Royal Opera House Live 13.06.20 (Concert)

[underthecountertenor]

Neil Fisher in the Times was a bit lukewarm as well. Maybe they don't like the English songbook . I have to say my already sky high opinion of Tony Pappano's musicianship has gone up a few notches . I heard the first two acts of his Otello CD on R3 this week as well as rewatching Il Trittico - he really is a superb musician - the best ROH music director since I started goiing there in 1972.
I also think given the huge amount of planning , practice etc to make this a safe event sometimes it's better if 'criticism' takes a back seat. But there is no need to make allowances - this was singing (and acccompanying) of the highest order

[underthecountertenor]

I've never forgotten - in a Times interview he said it was like being hit by a truck!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Watched ll Trittico as part of 'Our House to Your House' as soon as it became available. Gianni Schicchi featured in an opera appreciation course I did a couple of years ago and left a favourable impression, so I was pleased to be able to see it in context. It's a real treat to be able to watch all three back to back. Ermonela Jaho's Suor Angelica was lovely Words fail me. She was so involved in the role she was almost in tears during the curtain call Still available but I don't know for how long, and highly recommended.

i was lucky enough to see Jaho twice in this role . i have never seen an artist show so much committment to the role - so much so that one almost feared for her mental state at the end of the performance - she was in tears and completely wrung out . Can a perfomer be in a role so much that it causes psychological distress ? Or does that temporary state last only until the make-up comes off?

[Cockney Sparrow]

My regret is that I didn't see that many of the great singers of the 20th Century - even if for some it would have been the latter years of their performing life.
But I am impressed, generally, by the standard of ROH productions - since the house re-development I think it has been, usually, at least pretty good from singers and performers.
In the case if Jaho, she really is a great artist. You raise an interesting point - she gives such a committed performance, always, that I find it impossible to think she is not wrung out by the effort. That is the same in everything I have seen her perform - Angelica, Violetta, Butterfly and Desdemona. Am I right in my thought that she limits her performances in London, usually, to about 6 or so? It may be she wisely paces her numbers of performances........
In any case I count myself fortunate to have seen her live - they were all such memorable performances and I buy the DVD whenever one is available.

[Ein Heldenleben]

My regret is that I didn't see that many of the great singers of the 20th Century - even if for some it would have been the latter years of their performing life.
But I am impressed, generally, by the standard of ROH productions - since the house re-development I think it has been, usually, at least pretty good from singers and performers.
In the case if Jaho, she really is a great artist. You raise an interesting point - she gives such a committed performance, always, that I find it impossible to think she is not wrung out by the effort. That is the same in everything I have seen her perform - Angelica, Violetta, Butterfly and Desdemona. Am I right in my thought that she limits her performances in London, usually, to about 6 or so? It may be she wisely paces her numbers of performances........
In any case I count myself fortunate to have seen her live - they were all such memorable performances and I buy the DVD whenever one is available.

Yes I also saw her as Violetta, Cio-Cio San and Desdemona . I guess one day she'll make it alive to the end of the opera. Seriously though there is the same total commitment in each role though I'm not sure Desdemona really suited her - despite a miraculous Willow song..

[LHC]

Yes I also saw her as Violetta, Cio-Cio San and Desdemona . I guess one day she'll make it alive to the end of the opera. Seriously though there is the same total commitment in each role though I'm not sure Desdemona really suited her - despite a miraculous Willow song..

I thought you might both find this interesting. It’s from an interview with her three years ago:

Sopranos in opera suffer. How do you summon up the necessary emotion night after night and what does it take out of you?

It affects me so much. When I go back to my apartment afterwards, it is still so painful. I come from Albania and I saw so many really difficult situations there. I saw young mothers suffering, but I was so shy as a child that I never showed any reaction. Children are like sponges though. I wasn’t conscious of it at the time, but I accumulated this archive of emotions. Somehow, when I sing these roles which are so dramatic, it’s like that in another life I was Violetta, Suor Angelica, Butterfly, because every time – even rehearsing – I carry so many of those emotions drawn from my past.

Suor Angelica is so special to me. The first time was another jump-in (for Anja Harteros this time). I’d never sung the role before, but it was a wonderful opportunity to work with Maestro Pappano. I had a difficult moment during that period because my mother had died. When I sang in the revival of Richard Jones’ production last year, I was better prepared. I’d studied the role better and in certain situations I chanelled those emotions, drawing again on that archive in my soul, in my mind, in my heart. When I came to sing Suor Angelica at Covent Garden again last season, I was completely out of it by the end. I felt like I was flying. I couldn’t feel my body any more. By the end I had difficulty coming back to reality, which is why, when I took my curtain call they woke me with their reaction, like breaking a spell. You can feel when the audience loves you.
.

https://bachtrack.com/interview-ermonela-jaho-traviata-butterfly-angelica-opera-month-february-2017

[Ein Heldenleben]

I thought you might both find this interesting. It’s from an interview with her three years ago:



https://bachtrack.com/interview-ermo...-february-2017

Thank you LHC - that's very interesting. Yes in her bows the night I went she did indeed somehow transported. Her reception was tumultous . Mirella Freni, another great artist said that as a mother she could not sing 'Senza Mamma' without crying. Sometimes I think we underestimate what these highly emotional roles take out of singers. Some no doubt can step outside the character and in some way switch off their deepest emotions -others , like Callas ,seem so bound up in the emotions of the character they 'become' them.

[LHC]

Thank you LHC - that's very interesting. Yes in her bows the night I went she did indeed somehow transported. Her reception was tumultous . Mirella Freni, another great artist said that as a mother she could not sing 'Senza Mamma' without crying. Sometimes I think we underestimate what these highly emotional roles take out of singers. Some no doubt can step outside the character and in some way switch off their deepest emotions -others , like Callas ,seem so bound up in the emotions of the character they 'become' them.

I have seen Jaho several times at the Opera House, but her performances in Suor Angelica were really quite exceptional. I remember that as we rose for the interval after the performance of Suor Angelica during the first run, everyone around us was in tears, and several people said they couldn’t imagine how you could follow that, and especially not with a comedy. Of course, Puccini knew his craft, and by the end we were all crying tears of laughter.

I do think that production of Trittico is one of the best things the Opera House has done in recent years.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I have seen Jaho several times at the Opera House, but her performances in Suor Angelica were really quite exceptional. I remember that as we rose for the interval after the performance of Suor Angelica during the first run, everyone around us was in tears, and several people said they couldn’t imagine how you could follow that, and especially not with a comedy. Of course, Puccini knew his craft, and by the end we were all crying tears of laughter.

I do think that production of Trittico is one of the best things the Opera House has done in recent years.

Agreed . The Gianni Schicci is wonderful and Lucio Gallo is magnificent in both that and Il Tabarro. As the gent next to me remarked - he's the star and that's what we're paying for.
The rest of the cast also exceptionally strongly cast and the whole thing very well directed. I honestly think Gianni Schicci is the best thing Puccini ever wrote...

[Simon B]

I have seen Jaho several times at the Opera House, but her performances in Suor Angelica were really quite exceptional. I remember that as we rose for the interval after the performance of Suor Angelica during the first run, everyone around us was in tears,...

This is seared into my memory - memories seemingly being about all there is to be had at the moment.

Despite being unashamedly keen on Puccini I'd never before heard a note of Suor Angelica. Received "wisdom" that the music was not Puccini's finest and that the shameless emotional manipulation of the scenario was beyond the boundaries of taste had deterred me. The second charge I can at least understand, though this ROH Richard Jones production brilliantly avoids kitsch sentimentally while delivering several absolute emotional gut punches. No other production I've since seen gets near.

My recollection of being there in the cheap(ish) seats on the night they were filming this is also that everyone around me was in tears at the end. I just recall trying to stand up and being surprised by the discovery that I initially couldn't. I've sought out everything that Ermonela Jaho has appeared in in the UK since, including 2 performances of Suor Angelica in the ROH revival. I know I'm not alone on that score.

I do think that production of Trittico is one of the best things the Opera House has done in recent years.

The Gianni Schicci was equally brilliant in its way. "The only truly funny opera" as some other wisdom states. The "only" is debatable, but in this production it was genuinely laugh out loud funny. It helps that the score is arguably Puccini's greatest achievement in terms of concentrated wall-to-wall brilliance.


Meanwhile, to the subject of this thread. The stream of the recent ROH concert reminded me of that Suor Angelica independently of the prompting from this thread. Why? The first time I watched it, the effect was similar. I've rewatched this evening just before the stream is (regrettably) made unavailable, as I wanted to see what I thought when feeling a little more objective. I also can't understand the slightly grudging responses I've noted elsewhere. In particular I can't stop replaying Louise Alder's Nocturne from the Britten "On This Island" and Gerald Finley in the Finzi "Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun".

This may be because these are commanding performances of two works which continue to chime with my mood. My conclusion: If a time comes when proper performances at the ROH (and all other such UK venues) become possible again, there will only be such if those of us who care somehow find the money to stop the whole thing collapsing in the interim ourselves. My view: The government not only doesn't give a stuff, but sees the obliteration of the sector and thereby continued state sponsorship of "the arts" as an upside of what is happening. This is a rare act of true democracy as it seems to chime with the attitude of the great majority of the electorate. I am not a rich man, so sadly there is little I can do but despair.

[Ein Heldenleben]

i wouldn't despair - you could do a lot worse than watch last night's ROH live - a tribute to the vast depth of talent in both orchestra and company. A truly wonderful evening...

[Cockney Sparrow]

I have seen Jaho several times at the Opera House, but her performances in Suor Angelica were really quite exceptional. I remember that as we rose for the interval after the performance of Suor Angelica during the first run, everyone around us was in tears.........

Just spotted a half hour interview between Pappano and Jaho which is dated 1 July. Its a remote interview, given the current circumstances - but quality (from Jaho in a large flatscreen) not as bad as, for example, some record review contributions. I've listened with pleasure but will watch again with undivided attention. I may not have heard many of the "Great" singers of the 20th Century but am lucky to have heard Jaho live in most of her ROH roles.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN86Kr9Bu1g

And BTW, Jaho throws some light on her exceptional performance in the first run of Suor Angelica (I only saw the later run, which was pretty intense in any case...).

How lucky we have been to have Pappano as MD at the ROH.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Just spotted a half hour interview between Pappano and Jaho which is dated 1 July. Its a remote interview, given the current circumstances - but quality (from Jaho in a large flatscreen) not as bad as, for example, some record review contributions. I've listened with pleasure but will watch again with undivided attention. I may not have heard many of the "Great" singers of the 20th Century but am lucky to have heard Jaho live in most of her ROH roles.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN86Kr9Bu1g

And BTW, Jaho throws some light on her exceptional performance in the first run of Suor Angelica (I only saw the later run, which was pretty intense in any case...).

How lucky we have been to have Pappano as MD at the ROH.

Couldn't agree more - not just a superb conductor but a wonderful accompanist. I hesitate to say I am reminded of Bruno Walter but , in that vein , his magnificent Das Lied von der Erde live from the ROH stage two weeks ago is being shown on BBC Four on the 10th July.

[kernelbogey]

Recycling old thread to give a shout out for tonight's broadcast.

Oropesa is sensational!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Recycling old thread to give a shout out for tonight's broadcast.

Oropesa is sensational!

Some of those top notes are scarcely to be believed…