I just saw Angela Gheorghiu perform La Rondine at San Francisco Opera and came to several conclusions.
1) Puccini was and will ever be the greatest opera composer who ever lived. If you disagree, you either haven't heard Puccini performed well or you have no heart or soul.
2) Just because an opera singer is famous these days, doesn't mean they have to be bad. I was very skeptical of Gheroghiu because of her media hype and the fact that she is married to Alagna (thus got fame through him), but she is the only case in recent years where the hype is really deserved. I was also concerned because everyone always describes her voice as "dark" which usually means ugly. Her voice wasn't dark, it had that same velvety warmth that Anna Moffo's had (although Moffo's still wins the award).
Her sotto voce in her amazingly difficult aria was fantastic, and was the only modern production I've heard that has produced the sounds that Puccini wanted. (Since he was a 20th century composer, we do have the luxury of listening to recordings of the singers he chose, and yet opera casting directors everywhere seem to continue to ignore that fact and cast vibrato-heavy, ugly, old women as mimi, butterfly and doretta).
3) San Francisco Opera choses the WORST singers in the professional world to coddle and develop. Gheorghiu was amazing but her little chirpy maid set a new standard for chirpy annoying soubrettes. If that girl had played Susanna I would have walked out of Figaro. Yet, here she is, playing a compremario to Gheorghiu, but with a long resume of real roles at SF Opera, where the key voice type was not ugly, nasal, and chirpy with mechanical vebrato. I shall never see any performance at SF opera starring their singers as the main leads, it would be a worse investment than eTrade stock.
4) Where have all the tenors gone? There must not be any who can sing the right notes, because the lead tenor playing opposite Ms. Gheorghiu couldn't even sing on key.
5) Standing ovations mean nothing. I've waited through countless ovations for undeserving performances, grimacing as they bow and bow, remembering the wasted last 4 hours of my life. Including the horrible tenor and the chirpy maid, this was by far the best performance I have ever seen at SF opera, and yet, no one stood! I've never seen a more deserving performance in the US, and it was a crime that the audience didn't stand. Where do they think they are, Milan?
1) Puccini was and will ever be the greatest opera composer who ever lived. If you disagree, you either haven't heard Puccini performed well or you have no heart or soul.
2) Just because an opera singer is famous these days, doesn't mean they have to be bad. I was very skeptical of Gheroghiu because of her media hype and the fact that she is married to Alagna (thus got fame through him), but she is the only case in recent years where the hype is really deserved. I was also concerned because everyone always describes her voice as "dark" which usually means ugly. Her voice wasn't dark, it had that same velvety warmth that Anna Moffo's had (although Moffo's still wins the award).
Her sotto voce in her amazingly difficult aria was fantastic, and was the only modern production I've heard that has produced the sounds that Puccini wanted. (Since he was a 20th century composer, we do have the luxury of listening to recordings of the singers he chose, and yet opera casting directors everywhere seem to continue to ignore that fact and cast vibrato-heavy, ugly, old women as mimi, butterfly and doretta).
3) San Francisco Opera choses the WORST singers in the professional world to coddle and develop. Gheorghiu was amazing but her little chirpy maid set a new standard for chirpy annoying soubrettes. If that girl had played Susanna I would have walked out of Figaro. Yet, here she is, playing a compremario to Gheorghiu, but with a long resume of real roles at SF Opera, where the key voice type was not ugly, nasal, and chirpy with mechanical vebrato. I shall never see any performance at SF opera starring their singers as the main leads, it would be a worse investment than eTrade stock.
4) Where have all the tenors gone? There must not be any who can sing the right notes, because the lead tenor playing opposite Ms. Gheorghiu couldn't even sing on key.
5) Standing ovations mean nothing. I've waited through countless ovations for undeserving performances, grimacing as they bow and bow, remembering the wasted last 4 hours of my life. Including the horrible tenor and the chirpy maid, this was by far the best performance I have ever seen at SF opera, and yet, no one stood! I've never seen a more deserving performance in the US, and it was a crime that the audience didn't stand. Where do they think they are, Milan?
posted by Unknown at 5:46 PM
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