Caught a few moments of the Liceu (I think) Gioconda as webcast. Actually my timing was horrendous and what I mostly caught was about two hours of intermission features as I waited first for the second act of the Covent Garden Fanciulla. Then I noticed the Gioconda was on, and switched over to that, cathing about thirty seconds of singing that informed me I had missed some of the best music. And then another forty five minutes of intermission features. For what it's worth, consolation-wise, I am told that "The Note" did not work out all that happily for Voigt, who nonetheless sounded swell in the screaming match with Laura. It's a bit hard to know, though. Broadcasts don't give an entirely fair picture of how a soprano whose many glories do not include a booming chest register ("totenreich!" was always a little bit of a compromise) is doing with a lowish role. Mostly, of course, I was reduced to gnashing my teeth over having missed "Voce di Donna," the Italian text of which translates to: I am Ewa Podles and I am yet again stealing the goddamn show in a five minute role. You'll note a certain similarity if you read my singing translation of Rheingold's Erda scene, but what of it? Anyway I'm promised a gigantor email containing said scene, so for the moment you can picture me pacing about like some internet-addled version of Amneris, long about the judgment scene. I suppose in some updated version she's perfectly likely to keep googling "Radames" to see if the Drudge Report has any advanced word on his sentence, instead of the whole "the stage director told me to look anguished and I am going to lose some weight while I do it" routine.
Meahwhile, the Laura, who at first impressed me as a bit loud, as the act wore on began to seem rather exemplary. I think her name was Fiorello. Wonder who's to sing it when Urmana takes her turn at the Metropolitan. Urmana has what sounds like a really healthy technique, to me, and ought to make good work of The Note, though I'm not sure she has a wrenching Suicidio in her yet, in terms of acting.
I mean to create some links soon to people who are actually knowledgeable and not just blowing smoke like me. My friend with the unamplified voice (see auv at this same site) has given me a bit of advice on how to do this.