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I went with mixed feelings, having heard chunks of the prima on the
internet, but in the event was very happily surprised by the women,
less so by the men - although the best surprise of the night on that
score was the cancellation due to illness of Mr. Guelphi, and the
substitute of Jason Stearns.

I'd gone for Podles, and even without my cheering she was clearly the
house favorite, and deservedly so. I was concerned that at this point
in her career with instrument would be a shade small or wobbly, but
she fills the house with the unmistakable sound, had no problem with
the upper reaches of the role (although the volume of the voice
declines somewhat above the passaggio) and phrased beautifully, with a
great control of dynamics. She didn't chew the scenery, which I
regretted, but this set is rather indigestible in any event, and while
she is the Voce di Donna, she's not prima donna in this opera. There's
still so much she could do within the MET's repertoire, let's see what
managment decides.

I had trepidations about Voigt - she's had problems in the last five
years, most notably a problem with the middle voice, which is often
unsupported and sounds at times oddly like Tettrazini's to my ears.
However, she seemed very much like a new singer last night, and unless
this was just an 'on' night, she's really overcome the tribulations of
her technique and weight loss. I thought the sound was beautiful and
even from top to bottom, with only one or two slight and momentary
hints, in the last ten minutes, or the problems in the middle voice
(which I do indeed think are support problems, and which a bit of
fatigue at the end would have explained). The breath line is what
you'd expect, I think, for a woman in her 40s - not prodigious, and
some catch breaths, but certainly more than good enough, and there's
not a hint of a wobble. She also seems to have created a much more
rounded and Italianate sound than previously. What seems to have
happened is that there's been some (probably deliberate) attenuation
in both the range of the voice now - I doubt that she has a Db in the
house, and Cs sometimes have to be negotiated - and in volume, but
this is a perfectly acceptable trade-off for what she has, and at this
level she should be able to give first-class performances for another
decade. She is not the most directly impassioned of all singers, but
when she's left to her own interpretive devices and her own sense of
her personality - as in Act IV - I thought her very good indeed...I
wish she was given more confidence to be herself emotionally. There's
much she'd be terrific in right now: both Maries (Berg and Korngold,
but not Donizetti lol), Leonora, where she could be vocally great, the
blond Wagner still, perhaps Euryanthe if she was of a mind, and some
of the lighter Strauss. I think she should put the heavier Wagner
behind here - if the voice works so well with this kind of orchestra
and tessitura, going into a 'one size larger' repertoire would be
foolish. In the Italian sphere, she might be a first rate Minne (those
Cs can indeed be guaged), a very fine Desdemona if she wanted to find
her own personality in the role, and a very good Lady (I don't think
the voice is too blond for this anymore) and while I don't know what
her appetite is for learning Slavic languages, surely she could be
thinking of many such roles, where she'd excel vocally - she'd be
great in Dalibor as Milada, surely Lisa and the Maid of Orleans call
and in fact I'd enjoy her in Fiery Angel and Mtsensk, both roles I
think she could handle notably.

Borodina was beautiful of sound, if a little cautious at the top, and
if she sounded as good as she's sounded in years, I thought that, as
ever, she wasn't 'giving' much besides the voice and stage presence.

Aquiles Machado was adequate - he has good instincts but not enough
volume and seemed to tire through the evening a bit. The top rings,
within the limits of the size of his voice, but I'd have preferred
Polumbo or even the improbabe-looking but much-underrated Casanova in
the role if we here at that level of tenor. I thought Anastassov ok as
Alvise - this is, to me, a tough role to cast, since the Act III aria,
which is really his big scene, is all over the place in terms of
tessitura, and the temptations to sing while leering and twirling your
moustaches is almost insurmountable. Jason Stearnes was new to me, I
think - he's been singing all over and I actually thought him very
good, although the while he has all the volume one needs, the voice is
quite dark (and pleasingly even, by the way) but the top doesn't
really ring much, and I can see why he's been doing a bit more in the
German repertoire than the Italian. Still, there seem to be very few
first-rate Italian baritones with us now, and he'd be a fine addition
with just a bit more characterization (he came on gangbusters, but
then scaled back a bit, I thought).

I very much like Daniel Callegari's conducting of this opera - more
and more, it's becoming one I go back to with increasing pleasure, and
if I could have either of Letizia Giulinana or the handsome and
wonderful Angel Corella doing a private Dance of the Hours for me,
then hours would, indeed, fly like minutes.

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