Don fatale? Anna Smirnova? Ha! She didn't look the part, she can't act worth spit, and she sang Eboli as if she'd really rather be somewhere else. But she's the only thing I can fault in this production. Grand Opera at its grandest. Hell, I even liked the sets!

I did too, and there were so many of them! Seamless changes -- no delays, no sound.

A strange thing happened to me during the "Nel giardin del bello". I started hearing another voice in my head, singing the aria the way I thought it ought to be sung. It was Tatiana Troyanos's voice. Weird. Two voices at the same time, two different tonal qualities, not always the same tempo, one clean vibrato and one slurry one. Both voices, side by side. That's never happened before (and I hope it never happens again!).

Troyanos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrbPQjftRCA

Austin, Eboli has been played without an eye patch before -- by Grace Bumbry, for one.

Whenever Rodrigo and Carlo sang together, it was obvious how hard Simon Keenlyside had to work to get the proper sound out. You could almost see him willing that diaphragm to open down a little more. But all Roberto Alagna had to do was remember to keep his mouth open, and the sound just came pouring out. They still managed to produce a nice blend, just the same. Alagna didn't quite nail his first aria, but he got stronger as the opera progressed. Carlo, like Rhadames and the Duke of Mantua, starts the opera with a big aria but with no onstage warm-up time. The square-jawed Russian singing Elizabeth (Marina Poplavskaya) has a good strong soprano and was well-matched with Alagna.

It was an exciting production, I thought. Nothing but winners so far this season.

The whole opera (the Schiller play, too) is remote from history in many ways: Philip was about 30 at this time, Carlos was mentally unstable to a critical degree, Rodrigo didn't exist, etc. So an eyepatch more or less won't make much difference, and by no means all productions include it -- in fact the previous Met production was probably one of the few at the time that did, as a sort of piquant extra.

[This message has been edited by Jon (edited 12-13-2010).]

[img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2-jA_FiEVI3Eazq_arvHRL69balrdosxoQgpRgaMgj9-3Lw3gKQ[/img]

Ana de la Cerda, Princess of Eboli

Did we lose some posts here?

Yes, we did. I asked you why Tatiana Troyanos, but I don't see the question here.

Oh dear. You know, this forum has always been twitchy. I recall numerous problems with Musical Jeopardy, and the software here won't let me change a topic header. Only here, no other forum.

As to Troyanos, I have no idea why. I can't have heard her in the role since the '80s. I don't think she's ever recorded Don Carlo. The "Veil Song" link above is to a PBS taping of a Met production that was never released, to my knowledge; I don't know where that YouTube segment came from. But that's the voice I heard in my head.

Actually (but coincidentally), the Don Carlo with Troyanos has just been released on DVD in a Big Giant Box of opera DVDs to mark James Levine's 40 years with the company. None of them has appeared on homevideo before, and a couple (an Ariadne with Voigt and Dessay, a Wozzeck) were known to have been taped but never were telecast at all. I'm also happy about the Rosenkavalier with Troyanos, Te Kanawa, and Blegen. For a Troyanos-lover like me, it's a feast.

(I'm actually happy about the whole thing. I bought it. And the matching CD set too, of selected Levine-led radio broadcasts over the years.)

Jon, this is not the time to dangle such a temptation in front of me, as I am currently embarked on a new parsimonious streak. (Not much choice; I just forked over $7,400 for a new A/C & Heating unit.) But the collection should stay available for some time yet, I imagine.

I don't get it. On Dec. 11, the Met matinee performance was Don Carlo, simulcast in HD. Today, one week later, the Met matinee broadcast is Don Carlo. Two Saturdays in a row? Why???