Here I am again, with my little review of the Met's new production of L'Elisir D'Amore.
Soprano Anna Netrebko starred as Adina, a capricious but fickle village girl, although she is almost too much for the role now. Her voice has developed quite a lot, as well as her name, and many people think she should move onto heavier roles such as Puccini and Tchaikovsky.
American tenor Matthew Polenzani played the bumbling, lovable Nemorino, a young farmer who is in love with Adina. Polenzani's light, graceful voice was perfectly suited to the part, as well as his humorous but slightly stiff acting. He and Netrebko seemed very comfortable onstage with each other; they have performed together many times.
Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien sang the role of the proud Sergeant Belcore, who falls in love with Adina at first sight, but ends up losing her to Nemorino. Kwiecien's energy and action on stage are excellent, especially for his part. However, at the end of Act I, he took it a bit too far by beating up poor Nemorino for no apparent reason. Together, Kwiecien and Netrebko were a fabulous pair. I think this picture pretty much captures their relationship on stage:
Ambrogio Maestri appeared as the quack doctor Dulcamara, who will be happy to fix anything (after he himself has muddled it up in the first place). His solution to any problem is his famous Elixir, which can be used as anything from a love potion to a furniture polish. Maestri's portrayal of the doctor, in my opinion, did not fit the character. Dulcamara is supposed to be a witty, intelligent man who wants to get money for himself. Maestri portrayed him as being a sly, arrogant character who is out to get the better of other people. The costume also made him out to be extremely overweight.
The overall production was very dark in more ways than one. The designing team had turned it into a verismo* opera instead of a comedy. The acting was good, but there was always an edge to it.
The singing was excellent.
Adina's top hat was completely unnecessary and incredibly annoying, and Nemorino was certainly not supposed to be an educated poet. He is a gullible farm lad who doesn't know how to read or write. However, despite his sudden knowledge, I was very impressed with Polenzani's performance.
This production of L'Elisir D'Amore was very... interesting, and I'm not sure I like it or not. I am neutral in most ways. Now I am curious to see what the Met will come up with next!
* verismo - style of Italian opera popularized by composers such as Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni and Leoncavallo. Centers on realistic, often depressing, depictions of everyday life, instead of the more fanciful earlier operas like Die Zauberflöte or Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Buon anno, amici! (Happy New Year, friends - your new Italian phrase of the week)
I'm sorry I haven't posted anything on here in months, and I guess I have no excuse...
Anyway, I promised that I would keep you informed about our grand opera adventure in Europe this fall, and I'll start now. It was just my mom, her parents and me - no brothers or sisters this time.
The first place we visited was Vienna, Austria, the city of music. We toured the treasury of the Hofburg palace, home to the Hapsburg royal family; and traipsed around the Schönbrunn Palace, their summer home. Marie Antoinette grew up at the Schönbrunn. Just looking at the extensive grounds and extravagant palace, it's easy to see why she created Versailles after she married Louis XVI.
Overlooking the Schönbrunn Palace
We also took a boat tour of some random river outside of Vienna. There is a piece of classical music named after it... what was its name? (I'm teasing you, aren't I?) Oh right - the Beautiful Green Danube! Wait... what do you mean, it isn't green! Of course it's green! No matter what Johann Strauss called his famous waltz, the Danube river is actually green.
A neat castle on the banks of the "Beautiful Green Danube"
This is a photo I took on the boat. It was incredibly hot that day, and the boat was packed full of people.We had to stand up the whole way, but the Danube was nice. Some of these castles are older than you'd think - at one point, we saw the ruins of a castle where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned in the year 1192
We also toured the Vienna Staatsoper, and even though we did not get to see an actual performance, we did get to see some of the rooms that are normally closed off. The German word Staatsoper pretty much means "state opera". The picture below shows the opera house from the side, with a fountain in the center. The arched walkway to the far right runs past the front entrance and the box office.
Vienna Staatsoper
Although we did not get to see an opera at the Staatsoper, we did get to see one at the Vienna Volksoper! (Literally "the people's opera".) This was my first opera in a real theater, not the school auditorium from Die Zauberflöte rehearsals. Well, okay, Franz Lehar's Die Lustige Witwe is an operetta, not a true opera.
The difference is that an operetta is shorter, often in German, and an opera is longer, mainly in Italian, French or German. The main difference is the dialogue - in an opera, the performers speak in a sort of musical tone, with the orchestra or a harpsichord accompanying them. In an operetta, the singers just talk, with no background accompaniment. Operas are mostly about the music, and operettas are mostly about the dialogue, with hit tunes in between spoken lines.
Okay, you don't want to hear me blather on all day about operas and operettas, so back to Die Lustige Witwe. All the singers were local, and they did a fantastic job. The soprano playing the character of Hanna Glawari (GLAH-vah-ree) had a powerful voice with a metallic quality. When she sang her show-stopping aria, the Vilja Lied, it took my breath away; she did such a wonderful job.
Above is a link to my favorite recording of this aria, with Kathleen Battle singing. It has quite a beautiful melody to it, about one minute through the piece. The aria itself is about a woodmaiden, in other words, a fairy, named Vilja. One day a young hunter sees her and falls head-over-heels in love. They end up kissing passionately. However, Vilja is not an earthly being, so she disappears immediately after the kiss. The hunter is left begging her to come back and be his true love.
This is not part of the operetta's plot; Hanna Glawari sings it at a party as a folk song.
Well, this concludes part 1 of my Europe Adventure posts. Next up is Prague, one of my favorite cities we visited. We saw an opera there as well. A last thing I want to mention is that all of the photos I am posting from Europe are my own.
One piece of opera news - the Metropolitan Opera's new production of L'Elisir D'Amore is going to be on TV tomorrow night at 9 pm. Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani are starring as the two lovers. I will certainly be watching, and I promise to write about it!
Hello again, everyone!
I have no opera news to report today.
Just for fun, I decided to post a photo of my beautiful violin, which I enjoy playing opera arias on.
My favorites to play are Com'e Gentil (from L'Elisir D'Amore), Porgi Amor (from Le Nozze di Figaro), and Fairest Isle (from Purcell's King Arthur).
I am preparing to leave on the journey of my dreams... I am going to Europe in two weeks!!!
I am going to visit Prague, Vienna, Paris and Italy - to see opera, of course! I will keep you posted about this.
Arrivederci (goodbye) for now!
Hello, everyone!
I told you I had some exciting news. In addition to The Impresario's Dilemma, the HPAF is performing Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Guess what? I'm the Assistant Stage Manager!
So far this job is pretty neat. I am in charge of props, sets, and singers. I let the singers know when their scene is coming up. I tell the set movers when to change the set. I also run around like crazy backstage, hissing things like "where's the rope? Who has the portrait? Hey! Where did Papageno go?" I also get to hang out with the opera singers. That's my favorite part.
I think that Rick, the Stage Manager, is getting kind of frantic - it's less than a week to the performance now, and a lot of the singers still have their noses buried in their books. We are still blocking out the whole thing - telling the singers where to move when they are onstage, which side to come on from, when to pick up the pillow, etc. I have to write all that down just in case Rick forgets what he said.
One more thing - I have a new poll over to the left of this post. See if you can figure out which opera is my new favorite before the poll closes!
Buon Giorno!
I haven't written anything in a LONG time, but I just got back from an opera and wanted to tell you about it. The Hawaii Performing Arts Festival is active every year in July. They do concerts and opera performances at the HPA theater and chapel. The performance I saw was called "The Impresario's Dilemma." It was a collection of pieces from all sorts of operas and composers, from Handel to Puccini, and it was loosely based on a Mozart opera called "The Impresario."
The plot was very basic: an impresario (a person who organizes performances for an opera theater) is looking for the perfect diva to sing in their opera. Seven ladies arrive to audition. They start getting catty (pardon the pun), and break into Rossini's Cat Duet, arranged for seven voices. The impresario calls the divas up one at a time to audition. The first soprano sings a Handel aria. As she starts to sing the second half, the impresario loudly says "thank you," and the soprano stalks indignantly offstage. During another soprano's aria, she starts flirting with the impresario's assistant. She steals his watch and runs away.
After every diva has auditioned, the impresario makes his decision. "All of you have done well," he tells the divas, "and so you will all be in the opera!" The divas gasp. Who will get the lead role? The assistant hands them their parts. The singers look at the music and discover... that they are in the chorus!!! The opera ends with the divas chasing the impresario offstage and hitting them with their chorus music.
I was very impressed with the whole performance. The music was well-chosen, and the opera singers are all extremely talented. I will write again soon with some more exciting news!
P.S: Here is my favorite version of Rossini's Cat Duet. All they sing is "meow."
Hello, opera fans!
I haven't posted anything in a while, but I'm back again with yet another opera to tell you about.
Angela Meade as Elvira
On February 25th, I went with my mom and grandfather to a live broadcast of Verdi's Ernani. With tenor Marcello Giordani and soprano Angela Meade in the leading roles, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferrucio Furlanetto co-starring, I think I can say that this opera had an excellent cast. Even if the plot was a little weird (in one scene, the tenor (Ernani) is singing about how he absolutely refuses to leave the room - and then he turns and walks out!), the whole production was very well done. The sets were elaborate and hard to move around - they would come apart in pieces, and people would have to drag them offstage. The costumes were beautiful and detailed, setting a mood for each character.
Marcello Giordani as Ernani
Ferruccio Furlanetto as di Silva
Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Don Carlo
Some of my favorites were Elvira's blue and white gown (pictured), Don Carlo's red and gold outfit, complete with a cape (I want that cape!), and di Silva's golden jewelry against his black robes.
The music was amazing, as well as the singing and the acting.
Here are some musical highlights to look for:
Elvira's first cabaletta aria from Act I(Tutto sprezzo che d'Ernani)
The trio from Act I (Non t'ascolto mia sarai)
The chorus from Act III (Si, ridesti il leon di castiglia)
These are some of my favorite pieces from Ernani, but there are so many more!
I couldn't list them all, but I would reccomend this opera for serious opera fans. It is a heavier opera (four hours long), and the plot is a little hard to follow, so I wouldn't suggest it for beginning opera-goers. If you decide to try it out, I would also suggest getting a more recent production (they tend to be well-lit and full of acting). This was a very good production of Ernani, and I loved it! (Is there any opera I don't love?)
Hello once again, fellow opera fans!
It is 7:00 in the evening, and I have just gotten back from a three-hour performance of The Enchanted Island. It was sold out in the theater, and we got last-minute seats, but it was worth it!!!
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato leads the cast as Sycorax, a sorceress, with baritone Luca Pisaroni playing her son Caliban, who is a monster on the outside but is really a sweet, lovable, touching character. Countertenor David Daniels is the gruff old magician, Prospero, who wishes only to create peace and harmony but instead wreaks chaos, confusion, and grief on all around him. Lisette Oropesa plays the beautiful, mislead Miranda, daughter of Prospero. Known as the King of Tenors, Placido Domingo shines once more as Neptune, god of the sea. Danielle de Niese steals the show as the mischievous sprite Ariel, bringing life and color to her role.
A small but talented orchestra, led by conductor William Christie, accompanies the singers in their difficult roles. (I must say that the orchestra has as much of a difficult part as the singers!)
The cast was about as incredible as any cast gets, but what really made this production special was the intricate scenery and the many amazing special effects projected onto the background (waves rolling, leaves falling, etc.)
If you get a chance to see this production, whether it's at home on TV, in a movie theater, or even at the Met itself, I highly recommend that you try out this new opera.
If you want to get a taste of The Enchanted Island, check out these videos:
