Intermezzo

Marina Poplavskaya replaces herself

Is this the most bizarre cast change announcement ever? A week after pulling out of the ROH's Robert le diable due to illness, Marina Poplavskaya is now back in again.

According to the ROH:

"Marina felt that she had to withdraw from Robert le diable due to a medical condition and on the advice of her doctor. She wanted to make the decision swiftly in order to accommodate the difficult task of finding a replacement as early as possible.

However, after further consultations and examinations, she has been advised that it will be possible for her to continue with the rehearsals and performances of Robert le diable after all without any risk, and that any necessary treatment can carry on meanwhile or be postponed."

Royal Opera House Traviata marathon begins

La traviata - Royal Opera House, 3 October 2011

Don't worry if you missed this performance - there are another 21 to go. Yes, it's safe to say that if you're fond of La traviata, Covent Garden is the place to be this autumn. With three casts, three conductors, two separate revival directors and a couple of bonus appearances from Anna Netrebko, you'll be spoilt for choice.

Marina Poplavskaya, unpainted

Above, gorgeous Marina Poplavskaya in full warpaint.

Below, with tenor Lee Yong-hoon at a press conference in Tokyo earlier today.

The Tsar's Bride at the Royal Opera House

The Tsar's Bride - Royal Opera House, 20 April 2011

When Covent Garden tackled Prokofiev's The Gambler last year, ticket prices were pegged at a maximum of £50. It sold out - bringing in many first time visitors in the process. Despite the opera's obscurity, its unstarry cast and equivocal reviews. Did the Royal Opera House learn anything from that? Obviously not.

Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo at the Royal Opera House

Simon Boccanegra - Royal Opera House, 29 June 2010

With Berlin, Milan and New York under his belt, Placido Domingo’s now done enough Boccanegras for everyone to realise that him turning into a true baritone was always about as likely as England getting anywhere in the World Cup. True, he has all the notes, but the tenorial burnish is as it ever was. Interestingly, he only strained (a teeny bit) at the very top of his range - a studied attempt at baritonal authenticity, I wonder?

But this is academic territory. What matters is that regardless of theoretical vocal fit, he gave a truly monumental performance by any standard in the opening night of the Royal Opera House's latest run.

********   more on next page   ********

Turandot at the Met - Lise Lindstrom goes chopping

Turandot - Metropolitan Opera New York, 28 October 2009

I caught Lise Lindstrom's Met debut and you didn't. With the house's resident screamer Maria Guleghina out with a cold, 'B' cast Lindstrom was brought in to make her first Met appearance a few days earlier than scheduled. She's played Turandot to great acclaim around Europe recently; this was New York's chance to see what all the fuss was about.

Did she nail it - yes she did! One could quibble whether her voice is the biggest or the best or the most beautiful, but its silvered laser is perfect for the role. And it's accurately pitched without a hint of wobble, indecently flexible and never showed any sign of strain. Within the limits of the ancient Zeffirelli production, which seems to have been choreographed rather than directed, she gave a more than acceptable dramatic performance too, cold and brittle to begin with, melting at the end.

Points must be deducted for her reaction to the warm applause she received at the second act curtain call. In conduct unbecoming a diva, she acted like she'd gone through to the next round of American Idol.

The audience seemed to enjoy the gushing and arm-waving. But then they'd not only applauded the Act 2 scenery (like a gladiator bathhouse from a gay p0rno) but also prematurely ovated on several occasions, ejaculating all over bars and bars of Maestro Nelsons' lovingly detailed score. There was even one knob who yelled out "Viva Puccini" before the Alfano completion started up

What a change from Ed Gardner's rampant decibels at the ENO last week. Nelsons - another Met debutant tonight - never took an extreme path, but subtly highlighted the music's complex layering, teasing out lines I'd never really heard before. And he paced it beautifully, never losing momentum, but not tempted to race either. No conductor is ever remembered for the greatness of their Turandot, but still, it's a tough test. I could see his score from where I was sitting - carefully marked up, and heavily rumpled, as if it had been dropped in the bath then left to dry. Clearly he's been doing his homework.

Vulnerability and determination were convincingly combined in Marina Poplavskaya's Liù. Not easy to pull off but she did it. Pitching issues (worse than usual tonight) and a desperately thin top detract, but not as much as they might with some other singers. Her musicality and conviction and sheer charisma carry her a long way.

Good old reliable Marcello Giordani was the unexciting Calaf. Moving lumpishly as if he'd had no rehearsals whatsoever (which may of course be the case) and mumbling through his lower register, he nevertheless managed to pull together some impressively ringing top notes. Nessun dorma of course brought the house down - some classy Bs the trigger. But for me the effect was diminished by having heard Pavarotti tackle it in the Met shop before the show. There's efficiency and then there's magic.

 

more photos tomorrow...........maybe.......if I can be........zzzzzzz........

no substitute

Don Carlo - Royal Opera House, 27 September 2009 and 18 September 2009

Every singer (except Plácido) gets sick now and again, and I got Jonas Kaufmann for two out of the three Don Carlo performances I went too, plus the rehearsal, so I can't complain too much. It was clear at the time of Kaufmann's restrained, mostly marked rehearsal performance that Don Carlo lies at the limits of his capacities. He was wise not to put his voice in jeopardy by attempting the part in anything less than 100% health.

But I can't deny it was a major disappointment to arrive at the Sunday matinee and find he'd been replaced by Alfred Kim, who'd played the part recently in Oslo. Kim is competent and likeable. He hits all the notes cleanly, projects well, acts industriously, and truth be told has a much more Italianate and objectively appropriate voice for the part than either Kaufmann or his predecessor Rolando Villazón.

But he just didn't possess that elusive factor that catches your eye when someone walks on stage and draws your ear to their every word. It's something to do with singing from inside the role rather than merely playing it, and it excuses all sorts of other issues. It's why every single major opera house rushes round chasing after the same 20 or so singers, why nothing (except the recent Barbiere - a miracle) is ever ideally cast.

Alfred Kim (top) and Jonas Kaufmann (below) with Ferruccio Furlanetto:

******* more photos on next page ********

Royal Opera House's Don Carlo faces the Inquisition

Don Carlo - Royal Opera House, 15 September 2009

It’s little more than a year since the Royal Opera House premiered this production, but already the temperature has dropped a few degrees.

The main reason is Semyon Bychkov. Pappano was all heart; Bychkov is all head. Where Pappano offered untrammelled passion, Bychkov’s Don Carlo is thoughtfully structured, scrupulously detailed and immaculately performed (the last time the ROH played this well was in Lohengrin for – Semyon Bychkov). His weighty attentions serve the music well, the drama less so. The issue isn't the idiosyncratic tempos – sometimes super attenuated, sometimes dangerously pacy. At least these make you listen in a new way.The real problem is a lack of flexibility and dramatic response. The music feels superimposed on the drama, when it should be the other way round. The great Carlos/Posa freedom duet was more dutiful than ardent; Philip’s ruminative Act 4 monologue had the air of a prepared speech. There is much to admire – and to think about - but I rarely felt drawn in.

The other big change is in the title role. Rolando Villazon’s Carlos was an impetuous boy; Jonas Kaufmann’s is brooding, serious and totally grown-up. Kaufmann’s Carlos has no hesitation in placing his duty to Flanders above his personal desires. But this is the five act version, whose first act narrates the brief meeting of Carlos and Elisabetta. The first act does so much more than contextualise Carlos’s later moping. It changes the story. His joy (Elisabetta's too) is seen as real, but his later obsession as delusory, while her acceptance of her duty is the only pragmatic solution. Playing out the love story diminishes it. We see it ourselves for what it is, a moment of happiness, and not as Carlos presents it, the pivot of his destiny. And then we see the discrepancy between our view and his, and Carlos too is diminished in our eyes. He is merely evading his responsibilities, even if he doesn't realise it.

Jonas Kaufmann has chosen to emphasise the political and idealistic side of Carlos, and while that's right for the four act version, I don't think it works here (for one thing, it makes the first act into a tacked-on appendage). But having said that, and first act simpering aside, he follows through brilliantly. He is every inch the rebel prince, and his singing was out of this world. His ravishingly beautiful mezza voce was used to great effect, but he could turn up the power too. And who else could look that hawt in puffball shorts and pixie boots?

Inevitably this Carlos has more chemistry with Posa than with Marina Poplavskaya’s Elisabetta. She is much improved from last year's outing. Perhaps she really was indisposed all those times she claimed. Her steel-coated power was complemented this time round by smooth grained tone and accurate (if hard earned) top notes, lending Elisabetta's dutiful sacrifice a noble cast.

Simon Keenlyside sounded better than I have heard him for some time. Evidently a summer's rest has done him good. He is not and never will be a Verdi baritone - the heft and depth simply aren't there. Pairing him with the baritonal tenor of Jonas Kaufmann unfortunately emphasises this. But he compensates intelligently and with unquestionable commitment.

Marianne Cornetti is definitely a Verdi singer, but I doubt if Eboli is her best role. She wobbled gamely through the Veil Song, but her voice is simply too weighty to navigate it with the required agility. O don fatale was quite lovely though, and she has the warmth to generate sympathy. Couldn't the make up department have glammed her up a bit more though? - the revelation that Carlos has mistaken her for Elisabetta raised an understandable laugh from the audience.

The most satisfying performance came of course from Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip. Near-perfect. Every note, every gesture conveys absolute authority. He perhaps more than anyone suffered from Bychkov's counter-intuitive pacing though. Unable to linger or rush where the emotions demanded, he was sometimes less convincing than I know he can be. And his showdown with John Tomlinson's unscary Grand Inquisitor didn't pack the wallop it should have done.

Amongst the smaller parts, Robert Anthony Gardiner as the Conte di Lerma really stood out. His singing, most of it terrifyingly exposed, was bright, accurate and rock-solid, and his presence aristocratically relaxed.

I'm going to see a couple more performances, and I'll write more about the production itself then. But suffice to say for now I was surprised at the stagey gesticulation of some of the principals, and at how much fussy micro-managed movement had been imposed on crowd scenes (the auto-da-fé scene was the most egregious example of extraneous chat, clatter and fidgeting). A case of the director working with what was available perhaps, but not quite what you'd expect from Nicholas Hytner.

 

*****  more photos over page  *****

 

Spanish practices

 

Rumours that the first revival of the Royal Opera House's Don Carlo was in even better shape than the original were given some weight by yesterday's dress rehearsal. Half the original cast return - Ferruccio Furlanetto as Philip, Marina Poplavskaya as Elisabetta and Simon Keenlyside as Posa. The new additions are Jonas Kaufmann (Carlos), Marianne Cornetti (Eboli) and John Tomlinson (the Inquisitor).

But it's the new conductor, Semyon Bychkov, who has the most impact. Some of his tempos are unique to say the least - the great third act ensemble is taken at such a clip the singers struggle to keep up. But it's a probing, intelligent perspective, at times revelatory - I suspect it will be controversial. Jonas Kaufmann's performance may be too. I had some reservations, but they can wait given this was only a rehearsal, things may change, etc.

Poplavskaya and Keenlyside bring a greater depth to their characterisations this time round. (Ferruccio Furlanetto is of course unimprovable). Poplavskaya in particular has matured astonishingly in just a year. Her range has extended upwards so she can now actually sing all the notes, and with what power. When she sings, she changes the temperature of the room.

Marianne Cornetti is a lovely sympathetic Eboli, and although John Tomlinson isn't quite as scary-looking as Eric Halvarson was, he sings with the authority of absolute power.

The sets seemed uglier than I remembered them, the lighting brasher and less forgiving - just a concession to the official photographers snapping away? I hope so.

Royal Opera House 2009/10 season - all the details

Here first! - a full list of all the Royal Opera House's main stage productions for the 2009/10 season.

The 2009/10 Covent Garden season opens with neither bang nor whimper but with a credit-crunching concert performance on 7 September (repeated on 14 September). Makes a change from last year's Sun readers' special I suppose.

The opera in question is Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix, and the conductor is bel canto genius Mark Elder. The cast includes potential Next Big Things Stephen Costello, Eglise Gutierrez and Luciano Botelho, plus the incomparable Alessandro Corbelli, the first of several welcome appearances this season.

The first staged opera of the season is Nicholas Hytner's lego-loving Don Carlo, with - OMG!- Jonas Kaufmann !!! in the title role. John Tomlinson joins him as the Grand Inquisitor, and the rest of the cast is lifted straight from the first run - Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, fans' favourite Ferruccio Furlanetto, Sonia Ganassi and Pumeza Matshikiza.The conductor is Semyon Bychkov.

This season's contribution to the 2013 Wagnerversary is a new Christof Loy production of Tristan und Isolde. Antonio Pappano conducts Ben Heppner, Nina Stemme, Matti Salminen, Michael Volle and Sophie Koch.

Neigh! Francesco Zambello's ghastly Carmen returns in October, with the latest Covent Garden favourite Elina Garanca back for the title role, fighting off Roberto Alagna, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, and a farmyard full of furry friends. Bertrand de Billy conducts. It's resuscitated again in June 2010 with a distinctly 'B' cast.

October also sees one of Richard Jones's more subtle and effective efforts back on stage - and attractively cast. The shouldn't-work-but-it-does double bill of Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole (Christine Rice, Yann Beuron, Christopher Maltman, Andrew Shore and Bonaventura Bottone) and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (Thomas Allen, Maria Bengtsson and Stephen Costello) is conducted by Pappano.

Francesco Zambello steps into Tchaikovsky's The Slippers in November. The new production will be conducted by Alexander Polianichko and features some serious talent fresh from the Mariinsky - Olga Guryakova, Vsevolod Grivnov, Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Matorin and Maxim Mikhailov.

John Schlesinger's elderly Der Rosenkavalier is dusted off in December. Kirill Petrenko conducts and the cast includes Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch, Thomas Allen and Lucy Crowe.

Littering the December and January schedules is the inevitable La Bohème. This time Andris Nelsons conducts most of the double-cast performances, which begin with Piotr Beczala and Hibla Gerzmava and end with not a few tbc's.

Robert Lepage's intermittently effective Rake's Progress returns in January 2010. Ingo Metzmacher, Toby Spence (a Tom Rakewell tdf), Kate Royal, Kyle Ketelsen and Stephanie Blythe promise much on the musical side.

Female conductor alert! Top Lisboan Julia Jones wields the baton over Jonathan Miller's Cosi fan Tutte in January. The cast includes Charles Castronovo and Sally Matthews.

A new Richard Jones production of Prokofiev's The Gambler in February is conducted by Pappano, with a cast including Roberto Sacca, Angela Denoke, John Tomlinson and Jurgita Adamonyte.

Plácido Domingo's first appearance of the season is as a tenor. Graham Vick's acclaimed production of Handel's Tamerlano (recorded in Madrid and available on DVD con Plácido) makes its first visit to Covent Garden in March with Christianne Stoijn, Sara Mingardo and Christine Schäfer. Baroque specialist Ivor Bolton conducts.

Bill Bryden's family-friendly The Cunning Little Vixen returns in March with Emma Matthews, Christopher Maltman and Emma Bell, though the presence of Charles Mackerras on the podium has to be the main draw.

Caurier and Leiser's lovely Il Turco in Italia is back in April, with Maurizio Benini conducting, and Aleksandra Kursak, Colin Lee, Alessandro Corbelli, Thomas Allen and Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the cast.

Aida is subjected to the David McVicar magic in April. His new production is conducted by Nicola Luisotti and features Micaela Carosi, Marcelo Alvarez and Luciana D'Intino. Bare naked elephants?

The last of the Big Three, Richard Eyre's subtly intelligent La Traviata, makes its annual appearance in May and July. This time her name's in the programme - Our first Lady of the Camellias is the fabulous former Netrebko sub Ermonela Jaho. Joining her in her long-awaited return to Covent Garden in May are Saimir Pirgu and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. July's 'B' Violetta is Angela Gheorghiu, who makes do with James Valenti and Zeljko Lucic. Yves Abel conducts.

Laurent Pelly's now-legendary La Fille du Régiment returns in May with the unbeatable original cast of Juan Diego Flórez, Natalie Dessay, Alessandro Corbelli and Felicity Palmer back in place. Bruno Campanella conducts.

What would tempt Sir Colin Davis back into the pit? How about David McVicar's Le Nozze di Figaro? Erwin Schrott, Camilla Tilling, Maruisz Kwiecen. Annette Dasch, Soile Isokoski and Christine Schäfer head the strong cast.

Antonio Pappano conducts Laurent Pelly's new Manon, coming to Covent Garden in June with the announced cast including Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. Anyone fancy a bet?

In one of those rare operatic fairy stories, June sees a baritone with less than a year's experience thrust into a leading role at Covent Garden. Yes, it's Plácido Domingo again, and this time he's Simon Boccanegra. Antonio Pappano conducts a strong cast including Marina Poplavskaya, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Joseph Calleja. It's the 1991 Elijah Moshinsky production by the way, not the Ian Judge one seen last year.

The season ends in July 2010 with the first revival of David McVicar's controversial Salome. Angela Denoke takes the central role, with Johan Reuter as Jokanaan. Hartmut Haenchen conducts.

No link yet, but more details expected on the Royal Opera House website sometime next week.

****************

*******UPDATE 22/4*******

The Royal Opera House's press releases are now available on their website. Go here for the summary, here for the opera details and here for the ballet.

Don Giovanni from the Royal Opera House - free online streaming

As previously reported, the Royal Opera House is streaming its recent Don Giovanni in full. The performance is the infamous 8 September "Sun special", which I attended in person, and marked Joyce DiDonato's role debut as Donna Elvira.

Like everything else of interest on the ghastly new website, the link is well-hidden. You can find it yourself on the page http://www.roh.org.uk/video by clicking 'Don Giovanni' in the menu on the left-hand side. Or you can go directly to any of its ten parts via the links below:

Part 1   Part 2    Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   Part 7   Part 8   Part 9   Part 10

The technical quality is good on my set up, though in full screen mode the picture is poor and the screen tends to freeze. The sound has clearly been cleaned up. This is mostly sensitively done, though a lot of dynamic contrast has been lost.

Beware there's a Parental Advisory moment at 20:40 of Part 10 (now, how many of you will ff there in the next 10 seconds.........?)

Even more Don Giovanni at Covent Garden

Don Giovanni - Royal Opera House, 10 September 2008

 

Well, I am pleased to report that musically at least, this second night of the season was a vast improvement on the first. And if the audience wasn't exactly a better one, it was at least a markedly different one.  Downstairs, the familiar tap of Ferragamo against parquet and a faint smell of hairspray marked the return of the queens, counsels and assorted bankers to their rightful boxes. Upstairs, it was socks, sandals and sandwiches as usual.

But back to the music. Covent Garden shows often improve as the run progresses - especially revivals, like this one, where rehearsal time is limited. And in this case, the previous combination of a first night, an unpredictable audience, and being beamed live and in close-up around the world's cinemas can't have helped singers' nerves. The production itself remains by turns tacky and dull, but the performances were so much better second time round.

Most improved was Miah Persson, sweetness and innocence outside, a tumble of hormones within, and this time round, the secure mistress of Zerlina's vocal demands.  Robert Gleadow (still only 24!) was an equally impressive Masetto, and they displayed undisputable physical rapport, wrapping themselves around each other as if the honeymoon had already started.

We were again issued with a pre-show apology for Marina Poplavskaya's health, and again she proved little if anything was wrong. Both Or sai chi l'onore and Non mi dir displayed a tissue-thin top but that was it. Her Donna Anna, emotionally numbed, single-minded in her quest for vengeance, was a smart piece of casting and convincingly acted.

Joyce DiDonato again unravelled thrillingly as Donna Elvira, bewitched and eventually unhinged by Don Giovanni's wiles.

The Dirty Don himself was more problematical - and it wasn't just the stringy ginger wig. Simon Keenlyside has an intelligent and just fundamentally decent air that doesn't sit comfortably with this determinedly anti-intellectual production. He can't match the swarthy feral magnetism of last year's Don Giovanni, Erwin Schrott (wisely he doesn't try). His Don seduces with words, not pheromones, and his seduction arias carried far more weight than the oddly unconvincing murder at the start and the gluttonous debauchery of the finale. The orchestra sped past him in his Champagne Aria but everything else was sung with grace and musicality.

Kyle Ketelsen's robustly sung Leporello, in an even more dreadful wig, was an able counterweight, a properly reluctant partner who conspires in his own oppression simply for the cash. He needed to dig harder for the laughs with this audience than the first, but he got them in the end.

Don Ottavio is not the most dynamic of roles - all he has to do really is sing a couple of arias nicely. Ramón Vargas certainly has the voice, even if it's a bit more Italianate than we might expect for Mozart. He managed a lot better than he had on the first night, lyrical and flowing, just a little pinched at the top, and faded genteely into the background when he wasn't required. Neatly done.

I wasn't quite as thrilled with Sir Charles Mackerras as the critics have been, but he did a more than able job with the modest number (an advantage in itself) of players, including the superbly-drilled onstage bands. Rapport between pit and stage showed a marked improvement, relaxation and co-operation both playing their part, though again it was clear that those who slipped could expect little sympathy from the podium. 

One performer at least has managed to get a few bonus column inches this week - that's MAW Emma Reed who descends to hell with Don Giovanni (minus kit) in a Page 3-style finale, clairvoyantly scripted well before the Sun came on board. Here she is 'without costume' in The Sun, and here's the pearl-clutchers' version from genius of teh Photoshops, OperaChic.

           

The Sun comes out for Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House

Don Giovanni - Royal Opera House, 8 September 2008

 

The opening night of the Royal Opera House season. Officially! We know because big cheese Tony Hall told us so, in an Oscarish pre-show speech that stopped millimetres short of thanking his agent and teh baby jeebus. 

We arrived to find a splashy Sun bus parked at the front door - supposedly, the show was 'only' open to Sun readers, a myth propagated by the Sun's fact-lite press rivals.

But in fact anyone who registered on a special page of the ROH website, as explained here, could apply for tickets. Which would account for the number of familiar faces I spotted in the audience. (My own conscience is clear - I took along a ROH newbie).

But there were welcome absences too - scarcely a rustle of anoraks in the amphitheatre, no gobby tourists, few corporate suits at the bar. In their place, not the lager louts the broadsheets had doomily predicted, but a cleaner, better-dressed and better-behaved class of customer than Covent Garden has seen for a while. Enough looked understandably bewildered by the confusing ROH signage to convince me that few were regulars.  And was that one of the scheme's most vehement opponents, Charlotte "boycott in order" Higgins of the Guardian skulking around the bar? No moral dilemma 'subsidising' "that utterly repellent institution: page bloody three" when you've nabbed a freebie press seat I guess.

In fact, genuine Sun readers may have been outnumbered by journalists. Not just the opera-reviewing habitues, but mike-wielding newshounds, pouncing on Essex families for 'your impressions'.

The huge but unobtrusive cameras in the auditorium itself were part of a Met-style live relay to cinemas across the known universe.

Whether they captured the Royal Opera House at its best is another question. Francesca Zambello's production has a couple of qualities - it's cinematically splashy (my companion appreciated the guidance of the colour-coded costumes), and it strikes the elusive balance between comedy and drama with rare precision.

But despite its flaming wicker and shoals of purposeless extras it never really grips until the final showdown, with the dirty Don spectacularly flanked by burning bathtubs.

Still, there were enough laughs to hold the audience's attention, mostly supplied by the vast-voiced Kyle Ketelsen, shamelessly mugging as Leporello. Vocally at least he was more imposing than Simon Keenlyside's patchy Don Giovanni.

Joyce DiDonato gave the most consistent and impressive performance of the evening, totally uninhibited as the combustible Donna Elvira. Charles Mackerras took a firm grip on the orchestra, no concessions to any singers' foibles here, and she alone could ride the waves at their crest.

Marina Poplavskaya, suffering we were told from a respiratory infection, struggled with intonation to begin with, but her increasingly weighty voice made a powerful impression in any case, a significant development from her Donna Anna in the same production last year.

Miah Persson's Zerlina was more of a disappointment. She has the requisite sweetness, and began well, but soon strayed way off vocal course - perhaps she's picked up the respiratory bug too. Ramón Vargas also played a game of two halves, in his case a strained, reedy tone which eventually opened out.

But this was a generous audience, and it rewarded the performance with a generous ovation.

I'm back for more on Wednesday (booked long before the Sun offer appeared) - hoping for better singing from some quarters, but I doubt if there'll be a more enthusiastic and less jaded audience in the Royal Opera House for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

Rolando's Don Carlo - teh live sound clips - you listen, you decide

The Greek god famous for his miraculous musical powers - Parsifal - has hunted down and captured for your listening pleasure all critical moments from Covent Garden's Don Carlo here.

Includes Rolando Villazon, Simon Keenlyside, Sonia Ganassi, Marina Poplavskaya and Ferruccio Furlanetto!

Complete with audience coffs'n'crakles !

Dynamic range is flattened, but otherwise it seems to me a reasonably faithful recording - at least it gives a clear perspective on the singing anyway.

(When you get there, double click on 'track details' to listen).

Rolando is back! Villazon on top in Covent Garden's new Don Carlo (UPDATED with full list of review links)

Don Carlo - Royal Opera House, 6 June 2008

*****UPDATE*****(Go here for sound clips news)*****

I realised this was a Big Night when I spotted Anna Netrebko knocking back a jar in the Amphitheatre Bar ( - the People's bar!  - Anna is one of us! ) on my way in. In a dove grey sleeveless babydoll with high silver sandals and white Chanel bag (murky-but-full-marks-for-getting-the-shot photos here) she looked perky and happy, giggling with a pair of party-frocked companions.

I don't know if she came to cheer on Rolando or just to hang out round the cake counter, but I do hope she managed to catch the show. Because the gossip was right on the ball - following hot on the heels of Salome and The Minotaur, Nicholas Hytner's take on Verdi's Don Carlo pulls off a hat trick of stunning new productions this year at Covent Garden. The musical performance, almost beyond perfect, flatters the production considerably. I'm not sure, mulling it over post-show with a glass of Bonsai Shiraz, whether it'd be quite so gasp-worthy with a different conductor and cast. But that's for co-commissioners Oslo and the Met to figure out.

Underpinning it all was Antonio Pappano's glorious conducting, lucid and measured, revealing all the beauty and tragic grandeur of the score. The ROH orchestra have rarely sounded this good, even the most exposed passages exquisitely delineated.

And it was perfectly cast vocally - and visually too, a near-impossible feat. But when you've just spent a fortune on a DVD company as the ROH have, I guess these matters get pushed to the forefront.

The pick of the cast was undoubtedly Rolando Villazón, in the title role. His very first word - "Fontainebleau" - full of the passion and yearning that suffused his entire performance - sent a shiver down my spine.  

This production is less even-handed than some - it is very much Carlo's story, a tragedy on a Shakesperean scale, and Rolando, in magnificent form, provided a charismatic centre. His Carlo was a Spanish Hamlet, immature, impulsive and ruled by his passions, an interpretation lent emphasis by the comparative restraint of the other principal performances. No such restraint for Rolando, whose ardour ran unchecked whether in his unfulfilled desire for Elisabetta, his deep bond with Posa or his devotion to the cause of freedom and justice.

Marina '50p' Poplavskaya  was hugely impressive as Elisabetta, more astute and wordly wise than Carlo, and here I think a bit older too. As the first act of this five-act version makes clear, she wasn't forced into marriage with Carlo's father Philip - she chose it. That same sense of duty which drove her choice explains her coolness towards Carlo.

Poplavskaya's huge steely voice wanted for nothing, save a little more tenderness in her final duet with Carlo and maybe a couple of high notes. And she has the sort of charisma that can't be manufactured or acted. To think Covent Garden originally went after Angela Gheorghiu for this role - we've had a lucky escape.

Hytner's ruthless directorial concept may have left Rolando with not much in the way of hot secksy chemistry with la Pops, but he had a firm and manly bond with Posa, an unusually restrained characterisation from Simon Keenlyside. We get so used to seeing Simon bouncing around the stage in the more physical roles that it's almost a shock to see he can turn that energy inward and produce such a contained, opaque performance. His duets with Rolando were central, dramatically, and both delivered with a heartbreaking poignancy.

The only reason Ferruccio Furlanetto didn't steal the show is that he wasn't on stage for that long. We are so lucky to have had the honour of his presence twice this season (last time as a luxurious late sub in Simon Boccanegra). Both the terrifying gravity of Philip's public facade and his pitiless self-analysis behind closed doors were displayed in riveting fashion. The difficulty with this part is to sound aged but not completely clapped-out, and FF's sonorous, chocolatey, ever-so-slightly-frayed bass is perfection itself.

Sonia Ganassi wasn't a particularly villainous Eboli. Perhaps it was Hytner's idea to avoid two-dimensional characterisations, but it robbed some of the incidental drama. Ganassi sang wonderfully though, as did the two basses Eric Halfvarson, a truly terrifying Grand Inquisitor, and Robert Lloyd,  displaying his habitual gravitas and sonority as the old monk/Carlos.

All the smaller parts were without exception brilliantly sung, and it was fascinating to get a glimpse (amphitheatre seats have an advantage here) of the exquisitely crystalline Voice from Heaven, Anita Watson, as she sang from literally right on top of the auditorium, through the vent in the centre of the roof.

I had some reservations about the production design when I first saw it last month. Not the period costumes, which seemed beautiful and appropriate, and turned out to be even more so in practice. There's always a place in my heart for a thigh boot.

But the sets I then found crude and basic, though designer Bob Crowley pointed out that lighting would make a major difference. As it turned out, we were both right. Where the lighting works, so do the sets. But there are too many places where it doesn't. The best parts are undoubtedly where a bold, clean light streams through the portcullis-like grilles which surround the stage at several points, illuminating the prison in which each and every character finds themselves, a la Christopher Nolan's Batman. But as soon as the light softens, the grilles take on a distinctly flat-pack appearance.

And the forest of Fontainebleau concocted for the first act looks more like Ikea-sur-Neasden. That photo, left, is way too flattering. In the harsh light of the staging, the plastic trees and the bedsheet floor look distinctly low-budget, unworthy of the craftsmanship of the ROH techie departments.

In dramatic terms, it represents the days of Carlo's freedom, and as such it's a vital visual contrast to the prison-like theme chosen for the later acts. A good idea, but poorly executed.

I personally loved the lego-like red brick wall selected as the centrepiece of the second act garden scene, though no-one else I spoke to thought it worked. It reminded me of the steps of El Escorial, and quite irrelevantly, of the Tirolean M-Preis supermarkets, the cross in the wall symbolising the constant presence of religion. But the painted cypress backdrop was, again, horribly crude, looking like it was knocked up that afternoon by schoolkids. 

The most misconceived scene though is the auto-da-fé of the third act. The busyness of the scenery is in spectacular contrast to the epic simplicity seen earlier. And the face painted scrim, when it's lit at the end to show the burned bodies of the executed heretics behind, is a real coup de théâtre.

But this, together with the unnecessarily large and noisy crowd, turns what should be the backdrop - the auto-da-fé itself - into the centre of the action. What we should be concentrating on - Carlo's pivotal showdown with his father and Posa's intervention - becomes almost a sideshow. The SFX grab all the attention and this crucial scene is diminished dramatically. I have no doubt that this is the effect Hytner is seeking - he's far too smart and experienced to make mistakes on this scale - but it beats me why.

The scenes which really work - when they're lit in F.W.Murnau style anyway - are the two set at the monastery, as represented by the tomb of the dead King Carlos, a forbidding monolithic memorial in an otherwise empty space. Here Carlo's ineluctable destiny is clearly and simply expressed.

As for the rest, it's more than saved by the wonderful cast and the amazing music, so much so that the doubtful elements of the staging pass by almost unnoticed. It takes more than giant lego and plastic trees to upstage Rolando Villazón.

***UPDATE***what everyone else thought***
(to be updated further as reviews are published)

• Michael Church in the Independent - unqualified likey - "Furlanetto commands centre stage as Hytner fulfils all expectations"
• The Teenage Theatre Critic blog - more unqualified praise - "A complete triumph."
• MusicalCriticism.com - Pappano 1, Hytner 0 - "Hytner's new staging ..... is, for me, a disappointment"
• musicOMH.com - loved it all - "an enormously impressive and enjoyable night at the opera"
• classicalsource.com - very few reservations but - "hopefully the ghosts from past performances in the Visconti production will smile happily on their successors"
• Andrew Clements in the Guardian - liked everything except Rolando's acting - "the glitzy tenor is the only disappointment"
• Fiona Maddocks in the Evening Standard - was thrilled with it all - "The ROH orchestra would have been the star, were there not already so many jostling for the title"
• Richard Morrison in the Times - it's all downhill after the second act - "one longs for the stage action to match the intensity of what Antonio Pappano delivers in the pit"
• Andrew Clark in the FT - only Poplavskaya and Furlanetto escape with butts unkicked - "Villazón puts more nervous energy into the title role than his less-than-ringing voice can sustain, that Antonio Pappano’s musical direction labours under its own weight and that Hytner’s staging, while admirably focused on text and character, looks 30 years out of date"
• Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph - forgot to take his grumpy pills? - "indisputably a magnificent account of one of opera's supreme masterpieces"
• Manuel Brug in Die Welt - Furlanetto was the star, Rolando worrying, Poplavskaya weak, and Hytner dull - "Villazóns Carlo war als wiedergewonnener Tenorliebling der am heftigsten beklatsche Sympathieträger der Londoner"
• Warwick Thompson at Bloomberg.com - patchy production, problematic star - "A tantalizing near miss"
• George Hall in The Stage - Rolando has bitten off more than he can chew, but - "a mightily impressive evening for chorus and orchestra, and Antonio Pappano once again demonstrates his mastery of Verdian musical drama"
• MusicWeb - admires a few older singers, otherwise thumbs down - "Nicholas Hytner does little else with these complex issues but recreate a standard traditional production of ‘thud and blunder’ Verdi"
• Variety - another rave - "dramatically muscular and musically exhilarating"
• Hannah Glaser in Crescendo - impressed but not touched - and "fürchtet man womöglich die homoerotische Kraft" (!) 
• Michael Tanner in The Spectator - hated the production, hated the singers, hated Pappano - "Something about the production seemed to cast a lowering spell over the singers, all of whom were performing at less than their best"
• mad musings of me blog - saw the second night and wasn't impressed - "basically a concert performance in costume with cheap sets" but was much more positive on a second viewing, where Rolando was "stupendous"
• Anthony Holden in The Observer - "gratified by Nicholas Hytner's intelligently crafted staging, which shows off the company's musical assets to their very best advantage"
• George Loomis in the IHT - found Rolando stretched, Poplavskaya disappointing, but otherwise "if the results fall short of perfection, they suffice to uncover the riches of this sprawling family drama set against a political backdrop"
• On My Own blog - saw the 29 June show and was blown away by the 'magic' - especially Pappano's - "Dicen que los mejores perfumes se venden en frasquitos pequeños...quizá por eso de la batuta del pequeño Pappano sale tanta magia, tanta belleza, tanta música."
• Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover blog - saw the 29 June show, which compared well with the Visconti production seen 50 years ago - "I may have lived on bread and water for a week to pay for the tickets but it was worth every penny"
• Paris-Broadway blog - again the 29 June show. In comparison with the recent Paris and (both) Vienna productions (also critiqued) this one is superior musically and theatrically -  "Sur le plan musical, c’est l’extase.....La distribution rassemblée sur scène est d’excellent niveau"
   

 

 

Eugene Onegin at Covent Garden - the forecast is cold and wet

Eugene Onegin - Royal Opera House, 8 March 2008

Marina Poplavskaya, now 30, has been singing the part of Tatyana since she was 18. And she's Russian. Not a difficult casting choice, then. This is her biggest Covent Garden role to date -- unfortunately framed in a dull, uninspired production. First seen in 2006, but looking more like a '70's relic, or the Met on a budget, its period setting is dominated by bare minty walls and the main novelty, a Vegas-scaled water feature. This massive puddle nearly fills the first act stage, pushing the action out to a thin strip at the front of the stage and a tired-looking grassy knoll at the rear. Tatyana's mid-act letter scene is accommodated by a hut-like bedroom, which has to be ludicrously manhandled out of the 'river'.

Scrim-projected paintings open each act  (for the first, Jeune Homme Nu Assis au Bord de la Mer by Hippolyte Flandrin, left). They connect tenuously with the action, and indeed with Tchaikowsky's own life but, crucially, they don't help tell the story, and their dreamy repose jars horribly with the austere sets and the contrastingly lavish and lurid costumery.

Tatyana's dream scene at the start of the second act is almost brushed over as it melds confusingly with the following ball scene, animal-masked apparitions seemingly becoming part of the later celebrations.

But this is perhaps the most attractive part of the production, thanks to the beautiful and detailed costumes, like a Berwick Street haberdasher's window with their authentically Russian bold colour palette. The problem here was that the large crowd clustered into the compressed space sometimes obscured the real action. The snowy wastes of the following duel scene worked better in all respects.

The water feature is trotted out again for the final act, only this time it is frozen over and packed with skaters. Opera on Ice!  Complete with back-projections of olde St Petersburg. Although this created some symmetry with the first act and successfully points out how youth, with all its possibilities, has given way to the rigid strictures of age, etc etc, its main effect is simply to get in the way, again. There was also, curiously, no sense of the passage of time, of the fact that this act takes place some years later than the first.

The only unqualified success of the production concept is its generosity to the singers, who for the most part perform standing up and facing forward at the front of the stage, so nothing gets lost. And as it's strongly cast, from top to bottom, the vocal performances became the highlight of the day.

Marina Poplavskaya has enormous presence, and she made a commanding Tatyana. The unrelenting steely power of her voice was most effective in the drama of her final confrontation with Onegin. Doubt and vulnerability seem to come less naturally, but she is enough of an actor to convey something of Tatyana's shy bookishness in her physical performance.

Gerald Finley's solid Onegin provided the warmth in this coupling. His suavity on the initial encounter with Tatyana wasn't fettered by condescension, and his desperation and passion were plain to see in the finale. He faltered a little in the duel scene,

Piotr Beczala, with his clear, flexible tenor, conveyed Lensky's ardour and impetuosity well, and he captured something of the self-regarding nature of Lensky's 'poetic soul'. Ekaterina Semenchuk (ex-wedding singer made good), despite a richly-coloured and exceptionally controlled vocal performance, somehow failed to make any clear impression as Olga.

Diana Montague's Larina and Elizabeth Sikora's Filipievna were both excellent, elevating the opening scene to a convincing exploration of memory and regret. Brindley Sherratt, playing Gremin (Hans-Peter König takes over for the rest of the run), balanced authority and pathos beautifully. In the small part of Zaretsky, Vuyani Mlinde made a strong impression. Robin Leggate's campissimo Monsieur Triquet seemed to have wandered in from a different production (Gilbert & Sullivan en français?), but he provided some superbly comic relief.

In line with the general tone of the production, conductor Jirí Belohlávek gave a rather safe and uninspired reading, but it was a cleaner performance than we sometimes get at the ROH, and his dynamics and pacing showed great consideration for singers.

As with last year's rather duff Fidelio, the Royal Opera House chose a weekend matinee for the opening performance. I count myself duly warned for the future.

Covent Garden rake in the Rheingold with Gotterdammerung

Götterdämmerung (preview cycle) - Royal Opera House, 1 October 2007

Not content with charging over £200 for seats this season, the Royal Opera House has now unveiled the £15 programme. OK, so it covers all four operas of the Ring Cycle, but at the size of an in-flight magazine, it's a bit of a cheek. Like a lot of other audience members for tonight's Götterdämmerung, I gave it a miss.

And they probably hoped disrupting the performance's flow with monster intervals of 40 and 75 minutes (c'mon - for a four hour opera?) would rake in a few more £££ from their overpriced and not-recommended catering. No bite from me there either -- there was enough time to skip out, so I spent the first interval trying on frocks in Agnès B, and the second, handily scheduled for 8pm, miserably witnessing Paul Robinson's own tragic Totterdammerung live on Setanta in a nearby bar.

I didn't catch last year's original production, only the televised version -- and I fess to not paying 100% attention to that -- so I'm not certain how much, if anything, director Keith Warner has changed in this run. From my recollection, nothing of significance, though the fact that all Ring rehearsals were totally closed makes me think something must have been going on.

Each act opens with a huge blackboard chalked up with, amongst other things, mathematical formulae relating to rings though I'm not sure whether this is supposed to add something or just impress us.

In the elemental grunge of the Walsungen world which follows, hairbrushes and ironing boards are unknown. It's dull, poorly lit, depressingly costumed -- just plain ugly, the performance's least satisfying episode visually. Part of the problem may have been my position in cheapie side stalls circle. This cuts off the upper view -- not usually a big issue if all you want is the surtitles, but I think the posher seats may have earned their price for this production with its stage-filling sets.

Contrast comes with the slick Hollywood polish of the decadent Gibichungen in their mirrored hall, surrounded by gilded statues of the gods. It's elegant and coherent, even if it can't quite be adapted subsequently into a credible vision of Brünnhilde's rock.

Then it's back to the grubby grunge for some Rhineside action, before the two worlds finally mesh as Valhalla burns, the golden statues combust beside the flaming banks and a giant ring descends superfluously from the ceiling.

Some of the details don't work too well: the bleached skull representing Brünnhilde's horse, Grane, looks out of place in a production short on symbolic props, and raises a titter nearly every time it appears. And the mirrored Rubik's cube of the magic helmet, the Tarnhelm, just looks cheap and silly, like a leftover from a Dr Who costume sale.

Cr@ppy props aside, the story remains relatively unmolested, though I struggled to understand why both Siegfried and Gunther were on stage when Siegfried was supposed to be disguised as Gunther. And what artistic purpose was Hagen serving by sitting immobile behind the action when he could have been backstage enjoying a cup of tea?

But the music was why I'd come, and the orchestra delivered. Tony Pappano's touch was light and frisky, maybe not everyone's idea of Wagner, but I don't think the gravity there on the page needs the double-underlining of a ponderous performance . Remarkably, he kept the energy levels so high that the orchestra sounded as fresh at the end as they did at the start, purposeful and polished too, despite a horn section about as reliable as the Tottenham defence.

The first singers on stage were the Norns, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Yvonne Howard and Marina Poplavskaya, all magnificent, Poplavskaya in particular. It's not the most beautiful or most accurate voice, but she has magnetic presence of a star in the making. 

Lisa Gasteen, occasional vocal lapses aside, was a largely impressive and steely-toned Brünnhilde. John Treleaven as Siegfried, handicapped by an unfortunate Michael Bolton wig, never really matched her with his strained, approximate singing and overwrought acting.

The veteran Viennese bass Kurt Rydl made a subtly scheming Hagen, projecting effortlessly over the orchestra. Peter Coleman-Wright as Gunther and Emily Magee as Gutrune didn't have his volume, but gave equally thoughtful and polished performances. The Gibichung chorus rounded out the fine vocal work in the central section.

Some of the finest singing of the night came in the form of the translucent and intense Waltraute of Mihoko Fujimura. Rhinemaidens Sarah Fox, Heather Shipp and Sarah Castle not only sang with exquisite beauty, but also bravely whipped their kit off for the surprisingly non-gratuitous finale (and, no, I did not take pics, k?).

Tottenham were 4-1 down at the end of their first half when I left the pub for the final act. As I later discovered, they managed to poke in another three while Valhalla burned, and if that's not a happy ending, I don't know what is.

 

Netrebko sick leave extended - Poplavskaya steps in

Just confirmed by the Royal Opera House - the stunning Marina Poplavskaya will once again be filling the shoes of the indisposed Anna Netrebko, this time for the open air big screen Don Giovanni, to be broadcast around the UK on 13 June.

And if you don't fancy the great outdoors, what a terrific opportunity to bag one of the inevitable ticket returns and catch Poplavskaya in the flesh before she goes mega.

Don Giovanni - live and topless at the Royal Opera House

Don Giovanni - Royal Opera House, 11 June 2007 (First Night)

Tonight I did something I haven't had the energy to do for a long time. But the opportunity came up and I thought I'd give it a go - after all lots of people do it regularly and come to no harm. I stood up for an entire 3 1/2 hour opera!

My place was right at the back of the amphitheatre, the top level of the Royal Opera House, and so I was about half a mile from the stage, or it seemed that way. I'd brought proper binoculars to make sense of the doll sized figures below, but even they weren't quite up to the task - really, only astronomical instruments would have cut it.

Anyway, it didn't matter too much, because this evening was all about superb music. Starting with the titular Don, played by Erwin Schrott. As if his physical perfection weren't enough, his black velvet voice exquisitely embodied the seductive charisma of the serial seducer. The gratuitious shirtlessness of the second act was a cheap but effective trick that just nudges his rating up to #1 on my crushometer.

Covering at short notice for an indisposed Anna Netrebko, Marina Poplavskaya as Donna Anna was, Schrott aside, the star of the evening. She has poise, presence, a crystal pure tone and solid projection. Her voice paled a little in its upper reaches, but she stunned otherwise. If the dark roots in her blonde hair were just an unhappy consequence of the short notice of Netrebko's sick note, they coincidentally underlined the determination and backbone beneath the sweetly feminine exterior of her Donna Anna.

In the relatively thankless role of Don Ottavio, Michael Schade rightly drew some of the biggest applause of the evening for his two arias, though he did seem to be holding his fire  in between. Kyle Ketelsen's Leporello was inevitably overshadowed by Erwin Schrott, but with his superb comic timing he was the perfect foil, neatly bringing out their symbiotic relationship. Matthew Rose brought a big solid voice and a credible lumpkin dimness to his Masetto.

Although the orchestra parted company with the singers somewhat during a few of the trickier arias, it wasn't hugely noticeable, and Ivor Bolton motored them on with terrific verve, keeping enough in reserve for a final exhilirating burst of power in Don Giovanni's death scene.

Although I've seen this production before, a few years back, the design still left plenty of questions unanswered. Why did half the action take place in a giant urinal with a life size Madonna pinioned halfway up the wall? Why did Don Giovanni's dinner (and the Commendatore) appear from a Japanese hot tub? Where did the giant burning wicker man appear from and why? In a musically less accomplished performance, these details might matter more, but it was easy to ignore them. The overall design was easy on the eye, the colours made sense even if the objects didn't, and by lighting the production well and keeping most of the action centre front (simple but crucial details overlooked in the ROH's current Fidelio), most of the audience could see most of the performance.

And there were a few idiosyncrasies which really did work - Donna Elvira's wedding dress in her final showdown with was a great touch. And best of all - the final glimpse of a smirking and unclothed Don Giovanni in hell, laydee in his arms.

Ivor Bolton, Erwin Schrott, Kyle Ketelsen, Ana Maria Martinez

Michael Schade, Marina Poplavskaya

Sarah Fox, Matthew Rose

Marina Popslavskaya, Erwin Schrott