OPERA CHIC BEST OF 2008: What Rawked, What Sucked, What F*@#ed Our S#'t Up

CONDUCTOR OF THE YEAR
Fabio Luisi

Surprise choice? If you think so, you have never heard him conduct. Fabio Luisi is Opera Chic's Conductor of the Year 2008 because he has a German brain and an Italian heart. Because with the Dresden Staatskapelle – “Dresden’s gold”, wrote the following day august Corriere della Sera newspaper -- he appeared at la Scala, in a benefit concert, and showed those of us who were ready to listen that Heldenleben (with the original finale, and Konzertmeister Kai Vogler teaching how you play the violin) is a masterpiece of subtlety and even irony far different than the usual windbaggy, sappy, irony-free piece we’re accustomed to hear (and that includes Herbie, genius as he was, photographed with his airplane and his Porsche, triumphant over his enemies). Luisi can do Wagner, he can do Italian opera (AND he recorded “Jerusalem”, that forgotten Verdi masterpiece). Because he once conducted in a Pink Panther costume (long story). Because his website seriously rules. Because he published his autobiography in Germany and Austria, and he isn’t even 50. He went so native that now he even speaks Italian with a faint Teutonic inflection. He has two cute pugs. Luisi downright rawks.

SINGER OF THE YEAR, FEMALE
Diana Damrau
Because if an alien race of giant rabid mutant penguins threatened to invade Earth she’d wear her Queen of the Night costume and she’d stare them into submission even before opening her mouth. Then she’d proceed to bash all their heads with a baseball bat and she’d make herself an alien penguin sandwich. On rye. With mayo.

SINGER OF THE YEAR, MALE
Ernesto Palacio
What? He retired years ago? Yes, he did – as a singer, OK. But he manages Juan Diego Florez in a way that he makes us wish he ran the careers of so many singers of great talent we see crash and burn for so many reasons. Maestro Palacio is behind Juan Diego’s decision to drop for the time being the Duke of Mantua after one preview in Lima and one run in Dresden; Palacio understands that the increased visibility that Verdi gives you is not worth damaging your voice; Verdi (except for Fenton, but you don’t really build a career on that role) is too heavy for Juan Diego’s perfectly tuned instrument. Hence, he will not push his voice to do Verdi. Better to be the king of Rossini and Donizetti, “el mejor tenor libero de la historia” in Placido Domingo’s words, than to be just another tenor who pushed his voice and crashed and burned. Opera Chic knows he’s busy but she’d like Palacio to be an adviser for her personal decisions, too – like a life coach. Fish or chicken? Ask Palacio. Seaside or mountains? Ask Palacio. Creme brulee or panettone? Ask Palacio.

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Graham Vick

Because he once again fu#@ed our sh^t up by staging La Clemenza di Tito in Mussolini’s Rome (for Teatro Comunale di Torino) and La Rondine in a 1950s sophisticated comedy setting like a Jean Negulesco film for La Fenice, spoofing in the second act his nemesis Franco Zeffirelli’s Boheme Cafe Momus scene, and Vick came up with a truly heartbreaking idea for the ending, where love ends and the sky – literally – falls. As soon as OC takes over a major opera house in a coup, she's giving Vick absolute artistic powah.

OPERA PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR
Salomé, with Nicola Beller Carbone, directed by Robert Carsen, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, Teatro Regio di Torino
Salome in a Vegas casino vault? Horrible slimy old men stripping down during the dance of the seven veils instead of Salome? Salome surviving the end of the opera, in a genius plot twist? Leave it to Carsen to twist the Strauss opera on its ear finding new layers of meaning in that wonderful way of his. Whenever Carsen is on, he’s totally on. Noseda (OC did not hear him conduct when she saw Salome, it was his night off, but she's well aware of his work) may be the most underrated major conductor out there. And Teatro Regio di Torino does very interesting first class productions without the same massive amount of public financing enjoyed for example by la Scala.

COMPOSER OF THE YEAR (100 TIMES SO)
Elliott Carter
His new work sounds so fresh that he must have some seriously weird painting up in his attic getting all old wrinkly in his place.

NEW WORK OF THE YEAR
“Elogium Musicum”, Hans Werner Henze
On October 2, 2008, Riccardo Chailly conducted in Leipzig Hans Werner Henze's latest work, Elogium Musicum Amatissimi Amici Nunc Remoti, the 25-minutes elegy Henze wrote -- with prominent Classics professor Franco Serpa's Latin text -- in memory of Henze's companion of more than 40 years, Fausto Moroni, who died unexpectedly in April 2007. It's the story of two falcons always flying side by side, until one of them disappears from the sky; the music begins as a heartbreakingly beautiful string quartet, in quiet and serenity that gets increasingly animate -- then the second movement, "Nox", Night, becomes dissonant and chaotic and upsetting, a tempest of sorrow.

It's a stunning work by a man who had to endure a crushing blow and nevertheless turned it into art, a work made even more heartbreaking by the fact that, as the music in the finale seems to resign itself to disappear into nothingness, an alto saxophone appears, faintly at first, then stronger: it's Fausto. And Hans Werner Henze's dark night of the soul ends in the warm light of an Italian dawn. 

Well, what to say of a work of such power? In the indifference of the blissfully distracted American media, German opinion immediately understood that we are dealing with a historic work here: Neues Deutschland called the elegy Henze's "Opus summum", the pinnacle of his work. The economy and precision of Henze's writing reminded Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of Verdi's Quattro Pezzi Sacri. "History is being made again, finally, in Leipzig", exulted the Leipziger Volkszeitung.

This is just a silly blog of a silly girl somewhere on the Internet; and our calling Elogium Musicum the new work of the year 2008 is nothing. But our admiration is real -- as is the timeless beauty of that elegy.

DUMBEST DECISION OF THE YEAR
La Scala unions' strike for 3 nights of Dudamel's Boheme.
The winner, hands down, is the Scala unions who senselessly -- and masochistically -- chose to sink the first three nights of Gustavo Dudamel's "La Bohéme" at la Scala. A hot young conductor, an interesting young cast (among them the really cool James Valenti) and Franco Zeffirelli's super-famous staging of the work, all at la Scala, made for a really cool event. The cancellation created a flurry of reimbursements for the three sold-out shows, didn't do anything to advance the contract drama that was protracted to this month a few hours before la prima and is probably not entirely over yet anyway. What it did, it punished the audience and disrespected a conductor who had already conducted an interesting Don Giovanni at la Scala -- but who won't appear in another opera here in Milan for a while now. The opera had the eventual greenlight by the unions in the second half of July, in the semi-deserted city, in the silence of the international media -- despite Dudamel's prominence -- and even hometown paper Corriere della Sera relegated the show to a small notice. But then la Scala's leadership in shooting themselves in the foot is a well known fact.

Below, Dudamel's triumph in Berlin with the same opera.

Comments

[Coloratura Tempura]

Yeah Damrau is the Queen of the Night and the Queen of Sopranos!

Luisi sounds really interesting (Maestro Vogel totally looks like Ron Howard)

[Sandro]

Great list, OC. I agree with almost all of it. I like the obscure picks. Well done!

[Baritone Fink]

I remember reading your review of Salome in Torino and thinking how lucky you were to have had the opportunity to see it. From the clip, I see how exciting it looked (although I couldn't understand anything they were saying!), including the bare-chested servents. Salome has been done to death and I personally don't think I could sit through another production. I loved reading your impressions of 2008. May we be onto an even more exciting 2009.

[Laurie]

Viva Damrau - a true genuine human being of great character, kindness, humanity, dignity.....Viva Vick and Carsen, two great imaginations - 2 great souls......

And my vote for Noseda for conductor of the year in 2009 -- another great soul, great musician, great collaborator, great HUMANOID!

[catarina m.]

Another resounding "YES" for choosing Diana Damrau as your female singer of 2008! She is the Queen of the Night for the ages. Next year, I'd love it to be Dessay for her taking on Violetta. But I guess we'll have to wait and see how she does first? Brava for this list, OC.

[anna fan-na]

As a Netrebko fan, I'm disappointed that there was no mention of Anna for having her baby!

[Fille du Rhin]

Luisi is a great choice! I heard him live twice, about four years ago: first conducting the MDR-Sinfonieorchester (his "own" back then) on tour in Duisburg (Beethoven, Mass in C major; Schönberg, A Survivor from Warsaw), second in Amsterdam with the amazing Concertgebouworkest (Liszt, Piano Concerto No.1; Franz Schmidt, Symphony No.4). He is a very serious musician, devoted to a musically truthful, yet always vivid interpretation. And personally he is very kind and polite! We happened to stay at the same hotel in Amsterdam and he was so friendly and courteous to my mum - although he had no idea that she knew who he was! That´s how you win a girls heart, be nice to her mum, yeah!

[furst]

Based on our experience, superb selections, OC. That experience happens to be limited to Luisi and Damrau.

We had never heard Luisi until a month ago, where he presented Heldenleben and Don Quixote with the SSK in New York. These are among our favorite orchestral pieces, we never miss a chance to hear them, and have therefore experienced our share of dudds as well as some excellent performances. While we cannot quite say that his versions were the best we've heard we completely agree with your analysis and based on our concurrence with that judgement applaud the selection.

Fortunately we've had more extensive exposure to Damrau and while we think you are correct to tout her QoN (she's easily the best we've heard) we think she is even more remarkable for hear ability to essay a much broader repertoire with technical profficiency, tonal glmaour and charisma to spare. Rerely are QofNs worth hearing outside of a Konstanze here or a Zerbinetta there, yet we've heard Dmarau sing world class Paminas and Rosinas and it is this versatility which makes here particularly worthy of distinction.

[soithoni]

I just discovered you and your blog trying to find out what was going on during the fiasco of last Sunday's prima from La Scala. You're absolutely awesome! L'étincelle italienne!! And this blog may be the only sane thing on the internet. Brava! Archibrava!

[Dramzorz]

Adding another voice to chorus of resounding "Diana Damrau woohoo!"

She killed QotN, though I found her Gilda a bit over-exaggerated, unless the craptastic production itself is getting in the way of my objectivity. I'll see her do Gilda again in April at the Met and decide for myself xD

I heartily recommend her Myrten [it's her and Ivan Paley]. Her Der Nussbaum is to die for!

[Gabriel]

Linked this post, specially for Palacio

[Chris]

Listening to the Met's La Boheme (1//3/09) with Ramon Vargas and a Maria Somebodynew, or least of whom I have never heard. I am surprised it isn't better. The first act duet is so beautiful it can hardly be spoiled, but these two took it very slow and tentatively; no magic there. I then decided to look into Vargas whose name I have heard but who isn't foremost in my memory. His official site is odd: the "schedule" of his performances stops in 2004 and other parts of it seem not to be working. I would guess he was at his peak in the 1990s and would now be 48/9 (born in 1960). Puzzled why the Met could not find some other bodies for this opera. I will have to alter my idea that the Met always has the best.

[Alan, London]

I only just caught up with this; sorry. Can't agree about Luisi, who came to the Edinburgh Festival last summer with Staatskapelle Dresden to play Richard Strauss and stuff. He's clearly trying to respond to Bernard Haitink's criticism of his appointment (it's why Haitink walked out of Dresden) by proving his chops as an orchestral conductor. And doing Strauss, with the orchestra most closely associated with him, is brave to say the least.

But it was dreadful. Hopeless. He got the pacing so wrong in Heldenleben you just cheered for the critics. And he's doing horrible things to the sound of an orchestra that is one of Europe's glories.

It didn't help that Helene Grimaud was having a Bad Wolf day, dropped the programmed Schumann for Beethoven 4 (where she had a quite different idea of how to do it to Luisi's), and went awry in a quite different way.

I doubt he'll be back in Britain soon, and I for one shan't miss him.