Edita Gruberovà - Lucrezia Borgia

Finalmente, apareceu um vídeo no youtube com o final de uma das récitas da Ópera Lucrezia Borgia de Donizetti ocoridas no final de Fevereiro no Liceu de Barcelona.

Tive oportunidade de assistir à estreia e devo dizer que Gruberovà esteve soberba.

Aqui fica o vídeo...

Orquídea Branca - récita de 29 de Outubro

Assisti ontem a uma récita da ópera Orquídea Branca que estreou no Funchal no dia 27 de Outubro.

As expectativas eram altas, uma vez que as notícias e críticas que foram surgindo na comunicação social eram bastante positivas.

Afortunadamente tive acesso a um bom lugar no teatro, que permitiu ter uma visão completa de palco e que, supostamente, será um bom local em termos acústicos. Digo supostamente porque foi utilizada amplificação sonora para vozes solistas e orquestra. Este foi, a meu ver o maior "senão" de todo o espectáculo. Os cantores de ópera não usam microfones nos teatros de ópera. Uma das características mais importantes de um cantor é a capacidade de projectar a voz.

Sei que a acústica do Baltazar Dias não é das melhores, de qualquer forma a acústica poderia ter sido melhorada recorrendo a artifícios de palco.

Tudo isto para dizer que a minha opinião sobre os cantores fica imediatamente comprometida por ouvi-los todos com o mesmo volume sonoro.

Mas antes disso, gostaria comentar a ópera em si.

O libreto de João Aguiar é interessante. Uma história de amor entre uma princesa e um jardineiro. A princesa chega ao Funchal para se curar de febre tísica, mas no final sucumbe. Tipicamente uma ópera romântica.

A encenação do Miguel Vieira é, para mim, um dos pontos altos desta produção. Os cenários e figurinos estão muito bem conseguídos. A conjugação do antigo com o novo e do tradicional com o moderno está perfeita.

A composição de Jorge Salgueiro não me satisfez completamente. A utilização excessiva de "staccato" no recitativos, não é agradável. Esta característica mantém-se ao logo do toda a obra, mesmo nas árias duetos e tercetos, tornando-a pesada e um pouco monótona. No entanto, os coros, o dueto entre Maria Amélia e José Maria e as duas árias de José Maria fogem a esta regra e são as partes que mais apreciei.
Na generalidade a composição parece-me excessivamente ligeira, o que, muitas vezes ao longo do espectáculo, me levou a pensar que estava a assistir a um musical e não a uma ópera.

Finalmente as vozes.

Como já referi, a utilização de amplificação não me permite formar uma opinião comparativa entre potência e projecção vocais.

As vozes de Lúcia Lemos (Imperatriz), Rui Baeta (Zé Maria) e Carlos Guilherme (cónego) são de destacar. De entre os três, preferi Lúcia Lemos (soprano), com uma voz segura e encorpada, apenas com um vibrato um pouco excessivo, mas que infelizmente não tem, nesta obra, uma ária à sua altura. Mesmo assim, destacou-se especialemente no segundo acto.

Rui Baeta esteve bem. Entrou um pouco a medo no registo agudo, mas melhorou bastante no segundo acto. De notar que a personagem do José Maria tem as duas mais belas árias de toda a ópera.

Carlos Guilherme esteve um pouco contido no primeiro acto, melhorando bastante depois. De qualquer forma, a sua personagem não tem também uma ária onde os dotes vocais do cantor possam ser convenientemente demonstrados.

Carla Moniz (soprano) no papel principal de D. Maria Amélia (princesa) teve uma prestação mediana. Pouco comovente. Uma voz contida e ligeira. Confesso que desconhecia a cantora e que esta apreciação se pode dever à interpretação que fez da personagem.

Dos solistas secundários destaco Diocleciano Pereira (tenor) no papel de Comandante da Fragata Dom Fernando e Inês Madeira (mezzo-soprano) no papel de Rosinha.

Globalmente considero a produção da Orquídea Branca muito aceitável.

Vale a pena ver.

Publicado também no Folhas Pautadas e no Outras Escritas

Mariella Devia

Perfeito...

Sem palavras.

Beverly Sills - L'assedio di Corinto

A voz Beverly Sills às vezes não me diz nada, outras, deixa-me completamente em êxtase.

Acho esta interpretação de "Pamyra", personagem da ópera de Rossini "L'assedio di Corinto", fenomenal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KDyXYuhNFc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Fe6TePTOo

Publicado também no Outras Escritas.

Diana Damrau

Escrevi um "post" para o Outras Escritas, dobre Salieri e dei como exemplo da obra deste compositor uma ária da ópera L'Europa Reconosciuta, interpretada de forma soberba por Diana Damrau.

Aqui ficam alguns vídeos:

O próprio

Sem comentários

"Making of an opera"

Encontrei no YouTube, este quatro vídeos captados nos bastidores e durante os vários ensaios da ópera de Rossini "Le Comte Ory" apresentada no Teatro Regio di Torino em 1999.

Fazem parte do elenco, entre outros:

Rockwell Blake
Alexadrina Pendatchanska
Michele Pertusi
Alessandro Corbelli

O maestro é Bruno Campanella

Curiosa é a comparação com a ópera Il Viaggio à Reims (Samuel Ramey, Ruggero Raimondi).

Aqui ficam os "links" para os vídeos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1V99NyVz1o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiOjSy6ZHQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSSDA37shBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeQJ4SnPpl0

Mariella Devia

Mariella Devia, soprano italiano. Canta exclusivamente na Europa.

Aos 60 anos interpreta, assim, La Travita de Verdi

Joan Sutherland já está a recuperar

Li aqui que o soprano já se encontra em recuperação.

As melhoras Dame Joan.

Joan Sutherland fractura as duas pernas

Li aqui esta triste notícia.

Espero que a grande Diva recupere rapidamente.

Julia Lezhneva - Um nome a reter

Descobri há relativamente pouco tempo a voz de Julia Lezhneva soprano russo que com apenas 18 anos (2007) faz o que se segue...




Reparem só na cara de espanto da Teresa Berganza.

Uma promessa, de facto.

Elinor Ross

Descobri a a voz de Elinor Ross por mero acaso, numa das minhas longas e frequentes deambulações pelo youtube.

Descobri-a numa gravação da Norma ocorrida em 1967 em Berlin.

Curiosamente num artigo da Opera News verifique que Scott Barnes, antes de fazer uma entrevista ao soprano, tinha também descoberto no youtube excertos dessa gravação.

Aqui fica o artigo da Opera News e alguns vídeos do youtube com a Norma de Berlim que conta também com a presença de Mario del Mónaco.

About a week before I was to interview former Met soprano Elinor Ross, I was surfing YouTube and discovered that someone had just uploaded selections from a 1967 Berlin production of Norma, featuring Ross and Mario del Monaco. Granted, the black-and-white camerawork was nothing fancy, and the sets, costumes and acting were, to be kind, "of the period."

But the beautiful, cavernous, overtone-laden sound that came out of Ross was overwhelming. The dynamic and emotional range, from tenderness to ferocity, the clarity of coloratura and the sheer immensity and beauty of her voice amazed me. I had always considered Ross a utility singer — one that the Met could summon on a moment's notice, whose performances of Verdi and Puccini would satisfy if not delight the knowledgeable Met audience. The video proved that she was much, much more than that. And her life, as I was soon to discover, could easily have earned her a medal for endurance.

"Hi, darlin'," says Ross as she opens the door to let me in. "I have to warn you, I'm a talker!" Her apartment, with spectacular views of Manhattan, is painted a pale lemon yellow. Clearly, color is very important to her — not just in the furnishings and artwork she has chosen but in the way she dresses. She moves slowly, and there is a walker nearby, but neither the apartment nor the woman has the look of living in the past.

Born in Tampa, Florida, in 1930, Ross attended Syracuse University. She came to New York shortly thereafter, studying with William Herman, famous for being the teacher of Roberta Peters. She also studied with Stanley Sontag and coached with Leo Resnick. Her professional debut came in 1958 with Cincinnati Opera, as Leonora in Il Trovatore. She was soon performing with many U.S. companies, including San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. But the skill to do the work and the skill to get the work are very different things. Although she appears to be very outgoing and sure of herself, Ross claims to be quite shy. "I could never go into a crowd and push myself. I couldn't talk about myself to an agent or a manager. I was with Sol Hurok, but he said I needed experience, so he sent an agent with me to Italy. At Verona, I had the greatest response in the world. I had a bis [encore] every time I opened my mouth. But Leyla Gencer's boyfriend was running the whole operation, and she and I did the same roles. So when it was the season, she got the roles, and I didn't get called back. I filled in for her as Aida, and I had to bis both the arias. Amazing success, and I didn't go back!

"Tom Schippers took me to Scala to understudy Callas in Medea. I figured it was good experience, and I needed the money, so I did all the rehearsals, and she came back and canceled my performance. She paid off the whole orchestra, the chorus, even me! The whole house was dark, because she didn't want me to sing in her stead. We actually became friends, because I was this little nothing, and we spoke all the time. As a young singer, there was nothing to be done. I wanted to sing leading roles in leading houses, and I did."

Our conversation turns to the 1967 Norma preserved on that YouTube video. "My son had just said, 'Mom, it's too bad you don't have any videos out.' I remembered in Germany we were put on TV. We didn't sign anything or have very much notice. There were just big TV cameras at one performance. Well, my son e-mailed the theater in Berlin, and they said it was in the archives. Then three weeks later, all this stuff started appearing on YouTube. Someone just sent me a whole DVD. I thought it was with Cossotto, since I did a lot of Normas with Fiorenza, but it was a gal I don't really much remember [Giovanna Vighi]. I never kept score of anything I was doing. I was busy running around from here to there, and then of course the sicknesses. When I made my 1970 Scala debut in Cavalleria Rusticana, my husband [attorney Jerome Lewis] was dying. They told him not to come, that the plane's pressurized cabin would kill him. He came anyway but never got to see me at La Scala. I had to cancel my engagement with Vienna Staatsoper and become his cook and nurse. He was in an Italian hospital for six weeks, until I could bribe an airline to get him to the States."

Ross returned to New York on a Tuesday, and the following day, the Met called her manager, Herbert Barrett, asking her to make her debut that Saturday — June 6, 1970 — singing Turandot, a role she would sing sixteen times with the company. It was a daunting challenge, since she had just come from weeks of singing Santuzza, a different type of role centered in a different part of her voice. "The thing about Turandot is, you can either do it, or you can't," says Ross. "I had a big voice with lots of high notes, and I had done the role before. I got a costume fitting but no stage rehearsals. Pilar Lorengar was my Liù, and Corelli didn't come to either of my music rehearsals. My friends Nedda Casei and Shirley Love kept my husband on the phone from backstage during the performance and gave him the blow by blow. During the three questions, Corelli turned his back to the audience to face me and put his hand down his pants. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I didn't know where to look, or what was gonna happen. He brought a wet sponge out and put it in his mouth. He had wet sponges all over the stage!"

The public never knew that Ross's husband died following open-heart surgery (still in its experimental stages) shortly thereafter. Ross had to work and simply jumped right back in, singing Ballos and filling in for Régine Crespin in a string of Met Toscas with Carlo Bergonzi. "When I think of the things I did — I must have been crazy," she says. "But I had responsibilities — I had to pay for the household."

Following the death of her husband, Ross gave up the bulk of her international travel to be near her son. "He was going through a lot of things," Ross recalls. "His father and grandfather had died, he was a teenager, he was gay, and I wanted him to be proud of who he was, because that's the only 'you' you get to be in this lifetime. I did the things that I thought were right. I didn't get the career to where I thought it was going to go, but that's life. I started covering more at the Met. I never had rehearsals — I got thrown on, and every time was like a debut. That was tough. I loved doing Gioconda, but [Giuseppe] Patanè didn't like me, and I couldn't stand him. I like most people, but he struck a chord in me. Anyway, he walked out when he heard that I was replacing in that famous Trovatore."

The "famous" Trovatore, in 1978, involved more twists than most pulp fiction: Ross, fighting her weight, had put herself on the faddish water diet. A call came from the Met for a last-minute replacement as Leonora. She said no, as she hadn't sung the part in four years, had no energy and didn't know the cuts, which had all been opened up. The Met responded, "You'll never work here or anywhere again if you don't do this," so Ross's second husband, another attorney, named Aaron Diamond, accepted the job while she was out of the apartment running an errand. She appeared that night. Maestro Patanè did not.

"I took it as much as I could and kept on going and going, and then in 1979, during a [Met] performance of Aida, I couldn't understand why I felt so strange. I woke up the next day with Bell's Palsy. So that was my final opera performance. I couldn't open my mouth for a couple of years. My voice was there — I had just started working on Isolde — but I couldn't open one side of my mouth. And I thought I looked like a cyclops. Subsequently, I had to have a big operation, with muscles taken out of my neck and put into the front of my face. I kept singing, though. I could do concerts out of town and got a lot of gigs in Asia. For a while I had a second home in Hong Kong and Taiwan. My son went to school there and stayed. So if somebody else would pay the car fare, I'd sing over there, so I could see Sonny Boy. He was fluent in Chinese, so he would often come along and introduce me. My Chinese was so bad that when I got one word right, they'd applaud!"

In spite of her age and some physical infirmities, Ross stays on the go. "I'm off to Spain with three lady friends. I do therapy twice a week. I think if I didn't exercise, I wouldn't be where I am today — it's not much, but I wouldn't like to have to be dependent on a wheelchair. Who knows? I couldn't walk at all a year ago. It's so slow-going, and I get impatient. But I keep going.

"A lot of people want me to teach, but that would drive me crazy. And people don't really know who I am, so who's going to come to me for coaching, anyway? Today when you coach, they don't want you to touch the voice. But I love coaching singers on roles I've done. I'm exacting. I want them to sing a beautiful vocal line. You work a note at a time, but no one seems to have the time to do that anymore. I guess that's why they come and go so fast. People don't understand the big voices. It goes in and out of fashion, especially the dramatic dark voice. Big voices need to learn how to float notes and to work the coloratura. What made me happiest about listening to that '67 Norma was my agility. Because I worked so hard on that."

When Ross finds it difficult to believe that the public remembers her, I assure her that fans are usually for life. And what would she like to tell them?

"Tell 'em I'm livin', baby — I'm breathin' out and in!"

SCOTT BARNES teaches masterclasses in Auditioning for Singers and Song Interpretation in New York City and abroad.

Foto: Dario Acosta

Maria Callas - A Exposição de Lisboa (II)

Ainda sobre a exposição que inaugura no próximo sábado vale a pena ler este artigo da Visão com mais alguns pormenores.

Maria Callas - A Exposição de Lisboa (I)

Recebi hoje a newsletter do S. Carlos que anuncia uma exposição comemorativa dos 50 anos da passagem de Maria Callas por Portugal (a famosa Traviata de Lisboa de 1958).

A exposição, em parceria com a EDP, terá lugar no Museu da Electricidade e estará patente ao público entre 12 de Julho e 21 de Setembro com entrada livre.

Diz na newsletter:

Da considerável colecção de jóias e 43 vestidos, destaca-se o traje de cena usado por Maria Callas na celebérrima Tosca encenada por Franco Zeffirelli que passou pelos palcos do Covent Garden, da Ópera de Paris e da Metropolitan Opera House de Nova Iorque. Dos adereços de cena e jóias em exposição, refira-se a coroa da Norma criada por Christian Dior para a produção estreada na Ópera de Paris em 1965.

A vasta documentação seleccionada inclui as últimas cartas de Maria Callas dirigidas a Aristóteles Onassis (por altura do romance com Jacqueline Kennedy), a Pier Paolo Pasolini e Maurice Béjart.

Para além da colecção de Bruno Tosi (Presidente da Associazione Internazionale «Maria Callas»), a exposição compreende um núcleo dedicado à produção da ópera La traviata protagonizada por Maria Callas, em 1958, no São Carlos. O cenário do Acto II é mostrado ao público pela primeira vez desde a estreia em 1958, para além de fotografias inéditas, recortes de Imprensa, o programa de sala autografado pela cantora e alguma da correspondência trocada entre Ansaloni, o agente milanês da Callas, e José de Figueiredo, director do São Carlos, responsável pela vinda de Maria Callas a Lisboa.

Mais informações em www.callaslisboa.com

La Favorita - G. Donizetti - Cossotto; Kraus, Bruscantini, Raimondi; NHK Italian Opera Chorus, NHK Symphony Orchestra, de Fabritiis

Na Opera News deste mês de Julho, é dado destaque a uma gravação histórica reeditada em vídeo pela VAI em Novembro de 2007 da Ópera de Donizetti - La Favorita.

A gravação ocorreu em Tóquio em 1971 e conta com a participação de Fiorenza Cossotto (Leonora) e e de Alfredo Kraus (Fernando) nos principais papeis.

Curiosa a critica de Robert Baxter (Opera News) que começa por dizer que em 1971 o mundo da ópera era dominado pelos cantores e não por encenadores.

Transcrevo de seguida o texto de Robert Baxter na Opera News.

This Tokyo Favorita suffers from some serious blemishes, but anyone who can look past the dim video image and the dated staging will find much to admire.

The year is 1971. Singers — not the stage director — are the driving force in this production. And what singers! Fiorenza Cossotto (Leonora) and Alfredo Kraus (Fernando) are in their vocal prime. Together, they justify the purchase of this historic performance, taped in the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. Sesto Bruscantini (Alfonso) and Ruggero Raimondi (Baldassare) add to the star power, enhanced by Oliviero de Fabritiis's seasoned conducting.

Visually, we're back in the operatic Dark Age. Stage director Bruno Nofri does little more than line up the chorus and shove the principals to the front of the stage, where they express dismay with hand on forehead or convey deep emotion by clutching their breast. Salvatore Russo's gorgeous costumes, delicately colored pastel, look lovely but suggest no specific time or place. When they can be seen, Enzo Dehò's dimly lit sets look imposing in a vaguely Spanish style.

The singers dominate this Favorita. The prolonged ovation — almost ten minutes of cheers and lusty applause — reflects the heat generated by these artists. Cossotto's brass-toned singing has scale and impact even when she lunges for high notes or plunges into chest voice. She offers a master class in the art of sustaining applause: after winning an ovation by banging out Leonora's "O mio Fernando" in brazen tones, she lowers her head and bats her eyes before placing hand on heart. Then, clasping her hands and smiling, she advances toward the audience.

Kraus, like the diva, provides a textbook performance — in vocal technique, not in milking applause. His tautly strung voice rises without effort to top C-sharp and flows with keen control through Donizetti's cantilena. He manages to suggest Fernando's transition from ardent lover to shamed hero and, joined by Cossotto in torrential voice, he rises to the testing demands of the long duet that crowns the opera. Urged on by de Fabritiis's incisive baton, the tenor and mezzo-soprano attack the music with fierce resolve and fill out the vocal lines with vibrant tone.

Bruscantini and Raimondi provide strong support but fail to reach this exalted level. Bruscantini almost compensates for his throaty tone with his solid musicianship and acting skills. Seizing center stage with his commanding presence, Raimondi sustains the music admirably even when his lightweight bass-baritone thins out in the lower reaches.

Norma - Teatro delle Muse di Ancona, 2004

Acaba de sair em CD, este registo de Norma de Vincenzo Bellini com o seguinte elenco:

Norma - Fiorenza Cedolins
Pollione - Vincenzo La Scola
Adalgisa - Carmela Remigio
Oroveso - Andrea Papi
Coro Lirico Marchigiano “Vincenzo Bellini”
Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana/Fabrizio Maria Carminati.

Leia aqui mais sobre este lançamento.

Joan Sutherland no programa This is your live - Austrália

Para os que são, como eu, admiradores incondicionais da voz e da carreira de Joan Sutherland, aqui ficam 3 vídeos com a participação da Diva no programa de televisão This is your live, gravado na Austrália durante os anos 70.