Posted on 04/21/2008 6:24:52 PM PDT by ml/nj
Opening of La Fille du regiment tonight. He repeated Ah! mes amis! The only thing I've heard encored in 35+ years at the Met is Ah Pensiero (a chorus piece). I've never heard a soloist repeat anything.
ML/NJ
I’ve never heard an encore at the Met either.
Are there ever encores in European opera theaters?
I just thought I’s google my question and found this:
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/story/2007/02/23/la-scala-encore.html
Seems as tho he has done it before!
On that google page, further down, Toscannini banned encores back in 1921.
ML/NJ
This is actually an old practice. Up to the 19th Century, audiences would applaud what they liked, and if it was demanded, music would be repeated. In opera, it would be an aria; in a symphony, it would be a movement; etc. Beethoven, for example, repeated his slow movement from his Symphony 3 not once, but twice, because of the high demand. Repeating music was done to please an audience, but also because it was the only time one could hear most of this music (ie, before records, CDs, and so on) in their life. I think Toscanini when he conducted the Met and La Scala instituted no applause during opera (and also his orchestra concerts). From then on, it has mostly been that way. We are slowly seeing a return to the old practice of applause of what people like during concerts and opera. I think it is a healthy development for the audience and performers to have that immediate connection.
It was Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez as the lovesick Tonio who brought the crowd to its feet late in Act 1 on Monday night by sailing with ease through the nine high Cs in the aria, "Pour mon ame" and then singing it a second time. [...]
Flores' encore was apparently the first for a solo performer at the Met since Luciano Pavarotti repeated the aria "E lucevan le stelle" in Act 3 of Puccini's "Tosca" in 1994. And it's practically unheard of for the audience to rise to its feet in the middle of a performance.
Sing “Melancholy Baby”!
Florez LinkML/NJ
I'm not sure. Audiences here in NYC applaud a lot of mediocre performances. And besides they only applauded a minute and a half for Florez last night. Last year when Netrebko opened Puritani she got two minutes after the mad scene and it never seemed to me that there was a chance she was going to repeat anything. (Netrebko wasn't merely very good. She was great; perhaps the best ever.)
Supposedly the only recent time a soloist repeated anything at the Met was Pavarotti singing in Tosca in 1994. I wasn't there but I can assure you that each one of the handful of times I heard him sing this role, he did it better than he did it in 1994.
ML/NJ
I am so jealous! Lucky you to have been attending the Met for so long. Our local boy, Quinn Kelsey (a friend of mine)just made his Met debut in Boheme as Schaunard. I really missed being there.
How were you able to make that recording?
Hi. I'm an "Island Boy" Except mine was Long Island (NY) and I'm guessing your Island is Hawaii. That's a little bit far to travel to the Met. (But you could do the movie thing this weekend! It's Fille du Regiment with the same cast as last night.) I've been going since 1972, but now I only go a few times a year.
How were you able to make that recording?
Which one !
ML/NJ
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