(no subject)
May. 20th, 2008 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polutropeOh, Danielle de Niese loving mouse, defend this. Please. It is seriously terrible. She's harsh all the time and she thinks that moving her shoulders a lot is acting. I mean, I like Cecelia Bartoli's Deh vieni better than hers; at least Bartoli got rid of her customary breathyness for once. This make me sure that de Niese can't get rid of the harshness in her voice - it's intrinsic, i.e. she does not have a good voice.
Also the production sucks, as is made doubly clear by their terrible Venite, inginocchiatevi (which de Niese doesn't do very well either, by the way). For one thing, what constitutes dressing Cherubino as a girl when everyone's wearing odd formless jumpsuits? For another thing, that aria has the most obvious implicit stage directions I've ever heard - so it doesn't make all that much sense for Susanna to say "Guardatemi" when Cherubino is already looking at her, or again, for her to tell him to keep his eyes on her and not on the countess when HE IS ALREADY LOOKING AT HER.
On the bright side, their Cherubino is adorable x infinity
EDIT: NO SERIOUSLY I FUCKING HATE THIS PRODUCTION. I hate modern productions in general, it's true - either a work is relevant to our times or it's not, or it doesn't matter (which is my view), but putting everyone in jeans won't make it more relevant - but they can work, if they have a. an organizing principal and b. something to do with what's going on in the opera. I mean, in the first duet, Figaro isn't measuring the room that the count gave them, because they are in a car factory, or something. In "Via, resta servita," Susanna and Marcellina have to be trying to get past each other, because otherwise their exchange of insults makes no sense. In this production, they're just sort of sitting there.
Also, have I mentioned that de Niese can't act or sing? I'd much rather listen to Marcellina - and when your Marcellina's better than your Susanna, you have a problem.
Also the production sucks, as is made doubly clear by their terrible Venite, inginocchiatevi (which de Niese doesn't do very well either, by the way). For one thing, what constitutes dressing Cherubino as a girl when everyone's wearing odd formless jumpsuits? For another thing, that aria has the most obvious implicit stage directions I've ever heard - so it doesn't make all that much sense for Susanna to say "Guardatemi" when Cherubino is already looking at her, or again, for her to tell him to keep his eyes on her and not on the countess when HE IS ALREADY LOOKING AT HER.
On the bright side, their Cherubino is adorable x infinity
EDIT: NO SERIOUSLY I FUCKING HATE THIS PRODUCTION. I hate modern productions in general, it's true - either a work is relevant to our times or it's not, or it doesn't matter (which is my view), but putting everyone in jeans won't make it more relevant - but they can work, if they have a. an organizing principal and b. something to do with what's going on in the opera. I mean, in the first duet, Figaro isn't measuring the room that the count gave them, because they are in a car factory, or something. In "Via, resta servita," Susanna and Marcellina have to be trying to get past each other, because otherwise their exchange of insults makes no sense. In this production, they're just sort of sitting there.
Also, have I mentioned that de Niese can't act or sing? I'd much rather listen to Marcellina - and when your Marcellina's better than your Susanna, you have a problem.
