Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#0Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 1:51pm
Peter Gelb, the new General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, is launching a program to develop new opera with commissions to Broadway and Off Broadway composers such as Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins, The Light in the Piazza). The idea is to let opera evolve, keep it up-to-date with contemporary theatre.
The Met Opera House is bigger than any of the Broadway Houses, and its acoustics allow singers to sing in natural voice without the distortions of mic'd sound. Of course the singer has to have a "big" trained voice to fill that space.
What Broadway or Off Broadway singers, including triple threats, male or female, would be exciting to see perform in "new" opera at the Met?
Updated On: 5/11/06 at 01:51 PM
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#1re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 2:26pm
I think these performers would shine at the Met:
Victoria Clark
Patti Cohenour
Kelli O'Hara
Rebecca Luker
Sarah Uriarte Berry
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#2re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 2:29pm
Chenowith
Stokes Mitchell
McDonald
Mazzie
Brightman
#3re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 2:29pmBrian Stokes Mitchell
You are young, life has been kind to you. You will learn.
#4re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 2:29pmthe ragtime trio: Audra, Marin, and Stokes.
"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."
jsg03jd
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/04
#5re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 2:40pmAh, but the Met does amplify its singers, as does the NYC Opera. Kathleen Battle, for instance, used microphones before she was unceremoniously booted out of the Met.
millie_dillmount
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/22/04
#6re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 2:43pm
Kristen Chenoweth
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Audra McDonald
Kelli O'Hara
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
circusliz
Broadway Star Joined: 11/19/05
#7re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 2:58pm
Shuler Hensley
Brent Barrett....maybe
On the road of life, do not pause for suicidal chipmunks who freeze in your headlights, seeking death by your tires...
The W.A.N.D
Understudy Joined: 3/16/06
#9re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 3:04pm
Jsg-
Having seen Ms. Battle perform quite often at the MET in the mid-80s, I can vouch that she was indeed NOT miked. The voice, while small, had a presence and "spin" that made it very easily audible in the house without help of amplification. The MET, to my knowledge, has only used microphones in one instance and that was for the premiere of Phillip Glass' "The Voyage".
NYCO admittedly has used "sound enhancement" due to the State Theatre's lousy accoustics (having been intended as a house primarily for ballet).
Gelb's announcement is actually part of a partnership with Lincoln Center Theatre. The press release states that "the commissions will be workshopped over the next two to five years, at which point the two companies will determine whether the works are best suited to be expanded musically for the grand stage of The Met or the more intimate setting of the Vivian Beaumont Theater."
I think the chances of any of these commissions actually playing the MET are very slim...
"When you're a gay man, you have to feel good about yourself when a urologist says, "Yeah. I pick you". - Happy Endings
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#10re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 3:22pm
Thank you, Barihunk, for I have never seen singers mic'd at the Met.
And that includes Maria Guleghina singing the "voice-killer" dramatic soprano role of Abigaille in Nabucco, where her voice alone sings against a cast of maybe a hundred people, loud, clear and powerfully moving--stunning and brilliant.
I do think there is room at the Opera House for something new. It would seem appropriate for Guettel, who sang onstage for the Met Opera as a boy soprano, to come full turn back with an opera for his old haunt, maybe a new form of opera like Piazza was a new form of musical theatre.
And to bring some charismatic theatre singers...
Updated On: 5/11/06 at 03:22 PM
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#11re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 3:30pmBarbara Cook (of course)
#12re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 3:31pm
Curtain, she already did. 
I don't think it's much of a good idea either way. With VERY few exceptions, neither field is necessarily training or nurturing talent with real crossover appeal.
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#13re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 3:32pm
I Know
that's why i said (of course)
#14re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 3:33pm
It's funny that you mention Guettel, Piazza and the MET. Guettel actually started work on Piazza as part of a commission as composer in residence at Chicago Lyric Opera. Guettel had difficulties meeting the deadlines of the program so he left and developed it further on his own. I think the somewhat operatic nature of Piazza is due to its early getstation in Chicago.
Of the composers listed in the release, the ones I see getting closest to the MET are Jack Heggie who has already had a success with "Dead Man Walking" and John Michael LaChiusa because the man is a work-a-holic and so ambitious in expanding his musical vocabulary. I wasn't a fan of Rachel Portman's "The Little Prince", but as a huge fan of "Caroline, or Change" I'm dying for another collaboration between Tesori and Kushner. I really hope than one happens - in any form.
"When you're a gay man, you have to feel good about yourself when a urologist says, "Yeah. I pick you". - Happy Endings
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#15re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 3:43pm
I think these fellows, formerly of Woman in White, would be fun to see sing at the Met:
Ron Bohmer (Sir Percival Glide)
Michael Ball (Count Fosco)
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#16re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 4:05pm
And an amazing voice with the title role in The Drowsy Chaperone,
Beth Leavel
bwaylvsong
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/28/05
#17re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 6:16pm
Stokes
Mazzie
McDonald
Carmello
Rachel York
Ball
anyone who has ever sung in the cast of Phantom
Shuler Hensley
Cheno
Vickie Clark
Rebecca Luker
Kelli O'Hara
Burke Moses
Terrence Mann
I'm sure there are more...
#18re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 6:22pm
Hugh Panaro
Patti LuPone
Carolee Carmello
Victoria Clark
Kelli O'Hara
#19re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 6:45pm
I gotta be honest with ya...
I don't think ONE of our current Broadway folk could make it at the Met.
Not. One.
Their voices aren't big enough. Not by a long shot. Take away their mics and you'd be really surprised at how mousey they sound next to a big, fat-voiced opera singer.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#20re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 7:04pmNot even Conservatory Trained in Opera Chenoweth and McDonald? Or Stokes who's just plain kick ass?
"This ocean runs more dark and deep than you may think you know...I'll be the fear of the fire at sea."
-Marie Christine
#21re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 7:06pmJennifer Hope Wills
"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one".
-Felicia Finley-
#22re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 7:24pm
women:
Audra
Donna Murphy
Marin Mazzie
Kristin Chenoweth
Debbie Gravitte, if she gets a great director
Laura Benanti
Men:
Marc Kudisch
Brent Barret
Brian Stokes
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#23re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 7:24pm
Michael Ball has actually sung at the NYC Opera in last year's revival of Gilbert&Sullivan's PATIENCE...and did exceedingly well.
He has also sung two light opera songs on UK TV, duets with soprano Lesley Garrett for two numbers from Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE ( Pappageno, Bei Mannern).
He has sung with opera stars Montserrat Caballe, Kiri Te Kanawa, Lesley Garrett, recorded West Side Story with opera singers ( headed by Barbara Bonney) as well as sang with Bryn Terfel.
#24re: Which Broadway Singers Could Sing at the Met?
Posted: 5/11/06 at 7:26pmI love Donna Murphy but from what I heard she isn't huge volume girl. Then again, don't know if that's true or not.
"This ocean runs more dark and deep than you may think you know...I'll be the fear of the fire at sea."
-Marie Christine
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