Tuesday
Jan152013
OperaNow! #175: Michael Loses It A Bit
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 4:13PM 
Lyric Opera and Second City a hit...Roberto Alagna takes a mulligan in Opera Orchestra of New York's Andrea Chenier...Québécois tenor goes on vocal strike due to sexy posters (that aren't him)...Alagna & Gheorghiughiughiu split for good?...Tattooed opera composer runs for Czech president. Opera On Ice!
This week in Oliver's Corner your chest voice opens my heart the way the sun makes a flower's legs spread!
This week features Michael, The OC and Doug Dodson.
Reader Comments (19)
Really great show this week, guys!
Loved the discussion on Mon Coeur. I agree with Michael about the high B-flat. I've always felt that the most impressive singing is the kind of singing that wows you without "showing off." The best example I can think of was on an OperaNow podcast, maybe a year ago? Oliver played a track of Marilyn Horne singing, I think Dove Sei, with just piano, and I was listening and I thought, "this is the most perfect singing I've ever heard."
Anyway, here are my guesses for the singers:
D. obviously Horne
E. Callas
F. I wasn't sure about
G. Graves
H. Borodina? Only because you said she's Russian.
I have to say, I loathe those interpolated high notes because they stand out in a way that isn't part of the role. I trust the composer to have chosen the notes he or she wanted to illustrate the character. In that sense, I agree with Michael on the dang B flat.
Oliver, please help Angela Meade with your gesture workshop BEFORE her run of "Norma" in DC, because I'll be seeing her there. I have been impressed with Meade at points, but she's been wildly inconsistent in my experience so far (all on the radio). At times, her singing is strong and confident (which I think matches the "just going for it" that you describe) but other times she seems disengaged and lacks fire.
Hi, is there any chance that Oliver could update the episode posts with singer/performer details? Just the names, nothing more complicated than that.
Regards,
John
Hi John,
If you look carefully at the show notes, the answers to the Drop the Needle are revealed in the 8 links, underlined in the description of the segment.
Feel free to email me using the link above left if you would like a list of these singers and recording sources.
OC
The only voice I recognized was Marilyn Horne because she's awesome and she has the kind of voice that you can recognize in anything. I have a recording of Strauss' Elektra with Inge Borke singing the title role and when I played it for the first time I immediately recognized that Horne was singing one of the Maids. Not may people have such distinctive voices that you can recognize them in anything, even the smallest of roles.
Anyway, I also want to say that I got Michael's reference to George Costanza. Michael, don't let him get to you!
Great show, as always! but my comment is off topic:
I'm seeing the Rigoletto dress rehearsal at the Met on Friday, so I went back to re-listen to the Oliver's Corners on that opera (#'s 118-120) to get ready. Sweet Jesus, you guys are so smart and so good at explaining musical ideas! I remembered the analysis being good, but it's better than good. And I don't just mean the Gilda "flicking the bean" talk!
Truly some of your best work. I know how much effort it must take to prepare Oliver's Corner, but I'm here to tell you it's totally worth it and I appreciate it. I'm not a singer or a musician, just an amateur fan; and your Corners are indispensable!
And, I know you're not much of a Damrau fan, Oliver, but I kind of love her and can't wait!
Maybe she'll rip Beczala's shirt open like Netrebko did in Manon... a boy can dream... :-)
Thanks for teaching me so much!
Beck
PS: Back on topic: the only voices I got this week were Horne and Callas. I'm not so amateur that I can't recognize those voices!
Thanks beck!
The reason the Met won't cast Angela Meade in a high level lead role or build a production around her the way they should s because she's fat. She is truly an extraordinary singer, but in a time where selling tickets is most important, they have to keep the visually focused subscription base. We have some family friends who saw her in Ernani and her comments were "It was very good, but the soprano was so obese I couldn't think of why people onstage would fall in love with her." This person is a subscriber, and at the end of the day, this person wants a beautiful singer, not one who can sing their colleagues off the stage. The Met goes where the money is. The money goes where the subscribers go, and the subscribers go to the beauty pageants.
Opera Teen, you'll need more in your survey than 1 or 2 subscribers to convince me that Meade's weight is the only reason she's not scheduled more often. She did receive the HD for Ernani, after all, which would seem to refute the thekr that her weight is a major himdrance in getting gigs.I think another reason is that she's still a work in progress as far as her voice and her acting are concerned. Her great moments are amazing, but she also has periods that are fudged, where she she's less engaged by the music or the section or the role. She's a singer to watch for the future, but I don't think she's fully formed yet. Her stage in development might be a factor in how often she's scheduled (in addition to other factors, including her weight).
I find the whole thing with the guess who is singing very frustrating. I don't remember to go look them up right away because I'm driving when I listen to the podcast and by the time I do look them up it is so far from having heard the voices that I can't make the connection to the name and the voice.
Can't we at least get the names at the end of the podcast?
I think this could be a new segment on the podcast
OperaTeen versus San Francisco Opera Queen
Thanks, both of you for your thoughts and ideas about the Mysterious Case of Angela Meade.
Now hug and make up.
OT and OC, I hope my comment didn't come across as an attack on OT. I just want more evidence, that's all. More more more, that's how I like it.
OT is witty enough to come to his own defense. I just want the tone in these comments to be unparterreish
I think I do a good enough job bringing the negative nelly to the show and want to be absolved in this space
Fair enough. I would never purposefully turn this site into another Parterre, for all the reasons you already know. I apologize if my comments veered in that direction.
don't apologize. I think it is awesome whenever anyone comments here, especially my friends.
Look who has friends.
Whoa, turn your eye away and a little flurry of controversy erupts around the Meade! I just wanted to weigh in on the high B flat business. I'm with Michael on this - have never liked hearing it interpolated for all the reasons you state (it is completely out of character for the role; for this aria in particular etc. etc.) I mean, it would be really weird if say someone singing an aria from La Boheme suddenly threw in a high D or something. I know it's more than acceptable to interpolate in baroque and bel canto arias, but once you reach later romantic opera, it's just not on.
Glad you guys are back in the saddle, though I'm sure it's a challenge these days Michael with little Jackson. Thanks for persevering!
I can't believe I got them all right -- first time! Obratsova does sound like she's trying to seduce by stirring a cauldron and casting a spell rather than with her voice. So many comments so I'll just throw them out:
1) After Callas died Opera News published a tribute edition that included an article by Walter Legge who was Callas's recording producer for much of her career. (Not a nice piece, befitting a not nice man) As I recall, he said that Callas found the aria rough going because it required more power in the lower register than she could sustain -- and in fact she wouldn't agree to its release while she was alive (the original Callas in Paris disks contained the other two Dalila arias, but not Mon Coeur).
2) But she does the "Ah repons a ma tendresse" in one breath and the same with the phrase after it, it sounds like the conductor is trying to speed it up a little to allow her to do it. I don't have a score so I don't know what Saint-Saens intended, but given Callas's generally scrupulous readings I imagine it's all supposed to be in one breath. Other than Baltsa doing the first phrase in one breath no one else did, right? They all did "Ah repons, repons a ma tendresse" adding a breath before the second repons. No wonder Callas didn't feel like she could get through it the way she wanted to, those are some long-ass phrases!
3) After hearing the phrases in one breath it makes the other versions seem, I don't know, less likeable. I think Horne particularly suffers -- her opening section was great but there are a lot of audible breaths wrecking the line in the Ah repons section.
4) I think my favorite version that you didn't play is Shirley Verrett from her 1967 recital disk, even though she puts in the extra repons and has the extra breaths, but she hides them pretty well.
Enough! Thanks for a fun episode!