24th April TOSCA from the Met on your radio

Update (thanks for the info little ghost!) :-) For all those who have missed it first time around here is another chance to hear the marvellous Tosca from the Met Broadcast):

Giacomo Puccini: "Tosca"Samstag, 08. Mai 2010,

19:30 WebRadio Ö1 (this would be 18,30 in UK)

http://oe1.orf.at/programm/tag/20100508

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Isn't it just amazing what the adrenaline rush of the 2nd act transformed itself into in act3? It was definitely one of the most beautiful renditions i have ever heard. Not even the applause at the end of Lucevan was able to cut through the emotional web of it. I cannot be thankful enough to Luisi, this amazing orchestra, Jonas and Ms Racette for making time almost stand still. I lingered on every single note, on every word and this last half and hour (as well as the entire show) will stay with me for a loooooong loooooooong looooooooong time. I am grateful not only for the music and the singing, but above all for feeling so deeply touched.


Dolci mani..... and now i can... live happily ever after!

ohhhh!! If you hear a BIG bang it's because i have just exploded with pride!! That was an exquisite Vittoria! and Carnefice!!!!. Soooo made in Jonas! It sounded incredibly easy breezy (not because it is, but because he knows how do it best :-) It was clear and powerful and may i say elegant???? It stopped when the music wanted it to stop and he sounded like he could have gone on for more, but didn't :-) And that was one of the clearest, smartest sung Carnefice i ever heard from him. Every single word was audible and understandable and it still packed a punch! I'm just going to keep gloating for a while.... So very very very well done JK!!!


More: Is it wrong to want to throw yourself at this Scarpia fellow? I can just feel myself floating towards him.... this is magnetism!!!

And the public, don't touch another bloody espresso in the intermission!!!! Sit on your hands if you must, but pleasseeee don't clap before JK stops singing!! Just enjoy those precious notes till the end and let me enjoy them too... God!

And Racette sounds just gorgeouusss!!! Hach!

Update right now: OMG.... OMG!!!!!! what a feast!!! and the voices feel like they are trickling down my spine... pure opera-heaven!!

Tosca divinaaaa......


Photo: Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera via BBC Radio3 page

So tomorrow almost everyone get's a chance to listen:

1pm NY time, 6pm London time, 7pm CET time (and for others check out here).

According to the NY Times: "‘TOSCA’ Luc Bondy’s production of “Tosca,” the much-debated staging that opened the Metropolitan Opera’s season and elicited vociferous boos for the creative team, is back. But the new cast is terrific, which makes a huge difference. The soprano Patricia Racette is a deeply expressive and impassioned Tosca; the dashing tenor Jonas Kaufmann triumphs as Cavaradossi, singing by turns with burnished power and plaintive pianissimos; and the towering bass-baritone Bryn Terfel is a menacing and mesmerizing Scarpia. There is only one more chance to hear this cast, conducted with sweep and intensity by Fabio Luisi. "

You can listen:

In the US search for your station on the Met page here

Bayern Klassik here (you can listen by clicking right where it says Live horen or here )

France Musique here (click left on écouter le direct)

BBC Radio 3 here (click above right on the Listen live iplayer or on the right on this blog the BBC3 widget) --> with pictures and details as always :-)

RTV Radio Classica here (click above right where it says Radio classica en directo, Haz click para escuchar)

Enjoy and in bocca al lupo to everyone on the Met stage and in the pit :-)

........

It seems my overdose of Tosca has somehow triggered my subconsciousness. Although because of its originality I kept mentioning the Carsen Tosca I saw in Zurich, what has been almost haunting me these last 2 weeks is the ROH Tosca I saw a few years ago. Until about an hour or so ago I wouldn’t even have been able to tell you if it was 2007 or 2008….

Reading the papers and various reviews these days I kept getting strangely nostalgic because I have heard Jonas Kaufkmann’s first Tosca a the ROH and tomorrow I will hear it from the Met. There have been various in between, but reading about the Met Tosca somehow brought me closer to the first one than any of the others…

I still lived in Edinburgh back then and I booked a Tosca at whim because I hadn’t seen any in a while. The cast was known except for Mario, who was tba when I booked. The shows were barely half sold when the run began and nobody liked the production much. Pappano was to conduct.

And conduct he did! There is a before an after for me with Tosca thanks to Pappano. He made Puccini sound beautiful, emotional, romantic and passionate and most of all real. All was done and he took us as deep or as high as one can imagine without ever overdoing it. He kept the beat of our hearts always louder than the music and for the first time in my life i hang on every single note of this score.

Then there was this newborn-Mario, who made us giggle and melt, who suddenly made not only two arias but all duets stand out, who sung Vittoria from all fours and grabbed Scarpia by his collar to shout him Carnefice in the face! And who together with Pappano created the most amazing 3rd act I have ever heard. For the first time in my life there was no applause after Lucevan! ( Not once, not twice, in none of the three performances I went to..) Because an audience of 2200 followed Mario’s every last breath, because the spell could and would not be broken ( a lady next to me stopped her husband from clapping with a begging gesture). Because this Mario hugged the wooden stump where he would be shot as if it was Tosca’s form, his tortured hands tremblingly caressing it as if his lover’s curves. Because this Mario knew he was going to die, because he sang the sweetest “dolci mani” and brought many in the audience to tears with his “parlami ancora come dianzi parlavi … ”. I’ve never seen people cry at the end of Tosca before, even before Mario is shot.

How is it done? No idea, ask JK! It just seams it is not about the piani, the high notes , the long notes or whatever.. It is about what Mario feels and how he feels it, about his life and death, about his love of art and freedom, and above all his love for Floria.

But there is such a thing like a Tosca where you are too touched to applaud; I know because I remember how it felt to be there.

The whole run sold out after the first performance and I remember going straight to the box office the morning after the first one and buying my next ticket. And the next.. And had I not been sternly advised that 3 were enough! I would have gladly trotted back down from Edinburgh for one more :-)

And guess what I just found out? It’s how this blog started! I’ve never remembered what I first wrote about… Seems my subconscious did ;-) And it wanted me to remember those Toscas these days… because it is almost exactly two years ago :-)
You are welcome to go searching and read it if you like :-) But, it’s in Spanish ( kind of pompous sounding some of it, what was I thinking???). turns out I always was a lazy/sloppy writer… I my first post ever about an opera I call JK.. well, JK:-) ( I am thereby demanding copyright!) I said he was “polifacetico” ( I know!! Pompous of me..) and I go on saying about Vittoria and Carnefice that they are a perfect pairing of freedom and despair, release and vengeance :-) ( hmm, still agree with some of that:-) Not surprisingly I was already waxing on and on and on about some “Quale occhio al mondo” and “dolci mani” (the latter still is my favourite bit of the entire score..).

Anyway, that Tosca was special, still is special so I want to remember and I wish to celebrate! So tomorrow’s is definitely much more than just one more Tosca! :-)

And no matter if anyone tells me how many are enough or too many, I will say : I’ll be the judge of that, and at the moment I am looking forward to many many many more (and hoping that one day I’ll relive the “too beautiful to applaud” one ).

I just wish I was sitting there live tomorrow to be able to copy paste my first post ending :

...Viendo la sonrisa traviesa de crío que le sale a JK en los bravos, gritos y aplausos me entro la risa acordándome de las palabras de Floria:Oh, come la sai benel'arte di farti amare!

Well, nothing here to stop me from having a giggle during curtain calls tomorrow :-)

Turns out i probably do like Tosca as an opera after all ;-))

#Operaplot - Squeeze it into 140 characters!

Copyright Jonas Kaufmann Photo © http://www.scholzshootspeople.de/

#Operaplot is back!

Think operaplots are convoluted and librettos are naff? Try doing it better :-p and twitter it in 140 characters! It was hilarious fun last year around, so give it a try :-)

If you want to know what victory looks like, let's remember last year's winners, Jessica Duchen for one and here the full list :-)

Essential details via Miss Mussel:

#Operaplot 2010 Rules And FAQ

And this is what you could WIN #Operaplot 2010 Prize Pool

Have fun and good luck!

PS Oh, yes, what's HE got to do with it???? As you can see he's reading and judging the whole darn' thing! .... no pressure then....

Meet Jonas Kaufmann at the Met Opera Shop! 29 April

For those of you in NY and with a bit of time on their hands :-) Go say hello!

http://www.metoperafamily.org//metopera/news/news_flash.aspx?id=11908

The star tenor, on the Met stage as Cavaradossi in Tosca and Don José in Carmen this month, will sign copies of his new CDs, a German aria recital and Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, on Thursday, April 29, beginning 12.30pm. For more information, please contact the Met Opera Shop at 212-580-4090.

I'll have my virus with some music on top please

Stonehaven (near Aberdeen), the North Sea... a piece of heaven!



Warning : this is just a post-beginning, i'll write more tomorrow and hopefully get things up to date :-) And i'll get back on the comments re the Met Tosca, of course :-)

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Luck comes in strange ways…. I’m lucky to be back in London, sleeping in my own bed tonight! Oh, no I didn’t miss out on all the volcano fun, how could i? Given my track record volcano-cancellation was just what my weird travel log was missing… just one more involuntary adventure … (remember this?)

At least I was stuck on the island ( and not off the island), in Scotland and took the beautiful journey down south. But since lady luck seems to think I need some spice in my life the day started at 7am, work until 2pm, train at 3pm (after prayers and begging to find a seat … )…. For 8 hours! Five of which were spent in the charming company of a group of underage drunks 2 seats in front of me and a stag party, just as drunk, 3 seats behind me. The stag-boys were dressed up elegantly in fishnets, miniskirts and strappy tops, all dolled up with make up and stilettos… Not even the oomph of JK’s truly jaw-dropping “Vittoriaaaaaa!!!!!!” in my ears could drown out the rowdiness.. And I lost track after 6 bottles of booze each because I got too distracted by listening to ”Dolci maaaaniiii” . Lucky me they never suspected that I enjoyed myself by listening to Tosca over and over again… they might not have departed so “peacefully”…. At least I can’t complain that my 130GBP ticket (which was sold to me as first class, but turned out to be my usual cattle class..) didn’t come with entertainment for the journey.

Finally at the edge of London some 3 hours and a train-sandwich-dinner later another surprise… Fire alarm at King’s Cross! So we took a break in the darkness of the city, because after all we were in really no hurry to get home. …One hour later on the underground thinking that I may yet make it home I hear: This train is held at a red signal, please wait for further announcements…Wait we did, I wasn’t too keen on jogging home with suitcase and backpack in tow ;-)) Then there we go, miracle happens and we move again!! But miracles don’t last long, 2 more stops down the line: This train is held at a red signal… and you know the drill. The two other passengers in the wagon gave me the looks when I suddenly started giggling uncontrollably!

So you see, “things” always happen when I travel :-) I’ll never know why. The good thing is after a volcano nothing will phase me :-) And as they say, Ende gut, Alles gut!

This was just the end of a couple of months where various viruses found an unusually strong attraction to me and where I tried to duck them to still be able to enjoy some music. And enjoy I did!!! A Konigskinder in Zurich, 2x Goerne with Schubert at the Wigmore, Hamlet from the Met in HD, the amazing Mariss Jansons with SOBR and Shostakovich, the Gambler and the Turco at the ROH :-)

More on these and on Stonehaven once I wake up from the dead tomorrow morning….

One thing I can tell you, I think I finally found spring!! And it smells of the sea and has cold hands when it caresses your hair and face :-)

Crossing fingers for all the stranded travellers to find their way back to their homes as quickly as possible!

Good night!

Jonas Kaufmann And Bryn Terfel Turn Met's Much-booed 'Tosca' Into A Feast Of Great Singing

update 20/04: Interview Magazine:

"Revenge of the Booed Opera
By Alex Gartenfeld 04/20/2010 03:20 PM

There is no redemption in the Napoleonic era in which Puccini's Tosca is set. None of the main characters, with the significant exception of the villainous tyrant Scarpia, could be said to have earned his or her murder by deceit or suicide. This is not the experience of the Greek hero and his insurmountable fatal flaw; the eponymous protagonist, a singer, indulges in a bit of hysterical jealousy when she realizes that her lover, the painter Cavaradossi, has painted the Madonna after the sister of an escaped rebel. Cavarodossi, for his part, plays the martyr, and the easy token victim to conservative repression of Scarpia's repressive regime.

But there was redemption Wednesday and Friday night in director Luc Bondy's production of Tosca, a piece that was booed when it premiered almost a year ago. The show was roundly compared it to the storied production by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, with Maria Callas in the lead part. (Zeffrielli, for his part, called Bondy a "third-rate" director for turning Puccini's opera into a darker, more minimal affair).

On Wednesday, Bondy set out with a new cast: Patricia Racette, in the role opera buffs (and all they do is polish) remember as belonging to Maria Callas. Racette is irascible and inexplicable with jealousy, and then melodramatically appeased in the first act. She's tragic in the last, as her attempts to defend her lover's honor, her honor, and then his life, are in vain. Although the script calls for vast changes in temperament, Racette's style never feels episodic. She carries the lyrical arias in the second act, and her voice grows as the show goes on, pleading for Cavaradossi's release as he refuses to give up the location of the hidden rebel. Racette's a wise choice to supplement the public memory of Tosca because, like Callas, who could go dramatically flat, her's is an idiosyncratic voice. She's gravelly and her pacing is wild in the beginning, but unfolds and ultimately demonstrates control.

Jonas Kaufmann is rare for a German tenor–he’s smolderingly handsome. He's also remarkably fluid as the strong-willed bohemian who sticks to his guns but can't save himself–and maybe, just maybe will find vindication when Napoleon defeats Scarpia. His voice soaring over the orchestra in the first act was particularly remarkable. Bryn Terfel finds humor as the relentless Scarpia; he uses his strong baritone to overpower and seduce.

There are repeated complaints about the interpretation of staging, which are not, in fact, distracting. Cavaradossi's painting of the Madeleine with her breast exposed is onstage throughout; it's a sordid altarpiece in an opera with equally sordid motives. The booed production involved characters embracing this image; she's only cut, here, across the eyes by Tosa, her innocence already lost. Thankfully, the production lacked the rising and falling sets and mysterious nooks that the Met so often favors. The second act, set in Scarpia's chambers, the setting of the second act, was a wonderfully bizarre period room, which looked like an administrative post office designed by Frank Stella in the 1970s. It was as fully and obscurely realized, as an opera about unexplained wrath ought to be."

and there are more comments and reflections on Tosca here :-)
Update 16/04: NY Post review here.:

"A t'weaked 'Tosca' really sings
April 16, 2010 James Jorden
Oh, what a difference the details make -- and the right cast and conductor. This season's biggest bomb, Luc Bondy's production of "Tosca," has blossomed into one of the strongest stagings of this opera in decades.
Since the fall premiere, dozens of details have been tweaked in the critically lambasted staging of Puccini's thriller about a glamorous diva. Lights are brighter; the elegantly gowned Tosca no longer plops down on a filthy church floor -- and police chief Scarpia's Act 2 hooker four-way stops short of oral action.
An even happier improvement is the cast, especially Jonas Kaufmann as Tosca's lover, the artist Cavaradossi. His tenor is dark, even rough in places, but high notes are huge and meaty. In the love song "Recondita armonia," he faded the last note to a whisper, winning loud bravos.

Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera
Jonas Kaufmann's a welcome addition to the opera, in which Patricia Racette plays Tosca.
As the lustful Scarpia, Bryn Terfel commanded the stage with the suave brutality of a James Bond villain, openly mocking Tosca after her prayer "Vissi d'arte." The sinewy tone of his rich bass-baritone made the atmosphere even eerier.
Beside these two giants, Patricia Racette's Tosca seemed almost miniature. Her shimmering, true soprano easily projected over the heavy orchestration, but she underplayed the extravagance of her diva character.
Of all the night's marvels, the greatest was conductor Fabio Luisi, subbing on 10 days' notice when Met music director James Levine was sidelined by back surgery.
Shaving minutes off each act with quicksilver tempos and razor-precise transitions, he discovered haunting orchestral colors reminiscent of Debussy. He's alert to the singers, too, delicately following Kaufmann's dreamy opening of "E lucevan le stelle."
Luisi's reportedly on the short list of conductors to succeed Levine when the injury-plagued maestro chooses -- or is persuaded -- to step down. It's hard to imagine a more brilliant candidate."

Update: NY Times review here:

"Boos Become Bravos at the Met By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: April 15, 2010 What a difference a cast can make.
Luc Bondy’s new production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” which opened the Metropolitan Opera’s season in September, returned on Wednesday night. Yes, that production, the one with the convoluted staging that elicited vociferous boos for the creative team when it was introduced; where the lecherous Scarpia straddles a statue of the Blessed Virgin and consorts with tawdry prostitutes; where, after stabbing Scarpia, Tosca muses on a couch in his rooms at the palazzo instead of enacting the ritual of expiation with the candles and the crucifix that Puccini devised.

Yet Wednesday’s “Tosca” was one of the most exciting performances of the Met season to date, thanks to three exceptional singers, all performing their roles for the first time at the Met. Patricia Racette, an inexplicably underrated soprano, brought a richly expressive voice and raw emotion to her wrenching portrayal of Tosca. Jonas Kaufmann, currently the hottest tenor in opera, was an impetuous and vocally smoldering Mario Cavaradossi, singing with vulnerable tenderness one moment and burnished power the next. And the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel commandeered the stage with his vocally chilling and shockingly lusty Scarpia.

The conductor Fabio Luisi, replacing James Levine, who has ongoing back problems, drew a taut, surging performance from the orchestra, chorus and cast — a wonder, since in the typical ways of repertory opera houses this “Tosca” was thrown together at the last minute. Wednesday night was the first time Mr. Luisi, the orchestra and all three of his principals were together. After Mr. Luisi agreed to cover for Mr. Levine, he flew into New York for one day last week to work with the cast in a rehearsal studio. Mr. Kaufmann, nursing a bad cold, was absent that day.

Despite the lack of rehearsal this “Tosca” was riveting. Mr. Kaufmann, Ms. Racette and Mr. Terfel are gifted, compelling and intuitive actors. Their interplay — the romantic banter between Tosca and Cavaradossi, the dangerous dance of wits between Scarpia and Tosca — was so nuanced you would have thought the singers had been rehearsing for weeks.

Karita Mattila, who sang Tosca when the production was introduced, was to have returned, but she withdrew because of illness. Tosca is a recent addition to Ms. Racette’s repertory.

She does not have a glamorous voice. Her sound can have a grainy texture, and her sustained tones can be tremulous. Still, this role suits her beautifully. She sang with uncommon richness, expressivity and honesty. In the soaring phrases of “Vissi d’arte” she captured both the dignity and despair of the character: a great diva, yet a devout woman and fiercely jealous lover.

Mr. Kaufmann received frenzied bravos from the audience. His russet-colored voice has body and charisma. You could sense amazement throughout the house at his thrilling top notes during Cavaradossi’s defiant cries of “Vittoria!” Yet his plaintive pianissimo phrases were equally impressive. That the youthful, curly-haired Mr. Kaufmann is also heartthrob-handsome did not hurt.

Mr. Bondy’s production still seems drab, confused and full of gratuitous strokes geared to rattle “Tosca” devotees. But with Mr. Bondy not on the scene this cast made some crucial alterations. During the “Te Deum” Mr. Terfel’s Scarpia exuded lust and power as he fantasized about conquering Tosca. But he stopped short of the bump-and-grind routine with the Madonna. Even the idea of surrounding Scarpia briefly with three prostitutes in his chambers made somewhat more sense with this Scarpia, since the towering, robust Mr. Terfel so easily conveys bawdy physicality.

There are still no candles and crucifix. But Ms. Racette was better than Ms. Mattila at executing Mr. Bondy’s idea that for a few minutes Tosca, with Scarpia’s body nearby, is too stunned to do anything other than ponder her choices.

The individual performances were so strong I hardly noticed the elements of the production that prompted so much earlier controversy. There are seven more performances of “Tosca” this season but only three more chances to catch this outstanding cast."

Earlier : more opinions from viewers here

or so say CBS News quoting Associated Press:

"MIKE SILVERMAN (AP) – NEW YORK — The boos heard 'round the world on opening night were mostly gone as "Tosca" reappeared at the Metropolitan Opera with a new cast that turned Puccini's melodrama into a feast of great singing.

Credit for that goes chiefly to German tenor Jonas Kaufmann as the idealistic painter Mario Cavaradossi, and Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel as the evil police chief, Baron Scarpia.Both were making their first appearances at the Met in more than two years on Wednesday night, and both have been sorely missed.

Kaufmann has blossomed from a fine lyric tenor into something more. With his dark-hued voice and formidable technique he now apparently can sing Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and French opera with equal flair.As Cavaradossi, he displayed the heroic top notes required to turn his defiant cry of "Vittoria!" in Act 2 and his Act 3 aria, "E lucevan le stelle" ("And the stars were shining") into show-stoppers. Equally impressive was the ravishing tenderness he brought to many soft phrases, such as "O dolci mani" ("O sweet hands"), when he sings in wonderment that his beloved Tosca has stabbed Scarpia to death.

That murder takes place at the end of Act 2, and until his demise, Terfel etched a portrayal of tremendous power. The sheer amplitude of his sound has always been thrilling, riding easily over the orchestra during moments like the Act 1 "Te deum," where most bass-baritones struggle to be heard.But Terfel has so much more to offer. He can turn the merest whisper into a bloodcurdling threat, or casually create chills as when he invites Tosca to enjoy a sip of Spanish wine to calm her nerves before he plans to rape her.

If the title character herself has been left for last, it's not any fault of American soprano Patricia Racette. She delivered a fine, forthright performance, more down-to-earth and less the prima donna than many Toscas. Aside from a rushed high note and some pitch problems at the end of her aria, "Vissi d'arte" ("I lived for art"), she sang the part extremely well.

Still, her overall impact paled a bit next to the high-powered performances of the men.

The production by French director Luc Bondy has been modified since it opened the season to the loudest booing in Met memory — a reception that created headlines worldwide. Scarpia no longer lasciviously embraces the statue of the Madonna at the end of Act 1. Tosca no longer fans herself while casually reclining on a sofa after murdering Scarpia.A technical glitch made it appear another effect had been dropped. At the very end, Tosca is supposed to leap to her death off the prison battlements where her lover has just been executed. Bondy has a body double jump from a parapet and hang by wires over the stage. But the lights went out too soon, and she jumped in darkness.

There were still a few boos at the final curtain, but cheers for the singers drowned them out. The cheers were also loud for conductor Fabio Luisi, who led a sweeping, tense account of a score that can sound merely melodramatic."

Copyright (AP Photos/Cory Weaver - Metropolitan Opera)© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

PS i only wish i could have seen the confrontations between Mario and Scarpia in the 2nd act ;-))) Oh well, and heard them sing... sighhhh...

There will be a Met broadcast of the 24th April performances, details on the Met page here.