While I don't think I generally get to be as gross as these people on Parterre Box (hopefully) when I criticize a singer, I must say that I did feel she was the weakest vocal link in that cast... Maybe just miscast, or having a bad day. On the other hand her acting was excellent and she is very pretty. It's maybe just a question of size of voice... She was a bit drowned out in the cavernous Met, surrounded by heavy-weight Wagnerians, and maybe would excell more in smaller houses, more delicate repertoire, or in recordings where she is helped by the captured/engineered sound. So, not a bad singer at all, much the opposite; just, she was a bit outmatched there by all that volume. I thought I was able to pick up on this although I was watching a sound-engineered broadcast. But I do have a friend who went to the house in person, and told me later that she was barely audible, so I felt then that I was right about it, after all.
The thing is, not all singers are fit for all circumstances, of course. A singer might be God's gift to humankind in an intimate Baroque theater with a chamber orchestra, but be improper to sing at a 4,000-seat house with 100 instruments and alongside some of the most powerful colleagues in the business. A singer one of these days who has a particularly powerful voice was telling me that she is often hushed by conductors in rehearsal, who keep telling her to play it down, so that she doesn't drown her less powerful colleagues. She finds it annoying, actually, and ultimately detrimental to the voice because singing softly all the time for someone with a big voice is actually damaging, she says, but she understands it is necessary. Now, this is more a casting problem than a singer problem. If you cast a singer with a small voice to sing a duet alongside a singer with a big voice, the duet won't sound pretty, which doesn't mean the singer with the small voice is a bad singer.
But now I'm curious - what were the bitches at PB saying about her voice?
Last edited by Luiz Gazzola (Almaviva); December 27th, 2014 at 12:07 AM.
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
Well, I won't perpetuate the acidulous criticism, but it was to do with quality rather than volume. She's just one of the unfortunate sopranos they have it in for, along with Renée Fleming, Simone Kermes, Nadja Michael and occasionally la Bellissima.
Actually my very favourite Lohengrin DVD even if it is certifiably bonkers.
Natalie
I know!!
Now, seriously, if I may ask, why do you frequent that infected place? I stopped reading PB a long time ago. It's drivel, rubbish, nonsense. It's exactly what we don't need in the operatic field. We have sufficient reputable sources and venues to get all the info we want, without having to read such a low quality, gross website, full of deranged, envious narcissists whose only preoccupation is to swim in a gossip-laden cesspool, putting down singers so that they feel superior and smart (!?! - I think the average IQ there is about 35), while having no notion whatsoever of how hard it is to be a singer.
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
Very pretty, a young Princess. Sarah Connolly is also wonderful as Fantasio but the real beauty here is the relationship that develops between Elsbeth and Fantasio, the confused Princess and the bold student in pursuit.
If you only try one sample, listen to the duo Quel murmure charmant in act one as the relationship begins (they have not met yet).
Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame
Julia Varady (Lisa), Elena Obraztsova (Countess), Vladimir Atlantov (Hermann), Alexander Voroshilo (Tomsky), Bodo Brinkmann (Yeletsky), Ludmila Shemchuk (Pauline), Yoshihisa Yamaji (Chekalinsky), Karl Helm (Surin), Ulrich Reß (Chaplitsky), Alfred Kuhn (Narumov), Friedrich Lenz (Master of Ceremonies), Gudrun Wewezow (Governess) & Carmen Anhorn (Masha)
Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper & Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Algis Shuraitis
Live recording 24 November 1984
Now the relationships here don't go at all well for them but for us the music created is thrilling.
I saw Brenda Rae in two productions in Santa Fe - Don Pasquale and Le Rossignol. She demonstrated a solid voice for bel canto in Don Pasquale and a delightful comedic ability in both (well, at least in the Impresario piece of the Le Rossignol double bill).
I've looked at Parterre Box a couple of times, but find it nearly impossible to navigate. It's kind of opera as chaos lightened with a soupçon of cattiness. It represents the worst side of opera lovers as lightweight social climbers - people who attend to sit in awe of the costumes with little demonstrated appreciation or understanding for the art form. Their bitchiness toward Renee Fleming leaves me totally slack jawed.
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
I can never tell when you're kidding.
"J'ai dit qu'il ne suffisait pas d'entendre la musique, mais qu'il fallait encore la voir" (Stravinsky)
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