Chatting about Met streaming
Apr. 1st, 2020 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnThis is your reminder that tomorrow evening (and for the next 24 hours after that) the Met is streaming Don Carlo, one of my favorite productions ever, with the extra-fabulous Furlanetto, the gorgeous Poplavskaya, my fave Keenlyside (who is choreographed properly!), and the marvelously dramatic Alagna :D So watch it and then come back and talk to me about it! Like, seriously, I would rec this even to people for whom opera isn't their thing, if you happen to like music and ~drama~ :D (Although I think the first act is much less interesting than the rest of it -- okay, fine, I'm in it for the love triangle between son, father, and son's best friend, and less so for the son-father-wife triangle -- by which you can see how, er, operatic this is! Anyway, that is a long-winded way of saying, skip the first act if het love stories are Not Your Fave.)
Next week the Met will be streaming (among other things) Aida with Netrebko, which I was about a quarter through watching anyway, so I'm gonna commit to finish watching that and am excited to talk about that with anyone who is watching it.
Also, if anyone has anything interesting about any other broadcasts, including last week's Wagner, I'd love to hear it. I didn't watch any of the Wagner but I still have my Met on Demand subscription (which I'm going to keep for at least another month or two) so I could at some point, if there's one that anyone highly recommends.
Meanwhile... it only took me what, two weeks, but I finally finished the Met Trovatore! Hvorostovsky and Netrebko were of course excellent. Hvorostovsky always does really really well in roles that feature a jerk who is desperately in love with the heroine (thus he is my favorite di Luna and Onegin). Netrebko just is my favorite singing actor -- whenever I see her play a part, she is that part, and it's sort of terribly obvious in a scene where she's matched with someone who isn't a really really good singing actor. But Hvorostovsky is, okay maybe not 100% always but pretty much always when he can play off of someone as good as Netrebko.
I came for those two, but I stayed for Yonghoon Lee, whom I'd never heard of before but who I really loved -- he matches the other two, in my opinion, in dynamic acting and moving singing. (That is a great compliment, because H and N are so amazing. <3 ) He really sold the Troubadour as this hotheaded, passionate guy, and for the first time I could see why Leonora might be drawn to Manrico (also have I mentioned Lee is super hot?), and the scene between Azucena and Manrico where she confesses the past was simply riveting, which I was not expecting. Definitely going to be following him in the future!
And, man, the scenes between the pairs of them were riveting. Hvorostovsky does pining So Well, omg, and his scene with Netrebko <3 And also Lee and Hvorostovsky, lol, that first duel is hilarious because they only have eyes for each other and Leonora's all "hey, what about me??" I love it!
The ending was great (they're all So Good, they all sold that really nonsensical ending) but the first Trovatore I saw (also with Hvorostovsky) had di Luna cradling the dead Manrico at the end and I no longer admit that there is any kind of ending I recognize :P
A couple of things I was ???? about:
-I thought -- and wikipedia backs me up -- that there were more of di Luna's guys when he bursts in to try to get Leonora at the end of Act II? But for some reason it seemed like there were like a billion of Manrico's guys (even literally climbing the walls) and di Luna was just strolling around by himself? idk, maybe I didn't understand what was going on
-beginning of act III, there are these random hookers that show up to be pawed at by the soldiers (and act like they enjoyed it)?? I mean, sure, I get that regie productions of various operas want to put hookers in (although I still don't like them there and think they'd be better without) but here it mostly made me think, "Ah yes, the Met, bastion of anti-progressiveness." This was before #MeToo; it's a little glaring because I can't imagine a similar scene set today -- okay, except maybe at the Met -- with precisely that degree of obliviousness. It wasn't trying to be edgy or make an ironic point, just... it felt like someone said, hey, you know what would make this scene cooler? Hookers! Spoiler: it does not make the scene cooler at all. Also, I Did Not Like that it is staged so that di Luna is totally enjoying the hookers' company. He's not that kind of jerk! He's di Luna, not Scarpia!
-was it my imagination or did the scar on di Luna's cheek disappear briefly during this scene?
But on the whole, omg so good!
Next week the Met will be streaming (among other things) Aida with Netrebko, which I was about a quarter through watching anyway, so I'm gonna commit to finish watching that and am excited to talk about that with anyone who is watching it.
Also, if anyone has anything interesting about any other broadcasts, including last week's Wagner, I'd love to hear it. I didn't watch any of the Wagner but I still have my Met on Demand subscription (which I'm going to keep for at least another month or two) so I could at some point, if there's one that anyone highly recommends.
Meanwhile... it only took me what, two weeks, but I finally finished the Met Trovatore! Hvorostovsky and Netrebko were of course excellent. Hvorostovsky always does really really well in roles that feature a jerk who is desperately in love with the heroine (thus he is my favorite di Luna and Onegin). Netrebko just is my favorite singing actor -- whenever I see her play a part, she is that part, and it's sort of terribly obvious in a scene where she's matched with someone who isn't a really really good singing actor. But Hvorostovsky is, okay maybe not 100% always but pretty much always when he can play off of someone as good as Netrebko.
I came for those two, but I stayed for Yonghoon Lee, whom I'd never heard of before but who I really loved -- he matches the other two, in my opinion, in dynamic acting and moving singing. (That is a great compliment, because H and N are so amazing. <3 ) He really sold the Troubadour as this hotheaded, passionate guy, and for the first time I could see why Leonora might be drawn to Manrico (also have I mentioned Lee is super hot?), and the scene between Azucena and Manrico where she confesses the past was simply riveting, which I was not expecting. Definitely going to be following him in the future!
And, man, the scenes between the pairs of them were riveting. Hvorostovsky does pining So Well, omg, and his scene with Netrebko <3 And also Lee and Hvorostovsky, lol, that first duel is hilarious because they only have eyes for each other and Leonora's all "hey, what about me??" I love it!
The ending was great (they're all So Good, they all sold that really nonsensical ending) but the first Trovatore I saw (also with Hvorostovsky) had di Luna cradling the dead Manrico at the end and I no longer admit that there is any kind of ending I recognize :P
A couple of things I was ???? about:
-I thought -- and wikipedia backs me up -- that there were more of di Luna's guys when he bursts in to try to get Leonora at the end of Act II? But for some reason it seemed like there were like a billion of Manrico's guys (even literally climbing the walls) and di Luna was just strolling around by himself? idk, maybe I didn't understand what was going on
-beginning of act III, there are these random hookers that show up to be pawed at by the soldiers (and act like they enjoyed it)?? I mean, sure, I get that regie productions of various operas want to put hookers in (although I still don't like them there and think they'd be better without) but here it mostly made me think, "Ah yes, the Met, bastion of anti-progressiveness." This was before #MeToo; it's a little glaring because I can't imagine a similar scene set today -- okay, except maybe at the Met -- with precisely that degree of obliviousness. It wasn't trying to be edgy or make an ironic point, just... it felt like someone said, hey, you know what would make this scene cooler? Hookers! Spoiler: it does not make the scene cooler at all. Also, I Did Not Like that it is staged so that di Luna is totally enjoying the hookers' company. He's not that kind of jerk! He's di Luna, not Scarpia!
-was it my imagination or did the scar on di Luna's cheek disappear briefly during this scene?
But on the whole, omg so good!
no subject
Date: 2020-04-02 05:52 am (UTC)I didn't notice the scar disappearing, but it seemed like the fake blood went off too soon. Like, he randomly had blood all over his hand during "Per me ora fatale," and it looked like he was wondering what to do about it.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 03:50 am (UTC)and it looked like he was wondering what to do about it.
HAHAHAHA I kind of love that, when you imagine the singer going "soo... what do I do now?" Even if (maybe especially if) that's totally not what they're trying to convey :)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-02 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 03:50 am (UTC)I hope you are doing okay <3 (Verdi, meanwhile, is soothing for me -- I think there's something about how everyone is so very over-the-top Emoting and Dramatic that is paradoxically kind of comforting -- is that weird? -- and also I can be like, okay, maybe there's a pandemic going on, but hey, at least I didn't throw my baby into a fire or fall in love with my dad's new wife! --that is, I don't know if it would be helpful to you mental-health-wise to check out Don Carlo, but maybe it would be?)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 04:47 am (UTC)The Don Carlo is also beautiful. Furlanetto is one of the best King Philips of all time, very few basses can even come close. And yeah I'm also here for the Carlo/Rodrigo/Philip triangle.
Next week has Parsifal, definitely worth checking out! An amazing cast. And while Jonas is the star, Mattei kind of steals the show :D
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 04:52 am (UTC)I am having a lovely time watching Alagna but man he punches some of those notes
ETA: only half done! Agree Kocán and Zajick were also wonderful! such a great cast :D
Hmm, OK, yeah, I definitely want to catch more Mattei, I'll see what I can do
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:08 am (UTC)Also I noticed he DOES do the hair kiss here too, it's just a bit more fleeting.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:11 am (UTC)He's really playing Rodrigo angry in this one, in the ROH with the hair kiss Rodrigo isn't nearly so angry
OK I'm gonna watch the auto da fe and then I have to go to sleep
ETA: I still think the giant Jesus is super weird, but the gold doors are cool
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:22 am (UTC)WAIT there's a discord?? Where??
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:35 am (UTC)Also YES we need an opera discord :D I bet some of the people who read here might be interested as well :)
Also, most of the way through auto-da-fe and MAN Furlanetto is AMAZING, he is managing to imply a whole internal storyline in his head of being ganged up on just from body language and voice cues, that man can do anything
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:41 am (UTC)Do you have a Discord number? I barely understand how Discord works.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:47 am (UTC)I don't understand how discord works at all. I signed up for discord (as raspberry) and a couple of times I have gotten hold of discord links for a channel and clicked them and then I think I magically became part of the channel?? But I have no idea how to go about finding one or anything.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:48 am (UTC)Mine is #9932
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 06:49 pm (UTC)Live watch is going on right now, though I've had to take a breather for work stuff, although you are probably asleep judging from your other comments
no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:17 pm (UTC)And of course I have seen this lovely Don Carlo somewhere before ;) But, coming off my Met backstage tour (wherein I ate in the staff canteen, even!), I did a little squee to see Alagna rush around backstage between Acts 3 and 4, because I recognised those characteristic weird blocky corridors! And we got to see him drill his final very choreographed fight scene with the fight master and the soldiers, which is consistent with how choreographed Simon (and everyone) was in this production? Speaking of which, I fell in love with his Restate again, and I forgot how amazing that death scene was <3
no subject
Date: 2020-04-04 03:59 am (UTC)Restate is THE BEST.
Also the death scene <3333333
I have a lot of headcanon with this particular version, too! Like the way Keenlyside plays Rodrigo, I really feel like this Rodrigo is desperately in love with Carlo and just can't articulate it At All. And he's also prone to violence somewhat (which is how he plays the part with drawing a dagger on Eboli). (Interestingly he doesn't play it like that at all in the version with Villazon!) It's not necessarily how I would write him in a fic or how I headcanon the character myself, but I really really enjoy watching it :)