Here and Back Again in NYC - Day 10 (part 1) - Werther

Hey you all! Ah I just finished reading my Fifty Shades trilogy and I must say I really liked what I read! I'm feeling very book orphaned now that I finished and since the movie trailer (HOLY SHIT IT'S SO HOT, click here if you dare and watch it) came out today you won't be surprised if I start reading the series all over again soon. There are some parts that are over sweetened but the story is involving and the sex is real great! My AMAZING voice coach gave me a book called Fifty Shades of Mr. Darcy for my birthday which is a crossover of Fifty Shades of Gray and Pride and Prejudice, it’s a satire and I cannot wait to start reading it tonight! I also downloaded the first season of Mad Man which I’m excited to start watching!

Remember there was one day missing from my New York City adventures? Here it goes then!

It is always like this, when we near the end of a trip like this we start wanting to do a gazzilion things all at the same time. That is why mum and I were up extra early that morning and after our breakfast, we hit the streets. We went to several stores buying all in our way (Brazilians are very much like that, we have no sense of proportion). We went to this trendy sunglasses store, ah, the name escapes me, ah, I know! Sunglass Hut (or something) on Fifth Avenue. Don’t worry I wasn’t about to throw a couple of hundred dollars into sunglasses, I mean, I got mine at Forever 21 for like $10 and they are great! We were actually there because my cousin’s sunglasses broke and my uncle asked us to take them there to get them fixed. And I can say without a shadow of a doubt that that was the very worst service I ever got in a store. I would hop from attendant to attendant trying to get someone to help me and they would either ignore me or just try and shove to another attendant. My patience was coming to an end because I had a ticket to see Werther at 1 and the hour was nearing. Bottom line, we didn’t get anything solved and that store is the worst, I’m serious, the worst!

that's my mommy, ain't he the cutest? 

Well I got in a cab and rushed to the Met. Man, why am I ALWAYS rushing to that godforsaken place? Why can’t I just be early for once? I always arrive at the nick of time! Anyway, I did get there a good 15 minutes prior to curtain and I thought I might try my luck yet again with the student ticket thing since my seat pretty much sucked balls. And I think I’m starting to understand this whole thing, it depends ENTIRELY upon the good will of the person in the booth. Because as soon as I saw the sour face of the attendant I knew I wouldn’t be getting shit. Well, I had a ticket, a $30 Family Circle side ticket, but a ticket nonetheless, in a bit I was in!

As I headed towards my seat, which was oddly near to the stage but far too high I started regretting the decision of buying this ticket. It was the nearest seat to the stage up in the family circle so I actually had to lean forward a lot to see the stage. I also had to make a choice, to either read the surtitles or watch the opera, I could not do both. Anyway, I was just happy to be there so sod it! A very cool couple sat next to me and we chatted for a little bit before it began.

THE fabulous view!

Oh dude, Werther, it’s Massenet, only one of my favorite composers, my favorite French composer, I was in the clouds as soon as those first notes rang. Again, I loved the story telling in the beginning and the good thing about this seat was that I could actually see facial expressions! I could see them extremely well! The back of the stage was blocked to me but in the front part, not a single facial expression was missed. So it was really like watching a whole new thing, I already had a very good notion of how the production worked but now I could actually see all their faces twist and twitch!

Kudos yet again to those kids playing Charlotte’s siblings, they were simply incredible. Such sincere, playful and truthful acting you would think they were not acting at all! This makes me wish I could have seen my good friend Melanie perform in the children’s chorus. But anyway it was really great to be able to actually see with my own eyes the first time Werther sets his eyes on Charlotte. And we’re talking Jonas Kaufmann here so you people know that he absolutely rocked the singing and the acting part of Werther. I feel so lucky that I was able to actually see this amazing production live, twice! I’ll never tire of saying that because I’m truly humbled and extremely grateful that I was lucky enough to be there.

As the plot moves along I’m able to see the ball scene upclose which was such a lovely amazing surprise to me and quickly became one of my favorite scenes from this production. Even though it’s like 3 minutes long, it’s extremely romantic and gives me goose pups. Because when they arrive at the garden after the ball they are already smitten with each other. But to have that ball scene you get to see their firsts, like the first dance, the first time they look in each others eyes, their first conversation alone, it’s inspired. Gosh I’m getting way too overly excited about this. Sorry guys, you people have to remember I’m a hopeless romantic even though I put on the ice queen façade. 

You cannot help but fall for Jonas’ Werther, now I could see the amount of adoration his eyes carry for Charlotte. Although I felt again that Koch was a tad cold to MY taste. As everyone knows I’m a bit too fiery sometimes and expect characters to match that warmth. I did purchase the original Goethe “Die Leiden des jungen Werther” last Sunday. I was lucky enough to find it in a local bookstore here in my hometown and I was a sight to see squirming like an idiot because of my discovery and buying it regardless of the fact that I cannot read German. I find it it’s always good to have the origins and the originals of my favorite works (although my Pushin’s Eugene Onegin is in English but Russian is a step too far, right?). Anyhow back to Koch’s (Charlotte’s) coldness, maybe I found it frustrating because it contrasted SO much with Kaufmann’s (Werther’s) ardor.

The garden scene was so great and it was real wonderful to see the facial expressions! One day I’ll have enough money to get myself on a seat in which I can see the facial expressions, sit up straight, read the surtitles and have full view of the stage. Or at least be relevant enough to be given such a seat!

As act one finishes the couple next to me is cuddling and exchanging loving words and I’m surprised that I don’t feel the annoyance I normally do in this kind of situation. I felt actually really happy for them, they were very nice and looked very cute together. Maybe it was the opera. And in that little interval I find out that the lady is actually Brazilian, what are the freaking odds??

Act two of Werther, not my favorite part of the day. I started getting very irritated with Charlotte’s coldness and lack of compassion for this dude who was crawling at her feet! Sophie’s aria however was LOVELY. I’m so dead serious when I say that Lisette has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard! Geez, what a gift, and paired with such great acting as well as the fact that she is SUPER sweet she just totally wins me over.

I had such an amazing time at intermission. I was joined by my good, good opera buddies Harry and Kim and we talked about opera all the way and it was awesome. Gosh, I LOVE it that I have them and we can discuss stuff at the same level without me having to explain stuff. We can just talk and exchange so much in such a small period of time! Anyways, as per usual intermission flew by and we were back for DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA!

Act three of Werther, my favorite act! I must admit that Sophie Koch purred her soul out in this, she was INCREDIBLE. She has such a beautiful full, rich, velvety voice that fills the Met and melts your insides. It’s very contrasting with her portrayal of cold Charlotte. Although in this act she was much more emotional, kind of desperate because she thought Werther was going to kill himself. Her sister arrives and she finishes us off with “Va laisse couler me larmes” and I know that’s only the beginning of angst festival but the poor woman next to me does not as she weeps and weeps. The whole opera became even sadder because of her reaction to it, she cried most of the time. And I totally do not judge her, the first time I saw this I also cried the entire final acts. Sophie leaves and DAM, DAM, DAM, DAAAAM, Werther arrives.

I was so grateful that they remained mostly downstage for this act because then I could see the angst filled expressions of both of them. It was so FREAKING intense I was almost throwing myself off that seat in order to get a better view! At the end of that too impossibly good for words “Pourquoi me réveiller” that opera house almost came apart. I love this part because this aria prepares you for the passionate, desperate part when for brief moments Charlotte gives in. No need to say he’s all over her, and just a fun fact, they TOTALLY toned it down for the HD. They were so all over each other when I saw it, just like the kiss at the end of Eugene Onegin, they REALLY had it going ‘off camera’.

Then act four was the most frustrating thing that EVER happened to me. Why? Because I could see naught! That little square that was Werther’s room was far to upstage plus the structure blocked my view from above! Meaning I did not see anything really of this whole part. Very, very sad. I could hear it though and that was pretty awesome. And I could also see the lady who was sitting next to me fall apart. She was full on SOBBING, it was so sad, I felt really bad for her. But I also did shed a tear for our Werther.

bows from my crappy seat

At bows the audience was wild and the whole cast was just in awe of the whole response. I sat there talking to the lady for quite a while after the curtain fell and she was telling me how she knew opera could be sad but not SO sad. Then I met Kim and we headed down to the stage door so she could get her stuff signed.

Harry, Kim and me after the opera

DUDE, that stage door was PACKED! I’m talking about 60 people making loads of noise and pushing and pushing. I was really very shocked, I had never seen the stage door like this before. I made a silent prayer thanking my Scots friend Mike for making me wait for 2 hours in the freezing cold at opening night because there was no way I could have exchanged 3 words with Jonas Kaufmann in this crazy gathering.

When Jonas came out loads of people clapped and I just stayed behind waiting for Kim as she ventured to try and get a pic and autograph (she succeeded btw). I felt really bad for Jonas actually, he had to scream several times “I swear I will sign everything and take pictures but please STOP PUSHING!” that is really fucked up. Some people have no respect.

I got this pic from Lisette's twitter but it really does not do justice to what happened, here people are actually giving her room to breathe, something Jonas did not get

After the crowd cleared I was tempted to go talk to him but decided against it at the end.

I’m gonna stop here because I really wanna post this today and if I went on and told you about Fledermaus I wouldn’t be able to. I’ll post last day in NYC part 2 soon! Thanks for reading and cheers!

Here and Back Again in NYC - Day 6 - Opening Night of Werther at the Met and Met Museum

I’m going describe now one of the coolest days of my life!

  

It all started quite smoothly but I knew that by the end of the day I would be freaking out. So after me and mum grabbed some breakfast we went to the Met to pick up my tickets for Werther and I took this opportunity to snap a pic with my favorite tenor.

This day we went to one of my favorite places in NYC, the other Met, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I make sure that every time I come to the city I go to this museum and I was particularly pumped about going because I was (am actually) reading the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. I know what you might think, these books about the Kanes and Percy Jackson are for children/teenagers but, even if they are, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass! I absolutely LOVE the way this guy writes, I read all the Percy Jackson books and the Heroes of Olympus in lighting speed. Plus I love everything about mythology, any kind, but specially Greek and then my second favorite is Egyptian, so there you go. Some of you might be confused, the books I’m reading tell the story of two siblings who find out they are descendant from not only one but two pharaoh blood lines. Being a descendant they can do Egyptian magic but being a double descendant makes them very powerful and also apt to host spirits of Gods like Isis and Horus. Pretty cool I must confess. Most importantly they live in our present so, yes, they do have a battle at the Temple of Dendur at the Met Museum.

As I was saying I was pretty pumped to go to the Met Museum and of course started out at the Egyptian part. I probably have already said this but they make you make a very though decision just as you arrive in that museum. Would you like to start in the Greek/Roman part of the Egyptian one? Well, we hanged around Egypt for a while as I ate up everything I could and took pictures of the mummies and patiently waited for something to move (sad to report nothing did move though…).

We had a museum quality lunch in which we ate over priced salads and then moved upstairs where they had the cool musical instruments and the paintings. This second floor is just bliss, especially the French Paintings bit, such exquisitely beautiful works of art. I’m what you would call very traditional when it comes to paintings, so I mostly like very realistic paintings as opposed to dots and shapeless things. But one of my favorite painters is George Serraut that introduced such revolutionary ways of painting back in his day (information I have acquired thanks to a musical called Sunday in the Park with George).

We left the Museum around 5:30, more like they kicked us out because they were closing. We went back to the hotel and for the first time in forever I actually had time to dress up for the opera. Because I was wearing my day clothes back in Rusalka and it just wasn’t classy. I decided to wear shoes and 2 thick stockings because it was opening night and I had been wearing boots all day, worst decision ever. I wore a very pretty black dress but I should have brought the boots in a bag or something. The moment I was out in the street on my way to the Met I regretted the shoes. They got wetish and so very very cold, when I finally made it to the Met I was almost crying out of sheer joy of being warm but then I remembered what I was there for and became even happier.

I met Melanie and we chatted for a little while before the opera began. We spotted Danielle DeNiese and Placido Domingo in the rich person’s dinner thing. So exciting! I had never seen Placido before in the flesh and he’s like the coolest person in opera today apart from being the very first opera singer I ever heard actually sing. My dad had his CD when I was little and I just loved it!

Werther time! I was beyond excited, this would be the first time of me seeing Jonas Kaufmann and I just adore him! Plus the first time I saw Lisette Oropesa who is so incredible and it was opening night of one of the most anticipated operas of the season, so yeah, pretty fucking awesome. I was sitting in the Family Circle premium so I got amazing sound and OK view, couldn’t see facial expressions, which was really a bum, but what can you do?

Patrick was super pumped about this

The overture starts and we see a family (Charlotte’s) at Christmas when suddenly the tallest woman faints and one of the small children exclaims “Mama!”. This I thought was so incredible. During the overture we could see when the mother died, after she was taken away they came back all in black carrying a coffin. There was a statue of a woman weeping covering her face in the garden that represented the mother in whose feet all her children laid flowers. This is quite interesting and useful because in a superficial level you kind of understand why the father is rehearsing Christmas Carols in July. And in a deeper level you can see the mother, she’s not a ghost, the promise Charlotte makes to her becomes more tangible and alive.

The scenery was so lovely! It was simple yet relevant. I love stagings like this that act as a vessel for the performer as opposed to upstaging them. The floor was made out of crooked floor boards that give the whole first scene a nice “twist”. We are brought to a sunny July afternoon when the widowed Baliff is trying to rehearse Christmas carols with his young children but all the youngsters want to do is play. I have to give a standing ovation to those kids, they were simply perfect. Of course this is the Met and perfection is the ultimate goal but not only did they sing the part with most clear diction, dynamic and beautiful color but they also acted so well. I do like to observe everyone on stage when I watch something like this, because during the not so interesting conversation Baliff is having with his two friends the kids are on fire.

Seriously, when Jonas first appeared some people actually clapped. I thought they only did stuff like that for Placido Domingo or someone as equally monumental. Not that Jonas isn’t great but I didn’t think that the clapping was so necessary. I probably have said this before but Werther is one of those operas that I know most of by heart so as Jonas melted my heart with his amazing rendition of “Oh Nature” I didn’t know if I was gap faced or if I mouthed the words. Now some people like to say that he darkens his voice and that he must sound small live. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, his voice is scarily dark but from what I could capture it was all natural and it was monstrous! It was BIG! I didn’t think it was that big, so I was really in the clouds when he finished the aria, unfortunately the people didn’t clap. Go figure.

As soon as Werther sees Charlotte is like he’s been shot by the cupid. They are both kind of shy and adorable around each other at first which is so endearing! I must confess I hadn’t seen Sophie Koch in many things but I was blown away by how amazing she sounds live! Lush, velvety, big and full of emotion she was a perfect Charlotte from start to finish.

To add to the mix Lisette Oropesa’s voice sounded just as big and lovely as the two protagonists. I found that in this production, apart of all the wonderful things I will describe later, they had an amazing balance of voices that sounded absolutely gorgeous together. Everyone had quite full voices which melted into each other's and that helped tremendously in emerging oneself into the piece.

Lisette Oropesa and David Bizic

Charlotte serves a very real chocolate cake to her siblings and her and Werther are off to the ball. The ball part must have been one of my favorite parts. I know what you are thinking, what ball part? What happened was, during the big introduction of the garden scene after the party they actually made a silent party scene and it was SO romantic! The floor boards uncrooked themselves and projections helped build the idea of an indoors location. There were some couples that started dancing together and so did Werther and Charlotte and seriously, it was so freaking damn romantic! The music helped immensely setting the romantic mood but Jonas and Sophie were absolutely in the same page and had incredible chemistry.

We go to the garden scene that is one of my favorite scenes and it was just bliss from start to finish. The orchestra sounded exquisite and the couple on stage seriously stole my heart. It’s so great to watch people who have already done the work together before because the more they do it the more intimate they become and let me tell you, that duet was downright romantic and melancholic and all things Massenet! Charlotte’s father calls her out just in time to ruin the almost kiss they would be sharing, I hate that part. End of act one.

We only had a 2 minute pause until act 2 began. Curtain goes up on act two and we still have the same mold of the set but some props have been put up to make us believe we are in a different location. I thought one thing that was absolutely fascinating was during that duet from those two ‘comic relief’ guys there were some ladies setting up a table. And I seriously could not tear my eyes from them, they did such a meticulous job, the table looked absolutely gorgeous by the end. But on to the story, it’s Sunday and it’s apparently the Vicar’s wedding anniversary so he’s having a lunch with his friends.

Everyone is pretty much sunshine and happiness and here comes Werther as gloomy as can be because his beloved married someone else because of a stupid promise (Yeah, the scenes at the beginning did not change my mind as to how stupid I thought that promise was). Charlotte looks very miserable as well with her marriage.

I’m not a really big fan of the second act, I don’t really like it that Albert (that’s Charlotte’s husband) approaches Werther and sings an aria about how he kinda knows the guy is into his wife. Although the Serbian baritone David Bizic (sorry, I am not able to write his name right) was absolutely fantastic, just like the rest of the principal cast his voice soared through the Met with much ease and beauty. Even though I’m not a fan of this act my favorite part has to be Sophie’s aria and Lisette did such a marvelous job. She was so happy and bubbly and what a VOICE! At the end of the aria she just turned around and walked away sustaining a gorgeous diminuendo A, I felt the itching urge of clapping and screaming.

Well Werther and Charlotte have another aching duet sequence in which he tells her he loves her and wants to run away and be with her. And she’s like “I’m married, I can’t, that ship has sailed Werther”. They keep that for a while and then Charlotte tells Werther to leave and to only come back on Christmas day and that’s the best for them both. Werther is of course distraught and Sophie comes on to him like “Come on dance with me Mousier Werther” and he’s like “My live is over, I’m leaving forever” and Sophie is rather upset about that. Maybe she has a crush on him, WHO WOULDN’T? You’d have to be crazy to send away a guy like Jonas K, right Charlotte? Ok, I’m getting too emotional. Ends act 2 intermission time!

I spent my intermission with my great opera friends Melanie and Mike. We all could barely describe what we just saw, we were all so impressed by the whole thing. I love spending my intermissions like this, chatting with friends about the real deal of opera. What normally happens in Brazil during my intermissions is that I spend them alone tweeting about what just happened. But being with these people makes me so incredibly happy. The gong went off and on we go for acts 3 and 4.

Three very happy opera heads

Curtain up and we see Charlotte’s living room with the traditional piano, books, and gun box. As I’ve said before, the production is very pretty but it really does not stand out. Then Sophie Koch totally rips our hearts out with the troubles of Charlotte. Because Werther left but they still correspond, he sends her letters all the time, love filled letters that would melt any heart! In his last letter he tells her that if he doesn’t come back for Christmas that she pray for his soul. Meaning he was gonna kill himself. So she’s pretty desperate.

Enters Sophie all cotton candy and happiness. She notices her sister is distressed and then Koch sings one of my favorite arias “Va! Laisse couler mes larmes”. It was so gorgeous and the ease with which Koch travels through her registers is really amazing. That ease allows her to give herself completely to the performance and really bare her soul in one of the most heartfelt musical moments of the entire piece. My teacher used to say that this aria is two pages complete and utter FEELING. I wish I could sing it, but elas, I can’t haha

After that Sophie leaves and just as Charlotte is getting to the edge of desperation that Werther theme plays and double doors open. He’s looking worst than ever and having homicidal thoughts. Sometimes Charlotte’s lack of compassion towards him irritates me and I really would like to see a production in which she is warmer to him. I know it’s impossible to change what’s being said but what they actually do is entirely up to the stage director, she could be saying “NO” in a less cold way. I know this is a German tale, but still, I’m Brazilian, we want heat and physical contact for Christ sakes, isn’t this a love story or something?

Anyways, they talk and as Werther starts getting into that suicidal vibe again Charlotte asks him to read her a poem he’d been translating and here we go. “Pourquoi me réveiller” was out of this world. No wonder there’s a video on YouTube of Jonas singing this entitled “The best tenor of the world”. It is just so unbelievable how his voice is so absolutely different from what you would expect from a tenor singing this kind of repertoire and still, he sounds like something out of the heavens.

Something quite funny happened to me during this aria actually. Because it was such a heartfelt moment and I started leaning forward and suddenly I feel a hand grip my from behind and it proceed to put me back on my normal sitting position. I have to say I was kind of mortified when that happened and felt really bad that I was blocking the guy’s view. But after the opera the first thing I did was turn around and apologize expecting the guy to be a total jerk but he was actually really cool about it and said that happened all the time.

Anyways, this aria got a very generous ovation. Then there’s that flame that starts building up as Werther sees that Charlotte does indeed have feelings for him and, for lack of better word, kinda attacks her. I thought it was pretty hot, them both in the divan kissing, then dropping to the floor while passionately gabbing each other. If I was the lady playing Charlotte I would give a big shout out to that stage director “THANK YOU MAN!”, I mean, it’s Jonas Kaufmann!

But of course she has that whole guilt and vow bull and runs away locking a door on her way out and one of the most heart breaking things in the opera is Werther reaching out for the locked door and begging her to open it then slowly sliding his back on the door crying. BANG, my heart was torn to pieces! He leaves and Albert comes back home to find it messed up, he calls Charlotte. They receive a message from Werther asking for Albert to lend his guns for he is going on a long journey. Albert sends them off to him and Charlotte finally realizes that the plan is actually suicide. She rushes through the snowy streets to Werther’s house.

What was pretty cool about this production was that there was no pause whatsoever between acts 3 and 4. The scenery is taken away as Charlotte puts on her boots and then you see a large square far in the back of the stage. At first I thought it was a projection but it was actually Werther’s room with Werther on the inside. As it approaches you can see the scene of Werther getting the guns unfold. He takes one of the guns and points to his head and for a moment there you go like “Holy moly he’s gonna do it!” but he lowers the gun looking quite desperate. The music starts building up and then out of the blue BAM, he shoots himself in the stomach area. And let me tell you live in HD people, it’s sudden and really loud and everyone is gonna get startled when it happens. Specially because a perfectly synchronized projection of his blood spilling on the wall happens and you are like “Holy shit that was brutal”. I’m so not complaining about it though, I thought it was brilliant but it is not subtle.

Charlotte arrives moments later to find him nearly dead on the floor and I couldn’t believe I wasn’t crying yet (it’s mostly because the guy behind me doing that thing kind of unsettled me a bit). Now Charlotte is beyond desperate but Werther is already in another dimension, he knows he’s gonna die so all he wants is to cherish his last moments with the woman he loves. OH MY GWAD THE FEELS! He puts him on the bed and tucks him in and of course gives him all he ever wanted, a kiss which is so romantic! For a moment they are there in each other’s arms, he stands and she comes to stand behind him as they embrace and oublion tout.

This is when I started crying, they are there forgetting about everything when suddenly there’s an orchestral bang and you can hear the children go “Noel, Noel, Noel” and Lisette starts singing the most gorgeous melody and Werther comes back to his senses feeling his wound and falls on the floor. This isn’t even heart breaking, this is heart dilacerating! Jonas gave one hell of a performance, absolutely genius performance. I was expecting something quite exceptional coming from him but he exceeded my expectations by a long shot! At the end I was helplessly crying like a retard and many people around me where also weeping. That’s why people go to the opera, right? To cry their eyes out!

Curtain call was insane, the audience was crazy! I think even the singers were a little bit taken by surprise due to such a loud ovation. Jonas only had to give one tiny step down stage that I felt like that Metropolitan Opera would fall from the screaming and applause. It was SO FUCKING AWESOME to be a part of that! These curtain call pic were taken by my friend Felipe Cunha, thanks man!

the principal cast plus maestro

Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch

Jonas getting flowers, close up on Lisette's face, da best!

Well from having tweeted Lisette I found out they would be going to a cast party after the opera and would be leaving quite late. But I had attached to me a very big Jonas fan whose only opportunity to actually talk to him was today so we were not leaving. What we did was, we went to that Starbucks just across from Lincoln Center and grabbed some coffee and there we stayed until they closed up (around midnight) and kicked us out. Then we went to the stage door that was not deserted (I was expecting it to be deserted). There were two guys there and OF COURSE the crazy white haired bag old lady named Linda. She was chatting (the way we all know so well how she ‘chats’) with the two guys who seemed so nice but we didn’t want to talk to them afraid that the crazy lady would talk to us. One thing you do NOT want to be associated with at stage doors are people like her, you just don’t. She went away for some mysterious reason and we took this opportunity to approach the boys and them about these ‘stage door beggars’. The guys were beyond nice, they were both from Russia, one was a singer and the other was a pianist and they were both still students just like me and Mike. We hit it off SO well. They told us that Placido Domingo had come out the stage door just a while before we arrived and they got to chat with him! Of course I was very jealous but I was about to meet Jonas Kaufmann so I wasn’t THAT upset!

At about 1:15 in the morning Jonas came out with some other people that turned out to be his agent and publicist. I don’t know why, but I never am the first person to go up and talk to the singer, I always let my friends chat to the person first. I don’t really know why but in doing so I end up talking to the people that are accompanying the singer and this time I had the absolute pleasure of talking to his agent. The guy is so cool, he’s from NYC and he speaks many languages and when he learned I was from Brazil he immediately started to talk in Portuguese like a native. Now Portuguese is a very difficult language as Renée Fleming herself has already pointed out, the most difficult language for her, and she sings in Czech and Russian and Elvish for Christ sakes! Plus, he was really nice.

But on to Jonas, I have to admit I was very star stuck when I met him, I think I’ve never been so star struck in my whole life. He’s very tall and very handsome and when he smiles I feel like fainting, he’s a presence, and no, I’m not overreacting! He was SO cool, he talked to all of us and even told me that he was dying to do something here in Brazil. He’s a very simple guy and was extremely humbled by all the things we told him. When I told him he was my favorite male singer of all times he looked me straight in the eye and said “Really? Oh my, thank you so much, it’s such an honor”. I mean, how can you not adore a man like that? He signed all my cds and took this lovely, lovely picture with me which I will cherish forever.

Right after he left Lisette came out and I just turned to her and said “I know you told me not to wait in the cold, sorry!”. And she was soooooo cool. It just like the whole Joyce thing all over again, she looked at me with a big smile and said “Isabela?” and we hugged and it was awesome! We talked a great deal more with her and her husband who was also really cool. And I totally love it how we can just talk about the production and the music and everything with the performers and it’s totally normal, they are extremely humble and so opened to what you have to say. I love it when I feel I got to have an exchange with the singer and tell her how I really felt when I heard her sing and that was definitely what I felt about meeting Lisette.

I was happy as can be after that. Sophie Koch came out but since I don’t really know her work I didn’t think it would be very sincere to go up to her and start up a conversation and ask for a picture. I did congratulate her and tell her she had done so wonderfully that night but Mike did most of the talking and I acted as more of a photographer.

After that we decided to grab something to eat, so off we went to some diner place, me, Mike and our new found Russian friends. We stayed in that diner eating not so good junk food and talking about opera until 3:30 in the morning! It was a lot of fun and you people know me, I love making new friends, especially if they are opera fans and even more if they are fellow musicians. So we really had a blast that night.  

I took about a week to write all this, I hope you guys liked it and I promise I won’t take that long ever again to post. Peace to you all!

Werther Perfection!

EDIT/ SoI'm gonna have to edit the post (I'm not taking anything out, I'm just adding) because more videos have appeared, and again I've had a freak out, so everything that's underlined has been added today, the 4th of May ;) HA if you thought this post was huge before you ain't seen nothing yet hahaha

So here I am again, I was planning on talking about Giulio Cesare in Egitto but decided otherwise. So I decided to make somewhat a sort of fangirl kind of post. First let me tell you guys something really exciting that happened last week that I forgot to mention in my last post. So, last Monday there was a broadcast of Giulio Cesare in the Met and in intermission there was trivia and as soon as William Berger said “Operas that end with fire” I screamed DON GIOVANNI, and immediately set out to send my answer to William. Just to get everyone on the same page, William Berger is creative content producer for the Met Opera, and he’s the commentator at the broadcasts via radio/internet. Well after the interview he started reading the answers and BAM, HE SAID MY NAME! At that I let out a big scream that resulted in my cousin being mad at me because my other cousin was asleep (yes, I’m living currently in an apartment without walls with my two cousins, currently sleeping at the not so comfy couch) and all I could say was “Oh my GOOOOOOOD he said my name, he said my name, my name was pronounced at the Metropolitan Opera and I haven’t even gone there yet!”. Well, William said that he was glad that I was listening all the way from Brasil and oh God I felt like a million bucks! Me and my bff rejoiced like two retarded teenagers!

Roberto Alagna and Vesselina Kasarova at curtain call of Werther at the Wiener Staatsoper

 Well anyways, speaking of freaking out, here’s the second and main thing I wanted to talk about. I had a total white shirt freak out, I mean, this opera isn’t really white shirt, but Vesselina is like the queen of white shirts, so… Let’s get down to it, last Friday the Vesselina Kasarova fans learned that she was going in as Charlotte in Werther the next day because Elina Garancia got sick. Of course we were all so happy but also I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad because I love this opera, it was after all the first live opera that moved me tears, and I wouldn’t be able to see it. And the tenor playing Werther was Roberto Alagna and he’s just magnificent doing the French repertoire, well, I was kinda upset. UNTIL, an ANGEL simply posted almost the entire thing online, let’s say ¼ of the whole opera was up on YouTube on Sunday evening and I was freaking out. 

So I decided to comment on these videos, let’s start from the beginning. First video is only of Roberto Alagna singing his first aria “Je ne sais si je veille ou si je rêve encore!/ O nature, pleine de grace”. I had never seen him as Werther, and let me tell you, I was very pleased with what I saw. He has that melancholic feel that I think is essential for this character, but during this aria he really looked like a somehow troubled soul (maybe a VERY light version of Onegin) finding peace in a rather simple place. And he’s sounding amazing!

So the videos on the bottom are the new ones which were filmed in on 30^th. It’s basically the same scene, although we get like maybe two minutes more footage from the beggining and the end of the scene than the previous one. But as I always say, it’s a different day, it’s a different performance. Starting from the fact that since it’s a different person filming, the person chose to give us some bigger picture shots, and you can notice that Charlotte appears and Werther sees her, and she watches over him as he sings Oh Nature. Which for me gives the aria a completely different meaning, is he singing “O nature, pleine de grâce, reine du temps et de l'espace daigne accueillir celui qui passe et ta salue, humble mortel!”, as if now he sees it  because he might have just fallen in love at first sight and you perceive everything differently when you fall in love (I’m getting waaay off track here). Something that might not be but, might just as well be, was that I think Roberto looked at someone in the eye in the audience when he sang “Mère éternellement jeune, adorable et purê”. And how sweet was it that after he finished the aria he turned to look for Charlotte, but she was already hiding with her sister behind tree, seeming to wait for the perfected moment to reveal themselves. It’s adorable the way she takes the tray from her sister so maybe she might get closer to him. This video has left me on the edge of my seat yearning for a continuation! I do hope there is one; I wouldn’t mind editing this post again to post it, just saying…  

This first video was posted on Sunday, now this one was posted today. Just back from the party Werther and Charlotte have a romantic moment, they fall in love and it is super sweet! Seeing this it’s kind of hard to believe that Vesselina just walked into this production, true that she’s already done this opera with Roberto at the Met, but it was a million years ago! Excuse me while I died when Roberto sang: Rêve! Extase! Bonheur! Je donnerais ma vie pour garder à jamais ces yeux, ce front charmant, cette bouche adorable, étonnée et ravie. Sans que nul à son tour les contemple un moment! Le céleste sourire! oh! Charlotte! Je vous aime... et je vous admire! (Dream! Ecstasy! Happiness! I would give my life to look at those eyes, that enchanting face, that adorable mouth, surprised and delighted. Without anyone to turn contemplates a moment! The heavenly smile! oh! Charlotte! I love you ... and I admire you!).

One other thing I love about this is how they manage to keep their characters fresh, even though they are dramatic characters, at this point they are young and somehow naïve and that is what comes through to me, Werther finally finding what he was looking for and Charlotte hardly believing that what she was looking for was Werther and almost giving up to it.

This video is also almost the same as the one from the 27^th but we also get a little bit of footage in the beginning and we get to see the scene until the end of the first act. So we discover our lovers making out before the scene begins, you go girl! It’s amazing how they were already so well together on the 27^th, great chemistry and the voices melted so well with one another, and now it seems as if they have even more chemistry! The way Roberto is looking at Vesselina while she talks about the children is so romantic, it’s like he’s mesmerized with her, and he shows already Werther loves everything about her, which is so important to the story! And interestingly enough at this very moment you can see that Charlotte is also troubled soul, she’s “burdened” with taking care of and being a mother to a lot of children while the ghost of her mother looms over her, meaning Werther and Charlotte are perfect for one another, they are those kind of couples that complete each other, you know? But this is noticeable because of the way the performers are putting across their parts in actions, in intonation, in their choice of dynamic, this is truly a treat. It’s probably the best Werther I’ve ever watched, I was never really able to grasp these two characters, but after this I’m several steps closer to getting them.

And it’s nice that we get to see the end of the act, with Charlotte having almost surrendered to the moment but her dad’s voice kind of awakens her from the dream. This is one of those “what if” moments: What if her father hadn’t called her? Would she have run away? Done something she might regret? We will never know though. But the end was just amazing, as Charlotte confesses that she’s actually engaged to be married you see all the light be extinguished from Werther’s eyes, it just vanishes.

We go the second act, Charlotte has married Albert and Werther left, he comes back. He mourns Charlotte’s marriage and says how much he wished that he was the one who had married Charlotte that he alone would be the one to make her happy. It’s such a sad, sad melodramatic moment, and something I noticed in these videos is how expressive Roberto Alagna’s eyes are, you can see the pain and sadness in his eyes, it’s quite amazing. Another thing, these videos are of amazing quality, this kind of technology hasn’t gotten to Brasil yet haha. Albert arrives and talks to Werther as to how he knows Charlotte is really in love with him and that even though he forgives Werther for that.

Let me say something, Albert has got to be the character I most hate in this opera, if it weren’t for him, if he didn’t exist, Charlotte and Werther would have lived happily ever after. Of course then there would not be an interesting plot to the story, but I’m always rooting for things to end up well in stories and am always frustrated that in opera they usually don’t. Then Werther sings how he’s wound has heeled and he’s not suffering anymore, it’s interesting how we know that that’s a lie and that the melody he sings and the music behind it tell a completely different story. The music shows off his suffering even though his words say otherwise, in other words, Massenet you are a genius and I love you!

Next up from the beginning of Werther's entrance just like before he gets a wonderful aria lamenting his and Charlotte’s fate. Again Alagna is sounding so amazing in this, truly heart breaking aria and a heart breaking rendition of it. Albert arrives and I think this time he really acts and sounds like a true villain, I’d be scared to be married to a man like that, I’d actually be scared to sit next to a man like that, he’s scary.

The scene continues with Charlotte’s annoying sister singing about flowers and happiness and Werther looking more and more grim, she tries to cheer him up but to no avail. Albert tells Werther he should see what’s right in his face and that he should try and look for happiness in someone who is free and holding flowers (aka annoying Sophie). They leave and Charlotte walks in and is surprised to see Werther there and tells him she can’t be with him since she’s married. First Vesselina is sporting a sort of cold worried tone, but as the scene progresses her mask starts to fall and you can see that she aches to be with Werther and it hurts her so much that she actually can’t. She pleads to him to give her peace, his presence shows her what she can never have and that haunts her, this scene is so very deep, you see Werther kind of giving up and consenting that her happiness is the most important thing for him. But Charlotte can’t be without him forever, so she tells him to come back at Christmas.

Compared to what’s coming next this is light stuff, but even in this brief scene there is so much feeling going on and both performers were able to express them. This was really a treat! Charlotte leaves and Werther gets to sing an amazing lament, again, Alagna is heavenly in this, just fantastic. After he has teared his soul apart singing Sophie comes asking him to go to the ball with her, he can’t even respond to her properly, he says he’s going away forever and leaves. Charlotte sees her sister crying and Sophie tells her Werther has left for good and Charlotte is distraught. This is noticed by her husband that finishes off the act saying “Il l'aime!”. The guy who is playing Albert is making him seem almost cruel, his expressions are very severe and in this case even hate, I don’t really like that sort of interpretation of Albert, it makes him even less likeable than he normally is.

In this one we skip Sophie’s part and go straight to Werther reuniting with Charlotte. So absurdly painful to watch how he’s so devoted to her and how she wants him but can’t. After he recalls their moments together she says the painful “Albert m'aime, et je suis sa femme! ” (Albert loves me and I’m his wife) to what Werther responds “Albert vous aime! Qui ne vous aimerait?” (Albert loves you? And who wouldn’t love you?), that just stings mon coeur, you know? And her telling him to leave, her face when she says “Partez! Partez!” is so sad, she’s afraid she won’t be able to do with him being around. And how devastated he is at hearing she wants him to leave, this time this encounter is even more tense than on the 27^th, if that’s even possible, because it was pretty tense already. After she leaves Werther starts thinking about the idea of putting an end to his life in a light delusional way, and at the end when he says “Père, appelle moi!” he’s really asking to die. After he leaves we see Albert sort of dragging Charlotte by the arm, which is quite alarming and makes his villain cap fit even better. It’s interesting how this moment is dreadful for the characters but the music is upbeat and cheerful, another great musical contrast Massenet gives us.

Third act, next video right from the beginning of the act, Charlotte is so hopelessly in love with Werther, you see pain in Vesselina’s eyes, it’s absolutely heart breaking. He has been sending her letters that she’s read again and again, while she talks about the letters it’s interesting to see how in Vesselina’s acting Charlotte forgets her life and for a few moments is transported to something/somewhere her and Werther are together and happy, she smiles at the letters and is back to herself saying she should destroy them, but can’t. Then she starts reading one of the letters and you gotta hold on tight not to cry, he’s alone and miserable and she’s even more miserable because he’s miserable and because she knows she can help him, but really she can’t. So much drama, I love it! Vesselina is, by the way, sounding absolutely divine, her unique voice color is sounding clear and so, so fitted for this role, really, a perfect fit. His last letter is alarming, he says that if he doesn’t show on Christmas, she’ll never see him again, Charlotte is worried, the fear of him being gone from this earth is so touchable in her voice, it’s not a desperate tone, it’s something much deeper and scary.

Next video is when Werther actually shows up, the orchestral music composed for this bit when Charlotte sees him is absolutely gorgeous, poignant and moving. They start recalling their sweet moments together and it’s such bittersweet music and acting, what I love about this production is that they actually touch and reach out for each other. Most productions I’ve watched Charlotte was either cold to him (in her gestures) or too afraid to reach out to him, which kind of annoys me. Because I feel that a lot of her strive is the fact that he is so close you can taste it, and she actually does (by hugging him or kissing him) but at the end she can’t give into him. It’s much harder to give up to something you’ve experienced and loved than something you are too afraid of even getting close to. Just saying, that’s just my opinion. Then I die, “Pourquoi me réveiller, ô souffle du printemps?” oh my God, it’s such a heartfelt song, just like Charlotte’s “Va! laisse couler mes larmes” it’s a short yet powerful aria that destroys me from the inside out, this whole opera is really so much suffering one can take and I have a bad habit of growing too found of the characters, so I suffer along. Roberto sang majestically, really, just, amazing, he gets a big, big ovation at the end of this aria, well deserved I must add!

Third act and Werther shows up in Charlotte’s house, you see that she’s quite relieved to see him there after his dreadful promise. He says how much he didn’t really want to come back, but there wasn’t a day he didn’t think about her and helas he came back to see her. Again they have a little heaven of a moment when they recall their moments together, they seem to relax and the BAM "Pourquoi me réveiller, ô souffle du printemps?”. The beginning of this song feels like melted butter, me being the butter. (ps; funny enough the moment Roberto finished the aria and everybody cheered at the same second my dad screamed “GOAL!”, his team made a goal, and now there are fireworks and for me they are all for Roberto)

Fortunately the next video is the continuation of this scene, Werther sees that Charlotte is moved and has his confirmation that she indeed still loves him. This scene is crazy good, and is so fantastically executed, flames of hope seem to gleam from Alagna’s eyes and something like crazy bliss and gilt shine in Kasarova’s. As they sing together, Werther pleading for her to give in and Charlotte trying to hold on to her values, there’s an insane exchange going on between the performers, again , it’s hard to believe she had just walked into the production. Such chemistry it is really crazy, as he tells her he loves her, she begs for mercy and they finally end up having a rather hot kiss on the floor (YES THEY KISS, already a victory compared to some productions I’ve seen). That’s what I’m talking about, it’s much harder to walk out of a kiss like that than of a half kiss done with regret, it makes Charlotte’s struggle even more painful, I think.

But she does come to her senses and climbs the stairs in order to get away, normally after her “Adieu! adieu! pour la dernière fois!” she actually leaves, but Werther follows her up the stairs and says to her the painful “Mais non... c'est impossible! Ecoute-moi! Ma voix te rappelle! Reviens! Tu me seras sacrée! Reviens! Reviens!” she looks at him with pain tear filled eyes and kisses him goodbye and runs away. It is so heart breaking when he actually starts weeping and it is then that Werther decides that if he can’t have Charlotte he’d rather die.

Now for the continuation of the scene, again, I didn’t think this could get more intense, well it did. The way they work together is amazing and their movements are not the same as the last time and you think “Oh my God, they are really planning their actions in the moment” which in one side is super risky but when it works out, and it did, it’s extremely organic and makes their performance utterly believable, not that they weren’t, but this makes it so human, raw, touchable and relatable. (oh here I go again, shut up Isabela). Their struggle ended in a kiss and the well deserved little ovation it got, they managed to perfectly lead us to this moment when Charlotte truly looses it and really proves right for her to say next “C'est vous, vous! que je fuis l'âme désespérée!”. And oh my world, how heart breaking it is when he’s asking for her to come back and she extends her hand toward him and they embrace in the most desperate way, as if they couldn’t live without each other and then she leaves again.

Last clip Werther has shot himself and Charlotte has gone after him only to find him covered in his own blood dying. Charlotte is desperate and tries to call for help but he just tells her that all the help he needs is in her “Vois! je n'ai pas besoin d'autre aide que la tienne!” at this Vesselina makes a crying face that is heart throbbing, everything about this scene is actually heart throbbing, she is holding him and it’s so beautiful you almost forget he’s dying. She’s so tender to her caresses toward him it seems as if they’ll live forever together (hopeless romantic that I am!). Then they profess their love for one another (Werther: “je meurs en te disant que je t'adore!” Charlotte: “Et moi, Werther, et moi je t'aime!”) and I almost die, she finally confesses she’s loved him ever since the beginning and I’m on the floor with depression, it’s so sad! And then she tells him she’s going to give him the kiss he so much craved for and wow, do they kiss or what! They do have a lot of orchestral heartfelt music to kiss to and they do, at these moments my heart totally skips a beat and again I sort of forget he’s drenched with blood at death’s door. As they sing “oublions tout!” (forget everything), such a sweet moment, we hear the children sing the Christmas song and are thrown back into reality, Werther is dying. PS; I’m re watching this for like the 7^th time and I’m crying for the 7^th time.

Werther asks Charlotte not to cry, and they embrace ever so gently and lovingly at the sound of the children and Sophie’s singing, it’s too much to take I tell you, this opera is just so depressing! At this point Charlotte is beyond desperate while Werther has quietly accepted his fate and is ready, as he dies I cry like a retarded human being and oh man, the suffering in Vesselina’s eyes is making me cry even more, he dies and  Charlotte cries out for him to no avail. She climbs off the bed and meets her husband hatred filled gaze, as she gets down to her knees probably to beg for his forgiveness he turns his back on her with a disgusted look. The end, Werther dies and so do I.

One thing really gets to me about this ending, ok, to be a tragedy at least one of the lovers must die, but I feel I would like this ending a lot more if Charlotte also killed herself. She’s gonna spend the rest of her life with the ghost of that moment and of what could have been had she run away with Werther looming over her, she should have the right to put an end to her misery too, and maybe to be with Werther in another place. That’s what I think anyways. God, this has been wonderful but somehow slightly depressing haha

Another lovely picture of the curtain call, yay, Werher is actually alive so they can be together! Shut up Isabela!

Ah, and be sure to watch the curtain call, a well deserved ovation for our heroes, I’ve posted in Vesselina’s facebook fan page. Well I guess this is it, what a HUGE post! But every time I write about Vesselina it’s normally a gigantic post. Peace everyone!

Sadly enough there was no video of the ending that must have been a real gem, well who knows? Maybe it will show up :) Only final words, BRAVI to Roberto Alagna and to Vesselina Kasarova that literally killed it in their roles and made us all cry! And also a huge THANK YOU to our dear camera people (Orin13MS, MaPatROB and operara100)who were kind enough to share these videos with the world!

PS: The struggle I just went through to put these videos together in a pretty way was ridiculous!