# The Metropolitan Saturday opera broadcasts are back!..........



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

*The Metropolitan opera Saturday broadcasts are back!..........*

To start with .............

*April 2, 2022
Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
*
James Gaffigan; Igor Golovatenko (Onegin), Ailyn Pérez (Tatiana), Piotr Beczała (Lenski), Varduhi Abrahamyan (Olga), Ain Anger (Prince Gremin)

See if there's a station near you that is carrying them.
KUSC 91.5 is a Los Angeles classical station that has them online.

Enjoy and discuss the performances on this thread.
:tiphat:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Glad they're back, bringing some familiar reality into strange times. And there's always that off chance of hearing some great singing.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Onegin to start in 15 minutes.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I,m here!! I'm here!!!!!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Anyone listening to this fine opera? It would be interesting to read of some opinions on Beczala's "Kuda Kuda" compared to so many other fine performances of this great aria.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Anyone listening to this fine opera? It would be interesting to read of some opinions on Beczala's "Kuda Kuda" compared to so many other fine performances of this great aria.


No fragrance of wilted flowers.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

No expert here, but I very much enjoyed the broadcast. 
So glad its back!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I too enjoyed it because no matter what, (and this DID lack for me other preferred singers -- such as Hvorostovsky who sang rings around Golovatenko) it is Tchaikovsky who reigns supreme every single time.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

_Onegin_ is an opera that has to win me over every time I return to it. Tchaikovsky set himself quite a challenge in choosing his subject. It isn't in the nature of opera to project the intellectual sophistication and verbal felicities of literary masterpieces such as Pushkin's verse novel is considered to be, and being unable to reflect these qualities more than minimally left the composer with the outline of a mundane soap opera that could easily have been boring, on the one hand, or melodramatic (like a lot of opera), on the other. For me he doesn't, at least for act one, avoid the first of these pitfalls; the orchestral introduction, grindingly repetitive, gives us the sort of facile sequencing he's often criticized for, and the glimpses of everyday life among the Russian petty bourgeoisie that ensue are not made more interesting than they would likely be in real life. I don't find _Onegin_'s melodic inspiration to be, on the whole, on a level with Tchaikovsky's symphonic or balletic efforts, and I'm always glad to get to Tatiana's letter scene, when the emotions become more intense and the opera promises to be more than an exhibit of yellowed daguerrotypes and pressed violets. It does work up a good, if gentle, head of steam in the end, and if it's been sung and played well I'll be touched by its delicate, old-fashioned pathos and glad to have heard it once more. (I'm more fascinated, though, by the strange characters and neurotic obsessions in the composer's "other opera" - also based on Pushkin - _The Queen of Spades._ I don't know whether it's a better or a worse opera, but to me it's more interesting.)

I wasn't helped to get into today's performance by the appalling wobblefest presented by the women in the opening scene. I know there was music with actual pitches in there somewhere, but what came out of my speakers could have been radio static. Fortunately the principal singers were better than the supporting cast - not first-rate (no Lemeshevs, Lisitsians or Reizens) but good enough to keep me from turning off the radio.

The quiz at intermission featured Lise Davidsen, who seems to be quite personable and intelligent, with sensible ideas about the course of her career. As I recall, she was rather pleasing as Lisa in the Met's recent production of _Queen of Spades._ Aside from her I found the quiz terribly boring. They were more sophisticated and amusing, and with more distinguished panelists, in olden tymes. Sic transit gloria...


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I must say that we here at home had the same impression of the 2 "wobblers" at the beginning of the opera. I am convinced that it is just another case of two persons where radio airwaves do not know how to transmit voices as well as they can with other singers.
I thought that both Perez and Beczala did themselves proud. I was disappointed in Golovatenko but then, perhaps unfairly, I cannot help but compare him to the Hvorostovsky-Fleming masterpiece in my mind.
This opera reigns supreme on my list.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up..........

*April 9, 2022
Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro
*
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Christian Van Horn (Figaro), Aida Garifullina (Susanna), Federica Lombardi (Countess Almaviva), Gerald Finley (Count Almaviva), Sasha Cooke (Cherubino), Elizabeth Bishop (Marcellina), Maurizio Muraro (Dr. Bartolo)


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

When I used to have Sirius Opera Radio their historic broadcasts were great and the star quality of the intermission features can't possibly be equaled today. One of the best had Nilsson and Sutherland explaining different musical terms.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> When I used to have Sirius Opera Radio their historic broadcasts were great and the star quality of the intermission features can't possibly be equaled today. One of the best had Nilsson and Sutherland explaining different musical terms.


I remember that feature. Sutherland called Nilsson "Birgit dear."


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> When I used to have Sirius Opera Radio their historic broadcasts were great and the star quality of the intermission features can't possibly be equaled today. One of the best had Nilsson and Sutherland explaining different musical terms.


It was great when they had Father Owen Lee, and Martina Arroyo was always a hoot! The quizzes were always a good learning experience as well as funny when the "experts" couldn't find the answer. Loved Peter Allen, too.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> It was great when they had Father Owen Lee, and Martina Arroyo was always a hoot! The quizzes were always a good learning experience as well as funny when the "experts" couldn't find the answer. Loved Peter Allen, too.


Martina, so fun when talking and so boring on stage, albeit with a glorious voice.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Martina, so fun when talking and so boring on stage, albeit with a glorious voice.


Unfortunately, with her, she's more off that on.

M


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Unfortunately, with her, she's more off that on.
> 
> M


More off when talking or singing? Vocally I always found her voice to be solid and very beautiful but just so boring. I'm sure you heard her live in SF.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> More off when talking or singing? Vocally I always found her voice to be solid and very beautiful but just so boring. I'm sure you heard her live in SF.


By "off," I'm talking about her placidity in singing. I heard her in *Un Ballo In Maschera * which was her only appearance in San Francisco during my time. Though she did sing in a a Verdi *Messa da Requiem* with the San Francisco Symphony in 1973 and she was tremendous (one of her "on" nights).


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> Glad they're back, bringing some familiar reality into strange times. And there's always that off chance of hearing some great singing.


:lol:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Barbebleu said:


> :lol:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Let's not be completely cynical. I did qualify "chance" with "off." Just how far off is yet to be demonstrated.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Woodduck said:


> Let's not be completely cynical. I did qualify "chance" with "off." Just how far off is yet to be demonstrated.


Hope springs eternal...


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up..........

*April 9, 2022
Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro*

Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Christian Van Horn (Figaro), Aida Garifullina (Susanna), Federica Lombardi (Countess Almaviva), Gerald Finley (Count Almaviva), Sasha Cooke (Cherubino), Elizabeth Bishop (Marcellina), Maurizio Muraro (Dr. Bartolo)

Reminder.........


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

From next door's thread on "Onegin":
_
"From the program insert at the Met production of Eugene Onegin last night (April 7, 2022) at the Met,
'In tonight's performance of Eugene Onegin, Marjukka Tepponen makes her Met debut in the role of Tatiana.'

There was no biography included and there was no explanation for the absence of the announced Tatiana, Aileen Perez. So a new (for me) singer triumphed! It was a superb performance and it was rewarded by boisterous prolonged ovations during the first act and at the curtain call."
_
I heard her "Depuis le jour" and to me her voice was certainly an unusual one -- one to be easily recognized, and although there are some things she needs to work on, I think she's got something unique. I hope I get to hear more.
If anyone listens to her at you-tube, I'd be interested to know your opinion.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up..........

April 9, 2022
Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro

Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Christian Van Horn (Figaro), Aida Garifullina (Susanna), Federica Lombardi (Countess Almaviva), Gerald Finley (Count Almaviva), Sasha Cooke (Cherubino), Elizabeth Bishop (Marcellina), Maurizio Muraro (Dr. Bartolo)

*Reminder.........*


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

15 minutes to curtain ............


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I enjoyed todays broadcast very much. I thought the singers sounded fine.
I especially like the conductor's way with the score.
He let the music breath and gave the singers a chance to put feeling in their singing.
The sound of the orchestra didnt come through as good as it could.
But all in all, I enjoyed it.
Thank you Met.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Interesting that _Nozze,_ unlike Mozart's other greatest hits, has no principal role for tenor. It appears that Mozart was expected to provide some music for a tenor, and so we get a rather forgettable little aria for the music teacher, Basilio, a sort of sardonic busybody who doesn't really need one (I, at least, had forgotten about it, and will remember its existence henceforth only because I won't forget having forgotten about it). This occurs to me because the roles of Basilio and Bartolo were the least well-sung in a performance that was otherwise pretty good. Possibly the best singer in the cast, and the only one I knew beforehand, was veteran baritone Gerald Finley, whose fine voice and artistry I've always enjoyed and who didn't disappoint today. For some reason I'd always assumed he was British, but it turns out he's Canadian.

Mozart at the Met tends to bring us mainly younger, fresher-voiced talent, unlike Verdi, Wagner and Strauss, in whose operas we tend to have to put up with "mature" voices exhibiting a number of traits we would not characterize as "fresh." Tune in next Saturday for a perfect demonstration, when younger, fresher-voiced Lise Davidsen appears alongside mature Nina Stemme in _Elektra_.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

^^^

One reason I love Mozart’s operas is that you can actually see them with young singers who look like the parts they play. (Added to which Mozart was the greatest opera writer of all time IMO.) Figaro is right up there with the three da Ponte operas. Unfortunately we have not heard it over here yet so hope we can catch up sometime. I do think the role of Basilio is one of the great comic creations for a character tenor and his constant whining makes him almost a forerunner of Mime. The Met is a big opera house for Mozart. Just hope the Figaro was better sung than their last Cosi I saw.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

marlow said:


> Mozart was the greatest opera writer of all time IMO.


Does that mean that you think his operas are better than other people's? If so, in what ways?


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> Does that mean that you think his operas are better than other people's? If so, in what ways?


I do but I don't think this is the place to discuss it as you note that the thread is about the Metropolitan Operas.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

marlow said:


> I do but I don't think this is the place to discuss it as you note that the thread is about the Metropolitan Operas.


Fair enough. It could do with a thread of its own.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up.............

*April 16, 2022
R. Strauss's Elektra
*
Donald Runnicles; Nina Stemme (Elektra), Lise Davidsen (Chrysothemis), Michaela Schuster (Klytämnestra), Greer Grimsley (Orest), Stefan Vinke (Aegisth)


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up.............

*April 16, 2022
R. Strauss's Elektra*

Donald Runnicles; Nina Stemme (Elektra), Lise Davidsen (Chrysothemis), Michaela Schuster (Klytämnestra), Greer Grimsley (Orest), Stefan Vinke (Aegisth)

Remonder


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Next up.............
> 
> *April 16, 2022
> R. Strauss's Elektra*
> ...


Thank you for remondering. But remond me: when did you monder last?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

5 minutes to curtain!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

There is no excuse for what I'm hearing right now.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

All I can hear in this *Elektra *are wobbles. On every sustained note, high or low. Unlistenable.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> All I can hear in this *Elektra *are wobbles. On every sustained note, high or low. Unlistenable.


Indeed. I've stopped listening. Lise Davidsen seems OK, but Stemme lives down to my expectations.

I hope there isn't an afterlife. I wouldn't want Birgit to hear this.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

9


Woodduck said:


> Indeed. I've stopped listening. Lise Davidsen seems OK, but Stemme lives down to my expectations.
> 
> I hope there isn't an afterlife. I wouldn't want Birgit to hear this.


😂 I don’t know at which point in the opera I entered, but I left a few seconds afterwards.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I agree. It sounded awful. I could barely stay.
Te wide wobbling was awful.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

MAS said:


> All I can hear in this *Elektra *are wobbles. On every sustained note, high or low. Unlistenable.


*Wobblektra*.. a one-act Greek tragedy in wobbles


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

It has to be difficult to tell a famous singer that she no longer sounds good and needs to get herself back in the care of a good teacher - or else consider retiring - and from my experience listening to Met broadcasts over the years I have to conclude that no one in the company has the job of doing it. Some of the voices we've been offered in demanding roles are simply ruinous - they are the ruins of what may have been fine voices to begin with, and they ruin operas that could otherwise provide exciting experiences. What we heard today - or decided not to hear - was certainly a ruin.

I'm not fond of most of _Elektra_ even when it's sung brilliantly; it has exciting bits, some beautiful moments, and a lot of typical Straussian chatter that doesn't seem to know exactly where it's going. In any event I wasn't expecting to be bowled over by the singing. Mainly I wanted to hear Lise Davidsen, whose voice sounds strong and firm, whatever else we may think about her. But I can't say anything about the performance as a whole, since 20 minutes of Nina Stemme was already too much to bear. This must top even her Turandot of several seasons ago for sheer awfulness. 

It may be tempting to imagine that bel canto technique is less important in music like this than in, say, Puccini, but I disagree with that. In Puccini - as well as in Verdi, and even in Wagner - there are plenty of shapely, easily comprehended melodic lines with clear harmonic underpinning, and we can hear and respond to the melodies even when the voices are less than attractive. In _Elektra_ much of the vocal writing is fragmented, angular, declamatory, and conversational ("Straussian chatter"); Strauss does little to aid or flatter the singer, and if the voices aren't firm and clear the result is apt to be a lot of shouting, wailing and ranting. Maybe that's what many people are prepared to put up with in this opera; maybe they think it sounds appropriately neurotic and "realistic"; maybe that's what the Met's management is telling itself. Or maybe they're telling themselves that if singing gets any worse they're all going to be looking for work.

What I was telling myself was, "I need to shut off this infernal racket and have a peaceful lunch."


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up..........

*April 23, 2022
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess*
David Robertson; Eric Owens (Porgy), Angel Blue (Bess), Alfred Walker (Crown), Frederick Ballentine (Sportin’ Life), Latonia Moore (Serena), Janai Brugger (Clara), Denyce Graves (Maria), Ryan Speedo Green (Jake)


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

30 minute warning


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Cant say i really like Porgy and Bess, but it seemed like a good performance of it.
Anybody hear it?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Cant say i really like Porgy and Bess, but it seemed like a good performance of it.
> Anybody hear it?


I like only parts of the opera, but I listened to about half of it. Bess sounded pretty good but the male voices were unpleasant and I couldn't stick with it. I kept wondering why they seemed to think so much of the music had to be shouted and declaimed. Is that the traditional approach to performing it?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up..................

*April 30, 2022
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly*
Alexander Soddy; Eleonora Buratto (Cio-Cio-San), Brian Jagde (Pinkerton), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki), David Bizic (Sharpless)


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

^^^^Reminder
Tomorrow's broadcast is Madame Butterfly.
Enjoy!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> ^^^^Reminder
> Tomorrow's broadcast is Madame Butterfly.
> Enjoy!


All the singers are new to me. Tantalizing and terrifying.


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## DeGustibus (Aug 7, 2020)

I have talked to several people in NYC who have seen this cast (and/or listened to a broadcast on Sirius last week) and have been generally complimentary of the singing without being ecstatic. Buratto has been very busy over the last year or so on both sides of the Atlantic. She and Jagde certainly have the reputation of solid performers coming into their prime.
Several complaints about the conducting, though, with generally slow tempi.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

DeGustibus said:


> this cast (and/or listened to a broadcast on Sirius last week) and have been generally complimentary of the singing without being ecstatic.


Good grief! Is that’s the best we can expect these days?


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

MAS said:


> Good grief! Is that’s the best we can expect these days?


The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents: St. Theresa in a Complimentary Mood.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

DeGustibus said:


> I have talked to several people in NYC who have seen this cast (and/or listened to a broadcast on Sirius last week) and have been generally complimentary of the singing without being ecstatic. Buratto has been very busy over the last year or so on both sides of the Atlantic. She and Jagde certainly have the reputation of solid performers coming into their prime.
> Several complaints about the conducting, though, with generally slow tempi.


I read several positive comments on Eleanora Burrato (sounds like a cheese!) They really said she was terrific.
We'll see domani.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I heard DeShong as Angelina about 7 years ago. Than her name said nothing to me, but she became a pleasant discovery. Jagde sang Don Alvaro in 2019 and was very good. I know Buratto only in broadcasts, as Nanetta in Salzburg and Donna Anna in Aix-en-Provence, and remember that I liked her.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I am not actually a fan of Jagde having seen him as Cavaradossi in San Francisco. Perhaps he has improved.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

One hour to curtain...........


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

15 minutes to curtain.......


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

What a total disappointment this Butterfly is. Jagde sounds like he is parking and barking. Buratto has a fine voice but there is little to no nuance, sensitivity and vulnerability that Cio Cio San requires. Perhaps it is just because it is through the airwaves and it doesn't come through. 
When I have to say that Bizic is the best thing about this production ... well...


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> What a total disappointment this Butterfly is. Jagde sounds like he is parking and barking. Buratto has a fine voice but there is little to no nuance, sensitivity and vulnerability that Cio Cio San requires. Perhaps it is just because it is through the airwaves and it doesn't come through.
> When I have to say that Bizic is the best thing about this production ... well...


It gets better once Jagde is off the scene.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I must agree that the second act Buratto seemed just fine-- playful and more girlish and her voice of course is quite lovely. We should be hearing a lot of her.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> I must agree that the second act Buratto seemed just fine-- playful and more girlish and her voice of course is quite lovely. We should be hearing a lot of her.


 She may have needed to get the brutal Jagde out of her ear in order to loosen up. She has a good voice.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Was he really so bad? I'm not spoilt by good tenors in live performances. Maybe that's why I liked him in La Forza.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

To me he sounded like anything BUT a lover. There was no warmth or even tenderness to his voice. He's a park and barker.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Well, Pinkerton is the most disgusting character in opera. Every time I watch Butterfly I'm agitated about how could be possible to treat any human being this way.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

ColdGenius said:


> Well, Pinkerton is the most disgusting character in opera. Every time I watch Butterfly I'm agitated about how could be possible to treat any human being this way.


Really? More than Claggart or Iago? Pinkerton is not an evil person, he is simply a narcissist who is involved with his own needs above others. He is really unthinking. He also shows remorse for his self centered ways.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Let's be honest. Almost all the tenor characters are not very clever. 
As for Iago... Have you read Updike's couples? They discuss Sheakspear and one of them exclaims Iago is right!


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

"Couples", of course


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Iago is right about "what?"
Whatever he is right about, he still was probably the most evil character in all of opera.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Really? More than Claggart or Iago? Pinkerton is not an evil person, he is simply a narcissist who is involved with his own needs above others. He is really unthinking. He also shows remorse for his self centered ways.


I agree. You could also see him as the epitome of white privilege. Young men like him are ten a penny on most college campuses; not intrinsically bad but self centredly and selfishly unthinking.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

nina foresti said:


> Iago is right about "what?"
> Whatever he is right about, he still was probably the most evil character in all of opera.


In that book it was a joke. Characters had a chat and imagined "Othello" in which Iago is right. And one of them, fond of Shakespear, responded: "But is always right! "
Othello, his victim, doesn't seem to be better because of being manipulated. 
And about Pinkerton you both, Nina Foresti and Tsaraslondon, are right and exact. You have underlined why he exites such disgusts. 
But there is a strange thing. Almost the same one could say about Onegin, but I don't feel aversion to him. Maybe he is more complicated and interesting, and we see his remorse. Or literature base is simply better.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I agree. You could also see him as the epitome of white privilege. Young men like him are ten a penny on most college campuses; not intrinsically bad but self centredly and selfishly unthinking.


Pinkerton presents a real opportunity for characterization to an intelligent tenor, more than Puccini's other tenor roles which are, IMO, rather cardboardish, or at least very conventional. Unfortunately I got no character at all from Jagde, and could only get pleasure from the performance after the first act, in which Burrato also failed to get much character into Butterfly. But at least these singers didn't serve up wobbles to make me flee the premises. Amazing how we've become so grateful for small favors.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up...................

*May 7, 2022
Puccini’s Turandot*
Marco Armiliato; Liudmyla Monastyrska (Turandot), Yonghoon Lee (Calàf), Ermonela Jaho (Liù), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Timur)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Conrad L. Osborne has commented on both this week's opera, _Turandot_, and nexr week's, _Lucy from Youngstown, Ohio,_ in his latest blog entry. As always, I found it worth a read.



https://conradlosborne.com/2022/05/06/the-stoning-of-lucia-plus-return-to-turandot/


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

A good read. I'll be there at the HD today and cannot wait. It's been a while since I saw an opera. What a treat.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Seattle John:
I wouldn't mind rating some singers of today for a change.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Reminder.....

*May 7, 2022
Puccini’s Turandot*
Marco Armiliato; Liudmyla Monastyrska (Turandot), Yonghoon Lee (Calàf), Ermonela Jaho (Liù), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Timur)
Today


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

15 minutes to curtain..............


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

I shall not be seeing the Lucia when it comes to cinema. Ridiculous!


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Listening to the Emperor's scene right now, and I have to say I kind of agree with Altoum that this Calaf should not "affrontar la prova"...


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

vivalagentenuova said:


> Listening to the Emperor's scene right now, and I have to say I kind of agree with Altoum that this Calaf should not "affrontar la prova"...


Don't worry about him. This Turandot couldn't kill a fly.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

On the principle of "three strikes and you're out," I'm prepared to say that it's time for the Met to shelve _Turandot_ until they can once again put together a cast who can sing it. A number of years ago it was Nina Stemme tormenting us; then it was Christine Goerke; and now it's Anna Netrebko and her present replacement, Liudmyla Monastyrska. With Netrebko out of the Met's good graces, the Ukrainian Monastyrska's presence may be a fine political and humanitarian gesture, but it's a musically disastrous one. Turandot's music has never sounded so feeble: a warbling squeak pretending to be a roar. There was some intermittent compensation in the decent contributions of Yonghoon Lee and Ermonyla Jaho, with Lee as Calaf probably the best of the four principles, strong though unsubtle in a part that needs plenty of strength and little subtlety. His dark tenor has weight and focus, with no wobble on the horizon. Jaho's Liu was weakish and unmoving to start but improved in her last scene. As Timur, Ferruccio Furlanetto, after more than forty years of singing, is way past his sell-by date.

In _Turandot_ Puccini relies heavily on strong rhythms and almost obsessively repeated melodic phrases to create a "barbaric" atmosphere and sweep the action along, and on a huge palette of brilliant orchestral colors to keep the ear fascinated. It's music that makes much of its effect even when poorly sung, and I listened today to focus on the score while ignoring the singing as best I could. I do think the use of repetitive figures gets a little out of hand at times; I don't see why the scene with Ping, Pang and Pong goes on as long as it does - that trio of characters is hardly essential to the plot - and without being able to see the stage action I find the long, drawn out extension of the theme of Liu's "Tu che di gel sei cinta" tiresome (in fact I think that aria itself, perhaps even the _idea_ of a formal aria at that point, is an interruption of the drama's momentum, as well as a musical anticlimax after Liu has already just sung some of Puccini's most magical and poignant music). I suspect that had Puccini lived he might have done more to the opera than merely complete its finale.


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## AlexD (Nov 6, 2011)

I quite enjoyed the cinema broadcast. 

The scene with Ping Pang Pong was probably written to allow for the set changes and costume changes backstage. 

(The Met paused the whole production for 45 minutes to change the set, but many other productions will not do this. The longer scene probably allows a simpler production time to transition from Act I to Act II without such a long pause).

The Royal Opera House production I saw gave Ping Pang & Pong a lighter touch. They were closer to Gilbert & Sullivan characters providing comic relief to the horror that was going on. Certainly they had a Mikadoesque tone. 

In this production, they reflected horror and boredom more. I got a sense that the royal court was tired of Turandot's games and all the blood shed. They wanted to move on, and wanted Turandot to move on. (at least I think I got that from the sub-text). I didn't "get into" the production until the second act. There seemed to be some formal stand-offishness in the first act. But, this made Turandot's determination to have her suitors beheaded seem more serious. An attempt to move from a "chocolate box" opera to something more serious in intent, perhaps?

In this production I felt that Turandot was resisting growing up - she was trying to stay a child, and at the end found that she could not resist (and did not want to). She changes from a girl to a woman through Calaf's love. 

The ending did look rather threadbare, and didn't quite match the opulent opera that had gone before it.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Woodduck: I cannot disagree with most of what you say because it is true that the voice of Monastyrska's Turandot certainly is not one of the more stellar ones I have ever heard. I can make excuses for Furlanetto's Timur simply because his character is blind and he is a weak man and perhaps is directed not to sing out in order to keep within the role.
But I do believe that Jaho and Lee both gave full throttle and Jaho particularly, because she also brought to her character a depth of sincerity as a person in true pain. Lee is by no means an actor and he has a tendency to, del Monaco-like, sing out but with little or no depth behind him. However, his voice is secure and his mannerisms are in keeping with the role.
I also am annoyed that the scenes with Ping, Pang and Pong are so extensive -- it really isn't necessary because, despite their longevity, it still took and extra 45 minutes of striking the sets and setting up the next scene anyway (not that it wasn't extremely fascinating to watch how it is done behind the scenes.) It was mentioned that _Turandot_ is the 2nd most elaborate and difficult opera to set up, giving me pause as to which one is #1. Don Carlo? La Traviata?
But unlike you, I truly enjoyed it immensely. In my dotage this is likely to be the last time I will ever see a Met production of Turandot again and I relished ever single minute of the over-lavish Zeff production and the incredibly mesmerizing score even as I sit and grind my teeth in anger over the selfishness of the two main characters and the weak, ineffectual ending as done by someone else.
It has always intrigued me that in just about every Puccini opera there is a sampling of the Asian influence in his music. I wait with anticipation to pick it out -- and it is always there buried somewhere within its music.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

> I got a sense that the royal court was tired of Turandot's games and all the blood shed. They wanted to move on, and wanted Turandot to move on. (at least I think I got that from the sub-text)


I think that's in the text.

I'm a Ping, Pang, and Pong fan, so I actually like that their scenes are so long and I'm always disappointed when the standard cuts are made to the Act 2 scene. I don't really consider _Turandot _a drama, so I don't think there's any drama to be interrupted. To me, _Turandot_ is a pageant, by which I mean something more like a parade of symbolic figures and vignettes, like the pageant depicting the history of the Catholic Church at the end of Dante's _Purgatorio_. This is reflected in the musical style, which, suddenly and reversing a long trend in Puccini's work, moves away from a Wagnerian, through-composed approach, back towards a more traditional opera by numbers approach. I consider this sudden stylistic change as well as the highly ornamented and decadent music (with its constantly repeated motives, as Woodduck points out) as artistic choices, which has changed the way I understand the opera as a whole. Liu is the only character who really belongs to a drama, and Puccini's stated intention about what he was trying to get with the work is the way in which her real human emotions transform the more archetypal principal characters into human beings. Taken in that light, PPP aren't so much an interruption in a drama but a comedic float in a pageant that mocks the absurd solemnity of the rest. Like the "noble" characters, however, they also are put back in touch with their humanity by the death of Liu, and there's even a line about how this is the first time in a long time that they haven't laughed at death. The inhumanity of all the characters except Liu and maybe Timur (who has lost his royal status and become a beggar) is the major theme, and the PPP scene in act 2, far from being irrelevant, is about how Turandot's inhumanity has robbed them of theirs, but that they still long for something that could restore it to them, either by escaping to the country, or by the transformation of Turandot herself, which is exactly what happens in the rest of the opera.

I also just enjoy their music as music. You don't get many trios in Puccini, and the chamber music feel of the scene is a new, refreshing addition to his style.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

vivalagentenuova said:


> I think that's in the text.
> 
> I'm a Ping, Pang, and Pong fan, so I actually like that their scenes are so long and I'm always disappointed when the standard cuts are made to the Act 2 scene. I don't really consider _Turandot _a drama, so I don't think there's any drama to be interrupted. To me, _Turandot_ is a pageant, by which I mean something more like a parade of symbolic figures and vignettes, like the pageant depicting the history of the Catholic Church at the end of Dante's _Purgatorio_. This is reflected in the musical style, which, suddenly and reversing a long trend in Puccini's work, moves away from a Wagnerian, through-composed approach, back towards a more traditional opera by numbers approach. I consider this sudden stylistic change as well as the highly ornamented and decadent music (with its constantly repeated motives, as Woodduck points out) as artistic choices, which has changed the way I understand the opera as a whole. Liu is the only character who really belongs to a drama, and Puccini's stated intention about what he was trying to get with the work is the way in which her real human emotions transform the more archetypal principal characters into human beings. Taken in that light, PPP aren't so much an interruption in a drama but a comedic float in a pageant that mocks the absurd solemnity of the rest. Like the "noble" characters, however, they also are put back in touch with their humanity by the death of Liu, and there's even a line about how this is the first time in a long time that they haven't laughed at death. The inhumanity of all the characters except Liu and maybe Timur (who has lost his royal status and become a beggar) is the major theme, and the PPP scene in act 2, far from being irrelevant, is about how Turandot's inhumanity has robbed them of theirs, but that they still long for something that could restore it to them, either by escaping to the country, or by the transformation of Turandot herself, which is exactly what happens in the rest of the opera.
> 
> I also just enjoy their music as music. You don't get many trios in Puccini, and the chamber music feel of the scene is a new, refreshing addition to his style.


I always enjoy your thoughts on a composer with whom I have an ambivalent relationship. I suppose I differ with you in finding that the various dramatic elements that make up the pageant/drama of _Turandot_ cohabit a bit uncomfortably together, and really don't add up to a convincing whole. But the opera works because the music is mostly enchanting enough to distract from the incongruities and moral issues, and as a friend of Conrad L. Osborne said to him, when the Met was giving us Nilsson and Corelli you could just forget your reservations and qualms. No such thing with the singers we're getting nowadays.

I didn't know that the opera was ever cut, and that Puccini wanted Ping, Pang & Pong, LLC, to talk even longer than I thought they did. I imagine our three vaudevillians could be entertaining enough onstage, but for me, listening to a recording or broadcast, it comes down to musical interest, and I just don't find myself sufficiently taken with the music of this scene to want it to last as long as it does.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up............

*May 14, 2022
Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg*
_Please note: this broadcast begins at 9AM_
Antonio Pappano; Michael Volle (Hans Sachs), Klaus Florian Vogt (Walther Von Stolzing), Lise Davidsen (Eva), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Beckmesser), Georg Zeppenfeld (Pogner), Paul Appleby (David), Claudia Mahnke (Magdalene), Martin Gantner (Kothner), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Nightwatchman)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Next up............
> 
> *May 14, 2022
> Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg*
> ...


That's 9 AM Pacific Coast Time. 12 PM for the other coast.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> That's 9 AM Pacific Coast Time. 12 PM for the other coast.


Thank!!!!!!!


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

*Reminder*: Meistersinger starts an hour EARLIER than usual.
9 pst, 12 est.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Less than an hour to Meistersinger!


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

15 minutes to curtain!


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

5 and a half hours of bliss for me.
Best was Pappano's conducting.
Volle was ok. i think he got a little tired at the end?
Voigt was ok.
With those shortcomings i thoroghly enjoyed it.
What music!!!!!!!!!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

With many years of heavy Wagner listening behind me, I don't often hear a Wagner opera stem to stern these days; sitting down to a large meal and knowing I have to clean my plate is harder than it used to be. _Meistersinger_ is Wagner's longest opera, not exactly what he originally had in mind when the _Ring_ lay unfinished and _Tristan_ had been declared unperformable. Today we were spared the usual long intermissions, and what we did get was concise and interesting. I particularly enjoyed Pappano talking about the score.

I agree with Itullian that Pappano's work was the highlight of the performance. This entire work is a celebration of counterpoint - even beneath simple conversations the orchestral voices are weaving marvelous polyphonic inventions - and Pappano let us hear all of it. As an exhibition of a composer's mastery of the traditional craft of composition, the work is Wagner cocking a snook at the Beckmessers of the world, and perfectly demonstrates the lesson that Sachs teaches Walther (and all of Nuremberg) about the proper relationship between the old and the new.

The cast was generally competent on the whole. Klaus Florian Vogt is easily disposed of in a word: pathetic. Now if only someone would find a way to dispose of him so that we'd never have to hear him again. We know we're in trouble when the David - here the reliable Paul Appleby - sounds more like a man than the Walther. Lise Davidsen's Eva could be the wimpy kid's mother, which is no discredit to her performance. She is no Grummer or Schwarzkopf, and I didn't find her very interesting, but then Eva is just a nice village girl, probably Wagner's least interesting female lead. Volle was rough of tone as Sach's, which worked against his evident dramatic sense. The character came across in a general way, but without a beautiful tone you're hampered in portraying the subtle shades of emotion and the beauty of soul that put Sachs in a category of his own among operatic characters. Of the others, I disliked only the rough Fritz Kothner, who gets a delightfully pseudo-Baroque bit, complete with coloratura, when he calls the roll at the gathering of the masters in Act 1. He requires a nice, clean voice.

As a rule, comic operas shouldn't last four-and-one-half hours, but this is the most complex and serious of musical comedies, and despite being a test of physical endurance for some of us oldsters it remains a creative miracle that rewards us more the more we engage with it.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up..........

*May 21, 2022
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor*
Riccardo Frizza; Nadine Sierra (Lucia), Javier Camarena (Edgardo), Artur Ruciński (Enrico), Matthew Rose (Raimondo)


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

^^^^^^^^^Reminder


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Itullian said:


> ^^^^^^^^^Reminder


Beautiful voices sans blood and gore. What could be better?
Thanks so much for keeping track.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

nina foresti said:


> Beautiful voices sans blood and gore. What could be better?
> Thanks so much for keeping track.


Glad you're here


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Curtain time ............


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

If you haven't tuned in, do it. There's a great voice in the cast, baritone Artur Rucinski of Poland, who's singing Enrico.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Rucinski is totally superb but so, my dear, is Nadine Sierra. Lord she has a beautiful voice and knows how to use it. I have always liked Camerena's voice. It is such a wonderful gift to listen to these beautiful voices sans il sangue.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Rucinski is totally superb but so, my dear, is Nadine Sierra. Lord she has a beautiful voice and knows how to use it. I have always liked Camerena's voice. It is such a wonderful gift to listen to these beautiful voices sans il sangue.


Camarena is fine - he and Rucinski impress me most - but I can do without Sierra. I don't find her timbre especially beautiful or distinctive, and she sings with little nuance. I get no sense of a character from her, no suggestion of a girl who would lose her mind and commit murder. In fact everybody in this production is rather relentlessly loud. Is it because they're in the American rust belt that they all think they have to belt?


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Donizetti's masterpiece in full.
A more dramatic voice for Edgardo would be nice.
I loved Frita's conducting of it.
Never rushed and brought out many nuances of the brilliant score.
Thanks Met!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I'm a bit easier. I loved every doggone minute of it and I thought Sierra was superb in an extremely difficult and exhausting role. I refuse to try to compare her to some of the past superb Lucias. She is what we have now and I think the choice was an excellent one. I cannot mourn for what we don't have. I need to celebrate for what we have.
My glass is half full.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

nina foresti said:


> I'm a bit easier. I loved every doggone minute of it and I thought Sierra was superb in an extremely difficult and exhausting role. I refuse to try to compare her to some of the past superb Lucias. She is what we have now and I think the choice was an excellent one. I cannot mourn for what we don't have. I need to celebrate for what we have.
> My glass is half full.


I loved it too.


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## AlexD (Nov 6, 2011)

I caught it at the cinema in Bracknell. It was very good. 1st time I've come across this opera.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> I'm a bit easier. I loved every doggone minute of it and I thought Sierra was superb in an extremely difficult and exhausting role. I refuse to try to compare her to some of the past superb Lucias. She is what we have now and I think the choice was an excellent one. I cannot mourn for what we don't have. I need to celebrate for what we have.
> My glass is half full.


I enjoyed it too, despite my reservations, largely because the score wasn't the Reader's Digest Condensed Opera version I grew up with. My estimation of Donizetti as a musical dramatist has risen over the years, and I appreciate the respect for his musical vision. Fortunately I was only listening and not seeing the disrespectful part of the production (though once you've seen photos you can't unsee them).


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> I enjoyed it too, despite my reservations, largely because the score wasn't the Reader's Digest Condensed Opera version I grew up with. My estimation of Donizetti as a musical dramatist has risen over the years, and I appreciate the respect for his musical vision. Fortunately I was only listening and not seeing the disrespectful part of the production (though once you've seen photos you can't unsee them).


Hearing the WHOLE score makes such a difference.
I too am glad i didnt see it.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Anyone interested to hear Akhenaten?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Anyone interested to hear Akhenaten?


I'll be tuned in, at least for a while... I didn't get through the whole thing the last time it was broadcast, and some people say you have to see it to appreciate it fully.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Anyone interested to hear Akhenaten?


Count me out. Not my cuppa.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

AlexD said:


> I caught it at the cinema in Bracknell. It was very good. 1st time I've come across this opera.


I thought of going to the cinema but decided against as didn’t fancy the production. Will catch up on radio.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up...........

*May 28, 2022
Glass’s Akhnaten*
Karen Kamensek; Anthony Roth Costanzo (Akhnaten), Rihab Chaieb (Nefertiti), Zachary James (Amenhotep III), Disella Lárusdóttir (Queen Tye), Aaron Blake (High Priest of Amon), Richard Bernstein (Aye), Will Liverman (Horemhab)


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

^^^^^Reminder


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

15 minutes to curtain


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

omg, the utter monotony of this thing was making me actually physically ill.
The silences were a relief! Off it goes.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Itullian said:


> omg, the utter monotony of this thing was making me actually physically ill.
> The silences were a relief! Off it goes.


I know that there are many people who love Philip Glass, but I can't imagine sitting through three hours of Akhenaten.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

wkasimer said:


> I know that there are many people who love Philip Glass, but I can't imagine sitting through three hours of Akhenaten.


I couldn't!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

With the help of a little housework and the byways of the internet, I was able to get through to the end. I did it because it was there.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Itullian said:


> 15 minutes to


escape


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## 59540 (May 16, 2021)

I remember listening to those long ago when I was in my teens, back when Peter Allen was the presenter. Good times, good times.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

*June 4, 2022
Dean’s Hamlet – Network Broadcast Premiere*
Nicholas Carter; Allan Clayton (Hamlet), Brenda Rae (Ophelia), Rod Gilfry (Claudius), Sarah Connolly (Gertrude), William Burden (Polonius), Jacques Imbrailo (Horatio), John Tomlinson (Ghost), David Butt Philip (Laertes), Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (Rosencrantz), Christopher Lowrey (Guildenstern)

Uh oh


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

_Hamlet_ starts in an hour. Gird your loins.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

15 minutes to curtain


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

After an hour and a half of relentless turbulence without a tune in sight, I leave the theater and hit the nearest pub. Well, OK, I hit my kitchen for some comfort food.

To listen or not to listen. It's no longer the question.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Sounds like a bunch of horror/sci fi sound effects to me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> Sounds like a bunch of horror/sci fi sound effects to me.


Skillfully done, too. The ghost was really spooky. So was everyone else, unfortunately. Mr. Dean should send his resume to the movie studios.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I listened to Hamlet a bit and I know some of you think Thomas's Hamlet is junk music.... but I'll take it anyday... With Sutherland or Callas!!!!! God what a racket. Can't imagine anyone wanting to buy that opera and listen to it again.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I listened to Hamlet a bit and I know some of you think Thomas's Hamlet is junk music.... but I'll take it anyday... With Sutherland or Callas!!!!! God what a racket. Can't imagine anyone wanting to buy that opera and listen to it again.


I suspect that now that we can do almost anything with technology, opera will become more and more a stage show, and there will be little incentive to write music that's either singable or memorable. And yet, to judge by photos on the Met's web site, the production doesn't look all that interesting, with modern dress of indeterminate vintage and some anonymous, drab-looking interiors. The music itself summons up a dark, turbulent, nightmarish world. I guess you have to be there to get whatever there is to get. Anyway, I won't be seized wih curiosity come the morrow.






Hamlet







www.metopera.org


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I suspect that now that we can do almost anything with technology, opera will become more and more a stage show, and there will be little incentive to write music that's either singable or memorable. And yet, to judge by photos on the Met's web site, the production doesn't look all that interesting, with modern dress of indeterminate vintage and some anonymous, drab-looking interiors. The music itself summons up a dark, turbulent, nightmarish world. I guess you have to be there to get whatever there is to get. Anyway, I won't be seized wih curiosity come the morrow.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not to disagree, but here Parsifal was staged with great use of hi tech background imagery that greatly added to the drama, but the difference was that in the case of the Wagner opera the music was sensational, not like the music score of so many of these modern operas with great staging that no one will be listening to on purpose a decade from now. Call me old LOL


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I purposely stay away from any new operas because I’m always disappointed with the music and/or the vocal line. I don’t go to the opera for the staging, having seen that aspect of the presentation deteriorate over the years, just as the voices have.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

A propos of modern operas, I remember an old friend of mine (sadly no longer with us) going to a modern work at Covent Garden, which he found cacophonous and confused. Describing his experience, he said to me, "At some point in the middle of the second act, this woman came down to the front of the stage and started to scream with all her might. I turned to my friend and said, "I know _exactly_ how she feels.""


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> A propos of modern operas, I remember an old friend of mine (sadly no longer with us) going to a modern work at Covent Garden, which he found cacophonous and confused. Describing his experience, he said to me, "At some point in the middle of the second act, this woman came down to the front of the stage and started to scream with all her might. I turned to my friend and said, "I know _exactly_ how she feels.""


In this _Hamlet,_ it seemed the people onstage were doing the screaming. Or was it the orchestra screaming? Or was it my beleaguered brain cells? I knew I had to shut it off before Ophelia showed us all how awful it could get with her mad scene, assuming she was scheduled to have one. What most impressed me about the score (and not in a good sense) was not its constant dissonance or the tuneless vocal writing - those we've come to expect - but the incessant churning of the orchestra. I remember reading an early critic of Wagner commenting that his orchestra never seemed to shut up but came at you constantly like the waves of the ocean, and we know how busy Strauss's music can be. Well, those composers' scores are positively restful compared to this piece by Brett Dean, after three hours of which, I can only imagine, the whole longsuffering band of musicians must have gone out to the nearest pub and gotten thoroughly smashed. It would seem humanly impossible to play so many notes, and the sheer excess of it must have been as wearing to the musicians as it was to my nervous system.

I found the following a respectful but critical review:









Brett Dean’s Hamlet Is Too Mad for Its Own Good


Yet there is method in ’t.




www.vulture.com





It's possible that somewhere between this nightmare and the French pleasantries of Ambroise Thomas is a great operatic _Hamlet_ waiting to be written, but given the state of music I suspect the warming climate will kill off all life on earth except for cockroaches and tardigrades before that happens.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Thanks, but no, thanks!


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Next up and last of the season.......

*June 11, 2022
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress*
Susanna Mälkki; Ben Bliss (Tom Rakewell), Golda Schultz (Anne Trulove), Christian Van Horn (Nick Shadow), Alice Coote (Baba the Turk), James Creswell (Trulove)


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

^^^^^Anyone gonna listen to this?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> ^^^^^Anyone gonna listen to this?


Of course. A trip to the Met from here would cost me $1000 easily. I'm a sucker for a freebie.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Reminder^^^^^^^^^^^^^


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

15 minutes to curtain.........


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Heard a bit of it last night. Didn’t bother.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I thoroughly enjoyed the broadcast. i liked The Rake's Progress more than i thought i would and the singers sounded great.
The opera has moments of genuine beauty in it and held my interest.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> I thoroughly enjoyed the broadcast. i liked The Rake's Progress more than i thought i would and the singers sounded great.
> The opera has moments of genuine beauty in it and held my interest.


The piece has grown on me, and I enjoyed yesterday's broadcast. Everyone was at least competent and I'm not in a mood to be critical. Good to end the season on a high note, so to speak.


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