From the Met: 10.02.14 - Dvorak's Rusalka

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Dvorak: Rusalka
From the Met

From the New York Metropolitan Opera. The water nymph Rusalka falls in love with a Prince when he comes to swim in her lake. The witch Jezibaba agrees to let her become human, but warns her that if she doesn't find love she will be damned and the man she loves will die. In Dvorak's lyrical opera Renée Fleming reprises one of her signature roles as Rusalka with Piotr Beczala as her doomed Prince.

Rusalka.....Renée Fleming (Soprano)
Foreign Princess.....Emily Magee (Soprano)
Jezibaba.....Dolora Zajick (Mezzo-soprano)
Prince.....Piotr Beczala (Tenor)
Water Sprite.....John Relyea (Bass)
Kitchen-Boy.....Julie Boulianne (Mezzo-soprano)
Gamekeeper.....Vladimir Chmelo (Cello)
1st Sprite.....Disella Larusdottir (Soprano)
2nd Sprite.....Renee Tatum (Mezzo-soprano)
3rd Sprite.....Maya Lahyani (Mezzo-soprano)
Huntsman.....Alexey Lavrov (Baritone)

New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Yannick Nézét-Séguin (Conductor).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't know this opera at all. It sounds midway between Wagner and Puccini. First impressions are most favourable.

[johnn10]

Except of course it is not live -it is recorded.

[Richard Tarleton]

I don't know this opera at all. It sounds midway between Wagner and Puccini. First impressions are most favourable.

But unmistakeably Dvorak! Fleming also on the (top recommendation) Mackerras CD. A strange opera - the two lovers unable to communicate until the very end.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Except of course it is not live -it is recorded.

Sorry - yes. Amended.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A strange opera - the two lovers unable to communicate until the very end.

Which sums up the plot of Birtwistle's The Second Mrs Kong, too.

[DracoM]

Well, sorry, I thought the Met Rusalka a bit of s screech, but I imagine that's just me working out my dislike of Renee Fleming. Some fairly laboured orchestral playing??

[David-G]

I don't know this opera at all. It sounds midway between Wagner and Puccini. First impressions are most favourable.

It is one of the most beautiful and moving operas in the whole repertoire. I have been lucky enough to see two superb productions of it; at ENO in the 1980s, and at Glyndebourne in recent years.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I saw it in the cinema on the live relay on Saturday. Otto Schenk's production isn't always well received, yet I found it very beautiful to look at.

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1081:rusalka-metropolitan-opera-8th-february-2014-&catid=8:opera-reviews&Itemid=16

The fabulous conducting made up for the less than wonderful stage direction/ acting.

[Quarky]

Except of course it is not live -it is recorded.

Can't appreciate the cache for live broadcasts. Unless one is present in the theatre, which raises the intensity of the performance for the listener 100%. For any broadcast these days, the sound will be digitised and stored temporarily, in processing the broadcast. So I guess there is scope for instantaneous adjustment of sound.
But putting an extra 48 hours into the storage mechanisms does not seem to me significant.

What was siginifcant to me however was the Strauss concert on Saturday evening, which was a great and refreshing change to the Met productions.

[Flosshilde]

Can't appreciate the cache for live broadcasts. ... What was siginifcant to me however was the Strauss concert on Saturday evening, which was a great and refreshing change to the Met productions.

So you would have been happy with that to have been recorded & broadcast on Monday, leaving Saturdays for opera?

(The only advantage I can see in broadcasting the Met as a recording is being able to cut the nauseating interval interviews, but there seems to be a requirement not to cut them)

[Quarky]

So you would have been happy with that to have been recorded & broadcast on Monday, leaving Saturdays for opera?

(The only advantage I can see in broadcasting the Met as a recording is being able to cut the nauseating interval interviews, but there seems to be a requirement not to cut them)

Well, I guess my target was any live broadcast, whether Opera or Concert. It seems to me that a broadcast involves digitising the sound, sending digital pulses over the internet/ optical fibre, and then reassembling it at the BBC for radio transmission. The scope for tinkering with the sound information may be considerable.

But as regards Saturday schedule, I am generally happy with the new schedule so far, permitting me to listen continuously from about 5pm (I am admittedly a jazznik!) right through to TTN. I did listen to the first part of Rusalka last night, but tired of it, soon after the famous aria to the moon.

[Richard Tarleton]

Well, sorry, I thought the Met Rusalka a bit of s screech, but I imagine that's just me working out my dislike of Renee Fleming. Some fairly laboured orchestral playing??

The Mackerras recording was made some 15 years ago, and is IMV marvellous - she and Heppner the only non-Czech cast members (Czech Phil). I didn't get as far as Song to the Moon as visitors arrived, will have to listen again - but perhaps I should just spin the discs......

[BBMmk2]

Oh what a pity Renee Fleming is casted here. I just cannot abide her voice!

[CallMePaul]

I saw this 2 or 3 years ago with Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre. My partner works for Leeds Uni and can get good tickets cheap or sometimes free - I think this was a freebie! The programme book draws comparisons with Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid and interestingly with Debussy's Pelléas et Melisande, which led me to listen again to the Debussy. Another take on a similar theme (based on Andersen rather than Maeterlinck) is Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau, which inhabits a different sound world again, not too far removed from Schoenberg's treatment of the Pelléas story.

Regarding Renee Fleming, I feel that she has wasted her voice on unsuitable roles. She could have been the outstanding Isolde of our time, but I believe that bad reviews of performances as Eva Pogner turned her off Wagner and she has concentrated on roles too light for her voice. I am no expert on pronunciation of Czech or other Slavonic tongues, but there are lots of Czech sopranos who I feel are more suited to the part. Gabriela Benacková is one that comes to mind with just the right type of voice for the role. PS Whatever happened to Ben Heppner? I would have thought he'd have a good few years at the top yet!