Monday, October 29, 2007

Maria's Music Review | 'Aida' 10/16/07 Whose the winner Aida or Amneris?

Aida at the Met

The Metropolitan Opera’s new strategy of plugging sudden holes in its casts with big names has its beneficiaries. The emergency performers come off like cavalry to the rescue and incidentally collect big extra fees: sometimes more than $13,000 a performance. “Where possible we should have star singers sing in all performances,” said Peter Gelb, the house’s general manager. “The public is not interested in someone not singing. They want to hear the stars.”

Unfortunately, they all were pretty disappointing last night. Roberto Alagna stepped in for an unwell Marco Berti. However unfortunate, Alagna's voice is not right for Radames. Alagna's voice is way too small for Radames...which is probably why the patrons at La Scala booed him. Anytime a trumpet or brass ensemble played their little fanfare duiring the recit before 'Celeste Aida'...drowned out his voice. Celeste Aida was a pittstop...Alagna reaching for notes and going sharp on the portamento. That was no way to sing Verdi's most beautiful tenor aria. Let's be reasonable here. Alagna's voice is now spread and he doesn't have the point he needs to carry his voice over, thru, past, the orchestra. This is a real shame when 10 years ago he was predicted to be the next "Pavarotti." Well not anymore...he has blown his voice to smitherines.

Angela Brown's Aida was all over the place. Her voice is uneven all the way up & down. Most unfortunate, she cracked on the high note in "O patria mia" ..and her high notes were scwabbly in general. As an actress she always did this emotional shaking with her arms on high notes which made the notes become unhinged. She also makes attempts at the 'rose bloom' on her high notes ....but the effect sounds "off the voice" to "on the voice" ....never on the tone.

Dolora Zajick brought it home as usual with her Amneris. Her final scene was pure gold. She has a great secure voice and she just hammers it out...note after note. Layer upon layer. However in the duet Dolora and Angela clashed. They sounded like two warbly hens together. Their joint vibrati were way too wide for harmonious accord. These two diva's sounded like they were in competition with each other. Leontyne and Marilyn knew how to match up their voices for the sake of Verdi's beautiful MUSIC. Well whose the winner? Aida or Amneris? I'll take Amneris for $13,000.