MetaChat REGISTER   ||   LOGIN   ||   IMAGES ARE OFF   ||   RECENT COMMENTS




artphoto by splunge
artphoto by TheophileEscargot
artphoto by Kronos_to_Earth
artphoto by ethylene

Home

About

Search

Archives

Mecha Wiki

Metachat Eye

Emcee

IRC Channels

IRC FAQ


 RSS


Comment Feed:

RSS

17 December 2011

A Pair of Queens I've been watching a lot of opera on Youtube lately, and specifically Mozart's "Die Zauberflote" [More:] I've become fascinated with the different approaches to the same aria, here, specifically, the Holle Rache from the second act. Compare Natalie Dessay bringing the crazycakes to the party to Diana Damrau's positively menacing Queen.

(A side note, in both of the clips above, the part of the Quieen of the Night's daughter Pamina, is played by the incomparable Dorothea Röschmann- who incidentally sings the loveliest, most haunting rendition of Ach, ich fühl’s I think I've ever heard.)
Dessay's crazy is fun. Crazy and Mozart always go well together. I also like this one from Diana Damrau.
posted by arse_hat 17 December | 15:38
Wow, Dorothea's sound is gorgeous. I love singers from either end of the range who can bring it like mezzos.

I don't think I have a favorite Holle Rache because I'm in a perpetual sulk over the fact that it's pretty much not possible to get the high notes out as angrily as I would like to hear them, and so the contrast between the pretty tinkly bell notes and the rest of the aria feels off to me (as here; electric until the staccati and then ... is it just me?) I love both Dessay and Damrau's acting, however. Dessay tends not to grab me so much emotionally as technically (I used to listen to her Lakmé on repeat... Mady Mesplé's, too). But she does the shattering-to-pieces-while-everyone-watches-in-paralyzed-horror thing very well.

Damrau I just love in general, not the least because she's not afraid to be unpretty on stage. Boss willing, I will be stealing off to the Met sometime in March to catch her with Flórez in L'Elisir d'Amore. I was so mad when I found out I had missed them both in Le comte Ory earlier this year. Can't wait to see them play together onstage.

For your listening pleasure, I submit:
Laura Claycomb, animatronically creepy in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. I went to The Capulets and the Montagues a couple of years back, expecting mostly to geek out over Vivica Genaux, but was very surprised by Claycomb.

And Delphine Galou (as a very furioso Orlando), a dramatic contralto with ridiculous breath support whom I cannot wait to see live someday.
posted by notquitemaryann 18 December | 23:37
Edda Moser's tessitura is just not right for the piece, I think. I love Dessay as well and am sad that her recent illnesses have kept her off the stage. Damrau just rocks my world, though. She's a force of nature.

Oh, and I envy you the circumstance that allows you to even have the option of thinking about stealing off to the Met to catch a performance.
posted by pjern 19 December | 00:34
The door is ajar! || Xmas Tunes

HOME  ||   REGISTER  ||   LOGIN