Tosca at the L.A. Opera
We saw Tosca at the L.A. Opera today. It was excellent — a much more satisfying experience than seeing Robert Wilson’s Parsifal recently. The music of Tosca is not as sublime as that of Parsifal, but it is beautiful nevertheless. The sets were visually pleasing, and resembled what they were supposed to resemble. Unlike the company’s recent performance of Parsifal, today’s performance featured singers who actually acted out what they were supposed to be doing. When Tosca stabbed Scarpia (“This is Tosca’s kiss!”), she actually seemed to stab him, rather than simply standing there with her hands in a funny position, singing about stabbing him.
Salvatore Licitra was in excellent voice as Cavaradossi. (He also looks a little like Todd Nichols, the lead guitarist for Toad the Wet Sprocket. That’s an observation you won’t see anywhere else.) Both Violeta Urmana and Sam Ramey were ill with the flu, but Urmana (singing the title role) performed nevertheless, and you’d have never known that she was ill. Her rendition of “Vissa d’arte” brought the house down.
We weren’t so fortunate with Ramey. He didn’t sing today. I was initially quite depressed about that, as I have never seen Ramey live before, and his performance as Scarpia was going to be a season highlight for me.
Luckily, Ramey’s replacement, Peter Lindskoog, was a perfectly fine Scarpia. He acted with a commanding presence, and did an excellent job portraying the false piety of the evil and lustful baron. His voice does not quite have the strength I expected to hear from Ramey’s voice, but Lindskoog carried it off well.
We had fabulous seats to boot — probably the best we’ll ever have at the opera. We were second row near the center, about 10 feet from conductor Kent Nagano. The proximity to the singers and orchestra certainly heightened the intensity of the experience for me, and Mrs. P. enjoyed it as well.
Today was a nice respite from Robert Wilson productions like Parsifal. Our next opera will be another Wilson production: Madama Butterfly in January. It will be more abstract staging and singers standing around like statues. Sigh. We already saw this production, a couple of years ago. It will be worth going again for the music, but sheesh! — they need to stop using that guy to stage their operas.
More productions like today’s Tosca, please.
P.S. And afterwards, we went to Dafydd ab Hugh’s for “Thanksmas.” Dafydd and Sachi prepared excellent food, and a good time was had by all. Dafydd has a full review of that here.
Bummer about Ramey taking ill (he does an excellent job of personifying evil in that role). Still it sounds as if his replacement was quite good.
It’s amazing how much proper acting adds to one’s enjoyment–and in my case, understanding–of operas.
Will you watch the New Year’s concert out of Vienna this year? My wife (a native Viennese) is upset that more Mozart will be featured at the expense of the various Strausses. I can’t complain about the selection of composers, but I’m not keen on the break with tradition.
Pigilito (0be124) — 12/19/2005 @ 12:06 amThanksmas
I had my annual Thanksmas party last night, and the — oh, should I explain that? Back when I was at university (UC Santa Cruz), I didn’t always have enough money to go home for the holidays; so I decided…
Big Lizards (fe7c9d) — 12/19/2005 @ 3:14 amPigilito, can you tell me more about this “New Year’s concert out of Vienna?” What channel is it broadcast on? What are they playing?
Thanks,
Dafydd
Dafydd (558ad8) — 12/19/2005 @ 3:36 amDafydd,
I haven’t seen it in the US for several years (I’m in Switzerland, now), but it used to come on PBS a day or two after New Years, and was always hosted by Howard Cronkite.
Every New Years the Vienna Philharmonic hosts a concert (Wikipedia entry), which traditionally showcases Strauss waltzes.
It is a chance to view and hear the highly professional Philharmonic, albeit on TV.
I hope it is shown wherever you are. The program is here. The explanation for Mozart’s presence is here.
Tickets are awarded by lottery and must be requested in January of the year before, which makes planning to attend problematic.
Best wishes, Alex
Pigilito (0be124) — 12/19/2005 @ 4:38 amCrap; make that Walter Cronkite.
Pigilito (0be124) — 12/19/2005 @ 4:40 amI’m not sure that the marriage of the Vienna Philharmonic with 19th-century Viennese dance music was ever a very happy one to begin with. Listen to recordings from 1899-1930 of Strauss Jr.’s band. Ziehrer’s band or any of the other smaller dance ensembles that dotted the landscape of the time and you’ll soon come to an analogy that looks something like this:
Vienna Philharmonic : old Viennese popular music as
Glenn Miller : Count Basie (or, I suppose, Duke Ellington)
And three cheers for Robert Wilson. Wagner tapped into myth precisely because he wanted his theatrical material to be universal, not an anecdote about conflicting social groups in a bygone century as was fashionable at the time. Wilson, whose work often evokes different Asian theatrical traditions, matches Wagner’s purposely “timeless” subject matter with echoes from the pre-modern theater. Wilson’s production might not feature 19th-century histrionics, but it does represent an attempt to take seriously that which is most radical in Wagner.
m.croche (85f703) — 12/19/2005 @ 11:20 amPatterico,
If they don’t offer you a full time job as an editor for the Op-Ed page at the LAT, maybe you should try writing their Opera reviews. I bet yours is much better than the present reviewer, if there is one (since I stopped reading their reviews, which are complete waste of ink).
Sounds like I need to see “Tosca” too. Thanks!
David (51980c) — 12/19/2005 @ 7:59 pm