Ahhh, finally. Someone to stand with me on the corner of Anna Netrebko is Nothing Special At All and the Met's Musical Directors Are Apparently Deaf to Good Singing. There aren't a lot of other hookers workin' this block, but I'm definitely glad to add Vilaine Fille to Trrill extended family who has my back. It mystifies me that Netrebko is treated as the second coming, but then not everyone has the same criteria that we do. Her voice on the new album is anything but sempre libera. No, Vilaine, those grace notes that Puccini wrote are not for Netrebko, but neither are the acciacature in the Bellini [Vilaine Fille gives us a great quote from Callas on this]. Nevermind the moments when she is required to sing low notes whose pitches clearly dictate a use of a chest-dominated tone. The most telling are il fantasma in the Lucia mad scene and muoia in "Sempre libera," where she barely seems to be phonating at all. Singing "breathlessly" and "passionately" should not be used in place of singing the pitches as they were intended: with clarity and evenness of tone and vowel—something which she seems to have trouble with throughout all her recordings. Mother Nature will take care of her, though. Either she'll flop in a couple years, or she'll really figure out what she's doing, not doing, or doing too much of.

On a more positive note, I did take Vilaine's comments about Swedish baritone Peter Mattei quite seriously and decided to check him out. After all, nothing fluffs my petticoats more than an excellent baritone, and there don't seem to be a ton of them singing in the US lately. And now, having heard Mr. Mattei, I offer a hearty "Yum!" and agree he's quite a find, with a sound that has the grace and sweetness of Thomas Hampson and the intensity of Vladimir Chernov. I was surprised to find him on the recent Les Troyens recording, which won the Grammy Classical Record of the Year and which includes the superb singing of Stephen Milling, who brought down the house as Gurnemanz in last summer's Parsifal at the Seattle Opera. Mattei is impressive as Posa on Naxos' live Don Carlo from the Royal Swedish Opera. I find his serenade on the much-lauded Don Giovanni a little white, but he never exceeds the bounds of taste or style. He's got Wolfram at La Scala next, and judging from his sensitivity and true command of soft singing, he's sure to score a major triumph. Give him a few months and the Met'll be sorry they didn't scoop him for some real roles earlier.



EDIT: Not five minutes after publishing, the Assolutas had occasion to see the music video for the Jewel Song from Netrebko's DVD The Woman, the Voice on the Classic Arts Showcase. We couldn't decide on our favorite part! For me, it was the complete lack of a trill in every spot where they're written. Leyla said she particularly enjoyed the obvious references to Björk with the "avant-garde" shards-of-mirror mobile draped about Miss Netrebko, who is bedecked in a bad ripoff of As Four. Of course, Hilli went for the obvious: Anna's nasty, nasty booty-dip-and-pop during the "tank top with wine-colored vinyl pants-under a blue tutu" scene. We did all agree, however, that the lip synching was silly; the vocal evidence says there's no way she was taking it as easy at she's pretending during the actual recording. If you haven't had the pleasure, keep your televisions tuned to Classic Arts; they tend to show the programming on repeat for a week, usually.