Today: Take your favorite opera and make your dream cast.
Ooh, easy-peasy! This is fun; my friend Lindsay and I do this sometimes and call it the opera game.
I'm going to go with Fidelio, because I have strong opinions on it and love it to death.
Cast List:
Leonore: Margarete Joswig
Florestan: Jonas Kaufmann
Rocco: Rene Pape
Pizarro: Bryn Terfel
Marzelline: Not entirely sure
Jacquino: Encore
Don Fernando: Peter Mattai
I'll freely admit that I would cast Margarete Joswig as Leonore because 1) I like her voice and think that she would make a fierce Leonore and 2) I'd dearly love to see her and Kaufmann being adorable onstage together. She may not be a soprano, but MJ has such an interesting, rich voice that I think she could handle the role.
I don't think I have to say why I'd cast Kaufmann as Florestan.
Bryn Terfel would make a suitably villainous Pizarro, I think. Pizarro's brand of evil can be very banal, but I think in Terfel's hands he would be very scary and brutal-which is what the character needs. Terfel could inject a little Scarpia into Pizarro, which would be nice and terrifying. We need to see just what kind of a monster Pizarro is, shattering a man's life so effectively, and I think that Bryn would do an admirable job.
I put Pape and Mattai in their respective roles purely because I've heard them both as Rocco and Fernando already, and think they do a good job. I need to listen to them both more; I don't know much about them.
What are your favorite operas, and who would your ideal cast be?
1 comment:
Oooh, fantasy casting! Fun times! I couldn't pick an ideal Leonore, I'm afraid (though I understand the temptation with Joswig! She is pleasingly fierce.) I've heard great things about Melanie Diener, and am looking forward to seeing what Stemme will make of the role as she settles into it.
If Fidelio were at the Met, I'd be tempted to have the super-lovely Matthew Plenk as Jacquino if he were interpreted as a fundamentally decent sort, and Russell Thomas if he weren't (funny how that works.) Anne-Carolyn Bird is a pleasing, intelligent-seeming soubrette who has done lady-in-waiting type things here.
Love your casting of all the men. Pape is brilliant; I will happily watch Bryn Terfel do basically anything, I agree with you about the potential for appropriate scariness, and it doesn't hurt that he's sort of a giant. Not only is Peter Mattei's voice gorgeous, but so is he... which never hurts for a deus ex machina. He looks awesome in coats of the period, as well. :) And then there's Kaufmann, whose Florestan I would sell a kidney to see. Sigh.
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