Hats off to the opera critic of the NY Times

[Mashinka]

When Alvarez sang in the new production of Aida at ROH, London opera fans were a little disconcerted to hear a different (easier) ending to Celeste Aida with the top b flat missing, and many were further disconcerted that the London critics either failed to notice or considered it not worth mentioning.

Along comes the critic of the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/arts/05i...Aida&st=cse

He noticed and commented.

Wonder if Mr Loomis has ever considered a transfer to London?

[dirac]

Thanks for posting, Mashinka. It may be that some of the critics didn't think it was a big deal - as the article notes, it's happened before. (The aria does come rather early in the evening. There's an old story about a famous tenor whose name escapes me who cut it entirely for that reason, which is going a bit far. ) But it's nice that Loomis noted the change and so informed his readers.

[richard53dog]

Thanks for posting, Mashinka. It may be that some of the critics didn't think it was a big deal - as the article notes, it's happened before. (The aria does come rather early in the evening. There's an old story about a famous tenor whose name escapes me who cut it entirely for that reason, which is going a bit far. ) But it's nice that Loomis noted the change and so informed his readers.

I think that the tenor that skipped Celeste Aida was Jean de Reske. Performance practces were different in the 19th century!

[dirac]

Yes, that's the name. Times have certainly changed.

[Farrell Fan]

I think Loomis comes across as rather silly. He should have informed his readers that the "alternate ending" has been quite common for many years.

[richard53dog]

I think Loomis comes across as rather silly. He should have informed his readers that the "alternate ending" has been quite common for many years.

Loomis mentions Toscannini sactioned this version of the ending. It was used by Toscannini/Richard Tucker in the famous NBC broadcast back in the 40s, which was released many years ago by RCA. I first heard it when I started collecting opera LPs back in the late 60s so I agree with FF that it's been in circulation for quite a while now.

The idea behind this is to close the aria with a sense of mysticism, which is difficult for a tenor to manage with a high b-flat. The option allows the tenor to yell out the high note and then repeat the phrase quietly, bringing some bit of tranquility into play. But Loomis notes Alvarez sings the lower repeat of the phrase loudly to boot. This pretty much defeats the purpose!

[Helene]

But critics rarely note when the high note is blasted, when it's supposed to be soft, although some do, like Mr. Loomis, which is a stronger point than use of the "alternative" ending:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/Sand...08/aida0308.htm

How many opera-lovers, I wonder, can harbor even a faint suspicion that what they routinely hear at the end of Radamès’s “Celeste Aida” bears little resemblance to the way Verdi imagined the passage? “Pianissimo, morendo” (“very soft, dying away”) is the marking on the final high B-flat. Aware that he was asking a lot of his lead tenor, Verdi also provided a less taxing alternative, which brings the voice down an octave.

Almost everyone I have ever heard sing the role either takes that easier option, or belts out the high B-flat without any respect for the composer’s instructions. Not since the days of Carlo Bergonzi had anyone essayed a truly soft high conclusion in my hearing–till the opening night of the Seattle Opera season, which handily disposed of the fashionable notion that a “golden age of singing” can be located only in the past. Antonello Palombi had me momentarily worried, for, after starting the note quietly, he swelled it to a moderate mezzo forte, but then he fined it down to the most exquisitely floated pp, and held the audience spellbound with a long moment of rapt visual and aural stillness.