Richard Tucker Gala 11/6/2011 (added thoughts)

I know, so so far behind on blogging.  I will catch up. I promise.  But since I left off on the Tucker Gala, and yesterday I got my oh-so-shady recording of it from my favorite oh-so-shady opera CD place which will remain un-named; just a few thoughts.

Obviously this recording was made by someone sitting at the back of the house. Such an interesting contrast between live, recorded amateur live, and recorded professionally and volume-compressed.  Live, especially in the crap seat I was in all the way up and most of the forward to the side, sometimes results in things that are epic and loud not cutting through orchestra, or a singer facing you and sounding like they have a megaphone. Professionally recording results in too much volume compression where a single voice singing pianissimo, and a full orchestra and chorus screaming, are pretty much the same volume. A live recording, however, from somewhere in the house, I think is the most accurate account of a performance as you can hear which voices disappear into the orchestra, which ones cut like lazer beams (Meade), which ones surround the house (Blythe), which ones tear and bludgeon through (Zajick), and which ones, even at piano, are the loudest human voices on earth (Guleghina).

Angela Meade sounds great. Her chests sound scarier than in house, her tops are great. Yes they’re screamy, but remember, in this aria she’s supposed an angry Italian woman wearing a breast plate like some psycho klingon warrior princess. She takes all the high options and all the low options. At one point she’s growling lower than most mezzos will go.  The trills are great, the runs are amazing, and she is LOUD. Screamy thin-soprano loud that cuts through orchestra loud. It’s pretty darned good. She sounds great in the Norma finale and rips out a really nice high D that was clearly aimed exactly away from me when I was in-house, because I barely heard it there and it is definitely knocked out of the park in the recording.

Stephanie Blythe confirms that she has the hugest sound ever that wraps around the house in spectacular fashion. Too bad I don’t know or like the aria.

The Nabucco tenor sounds better recorded than live in everything. Sounds amazing (as he did in house) in the verismo duet from Cavelleria Rusticana. La Zajick tears shit up though. Why anyone would laugh at her “Easter curse” is beyond me. Maybe they didn’t know she was about to foghorn and then chest the two most amazing notes of the night. Incredible!

Kauffman sounds great, as always. I’m starting to get really annoyed with his volume tricks though – we get it, you can sing quiet and loud and turn the volume knob up and down at will. Now stop and just sing, damnit! Singing to the extremely hot (she even sounds like she’s hot) Anita [---many letters---] in the Carmen finale, he finally stops thinking about singing and just sings. Having watched the La Scala video a zillion times and seeing him live in this at the Met, I would wager this might be better. Raw emotion bursts in every note. Great stuff.

And finally, to Guleghina.  Sorry Radvanovsky, but you’ve been beat. You’ve been out-radvanovsky’d in fact.  Guleghina sings Vissi D’arte even slower than you. She holds the crazy difficult notes, where most soprano’s are whelping out of key, longer than you. And while Radvanovsky has (her words, I agree) a Rolls Royce of a voice that she seemingly effortlessly drives, Guleghina overcomes her damaged, frayed, wobbly, loud, flawed, disgusting, voice, and sings almost the entire aria at an appropriate volume without wobble. Sure, the high B or whatever is in her usual mega voice, but it’s supposed to be.  The next two, done in one insanely long breath, are perfect and pianissimo. The ending doesn’t go flat or sharp. So Radvanovsky, you’d better fight for more Met roles, because in 2011 your (amazing) Tosca just can’t stand up to Guleghina’s ridiculously fearless Nabuccos (high Eb!!) and this single aria. Better luck next time.

Richard Tucker Gala 11/6/2011

Thanks to my friend MAP who reminded me while there was still time to get tickets, I finally got to go to this gala this year.  Every year, I forget to get tickets and then it’s too late.  It was almost too late, as the best seat I could get was all the way forward on the side of the stratospheric top tier, but whatever, the singers stood dead center and I could see them just fine.

Angela Meade came out first and tore it up for the scary double-aria from Verdi’s Attila.  It was fantastic – this evil aria has just about everything Verdi could throw at a soprano.  And what I am starting to realize I love most about Meade is her fearless chest voice.  It sounds kind of funky, but unlike most singers today, who try and drag their high voice as low as it will go and only chest out when totally necessary, Meade rips out her pretty mighty chest pretty much every time she goes low.  From my vantage point, I felt like she got a little overwhelmed by the orchestra behind her.  She screamed out a pretty fantastic high-whatever (e-flat?) at the end which seemed a little too quiet from where I was, but from reading other reviews and the fact that I was practically straight above the stage while she was facing the back of the hall, I’m willing to bet she was plenty loud enough.

Her other offering was the Act I finale of Norma with some tenor and Zajick.  Having heard her sing this before, I wasn’t so thrilled – I could have gone for something a bit more exciting or new.  It was fine, great ending. Zajick rules, what’s new?

Zajick sang a long boring choral thingy from the Maid of Orleans, which, I guess if I was familiar was, would have been exciting. It didn’t really seem very solo-ish though, mostly just chorus with Zajick tearing in on and off.  Didn’t seem like gala material when there were so many other great things Zajick could have been doing for us.

And then, dream-come-true, Zajick did the big duet and curse from Cavalleria Rusticana.  I listen to her singing this regularly from a few years ago.  Nobody does the big scary curse note better than her – soprano scream followed by filthy chesty bellow.  Usually, with other singers, we get the scream (if we can even here it in the blasting verismo orchestra) and then the lower note is not sung in chest and totally inaudible.  Some people laughed at the speaking part of the curse (why? Zajick is so scary!!).  I hope somebody recorded this for me.  Please!  Zajick’s partner was the tenor from Nabucco, Yonghoon Lee.  I’ve not like him in the 4 Nabuccos I saw – he has this annoying splaying sound with too much over/under tone action that I really dislike.  Suddenly singing verismo, all of that worked spectacularly.  His sound was thrilling.  He and Zajick just screamed the hell out of each other. 

The other offering by Lee sucked just like Nabucco, I think it was also Verdi.  So I think he needs to sing only verismo where his too-much-going-on translates quite well into tension and emotion. 

Stephanie Blythe came out and sang something pretty I’d never heard.  Of all the singers in the gala, her voice is by far the most spectacular.  Sure, Zajick is loud and tears things up, sure Guleghina (not here, but usually) is the loudest thing heard for miles in any direction.  Sure Meade seems to have unending coloratura and chest and highs.  But even from my high-up off-to-the-side craptastic seat, Blythe’s voice surrounded me in a way no other does.  And it’s a huge deep baritonal voice.  She also is thrilling to listen to at pretty much any volume or note.  With many singers they only have a part of their vocal range that hits a special place – Zajick has the highs and the lows but no middle, most sopranos are crap below a certain high note, tenors are pointless except money notes, baritones have good lows and highs but the middle is boring, etc.  Blythe is exciting on any note.  Making pretty (was it French?) unfamiliar arias that would otherwise be dead boring, sound fantastic and thrilling.  She could convincingly and thrillingly sing the phone book. 

Bryn Terfel sang a funny aria from L’elisir d’Amore.  He is so good at funny.  And he heckled people coming in late, which is always great to watch.  And then he started pulling beer bottles out of seemingly bottomless pockets.  And then he shook one at an old man in the front row and tried to hand it off.  It was hysterical.  And then he ripped off the cap of another and drank the whole thing.  I guess he’s welsh, so it’s not surprising that he’s a drinker.  Highly amusing.

Mr. Woofy from Nabucco was there, doing his usual.  Good, not great, but still pretty good. 

And then Kaufman. Dreamy as always. He sang Turiddo’s end to Cavalleria Rusticana to spectacular effect. He sings too damned much piano, but it’s so so good anyways.  The louds were thrilling.  The rest, baritonal.  The pianos heartwrenching.  As much as I like him, I have to say I’ve heard Bobby Alagna do better with this both in Carnegie and at the Met.  Kaufman just doesn’t have that Italian moodiness and personality type to do the tortured lover or the mama’s boy or the other kinds of stereotypical Italian boys.  Fantastic singing despite not being the right stuff for him. 

Later he and Terfel sang a duet from Don Carlo.  For some reason I had it in my head it was the love aria when the baritone is dying, but I think it was from an earlier scene.  It was good, but kind of long and boring.

Guleghina came out with her fantastic new voice and proved to all that she’s back and better than ever.  Vissi D’arte.  No flat. No wobble. No nothing bad whatsoever.  I think her goal was to out-Radvanovsky Radvanovsky in this by singing it as slow as possible with the longest most stretched-out high notes ever.  And her pianos were not her usual crystal weirdness (exciting but strange), but actual proper pianos.  And then she really just refused to leave the stage.  She bowed longer than any curtain call at any opera ever.  It was great.  She needs to be doing the Aida this spring.  She could rock the high C in the Act III aria like nobody else with chest to boot for the Act I aria.  And with her newly invented voice she could even do the crazy Callas E at the end of the march.  Here’s hoping for cancellation. (If so: sorry Urmana, see you at the next Atilla).

Kaufman and Rachvelishvili sang the final scene of Carmen and were both on fire.  She has some fantastic highs and chests.  He, no longer a bad impression of an Italian stereotype, transformed into psycho-hot.  They also semi-acted it which really worked.  She was mean, like cut-a-bitch mean with some smoldering looks thrown in between scowls.  Probably the best singing of the evening.  And even though she’s not supermodel thin, she is probably one of the hottest opera singers around.  They had so much chemistry you wonder if they’ve actually had sex together. 

Then the finale was the stupid annoying ending of Fallstaff.  Not that there’s really a lot of music for that many superstars to sing that’s also funny and cutesy to end a gala, but what a way to ruin the dark sexy mood from Carmen. 

So next year, better seats.  For this many stars singing so many great things, it’s worth it to not be in the rafters.  Also, too damned many old people up there with noisy candy wrappers and somehow falling asleep during exciting music. 

11/2/2011 Nabucco

The 4^th of my 4 tickets to see Guleghina.  In some ways, this was her best of the 4; in others, it had some weaknesses.  Overall, an 8 or even 8.5.  What most notably lacked, sadly, since it’s one of my favs, was chest voice.  She raunched out some great ones in her entrance aria/duet, and then the chest part of her voice closed shop for the night. In the scary cabaletta following her famous aria, the voice just stopped working below a certain point as she made pathetic gasps to sing so low in her soprano voice. 

Where she lacked in chest, she more than made up for in everything else.  The middle area of her voice was more in tune, less gross semi-tone-in-either-direction vibrado than usual.  The highs were glorious.  Lasers but with nice tone.  It was even more youngish and floaty than I’ve ever heard coming from her.  Spectacular.  For her big aria she tried, and succeeded brilliantly, in taking huge phrases in one breath.  The cabaletta, though chest-less, was incredible, and faster than usual.  The scream at the end of the first Act was not screamy, but actual singing, and perfect-pitch, loud, and long. Soaring, rather than exploding, is the right word.

Tenor, still don’t like, sorry. Nabucco, getting woofier each time, but oh-so-elegant. Bass dude was the usual middle-of-the-road. And the mezzo was someone new.  None of the scary-death-defying act this time, and slightly less memorable singing, but crap role anyways.

Act II duet was, as always the highlight.  Not only for the spectacular life-changing E-flat at the end which soared and was not screamy and in fact was really just perfect, but the whole thing. She’s such a crazy lunatic in this role, it suits her so well.  Anyways, I suspect it will be a long long time until another Abigaille comes along that’s as much fun as this, so glad I got to see a bunch of them.  And the chorus was good, as always.

10/24/2011 Anna Bolena

The Meade Bolena.  Following Trebs’ success in this role must be tough, but luckily, the two could not be more different singers.  Trebs is all about energy, momentum, pretty sounds; Meade is about accuracy, technique, and correctness.  Trebs brings ravishing beauty to pianissimo highs, thunderous screams to outbursts, dark covered sound to mid-range singing, and gargling chest in a totally new register; Meade brings spectacular floated highs, bright shrieks to outbursts, open unforced sound in the middle, and angry chest that seems very connected to her middle voice.  Trebs sings out of pitch, smudges through coloratura, trills decently sometimes, and breathes like a porn star; Meade’s lazer-beam voice hits every note dead on, cuts cleanly through coloratura, trills better than any other singer I’ve heard live, and sings phrases longer than most people can hold their breath.  So in a way, the two compliment each other by being stronger in the other’s weaknesses.

Meade’s knocked her first aria right out of the park.  Beautiful singing, lovely arcs of long long phrases, beautiful soft singing.  And she seemed like she knew where she was going whereas Trebs seemed more in a kind of daze. 

This was my first Bolena from a side box (balcony, all the way forward on the left); I was surprised how even though so much of the set seemed to have tall walls at angles, there was rarely a time I couldn’t see everything going on.  As usual, from the left, sometimes the brass section blasts above the singing, and oftentimes when singers are aimed the other way you can’t hear them; Meade’s laser-voice seems to project omnidirectionally in that it doesn’t really seem to matter where she’s looking, she sounds basically the same.  Which allows her the same range of irritating never-facing-the-audience singing that Trebs did, but I think it worked better for her.

Where Meade did know to never face anywhere but at us, was in ensembles.  Here, either she can’t sing loud enough, or chooses not to.  Either way, disappointing.  The crazy highs are maybe 5 times louder than any other part of her voice, and were for the most part great.  But in ensemble singing she just never dominated the way I would have liked.  Maybe she was trying to be polite and blend with other singings, but she’s the lead and I think she should soar/blast above everyone at all times. 

The scene with Percy was one of the best of the first half – I think rather than being deafened by Trebs and knowing he could never sing louder than her, where he held back, here, he and Meade were a much better match volume-wise and I think he brought a lot more passion and ringing volume with Meade.  He sounded fantastic!  And I find most bel cantoish tenors tend to have the high notes but not a lot else; Costello seems to have a very fine low range that has none of the ugly mush other tenors (*cough* Nabucco tenor) seem to have on the lows.

Where I appreciated Meade’s skills/talents/etc. most was the Act I finale.  With Trebs and her darkish mezzoish voice it was hard to distinguish between her and Seymour; but Meade’s clear laser soprano blended and contrasted excellently with Seymour.  Her two outburst high notes were there, sure, but they weren’t the explosive bellows from Trebs.  The high D started good and only got better.  She was facing exactly away from me and her face was practically in Henry’s chest, but oh so loud.  And while it started F by the time she screamed her way through however-many bars of music it reached FFF.  Good stuff.

Second half was at least twice as good as the first.  The duet with Seymour was less angry raging giants battling on stage as it was a brutal vicious soprano attack on the poor sympathetic Seymour.  Dramatically, I thought it played better to have Bolena nastier and Seymour actually afraid of being cut.  The duet ended on a very nice high note for each and there was none of the usual I-can-hold-it-longer stuff (but note to both, please both hold it longer next time!).

By the way, Meade joins the exclusive club of singers-who-can-sing-tough-notes-while-in-the-act-of-standing-up.  And while Kaufman does it so impressively (he did some crazy Vittorias in Tosca that started on the ground and ended with him standing), Meade does it better and with a lot more body to lift.  It seemed every five minutes she was on the ground and having to get up from the floor while singing crazy tough stuff.  In a way she’s like Natalie Dessay – Dessay can sing anything while being picked up, tossed around, spun, flung in any direction – Meade can sing anything while awkwardly getting up from the floor.  Let’s just let her stand some more next time, or her knees will go long before her voice.

The pleading with Henry was kind of boring, as always, but I thought the chemistry with Costello really worked here and vastly improved the scene.  Then Seymour came out in crazy good voice (and she was sick the last time I saw this two weeks ago) and sang the shit out of her final scene.  She tore out some spectacular notes.

Costello had his big number, and it rocked.  He didn’t get nearly enough audience love, because he sure deserved it for singing that crazy evil hard music so so well.  What a difference from the opening.  And, finally, with these better seats, I could see just how cute he actually is.  And he’s 30?  I’m surprised Gelb hasn’t cast him in every HD through 2020! 

And why is Bolena’s brother not singing Henry?  He was crazy loud.  Henry was better tonight, possibly my seat, but the brother had gargantuan sound.

And then the endless women’s chorus.  Why?  It’s so late, everyone wants to leave but has to wait for the mad scene.  Anyway, after 10 minutes of chorus torture, the spot came on to Meade kneeling.  And, I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to give her that much hair, but the way they spread it over her and the fact that there was so damned much of it made her look like Cousin It.  Serious, a giant round ball of draping curly hair.  It was fine once she stood up and ponytailed it off, but I almost laughed out loud when I first saw it.

Also, what the hell happened to the costumes?  Trebs gets dress after dress, fancy head thing after head thing.  Meade gets one dress for Act I and most of Act II, and then basically the same dress + way too much hair for the final scene?  I can’t disagree with the wise decision not to put her in a giant red thing for the end of Act I, but they could have tried harder.  Mind you, theses are the people who put Trebs, who though now slightly chubby is still a voluptuous and beautiful woman, into fugly dresses that made her look as big as (half-of) a house.  Anyways, Meade’s two dresses looked actually pretty flattering on her, so good stuff.

The mad scene was, as with Trebs, the best part of the show.  And while Trebs seemed like she sang everything in a form of autopilot until this point but Meade seemed on from the start, Meade certainly turned up the intensity here.  I’d choose Trebs just for the beauty of the (sometimes off pitch, smudy runs, etc) sound she makes, but hearing Meade here was a delight.  There were some places where I seriously wanted to shout “breathe! You’ll get brain damage if you don’t!”  Like entire 30-second phrases.  Was I missing tiny silent gulps of air, or does this girl just not need air?  It was crazy.  There was one part where I think she ran out after singing 3, 4, maybe even 7 phrases in one breath and ended on a very high note starting a new phrase, which I think stopped rather abruptly.  Otherwise though, it was an impressive vocal feat, especially after 3 hours of singing already.

And then the cabaletta arrived (love those cannons offstage!) and boy did it slam by at a terrifying pace; cruel conducting, or choice by Meade?  I’ve never heard more notes smashed ever so accurately into so short a time.  And where Trebs did runs that started high and ended low (and mushed all over the place), Meade did runs that seemed to have zillions more notes and that started high, glissando’d to the bottom, hammered back up, and ended with terrifying drops into scary scary chest.  I wouldn’t want to hear one of those lows in a dark alley at night, yikes!  And, from the recording I heard of her last week, either she totally rethought what she wanted to sing, or has millions of alternate options in her mind and chooses whatever suits her mind at the exact moment, or maybe, like Dessay, is just making interpolations as she goes.  They were really great.  And how does she actually hit every not so accurately and have time to sing it before zipping on to the next?  Like a vocal machine-gun!  And then, the final note was crazy good, different than Trebs’ crazy good note, but equally crazy good.  I think in her mind she almost chose to scream it up to the e-flat (she didn’t), but it was long, loud, and very good.  Do the e-flat please and somebody record it though, I’d want to hear that.  We know she can do it.

Anyway, the clapping was pretty loud when the red shiny curtain fell, but when they sent Meade forth for a solo bow before doing the regular curtain calls, the sound was thunderous.  Cheering, clapping, musicians in the pit were stomping, people in family circle were rioting and kicking things.  Can’t think of the last time I’ve heard that kind of hysteria; maybe SondRad’s Vissi D’art, certainly Trebs’s poison aria, pretty much any Zajick Aida Judgment Scene, but it was definitely something special.  There was a lot of love for Meade in the audience.  Seriously, in retrospect, somebody should have poisoned Fleming before one of my Armidas so I could have heard Meade tear that up. 

So to sum up, maybe if I could see only one Bolena, I’d choose Trebs, but this was definitely a performance to remember.  Meade needs to sing cabalettas, cabalettas, and more cabalettas.  As fast as possible.  With extra verses and insane interpolations.  And now I am very excited to hear her in Ernani, which is basically one long cabaletta-fest. 

10/20/2011 Nabucco

Ok, now things are exactly as predicted.  Whereas my first two Nabucco’s were solid 8s, here was the 6 I was expecting.  How any person can go on stage in front of thousands of people not knowing 100% whether they will be able to scream out 3 solid high Cs in a scary scary cabaletta with insane runs that go down, what, two octaves, I don’t know. So power to Guleghina for trying. 

After a thunderous high-whatever at end the first scene followed by her best act I aria to date, which had none of her usual pianissimo crystal crap and was actual full-on beautiful singing, the cabaletta from hell began.  First, where there should have been chest, there was either silence or grunting.  The first high C was a total disaster.  I think it was actually sharp, something one wouldn’t expect from often-flat Guleghina.  But it was ugly, awful, and short.  And she knew it.  It was sad, actually, to watch her lose all hope.  And then after that, it was like somebody poked too many holes in a hot air balloon.  The usual Guleghina, who I feel tries maybe even too hard despite hopeless odds, was nowhere to be found.  All singing for the rest of the first act was muted and she was holding back, afraid that she might totally lose control.  It was very sad.

I was delighted to return in Act II to the craziest Guleghina I’ve seen to date.  Out of control.  Demented.  Maybe drunk, who knows.  But whatever she did backstage made her come back stronger and more determined than ever.  She sounded very tired, and a lot of high notes were damned ugly, but they were there, they were strong, and she was great.  I’m pretty sure Nabucco flinched on the high E, it probably broke an eardrum.  The death scene, again, was the best part.  She’s just so crazy with the batsleeves. 

So now, the true test will be November 2 – my last Nabucco.  Was this just a bad night, or is she slowly losing energy and voice as the run continues on.  I’m almost tempted to see the other lady doing this, Cornetti or something, but I’m afraid that might erase demented Guleghina memories, and I fail to understand how someone I recently saw as the mezzo in Trovatore (and liked about 5 times less than Zajick doing same) can sing this role with any of the things that Guleghina brings best (i.e. shrieky high notes and demented acting).  We’ll see. 

Up next, a Meade Bolena.  Listening to some recordings made from her first night, and I’m excited.  Knocks the Act I finale out of the park, goes for the high e-flat at the very end, screams out random interpolated notes, and actually trills.  I think it will be a thrilling performance.  Let’s see if the rest of the audience agrees.

10/17/2011 Don Giovanni

Donny G and I are actually kind of sick of each other.  I saw like 6 of them the last time at the Met because each of the many casts had one singer I really wanted to see.  And when I was in college I took “World of Opera” (best class ever) and we had to study this and memorize every single aria; so I know the thing like the back of my hand.  And it’s just so damned long with so many characters and so many arias and ensembles. 

Marius K____ was out, Peter Mattei was in.  Neither of them was Erwin Schrott with Fabio hair and no shirt, so whatevs.  Leperello was way hotter than Donny G, as seems to always be the case.  Peter Mattei’s singing was excellent (isn’t it always – he’s too reliable!).  His acting seemed fine.  Production was fine, but really boring.  I mean, the last one had the crazy swordfight on a flight of stairs, and an excuse for Erwin to pour wine on his chest trying to seduce Donna E one last time.  Well, really every excuse for Erwin to declothe as often and much as possible, so on that front, this production failed.  Voice only takes us so far Peter, take note! (i.e., get buff and take off your shirt.  Maybe Marius will for the HD movie – we can only hope).

Donna A, Marina Rebeka, sounds like a firetruck.  Not the pitch-altering siren, but the scary get-the-hell-out-of-the-way horn that they blow as they slam down 9^th Avenue.  Her voice is crazy loud, in a Radvanovsky kind of earthy way.  She gets the notes.  She can sing soft, but it’s still firetruck soft.  When she was mad, like the recitative before her first aira, it was great.  The aria itself was quite spectacular; fearsome, almost.  But after that, any time she opened her mouth it was just too scary and loud.  Why Mozart?  Sing some Verdi or angry bell canto please.

Donna E, Barbara Frittoli, was, as always, great.  I’m still angry that she canceled Donna Anna a few years ago; that would have been a pleasure to hear.  But her Donna E is pretty moving. Pretty singing, voice nearing tatters but well managed.

Zerlina just always sucks.  And they always seem to put sopranos in the role, which is totally mezzo.  Why waste them?  This one at least acted and convinced us she wasn’t the two-faced slut she usually is.  Her fiancée was appropriately bumbling and sweet. 

Ramon Vargas, recently singing beautifully after a couple years of scary, didn’t get to do much in the wimpy Mozart tenor role, but his big aria was the nicest part of the night.  Beautiful phrasing, perfect ping, just great.

And just when things were starting to get way too long and sleepytime was approaching, there was fire.  Actual real fire.  Not just wimpy Aida torches, not even Nabucco temple scroll-burning, but actual blazing fire.  Like an an airshow when something blows up when they do the mock paratrooper skits and you feel the flame heat on your face – that kind of fire!  They’d better be careful or one night they might BBQ a Don.  It was pretty cool. 

And then, what was my favorite part of the last production, the annoying crap that happens after he’s dead (which I believe should be cut- it’s stupid and happy) was staged less brilliantly than before.  Before, champagne glasses and a bottle came magically out of the prompter’s box, Donna A poured everyone some, and they toasted.  And you got to see which of the singers actually drank, which fake drank, and which ones knocked it back like a drinking match in a Wild West movie.  Here, they just sang, champagneless.  Overall, good fun, but if you’re going to do a new production that brings nothing that the old one didn’t, why bother? 

10/12/2011 Nabucco

Okay, big splurge of the season: side parterre.  I had all kinds of fantasies of seeing someone really famous (Trebs even?) taking in a dose of Guleghina, but, sadly, no-one was in the manager’s box next to me except two old people who fell asleep constantly.  But, whatever, Guleghina arrived after a very rousing overture and the fire was ignited.  She brought all the crazy.  She left some voice at home, I think; less chest, more shrieky on the upper notes.  But still fantastic.

Tenor, sorry, twice and I still don’t like you.  He has way too much going on in his voice.  He reminds me bit of Jose Cura when he screws up high notes and sounds like he’s singing 3 pitches at the same time, like the vocal equivalent of punching the piano.  This tenor obviously doesn’t quite do that, but his middle notes have a lot of that mushy discordant quality to them.  The high notes are pretty exciting, with less ugly going on, but overall, not a fan.  I wonder what he’d sound like in, for example, Tosca, where the tenor only has a few big parts but they are ultra-solo. 

The mezzo was fine; clearly not afraid of heights whatsoever (crazy how she leans over the edge of the scarily high set while the bass is hanging on to the railing for dear life).  Guleghina's high-whatever at the end of the first scene sounded like an ambulance on steroids; it cut through all sound and tore across the hall. 

Act II was much better; I think Guleghina recouped or something.  Maybe she did shots during intermission, I don’t know, but she sure came back bringing extra crazy.  The whole duet with Nabucco was terrifying, and, of course, the high E that keeps bringing me back was there.  Short, sure, but dead-on.  And she was determined this time to hold the final note longer than Nabucco, which was kind of fun. 

Her death is, I think, my favorite part.  Because she sings all of it in that freaky half-voice that no-one else can do that is both loud and pianissimo at the same time.  Also, her sleeves are like bat-wings and she uses them to great silent-movie effect.  Why anyone from Babylon, which apparently has open flames all over the place, would wear extra big sleeves bound to catch aflame, is beyond me.  Maybe she got dressed after she took the poison.  I still don’t really understand why the opera ends here; but I do wish more composers realized that the rule is when the soprano dies, everyone wants to stop listening and go home.

So that’s 2 for 4 of Guleghina Nabucco’s this year.  I was expecting 1 of 4 to be great, so far 2 solid 8s.  Let’s see for next week – will she get better during the run as she learns to work her newly revamped voice to the role, or will she just run out of voice and go back to the old voiceless nothing-above-B that we’re used to?