#9 The Office S06 E25 The Chump

I like sitcoms. They are probably the only thing I understand better than classical music. I used to watch The Nanny all the time and I tell you, that thing taught me - a lot - on employing the nasal resonance.

As of this decade, perhaps the show that I like the most is The Office, the US version. Nothing else can be as sweet and repulsive in one shot. Michael Scott is like the most idiotic person on the planet, but most of the time you'd end up rooting for him. The sixth season of The Office has recently concluded on a rather lame-ish note, but that's according to the reviewers! I was watching the last four episodes back-to-back at 2 a.m. last morning and let me tell you, my laughs must've been louder than Azucena's final scream of triumph!

I must say my favorite episode of the whole season is Episode 25 The Chump. And a lot of them seems to like it also. Favorite scene: Dwight's crotch attack! OMG if that isn't funny! Poor Angela. I also like the part when Phyllis is acting all disgusted with Michael - if that isn't a diva-esque moment I don't know what is.

Fave exchange:

DWIGHT : Are you warmed up?
ANGELA : No. (pronounced as naw, as in miaow; I swear that's what made this one-liner works.)
DWIGHT : God, why is that always my responsibility?

Oh. My. God.

Maybe I'm a dirty-minded guy after all.

#8 Turandot - Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Anna Moffo, Leopold Stokowski

Puccini is a hard sound to fathom. In one piece - take for example Manon Lescaut - he can be so sweet and enchanting (Intermezzo), and then turn 360° into a desperate raving maniac who tears voices to shreds (Sola, perduta, abbandonata!). It's safe to say that you can learn Puccini to the death, but real Puccini singers are ultimately born, not made.

Turandot is a great work, there's no denying that. But its greatness is sometimes overwhelming. Here is the last cry of the great Italian dramatic tradition, and what a cry it is: long arching lines at impossible tessitura sung at impossible dynamics and competing against impossible orchestrations. A Turandot is a rare animal, a precious phoenix, one in a generation. As of now, if I were an impressario the only singer I would trust with a Turandot assignment would be the lovely Lise Lindstrom (that is, if she develop her chest voice more!)

But at 1961, Leopold Stokowski assembled what would become the greatest cast of Turandot ever assembled. Well, the greatest cast of the characters that matter: the Emperor has so often landed in the lap of Wobbly Jobless it hardly concerns anyone anymore.

Birgit Nilsson had a gift. Her soprano was like a weapon: a spear-thrust, a laser beam that could cut through anything. And I mean anything: just before Tre enigmi m'hai proposto, her voice sailed over a brass-chorus chorale like a latter day Noah's ark, overwhelmingly secure and relentless. On its own, it was like listening to a silver trumpet: Straniero, ascolta! was almost instrumental in its perfection. Critics often ventured that her tone sometimes veers towards the sharp side of the note, but happily that occasion in this release is rare. In fact that may be her strength in this repertoire: it made her voice more chinoise in terms of timbre.

Franco Corelli was what he is: the greatest romantic-dramatic tenor of the '60s. His phrasing was heaven in itself: for example Il mio nome non sai was almost a sexual caress, while Non piangere, Liù was an affective flashback - hearing him I can understand why Liù would have fallen in love with this guy, which is saying a lot considering the Calafs strutting onstage these days. Usually what Italian tenors have ended with a sweet timbre and adept phrasing, but with Corelli it is so much more than that.

Anna Moffo is a sweet-yet-tough Liù, the sort of characterization Asians would have no problem identifying: the loyal servant tied by bonds of love. Her Lasciatemi passare! was so heartfelt, and her Tu, che di gel sei cinta was what vocal art is all about. I can safely say she is the only Liù I cried with when she died.

However this release is not perfect: it was after all a live occasion. The Emperor, Alessio de Paolis, almost destroyed it with his vibrato-laden voice. Anna Moffo dragged the entire end of Act 1 all by herself (starting in the middle of Non piangere), robbing necessary drive from Ah, per l'ultima volta. The Ping (Frank Guarrera) was quite good - sadly the rest of the P*ng trio were not. And I don't know what had happened but at the end of Act 2 all the trumpets were suddenly out of tune! It was unfortunate because the whole thing was fortissimo, so what was supposed to be a grandiose cadence turned into a very loud castrated duck, with the poor thing still bleeding lots.

The chorus was adequate, but at times they were very good: the reading of the Liù death scene was very electric. Maybe I am biased: I always think that Liù's death music is the best death scene music in opera. The orchestra was polished, save for a few occasions like the one above. Stokowski was a singer's conductor, probably because he knew what he was dealing with: operatic divinities.

Verdict: very highly recommended especially to Turandot virgins, even over any studio recordings: this is perhaps the best wedding night you'll ever get. Not so for operatic first-timers: you'll end up getting awakened in the middle of the night for a few weeks to Nilsson's Straniero, ascolta!

TURANDOT (1961)
GIACOMO PUCCINI
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI conductor

TURANDOT                        Birgit Nilsson

CALAF                               Franco Corelli

LIÙ                                    Anna Moffo

TIMUR                               Bonaldo Giaiotti

ALTOUM                            Alessio de Paolis

PING                                 Frank Guarrera

PANG                                Robert Nagy

PONG                                Charles Anthony

CHORUS & ORCHESTRA : THE METROPOLITAN OPERA NY

GOLDEN MELODRAM OPERA LIVE

#7 Rapunzel (symphonic version) / sweet nothings

Breaking my embargo on strings, here is a symphonic arrangement of one of my piano pieces, Rapunzel suite. Here is the piano score of the piece, all copyright @fUGA arts limited 2010.

Tomorrow is such a busy day. But I'll try and post my review of the legendary 1961 Stokoswski Turandot with Nilsson, Corelli and Moffo, which is basically the most perfect cast one can dream in this monster hit.

#6 happy birthday beverly sills!

The eponymous American diva was born 81 years ago today (well, around this time, with the time difference and all). I love you Bubbles, you who dared to challenge your voice - even though you lost, you certainly walked out smiling.

#5 the villazón dilemma

Not a lot of singers incurred my domestic dislike quite as much as this one. Perhaps this was what a Tebaldi queen would've felt listening to a Callas bootleg: What is this bitch doing singing opera? But then we're not one of his adoring - and more importantly, paying - public, so it really isn't my place to say anything, save to say his records will be safe from my grimy hands.

Here is the greatest tenor on current stage, fighting with his appoggio - no, no. Here is Rolando Villazón, from Zurich with love for his fans.

Credits to cara Opera Chic.

#4 sonata no. 6 ''in your birthday suit''

This sonata for piano in E minor was debuted last fifteenth of May, which is my birthday, as part of my tradition of presenting a new piece each year on my birthday (last year I made a wind orchestra piece). Not too shabbs, huh? It was dedicated to my dad and a good friend, Hafizuddin Jailani, who's doing Meds in Indonesia (both also May boys). It was also one week after the passing away of Giulietta Simionato, one of the greatest voices to walk on earth.

sonata no. 6 in your birthday suit

Vincence Hildestein | MySpace Music Videos

#3 The Art of The Prima Donna - Joan Sutherland

Some albums are shit, like Fleming x Mackerras Rusalka (the Fleming portion). Some you can tolerate - like Leontyne Price' Return to Carnegie Hall, because at that stage she could probably have run amok down the Broadway and people would still have gushed at her. Some are testaments. Living, breathing creatures of the celestial: immortal daughters of the Sacred Flame we all live to serve. These types of albums literally make careers. One such type is The Art of Prima Donna.

The Sutherland brand is eponymous to perfection. Those who adores her, though, will concede that she perennially frustrate you with such terrible diction! Anything post-that wonderful Esclarmonde is an exercise of (undoubtedly technically very sound) vocalism - or rather vowel-ism. But at 1960, Sutherland is literally perfection personified.

There is that wonderful voice, going to deep abysses in Mozart's Martern allen arten, a convincing parlando and atmosphere-invoking limpidity in Verdi's Canzon del salice. Then there's the Bellini gems Care compagne... Come per me sereno and Son vergin vezzosa (favourite track! XXX), and then she literally explodes with Bel raggio lusinghier and Sempre libera. It's hard not to gush. Very. Hard.

I however always find it strange that the Dame ever undertook Norma under her repertoire. The only thing she brought to the table was clearly only her coloratura, because no other Norma has lost my attention to the Adalgisas of the night. That said, her Casta diva is appropriately a prayer, in the tradition of lyrical approach to the role. One also find a certain warmth lacking in her Let the bright Seraphim, probably because the tessitura never goes down, but this is a very minor patch.

Other tracks are essentially textbook references of what a properly trained 17th-18th century voice would have sound like. The most perfect trill in Ah! je ris de me voir si belle, a very clean staccatissimo (she would have performed it at a slower tempo in ten years) in Caro nome and O beau pays de la Touraine (at killer tessitura, no mistake), and properly stylized da capo variations in Son vergin vezzosa and Sovra il sen (with a crazy Db acuto right out of nowhere!).

The Covent Garden crew appropriately plays divinely under Molinari-Pradelli, whom I usually hear in more verismic works like Pagliacci. There was a certain Englishness all about it, of course - the Händel and Arne excerpts are so correctly played (Hey, I'm performing a period piece in proper style! So suck it!) it was almost cold. Make no mistake here who is the prima donna though; sometimes the orchestra throws it out full blast and the Sutherland will always come soaring above it all: here is a true dramatic coloratura at work, the voice that later will battle with Turandot-type orchestrations - and win.

Verdict: they don't make divas like this anymore. Sadly.

THE ART OF THE PRIMA DONNA

JOAN SUTHERLAND soprano

FRANCESCO MOLINARI-PRADELLI conductor

Best Classical Performance Vocal Soloist, Grammy Awards 1962

Disc 1
1. Artaxerxes / Act 3 - The soldier tir'd of war's alarms
2. Samson HWV 57 / Act 3 - Let the bright seraphim
3. Norma / Act 1 - Sediziose voci...Casta Diva...Ah! bello a me ritorna
4. I Puritani / Act 1 - "Son vergin vezzosa"
5. Semiramide / Act 1 - Bel raggio lusinghier
6. I Puritani / Act 2 - "O rendetemi la speme...Qui la voce...Vien, diletto"
7. La Sonnambula / Act 1 - Care compagne...Come per me sereno...Sovra il sen
8. Faust / Act 3 - Ô Dieu! que de bijoux...Ah! je ris de me voir

Disc 2
1. Roméo et Juliette / Act 1 - "Ah, je veux vivre"
2. Otello / Act 4 - Mia madre aveva una povera ancella...Piangea cantando (Canzon del salice)
3. Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K.384 / Act 2 - "Martern aller Arten"
4. La traviata / Act 1 - "E strano!...Ah, fors'è lui...Sempre libera"
5. Hamlet / Act 4 - A vos jeux, mes amis, permettez-moi
6. Lakmé / Act 2 - Ah! où va la jeune Indoué? (Chanson des clochettes)
7. Les Huguenots / Act 2 - Ô beau pays de la Touraine
8. Rigoletto / Act 1 - Scena ed Aria. "Gualtier Maldè...Caro nome"

#2 Salzburg Recital - Kathleen Battle

First and foremost, Kathleen Battle has always occupied a special place in my heart. She was my dictionary definition of a soubrette, and nothing (including the crazies!) ain't gonna change that!


This album was recorded during Battle's middle period, back when it won't be too far from the truth if I say she was the most beautiful voice of the world. It includes selections from Purcell, Mendelssohn and Fauré, basically the stuff that made her recitals famous. Some Mozart and Strauss standards (though I have to say Schwarzkopf's Ridente la calma is somewhat superior to Our Kathy's) and of course, spirituals. Now, I am of the Marian Anderson school of spiritual singing i.e. deep, deep and deep-ah, but I would venture to say that Battle's rendition of Witness is the best there is.

Voice = sterling. The runs were executed like silk. Ich wollt' ein Sträusslein binden was especially lovely. But Battle is a lyric soprano, and in lyrical singing she excels most: her Mozart is exemplary, and the only lovelier Music for a while I had heard was Philippe Jaroussky's (but then I had a bias for countertenors, but I digress). And let me just say: the high notes are orgasmic! Some anti-Battleites say her high notes had a prison siren-like quality to them. If only jail alarms were half this good!

Accompaniment = perfect. Then again, Levine and Battle were the dream team for about ten years. The playing was limpid, but suspiciously slower (in volume) than usual. But those who know Battle would know the fact that her instrument, for all its beauty, is very frugal dynamically. Levine knows this (perhaps more than anyone else), and adjusted - which makes for the perfect partnership one often found wanting in other recital albums.

The only downturn? Well, you have to turn up your volume full, because at 50% volume Battle basically disappears. Which makes it even more precious!

SALZBURG RECITAL
KATHLEEN BATTLE soprano
JAMES LEVINE piano
Best Classical Vocal Solo Performance, Grammy Award 1988

01. Come All Ye Songsters; The Fairy Queen, Semi-Opera, Z. 629
02. Music For A While (From 'Oedipus'), Song, Z. 583-2;
03. Sweeter Than Roses (From 'Pausanius'), Song, Z. 585-1
04. O Had I Jubal's Lyre; Joshua (Oratorio) Hwv 64
05. Bei der Wiege ('Schlummre! Schlummre und Träume von Kommender Zeit'), Song For Voice & Piano, Op. 47-6
06. Neue Liebe ('In dem Mondenschein'), Song For Voice & Piano, Op. 19a-4
07. Schlagende Herzen ('Über Wiesen und Felder ein Knabe Ging'), Song For Voice & Piano, Op. 29-2 (Trv 172-2)
08. Ich wollt' ein Sträusslein binden, Song For Voice & Piano (Or Orchestra), Op. 68-2 (Trv 235-2)
09. Säusle, Liebe Myrthe!, Song For Voice & Piano (Or Orchestra), Op. 68-3 (Trv 235-3)
10. Ridente la calma, Song For Voice & Piano, K. 152 (K. 210a) (Spurious, By Myslivecek)
11. Das Veilchen, Song For Voice & Piano, K. 476
12. Un moto di gioia mi sento, Aria For Soprano & Orchestra, K. 579
13. Mandoline, Song For Voice & Piano (Cinq Mélodies 'de Venise'), Op. 58-1
14. Les roses d'Isfahan For Voice & Piano (Or Orchestra) In D Major, Op. 39-4
15. En prière, Canticle For Voice & Organ (Or Orchestra) In E Flat Major
16. Notre amour, For Voice & Piano, Op. 23
17. Honor! Honor!
18. His Name So Sweet
19. Witness
20. He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

#1 renaissance

I'm back!

And, since I can't find anything appropriate to say, why don't I say inappropriate things about other people?

I'm re-creating this blog as a linking place, or whatever the term is, that would lead to some of the most gorgeous operatic albums ever produced. Wherever applicable, I would try and review the release myself. Of course, it would be an opinion piece only and not a fool-proof judgment! To each his own Rossini, I'd say.

Have fun! And keep the drama quotient VERY high!