More Stiffelio from the Met!

If he didn’t quite save Boccanegra, neither did he sink Stiffelio with conducting that has progressed over the years from vague to basically okay. It’s an opera that has had a long and winding history, having been censored, bowdlerized, lost, and eventually reassembled for its first complete performances in 1993, featuring…Plácido Domingo. Giancarlo Del Monaco’s elegantly lugubrious production is back, and this time the role of the cuckolded reverend went to José Cura, one of several pretenders to the tenorissimo’s crown, who covered himself with respectability, if not quite with glory. Sondra Radvanovsky sang the role of Stiffelio’s wife Lina with irresistible rawness, alchemizing vocal iffiness into fierce intensity.

Read more: Justin Davidson on the Metropolitan Opera's 'Stiffelio' and 'Simon Boccanegra' -- New York Magazine Classical Music Review file:///C:/Temp%20Hold%20File/Met%202010/Justin%20Davidson%20on%20the%20Metropolitan%20Opera's%20'Stiffelio'%20and%20'Simon%20Boccanegra'%20--%20New%20York%20Magazi_0.mht#ixzz0hWNI2g3A
 

If he didn’t quite save Boccanegra, neither did he sink Stiffelio with conducting that has progressed over the years from vague to basically okay. It’s an opera that has had a long and winding history, having been censored, bowdlerized, lost, and eventually reassembled for its first complete performances in 1993, featuring…Plácido Domingo. Giancarlo Del Monaco’s elegantly lugubrious production is back, and this time the role of the cuckolded reverend went to José Cura, one of several pretenders to the tenorissimo’s crown, who covered himself with respectability, if not quite with glory. Sondra Radvanovsky sang the role of Stiffelio’s wife Lina with irresistible rawness, alchemizing vocal iffiness into fierce intensity.

Read more: Justin Davidson on the Metropolitan Opera's 'Stiffelio' and 'Simon Boccanegra' -- New York Magazine Classical Music Review file:///C:/Temp%20Hold%20File/Met%202010/Justin%20Davidson%20on%20the%20Metropolitan%20Opera's%20'Stiffelio'%20and%20'Simon%20Boccanegra'%20--%20New%20York%20Magazi_0.mht#ixzz0hWNI2g3A
 

If he didn’t quite save Boccanegra, neither did he sink Stiffelio with conducting that has progressed over the years from vague to basically okay. It’s an opera that has had a long and winding history, having been censored, bowdlerized, lost, and eventually reassembled for its first complete performances in 1993, featuring…Plácido Domingo. Giancarlo Del Monaco’s elegantly lugubrious production is back, and this time the role of the cuckolded reverend went to José Cura, one of several pretenders to the tenorissimo’s crown, who covered himself with respectability, if not quite with glory. Sondra Radvanovsky sang the role of Stiffelio’s wife Lina with irresistible rawness, alchemizing vocal iffiness into fierce intensity.

Read more: Justin Davidson on the Metropolitan Opera's 'Stiffelio' and 'Simon Boccanegra' -- New York Magazine Classical Music Review file:///C:/Temp%20Hold%20File/Met%202010/Justin%20Davidson%20on%20the%20Metropolitan%20Opera's%20'Stiffelio'%20and%20'Simon%20Boccanegra'%20--%20New%20York%20Magazi_0.mht#ixzz0hWNI2g3A
 

If he didn’t quite save Boccanegra, neither did he sink Stiffelio with conducting that has progressed over the years from vague to basically okay. It’s an opera that has had a long and winding history, having been censored, bowdlerized, lost, and eventually reassembled for its first complete performances in 1993, featuring…Plácido Domingo. Giancarlo Del Monaco’s elegantly lugubrious production is back, and this time the role of the cuckolded reverend went to José Cura, one of several pretenders to the tenorissimo’s crown, who covered himself with respectability, if not quite with glory. Sondra Radvanovsky sang the role of Stiffelio’s wife Lina with irresistible rawness, alchemizing vocal iffiness into fierce intensity.

Read more: Justin Davidson on the Metropolitan Opera's 'Stiffelio' and 'Simon Boccanegra' -- New York Magazine Classical Music Review file:///C:/Temp%20Hold%20File/Met%202010/Justin%20Davidson%20on%20the%20Metropolitan%20Opera's%20'Stiffelio'%20and%20'Simon%20Boccanegra'%20--%20New%20York%20Magazi_0.mht#ixzz0hX10cUcT
 

 

'If [Plácido Domingo] didn’t quite save Boccanegra, neither did he sink Stiffelio with conducting that has progressed over the years from vague to basically okay. It’s an opera that has had a long and winding history, having been censored, bowdlerized, lost, and eventually reassembled for its first complete performances in 1993, featuring…Plácido Domingo. Giancarlo Del Monaco’s elegantly lugubrious production is back, and this time the role of the cuckolded reverend went to José Cura, one of several pretenders to the tenorissimo’s crown, who covered himself with respectability, if not quite with glory. Sondra Radvanovsky sang the role of Stiffelio’s wife Lina with irresistible rawness, alchemizing vocal iffiness into fierce intensity.'  Justin Davidson, New York Magazine, 19 January 2010

 

'José Cura sings Stiffelio. He is a pupil of Domingo’s and, like him, a conductor, and like him, a tenor with a baritonal approach. This suits Stiffelio better than most Verdi tenor roles — the part sits low, the high lines come only at emotional climaxes, and Cura does emotional climaxes well. His meditative moments are pleasing, his more passionate ones edge into growling lack of clarity.' Opera Today, 18 January 2010

'The Saturday matinee I attended was sold out and the cheers from the packed house would have probably continued until the evening performance—had the houselights not come up.  Tenor José Cura as the deeply conflicted title character, soprano Julianna Di Giacomo, his wife Lina, and baritone Andrzej Dobber, her father Stankar, headed a first-rate cast—all of whom sounded glorious and all of whom acted persuasively.'  Stephanie Sutow, Bacharach Blog @ Proactive Leadership Mag, 10 Feb 2010