Sumi Jo's Zerbinetta
bac...@my-deja.com
through the net for some information about his music and the reviews of
his operas. The following are the extracts from a review from "OperaWeb"
about Sumi Jo's performance of Zerbinetta from "Ariadne auf Noxos", one
of his great operas.
"...Sumi Jo was simply marvelous as Zerbinetta. This role is famous
for its technical difficulties, and was sung with a perfect pitch, clear
coloratura, and the incredible ability to be "expressive" while singing
virtuosistic passages. Arpeggios and e scales were "interpreted",
phrased musically, not simply "performed" and to be able to be that
expressive in such moments is possible only with a supreme control of
the voice. Simply unbelievable were the 'smorzando' on higher notes and
the pianissimi. ... Sumi Jo is probably the greatest coloratura soprano
you can nowadays listen in world theaters, that's it. ..."
Has anybody seen her performance in this opera? I happened to find she
performed the role agian in Israel this early August. Who is Sumi
Jo?????
Did she ever record this role?
Bachner
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Piero
>Has anybody seen her performance in this opera? I happened to find she
>performed the role agian in Israel this early August. Who is Sumi
>Jo?????
>Did she ever record this role?
>
>Bachner
I heard in april 1998 Sumi Jo as Zerbinetta in Torino, Italy. She was good
and had a great personal success.
Sumi Jo is a good coloratura soprano, and also her Zerbinetta is good. But
to be honest, i think the Zerbinetta of Natalie Dessay it's better, among
the Zerbinettas of today.
Jo is recording a lot of recitals on Erato label. She also recorded
Zerbinetta on Virgin Classics label in the original version, conducted by
Kent Nagano.
Ciao
Piero
Eleanor
Zerbinetta in Tel-Aviv on 24 July with the Israel Philharmonic with Mehta
conducting.
What a truly thrilling performance.
What a shame the same can't be said about Sharon Sweet's Ariadne as she sat
(instead of enacting her part as did everyone else) with legs far apart
READING her role with reading glasses. Vocally I felt she was as
disappointing as Sumi Jo was thrilling. Her voice was heavy and very
unromantic.
Cheers, Ellie
bac...@my-deja.com
it twice. This is the album I'd like to recommend to all Strauss
adorers. This is the first attempted recording of the original 1912
version (Does anybody know why Strauss revised this opera?), longer and
a tone higher. Sumi Jo is, in one adjective, DAZZLING! She has an
incredible breath control. Her colorature singing in high passages are
very clear like a strong silver-bell,yet firm,controlled and poised with
pinpoint accuracy. Her characterization of Zerbinetta is very playful
and somewhat sensuous. Margaret Price, one of my favorite singers, is
very nice as Ariadne, too. But a bit disappointing. Did Dessay also have
a recording of this opera? If she has, is it an original version?
Actually, I can't imagine a better recording than this one. It seems to
me opera world is very harsh, as more and more new talented singers
emerge and we tend to judge their talents and compare with one another.
But probably it all depends on your tastes.
Scott Tisdel
I too have raved about Sumi Jo more than once in this group, and I have
gotten the same mixed response-- Apparently you either love her or you
hate her! You can count me in the the former camp-- Her original version
Zerbinetta is astonishing, as are the "opera excerpt" recordings that I've
heard (She sings the most marvelous "Glitter and be Gay" from Candide
imaginable!).
The original Ariadne was an unusual hybrid that combined an updated
staging of Moliere's play, Le Bourgeios Gentilhomme (to which Strauss
supplied incidental music), with the full-fledged opera Ariadne. This
version is an artistic triumph, in my opinion, but it is rather long, and
it requires two separate casts, so it is very expensive to do. So, in the
interest of practicality, the librettist Hofmannsthal created a new, much
shorter Prologue, where Moliere is jettisoned intirely. Strauss, since he
was already creating a new version, decided to also revise Zerbinetta's
music in the opera, to make it easier and shorter, again in the interest
of practicality. However, he certainly didn't make it better! Anyone who
has heard the original version (as sung by Sumi Jo) I'm sure would agree
with me. By the way, some time ago I posted a review of the Sumi Jo
Ariadne that went into some detail comparing the different versions. If
anyone would like, I can re-post it on this thread, or I can send it to
you via E-mail.
Scott Tisdel
Mark D. Lew
Tisdel) wrote:
> I too have raved about Sumi Jo more than once in this group, and I have
> gotten the same mixed response-- Apparently you either love her or you
> hate her!
This is perhaps because she excels at a very specific type of music which
lies at one extreme of the opera continuum. People who like that sort of
music find her divine; people who don't find her uninteresting.
My one live experience with Sumi Jo was during my years in the chorus with
SF Symphony, when she sang the soprano solos in Carmina Burana. Her
"Stetit puella" and "In trutina" were pleasant but unremarkable, but her
"Dulcissime" was one of the most exquisite things I've ever heard.
I think that pretty much sums her up as an artist. She has the good sense
to know what she does well, and she focuses on that. But not everyone has
an appetite for an entire CD or recital with nothing but "tweety" music.
mdl
bac...@my-deja.com
> Ariadne that went into some detail comparing the different versions.
If
> anyone would like, I can re-post it on this thread, or I can send it
to
> you via E-mail.
>
> Scott Tisdel
Could you please re-post it to share your knowledge? Thanks!
Scott Tisdel
> By the way, some time ago I posted a review of the Sumi Jo
> > Ariadne that went into some detail comparing the different versions.
> If
> > anyone would like, I can re-post it on this thread, or I can send it
> to
> > you via E-mail.
> >
> > Scott Tisdel
>
>
> Could you please re-post it to share your knowledge? Thanks!
Ask and ye shall recieve! WARNING-- It's long! (But hopefully not too boring)
SKT
I would like to give the highest possible recommendation to a new
recording of Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, with Margaret Price- Ariadne,
Sumi Jo- Zerbinetta, Gösta Winbergh- Bacchus, and Kent Nagano conducting
the Orchestre de L'Opera National de Lyon. Why, you ask, with all the
excellent recordings of this opera, is this one special? Because this is
the first recording of the Original Version, which is much different than
the popular Revised Version, and is, in my view, superior. For those that
are interested, what follows is a brief summary of the substantial
differences between the versions:
Ariadne auf Naxos exists in no less than three versions: a) The play (Le
Bourgeois Gentilhomme) and the opera; b) The opera without the play, but
with a new prologue, and; c) The play without the opera. There is also,
of course, the Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite, which draws from a) and c).
The familiar version, of course, is b), now published by Dover, while a)
and c) are completely unknown. A) is certainly much more than a
curiosity-- it comes right on the heels of Rosenkavalier, and not only
contains most of the great Bourgeois music, but contains many passages in
the opera later cut in b). All of these passages are well worth hearing.
C) is rather uneven, but also contains much wonderful music.
There are four major changes, in the opera portion, between a) and b)--
Zerbinettaąs aria, the following Zerbinetta/Comedians scene, Zerbinettaąs
later scene, and the end. The changes to Zerbinettaąs aria are
substantial, bringing the second half down a step, from E-major to D-major
(the modulation accomplished with a 20 bar cut), cutting the middle łA˛
and łC˛ sections out of the ABACA rondo portion, and substituting a new
and much shorter coda. Strauss did it for practical reasons, but every
note of what he sacrificed is genius!! ItŚs interesting that everything
Iąve ever read about this grand scena describes it as a
Recitative--Aria--Rondo finale, despite the fact that the revised version
is not a Rondo, but an ABA!!!
The three short cuts in the following Zerbinetta/Comedians Scene are not
as noticable, but I still give the nod to the original. For instance,
towards the end there is a wonderful mini mock love duett between
Zerbinetta and Harlekin, where they sing in octaves for 9 bars ("Hand und
Lippe, Mund und Hand! Welch ein zuckend Zauberband.) This is led up to
much more beautifully in the original, whereas the revision inexplicably
cuts 12 bars, making the "love duet" much less of a climax, and hence much
less effective.
Zerbinettaąs second scena (right before Bacchus' arrival) fared far worse,
being completely eliminated in b). Strauss axed it because it łheld up
the action˛, but to me this is ridiculous because Ariadne is by design a
completely static opera-- There is no łaction˛ to hold up!! Not only did
Strauss resign a huge chunk of gorgeous music to oblivion, he created a
very bad cut in the revised version. Bacchus' arrival in the revised
version has always sounded poorly prepared and banal to me, but in the
original it is fully justified, having been preceeded by a long orchestral
buildup.
But the most serious change of all occurs at the very end, and this
affects mightily the very nature of the whole opera. The whole point of
Zerbinetta and the Comedians, the Prologue in b), and the play in a), was
to place the serious parts of Ariadne in a kind of ironic context, sort of
a subtle spoof of the Wagnerian ideal. It is vital that this context be
re-established at the end, when the huge climaxes threaten to push
everything else into the background. In the original, this is made
explicit, with short scenes both for Zerbinetta and her friends, then
Jourdain himself, the łhero˛ of Le Bourgeois. In the revised version we
have simply a short orchestral postlude which tries hard but, in the end,
fails to convince. We are left with a distressingly conventional ending
to an extremely unconventional opera. Strauss always said that he created
the revised version only to have a more practical version, and he always
retained a fondness for the original. If he had known the extent to which
the original would completely disappear from the repertiore, he might have
thought twice about these revisions.
Since recording the entire Bourgeois Gentilhomme play would have been
impractical, Nagano's recording substitutes a series of monologues, which,
it must be noted, are the least successful aspect of this recording. They
are strangely unfunny and don't always seem to have a whole lot to do with
the music. (For instance, you never learn from the narration that the
number after "The Tailors" is actually the pit orchestra rehearsing the
overture to Ariadne offstage.) Other live performances of the Bourgeois
incidental music have had much funnier narration (by the Milwaukee and
Chicago Symphonies, for example).
So of primary interest in this recording are the heretofore unknown vocal
numbers in Bourgeois (though Nagano takes the glorious "Shepherds Duett"
too fast, so you miss a lot of the harmony), and the restored cut sections
of Ariadne. I am floored by the unbelievable brilliance of the original
Zerbinetta's aria, and the astonishing performance by Sumi Jo. When you
think about it, she had a thankless task-- The vast majority of CD-buying
public has no idea how much more music there is for her to sing in this
version, and has no idea how much more difficult it is to sing the
majority of it up a step!! Hearing Sumi Jo's performance alone is well
worth the price of this recording.
In fact, the only advantage to the revised version is the prologue, which
contains some of Strauss' most glorious music. I'm waiting for an
enterprising producer to combine the two versions, which I think is
possible: First an extremely cut version of Bourgeios, perhaps only with
narration &/or dance-pantomine, followed by the Prologue from the revised
version, then the opera from the original. It makes for a long evening,
but the Bourgeois music totals only 30 minutes, and a spoken form of the
Prologue existed in the original, so such a scenario could work. Perhaps,
with this wonderful new recording, producers can realize that such a
project would be worthwhile.
Happy listening!!
Scott Tisdel
Scott Tisdel
> By the way, some time ago I posted a review of the Sumi Jo
> > Ariadne that went into some detail comparing the different versions.
> If
> > anyone would like, I can re-post it on this thread, or I can send it
> to
> > you via E-mail.
> >
> > Scott Tisdel
>
>
> Could you please re-post it to share your knowledge? Thanks!
Ask and ye shall recieve! WARNING-- It's long! (but hopefully not too boring!)
bac...@my-deja.com
versions of "Ariadne auf Noxos". I came to know a lot about this
opera, and my curiosity about the reason why Strauss revised it seems to
be answered thanks to your posting. After reading your review of the
opera, somehow I desire to see the real performance of the original
version on stage!