[Dixielandjazz] Speaking with one's own voice.

[Steve barbone]

CAVEAT - Not Dixieland, however there are parallels between this reviewer's
thoughts about the world of Opera and the world of OKOM. Why indeed should
any musician/singer/artist be chastised for communication his/her way?

As an aside, the type of audience reaction described is precisely the reason
that I (clarinetist) don't play Petete Fleur, or Burgundy Street Blues, or
Stranger on The Shore etc., etc., etc. Critics? Bah, humbugs.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


Critic's Notebook
Deborah Voigt and Renée Fleming vs. the Ghosts of Met Divas Past

NY TIMES - By ANTHONY TOMMASINI - May 17, 2006

It was just the first intermission at the season-opening performance of
Puccini's "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera on April 22, and already some
hard-to-please buffs in the lobby could be overhead complaining about
Deborah Voigt's performance. This was Ms. Voigt's first appearance as Tosca
at the Met, a daring departure from the Strauss and Wagner roles with which
she had established her reputation.

>From the comments I heard, some patrons had decided that Ms. Voigt lacked
the classic Puccini soprano warmth and the dramatic temperament for this
touchstone role. I thought she sounded splendid and made an affectingly
vulnerable Tosca. Though her sound was a little bright, a little Nordic for
Puccini, she brought vocal charisma and shimmering power to her portrayal,
which grew stronger as the performance continued.

For the record, the audience that night gave Ms. Voigt an ardent ovation.
Still, in the following days complaints kept coming from several critics
and, not surprisingly, opera bloggers. Die-hard opera fans can be a tough
crowd.

Why shouldn't an artist of Ms. Voigt's stature be encouraged to sing
whatever she wants? She had just completed a run as Tosca at the Vienna
State Opera before taking on the role at the Met, amid the ghosts of great
Toscas past. In no interview did she claim to be an ideal Tosca. All she
wanted, it seemed, was to bring her own insights and artistry to the role.

The reaction among some audience members and critics recalls the response to
Renée Fleming when she sang her first Met performances of Violetta in
Verdi's "Traviata" during the 2003-4 season. Ms. Fleming has avoided
benchmark roles like this one, because, as she has said, she is
uncomfortable with the passion of opera buffs for comparing today's singers
with legendary artists of the past.

At the time, Ms. Fleming tried to lower expectations about her Violetta so
that she could bring her own approach to a role she loved. I found her
performance vocally luminous and deeply personal. Ms. Fleming has said that
she tends to hide behind unfamiliar repertory, like the title role of
Handel's "Rodelinda," which she sings on Friday at the Met. As grateful as I
am for her remarkable Rodelinda, I wish she felt encouraged to take on more
roles like Violetta.

The instrumental world has always been looser about letting artists stretch
themselves. The pianist Peter Serkin, for example, recently gave a Carnegie
Hall recital in which he played on a modern concert grand some Renaissance
works by Dowland and Bull intended for the virginal, an early keyboard
instrument. By juxtaposing these pieces with a new work by Elliott Carter,
he invited his willing audience to hear the hints of strangeness and
modernism in the old music and echoes of history in Mr. Carter's score.

I have heard the French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard give astounding
performances of Ligeti, Messiaen, Boulez, Berg, Ravel, Debussy, even Liszt.
His account of Schumann's "Carnaval" last October at Carnegie Hall took
adjusting to. His playing was incisive and colorful, if lacking in rhapsodic
freedom. This was not my idea of Schumann style, but it was riveting, and if
Mr. Aimard gave a Schumann recital, I'd be there.

Singers, naturally, must be more cautious in their choices. Voices take time
to settle. Young pianists can stretch their techniques by working on a
formidable Prokofiev sonata, but an aspiring lyric soprano could actually
damage her voice by trying to sing a weighty role like Strauss's Salome.

It is true that Ms. Voigt has been adjusting her voice and technique to her
slimmer, post-surgical body. How her voice has weathered the striking change
in her physique after gastric bypass in 2004 is a legitimate question for
debate. The reservations about her Tosca have come over matters of style and
temperament.

I heard Ms. Voigt sing the role again on May 5, and she was more confident
in her portrayal, both vocally and dramatically. Her conception of Tosca had
me thinking of the much more fleshed-out character we encounter in the play
by Sardou from which Puccini's opera is adapted.

In the play we learn that Tosca was a wild orphaned girl tending goats in
the field when a group of Benedictine nuns found her and took her to their
convent near Verona to rear her. As the girl grew, her singing in church
proved so extraordinary that the pope himself sanctioned her pursuit of a
musical career. 

Tosca's past is only hinted at in the opera. When we meet her, she is a
wealthy and celebrated diva. But might not her tumultuous childhood have
taken its toll? The way the great Maria Callas played her, Tosca covers any
remnants of childhood insecurity with tenacious possessiveness and blazing
jealousy over her lover Cavaradossi.

Though I may be reading too much into Ms. Voigt's portrayal, she lets more
of Tosca's insecurity come through. Tosca's life is rich with art and with
love. Yet her chaotic childhood has left this Tosca fearful that the whole
works could easily come tumbling down, as indeed it does. When the conniving
Baron Scarpia, the police chief, leads Tosca into thinking that Cavaradossi
is deceiving her with the beautiful Marchese Attavanti, Ms. Voigt's poignant
Tosca, though furious, seems utterly humiliated.

Her portrayal is a work in progress. I'd ask this of those who question Ms.
Voigt for her daring: Who are the great Toscas of the last 20 years that she
is challenging? No one has dominated the role the way Callas and Renata
Tebaldi did in the late 1950's and early 60's. When the Met's current
production by Franco Zeffirelli was introduced in 1985, the Tosca was the
soprano Hildegard Behrens. Though a compelling actress, Ms. Behrens was, if
anything, far less suited to the role vocally than Ms. Voigt.

During the 2009-10 season, the Met will present a new production with Karita
Mattila singing Tosca for the first time at the house. Though the role would
seem a stylistic stretch for this dazzling Finnish soprano as well, she
could be amazing in it. And if Ms. Mattila triumphs, I bet Ms. Voigt will be
as excited as the rest of us. She doesn't want to own the role; she just
wants to perform it. More power to her.