Hello Rashida, musicians and lovers...

 

Rashida asked what I thought of the Met's performance of La fille du regiment on screen. I enjoyed it. This medium, larger than life, is one to become accustomed to.  The singing was superb Juan Diego Florez is the  tenor voice for which I admit a bias. Having grown up around the voice with  Dad and an uncle. And I am thoroughly happy that  bel canto is revived. The acclaimed aria, "Ah mes amis quel jour de fete," was as expected, amazing. During the intermission Florez spoke of the greater difficulty of the second act aria, "Pour me rapproche."  Interesting, how audiences go wild for the high Cs and may not appreciate the difficulty of a legato, lyric line. I do not say that I expected anything "wrong," but a momentary twitch on Florez's face may have not indicated  that he was as pleased with that aria, yesterday.

 

Natalie Dessay was my favorite. She is such fun, with spectacular French energy and comedic flair. She more than held her own after the wonderful "Ah. mes..." I won't say she was in competition, but after the extended applause for Florez, she put something extra in the presentation. I like the intermission interviews. Both--all the musicians, come-off as really nice people. No diva personas. 

 

I know that the opera has had many interpretations--I read the information at the Met site--but I felt that, in trying to be contemporary, the director went a bit over the top at some points. I'm just  concerned by the effort (needed) to win new audiences to this beautiful art form  can be pandering.

 

I was sitting with friends,  One of their friends announced that he had brought his daughter, that this opera is a good one to "break her in." I think he meant that winning a young person  to beautiful music today requires competing with pop culture.

 

It was a great day.The Met is repeating LaBoheme, that I missed, on May 14th. I hope to see it this time.

 

This is more than you asked or wanted, I am no critic just music lover.  It is wonderful that two theaters were filled, when other rooms held sparse attendance. The Met is expanding its film offering next year. I am concerned by the lack of starring singers of color. We know of the prejudice against males of color. I do believe there is one orchestral member of color, a trumpet player since the death of the trombonist. I understand the reasons--including the larger number of Asians in classical music, but there is, also, a lack of sensitivity.

 

I recently watched a few shows of the series "So you want to be an opera singer." The lone black contestant was not well trained, with a thick voice and overly stylized. There are young women and men around who have "star/Met quality." Where are they?

 

Remember the comment in the article I sent, earlier.  A US producer said that he didn't know there were so many opera companies in Europe. Poor duck. The US culture, including the educational system has really done a poor service.