SiriusXM is also running the 1997 broadcast with ASvO tomorrow at 3pm. If you're in North America and were looking for a reason to free-trial Sirius, that killer Parto, parto would be one. (Though Anthony Rolfe Johnson was a bit vocally in the weeds for Tito at that point, so you take the good with the rough.) Given the remarks in the first article above, it might be interesting to compare the Levine Mozart orchestra with the Bicket Mozart orchestra, even crammed through the intertubes.
Now I'm looking at it, the rest of tomorrow's Met Opera Channel schedule isn't devoid of interest either. Busy day tomorrow.
You know how to make my day.
ReplyDeleteMagnificent photos too, from that Ponnelle prod (I think it was his).
:-)
DeleteYes, Ponnelle, from the 2005 revival. I heart that production, and I'll be interested (and a little cringing) to see what the blogosphere will make of it. It's a set that loves the orchestra, though...or at least Levine's orchestra.
It was Otter's last Sesto -- 2005.
DeleteI think I must have figured it would be, and thus felt dropping a bucket of cash for tickets was 100% necessary even though I was unemployed at the time.
DeleteAlso the Met debuts of Sarah Connolly and Luca Pisaroni. Glass half full :-)
Wow. I wonder if Connolly and Otter ever spoke behind the scenes. Was Otter welcoming and encouraging the younger mezzo, or was she aloof? Was she fine with letting go of Sesto? It will remain a mystery...
DeleteHow was she on stage? Probably the tallest, excepting Pisaroni. Was her rapport with Vitellia highly stylized, or naturalistic (ie there was some making out)? DO TELL.
Connolly already had a significant track record by that point, so tough to know. We may have to wait for somebody's memoirs :-)
Deletelol Not that I remember -- this is the Met, after all -- but earworm may have a better memory of it. What stuck in my mind from that year was how tired the orchestra sounded and yet the singing was fabulous (and much better the night we saw it than on the broadcast). What I remember about the staging in '05 was only that it was different from the way they did it in '97. Seems to me in retrospect that Diener's Vitellia had a force field around her the width of her pocket hoops (and this is Ponnelle, so they were some serious panniers).
Now, '97. Listen to that Parto, and as delicately as ASvO sings that "Guardami", so delicately does Sesto reach out and touch Vitellia's face -- Vitellia, who is looking angrily in any direction but Sesto's. It was a tiny little gesture, but it was so perfect to the vocal line that it burned into even my slapdash memory, and I think it about slew the Special Envoy. :-)
This Diener, I take it? http://www.melanie-diener.de/
DeleteYes, sorry, Melanie Diener. And if anyone thinks I'm mischaracterizing the Personenregie for that run, corrections welcome. All the blogs that would have covered it in any depth seem to have vanished into the aether.
DeleteI think I saw that 2005 revival! I remember hearing ASvO in that role at the Met and loving "parto, parto" although I wasn't as familiar with the rest of the opera at that point to appreciate all the nuances.
ReplyDeleteTito and Giovanni duke it out for me as my favorite Mozart operas.
I love DG but there are days I just want to smack it and say "Cut to the chase!" This is probably a sign of ageing.
DeleteDo you happen to know if the Met Stream reaches this side of The Pond?
ReplyDeletePS - it seems that sending as Anonymous allows me to comment in iOS6
ReplyDeleteThis is the continuing iPad issue then? Harrumph to Apple technology. I'll have to get my iPad-owning homie to help me run some tests while he's over there.
DeleteI think the stream is good for across the Pond, but wouldn't swear to it -- a question for the opera-loving insomniacs of the GMT Zone. On the other hand, there are worse reasons to stay up all night on a Friday. Care to give it a try and report back? And if it doesn't work, then, you know, shoot me an email.
IT WORKS! and wirelessly on the iPod at that - remarkable.
DeleteWonders of technology :-)
DeleteThink they could bump Filianoti into a closet somewhere and draft Toby Spence for the HD?
BTW, that Harry Bicket interview is really interesting.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? And I wonder if CDs of that Handel series with the English Concert couldn't be successfully crowd-funded.
DeleteI'm surprised that they don't get any money from the English Arts Council. Bands that size and prominence and longevity would here be on the 'operating' tier -- in which the Council's Music Cttee basically renews their allotted funding year after year, after having completed the more or less pro-forma annual review. (The newer and smaller guys, the "projects" tier, have to apply project by project).
DeleteUnless, of course, there are indeed so many bands of that size, quality and longevity that the Council can't even begin to fund them all.
/nerdery
ack, i'm always late for everything... currently hunting down for radio broadcast of ASvO + Connolly... (-td)
ReplyDeleteHey Dr Anonymous, email me at samizdat2007 [at] gmail.
Delete