Thread: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcast listeners thread..................

Originally Posted by Woodduck

A quick googling indicates that Kaufmann is still down with the flu and that Yonghoon Lee will sing Jose today.

Elina Garanca will be Carmen, Ailyn Perez will be Micaela and Gabor Bretz will be Escamillo.

I'm tired of Carmen. Now with Kaufmann gone. can't they just do something else in its place like Peter Grimes or Lulu?

How long can it take to rearrange the staging? Three hours?

Writing just after the Flower Song:

A performance of Carmen sinks or swims with Act Two.

This one didn't set my heart palpitating. None of the singers rose above average for a Met performance.

The decision to start the pounding, stamping dancing right after the Act Two prelude instead of going directly into the Act Two music was clumsy and ill-advised.

I haven't heard Carmen in a very long time. This performance of Act Two didn't motivate me to hear it again anytime soon.

Originally Posted by Woodduck

A quick googling indicates that Kaufmann is still down with the flu and that Yonghoon Lee will sing Jose today.

Elina Garanca will be Carmen, Ailyn Perez will be Micaela and Gabor Bretz will be Escamillo.

Ugh! No Kaufmann means no go for me.

I just viewed the Carmen with Alagna and Garanca on DVD and it was great because my dad wanted to see it.

However, wished they did it with Kaufmann and Garanca... totally legendary pairing if this were to happen.

Bored as usual with this opera

Originally Posted by Itullian

Bored as usual with this opera

Too bad that Garanca single-handedly can't save the performance.

Pluses and minuses for Carmen on radio, as usual. I was startled right off the bat by the frantic speed of the overture. Fortunately maestro Louis Langree got that out of his system quickly and conducted a pretty standard performance. His name indicates French ancestry, but no one in the cast was French, and accents and diction were variable. The performance did not feel French on the whole.

Jonas Kaufmann, unfortunately, was sick and couldn't appear. His replacement, Yonghoon Lee, has been making a name for himself in dramatic tenor roles. He has a strong, dark voice, if not the most elegant French style: his "Flower song" was pretty much what heavy voices usually make of it (no soft singing), and he was generally effective without being exciting, though he rose to a really intense final scene, making of it the best moment of the entire afternoon. I thought the bass-baritonal Escamillo (Gabor Bretz) good though not exceptional, the Micaela (Ailyn Perez) very good.

This opera, of course, depends on the Carmen, and different singers bring different viewpoints and temperaments to the part. Quite honestly I could not tell from listening what Garanca's viewpoint is. She has a weighty, mature-sounding mezzo, and seems content most of the time to produce a stream of lush tone with minimal attempts to color or inflect it. Whatever she may have been doing physically on stage - and I gather that she's had several years of playing the part - not much intention or feeling comes across in the voice. It's interesting that when she was asked in the intermission interview what her thoughts were on the character, she said that she found Carmen basically mysterious. Well, that's hardly a basis for a characterization! I would suggest she think about coming up with a more specific conception, and then figure out how to make her voice convey it. Her physical beauty doesn't reach the ear.

I gather the production is visually strong, and the Met audience sounded very happy with what they saw and heard. In a way it's unfair to judge the musical effect alone, but that's all we get over the radio. Those who saw the HD transmission will no doubt have different impressions.

Originally Posted by Woodduck

Pluses and minuses for Carmen on radio, as usual. I was startled right off the bat by the frantic speed of the overture. Fortunately maestro Louis Langree got that out of his system quickly and conducted a pretty standard performance. His name indicates French ancestry, but no one in the cast was French, and accents and diction were variable. The performance did not feel French on the whole.

Jonas Kaufmann, unfortunately, was sick and couldn't appear. His replacement, Yonghoon Lee, has been making a name for himself in dramatic tenor roles. He has a strong, dark voice, if not the most elegant French style: his "Flower song" was pretty much what heavy voices usually make of it (no soft singing), and he was generally effective without being exciting, though he rose to a really intense final scene, making of it the best moment of the entire afternoon. I thought the bass-baritonal Escamillo (Gabor Bretz) good though not exceptional, the Micaela (Ailyn Perez) very good.

This opera, of course, depends on the Carmen, and different singers bring different viewpoints and temperaments to the part. Quite honestly I could not tell from listening what Garanca's viewpoint is. She has a weighty, mature-sounding mezzo, and seems content most of the time to produce a stream of lush tone with minimal attempts to color or inflect it. Whatever she may have been doing physically on stage - and I gather that she's had several years of playing the part - not much intention or feeling comes across in the voice. It's interesting that when she was asked in the intermission interview what her thoughts were on the character, she said that she found Carmen basically mysterious. Well, that's hardly a basis for a characterization! I would suggest she think about coming up with a more specific conception, and then figure out how to make her voice convey it. Her physical beauty doesn't reach the ear.

I gather the production is visually strong, and the Met audience sounded very happy with what they saw and heard. In a way it's unfair to judge the musical effect alone, but that's all we get over the radio. Those who saw the HD transmission will no doubt have different impressions.

I wish that we could get a future Met HD DVD for this but they already have the one with Alagna so unlikely.

La Donna del Lago tomorrow.

DiDonato and Florez

Anyone gonna listen?

Anyone listening?

It's been pretty good.