OperaNow! #150: Sesquicentennial-rific!

The show will go on at New York City Opera...LA Opera repays half of their $14 MM loan a year early (and announce new dynamic ticket pricing plan)...San Francisco includes three new works in the 2012/13 season...Dallas Opera announces a new opera by Jake Heggie...Saddam Hussein's music teacher goes to jail...Skylight "Opera" drops the opera moniker.

Oliver's Corner continues to it's Norma series with a look at Adalgisa and selections by Elīna Garanča, Eva Mei, Tatiana Tryoanos, Shirley Verrett, and Marilyn Horne.

Plus Guess Who Died? and OPERABUSTERS!

This week features Michael, The OC, Doug Dodson and Jenny Rivera.

Comments

[Sarah]

It's gonna be a hilarious show for sure!

[Michael Rice]

It was certainly full of hot button topics.

[Molly]

Oliver: "I could have spent the entire half-hour playing recordings with badly tuned thirds, etc."
Doug: "OOH! Can we do that next week?"

Hilarious.

Actually...it would be pretty awesome of doing an entire Oliver's Corner on bad singing.

[Adam]

I'm afraid I am another non-believer in bel canto operas , in full production they can be very moving, but for me it'll never be my first choice to listen to. That said I have been enjoying hearing Oliver's choices for the best recordings and highlights. Sutherland and Horne are just phenomenal together.

I'm leaving this comment so you guys know people are here listening and appreciating what you do, though in fear of Oliver's reaction. Great show.

[Gianmarco]

Great discussions the last few podcasts - so many, it's been hard to keep up with listening! I especially liked the extended chat here about the singer who experienced frustration re: YAPs etc. and Jenny's reassurance that it's not the only way to a career. It does seem that in the last decade or so, it's all YAP or nothing for those "young singers out there". Without a doubt these programs have great value and provide much-needed performing and training opportunities BUT...in my view, they have their problematic side as well. Many companies seem to use them as a source of "cheap labour" - filling in comprimario, and sometimes even principal roles with the YA's who are already on contract with them, thus saving potentially greater fees paid to more seasoned artists. And...correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm seeing a trend where opera companies are very much looking to current, and recently graduated members of these YAPs for their casting. It's like there's a frenzied rush to employ these relatively inexperienced (though of course, potentially greatly talented singers) at the expense perhaps of hiring more experienced singers who've been around the block and have might a deeper understanding of a role. Anyway, some of this may or may not be true, and are just observations I've made of the opera scene in the last few years. Would love to hear from any YAs out there who are in these programs, and the view from their end....

[Tom]

Jenny, I agree that the Sutherland/Horne Norma duets Oliver played were amazing, and I appreciate hearing how difficult it is to do duet singing like that. But asde from their extraordinary talent, by the time they were on the Ed Sullivan show in 1970 they'd been singing Norma together for 7 years -- first in Vancouver in 1963. Then they made the recording together in 1964 (in an age when there was actually rehearsal time for recordings...) Bonynge was known for trying to keep casts together for specific operas so it's likely they sang Norma together a lot. Plus, according to one of the Sutherland bios they spent a lot of time together, family vacations, etc, so they knew each other well. Again, not to neglect their abilities, but can you imagine (for example) Netrebko and Garanca singing together as often in this day and age, not to mention spending all that time together? I don't see it happening.

Oliver -- loved the Caballe/Verrett clip, it's the best thing on that duet recording, which is otherwise marred by slow and dull conducting. It's a shame, those were two of the world's most beautiful voices at the time, they should have made a kick-ass recording.

[Tom]

btw, Oliver, forgot to mention many years ago I saw a compilation show about opera on Ed Sullivan, hosted by Roberta Peters and Robert Merrill. They said that the Sullivan show never had a real orchestra and so there were a lot of substitutions -- Merrill said one time they used a snare drum in Largo al Factotem. I thought of that because I swear I could hear guitar in the Norma excerpts with Sutherland and Horne.