Friday, October 19, 2007

Crystal Ball

New thing I'm oddly excited about: the ever reliable Met Futures Page lists an upcoming revival (new production? Do they even have a production?) of Adriana with Guleghina and Kaufmann. How high does the Simionato role lie? Could Podles do it? I suppose Borodina is a more likely choice, or DZ. Yeah, I barely know Adriana and I associate it wholly with Magda, which is to say, Guleghina WTF? But anyway my interest is piqued.

8 comments:

La Cieca said...

The Principessa di Bouillon is relatively low for an Italian dramatic mezzo role. Not as low as, say, La Cieca, but lower than Laura. Higher mezzo voices tend to succeed with the part because it's rather short; in other words, they can sing full-bore the whole time without having to finesse anything.

I don't think Zajick has ever done the part in a staged production, so presumably the role would be offered first to Borodina. But then on the other hand the already announced casting sounds so perverse that the Principessa could end up being Frederica von Stade for all I know.

Maury D'annato said...

Ah, see, perfect summary of what I was wanting to know. Kaufmann sounds perverse, though? His voice was so weirdly big and dark for Alfredo I figured maybe a more dramatic role was right. But again, I have only a glancing familiarity with the opera, so I don't even know if that's really what, uh, Herman, or whatever the tenor's name is, is. Maybe Licitra should do it since he's so much more appealing in verismo than anything else.

Anonymous said...

The Met does have a production of Adriana: saw it more than 10 years ago with Freni and Luis Lima. I think Sherrill Milnes was also in the cast. Don't remember who the Princess was.

jondrytay said...

At the risk of being pointlessly controversial, I've always been of the opinion that once you've heard 'Io son l'umile ancella', you've heard Adriana.

I'm also of the wtf persuasion when it comes to Guleghina. Her voice has always struck me as rather more of a sofa than a soffio.

Mark said...

Dear armerjaquino,

You are wrong about Adriana.

Love ya babe!

xoxoo, Mark

Anonymous said...

Meretrice said:

With a good actress, the Act 3 recitation is worth hearing. Scotto is electrifying in that scene.

Mark said...

Yes! the act 3 scene is great just like Meretrice says--- at the conclusion of it the crowd cheers Scotto/Adriana: "Brava! Sublime! Brava! Sublime!", while the princess is looking daggers at her and it is, well, major fun and one of those moments that draws me to opera. The tenor has some very pretty lines elsewhere in the opera too.

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