Otey tried to compensate by singing some passages down an octave, but too often he would try to hit a note, find that he could not, and back off it. While his lower and middle ranges sounded with rough-edged intensity, the top notes sometimes simply vanished. Louis Otey, a baritone with a long and distinguished career, was clearly in some kind of vocal distress as Athanaël. Miller’s voice gave out slightly at the top end, particularly in dramatic moments like the death scene, where Thaïs glimpses heaven, and the releases of high notes were often ragged. The voice had almost all of the qualities required by Massenet, carrying over the orchestra with beauty and power. Soprano Sarah Joy Miller made an alluring Thaïs, youthful and adorned in various blond wigs. Massenet conceived the title role for a truly extraordinary voice, American soprano Sibyl Sanderson. She goes with the monk to a convent, where she retreats to a cell, dying a few years later as a saint. He goes to the home of his wealthy friend Nicias, who is currently keeping Thaïs, and converts her.
He knew her before she fell into her immoral life, and now he intends to save her soul. Sadly this was a production not quite ready for prime time.Īthanaël, an ascetic monk living in the Egyptian desert, becomes obsessed with Thaïs, a courtesan in Alexandria. Maryland Lyric Opera mounted the first local staging of the opera in at least two decades, heard on Saturday afternoon.
The story, adapted from a novel by Anatole France, strikes most listeners today as absurd, and the vocal writing for both leads is daunting. Photo: Sam Trotman, Jr./MDLOĪ production of Massenet’s Thaïs presents considerable challenges, making it a rarity. Sarah Joy Miller in the title role and Joseph Michael Brent as Nicias in Massenet’s Thaïs at Maryland Lyric Opera.
0 kommentar(er)
