“It’s time for it to be universally acknowledged that Ms. Netrebko is the great diva of our day. She is the one providing the most charisma and excitement without sacrificing a lush, ever-darkening, still-agile tone.” - Zachary Woolfe (The New York Observer)

Unfortunately, I was not able to catch Anna Netrebko in ‘Anna Bolena’ at the Met this year. I had initially planned to, but my school obligations left me almost no time to visit the opera this year.

I did however manage to catch the tail end of the run with Angela Meade singing the title role. It was a waste of time. Everything you’ve heard about the Met’s production ‘Bolena’ is pretty much true. David McVickar’s production is atmospheric, but unimaginative and half-baked. I’m assuming it’s Ms. Netrebko’s presence that lifts the evening beyond utter banality.

Ms. Meade’s performance mainly confirmed what we already know: she has an impressive command of her vocal technique, and it was on ample display the night I saw her. The coloratura was impregnable; the sound perfectly focused and capable of filling this big house with ease. Her pianissimo phrasing was astonishing as was her formidable execution of trills, runs, fioratura and the messa di voce. It was a master class in cautious, but impeccably precise technique.

But Anna Bolena is not about impressive singing, no matter how many trills and runs Donizetti mandated in his score, and for all her technical prowess, Ms. Meade’s performance came off as ludicrous and, ultimately, guileless. (This is a major problem when you’re portraying one of the most ruthless women in history.) She is not an actress — She scrunched her face up to connote “anger,” did a little half-smirk when she was being “friendly,” and closed her eyes and laid her arms across her chest to be “at peace.” — but she doesn’t need to be Meryl Streep if she can cultivate a real stage presence. A little character study would become her, as would a good director. She needs to stop relying on stock gestures and timid acting tricks if she is going to become an actual artist.

Which brings me back to Ms. Netrebko. I plan to see the production when it returns in the spring with Netrebko back in the lead. After watching her last night in Eric Genovese’s beautiful production, staged at the Wiener Staatsoper (now available on Blu-Ray), I can safely say that this role signals a major milestone in her career.

Ms. Netrebko is one of the most controversial figures in opera, mainly because of her exceptional beauty and her undeniable star power. Many critics view her as the Brtiney Spears of opera, with her endorsement deals and her notorious partying, she has had a hard time being taken seriously. In the past, many opera buffs have found fault with her vocal technique, particularly in the Bel Canto repertoire for which she is best known. Many opera snobs imagine coloratura in a vacuum, as a mindless series of vocal calisthenics meant to be nailed with cool accuracy. Ms. Netrebko, in the tradition of Maria Callas and Barbra Streisand, understands that coloratura should be an organic outgrowth of the musical line, a means of amplifying emotion. Her runs and trills, accurate and stylish, never exist for their own sake.

More importantly, Ms. Netrebko is in her vocal prime, and she has scored a major triumph with this role. Her voice has never been more luscious and full (her legato singing could convert any nonbeliever), and while her voice may lack the spit-fire precision of Ms. Meade’s, Ms. Netrebko turns the calculating queen into a three-dimensional character. (No small accomplishment when you’re playing an Italian opera heroine.)

You get the sense that Ms. Netrebko understands every inch of her character. I don’t have enough space to get into the specifics of what makes her performance so electrifying; but suffice it to say, Ms. Netrebko possesses one of the most important and ineffable qualities that eludes many opera singers: charisma, an undeniable relationship with her audience.

When Ms. Netrebko is on stage, you simply cannot take your eyes off her. Her performance style deftly balances operatic grandiosity with subtle human emotions. It’s a specific style of acting; very tricky to pull off, yet it is the lifeblood of opera.

Take, for instance, the final cabaletta, “coppia iniqua,” when the disgraced queen slips in and out of sanity as she awaits her execution. Ms. Netrebko, looking directly into the camera, nearly burning right through it, seems to spit out every word as an accusation against all those who conspired against her. Ms. Netrbko may not have the voice of the great Callas (and I am not suggesting for a second that she does), but she has this blazing fire inside of her that lends an element of danger to her performance. It’s the same ineffable quality that came so naturally to Callas and made her so mesmerizing.

Ms. Netrebko has said that, for her, ‘Anna Bolena’ signals the next big phase of her career, as she soon plans to move in to the weightier Verdi rep. All I can say is, bring it on! Many argue that she has no business singing the virtuosic bel canto roles she has become known for, because she doesn’t practice truly flawless bel canto singing.

Perhaps, but I doubt anyone could argue with her riveting characterization of Anna Bolena. Simply put, this is the perfect part for her at the perfect moment. After a disastrous ’Lucia’ two years ago, and a misdirected turn as Antonia in ‘Les Contes D’Hoffmann’, Ms. Netrebko has finally staked her claim as a major artist.

Further more, she is an honest-to-god opera superstar (such things still do exist) with proven box office appeal. The opera community needs to be more supportive of charismatic singers who can draw in an audience and have them eating out of the palm of their hand. Ms. Netrebko is such a singer. Superb technicians make for a safe, pleasant listening experience. It is performers like Ms. Netrebko, who set audiences ablaze, and ultimately keep opera thriving.

Can we all just agree right now that Audra McDonald is going to be the sexiest Bess ever! I’m so friggin’ excited for this. I have been dreaming of staging a production of ‘Porgy’ with Audra for YEARS! Also, I couldn’t be happier that Norm Lewis is playing Porgy. If nothing else, this is going to be the most lusciously sung ‘Porgy’ ever.

“Well sung and carefully considered, her final scene was muted, settled at the same low emotional temperature as most of her performance. Ms. Meade’s gifts are formidable, but this “Bolena” was frustrating, largely immaculate and largely uninvolving.” - Zachary Woolfe

Click here to read more… 

The Met’s opening night pretty much snuck up on me without warning. But last night the opera house kicked off its new season with a much anticipated, first ever staging of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena.”

Sadly, I must wait until the 18th to give my two cents about the show. The general consensus seems to be that Anna Netrebko blew it out of the park. (Except for The Washington Post, which deemed the whole affair an utter failure.)

So far, everyone seems to agree that David MicVicker’s production is too safe and muddled. Marco Armiliato’s conducting was deemed listless by several critics.

I’ll post a review after I see it later next month.

by Stephen Sondheim

The article by Mr. Healy about the coming revival of “Porgy and Bess” is dismaying on many levels. To begin with, the title of the show is now “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.” I assume that’s in case anyone was worried it was the Rodgers and Hart “Porgy and Bess” that was coming to town. But what happened to DuBose Heyward? Most of the lyrics (and all of the good ones) are his alone (“Summertime,” “My Man’s Gone Now”) or co-written with Ira Gershwin (“Bess, You Is My Woman Now”). If this billing is at the insistence of the Gershwin estate, they should be ashamed of themselves. If it’s the producers’ idea, it’s just dumb. More dismaying is the disdain that Diane Paulus, Audra McDonald and Suzan-Lori Parks feel toward the opera itself.

Ms. Paulus says that in the opera you don’t get to know the characters as people. Putting it kindly, that’s willful ignorance. These characters are as vivid as any ever created for the musical theater, as has been proved over and over in productions that may have cut some dialogue and musical passages but didn’t rewrite and distort them.

What Ms. Paulus wants, and has ordered, are back stories for the characters. For example she (or, rather, Ms. Parks) is supplying Porgy with dialogue that will explain how he became crippled. She fails to recognize that Porgy, Bess, Crown, Sportin’ Life and the rest are archetypes and intended to be larger than life and that filling in “realistic” details is likely to reduce them to line drawings. It makes you speculate about what would happen if she ever got her hands on “Tosca” and ‘Don Giovanni.” How would we get to know them? Ms. Paulus would probably want to add an aria or two to explain how Tosca got to be a star, and she would certainly want some additional material about Don Giovanni’s unhappy childhood to explain what made him such an unconscionable lecher.

Then there is Ms. Paulus’s condescension toward the audience. She says, “I’m sorry, but to ask an audience these days to invest three hours in a show requires your heroine be an understandable and fully rounded character.” I don’t know what she’s sorry about, but I’m glad she can speak for all of us restless theatergoers. If she doesn’t understand Bess and feels she has to “excavate” the show, she clearly thinks it’s a ruin, so why is she doing it? I’m sorry, but could the problem be her lack of understanding, not Heyward’s?

She is joined heartily in this sentiment by Ms. McDonald, who says that Bess is “often more of a plot device than a full-blooded character.” Often? Meaning sometimes she’s full-blooded and other times not? She’s always full-blooded when she’s acted full-bloodedly, as she was by, among others, Clamma Dale and Leontyne Price. Ms. McDonald goes on to say, “The opera has the makings of a great love story … that I think we’re bringing to life.” Wow, who’d have thought there was a love story hiding in “Porgy and Bess” that just needed a group of visionaries to bring it out?

Among the ways in which Ms. Parks defends the excavation work is this: “I wanted to flesh out the two main characters so that they are not cardboard cutout characters” and goes on to say, “I think that’s what George Gershwin wanted, and if he had lived longer he would have gone back to the story of ‘Porgy and Bess’ and made changes, including the ending.”

It’s reassuring that Ms. Parks has a direct pipeline to Gershwin and is just carrying out his work for him, and that she thinks he would have taken one of the most moving moments in musical theater history — Porgy’s demand, “Bring my goat!” — and thrown it out. Ms. Parks (or Ms. Paulus) has taken away Porgy’s goat cart in favor of a cane. So now he can demand, “Bring my cane!” Perhaps someone will bring him a straw hat too, so he can buck-and-wing his way to New York.

Or perhaps in order to have her happy ending, she’ll have Bess turn around when she gets as far as Philadelphia and return to Catfish Row in time for the finale, thus saving Porgy the trouble of his heroic journey to New York. It will kill “I’m on My Way,” but who cares?

Ms. McDonald immediately dismisses any possible criticism by labeling anyone who might have objections to what Ms. Paulus and her colleagues are doing as “Gershwin purists” — clearly a group, all of whom think alike, and we all know what a “purist” is, don’t we? An inflexible, academic reactionary fuddy-duddy who lacks the imagination to see beyond the author’s intentions, who doesn’t recognize all “the holes and issues” that Ms. Paulus and Ms. McDonald and Suzan-Lori Parks do. Never fear, though. They confidently claim that they know how to fix this dreadfully flawed work.

I can hear the outraged cries now about stifling creativity and discouraging directors who want to reinterpret plays and musicals in order to bring “fresh perspectives,” as they are wont to say, but there is a difference between reinterpretation and wholesale rewriting. Nor am I judging this production in advance, only the attitude of its creators toward the piece and the audience. Perhaps it will be wonderful. Certainly I can think of no better Porgy than Norm Lewis nor a better Bess than Audra McDonald, whose voice is one of the glories of the American theater. Perhaps Ms. Paulus and company will have earned their arrogance.

Which brings me back to my opening point. In the interest of truth in advertising, let it not be called “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” nor even “The Gershwin-Heyward Porgy and Bess.” Advertise it honestly as “Diane Paulus’s Porgy and Bess.” And the hell with the real one.

The beautiful monologue from Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier.” The first time I saw this, live at the Met, I knew I would love opera forever.

This role remains the crown jewel of Renee Fleming’s repertoire. She acts with aching subtlety, and shapes Strauss’ phrases with elegance.

I find the text of this scene heartbreaking. I always reel as I listen to the Marschallin contemplate time and fate. Everyone can relate to this, and that is why this is such a brilliant opera.

My friend is at an opera program run by Sherrill Milnes…

The opera community never fails to amaze - make that - infuriate me time and again. They’re a bunch of tradition bound zealots, intent on keeping opera in a museum, or rather, a tomb. Each one of them wants something different when they go to see opera. (They prefer this type of voice, or that type of sound, elaborate sets, period sets.)

Mostly, there is a big cult of historians and musicologists who insist that everything in opera is in the music. Critics railed against Natalie Dessay’s horror movie scream during the Mad Scene of “Lucia” back in 2007. Many griped that the scream was “in the music” and, therefore, Ms. Dessay’s choice of implementing a real scream was “disrespectful” to the music. What people failed to realize, if they had bothered to really examine Dessay’s brilliant performance, is that she did indeed treat the fioriaturas and cadenzas in the score as shrieks, screams, and expressions of Lucias madness. Why not add a real scream in the mix? When I saw the performance, it was chilling.

I once read an article, where a famous diva bemoaned the practice of dousing Lucia’s wedding gown in fake blood, insisting that the “blood is in the music.” This is exactly what I’m talking about. Donizetti was a savvy man of the theater in addition to being a genius composer. He understood that opera is as much about theater as it is about music. He knew which aspects of opera required music, and which aspects were sheer theatricality. So, sorry folks: there is no blood in the music. It’s on the wedding dress. The complex psychology is in the music. It’s not all one big ball of wax.

It’s a prime example of opera snobs putting way too much stock in the music. Yes, the music is part of the drama, and the musical aspects are of the utmost importance. Music can’t accommodate acting, scenery, props, and costumes. That’s absurd. If that were indeed true, why not just hold a concert? 

Opera fans are worried that the music of opera is in danger of being usurped by theatrical innovations. But the opera world is filled with first rate conductors and musicians who make it their job to maintain musical excellence. Music is in no danger of suffering in opera because it is the driving force of the artform.

What bothers me, is that people seem to forget that opera is as much a collaborative artform as a musical one. It is ideally the harmonious marriage of music and drama. We should be thankful that we are entering a new age of truly theatrical, daring opera. One could even say that the artform is finally returning to it’s raison d’etre: a dramatic expression through the sublime magic of music.

The first time my friend Gabbie and I saw this, we broke out laughing hysterically. I adore this woman. Opera would be so boring without her. She’s doing something for the art form that no one else has the balls to do.

Salut à la France! 
A mes beaux jours! 
A l’espérance! 
A mes amours! 
Salut à la gloire! 
Voilà pour mon cœur, 
Avec la victoire, 
L’instant du bonheur!

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2011-2012 season is looking pretty tepid from this operagoer’s perspective. One look at the Met’s website and publicity materials suggests that Peter Gelb is banking on a new production of Massanett’s “Manon,” and the house’s first ever staging of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena.”

This is understandable, as both productions star Anna Netrebko - unquestionably THE current reigning soprano of the Metropolitan Opera. But “Manon” is an enervating, lightweight French opera that has a questionable place in the standard repertory. The one bright spot of this new staging is the brilliant Laurent Pelly. Pelly is one of the most inventive, resourceful directors working today and Natalie Dessay groupies (including me) will remember his sparkling ”Fille du Regiment” from three seasons ago which remains an unqualified triumph.

In addition to “Manon,” we have another new production of a silly French opera: Gounod’s “Faust” starring opera’s latest pinup: Jonas Kaufmann. Perhaps the new productions will change my opinion of these operas, but it doesn’t seem likely. I’ve seen, at least, a dozen productions of “Manon,” and I’ve yet to be convinced of the opera’s worthiness. 

The prospect of finally bringing “Anna Bolena” to the Met is enticing; I’ve always said that the Met should bring Donizetti’s ”Tudor Queen” operas to the Met, but one good Donizetti opera does not a satisfying season make. Predictably, the critical darling and all around Wunderkind, Angela Meade, will be sharing the run with Anna Netrebko, which is all the more discouraging given the fact that Anna Bolena is a role that requires a great actress as well as a great singer.

Of course the biggest, most expensive production of the season will be the two final installments of Robert Lepage’s lumbering “Ring Cycle.” Judging from “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walkure,” the chances of final chapters being brilliant seem slim to none. I agree with the critics in thinking that Lepage’s vision is an empty, high-tech spectacle with a hollow core. There’s a lot of scenery, but very little humanity or heart.

The biggest fly in the ointment would have to be “The Enchanted Island”: an operatic equivalent of a jukebox musical. The Met has decided to shoehorn a “plot” around several ensembles and arias by baroque composers like Handel, Vivaldi, and Rameau. Could we please put an end to baroque opera at the Met? Leaving aside the fact that I HATE baroque opera, the Met is a HORRIBLE venue for this kind of music. If the Met insists on presenting baroque works, they ought to consider holding it in one of the smaller venues at Lincoln Center, such as the Mitzi Newhouse theater.

I must admit that I really am looking forward to Natalie Dessay in Willy Decker’s spare production of “Traviata.” I know that the role of Violetta is about ten sizes to big for Dessay’s voice, but I also know her Violetta will be something completely different that we have never seen before. Dessay’s commitment to acting and drama will lend a whole new dimension to the role of Violetta. Say what you will about her voice: you just can’t take your eyes of this woman.

I’d really love it if the Met would mount a great, neglected Donizetti work for Dessay, or put her in one of the “Tudor Queen” operas. I’d love to see her in “Roberto Deveraux” or, if that is too heavy, perhaps “Maria Stuarda?” There are also TONS of other wonderfully dramatic Bel Canto operas that have never been performed and would be perfect for Dessay.

Lesser known Strauss is also sorely lacking from the Met. Strauss composed many great operas during his lifetime that are seldom performed, and it’s high time that changed. Last year’s “Capriccio” proved a surprise highlight of the season; with a uniformly superb cast led by Renee Fleming, the Met showed that this opera is a Straussian gem that deserves a regular spot in the repertory. 

“Die schweigsame Frau” is another wonderful Strauss rarity that needs to be seen. Dessay scored a triumph in the comic opera earlier in her career, and it would be wonderful to see her in it at the Met one day. It is very funny and has some sublime, prime-period Strauss music.

While we’re on the subject of star vehicles, could we please give Mariusz Kwiecien his own Bel Canto opera? The new forthcoming “Don Giovanni” is nice, but haven’t we seen enough baritones warble their way through this barn burner? And, anyway, it would be hard to top Christopher Alden’s mesmerizing staging last season at “City Opera.” It’s time to mount a new star showcase for the wonderful, charismatic baritones of today! Donizetti’s “Torquato Tasso” is a fantastic, yet neglected lyric drama that would be ideal for a baritone who can really act. (The opera comes complete with it’s very own mad scene.)

If Peter Gelb really wants to shake things up, he should look into staging forgotten works by known composers that the public adores. There comes a point where you just can’t take another stultifying evening of “Manon” or “Don Giovanni.” 

The press likes to drum up a lot of theories on the pressures facing young singers today. For the past three years, the story has focused mainly on the HD Broadcasts and the supposed pressure on young singers to care for their bodies. The operating philosophy seems to be: Peter Gelb and his big bad HD broadcasts are favoring beautiful singers with small voices over more qualified singers who may not exactly look the part. While there may be strands of truth to this, it’s a tempest in a teapot.

Lest anyone forget, the Metropolitan Opera has been filming singers since the late 70’s for the “Live From The Met” television broadcasts. What’s more, a singer’s appearance has always been of somewhat of a factor because, whether or not people are willing to admit it, opera is theater and thus a visual medium. Surely Maria Callas’ beauty was part of what made her such a legendary stage animal. If anything, one could say that the HD broadcasts are simply abetting the body-image problem, and not the cause of it.

It’s my feeling that we are missing a larger, more pertinent issue altogether: the youth factor. More than ever, in our society of instant gratification and obsession with prodigies, burgeoning singers are feeling the need to find success very early and very fast. We are a youth obsessed culture, and the opera world is not exempt from this. An operatic voice takes long to develop and true artistry takes even longer to cultivate. It is the rare singer that develops a full-bodied operatic voice at a very young age and, sadly, the singers that DO develop early, get all the glory while slower to develop singers are overlooked despite the fact that they could turn out to be superior artists one day.

A perfect example of the youth factor is soprano Angela Meade - a very talented, very young soprano who rose to prominence after winning the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Ms Meade’s ascent to operatic stardom can only be described as meteoric. She has a big-bodied physique, yet she’s had no problem scoring a spot on the Met’s prestigious roster of star singers. No one could accuse Ms. Meade’s physical appearance of being an impediment to her career. Ms. Meade is already a darling of the critics, garnering glowing reviews in almost every major arts publication for her rich, full voice and for being very young. No singer in recent memory has had the kind of success Ms. Meade has experienced. (She’s already scheduled to sing the lead in “Ernani” and share the run of “Anna Bolena” with Netrebko next season at the Met.)

What troubles me, is the fact that very little has been made of her deficiencies as an actress. Yes, Ms. Meade has a luminous voice, and she seems destined to be the great “Norma” of our time. But opera is theater and excellent singing is only half the battle. Ms. Meade has openly stated that she does not consider herself an actress - a fact I find bothersome. As Zachary Woolfe noted in his review of her Norma at the Caramoor Festival, “She scrunched her face up to connote ‘anger,’ did a little half-smirk when she was being ‘friendly,’ and closed her eyes and laid her arms across her chest to be ‘at peace.’ Meade, who in real life is pleasant and warm and normal, will need to make a huge temperamental leap on stage if she is going to be more than just an excellent singer.”

But Ms. Meade is just starting out and she may very well develop her skills as an actress and become one of the great artists of our time. Yet, more and more there is tremendous pressure on young singers to rush their careers. Many young artists feel stunted because they’re voices are taking longer to develop and their careers seem permanently on hold. For all anyone knows, there could be a wonderful young soprano somewhere, just as talented as Ms. Meade, who’s a born actress, but just needs a little more time to develop. Will she be ignored because she didn’t find success at a very young age?

The opera community needs to realize that the idolatry of young prodigies is just as, if not more, perverse as hiring a singer based on physical attractiveness. I know so many young singers today who feel like failures because their road to an opera career is slow going. Opera is a complex art form, and we need to acknowledge that a great artist is more than just a young face with a big voice.

The Met Player is finally streaming its March 19th broadcast of “Lucia di Lammermoor” starring Natalie Dessay. If you want to have a near perfect opera viewing experience: watch this. The production was originally mounted for Dessay to open the 07-08 season, and she’s even better in it the second time around. 

The cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Ludovic Tézier; one of my favorite baritones, delivering the most nuanced, complex portrait of Enrico I’ve ever seen. The Maltese tenor, Joseph Calleja, has a bright, penetrating tenor that has only gained size and richness since his appearance in “Tales of Hoffmann” last season. He is a wonderful Edgardo.

I seem to be in the small minority of people who feel that the HD broadcasts diminish a lot of truly great performances. Opera critics have been accusing Peter Gelb of catering to the HD broadcasts by hiring singers that look great and give small scale performances best suited to the movie screen. But this ”Lucia” was more thrilling in the opera house (however it did translate, more or less, faithfully to film.) Along with “Capriccio” and “Don Pasquale” this is one of the best, nigh perfect, HD offerings from last season.

Really gross, shocking production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” at the Bavarian State Oper. In other words: exactly the kind of production that the Met needs to be staging. This is the type of bold theatricality that would truly shake up opera. I didn’t see this production, but I heard that it cut right to the core of Shakespeare’s tale when it was first staged. Also, can we take a moment to admire the amazingness that is German soprano Nadja Michael? She looks perfect as Macbeth’s crazed wife. Her “Salome” at Covent Garden remains one of the most visceral performances I’ve ever seen, and I’m super excited to see her next year at the Met as Lady Macbeth. Now if only the Met could dispose of it’s weirdly unfocused “Wizard of Oz” like staging.