Want to hear the Met’s deadly Aida?
OperaThe Raiders of the Lost Tomb version.
It’s here.
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How about with the Preludio, before anyone sings?
Rote and shallow.
James Levine, as horrible a man as he was, would never have allowed those phrases to sound so devoid of meaning. There is simply no expression.
Why — aside from the payday and the pleasure of infecting everyone on stage and backstage — would an opera singer want to leave such a record for history?
There are some roles that can be negotiated when the voice is not functioning properly, but Radames is not one of them. This is a sad recording of a once fine tenor in desperate straits. I hope he cancels the rest of the run to fully recover. There doesn’t appear to be much outstanding singing from the rest of the cast, who perhaps were worried about catching a nasty virus from the tenor.
I’m concerned Beczala may go the way of the Met’s previous house tenor in mainstream repertoire, the late Marcello Giordani.
He is one of opera’s biggest international stars, far from a mere “house tenor”.
Certainly Quinn Kelsey is far more distinguished in the Verdi baritone repertoire than some other more self-serving performers of these roles including this current example from the U.K. And Beczala’s single bad night due to illness hardly makes him a “once fine” tenor.
If Gelb would hire covers, the tenor could have avoided such an embarrassment. In truth, the tenor actually has no business singing Radames even on his best day. In the past, a presentation such as this would have destroyed a career. However, in this world, he will probably be hired for ten new productions of Aida worldwide.
Is Peter Gelb going to blame critics for bad reviews?
Mr Gelb doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Which is a problem.
I was at the performance and I certainly don’t want to hear it again! It’s a disgrace that the Met published this considering reputational damage to Mr Beczala.
workhorse conducting from Yannick, too often pushing the chorus to sound harsh and ragged, how’s the new chorus master working out, by the way?
Palumbo came out at the curtain call. Chorus sounded great in the house.
Let me put it this way:
Beczala is the most convincing Radames in history in the last scene in which he is sealed in an airless tomb and slowly choking to death from lack of oxygen.
Everybody chill. Aida is more than just a tenor vehicle. The rest of the performance was fine.
Actually, not so much.
On the radio maybe. In the house no.
Thank you, but I’ll stay with this (Leontyne Price farewell performance):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_56dQteAIY
Opera music/singing is sort of inscrutable. I believe it was originally an off-shoot of vocal lessons in Italy, so the mannered nature of opera singers is built-in.
However, I respect the artistic form and its fans, but sometimes I sense my reaction is art for art’s sake. But even I know that someone like Peter Gelb has two left feet.
OK, I have heard the first three scenes now. In my book, it is poor style to turn upon a (good) singer for being ill or on bad form. But the Ramphis, the Amneris and even the Priestess are far from being good singers, in fact they are horrible. And then, there is the conductor. If you have a tenor on the verge of losing his voice for the evening and a mezzo with a wobble like a car that cannot get started, maybe you can speed up (to normal tempo, that is). But this one seems to have the talent of bringing out the worst in everyone. The only thing he did well was the ballet. Angel Blue got though the part well but she does not have great projection; the voice is soft and dark and quite lovely.
Having survived it to the end: the Amneris attempts some singing towrds the end while poor Beczala does not even try — too ill. All we can do is pray for Miss Blue’s health. I don’t know how close they keep to each other in the presumed staging.
Close enough to be infected. Trust me on that.
when do they finally remove the useless Peter Gelb?
Why did no one at the Met stop him? They employ Piotr, not the other way around and have every right to disallow him to take the stage when he sounds like that.
Somebody should have grown a pair and stopped him before he started. I would have demanded my money back if I was there that night. I don’t care how big a singer’s name is, they have an obligation to choose courage over cowardice and maintain a level of singing becoming of the prestige of the company and the prices they are charging. Everyone who was present that night should get a refund and it should come from Piotr’s paycheck and that of those too gutless to tell him no!
I dont know whether my refund should come from Beczala or Gelb but I would certainly like one. “Good luck with that” as we say around here.
Antonenko ruined Aida recording with Netrebko, and now this. MET has serious casting problem which clearly reflects issues with management. Instead of politicizing opera they should just do Opera until it’s too late
Issues with management AND the “talent” available as all the old timers will remind us.
My god! What happened to Beczala? If he was sick (flu?), he should NEVER have sung that night.
Is this the level of singing at the Met these days? A bass with no low notes, a wobbling mezzo, an ill tenor, and an under-powered soprano with intonation problems.
No wonder people are staying away.
Bravo! 🙂
It’s now up on the Met website that SeokJong Baek will sing Radamès on 04 and 07 January.
Well I’m not going back I can assure you.
On a second look, the Ramfis (Dmitry Belosselskiy) is being replaced tonight by the guy who sang The King at the opening (Morris Robinson), and tonight’s King will be Harold Wilson.
The MET imported yesterday SeokJong Baek as Radames fo Beczala (arrived late, so today till 3 PM rehearsing on rehearsal stage (Magic Flute on the real one) and at 8 PM going on), but also Morris Robinson originally scheduled as Pharao moved to sing Ramfis for Belosselsky and such Harold Wilson now subbing as Pharao for Robinson. Lets see how many germs did Beczala and Belosselsky spread around, but will see if any other subs, or covers going on in the next one on January 7th. MET still refusing to put on Beczala’s cover, Venezulean Jorge Puerta, who recently performed Radames at St.Margarethen Festival in Austria, Calaf at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires & Ismaele at Deutsche Oper Berlin (both Aida & Turandot avalible in video on youtube to see and to judge)….
I heard Mr. Puerta as Radames recently and thought he was excellent. Shame he wasn’t given chance as a cover should.