In which I continue to plow through opera

[cahn]

-L'Orfeo (Keenlyside) - Monteverdi (1998). Youtube link to the best seven minutes. Youtube link to the entire thing if you are crazy like me: (just be aware that the seven minutes in the first link are probably the best seven minutes). I found this AMAZING although I am not sure I can articulate why (and not sure anyone else will agree :) ). I am not a huge fan of Monteverdi (we even sang his Vespers in college and while I fell in love with everything else we did in choir, I didn't quite know how to deal with him) and this production merges the opera with dance and I'm not a huge fan of dance, and it's stylized abstract modern and I'm hit and miss with abstract opera -- but now, I now think that the ONLY way to do Monteverdi is in conjunction with abstract modern dance and I'm bound to be disappointed by any other rendition of this opera now. It was so compelling to me that I watched it as an abstract performance, not an opera, without the libretto, so I had no idea what was going on much of the time :) I will go back and watch it with the libretto, though... Keenlyside is absolutely wonderful (and so young! I mean, he must have been 40, but that's like baby-baritone) and I feel like he does super well with extremely detailed choreography instruction, which is what we get here -- he's practically a dancer himself, here -- I don't know any other male singer with as good a voice as Keenlyside who could do this at all. Juanita Lascarro (Euridice) is the same -- practically a dancer, but with a beautiful voice. (And with my usual complaint that Keenlyside has a wonderful operatic voice which isn't quite in my conception of oratorio or pre-Mozart music, which is terrible because he's clearly excellent at it, he is such an excellent singer -- and presumably enjoys it!)

-Billy Budd (CD, Langridge, Keenlyside, Tomlinson, Opie, Padmore, etc.) - I can't listen to Verdi any more at work because I get too distracted, but it turns out Britten is OK so I've been doing a bunch of that. And this recording... is like a who's who of great male voices. (The ones I've listed are the ones I had already known and loved for oratorio work or Opera in English work, but everyone is really good.) Keenlyside's voice is (again) a bit on the rich side compared to some of these guys -- Langridge and Padmore especially are spectacular tenors -- but Keenlyside, wow, I mean the man has so much control over tone, he can do so many different things, it's really amazing to listen to. Here's an example.

-Nabucco - DVD lent me by my RL opera friend :) Early Verdi, which I am pretty sure now that I do not like as much as mid-late Verdi, but, hey, still Verdi, so trios and lots of family FEELS and it was the same kind of thing where I went into it not convinced I would like it and by an hour in I was totally hooked. Mind you, I think this one must depend a lot on the Abigaille, who really sold this performance (Maria Guleghina, whom I am not otherwise familiar with) -- the thing I found most interesting is how from her acting alone, in a scene between Nabucco and Abigaille, it became a story of sibing rivalry and father-daughter tension, whereas in the libretto I don't think this was really there explicitly at all.

-Ernani - okay, so, this one (also early Verdi) I found totally hilarious. I watched the Met On Demand version, in which Hvorostovsky is playing the King of Spain (Don Carlos, the grandfather of Don Carlos from the eponymous opera I love so much) and one of the three people in love with Elvira (Angela Meade); the other two are the bandit Ernani (the tenor Marcello Giordani) and Silva (Ferruccio Furlanetto). Because this is early Verdi, the tenor is her True Love. Anyway, the hilarious part is that Hvorostovsky comes in with a fur cloak and a hat sort of shading one eye. When Silva comes in, Silva gets upset at him and Ernani for hitting on Elvira, and I'm thinking, "...you're getting upset at the king? Seems dangerous!" Then a squire comes in and announces that Hvorostovksy is the King! And Hvorostovsky tosses aside his hat and his cloak, which I had not realized until that very moment was supposed to be a disguise. It was also hilarious because Hvorostovsky can do disdain better than anyone (this is why I can't watch him as Germont), and he had this totally dismissive look on his face that I choose to interpret as, "That was such a terrible disguise and you couldn't even figure it out??" I had to actually turn off the opera for a couple minutes while I recovered from that :)

Also featured in this is an aria for Silva in which -- I mean, the Met's subtitles are not the greatest -- but it really appeared that he was singing about how he was just so Frustrated because as an old guy he still Has Needs. Uh, for love, that is. After being super super impressed by Furlanetto in Don Carlo, here I kind of felt sorry for him, because Silva is just such a flat villain, and over-the-top, that it was hard for me to feel anything for him but amusement, although he tried really hard.

Anyway, all the singers were wonderful (I was not familiar with Giordani, who was quite good, and Meade's voice was great although her acting, while decent, was not quite on par with Giordani or Furlanetto), but mostly I thought it was fine, not great, and too much unison singing in the trios, but then Verdi (and the singers) pulled out all the stops for the ending. Now, it is a totally bizarro silly ending which I was glad I was spoiled for (the King pardons everyone, and Ernani and Elvira get married, and then Ernani had earlier promised Silva to kill himself once Silva blows this horn, and Silva blows it, and Ernani kills himself), and yet -- something about the music, and the singers really rising to meet the music, was so marvelous that I was totally invested. Verdi is really something.

Comments

[cahn]

IS THAT NOT THE BEST THING EVER. Also, relatedly, is baby Keenlyside not the most adorable thing ever! (I actually don't find him hot in that performance, just adorably perfect.) I am sooooo glad you liked it, I wasn't sure anyone else would but I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

Oh, my opinion about his voice being too operatic is mine alone and no one else in the world actually thinks this (he really has a completely gorgeous voice), it's only that I spent way too long in a choir at an impressionable age (college) that focused on Renaissance-ish music, and as a result I developed a marked preference for very pure-straight-toned voices. Which is one of the reasons it took so very long for me to get into opera :)

I am not sure how much Hvorostovsky Ernani there is online, but here is a fun clip of him from that production
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQf1SUyQwaE
(he seems to have taken his hat off)

Good luck on your exchange writing!

ETA: OMG have some Keenlyside singing Broadway! *swoons* (I actually really love his voice singing Broadway)
On the street where you live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQfAPXaduqE
So in love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol6NA3SeDOs