Superconductor

DVD Review: Guglielmo Tell at La Scala

2010-01-06T11:14:00.002-05:00

Riccardo Muti checks his hair.

This is the only DVD performance available of Rossini's final opera. Today, Tell is better known for its overture than the work itself, which was one of the most important grand operas of the 19th century and the final stage work by Giacchino Rossini. This is a magnificent score, with Rossini at the height of his powers, presented here by an excellent conductor with absolute respect for the composer's written notes. That said, the results are entirely mixed.

To start with, it's in Italian. Rossini intended for his opera to be sung in French, and while the transliteration from Guillaume to Guglielmo is an acceptable one, the opera works better in its original language. (Compare it to this superb French recording conducted by Lamberto Gardelli and then let me know what you think.) The three leads are acceptable, but not great. (For "great", pick up the Chailly recording with Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballé in the lead roles.) Chris Merritt's high-range tenor passes the vocal torture test that is the part of Arnold. He has a slight metallic bite to his voice, but he shines in the big Act II duet. Cheryl Studer, then in her brief prime, sings well as Mathilde but lacks emotional warmth. Giorgio Zancanarai is a solid Tell, tender and militant at the same time. In the treacherous "Resta immobile" Zancanari slips easily into the high tessitura and does not miss a single note.

The team of director Luca Ronconi and designer Gianni Quaranta opted to place the action in front of huge projection-screen televisions, that are used to place the actors against lakes, rivers, forests and even a huge medieval church. However, this method serves to neutralize the acting space. Singers are confined to wooden pews in the opening scene. An enormous robotic tree rises out of the stage in Act II, unfolding like Fafner the dragon. The church scene looks like Cheryl Studer and Chris Merritt are warbling in a movie theater. The finale jumps the shark completely, when the Swiss scenery is replaced by shots of conductor Riccardo Mutii toiling in the orchestra pit. We waited four hours, just to look at the conductor?

Don't believe me? Watch the finale here.

With its killer tenor role, long part for soprano and heroic baritone lead, the story of the legendary Swiss revolutionary leader is almost impossible to put on the stage today.And as this DVD shows, it was damn near impossible twenty years ago. Singers who can handle Arnold's Act IV cabaletta are few and far between. Mathilde isn't an easy sing either. It's a miracle that we have any performances of this opera at all, so this La Scala production (filmed in 1988) despite its flaws, will have to do.

Opera Review: Turandot at the Met

2010-01-05T12:45:00.003-05:00

Final Jeopardy: Maria Guleghina and Marcello Giordani in Turandot

The Metropolitan Opera's 1987 Franco Zeffirelli production of Turandot is one of the company's "big shows" with 286 people onstage and cruel demands on the singers. Zeffirelli's visions of ancient China include moving, shimmering golden sets, palaces rising on elevators and even a fake lake in the palace. It gets more complicated when you add all the "Zeffirelli extras": a chorus of little bald monks, a dancing dragon, kow-towing palace slave-girls and a beefcake executioner armed with a really big sword. But for once, it didn't look like a traffic jam in downtown Peking. After Monday night's performance, this Turandot is back in a big way, with a good singing cast and choreographed crowd control.

On a good night, Turandot is a competition between the three leads to steal the show. Last night, the clear winner was Maija Kovalevska as the suicidal slave-girl, Líu. This was a heart-rending (and potentially, star-making) performance, enough even to melt the frozen heart of a Chinese princess or any opera critic. She sang a beautiful, moving "Signor, ascolta" (complete with traditonal sobs at the end) and nailed the two Act III arias that make up her torture scenes.

Salvatore Licetra had a reasonable outing as Calaf. He has a pleasing ring of metal in his voice that enables him to (usually) get over the chorus and thundering orchestra. But he pulled sharp in his "Nessun Dorma" and failed to bring down the house with that most famous aria. By contrast, Maria Guleghina sang a strong "In Questa Reggia" but suffered from a wide (but not wobbling) vibrato in the Riddle Scene.

Guleghina was better in the third act, especially in the music written (by the composer Francisco Alfano) to complete the opera after Puccini's death. It didn't quite live up to Puccini's last written instruction ("Then, Tristan!") but this was an impressive performance of the opera's weakest section. Guleghina may not be a perfect Turandot, (there's been no such thing since Nilsson retired) but she convinced the audience that the ice princess has melted into a real flesh-and-blood woman, deeply in love with her prince. This is a near-impossible task (made more challenging by Puccini's death) and Guleghina pulled it off.

The real star of any Turandot is the orchestra and chorus, providing the mystique and the voice of legendary China, and a Mussorgsky-like commentary on the action. This is a big public opera with lots of difficult choral music and pseudo-Asian polyrhythms. Conductor Andris Nelsons led a nuanced, fairly slow performance, giving the singers room to breathe and drawing out hidden detail in Puccini's complicated score. The opening of Act II (the "Ping, Pang and Pong" scene) was especially beautiful, as Nelsons let the orchestra linger over the most sentimental moments. In the third act, the decision to move the offstage "palace brass" to the Family Circle boxes (instead of in the lighting bay above the auditorium) resulted in a sonic improvement.

Photo © 2009 Marty Sohl/The Metropolitan Opera

Domingo and Fanciulla

2010-01-05T09:07:00.002-05:00

A reader submitted this interesting link to YouTube which has clips of Placido Domingo singing La Fanciulla del West and interview footage. Enjoy.

DVD Review: La Fanciulla del West at La Scala

2010-01-04T16:05:00.012-05:00

And here's a nice photograph of La Scala

This DVD preserves a 1991 Jonathan Miller production of Puccini's "spaghetti Western," filmed at the venerable Milan opera house. Fanciulla was composed for the Met, and its libretto, with cries of "Wisky per tutti" still sound a little odd to American ears. But this simple, effective Jonathan Miller staging works well. This DVD provides a good argument for the elevation of Puccini's Western opera into the regular repertory--if one can still find the voices to sing it.

Placido Domingo's performance as Dick Johnson is everything a gentleman bandit should be: handsome, dashing, and equipped with a ringing tenor voice. This is Puccini's most technically difficult music for the male voice and Domingo sings with flair. He is tender in the love duets, and rises to the next energy level when his identity as the dastardly (but also dashing) bandit Ramerrez (sic) is revealed. Guess "Dick Johnson" is not the most convincing alias.

Maria Zampieri is not the most beautifully sung Minnie on record, but she has all the vocal strength that this role requires, and a rough-and-tumble demeanor that suits this frontier opera well. Her laser-beam soprano slices through the thick orchestral fabric, and she acts well in a physically demanding role. Finally she is convincing in her love scenes with Domingo, tentative at first and then blossoming into glorious vocal womanhood. And yes, she hits that pesky high B-flat in the second act.

Juan Pons is also a success as Jack Rance. Although the Spanish baritone is an experienced Scarpia, he knows the difference between Rance and the Tosca police chief. Rance is a much warmer role, a complex, honorable man whose genuine love for Minnie (and inabiity to catch her cheating at cards) gets in the way of doing his job. He treats the Sherrif position as an unpleasant, thankless task that sets him apart from the mining community. The Act II card-playing scene is harrowing with expert musical direction and the two singers glaring over their cards as conductor Lorin Maazel tightens the orchestral screws.

The opera's staggering list of comprimario roles (fifteen of them for men) are handled with skill by the La Scala cast. Lorin Maazel conducts a generally slow performance throughout that exposes some of the beauties and nuances of this neglected score, but lacks momentum and forward thrust.

Opera Review: Elektra at the Met

2009-12-30T11:25:00.004-05:00

Susan Bullock as Elektra, onstage at Covent Garden

The Metropolitan Opera's final 2009 performance of Richard Strauss' Elektra was an unequivocal success. Anchored by the twin leads of Susan Bullock and Deborah Voigt, this was a well-acted, faithful rendition of Strauss' most experimental opera. Despite the overall quality of the evening, it must be noted that this odd holiday run of a blood-spattered Greek tragedy was brought on as a last-minute "budget" replacement for the Met's more expensive Herbert Wernicke staging of Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Such is life in a recession.

Some Elektras are leather-lunged belters, trying their best to live up to the opera's reputation for hysterical screaming. Susan Bullock is a more delicate artist. She packed plenty of punch in her upper register, actually sang the notes and did not wobble on the big cries of "Ag-ga-memnon!" She is also a very physical princess, scuttling about the stage, looming over her mother in their big confrontation scene, and finally dying in a paroxysm of joy after the murders have been committed. Her best scene was when she lured Aegisth (Wolfgang Schmidt) into the palace, in a moment that was both repellent and seductive.

The opera really flies when Bullock shares the stage with the phenomental Deborah Voigt, who was simply off the chart as Chrysothemis, Elektra's equally neurotic sister. The best scenes of the evening were the two duets, when Elektra tried to convince her sister that she must help murder their mother and stepfather. Chrysothemis has the most beautiful, tender moments in the opera, and Voigt made them shine with her strong, flexible instrument.

Felicity Palmer gave a harrowing performance as Klytämnestra, singing the atonal nightmare sequence with accuracy and ease. She made the Queen intimidating and pathetic at the same time, capturing the full measure of this complex character. As her paramour, faded heldentenor Wolfgang Schmidt was an excellent choice. His harsh, metallic tone and pain-inducing "Bayreuth bark" are actually well suited to the role of the cowardly Aegisth. Evgeny Nikitin is a compelling Orest, almost Wotan-like in his long Recognition Scene with Elektra. Otto Schenk's sturdy production (which looks like an earthquake hit the House of Atreus) still serves well.

In his Ten Golden Rules, Strauss recommends that one should "conduct Salome and Elektra as if they were by Mendelssohn: faerie music." This approach describes the podium leadership of Fabio Luisi, who produced effervescent waves of strings and hypnotic woodwind textures, shot through with heavy slabs of brass and timpani that evoke the mythic stones of the house of Aggamemnon. This was a brilliant performance from the Italian conductor, always maintaining a consistent momentum and carefully balancing the gigantic orchestra with the singers onstage.

Photo © 2008 Royal Opera House at Covent Garden

And now our guest columnist: Richard Strauss!

2009-12-30T10:46:00.001-05:00

Richard Strauss on the podium

The son of an acclaimed horn player, Strauss was a famous conductor as well as a composer, leading his own works and acclaimed performances of Wagner, Mozart and many others. He had a short baton, a small beat, a professional attitude, and a razor-sharp wit. (If you don't believe me, watch this footage of Dr. Strauss conducting a rehearsal of Der Rosenkavalier.) With that in mind, we present his

Ten Golden Rules For the Album of a Young Conductor

Remember that you are making music not to amuse yourself, but to delight your audience.
You should not perspire when conducting. Only the audience should get warm.
Conduct Salome and Elektra as if they were by Mendelssohn: Faerie music.
Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a brief glance to give an important cue.
But never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight. If you can hear them at all, they are still too strong.
If you think that the brass is now blowing hard enough, tone it down another shade or two.
It is not enough that you yourself should hear every word the soloist sings. You should know it by heart anyway. The audience must be able to follow without effort. If they do not understand the words, they will go to sleep.
Always accompany the singer in such a way that he can sing without effort.
When you think you have reached the limits of prestissimo, double the pace.
If you follow these rules carefully, you will, with your fine gifts and your great accomplishments, always be the darling of your listeners.

Opera Review: The Met's Tosca Telecast

2009-12-20T17:39:00.000-05:00

Lost in the murk: Mattila and Álvarez in Tosca

I finally saw the telecast of the new Met production of Tosca. It's a disaster.

This ugly, gray staging looks it takes place in the South Bronx in 1979. Every building, every structure is made of drab tenement brick. Worse yet, each act is undermined by stage-y "ideas" that detract from Puccini's work. Director Luc Bondy is interested in playing with the opera's religious imagery, but his choices are ham-handed. Instead of jumping from the Castel di Sant'Angelo this production repeatedly jumps the shark, at least once at the end of each act.

In Act One, Scarpia (Carlo Guelfi) demonstrates his lust for Tosca (Karita Mattila) by molesting the statues during the "Te Deum." This recalls another famous fictional cop: Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) in The Naked Gun. It undermines the very menace of Scarpia himself, the mix of barbaric and suave is replaced with a gibbering fetishist who should be thrown head-first through the (still-closed) church doors.

The climax of Act Two, where Tosca kills Scarpia (also clumsily done) has very specific stage directions that originate in the Sardou play which gave Puccini his source material. She is supposed to lay out the body, put the cross over him, place the candles on either side and pray. But no, that's not what she does here. In Bondy's version, Tosca pauses in the window as if she is about to leap to her death an hour early. While this would have spared us the torture of watching the end of Act Three, this is not what the libretto calls for.

Act Three takes place mostly on a dark set with a brick tower. Since the actors are mostly in black or navy, it is impossible to see them through the murk. Cavaradossi is executed (standing in a corner no less!) at the back of the stage--the muzzle fire providing the act with its sole bright spark. Worst of all is the final leap, where Karita Mattila jumps off the tower and is held, in space by some kind of suspension rig, floating in the air as the curtain drops. Was the Met unable to buy mattresses? Crash pads? Trampolines?

The singing is adequate. Argentinian tenor Marcelo Álvarez is a personable Cavaradossi doing his best to make a mark through the gloom. Carlo Guelfi is an adequate Scarpia though what you really remember is his ridiculous play-acting. Karita Mattila is completely mis-cast in the title role. Her cool, icy demeanor lacks tthat flash of sexuality reined in by strict, Catholic religiosity that burns at the very heart of this opera. Tellingly, the telecast cut off just before the director took the stage and faced the wrath of the Metropolitan Opera audience.

Opera Review: Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Met

2009-12-09T11:27:00.003-05:00

The winter snowscape from Act II of Hoffmann. Robert Wilson would love it.

Veteran director Bart Sher has delivered again with this imaginative, outside-the-box staging of Offenbach's final opera, presenting this convoluted work with fresh dramatic insight. He is aided by a strong cast with three seperate female leads and a superb performance by tenor Joseph Calleja in the demanding title role.

Bart Sher approaches Hoffmann's stories as a series of surreal fever-dreams. Even the events in Luther's tavern that frame the action are a little unearthly. Spalanzani's toyshop (birthplace of the doll Olympia) is now a production-line facility for anonymous men to buy their own personal female playthings, a kind of cybernetic prostitution that recalls the film Blade Runner. Antonia's house is a wintry landscape with a piano and sheet music strewn across the stage. And the Giulietta act is set in a fever-dream Venetian bordello with an orgy/ballet worthy of Tannhaüser.

Calleja has a pleasing tenor voice, ideally suited for the lyric expanses of Offenbach's score. However he would have been better served if James Levine had slowed down during the prologue, and allowed the opera's lyric, eldritch power to bloom. Kate Lindsey made the Muse the opera's true leading lady, switching genders with ease and working against Hoffmann and his romantic designs throughout the evening. Mention must also be made of character tenor Alan Oke, who made the most of his four roles. The short little aria for Franz is often cut from the score. It was a highlight of this performance.

In this version, the Muse and the Four Villains are in cahoots, stacking the deck to to keep Hoffmann on the straight-and-narrow creative path. Alan Held was the living quadruple embodiment of evil, using his smooth, rich bass-baritone to good effect. Yes, he victimizes Hoffmann repeatedly, breaking Olympia, killing Antonia, and arranging for Giulietta to capture the poet's reflection in a mirror. But how can you hate a bad guy who can sing "Scintille, diamant" so beautifully?

Kathleen Kim gave a star-making performance as the doll Olympia, combining broad physical comedy with a tremendous coloratura technique, managing the tricky pin-point notes with a few "mechanical" effects. Anna Netrebko was everything an Antonia should be--sad, doomed, and beautiful. Wendy White made a surprise appearance as Antonia's mother and it was a pleasure to hear these great voices together. Ekaterina Gubanova was a sensuous, thoroughly corrupt Giulietta.

Left unfinished at Offenbach's death. there are myriad versions of Hoffmann to choose from. When the opera premiered, the Antonia act was placed last, allowing the diva to end the work with a glorious death scene. However, this renders the Giulietta act, with its corruption and descent into depravity nonsensical. Levine and Bart Sher opted to place Antonia in the middle of the opera (where she belongs) and omitted much of the extra music (including Giulietta's suicide) from the Venetian act. In this version the finale was staged as a confrontation and reconciliation between Hoffmann and his muse, bringing the curtain down on the image of the great writer, alone at his desk, and doing what he did best.

Image © 2009, The Metropolitan Opera

The Joys of Operetta

2009-11-25T09:06:00.002-05:00

Because we all need a laugh on Thanksgiving weekend (and the Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody is everywhere), we present:

Gilbert and Sullivan's "Baby Got Back."

Opera Review: Don Giovanni at New York City Opera

2009-11-22T10:53:00.004-05:00

Just do what the sign says.

The renaissance at City Opera continues with this superb new Christopher Alden staging of Don Giovanni, a bold, dramatic interpretation that re-imagines Mozart's dramma giocoso as a meditation on life and death which takes place entirely in one room, possibly during the funeral service for the Commendatore.

By putting all the actors onstage during the overture, the director forces the audience to "play detective" and figure out who everybody is as the drama develops. But there was no missing the excellent assembly of voices present on the stage of the David I. Koch Theater on Friday night.

Daniel Okulitch and Jason Hardy have pleasing baritone voices, and they both carry off the sexual, physical nature of this staging. In fact, the two singers brought an erotic charge to the interactions of the Don and his servant Leporello. The jealous tension between them was played as if the Don's dalliances with thousands of women was merely him "stepping out" on a primary relationship--with his servant.

Stefania Dovhan was just one of the fine young voices who had to fend off the Don. Her Donna Anna is less the frigid avenging angel and more of a three-dimensional woman who knows that she is stuck with Don Ottavio (the pleasing tenor Gregory Turay) but clearly, really wants the man who murdered her father to finish carrying her off. Keri Alkema was a compelling Donna Elvira, playing up the character's religious mania. And Joélle Harvey sang a stunning Zerlina. The most sexual woman in the entire opera, she adroitly balanced her relations with the Don with attempting to appease her jealous, raging husband Masetto (Kelly Markgraf.)

The staging of this opera breaks with convention and tradition. There is no statue. Rather, the Commendatore (bass Brian Kontes) is brought onstage in his coffin, complete with mourners, wreaths and a big neon crucifix. Leporello literally invites the corpse to dinner in the funeral home. The Don dines, carouses, and even fornicates on the dead man's grave. Finally, when the hour of vengeance comes, the good Commendatore rises out of his coffin, takes the Don by his hand, and throws him into the grave.

That's right. There's no statue in this Don Giovanni.

The Commendatore, triumphant over his murderer, remains standing on the stage--like a statue. Meanwhile, Donna Elvira writhes in a religious vision, and Leporello suddenly "gets religion", holding up a prayer book in hopes that he won't be dragged down too. There is no fire, no angels and demons, just the terror of the grave. It's a bold solution to one of the trickiest finales in all of opera,

Opera Review: From the House of the Dead at the Metropolitan Opera

2009-11-17T13:49:00.002-05:00

The cast cleans up the Gulag in Act II
The French director Patrice Chéreau makes his long-awaited Metropolitan Opera debut with this staging of From the House of the Dead, the final opera by Czech composer Leoš Janáček. From the House of the Dead is based on an autobiographical novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It details life in a Siberian gulag, and has an all-male cast. However, this bleak story is set against gorgeous, uplifting music that manages to express the plight of the prisoners and the underlying humanity behind the snow, ice and violence.

The opera opened with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen suddenly popping up in the orchestra pit and bursting into the overture. As the curtains rose quickly, prisoners shuffled around in the dimness, the only light provided by the occasional flare of matches. The lights came up to reveal Richard Peduzzi's set, which consisted of moving, bleak gray walls, placing the prisoners in a bizarre B.F. Skinner box. Invisible doors opened and closed. White surtitles were projected on the blank surfaces, making the prisoners' dialogue appear as strange, authoritarian messages. Walls slid back and forward. Trash dropped out of the ceiling, The curtain dropped down like a guillotine.

Chéreau and Salonen have compressed this three -act opera into one 100-minute span. This intense, cinematic approach to what is already a very short opera has the unfortunate effect of weakening the opera's sense of time-lapse between scenes, and at the same time, exhausting the audience. What keeps the opera moving is Salonen's remarkable performance in the pit, sharply pointing out the spiky folksong melodies, characteristic off-meter rhythm and complex orchestral details.

There are great voices in this cast, soaring above the score like an eagle above the frozen gulag. The cast features baritone Willard White, tenor Stefan Margita, and (in my favorite bit of casting) an appearance by veteran character tenor Heinz Zednik. All are excellent dramatic actors.and the spiky, folksong textures, driving Czech rhythms and unique melodies emerged beautifully under Salonen's baton and compelling acting kept the audience riveted. This is not necessarily a "fun" night at the theater, but it is a compelling one.
Photo © 2009 The Metropolitan Opera

Opera Review: Esther at New York City Opera

2009-11-15T15:57:00.003-05:00

Lauren Flanigan in a scene from Esther

Esther resurrects the New York City Opera in fine style. Lincoln Center's "other" opera company is known for exploring dangerous, "difficult" operas and making them wildly popular with its audience. Hugo Wiesgall's final opera, based on the Biblical story of the brave Queen who saved the Jewish people from slaughter, premiered at the former New York State Theater in 1993 but only ran for a few performances. Here, it returns in triumph, led by the incandescent performance of Lauren Flanigan.

Although the story of Esther is well-known to anyone who has ever celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim, this is ultimately a serious opera which examines the inner lives of these famous figures, and the moral consequences of the story's violent resolution. Esther, herself sold into slavery and married off to the Emperor Xerxes (James Maddalena) saves her people from the machinations of Xerxes' prime minister, the diabolical Haman. Haman, is in turn hung by the neck, along with his ten sons, an image which greets the audience when the curtain rises.

Flanigan's high-wire performance carries the evening, making it seem as if City Opera did not go dark for an entire season. She sings this difficult music with ease, tossing off those high notes with energy and fervor. She delineates the Queen's spiritual crisis and complex personality through excellent acting and a genuine exchange of energy with Xerxes, played by Stephen Kechuius.

Kechulius is the picture of machismo (and kingly indecision) as Xerxes. Roy Cornelius Smith has surprisingly comic moments as the evil, scheming Haman. Most memorable is James Maddalena in the critical role of Esther's uncle Mordecai, lending gravitas to the plight of the Jews. Also, as Vashti (the deposed wife of Xerxes) and Zeresh (the wife of Haman) Beth Clayton and Margaret Thompson share a memorable duet which is a highlight of the score. George Manahan leads his City Opera Orchestra through this complicated score with his customary skill.

Like most operas written in the late 20th century, Esther is influenced by 300 years of musical history that went before it. Weisgall's work has a lyrical flow and memorable music, while still adhering to sophisticated modern techniques. This is in some ways, a post-Romantic work, balancing a serious story with the back-room politicking of Haman and the development of Esther's own relationship with Xerxes. Esther is a major 20th century work, and a fitting choice to re-open this great opera company after a year spent wandering in darkness.
Photo © 1993 New York City Opera/Lauren Flanigan

The Son of the Return of the Revenge of the New York City Opera

2009-11-09T10:19:00.003-05:00

We here at Superconductor would like to take this opportunity to welcome the New York City Opera back among the ranks of functioning and open opera companies.

Based at the David H. Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater) the City Opera is an important company and an important facet in the cultural life of opera-loving New Yorkers. The company, now under the direction of former Dallas Opera main man George Steel is playing a shortened four-opera season in their newly-renovated digs after spending the entire 2008-2009 season in an involuntary exile from Lincoln Center.

The new house (well really the old house) has had a total face-lift, with new seats, improved acoustics, the addition of elevators to the pit, and most importantly, the removal of the noxious amplification system that was put in under the direction of former Director Paul Kellogg. Kellogg had installed the system to cope with the notoriously opera-unfriendly acoustics of the State Theater, a theater that was, from its opening, always better suited to its other tenant, the New York City Ballet.

The fall City Opera schedule featuring a production of Don Giovanni and a revival of Esther, the Biblical opera by Howard Weisgall. Esther is based on the same Biblical story that is celebrated every year at Purim. The opera features NYCO house diva Lauren Flanigan in the title role, an exceptional vocal artist who is reason alone to get tickets. And the tickets are going fast--City Opera just added an extra performance in an effort to meet demand.

Opera Review: Straight Outta Mozart--Der Rosenkavalier

2009-10-21T15:45:00.002-04:00

The Metropolitan Opera's current revival of its 1969 production of Der Rosenkavalier is a spectacular evening of Strauss, more than compensating for the bungled Tosca that hit the headlines at the start of the 2009 season.
Renee Fleming and Susan Graham are reunited as the Marschallin and Octavian, and the role of Sophie is taken by newcomer Maria Persson. They form a capable trio of leads in this gender-hopping opera.

Fleming is grace itself in this role, the latest in a long line of great Marschallins. Susan Graham is all youthful fire and ardor as Octavian, and quite convincing when she switches gender again as the maid Mariendel. All this cross-dressing is part of the appeal of this opera, a light-as-air Viennese masquerade that happens to go on for three and a half hours. Maria Persson's Sophie is a fully formed young lady. Her soprano blends well with the other two leads, and this is a much more capable Sophie than the usual ditzy portrayal of the character.

Rosenkavalier was initially titled Ochs von Lerchenau, and this memorable comic villain was made positively repellent by bass Kristinn Sigmundsson. When my date for the evening declared that she wanted to "go down and punch him out" at the end of the second act, that is precisely the sign of a great Ochs--thoroughly repellent yet comic at the same time. His singing and acting made one regret the conductor's decision to trim the opera, omitting most of the memorable yet thoroughly offensive list of the good Baron's conquests--a 20th century version of Mozart's "Catalogue Song" from Don Giovanni.

The characters of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's libretto are straight out of Mozart--this story could be a sequel of sorts to Le Nozze di Figaro. Dutch conductor Edo de Waart kept that in mind, his performance in the pit was always light, even in the opera's heavy moments--Strauss, after all wrote for an enormous orchestra. He conducted with pointed detail and good humor, lending extra lift to the opera's many waltzed and producing a transcendent shimmering texture in the famous final trio.

Alicia de Larrocha, 1923-2009

2009-09-25T21:30:00.004-04:00

The great Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha died today. She was 86. Ms. de Larrocha was one of the premiere Mozart stylists of the 20th century. She also did much for the piano music of her native Spain, recording major works by Albéniz and Granados, cementing their place in the repertory. While famous for her Mozart and Haydn, she could tackle the big works of Liszt and Rachmaninoff with ease.

Ms. de Larrocha was born in 1923 and made her American recital debut in 1955. She died in a hospital in Barcelona. According to family friend Gregor Benko, her health had been declining since she suffered a broken hip two years ago.

On a personal note, I had the privilege of seeing Ms de Larrocha play in a concert performance at Carnegie Hall, about ten years ago. A diminutive woman, (she stood only 4'9") she was a formidable musical presence, whose liquid legato and precise phrasing infused joy into all of her performances. Over the course of her long career (she made her concert debut at 5 and her first Chopin recordings at the age of 9), she was a beacon of elegance and refinement in the often showy, male-dominated world of concert pianism.

Concert Review: Alan Gilbert conducts Mahler's Third

2009-09-23T10:35:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday night, freshly minted New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert led his forces in a sweeping performance of Gustav Mahler's mammoth Third Symphony. It was the orchestra's new leadership meeting its old, as Mahler ranks among the most famous music directors in the long history of the Philharmonic.

Despite its enormous size, the Third is an accessible Mahler symphony, setting aside the nightmares and religious ecstasy for a stately contemplation of nature, from the thunderous, primal birth of life to the heavenly realms and the mind of God. It is a dizzying ride, and Mr. Gilbert led his gigantic orchestra, double chorus, offstage musicians and mezzo-soprano, all without the benefit of a written score.

Judging from his podium performance on Tuesday night, Mr. Gilbert is an inspired technical conductor with an ear for the subtle textures that are often lost in the huge, blaring pages of the first movement. At thirty minutes, this is music for giants. It stops and starts, alternating enormous fanfares with huge slabs of chords and mysterious mutterings in the double basses and bass drums. Mahler's music evokes the mountains bursting forth from the earth, the awakening of the god Pan, and the swinging, brassy arrival of spring as the orchestra transforms not a gigantic marching band.

The remaining five movements of the symphony are on a smaller scale. Mr. Gilbert brought out in the delicate floral textures of the second movement, and the cavorting, parading beasts (complete with a trumpet solo played from the back of Avery Fisher Hall) in the third. Mezzo-soprano Petra Lang lent a mysterious gravity to the sung fourth movement, which fuses the primal rumblings of the first with a setting of Nietzsche. The fifth and sixth movements followed without pause, a choral setting of one of the Wunderhorn songs and a final cosmic movement dominated by the strings and brass..

The hiring of the 42-year old Mr. Gilbert represents a new start . He is a native New Yorker--the first to hold this post. He is the son of two Philharmonic musicians, and his mother, Yoko Takebe, still holds a chair in the violin section. (His father, also a Philharmonic violinist, is retired.) Finally, he is a gifted conductor with a bent for fearlessly programming new music. If Tuesday night's Mahler performance was any indication, the oldest orchestra in North America will be in good hands for many years to come.
Alan Gilbert on the podium. Photo by Chris Lee.

CD Review--Sack Time: Fischer-Dieskau in Rigoletto

2009-06-16T12:19:00.004-04:00

This 1964 La Scala recording of Rigoletto features the unusual choice of acclaimed German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role and Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik leading the proceedings. (It also has weird cover art, but hey, it was the Sixties.)

Known for his skilled interpretation of songs by Schubert, Schumann and Wolf, Fischer-Dieskau is not the first name that comes to mind when it comes to this opera. The legendary baritone made some memorable recordings, but most of them are in the German repertory.

Fischer-Dieskau is a thinking man's jester. Like his lieder recordings, this is series of compelling miniatures that form a harrowing whole. While he is more restrained than some hunchbacks, he excels at portraying the suffering, pain and doubt that motivate the character.

Renata Scotto ("Little Renata" to us opera geeks, not to be confused with "Big" Renata Tebaldi) gives one of the finest performances of her recorded career as Gilda, the hunchback's daughter. Her "Caro Nome" is a virtual clinic on how this wonderful aria is to be sung, refreshingly free of annoying mannerisms. The spectacular coloratura work sounds giddy and refreshingly unforced--exactly what Verdi intended, the sound of an ecstatic young girl singing to herself.

Carlo Bergonzi applies his classic tenor to the Duke , making the most famous sexist pig in opera a thoroughly repugnant fellow who is a joy to listen to. Ivo Vinco is an able, dark-toned Sparafucile--his Act I duet with Rigoletto is a highlight of the set, paired with Fischer-Dieskau's acting instincts and led by Kubelik's instinctive musicianship.

This Rigoletto was deleted for a number of years, having been superseded in the catalogue by an excellent Viennese recording made by Carlo Maria Giulini, starring Piero Cappuccilli and Placido Domingo. Currently available as a bargain two-disc set, is being reissued (along with all the other DG Scala recordings) as part of a box set Great Operas from La Scala, coming later this month.

CD Review: The Abbado Ballo

2009-06-15T12:03:00.004-04:00

The third in this survey of the La Scala Verdi recordings (and yes, it's wilfully out of order) is this excellent and largely forgotten Un Ballo in Maschera, conducted with flair by Claudio Abbado. Like the Aida (which was made around the same time with a similar cast) this Ballo comes at the very end of the analogue recording era, made in 1981 on the eve of the CD boom. And the warm, glowing sound of the violins and voices makes one regret all the problems that hit the recording industry because of that transition.

This is Domingo's second go-round on record as King Gustavo. The voice had not yet darkened and (with the exception of a slight tendency to always rrroll his R's) was still comparable to that other famous tenor. Domingo's portrayal combines brashness and dignity.The listener believes (especially in the Act II duet at the gallows) that Gustavo has really fallen in love with Amelia--so much so that he unwittingly sets up his own death at the hands of her husband.

Renato Bruson is a great choice as Anckarström, the cuckolded husband. Bruson sails through the difficult dramatic journey from trusted advisor and friend to cold-blooded assassin. His final duet with his wife with its great cry of "La vendetta" makes you believe that this is the historical Count, who used rusted bullets to ensure that the King died of blood poisoning. Ouch.

As Amelia, the wife torn between husband and king, Katia Ricciarelli is well suited as the dear caught in the opera's proverbial headlights. For once, Elena Obratzsova is ideally cast in a Verdi opera--here she can do little wrong as the intimidating witch Ulrica. The only small caveat is Edita Gruberova in the travesti role of the page, on record but a pretty good navigation of this role's treacherous coloratura.

This same cast appeared in a Covent Garden production by John Vernon that moved the action back to Sweden from its censor-approved 18th century Boston setting. Verdi, always a great one for history, fought with censors who wanted the action moved to Viking times, and to remove the conspirators, the adultery(!) and of course, the regicide. Eventually, the action was shipped up to colonial Boston, making King Gustav III into "Riccardo, Count of Warwick." The Vernon production proved that Ballo works better dramatically if a King, not a Count, is assassinated at the denouement.

CD Review: Aida in the Temple of Doom

2009-06-13T14:25:00.005-04:00

This 1982 Aida is made with the usual cast of Deutsche Grammophon suspects. Once again, Claudio Abbado leads the proceedings. He conducts another fine performance, watching his dynamic markings and occasionally outwitting the recording engineer to produce grand musical theater.

Despite the photo of Katia Ricciarelli that appeared on the front cover of the original LP and CD box sets, it is Domingo who is the star of this show. Here, (in the second of three studio recordings he made as Radames) he sounds positively restrained--especially when compared to Corelli or del Monaco. And that's a good thing. Sensitive and thoughtful in the opera's opening act, he opens up the pipes later on to let floods of passion come roaring forth. In the studio, he sings with a level of care that doesn't always come across in the opera house.

Katia Ricciarelli's portrayal of the title role veers from mild to wild at the start of "Ritorna, vincitor." This is a fine, well-sung dramatic performance that ranges between extreme self-loathing and the pathos necessary for a truly sympathetic Aida. Oddly, Ricciarelli seems to achieve this latter quality through shorter phrases, not the traditional legato lines that one often hears in the opera house. She is, like many of her fellow Ethiopian slave-girls, best heard on record.

As Amneris, Elena Obraztsova remains a controversial choice. The Russian mezzo made a lot of DG recordings in the '80s and they all feature that bludgeoning, thrusting voice, an impressive instrument that could punch its way over the orchestra. Here, one wonders if she is about to punch out that two-timing Radames. Lucia Valentini-Terrani is perfectly cast here as the singing priestess in the temple of Fthà. She's the best female performance on this record.

This entire performance sounds like it is being played in the same echoing acoustic that is usually reserved for the Temple scene in Act I. The effect is claustrophobic, with solo violins, harps and even choristers echoing forth into the pyramidal void. This is an approach to recording Aida that was done first (and better) by John Culshaw on the first Karajan recording in 1959. But at least Culshaw knew the art of self-retraint. Dynamic ranges are extreme on this recording--the pianissimi are nearly inaudible and the big moments are right in your face--or eardrums--especially that final "Immenso Fthà!"

Putting Don Carlos in order

2009-06-12T12:34:00.004-04:00

Released in 1990, the Claudio Abbado/Placido Domingo version of Don Carlos (DG) was the first commercial recording of this opera in its original French. Along with the five-act version of the opera (with the often-cut first act put back in its proper place, complete with "Je le vieux") the hefty four-disc set included the opera's famous "cut" scenes. However, in a classic example of record company weirdness, the cuts were relegated to the end of the fourth disc, as a series of extras. So with CDs or cassettes, it was almost impossible to listen to the full score of Don Carlos in order.

These trimmed scenes are pretty substantial--and include:

The opening scene of the opera, where a chorus of woodcutters in the forest of Fontainebleau bemoan their hunger, and then encounter Elisabeth de Valois. Verdi cut this on opening night for length, but it puts the events that follow (particuarly Elisabeth's decision to marry her fiancee's father, Philip II) in context, and changes the whole tone of the opera. The Met performs this scene, albeit in Italian.
The "Ballet of the Queen". A spectacular Paris Opera ballet, this has no effect except stopping the action in the middle of Act III for some nice music. Cut when the opera was revised for Italian performance.
The original "Insurrection" scene complete with thundering chorus of inquisitors. Trimmed down in performance, here it is similar to the "Radames Radames Radames" scene in Aida.

The Abbado recording is not the best Don Carlos on the market (Domingo's earlier recording with Giulini wins that particular bowl of nachos) but it is a solid enough performance, despite the oddity of an Italian cast and chorus singing in French. Domingo is in excellent form as the Infante, and Ruggerio Raimondi is an imposing King Philip. The ladies are less well served. The late Luciana Valantini-Terrani is a smallish, but competent Eboli. Katia Ricciarelli is past her prime here, a squally, and whiny Elisabeth--but she rebounds in the final act. The chorus and orchestra of La Scala is in top form, although the whole recording suffers from too much knob-twiddling by the Deutsche Grammophon tonmeister.

What's neat though, and what makes this recording worth revisiting is the IPod. If you upload the four CDs into your ITunes, you can then make a playlist and ut all the missing pieces in the correct order. Now, with the Woodcutter's Chorus at the opening, the ballet in its proper, interruptive place, and the Inquisitors back to work shouting at Carlos and Posa, this finally sounds like a proper Don Carlos. And best of all, the missing pieces fit perfectly, unveiling the breadth and scope of Verdi's grandest opera.

Die Frau Under Ground

2009-06-01T14:04:00.004-04:00

OK, I admit it. I own multiple, working IPods. I keep one for rock and roll, one for classical and opera, and one that I consider "current listening"--a mishmash of just about everything in my collection that I need to have with me at any place and time.

Recently, I changed headphone brands, ditching my crappy buds in favor of 'phones made by SkullCandy. Their noise-blocking basic buds come with large silicone sound-mufflers that block outside noises better than any other brand of headphones that I have tried. And yes, I like them better than the ultra-expensive (and easily lost) Bose earbuds.

Anyway, with these advanced noise-blockers in my ears, I set aside the Metallica, Rush and Dream Theater (mmm...Dream Theater) for major operas by the two Richards (Strauss and Wagner) and Verdi. I started at the deep (loud) end with Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Opening the Songs list, I cued up the first track and turned Shuffle off. (the opening notes and the scene with the Nurse and the Messenger) I sank into an orchestral oblivion, a swirl of strings and the famous descending "Er wird zu stein!". Awesome. Then, without a moment's notice, my 'Pod quickly switched composers on me--it jumped to the next song alphabetically in the playlist.

The problem was easily solved. I took the three discs of Frau and loaded them onto the "On-The-Go" playlist. You scroll the wheel over the album you want, press the button, hold it down and it loads the whole thing. So now with the opera in the right order, I resumed listening.

It's quite something listening to this gigantic score in the hurly-burly of the subways. All the magnificent orchestral sounds and orchestral detail came roaring forth, sounding absolutely magnificent. In fact, the swelling rush of one hundred and twenty VIenna musicians was a little hard to get used to--the sheer volume and breadth of auditory information made me feel intoxicated--pure sensory overload, Strauss-style.

It's the End of the Ring as we Know It

2009-05-10T13:57:00.002-04:00

(...and I feel fine)

A song parody by Paul J. Pelkonen
(based on "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I feel fine)") by R.E.M., original lyrics by Michael Stipe, plot by Richard Wagner)

That's great it starts when the rope breaks, Norns quake and Erda sleeps on unafraid. Brunnhilde horse-dealin', Siegfried he's free-wheelin', going on to mighty deeds, think he's got a few leads, going down the river Rhine, with horse, (of course) sail against the current on a mighty boat, false note, going to the Gibichung, Gibichung hall! Brother, sister kissing in the castle with Hagen breathing down their neck. He's got a wicked plan with a notion in the potion that'll wipe his brain. Siegfried shows up takes a drink from the cup, slipped a mickey not lime rickey, uh oh blood flow brüderschaft to the raft Hagen serves his own needs find out what in Act Three, thinkin' bout the Nibelung, Nibelung ring. You sons of freedom sail on gladly switch bitch not a hitch in the night Gunther gives a fright!

It's the end of the world as we know it,
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of Act One as we know it, and I feel fine

Wake up Hagen sleepy head, Siggy's back, not dead, Hoi-ho! Cow horn Gunther boat re-turn, sacrifice to the gods, beer drinking, hell-raising, Got the bride eyes are wide don't get on her bad side, marriage problems escalate, world will annihilate, fingers on a spear point, he said, she said, plan a murder what's the motive Uh-oh this means no fear, cavalier, next day with the spear, stab him in the, stab him in the, stab him in the back! Murder by the river death scene takes forever is he dead yet?

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of Act Two as we know it and I feel fine.

Brunnhilde by the Rhine build a fire, pyre time.
Hagen commits regicide, Dead man's hand? Nein!, Time for immolation scene, Wotan auf wieder-zeen Burn the castle flood the river, Valhalla boom!
Immolate, annihilate, regenerate. Late? Late!

It's the end of the world as we know it.
(Time for Gö-tter-däm-merung)
It's the end of the world as we know it.
(Let's watch Gö-tter-däm-merung)
It's the end of the world as we know it
(Everybody Gö-tter-däm-merung)
and I feel fine...fine...

The Last Ring: Part III: Götterdämmerung

2009-05-10T13:42:00.005-04:00

Richard Wagner: it's all his fault!

On Saturday night, Götterdämmerung proved to be more of a mixed bag. At first, Jon Frederic West sounded harsher and more metallic than in Siegfried. He coped well with the two most difficult moments in this impossible role--the "baritone" scene when he poses as Gunther and the murderous sixthteenth-note octave drop in Act II. However, he summoned his resources and sang beautifully in the death scene. A good Siegfried makes listeners regret his death. Otherwise, you root for Hagen to kill him.

Speaking of Hagen, John Tomlinson had an off night. Unsteady pitch marred Hagen's Watch, and his Act II "Hoi-ho!" was drowned out by the thundering Met orchestra. Iain Peterson was an undistinguished, shallow Gunther. The Met chorus was its usual spectacular self, making a truly intimidating noise and banging their spear-butts on the stage with gusto in Act II.

Happily, any vocal shortcomings were annihilated (couldn't resist) by the gorgeous performance of Linda Watson, who was a thoroughly satisfying Brünnhilde. This is a tough role as well, with the big duet scenes with Siegfried and Waltraute, the scene where she is attacked by "Gunther", and the second act where she becomes a fully human woman, the Wagner equivalent of a betrayed Verdi heroine. Her Immolation scene was riveting, teetering between sexual ecstasy and fanatic devotion to her deceased Siegfried. Top-notch.

James Levine conducted with his customary skill, although one sensed that he was racing through certain passages in order to get to the more lyric ones. The brass, however, suffered from "fish" notes in the horns and the occasional sour note on the trumpet. However, the band rebounded with an excellent Funeral Music and a thrilling Immolation scene.

The Last Ring, Part II: Siegfried

2009-05-10T13:38:00.003-04:00

Jon Frederic West as Siegfried.
Photo © 2009 by Beatriz Schiller
Thursday night's performance of Siegfried (the last ever at the Met in this current production) continued what has been a strong Ring Cycle. This Siegfried was anchored by superb orchestral playing, the unforgettable Wanderer of James Morris, and the burly, pouting lad of the title role, sung ably by American heldentenor Jon Frederic West.

West sang well in this most punishing of roles. His voice has a firm metallic bite, and he excels in the soft passages where lyricism is required to probe the psyche of Wagner's titular knucklehead. He evolves from pouting brat to manly hero, throwing himself into the part with abandon. While West is not the next incarnation of Max Lorenz or Lauritz Melchior, he is an able Siegfried.

He was surrounded by an excellent cast, led by Morris' resonant Wanderer. Although the bass-baritone did not seem as comfortable vocally as he did in Walküre, sounding harsh and pinched in the riddle scene and in his confrontation with Erda, this was still a memorable performance, and possibly the great singer's last bow with spear and eye-patch at the Met.

Linda Watson reprised her lyrical Brünnhilde, with gorgeous tone and sweet notes in the very long duet. Robert Brubaker's Mime was an able foil for West, eliciting genuine laughs from the audience. And Richard Paul Fink's Alberich continued to be a highlight of this cycle.

The Last Ring, Part I: Das Rheingold and Die Walküre

2009-05-07T02:07:00.003-04:00

James Morris as Wotan.
The Metropolitan Opera opened its final performance of its famous Otto Schenk/Gunther Schneider-Siemsen Ring cycle on Monday night with a definitive Das Rheingold. Too often, the Met Rheingold has felt like a perfunctory exercise in stagecraft. But from the mysterious opening notes of the Prelude to the majestic final "Entrance into Valhalla", this was a Rheingold that stood on its own merits. James Levine conducted with drawn-out tempos that exposed fresh textures in the score.

The cast was excellent. Most notable was the marvelous, nasty Alberich of Richard Paul Fink, complete with an old-style bone-chilling laugh after he stole the gold. James Morris, in what may have been his last Wotan at the Met, gave a resonant, finely acted performance. Face it folks, this is role that this capable American bass-baritone could sing with patches over both eyes. Two once-and-future Wotans--Rene Pape (Fasolt) and John Tomlinson (Fafner)--made a magnificent pair of giants. Kim Begley was a high-energy Loge, bounding about the stage and singing with a pleasing, lyrical character tenor--somehting that does not always happen with this part.

James Levine set a very slow tempo that brought fresh orchestral textures to the ear. His orchestra played like gods, from the lush carpet of strings to the firm, ringing brass. Even the odd sound effects (the anvils, the thunder-strike) that can make or break a Rheingold worked on Monday night.

The major hitch on Tuesday came when the stage manager announced that Placido Domingo was not feeling well, and asked our indulgence. Halfway through the first act of Walküre, the singer stepped off stage right, had a coughing fit and was quickly replaced by tenor Gary Lehman, who was in costume and ready to take over. This was the only hitch in a thrilling performance that stood as companion piece to the Rheingold of the previous evening.

Linda Watson was a thrilling Brunnhilde, with soaring high "Hojotoho's" and an emotionally sensitive portrayal of Wotan's favorite daughter. James Morris was in top form, injecting real pathos as he sang Wotan's Farewell, more so because this Ring may be his own farewell to Valhalla. As Sieglinde, Adrienne Pieczonka was free of mannerism and affect. Despite the first-act hitch, she had good chemistry in the second with Gary Lehman. Yvonne Naef was a stern, compelling Fricka. Finally, Rene Pape was a marvelous, slimy Hunding--his two fine performances this week make one regret his two onstage deaths.