Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Emendation

Last night I attended Otello at the Met, and I need to emend my earlier post, which was based on listening to the Sirius-cast two weeks ago. It was completely ridiculous of me to say that Botha's voice "coarsened" when he pushed it. Last night, in the house, it was clear that he could bring it with the best of them, his voice ringing out with real ping and resonance when he pushed it--as was clear from his confident, flawless "Esultate"; in the more tender moments he found a beautiful, expressive, effective mezza voce. As has been noted elsewhere, he really attended to Verdi's dynamic markings as best as any tenor can.

What I want to know: how soon can he sing Siegfried?