Ermione
REG
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).
Anyway, these are first impressions
Nora Renka
> 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.
How is the production?
-Nora
(Strauss Monster)
Jeffrey Friedman
>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.
Jeff
Tom Kaufman
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.
Three cheers for Ermione
Tom the tenormonster
Tom Kaufman
URL of web site:
<A href="www.geocities.com/Vienna/8917/index.html">Tom Kaufman's site</A>
REG
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.
"Nora Renka" <nre...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4079B870...@yahoo.com...
REG
heard.
"Tom Kaufman" <tomk...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040411193756...@mb-m24.aol.com...
tresbirri
>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.
But he is surely already over fifty?
tresbirri, curious
REG
has a range of credits (he's British by birth), he doesn't sound or look
nearly that old.
"tresbirri" <tres...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c5cne...@drn.newsguy.com...
John
has been singing professionally at least since 1986, so possibly in his
early- to mid-40's?
- John
"tresbirri" <tres...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c5cne...@drn.newsguy.com...
NBPalmer1
>>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.
Regards, NICK/London
Tom Kaufman
>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.
Tom
REG
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.
"Tom Kaufman" <tomk...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040412075912...@mb-m14.aol.com...
REG
probably in his early 40s, but I'd love to hear a lot more of him, based on
how he sounded this week.
"NBPalmer1" <nbpa...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040412071741...@mb-m02.aol.com...
A Tsar Is Born
> 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.
Hans Lick
REG
"A Tsar Is Born" <atsar...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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A Tsar Is Born
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.)
Hans Lick
Tom Kaufman
>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.)
>
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
Noam
Rossini tenors executing trills and runs much more than watching a tenor
survive the lead role in Siegfried for 5˝ 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
> Hans Lick