In which I have a lot of messy feelings about Plácido Domingo and Verdi and tenors

[cahn]

-I absolutely think Domingo has been sexually harassing women

-I think it was absolutely the right decision that he not be at the Met anymore

-he's an amazing artist and to be honest I'm sad he won't be at the Met anymore even if I fully support that decision

-wtf Gelb for being all not-believing for frankly bizarre reasons (most of the complaints were anonymous? AP isn't reputable media? WHAT)

-it is the lowest of low bars but it was way more classy of Domingo to resign from LA Opera than James Levine's "I will sue everyone in sight" response

-(let me say I do not mean this as an excuse at ALL) I do kinda feel like he was set up for failure, by which I mean, the guy's career involved a whole heck of a lot of singing Verdi tenors -- they ARE ALMOST ALL SEXUAL HARASSERS (*) who are also considered the heroes, and not only does the narrative almost never call them out for their sexual harassment, indeed it usually celebrates them for being the hero. And it's not even like saying the culture is a culture of harassment, it's saying that your job is literally to glorify it! Honestly, it's surprising to me that all Verdian tenors aren't awful to women -- and of course we're seeing more and more that they are (see also the recent news about Vittorio Grigolo)

-I imagine it's not nearly as bad a problem with Verdian baritones and violence, if it's a problem at all, because that violence is always called out by the narrative even when our sympathies are with it (hiiiiii Renato)

-I suspect that if, for example, Jonas Kaufmann isn't a sexual harasser (I really hope he's not), that it may partially be because he's made a career out of interpretations where the interpretation subtext does the job of calling out the tenor for his harassment (e.g., his twitchy and half-insane Don Carlo).

-I don't know what the solution is, because obviously I ADORE Verdi and I don't want people to stop doing Verdi, nor do I think it's a tenable solution for all Verdi tenors to always be twitchy

-on the other hand, it's probably possible to generally stage things as a little less... leaning on the heroic sexual harassment

-(*) In related news, I realized a couple of weeks ago that Forza is a weird opera for me to listen to because the tenor comes on and my visceral reaction has been conditioned to be OH NO TENOR UGH and then my conscious brain kicks in and is all, oh, no, Don Alvaro is awesome and respectful of everyone! it's the baritone in this one who is the whiny awful harasser! and my visceral hindbrain is all WHAT THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE

Comments

[thistleingrey]

For the last one, heh, like the alto having a successful romance?

[cahn]

Heeeee. Yes, like that! Although I can't even think of any opera, offhand, where the alto/mezzo had a successful romance! I guess in Figaro Marcellina is often played by a mezzo, but does that even count? :)

[nineveh_uk]

Octavian :-)

[cahn]

I have to watch this!! I've been neglecting Strauss (the only one I've seen so far is Arabella, which I really liked).

[zdenka]

Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict! Benedick is a tenor, Beatrice a mezzo, and the opera ends happily.

In Verdi's Nabucco, the tenor's love interest, Fenena, is a mezzo -- the soprano Abigaile is a villain and loves the tenor unrequitedly!

I'm not sure I'd call Sesto's romance in Clemenza successful, but Annio is also a mezzo or alto and he winds up happily with Servilia. Though I'm not sure it counts if the role was originally written for castrato.

[zdenka]

Oh, and though W.S. Gilbert was notoriously unkind to the alto characters, there are several who wind up happily paired at the end. Off the top of my head there's Lady Sangazure in The Sorcerer, Lady Sophy in Utopia Ltd., and the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe.

[cahn]

...I have gotten off-track in listening to / watching more G&S, I need to get back to that.

It's not textual, and my memory might be off, but I'm pretty sure the Kevin Kline Pirates movie has Ruth getting together with the Pirate King at the end (either that or the production I saw in college did that, or both), so that's always been my headcanon :)

[zdenka]

It's definitely a valid interpretation!

[shewhostaples]

Hannah in Ruddigore; Lady Jane gets a duke in Patience!

And Gilbert might not have liked them much, but Sullivan gave them some glorious music. (I mean, an alto part existing at all is an advance on a lot of grand opera :-/)

ETA: and back on the subject of awful tenors, both Alexis and Colonel Fairfax are particularly unpleasant specimens.

[cahn]

Ahhhhh I also forgot about Lady Jane! I haven't watched Ruddigore yet. Looking forward to it, though :D

[cahn]

I forgot about Fenena, how did I forget about her?! <3

I didn't even know Berlioz wrote an opera! That sounds like a lot of fun.

(I will totally count Annio. But not Sesto :P )

[zdenka]

Berlioz wrote multiple operas! If you have the free time (it's a long opera), Les Troyens (The Trojans) is pretty cool. It's based on the parts of the Aeneid about the Fall of Troy and the Dido and Aeneas love affair.

Beatrice et Benedict is really delightful and I highly recommend it. It cuts out all the "Claudio accusing Hero of infidelity" plot, so it's mostly Beatrice and Benedick shenanigans with Hero and Claudio getting peacefully married in the background.

He also wrote a Faust opera that's less famous than Gounod's, and Benvenuto Cellini, and I forget what else.

(Fair enough! Sesto and Vitellia are a disaster.)