Met simulcast of "I Puritani" (Jan 6)

[bart]

Just returned from Puritani. The theater once again was sold out, though another theater our area wasadded to the list. When we arrived (50 minutes before curtain) they were showing the mad scene from Act II, filmed previously. I was told that this was a kind of test, since there had been technical difficulties in a number of locations last week. They eventually switched to a view from the back of the house, showing the curtain and people taking their seats.

On all levels -- camera work and quality, direction, and in terms of extra content -- this was a superior package to last week's showing.

High points for me:

-- the chance to sit in a full theater with people who obviously loved opera, were responsive to it, talked about it during the intermissions, and even broke into applause after several arias and at the end

-- Anna Netrebko as Elvira: I can understand the international acclaim. She has a rich, creamy soprano, beautiful phrasing, control and sense of pitch, and is physically one of the most alluring women I've seen in opera. Her mad scene overcame some of the absurdity in the story (the character is SO changeable, SO vulnerable, SO full of herself) and became genuinely moving at the end. "o viene al tempio" (mad scene) developed showly and became truly poignant at the end. The image (and sounds) of Netrebko near the end of the the scene lying on the floor, chin to the ceiling, hair dangling into the orchestra pit -- and producing some of her most beautiful singing of the entire evening!!. Not to mention a striking and terribly effective visual image.

-- Anna Netrebko as Anna Netrebko: charming, funny, self-deprecating, and obviously very smart during two interviews conducted by Renee Fleming. The back-stage camera work, showing her bouncing with energy and joy as the curtain came down, and during the curtain calls, was wonderful.

-- The Act II bass/baritone duet between Riccardo and Arturo (John Relyea and Franco Vassallo). I've seen this a number of times and have always considered it both bombastic and emotionally anticlimactic. Here, it was a powerful ending to the act -- deeply felt, beautifully sung -- and one of the highlighnts of the entire peformance

-- Beverly Sills during the intermissions: informative funny, irreverant, and slightly self-deprecating as always. She gave some insights into her own performance experience with mad scenes (greatly prefering Lucia to Elvira) and some hints on how one might approach the role.

-- Renee Fleming as interviewer: this was quite an impressive performance. Her questions to Netrebko were especially good, and she actually responded to what Netrebko said and shifted the direction of the conversation to respond to those comments. She's doing Tatiana in Onegin in February. I wonder who will interview her?

One question: I guess that Eric Cutler is just not the kind of tenor I admire. What did you think about his Arturo?

[jllaney]

I didn't see it on the big screen but was fortunate enough to catch it on NPR. And while I'm not a huge opera buff and not by any menas an expert, I thought the performance was very good.

And I thought Beverly Sills and Renee Fleming did a wonderful job with their insight as well. Both were very entertaining.

just a thought

I'm not familiar with this opera but I couldn't help but think about it. The afore mentioned Sills and Fleming talked for a while about the famous "mad scene" from this opera. In ballet, when I hear someone mention a mad scene, I automatically think of Giselle. Is it the same in opera? When someone mentions "mad scene" Does I Puritani come to mind? Or are all operas full of mad scenes?

[richard53dog]

just a thought

I'm not familiar with this opera but I couldn't help but think about it. The afore mentioned Sills and Fleming talked for a while about the famous "mad scene" from this opera. In ballet, when I hear someone mention a mad scene, I automatically think of Giselle. Is it the same in opera? When someone mentions "mad scene" Does I Puritani come to mind? Or are all operas full of mad scenes?

There is a connection of sorts, mostly because I Puritani, as well as some other "mad scene" operas, come from what is called the Romantic Era (say 1830-1840) and Giselle is also roughly from that period.I think the root use of the device is similar.

Not all or even most operas through out history have mad scenes, but they were a popular devise for wilting sopranos, usually wronged by a suitor, during this period. Maybe the most famous of all of them is Lucia di Lammermoor where Lucia AND her suitor are both wronged by Lucia's brother who forces Lucia into a political marriage. Lucia loses it after killing her husband, wanders around on stage in a dazed state singing very florid music.

Some of these are not strictly mad scenes, it may be the heroine's mind is wandering in and out of focus, and in one , Bellini's La Sonnambula, isn't really crazy but just sleepwalking. (Plotwise Bellini's opera has nothing to do really with Balanchine's ballet, but Ballanchine's piece is certainly a nod towards Bellini)

After this time period, mad scenes pretty much went out of fashion as a regularly used devise but they occasionally would show up, sometimes in the scene chewing Verismo operas of the early twentieth century.

But the style is very different here and there isn't that Romantic Era kinship with a ballet such as Giselle.

[leonid17]

One question: I guess that Eric Cutler is just not the kind of tenor I admire. What did you think about his Arturo?

I listened in London to the radio broadcast.

Mr. Cutler did not cut the mustard and he pales in comparison with either Gedda or Pavarotti.

I enjoyed Nebtrenko very much but did not appear to be vocally perfectly cast lacking a real coloratura voice singing some of the music transposed to that which I heard Sutherland sing. Why, I don't know because the voice goes above top C securely, perhaps the tessitura of the fast passages are just outside her technique.

I would have very much liked to have seen the performance live because thats the only way to judge an artist in a role and she did convey pathos extremely well.

[bart]

About madness. Elvira seems to be a more-then-usually unstable and emotionally insecure young lady. She appears to revert to early-stage madness twice in the THIRD act, not to mention the big Act Two scene. Although this opera has a happy ending, I found myself feeling quite sorry for Arturo, who will never even be able to go the grocery story in the future without the possibility of his wife experiencing rejection and going briefly to the edge of insanity.

Leonid, your point abot Netrebko's voice lacking typical coloratura qualities is well taken. They showed a snippet of Sills's Lucia during an intermission, and the differences were marked. There is a fundamental stolidity in Netrebko's vocal style which held her back during the first stages of the mad scene, though she certainly seemed to be negotiating the notes. I've seen Sutherland on stage in her prime, both as Lucia (several times) and as Elvira (once, but with Pavarotti). Vocally, her's seemed to exactly be the kind of madness both Bellina and Donizetti would have been thrilled to hear.

[dirac]

I missed it, but thanks to all for your reports!

[FauxPas]

This was Netrebko's first Elvira in "Puritani". She started out with a smaller, lighter higher-placed voice when I first saw her about 8 or 9 years ago. Her voice recently has filled out and become bigger and richer. It has also lost agility and altitude. She also doesn't have a really long breath and this lack of breath control limits her ability to phrase Bellini's very long-lined vocal writing.

In the theater she is a total creature of the stage making you believe in what is on the page a fairly unconvincing cardboard heroine. However, criticisms of her singing and style are accurate but don't disqualify the effectiveness of her total performance. There are better more stylish and accurate coloraturas like Mariella Devia who lack her intensity and charisma. But I wouldn't place Netrebko's singing about Devia's in this kind of music just because she is gorgeous and moves like a ballerina.

The tenor and bass were both recovering from severe upper respiratory infections and these are roles where singing is everything. The baritone seemed to have a pleasant voice but mediocre musical and dramatic instincts.

Bellini's "La Sonnambula" was based on the ballet scenario of a French ballet called "La Sonnambule". So it does have origins in ballet after all. Rieti's score for Balanchine's "Sonnambula" uses Bellini's music.

[dirac]

This was Netrebko's first Elvira in "Puritani". She started out with a smaller, lighter higher-placed voice when I first saw her about 8 or 9 years ago. Her voice recently has filled out and become bigger and richer. It has also lost agility and altitude. She also doesn't have a really long breath and this lack of breath control limits her ability to phrase Bellini's very long-lined vocal writing.

In the theater she is a total creature of the stage making you believe in what is on the page a fairly unconvincing cardboard heroine. However, criticisms of her singing and style are accurate but don't disqualify the effectiveness of her total performance. There are better more stylish and accurate coloraturas like Mariella Devia who lack her intensity and charisma. But I wouldn't place Netrebko's singing about Devia's in this kind of music just because she is gorgeous and moves like a ballerina.

The tenor and bass were both recovering from severe upper respiratory infections and these are roles where singing is everything. The baritone seemed to have a pleasant voice but mediocre musical and dramatic instincts.

Bellini's "La Sonnambula" was based on the ballet scenario of a French ballet called "La Sonnambule". So it does have origins in ballet after all. Rieti's score for Balanchine's "Sonnambula" uses Bellini's music.

Thanks, FauxPas. (It's interesting that when Luchino Visconti staged the ballet for the post weight loss Maria Callas, he chose to dress her as a Romantic ballerina, deliberately echoing Taglioni.)

[Hans]

It was fun to get to see a Met opera in suburban Maryland. I agree that Netrebko is not as agile in the coloratura passages as she once was, but I don't really mind, as she still gets all the notes in, and her gorgeous tone and acting help make up for it. The acting is especially helpful because of the utterly ridiculous plot (I found it less plausible than Le Corsaire)--it really needs strong acting to hold it together.

Very much enjoyed Vassallo as Arturo--nice voice, good singing, good acting. Well done. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about either Cutler or Relyea, especially the latter.

Also thought Fleming did a great job interviewing Netrebko, keeping the focus off herself even though she is extremely famous, but Sills...well, I found that Sills went on rather self-indulgently about how things were when she sang Elvira without adding much insight (not that Elvira presents rich dramatic opportunities).

It was lovely to see the beautiful costumes and sets up close--thank goodness they weren't dressed in a historically accurate manner or the entire opera would have been black and gray. I also really liked the staging, many very picturesque moments there, including Elvira with the roses during Act I. And when she started singing the da capo section of Vien, diletto while hanging into the orchestra pit, well, my jaw almost hit the floor!

Unfortunately I will not be able to see The First Emperor tomorrow, so I look forward to everyone's reports.

[SanderO]

I attended I Puiritani last night. The entire run of I Puritani has been sold out, perhaps because of Netrebko, or the broadcasts, but the audience last night loved the performance and especially Ms Netrebko. She can act and she has a commanding stage presence. Her mad scene was terrific.. but Eric Cutler didn't cut it as Arturo... his voice seemed too weak and tentative... not so for Netrebko... she attacks the music with amazing confidence and control. Not a good pairing for Netrebko... His O caro was disappointing...

These plots are silly aren't they? This one ends with everyone happy.. no one jumps to their death... but I wonder, are all story line operas and ballets so "silly".. Shakespeare's plots seem to at least at times not to be so silly... or am I nuts?

[Hans]

Well, I think that some plots take you into an exotic realm of fantasy (Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty) whereas others are merely implausible. I Puritani is, for me, in the latter category, with Elvira asking (right after Arturo leaves with the queen) "She was wearing my veil, he called her Elvira--am I no longer Elvira?" Not exactly a logical conclusion to reach, especially when five minutes ago she had put the veil on the queen herself.

[bart]

Maybe the "silliness" seems more pronounced in opera because (1) it goes on and on, (2) it is set to words meant to be taken literally, and (3) the soprano does some of her best and most difficult singing while apparently emotionally out of control.

A virtue of Giselle's ballet mad scene is that it is the converse of each of the above. (1) It's short. (2) It wisely omits the words. (3) It actually mimics the alleged mental condition.

The same holds true of the ballerina's ... (er) ... "disability" in La Sonnambula. Except for (1), I suppose.