Verdi Requiem at the NYPhil – everyone gets to indulge me
while I RAVE for a review, and this is long-winded, even for me!
First off, last September I looked through flyers of what
was going to be performed where and when this season and I had a lot of “ooh, I
want to hear that” reactions, and then got busy and didn’t have any expendable
cash anyway, so didn’t buy any tickets. I then totally forgot that this work was being
performed this month until yesterday when one of my attorneys at my dayjob got a computer
call at work from the Phil, letting him know that the scheduled tenor, Brandon
Jovanovich, was indisposed and that Russell Thomas would sing instead. (The
computer continued not to be late—there was going to be no intermission and
only one late seating half way through.)
I took the message and said to myself, "Oh, oh! I hope there are tickets
left!" I looked online and then stopped at the box office on my way home
yesterday to get a ticket for today’s show. (I thought when things started
being all computerized, it was supposed to =save= people money, not charge them
more!!!)
As a further preface, this is one of my favorite pieces and
something I’ve studied and have been champing at the bit to sing for several
years. All I’ve gotten to do so far is
the Libera me in an audition, although I =did= get a callback and compliments
on my floaty high b-flat, and I’m sounding even better now, so, Universe, I
make you a deal: I will learn the bits I don’t know in the next couple of
months and you get me a gig. There…now it’s out there. All this said? I’ve never heard it performed
live, and neither have I sung it as a chorister, so this was truly my first exposure
to it all in person.
As I’m still on the crutches for the broken toe, I chose the
farthest seat house left in the last row of the orchestra, sort of under where
the overhangs on the left side of the house and over the back of the house
meet. (Also the seat I could afford, LOL!) Every once in a while when things
were very loud, I got a buzzing sound in only my right ear, which I’m going to
attribute to the acoustics of that section – I’ve not experienced it anywhere
else I’ve sat in the house. (Strange…)
You could tell the audience was very excited—the fellow next to me was
telling his companion that it hasn’t been performed in NYC since 2006 (disclaimer:
I have not verified this, so don’t know the accuracy.) He also exclaimed, while reading the program
and seeing a picture of Verdi therein, “Verdi, what a force!! Look at that
picture…” (I had to bite my lip not to
laugh out loud.) Another person heading
to their seat said to someone with him, “Have you ever seen the place so full
so early?!”
As the work started, I was reminded that I am always amazed
that the string sections of this orchestra are able to produce such a gorgeous,
barely audible pianissimo. The New York
Choral Artists matched that quality admirably.
The soloists then presented themselves, so I’ll also take this moment to
say that this is my first time hearing any of them live in the house. I’ve
heard Angela Meade and Eric Owens on broadcasts, but not live. Angela was just plain glorious throughout.
Beautiful sound, fabulous high floaty stuff, very exciting to hear. Eric Owens I felt needed a few phrases to
warm up, but then sounded awesome. The
solo part of the Tuba mirum was absolutely gorgeous. When Russell Thomas started, it sounded a
very mouthy-produced sound (I much prefer a very ringy sound), and he had a
piano note which he pulled the sound way back on and I was a tad disappointed,
but when he got to his solo “Ingemisco,” it was suddenly like an entirely diff’t
person was singing and was gorgeous!! I don’t know if he was tired and needed
all that earlier stuff to warm up and find himself, or what, but from thereon
out, it was a pleasure to hear him. (He gets major kudos, though, for stepping
in on what I suspect is very short notice , especially if the notice for the
substitution only went out yesterday!!)
The Finnish mezzo, Lilli Paasikivi, was just Amazing. A-Ma-Zing. She has a rich, plummy sound, and I could
hear every note, even the low, cut right through and over the orchestra. And I honestly don’t think I’ve ever before
heard a mezzo do the “high floaty thing” that one usually thinks of coming out
of sopranos. At one point I thought, “how have I never heard her before?! I could
listen to this voice sing all day long!”
When she and Eric Owens started the Lacrymosa section, the two of them
made me get all teary, the first of 2 times that happened tonight.
Because it’s been used in movies and commercials,
everyone knows the Dies Irae, and I think everyone looks forward to it. The orchestra and chorus completely rocked it
and I laughed because my arms and legs were completely covered in
goosebumps. (This happened about 5-6
times tonight… I honestly don’t remember the last time I had that reaction from
a live performance. I could probably go through the score and point out all the
sections, but each time it made me go, “OOOOH!!!” inside, LOL!) At one point in
the first movement, I wished that I hadn’t put my program in my bag and my pen
in my pocket because I wanted to make notes to share with you, but I don’t
think I’d have taken the time to stop and write anything because it was too
thrilling. Oh! And there’s one section of the Dies irae which has antiphonal
trumpets, and the trumpets were in the 2nd Tier on either side (and
possibly above me, too, couldn’t see as I was under the overhang). That was a
very cool effect and their fanfare was very well done. At some point, all the strings were furiously
playing descending scales and I laughed delightedly to myself, thinking, wow,
they probably don’t get to play Verdi very often—that must be fun for
them! Also, later in the piece (I forget
which part) there was a Wonderful section where all the low brass got to play a
really complicated (and loud!) section, and that was fun to listen to as well.
The chorus sang well throughout, but really showed their
stuff in the allegro section of the Sanctus.
The only word I can think to describe it is “sparkling.” They had a great tone and took off at a
galloping tempo and it was absolutely wonderful, and the double chorus was just
fabulous with the orchestra just matching them in the sparkling energy. They got to the end of it, and I really
wanted to jump to my feet and yell, “Yay!!!” and applaud furiously. Of course I didn’t because the very next
thing is possibly the hardest bit – the soprano and mezzo doing the Agnus Dei a
capella, an octave apart. They =nailed=
it. It was absolutely superb. And then the craziest thing happened… in the
middle of it, 2 people walked out. And when the Agnus Dei ended, about another
dozen people left. I sat there completely bemused, thinking, “How can you
POSSIBLY leave NOW?!??!?!” I was shocked.
(I was also shocked at the number of people who arrived late, and as
they were taking their seats, I leaned over and told the guy next to me that I’d
be really mad if I’d been late and missed all that wonderful stuff—the late
arrivers missed all of the Dies Irae!!!! :shakes head:…(he laughed!))
The three lower voices did a great job with the Lux aeterna
(again, this mezzo was outstanding!!), but I am a complete soprano and by this
point I was thinking “Libera me!! Libera
me!! Get to the Libera me!!” OMG, Angela
Meade sang it SO WELL! (LOL--Have I gotten across yet that I really enjoyed the
performance?!) I had several moments
throughout the work where I just wanted to say to someone, anyone, “Verdi is SO
AWESOME!” or something like that… well, they got past the lovely soft part (she
nailed the floaty b-flat), and the altos started the fugue and the whole thing
just moved me to tears it was so gorgeous and exciting. The very last bit before the soft end, where
the chorus and orchestra have the tutta forza “Domine, Domine, Domine, etc” and
the soprano does the ascending scale to the high c is pretty much my favorite
line in the whole work, and I don’t think they could have done it more
perfectly for my taste-- everything in me wanted to grab the guy next to me,
shake him and yell, “OMG, this is the Most F***ing Awesome Thing EVER!!!” (and
you may imagine that in all-caps, and no—no worries, I did not act on that
instinct!!!! But boy, I wanted to,
LOL!!) When it ended, pretty much
everyone jumped to their feet and started screaming along with clapping. It was truly exciting. (And I wanted to jump up and down and yell,
AGAIN!!!! Yeah, LOL…)
So there. I’ve gushed
too long… if you are in NYC and you have any money for a ticket and if there
are any left, I highly, highly, highly recommend trying to go see it tomorrow
night (Saturday).
