Some Met opera!
With Giagi and Ma!
I have thirteen operas PVR'd from PBS, four of which are Wagner's Ring Cycle (I am not looking forward to watching these at all--one of these is over five hours long). Last week, Giagi decided on Rossini's comic opera Le Comte Ory. It was surprisingly dirty and amusing -- which means I highly recommend it.
Last night, I decided on Gounod's Faust. I don't know the original story but this version was set between the First and Second World Wars with Faust as a nuclear scientist who is developing the atomic bomb. It started off a bit depressing and I thought I had made the wrong decision, but things got much more interesting by the time Méphistophélès (the devil) arrived. That René Pape (Méphistophélès) sure knows how to command an audience. And Jonas Kaufmann (Faust) has soccer player good looks. He reminded me of Gerard Butler in Phantom of the Opera. It's too bad that he didn't sound or look as hot in his interview during the intermission.
I was very impressed by Kaufmann's vocal flexibility--there was one part in an aria where he did a stunning diminuendo while singing "je t'aime" (briefly mentioned here). Though he doesn't have the warm and romantic, Puccini tenor tones I love (see Luciano Pavarotti and Marcelo Álvarez), I appreciate the stamina and colours of his voice.
Who I was most excited to see/hear were Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor) and Marina Poplavskaya (Marguerite). Nézet-Séguin is a young, enthusiastic, and extremely passionate conductor from Montréal who conducted Carmen a couple of years ago (I still remember how he looked like a puppy!) and Poplavskaya is a Russian soprano who won me over as Liù in Turandot.
Oh yay, I have finally found a video on YouTube to show you!
That aria and her performance breaks my heart every time.
I ended up falling asleep on the couch halfway through the opera (a bit after 10pm) and woke up at 8:30am the next morning. Still on the couch. We'll meet again, Faust!
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