Vacation Picture Addendum

Presenting: Scenes from...

...our little vacation to the South Island. Same place we went last time. We like it clearly and the object was to relax. Next summer, in late Jan. and early Feb., the plan is to head way down south to Dunedin and Queenstown kai ta loipa [etc.] and have a proper touring vacation. These were all taken in and around Takaka.

Yeah, yeah... it was beautiful and I WILL be posting pictures but

honestly, what did we listen to? I read your mind. And here, from your ever humble servant, is OPERA LOG!!:

14 April 2007:
Manon, Massenet
studio with Victoria de Los Angeles; she is very fine.


15 April 2007:
Semiramide, Meyerbeer
conducted by Bonynge. A live on Naxos. Meyerbeer was like 22 years old when he brought this work out in 1813. Just a kid and he sounds so so so Italian here. Though there is a certain quality to the line that suggests the future master of French grand opera.

Le Roi de Lahore, Massenet
the Sutherland studio—a stunning piece---and there’s a really kick-ass ballet, by the way

Die Gezeichneten, Schreker
DVD from Salzburg (Act One)—remarks below


16 April 15, 2007
La Caravan du Caire, Gretry
An opera ballet with, not surprsingly, lots of instrumental sections. This is a delightful work.

Cristofo Colombo, Franchetti
Interesting work on the life of this explorer; a star-turn from Bruson late in his career; the orchestration is really rich and lovely; the work lacks a strong artistic profile and the plot is pretty darn diffuse

Die Gezeichneten, Schreker
DVD from Salzburg (Acts Two and Three); this euro-trash production is vexing—a total opportunity missed; if everyone looks like they are showing up for a night of bondage at the club when the curtain opens--- the progressive revelations lose a lot of their punch. Gosh I sound like a cranky older gentleman. Hmm and hmmm. The singing and conducting range from nice to very good indeed (especially the soprano, Schwanewilms who looks good and sounds even better; she is sooooo good--- I am fan of hers from now on; I want to hear more.). The score is cut. Most of the cuts don’t hurt much but there is one (Chalk, are you sitting down?) that is vexatious in the extreme: the grand procession from Act 3 is cut!!


17 April 2007
Polyeucte, Gounod
Zzzzzz, I mean there are like zzzzzz like these good parts zzzzz but zzzz where was I?

Carlo di Borgogna, Pacini
Basically an undisovered masterpiece in a passionate and virtuosic performance; um, like, you need to own this? Oh yes you do; no home should be without it! Below are two exciting moments from this awesome opera: check out Jennifer Larmore (from Act II)—she is pretty f’ing amazing, I should say, here and throughout. Demented and at one with the music!! This is furious and meaningful coloratura in the grand manner. Also below are the final bars from the finale to Act One—the whole cast and orchestra are going mad together. Schuweet!! This is such exciting music making and composing. Futral is great throughout and I think a medal is due Bruce Ford for exemplary service in cause of Bel-Canto for years.
CLIPS:
Final bars of Finale from Act I; the arrial of the bass drum etc. right toward the end is pretty electifying. Close your eyes, volume on high.
Larmore showing all and sundry how this kind of thing is done. Close your eyes, volume on high.


18 April 2007
Elijah, Mendelssohn
Terfel, Fleming, y otras personas.
Husband dotes on this piece and this seems a nice performance of it.

La Cieca’s 200th Podcast—A Gala [Parts One and Part Two]
Many fine things throughout; special mention of Giordani and Stoyanova in with the duet from Les Hugenots—when he sings those soaring lines, I get what the deal about Meyerbeer was/is; the raw emotion and the love of the voice make his writing very special and an opportunity for the artist to display his or her ability and the personal beauty of his or her voice that is coincident with an opportunity to be gloriously IN CHARACTER

19 April 2007
Rinaldo, Handel
Daniels, Bartoli, Organasova, Fink (Hogwood—Academy of Ancient Music); a starry line-up, thatsforsure. As I live blog this, they are delivering; it is very nice work indeed in presenting a piece that gave us a lot of pleasure at NYCO in 2000--- those of you who saw it, can you ever forget Christine Goerke the Armida arriving on top of a huge box amid thunder and lightning—among many other felicities?

I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, Bellini (Act One)
A podcast from Parterre Box with Anna Netrebko as Giulietta! And man does she sound good in this 2004 performance from Salzburg!!

20 April 2007
Tancredi, Rossini
Kasarova, Mei, Vargas, cond: Roberto Abbado; Mei does pretty coloratura; Kasarova is all melancholy introspection and delicacy which, while fetching in a certain way, is not optimal here. Vargas is nice. He is always so nice. Everyone agrees he is nice. Yes he is nicely nice in the most nicely nice way. Roberto Abbado (cond.) needs more pep.

I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, Bellini (Act Two)--- the continuation of last night’s broadcast
A strong finish.


21 April 2007
Rhodelinda, Handel
A boring recording from the late 90s on the Veritas label

Nelly Miricioiu recital disk
Her voice is sort of ugly but she is able to deliver some excitement and has a way with the bravura coloratura. I like her and I like her intelligence and passion. (Donizetti, Boito, y otras cosas)

22 April 21, 2007
Massenet, Manon
Angela Ghjkllthdkjiu [Me and Romanian? Not so good.] and Alagna sounding pretty good; though she is less interesting to me in this role than Sills or De Los Angeles. Alagna was pretty sweet. Pappano is an excellent conductor and was true to form here.

Gone for about a week to the South Island....

...see you on the other side. Eating too much, opera on CD and DVD (Die Gezeichneten from Salzburg!), much dog walking, much sleeping are on the docket. I will make a sprint to try to finish the fifth chapter of my book. Wish me luck with that. TRH will study bridge books to prepare himself to represent the club in interclub competition! No danger of me being asked to do that, though I will practice playing bridge hands on BridgeBaron.

Here are some pics.

Nelson as a puppy:



Nelson grown up:



TRH does not like this picture. He is wrong:



Say "Pacini Cabaletta"!:

Remembrance

Here is a picture of our beloved Niels who left us (after a long and rich life) two years ago today.



I still miss him but his successor, Nelson, does make the missing a sweet thing and something easy to accept. This is a picture of Nelson with TRH:

Another Piece of Convincing Evidence as to Why One Should Love Bel-Canto

We are now back to some original content. Hooray!

Below is a short clip from the Act One Finale of a real rarity: L'Ultimo Giorno di Pompei by Pacini. (The plot of this opera is not without interest to Classicists in the audience and, to my ears, Pacini has included a number of odd-sounding marches that are meant to evoke the Roman mileau.) He wrote this opera in the 1820's. The recording from which this clip comes is a good performance of a very fun piece. I recommend it to you. I listened to the whole thing yesterday morning and was most pleased. You can check out the entire recording here.

The clip features the talented (if a tad bit wild) Iano Tamar as the lead (as you will hear). I like the way Pacini writes an assertive and cutting line for his prima donna. Teh ok! Then when she is done with her bit the chorus bounces in with some very catchy music which has some insinuating chromaticism that falls so sweetly upon the ear (or on my ear at any rate). You know, the bel-canto masters will insert little things here and there in their works that will enchant the listerner if he or she is susceptible. I am terminal in this regard and Pacini is very, very good.

Here is the clip. Enjoy!

Manon Gavotte Face-Off

OK.

Here's the deal. Here is roughly the same excerpt from Massanet's Manon, featuring three heavy hitters: Netrebko, Fleming, and Sills.

[A momentary prayer of Thanksgiving for YouTube would not be out of line here]

It is fascinating to hear the different ways this supremely solipsistic scene can be played.

I will say at the outset that I find Fleming the least successful. This is from Paris I am pretty darn sure cuz we were there. We (TRH and I) were in the front row actually (and feeling highly satisfied with ourselves that we had scored these tickets--- when I saw these seats as being available at the ticket office, I did not even look at how much they cost and just told TRH to give me the VISA cuz "they have some seats" "how much are they?" "the VISA please, it is worth it", and, suprisingly pliable at times, he handed over the Visa and the rest, as they say, erat historia)--anyway, since we were in the front row, we got a long luxuriant look at the red red red costume she is wearing. I sort of like it (but then I have bad taste in women's clothing) but I also wonder if it looks a little like what Carol Burnett wears in the famous sketch she did sending up Gone with the Wind (in a different colour, of course).



Well, maybe not. Memory plays odd tricks sometimes. It must be the upholstered effect of F's costume that made me think in this direction.

But to the singing. I recall being most extremely pleased with her performance. Now however I find some of the sounds she makes just bizarre, croony and underpowered. I think she is better live than on the radio or on recording. But that said, I recall being extraordinarily distressed by her lack of force in filling out the line in the Il Pirata at the MET a couple of years back and that had been a performance we had been looking forward to most most most most keenly (and perhaps too keenly, there was perhaps no way reality could compete with all that anticipation [or with Gavazzeni's conducting on the recording with Caballe (you have GOT to hear the way they do the Act One curtain! It is so exciting!!111!!!)], we were, in short, doomed.) But on the other hand, there is real delicacy in a lot of the passage work and the colors in her voice often are just so so pretty (and she does hold the final long note for a good long time):



Trebs here characterstically ducks out on a little bit of ornamentation here and there but the line is quite authoritative all the way through. She is powerful and the voice comes off as quite slavic when you have her sandwiched by these whitebread girls. She is teh sexaay too. The top is brilliant and pretty darn clean--- love the sound of her big money-shot high notes:



And then there is Sills. The ornamentation just pops out. She sings this music with a real sense of authority. She is oddly enough not interested in some of the longer notes and on the basis of this can almost be seen as an opposite to Trebs. I really like the way she does this. She was justifiably famous for her Manon:



I will probably listen some more and update. But I wanted to get this out there. What do you think? Do some Trebs haterz want to get their freak on? Does someone want to get Rosemary Bollin on line one? Should I have looked at and posted the Gruberova version of this that I did not look at and did not post?

As per request from TRH...

... here are some pictures of a dahlia from our front yard.



TRH feels that this most excellent plant's glories must be beamed out into the internets for all and sundry to admirilate. I agree:





VT ROGATVM, SIC FACTVM.