White Shirt Monday: Garančas aren’t the only fruit
[...since it sparked such a lively discussion last week, let's continue with another week of White Shirt Garança. Pictured above: Garanča as Sesto in the 2005 "Clemenza di Tito". - YT screenshot]
Sesto is a part many of us feel particular about, finding it perfectly embodied by one, and just one, singer. I tend to be firmly on the VK team, but after a week of *painstaking* (oh, the sacrifices we do in the name of mezzodom!) Garanča research, I may consider other contenders, too (at a distance).
Another frequent Garanča question seems to be “Skirts or trousers?”.
My question would be “Why the ‘or’?”
I couldn’t say whether I get the impression of Garanč seeming more at ease in female or male roles – I find her professionally apt and convincing in both (at ease is a relative term anywhere you spent 3 hours underneath a row of HMIs wearing a wig) and if I were to voice an assumption, it would be that Ms. Garanča, like any intelligent singer, probably enjoys creating role portrayals that offer depth and the chance to develop one’s own skills further.
The gender of a role might be the least important factor here, but that shall not stop us from taking a little look at both sides of Garanča’s repertory. I think we can all agree on that there are portrayals for every taste within that range, whether it’s A-line skirts or trousers, curly wigs or vampire coats. At the moment, I’m on team Sesto, but that may change the moment I rewatch the “Werther” DVD or catch new clips on Youtube. After all, the next interesting question is “What new part will come after Carmen?”
Garanča’s latest production is her stint as the MET’s new Carmen (no MET videos on YT, but there’s the Habanera from Terme di Caracalla last summer (video here, thanks to camilla0690), starting with a nice arm shot), so for those of us who like their Garanča gypsy style:
[Another kind of Rosenkavalier: Carmen at Covent Garden in 2009. - Photo Credit: Catherine Ashmore, via metoperafamily]
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Then, of course, there is Charlotte in “Werther”:
[Garanča as Grace Charlotte Kelly (full letter scene here, thanks to Oneguin65)]
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And then there is Sesto. And at least the 8 following reasons why this particular Sesto deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame for Convincing Portrayals of Youthful Masculinity (not to be confused with the ” Barbara Stanwyck 40 Guns Award for Butch Portrayal”), or, in other words, this is the list of reasons why Garanča ca. 2005 could just as well have been cast instead of Zac Efron in “High School Musical” (apart from that she is, to my ears, the far better singer).
White Shirt Swagger + Dramatic Coat Swirl (aka the Triple Pier Luigi Pizzi):
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Meet Joe Black (the classic “skulking in doorframes” meme):
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Dimples! (Fainting Cheerleader Quota: rising.)
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Buddy Movie Material/Plays Well With Others (White Shirts Squared!):
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Somewhere Over The Rainbow (could double as Tadzio, if only the Adagietto were a mezzo piece):
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Vogueing Hamlet:
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Twilight Vampire Chic: 
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Emo Boyband Heartthrob Pose:
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The core video to Garanča’s Sesto looks is the trusty news feature by ARTE about the Herrmann’s Paris “Clemenza” production (the one that made it to DVD with Susan Graham as Sesto and Catherine Naglestad as Vitellia… mhmm, Naglestad… wait, where was I?), complete with interview bits and rehearsal shots:
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRm241Zp69k]
[with thanks to Oneguin65, who has a wonderful collection of Garança clips up on YouTube]
There’s also a live recording from Unter den Linden Berlin in 2007:
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94H9t6BUlI0]
[with thanks to zoologischergarten]
A full audio track of “Parto, parto” can be found here, and there are some nice curtain call photos from Paris 2006 at baldeaglebluff’s Flickr account. Added bonus: Antonacci as Vitellia. — Happy week, all!
O-M-G! I love it, finally, i waited for a year for you to talk about this one.
Anik you rock.
Yes, she is really something. I think I’m just beginning to see how much of a something.
Thank you for these two last posts about Garança.
Interestingly, to me there is only one Carmen (the great Agnes Baltsa!), but more acceptable Sestos. I find Garanca more attractive in trousers. I bet she can get a considerable teenage-girl following if they telecast the Parisian Tito, lol. The Berlin Tito didn’t have such great costumes, unfortunately, but I was so struck by both the music and the libretto, as if Sesto’s suffering was my own. I caught a glimpse of Carmen on the TV screen at the MET (yes, you can just go in and watch a live performance on TV, for free
), as Lang had mentioned, I think her voice is a bit too stiff for this role, on the other hand, ideal for the noble youth Sesto.
zBTW, Anik, you should try to catch Anna Bonitatibus as Sesto in Zürich this March if you have time! http://www.opernhaus.ch/d/spielplan/spielplan_detail.php?vorstellID=10329267 I hope she gets “Parto, parto” right this time.
good idea, though my spring travel budget is actually set on catching Calisto in Geneva, but perhaps I can get two “play dates” close to each other… hmmm…
After seeing her Nerone and listening to her Haydn, I don’t get a clear image of Bonitatibus as Sesto yet. Does that rate as an excuse to have to buy a ticket?
I agree on the Berlin costumes; they looked like Siegfried-May-Festspiele or a unfortunately colorized 1920s movie, though thank God with audio.
I was unable to make Elīna Garanča’s performance of Carmen, so I tuned in to the HD broadcast.
Having only seen Ms Garanča once, as Sesto in 2006’s Tito in Paris, I was astonished when I heard her Carmen and I had trouble reconciling her Sesto and what I was hearing in her Carmen. I can’t wait to catch the Met Live do over.
Front row seats at the Paris Opera gave the opportunity for a few choice photos, but I only published the curtain call photos, having learned the hard way of the power of the Internet when a loose comments got me banned from every casino in Europe and North America. See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baldeaglebluff/sets/72157602294478106/show/
BEB
thanks for checking in, BEB, and for sharing the photo link. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of that Tito DVD with another cast!
Great photos Anik! Have to see I’m seeing less Zac and more New Romantics c. 1982
Spandau Ballet anyone?
OCTAVIAN: Re. her Sesto, great points! I have to say for myself I find her Annio much more touching. For me Sesto is a hugely passionate, conflicted character; the noble *and* the callow sides of youth at war with each other as he struggles to reconcile his hormones with his ideas of ‘being a good man, a true friend’. Grand passion and grand ideal vying for supremacy. And I very much buy the idea that whilst his relationship with Vitellia is all about the sex, his relationship with Tito is an electric mixture of unstated and unresolved sexual and platonic love. In other words – poor old Sesto is a mess. And needs a performance of great passion and explosiveness. This is a young man playing with fire and then being faced, through his own actions, with his own failings and weaknesses, a young man realising he is not the man he wants to be. By the end he is so devastated because he *knows* he is the author of his own fall from grace. And all he wants to do is make abeyance.
I still remember the first time I ever looked in the mirror and realised I was not the person I thought I was, I was not the brave and resolute and noble person I imagined I would become. I was flawed. Sesto is Mozart forgiving himself and all of us for being human. The point about Sesto I always seem to get is precisely that he is not noble – flawed, struggling, but trying to be noble! He’s the norm. He’s one of us.
That stiffness’ – perhaps I would say more a certain ‘restraint’ – in Garanca (both voice and bearing) seems to me much more suited to the more black and white character of Annio. Poor Annio is the younger brother caught in the wake of Sesto’s crazy teenaged trail of havoc. Annio has not yet reached the banks of his Rubicon. He is still in the naive, pre-fall state we all go through in youth. That time when things are right or wrong, and we look at the grown up world and shake our heads at how mystifyingly confusing and corrupt it all seems.
He is the passionate schoolkid railing against war and sin, to Sesto’s world weary soldier returning from the battle and trying to figure out how to live with realising that the world is grey and none of us is without sin. I thought the EG/VK duet in the Harnoncourt Tito was the perfect example of this – EG’s Annio is still truly without sin, innocent, VK’s Sesto trying to cling on to that part of himself by clinging to his friend. For me VK is the more convincing Sesto as she knows how to fall, how to be ‘impure’ in voice, and Garanca the perfect Annio as she is so ‘pure’ in voice.
Oh I just reminded myself why I love Tito so much – what a fantastic opera that can speak to all of us in slightly differemnt but equally “true” and powerful ways!!
BALDEAGLEBLUFF – oh how many times have I longed to be able to utter the words: “banned from every casino in Europe and North America”
Wonderful!!
…when Spandau Ballet first came out, I was in kindergarten (a catholic one, which probably the reason I missed Spandau Ballet!) – I would have liked to pick something a little, though not too much, older than Efron, but came up short with pop culture examples.
Wonderful Sesto/Annio analysis! I would comment on it, but I fear my observations would be much the same as yours.
Perhaps the restraint/passion axis is like the Schwarzkopf-TeKanawa/VK-Antonacci axis we discussed last week; an axis upon which we all have to position ourselves, time and again, and more often changing than not, so it speaks strongly to all of us, even though we may hear different things – only this time it’s more philosophical than psycho-emotional. (really, and people scoff at me when I say opera can change the world and the way that we look at it…)
Oh Octavian you are still not letting go of Bonitatibus’ one slip in one Parto…:D
Thanks Anik for this post, I really like it. Last night I was overjoyed to write a proper reply.
It is indeed an interesting point, Garanca in skirt role or trouser role? I would prefer to see her in trouser role. I am not as lucky as Octavian who watched La Clemenza and saw Garanca’s Sesto live (not once but twice, you lucky bum), I only have the Salzburg La Clemenza DVD, thanks to Anik’s recommendation, and watched that “portrait of a mezzo” series on YT which does have her Paris Sesto footage. Her Annio was fine, the singing was fine, the appearance was fine, the acting I sense a bit of self-consciousness, especially when doing that duet with Barbara Bonney, this is more obvious when there was the contrast of the pair of Kasarova and Roeschmann who were going all out. From what I saw, I like her Paris Sesto, like Octavian, to me Sesto is a multi-choice answer.
Has anybody watched her Dorabella in the Aix-en-Provence Cosi? I find that Dorabella quite different, instead of the usual rash, light-minded, girly girl, she came across as an energetic and willful girl, not particularly rash. I don’t know why, she has that seriousness about her that no-one can completely cover up or wash away. Talking about this, I’d like to see her sing Fiordiligi.
To me, it is not the costume, skirt or trouser, Actually, I was first struck not by her stage image of Sesto or Annio, but her Andronico on that box-set CD of Bajazet. It is something in her voice. There is always that straightness and a touch of heroic quality in her voice that I find unique, it distinguishes hers from others’, in some cases it can make her rendition sound a bit stiff, nevertheless, it fascinates me.
Baldeaglebluff, thank you very much for the paris pictures. I wish they had made the DVD the other way.
Purity–”his relationship with Tito is an electric mixture of unstated and unresolved sexual and platonic love.”
We are on the same wavelength.
@Lang: the Dorabella is a very interesting comparison – you are right, the kind of poise or general coolness that many of us, me included, tend to project into Garança’s voice and demeanor does change the Dorabella portrait – not all nuances may be winning with that change, but the angle of a more serious or perhaps more disillusioned Dorabella was really an angle that allowed a few new insights. I wonder how it would work out to combine that serious angle not with the playfulness, but the passionate kind emotional intensity that is also commonly associated with Dorabella.
Either way, a great Così on DVD. Vietato fumare! And, of course, casting Bonney as Despina gave the whole thing yet another twist.
Perhaps that straightness or “heroic touch” you mention is something akin to the innocence/Black-and-white image that Purity described: that the poise and control allow for a believe in a firm set of values that win out, much like Annio, and much like Fiordiligi would want it to be (though it could be argued that Fiordiligi stays true to her way of emotional reaction, even if not to one Mr. G.). Perhaps that is why the young, unbroken heroes work well with Garança’s voice.
And for those who don’t have that Bajazet at home: Spesso tra vaghe Rose is up on YT (thanks to saitbey): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBbA3-srRVA – the recording is wonderful, but I’D get it just for the recording sessions extra DVD, that also contains (among others) an aria each with Genaux, Mijanovic and Ciofi.
I found a higher resolution clip of Spesso tra vaghe rose on YT here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTNNtisUHI , uploaded a few days ago by repprist.
Great points, purity! I guess I need to re-watch Tito to make my own analysis, but it’s such a tormenting opera that I do not dare to see it again, sigh…
And I just got some bad news: the Cleveland Orchestra is on strike now, which may affect the upcoming Cosi performances (in which Bonitatibus will make her U.S. debut, alongside with Malin Hartelius and Martina Jankova). I hope they can find a resolution soon, fingers crossed~
Damn, labor rights versus white shirt rights… tough call
Hope they resolve soon and you get your AB – am with Anik on not so sure re. Sesto but would ADORE to see her in Cosi (at the Agrippina concert performance in London last year she seemed a very bubbly personality…
Just a reminder for the Ariodante lovers here: NRK is broadcasting the Beaune performance with Ann Hallenberg in the title role and Karina Gauvin as Ginevra at 19:30 CET on the 20th. http://www.nrk.no/programoversikt/avansert/?p_artikkel_id=&p_forhandsvis_flg=0&p_format=HTML&p_type=prog&p_periode=neste7dager&p_ak=AK&p_knapp=Vis+nedenfor
I’ll have to miss that since I’m still working at that time.
@Octavian: Thanks!! I’ll definitely tune in and set up an alert post right now. Ladies, get your internet recorders ready…
Xie xie Octavian! I got to catch this one, but …how to record?
Standing by sir! Thanks Octavian.
mhmm
skirts AND trousers!
Those of you on the West Coast US get your taste of Garanca next season at San Francisco Opera – she’s singing Charlotte…. Though have to say my mind is still boggling at the idea of Zandra Rhodes (a Brit fashion designer of noted, err, eccentricity) directing Aida…
Zandra Rhodes? Now those are some elephants I am looking forward to…
“Those of you on the West Coast US get your taste of Garanca next season at San Francisco Opera – she’s singing Charlotte”
thanks for the heads-up Purity. I’ll get my chance to see Garranca live in vienna actually when i’m there for my wk-long conference this May. and since i might break my bank attending VK’s Charlotte and Rosina, i’m thinking of just getting the 3EUR standing tix to hear Garranca’s 2 Carmen performances, unless any of you’d recommend otherwise?
(yes, ambitious plan to see 5 operas in 7 days, including Der R also standing!!)
@An: lucky you, with a week-long conference at such an operatic place! I’d check Theater an der Wien, too, they tend to have the more interesting (and dare I say, more white shirt friendly) productions.
Vienna Staatsoper standing room is fine; just try to get there early and find a place at the plush-velvet banister; in operas of more than 3 hours length very useful to hold oneself up. I once managed a 5 hour Carlos up there and the atmosphere was fantastic.
Who’s in Der R, or is it still N.N.?
thanks Anik, for the tip. i’ll dash over as soon as talks are done at conference each day
. the cast for Der R includes Kirchschlag, Tonca, Merbeth, Fisch, Schenk, Heinrich, Kniepert, Rydl ( i don’t know any of them, though i remember you might have a pix of Kirchschlag as Octavian somewhere…)
And here is the EG in Carmen (HD broadcast):
thanks, Lang! I think I’ll stick with the vaghe rose, though. I realize that the images are most likely stills, but even if they’re staged… they’re too squeaky clean for my idea of Carmen. Especially next to that appropriately deranged and desperate José. – That said, I’d really like to see a Corporate Shark Carmen staging with EG. Something where she gets to do don a blond wig and pinstripes and some icy attitude – think Veronica in Better Off Ted.
Portia!! LOL, you nailed Anik. Yep that’s definitely imaginable, and so imaginably Garancareque. I wish you were their production advisor, I sure wouldn’t miss it if they really did it a production that way.
Truth be told, I am not into this Carmen, or Carmen.
in case I ever head back into staging, I’ll keep that project in mind, though I doubt I’d have Ms. Garanca at hand.
Thank you for the great clips. Elina is wonderful. I can’t wait for her next appearance at the Met.