# Opera weaklings?



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Young opera stars are too ready to pull out of productions because of "weakness" of body or temperament, according to Antonio Pappano, the internationally renowned conductor and music director of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.

"It happens more and more. There's something about this generation of singers, that they are weaker in their bodies or don't care. I don't know what it is, but it's something that is very, very frustrating for me personally."

Full story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/mar/13/royal-opera-antonio-pappano-young-stars


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Ah! I saw the heading and thought you were mentioning Don Octavio! 

I read this article too. It made for an interesting discussion about modern singers. Maybe some prefer the studio to the theatre...


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

If it was an opera by Meyerbeer, I think those who cancelled might have done everyone a favour! I cannot see why opera companies want to put such has-been musically weak stuff on.


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## suteetat (Feb 25, 2013)

May be because things are now planned so many years in advance that some singers may find roles that seemed to make sense for them at the time of planning does not seem quite as agreeable to them 5 years later?

Singers are now also under greater pressure, globe trotting from one engagement to another rather than staying with one company for a long duration, I guess they have to be on the top of their games.

Something nowaday similar to Lyric Opera of Chicago replacing Lily Pons in Lakme with Milanov in Aida at the last minute due to illness or the Met substituting Bergonzi for Corelli, is just unheard of.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

> Pappano said the rare revival of a Meyerbeer opera, which took Paris and Europe by storm in 1831, was postponed for a year so the Peruvian star, Juan Diego Flórez, could sing the role - but he then told Pappano it wasn't right for his voice to expand into a "heavier" repertoire.
> 
> Pappano then cast the American Bryan Hymel - who went straight from Covent Garden to make his debut with the Met in New York at two days' notice when their star pulled out - and the German soprano Diana Damrau. She became pregnant, and the next one was the American soprano Jennifer Rowley. Within a week of the first night, she was dropped: Pappano said he personally auditioned her and was confident she was right for the role, but as rehearsals progressed there was mutual agreement that she wouldn't make it. "It wasn't good enough," he said. "It wasn't good enough for Covent Garden." The part was finally sung by Patrizia Ciofi.


I don't think any of these reasons are whimsical. Singers have to think about their health and life outside of the opera house as well.

as for Robert le diable, it's a bit of a turkey but it's far from a crap opera. Quite representative for its time and it'd got a pretty badass bass part, which is always a good thing.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

suteetat said:


> May be because things are now planned so many years in advance that some singers may find roles that seemed to make sense for them at the time of planning does not seem quite as agreeable to them 5 years later?
> 
> Singers are now also under greater pressure, globe trotting from one engagement to another rather than staying with one company for a long duration, I guess they have to be on the top of their games.
> 
> Something nowaday similar to Lyric Opera of Chicago replacing Lily Pons in Lakme with Milanov in Aida at the last minute due to illness or the Met substituting Bergonzi for Corelli, is just unheard of.


It may even be that 5 years in advance, a singer may book a role not based on where the voice is now but for the way it is expected to develop, based on an educated guess at best. Part of what keeps great singers great is knowing which roles to take on and which to avoid.

I think Pappano is just making excuses here for a troubled production. And this is not a "generational" thing. Maybe Domingo was a rock, but Pavarotti was notorious for his cancellations. We were deprived of JDF's Almaviva here in Chicago a few years ago because of the "fishbone" incident, but it's hard to blame him for that. As someone partially responsible for the care and feeding of a singer, I have an idea of the lengths they go to and sacrifices they make to stay in singing shape.

And FWIW, I seem to recall Pappano himself pulled out of a Chicago Symphony concert several years ago and we were left with a substitute. Let he who is without sin...

I did experience a rare modern day upgrade in the Met's 2008 Tristan and Isolde when they flew in Waltraud Meier to cover for an ailing Katerina Dalayman on a day's notice. But I suspect Daniel Barenboim was behind that.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

As well as the travel, the physical demands on today's singers are much greater than in the past. Just look at Netrebko leaping around the stage in Willy Decker's production of La Traviata.


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

KenOC said:


> http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/mar/13/royal-opera-antonio-pappano-young-stars


ugly productions are to blame for this, they discourage anyone.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

suteetat said:


> Something nowaday similar to Lyric Opera of Chicago replacing Lily Pons in Lakme with Milanov in Aida at the last minute due to illness or the Met substituting Bergonzi for Corelli, is just unheard of.


Yeah, it's not like Jonas Kaufmann einsprang for an ailing Piotr Beczala in last year's Boheme in Salzburg ...

As for the Meyerbeer; nobody is going to say that ZOMG THIS IS THE BEST OPERA EVER WRITTEN, but Meyerbeer is nevertheless an important composer, and so his works do demand some attention.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Here's a new Guardian story on Antonio Pappano's vent:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/16/debate-opera-singers-wrong-attitude


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Peter Conrad said:


> *Many singers* who produce doctors' notes get into trouble because they *sing too much*, or have eagerly offered to take on lucrative roles for which they don't have the physical means. So what lies behind the cancellations is a reckless, impatient ambition that is self-destructive.


there's no winning!

to be fair, there is some truth to the cult of celebrity singer.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Peter Conrad said:


> I remember when great singers felt obliged to justify their reputations at every performance and made it a point of pride not to disappoint the customers, whether or not they had good reason. *In 1974 Birgit Nilsson sang Götterdämmerung at the Met with her arm in a sling and a dislocated shoulder after she'd fallen into a hole on the stage.* A few years later on New Year's Eve, unable to fly from Stockholm because of thick fog, she honoured a contract to appear as a guest in a gala at Covent Garden by taking a train to the south of Sweden, crossing to Denmark by ferry, and catching a plane from Copenhagen - *a journey of about 12 hours, in order to sing for 10 minutes!* What happened to that work ethic and that sense of responsibility?


you must be sadistic to expect your favourite singer to put up with that. It's opera, not a 19th century coal mine.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

deggial said:


> you must be sadistic to expect your favourite singer to put up with that. It's opera, not a 19th century coal mine.


Well, some do. Joyce DiDonato finished her Barbiere after breaking her leg and continued the run in a wheelchair.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ not a coal mine, then - more like the paralympics!


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

deggial said:


> there's no winning!
> 
> to be fair, there is some truth to the cult of celebrity singer.


I would have quoted the same bit you did. In one breath he berates singers for not singing enough and the next for singing too much. Sounds like this Conrad person has found saying slightly naughty things on the internet more lucrative than his career as a literary academic. He is so far out of bounds that by backing Pappano's statements, he only makes the conductor sound even more baseless and truculent.

That Conrad considers himself "defrauded" if his favored singer is ill shows that he is an active, hypocritical agent of the cult of the celebrity singer. And that singers can only "come out" regarding vocal difficulties or, god forbid vocal surgery, years after the fact (if at all) for fear of being percieved by audiences, and therefore casting producers, as "damaged goods" gives a good idea where the true capriciousness lies.

I should also mention that Sandra Radvanovsky did her 2009 Ernani run here with a cast on one leg (mostly hidden by the period costumes) and a broken toe on the other.


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## suteetat (Feb 25, 2013)

deggial said:


> Quote Originally Posted by Peter Conrad, writer and critic
> Many singers who produce doctors' notes get into trouble because they sing too much, or have eagerly offered to take on lucrative roles for which they don't have the physical means. So what lies behind the cancellations is a reckless, impatient ambition that is self-destructive.
> 
> .


Throughout history of opera, there are plenty of examples of singers in the past who sang too much, burned out their voices and their career ended well before they should. It is not a new phenomena by all means. Anita Cerquetti, Elena Souliotis come to mind from the good old time.

Leontyne Price also had her handful at attempting La Fanciulla del West. I think this has been chronic problem for opera singers throughout the ages.


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