I listened last night on the webstream from the New York Metropolitan Opera's website.
Disclaimer:
- I don't know the opera at all. This wasn't my first time hearing it, but I can't say I know it.
- My PC/speaker set-up is not exactly cutting-edge hi-fi.
- The webstream was not good quality - a lot of wobble, flutter and sticking. And it switched off after an hour of playing (causing me to miss most of a big tenor aria in Act II).
- I don't find audio-only to be a satisfactory way of experiencing an unfamiliar opera. The 'Domingo Experience' is at its best when seen as well as heard.
- It was 1 am to 4.30 am my time, and I didn't have an opera nap (although I had had a lie-in).
- I don't like the way the Met broadcasts sound - something to do with microphone placement, I think. At least with this one it wasn't made any more amateurish by the prompter's voice sounding louder than the entire chorus
It hasn't been a good week (or so ) for tenors in New York. There has been a great deal of discussion about Rolando Villazón's performances in Lucia di Lammermoor - a lot of dramatic overreaction from people who thrive on sensation and negativity, mixed with some genuine concern as a supremely talented singer did not fulfil his potential.
(If he has a cold, I think the whole discussion is pointless; we've all heard superb singers crash-and-burn when suffering from colds and coughs. It doesn't mean the end of their career. If the cold is a face-saving PR exercise to cover up the fact that he might be turning into José Carreras or Roberto Alagna, even though I would prefer not, there are worse things that could happen to a singer. If he singing the wrong rep or too often I am sure he has enough sense to think about those things)
Giuseppe Filianotti disappointed in Rigoletto. I didn't hear it, or even a clip, so I can't comment. Piotr Beczala is now being talked about as the Greatest Lyric Tenor in the World. I don't wish to be negative about Piotr, who is an excellent singer, but I have heard him as Faust and twice as Lenski, and if he really is the second coming of the Messiah, he must have undergone a miraculous transfiguration in a year since I saw him twice as a pleasing but forgettable Lenski. 'Fine and worthy' I said at the time. And reportedly he cracked in Kuda kuda on Thursday but is singing Edgardo today.
Then the fourth tenor mimed through the dress rehearsal (with the cover singing from the wings) because of a cough. So there was some inevitable internet speculation.
I know that arguments rage about transpositions. Some of the arguments are valid, some are not. They don't bother me, and I'm not just saying that.
I do think there is a lot of hypocrisy spouted in some quarters from people who think the ultimate heresy is lowering the music to make the higher notes more comfortable/attainable but insist that the key be changed to enable a circus-trick unwritten high C - to be held so long as to break up the rhythm of the music and interrupt the drama.
I can see why people dislike changes to the relations between keys and I think it is problematic if the composer chose a specific key specifically to convey a specific mood. On the other hand, it is well documented that composers would change keys and other aspects to accommodate the strengths and weaknesses of the singer on the day.
Pragmatically, would you prefer to hear a great singer singing beautifully a transposed work or a hack singer hitting a few high notes and otherwise turning in a journeyman performance?
I was listening and suddenly there was an outbreak of applause for no apparent reason, going quite against the music. Within a nano-second I heard Plácido's burnished tones and I just collapsed laughing! And then in the interval the radio host referred to the applause as the star arrives on Stage as if it were a good thing. Oh dear.
I enjoyed what I heard, from Plácido anyway. I don't regret not going to New York. Of four operas I have heard this week (On DVD, live and audio recording of a live performance) it is the least by a considerable distance. Perhaps I would enjoy it more if I could see it. Definitely I would enjoy seeing Plácido. Shame it's not being shown in cinemas, but surely they can put the cameras in anyway and show it on TV or just DVD-release it? Show some initiative, please, Metropolitan Opera.
So far I haven't seen any mainstream media reviews. There were live comments being left at La Cieca's place on non-obvious threads - another thrilling twist starting at #16 (#57 carries a brief reference to the 'after' party) and say it loud and there's music playing. You could start at #69 or scroll to 105.
My friend Richard, who has been serving the blogosphere well this week, provides his review under the title of Adriana - The Goldberg Variations
I was at the Adriana tonight, and ended up thinking it was the best tenor singing I've heard at the MET all year, and not caring about the transpositions at all...
...The last act, he just sounded to me like the old (as in, 'former') Placido, with really beautiful and secure tone, and if it was lowered a step, I didn't think it damaged the impact. The size of the voice remains pretty ideal for the MET, which is one reason, I think, he is so popular here...
I did try to find a picture additional to the one that I published the other day, but couldn't so this will have to do...
Oh, and on a somewhat unrelated note
Serving Two Cities, Staying True to Each
- a feature on Plácido as General Director of Washington and Los Angeles Operas and Nigel Redden, the director of the Lincoln Center Festival and general director of the Spoleto Festival USA
In Los Angeles, being close to Hollywood, I can take more risks...In Washington people come and go with the party in power. Supreme Court justices come to the opera. Ambassadors and senators come. Over all it’s a more conservative public, and I have to be careful what I present. But in the capital of the United States, I think it’s a must to have an American opera every season.
