Touched by an Opera

Thank you to Kelly Rinne for alerting us to this b'cast, and providing the link to hear it: I had no problem accessing it, and she did an excellent job hosting this afternoon.

Today's broadcast from the Detroit Opera House was an unexpected surprise: it was by a significant margin one of the very best offerings it gave. There have been a lot of variable offerings over the years, to say the least, but this one must be counted as definitely one of international standard. And no wonder: with Richard Bonynge conducting/coaching and Renata Scotto directing (and no doubt throwing in a "few" of her performance "secrets"), it was bound to achieve a (skyrocketing) higher level of authority and competence.

Daniel Borowski sang Rodolfo. It appears to be a fairly sizable voice, and there's the requisite smoothness necessary for this kind of music, but I still wouldn't call him a top-notch bel canto singer. It sounds like an addition to his repertoire rather than a field he's mastered. The giveaway in that is that in his aria "Vi Ravviso" you could hear some struggle keeping a pure, unblemished line. Like every other bass, he declined to note the upward slurs in the score, and didn't seem to know how to impart the dignified, endearing nostalgia in its text. Every bass needs to hear Plancon, for his free-wheeling, but spontaneous vocal effects: portamenti liberally applied at key words, little touches of colorations, applications of dynamic phrasing - his version is thoroughly instinctive, musical and at once individual. Most coaches and conductors of today would sternly clamp down on Plancon's freedom of means, but indoing so they would cut out a so-much more spontaneous, musical approach.

Still, Borowski sang Rodolfo far better than most of I've heard.
The Elvino, Andreas Cesare Coronella, certainly has the sweetness of tone and honeyed line for the role. This is a tough sing, a nightmare for the tenor who would lie awake the night before wondering if he can hack it. Coronella had the manner, the knowledge evident. Like many Elvinos though, the frequent extensions into the upper register sometimes exposed a tightness and unsteadiness. But at other times, there was enough sweetness to compensate.
The Lisa, whose name I didn't catch, was better cast than usual: the voice had a brisk tartness, clean coloratura, and excellent trills. She gave just the right spitfire interpretation.

Eglise Gutierrez, the Amina, scored a real triumph. She has everything an Amina should have - line, technique, musicianship, and a winning manner. Though I cannot hear her singing another Bellini role with the exception of Elvira at this point, her light tone has much more body and fullness that what you usually hear in Amina. Gutierrez is well-schooled: she has the command of scalework, trills, and an instinctive ability to know what to do with the music in terms of phrasing, ritards, fermati and all that. She does not have the most arrestingly individual vocal face - where you can immediately identify a certain characteristic - but there is still enough of a "package" to make her stand out. I had some reservations about a middle register that is not always steady; she tends to weighten and darken the tone a bit too much. "Ah, non credea," for example, could have benefitted from a more lightly-spun tone and placement.

But her extensions in the upper register are brilliant, pingy and effortless. The cabalettas really shone; and in the "Ah non giunge," the pinpoint precision and blissful ease was remarkable - one of the best versions I've ever heard. Perfect staccati, fluent scales, dead-on high notes. Bonus rosette on the cake: Gutierrez did that rarity, an absolutely right-on held high F above the chorus near the end.

Bonynge, by now a master at this kind of music, was right on target all afternoon. He was there to support the singers - the absolute must in bel canto - and did so like few know how to do.
One regret: I should have hauled ass to Detroit for this.

Niel Rishoi

WRCJ Listener
Ann Arbor (45 miles from Detroit) MI