacramento in those days.  The archive tells me this was October 5, 1966, and her Arturo was Alfredo Kraus.

Rheingold

Wotan...................Bryn Terfel
Fricka..................Stephanie Blythe
Alberich................Eric Owens
Loge....................Richard Croft
Erda....................Patricia Bardon
Fasolt..................Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner..................Hans-Peter König
Freia...................Wendy Bryn Harmer
Froh....................Adam Diegel
Donner..................Dwayne Croft
Mime....................Gerhard Siegel
Woglinde................Lisette Oropesa
Wellgunde...............Jennifer Johnson Cano
Flosshilde..............Tamara Mumford

Conductor...............James Levine
Production..............Robert Lepage

The Metropolitan Opera has invested deeply in its new Ring cycle.  As Peter Gelb explained, they have even shored up the building to support the incredible piece of machinery that serves as the set for all four operas.

I really loved the beginning of Rheingold.  The rippling Rhine and the floating Rhine maidens were fabulously exciting.  And the staircase image going down to Nibelungenland was striking.  The rest was comme si comme sa.  I think we in the movie theater have the best view.

Loge and the Rhine maidens were on wires.  All of Loge's attention was focused on maintaining his balance on the wire, and nothing was left over for developing a character.  Bryn Terfel and Stephanie Blythe had "no wire walking" clauses in their contracts, I'm sure.  Or?  Was Bryn on a wire in the staircase scene?

Rheingold is a very funny opera, and I laughed out loud several times.  Nibelungens screaming and running here and there were especially amusing.

My son thought the tempos were too slow, but I was fine with it.  James Levine looks very frail these days, but the music is still there.

I would have thought that Bayreuth in the 50's would have proved once and for all that it isn't about the set.  In fact, it's never about the set.

It's about the singers:  how they sing, how they PHRASE, how they move, how they look, how they sing, and how they understand and conceive their roles.  They make the drama, not the stupid set.  The main role of the director is to conceive the characters within the drama and communicate that concept to the singers.  Who are they to one another?  How do they feel?  If your concept is that they are sticks of wood or at best pretty pictures, your opera will fail.

I don't know what to say about the singing.  No eggs were laid.  Eric Owens was an amazing Alberich.  I wanted to see this before I actually saw it.  Bryn was a terrible disappointment.  If he wants to impress me, he's going to have to try one hell of a lot harder.

The Ring is scored for an absurdly large group of brasses.  Even such a large orchestra as the Metropolitan Opera orchestra would have to call in extra players, players who had never played The Ring before.  I'm making excuses.  The performance of Das Rheinglold included a lot of out of tune brass playing.

This has to be contrasted with the really quite wonderful San Francisco Die Walküre. Maybe I'll go after all.

#ad

Another Figaro

The current The Marriage of Figaro at the San Francisco Opera was excellent, but I don't know if I have anything much to say.

I liked the staging. In the second scene in the Countess' bedroom, Figaro enters the room and immediately begins dressing the Countess' hair. I thought, of course. He is the barber of Seville, after all. Why have I never seen this business before?

All the roles were well cast, and the singing was lovely. Opera fanatics are required to see the same operas over and over, but this one grows in your heart.

Nicola Luisotti, the new maestro, conducted from the harpsichord. His harpsichord playing was very sweet. Lovely.

Conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Director: John Copley

Figaro: Luca Pisaroni (bass)
Susanna: Danielle de Niese (soprano)
Dr. Bartolo: John Del Carlo (bass)
Marcellina: Catherine Cook (soprano)
Cherubino: Michèle Losier (soprano)
Count Almaviva: Lucas Meachem (bass)
Don Basilio: Greg Fedderly (tenor)
Countess Almaviva: Ellie Dehn (soprano)

Mail Bag

Q. …a technical question…found myself wondering the other night at SF Opera, and who better to advise me, than yourself…
…it's about vibrato in classical music--classical vocal music--more particularly, in grand opera.
Are singers, especially sopranos, taught to use vibrato on every note (well, every note that's long enough)?  Does vibrato use vary with the era, or year, or style of the music?
…thanks for any insight,

A.  I just posted a blog entry about this recently.  I think most people have a vibrato and I have absolutely no recollection of anyone teaching it.  It's a natural part of the voice. 

In the old days there were turntables that did both 45 and 33 rpm, so if you had a 45 you could slow it down and actually hear the vibrato or lack thereof.  Patty Page was the only one with no vibrato.

In general you are stuck with the vibrato you have.  If it's too fast or too slow or perish the thought too wide, you might be sunk.

There are choir schools that train singers not to have vibrato.  I am aware of training it away but not of training to have it.  Heavy singing affects the vibrato, generally in a negative way.  But this effect is not voluntary. 

In general, you have the vibrato you have, but taste in vibrato might change from one era to another.  I would guess it was lightening right now.

This is strictly an educated guess, but I think it's the muscles that hold the larynx in place that oscillate and create the vibrato.  I'd have to look it up and my books are in boxes.  For once Wikipedia is no help.  They are talking about instrumental vibrato which is entirely voluntary.

 Q Follow up.  Once again, my question was based in trying to understand performance differences between jazz (and pop) music and opera. It has seemed to me lately that opera singers--particularly sopranos--have been laying in vibrato on every single note, and it often sounds mechanical. in jazz--both for singers and for horn players, guitarists & bass players--especially on ballads, the musician will start a note steady, then add vibrato, and take it off again, to warm it up or shape the line. Kim Nalley is a master of this; you hear it a lot in Jane Monheit's singing, and Diane Reeves's, etc., etc. so if jazzers use this as a tool, for emotional impact, why wouldn't opera-ers? a mystery for our time.

A.  Historically instrumentalists didn't use vibrato.  A Vivaldi singer would have had a natural vibrato.   A Vivaldi violinist would not.

Maybe some famous violinist like Paganini started using it.  I'd have to research that, and as you know, I just wing this stuff.

The second reason a Vivaldi violinist would not have used vibrato is because his musicians, and perhaps also his singers, were children.  I think one of the reasons children singing sound so different from adults is because children have no vibrato.  You need adults for that.

Instrumentalists are imitating singers.  Singers are imitating God.

So by the time of jazz in the early 20th century I think it developed with the style for the instrumentalists and subsequently the singers to be aware of and manipulate their vibrato.  In jazz musicians and singers hang out together in a way that they just don't do in classical.

I should add this to my "Things you can do" list:  you can manipulate your vibrato, take it out, put it back, make it bigger, make it smaller, etc.

But see, then you are getting into stylistic issues.  Manipulating the vibrato, except for the trill thing, is not part of the style of classical singing.

Trailer

This makes me smile.