#54 anna bolena review

This is my opinion about the Met's opening night/premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, which at the time of writing just wrapped up. Disclaimer: This is audio impression only.

Anna Netrebko (Regina Anna Bolena): Super! However her singing is a bit uneven. A lot of phrasing was cut right when you expect the phrase to flow on smoothly. Her pianissimo high Cs and Bs were lovely. Her trio with Percy and the King(?) was really good. Take on final scene: love love love the "Al dolce guidami", a few good, real trills earlier on then fake-d trills (up untill Coppia). Hate the "Cielo a miei lunghi spasimi", a lot of phrases got murdered, but good high note (a D in alt I think). "Coppia iniqua" was smashing (fake trills notwithstanding)! Overall a success IMHO.

Ekaterina Gubanova (Donna Giovanna Seymour): She's WILDLY uneven. Some singing was extremely beautiful, some like a student trying to figure out how to sing Fs and Gs. But the consensus is the voice was too weighty for Seymour. The best singing was in her final aria, "Ah pensate che rivolti". Her scenes with the King fell flat, her and Ildar's voices just don't mix well. I was thinking how would Garanca (supposedly the Seymour for this production, but had to skip due to pregnancy) have sung each phrase everytime Gubanova sang.

Tamara Mumford (Smeton): I like her. I like her Smeton very much. Her voice had that fast, tight vibrato which I always adore. Her arias (as such that they were) were well-sung, and the caught-red-handed scene (at the end of act I) was nice. I wished she had traded parts with Gubanova! - there, I said it.

Stephen Costello (Don Riccardo Percy): Oh Costello. The biggest disappointment, for sure. The voice was attractive enough, but sounded suspiciously not warmed up. His pianissimo high notes sounded like falsetto, not a good voix-mixte that's for sure. I wonder if it travelled in the house. Near the end he sounded just plain tired. And he lunged all over the place for his high notes, and in the second act also for the notes which are not exactly the apex (i.e. the hardest to reach) of his phrases. It sounded a bit like groaning springs, sometimes - Il Scoopendo, indeed. His "Vivi tu" was fine, but the cabaletta was deeply disappointing. Sad.

Ildar Abdrazakov (Re Enrico VIII): It's hard to judge Ildar because today is his birthday!! He sounded good, but his bottom notes just mysteriously disappeared. I mean, he's a bass right? Needs to improve his coloratura though - his runs and figures sounded throaty and almost-a-trainwreck-but-not-quite-yet.

Marco Armiliato, Met orchestra and chorus: Nice, but some section lacking in impetus. Marco needs to man up and drive the tempo more, especially when Netrebko begins dragging. But overall, good playing. The English horn solo for "Al dolce guidami" is really good. Chorus: not as good. Off night? Un-sync entrances, tremors (especially the ladies).


Overall impression: 3.5 out of 5, not an ideal performance but a pretty good justification for Anna Bolena's first ever performance at the Met. Shame about Costello (probably nerves), but the opera *is* about Anna. Ah well.

#53 Tosca (Puccini) - Leontyne Price, Giuseppe di Stefano, Giuseppe Taddei

TOSCA (1963)
GIACOMO PUCCINI
HERBERT VON KARAJAN Conductor
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra & State Opera Chorus

Tosca ... Leontyne Price
Mario Cavaradossi ... Giuseppe di Stefano
Scarpia ... Giuseppe Taddei
Angelotti ... Carlo Cava
Sacristan ... Fernando Corena
Spoletta ... Piero de Palma
Sciarrone ... Leonardo Monreale
Shepherd boy ... Herbert Weiss
Prison guard ... Alfredo Mariotti

*Includes cover picture, libretto & vocal score

#52 friday afternoon thoughts

1. It's semi-official: Netrebko's Anna Bolena is the Met's hot ticket for the next season (which is very very close already, toi toi, Anya!!!). Why: apparently a lady had found her trill.

2. Bayreuth is in danger! PS: "... the baby had grown up and learned to walk on its own" is a lot of PR shit. You're trying to fool people who makes reading between lines (well, Ricky's libretti have lots of 'shades') their career?
3. I WANT TO WATCH ATYS! I'm a sucker for French Baroque (for the sheer joy of seeing who can stretch the line more deliriously), and it's Les Arts Florissants with Mo. Christie, so it's bound to be super good! (for those of us unlucky suckers, OedipusTyrannus uploaded a very good HD Mezzo broadcast of the Lully, with most of the same cast I think. d'Oustrac is one dangerous woman to cross!)
4. That Respighi's "Nebbie" is originally composed for the lower voices. Yes!!! I know there's something right every time I scream "Come ho freddo! son sola!" to the rafters. And that the poem, by Ada Negri, still makes my hair crawl every time I read it.
5. This week in superstars' birthday: Nicolai Ghiaurov (13th Sept), Jessye Norman (15th Sept), Elīna Garanča (16th Sept), Anna Netrebko (18th Sept)!!!

#51 Arabella (Strauss) - Lisa Della Casa, George London, Hilde Gueden, Anton Darmota

ARABELLA (1958)
RICHARD STRAUSS
GEORG SOLTI Conductor
Vienna Philharmonics

Arabella ... Lisa Della Casa
Zdenka ... Hilde Gueden
Mandryka ... George London
Matteo ... Anton Darmota
Grad Waldner ... Otto Edelmann
Adelaide ... Ira Malaniuk
Elemer ... Waldemar Kmentt
Dominik ... Eberhard Wächter
Lamoral ... Harald Prôglhôf
Die Fiakermilli ... Mimi Coertse
A fortune-teller ... Judith Hellwig

Kiri who? Della Casa rules! (includes alternative cover pictures and libretto)

#50 disappoinment, but hope for the future

I bought Julia Lezhneva's debut solo CD yesterday, after hearing some good things from friends, Classical review forums and after watching some of her YouTube clips. However, sad to say it turns out to be quite a disappointment. Perhaps there's a part of me that wants her to succeed, because she's the same age as me - hence the feeling of letdown.

Miss Lezhneva chose some of Rossini's most famous output for what I call the femme-hybrid category - these arias had been sung successfully by all category of female voices: sopranos, mezzo-sopranos and even contraltos. The voice' main selling point is not its mature-sounding timbre, but rather its liquidity. She manages the fast passages very well, and although some phrasing choices left me baffled (she chose some figures which made the Willow Song more upbeat instead of lilting, for example) she is generally a good musician.

Her French recording company, Naïve (Freudian slip much?), promotes Miss Lezhneva based on her precocious maturity. IMHO, there are a lot of examples of early-maturing female voices. The mechanism and physiology of the female vocal production, favouring head over chest voice, just make it easy for them to mature at least a decade earlier than their male counterparts. Alexandrina Pendatchanska comes to mind. Her voice sounds even more mature at seventeen (we used to joke that Alexandrina was born thirty-year old vocally, and hence is now at the peak of her career at seventy vocal years old!) compared to Lezhneva's at twenty-one. Cecilia Bartoli is another. Beverly Sills and Marilyn Horne both matured early. Maria Callas was performing when she was a teenager. So this point, suggesting early-matured voices are rare, is moot.

Looking at the tracks, there are some interesting choices. I am grateful for every recording of the Willow Song: in my opinion Rossini's Otello is not recorded enough, and any recording is welcome. Lezhneva also recorded Tanti affetti and the rondo finale from La donna del lago, Bel raggio lusinghier from Semiramide, the final scene from La cenerentola, Ils s'éloignent enfin from Guillaume Tell and the prayer aria from L'Assedio di Corinto. The same characteristic apply for all of these excerpts: that she manages coloratura well, but made some strange, but not unmusical, choices.

In Tanti affetti, for example, Lezhneva forces the lowermost notes at the bottom of the scales (Oh qual beato istante) needlessly: it gives rise to a harsh, even guttural sound which is certainly the farthest thing from bel canto. In the Cenerentola excerpt, a most iconic scene, she fares better; however one wishes for more variation in the rondo finale. I am sorry to say this, but Lezhneva's Bel raggio (another iconic scene) is very pallid. Her voice simply doesn't have the morbidezza (at this point) to bring justice to this majestic music. And it's not about the size of her voice; for example: Joyce diDonato is at most a medium-size instrument, but her voice has tons of morbidezza. Lezhneva's Semiramide is a junior queen, a princess, a twink.

Her Guillaume Tell excerpt suffers, strangely, from a frayed high register. Perhaps she was tired? The Willow Song is lovely enough, but Marc Minkowski, her conductor, chooses a too fast tempo. This is where she could have shone: the aria does not climb too high, and when done in a suitable tempo, can bring out the most of her exceptionally lovely, if a bit thin and core-less at times, timbre. Her articulation of the variations was merely "doing", as opposed to "indicating" the increasing complexity and turmoil of Desdemona's mind. Giusto ciel! in tal periglio also suffers similarly.

I am a grouch! Miss Lezhneva is clearly a budding artist, and I fear I have been rather severe. I think she has a lovely voice, but should have taken more time, less to perfect than to gain an understanding of her craft (everyone today knows "how to?", but no one seems to know "why?"). But she is young: she will grow into a formidable artist. I hear she has a new Vivaldi CD out, which fared better. I will follow her career with interest, and hope the best for her success.

#49 Aïda (Verdi) - Leontyne Price, Jon Vickers, Rita Gorr, Robert Merrill

AÏDA (1962)
GIUSEPPE VERDI
GEORG SOLTI Conductor
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Aïda ... Leontyne Price
Radamès ... Jon Vickers
Amneris ... Rita Gorr
Amonasro ... Robert Merrill
Ramphis ... Giorgio Tozzi
King of Egypt ... Plinio Clabassi
Priestess ... Mietta Singhele
A Messenger ... Franco Ricciardi

#48 La rondine (Puccini) - Anna Moffo, Daniele Barioni, Piero de Palma, Graziella Sciutti

LA RONDINE (1966)
GIACOMO PUCCINI
FRANCESCO MOLINARI-PRADELLI Conductor
RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus


Magda de Civry ... Anna Moffo
Ruggero Lastouc ... Daniele Barioni
Rambaldo Fernandez ... Mario Sereni
Lisette ... Graziella Sciutti
Prunier ... Piero de Palma
Yvette ... Sylvia Brigham-Dimiziani
Bianca ... Virginia De Notaristefani
Suzy ... Franca Mattiucci
Gobin ... Fernando Jacopucci
Périchaud ... Mario Basiola II
Maggiordomo ... Robert El Hage



Included: cover pictures, libretto and vocal score

#47 thoughts on "fenesta che lucive"

Fenesta che lucive is a gorgeous Neapolitan song which is credited to Bellini, because its accompaniment and style is quite similar to Ah! non credea mirarti from his La sonnambula. Some even alleges that the real situation is the reverse, that Bellini copies this song; that the words are from 12th century and the music are from the 15th century, and hence is older than Bellini by at least two centuries!

***

Feneste che lucive e mo nun luce
sign'è ca nénna mia stace malata
S'affaccia la surella e mme lu dice:
Nennélla toja è morta e s'è atterrata.
Chiagneva sempe ca durmeva sola,
mo dorme co' li muorte accompagnata.


Va' dint''a cchiesa, e scuopre lu tavuto:
vide nennélla toja comm'è tornata
Da chella vocca ca n'ascéano sciure,
mo n'esceno li vierme, oh! che piatate!
Zi parrocchiano mio, ábbece cura: na
lampa sempe tienece allummata.


Addio fenesta, rèstate 'nzerrata
ca nénna mia mo nun se pò affacciare
Io cchiù nun passarraggio pe' 'sta strata:
vaco a lo camposanto a passíare!
'Nzino a lo juorno ca la morte 'ngrata,
mme face nénna mia ire a trovare!


The light is no longer in the window:
is my beloved sick?
I ask her sister; she tells me:
"My sister is dead, and she lays in the earth.
She had cried much, alone in her sleep,
and now she lays with the dead."

"Go to the church, she lays in her coffin:
See if she would return for you,
if her breath is sweet, or
if she lies with worms." Oh! mercy!
Dearest Father, look after my beloved,
keep watch, and lit a flame for her.

Farewell window, stay closed
my beloved will not come there anymore.
I will no longer walk by you,
but rather I shall walk by the cemetery!
Until the day when I shall die
and rejoin my beloved in death.

***

It is a very dark and intense song. Originally it was set for high voices, but of course it may also be transposed down for lower voices. Most performances only utilise the first two stanzas of the lyrics. There are several examples of approaches in which this song may be sung.



Fernando de Lucia (1860 - 1925) used a lot of portamenti and rubato. He was not afraid to use the pure head voice (as opposed to voix-mixte); on the other hand his high notes were extremely thrilling when sung in full voice. Sensitive diminuendos abound. I find a few interesting choices of phrasing, for example the hesitancy of sign'è ca nénna mia stace malata, symbolising a lover's doubt and worry. It is hard to ascertain the timbre, but the technical prowess displayed does suggest a musician in full control of his instrument.



Carlo Buti (1902 - 1963) chose a faster tempo, reminiscent of story-telling type of Verdi of arias, e.g. Tacea la notte placida. His reading was more crisp rhythmically, providing a forward drive in the narration. He also approached the phrase Chiagneva sempe ca durmeva sola similar to de Lucia: a voix-mixte durmeva, followed by a staccato-ed sola. Buti provided an interesting choice in the ending: by going up an octave to a beautiful F in mezza-voce.



José Carreras (1946) performed this song in a Berlin recital in 1987. The timbre is undeniably very beautiful, but on ascending the scale a certain harshness creeps in. He did not held the high Fs; in fact the phrases Chiagneva sempe ca durmeva sola (which he repeats twice in place of Zi parrocchiano mio, ábbece cura) sounded rushed. He did however manage a beautiful D in mezza-voce just before the end.



Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962) performed this song in a Moscow recital in 1990. Apparently this is a bis performance; the audience was so enthralled they demanded Mr. Hvorostovsky to repeat this song! I am quite baffled by his choices in the lyrics: it is in a mixture of the original Neapolitan dialect and standard Italian. He had been upfront about his lack of training in bel canto, so his interpretation is a bit pale in comparison to de Lucia and Buti. Nevertheless, baritones should stick together! His legato is impeccable, and the timbre is so innately attractive you'd forgive a lot of thing. His high Eb was a bit too closed, but perhaps it was to fit with the pall mood of the song.