After listening to the broadcast from the Met of Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West last night, I asked myself who can sing the two principal roles in the opera? Certainly not the two who performed them yesterday. Deborah Voigt in the title role sounded like she was on leave from the old folks home, while Marcello Giordani forced his way through the tenor part. I worried that he might expire before the opera ended he was yelling so much. The baritone role is easy to cast as it makes no great demands on a reasonably capable singer. Nevertheless, Lucio Gallo bellowed his way through the evening. I heard Gallo in Chicago in 2001 as Iago. He was quite good, but nine more years of singing has stolen the beauty and ease he once had.
I can’t think of a good candidate for Minnie. Voigt’s sound is wrong for the role, her high notes were off pitch, and she seemed completely out of her comfort zone. Minnie is more than half way along the road from Tosca to Turandot. Renata Tebaldi or Antonietta Stella are no longer available. If anyone knows of a soprano right for this role I’d like to hear about her.
I was going to say that I couldn’t think of a tenor who had the goods for Dick Johnson until I came across Yonghoon Lee. This young tenor from South Korea has only been singing professionally for three years. He just made his debut at the Met in the title role in Don Carlo on November 29 of this year. He won’t be in the HD telecast this Saturday, but he will be on the radio broadcast a week later.
He’s singing everything everywhere. This is a major voice. A spinto tenor, maybe a dramatic tenor. And he’s also, dark, handsome, and slim. We can only hope that he doesn’t burn out from overuse. If he lasts he certainly has the voice needed for Dick Johnson. Here is video of this young singer’s rendition of ‘Recondita armonia’ and and audio of ‘E lucevan le stelle’ from Puccini’s Tosca.
And finally here is a blazing performance of the final duet from Carmen. Nadia Krasteva is Carmen.
Dear Dr. Neil,
My Heavens – where can they find a soprano (or mezzo) who will agree appear with him. What a voice. He might actually make me have to travel from the farm to see him. Kudos for bringing such a talent to your readers’ attention. Remember I’m a tyro. I know the Tosca aria and the Carmen was obvious. I know the melody of the middle video but not the opera – Puccini? Verdi?
I’ve updated the post to indicate that the two arias are from Puccini’s Tosca.
I was very impressed with Marcus Haddock in Tosca. He has about 10 times the resonance as you hear on his dvds. He sailed thru the performance beautifully and quite effortlessly. I’m sure he could handle Johnson easily.
Some sopranos have the power and the notes…….Patane, Valayre,
Rance needs a good actor otherwise he’s quite one dimensional.
I think Lee needs lighter roles. He sounds beyond his limit, uneven. Some odd vibrato here and there too.
Platanias for Rance?? Minus a few pounds.
I saw Marie Collier and Franco Corelli in Fanciulla. I couldn’t ask for more…..
I’ve heard Marcus Haddock in performance a number of times. He’s an alumnus of Texas Tech. He could get through Dick Johnson, but you wouldn’t leave the theater thinking you’d heard the reincarnation of Tucker or Corelli. Gabreile Adorno pushed his voice quite a bit. He’s a competent journeyman.
I was also impressed that Haddock could sing thru where other tenors take breaths. Best tenor I’ve heard live in decades. Very solid and extremely resonant quality thruout the range. Maybe I heard him on an exceptional night???. On dvd he comes across, like you say “a competent journeyman.”
That’s the hardest thing about opera……..growing up with Corellis and Del Monacos thinking more of those will come along……and they don’t.
you are so right about Yonghoon Lee- I heard Alagna a week earlier at the Met and listened on the radio this past Saturday…it was a different show! .particularly the final duet with Elisabetta- he ( Mr.Lee) was magnificent( so is she)! also could not agree more about your review of La Fanciullla- which I attended on opening night. I wanted to like both Deborah Voigt and her Mr.Johnson from Sacremento but both were mediocre,alas! Also agree with your daughter about Wagner…Wagner is for people who don’t really like Music.! sincerely,SuzanneTenney
I heard Fanciulla at the Met last night and alas, I have to agree with you about Ms Voight. I have near perfect pitch, so the worst thing about her performance was singing just a hair under pitch expecially in the higher range. I had heard her in the San Francisco production last June and she was much better. The first act was a disaster but she did get marginally better as evening progressed. Acting was fine, but she is too mature for this role. Giordani was a little better; singing was on pitch and in some parts quite beautiful but again I thought Licitra in SF production was better. I did like Gallo as the sheriff, but again not a real demanding role. Orchestra and Luisotti were of course spectacular. I guess the opera impressarios all thought they had a Minnie as Ms. Voight moved from San Francisco to the Met and then on to Lyric. I am still waiting for my dream cast.
I agree with Suzanne. The final duet in Don Carlo was breathtaking; I was transported! Mr. Lee was fantastic and those pianossimos of Elisabetta were unwordly. I heard a live performance on Dec 15th that was just perfect.. Could these two (Lee and Poplavskaya) possibly do Fanciulla or are their voices too light? I’d travel far to hear them paired again. The voices blended beautifully which is not always the case. Sometimes you have two fine voices, but they just do not blend as well.
From Dorothy Kirsten’s autobiography, she had to replace Leontyne Price’s Minnie in mid performance and for a season as she lost her voice for 6 months after only a few performances. Kirsten also thinks Tebaldi’s steely off key high notes were the result of this role. (Of course, she said Corelli was the perfect Johnson).
“A Time to Sing”……a very interesting book, especially the tour of Russia…..in the winter……. from trains to hotel heat…….little worked much.
It is not a good sign that the man is eating two microphones in the photo you’ve uploaded. I beg you to listen to the Turandot he recently sang at Wiener Staatstoper, it was the worst Calaf I have ever heard, Alagna, Berti and Giordani’s failures sounded like Franco Corelli and Jussi Bjorling next to Lee. This singer barked out blood-curdling screams from beginning to end, every high note was constricted and painfully buried into the throat. The veins in his face bulging as always, his line was nonexistent even for verismo singing. Everything was so hideously flat, that I briefly wondered if he was a baritone. He sang a trainwreck of Nesun Dorma that Bocelli, Brightman or Paul Potz couldn’t do any worse than. Lee is an embarrassment to the opera world. And