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? 

10/10/2011 Anna Bolena

Okay, kind of fell off the blogging wagon recently; not off to the best start.  Anyways, seen a lot.  First up – Bolena #2.  Way better than opening night.  Sitting in the Family Circle; my intern AZ’s first opera ever (she says: “Wow, was that really an hour and a half?” after the second half, so good sign, right?). 

Mostly the same as opening night; Trebs’ first aria was still kind of lame and boring.  Seymour was announced as sick but singing; her voice just had a little more wear-and-tear and there were some serious screeches on the high notes, but more than made up for with excellent acting.

The duet with Percy was totally on fire; he looked crazed and desperate, she looked ANGRY.  The high D at the end of Act I was still in that annoying bird-chirp tone, but as significantly better than opening night. 

Act II fared much better than on opening night; Henry was a lot louder.  The confrontation duet with Seymour was spectacularly bitchy, the pleading for Anna’s life seemed less boring now that I’d heard it once before.

And then Percy.  Fearing the strangulation from opening night would return, I’d have to say listening to his big aria was more stress than enjoyment, but he did it and sounded great.  Did they cut some of it though?  It seemed almost twice as long before; although maybe that’s just because it was so painful to listen to?

The mad scene was spectacular.  No crazy grinning, but still totally out of character.  The clapping seemed a lot more genuine overall in this performance – opera lover audience instead of rich people who know nothing.  The final cabaletta was chestier than before, which was spectacular.  I wonder if now she’s done it a few times she knows exactly how much steam to keep on reserve for the finale; here, she clearly had more than enough and rewarded us with some spectacularly angry singing.  Last note, as before, was amazing – facing away, walking through a door behind a thick sound-blocking wall and still HUGE sound. 

Nabucco, Oct 5, 2011, Met Opera (Guleghina)

I sat in the Balcony Box left side, halfway along, so couldn't see about 1/4 of the stage.  Luckily with La Guleghina, no problem, you can hear her from anywhere.

So, I usually am not into overtures.  I thought, ugh.  And sure, the first minute-and-a-half kind of blew.  But then, suddenly, it got exciting. And it was a hit parade of all the tunes I knew from this opera. There was a moment many minutes in, when the thing should have ended, when people started to clap, and then boom, it picked up even more. Lots of energy.  Bu-du-du-du-du, and then into the soprano's famous cabaletta and then the famous bari-sopra duet.  The best! I'm not usually into noticing conducting, but this dude (looked old!) was on fire!  This opera seems to be a cabaletta-fest, perfect!  In my mind I'm imagining the bouncy Italian conductor's hair flopping all over the place doing this opera, but I must note this old dude just kept bringing the energy all night.

So, the set on this is maybe one of my favs so far.  Sure it's cheesy, but whatevs.  Basically it is a giant turntable.  One side is the Jews, the other is the Babs.  Seriously, Jews need more color.  Babs get silver & gold & fire.  Their idol looks like something from the Alien movies, wtf is it?  A melted goat?  Couldn't figure that one out.  Poor other side, no color for the Jews; they get yellow/off-white, some scrolls, and some really boring-looking chorus members.  The Babs get shiny helmets, nifty crowns, and lots of actual fire. 

Who knew that there would be death-defying height stunts at the opera.  Nabucco's actual daughter (pretty mezzo, whatever) plus the bass (who sucked at first, got way better, and then ran out of steam by the end of the night, but was overall a B-) are standing on this crazy-ass high platform at least as high as Dress Circle.  And crazy mezzo girl clearly has no fears of height whatsoever it seems.  So while the poor bass is terrified and white-knuckled constantly holding only the wierdo table-railing in the middle of the super high platform he's trapped on, crazy mezzo girl is standing 3 inches from the corner of the thing and leaning over like she's standing on the subway platform looking to see if the 1-train is coming.  Except she could fall 30 feet to her death if the air-conditioning makes the wind change.  It made me nervous, and I was sitting down behind a railing.

So then the drably dressed chorus sang for a long time.  Ugh.  Move along please!  And the finally, La Guleghina arrived.  Dressed in gray, looking psychotic, wig not looking as blonde as in the pics, but more like a fittin grayish blonde.  And she was heaving her giant sword all over the place, spewed deliciously filthy chest in all directions, and screamed out some great notes.  It was great, her voice is really in good shape, possibly the best I've heard her.  She tore up some high notes, mostly in pitch.  None of her nasty vibrado - no, now it's all vicious brutal screamy attack-notes.  Love it!

Eventually Nabucco arrived and woofed some stuff out.  He has a beautifully loud voice, but it's wierdly omni-directional.  Really really nice breathing.  Sort of like Hvor_____(many letters) except without the gasping for air.  And, btw, the tenor, who sounds so so good on recordings, and I really want to like him, really has too much going on in his voice live - he sounds like the note he's singing the right note plus all its nearby friends, and it's not a wobble or a pitch thing, just a wierd overtone thing.  Maybe b/c of my seat way off to the side there was some funny echos happening?  I really did not like.  Everyone in the house did though, so I shall reserve judgment until my next Nabucco (parterre box, hurray, only 6 days from now!).

So then everyone sang all together.  And Guleghina went way off to the left where I couldn't see, and the horrible old man next to me kept poking my back if I leaned too far to see her.  Couldn't figure out what the hell was going on, but despite the fact I couldn't see her and she was practically facing way, Guleghina dominated.  And it wasn't her usual scary mega-vibradoey voice, it was very focused.  And then out of nowhere she screamed (well, actually sounded like singing, surprisingly) a crazy high note, and it was delish.  Like at least a Csharp or D.  It wasn't so long, but it was huge, focused, and perfectly in pitch. 

And, by the way, who knew there was so much actual fire in this opera?  They burned down the temple by shoving actual burning torches into cubbyholes of scrolls or something.  The smoke was billowing up.  And then there was a total fireball on stage and it was amazing.  Fireballs + Guleghina hurling out high notes = demented opera heaven.

And then the turntable turned FOREVER.  So frigging slow.  Seriously, like 5 minutes.  Old conductor looked like he might expire before the next scene began.  And then the stupid thing turned sidways in such a way that all the action happened in the one corner I couldn't see.

Guleghina came out before her big aria and totally screeched some off-tune highs that were really awful.  And then, who knew it was still possible, she cranked out a beautiful lyrical aria.  None of her usual crystal soprano junk, but just a pretty mid-volume soprano voice with extremely impressive breath control.  Like Radvanovsky on steriods.  It was like Guleghina lip-synching to a fantasy-version of her former self.  It was really quite impressive.  The crowd went unsurprisingly wild.

And then the mega-cabaletta.  So good.  There were highs, chests, good mid-range, and more accuracy than Guleghina has ever achieved.  But man, the first 2 C's were vibrado-free lazers.  Harsh, sure, but none of the formerly common nasty spreading displayed most poorly in Guleghina's Turandots.  The spectacular high notes were, as some reviews have said, "brutal."  But nonetheless fantastic.  Her first try on the nasty double-octave drop wasn't so good; she kinda flubbed the chesting at the bottom and missed lots of the notes on the way down there, but she got it when she did get there.  The second time the high C was way more urgently exciting and lazer-ey, the run was a bit better, and she chested the hell out of the bottom and held the low C nicely.  It was impressive, I mean come-on to, to sing high C then a zillion notes down and then low C in chest over only mere seconds later takes serious talent.

As a bonus, instead of the usual lazy soprano/tenor practice of copping out when the chorus joins in to save up to blast just the final note, she sang along (and impressively audible even though she was facing away while walking up the scary stairs!) and then La Guleghina ripped a fantastic last note that was: 1) loud; 2) not flat; 3) very long ; and 4) somehow achieved without the usual mouth-open-so-wide that is her usual.  Hysterical clapping throughout the house.  Well deserved.  I can't imagine any other singer I have seen live doing any justice to this role.  Sure, she's not perfect (more chest please!), but man, a thrill.

Also, with her scary vibrado on occasion, there were some times, where I thought, wow, she's trilling?  Oh no, sorry, that's just her vibrado.  Sometimes it worked though.  Trebs needs to take lessons from La G.

Intermission was a unified Soviet effort to fight to the bar for hard liquor.  Serious.  None of the usual politeness.  Everyone was speaking Russian and fighting to the booze line.  And everyone was deleriously happy after such a good first half.  It was pretty fun.  Everyone seemed happy.  And nobody was drinking champagne.  It was all hard liquor. 

So then Act II started, a bit boring, I must say.  But then came the confrontation between Guleghina and Mr. Woofy Nabucco, and he really proved his singing and acting skills, turning his character (who I suspect with lesser singing actors is just a lame-o) into a very sympathetic and desperate dad.  And Guleghina was such a raging nasty bitch.  I mean, sure, he tried to dethrone her and all, and to call her out as a daughter of slaves, but she was mega-pissed.  She raged through all kinds of unfamiliar music, and it was amazing. 

They had their famous duet, and it was delish.  Didn't realize that the famous bit was only the cabaletta-ish part of a much larger duet that is like 12 minutes of great singing.  And then, in a moment of delicious opera heaven, La Guleghina went to scream her high Eb and, although somewhat rough to find and hold, it was there and eventually on pitch, it was almost musical, and it was like a nuclear explosion.  Audience went wild.  I must state that she really does do exceptionally well blending in duets and ensembles - she is actually very considerate and musical, just maybe the voice doesn't do what she wants it too sometimes.

Then the chorus had their famous bit.  Not the hugest fan of it, actually, but they did great.  I spent the whole thing trying to see if I could identify an acquantance in the Chorus, Brandon Mayberry, who is very tall, very cute, and usually very easy to pick out on account of his cute tallness.  I think he was the dude in the green pants (the only Jew with color, really), but wasn't sure...

A special note to Amber Wagner, who sang at the met council auditions a year/few years back and had a bit part here (the bass's sister, I think?).  She tossed out a few nice high beautifully-sung notes in act I, a few more in act II, but what impressed was a few larger ensemble bits where she DOMINATED.  Cast this girl as Freia in Rheingold please, she has the goods.

Then, after a few dull minutes, Guleghina came out in yet another new outfit.  Dressed even chestier and lower-cut than before, she sang her death aria with surprising emotion and beauty, with some crazy long breaths and none of that unstable crystal piano singing she used to do; it was gorgeous and stable.  And then, near the end, she was basically in the push-up position about to expire (she takes poison).  Instead of slowly slumping down and dying, she slammed to the floor with a horrifically violent thud.  If you've seen Monty Python's Flying Circus, it was like the giant foot of God had just stomped on her.  I'm surprised she didn't break her face.  It was demented.

And then the opera ended rather abruptly, like "soprano's dead, everyone go home!"  No complaints here.

The curtain call was amazing.  Guleghina came out to hysterical screaming.  And she did little diva claps to everyone - audience, cast members, chorus, set, cieling, god, satan, orchestra, conducter, herself - it was great.  And somehow there was some kind of upper-body wardrobe malfunction b/c there was some serious cleavage going on while she clapped.  Maybe just the high angle from where I was, but it was some good stuff.  The chorus got a huge ovation for their great work. 

And, hurray, my recording from the broadcast worked (well, mostly, it cuts out a bit, somehow always during good high notes), so I can relive the experience.  And wow, Guleghina sounds 50 times better live than recorded.  Anyone wanting a night (and short, too, 2.5 hours including intermission!) of great great opera, you must go to one of these with La G.  Despite her apparent recent rejuvenation, Guleghina's years are numbered, and this must be one of her greatest roles.  Don't miss it!

Guleghina on youtube; an analysis

Guleghina ("G"), WTF?  Rejuvenated, powerful, chest, but still deliciously screamy, more-often-than-not in tune. How is this possible?  Let’s all watch a youtube video together - be careful to keep your speaker volume down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VGFMlIPfX4

You have to see it.  She's out of control. G’s chest is back. It’s ugly, but it’s magnificent. And those high notes! Yum! And the less-than-stratospheric notes are even in-tune, some even oh so pretty~!

Second by second, here it goes:

14 seconds: Bb below middle C. Disgusting chest. Rippingly deep. Love it!

27 seconds: more filthy chest. Resonating in a nasty way, delish!

33 seconds: chesty heaven!

41 seconds: here’s the vibrato G I’m used to hearing.

1:00: Yes! Back to usual! But not flat…. Well, almost.

1:05 WTF! Higher? Yes! More please!

1:08 dipping into chest and then back up to highs? Who is this woman?

1:20 "Acting." Haha, she’s so crazy.

1:57 nice try at soft singing Maria, we don’t fall for it.

2:01 flat, sorry.

2:09, same note, better, good job!

2:17 sliding into note, flat flat flat flat, okay.

2:18 grabbing co-star’s ear and trying to tear it off hard is NOT cool. He appears undamaged.

2:24 chest. Yes! He looks disgusted. Is he acting, or his physical response to such ugly sounds; who knows?

2:28 typical G crystal piano, first so far.

2:49 wow, her first breath in a long time.

3:14 first-and-last comment on tenor: “You sound very nice, will blog more about you upon hearing you live.”

4:05 can’t see her, but she’s f-ing loud!

4:30, wow, how does this newly configured Guleghina keep hitting notes on key?

4:36, sorry, sure, she hits them on key, but then she slides all over the f*-ing place.  Get your sh*t together G!

4:59-5:07 – is she using her magnificent powers to suck the singing energy out of him by grabbing his arm? Sounds like it… / What are these sustained notes and where did they come from (stolen from tenor)?

5:31 wow, midrange note, not screaming, not off-pitch, not-crazy-crystal, I’m impressed! Oh so pretty ending to this tenor-soprano duet! Great job G!  

Can’t wait for next Wednesday. So bitter about winning tix for this Saturday and having to give them away (to very cute British boy with adorable accent. And he really almost drowned in the sudden rainstorm tonight, so he must be a deserving fan; note: G – please scream out that E-flat for him, he earned it!).

And G - you’d better save some filthy chest and that E-flat for at least 1of my 4 upcoming Nabuccos... but really, please, please please please scream that E-flat every time so I can go home happy. No matter how badly it turns out.

With my dorky big headphones and J's Ipod, I made a man cringe on the subway today with that E-flat (whoops, was it really that loud?), and I think maybe I lost some hearing (whatevs, worth it!). But it really made my day.  And what's a little ear damage anyway?

Immigration Litigation = Middle School Debate Club?

Remember "Debate Club" in middle school?  You go up and argue for 5 minutes, then your opponent gets 5, then you get 1, then they get 1?  Except often you are arguing one thing, and they aren't arguing the other side of what you just said, they're arguing something totally different?  And neither side ever really debates quite the same thing?  Immigration Litigation is really quite similar. 

In removal (deportation) proceedings, you can ask the judge to continue/adjourn the case (schedule it for a later date) by asking for a continuance.  According to the federal regulations, at 8 C.F.R. § 1003.29, the Immigration Judge can continue proceedings if "good cause" is shown.

Okay, so what's good cause?  The Board of Immigration Appeals, who write opinions that the Immigration Judges have to follow, have held that when someone has a pending petition from an immediate relative (meaning that if the petition is approved they are immediately eligible to apply for adjustment of status, a fancy way of saying apply for their green card in the United States), that pending petition constitutes good cause.  Matter of Hashmi, 24 I. &. N. 785, 787 (BIA 2009). Then they said the same for employment-based petitions where an immigrant visa is immediately available, good cause is shown.  In re Rajah, 25 I. & N. Dec. at 135-36 (2009).

Both Board cases say that relying solely on case completion goals (Immigration Judge's are supposed to finish so many of their pending cases each year so as not to get backlogged) is not permissible, that they have to consider all issues and balance all the factors before denying a continuance request.

We have a case where the client is removable for criminal issues.  When we were before the Immigration Judge ("IJ"), we explained he had hired a criminal attorney and filed motions to reopen and vacate his convictions because his criminal lawyer never told him the immigration consequences of the guilty pleas and he would have plead to more serious offenses and faced more jail time if he could have avoided mandatory deportation.

If our client succeeds with the motions (New York Criminal Procedure Law 440 motions), he would not be removable from the United States, the judge would terminate proceedings, and he'd go back to being a permanent resident.  Rather than decide whether these pending motions constituted "good cause," the Trial Attorneys ("TAs," attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security who argue why a person is removable, the civil law equivalent of what a prosecutor is in criminal court) said, "Hey, well until the criminal courts reopen the case, he's still convicted.  Since he's still convicted and removable, there's no reason to continue the case."  The IJ agreed without explaining whether or how he balanced all the factors he was supposed to.

Just like middle school debate.  We say we have a reason to continue, they say he's still convicted of his crimes without saying why our reason isn't a good reason.  Very frustrating, but quite typical.  Seems like arguments that your guilty plea is unconstitutional because you were provided ineffective assistance by your criminal lawyer might constitute a good reason to prolong removal proceedings and delay possible deportation when there is a good chance the criminal court will later vacate the conviction, doesn't it?  DHS and the IJ don't seem to see it that way.

Maria Guleghina, the reason I will go prematurely deaf

I blew out my speakers and did some ear damage last night watching the youtube clips of Maria Guleghina rehearsing Nabucco and more clips of her on the Tuesday opening.  And she tears up the end of the big duet with an E-flat.  Serious?  This is the woman who couldn't sing C's in Turandot just two years ago.  Who wobbled the hell out of everything that she could sing.  And now she's screaming out E-flats?  Love it.  That note is about 5 times louder than the notes before or after.  Sure, it's a scream, it's not singing, but hey, it's damned loud, perfectly on pitch, and not wobbly at all (how is that even possible?!).  I can't wait.  6 more long days to go until Wednesday when I get to see her.  She'd better rip that E-flat out for me.

Serious.  Nobody is more hit and miss.  But nobody is louder.  And boomier.  And NOBODY tries harder, or takes more risks.  I mean, even in crap voice, she will always take the highest available high option.  I like that.  Guleghina is definitely a favorite here.  One of my biggest opera regrets was not getting tickets to her Macbeth (we opted for Andrea Gruber, J's first Tosca who was fantastic, but then she cancelled and we got Papian).  I have the DVD of the HD, and it is great. Demented. Sick. Ugly. Perfect. I wish I had been there.


My first Guleghina was Norma in 2007.  I didn't really know anything about Norma except for Casta Diva.  And it's practically the first thing out the gates.  And it was awful.  Like people leaving the theater awful, there was strangulation, screaming, hooting, garbling, and just plain ugly.  The cabaletta was insane, not because it was also awful, but because she still kept taking every high option she could.  But then it just got better and better.  And even when she's hooting, screeching, screaming, wobbling, and putting out that weird crystal piano sound where her voice gets so thin yet huge yet soft yet ugly, she's always exciting.  By intermission, I was on board.  Plus Zajick was there to help clean up some of the filth, maybe my first time seeing her too, although I think I'd probably seen an Amneris or two prior.  And in that crazy part where they are both cabaletting together in thirds, Guleghina was perfectly aligned with Zajick, an impressive feat.  By the end of the opera, I was a huge Guleghina fan.  Her last note sounded like a nuclear explosion.

Next was Queen of Spades, an opera I had seen in Toronto (I think with Papian) and really really loved.  I am so in love with Tchaikovsky operas.  So much clarinet and so many tragic diminished chords.  Heaven.  Anyway, it was Guleghina vs. Ben Heppner's voice cracks.  I saw three performances.  One he cracked a bit, one announced as ill he cracked everything, third time, all better, no cracks.  Poor guy.  But all three times, Guleghina brought sickening volume to everything. It was amazing.  Her big scene was spectacular.  And although her acting is cheesy and old-school, it is so effective nonetheless.  The most conviction I've ever seen on the opera stage is her suicide.  The scene is set at the harbor; a two-foot wall rises near the front of the stage to portion off a narrow boardwalk, fog is pumped behind the wall to create the illusion of water, and tiny model boats are way backstage giving the illusion of distance.   Extremely effective.  So when Guleghina jumps the wall and wades knee-deep in the fog while two giant walls close from either side, she doesn't just go through the opening and keep going; no, crazy Guleghina waits until there is almost no room and lunges through the narrow opening like a space battle in Star Wars with the Millennium Falcon barely squeezing between giant star destroyers, and everyone is convinced she will die a horrific crushing death before our eyes.  It was demented. She made it all three times, but I think her dress almost didn't the third time, and the two walls crashed into each other really really loudly.  Everyone sighed in relief that she made it and that the walls didn't fall down and kill someone. 

Then a very respectable Adriana Lecouvreur, shared with Domingo (how is he so old and still sound so good?) and Borodina.  Actual soft singing (albiet in that freaky crystal voice), really good acting, all so good.  Crazy bitch fight with Borodina was amazingly catty.  Domingo sounds old, sure, and singing high is not easy for him, but he still sounds like a star.  It was a pretty memorable performance.

Then she sang Aida at the 125 Gala opposite Blythe in their great Act II duet.  It didn't even sound like her.  The loud was there sure, but so was the soft, the pleading, the desperate.  Notes were uncharacteristically on-key.  Acting was not over the top.  High notes were plush notes, not screams.  It was really great.  I'm glad she got that after having been at the Met for so many years.  One of my favs from that evening of many great performances.

Then Turandot.  Everyone joked it was the opera in which she couldn't sing half the notes.  On my first of two outings, I'd have to agree.  High notes disappeared.  Even the really important ones.  Mouth open; no sound.  On occasions with sound, it was the note, plus wobbles a couple half-steps in either direction.  Brutal.  It was like grandma brought the megaphone.  But clearly it was an off night (or, conversely, the next time was a really good night) because I saw a spectacular Turandot a while later, and all the notes were there.  The riddle scene was a lesson in declamatory singing and acting.  The wobble was almost gone.  The high notes were there.  And, what seemed to go unappreciated, but I found amazing, was that her last note (is it a C?) when she says his name is "love" actually sounded pretty, and was not the ultra-forte we usually expect from Guleghina, but a very well projected medium-piano.  It was beautiful and long-held.  I was very impressed, especially given how unfortunate the earlier performance was.


Last year, Carnegie Hall presented the Opera Orchestra of New York in concert, doing La Navaresse (huh, I hadn't heard of it either) and Cavalleria Rusticana.  I thought, "Cavalleria, wow, perfect for the old chesty Guleghina I know only from youtube."  But from what I can tell, Guleghina doesn't do chest any more.  Ever.  No matter how weak her other register is or how low she has to drag it to avoid chesting a note.  And then she opened her mouth for the Easter Hymn, and it was a fresh voice.  New.  Seemingly sized down considerably, but none of that crap wobble.  And then there was chest.  It wasn't crazy loud or anything, but respectable.  She pulled out all the stops in her desperate duet with whats-his-name (my tenor boyfriend Alagna), her curse was pretty fierce, and her final scream was impressively loud with some serious bite, so she certainly could bring back the old volume in short bursts when she wanted.  It was really quite promising.

And now, according to youtube, that same fresh-voiced Guleghina is back doing Nabucco.  Except it sounds like some fierce chesting is happening.  And apparently the previously-unreachable C's are back.  I mean, even in the youtubes of her doing Nabucco at the Met 10 years ago she barely hits the C's and they are brutally flat.  And here, according to unreliable footage from youtube, she's ripping out bang-on C's and screaming a horrifically delicious E flat.  The attack on that note, both in the rehearsal footage and from the 27th prima, is spectacular.  So I really can't wait.  If she delivers, I may see all remaining Nabuccos with her.  And the great thing with Guleghina is that it doesn't matter where you sit; you will hear her.  And her cheesy opera acting could be seen from space.  So hey, even if the only cheap seats left are the rear side of the family circle, whatevs.  She will still blow you out of your seat.  I hope someone gets a good recording from next Wednesday; my luck - every time the Met does their weekly free live broadcast, I'm actually there and can't record it from home.

Anna Bolena 9/26/2011

On Monday night, J and I made our annual outing to the Met's season opener.  This is our 4th so far: we saw Renee's big opening, the booed Tosca, and the intermission-less Rheingold.  This year, they had a new way of issuing tickets; before you could buy best available seats the moment after you subscribed, and I always went psycho subscribing the very first second subscriptions could be renewed and then got great opening night tickets.  This time, they allegedly waited and issued the tickets based on subscription priority or something like that.  The end result?   The same - Row A of Balcony, off to the side.  $140 a ticket seems reasonable for a gala, and J gets to use the tax deductible part.

Armed with black suits and cute skinny ties, we stood around and watched famous people for a while before going in.  Nobody super exciting, was nice to see LeeLee Solbiesky not pregnant-and-about-to-pop like last time we saw her.  The best part was when super cute Mariusz Kwiecien came to the area where only recognized VIP's may enter, and the girl holding pages and pages of photos of famous people tried keep him out.  She had no idea who he was.  Their star baritone plastered on ads everywhere for Donny G, and she had no idea who he was.  He looked amused, and had to spell out his name to her.

Everyone was excited for Trebs as Bolena.  Maybe too excited.  The bouncy Italian conductor popped out of nowhere and did the national anthem, all the crowd pretended like they could sing when they really couldn't, and then the conductor walked off.  Then, gone.  Was he doing a stupid HD interview?  'Cause we were all waiting forever in the dark.  And then the longest overture ever.  I hate overtures.  Except the cutesy ones that play all the hits we are going to hear.  But this? Long. Long. Long.  I like the opera, not the symphony, sorry.  Bring out the singers.

When the curtain finally did come up, it was a dark dark room.  Kind of boring.  I mean, I know it was night-time, but it was just too dark.  And everyone in dark drab colors.  And stars looking really obvious when the only light in the house was the mega-spot shining on them.

It took a while, but eventually Trebs came on, there was clapping, she sang some sad stuff, whatever. Beautiful voice, unfamiliar music, not terribly exciting.  Garanca would have been fun to see, I think, but Ekaterina Gubanova seemed fine to me.  Rough edgy voice, exciting if frayed top, some good chesty lows.  A very mezzo high voice, unlike Garanca who to me sounds very soprano on high notes.  Great chemistry and acting with Ildar Abdrazakov, who I did not like at all.  He was just not loud.  Could not hear him in ensembles, over orchestra, and when singing alone just never had enough authority or volume in his voice.  Smeton's song had some very yummy contralto lows. 



Stephen Costello was great in Act I.  His voice was exciting, high, pretty loud, and he looked good.  He and Trebs had a great scene near the end of Act I.  Here was the first part where I felt Trebs was really living up to expectation.  She was intense, and chesty.  She flung out some fearsome high notes that were very loud.  Lots of smiling from me here.  One note right before she told Percy she'd never see him again was of particular mention, and the whole audience was jolted by the urgency and loudness of the outburst. 

The the big Act I finale started out great, the cabaletta part was crazy fast.  Trebs's voice was flying all over the place and sounding great.  The two crazy high notes were great.  And then came time for the high D and...... a small bird being squeezed to death tweeted from her throat.  It was a D, bang on, for sure.  It was singing, sort-of.  But from another register in another singer in another opera.  And she was trying her all to make it work, and held it the full length, and pushed more air and made it a bit louder, but it never worked.  It was really strange.  What should have been the moment where she dominated as she usually does best, it just came off a bit wimpy.  I heard people complaining as J and I went in search of a shorter bar line at intermission.

Act II was long.  WTF? Every other Donizetti opera is like 70 minutes, 30 minute intermission, 50 minutes, done.  Not Anna Bolena.  90 minutes and then 90 minutes is too much bel canto.  So many scenes.  Not enough cabalettas - were they cut or something?  All that slow music just made 90 minutes feel longer. 

Each scene was better than the last.  The confrontation was great.  Trebs was doing some great fake crying at the beginning.  She is excellent when she's being sad, crazy, or an angry raging bitch.  The rest of the time, meh.  This duet was all angry raging bitch.  She looked furious.  Jane looked seriously afraid of being smacked.  It was great. Audience loved it - first clapping of the night that felt more than polite post-final-chord claps. 

Jane was fantastic begging for Anna to be spared.  Henry would have been great if another singer was hiding behind him and singing for him.  Alternating between desperate, sad, and raging bitch, Trebs was in top form in her confrontation with Henry, great stuff.  Smeton came out tied to a 2-by-4 and looked really miserable.  Then Percy had a really long scene with his killer aria.  And for all of his great singing all night, which I thought was virile and loud, he just ran out of, well, everything.  He almost strangled himself on the high bits.  It was brutal.  He was trying so so hard, but it was not coming out properly.  Poor guy.

Then, as if we hadn't endured enough and weren't totally starved waiting for dinner, a long long women's chorus sang forever about something.  Finally, we got to Trebs losing her mind, and it was fantastic.  Everything as it should be. Beautiful singing, crazy outbursts, great acting.  Loved how through the rest of the opera her hair was under hats and such, because here was the beautiful Trebs we're used to seeing looking great with long hair.  Some scarily off-pitch high notes, but oh so pretty.  And crazy clapping after.  And then she even smiled, she didn't even try not to as she usually does, she knew she made it. 

Then to outbitchify her prior angry bitch moments, when the bells started ringing and the pre-amble to the final cabaletta started, she made a fearsome face clearly seen by all the house.  It was her "I'll cut a bitch" face, I'm telling you.  The cabaletta was faster than I've heard it in recordings, and it was fierce.  She chested the hell out of every low note she could push into.  Her high notes, which sounded on youtube from Vienna to be often sharp, seemed perfectly placed.  And loud. Very loud.  Then she flung her hair in a bun, and with more conviction than any opera acting (except maybe Guleghina killing herself in Queen of Spades) she walked to the guards and off to her execution screaming out a spectacularly loud final note.  Even after she passed through the door and was facing away from us behind a giant wall with only a small door opening, the sound was booming.  Crowd became hysterical.  Even all the non-opera rich people, who never really know what's going on, what's good, or why they're clapping, seemed to be frenzied by the cabaletta.  It was some rocking good stuff.  The giant shiny red curtain thing that fell was great too - very effective and not cheesy, as claimed by some of the stuff I've read. 

So why wasn't the show overall the 5-star show we all wanted it to be?  Well, I think Trebs's placement on the stage was based on seeing her in my favorite Trebs moment, the poison aria in Romeo & Juliette.  She acts, she sings loud, and she sounds great facing away from us.  She spent so much of the performance not singing like the others, eg,. facing the audience no matter who they're singing to, but singing in whatever direction she happens to be facing.  She sings into Henry's chest, to the top of Percy's head, to the back of the stage, to the floor, the ceiling, everywhere except to us.  And sure, when she's singing loud you could hear her if a 747 was crashing into the orchestra between you and her.  But when she's singing regularly, her sound isn't as good as it would be delivered actually to the audience.  Maybe it's to look good for the HD, but she should sing more to us and less to imaginary cameras please. 

Also, thanks to my favorite place where they post recordings from the live broadcasts, I got to listen to a recording of Monday.  And, funny thing, although Trebs's middle and high notes generally sound pretty much as they do live, her chest sounds even more deliciously chestier (it was pretty chestily impressive, but recorded it sounds contraltoish), and the D at the end of Act I sounds completely not the same.  It's still not good.  But it is more than audible ands sounds like a deperate scream, which at least suits the scene.  Don't be fooled, it was an awful whir.  Also, on recording, you can hear Henry and he sounds great. 

It really makes you appreciate the superhuman volume of the big stars, because less-than-great people seem to record pretty well at the Met, but up in the Balcony, only the true good voices carry well.  And not necessarily just the loud ones.  And in his 15 seconds of singing, Bolena's brother (he's a bass, right?) made me wonder why he wasn't singing Henry because: a) his sound was huge, and b) he sounded really great and menacing.  All in all, a fun night.

Fury and damnation to Ed's Chowder House, by the way.  I made reservations for 9:45.  Upon learning that this opera is way longer than it should be, I went in person and told them I needed to make the reservation later.  The girl said: "sure, just come after the opera."  So at 10:25, after throwing ourselves in front of aging seniors, flying out the secret emergency exit, being trapped by the stupid tent and having some jerk security guard argue with us and try and make us go back in and leave through another exit, we got to dinner.  And when we got to the check-in, a bitchy waiter looked at his watch and said "Sorry, 10:30, kitchen's closed!"  Clearly these people didn't know the cardinal rule: Don't f*ck with J, he'll end you.  After 15 minutes of arguing with the manager, hopefully getting that stupid girl fired, we left starving.  Thanks to Ariba Ariba and our hot waiter there for a great dinner.

Trebs

As I start this blog, for some singers, I want to share past memories before blogging about current performances. Here, Anna Netrebko ("Trebs") has just sang Anna Bolena for opening night (a soon-to-be-posted entry), but I have many mostly-fond memories of Trebs since 2007.

Romeo

Trebs and I go back 4 years, when she sang Romeo & Julliette.  Villazon had cancelled, and Roberto Alagna was the replacement Romeo.  It was a performance to remember.  Trebs totally flubbed the coloratura aria, as expected - mushy notes and smudgy runs.  But then as the night wore on, things got better and better.  There was the amazingly nude duet in bed, and then the poison aria.  No wonder Gheurghiu came to New York and got fired in Chicago - she wanted to keep her man in line.  He and Trebs had so much chemistry in that bed one wondered what exactly they were doing in it before the curtain came up.  And her porn-star-body was put to good use here with the lowest-cut nightgown in opera history.  And Roberto was in cute little shorts.  He's no 30 or even 35, but he still pulls off the boyish thing.

The poison aria set the standard to which all Trebs performances must now be compared.  She took a pretty little aria and turned it into a horrific mad scene.  There was some shrieking, some off-pitch highs, but it was LOUD.  And she was CRAZY.  Like Tybalt's ghost was there coming to get her.  Palpable fear.  And then as she walked up the stairs to the bed she suddenly faced exactly away from the audience and bellowed the last 30 seconds of the aria to the rear stage.  And you know what?  It was louder than anything I'd ever heard live.  So loud. So big.  Sound coming not from one tiny mouth but from deep inside the Met from a hundred directions.  And then right before her big trill-less final phrase, she slowly turned around and the sound transformed from everywhere to laser beam as it cut from right-to-left.  The house was in hysteria. 

The live-HD recording, made a few months later but with the same cast, captures this scene exactly as I remember.  Trebs does record very well, unlike others, like Radvanovsky, who sounds entirely like another person live vs. recorded (a thrilling live voice).  And, by the way, Trebs has this thing that is captured in every HD broadcast, where after a successful sing, but before the clapping starts, she wants so so so badly to grin like a 6-year-old at a school talent show - sometimes she suppresses it, but often fails (see the end of the mad scene in the Puritani HD).  After knocking back the potion she totally smiled before putting on her serious face and fainting.

The final scene was very touching.  Roberto was great, people were actually crying in the audience.  The acting was fantastic and the trying-but-failing to hold hands before dying was perfect.  Crowd went wild.

Lucia

Then there was the Lucia.  A night to remember.  Also the day before I started my first full-time permanent job ever, at the law firm where I currently work.  January 26, 2009.  Villazon was finally back after canceling everything I had bought tickets to see him sing for like 2 or 3 years (and then doing same in future, so far to date).  My first time hearing him.  Everyone was like: “Trebs as Lucia? But she can't do coloratura!!”  Having seen the HD of Puritani, I thought, well, she can't really do fast notes, but she might be game for most of this.  Her voice was crazy dark.  But weirdly none of that huge sound from Romeo.  It was like she had redone her voice - it was more accurate, more put together, but had lost some volume.  At least for a while. 

After a boring beginning to the next act, she had her duet with the hot (is he gay?) baritone brother, Mariusz Kwiecien, which had all kinds of creepy incestuous vibes to it.  Suddenly there was chest voice ripping everything on stage apart.  And then possibly the loudest note I've ever heard live, she ended the duet with the most frighteningly loud D-or-whatever, and probably caused brain damage to poor Mariusz.  It was thrilling. 

Then Villazon ended his career by singing an awful awful awful note, then lunging up to a higher note and cracking, then staring for 7 seconds in panic while Trebs and others looked back with even more panic, then singing the lower note again and having it sound (how it was possible, I don't know) even worse than the first try.  It was rough.  I must add, though, that they announced him as ill but soldiering on, and when he sang the final scene, (the one where everyone in the house is thinking, ugh, the mad scene is over, the soprano is backstage drinking by now, why are we still here?), Villazon was totally on fire.  Sure, apparently it was transposed down, but some of the best tenor singing I've heard.  The audience ate it up. 

The mad scene came, and everything was great until the duet-with-flute part, which, although fine, had none of the usual high stuff, and just seemed too safe to be worthwhile.  Then the supposed-to-be-high-e-flat was (I swear!) a flat D, and everything fell off track.  Then the Spargi, ____ wasn't so hot.  And the high Eflat was not only a flat D, but was in some alien register of her voice, part scream, part whirr, part teeny-tiny bird being squeezed to death.  People didn't know what to do, and the staging was set for two men to carry Lucia up a long flight of stairs during screaming and "brava's" for like a minute, but the clapping was over before they got up the first step, and it was really embarrassing.  At curtain calls, Anna looked really miserable.  Not happy at all.
The live HD broadcast captured no off-tune notes, but she didn't take the first e-flat, and the second one was kind of short, but at least loud and on pitch.  Even in that, she looks so miserable in the broadcast during curtain calls.  And not to agree with Anthony Tommassini, who always puts out totally bullshit opera reviews that are not in touch with reality, but he said something to the effect of "great singing except for those pesky high notes."  So true, everything else was great, but, as I have come to realize, the most important part of opera is high notes.  You can screw up an entire aria, but if you nail the last note, and hold it as long as you can, people will cheer.

Hoffman
Hoffman was supposed to be Villazon.  Trebs was supposed to sing all 3 female leads (why do they call them "Heroines?").  She dropped the coloratura doll and the whatever-she-is-sounds-like-mezzo, leaving Antonia.  I couldn't imagine in any world her singing the doll song, so thank goodness for that.  I think the 3rd act would have been fine for Trebs, but why bother singing 2 of 3?  Antonia was perfect for her.  Her first aria kind of sucked, just never got off the ground.  Duet with Hoffman was pretty great, and then the trio at the end was spectacular.  Again with the crazy Juliette bellowing voice.  Ultra loud.  I read somewhere that Trebs "dominated" the trio, and that is exactly it.  Dominated.  Obliterated.  And some really game acting, grasping at the sheet music in desperation. 

But then at the very end of the trio, there is a high note, and then a slightly higher one which ends the trio.  And again that weird bird-register voice appeared.  The first slightly lower note, was in bellowing voice - full, lush, rich, thrilling.  The high note (I think C-sharp maybe?), suddenly caused her voice to shift gears into that other register, and it wasn't so good.  And she totally knew because the second the sound started she realized it wasn't loud enough and started pushing hard.  And it got louder, and fuller, (sort-of), but it just sounded weird. 

And then I think she trilled on her death note.  Sounded like a trill to me - all this blog-hate of her not trilling, and I could swear that this was a Sutherland trill.  But whatever, she never trills anywhere where she actually should, so some of the blog-hate is justified. 

The opera continued through the boring third act, the muse looking really cute as a boy with that very fine line of how-nude-can-you-make-the-mezzo-and-still-have-her-as-a-convincing-boy?  Then the finale had all the singers in a giant chorus.  But you would think it was just Trebs.  There was the drone of many people singing, and blasting above it all was Trebs.  It was great.  For less than an hour of singing in a very very long opera, she certainly got more cheers than anyone else, even (unfairly, because he was great) the Hoffman, Joseph Calleja.

Boheme
Possibly my best night at the opera so far, was this Boheme.  Trebs, Ruth Ann Swenson, Piotr whats-his-name, and some dude as Marcello.  The tenor aria was spectacular, Piotr sang his heart out.  Trebs fooled us all with a delicately beautiful Mimi aria.  I thought, huh, suddenly she sings all lyrical and pretty?  Cool!  But then she shifted into a higher gear, and the size of her voice exploded.  The duet ending the first act was spectacular.  The offstage ending sounded as if she was standing in front of the orchestra pit with a megaphone.  It was sound coming from all directions.  Somewhere deep below was the tenor voice, but hers dominated.

Act II brought out Ruth Ann Swenson, a favorite that I regret not having seen much of.  I saw her in Julius Caesar, where she was amazing and fresh-voiced.  Then in a Traviata that was supposedly her last Met performance, which was heartbreaking and so so good (and with Kauffman I think, yum).  Then suddenly, she's back at the Met for half of the Musettas.  And her voice is not really that loud, but it is a laser beam.  Thrills for sure.  I was with a friend sitting about the middle of the balcony boxes, and you could really notice the difference in volume from when she was facing away, facing the middle of the audience, or aiming the laser right at the balcony boxes.  And luckily she aimed the laser at us pretty much all the time.  It tore through all other sound with sweet precision, and it was a great performance, especially in the last act with some excellent acting.

Act III came, the "snow scene" (J’s favorite), and here was Trebs in full form.  No sick-and-dying bullshit, just plain old mega volume.  My friend pointed out my habit, unknown to me until that night, that I grin like a fool on good high notes.  I spent the whole act grinning.  Trebs, as they say, "sang the shit" out of this music.  She needs to do more Puccini.  Manon Lescaut, please! 

Act IV brought on brilliant changing in tone of the voice, still loud, but wane and sad sounding.  Except the "I have so many things to tell you, well, one thing to tell you" part, which was maybe the loudest singing of the night.  Poor tenor had to have his big emotional outburst immediately following, and he didn't stand a chance of producing anything close to the same volume.  And then she died after some very loud breathing.  Nobody could have believed for a second that she had consumption with such huge singing, but some very good acting and a lot of chemistry with Piotr.  Hysteria during the curtain calls, very much deserved.  My face hurt from smiling.

Don Pasquale
I had very high expectations for this performance.  I knew nothing about the opera except the big aria.  I must have listened to her sing it from 2006 maybe 1,000 times on my ipod.  It's fantastic all the way through except the smudged fast notes, but she ends it with a ridiculously long thrilling high note.  So when, in 2010, the last note wasn't as loud or as long, it was a bit disappointing.  Still great, but I thought, huh, I guess she's just not as loud anymore.  And let's be honest, the most exciting thing about Trebs is superhuman volume.  And low-cut outfits.

After the initial disappointment on the big aria, things improved remarkably.  In the scene where she tricks Pasquale into marrying her, once she ripped off her hat and transformed from the innocent nunnery-girl to, well, Trebs, the huge voice was back.  Violently loud high outbursts all over the place to match the trashing of Pasqual's house.  Vases thrown, beds jumped on (screaming high notes and jumping on a bed at the same time, amazing!), stools flung dangerously close to the orchestra pit.  It was great great fun. 
The second half, I didn't enjoy as much, she's a bitch, she feels sorry, etc.  The finale was great, the "old men shouldn't get married" tune was very cute, and she soared above everyone (not difficult - wimpy tenor, old man, and super-hot Mariusz not really booming out like we know he can).  I think Levine was trying to make the singers balance out at the end, because I felt like she wanted to sing out more but was holding back - she had potential to rip out some stunning final notes, but instead blended nicely with everyone else - musical, but not as fun.  All in all, pretty good.  Memories of smudged coloratura were definitely erased by watching her trash Pasqual's place in the HD movie.  Sure, it’s cheesy and she’s campy, but its funny, and this is a comedy.  If she didn’t ham it up it would be as lame as, well, every time I’ve seen the Barber of Seville. 

Immigration Law & Opera - a little about me

My friend S has been telling me I should blog opera for some time now.  S is the reason I am an opera addict - we met in junior high school in Calgary, Alberta, and started doing the yearly talent show - I play piano and S is a coloratura soprano (well actually an architect, but that's a long story).  She took me to my first opera when I was 17, Die Fledermaus.

I moved to Toronto for college, where they had great student deals and I saw most of the operas they put on between 2001 and 2005.  Some were great, some were fantastic, some were okay.  Die Walkure was pretty awesome, Oedopus Rex was pretty disgusting, Rigoletto had a very funny moment I'll blog about another time (made funnier by the horrific cold I had and the bottle of cough syrup I drank so as not to cough like those old people I hate that sit in Family Circle).  And, as luck always turns out, when Toronto finally finished building its fancy new opera house, I moved to New York.  I went back last year for an Aida, and thought the lobby looked a lot better than the inside, but whatever, cool opera house and way nicer than the Hummingbird Center from before.

My first Met performance was a trip with S to New York in college.  A family friend bought us specatular seats to Julius Caesar with Ruth Ann Swenson and David Daniels.  Great stuff.  We also saw the Broadway La Boheme this trip, which I loved.  I did the rush thing all day and got us front row tickets.  Rodolfo was crazy hot, and he got so into it that he couldn't stop the tears in the last scene and ended up crying the entire way through the curtain calls.  Marcello was also crazy hot, had good chemistry with Musetta.  My favorite moment in Boheme is in Act II during Musetta's aria where Marcello suddenly gives up pretending not to like her and has a sudden outburst - he did this perfectly.  Don't ask me anything else about the singing, that was before my opera obsession and inner critic had really been turned on, and it was miked, and whatever with the opera vs. broadway fighting, it was still pretty cool. 

My weirdest opera experience was again with S and the family friend, this time in Paris seeing some new opera about a mother and son and a war and some blood, dunno.  Sometimes I email her about operas and she's always telling me I should blog.  One day I'll pull some emails and post them. 

Then in 2005 I moved to New York for law school, and have become an opera addict.

I've been going to the Met since I moved to New York in 2005, and going like crazy to almost everything at the Met since 2008.  I used to do some city opera, we usually do Caramoor, and sometimes I see operas on vacations in fun places (or find excuses to go places but do so actually to see an opera, eg Toronto Aida), but mostly I do the Met.  Family Circle usually, balcony boxes preferred, amazing orchestra/grand tier when I win the weekend draws, and (hopefully) some great student tickets this year with my very useful intern, who is under 30 and a full-time student. 

For a living, I work as an immigration lawyer.  Immigration law just kind of happened to me, the professor who teaches it came to me the first week of law school and said "you aren't a U.S. citizen, you should take my class."  And I loved it.  Everything about it.  Confusing laws, constitutional issues, court, crazy clients, and lots of satisfaction helping people stay here with their families.  After a rocky start at the beginning of the recession, I finally landed my first-time-ever full-time permanent job, working in a small office for an immigration attorney practicing more than 30 years, BB.  My secretary, MF, and I have grand plans to write a book about the crazy that goes down at work, and maybe that will overlap into this blog - we will see.

Also, conveniently, working as an immigration lawyer, at least for BB, means work ends pretty promptly at 6pm every night.  Which, in prior years, meant running to the subway, going home (Hell's kitchen, conveniently 10 minutes walk to the Met), having a (some) glass(es) of wine, scarfing down dinner, and then walking over for 8pm.  This year, with 7:30 performances and BB trying harder to keep me late at work, we'll see how that eating-at-home things goes.

My partner J, who I met in law school, sometimes goes to the opera with me.  He's not in love with it, but I did my best to hook him.  His first opera was a Hei-Kyung Hong Boheme, and the "snow scene" kept him talking for days.  We've found a good balance of joint performances for him - about 7 this year - and the rest I usually go alone or find fresh victims.  He really hates Handle.  We mostly see Italian stuff, since he's got Sicilian blood I guess that means it has more impact on him.  So far I have something like 40 tickets for this upcoming year, but I usually break down and buy more (so many Aidas, and I think I only have 1 ticket?!).  Plus the weekend drawings are good, I even won this Saturday for Nabucco but I can't go and gave the tickets to a friend. 

J is much more into musicals, so we do a few of those a year. I had a musical phase in junior high - les miserables and phantom, but I think that was just a phase that led from musicals-pretending-to-be-opera to real opera.  There is something way more thrilling about unamplified singing than musicals, but musicals can be a lot of fun.  J has no formal musical training, but he sings.  It took a while to get him to sing the right notes, and then in tune, and then in his own voice instead of a crap artificial voice, but I play piano and he sings.  Judy, Liza, all the usual gay stuff.  Lotsa fun.  He's starting to get really good - maybe he'll take my hints and sign up for actual singing lessons so we can see his full potential. Our newest book of songs, all Elvis, has some good ones for him. "It's now or never" is a good one, and he tears it up with a G at the end that is in a very good place in his voice right now.  BTW, he's tenorish.  When he sings in cheesy opera tenor voice instead of the usual boyband voice, I can almost believe it.  Maybe with lessons.

And, by the way, I have no formal opera/singing training.  I know some of the lingo from S and generally from opera reviews and blogs.  I certainly can't sing, although I never really tried and maybe if I saw a voice teacher I could at least figure out my voice type.  I think baritone probably, and not very good.  I can sing extremely loudly and have huge lungs, so maybe I just need lessons?  But who wants to be a baritone, anyway?  S says that I have a good ear though, because when she sends me recordings of her at vocal competitions I can usually come up with good comments and suggestions even though I'm not using the technical terms.

One thing I must say, though, is either other bloggers and reviewers have way better ears than me or are just really mean and bitchy, because there are so many singers/performances that other people say are off pitch and I didn't notice/can't tell.  Like Sondra Radvanovsky.  Everyone says she's flat all the time.  Am I deaf or something?  She sounds fine to me most of the time.  Meanwhile, Trebs and Mattila are sharp all the time on high notes and nobody seems to notice.  Whatever.  I can't quite explain the intricate formula of how I decide whether I like someone, but let's just say that volume probably factors in a lot more than pitch.  And I can't tell you why, but I am so in love with chest voice.  Dolora Zajick does it best.  She did La Luce Langue on the Met stage at one of the council auditions a few years ago and I thought I was going to pee my pants it was so good. 

Enough about me though, on to actual blogging of stuff.  If you enjoy reading, or if you want to talk immigration law, shoot an email or make comments.  And, if by chance you actually know me, I'm not trying very hard to hide my (or others') identity(/ies) or anything like that, but I'm calling most people by one or two letters instead of their full name - please do the same if you comment.