More Nancy

It's nearly 12 years since Nancy LaMott died and since it happened Christmas, this time of year always brings her to mind. I didn't know her except to congratulated her after a performance, but I was a big fan and during the last three years of her life I tried on every possible occasion to see her live. I was a groupie and proud of it.

Terry Teachout, who was her friend, lets us know about the impending release of a new compilation of unreleased performances. They will be available in February.

Nancy was the most beautiful of singers. I think it was Terry who said that she got to the emotional heart of every song that she sang and I can't think of a better way to express it. She was a comedienne and a dramatic actress. Every song that she sang took you on an amazing emotional ride.

If you've never heard her, don't wait until February. There are some free clips at www.myspace.com/nancylamott and many of her albums are on sale on Amazon. My personal favorite is probably My Foolish Heart and her Christmas album Just in Time For Christmas is probably the best of any that I've heard in a long time. The tracks are downloadable from Rhapsody and iTunes.

Do yourself a favor and get them all.

The House that Richard Built

Gudrun Wagner has died. She was Wolfgang Wagner's second wife and for some years his anointed heir (she was 25 years younger than he). In recent years he has indicated that their daughter Katharina should run the festival when he retires or dies. This bypasses the other two possible Wagner choices, Eva Wagner-Pasquier, Wolfgang's daughter from his first wife and Nike Wagner, his brother Wieland's daughter. They have significant experience working in opera. Katharina's is limited to growing up at her father's knee and a few controversial productions as a director.

I don't know enough to speak too intelligently about the ins and outs of the Bayreuth experience. I don't know any of the players nor do I know their specific strengths, outside of what I read in the papers (well, online actually).

However it is clear that in this difficult fiscal environment, the person who will run Bayreuth better be pretty capable. The festival is extraordinarily successful from the ticket sales standpoint; it is probably the hardest ticket to get in opera. But as we well know, ticket sales account for only a small percentage of the actual cost of giving opera. Managing its future will be a very difficult job.

People occasionally suggest that the focus of the festival broaden. I disagree. I think it is important to maintain the Wagner tradition. I'm just not sure that it is important that a Wagner run it. Bayreuth should be a place people look to for definitive and cutting-edge Wagner performances. It hasn't really been that since Wieland died. I think bringing it back to the glory of that era should be a priority and not the Wagner-lineage of the person who is running it.

Listening Online

Related to my post of yesterday, online listening is a distinctly non-audiophile experience. It also is not nearly as isolated as an iPod unless you really try hard. After all when you are online, you are rarely only listening. I at least am usually typing, working, playing solitaire, or involved in some activity that takes me away from concentration on the music.

On the other hand, the possibilities are pretty amazing. I've already noted the availability of historic Met performances on RealNetworks's Rhapsody. I've long been a Rhapsody subscriber, which has an amazingly comprehensive library of recordings. Today Alex Ross tells about the impending availability of DG's new download service. And then there are the other usual suspects iTunes and (a particular favorite of mine) eMusic.

Now most of these are geared towards downloads, which seems to me the most efficient of all methods of obtaining music. Rhapsody's streaming model, on the other hand, is the most cost effective method of hearing music that you might listen to once for curiosity's sake (How bad is the Bocelli Pagliacci? Pretty bad), but not really want to buy. But don't expect the best sound or a conducive listening experience, because it is not ideal.

I think we still have a ways to go before the whole concept of music delivery shakes itself out. Let's be clear, the CD is doomed. In a few years, it will be a relic like the 8-Track or the 78 rpm shellac disc. The question is what will end up being the long term replacement.

Well if I could answer that now, I'd be busy investing in whatever it is, not blogging.

AudioPod?

I consider myself a minor audiophile. My home equipment is leaning toward that level and I've even recently bought a new turntable to replace one whose time had come. And yet, as regular readers (are there any?) will know, I'm addicted to my iPod. Anthony Tommasini wonders about the feasibility of being an audiophile in an iPod world.

May I suggest something that I think commentators fail to address? The isolation of an iPod (or like device) facilitates more careful listening because it is an isolated experience. The kind of concentrated listening that an iPod affords allows one to hear the music in a contained way that is possible in the real world.

I have a great set of speakers in my den, but I can almost never listen to them unmolested. Some admittedly benign outside noise - kids playing, a car, lawnmowers - almost always intrude. Headphones are a solution, but then I'm tied to a room (wireless cans have their own issues). The iPod allows me to listen unbothered in as comfortable a situation as I can create for myself. Surely there is no better way to focus on the music?

I also don't find the sound quality all that bad either. I do rip at the highest bit rate possible and have invested in a pair of Etymotic earphones, which maximize the sound (and the isolation).

Now I will never give up my speakers, which in the right set of circumstances give me an unmatchable music experience. But that set of circumstances are increasingly rare. For this, my iPod is ideal.

Met Rhapsody

The Met historic performances are now available on the Rhapsody online service. They're the historic broadcasts you can hear on Sirius Satellite Radio, but with Rhapsody you can listen at your own schedule. The downside is that you don't get the current performances that are broadcast on Sirius.

Right now it's La traviata with Tebaldi. She was good, wasn't she!

Another victim

It's been cool (relatively speaking) here in Florida. I've been wearing sweaters and drinking hot chocolate hoping to trick myself into believing that I'm back up north and that it's fall.

At the same time I've begun my holiday listening with the obligatory recording of Handel's Messiah. Unfortunately I decided to take a walk on the beach and no continuo or fleet baroque choruses could dispel the feeling that it was just wrong.

It was then that I realized that I had become of the victim of the same marketing hype that I peddle these days. Handel, who wrote Messiah for Lent after all, would be surprised that people associated Messiah with a specific time and that to some performing it at another time would seem wrong. After all, when was the last performance that you've heard in July?

Apart from a few, very specific examples (Amahl in the Night Visitors and Bach Cantatas excepted), I don't imagine that any work was intended by its composer to be limited to performances during one particular time of year, in one particular place, or some other very specific circumstance. I think we have all become victim of marketing hype that suggests that we should listen to Messiah in December, Bolero when making love, or the 1812 Overture on the Fourth of July.

So I think I'll listen to The Rite of Spring instead of Winterreise.

Setting the bar too low

Musically, Maestro Pavarotti's funeral was appalling. Certainly a someone better than a wobbly Raina Kabaivanska could have been chosen and certainly someone more appropriate than Bocelli could have massacred Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus as well as he did. The final straw was "On Eagle's Wings" something I've sung a time or two in my life but which has never struck me as appropriate or good.

On other hand I've recently seen some programs on Princess Di which reminded me that her funeral was an incredibly emotional and tasteful affair. The Libera me from the Verdi Requiem was an very appropriate and I think everyone was suprised at the pathos elicited from Tavener's Song for Athene. I even thought Elton John's contribution dignified even if he did recycle an old cliche.

Had did the bar get set so low? There is so much great religious music out there, wasn't there someone in Pavarotti's life who could add a little taste to the proceedings. The Roman Catholic Church, for all its great history and musical tradition, is not the place to hear good music these days (a few exceptions including Manahattan's St. Ignatius Loyola aside).

Can't we aspire to a little higher quality?

Nessun dorma!

I've been going through the Callas Studio recording canon, focusing on those recordings that I've never heard. One of the ones that I missed (on purpose) was Turandot, primarily because it is my least favorite Puccini opera and that the cast, Callas apart, never interested me.

One of my reservations about the cast was well-founded. I don't really care for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in music for which she is usually thought idiomatic (Mozart, Strauss). In this case, she makes Puccini sound like Lehar and the tone is grating on my ears.

With Callas the result is predictable. Squally top notes apart, she creates a character (with what little Puccini provides). She is interpretively astute and while I don't ultimately find any emotional empathy with Turandot, more than just about any other interpreter, I know where this Ice Princess is coming from. Even with the great Birgit, this part was rarely more than gleaming exciting high notes. With Callas, you sense the person underneath.

The tenor is Eugenio Fernandi and the Wikipedia article on him claims that his recording career was undone by this much too early attempt at Calaf. Given the current near complete absence of authentic Italian tenors, I find much to admire. True, the voice is a few sizes too small and you get the sense that he is operating at a few ticks higher than optimal capacity. But I admire the use of text and authentic Italianità. I certainly enjoy hearing this more than several of the more generic tenors I've heard in the part in recent years.

I can only think that had he had the opportunity, Puccini would have revised the hell out of Turandot. There is no emotional empathy with any character except Lìu (which in this case turns to revulsion) and the part is too inconsequential to save the emotional thrust (or lack thereof) of the opera. The two principals are vapid and uninteresting and a few thrilling melodies aside, there is not much substance. Apart from the pure excitement of "In questa reggia" and "Nessun dorma", I'm not sure why this opera holds much appeal. Still, despite the numerous attempts I've suffered by aspiring sopranos, I wouldn't be without "Tu che di gel."

Next to Medea, I think.