The Met Saturday Morning Broadcasts are back.....

12249 Views 348 Replies 25 Participants Last post by Itullian, 1 d ago

Itullian

Discussion Starter · 6 mo ago

Starting this Saturday at 10 pst, 1:00 est
Opening broadcast.....

December 10, 2022
Kevin Puts’ The Hours
New Production/Met Premiere
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Renée Fleming (Clarissa Vaughan), Kelli O’Hara (Laura Brown), Joyce DiDonato (Virginia Woolf), Kathleen Kim (Barbara / Mrs. Latch), Sylvia D’Eramo (Kitty / Vanessa), Denyce Graves (Sally), John Holiday (Man Under the Arch / Hotel Clerk), William Burden (Louis), Sean Panikkar (Leonard Woolf), Kyle Ketelsen (Richard), Brandon Cedel (Dan Brown)

Discuss them here

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Woodduck

· #321 · 13 d ago

MAS said:
It’s worse when you attend The Met in HD - they have the sound turned up so high that it triples your distress. It really seems that the singers have swallowed a microphone

It also give one an impression that the treble is turned all the way up.

I've never seen one of those HD affairs in a theater. A friend of mine in Boston likes to go to them, and he's never remarked upon the sound. I suppose theaters have a choice about how loud their screenings are.

MAS

· #322 · 13 d ago

Woodduck said:
I've never seen one of those HD affairs in a theater. A friend of mine in Boston likes to go to them, and he's never remarked upon the sound. I suppose theaters have a choice about how loud their screenings are.

I’ve been to some that had members of the audience insist that they turn it down. Considering that the average age of attendees is probably late 60s I’m surprised they could be disturbed by the volume, given that most of us could suffer from hearing problems.

I often think to myself that the singers must have one of those personal lapel mics, or they have really good directional mics at the Met!

Woodduck

· #323 · 13 d ago

I had mixed feelings about Donald G. today and only listened halfway through. That means I missed the part of the opera I really like - the spooky part - but I just got tired of the endless, formulaic recitatives, the too-close microphones (as MAS and I just mentioned), and an unglamorous cast.

Peter Mattei has a peculiar voice: it has a pleasant sound, but it doesn't seem powerful, brilliant, dark, sensual, or anything else exciting. His vibrato is extremely subtle, and he employs a lot of straight tone. The result is that he projects, vocally at least, none of the machismo or charisma Donnie needs to make him the semi-mythical center of the opera we've always thought he was. Apparently this Met offering is a "contemporary" production, very grim and gray, and I have no doubt that the point of it is to deglamorize old Don - to transform the traditional roguish libertine into a garden-variety rapist. "Unfortunately - or fortunately" (to quote an even more loathsome Donald in his recent self-convicting testimony) - it didn't work for me, since I couldn't watch but could only listen to Mozart's music, which is anything but grim and gray.

None of the other voices were especially interesting, although none were bad. Don's sidekick was OK but his voice wasn't flattered by the mic. Ana Maria Martinez was a manic and, apparently, funny Elvira (she sometimes rolled her Rs in a comical way), Federica Lombardi seemed a small-voiced but enthusiastic Anna, and Ben Bliss was a pleasant, generic Ottavio. When the Met does Mozart we tend to be spared most of the wobbles that now come packaged with Verdi, Wagner, Puccini and Strauss. But for my tastes Mozart isn't very rewarding unless the singing is A+ (you know, Pinza, Rethberg, Grummer, Schwarzkopf and the like). Good luck with that. It also helps to trim the recitatives back to an absolute minimum necessary to carry the plot. Sorry, Da Ponte! It was mentioned that today the recitatives were accompanied in part by a theorbo, which is a gigantic lute. Is that authentic for the late 1800s?

I should put in a good word for Nathalie Stutzmann, who gave me a tense, exciting overture that aroused greater expectations than the opera could fulfill.

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MAS

· #324 · 13 d ago

Like @Woodduck, I found the singing unexceptional, a collection of somewhat anonymous voices and, surprisingly, almost free of wobbles. And entirely free of glamor (to my ears). So that was a theorbo? It sounded like a piano continuo to me, but sometimes I’ve a hard time identifying instruments.

I missed part of act I (shower and morning ablutions) and act II (turned it off - see previous post re:sound).

Reactions: 2

Woodduck

· #325 · 13 d ago

MAS said:
Like @Woodduck, I found the singing unexceptional, a collection of somewhat anonymous voices and, surprisingly, almost free of wobbles. And entirely free of glamor (to my ears). So that was a theorbo? It sounded like a piano continuo to me, but sometimes I’ve a hard time identifying instruments.

I missed part of act I (shower and morning ablutions) and act II (turned it off - see previous post re:sound).

Consulting Wiki, I read that "In France, theorbos were appreciated and used in orchestral or chamber music until the second half of the 18th century. Court orchestras at Vienna, Bayreuth and Berlin still employed theorbo players after 1750." Don Giovanni premiered in Prague in 1787, so I guess a lute-type instrument could be authentic. Maybe Nathalie Stutzmann, with her Baroque music background, had a say in the decision to use it. Certainly there was a choice of continuo instruments in Mozart's day, including various keyboard instruments, and I see no reason not to choose freely now. Of course we could just eliminate the recitatives...

Reactions: 2

MAS

· #326 · 13 d ago (Edited)

I laugh (above), but the longueurs in Mozart operas are entirely due to the recitativi, in my view - they are necessary to move the plot along, sure, but they can be deadly if you don’t have a cast, or even one singer, who can’t say them with ease and meaning.

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Woodduck

· #327 · 13 d ago

MAS said:
I laugh (above), but the longueurs in Mozart operas are entirely due to the recitativi, in my view - they are necessary to move the plot along, sure, but they can be deadly if you don’t have a cast, or even one singer, who can’t say them with every and meaning.

My favorite Magic Flute for years was Klemperer's. Just the fantastic music, with some great singers. Hell, we know the plot.

Reactions: 2

Becca

· #328 · 13 d ago

Woodduck said:
My favorite Magic Flute for years was Klemperer's. Just the fantastic music, with some great singers. Hell, we know the plot.

I agree! As to DG, it is my least favourite of the Da Ponte operas so when I downloaded a recording, I edited out about 80% of the recitative.

FYI, least means it may get listened to about once every 10 years.

Reactions: 2

Woodduck

· #329 · 13 d ago

Becca said:
I agree! As to DG, it is my least favourite of the Da Ponte operas so when I downloaded a recording, I edited out about 80% of the recitative.

FYI, least means it may get listened to about once every 10 years.

That's about how often I return to it too.

Reactions: 1

hammeredklavier

· #330 · 13 d ago

MAS said:
the longueurs in Mozart operas are entirely due to the recitativi, in my view

What do you think of the recitatives in Cosi fan tutte directed by Sellars? (And also btw Don Alfonso's facial expressions?)

MAS

· #331 · 13 d ago

hammeredklavier said:
What do you think of the recitatives in Cosi fan tutte directed by Sellars? (And also btw Don Alfonso's facial expressions?)

Sorry, I detest Sellars! 😝

Reactions: 2

hammeredklavier

· #332 · 11 d ago

Woodduck said:
Ana Maria Martinez was a manic and, apparently, funny Elvira (she sometimes rolled her Rs in a comical way)

Was it her Spanish accent?

Woodduck

· #333 · 11 d ago

hammeredklavier said:
Was it her Spanish accent?

I'm sure being a Spanish-speaker helped her do it so well, but it was highly exaggerated and definitely meant as a comic effect. Elvira is a bit comical in her melodramatic personality, so I had no objection to it. And the opera does take place in Seville.

ewilkros

· #334 · 11 d ago

Woodduck said:
...Elvira is a bit comical in her melodramatic personality...

In the beloved old 1957 Met production by Eugene Berman and Herbert Graf, Elvira was to some extent a figure of fun. She made her entrance trailing a huge amount of baggage, a couple of little dogs and a parrot in a large cage, all under the charge of a half-dozen or so very put-upon servants. I believe she was originally meant to have been done, as before, by Eleanor Steber, in her Eleanor-has-planted-her-feet-and-means-business mode, but in the event Steber was Anna and the Elvira was Lisa della Casa, who did the role "straight"--Elvira doesn't know that she's a bit ridiculous, after all.

Reactions: 4

ColdGenius

· #335 · 11 d ago

hammeredklavier said:
Was it her Spanish accent?

She's from Puerto-Rico, as I know.

Itullian

Discussion Starter · #336 · 8 d ago

Next up......................
May 27, 2023
Terence Blanchard’s Champion
New Production/Met Premiere
Performance from April 29, 2023
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Ryan Speedo Green (Young Emile Griffith), Eric Owens (Emile Griffith), Latonia Moore (Emelda Griffith), Stephanie Blythe (Kathy Hagen), Paul Groves (Howie Albert), Eric Greene (Benny “Kid” Paret)

Uh oh

tsquare07

· #337 · 7 d ago

Some of the Youtube excerpts (of Champion) either sound like a musical or modern dissonant music. Or the singers seems to talk/shout more than sing. Why do everyone has to write that kind of music today? Where are the composers with beautiful melody like in the old times?

ColdGenius

· #338 · 7 d ago

tsquare07 said:
Where are the composers with beautiful melody like in the old times?

They are at the same place where the painters who worked like this are.

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Reactions: 5

Woodduck

· #339 · 7 d ago

Itullian said:
Next up......................
May 27, 2023
Terence Blanchard’s Champion
New Production/Met Premiere
Performance from April 29, 2023
Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Ryan Speedo Green (Young Emile Griffith), Eric Owens (Emile Griffith), Latonia Moore (Emelda Griffith), Stephanie Blythe (Kathy Hagen), Paul Groves (Howie Albert), Eric Greene (Benny “Kid” Paret)

Uh oh

We shall see at what game Mr. Blanchard is a champion. Is it, perchance, the one played by Messrs. Mozart, Wagner, Verdi and Puccini?

Lower those eyebrows, possums.

MAS

· #340 · 7 d ago

ColdGenius said:
They are at the same place where the painters who worked like this are.
View attachment 191033

That’s a gorgeous painting. Who is the artist, please?

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