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Hobby Forum Index » Music - Classical » NYT: A Slimmed-Down Deborah Voigt Dons a Little Black...
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| Premise Checker... |
 Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 8:14 pm |
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She doesn't look exactly skinny to me. I have no opinion about her voice,
not being much interested in the kind of music she sings. A fellow
classical music enthusiast says she's dreadful.
A Slimmed-Down Deborah Voigt Dons a Little Black Dress for Ariadne auf
Naxos at the Royal Opera House
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/arts/music/18aria.html
A Slimmed-Down Diva Keeps Her Vocal Heft
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
LONDON -- The drama following the 2004 dismissal of the soprano
Deborah Voigt from a production of Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos" at
the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden here had many elements of the
work itself: an opera within an opera that blends comic and tragic
aspects and caricatures the lofty ideals of high art. Ms. Voigt's
dismissal, because she was too large to wear the cocktail dress
stipulated by the director or adhere to his staging concepts,
prompted an avalanche of international interest that ranged from
buffa laughs about fat ladies singing to ponderous editorials about
the meaning of "sacred art" versus Hollywood ideals of beauty.
In the end, as in "Ariadne," the little-black-dress saga also became
a story of transformation: in Ms. Voigt's case, a very literal one.
After gastric bypass surgery in 2004 and considerable weight loss, a
much slimmer and more agile Ms. Voigt was re-engaged by the Royal
Opera to sing the title role in the second revival of Christof Loy's
2002 production, which opened on Monday night. Ms. Voigt looked
elegant and sounded in fine form in her first Covent Garden
appearance since 2001.
The clever production, with elegant sets by Herbert Murauer, opens
in a stylish salon, which rises to reveal a basement dressing-room
area where the action of the Prologue takes place: the opera singers
and a commedia dell'arte troupe prepare the evening's entertainment
for a wealthy patron.
The rich-voiced mezzo-soprano Kristine Jepson vividly conveyed the
idealism of the melodramatic young Composer and was passionately
distraught when the Majordomo, portrayed here with amusing
portentousness by Alexander Pereira, made his shocking announcement
that the patron wished the opera and the comedy to be performed
simultaneously. (In real life Mr. Pereira is the director of the
Zurich Opera.)
The baritone Thomas Allen was excellent as the frazzled Music Master
trying to console his disconsolate student; Alan Oke was lively as a
sleazy, camp Dancing Master in a bright yellow suit. Gillian Keith
illuminated Zerbinetta's coquettishness with perky flair, slinking
around in a sexy red dress during the Prologue, although her light,
appealing voice didn't always penetrate the dense orchestration. She
nimbly scaled the coloratura heights of her showpiece aria, but
didn't quite capture the nuances of her multifaceted character.
Ariadne's island cave (the scene of the opera within the opera) is
updated here to a bedroom painted with images of antiquity. Ms.
Voigt, clad in a long black cocktail dress, slumped over her
dressing table like any jilted woman moping in her modern cave
equivalent. An occasional intonational mishap aside, she sounded
lustrous as she pleaded for death, her huge, gleaming voice as
commanding as ever in her signature role.
The three nymphs -- Anita Watson (Naiad), Sarah Castle (Dryad) and
Anna Leese (Echo) -- were dressed in formal black servant attire and
sang well. There were plenty of amusing antics from Zerbinetta and
her gang: Ji-Min Park (Scaramuccio); Haoyin Xue (Brighella); Jeremy
White (Truffaldino), dressed as a burly Hells Angels biker; and
Markus Werba (Harlequin), as a thug in combat trousers and denim
jacket.
The tenor Robert Dean Smith offered a strong, ardent performance as
Bacchus, although his attractive voice occasionally lacked heft.
There was plenty of chemistry between him and Ms. Voigt during the
opera's conclusion under a star-studded sky.
Mark Elder deftly conducted the orchestra in a detailed reading that
was particularly effective in the moments of sweeping Wagnerian
lushness.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss's librettist, stipulated that during
the work's final moments "there can be no sign of the `play within a
play,' " and that the audience must have as little recollection of
the Prologue as the "deeply dreaming person has of his bed." With no
clear directorial link between the Prologue and the rest of the
opera, and with an almost hourlong intermission between them,
Hofmannsthal certainly got his wish.
Ariadne auf Naxos runs through July 1 at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden; royalopera.org. |
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