ROH Nabucco

[Prommer]

Legend has it that Birgit Nilsson was once spotted in the wings of a European opera house, listening to a performance by M.C.

A passer-by was surprised to see her and asked what she was doing.

La Nilsson replied: 'I'm listening to Madame Aballe.'

'Don't you mean Madame Caballe?' inquired the passer-by.

'No', replied Nilsson, 'She has lost her top C!'

This probably didn't happen, but I rather wish it had.

Hilarious! Too good to be true, but Birgit had a fabulous wit.

[LHC]

To be fair, he doesn't sound awful. He is not making the horrible death rattle sounds that Carreras is making on his current crop of coach-party pension enhancement gigs; but if you only know him from recordings/film of him in his prime, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

It might have been a good idea of his to switch back to the baritone repertoire.

Also: it has to be faced, that these days he is rather noticeably reliant on the prompter.

From the recent performances I have heard from Domingo, he retains much of the burnished tone of old, which makes his voice still very special. The biggest problems are that his memory is not what it once was, so he is prone to memory lapses and fluffed lines, hence his reliance on the prompter. He is also now noticeably short of breath so that phrases are chopped up into manageable segments, rather than encompassed in a single breath.

Although he now lacks the top notes to sing tenor roles, he is also demonstrably not a baritone, which is a problem for many of the roles he now sings.

He can get away with it in roles like Nabucco, Boccanegra and Germont pere where his age and gravitas help. But when he sings 'younger' baritone roles such as di Luna he just isn't credible. It is rumoured that he is learning Posa in Don Carlo, which really doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

[Zucchini]

From the recent performances I have heard from Domingo, he retains much of the burnished tone of old, which makes his voice still very special...

I intended to watch a bit of the live stream but got pretty hooked and saw most of it. I thought Domingo was in vey fine voice and that he surpassed his Boccanegra and Rigoletto. That wonderful bronzed, burnished tone was a delight and his portayal of the role was often terribly moving. You can't keep your eyes off him. The entire cast was very strong.

The production is rubbish. As Richard Morrison said in The Times, the Israelites and Babylonians were dressed so similarly that it was like watching a football match with both teams wearing the same shirts. A grand and noble story is cheapened by the setting and concept.

A big thumbs up to Clemency Burton-Hill, grabbed by the ROH to anchor the evening, through a very well planned and interesting and entertaining interval offering, to a final post curtain call interview with Domingo (clearly arranged and welcomed by him), who was still so full of adrenalin that she couldn't get a word in edgeways. It's worth saying (if only for the BBC) that the camera work was exemplary flowing naturally and unobtrusively.

For the first time the ROH has extended access to the stream on its Youtube channel to 30 days

[jean]

Did anyone see Domingo in tonight's cinema relay from the Met?

[BBMmk2]

I bought The Met's Nabucco, with James Levine conducting.

[bluestateprommer]

Did anyone see Domingo in tonight's cinema relay from the Met?

From this side of the pond that day, yes, I did see this Met relay in the cinema. I admit that I was impressed at Domingo's stamina in getting through the role and all the stage business, given that he is 75. However, I do still think that he really needs to step aside and let "real baritones" sing those roles, especially younger talent who needs the work and opportunities that PD doesn't. Martin Bernheimer's snarky characterization of PD as a "baritenor" fits as well as any.