Met's 2012-2013 season: Which of These Operas do You Want to See, and Why?

[+ Charlie]

Unfortunately, I only know Simionato from recordings, because she retired just at the time I started to go regularly to live opera. She was only 56, and she lived to be 100, so I can't believe there couldn't have still been some glorious performances left in her if she hadn't been so demanding in her personal standards. Sutherland and Cossotto were in that same performance at La Scala, and both sang publically (ok, not too well) into their 70s.

[+ WilliamM]

Beverly Sills

 

I have a VHS tape of Beverly Sills' Farewell Gala at Lincoln Center in 1980. The gala is notable for the the wide range of performers who sang and danced that night---Broadway, dance and television are as well represented as opera. The gala was taped for PBS, which may explain the diversity of guests. But it is so surprising that I have to remind myself every time I watch the tape that Sills was only fifty-one years old when she retired.

 

She had long planned to move into administration, first with the NYC Opera.

 

Sills was five years younger than Simionato (age 56) when she retired from opera.

[whipped guy]

It's amazing how young Sills now looks when you look at photos of her from her her performing days... and she gave it up at the right time as well. Incidentally I was never a big fan of hers even though she specialized in the Bel Canto repertory. To these ears she always over-embellished everything... not to mention that the voice was too light to adequately express the drama in many of the pieces thus causing her to force her tone beyond its natural limits. If Sutherland or Callas had a set of embellishments for a given aria... she would embellish the embellishments to outdo them... and in the final analysis make things go way over the top. Her recordings of Lucia and the Donizetti Tudor Trilogy illustrate this. Since the MET is doing Maria Stuarda his year... and to demonstrate the point... There are two version of the cabaletta to Maria's entrance aria. Sutherland sang the more florid version and while Sills said that she picked the more dramatic and straightforward version... by the time she got through embellishing it the piece was just as florid as the version that Sutherland used. Perhaps this is what singers did way back when... but for some reason I think that she overdid things.

 

One more word regarding Simionato, I consider her portrayal of Jane Seymour in Anna Bolena to be one of the high water marks of her career. Even though she was not a "natural" when it came to florid singing, she somehow was able to pull things off off perfectly. Pair her with Callas (or even Gencer) as Anna and sparks would fly!