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.
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