OperaNow! #221: Who Are You?

Opera Tells Before and After Tale...Singer Fired After Ranting On Facebook...Alagna Scared Away By The Audience Again...L.A. Opera Extends Domingo's Contract...Met Grand Tier Restaurant Seeks New Manager on Craigslist...Lyric Opera Virginia Closes Doors...Man Beats Cabbie With Cane For Fear of Being Late to Fanciulla.

This week in Oliver's Corner: does Adina have any redeeming qualities besides being highly literate?

Plus Guess Who Died and and a new segment: Who's That Guy In That Show?

This week features Michael, The OC, Jenny Rivera, Mike Mayes and Megan Marino.

Comments

[Molly]

I am TOTALLY with Mike Mayes on the Placido thing. His Conte di Luna in that Salzburg Trovatore was atrocious. He needs to retire with grace and let the next generation in. He's poisoning our memory of what an extraordinary singer he was.

...ok listening to the rest of the podcast now...

[zach]

no, no, no. oliver, you got the sutherland clip from youtube. i can tell because many years ago i noticed how someone posted that fake recording where they mixed joan sutherland's studio recording of elixer with a live recording of a different opera where she topped something off with a high e flat. anyway, that recording you played is not from a real live performance of sutherland. shame.

[OperaNowFan]

Re Ollie's corner. Adina #1 is obviously Kathleen Battle. #3 is possibly Judith Blegen.

[Menuet alla Zoppa]

I almost couldn't breathe by the end of this episode, I was laughing so much...

With regard to Mike Mayes' comment "I wish they would develop into a riot" - this did famously happen once in Belgium after a performance of Auber's La muette de Portici.

Megan is, as she would no doubt say, an "awesome" addition to the show.

I love Reri Grist. I particularly like her as Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera.

Regarding the old man who hit the taxi driver, I'm somehow not surprised... Let's not forget that one of the UK's long-serving Tory MPs once remarked that "the homeless are what you step over when you come out of the opera"...

[Michael Rice]

Glad you enjoyed it, Menuet. I felt it was one of the best in a while. Yuks and info a plenty

[Molly]

This was a hysterical episode. Can I put in a request to have Megan as a regular panelist?

Can I also put in a request to be her new best friend? She kept saying exactly what I was thinking throughout the show.

[Menuet alla Zoppa]

Also, on the Domingo point - as a non-singer, I don't mind so much. I think the point about him clogging up spaces that could be taken by proper baritones is a very good one. However.... I like his acting too. He gave a great *performance* in Nabucco at the ROH a while ago, even if the singing was not quite there. Also, I was reading recently that Verdi chose the original Rigoletto precisely because the singer was kind of ugly and didn't have the greatest voice. I think sometimes we lose sight of characterisation because we view everything through a bel canto lens... it's possible that I am talking nonsense here. But.. yeah. That's what I think.

[Timothy]

I don't know if anyone's said that they want it yet, but I do.

[gianmarco]

What a great podcast - and nice to have a new voice in the mix! I am also sooooo with Michael M. on the Domingo situation. For a singer who ostensibly cares so much about young artists with his Operalia and all (although even that competition smacks more of ego sometimes I feel - i.e. his conducting of it [worst conducting I've ever heard when I attended the competition in Paris a few years ago]; the nepotism with his son's "Operalia Anthem" etc.), he certainly doesn't seem to be doing much for the younger baritones of this world. In the big Verdi repertoire I *want* to hear a real baritone voice - that was Verdi's whole point - stretching that voice type to its limits. When a tenor sings these roles (even an aging one) it just doesn't have the same effect. Oh it makes me angry! And I totally get what MM means by the "trickle down" effect - which must be effecting him and I totally sympathise.
Also onside with his remarks regarding the Ruminski thing - it's the first time with that hullabaloo that I heard anyone actually say that the mindset behind these kind of remarks are in themselves unacceptable. Too many people were commenting that Ruminiski's remarks weren't outwardly homophobic or racist...oh come on! It doesn't take a genius to detect the discomfort and hate beneath his deplorable comments!
As for OC - I recognized Battle, Sills but not the third one. I'll go with Blegen as does Opera Now Fan - she makes sense given the timeframe Oliver mentioned as a clue. Keep it coming guys and gals!

[Timothy]

I already knew that Mike Mayes was a great singer, but it's good to know that he's such a great guy, as well. His comments during the drag queen story were super impressive. I've heard people MAJORING in queer studies struggle to make statements about gender expression half as cogent as Mike's. You've found yourself the rarest of all baritones, Megan. He's got a heart AND a brain. Lock it down. (Mike, you've found something even rarer: a mezzo who's beautiful and crazy enough to laugh at your fisting jokes, but not crazy enough to kill you in your sleep.)

While on the topic of Megan, I'd like to say how much I enjoyed what she brought to the show. She had lots of smart things to say and an interesting point of view in the discussions. (Except for the whole Domingo thing, but more on that later.) I hope she'll be back for future episodes. This one was really excellent.

I agree with Mike completely about Domingo singing baritone roles. I know that he's an intelligent musician and that his Verdi interpretations are brilliant, but the sound is all wrong. The top is what makes those baritone roles so difficult/thrilling. However, when Domingo sings up there, it just sounds like an elderly tenor with a remarkably well-preserved sound singing in an easy part of his voice. There's something especially thrilling about hearing a voice pushed to the limits of range and volume and you don't get that with Domingo. I remember singing in the chorus for Rigoletto my freshman year at Nebraska and the guest artist, Todd Thomas, interpolated an Ab (I think) at the end of the show. It was fucking intense. That's the only way to describe it. If we'd had an older tenor like Domingo, I probably wouldn't have even noticed it. (Obviously, I would have shit my pants if Domingo had randomly decided to sing Rigoletto in Lincoln, Nebraska, but you get my point.) Keep conducting, coaching, a cultivating new talent, Domingo, but, for the love of Verdi, stop singing baritone roles.

I really enjoy Oliver's Corner, but the other hosts brought up something that's been bothering me. I wish Oliver would stop steamrolling through the other hosts' comments. I know that he works really hard to prepare for the Corner, that he has extensive notes about what he wants to say, and that it can be distracting when the other hosts interject, but I wish he would be more flexible and let them jump in sometimes. The other hosts have tons of great insights and have often performed in these shows, which gives them a different point of view. I love the harmonic analyses, the historical context, and the intense discussion of the characters and their origins. Don't get rid of those, but I also want to hear the anecdotes from the hosts who have sung in some of these operas. They offer equally interesting and important insights into the works being discussed. Keep doing what you're doing Oliver. Be every bit as thorough, but please, PLEASE open the floor up to your colleagues more often.

Thanks for another great show, folks. Keep it up.

[Geddy Lee]

Oh no, I am seeing Domingo live this Sunday in Los Angeles singing the father role in La Traviata. I hope he will be better than what the comments here have been suggesting. I'm nervous now.

[gianmarco]

Timothy! You've said much more eloquently what I tried to say about Domingo. It would be peevish to deny his amazing career; its longevity; his continued energy which allows him to still be part of the whole scene...BUT I think what's bothering a lot of people is that his forays into the Verdi baritone rep smack of "I'm going to keep my career going at whatever cost". And you can see why opera companies are happy to go along with this - he's a huge draw and no doubt, more people will buy tickets to hear Domingo as Simon Boccanegra than they would for just about any other baritone currently on the scene. But ultimately, his assumption of these roles doesn't serve the music, or the composer's intent.
Tim - thank you also for voicing your opinions on OC. I agree with your comments - Oliver...I know how hard it is to keep on track when you're discussing a big topic like Pelleas, Elisir etc. but...try and let Jenny, or Michael, or Mike, or Doug etc. have their say from a performer's point of view. It will only make your Corner that much richer!

[Andy]

Yes. o A o

[cf]

PS Melba Toast was also in fact named after Nellie Melba!

[SQLwitch]

About Adina...

I love l'Elisir and one the reasons I love it so much is that I think the psychology of the characters is absolutely right, and it transcends the commedia_dell'arte stereotypes. Oliver, with all love and respect, I wonder if maybe you don't understand Adina so well because you don't have enough the right kind of experience with women. (Not suggesting you should go out and get some, though...)

Adina at the beginning of the opera shows all the classic signs of "pretty girl syndrome" - and one of the ways that manifests is that she loves exercising the power that it gives her - and she exercises it wherever and whenever she can simply because she can. She gleefully seizes every opportunity to use her power - whether it makes any other kind of sense or not. And, believe me, the real-life world is full of Adinas, doing exactly this. And sooner or later, they either have an epiphany like she does, and realise that they're hurting people, or they get to a stage of life where the power starts to fail them.

As long as I'm talking about Donizetti and psychology, I've always thought that Don Pasquale would make a hell of a lot more sense if Pasquale was an old queen and Malatesta was after him for himself - what do you think?

[bracs]

I agree with all the comments about how great Megan was. Would love to hear more of her.

Gotta disagree with all the Adina-bashing from pretty much everyone on the show though. For my money, "Prendi" is the single most touching piece in the entire score. "Una furtiva" may be more musically haunting, but the sentiment in "Prendi" is heartbreakingly poignant: "Sempre scontento e mesto, no, non sarai così." And why should Adina offend people more than, say, Don Giovanni, whose motivations are similarly enigmatic and who's basically her counterpart when it comes to their shared philosophy of free love? In 2014, shouldn't we recognize Adina as a woman of our time who's ahead of her own? She's one of the few women of opera who's her own boss both professionally and sexually, and who's not just defined in terms of how much she loves and/or suffers for her man. Could it be that we have a tendency to slut-shame lead female characters when they defy our genre-based expectations of "proper," wholesome, virginal purity? (...again, at least in the leads. Everyone expects the "bad-girl" Eboli to sleep around with King Philip and we love to hate her for it.)

Finally, it isn't true that "nobody cares" about Elixir. If that were so, then it wouldn't have been a calling card for everyone from Caruso to Schipa to Bergonzi to Pavarotti to Carreras to Alagna to Florez, etc., etc. (to name only tenors), and it wouldn't be the 13th most-performed opera in the world: http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en

Since online comments don't carry tone, don't get the wrong idea by my pushback: It's just one fucking character in one fucking opera, so of course I'm not upset by the antipathy y'all have for them; I just completely disagree.

All that said, it was a fun listen, but for whatever my two cents are or aren't worth, hearing Michael and Oliver going at it is always a bit too awkward to make for good radio. Mom, Dad, stop fighting!

[Tom]

I agree with bracs about Adina and Norina -- two interesting characters. Adina is a landowner in a time and place where most everyone else would have been tenant farmers or sharecroppers. (One of the wine producers in Italy I buy from told me his ancestors were sharecroppers well into the 20th century, that's the way it was done.) In effect, she's everyone's boss including Nemorino's. Getting married would release that property to her husband. As a widow, Norina has a different social status as well. She has a lot more control over her life than other women did and her first aria demonstrates it (which is why I didn't care for Netrebko's performance, the long trill is integral to showing Norina's personality and Netrebko couldn't do it despite the somersaults). Are they likeable? I don't know, but they're interesting to me.

I thought the third singer was Judith Blegen too. She sang Adina all over the place in the 70s. I saw two different versions with her on TV (including one "Wild West" production) and live once as well.