"Parsifal" DVD and a Word on "Prince Igor"

[MrMiniver]

MrM... I respect your opinion regarding Damrau as she did get excellent reviews. However, I find her to be quite sloppy when compared with the best the present has to offer, not to mention the past. I subscribe to something called the " Ah, non giunge" test. If a soprano is able to pull off that cabaletta she gets high marks in my book. Given the latest research, the urtext gives a couple of variants available to modern interpreters. Damrau choose the traditional version familiar to Callas and Sutherland. She fails in almost every aspect. Just compare the final coloratura flourish at the end of the first section... she seems unable to sing this admittedly difficult passage in tempo... That's the passage that rises to an E flat in alt and then decends. Elsewhere her high notes are strained, trills imprecise, fioritura careless and not cleanly executed. I will say that in "Come per me", "Son geloso", and "Ah, non credea" she is capable of some nice piano effects. However, she overall seems to go for cheep effects... and I'm not even referring to the cartwheel at the conclusion of the opera! Still, we all hear differently. I did not see this in the house, but with the exception of Le Comte Ory, I have really never been satisfied with her when witnessing her in the flesh. Still, what you saw as virtues I may have overlooked.

 

Incidentally I will be be seeing Camarena and DiDonato in Cenerentola and then Puritani as well.

 

I understand where you're coming from and don't disagree. Standards today are different and I'm just choosing these days to see the forest instead of the trees which is where most of the audience seems to be as well. I'm just too old and I've seen everyone from Sills/Sutherland onward in this rep and no longer have the energy to engage in that kind of analysis. But I respect that you do and find your comments very interesting.

 

I find the current MET production of Puritani exceedingly boring and I don't have high hopes for this revival at all. But we'll see.

[whipped guy]

I understand where you're coming from and don't disagree. Standards today are different and I'm just choosing these days to see the forest instead of the trees which is where most of the audience seems to be as well. I'm just too old and I've seen everyone from Sills/Sutherland onward in this rep and no longer have the energy to engage in that kind of analysis. But I respect that you do and find your comments very interesting.

 

I find the current MET production of Puritani exceedingly boring and I don't have high hopes for this revival at all. But we'll see.

Even by current standards I find Damrau lacking. But then again Bel Canto is one of my passions and my standards are indeed colored by singers of the past.

 

Regarding Puritani, it fit into my travel schedule and I have high hopes for Olga Petetyatko. From what I have heard of her via broadcast (a recording of Il Turco in Italia from Covent Garden with Laurence Brownlee) she might be the real deal. It will be interesting to hear her live. Regarding the production, it is as old as the hills. I last saw it with the "Dame from Down Under"...

[+ WilliamM]

I know - you didn't want comments on the production' date=' but...Pirandello? I'm sorry - that's giving Zimmerman's embarrassing mess of a production WAY too much credit. Rather, I would subtitle this travesty [i']One Opera in Search Of A Director. [/i]

 

 

We disagree somewhat. I enjoyed Zimmerman's production while watching at the Met -- liked it far more than other strange staging of first-rate operas. But, I was disappointed in the DVD, especially after two or three viewings. So the element of surprise must have been a huge factor at the Met.

[MrMiniver]

Even by current standards I find Damrau lacking. But then again Bel Canto is one of my passions and my standards are indeed colored by singers of the past.

 

Regarding Puritani, it fit into my travel schedule and I have high hopes for Olga Petetyatko. From what I have heard of her via broadcast (a recording of Il Turco in Italia from Covent Garden with Laurence Brownlee) she might be the real deal. It will be interesting to hear her live. Regarding the production, it is as old as the hills. I last saw it with the "Dame from Down Under"...

 

I enjoy bel canto but my speciality ranges more from Mozart to some Rossini, skip a bit, skip the French, head into Verdi and then the German rep.

Peretyatko, for me, lacks star quality which I find essential to opera but especially in this rep. It's why Brownlee, while possessing a fine voice, will never be a big star. He simply has no star quality. It's a undefinable thing, in a way, but there you have it. They get all the notes but somehow you don't leave the theater thinking you've seen something special.

[MrMiniver]

We disagree somewhat. I enjoyed Zimmerman's production while watching at the Met -- liked it far more than other strange staging of first-rate operas. But, I was disappointed in the DVD, especially after two or three viewings. So the element of surprise must have been a huge factor at the Met.

 

 

I didn't hate it the way some people did. I found it an interesting concept, that like so many interesting concepts never quite panned out. I thought when Dessay walked over to the chalk board (which was eventually ditched, thankfully) and wrote in big letters ARIA ... I could have laughed out loud.

[whipped guy]

I enjoy bel canto but my speciality ranges more from Mozart to some Rossini, skip a bit, skip the French, head into Verdi and then the German rep.

Peretyatko, for me, lacks star quality which I find essential to opera but especially in this rep. It's why Brownlee, while possessing a fine voice, will never be a big star. He simply has no star quality. It's a undefinable thing, in a way, but there you have it. They get all the notes but somehow you don't leave the theater thinking you've seen something special.

I just pulled out that Turco recording with Peretyatko and I mistakingly referenced it as being from Covent Garden. It actually was from the Muziethester in Amsterdam in 2012. I mention this because I'm sure someone just might check the archives of the Royal Opera to prove me wrong. I do have a recording from Covent Garden, but it stars Aleksandra Kurzak and dates from 2010. I confused the venues, but not the voices.

 

In any event, listening to a clip of the final soprano aria I hear a voice that while not very distinctive seems to have body to it, the lower register seems to be relatively strong and the highest notes are reached easily and with no sense of strain. She performs the revised version of the cabaletta on the repeat as a variation and gives us a decent trill and a fine coloratura technique. It will be interesting to hear what type of impression she makes live as it us only upon hearing a voice and it's overtones in a live acoustic that one can really and fairly judge the quality and size of a voice. Some voices don't record very well, others do... In any event, anyone who can easily sing Rossini's revised version of that Turco aria should have absolutely no problem with any portion of the role of Elvira in I Puritani... at least in theory. As for star power, it will be interesting to see how she strikes me.