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Read more.

The Opera Fanatic is partly about Zucker’s quest for the answers to a question which cannot really be answered or quantified: what makes a singer thrilling and a performance moving? But it also is, in part, a memorial of his late mother, a soprano named Rosina Wolf, whose memory he evokes several times during the film. Most of all, however, it is about a group of great singers, many of whom have been forgotten (a few probably don’t even hit the radar for some younger opera-goers), and some whose careers were eclipsed by La Callas and Renata Tebaldi. However, one thing these larger-than-life women have in common can be put very simply: Star Power.

And that Star Power is wonderfully present in this film. Years after her career had ended, soprano Leyla Gencer still could demand that she be interviewed at La Scala (they acquiesced); Marcella Pobbe, a wonderful soprano from the 1950s, was suspiciously difficult to pin down for an interview time; yet another Diva was concerned that her maid would need to come twice (before and after the interview).

And some of the meetings went less than swimmingly. Poor Madame Pobbe, when the interview finally took place, fumed at Zucker’s questions (she called him “stupid”). He prodded her with queries like “What was the highest note you ever sang?” Her disdain was palpable, but not for reasons one might think. She wanted Zucker to properly introduce her and to explain her place in opera history first (DIVA). She did, eventually, answer the question about the note (in case anyone cares, it was a high “D” in Carmina Burana, with Zubin Mehta conducting). She was equally ticked off when questioned about canceling her 1959 MET engagement to sing Elisabetta. The cancellation was due to a quarrel with her then lover the great tenor Nicolai Gedda. She blamed Rudolf Bing for the incident. Heard that story before…

But despite occasional fits of pique due to scheduling mishaps and other issues, many of these singers offered fascinating insights into opera, character, and the art of singing. The luminous mezzo-soprano Guilietta Simionato, known for her riveting vocal portrayals of characters like Carmen, Azucena, and Eboli, among many others, spoke almost poetically about proper breath control: “… the cavity [mask] projects upwards or sound doesn’t rise. With the breath you have to make a circle. It’s not that the high note is a point of arrival. The breath has to raise it up and then bring it down again, that way the notes come down like pearls.” A clip from a 1961 Cavalleria Rusticana [OA0983D] showed her in absolutely gorgeous voice. But perhaps the most telling moment from her interview was her confession when asked what she would have done differently with her career: she said, almost without hesitation, that she would not have become a singer. She suffered greatly, and it took almost two decades for her to get her due as an artist. I, for one, am glad she was not given that opportunity.

Another legendary soprano Magda Olivero commented that “you must find the character inside. Every word, every note has to rise from the inside and go forward to the audience.” She clearly understood what that meant, as evidenced by a superb 1960 Tosca excerpt. She also talked about the difficulties for sopranos in Act II of Tosca, which she described as a soprano-killer.

Anita Cerquetti (a personal favorite) — who is a longtime cult figure among vocal folks for her astonishing voice, very short career, and yes, the funniest record covers in just about all opera history (except for the late British Wagnerian Rita Hunter) — had some interesting comments about opera performance: ” A singer cannot be compared to an actor. The singer has to sing. He has to stay motionless. When he sings a romance, he cannot walk up and down the stage, otherwise the voice shifts. A singer has to be an actor through his gestures, through his face, through his arms and hands, through his voice.” Now, I won’t mince words here, Anita is and was a very large lady (NO comments here, she was) and probably didn’t or couldn’t take a lot of stage direction (just a guess). Motionless is a bit, well, odd even for me. And, let’s face it, much has changed in opera productions since these women graced the stage. There is far more emphasis on physical acting now for example. But some of what she says makes sense: a singer is not an actor in the traditional sense. If anyone watched the MET broadcast of Il Trittico last season, the most moving aspect of Barbara Frittoli’s performance was her portrayal of the character of Suor Angelica, which she achieved almost entirely through her facial expressions and simple physical gestures. In my opinion, her singing was nothing special. And had I been in the opera house instead of at the movies, where I could really see what she was doing with the role, I’m not so sure I would have been so moved.

For me, there is something special about this entire era of singing which quite frankly, harkens back to a time when the voice reigned supreme and when singing conveyed such emotion that even on a bad day, it had, well, “soul.” (Just to clarify: there are many, many current singers I absolutely adore and couldn’t do without. But I must confess to a certain love of singers from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.)

In addition to the great singers of the 1950s and 1960s, the film also goes a further back into opera history and devotes some time to the great Gina Cigna, who actually was French and born in Paris in 1900 (she died in 2001). Cigna came from a much earlier era than the other singers portrayed in the film and was 96 when Zucker went to visit her. She said, “If you don’t know how to breathe, you don’t know how to sing….Opera has lost spontaneity, beauty and freedom.” Her interview was very short as she was so very frail, but just her presence and the excerpts of her glorious voice were enough for me.

I’ve left off quite a few singers profiled in the film, for which I apologize. But if my word count is correct, I’m over 1000 words. Watch the film instead. It is really a film about soul, something which these Divas all have in abundance. (The Opera Fanatic, a film by Jan Schmidt-Garre, Arthaus Musik, 101813.)

Diese Produktion, die beim Rossini Opern Festival in dessen Geburtsstadt Pesaro aufgezeichnet wurde, glänzt besonders durch die Kombination der beiden bereits etablierten Vokalisten Désirée Rancatore und Saimir Pirgu und der hoch talentierten Newcomer Fabio Maria Capitanucci, Enrico Maria Marabelli sowie Maria Cortsevskaya.Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento
Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Leitung

Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, Italy August 2006

83 Min. 13 Sek.
DD 2.0 / Dolby Surround 5.0
NTSC Single Layer Disc
16:9

Rezension:
DAS OPERNGLAS 4/2008 Knapp eineinhalb Stunden vergnüglich Rossini-Unterhaltung bietet diese in Zusammenarbeit von Naxos, Dynamic und dem Rossini Opera Festival entstandene DVD: die Farsa comica »La Cambialedi matrimonio«, mitgeschnitten in Pesaro im Sommer2006. Die detail- und einfallsreiche Inszenierung von Luigi Squarzino erinnert stilistisch an die Arbeiten von Jean Pierre Ponnelle oder Michael Hampe: Die Herangehensweise ist vom Grundsatz her realistisch (Bühnenbild und Kostüme von Tiziano Mancmi sind eine Augenweide!), doch mit jener Portion Ironie versehen, die gerade dieser recht konventionell gestaltete Einakter dringend braucht. Alles wirkt irgendwie etwas übertrieben – aber nur genau umso viel, dass das Ganze nicht von der Musik ablenkt und in Klamaukumkippt.
Musikalisch sorgt Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli am Pult des sauber spielenden, aber ziemlich trocken klingenden Orchestra Haydn di Bolzanoe Trentomit ausgewogenen Tempi für einen reibungslosen Ablauf. Etwas mehr 1
Esprit hätte allerdings nicht geschadet. Die Besetzung lässt große Namen vermissen, setzt stattdessen auf junge Stimmen und erweist sich schließlich als sehrhomogen. Mit Paolo Bordogna (Tobia Mill) und Fabio Maria Capitanucci (Slook) stehen zwei erstklassige Rossini-Sänger in der Nachfolge eines Renato Capecchi oder Sesto Bruscantini zur Verfügung: zwei kernige Baritonstimmen, ungemein höhensicher, dabei aber auch ausreichend beweglich für die geforderten Koloraturpassagen. Da beide zudem über eine guten Schuss visccimica verfügen, ist ihr Duett der absolute Höhepunkt der Aufführung. Auch Desire Rancatore wird vom Publikum lautstark gefeiert zu Recht. Ihr etwas soubrettig wirkender Sopran mit fabelhafter Koloraturtechnik und stupender Extremhöhe ist bei der Partie der kapriziösen Fanny bestens aufgehoben. Mit schönem Timbre und eleganter Phrasierung lässt Saimir Pirgu aufhorchen, doch bietet die Tenorpartie des Edoardo dem Sänger wenig Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten.
Eines allerdings mutet seltsam an: Der erste Track der DVD zeigt das Teatro Rossini in Pesaro – zunächst von außen, dann von innen – zeigt, wie elegant gekleidete Opernbesucherin den Logen Platz nehmen, ehe sich der Vorhang hebt. Die Vorstellung freilich hat in einer hässlichen Sportarena am Rande der Stadt stattgefunden, die seit jenem Sommer 2006 alljährlich fürs Festival umgerüstet wird…
A. Laska

Bei dieser Produktion aus dem Teatro La Fenice ließ sich der Regisseur Arnaud Bernard von Bernardo Bertoluccis berühmten Film 1900 inspirieren. Getragen wird die Oper von der herausragenden Sopranistin Darina Takova, deren sensible und intensive Charakterisierung Luisas die innere Qual und Zerrissenheit der Titelheldin fast greifbar werden lässt. Giuseppe Sabbatini überzeugt in einer spannungsgeladenen Darstellung des Rodolfo. Besonders die berühmteste Arie der Oper Quando le sere al placido ist ein musikalischer und theatralischer Höhepunkt.

Das OPERNGLAS schreibt in seiner März Ausgabe 2008: „Da sage noch jemand, Verdi werde heute nicht mehr opulent gesungen! (…) Durchweg hört man Stimmen, die sich über Höhensicherheit, Kraft und Volumen auszeichnen. Hier wird nicht auf Sparflamme gekocht.”

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE
Christopher Nupen receives DVD of the Year Award for the third time

At 9pm on 30 January 2008, Christopher Nupen received the DVD of the Year Award (Documentary category) at Midem in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes for his latest DVD Jacqueline du Pré – A celebration.

Christopher Nupen, who was recently described by Gramophone Magazine as “King of the music documentary” has received a shower of awards in the past few months including DVD of the Month from both Classic FM Magazine and Gramophone, three times the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in Germany and the Diapason d’Or in France.

In his acceptance speech he said:

“Jacqueline du Pré belongs to that world where the most beautiful things suffer the worst fate. Hers is among the saddest stories in music but there were many happy events in Jacqueline du Pré’s short life, among them the arrival of the first silent 16 mm film cameras, invented just in time to capture something of her magic on film in a way that had never before been possible – and she taught us that, once those cameras had been invented, film became capable of remembering the artistic persona in a way that not one of the other media is quite able to match. That is why this DVD exists and the fact that a jury of 20 people from 12 different lands should value that and give it this award, is a blessing on her life and her spirit which remains wonderfully present in this world.”

The DVD of the Year Award is the top international classical DVD award and it is the third time in four years that Christopher Nupen has won it, an unprecedented achievement.

For more information or interview opportunities please contact:

Jo Carpenter Music Management & PR
jo@jocarpenter.com