Is Jill Scott into Villalobos or what?

I wish opera were like this, especially the crowd.

On a related note...

Jewel singing G. Battista Bononcini's "Per la gloria d'ardorarvi"!

The reviews for the new Seattle–Metropolitan Opera co-production are in. I was glad to find a critic—unknown to me before—who it seems is not blind and deaf.

Team Wedow?

• Seattle Opera rediscovers the noble simplicity of Gluck, by Fred Hauptman. Crosscut Seattle, October 17, 2007.
• Iffy Iphigenia, by Nicholas Scholl. The Stranger, October 17, 2007.

Team Focile?

• 'Iphigenia' a rare treasure in hands of Seattle Opera, by R.M. Campbell. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 15, 2007.
• Seattle Opera’s mythic interpretation is a knockout, by Gavin Borchert. Seattle Weekly, October 17, 2007.
• Brilliant singing, emotional staging bring "Iphigenia" to life, by Melinda Bargreen. Seattle Times, October 15, 2007.

© Bill Mohn photo

I am so glad that Google acquired YouTube because their search algorithms help me out when I do that part of my daily routine where I look up newly uploaded opera videos. Before I was able to say, like, "opera -phantom -soap -potts," I was getting a lot of bad webcam videos of people singing "Think of Me" and trying out Christine Daaé's E-flat, in alt, or whatever. Or like, clips from Passions (R.I.P.), where that crazy blackmailer/kidnapper is pacing around in his/her half-pinstriped-man, half-lingeriée-woman outfit with that scary-assed plastic mask. And then that Paul Potts tenor dude who won some talent contest on TV.

Anyway, it takes some patience, but there are some real gems hiding in that mess every day. Here are some of my recent faves:

Mark Wells — "Solitudine amata" from Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.

June Anderson — "Robert, Robert, toi que j'aime" from Meyerbeer's Robert, le diable. Paris, 1985.

Legipsy Alvares — "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini's Il barbiere di siviglia.

Alessandro Ceccarini (age 24) — "Già insolito ardore" from Rossini's L'italiana in algeri. Pesaro, March 2007.

Mario Petri — "De la crudel morte de Cristo" from Laudario di Cortona ( 13^th century)

I've been away for some months, yes. Busy with a crazy workload of web development stuff—stuff for the Stranger, a site for New York-based composer Nico Muhly, and currently a heap of projects (SEVEN New York, Feist, and Antony and the Johnsons). I've been mostly out-of-the-loop on opera, but I must say: Bach motets and Baroque opera, in general, are really great for the iPod while I'm on the elliptical trainer.

Last week, the Theater editor for the Stranger asked that a write a short piece on the disinclusion of Jane Eaglen from the Seattle Opera's 2009 Ring casting. Originally, it was to be a cute 300-word thing to fill some space in the section. I was really hesitant to do it all because I felt it would be in extremely bad taste. After our original lead story fell through, through, it was requested that my piece be expanded to its current length ("Why Isn't Jane Eaglen in the Next Ring Cycle?"). The more I sat through discussions and revisions, the more uneasy I became with how the story was taking shape.

The piece seems not to be my style, exactly. The sentences are choppy, and the whole thing seems to veer in this direction of Attacking Jane Eaglen and Pointing Out Jane Eaglen's Weight. That certainly was not what I intended, but I still do stand behind the real story (which I'm not sure is entirely clear)—Jane Eaglen is one of many singers who have become casualties of a changing art (and, more importantly, business). I wanted to indict the various administrations of opera companies more directly because—let's face it—Eaglen and all her colleagues, great and small, are simply trying to do the best within their particular circumstances.

The circumstances are what trouble me. I actually find it distasteful that Seattle Opera would turn its back on its prima donna and then be so vague about its reasons for doing so. It feels like more of that "truthiness" bugaboo that's been creeping into our culture. If the audience and subscribers wanted someone different, then I feel like the house should've been more forthcoming with what differences those same operagoers wanted. It's plain gross to be at the whim of nebulous, unmentionable standards and this retarded demand for "star quality." Jane Eaglen is a star, no doubt. Her students here have told me that they absolutely love working with her. And it seems she is a box office draw (though I don't honestly know if people like her or if they're under the spell of good marketing). From my knowledge and observation of Eaglen, she is terribly fun to work with and possesses a sense of humble self-assurance that is not often to be found on the operatic stage. Whatever the true motivations of Seattle Opera may have been, it seems to have left a bad taste in the mouths of Eaglen and her management, who have only confirmed the casting and not otherwise commented.

At the end of the piece, I make the concession that Jane will be better off without the pressure. Opera is in many places becoming a monstrosity that compromises its own potential with each passing season. It's come under the cultural umbrella that has us overmedicated, wrongly diagnosed, and treating symptoms of problems rather than their causes. The administration is under the impression that it's doing what its audience wants and thereby saving the art. But it may be that the audience doesn't always know how (or to whom) to communicate what it wants. Is it more believable to see a thin figure for the love interest on stage? Maybe. In the end the real test is when the audience closes its eyes and listens to the music. That is where the persuasion should be most powerful. Does the music (with all its attendant parts) inspire and engender a richness of emotion, rather than impose it? Does it ennoble the listener and empower him to analyze those emotions and values in himself? Is the music self-consistent (that is, do the parts of the music play their intended roles)? Is the text sung with the utmost clarity and evenness so that the poetry (and thus the Whole Work) is not obscured? Does even the music cause a reexamination of popular notions of expression?

If any one of those questions (and probably several more) cannot be answered YES, then the administration of opera is doing a disservice to the art and to its audience. So much about opera has been muddied with what I feel are base and basic concerns—namely the Sexiness and Palatability of the visual aspect. I really wonder what would happen if those elements were distilled and attention—real, critical discernment—were given to the music (especially the functional and technical components of singing). It feels that there is some hidden thing still inside opera—some roughened gem to be uncovered and polished—something that we're missing out on. That is the gem I want the world to see and hear. It won't come about by hiring big breasts and pretty smiles and MAC lipsticked bombshells who make appearances on talk shows and really "feel the emotion of the songs, y'all" but have extremely limited talent for synergizing that emotion with impeccable singing. We all know where that leads:

Such good English, these two. I wonder what language they use for their pillow talk.

I love Renée Fleming's rendition, sure, but COT DAMN, Cynthia Haymon!!!

Speaking of, remember when I was 19?

Old news, but still...

Zachary Stains on his (well, Vivaldi's) L'Ercole at the Festival di Spoleto last year.

And hey... NSFW.

This entry was originally authored and posted by me on The Stranger's Slog:

Oh, hay. Have you churren made it to Seattle Opera's new Don Giovanni yet? No? I don't blame you, but here's a preview:

If you haven't read Paul Constant's excellent review of it, do so right away. He lays bare the problems with the production and directing approach (though, to Seattle Opera's credit, the teenaged boner for cliché indicators of wit rears its… um… head all-too-frequently in even the world's most prestigious houses and productions), and he accurately names the two most compelling singer-actors in the cast.

But since I've been obsessed with opera since I was fourteen and could talk about it for hours—peppered, of course, with plenty of "Fuck that bullshit"- and "What a ridiculous douche"-type comments about anyone from the stagehands to the singers to the management—I will further explore the details of the performance and production, including first-wave feminism ("Oh, ha ha, that."), the non-topic of rape ("They were seduced!"), the Pastry class, the suspension of the suspension of disbelief, my usual bitchin' and praisin' about the singing itself (as if you care), and a butt-dump of video and mp3 examples.

(Continue reading "Deflowering Seattle Opera's Don Giovanni" »)

Ewa Podleś in Saint-Saëns's Samson & Dalila at Paris's Opéra Bastille, 1991.

This weekend Maury reminded me that I own a recording of what I believe is Ewa Podleś's only Dalila—as a cast alternate to Marjana Lipovšek in 1991. I have to say, it's pretty glorious.

I won't bore you with words, since I'm still in the process of rediscovering the recording, but look, anytime you can catch Podleś in a flowy gown, really, it's time to pay attention.

Hark!

But then, why would you want the snack when you can have the whole meal?

Natalie Dessay & Juan Diego Flórez in the Royal Opera's La fille du régiment. Photo, Alistair Muir.

Cute little interview with Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay about their upcoming Royal Opera House performances of La fille du régiment. (Incidentally, these are the same production and leads coming to the Met next season.) It's Dessay's debut as Marie, and it seems like she's taking her change of voice in stride. Clips of her October Lucia at the Bastille show a increased richness in the lows, but they don't seem to have curtailed her bugaboo screaming technique for the tops. Still, she seems like she's sort of a fun drunk with a reckless streak in real life, which makes her excellent at playing crazy (you've all seen here Ophélie). Watch her pathetic and frightening laughter at the end of the Mad Scene.

Do you think three surgeries on her vocal folds are hindering her career? Node way!

Thompson: You mentioned that your voice has changed recently. I've also seen that you've been open about the surgery you needed to cope with nodules on your vocal cords. Is everything OK now?

Dessay: I hope so. I wanted to be open about this problem because there's a culture of shame around these things among singers, as if it's taboo. My technique wasn't faulty, I didn't do anything wrong, but I still got nodules. In France, we use the expression "to have a cat in your throat" when your voice is sore. So after my surgery, I named my cats "Polyp," "Nodule" and "Cyst" because I was so glad they were outside.

Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazón in rehearsal for their recital.

And speaking of Dessay and new roles with her new, more mature sound, has anyone heard her Violetta? Probably not, since she's not debuting the role until 2009 at Santa Fe (where, btw, I heard Pat Racette do her first Traviata). However, Natalie did give a little preview—the very first in public—of what to expect from her Violetta in this concert in Paris last year. The cherry on top is Rolando Villazón as her Alfredo. Surprise! I have it for y'ns.

Um...

Oh, and if Covent Garden gets the Vicar of Dibley to play the Duchesse de Crackentorp for their Régiment…

…who's taking it at the Met? I guess I could wish for

or



but really I want it to be