Upcoming Issue of Opera News

The September issue of Opera News is hitting newstands now, and it's really worth seeking out. (Its content is not yet up on the Opera News web site.) Just to point out a few highlights:

• Renee Fleming on current singers: "I just sang a gala last night in Montreal. ... It was Matthew Polenzani, Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and me. And they were just spectacular. Spectacular. Those three artists have it all. Stage presence and beauty and charm and unbelievable virtuosity and charisma. There are probably fifteen singers about whom that could be said right now, and ten years ago, there ... three, maybe. The bar is very high right now." (from her cover-story interview with F. Paul Driscoll)
• A profile of the likeable, up-and-coming American tenor Lawrence Brownlee.
• Some perceptive comments on Leonard Bernstein's much-maligned Mass, from Nico Muhly. One sample: "I have always liked to think about Mass as a Christian appropriation of the pagan holiday that is West Side Story."
• And, in the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, yours truly has a signed article in the august pages of the world's pre-eminent opera magazine: a book review of a memoir by Michael Kaiser, who runs the Kennedy Center in Washington.

And, yes, I do work for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, publisher of Opera News, but I'm writing this of my own volition.

Met "Otello" Netcast

I just was listening to the Met's season premiere of Otello on Sirius and quite enjoyed it. Johan Botha did not have the forza of del Monaco, or the dramatic intensity of Vickers, or the heroic plangency of Domingo. But he sang beautifully and, what's more, sensitively--not a quality one usually associates with this role. He excelled in the lyric passages, particularly the love duet; when he tried to push his voice the tone coarsened, although that effect did add to his characterization of the role.

Renee Fleming was in great voice. Ravishing, creamy tone from top to bottom, evocative use of chest voice, never a shriek or a croon.

Best of all was Semyon Bychkov's conducting. The orchestra had proper Verdian crispness, but it also sounded "voiced" somewhat differently--deeper, somehow, with the center of gravity a little lower than we're used to, giving the score a kind of ballast. Bychkov's tempi seemed completely spot-on to me: brisk and unfussy, but flexible enough to follow the voices. He kept the tension from first note to last in the fourth act, not an easy trick. And the Met Orchestra played beautifully for him. Good for the Met for engaging him!