I went to see this for a second time, eleven days after seeing it for the first time, a day after hearing the broadcast and now nearly two weeks ago.
This posting is really an addendum to what I wrote the first time. I was going to write a long thoughtful post while listening to my recording of the radio broadcast, but I have subsequently acquired the DVD from Genoa with JDF and Patrizia Ciofi, so I thought it might be more fun to write about the audio-video presentation rather than a merely audio presentation.
Some miserable bastard who heard the radio broadcast over the internet didn't rate it. People who had seen it live and heard the broadcast all opined that the radio simply do justice to what was an impressive total performance. In the end I did not chime in on that thread, because there was so much I wanted to say.
The simple fact was that people who saw and heard it live in the house believed that the radio broadcast was a poor imitation.
Opera is not an audio-only art form. Objectively, the idea of it being so is a temporary aberration of less than a hundred years, in a four hundred years (this month!) history, simply because audio recording became viable long before effective video recording. Often, audio-only is more convenient, but if the composers had really intended us only to listen to opera, they would have written oratorios instead. It's a bit like football by radio - it's better than nothing at all,but why choose it in preference to television or being there? I suppose I get hacked off by pompous twits trying to argue as a point of principle that a an audio recording or broadcast is definitive. Yes, it is an object in its own right, but not by definition superior to audio plus acting, dancing and staged spectacle.
Having heard the radio broadcast as well as my first performance I had some familiarity with the music. Not much, I stress, but there was a sense of familiarity. Nevertheless I haven't changed my opinion greatly. I love the overture, and I love the closing scenes of Act I, the love duet, of course the wonderful nine high Cs count them of Ah mes amis, and Marie's farewell. Twenty or so minutes of sublime music that provide a wonderful contrast with the high comedy of Act II.
If I say that I have no complaints about any of the performers, it sounds as if I'm damning with faint praise, or else that they were so perfect. Neither is true, but they all performed excellently as individuals and as an ensemble. I understand it will be shown on TV - in December...
