THAT Aida

[rich...@gmail.com]

Throught the "courtesy' of a friend (I use quotes, because it may be a
mixed blessing today <g>) I am listening to the Aida prima.

I have made it through Act I, and I have no idea what I am listening
to. Alvarez is deplorable imho....the aria is VERY hard; I looked at
the score this morning and howver 'wonderful it is', it's almost a
nonsensical piece of music....it's a barcarole, really, sung at the
beginning of a blood and thunder drama, and even leaving aside the
vocal difficulties everyone seems to have with the score as written,
it's really very hard to bring into focus (imho) in terms of a
suitable interpretation....a warrior is kind of day dreaming, within
30 seconds of starting to sing, and it almost something that would
have made more sense in Donizetti. But Alvarez croons his way through
it and the rest of the Act - I told a friend he sounded like cut-rate
Alagna - and this is one of times I'd rather be choked than tickled.

I have no idea yet what Blythe will sound like in the last act, but
she has none of the temprement for this at all. Partly it's that she's
staying away from chest (to keep the voice up, I suspect) but that
seems to lead to some dubious intonation. People kind of think that
because she looks like the last of the red hot mammas, she in fact has
a lot of passion, but I find her often rather a cipher as an
interpreter when you listen to her. My darling dis-Grace once said
that Amneris is such a tough role because you can't make her a total
bitch or no one will sympathize, but there's no Amneris without
passion.

Urmana seems to be singing on muscle memory entirely - does no one
else hear the beat in the voice?

ON to Act II.

[rich...@gmail.com]

On Feb 13, 1:08 pm, "richer...@hotnail.com" <richer...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Well, I've listened to the whole sorry thing.

Better that the audiences should applaud the sets.

To me it's really not about the singers missing a few notes (Blythe)
or more (I guess Urmana was having a bad role) or even Alvarez'
cheating....he got out the end of Act II fine.

It's just - why are they doing this? No one seems to have any feeling
for what they are doing. I'm not talking deep motivation, like Callas
or Gobbi or Vickers. But it just all sounds like they could manage the
notes more or less, and they were offered the gig, so why not?

I was listening this week to a real oddity, Pizzetti's Deborah and
Jaele, with a rather amazing cast (1952) of Chloe Elmo, Clara
Petrella, Maria Amadini, Gino Penno and Franco Calabresi under Maestro
Gavazzeini. This was pretty clearly an unstaged performance - I'm not
sure exactly how you'd stage it, to be honest, because almost nothing
happens for long stretches - but they all throw themselves into this
concert performance of a difficult work that is almost an Italian
Oratorio. They aren't note exact or rhythmically perfect....you keep
looking at the score and thinking they were working from a different
edition - but even for a work they only would have been singing once,
they have an idea what it's all supposed to be about. Undoubtedly part
of that is tradition, and a big part of that is coaching and great
conducting. They are not concerned with sounding 'perfect' or
beautiful sounds....it's about commitment and passion, so what is a
fascinating but clearly problematic work becomes somthing gripping.

I would have thought Aida deserved the same thing.