A confession - Sutherland and Pavarotti leave me cold

[Barbirollians]

The delightful Dessay/Florez/Palmer & Maxwell. La Fille du Regiment is on Sky Arts1 now and is repeated in the middle of the night for anyone who wants to record it . I recommend it most strongly .

PS it is the Met relay though - the ROH one is better .

[Richard Tarleton]

PS it is the Met relay though - the ROH one is better .

Was Dawn French in the Met version? Or did they find an equally amusing American lady?

[Howdenite]

I was lucky enough to hear Sutherland, Pavarotti and Leontyne Price, though late in their careers (early 1980's in San Francisco - standing at the back of the house). That was when I found opera (or it found me). There often wasn't much acting on stage, and many operas ended with two very large people dying in an odd way, but the sounds were so incredible that it really didn't matter. I was thinking recently, after a summer of watching opera on DVD rather than going to the opera house, that acting has improved immeasurably recently. I now walk away from a performance impressed with it as a musical and dramatic experience; when I was first going and was able to hear some of those voices, I walked away entranced by the sound. I can't explain the thrill I got from hearing Leontyne Price's voice, or Pavarotti's (when he showed up and was interested). I still feel a shiver of excitement when I remember hearing Sutherland and Horne in Norma. I've never heard anything that transported me into another world so completely since. I'm afraid I don't know about singing and am just an average listener, so I don't have a way to express it, but the experience of those performances has never left me. I will admit that I admired the tragedies more than the comedies though...

[Barbirollians]

Was Dawn French in the Met version? Or did they find an equally amusing American lady?

Veteran actress Marian Seldes . She wasn't very amusing but I imagine she was better than the ROH's recnet choice Ann Widdecombe who the reviews suggest was an embarrassment .

[Flosshilde]

Veteran actress Marian Seldes . She wasn't very amusing but I imagine she was better than the ROH's recnet choice Ann Widdecombe who the reviews suggest was an embarrassment .

Why do they do it? - & I mean both the ROH (& others of that ilk) and the faded ex-MPs? Does the former believe that it will add lustre to their reputation, or pull in audiences who wouldn't normally go to an opera (viewers of Strictly Come Dancing, perhaps)? Do the latter need to supplement their (hefty) pension? Or do they miss the oxygen of publicity - ie do they still need to stoke up the ego?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Do the latter need to supplement their (hefty) pension? Or do they miss the oxygen of publicity - ie do they still need to stoke up the ego?

I suspect both of the above - especially for a second-ranker such as Ms Widdecombe without the "consultancies" to the multi-nationals and little else to keep her diverted in her retirement other than "slebritee" appearances.

[Barbirollians]

I suspect both of the above - especially for a second-ranker such as Ms Widdecombe without the "consultancies" to the multi-nationals and little else to keep her diverted in her retirement other than "slebritee" appearances.

One wonders which idiot at the ROH thought it was a good idea - perhaps next time it is revived it will be Craig Revel Horwood in drag and conducting an act too !!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One wonders which idiot at the ROH thought it was a good idea - perhaps next time it is revived it will be Craig Revel Horwood in drag and conducting an act too !!!

Oh, Lor'!!! Don't give 'em ideas!!!!