Metropolitan Opera HD Broadcast
Tosca: Patricia Racette
Cavaradossi: Roberto Alagna
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Il Trittico
This afternoon, I attended a couple of firsts: my first performance of Puccini's Il Trittico, and my first performance at the Castleton Music Festival. Both were great - and notwithstanding the 90+ degree temperature outside, we stayed absolutely comfortable in the festival tent as our seats were as close as you could get to the A/C vents.
I wasn't familiar with any of the music from these operas, with of course the exception of "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi (which by the way the soprano Joyce El-Khourey performed with perfect girlishness yet perfect polish). The order of these three operas today: Il Tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, and Suor Angelica. I don't know if this is the usual order, but I thought it worked well today, to have the lighter-hearted Schicchi sandwiched between the two tragedies, with the more powerful drama with the more powerful soprano coming last.
Yes, Angelica - herself - was superb. Both Rebekah Camm's dramatic instincts and her vocal agility was on display. She convincingly played her character - a mother-turned-nun as punishment for circumstances that are never completely revealed, and who appears to have grown to accept and is at peace with her fate, until learning that her son has died, at which point she feels the unbearable pain that only a mother who has buried her own child knows. Camm delivered the emotion and passion in this character, with great vocal power and range, and reminded me of just how good opera can be, and how the combination of drama and song can transcend what either can deliver on its own. Angelica's aunt was a bit less compelling, and unfortunately, some of the other sisters even more so. Still, since Angelica is after all the story of the title character, Camm's excellent performance more than offset the lackluster ones of her colleagues.
Gianni Schicchi was also done well.
I wasn't familiar with any of the music from these operas, with of course the exception of "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi (which by the way the soprano Joyce El-Khourey performed with perfect girlishness yet perfect polish). The order of these three operas today: Il Tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, and Suor Angelica. I don't know if this is the usual order, but I thought it worked well today, to have the lighter-hearted Schicchi sandwiched between the two tragedies, with the more powerful drama with the more powerful soprano coming last.
Yes, Angelica - herself - was superb. Both Rebekah Camm's dramatic instincts and her vocal agility was on display. She convincingly played her character - a mother-turned-nun as punishment for circumstances that are never completely revealed, and who appears to have grown to accept and is at peace with her fate, until learning that her son has died, at which point she feels the unbearable pain that only a mother who has buried her own child knows. Camm delivered the emotion and passion in this character, with great vocal power and range, and reminded me of just how good opera can be, and how the combination of drama and song can transcend what either can deliver on its own. Angelica's aunt was a bit less compelling, and unfortunately, some of the other sisters even more so. Still, since Angelica is after all the story of the title character, Camm's excellent performance more than offset the lackluster ones of her colleagues.
Gianni Schicchi was also done well.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Der Rosenkavalier
Last Wednesday night, I attended my second experience of the Met's HD broadcasts in movie theaters - this was of Der Rosenkavalier. The cast featured Renée Fleming as the Marschallin, Susan Graham as Octavian, and Christine Schäfer as Sophie. (Who cares who the men were!) I own two recordings of the opera (Schwarzkopf-Ludwig-Stich Randall, Te Kanawa-Von Otter-Hendricks), and have seen a live performance at the Met before, but I'll admit that I have generally experienced these more out of an effort to learn more about what all the fuss is about this opera, than for my actual fondness of the music. To be sure, I've found much of the singing in the high points of the opera - the Presentation of the Rose, and the final trio - beautiful, but the underlying orchestration even in those moments has sounded atonal and confusing to me. As a result, I haven't explored a lot of other Strauss, finding myself relatively unmoved by a Met performance of Arabella years ago (even with Te Kanawa playing the title role), and finding only Zerbinetta's aria of interest in Ariadne.
Sitting through the entire HD broadcast of the opera, I have changed my tune a bit on this warhorse. Yes, the whole situation with Baron von Ochs still seems, well, a bit operatic, and un-innovative - must all comedic opera involve shenanigans and trickeries in love? But the Marschallin in particular came alive to me in this performance - complete with genuine tears flowing down Fleming's face in Act I when she portray the moody realization of her character that seems to begin to unveil a deeper and meaning of opera. I also hadn't focused on the details of the Marschallin's text before - for example, I hadn't notice the pivotal point of the Marschallin announcing to her hairdresser that he has made her look old. Seeing the opera in the film format - with the ability to see emotions that would be lost to the viewer in Family Circle, and to read easily the translation - gave me a better understanding of the characters in this opera, which gave me a better understanding of the score. Against the backdrop of deeper layers within the opera, the confusing, non-melodic sounds of the orchestra underneath the beautiful singing seem to make sense by reinforcing the emotional disharmony that the characters experience in the opera. That Sophie first hits one of the highest (perhaps the highest) note in the exquisite final trio, and then hands it off to the Marschallin, who then outlasts the other two women vocally in the trio, seems to underscore her maturity, and related greater comprehension of the emotional events as they have unfolded in the opera.
I have a hunch that I have a very Octavian understanding of this opera. With additional listening, I hope to arrive at a more Marschallin-esque one.
Sitting through the entire HD broadcast of the opera, I have changed my tune a bit on this warhorse. Yes, the whole situation with Baron von Ochs still seems, well, a bit operatic, and un-innovative - must all comedic opera involve shenanigans and trickeries in love? But the Marschallin in particular came alive to me in this performance - complete with genuine tears flowing down Fleming's face in Act I when she portray the moody realization of her character that seems to begin to unveil a deeper and meaning of opera. I also hadn't focused on the details of the Marschallin's text before - for example, I hadn't notice the pivotal point of the Marschallin announcing to her hairdresser that he has made her look old. Seeing the opera in the film format - with the ability to see emotions that would be lost to the viewer in Family Circle, and to read easily the translation - gave me a better understanding of the characters in this opera, which gave me a better understanding of the score. Against the backdrop of deeper layers within the opera, the confusing, non-melodic sounds of the orchestra underneath the beautiful singing seem to make sense by reinforcing the emotional disharmony that the characters experience in the opera. That Sophie first hits one of the highest (perhaps the highest) note in the exquisite final trio, and then hands it off to the Marschallin, who then outlasts the other two women vocally in the trio, seems to underscore her maturity, and related greater comprehension of the emotional events as they have unfolded in the opera.
I have a hunch that I have a very Octavian understanding of this opera. With additional listening, I hope to arrive at a more Marschallin-esque one.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Turandot (Washington National Opera)
On Saturday, May 16, my partner, a friend, and I attended the Washington National Opera's production of Turandot. After disappointments with Peter Grimes and Siegfried, I was excited to see something I thought all of us might like, especially with the likes of Maria Guleghina playing the title role. WNO and its cast generally delivered, with Turandot and Liu being exceptionally strongly cast; Calaf was the sole standout in a negative way, in that the tenor had a small voice that was often inaudible over the orchestra, and adjacent next to the ferocious soprano of Guleghina. The set design had dark Asian features, save for the red streamers falling from decapitated heads to mimic blood; this set was far more minimalist than the Franco Zefferelli production I saw at the Met more than a decade ago. All in all, it was a satisfying performance, and a good ending to WNO's 2008-09 season, especially given my disappointments with the two preceding operas on the company's calendar.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Ewa Podles
On Sunday evening, October 19, I attended a magical concert given by Ewa Podles (sorry, I can't get my keyboard to make the accent above the final "s" in her name) in Baltimore, on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. My partner and I bought tickets to the concert at his suggestion - a rarity for us, as I'm usually the proponent for "classical" events - but he is mesmerized by her album featuring Handel pieces, as am I. Given our fondness for that album - and baroque music generally - we were somewhat (OK, extremely) disappointed to learn a day or two in advance that Ewa was performing Russian repertoire. Not exactly Handel, to say the least. But I went in with an open mind, and left with not one, but two albums of hers featuring the Chopin and Mussorgsky pieces she had sung that evening, and was disappointed that she didn't have a third album available with the Tchaikovsky pieces. Contrary to what the Washington Post critic Anne Midgette said in her review, Ewa's voice is beautiful, and her acting and stage presence is not at all overdone - they are expressive in an authetic, organic sort of way, and made me yearn to see her operatic performances. I strongly, strongly (did I say strongly?) recommend her recordings of Russian arias - listen, and you'll see what I mean.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Washington National Opera)
Last Thursday, I went to my second opera of WNO's season, and saw Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles. I knew almost nothing about the opera, other than passing familiarity with the famous duet between the men, Au fond de temple saint, in the first act. I purposely didn't learn anything about the opera before going in order to allow myself to experience the performance without any pre-conceived notions - whether about the story, the sets, or the singers. Since I'm not the biggest fan of Carmen, however, I didn't have the highest hopes for this more obscure Bizet opera.
I was pleasantly surprised. First off, the visuals were quite often attractive. British designer Zandra Rhodes' costumes and sets grabbed my attention with their hues of pastel jewel tones (if that makes sense), like robin's egg blue, strawberry milkshake pink, light orange, and the like. She offered an interesting juxtaposition of what appeared to be traditional Asian-island looking garb, and modern prints. The sets were semi-abstract; for example, palm trees with riotous color and figurative images in the leaves featured in some of the sets. And to the gay men who saw the performance (such as my friend and me), the many men parading around shirtless weren't hard on the eyes either. Most of them were dancers, but my friend and I also agreed that the tenor, Charles Castronovo, qualified not just as an opera hunk, but as a hunk hunk. (With all due respect, most opera singers are not models of physical fitness.)
The singing was also lovely. Charles' voice didn't disappoint, and neither did the soprano's, Norah Amsellen. I noticed her French diction was particularly good, and then learned why on my Metro ride home: she is French. The baritone's voice was not bad either, although this vocal part rarely moves me, except in a particularly compelling Mozartian role, such as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro. All in all, although I'm a soprano guy, I found Nadir's aria Je crois entendre encore the most memorable of the evening - it was sung expressively, and with Nadir on a dark stage, against a background of stars and occasional, spotlighted glimpses of Leila. At times, it was hauntingly beautiful.
The plot is a bit contrived and fanciful - in a word, a bit operatic. Things could be worse for an opera.
I'm looking forward to my next WNO experience: Lucrezia Borgia. My friend and I are holding tickets to one of the Renée Fleming performances. I'm intrigued to see this performance, since I'm generally a fan of Fleming's, and Donizetti's operas - although I've never experienced the two together, either in a live or recorded performance. Here's hoping it's worth the wait.
I was pleasantly surprised. First off, the visuals were quite often attractive. British designer Zandra Rhodes' costumes and sets grabbed my attention with their hues of pastel jewel tones (if that makes sense), like robin's egg blue, strawberry milkshake pink, light orange, and the like. She offered an interesting juxtaposition of what appeared to be traditional Asian-island looking garb, and modern prints. The sets were semi-abstract; for example, palm trees with riotous color and figurative images in the leaves featured in some of the sets. And to the gay men who saw the performance (such as my friend and me), the many men parading around shirtless weren't hard on the eyes either. Most of them were dancers, but my friend and I also agreed that the tenor, Charles Castronovo, qualified not just as an opera hunk, but as a hunk hunk. (With all due respect, most opera singers are not models of physical fitness.)
The singing was also lovely. Charles' voice didn't disappoint, and neither did the soprano's, Norah Amsellen. I noticed her French diction was particularly good, and then learned why on my Metro ride home: she is French. The baritone's voice was not bad either, although this vocal part rarely moves me, except in a particularly compelling Mozartian role, such as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro. All in all, although I'm a soprano guy, I found Nadir's aria Je crois entendre encore the most memorable of the evening - it was sung expressively, and with Nadir on a dark stage, against a background of stars and occasional, spotlighted glimpses of Leila. At times, it was hauntingly beautiful.
The plot is a bit contrived and fanciful - in a word, a bit operatic. Things could be worse for an opera.
I'm looking forward to my next WNO experience: Lucrezia Borgia. My friend and I are holding tickets to one of the Renée Fleming performances. I'm intrigued to see this performance, since I'm generally a fan of Fleming's, and Donizetti's operas - although I've never experienced the two together, either in a live or recorded performance. Here's hoping it's worth the wait.
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