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Dessay and Florez awaken love in "La Sonnambula" broadcast live; SFO's Jeremy Galyon debuts at Met
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Jeremy Galyon of SFO debuts at Met, live in La Sonnambula
Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez sang La Sonnambula as Jeremy Galyon debuted broadcast live from the Met to local theaters Saturday morning. If you have yet to experience a live broadcast of opera on the big screen, it’s a thrill. Note David Gockley of SFO has followed this model as the Met created a new art form. Century will show the performance again on Wednesday.
Riding the escalator from the Century Theater at Westfield Center (Nordstrom and Bloomingdales) after the performance, I overheard a happy family chatting about other memorable experiences growing up with world class opera. The matriarch Helga Justman said her father had come from Vienna and so did Mr. Bing, or "Rudolph", the director of the Met when the Met moved to it’s current building. Her father would use the common heritage to get tickets. Son Alex Justman, about 48 like me, said his grandfather had other scams like saying he had a bad heart to avoid waiting in line to get into Radio City. He also remembers his childhood teacher taking the class to the Met. In 1972 when he was eleven, he went to the Paris Opera House. The cheapest tickets were in the back of the box seats, where a child could lay down. Now things were coming full circle with Alex and his wife Sandy bringing their ten year old Claire to La Sonnambula. Then our escalator ride reached the bottom and the family went off to lunch, Sandy called their reservation was ready.
If like me you have spent most of your life in the Bay Area and have never seen the inside of the legendary Met, that alone worth the price of admission. $10.50 for three hours of excitement and charm with the chemistry of coloratura Dessay and Juan Diego the Peruvian who used to sing Elvis. The live shots of the audience getting seated showed the height of the place, going up and up and up to five tiers. SF seats about a thousand less with two tiers. What a moment in one’s young life to debut there as Jeremy Galyon did.
I as a super in Rigoletto a few years ago had been on the same stage as the impossibly tall and dark haired Jeremy. He’s still head and shoulders above anybody on stage. I remember him coming to the canteen (waiting room for performers, like a college dorm lounge). He posed handsomely for the photographer and seemed nice; I’m going to ask for the pictures from John Martin.
Jeremy was in the world premiere at SFO of Appomattox as Abraham Lincoln.
An acquaintance of mine lived in the same building next to the opera house as Jeremy back when Jeremy was an Adler Fellow at SFO. So I wanted to interview him for this column but my friend said she had not seen him in some time. She thought he wasn’t around any more. No indeed. As La Sonnambula unfolded live Saturday morning Jeremy was one of the first performers to make his entrance. He has an unmistakeable and distinct presence. He’s played the villain but here he’s a mild mannered gentleman, pursuing his beloved in spite of her unrequited love for another. He was a count in Rigoletto; I’ve seen him as a glassy eyed assassin in Un Ballo. He’s played Sparafucile the assassin in Rigoletto too.
My co-supernumerary Pam DeWeerd from Rigoletto emailed about seeing him debut at the Met too and she also sounded thrilled. She went to the Century theater in Mill Valley from her home in Stinson Beach. I asked her what she thought right after the performance and she emailed back:
I thought it was great! I loved the setting, because the story is so simple and this made it much more interesting. Of course the singers were wonderful! Did you know that Jeremy Gaylon was an Adler Fellow at SF Opera? He had his Met debut!! We were in 'Rigoletto' with him. He played the Count. He was also in 'The Magic Flute' which I was in. He played the High Priest in The Family Opera of it.
Moreover the petite French soprano Dessay has a ballet past and still dances to show her happiness as she’s in love. Her partner Juan Diego the Peruvian were also in La Fille Du Regiment together. He swang her around and around and off her feet as the two went behind the curtain after taking their bows and the live camera followed them. The sold out crowd of 400 issued a collective “ahhhhh” at San Francisco Centre’s Century theater. “That was so much better than I hoped” gushed the white haired lady next to me. Most of the audience sported white hair that morning.
The Met will broadcast the documentary The Audition on April 19 and broadcast live La Cenerentola (Cinderella) May 9.
Dessay Sonnambula NY 2006
La Sonnambula was first performed four years before composer Bellini died, not yet 34. Bellini shares the distinction of writing Bel Canto with Donizetti and Rossini. Host Deborah Voigt, a Wagnerian and self described as Dessay and JD's opposite, asked JD what is different about Bellini compared to the other Bel Canto composers, each of whom he has sung live in HD from the Met. JD says it's the phrases. It's all legato he says. Long phrases then you hit a high note. Voigt asked the pair what it's like to stand in the bed while choristers spin the bed. It's not in time to the music, they said. In rehearsal, it was faster.
Juan Diego Florez has left the buliding.
Thank you very much.
Synopsis of La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini
Galyon photo credit
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Contact the writer at SFOperaExaminer@Yahoo.com
For more info: Century Theaters
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