Reviews

Jeemee and his Clemenza clan need seek no mercy from the NYC Opera Fanatic. When all we can gripe about is the preciousness of the Servillia, all is right in Gotham’s opera world (for 24 hours anyway). [more . . . ]

Either you like those 17th & 18th gender-bending comedies or you don’t. The NYC Opera Fanatic does, suprising since Cherubino and Octavian give me the creeps. I guess I can handle a babe in breeches, if she doesn’t sing…. and if she’s played by the very under-rated Martha Plimpton. [more . . . ]

Aprile Millo: A Recital with Eugene Kohn

U know, I’m not sure I’ve ever even listened to this live recording of a 1986 Aprile Millo recital. Wow. As I’ve been told, young Millo really DID sound a lot like Renata Tebaldi (although with hindsight, perhaps it is disconcerting to hear such a mature tone in one so young). Her program is wide-ranging (Baroque to Strauss) and challenging for an artist of any age, much less one just starting out. Millo delivers the goods (Brava!). Pianest Eugene Kohn deserves special mention (and just got it from me).

• Favorite track: the Song to the Moon from Rusalka (but the Italian songs and arias are all outstanding).
• Most Interesting: “Morgen” by Richard Strauss.
• Clunker: None

Aprile Millo, A Recital with Eugene Kohn. Aprile Millo, soprano. Eugene Kohn, piano. Live Recording: (location? NYC?) Sept 14, 1986.Legato LCD-126-1. 1CD.

In contrast to this season’s disturbingly dark Le Nozze di Figaro, the Met now presents a brilliantly sunny La Boheme. It’s all as perverse as the freakish un-February-like weather Gotham is currently experiencing. Neither a sunny day or a sunny Boheme gets much complaint from this fanatic. [more . . . ]

Karita Mattila’s Katya Kabanova is an even greater achievement than her already-legendary Salome last season! [more . . . ]

La Rondine: the only Puccini opera you’ll ever need!

Yes, amici, Puccini’s 1917 opera La Rondine is one-stop schmaltz: Puccini mixes tunes from his previous operas with a waltz beat (and somehow manages to foreshadow an opera not yet composed) in his attempt to create Viennese operetta, albeit with a south-of-the-Dolomites twang. Who needs the ubiquitous Boheme when one can have “Puccini’s Greatest Hits Performed On The Wurlitzer (complete with offstage solo for soprano at dawn!)”? la Rondine is gooey, cliched, and old-fashioned…. [more . . . ]

My, o my, o my-o, I’m glad that they left Ohio. On Thursday night, the Cleveland Orchestra, led by uber-maestro Pierre Boulez, served up Mahler’s “Adagio” from Symphony No 10. in F. Sharp Major and, of more interest to this opera fanatic, Act II from Parsifal with soloists Michelle DeYoung, Thomas Moser, and Eike Wilm Schulte. [more . . . ]

This performance was the NYC Opera Fanatic’s debut at the venerable Academy of Music (the home for Opera Philly performances). I love Philadelphia - there was so much yummy man-flesh walking around that I just presumed they all turned up for my debut. What nice boys, I thought. Only later, did someone clue me: I went to Philly for the opera, everyone else was there for a circuit party! It’s a lovely day to auto-de-fe some go-go boys, don’t ya think? [more . . . ]

Here’s a brief re-cap of Boris Godunov @ the Met:

Acts I & II: plodding
Act III: lethargic
Act IV: inert [more . . . ]

Such opera movers & shakers as Joe Volpe, Placido Domingo, and, of course, the NYC Opera Fanatic were drawn by destiny to Carnegie Hall for Robert Bass and the Collegiate Chorale’s concert performance of Verdi’s la Forza del Destino. While it was bitterly cold outside, inside Stern Auditorium was white-hot as Maria Guleghina, Salvatore Licitra, and others gave the most viscerally exciting Verdi performance that this town has seen in a long time. [more . . . ]

Susan Graham is the Mitzi Gaynor of Opera: she’s a pretty, perky, all-singing, all-dancing, all-American bundle of sincerity. But does Nellie Forbush a merry widow make? Hmmmm…. [more . . . ]

Only an Opera Orchestra of New York tune-fest could bring the opera fanatics out on a wintry, snowy, slushy, rainy, just plain gross evening in Manhattan. Considering tonight’s “Channel” weather, perhaps it’s appropriate that the OONY tune-fest was none other than Donizetti’s 1830 opera Anna Bolena. As this opera fanatic waded through rain, sleet, snow & hail, I commented to a friend that tonight’s Anna Bolena better be worth the pneumonia that will surely develop tomorrow. Luckily, the performance was worth a good bone-soaking, with only one wet blanket to be led to the proverbial chopping block.

For the record, I would like to express my admiration and respect for Eve Queler and her vision for the Opera Orchestra of New York. However, the NYCOF reserves the right to criticize anyone who dares serve up bland opera, no matter how much of an institution she may be . Simply put, Eve Queler’s conducting of Anna Bolena milked so much excitement from the score that one would have thought she was leading the “Elevator Music Orchestra of NY”. There was no variation in tempo throughout the evening - and Queler’s inner metronome must be set irrevocably at “listless”. Donizetti composed some thrilling moments in Anna Bolena; unfortunately, tonight, at least in the pit, the monotony was deafening. Queler’s tempi were so lethargic that I overheard more than one bitchy opera queen mention someone by the name of “Eve Quaalude”. Don’t worry, the NYCOF corrected them. It’s the 21st-century, for heaven’s sake, her name is “Eve Prozac”.

Luckily, in spite of the evening’s inert generalship from OONY’s Music Director, the singers overcame and gave a topnotch performance.

In the trouser role of Smeton, the young mezzo Kate Aldrich almost stole the show from the more experienced cast members. Vocally and visually stunning, Aldrich’s rendition of Smeton’s big aria in Act I almost convinced me that tonight’s opera would be better-titled “La Smetona”. Possibly the highest compliment the NYCOF can give Miss Aldrich is to remark that she sounded like a young Jennifer Larmore!

Of course, sounding like an Jennifer Larmore at any age is no liability. Larmore could teach master classes to the current glut of diet-mezzos on such topics as passionate involvement in song or navigating successfully the elaborate world of the baroque/bel canto mezzo. Tonight, as Giovanna Seymour, Larmore sang with such seductive virtuosity that it’s no wonder Enrico VIII ditched his queen.

James Morris as King Enrico was a vocally imposing, and hence, very believable Henry VIII. As Percy, Henry’s rival in love, Yegishe Manucharyan sang with great feeling, Manucharyan’s tenorino voice was often taxed by the vocal heft required by the role. Still, Manchuryan won over the opera fanatics tonight at Carnegie Hall with his pinging high notes –which he had in abundance.

Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, the evening’s Anna Bolena,
has “the spark”: while not possessing a flawless instrument (the tone is a
little white for bel canto + her top can sometimes turn shrill), the
soprano obviously has the musical intelligence and sensitivity to become a
first-class artist. But does she have the stamina and patience? The NYCOF
sincerely hopes so. Let’s hope that Stoyanova doesn’t burn herself out or
disappear into obscurity after a promising start. Stoyanova must not go
the way of Elena Souliotis, another Balkan soprano who triumphed as Anna
Bolena. If the NYCOF hears that Stoyanova is singing Norma next season, I
will hunt her down and kick her butt myself.

A role that Mme Stoyanova will be singing, however, is Liu (next season, her Met debut). Interestingly, the NYCOF thought that Stoyanova was very Liu-like Bolena. Stoyanova’s Anna was a fragile Tudor rose, no comparison should be made to Maria Callas’ more spunky flower. Stoyanova used her shimmering lyric soprano with great sensibility to convey the doomed
queen’s many moods. She didn’t shy away from using chest voice either. And, even though her top notes weren’t usually brilliant, Stoyanova would frequently pop-out a gleaming high note to cap-off many of the opera’s ensembles.

So, when I feel the chills coming on, or the fever, or the sneezing &
wheezing, I will not regret venturing into the elements this evening to
hear a finely sung, if dully conducted, Anna Bolena. While the score may
not be Donizetti’s most masterful, it still deserves to be heard here in Manhattan. It’s definitely time for Anna Bolena to make her long-awaited …and overdue …debut at the Metropolitan Opera — or off with their heads!

After a much too-careful Violetta earlier in the season, Renee Fleming presented a more spontaneous self when she reappeared in Gotham for her Carnegie Hall recital. Backed up by the Orchestra of St Luke’s and conductor Patrick Summers, the Divine Renee ran the gamut of emotions from Mozart to show-tunes. Fleming’s hard-sell of her recital program couldn’t help but win-over the NYC Opera Fanatic, even if some of the chosen songs pushed the envelope of good taste.

Mozart, Massenet, and Richard Strauss provided the meat-and-potatoes of Renee Fleming’s concert. It’s a daring diva indeed who warms up on “Come scoglio” from Cosi fan Tutte, but that’s just what Renee did. Then, the preeminent Manon of our day (witness the recent DVD issue from Paris) mooned “Adieu, notre petite table” and sashayed through the Gavotte. Rounding out the first portion of the recital, Fleming bowled the audience over with two orchestral songs by Richard Strauss: Morgen and Caecilie.

During the second half of the recital, Fleming was more experimental. Right out of the bat, Fleming out Kiri’d Kiri in “O mio babbino caro” and out-diva’s Diva with la Wally’s “Ebben, ne andro lontano“

Then, out came the microphone. Yes … a microphone. We were obviously entering the show-tune portion of the recital. Since all the Broadway-belters are miked these days, I guess Fleming thought the Broadway-belter in her deserved a mike too. Some of it worked, and some of it didn’t. On the plus side, Renee made scenas out of The Mystery of Edwin Drood’s “Moonfall” and Carousel’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone“. Not so successful however, were Renee as Eliza Doolittle (”I Could Have Danced All Night”) and Dorothy Gail (”Over the Rainbow”). While nothing was technically wrong with Renee’s singing during those two pieces, they just didn’t fit her properly, it was as if Fleming had put on Giancarlo Ferre haute-couture backwards.

The final encore was Adriana Lecouvreur’s “Io son l’umile”. Perhaps Renee a versita one day may be, after all there are rumors that the Met will be reviving the Cilea opera in the near-future. Oh, and about that certain bouquet of gladiolas which the Divine Renee recieved during final bows. Sniff ‘em, girl. They’re from me. Yes. that was me, the stunning redhead, making my Carnegie Hall debut as the First Flower Maiden, once removed. Enjoy the fanatical “fiori” from your biggest fan.