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re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald??

Posted by: lordofspeech 11:35 am EST 12/07/13
In reply to: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - Lisa 11:01 am EST 12/07/13

Yeh. There's a lot of vibrato there. And a lot of technique and a lot of intelligence. Maybe, Streep-Lu, there's too much mastery of craft for some, but, for me, when she essays a highly sophisticated piece (like the Sondheim song for the little girl in NIGHT MUSIC), she's mind-blowing. Maybe there's a need for someone to write roles FOR her--for her intelligence and wisdom. Enough with playing simple-minded heroines....? A Medea with music?


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' you are so cute.'

Posted by: jero 12:31 pm EST 12/07/13
In reply to: re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - lordofspeech 11:35 am EST 12/07/13

her understudy was on in her Medea role when I saw it. I've learned not to expect to see her, but I don't hate her.. and she really was awesome in Ragtime.


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re: ' you are so cute.'

Posted by: jsr 07:05 pm EST 12/07/13
In reply to: ' you are so cute.' - jero 12:31 pm EST 12/07/13

McDonald was one of at least two, if not three actors who were doing the role, so that no one would be singing a heavy aria like the Macbeth 8 times a week. If you assume she cancelled because you didn't see her, you're in error. Even if she was scheduled for your performance, she might have substituted the performance before for one of the others. Or maybe she was just sick. It happens.


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re: ' you are so cute.'

Posted by: LegitOnce 09:22 pm EST 12/07/13
In reply to: re: ' you are so cute.' - jsr 07:05 pm EST 12/07/13

I'm not doubting that there was an alternate in the part, but I doubt whether one was really necessary. All told, Sharon sings for about ten minutes, and she's not on stage more than about another ten minutes besides that.

The difficulty of singing Verdi's Lady Macbeth is that it is a long an extremely rangy role. Her first cavatina is, relatively speaking, one of the less challenging bits she is asked to sing. Further, a stage Lady Macbeth has to project over an orchestra acoustically, not over a piano with a body mike.

There's also the issue of tessitura here. What makes this aria challenging is that the usual casting for the role of Lady Macbeth is a mezzo or a low dramatic soprano, and the aria climbs to a B-flat and then there is a high C in the cadenza. That's very hard work for a big voice at the beginning of a long night, but it's less difficult for a lyric soprano, whose voice naturally lies higher. (One reason more lyric sopranos don't sing Lady Macbeth is that this music actually sounds a little too easy in a lighter voice, without the effortful ferocity Verdi seemed to be asking for.)

As to how well a basically lyric voice handles Verdi's Lady, you can find out next season at the Met, when Anna Netrebko is going to sing this opera in New York for the first time. (She premieres the role in Munich this summer.)


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re: ' you are so cute.'

Posted by: MikeR 07:22 pm EST 12/07/13
In reply to: re: ' you are so cute.' - jsr 07:05 pm EST 12/07/13

Two. Sherry Boone played Wednesday and Saturday matinees. If memory serves, Audra missed a couple of her scheduled performances due to a nasty flu that spread through the cast, but that's it.


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re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald??

Posted by: AlanScott 12:04 pm EST 12/07/13
In reply to: re: Am I the only one who doesn't like Audra McDonald?? - lordofspeech 11:35 am EST 12/07/13

"Enough with playing simple-minded heroines....? A Medea with music?"

I can't tell if you're joking or if you don't know about Marie Christine having been written for her and having been based on Medea.


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