# Fanciulla del West streaming from Wien today!



## manuelnobre (Aug 2, 2013)

Hi everyone!

probably you're all aware but today is the premiere of a new production of Puccini's Fanciulla del West in Wiener Staatsoper and they're broadcasting it!!it starts at 20h30 local time!
they have Stemme as Minnie and Kaufmann as Johnson!!

i don't speak german but i think it'll be somewhere around here:
http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/1670-...l-West/6843749-Promo--La-fanciulla-del-West-2

Enjoy

ps: there's also a radio broadcast that i'm hearing live right now before switching to the video version!haha
http://oe1.orf.at/konsole?show=live
sadly, from what i've already heard i don't think Jack Rance is at the same level as the other principals!oh well...all the love just for nina and jonas!


----------



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Very exciting! I was wondering exactly when Jonas was going to sing Dick Johnson. Too bad about Jack Rance (that is, if he really is just so-so), as he's one of my favorite villains. I don't know the whole opera, but I love his "Minnie, dalla mia casa" -- one of my favorite baritone arias.


----------



## manuelnobre (Aug 2, 2013)

yes i really like Rance but i hate when he's compared with Scarpia.
he's no cliched evil like the baron...and that aria you mentioned explains that quite well!
maybe minnie would be better off with him than with Johnson. haha...and it would be fun to watch the tenor all alone in the end!haha
not kaufmann though!he diserves the girl.


i believe it's starting in a few minutes now!


----------



## manuelnobre (Aug 2, 2013)

oh no!!!it's forbidden outside of austria!!

i'm really sorry for the false alarm!
but it will be on tv on ARTE chanel sometime this dicember.

i'll just stick to the radio broadcast then. Act II about to start i hope!
(http://oe1.orf.at/konsole?show=live)


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

don't be sorry, it's good when people give a heads up about a broadcast


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

manuelnobre said:


> yes i really like Rance but i hate when he's compared with Scarpia.
> he's no cliched evil like the baron...and that aria you mentioned explains that quite well!
> maybe minnie would be better off with him than with Johnson. haha...and it would be fun to watch the tenor all alone in the end!haha
> not kaufmann though!he diserves the girl.
> ...


"Due to legal reasons this video is only available in Austria"

http://tvthek.orf.at/live/6841985

:scold:


----------



## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ he said it's coming on Arte later on this year.

side note (having tuned in to the radio broadcast): blimey, I've been pronouncing Stemme and Welser-Most wrongly all this time. Thank you, commentator, for setting me straight!


----------



## manuelnobre (Aug 2, 2013)

i know...i just really wanted to be useful!

sospiro sorry!i believe you can listen to it right now on http://oe1.orf.at/konsole?show=live


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

manuelnobre said:


> i know...i just really wanted to be useful!
> 
> sospiro sorry!i believe you can listen to it right now on http://oe1.orf.at/konsole?show=live


Please don't apologise! As deggial said it's good to know about these broadcasts anyway. Thanks for the link to the audio.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

The audio is great, but true, Rance is not quite right, he sounds too "whingey" and not masterful enough.

Stemme and der Jonas are fantastic.

BTW Rance would not be right for Minnie. He is already married (she asks him at one point "what about your wife?") and he clearly just wants to get into her bloomers.


----------



## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

I watched this last night - Austrian TV remained unblocked for this transmission here (in Germany) so I managed to see this.
It will be transmitted again on ARTE on December 22(sunday at 22.00 european time).
It is worth watching , the Rance, whose voice is really quite ugly and forced when he has to sing forte is better seen than just heard - good actor - where are the Verdi baritones today? We really are getting to the end, unless there are a few plying their trade in the smaller Italian houses,
The production is very well done - updated to a mining camp in california (slot machines and transistor radios, so that gives a date - losing the wild west flavour slightly.
The costumes, Rance apart, not meaning to be homophobic, but his sheriff's costume is more in keeping for a gig with the Village People than for a filthy run down mining community,(when he appeared onstage, I expected him to burst into a chorus of YMCA, but his voice is not good enough for that) and Minnie, whose costumes, whether jeans or all dressed up in Act 2, are just a garish red all the way through. Otherwise everyone is dressed in pretty drab colours.
Stemme, who has sung the role before starts a little tight at the top of the voice but warms up pretty quickly and improves all through, by the end she is in tremendous form.

JK is terrific, difficult to believe that this is his debut in the role, he sings and acts well and takes his only aria in act 3 with great aplomb. His voice is getting darker and darker in timbre and I think we will now begin to see him take on more spinto roles.
He will debut in "Forza Del Destino" in Munich next month. Having just heard his new Verdi aria CD, I can hardly wait until he decides to sing Otello.
Ensemble is very good and Welser-Möst conducted splendidly, first time I have heard him conduct Puccini.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Pip said:


> I watched this last night - Austrian TV remained unblocked for this transmission here (in Germany) so I managed to see this.
> It will be transmitted again on ARTE on December 22(sunday at 22.00 european time).
> It is worth watching , the Rance, whose voice is really quite ugly and forced when he has to sing forte is better seen than just heard - good actor - where are the Verdi baritones today? We really are getting to the end, unless there are a few plying their trade in the smaller Italian houses,
> The production is very well done - updated to a mining camp in california (slot machines and transistor radios, so that gives a date - losing the wild west flavour slightly.
> ...


Great review, thanks Pip. Hope it's released as DVD eventually.

In answer to your question ".. where are the Verdi baritones today" look no further than the recommendation by the King of Basses Ferruccio Furlanetto in a recent interview:



> - Last year around this time, at the end of May or June, I arrived in San Francisco for "Attila". The first rehearsal we had was a musical one with [Nicola] Luisotti and there was this big boy from Hawaii that I'd never heard of or seen before. When he started to sing I was [illustrates jaw dropping]. I was so fascinated by the color, that Verdi color that's totally lost for baritones, by the technique - very good, safe technique - and the pronunciation. The Italian pronunciation of Quinn Kelsey is absolutely stunning. You couldn't tell that he isn't Italian - and that he doesn't speak Italian.
> 
> - He's a boy full of talent and I was so fascinated to find all these things in one person that the same night I went home and I wrote an email to the Royal Opera House and to Vienna to tell them that, *"We finally have a Verdi baritone!"* They both took him. I don't know what he'll be singing here, but I know that both theatres took him.
> 
> ...


----------



## manuelnobre (Aug 2, 2013)

mamascarlatti, I was just kidding when i said Rance would be right for Minnie  but i do believe he loves her (in his own way) and i don't think he just wants to get in her pants (like scarpia...and that's why the comparison doesn't work for me)!

Minnie must end up with Johnson because she is the saviour in a tale of redemption and he is the one who needs her the most (very christian and motherly at the same time).
but Sonora and Minnie could be a happy couple!or even Minnie and Nick!


on the performance last night:

i was really upset for not being able to see it. probably the baritone's acting skills would make me like him just a little. i couldn't help but frown whenever he was singing.

as for Ninna Stemme...i think she's a great singer and i really enjoy her voice but i don't love her Minnie just yet...maybe i will someday. but i still wish her voice would be a little warmer!maybe i'm alone in this opinion but it's just how i feel!

and Jonas!!!i really love his voice (and had the chance of hearing it live very recently and confirm its beauty) but i felt like he was a little uptight...at least in act I. like he wasn't giving his best...
by act III however that feeling was gone. his interactions with rance and the other miners right before his great aria were the best i remember hearing!and the final adios with nina were haunting.

the orchestra and conductor were great!i dind't like a few tempos (like right before Minnie's entrance in act III) but maybe that's just me being to picky!

oh and for those who did get to see it...what did you think of the balloon in the finale??i saw it in the promo video but i still don't know what to make of it!a bit too colorfoul for a bittersweet ending, no?



ps.: forgot to mention this earlier but i'm sorry about all the misspellings and bad grammar that are probably all over my posts but english is not my first language and it's been some time since i had the chance to really practice it!


----------



## Rackon (Apr 9, 2013)

The whole thing is now posted on YT, dunno for how long. I'm too inept to post links via android but will post them later after work.

I don't know if there will be an official DVD but there will undoubtedly be a pirate from the usual sources. It's worth having - Kaufmann and Stimme sing the hell out if it and the conducting/playing is excellent.


----------



## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

Oh dayum, I just caught the youtube recording and I actually loved Kaufmann's performance, his voice suddenly 'clicked' for me.

Funny how such a complete turn around of opinion can happen. Lol. He reminds me rather of a young domingo.


----------



## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)




----------

