Helene

Last Saturday night Seattle Opera held it's first International Wagner Competition for young singers at McCaw Hall. Last year, Speight Jenkins and several others auditioned 43 singers, hoping to find six and two alternates; instead, they found the level of singing so great they chose eight with two alternates from auditions in Vienna, Berlin, London, New York, and Seattle. There were two halves to the program, in which each singer sang one excerpt in each half, in a different start order in each half. Between parts there was free champagne. After part two, the audience took the ballots in the programs and dropped them into the box with the name and picture of their choice for Audience Favorite in three voting stations in the second level lobby and filtered back into the auditorium waiting for the judges' decision and the counting of the audience ballots. At one point, General Director Speight Jenkins came back in to announce that the audience voting was so close, they had to do a recount and made a Florida joke. The judges were mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe who sang a superb Fricka and tenor Peter Kazaras, who sange a mean Loge in Seattle Opera's Ring -- Kazaras now runs the Young Artists Program at Seattle Opera and directs -- Stephen Wadsworth, director of opera and theater and translator, Dr. Dorthea Glatt, who was Wolfgang Wagner's assistant for three decades at Bayreuth and who now consults worldwide, and Sir Peter Jonas, who just retired as Interdant of the Bayerische Staatsoper and is about to embark on a set of two cross-Europe walks: north/south and east/west. KING-FM Seattle (98.1 FM) will broadcast the Seattle Opera International Wagner Competition and will stream it from their website (www.king.org) tomorrow (Saturday) night, 26 August, from 7-9:30 pm PT. [Edited to add: the Seattle Opera website has short video excerpts of the end of Rutherford's Dutchman and Murphy's Isolde. In the right column under "What's New," click "Hear the IWC Winners."] As one who’d never attended a voice competition before, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. To find young Wagner singers of the future seemed a bit general as a goal. If the winners were chosen based on potential for the super roles of the Wagner rep, then I think the two jury winners were the correct choices. I have to wonder why it isn’t an equally laudable goal to identify the singers who would grace the stage now in smaller roles and would grow soon into the key roles that aren’t necessarily title roles. In one case, I might have made a different choice. The background was the set from Act II of Der Rosenkavalier, which is entirely in off-white, with the possible exception of some flower stems. The men wore white tie, always a pleasure to see. One soprano wore a simple gold dress with a sculpted black and silver gold jacket that cinched on the side. The other wore an empire-waisted dress in crushed velvet periwinkle, and because she was tall and gorgeous, it was a stunner. There is one caveat I have in describing the quality of the singing, and that is that I heard the performances from the orchestra, a vantage point I never would have chosen for myself. The intermission scuttlebutt was that originally the judges were going to be segregated in the Dress Circle, with all of the audience in the orchestra, but that Seattle Opera opened up higher tier seating. I personally would have preferred to hear the competition from above the orchestra. There were two sopranos in the competition. Miriam Murphy was my pre-competition favorite going in; I was very much looking forward to hearing a big-voiced Irish soprano. After her Part I “Ewig war ich,” the aria Brunhilde sings after she is wakened by Siegfried, I was quite disappointed: to me she sounded to me as if she wasn’t under her voice, and that she had trouble controlling it. I found her interpretation dull and uncentered, and that the performance was one of the two weakest of the first half. By contrast, she found her voice in Part II, singing Isolde’s Narrative and Curse. I think she shaped the narrative beautifully and was very attentive to the text. It was meant to be a blow-the-roof-off selection, and she delivered. She has Nilsson’s gutsiness, but I don’t think she has much of Nilsson’s warmth. I would not be very interested in hearing her sing much outside the Wagner rep, and she was the only singer in the Competition I would say that about. By contrast, based on her two selections, I think that based on her performances of "Senta's Ballad" (Flying Dutchman) and "Dich, teure Halle" (Tannhauser), soprano Dorothy Grandia (NY/Netherlands) could give warm and sympathetic readings of Siegliende and Freia, to name only two Wagner roles. I don’t know if she could or should make an entire career of singing Wagner, but singers who are invested in the music, if not exclusively in Wagner, bring a freshness to the intermediate roles, particularly in the “Ring.” In the same vein, tenor Jason Collins (SC) sang a detailed and nuanced Siegmund in “Ein Schwert verhiess mir der Vater” in which Siegmund describes all of the horrible things that have befallen him, now trapped, weaponless, in the house of his enemy, but remembers that his father promised him a sword in his need -- a tough opener for the entire competition – with more optimism than I’m used to, which would have made Siegmund’s downfall that more tragic by comparison. Although he was not quite as warmed up as he was for Part II, I much preferred the entire shape of his performance to “Rienzi’s Prayer,” a piece of music which I find cloying, particularly in contrast to the piece from Flying Dutchman which preceded it. (Collins had the two toughest slots in the competition.) He has a big, warm, centered voice with very good agility. In fact, I was surprised that all four tenors had a golden gleam in their voices; there were no Vickers-like singers in the bunch. I hope Collins has a successful career, because I would love to hear a lot more of him. Because American soprano Carolyn Betty fell ill, first alternate Philip O'Brien, a tenor from the UK, filled in. He's a young, handsome redhead, but he doesn't yet have the heft to his voice that he'd need to soar over the huge Wagnerian orchestras. He struggled a bit in the Steersman's song from Flying Dutchman in Part I, but his attention to detail and warmth in Lohengrin's appeal to Elsa in the Part II, where the orchestra was less bombastic, shows a lot of promise, and I think he'd make a fine recitalist. Due to the substitution, instead of three sopranos, three tenors, one baritone, and one bass, there were two sopranos, four tenors, one baritone, and one bass. (We were awash in a bumper crop of tenors.) The second singer to perform, right after Jason Collins, was tenor Paul McNamara (Ireland). He sang Tannhauser's "Rome Narrative" with a bit too much vibrato, but quite intelligently, in Part I, and he closed the competition with Parsifal's "Nur eine Waffe taugt." It is a moving piece of music, and I think he suffered by following Murphy's Isolde excerpt, which had whipped the crowd into a frenzy. The Parsifal was more subtle, and I think a bit underappreciated. I’m convinced that the only way a bass had a chance to win was to sing Wotan, probably the Farewell. Bass Carsten Wittmoser’s (Germany) strategy was different: he sang two roles he could be hired for tomorrow, King Marke and the Landgrave. Like every other singer, he chose a sympathetic role for Part I, and unlike every singer except Paul McNamara, a tenor from Ireland, he did not choose a tour-de-force in Part II. Instead, he sang the Langrave’s invitation to song (“Gar viel und schon” from Tannhauser) to open Part II. In it he showed he could sing the role of a man who was collegial but who also thought he was funny and clever and really isn't. It was a lovely performance, showing style and versatility, and he was not afraid to play a character with conviction, even if that character was neither hero nor villain and a bit silly, though not humorous. If I had an opera house and were trying to develop a set of core singers for rep, he would be one of them. Hearing New Zealand tenor Andrew Lindsay Sritheran, I have to wonder, “Why Wagner?” He sang two big heroic pieces, Siegmund's “Wintersturme” (Die Walkure and the “Prize Song,” (Die Meistersinger) as if the two characters were cut from the same cloth. He’s got hero written all over him, physically and vocally, but not any Wagnerian hero I recognize. Tall, slender, gorgeous, with jet black hair, he’s like Corelli without the angst. French and Italian rep – absolutely: hire the man before he's booked indefinitely. I’m having a hard time thinking of a German role I’d cast him in, not even Italian tenor in “Der Rosenkavalier.” For me the star of the entire competition was baritone James Rutherford (UK). When he sang Hans Sach’s monologue, I stopped thinking about every recording I’ve ever heard, even Friederich Schorr’s. He sang in a rich-toned baritone with understatement, humor, and a sense of wonder. I’m fairly certain I stopped thinking altogether during his terror-filled and agony-laden “Die Frist is um.” Wish lists of “Alberich’s curse,” and (fingers-crossed) maybe in a decade (or two) Wotan, as well as lieder recitals popped to mind as soon as he finished. It would be worth staying up to whatever hour for the KING broadcast/webcast tomorrow night, just to hear Rutherford. He is scheduled to sing at 7:49pm (PT) and 8:53pm (PT): http://www.king.org/nowplaying/Schedule.asp?DATE=20060826. The orchestra had a daunting task: amidst a “Der Rosenkavalier” run, with performances of that opera the night before and the next day (2pm matinee), they did orchestral rehearsals with the singers consisting of excerpts from nine Wagnerian operas in addition to the competition itself. They sounded superb. After hearing Asher Fisch’s “Ring” a couple of years ago in Adelaide, it didn’t surprise me how well the orchestra sounded, and that he was generally sensitive to the singers. After the audience vote was tallied, and the judges decided on the two equal winners of the $15,000 prizes, Jenkins introduced Susan Hutchinson, who runs the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, which sponsored the event. Hutchinson announced that the competition would take place every other year, which was great news. The judges were introduced on stage, then the singers, who each received a bouquet of purple and white flowers and a certificate. Somewhere in there, Stephen Wadsworth thanked Asher Fisch and the orchestra. The orchestra decided that if the judges were going to vote, and the audience was going to vote, they were going to vote, too, and they created their own award on the spot, which was won by James Rutherford. Rutherford also won the audience vote. Jenkins, holding the checks, then announced "ladies first," which caused me to cringe, because I knew it wouldn't be Grandia, and both Collins and Wittmoser were likely to be out. Sure enough, the Murphy's Isolde gave her the win. Being a figure skating fan, that stuck in my craw, because to use a figure skating analogy, she was close to the bottom after short program, and shouldn't have won the Olympic gold medal because she was among the top in the long program. But if they were looking for Big Talent for Big Roles, they chose the right person. There was justice, though, because James Rutherford won the Triple Crown, after being awarded the other $15,000 prize. I hope they've all made enough connections through this competition to get hired. It really was a case where they were all worthy of being heard, if not all at the same level at this point in their careers, and that's hard enough to find in a single cast in an opera. I was not expecting this depth of talent, and certainly not among tenors.

Not ballet, nor eggcorn, but I just read a review of Seattle Opera's Der Rosenkavalier, where one of the performers had been singled out for a great rendition of the role of "Herr von Finial" instead of Faninal. Given the elaborate "window treatments" of the set, it's no surprise that the reviewer had curtains on his mind.

And I thought it was "landed up in jail" vs. "ended up in jail."

I disagree, because the standard line that has been reported over the years and in recent obituaries was that Bing banned her from the Met because she had joined the Nazi party. Kater's account of Bing tells a different story, one in which Bing no longer takes the high ground, but imposes a personal hierarchy of values. Frankly, if he had an issue with a member of the Nazi party and a Jew marrying, his beef should have been with Legge.

Innuendo. “Those who claimed”? “Never been proved”? Pleeze. If true, it would give a more sympathetic context for Schwarzkopf doing what she needed to get away from him.

Michael H. Kater wrote an article on Schwarzkopf that appeared in today's Guardian: Triumph of the wilful

Kurgapkina was such a juicy dancer. I never would have guessed from Viennese Waltz, where Bregvadze lifted her as if she were a powder puff. I was impressed by Budarin's partnering of her in Le Corsaire, which was remarkably seamless in the lifts. Osipenko's line was beautiful; what mesmerizing limbs she had, and such a cool presence. I preferred Nureyev as a Soviet dancer; I didn't see any preening in either of the excerpts. I loved Sizova's jumping solo, but to me she looked constrained in the opening partnered section. Baryshnikov, I think, was better served in the West. Serf Nikish has always struck me as kitsch. It speaks highly of Baryshnikov's standing that he got a starring role in a made-for-TV ballet.

I just tried to tinker with Det Kongelige Teater online site, using college German from 30 years ago. There was no way to designate shipping country, except by hijacking the address line, and it appears that total cost is 544 DDK (~91 USD), shipping via Danish Post, but I can't imagine that this includes shipping outside the country. Total with shipping to the US for DanceBooks is 83 GBP, or about half the cost of the DVD's and books, which are the real shipping cost driver. DanceBooks says explicitly that the DVD's cannot be purchased separately from the books, which they warn are heavy; I don't see an option on the DKT site for DVD's only.

According to the link here, the price on the RDT site is 499,00 DKK, which is ~ 85 USD, 66 EUR, and 45 GBP. The DanceBooks price is 55 GBP. http://www.kglteater-shop.dk/shop/readmore...vnr=22151539002 http://www.dancebooks.co.uk/titles/4522.asp The Dance Book link I posted above is for a different disk.

I've moved your post to the Ballet Music and History forum, where hopefully one of our music experts will be able to help you.

I'll have to go back and try it again -- the screen wouldn't resolve the first time I tried to watch it on my DVD player.

The Bournonville School DVD is region-free; however, it is in PAL format. I'm able to watch the DVD on my computer without setting a region, but I'm unable to watch it on the (sadly lacking) DVD player that came with my TiVo. Here is the link to the DVD on the DanceBooks site,** which notes that it is region-free. I've had great service from this site, although since prices are in British Pounds, they are usually more expensive than a Euros version. I've searched for Det Kongelige Teater online website, but came up with no results. Perhaps, AgnesY, if you would leave a link to the site, someone would be able to figure it out for you. **Edited to add: the original link I posted was for a different disk (Gad/Kobborg demonstrating "Fifty Enchainements" and my experience was with this disk).

Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine each choreographed a movement to the Symphony for the work that closed NYCB's 1981 Tchaikovsky Festival. According to Choregraphy by George Balanchine, entry 420, This was interpreted widely as Balanchine's expression of his own mortality.

The cloggers, including the Widow Simone, in La Fille Mal Gardee.

I've got my fingers crossed...

According to the Cal Performances website, the only listing for Mark Morris is the 30 September-7 October King Arthur, and there's no listing for MMDG or Mozart Dances among the five programs added to the 2006-7 calendar. I wonder when this will be added to the calendar.

In the September issue of Opera News, there is a review of Beowulf and Grendal, a new opera by Elliot Goldenthal, directed by Julie Taymor, with designs by George Tsypin, which premiered in June by the Los Angeles Opera. Alo McKinnon wrote, "Beowulf is a mute role, stunningly danced by Desmond Richardson and choreographed -- as was the rest of the opera -- by Angelin Preljocaj." According to McKinnon, among the singers, Denyce Graves' Dragon was the audience favorite, while Grendel, Eric Owens was "the real champion." According to the review, the designs "travelled with the production to New York's Lincoln Center Festival in July. Did anyone attend?

Thank you for the heads up, bart. The dates are now on the Calendar.