Sondra Radvanovsky's Last Season at the MET

In an article in this month's Opera News entitled "Chanson triste' Sondra Radvanovsky informed the press that she has not received any upcoming contracts from the MET and that this Leonora might be her farefwell Trovatore.

Damm! I'm pretty mad about this. Although I have not had the chance to hear her in person, I was planning on making my way down there for this. So ....what appened?

Well I think the Renee Fleming's rock star status has basically squeezed her out. But no that cant be it...could it? Dont they sing different repertoire? OK Here's the scoop. Last year I heard that Peter Gelb took and gave Sondra's Leonora's to Renee. That said, I don't know the season implied but I think Renee will sing Leonora in 2009-2010. So that's why Sondra's contract is ending.

Now Renee is enjoying a real climax in her career right now. She has been called the "darling of the Met" and all kinds of sweet and saucy stuff. But I am not sure I want to hear Renee get in there and slurp up Verdi with all her scooping and jazz inflections. Let's face it. Verdi should be sung as cleanly as Mozart. Verdi is beautiful music and there is a lot of integrity that goes into the study of Verdi. There is a Verdian Style. And though Renee sang "Tacea" well on the Volpe Gala...she did! I was glad to hear her sink her teeth into some Verdi...it took some of the boredom out of her singing. But will she refrain from scooping throughout the whole role? And why won't someone tell her that the scooping sound is ugly? Why wont someone stand up to Renee and say " Renee quit the scooping! " Because her name sells tickets? Well.....

Anna Netrebko just came back from maternity leave to bad Lucia reviews. They said she didn't hit the high Eb at the end of "Spargi." Well that particular Eb is standard and she is required to sing it but I read that it was so flat it sounded like a Db -- a whole 'whole step' down. Dang. Well she hasn't sung in six months but to come back in with an acrobatic role like Lucia....it was too ambitions.

But getting back to Sondra. Sondra's been hanging out at the MET since 1995 when she won the Met auditions. Peter Gelb wants singers who can pull in crowds...However I hate to see another get squeezed out. Ruth Ann Swenson was accused of being a stand and sing soprano and Gelb let her go too. Now she's rotating Musetta's with Nicole Cabell... Some spots have been lost in music because of the recession too. That plays a part in this too.

Anyway, I have said before that we can't compare singers of the past to the singers of today. But I see everybodys still doing it. Why? Because singing cannot be just about beautiful voice. Singing has to be a burning lightning rod for the singer and for the audience. One has to have a beautiful voice but singing ultimately has to transport people....take them to another level and give them an out of body experience...and sometimes that is not with a beautiful voice. That is the art of interpretation. Singers need to go back and read all of Maria Callas' biographys and see what she did. She was the greatest .. if I must compare.