Garsington Opera has called in the American soprano Madison Leonard to sing Sophie opposite Miah Persson’s Marschallin.
The intended Sophie – British soprano Soraya Mafi – will be having a baby around that time.
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The truth about the “Hosenrolle”.
Not a crisis in my opinion
Miah Persson as Marschallin? Is this a typo? She was a wonderful Sophie not that long ago, but that is a HUGE vocal jump from Sophie’s silvery, youthful stratospheric high notes and naivete to the low-lying, world-weary parlando of the Marschallin, and that deep, soul-searching monologue of the end of Act I.
Sounds like sending a girl to do a woman’s job.
If you check your dates, you might find that “not that long ago” is most of a decade. Persson’s in her early fifties and hasn’t sung anything like Sophie in a while, although it was a great role for her at one time.
Donna Anna, Elettra, Countess Almaviva, and the Countess in Capriccio are typical of what’s on her schedule going back to 2017.
I haven’t heard her Marschallin, so I don’t make any claims for it either way, but it isn’t uncommon a woman to move from one role to another in that opera with age and vocal change. Several sopranos have sung all three of the main female roles.
Not a crisis.
my problem with Rosenkav casting is Marschallin and Octavian are both too old. M should be in her late 20’s and O in her teens.
Marschallin: 32
Octavian: 17.
But you can cope with Octavian played by a woman? Or does that also make your head explode?
WHO doesn’t like watching 2 women?
It’s 2 men that gross me out.
In opera, everything is stylized and symbolic and ‘make believe’. Of course Octavian has to be played by a female mezzo, there is no 17 year male soprano capable of tackling the immensily difficult role.
When you find a 15-year old Japanese soprano able to sing the title role in Madama Butterly, please let me know…
And don’t forget, Salome is supposed to be 16.
And she came to a gruesome end in c minor.
Toti dal Monte came pretty close sounding like a 15 y.o. Geisha girl in her 1939 recording with Gigli.
How many 15-year old geishas have you heard singing? Just wondering..
A couple of years ago we had one here on probation, working in the kitchen, but her obsessive quartertones became unbearable for the other staff so we had to let her go. She’s now a successful restaurant owner in the West End, adding local colour to the setting where her quartertones are better appreciated.
Sally
No singer in their teens or even under 30 could sing O – unless they wanted a V short career
“Crisis averted,” you mean.
And anyway, Sophie is not exactly a role that’s hard to cast. (Not that it’s an easy role, it’s just that lots of lyric sopranos know it. Not like trying to find a replacement for Lulu, for example.)
A “crisis”? Give me strength! This is 2021…
So not really a crisis then.
I’m not sure that I’m seeing a crisis here? For goodness sake, this is normal life – and we need normal at a time like this.
The not entirely unforseen result of Octavian’s impetuosity.
Cute 🙂
It made me wonder, though: are there many soprano/ mezzo pairs who have played the Marschallin + Octavian and the Countess + Cherubino together? There must be.