Svetla Vassileva (Leonora) was top class with several 'tricks' including
pianissimo broadening to forte with very long breath control. Still not a unique voice but very pleasant
quality and pin-point control and accuracy.
Fine looking woman with good acting abilities.
Riccardo Massi (Don Alvaro) like so many tenors somewhat awkward. Yet a gifted top, despite some ugliness in
the delivery at times. The black eyes
and a tall, lumbering frame made him look like someone from the Adams
Family. Hard to imagine him trying to
look handsome as the eloping party in the opening scene in which he goofed with
the gun and accidentally killed his potential father-in-law (this is opera,
ladies and gentlemen).
As Don Carlo di Calatrava was veteran baritone Jonathan Summers in
excellent form despite turning 67 this year … he looks and sounds far younger … that's another sign of a 'pro' in any
field.
Giacomo Prestia (Padre Guardiano) marvellous basso with the rest. Hard to imagine anyone doing this role any
better.
Same could be said of Ms Rinat Shaham (Preziosilla) who pulled out all
the stops as obviously demanded by the director, and some vocal risks to
boot. She has an effective trill and a
high extension which was used well on all but one occasion with a slightly
clipped ?B flat …
but no shame in that for a mezzo. It is
still surprising that an Australian could not have been available of the same
or even better calibre.
Warwick Fyfe was simply excellent dramatically and vocally with his
booming almost blustering voice as the impatient, intolerant and irreverent
monk Melitone.
Despite enjoying this opera at the time, I am now feeling that we were
lacking a star to raise the rest to an even higher level. The singers were all very good but somehow
there was a focus on accuracy, high notes, trills, etc but lacking a particular
unique characteristic or rare beauty of voice, things which cannot be
learned. Someone with the accuracy,
technique, projection ability PLUS distinct vocal beauty is automatically a
star in my book … we
have not heard a real star in Sydney for a number of years now (is there an
exception to this I wonder?). Indeed
such singers are quickly snapped up by the great opera houses and become the
talk of the field, recordings, media darlings and sometimes mythology - Melba
farewells and ‘muck-singing’ for example.
When people look back at the decades of the 20th century there were half
a dozen in each who fitted the bill so such 'stardom' is a pretty rare
commodity. In the 1980s and 90s the
Australian audience enjoyed Sutherland routinely but also heard Pavarotti,
Leona Mitchell, Johan Botha, Lisa Connell, Sumi Jo, Regina Schorg, Donald
McIntyre, Vinson Cole, Marilyn Zschau, Eva Marton, Carol Vaness, Peter Glossop,
Sherril Milnes, Huguette Tourangeau, Marilyn Horne (concert only), Kiri Te
Kanawa, Fiorenza Cossotto, Pilar Loringar, Regina Resnik and Angelo Marenzi (a
very incomplete list).
Like Tiger Woods with golf and all the other names one associates with
the top people in tennis, athletics, football, etc. Star quality is easy to recognise when it
comes along, even by people who don't know much about ballet/sport/music, etc. As a boy I once saw Richie Benaud bat from
the hill at the SCG and it was entrancing … and I’m no cricket fan.
Part of the enjoyment is observing the reactions of other members of the
audience, and likewise, bad vibes from neighbours can spoil what might
otherwise be a perfectly creditable ‘performance’. Most of
all, stars pull in a new audience and Pavarotti was probably the most important
star of our era to popularise opera as Callas, Caruso, Melba and other ‘immortals’ did in the past.
Am I expecting too much? Of
course I am. I want a bigger hall with
better acoustics. I want bigger
orchestra plus STAR quality opera singers.
And a free car park.
In the intermissions the administrative staff members all looked very
pleased with themselves. Yet it is their
company which has now replaced over two months of traditional opera with musical
comedy while also failing to produce many if any true international stars in
their seasons until very recently. The
subscriber base has been contracting due to so much repetition of poor quality
opera so now the company do not need to schedule so many opera performances ...
it is a repeating cycle and one wonders where it will end.
Looking forward to a new Tosca next week. But I looked forward to the last two
productions, too. \
Notes by Andrew Byrne ..
