Angela Gheorghiu: Chi il bel sogno di Doretta

Angela Gheorghiu canta "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta", da opera de Puccini "La Rondine"

Vissi d'arte

Minha amiga Monica Valente, leitora do blog e particularmente entusiasta da parte cultural, solicitou ouvir esta ária, "Vissi d'arte" da opera Tosca, de Puccini, cantada pela soprano neozelandesa Kiri Te kanawa.

Julia Migenes é Carmen, no filme com Placido Domingo

Opera imaginaire: Carmen de Bizet

Chanteurs à la croix de bois

Ah, non credea mirarti...

Natalie Dessay canta "Ah! non credea mirarti" e a cabaletta "Ah, non giunge" de La Sonambula de VINCENZO BELLINI (1801-1835). New York 2006.

Traduções (muito) aproximadas pelas quais peço desculpas.

Ah, não pensei em ver tão rápido extintas as flores,
passadas como o amor, que só um dia durou.
Talvez minhas lágrimas te ressuscitem,
mas ressuscitar o amor, elas não poderão.
Inconcebível sentimento de plenitude no qual me custa acreditar
você me promete, meu tesouro.
O, beija-me e estaremos sempre juntos e
unidos por um único desejo
de fazer do mundo em que vivemos,
um paraíso de amor.


Ah, non credea mirarti si presto estinto, o fiore;
passasti al par d'amore, che un giorno sol(o) duro.
Potria novel vigore il pianto mio recarti
ma ravvivar l'amore il pianto mio, ah no, non puo.
Ah, non giunge uman pensiero al contento ond'io son piena:
a miei sensi io credo appena; tu m'affida o mio tesor.
Ah, mi abbraccia, e sempre insieme, sempre uniti in una speme,
della terra, in cui viviamo ci formiamo un ciel d'amor.


Oh, I didn't believe to see you
so quickly extinct, o flowers;
you have passed away like love
that one day only lasted.
Perhaps new life my tears will bring to you
but to revive love my tears, o no, cannot.
O, inconceivable human thoughta wave of contentment I am full
In my feelings I can hardly believe
you assure me, o my darling.
O, embrace me, and always together, always united in a single hope,of the world we live in,
we will make a heaven of love.

Der rosenkavalier

Anne Howells (Octavian), Barbara Bonney (Sophie) sing 'Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren' from Richard Strauss's 'Der rosenkavalier, Royal Opera House Covent Garden 1985.

Opera imaginaire: "la Cenerentola"

"Lascia Ch'io Pianga", Philippe Jaroussky

E agora ouçam a mesma aria de Handel cantada por um contratenor. Sublime!

Lascia ch'io Pianga na versão do filme Farinelli -

Aria da opera Rinaldo de Handel, que no filme é cantada por Ewa Mallas-Godlewska soprano, e Derek Lee Ragin contra-tenor. O filme Farinelli de Gerard Corbieau foi nominado no festival de Cannes em 1996 e a cantora ganhou o disco de oro no mesmo ano, após vender mais de 2 milhões de copias.

Os contos de Hoffmann de Jacques Offenbach

Anne Sophie von Otter and Stephanie d'Oustrac sing the Barcarolle from Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Addio del passato - La Traviata de Giusseppe Verdi com Teresa Stratas e Placido Domingo

La Traviata de Giusseppe Verdi com Teresa Stratas e Placido Domingo

-Noi Siamo Zingarelle",
"Di Madride Noi Siam Mattadori", Orquestra dirigida por André Levine. Do filme de Franco Zeffirelli "La Traviata"

L'Opéra Imaginaire: Lakmé - Léo Delibes - "Viens Mallika ...". Para Teo

Uma beleza em desenhos, nas imagens, em criatividade e na música sublime.

Para todas as idades a consumir sem moderação.

Tristan und Isolde de Richard Wagner - Liebestod por Waltraud Meier

Maria Callas canta "Una Voce Poco Fa"

da opera IL BARBIERE DI SAVIGLIA, de Rossini. Recital de Hamburgo 1959.

"O patria mia" da opera Aida de Verdi cantado por Leontyne Price

Backstage Opera: The Met Punches Holes in the ‘Cover’ System

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Published: October 20, 2007

The Metropolitan Opera’s new strategy of plugging sudden holes in its casts with big names has its beneficiaries.

Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Roberto Alagna, left, as Radames in “Aida.”

Related

An audio excerpt from Roberto Alagna's live performance of 'Aida' at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, Oct. 15.
"The first aria in Act I"

Raul Melo performing "Che Gelida Manina" from "La Boheme" (mp3)

The emergency performers come off like cavalry to the rescue and incidentally collect big extra fees: sometimes more than $13,000 a performance. The Met gets a nice dose of publicity for the opera behind the opera. And the audience, the house contends, benefits from hearing the great artists of the times.

“Where possible we should have star singers sing in all performances,” said Peter Gelb, the house’s general manager. “The public is not interested in someone not singing. They want to hear the stars.”

But there is one loser, and that is the poor “cover” singer, as understudies are called in the opera house. These are the solid journeymen who stay on the island of Manhattan no more than 15 or 20 minutes away during a performance in case a singer becomes sick. In the past at the Met, a sudden illness could mean the chance for one of these unheralded performers to have a moment in the sun, to absorb some applause and perhaps help jump-start a career.

The new policy came clear this week after several high-wire tenor substitutions. According to the original schedule, Roberto Alagna was supposed to sing the role of Pinkerton in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” on Monday. Marco Berti was to sing the role of Radames in Verdi’s “Aida” on Tuesday.

Mr. Berti fell ill. So Mr. Alagna was shifted to Radames, and Marcello Giordani, another high-profile tenor who has been singing Edgardo in “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the house, agreed at the last minute to step in as Pinkerton. Mr. Giordani did the same on Oct. 6, taking on a last-minute Roméo in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” when the tenor Joseph Kaiser became ill.

Raúl Melo lost out both times, as Pinkerton and Roméo. Mr. Melo, who lives in Brooklyn and has had a respectable 14-year career singing in major European opera houses, has been covering roles regularly at the Met for the last three seasons. He has gone on only once, as the Duke in Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” And he was sick himself that night to boot.

He sounded philosophical about his recent misses. It was nothing personal, he said, just business. “This is my job,” he said. “It’s part of the deal.” As for Mr. Giordani, Mr. Melo said: “He’s doing what he has to do to move his career forward. I’m doing what I have to do because I signed a contract.”

Mr. Melo declined to specify his fee, but being passed over for Mr. Giordani meant a loss of decent income. He said principal covers generally earn $1,500 to $3,000 at the Met per performance, but their fee goes up to $5,000 to $8,000 if they appear. Mr. Gelb declined to confirm the figures or say what the cover system costs. Assuming that average cover costs for a performance are $4,000, the total could be close to $1 million a season, if not more.

It is a bit frustrating, Mr. Melo said, that despite his accomplishments, he is not perceived as a star. The reasons are “basically, luck, timing and press agents,” he said.

“If I knew what to do,” he added, “I’d do it. I’m a player.”

But the bottom line is that the Met considers him good enough for its stage. “You’re on the roster,” he said. “We’re in alphabetical order with everybody else.”

In an interview, Mr. Giordani said he felt sorry for Mr. Melo. “But what can I do?” he added. “It’s business.” He pointed out that patrons are paying hundreds of dollars to hear big names. “You have to have respect for the audience,” he said.

He slipped right into the role of Pinkerton, having sung it 13 times last season in the same production, although a stage director stood in the wings reminding him of movements.

In an interview, Mr. Alagna said he had been a cover before and also understood Mr. Melo’s disappointment, but he pointed out that sometimes a lesser-known singer can hurt his career by performing poorly as a fill-in. Mr. Alagna, smiling, then brought up the Gospel story of Jesus’ anointment with expensive perfume, when Judas Iscariot objected that the money should be used for the poor. Jesus replied that the poor would always exist but that he would not always be there.

“You will never have me forever,” Mr. Alagna said. “Better to have me now.”

Mr. Alagna was asked to sing Radames on Monday, right before undergoing a root canal. The first thing he did was check with Mr. Giordani to make sure he would take on Pinkerton. If the job went to a lesser singer, he said, he would be blamed.

Skip to next paragraph

Related

An audio excerpt from Roberto Alagna's live performance of 'Aida' at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, Oct. 15.
"The first aria in Act I"

Raul Melo performing "Che Gelida Manina" from "La Boheme" (mp3)

On Tuesday, he said, he sat in his favorite spot in Central Park, within view of his wife, the soprano Angela Gheorghiu, from their suite at the Essex House on Central Park South. There he studied the score and meditated. Two hours before the curtain, an assistant director showed him pictures of the production and described his movements.

The performance was well received, and Mr. Alagna said it “exorcised the ghost” of a highly publicized event last year, when he was booed at the Teatro Alla Scala while singing Radames and walked off stage. He was later banned from the house by management. The incident added pressure, he said, because a poor performance at the Met would have confirmed the negative opinion.

“After what happened at La Scala, Peter showed his confidence in me,” he said.

Mr. Gelb said his change in policy did not mean that lesser-known singers would not have a chance at the Met. He said he had made efforts to bring in young, promising performers for several performances of a run.

What has changed, he said, is the default position of giving a cover the job of filling in for a sick principal, and the previous practice of letting a cover sing one performance, with the big-name performer taking on the cover role for that night. He pointed out that a number of major European opera houses do not even use the cover system but scramble to find replacements as needed and are sometimes even forced to cancel a performance.

There is a bottom line to all this. When Mr. Alagna was announced as Tuesday’s Radames, the house sold out that day, Mr. Gelb said. The extra take was $20,000.

And covers still get a chance at the Met. Late yesterday the house announced that Maria Gavrilova, the cover, would step in for an ailing Patricia Racette in “Madama Butterfly” last night.

Angela GHEORGHIU -Un bel di vedremo- Madama Butterfly

Music Video: Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu sings the aria "Un bel di vedremo", from Puccini's opera 'Madama Butterfly' (2004)

This video was filmed to promote Angela's album "Puccini"

Placido Domingo e Mirela Freni - Vieni la sera - "Madama Butterfly" de G. Puccini

A Room with a View - O filme de James Ivory

A room with a view... film by James Ivory, dated 1986, This scène comes often back in my mind to evocate purity and fate, also the "bourgeoisy" of this time.