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Apr. 10th, 2013 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretPeter Gelb got up on the stage before last night's Met production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. He said "I have bad news and good news." The bad new, bringing instant hisses from the crowd, was that Natalie Dessay, set to star as Cleopatra, was ill. This is the bane of opera. A singer who is sick threatens to do serious damage to their vocal cords if they sing anyway, so most are extremely cautious with illnesses. But paying huge sums to see a star singer who cancels at the last minute it immensely frustrating to an audience. The good news, then, was that Danielle DiNiese happened to be in town. DiNiese premiered this production of Cesare at Glyndebourne seven or eight years ago, and has also sung the role spectacularly in the Met's old production. If Dessay is a star singer with great talent, DiNiese is a star who is tailor-made for this particular role. I was not disappointed with the swap. If anything, I thought it an upgrade. (Some of the opera gossip blogs are speculating that it was an intentional upgrade.)
Baroque opera is tricky and maddeningly inconsistent. There are so many arias in Cesare. Some of the them are brilliant, some of them are mediocre. Some of them are difficult to sing. Some of them are easy. David Daniels's first aria as Caesar was sung weakly and to poor effect, and I began to dread the loss of vocal power that comes from giving the role to a countertenor instead of a soprano, but he came on strong later. Caesar and Cleopatra are both such interesting roles, with the music and the libretto both constantly giving the audience room to speculate about the evolving sincerity of these two master connivers. Other musical characterizations are less interesting- Ptolemy as vain and foolish, Sesto as foolhardy and naive, Cornelia as stubbornly chauvinistic in her patriotism, Achillas as an incompetent rapist.
But we might credit librettist Haym for a brilliant job of what Harry Keeler calls 'motiving', designing character motivations so they drive the plot. The narrative flows smoothly because at every moment the characters have good reason to do what the plot needs them to. Their human strengths and more often their human frailties compel the narrative. Because Haym is so good at motiving, he rarely resorts to what Keeler calls 'motivating', designing the plot so it motivates the characters. The only times he uses this approach with any kind of heavyhandedness are when characters burst in unexpectedly and interrupt attempted dramatic suicides. Which happens two or three times, because opera is fucking opera. I love it so much.
The McVicar production, imported from England, is a lot of fun. It is also as maddeningly inconsistent as the opera itself. Its central thesis is a comparison of the Roman intrusion on Egypt to English colonial efforts, both in Egypt and the Indian Raj. But since that thesis doesn't actually make any sense, and is occasionally offensive, McVicar is not committed to it. Costumes pastiche across history, from the 18th century to the late 20th. The effort showcases the eclecticism of the opera, but doesn't really impart much of a coherent take on the story. Mostly it just trusts that Handel and Haym have already created a story that tells us interesting things about leadership, love, and faith.
Today is the fifteenth day of the Omer
Baroque opera is tricky and maddeningly inconsistent. There are so many arias in Cesare. Some of the them are brilliant, some of them are mediocre. Some of them are difficult to sing. Some of them are easy. David Daniels's first aria as Caesar was sung weakly and to poor effect, and I began to dread the loss of vocal power that comes from giving the role to a countertenor instead of a soprano, but he came on strong later. Caesar and Cleopatra are both such interesting roles, with the music and the libretto both constantly giving the audience room to speculate about the evolving sincerity of these two master connivers. Other musical characterizations are less interesting- Ptolemy as vain and foolish, Sesto as foolhardy and naive, Cornelia as stubbornly chauvinistic in her patriotism, Achillas as an incompetent rapist.
But we might credit librettist Haym for a brilliant job of what Harry Keeler calls 'motiving', designing character motivations so they drive the plot. The narrative flows smoothly because at every moment the characters have good reason to do what the plot needs them to. Their human strengths and more often their human frailties compel the narrative. Because Haym is so good at motiving, he rarely resorts to what Keeler calls 'motivating', designing the plot so it motivates the characters. The only times he uses this approach with any kind of heavyhandedness are when characters burst in unexpectedly and interrupt attempted dramatic suicides. Which happens two or three times, because opera is fucking opera. I love it so much.
The McVicar production, imported from England, is a lot of fun. It is also as maddeningly inconsistent as the opera itself. Its central thesis is a comparison of the Roman intrusion on Egypt to English colonial efforts, both in Egypt and the Indian Raj. But since that thesis doesn't actually make any sense, and is occasionally offensive, McVicar is not committed to it. Costumes pastiche across history, from the 18th century to the late 20th. The effort showcases the eclecticism of the opera, but doesn't really impart much of a coherent take on the story. Mostly it just trusts that Handel and Haym have already created a story that tells us interesting things about leadership, love, and faith.
Today is the fifteenth day of the Omer
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Date: 2013-04-10 09:58 pm (UTC)David Daniels... I've listened to recordings of his that I think are amazing (his "Ombra mai fu," parts of the Pergolesi Stabat Mater), and recordings of his that just left me totally cold (...most of the rest of his Baroque CD). I have no idea what I'd think of him live, but I'd love to find out :)
Cesare was one of the first operas I ever saw, back when an acquaintance conned me into buying student season passes so he'd have someone to go with -- it was one of his favorites, and he tried to communicate to me why this was, but unfortunately I didn't have the slightest clue, and I didn't appreciate it at all. I wish I could go back and watch some of the operas I watched that year, now that I appreciate opera more.
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Date: 2013-04-10 11:11 pm (UTC)I think it's my second time seeing Daniels live, after his Prospero in The Enchanted Island. I'm pretty sure he's singing Oberon next season, which I can't wait to see. I've seen him do Oberon on DVD and I loved it. But I've also had inconsistent feelings about his singing on recordings.