The Two Tenors

Swapping Tosca tales backstage at the Royal Opera House, Roberto Alagna and Jonas Kaufmann.

More on Roberto's Facebook page.

Comments

[FloriaT.]

I just hope they don't team up with Juan Diego and go to Brazil, Russia, Qatar, etc....

[JDabrowski]

Why is Kaufmann wearing a bike helmet? There is probably a tasteless joke to be made here somehow.

[DESR]

Ah-HA. Mystery solved. In that interview with Tom Service, Jonas had his CYCLING helmet down his jeans! I wondered what could have caused such trouser inflation...

(Funny place to keep it, but there you go...)

[SJT]

I'll get back to you immediately just as soon as I've thought of one. Or two.....

[villagediva]

Cycle helmet. Not a good look. Even on Jonas. Who is apparently not vain. He's cycling to work? In London? Hope he has dangerous sports cover. Or are they telling us something about the Manon Lescaut staging? Death in a deserted car-park?

[Siggy]

"Or are they telling us something about the Manon Lescaut staging? Death in a deserted car-park?"

Looking at the ROH trailer I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Our own Intermezzo spotted JK cycling around Covent Garden so guess he's commuting by bike - must be giving ROH management a heart attack.

[Johann Erinn]

Cycling to work is the Munich way.

[villagediva]

Ha! thanks Siggy, I have just watched it. Looks like Manon Lescaut as 21st century urban casualty - Cardiff’s last year was set in what seemed to be Charing Cross mainline (of course...) station. I came away with a crashing headache from the pulsating flashing lights, even though I kept closing my eyes. Then Trelinski used the same effect in the Henze Manon the following night - not my best weekend, even though the singing was great.

So I hope that there are not a lot of flashing lights at ROH. And I really hope JK takes that helmet off in the last scene.............Or I think i shall scream and scream until i am sick.

[villagediva]

Johann, the lovely streets of Munich are a lot more ordered and less frenetic than London's! I risked my life in London on many a bike ride. Sundays are usually ok. Off topic, but I wanted to thank you for the Hans Hotter recommendation for Winterreise. I got and like it a lot, but he is a bit slow sometimes for me, and Der Leiermann is too dramatised, I think... Otherwise gorgeous. I heard him in 1981 at the Edinburgh Festival Gurrelieder - he, and the whole thing, were just overwhelming.

[Faye]

After reading Siggy's comment I just went onto the ROH website and saw the Manon Lescaut trailer. WTF is all that about?

I understand that the main purpose of a trailer is to make you want to go and see a particular show, film or whatever. However, after having seen the ROH trailer then I feel inspired to take my ticket back for resale and just watch it in the cinema instead.

[Ivis]

I hate the ROH trailers--because they show you nothing from the production. I guess they feel they have to get something out early. On the other hand, the Munich trailers are terrific. They wait until they have film from the dress rehearsal and do a proper trailer--I've never seen one that didn't make me want to see the production.

[Miriam]

Sorry that this is not exactly relevant to the original post, but it is at least tagged "Royal Opera House" and I cannot find a better one.

Yesterday there was yet another booking fiasco on the ROH website when booking opened for the Supporting Friends, of which I am one. They have published an apology on the website, but when I tried to comment on that I got a stupid message saying "You are posting comments too quickly. Please comment more slowly". I had only tried to sent one comment! One of the things I wanted to write there was that I think they should have sent us all an email rather than posting this on the website that we were all sick and tired of looking at.

Yesterday I was ready to start at 10am and did not complete my bookings until after 1pm, although I did give up and go away for at least an hour during that time because nothing was working. I had to do it in three batches due to danger of running out of time.

The event pages would not load up properly, and then when you tried to pay there were more problems. Trying to remove that "voluntary" £3 donation they put on added another level of difficulty and created even more problems for me. Given the problems I was experiencing the last thing I felt like doing was giving them any extra money.

[Feldmarschallin]

Well Jonas is doing the correct thing. I bike to almost everything as well. It is good for your body and why should he use a taxi or car if he is close by. He is not a diva who needs a car and driver but very down to earth. His first staged Walter will be in München 2016 early summer with Petrenko, Koch and Kühmeier if she sings.

[villagediva]

Thanks Feldmarschallin. I hope I can get to that, and to other Muenchen dates before then. In his BBC Radio 3 interview Jonas said we like to leave the opera-house humming melodies - i.e. tonal music. But I wonder if he underestimates us a little. I was at Cardiff’s Moses and Aron last night, which was wonderful, and I really did come out humming some of what I had heard - though I may have been flattering myself. It was very beautiful music. And a great tenor role - Rainer Trost makes a fascinating fairground showman of Aron, working the crowd, producing things from his bag, showing miracles. It’s a great part, although there isn’t a lot to do in the second act apart from be on stage smoking a couple of cigarettes, and keep an eye on the crowd he is manipulating. At one point the anguished Moses says, ‘Aron, what have you done?’ Aron: ‘Nothing new’. How true.

As I said, I did come out humming something that I thought was Schoenberg, but it got knocked out of my head immediately because - surreal or what? - the Lady Boys of Bangkok were doing a show in a marquee on the square outside - and their very noisy routine as we left the hall included about ten bars of Nessun Dorma .......... oh nooooooooo! That was one ‘melody’ I did not need right then............

[Siggy]

Ivis is correct - the ROH trailers are always abstract & obscure and have no real link to the production...other than the music.

On the other hand, having now seen some of the rehearsal photographs perhaps they were right to be obscure. However, must try not to pre-judge.

And I have confidence that the singing and orchestral music will be absolutely spot on.

[Miriam]

Having just seen the dress rehearsal I now feel inspired to take my performance ticket back and listen to it on the radio instead!

[Siggy]

I actually enjoyed it. Without going into too much detail I thought the first two acts were better than the last two where to be honest I wasn't really sure what was going on and it just didn't really work.

A good job the musical values were so high, both from orchestra and singers. And whatever the production faults, the sound of Kaufmann singing live in the house is just overwhelming - not sure that ever comes across on radio or DVD.

[Miriam]

I would partly agree but I would express it slightly differently by saying the last two acts were even worse than the first two. Act 3 was definitely the worst and Act 1 the best, apart from the fact that it was badly designed because a large proportion of the audience (Stalls Circle and rear Amphi) would not be able to see performers in the highest level.

At the end I just did not feel moved because what I had been seeing made no sense.

BTW I was there for the opera, not specially for Kaufmann, which is not to say I dislike him but I would have wanted to see this opera no matter who was in the cast.

[Siggy]

Agree with your conclusions - Act3 just didn't work in any way - even in the context of the updated production. And also agree about sightlines. Does no one check out these things? I was lucky being in the left front amphi and caught most of it - apart from bits of act 1. Best places I imagine are Balcony and front amphi, centre and right of the auditorium.

Another one of the problems is that Puccini's music is so descriptive...hunting horns, carriages of act 1 and the minuet music of act 2 is all powder and lace...which this production emphatically isn't.

Its been over 30 years since Manon Lescaut graced the ROH stage so yes, I too would have gone to see it anyway. So like I said, it wasn't a total success and it wasn't a total failure. I'm going to see it again - although goodness knows what I'll see from the stalls circle!

[SJT]

I thought it was a pile of meaningless and thoroughly nasty crap, demeaning to all concerned, in the second half narratively preposterous and beyond hideous to behold.

I also thought it was the best thing Pappano has done in the house, and streets and away the best orchestral playing heard all season and more (this always happens the minute the ballet packs up). But I did think, superb as they both were, that the two leads were right on the edge of their respective vocal limits, and once or twice each, audibly over them.

[John]

Intermezzo, I understand that you are finding it difficult to have time to write reviews at the moment, but I would love to hear your thoughts on last night's show. I thought the boos were thoroughly deserved for such an incoherent and inept piece of work, but I am amazed to discover that some people actually enjoyed it.

[Miriam]

Well, I think my ticket will be going back this afternoon when I shall be passing near the ROH on the way to somewhere else. So if there is anyone out there looking for a good value seat for July 1st, keep an eye on the ROH site from this evening. It is an Amphi seat at £38, and the best such seat in the row (B), the next one along is £51.

I see the Times review today give the production 5 stars so I hope this means somebody will want to buy my ticket!

This is the first time I have ever done such a thing or considered doing so. I often book for either the rehearsal plus a performance or two performances, but never before have I felt after seeing a production the first time that I really did not want to go again.

[villagediva]

I just feel sad about the whole thing - I was so looking forward to it after the brilliant and witty Hippolyte and Aricie at Glyndebourne last year, but this was a train-wreck of a production. Puccini weighed down with pretentious ideas that swamped the spirit of the piece. The director and designer were booed mostly from the stalls and circle it seemed to me - perhaps because they all had a crick in the neck from looking up for the whole of Act 4. Where to start? I won't.

[lizbie]

I think the loudest boos came from the Stalls Circle, where the back rows could not see the final duet at all! I heard someone say it was 'simply insulting' to stage an opera so that many people could not see it.

[inter mezzo]

For those who weren't there - the entire opera was staged behind the proscenium arch - in other words, ignoring the front 8ft or so of stage.

This front section is the only part of the stage which all seats (apart from restricted view) can see clearly. It's also the best place to produce good vocal resonance - if you've ever wondered why old hands like JDF and Roberto park themselves there, that's why.

To add to the problems, both the beginning and end of the show employed high-level platforms, which restrict visibility and audibility even further, especially with the 'letterbox' effect at the back of the stalls circle (and not just in the cheap seats).

It beggars belief that ROH management cleared the production designs. They're as much to blame as the director, who may have genuinely misunderstood the issues. He looked quite shocked (as well as upset) at the boos

[OperaBeginner]

What was the point of the lighting rig that stretched the full length of the stage which came down, and then went up, in Act 3? It must have cost a packet but what did it mean? What was it supposed to represent in the opera? It would have also blocked the view of what was happening on stage unless you were above it, i.e. in the Amphi. I've never been keen on JK voice - too baritonal for my taste in tenors. I've passed one ticket on to a friend and thinking about returning two more to the Box Office.

[SJT]

It was what in this lamentable farrago passes as wit, since the role doing the singing is that of the lamplighter, i.e. the man who went around in the era of gaslight with a flame on a pole. Here, they just make it a stage electrician, adjusting the lighting rig of the ROH itself. Actually, at Saturday's dress, the stage's WHOLE lighting rig descended, going back for miles: so, far from costing a packet - and given the production credit to the house's Lighting Systems Dept. for a set - I think that all we saw was what is always there, just out of sight in the fly tower.

Of course, it didn't make any sense narratively, since the lamplighter has to be seen doing his (C18th) job given that what he says is only a silly ditty nothing apropos of it. But then, nothing narratively made any sense in Act III anyway, not one person I spoke to afterwards having any idea of what they'd just witnessed.

[Miriam]

I am glad to hear that was actually the normal lighting rig that came down and they had not wasted lots of money on something we only saw for about five minutes.

[Miriam]

The more I hear about these sightline problems the worse it seems to me, especially given the high level of prices for this production. I knew that my friends who were in the Stalls Circle for the rehearsal could not see the top level of the Act 1 set and some action on the left of the stage. I had not realised before reading the comments here that some in the SS could not see Act IV properly either.

I was in Amphi M for the rehearsal and could only just see the faces (but not tops of heads) on the top level in Act 1. Anyone from row N back would not be able to see faces. The majority of the seats from row N back cost at least £51 for this production, and some of them are £62, which is not what I call cheap. I think it is very bad that seats which are not in the "restricted view" category and cost that sort of money should have a restricted view.

[lizbie]

Absolutely. Is it just arrogance, do you think? I mentioned it to a friend who is a critic - his response was' Well if they want to see it properly, then they have to pay more than £62.' He normally gets £200-£250 seats in the Stalls - free of course. But that's hardly an answer, I think, for a house with a decent public subsidy.

[OperaBeginner]

SJT - of course! I completely forgot that there was a singer on the lighting rig. Now it makes (non)sense!

[Miriam]

I think that response is absolutely disgraceful. £62 is quite a lot of money to many people, and the seats at that price are not supposed to be restricted view. I do not mind having a restricted view when I know that is what I am buying and the ticket is cheap. The £38 ticket I took back yesterday does count as partially restricted, but from experience I know that seats in that section actually have quite a good view, and for this production they would actually have a better view than the ones at £62 further back.

[Siggy]

Ah that explains something at least. Although as you say I know of no one who could figure out what was going on in act 3. Also surprised by the extent of the sightlines problems. Not the first time this has happened.

[villagediva]

Siggy, I thought that someone who saw the second performance might come in, but they haven’t, so here, for what it is worth, is one suggestion for unravelling Act 3. The prostitutes emerge from the brothel, aka cat-house, onto the cat-walk along which they are then exposed to the cruelties of reality TV. The cat-walk is made of the Act 1 gambling tables, which have formed part of the women’s road to ruin (together with, guess what, Naivety). The ‘road-to-ruin’ leads through the giant Naivete poster to the ruined-road of Act 4. Hogarthian 18th century morality cartoons come to mind. I’m fine with the Naivete poster as a metaphor for transporting them across the Atlantic. It’s just that the mixture of contemporary realism, 18th century resonances, social and moral points rammed home, metaphor on metaphor, word-play, and heavy jokiness ( the lighting-rig ‘joke’ passed me by - thanks SJT) - is suffocating. Somewhere in this oppressive visual and mental onslaught two people were singing and an orchestra was playing .......

Lovely as Kristine Opolais is, I did get so tired of seeing her legs, especially as she sometimes seemed unsure about what to do with them. The soft-porn movie- making in Act 2 was cringe-worthy partly because she seemed awkward - as also on the bed straddling Geronte and later with JK. Seeing a singer trying to decide what to do with pillows and limbs is troubling. Maybe it was first night nerves, but during the ‘filming’ I couldn’t tell if it was Manon who was unhappy and diffident about what was going on, or the singer out of her comfort-zone. (The libretto makes it clear that Manon is definitely ‘up for it’, and is in charge, or at least narcissistically colluding with her sleaze-ball sugar-daddy). I did think the short dress worked well in that she looked like one of those little clockwork dolls that twirl on top of a wind-up music box, but after Act 2 her legs were simply distracting. The ‘film’ theme is maintained in disaster-movie Act 4, where Manon looks as if she has failed in her attempts to audition for Fay Wray. Maybe JK could have picked her up and waved her about a bit ...........

Pappano’s intermezzo was the only time I felt really moved - his baton-less butterfly hands enticed the orchestra into the sexiest part of the evening ......
It’s a disjointed opera, therefore all the more reason for some stylistic coherence, surely? I will try to get to Munich’s production, in the hope that it will not be a baroque box of director / designer convoluted intellectual ‘cleverness’. There comes a point in the life of every over-stuffed mind when six weeks on a mountain-side, watching nothing but clouds, with a diet of boiled rice and water, could be beneficial. Talking of directors, I have been consoling myself with the Met’s Parsifal. Does anyone know if the illuminating Francois Girard is doing any more opera; I can’t find anything? It could be so wonderful to see what he might do at ROH.

[Siggy]

"Somewhere in this oppressive visual and mental onslaught two people were singing and an orchestra was playing ......."

Well exactly. Saw the HD last night and Act 3 still didn't work for me, although slightly mitigated by the camera going in for close ups. For me there was no sense of danger and desperation here, no sense that Manon was being dragged away from Des Grieux, possibly forever. And given the fact that Manon seemed free to wander about willy-nilly, no sense of being oppressed. Ah well. I'm sure there are ways to do this act justice in a modern context without getting bogged down in directorial distractions.

As for Munich, the director is Neuenfels so anything could and probably will happen!

[SJT]

E-mail his agent and ask

mel@casarotto.co.uk

[Hariclea Darclee]

Munich production is by Hans Neuenfels.. i.e. remember Bayreuth Rattengrin? ;-) Simple is not something i think will define it :-p