I just got back from the City Opera production, and with some qualifications, loved it. The real comment should be about the work itself (though it must have been seriously cut), which seems to me at a level which few works of Rossini reach (in terms of breaking out of the more formulaic structures in which he often elected to work), and I think now that anyone who thinks that vivid portrayals of character only started with Norma hasn't, perhaps, heard this work. The characters seem remarkably complex - undoubtedly due in part to the Racine source, but also to the music and structure of the arias and set pieces, which aren't so set. Ermione is a character as complex as any in the late bel canto and even Verdi period, I think, and the same is true for Andromache and Oreste There's a great second act duet for bass and tenor that makes me think of Suono la tromba.. Monahan's conducting, which I often like, left something to be desired...it's fine, but not sufficiently nuanced to really take account of this great score. My reads on the main singers below:
Andromaca - Ursula Ferri odd....she's really, I think, a contralto forced to sing as a mezzo. The upper reaches are not comfortable to her, and the sound is very un-blended. The quality of the voice is very soft, and though she distinguished herself in her big second act scene, the entrance aria (which isn't quite that) was pretty poor
Ermione - Alexandrina Pendatchanska - she acts well on stage, but I couldn't help wishing for a reincarnation of Scotto here (at least at the time of her Fides). The role is not terribly high, and a younger Podles might have managed it with some transpositions. She did more than well enough, but the voice is produced efficiently rather than with any "involvement", and her scena when Andromaca and Pirro are married didn't go for very much.
Pirro - Gregory Kunde - First, what a great role this is for tenor....as lyrical as any soprano role (one of the arias reminded me of "Giusto ciel" of Pamira). There does seem to be a sense I have that perhaps Rossini was familiar with some of the Mozart opera seria....there's a bit of the Idomeneo quality here. I don't know if the role isn't written that high, or if Kunde dodged notes and transposed down, but it was probably the best I ever heard him. The voice still doesn't have a core, but he seems to have (wisely) abandonned the notes far above the staff, and sounds much better and at ease. I'd doubt that he sang much above an A, and that's fine.
ORESTe - BARRY BANKS - This young tenor is going to be a big star. Really tremendous sound, flexibility, real ping in the voice, and very nice on stage.
Fenici0 - Valerian Ruminski - A really fine-sounding bass (and very attractive physically, as far as I could see).
REG wrote: > I just got back from the City Opera production, and with some > qualifications, loved it. The real comment should be about the work itself > (though it must have been seriously cut), which seems to me at a level which > few works of Rossini reach (in terms of breaking out of the more formulaic > structures in which he often elected to work), and I think now that anyone > who thinks that vivid portrayals of character only started with Norma > hasn't, perhaps, heard this work. The characters seem remarkably complex - > undoubtedly due in part to the Racine source, but also to the music and > structure of the arias and set pieces, which aren't so set. Ermione is a > character as complex as any in the late bel canto and even Verdi period, I > think, and the same is true for Andromache and Oreste There's a great > second act duet for bass and tenor that makes me think of Suono la tromba.. > Monahan's conducting, which I often like, left something to be > desired...it's fine, but not sufficiently nuanced to really take account of > this great score. My reads on the main singers below:
<snips>
Thank you for this review! I'll be seeing it (I think) Wednesday and will post my impressions. Fully agree about the work itself--it's formally one of the most complex things Rossini wrote, full of great characters. A pity to hear that it's cut...I'm brushing up on it now to get ready to hear it.
Pirro is something of a Rossini 'baritenor' role, and while I'll have to look at the score again, I'm pretty sure it actually goes up to something like a High D. Really. Will have more info on that later.
On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 21:17:33 GMT, "REG" <Richer...@hotmail.com> wrote: >I just got back from the City Opera production, and with some >qualifications, loved it.
You beat me to the web on this one. I found Pendatchanska a bit better than you did, but agree that the knock-out star was Barry Banks. I had heard him at the NYCO before and was not as enthusiastic as some others about the experience, but in this role he was dynamite. Manahan is not a great Rossinian, I even liked the conducting better at last year's Carnegie concert version, and the chorus was so-so. Nice to hear it from fourth row center where it sounded like I was getting real voices and not enhanced NYCOsound. Agree with most of your comments on the remaining cast, too.
>Ermione - Alexandrina Pendatchanska - she acts well on stage, but I couldn't >help wishing for a reincarnation of Scotto here (at least at the time of her >Fides). The role is not terribly high, and a younger Podles might have >managed it with some transpositions. She did more than well enough, but the >voice is produced efficiently rather than with any "involvement", and her >scena when Andromaca and Pirro are married didn't go for very much.
>Pirro - Gregory Kunde - First, what a great role this is for tenor....as >lyrical as any soprano role (one of the arias reminded me of "Giusto ciel" >of Pamira). There does seem to be a sense I have that perhaps Rossini was >familiar with some of the Mozart opera seria....there's a bit of the >Idomeneo quality here. I don't know if the role isn't written that high, or >if Kunde dodged notes and transposed down, but it was probably the best I >ever heard him. The voice still doesn't have a core, but he seems to have >(wisely) abandonned the notes far above the staff, and sounds much better >and at ease. I'd doubt that he sang much above an A, and that's fine.
>ORESTe - BARRY BANKS - This young tenor is going to be a big star. Really >tremendous sound, flexibility, real ping in the voice, and very nice on >stage.
>Fenici0 - Valerian Ruminski - A really fine-sounding bass (and very >attractive physically, as far as I could see).
Ermione has been one of my top favorite Rossini operas for the last 15 or so years, ever since I got the commercial Merritt recording (with him as Oreste, and Palacio as Pirro). Soon after that, I got the pirate recording (on Legato) with Merritt as Pirro and Blake as Oreste. They are assisted by Caballe and Horne. What a cast!!! What an opera!!! What a recording!!!!
I haven't heard Kunde as Pirro and doubt if I would want to. But Banks, based on his Opera Rara recordings, should be a fine Oreste.
Thanks....the production was simple but not gimmicky, and so it worked. Lots of sliding doors, minimal but suggestive props, it was all fine and to the point. If I were going to be picky, I'd say the costumes were just too colorful...a bit like a hot air balloon festival, but nothing that really interefered with the enjoyment.
> > I just got back from the City Opera production, and with some > > qualifications, loved it. The real comment should be about the work itself > > (though it must have been seriously cut), which seems to me at a level which > > few works of Rossini reach (in terms of breaking out of the more formulaic > > structures in which he often elected to work), and I think now that anyone > > who thinks that vivid portrayals of character only started with Norma > > hasn't, perhaps, heard this work. The characters seem remarkably complex - > > undoubtedly due in part to the Racine source, but also to the music and > > structure of the arias and set pieces, which aren't so set. Ermione is a > > character as complex as any in the late bel canto and even Verdi period, I > > think, and the same is true for Andromache and Oreste There's a great > > second act duet for bass and tenor that makes me think of Suono la tromba.. > > Monahan's conducting, which I often like, left something to be > > desired...it's fine, but not sufficiently nuanced to really take account of > > this great score. My reads on the main singers below:
> <snips>
> Thank you for this review! I'll be seeing it (I think) Wednesday and will post > my impressions. Fully agree about the work itself--it's formally one of the > most complex things Rossini wrote, full of great characters. A pity to hear > that it's cut...I'm brushing up on it now to get ready to hear it.
> Pirro is something of a Rossini 'baritenor' role, and while I'll have to look at > the score again, I'm pretty sure it actually goes up to something like a High > D. Really. Will have more info on that later.
> Ermione has been one of my top favorite Rossini operas for the last 15 or so > years, ever since I got the commercial Merritt recording (with him as Oreste, > and Palacio as Pirro). Soon after that, I got the pirate recording (on Legato) > with Merritt as Pirro and Blake as Oreste. They are assisted by Caballe and > Horne. What a cast!!! What an opera!!! What a recording!!!!
> I haven't heard Kunde as Pirro and doubt if I would want to. But Banks, based > on his Opera Rara recordings, should be a fine Oreste.
<NBiec.32396$WA4.13...@twister.nyc.rr.com>, REG ha scritto:
>ORESTe - BARRY BANKS - This young tenor is going to be a big star. Really >tremendous sound, flexibility, real ping in the voice, and very nice on >stage.
I don't know....this guy debuted with City Opera only in 1999, and though he has a range of credits (he's British by birth), he doesn't sound or look nearly that old.
"tresbirri" <tresbi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> <NBiec.32396$WA4.13...@twister.nyc.rr.com>, REG ha scritto:
> >ORESTe - BARRY BANKS - This young tenor is going to be a big star. Really > >tremendous sound, flexibility, real ping in the voice, and very nice on > >stage.
Couldn't find his definitive dates, but he made his LOC debut in 1994 and has been singing professionally at least since 1986, so possibly in his early- to mid-40's?
- John
"tresbirri" <tresbi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> <NBiec.32396$WA4.13...@twister.nyc.rr.com>, REG ha scritto:
>>ORESTe - BARRY BANKS - This young tenor is going to be a big star. Really >>tremendous sound, flexibility, real ping in the voice, and very nice on >>stage.
>Give Kunde a try, if you want.....better in this than in lots else I've >heard.
You are right. I haven't heard him for years, although I do have him in Bianca e Fernando and Hamlet. But not in a role that I have with Merritt and that Ford has sung.
And just a response to the person who asked me how the production was....I've been doing a little reading about the opera, and didn't realize that Ermione just falls into a swoon at the end. In this production, she kills herself, very Butterfly-like, so be warned. But I still found the production fine.
> >Give Kunde a try, if you want.....better in this than in lots else I've > >heard.
> You are right. I haven't heard him for years, although I do have him in Bianca > e Fernando and Hamlet. But not in a role that I have with Merritt and that Ford > has sung.
Nick, he really didn't sound 50, to say the least....I think he is in fact probably in his early 40s, but I'd love to hear a lot more of him, based on how he sounded this week.
> >- BARRY BANKS - This young tenor is going to be a big star. Really > >>tremendous sound, flexibility, real ping in the voice, and very nice on > >>stage.
> >But he is surely already over fifty?
> I would think he is approximately that age. > I have been hearing him regularly at ENO and Covent Garden for many years.
"REG" <Richer...@hotmail.com> wrote in message <news:NBiec.32396$WA4.13820@twister.nyc.rr.com>... > Ermione - Alexandrina Pendatchanska - she acts well on stage, but I couldn't > help wishing for a reincarnation of Scotto here (at least at the time of her > Fides).
When did Scotto ever sing Fides? A role for a low mezzo, by the way.
> > Ermione - Alexandrina Pendatchanska - she acts well on stage, but I couldn't > > help wishing for a reincarnation of Scotto here (at least at the time of her > > Fides).
> When did Scotto ever sing Fides? A role for a low mezzo, by the way.
I made it to the last Ermione tonight, and the performance was very enjoyable on all counts. I'm told the singing was much better (and the acting far more intense) tonight than in the first couple of performances.
I'd heard Banks sing Oreste before -- at Carnegie Hall last spring -- so I was prepared for his excellent characterization. They seem to have cut a hectic final aria I remember from Carnegie -- am I right about that? (Too bad -- he did it wildly well.) His voice has a real individual personality -- it is unmistakable, which can be a blessing or a curse -- he acts intensely, and manages the fioritura that you thought no one but Florez could sing. I've heard Banks before at the Met in his fantastically adept and funny Flute/Thisbe (in MNDream) and as Pedrillo (Seraglio), which was not so good. Based on his work here, someone should consider staging Rossini's Otello for him. It's been 35 years since that was last given in New York, and none of the Rome Opera cast at that time had a clue about Rossini style. With Banks, Kunde, Florez and Polenzani -- and any one of 20 sopranos -- it could be a great hit. (I can hear Tom Kaufman drooling at the thought.)
Kunde was not quite so fully in charge, but he had more to do, and much (but not all) of his singing was suave and adept. Pendartchenska, if the ParterreBox clip is to be relied on, was FAR more in command tonight than on the occasion of that taping. An attractive and sizable voice, used with dramatic force. Would be interesting to hear what she can do with some middle Verdi roles. I liked Ruminsky's Fenicio very much -- a sizable and pleasurable voice, from where I was sitting (Row A).
The only singer I did not much care for was Ferri, as Andromaca, though her matronly looks were appropriate. (In the story, she has to be well into her thirties, and Pirro, her lover, is about 13. But no version of the story ever takes this into account, AFAIK.)
Yes, Reg, the suicide of Ermione is a stage director's whim -- it doesn't happen in Rossini or in Racine or in Euripides, and, indeed, in the myth, she marries her cousin Oreste (she's the daughter of Helen of Troy, you know) and they settle down in the Peloponese and raise a family. But who would find THAT believable? (In Mourning Becomes Electra, Ermione was Helen -- in the play, Hazel -- and Pylades was her brother Peter. Same family....) And we all remember what became of Andromaca from Act IV of Les Troyens, when Enee and Didon tell us all about it just before the quintet. Hermione also turns up (non-singing role) in the finale of Aegyptische Helena.
Ermione is an interesting and worthy opera, that shows Rossini sloughing off his comedian past (audible only in bits of the overture) and becoming a "serious" composer before our very ears. (Le Comte Ory is a comic opera in an entirely different, "Frencher" style than his famous early comedies.) The concerted finales are austerely moving, and so effective I wished they had been repeated -- which they probably are, as written.
I found the production handsome and restrained, the costumes attractive. Gender aside, the singers tended to look alike, but that was because they were all wearing identical wigs. THAT was distracting. (How many confidantes ARE THERE in this opera? I counted five.)
>Based on his work here, >someone should consider staging Rossini's Otello for him. It's been 35 >years since that was last given in New York, and none of the Rome >Opera cast at that time had a clue about Rossini style. With Banks, >Kunde, Florez and Polenzani -- and any one of 20 sopranos -- it could >be a great hit. (I can hear Tom Kaufman drooling at the thought.)
Not if Kunde is in it. And I already have it with Bruce Ford on Opera Rara and with Chris Merritt on a CD-R.
BTW, I believe this is about the 50th anniversary of a revival of Otello in NYC with totally inadequate singers. I remember going, but can't be sure where it was.
But do like Banks in the Opera Rara Bianca e Falliero. He really is good.
I am about 90% certain that Oreste does not have a final aria in Ermione. The finale is his great duet with Ermione.
And I absoluteely love owning two different Ermiones (with Merritt in different roles) on CD.
Three cheers for the serious Rossini-- absolutely wonderful.
My favorites among the serious Rossini operas are Ermione, Otello, Armida, Zelmira (soon to be issued by Opera Rara), Semiramide and Donna del Lago
I was there too last night and loved every minute of it. I get a high from Rossini tenors executing trills and runs much more than watching a tenor survive the lead role in Siegfried for 5½ hours. I was in heaven; I thought all singers stayed in pitch despite the difficulties. The production was beautiful and dramatically engaging. It managed to convey palpable erotic tension throughout that contrasted with the classical restraint and symmetry, and which propelled the story. BARRY BANKS was indeed dynamite (he is over 50? What youth potion does he use?) Alexandrina Pendatchanska was even better than in the DVD's and had a lot of reserves for the climax of the last scene. So many gems; and just when you think it doesn't get any better than this comes the Fenicio/Pilade duet. It's a shame it wasn't taped for DVD, I felt I assisted in a historic performance. Noam Eitan
