Deborah Voigt Salomé
Dame Gwyneth Jones Herodias
Siegfried Jerusalem Herodes
Evgeny Nikitin Jochanaan
John Tessier Narraboth
Dame Gwyneth Jones Herodias
Siegfried Jerusalem Herodes
Evgeny Nikitin Jochanaan
John Tessier Narraboth
For the rest of the cast see here.
Valery Gergiev will conduct the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and Arte (the World's coolest TV) provides the webcast to everyone via ARTE Live Web. Alternatively you can watch it on medici.tv.
Video is appended below. If you don't catch it live, you can see it during a month following the live broadcast.
Tessier, Nikitin, and Voigt
Debbie Voigt might be good in this role (?), Nikitin must be excellent as ever, and you cannot not to be curious to see Dame Gwen Jones and Siegfried Jerusalem (unsurpassed Tristan -- c.f. this DVD)
Since the Verbier Orchestra is so special, I guess Valya Gergiev was forced to practice the score for some time with them, and when he invests some of his precious time rehearsing the result is most often very good [although this rarely happens since he became a man who conducts "364 concerts a year" ;)]
Ed: Very good concert!
Gergiev evidently practiced with the youngsters who put their souls and hearts into this performance. The oldies were struggling a bit but who cares! ;)
Gergiev evidently practiced with the youngsters who put their souls and hearts into this performance. The oldies were struggling a bit but who cares! ;)
Debbie should forget Isolde and keep singing this. Brava!
The most impressive singer tonight was, however, Evgeny Nikitin. Enooormous!
The most impressive singer tonight was, however, Evgeny Nikitin. Enooormous!
Video embedded below.
Tonight it's Tristan Act 2 at the Proms under Rattle, so I'll miss this unless it is available later to view.
ReplyDeleteDame Gwyneth in her prime surpassed all current Salomes. Not a bad Dance of the Seven Veils either. Still the greatest Sieglinde in my experience and that was 45 years ago!
I still haven't recovered from the Gergiev Ring at the ROH . I'm sure some of the cast were still learning their parts in the , very extended ,intervals.
LOL John @ the last bit :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for that info on Tristan tonight at the Proms. The link is here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2010/whatson/0108.shtml#prom21
and this too will be available after the broadcast. Can Heppner sing the full Act 2 decently?
well, he might manage just one act.
ReplyDeleteI was mesmorized by Nikitin's tattoos. Not quite as visible though as when he sang The Demon in London.
ReplyDeleteDame Gwyneth was scary in all the wrong senses of the word.
Now when you said it John I don't get why she accepted to sing Herodias at all. She can push 2-3 high notes but she can't sustain singing the whole thing. It was atrocious. Jerusalem was much better although he too cracked 2-3 times.
ReplyDeleteI saw Nikitin several times so far (Il Priggoniero, Parsifal, Lohengrin) and he's been steadily improving. He now reached the maturity, his voice is rich and beautiful and his interpretation skills are excellent. Didn't know about the tattoos.
How was your Tristan?
John I just finished listening to yesterday's Tristan-Prom, and... errr... how could I nicely put it?... Urmana was good!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it sounded better in auditorium?!
I was there and I have to say that there were a lot of disappointing performances: Gergiev and the orchestra did a magnificent job. Nikitin as Jochanaan was commanding and John Tessier as Narraboth was excellent. Siegfried Jerusalem coped surprisingly well, I thought, but it was a pretty rough and ready presentation. The other top-billed names were not up to scratch.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Am I right in concluding that you didn't like Debbie? :) Can you elaborate?
ReplyDeleteGood for Tessier. His role was short but he did sing very well. I don't remember having listened to him live at all. Hopefully we'll see more of him in Europe in the years to come.