Early Valentine's Day Carmen

2/13/2013

A perfect pre-Valentine's Day opera - lust, (some) romance, and then death.  Perfect.

For some unknown and disgusting reason, almost the entire balcony level was filled with rotten horrible nasty tweenagers, some seemingly speaking in French during intermission.  I am always very amused when people bring kids to Carmen.  But what a perfect lesson for young girls: don't break up with your psycho border-line abusive boyfriend, or he may rape you and then stab you to death!  At least these kids were old enough to know to shut up when the lights went down.  But they made for a nasty kid-filled intermission.  Shout-out to my least favorite nasty person who works at the restaurant, who told me that dinner during Friday's intermission was unavailable because "Parsifal is really long, you know."  Thank you Captain Obvious.  I wonder how many people will be up for dessert after seeing 6,000 gallons of blood slosh around for an hour...

I always find Act I of Carmen a bit of a waste of time.  Sure, the most famous music for Carmen happens, but we also have to put up with the Children's chorus.  As seen previously, Anita Rachvelishvili may not have the rockstar body of (former) Trebs, but she brings the sexy.  The slutty washing of the legs was very effective, and she has that old-school presence that so few others have.  Don Jose was a very cute Nikolai Schukoff, but he didn't have the wild abandon in his voice that Don Jose requires.  I mean not that Carmen is verisimo Italian, but I think that is Jose's temperament   Cutie boy Nikolai certainly had the looks and the acting down, and his lower singing was delicious and secure, but his high notes always felt a bit held back, not quite loud enough, and not sung with enough confidence to be believable.

Act II improved much more, all the minor characters seeming much more fun than usual.  The two girlfriends, a mezzo and a soprano, are usually a scary contralto and a horribly chirpy coloratura soprano - this time: normal mezzo and luscious lyric soprano.  Dwayne Croft proved how much hair does - in the black toreador wig I would have guessed he was 25.  Also, costume designers take note (especially whoever put the pants on Polenzani in L'Elisir) - Toreador pants make any behind look good - please use always!  I felt he kind of got the short end of the stick at the applause at the end - while nothing about his singing was spectacular, he got all the notes and acted well, which is more than most in this role.

Then, finally, Act III, where most of the good stuff happens, opened with the silly ballet interpretation.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but did the Ballerino have a tramp stamp?  The Card Scene was magic, with R___ using the most delicious chest voice.  My gosh, when she wants to be she is LOUD.  My only quibble is that her higher notes seem like too much of a stretch - they are there, but sometimes she doesn't quite get to them, and while they are perfectly loud enough, they are several decibels below all her other notes.  Maybe she's still too young and will fill them in over time, let's hope so!  But her chest is magnificently dark and smoky, and she looked very torn up about the cards.  In fact, this is the first Carmen who seems to actually feel anything other than lust in the first half, and being a total bitch in the second half.

Hei-Kyung Hong came out and sang a near-perfect aria that was really quite something special.  For some reason I thought it was supposed to be a debuting Russian soprano, so I spent the whole opera wondering why Micaela looked so Asian, but it all came together at the end when I figured it out.  Why Ms. Hong isn't singing every lyric role as the lead is beyond belief.  She looks as though she could be 25, she has a spectacularly in shape body, and she has the fresh young voice that most Met Sopranos would have killed for even 10 years ago.  And she was my first Met Mimi and Violetta, so she always holds a special place in my heart.  But she was really quite wonderful.

In what I view as the most important 20 seconds for the tenor in the whole opera, near the end of act III where Jose is pissed and saying he'll never leave Carmen, Nikolai transformed from his slightly wimpy former self without high notes to a demonic angry tenor.  His "Desinee!" was spot-on and rang near-perfect.  

The final act went well, the parade takes too much time and, again, there are children.  While up until now, while good, the opera had never quite had that special spark.  The final scene caught fire though, with Rachvelishvili turning on her stage magic presence to overdrive and Nikolai fully transformed into a complete nutjob.  He pulled a Jonas Kaufman and went the full forcible-rape route, which was perfectly violent to match Rachvelishvili 's intensity.  I'm surprised that the crazy train on the Carmen dress keeps coming back, because poor girl has to devote probably 50% of her brain power into not tripping on the stupid thing.  There were some close calls...  The stabbing of the stage a couple inches from her head was adequately shocking, with audible gasping from old people in Orchestra.  The dropping of the ring was spoken with perfect disgust, and while, obviously, Nikolai didn't actually stab Rachvelishvili at the end, I think he probably punched her HARD in the stomach, because she made a god-awful whimper and cried out in pain.  Nobody does "Carmen adoree" as well as Kaufman or, like Kaufman does, in one delicious breath, but Nikolai gave his all and pulled it off credibly.  

Nikolai didn't quite get the love he deserved at curtain calls - maybe his not-so-loud high notes didn't go over too well in other parts of the house?  Not nearly enough seemed to realize that Rachvelishvili may be the best overall Carmen of this decade (sorry Olga, you owned the last decade but Rachvelishvili brings the sexy smolder that you never quite could).  No love for Dwayne Croft, which was totally unfair.  Lots of love for the conductor, Michele Mariotti, who was shockingly young and cute.  Overall, totally worth going back for. I wonder where Rachvelishvili will take her voice next.  I think a Delilah might be quite mezzoey delicious and her temperament might just be perfect for it.  

2.9.2013 L'Elisir d'Amore (big-time-Trebs-show)

Trebs, her hot baby-daddy, the hot Marius Kwiecien, sweet-voiced Matthew Polenzani - how could this go wrong? (it didn't). This is my first Trebs this season apart from opening night; although I have repeatedly seen her in the audience.  I just love that she goes to the opera for fun - she was at Turandot, the new Rigoletto, and something-I'm-not-remembering - but, as always, seeing her in person always dressed fabulously reminds us just how hot she actually is in real life.  And I bet she's real fun in person too!

So for this performance, which was to be JAX's mom's first opera (but wasn't because of stupid snowmageddon), I had gotten really nice orchestra seats (not because I'm nice or rich, but because they were the only ones left shy of $200).  For the first time ever, I was in excellent seats and kind of wished I wasn't.  Why is that?  See, the thing that is so thrilling about some singers, Trebs especially included, is that they have these enormous voices that soar magnificently above all other sound.  So Saturday, sitting almost dead-center in Orchestra just to the left of the left aisle, the magic of Trebs v. Orchestra / costars just never quite happened.  Sure, she was loud, and totally on fire in this final performance of this opera this year, but in those moments where on opening night her colossal sound threatened to rip the chandeliers from the ceiling  well, they just weren't so loud.  I guess it has less to do with her than it did the fact that everyone else, puny mortals and teeny instruments, project actually quite well to orchestra, so everybody and everything was totally audible all the time.  I would much prefer to hear the thunderously screamed "ASCOLTA!" tear out across the audience.  So, at the end, I left feeling very pleased with my usual cheap seats in the balcony box.  That being said, it was kind of nice to actually be able to see facial expressions, etc.

It was clear that everybody was having lots of fun today, probably because it was the last performance.  Trebs did even more spinning, dancing, and jumping while singing than before, amazing!  Maybe she took lessons from Natalie Dessay? (who always managed to be picked up and thrown in the air in every production here).

Cast-wise the only difference here was that yummy Erwin Shrott was now playing Dulcamara.  He started out playing the part as a sleazy used-car salesman chanelling drunk Johnny Depp, but he was very physical and it ended up being quite funny.  He had excellent chemistry with Trebs, especially in their big Act II scene, but that's hardly surprising since they are together.  And is he ever handsome!  Their kid is going to turn out something fierce if he inherits even just a fraction of either parent's hotness.

Also, let me point out, that despite paying hundreds of dollars for a seat (crazy!), orchestra people just aren't as serious as balcony boxers - too much whispering, candy unwrapping, etc.  It was nice to actually look straight forward and not have to lean and twist my head crazily all night, but I've gotten used to that.

While I had previously dissed the inexplicable top hat worn by Trebs in almost the entire opera, I now think it kind of makes sense.  She's a wealthy landowner in a small town, she reads, and here, she's almost made out to be something equivalent to the mayor of the town.  And so to set herself out from the others, she wears her silly hat.  Worked for me.

And, was it because Erwin was around maybe?, but why didn't she kiss the excellent Polenzani?  Their faces didn't even get close.  I remember on opening night it was ridiculous face sucking and the audience cheered - this time, they gave each other a very awkward hug.  Also, may I point out, that Polenzani totally had a goatie thing going on and it worked surprisingly well.  They have to fix the poor man's pants though - they did no flattery to his mostly-in-shape body.

So, sadly, this could be the end of Trebs and bell canto comedy, as she has announced the end of her "ina" roles.  While her voice may be hella dark and kind of heavy in this stuff now, she still has the personality for it and brings so much comedic energy to the stage and everyone else around her.  Kind of sad to see it go.  At the same time, move over and get ready for the bitch-on-wheels that will be her Lady Macbeth.  Looking forward to that for sure!

Next-up, on Wednesday: Carmen with the tenor (Nikolai Schukoff) who apparently loves to be naked on stage (google him!).  He might really be able to steam this one up with the super hot Anita Rachvelishvili - although I doubt he can rival Kauffman for sexiest Don Jose.

New Job: Senior Associate of the Law Offices of Jan Allen Reiner

I am happy to announce I am now Senior Associate at the Law Offices of Jan Allen Reiner.  (Actually, I have been for a few months, just never got around to blogging it).  We are a full-service immigration law firm, and specialize in the most complicated types of cases.  Mr. Reiner is one of the most respected immigration lawyers in the country and his firm has the highest peer rating possible based on his many years of practice in the field.  Our team is made up of brilliant hard workers who love our jobs and care about our clients, and I look forward to a long future here!

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We are happy to answer any immigration law questions!

Turandot, Met Opera 10.6.2012

Maria Guleghina, the only person (so far) who could lure me into buying a ticket ($45!!!) to watch the opera from the standing room.  Somehow I messed up my tickets for this year and wasn't going to hear Guleghina's amazing new voice (at least as of last year in Nabucco) scream out this voice-killer; apparently the other soprano got most of these Turandots this year.  Guleghina delivered; so, bottom line, ears blasted and back distressed.  3 hours with two intermissions is a very long time to awkwardly stand leaning on a counter while trying not to be too tall for the annoying short people behind oneself.

Act I was, as always, kind of boring.  It takes way too long to get off, and then Puccini bombards us with the soprano aria, the tenor aria, the screaming of "Turandot," the smashing of the gong, and then suddenly the act is over.

Marco Berti sounded actually quite great in everything except the highest of high notes (where he struggled and sounded wimpy).  Hibla Gerzmava was excellent throughout except the most unfortunate screwing-up of Liu's most important note in the entire opera (the end of Signore, Ascolta).  The rest of the aria was great, but then she reached for the note and barely grabbed it, and had a brutal time hanging on to it.  It was kind of sad how 5 seconds of shaky singing deprived her of 50 seconds longer of applause.

Then, finally, after the brutally boring beginning of Act II with the three stupid guys that I can't stand, Guleghina arrived.  She seems to be back to her prior 100% volume but still in her new and improved fresh voice.  The scary aria was super fantastic.  The riddle scene was ridiculously fun.  And she even used chest anytime it got into the low notes.

Act III went off great for the first 5 minutes, then Nessum Dorma happened.  It wasn't a disaster, but it didn't do anything for the audience either.  Liu's death was acted and sung spectacularly well by Gerzmava.  James Morris sang a few crushingly sad lines after her death to remind us that he was in this opera, but wow, so well acted.

Guleghina managed the transition from psycho bitch to tender love spectacularly well.  And, like her 1 good Turandot performance from the last run, she sang the last note: "Amore" with surprising restraint and beauty. Overall, her pitch had some of its usual wobbly issues, but she definitely was not flat like she used to be.  Hoping she sticks around for a few more future seasons with her new and improved voice.

And, just for fun, apparently Trebs was in the audience.  How cool is it that Trebs actually goes to the opera for, you know, fun!

+Anna Netrebko

Met Opening Night 9/24/2012: L’Elisir d’Amore

Trebs! Trebs! Trebs!  Looking fetching in a red dress and boots.  And sometimes a weird top hat, why?  Who cares!  It’s Trebs and her ridiculously loud voice.  Even if you see only the 10 seconds where she screams “Ascolta” at the top of her lungs on a stratospheric high note followed by a bellowy foghorned chest note, you’ll go home happy.  The rest of the opera was fun too. 

To all those who say Trebs can’t do bel canto, seriously, give up your complaining, she  may be ditching the “ina” roles, but she’s not gonna let go.  Just enjoy it for what it is – loud, good, delicious fun.  Yes, we all want to hear her scream out Puccini and do Verdi (Trovatore, please!!!!), and want to hear her Onegin (she’s gonna kill the final scene).  But it doesn't mean she ain't not good at bel canto.  Sure, some fancy coloratura stuff isn’t quite perfect, but whatevs, it’s pretty thrilling.  And I’ll take annoying mugging over crap acting / park-and-bark any day.  It may be over the top, but at least it’s fun.  And this is a comedy.  So why not be having fun! 

Cheers for the Met dumping the old annoying production.  Yeck.  The new one, with its cheesy sets and weird top hats isn’t great, but it’s not offensive either.  Costumes were fine, nothing too strange.  The top hat was pointless fun, Polenzani’s ass looked unfortunately huge in his pants, while Mariusz Kweicen’s was strapped into wonderfully tight pants which unfortunately were completely blocked from sight all night by his stupid military jacket.  Trebs’s dress had a weird cut on one side that allowed her to constantly flash boot and leg, just for fun.

The best part of the production was the wheat fields, which moved around randomly during the final minutes of most scenes to reduce time to change to the next one. 

Singing-wise, everything was pretty great.  Trebs was fantastic throughout, screaming thrilling high notes at the end of all arias, duets, and ensembles.  Using her garbly choked chesty middle voice to great effect.  Some ravishing pianissimos to remind us how good Manon was last year.  And the freaky “ascolta” which reminded me how great Bolena was (the part where she goes psycho on Percy and says she can never see him again).

Mariusz looked hot as always, his character was way more of an asshole in this production, but it suited him.  Ambrogio Maestri (shout out to my new friend JC who was the person who puts him into his costume every day and got featured in the New Yorker recently), was fantastic and huge (in appearance, chemistry with Trebs, in voice, and in ability to make the audience laugh).  He actually sang his funny song, but brilliantly with this horrific whistle between his teeth. 

Matthew Polenzani looked great and slimmed down from last year's Traviata, (but for the unfortunate seat of his pants).  His singing gets better and better.  He almost stole the show with his ridiculous breathing and piano singing in his big aria – I’d prefer a louder lustier version of it, but he sang it fantastically in his own Mozarty way.

Definitely worth seeing.  Also a great cutesy date opera to bring fresh victims.  How could you not like Trebs dancing on tables?  Dunno if it’ll happen every night, but there was major clapping when the two finally made out.  It looked like serious making out from the Dress Circle Boxes… overall, highly recommended.  Prolly (If you don’t like this annoying word, blame MT for using it too much and influencing me) should go see the HD for this one, I imagine it will look and sound great!

+Anna Netrebko 

Anna Bolena, Washington National Opera, 9/15/2012

Ok, new Met season, new attempt to continue actually blogging.

 First up, not at the Met.  Anna Bolena at Washington National Opera.  Sonia Ganassi was Seymour, Oren Gradus Henry, Claudia Huckle was Smeton, and Shalva Mukeria was Percy.  Aaron Blake sang the small part of Hervey, which in this production, ended up with lots of non-singing stage-time, some weirdly homoerotic glancing at Henry, and an unusually large cod-piece. 

First, SondRad’s voice is too big for the Kennedy Center Opera House.  It was ridiculous.  Her voice towered/soared/erupted above all others.  She took every optional high option and then some, but always in strange places.  There were several options that most sopranos tend to take that but SondRad sang the written low note, but then in weird bits of cabalettas she was screaming what sounded like Cs and Ds all over the place.  Also, brilliant use of deep scary chest, often immediately after high screams.  Fantastic!

 The Act I finale was probably the best part, as expected.  Weirdly though, near the end when Anna has a very high note, then another high note, and ending on the high D, they cut this section so there was only one note and then the D; dunno why.  Couldn’t even hear Seymour in this scene.  I have a recording, and Seymour is barely there.  The whole ensemble is very unbalanced without Seymour being as loud as Anna.  La Rad dominated this ensemble, and while her D was kinda short, it was explosive and thrilling.

Percy was a mixed bag.  Huge voice, tons of excitement in the voice, ability to rip out high notes.  He took every high option up, the most appreciated one being the end of his big duet with Anna where he begs her to come back and she rejects him.  But he seemed kinda boring, acting wasn’t so great.  His big scene near the end was good, but not great.  And, by the way, Met seats are way way comfier; I was suffering near the end of this 3-hour epic.

Seymour was good, but too small-voiced.  Fantastic acting, great character she turned Seymour into, and fine whenever she wasn’t competing with an ensemble.  The duet between she and SondRad brought the best out the best in Seymour, but she still wasn’t loud enough to really compete.  Henry was pretty good, great actor, nice singing.  Poor guy cracked his very last note, but then he took a breath, and sang it again with great force and held it forever.  Poor guy though.

Then SondRad had her big scene.  Weird tempos; too fast during parts where she could have sung forever on one breath, and not enough push in psycho bits and cabalettas.  The big aria went very very well until she weirdly took a very high option right near the end, and almost screamed it out.  I don’t know if she just lost control and couldn’t scale it back, or if the same singing at the Met wouldn’t have been as offensively loud, but it definitely broke the spell and the applause were not what was deserved overall.  Further proof that half of opera clapping volume relates directly to screamy-highness-loudness-length of final note (or, in this case, how pianissimo can you go while still actually producing noise, and for how long?). 

Then, right in time for some psycho-rage in the final cabaletta, irritatingly, a stupid cage fell down around Sondrad and her terrible-looking chopped-off-hair to remind us she’s in a cell, which blocked everyone in the theater from getting a good look at her.  It was kinda cool how she desperately grabbed and the bars and flung herself around, but it would’ve been way nice to actually see her.  The final cabaletta was really quite spectacular.  She trilled the last note as if she were going to take it up to Eflat, but at the last second I think decided not to and went down, which kinda disappointed everyone I think.  Great performance overall, I think when she’s done a few more, with a better conductor, and in the giant Met barn, this will be a fantastic role for SondRad; can’t wait for when she brings it to NY!

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.