Plácido Domingo in a very short skirt. And lovely melodies. I'm a happy girl.
I already have it on CD .. but the thought of seeing the Domingo knees makes this very tempting.
Plácido Domingo in a very short skirt . And lovely melodies. I'm a happy girl.
I'm really enjoying this, and I think the music is rather charming, perfect for a pastoral story. Charles Castronovo is not only gorgeous looking, he sounds wonderful, slightly baritonal but a ringing top, my idea of bliss actually. Inva Mula sings beautifully (but I have to disagree about her French, the vowel sounds are good but the consonants are shocking, eg "je" as "che", I'm finding it irritating. I'm a bit obsessive about good French accents). It's an attractive naturalistic production evoking the feeling of rural Provence.
Let's be quite honest: this is the best imaginable performance of an almost completely uninteresting opera! It's difficult to comprehend that Gounod, whose Faust is so full of memorable melodies, composed also this one. There is nothing above "agreeable" music for two hours. Everything musically exciting happens in the last act, like the arias "En marche, en marche!" and "Ange du Paradies". But one has to admit that the production tries its best from the beginning. The staging is quite charming with its countryside feeling.
I won't even bother to explain the plot. It's not from anyone's top drawer.
Everything is conducted by Marc Minkowski, no less. Inva Mula sings admirably as the eponymous heroine, in the biggest role I have heard her. Her French is also better than Mirella Freni's, whom I have heard in an audio recording of Mireille. Freni wins in the more dramatic moments, though! The tenor Charles Castronovo is a positive surprise! I don't remember having heard him before, but he has a fine voice and happens to be good-looking, I suppose. We have to ask mamascarlatti! Actually, there are no weak links among the singers. I would like to mention Amel-Brahim Djelloul, who is a little charmer and should make it to the Loveliest Sopranos pages!
All in all, this is a good performance and you might like the opera more than I did.
Is this worth considering for my $100 mini-spending spree? (See my thread about it in the main opera forum).
Before this, if anyone had asked me to name any other opera composed by Halévy besides La Juive, I wouldn't have known any. It turns out that he composed about 40! Maria Malibran sang the title role in the premiere of Clari and Cecilia Bartoli completed her Malibran project with this opera. Halévy composed it for the Théâtre-Italien de Paris, so it's in Italian, but since most of his output is in French and I think we consider him as a French composer, I decided - after consulting jhar26 - to put in in this thread.
Clari could be designated as an opera semiseria, but since the melodramatic aspects are so unconvincing, I like the way it's presented here: as almost completely comic, and over-the-top at that! I have no idea where the opera was originally located, but in this production from the Zürich Opera House, the location is clearly Switzerland. Apparently, the Swiss are able to and do laugh to themselves!
Clari, a country-girl, and a rich Duke find each other through an Internet dating service! They decide to meet and Clari arrives to the castle of the Duke, where a birthday party for her has been prepared. This includes a musical tableau that seems to be telling their story exactly. When the "father" curses her daughter, this is too much for Clari, who has left home without her parents' consent, and she faints. Recovering her senses, she begs for her father's forgivenness and rejects the advances of the Duke. The Duke is furious for this dishonour in front of his friends. In the next act Clari has been taken to a hospital, where she attempts suicide in her despair of having lost the man she still loves. In spite of the huge syringe she uses, she only succeeds in becoming delirious enough to burst into singing the Willow Song from Rossini's Othello (like Malibran did, we are told in the booklet) and you will be amazed how well it fits in here! Clari manages to escape from the hospital, when the servant of the Duke supposed to keep an eye on her, falls asleep. When the duke arrives, all remorse and burning desire, there is no sign of Clari. In the third act the Duke is searching for his loved one. Clari has returned home, but fearing his father's anger, hesitates to enter. His father, in his own despair, is about to hang himself and Clari has to expose herself, the Duke appearing soon after. Everything ends happily, but not until Clari has sung another insert aria, this time from another opera by Halévy, La Tempesta (Shakespeare! I wonder, when we will get to see that). Bartoli explains that in the original libretto there was text for an aria at this point, but no music for it in the orchestral score. So they chose this magnificent coloratura piece.
Halévy had clearly heard his Rossini and the music is strongly influenced by this, but there is a budding style of his own, too. The orchestra La Scintilla uses original instruments, conducted by Adam Fischer. Cecilia Bartoli has clearly learned to control her facial antics and sings impressively. John Osborn as the Duke is mostly good enough, but has his awkward high note or two. The character of the Duke, with his makeup and clothes, looks like a type most women would think more than twice to fall for - probably part of the comedy. The secondary couple, servants of the Duke, Eva Liebau and Oliver Widmer, are really first-class comedians and sing very well, too. Clari's parents, Carlos Chausson and Stefania Kaluza, are good as well.
There it is, not an essential part of the operatic repertoire, but great fun all the same!
P.S. What has Cecilia done with her masses of dark hair?
Plácido Domingo in a very short skirt. And lovely melodies. I'm a happy girl.
Well, first of all he wasn't 70 then, he was 40. I saw him several time live in the 80s (including in the short skirt) and he was gorgeous, very charismatic.Do you really like 70 years old guys? LOL He's 70 now.PHP:Plácido Domingo in a very short skirt. And lovely melodies. I'm a happy girl.
Martin
Berlioz and Meyerbeer were very different. They were rivals, and composed in very opposite ways. With Meyerbeer you get overblown Grand Opéra with lavish scenarios, ballets, and ornamented ordinary music. With Berlioz you get precision, delicacy, elegance, and the just measure for everything. I don't know how someone can find Berlioz boring, since his operas are never longer than they should be; there aren't any dead moments. Les Troyens is long because it's a long story arc, but his other three are around 2 hours each, and there isn't any time wasted. By the way, Berlioz's non-operatic works are just as good.Meyerbeer and Berlioz are not my cup of tea....I don't like Meyerbeer I find Berlioz boring...
I know...I am special...maybe mentally challenged....
Why so many people love them and I do not?
Martin, a bit worried.
It depends on the sentence. In MY sentence it makes sense:Meyerbeer was a mediocre crowd-pleaser. Berlioz was a genius. They shouldn't even be in the same sentence.
But it's far more interesting to debate judgements like Alma's than just enumerate our likes or dislikes, because frankly who cares whether you like te Kanawa or I like Pavarotti, for instance. But if I say something like "Pavarotti's singing sounds monochrome and he's a spectacularly lousy actor because when he's performing he always looks as though he's planning the next meal" I can get a few people all riled up and they can wade in to defend him:devil:Almaviva....Judgmental
It depends on the sentence. In MY sentence it makes sense:
I don't like Meyerbeer, I don't like Berlioz, I don't like Stalin, I don't like Kiri Tekanawa, I don't like pizza, I don't like Palestrina. (subject: things and people I don't like).
You are to serious, my friend, relax!
Martin
Not as profoundly bored as me. You've already said that one.Speaking about French opera:
"Je me fâcherai si je ne préférais rire", Manon, first act, Massenet.
Martin, bored.
Not as profoundly bored as me. You've already said that one.
I've just started getting to know it really well - ....in French of course, also my second mother tongue... That's why I particularly like Natalie Dessay in this part, her diction is so exemplary. But by heart, no.Do you know this opera? I know this opera almost by heart....in French of course, my second mother tongue...