Operatic Madwomen

Here is a list of operatic mad scenes.  I have added a few of my own:



Harteros in Idomeneo.




Dessay in Hamlet.



DiDonato in Hercules.



 Bartoli in Nina.



Lemieux (woman/man) in Orlando Furioso.


This is a lot of fun.

Pondering a Possible Number Four

Imagine my surprise when I arrived in Salzburg and found this picture of Anja Harteros on the cover of Salzburg Exclusiv magazine along with the caption "Soprano of the century."



I like these in her voice, but she seems a bit too cautious with the phrases.  Judged strictly on the basis of her voice and technique, I have to say she is spectacularly gifted.  But perhaps with a different conductor I would experience them differently.  One could learn to love these exactly as they are.

In a previous post I made a statement about the size of her voice, but I must apologize.  You cannot accurately gauge the size of someone's voice unless you are in the room with them.  I compared her to Kaufmann whom I certainly have been in the room with--5 times, 5 different rooms, if my count is correct.  (Zellerbach, Zurich, Paris, Munich, Met.)  But Harteros I know only from streaming and recordings.  It seems from my observations that when she needs more sound, it is there for the asking.

She is far too restrained for Verismo, but I have loved madly her Wagner and Verdi, and look forward to hearing more.  I loved best, I think, her Don Carlo. 

Michael Fabiano

I apologize for not posting him sooner.  I love his bright open tone.

Mefistofele or Fausts I have Known

Of the three operas based on Goethe's Faust only Boito's Mefistofele goes on to include material from Part II, ending with Faust's salvation.  Faust's bargain is that if he sees something he finds beautiful, he will ask to stay in that moment and lose his soul.  But it is only when he reaches heaven that Faust says, "This is beautiful.  I would like to stay."   He wins the bet.

This opera was a failure and really only came to prominence when it became a vehicle for Samuel Ramey.  In fact I've seen this production twice before, in 1989 and 1994, both times with Ramey.  I wasn't sure until they came to the scene where Faust seduces Margherita, staged here with a large raised circle in the center of the stage.  A woman sits next to the circle peeling apples, and then suddenly gets up and starts turning a crank that makes the circle rotate.  Memorable.

This time we have:

Conductor:  Nicola Luisotti
Production:  Robert Carsen

Mefistofele:  Ildar Abdrazakov
Faust:  Ramon Vargas
Margherita:  Patricia Racette
Marta:  Erin Johnson
Elena:  Patricia Racette

It's a very silly opera but highly entertaining.  My friends all loved it.   Ildar Abdrazakov is cute but not the towering figure Sam Ramey was in the role.

There was an honest to god Walpurgis Nacht such as I have never seen before.  I should have brought my birdwatching binoculars because mere opera glasses were not sufficient to tell if those actually were naked men on the stage.  (Avoid all sentences using the word dong.)  I thought perhaps it was an homage to the recently deceased Lotfi Mansouri who was famous for bringing lots of nudity to SFO.  I hope so.  At intermission we immediately began talking furiously about Mansouri's The Fiery Angel with almost nude acrobats and fully nude strippers.  I talked about bringing my binoculars for the rest of that season to search the back rows of the chorus for nude women.  And yes, I found some.  What a great season.

I can't think of anything sensible to say about this.  Patricia Racette was great, and is spending all of her spare time rehearsing Dolores Claiborne for the opening next week.  The chorus work was outstanding.

#ad

Last Night of the Proms

Like New Years Eve in Vienna, in London it's Last Night of the Proms.




Joyce DiDonato is peaking now.  Or she could go on to....



I like it very much that she sings it as herself, one of the great opera divas of today.

Pronouncing Chailly

Here is the question according to Answers.com: Q: Why is Riccardo Chailly's name pronounced 'Shaa-yi' instead of 'Kai-li' as should be in his native Italy?

In my tour group they said 'Tchai-li' while I had been saying 'Kai-yi.'  We were all completely off.  Here is their answer:


A:  "Shah-yee" is the French pronunciation of Riccardo Chailly's name.  Specifically, the pronunciation depends upon the country and the preferences of the speaker. It emphasizes what the speaker seeks to focus upon. The pronunciation therefore will be "SHAH-yee" if the speaker wishes to honor the surname's origins. It will be "KEYEL-lee" if the speaker wishes to honor the conductor's birthplace.

DrB:  Of course this isn't what we want to know at all.  The only way to know how to pronounce this Italian gentleman's name is to ask him.  Wikipedia is going with the French version which is certainly how you would pronounce the French towns named this.

Brahms Cello Sonata

Someone played this movement from the Brahms first cello sonata today at a meeting I attended.  This would be the main problem with obsessing over opera--Brahms did not write any opera.  I think today was the first time I heard this wonderful piece, here played by Jacqueline Du Pré and Daniel Barenboim.

Salzburg Festival

The large hall set up for a concert.

I enjoyed very much my visit to the Salzburg Festival.  I went on a tour which meant that I was well taken care of to compensate for my somewhat ill health.  Instead of doing touristy things, I generally sat in my room and watched television.  This helped to revive my German.  At one point I even carried on a long political conversation with the bus driver, all in German.  It is easier for me to talk about American politics with people who are as puzzled by it as I am.

The quality of the music for everything I saw was very high.  I thought of suggesting that American singers to be sure their careers include time spent in the German speaking world, for this is truly the center of opera today.

I was as stunned by Norma as I expected to be.  It felt revolutionary to me.  To move the opera to another time and place in order to more fully explain it, instead of the usual reason which seems to be to obscure it with irrelevant nonsense.  The purpose of modern productions often seems to be to relieve the boredom of the producers, to alleviate the tedium of having to stage the same operas over and over. 

I began to wonder if other operas might benefit from this approach.  The most film noir of plots is Streetcar, coming this year to the LA Opera.  A brutal and dark approach might bring it to life.  I'll try to think of some others.  It was, of course, the intensity of Cecilia's acting that brought Norma to this level of success.  Other singing actors might not be able to reach this.  Does that mean they shouldn't try?

Next year Luca Pisaroni will sing his Leporello.

P.S.  I promise to stop yammering about the Salzburg Festival, but I forgot to mention something.  At all the concert performances the orchestra swarms together onto the stage--to applause--just before the conductor enters.  There is none of this meandering onto the stage one by one, sitting around gossiping and fiddling with equipment that seems universal in the English speaking world. So there are options available.

Separated at birth

Isabel Leonard -- Olivia Wilde

Nabucco in Concert in Salzburg

© Silvia Lelli
E-Mail: silvia@lelliemasotti.com
Corso Genova, 26 I–20123 Milano

Riccardo Muti, Conductor

CAST
Željko Lučić, Nabucco, king of Babylon  (Met's Rigoletto)
Dmitry Belosselskiy, Zaccaria, Jewish high-priest
Anna Pirozzi, Abigaille, Nabucco's daughter
Francesco Meli, Ismaele
Sonia Ganassi, Fenena, Nabucco's daughter
Saverio Fiore, Abdallo
Simge Büyükedes, Anna, Zaccaria's sister
Luca Dall’Amico, Il Gran Sacerdote, high-priest of Baal
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

The highlights of the concert included a magnificent "Va Pensiero" by the Rome Opera chorus, an adorable ham-actor performance by the piccolo player with constant rocking and bowing, and an excellent stand-in Abagaille in Anna Pirozzi, although members of my group claim Muti skipped her when shaking the soloists hands.  Lučić must receive a mention.

Now is the time for complaining.  This is early Verdi (1841).  While I admit that Berlioz and Paris Grand Opera had already invented the giant orchestra, and that this is the legitimate orchestration, does it really have to be this loud?  Normally an opera orchestra is in the pit where the sound is muffled.  The first half was especially bad.  I was experiencing ear pain.

This closed our wonderful Salzburg experience.