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A Fat Lady Sings

It Ain’t Just Singing

Opera and classical music differ from other musical genres in that many recorded renditions of works exist in formats from vinyl to CD to MP3 and DVD. Most of us own one version of the music we like.  When it comes to contemporary music, one Beatles “White Album”  is enough.  For the serious opera lover, however, one version of a work is simply not enough.  Why ... because every performance and recording is unique, it may be the same score and lyrics but the blending of venue, orchestra, conductor, and singers bring “color and hue” to performance, sometimes with spectacular results.

Operatic singing is so much more than making a pleasing sound with the voice.  One can certainly appreciate “good singing” in any performance.  To fill a an enormous theater with the sound of the unamplified human voice is an extraordinary talent.  To bring complexity and emotion to a performance at the same time is truly a gift.  The same is true with the other factors in particular the conductor.  While it can appear that the conductor is simply moving the music forward, in truth it is the conductor that determines the entire “mood” of the listening experience, working in essence at a “meta level” with flow and nuance.  For those of us with the untrained ear this goes unnoticed, there is just too much information coming at us to perceive things.  Listening to different performances helps but I still find it hard.  In the end if you like a performance then the conductor did his job right I suppose.

Last opera season I had the good fortune to see Verdi’s Macbeth at Seattle Opera.  It was a marvelous production that left me wanting more so I went again a couple of days later.  Several primary cast members were different in the second performance (Silver Cast), in particular Lady Macbeth.  In the first production Andrea Gruber played Lady Macbeth, the second Elena Zelenskaya.  Ms Gruber was Lady Macbeth with a psychotic edge.  Her singing and acting reflected the crazy emotional and mental state of this key character.  Ms Zelenskaya played her, for lack of better description straight, there was little sense of the madness that envelopes her as the story moves.  Her singing was very good, solid, pleasant, but it lacked that edge that added another, and perhaps proper, dimension to the character.  This experience was a breakthrough for me.  Here was a clear example of how two very different interpretations and performances can affect the feel of an entire opera.

Unfortunately one only sees live performances a handful of times in a year thus the recorded medium becomes our ongoing opera connection.  For the fledgling opera lover like me the clean sound of contemporary studio recordings often are the ones I’m drawn to first.  They are pleasing to the ear and often become the “standard”  by which we evaluate all other versions.

With the advent of modern digital recording technologies we find many older releases restored and remastered.  In moving in this direction you depart from the “pristine” sound of modern recordings to a much rougher sound, particularly with live recordings, where the sounds of stage movements, audience, and uneven vocal volume of singers are all part of the mix.  For the new listener this can be a distraction and a temptation to dismiss such records.  But it is here that on occasion one finds a “musical gem”  that rewards the patient and discerning listener’s ear.  Not only does one sometimes get to hear an extraordinary singing performance but in the bigger picture finds a new dimension to a character and connection to the opera. 

An example: In preparation for an upcoming performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni I have been listening to this 1959 recording featuring some major opera heavyweights in their prime including Joan Sutherland, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Luigi Alva among others.  It is perhaps the standard to measure others by, it is that good.  How fortunate I am to have an opera mentor and friend, Gregory, who seems to have every known recording of opera ever made to draw upon.  After a number of weeks of listening to the above version he loans me the fabulous 1956 recording featuring the likes of Cesare Siepi, Fernando Corena, Lisa Della Casa, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos among other notables of the era.  It is live mono recording with stage noise, audience applause and all but, what a performace of this popular opera, wow!  Listen to Leopold Simoneau’s singing of ‘Dalla sua pace’ at the end of Act 1 Scene III.  Listen to the same aria by Luigi Alva on the Sutherland recording; very fine also but different.  It can be a subtle thing that I can’t quite find the proper words to describe, perhaps you get the idea.

Of course, not everyone is as lucky as me to have a ready supply of opera recordings at my beckon call but a visit to the local library may be a worthwhile adventure to explore other versions of a favorite opera.  Snooping around on Amazon.com can be very helpful as well since there are plenty of music samples to preview.  A little experimentation and venturing beyond the usuals has its rewards for those truly interested in learning more about this rich musical form.

Its December So It Must Be…

No, not Christmas, solstice, Hanukkah, New Years.. its the start of the Metropolitan Opera Broadcast season. Although the Met’s season is well underway the Saturday matinee (10:30 PST) broadcasts start in mid-December and run to the end of the season in the first week of May. The Met broadcasts have been bringing world class opera to opera fans for 75 years.  While the broadcast brings outstanding opera to a listening audience who may never get a chance to see the productions live, for many it is the intermissions that are truly the most valuable and enlightening, particularly for an opera novice like me.  Regardless of the topic or feature I always seem to learn something new or expand my understanding and appreciation of this fabulous art form. 

The first opera of the broadcast season was Rigoletto featuring Anna Netrebko as Gilda.  Ms Netrebko is a risng star and a welcome departure from the “big soprano” we have come to associate with opera divas.  I was anxious to hear her in this role since I’d seen the opera twice at Seattle Opera and was very familiar with it.  While I was not disappointed I have to say that the Seattle production was just as good if not better in many respects.  Ms Netrebko’s singing at the end of Act 1 of Gualtier Malde…Caro nome (Real Media) was very good demonstrating she can do coloratura with the best of them.  My favorite section Ancor Ce Mezz’ora near the end of Act 3 was fair, much better in Seattle but my perception is a bit skewed since I learned the opera listening to the spectacular Sutherland, Pavarotti, Milnes, LSO, Bonynge recording.

The Met broadcast is perfect backdrop for working around the house on a Saturday morning.  You will note in the photo I’m still in my bathrobe, headphones on,  busily baking prosfora.  One down, twenty one to go!

Great Endings

There is something about a great ending that regardless of what has gone on before brings a feeling of elation and fulfillment that leaves one wanting more, to do it all over again. By “great ending” I mean an ending that somehow adds to one’s understanding and appreciation of an event or performance.  A “great ending”  need not make one feel “good” or tie-up all the loose ends, that’s the easy way out.  A “great ending” provokes, it stirs, it moves us to a new level of awareness, perhaps allowing us to see things in a new light.

This notion was brought home so clearly this past week by two very different theatrical events. The first is Wagner’s monumental work the “Ring des Nibelungen”, four operas: Das Rheingold , Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung staged over a one week period. I had the great pleasure of seeing the Seattle Opera’s production last week. For seventeen hours over four nights I was drawn into Wagner’s mythic world that explores as no other opera work before it, the depths of the human psyche via words and music. It is an outlandishly twisted tale that draws from both Germanic/Norse mythology, the politics of the mid-19th century, and the influential philosophies of the time.  With three of the four operas at five or more hours at times it is an endurance contest, with moments of frustration and impatience when one thinks ..“why can’t he (Wagner) just got on with it!” after taking 30 minutes to have two characters express their love for each other and embrace. Yet, the very next minute Wagner will hook you and draw you back in with a expressive melodic line or leitmotif (see and a hear), it is pure genius.  People literally come from all over the world to see these productions, many avid Wagner lovers who have seen the Ring Cycle many times over (if you think a normal opera crowd is old, you should see a Ring crowd!).  Just being in that kind of committed crowd is enjoyable in itself.  Of course there a a few who take things a bit far and strut around during intermissions wearing a viking helmet but generally speaking it is a very serious enthusiastic crowd.

Back to the idea of a “great ending”.. in the last of the four operas, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the final scene in Stephen Wadworth’s Seattle production was breathtaking. The “ring” (the object of everyone’s obscession) has been returned to the Rhinemaidens and order has been restored but the rein of the"gods” has come to an end and Valhalla goes up in flames.  The scene was simply stunning, it left me thinking (in spite of the fact that we sprinted out the door to catch of ferry) “wow, the time and expense ($110/seat/night!) were all worthwhile, this was something really special to be a part of”. 

As I usually do before any opera, I try to listen to the music ahead of time. I’ve been working on the Ring for months. One doesn’t go through 17 hours of music easily.  Wagnerian opera does not make good background music around the house in ways that operas of Mozart, Puccini or Verdi do.  I had a hard time connecting with it quite honestly, as I do with most of Wagner’s operas before I see them.  I listened to Scenes 2 and 3 from Das Rheingold the other day and heard it in a whole new light…it was marvelous.  There is so much going on in these operas that a small foothold helps bring things into focus.  If you asked me after the third opera, Seigfried, if I’d go again the answer would have been NO, now, I’d pony up the big bucks without question…. “great endings” have the power to do that.

Now to the second “great ending”. I have been a longtime fan of the HBO show “Six Feet Under”. Created by Alan Ball, the Academy Award winning writer of “American Beauty”, the show takes a “darkly comic look at life and death from the perspective of a dysfunctional family that owns and operates an independent funeral home in California”. From the fabulous opening theme music and credits ,created by a Seattle company Digital Kitchen, to the dark and off-beat story lines it is great television in my view.  I highly recommend renting the first season, it comes on four episode DVDs. As with many programs, I think the first season was the best and most inventive.

At any rate.. I just happened to catch the show’s last episode the other night and the last 15 minutes was one of those “great endings”. In the imagination/daydream of one of the characters, Claire, as she drives off “into the sunset” are death scenes of each of the show’s characters.  Now if you aren’t familiar with the program you are probably thinking “what? how morbid!”, but every episode of the series starts with a death in a short one minute or so vignette.  Remember, the program is centered around the funeral business. The eventual funeral of that person becomes a minor background theme for the episode, it is very clever.  Getting back to what I said at the top, I was left with a feeling of satisfaction, that what I had enjoyed about this inventive program was confirmed by the well done finale.

As they say at the opera… “Bravo!”

The Ring family tree
Great Ring des Nibelungen resource
Six Feet Under at HBO

Danger: Slow Moving Seniors

An opera audience is a unique group.  At 51 I feel like the kid in the crowd with much of the audience made up of seniors.  Moving around the opera house can be a real challenge, it’s a senior minefield!  Dodging slow moving seniors is a little known skill required of the “young” opera goer that you won’t read about in the promotional literature or opera magazines. Getting to your seat, heading to the bathroom at intermission, leaving the building to catch a late night ferry home is frought with danger.  Being tall and usually quick to move from place to place, I’m not one to be looking down at what lies ahead… I just go.  At the opera such behavior can result in disaster. Slow and steady, scanning the carpeted terrain below is a must.  How horrible the thought of trampling someone’s grandmother or grandfather! 

All joking aside, how nice it is to see older couples all dressed up for the evening,
Original production 1881
L’Opéra-Comique many I’m sure having spent many an evening over the years at the opera.  For me a rookie after two full seasons, every opera is a new experience.  For these veterans a lifetime of opera must bring a different focus to the evening.  I can only use my opera mentor, Gregory as a model.  After 30 or so years of serious opera going he has seen many operas multiple times.  His understanding and grasp of opera is astounding making our intermission debriefings and discussions very meaningful.  This past week’s performance of “Tales of Hoffman” (Les contes d’Hoffmann) by Offenbach is a case in point, I believe he has seen it three times.  A little background I learned: Offenbach died before the opera was finished in 1880.  Consequently it has been the subject of many variations over the years.  Apparently no two stagings are ever alike; music is added, acts omitted or rearranged, dialog added and so on. There are four women (subject to variation as well) in the opera who are the object of Hoffman’s obsession.  Historically some productions have one woman singing all four roles, a major undertaking since they are all very different in range and style.  The great Joan Sutherland was one of the few in recent history capable of handling such a daunting task and performed the opera in Seattle in 1970 (read a review of her Met performance 1973). Beverly Sills was another known for brilliantly handling these parts.

One of the marvelous things about opera is its rich history and the role that every new production and performance has in shaping that history.  As our experience grows as opera lovers ( I guess I can say that about myself now) we too shape the history of this unique art form.  If not for the patronage (and generous financial support I might add) of the many loyal and aged fans of opera there would be no opera for us youngsters to attend!  I just hope the next generation of young opera goers (ya know the 40 years olds) will keep any eye out for me when I’m shuffling around the opera house!

 

A Second Hearing

If you are new to opera or even if you are an opera veteran the NY Metropolitan Opera’s weekly radio broadcast offers the opportunity to hear some of the best singers in the world perform and also the chance to learn a few things about opera. The Met has been broadcasting opera since 1931 and now reaches an international audience in some 40 countries.  This past weekend’s broadcast was Puccini’s “La Boheme” .  La Boheme was the my first opera experience seen at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY.  I wasn’t bowled over by the opera, not because the performances were bad but for reasons I’ll address shortly.  I was pleased to hear this popular opera again now that I have a few years of opera under my belt.  Although listening to opera on the radio on a Saturday morning while working around the house is not the best circumstance to evaluate a performance, it was quite enjoyable and left me wanting to see the opera live again.  José Luis Duval as Rodolfo was terrific in his performance of “Che Gelida Manina”  in Act 1.  Hear this well known aria performed by tenor Jussi Bjorling 1936 {Mp3}. 

One of the best features of the Met Broadcast are the intermissions.  Every intermission has some educational component that may or may not relate to the current production.  Usually there is panel of experts that discuss the topic and share their broad range of opera knowledge.  Recently (Feb 12) there was an discussion of opera with director Martin Scorsese and Howard Shore, composer of “Lord of the Rings” soundtrack.  This week there was a behind the scenes series with fascinating interviews of the production staff of electricians, carpenters and others telling about their respective rolls and the logistics of staging operas at the Met.  Since the Met is a reporatory company several operas are in production at the same time.  On Saturday, for instance, La Boheme was the matinee performance and Verdi’s Nabucco the evening. 

The longstanding “Opera Quiz” is the main intermission feature.  Here the panel (which varies every week) attempts to answer questions sent in by listeners.  On Feb 12 there was a great answer by British conductor Mark Elder in response to a question from a teenager about how to get friends interested in opera.  The jist of what he said was that it is critical that new opera goers sit as close as possible to the “source of the sound”, as he put it, in order to fully connect the music with the emotional component of opera.  Sitting far away from the stage for a novice makes it difficult to make a connection with the interplay of music and theatrical elements.  He also went on to say how important it was for the singers to be able to bring the opera alive with performances that help the audience make this connection. to draw them into the “emotional world” of the opera. 

His comments made perfect sense to me and jibbed with my own experience.  Our seats at Seattle Opera are fourth row gallery on the left side (they are very reasonably priced).  Although we are on the side, we’re very close to the stage.  We can see facial expressions and of course can hear well. I’ve sat farther back in the house a number of times and find closer to be much better.  The only downside is one has to work harder to see the supertitles since they are high about the stage ( the very expensive seats just to the right of us in the center section have the same problem).  During my recent trip to Greece a friend went with Sue and sat in our seats and she said it made a world of difference for her.  In the past she had only sat in the far back and had a hard time engaging with the operas she has seen.  My experience at Glimmerglass suddenly made sense.  Glimmerglass is a unique house in that is partially open air although it is a covered structure.  The day I saw La Boheme it was cool and wet and I was actually cold during the performance which was very distracting.  We also sat on the far side near the back leaving me very much out of touch with the singers.  My advice to the beginner: sit as close as you can afford.  Try getting tickets on the front sides they are more affordable than the center sections. 

BBC archive of Met Quiz and intermission features mentioned above

Met Opera Broadcast Website