Agree 100%. Grand opera at its finest. I sprang for 3d row Orchestra seats in its final run just so I could see it up close, and am so glad I did. Can't imagine what the Met is thinking of.
The fact that both Kesley and Luca Salsi (soon to perform Rigoletto at the Met) are “thriving” at this theater-one that, sadly, appears to be systematically losing its standing in the opera world and morphing into little more than a Broadway appendage-strikes me as indicative of a troubling shift. It seems the artistic direction is increasingly shaped by the influence of singer management networks rather than by genuine artistic standards. To me, that’s the only plausible explanation for this decline.
Is The Met really not able to find, anywhere in the world, one singer who:
- Does not Scream - Does not Whistle - Has no problems with intonation - Has no problem with high notes - Has no problem with passaggio - Has no problem with low/chest notes - Has no problem with projection - Has no problem with basic breathing - Has no problem with air loss - Has no problems with diction (all languages) - Doesn't need a microphone - Does not wobble (tremolo wobble, caprino wobble, siren wobble, truck can drive through wobble) - Can sing proper bel canto and properly portray intense emotion, love, passion - Is singing to the public, not being private on the stage and performing for themselves - He/She doesn't sing opera like pop or musical theater?!?!
I don’t really get it because there’s truly a ton of good singers out there if you actually LOOK. Even right there in New York at Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo. Are the casting directors deaf?
Be thankful that you do not have to hear Mr. Kaufmann in major Wagner roles......or worse - Mickey Mouse "tenor " Vogt ....Oh ,I forgot , did not Mullet-Boy Vogt "sing" at the Met ?
It’s really, really rare for me to post negative comments about the singers but this way of singing Amonasro is simply not acceptable. If Mr Kelsey is reading any of the comments here, please do pay attention because they are indeed right, all we can hear in the clip is loud screaming with little fraseggio and zero elegance. On the other hand Angel Blue sounds absolutely fine, no complaints with her. But Mr Kelsey needs to seriously improve his performance or drop this role altogether.
I don't understand why the met is exposing Mr.Kelsey like this. If they're still rehearsing let them finish the process. Otherwise you'll receive all these negative comments and rightfully so.
Quinnn Kelsey is so overrated and overhyped. His phrasing is an embarrassment, sings with more straight tone than a Broadway belter, and he has ZERO ability to convey authority or gravitas in any role. Angel Blue doesn't sound bad here. Terrible phrasing, but that is to be expected from anyone in this repertoire at the Met these days.
None of the Tenor's aria? No Ramfis aria, either? Will we get a video of the famous Act IV duet and subsequent judgement scene of Amneris and Radames? How about the Act 1/2 duet between Amneris and Aida?
I left the "Indiana Jones" show last night at intermission, in tears. This scene got better reviews than most of that sorry spectacle, so I wanted to see what I missed. Here, it's only better in comparison with the rest of it. I had hoped this production would at least be OK and that I wouldn't lament the destruction of the previous, superb version. But Mayer ruined it by adding those archeologists. They might have been OK with brief appearances at the beginning of the scenes, but NO, they reduced the Triumphal March to something I felt like booing. Glad I left when I did; the archeologists only got more intrusive later. Since when is it OK to rewrite an opera??!! Especially a great one like Aida?!
Do not confuse perfection with proper style. The search for perfection in music making can quickly become a prison cell. I think we are seeing the consequences of that mindset in today’s opera performers, all pretty much straight-jacketed and lacking abandon for fear of making mistakes real or imagined. They all sing the notes but not what’s between or behind those notes. All that said, the highlighting by some of what appears or feels disappointing has nothing to do with the absence of perfection but, rather, with the absence of proper singing style and lackadaisical delivery. Put another way, the feeling that these performers found themselves on the wrong stage singing the wrong music. Some have suggested that these performers appear more primed for Broadway than opera, and they have a point.
LOL more of the same "critics" who expect literal perfection every night, not realizing that such a thing rarely if ever happened at the Met even in the olden days that they worship! The same people would probably complain about Price's chest voice, GG Guelfi's pitch, Tebaldi's top, or Warren's vowels if they were singing this duet today. A bunch of misery guts! Why focus on the imperfect when there is plenty of good to enjoy instead? Kelsey's Amonasro is just fine, simply watch the HD with Netrebko or listen to the broadcast with Bradley last year rather than critique these rehearsal tapes. The voice and phrasing are there, he merely has a slightly more tenorial sound and unique style that isn't old school, and some closed-minded people can't accept that. Plus Angel Blue is glorious as always.
I posted the following response to another comment here which I think is worth repeating. _“Do not confuse perfection with proper style. The search for perfection in music making can quickly become a prison cell. I think we are seeing the consequences of that mindset in today’s opera performers, all pretty much straight-jacketed and lacking abandon for fear of making mistakes real or imagined. They all sing the notes but not what’s between or behind those notes. All that said, the highlighting by some of what appears or feels disappointing has nothing to do with the absence of perfection but, rather, with the absence of proper singing style and lackadaisical delivery. Put another way, the feeling that these performers found themselves on the wrong stage singing the wrong music. Some have suggested that these performers appear more primed for Broadway than opera, and they have a point.”_
@@doGreatartistsgrowontrees I find the criticisms of Kelsey's style more reasonable and grounded in truth than other criticisms here, like marieantoinette's request that the Met find singers without, essentially, any flaws at all, or williesullivan's ridiculous pronouncement that Angel Blue's phrasing is "terrible". As I addressed, his style is certainly unique, more musical-theatre like one could say. I personally don't mind it, and I think many of those that do are too wedded to the belief that there is only one way to sing opera (even vibrato all the way through). Varying the frequency and strength of vibrato is one way to add complexity to phrasing and create character; by omitting vibrato at certain points of the phrase, Kelsey merely does it a lot more than most. Keep in mind that if Quinn sang musical theatre, he would have one of the biggest and most beautiful voices ever to sing the genre, and I'm sure some would still critique his style as too operatic. Again, I don't have an issue with him singing this genre. My point about these gangs of critics wanting elusive perfection and obsessing over the negative stands. When was the last time they commented something positive/liked a current Met singer? I'm referring to a specific few, including but not limited to those I named here, who are consistent critical commenters on Met videos and receive many likes.
@@morganhunt1191 So instead of trying to argue with people to LIKE mediocrity, post your comments about why the singer is not bad as a on-going way to combat the ounces of negativity that you claim you see in the comment section. That shouldn't be hard to do if the singers, as you claim, are quite close to "perfection" or close to the same standard of a Guelfi or Tebaldi, eh? Speaking on the "old school," there's COUNTLESS videos where people are making histrionic remarks about Renata Tebaldi's cracked high Cs in the Tokyo '59 Aida. Price was HORRIBLE as Aida, in ANY era and in ANY condition of her voice simply due to the fact it was a role too heavy and big for her self-admittedly Lyrical Soprano voice and yet, I've seen nothing but TOXIC positivity regarding her '85 Met performance (which is actually worst than anything Netrebko or Blue could do)! Giangiacomo Guelfi barked and I do mean BARKED a lot of his notes post '64 because he was trying to be the reincarnated version of his teacher -- Titta Ruffo, at varying degrees of success but when GGG was on, he was ON. There's many criticisms that people have of anyone but the thing the old school had was heart, personality, and humility. They knew when it was time to either step aside or go and retrain the voice at the behest of their own professional careers. Having this iota of common sense and the strive to be better than before seems to NOT permeate in today's opera circles; matter of fact, it seems that the idea of complacency and redundancy in mediocracy have taken over and we get performances like above or singers like Natalie Dessay who have destroyed her voice before the age of 35.
@ Price terrible as Aida at any age? Proving my point so perfectly I don’t need to say much more! If you can’t find anything to like with her in this role, I feel sorry for you honestly. So caught up in comparing renditions and seeking the ideal one, that you fail to appreciate each one for what it is. Kelsey is likely opening the Met in two seasons. Most people who frequent the Met (like me) enjoy him. We are not all stupid, and he’s not going away. Cry, I guess.
Aida, the musical, now on Broadway...
Screaming contest on the “Indiana Jones” production. The days of Sereni, MacNeil, and Milnes are over.
Exactly. Povero Verdi. We have lied singers straight-toning and screeching the role of Amonasro.
This is what passes for Amonasro these days? Shouting and big gulps of air instead of singing?
I love the video of Simon Estes and Leontyne Price. That was glorious singing. This version with Kelsey just puts me to sleep.
@@richardmccowenclark2412 You should have heard his attempt at singing Scarpia.....
@@richardmccowenclark2412 It is with Grace Bumbry right? They are amazing there!
Oh dear, why are you posting this? aren't you supposed to protect the Singers?
I've seen the old production three times. It was just great! No update needed, just good singers.
Agree 100%. Grand opera at its finest. I sprang for 3d row Orchestra seats in its final run just so I could see it up close, and am so glad I did. Can't imagine what the Met is thinking of.
Odd they haven’t uploaded anything of Beczała’s Radamès.
Answering to self: Now we know why.
The fact that both Kesley and Luca Salsi (soon to perform Rigoletto at the Met) are “thriving” at this theater-one that, sadly, appears to be systematically losing its standing in the opera world and morphing into little more than a Broadway appendage-strikes me as indicative of a troubling shift. It seems the artistic direction is increasingly shaped by the influence of singer management networks rather than by genuine artistic standards. To me, that’s the only plausible explanation for this decline.
Is this general rehearsal? because that phrasing is quite a mess...
Is The Met really not able to find, anywhere in the world, one singer who:
- Does not Scream
- Does not Whistle
- Has no problems with intonation
- Has no problem with high notes
- Has no problem with passaggio
- Has no problem with low/chest notes
- Has no problem with projection
- Has no problem with basic breathing
- Has no problem with air loss
- Has no problems with diction (all languages)
- Doesn't need a microphone
- Does not wobble (tremolo wobble, caprino wobble, siren wobble, truck can drive through wobble)
- Can sing proper bel canto and properly portray intense emotion, love, passion
- Is singing to the public, not being private on the stage and performing for themselves
- He/She doesn't sing opera like pop or musical theater?!?!
I don’t really get it because there’s truly a ton of good singers out there if you actually LOOK. Even right there in New York at Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo. Are the casting directors deaf?
Have you haerd the "Screamfest" and the poor conducting of the recent "Frau Ohne Schatten " ?
Be thankful that you do not have to hear Mr. Kaufmann in major Wagner roles......or worse - Mickey Mouse "tenor " Vogt ....Oh ,I forgot , did not Mullet-Boy Vogt "sing" at the Met ?
It’s really, really rare for me to post negative comments about the singers but this way of singing Amonasro is simply not acceptable. If Mr Kelsey is reading any of the comments here, please do pay attention because they are indeed right, all we can hear in the clip is loud screaming with little fraseggio and zero elegance. On the other hand Angel Blue sounds absolutely fine, no complaints with her. But Mr Kelsey needs to seriously improve his performance or drop this role altogether.
He’s screaming and shouting. Absolutely no-tone and his phrasing is horrendous.
Not an Amonsaro, Rigoletto or Scarpia.
Poor MET !
Hurlements au Lincoln Center !!!!
Sherill Milnes comes back!! 😅
E pensavo che il suo Rigoletto e Scarpia fossero cattivi...
Agree......
I don't understand why the met is exposing Mr.Kelsey like this. If they're still rehearsing let them finish the process. Otherwise you'll receive all these negative comments and rightfully so.
if it's a mess in rehearsal it could not be a diamond on stage
Quinnn Kelsey is so overrated and overhyped. His phrasing is an embarrassment, sings with more straight tone than a Broadway belter, and he has ZERO ability to convey authority or gravitas in any role. Angel Blue doesn't sound bad here. Terrible phrasing, but that is to be expected from anyone in this repertoire at the Met these days.
Fenomenalnie zrealizowane! #januszbielecki
None of the Tenor's aria? No Ramfis aria, either? Will we get a video of the famous Act IV duet and subsequent judgement scene of Amneris and Radames? How about the Act 1/2 duet between Amneris and Aida?
Vicious comments.
Why do you think that is?
@ because opera singers who comment and opera-philes are known for their vicious and nasty treatment of colleagues.
I left the "Indiana Jones" show last night at intermission, in tears. This scene got better reviews than most of that sorry spectacle, so I wanted to see what I missed. Here, it's only better in comparison with the rest of it. I had hoped this production would at least be OK and that I wouldn't lament the destruction of the previous, superb version. But Mayer ruined it by adding those archeologists. They might have been OK with brief appearances at the beginning of the scenes, but NO, they reduced the Triumphal March to something I felt like booing. Glad I left when I did; the archeologists only got more intrusive later. Since when is it OK to rewrite an opera??!! Especially a great one like Aida?!
End of the world !
Thank you!
How about seeing/hearing/all that is Great about the MET! How very sad 😢 to highlight only the disappointing. Is the MET Perfect?...? What Is?!
Do not confuse perfection with proper style. The search for perfection in music making can quickly become a prison cell. I think we are seeing the consequences of that mindset in today’s opera performers, all pretty much straight-jacketed and lacking abandon for fear of making mistakes real or imagined. They all sing the notes but not what’s between or behind those notes. All that said, the highlighting by some of what appears or feels disappointing has nothing to do with the absence of perfection but, rather, with the absence of proper singing style and lackadaisical delivery. Put another way, the feeling that these performers found themselves on the wrong stage singing the wrong music. Some have suggested that these performers appear more primed for Broadway than opera, and they have a point.
LOL more of the same "critics" who expect literal perfection every night, not realizing that such a thing rarely if ever happened at the Met even in the olden days that they worship! The same people would probably complain about Price's chest voice, GG Guelfi's pitch, Tebaldi's top, or Warren's vowels if they were singing this duet today. A bunch of misery guts! Why focus on the imperfect when there is plenty of good to enjoy instead?
Kelsey's Amonasro is just fine, simply watch the HD with Netrebko or listen to the broadcast with Bradley last year rather than critique these rehearsal tapes. The voice and phrasing are there, he merely has a slightly more tenorial sound and unique style that isn't old school, and some closed-minded people can't accept that. Plus Angel Blue is glorious as always.
I posted the following response to another comment here which I think is worth repeating. _“Do not confuse perfection with proper style. The search for perfection in music making can quickly become a prison cell. I think we are seeing the consequences of that mindset in today’s opera performers, all pretty much straight-jacketed and lacking abandon for fear of making mistakes real or imagined. They all sing the notes but not what’s between or behind those notes. All that said, the highlighting by some of what appears or feels disappointing has nothing to do with the absence of perfection but, rather, with the absence of proper singing style and lackadaisical delivery. Put another way, the feeling that these performers found themselves on the wrong stage singing the wrong music. Some have suggested that these performers appear more primed for Broadway than opera, and they have a point.”_
@@doGreatartistsgrowontrees I find the criticisms of Kelsey's style more reasonable and grounded in truth than other criticisms here, like marieantoinette's request that the Met find singers without, essentially, any flaws at all, or williesullivan's ridiculous pronouncement that Angel Blue's phrasing is "terrible". As I addressed, his style is certainly unique, more musical-theatre like one could say. I personally don't mind it, and I think many of those that do are too wedded to the belief that there is only one way to sing opera (even vibrato all the way through). Varying the frequency and strength of vibrato is one way to add complexity to phrasing and create character; by omitting vibrato at certain points of the phrase, Kelsey merely does it a lot more than most.
Keep in mind that if Quinn sang musical theatre, he would have one of the biggest and most beautiful voices ever to sing the genre, and I'm sure some would still critique his style as too operatic. Again, I don't have an issue with him singing this genre.
My point about these gangs of critics wanting elusive perfection and obsessing over the negative stands. When was the last time they commented something positive/liked a current Met singer? I'm referring to a specific few, including but not limited to those I named here, who are consistent critical commenters on Met videos and receive many likes.
@@morganhunt1191 So instead of trying to argue with people to LIKE mediocrity, post your comments about why the singer is not bad as a on-going way to combat the ounces of negativity that you claim you see in the comment section. That shouldn't be hard to do if the singers, as you claim, are quite close to "perfection" or close to the same standard of a Guelfi or Tebaldi, eh?
Speaking on the "old school," there's COUNTLESS videos where people are making histrionic remarks about Renata Tebaldi's cracked high Cs in the Tokyo '59 Aida. Price was HORRIBLE as Aida, in ANY era and in ANY condition of her voice simply due to the fact it was a role too heavy and big for her self-admittedly Lyrical Soprano voice and yet, I've seen nothing but TOXIC positivity regarding her '85 Met performance (which is actually worst than anything Netrebko or Blue could do)! Giangiacomo Guelfi barked and I do mean BARKED a lot of his notes post '64 because he was trying to be the reincarnated version of his teacher -- Titta Ruffo, at varying degrees of success but when GGG was on, he was ON.
There's many criticisms that people have of anyone but the thing the old school had was heart, personality, and humility. They knew when it was time to either step aside or go and retrain the voice at the behest of their own professional careers. Having this iota of common sense and the strive to be better than before seems to NOT permeate in today's opera circles; matter of fact, it seems that the idea of complacency and redundancy in mediocracy have taken over and we get performances like above or singers like Natalie Dessay who have destroyed her voice before the age of 35.
I suggest that you getv your hearing examined....
@ Price terrible as Aida at any age? Proving my point so perfectly I don’t need to say much more! If you can’t find anything to like with her in this role, I feel sorry for you honestly. So caught up in comparing renditions and seeking the ideal one, that you fail to appreciate each one for what it is.
Kelsey is likely opening the Met in two seasons. Most people who frequent the Met (like me) enjoy him. We are not all stupid, and he’s not going away. Cry, I guess.