It wasn’t until after the intermission that Alagna started reverting to a reoccurring issue that peppered Acts I-III: Sharping. Scattered through Act I, II, and III, he would at times rise-up to a sharp landing. By the second half, he was ####’ing all over tha ##ing place. Roberto Alagna? More like Al Sharpton. It was only during his duets with Netrebko that he was able to level-out and come back down to Gounod’s markings. The audience didn’t seem to mind, as his stage presence was charismatic and sprite, and he certainly won over his fans in Tiffany & Co. blue, well-tailored ensembles (tight pants & fitted jackets were favored). (a href=”http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/2007/09/roberto-alagna-.html”>RTWT)

Ah yes … the whole sharp issue. When I get tired I sharp all over the place, too, and have to work constantly at not doing so. So an instrument and voice (not that a voice isn’t an instrument, mind you) both struggle with this. With oboe it has to do with tensing up, getting a tighter embouchure, biting … all that stuff we do when we tire out. I’m assuming the same thing happens with voice.

Poor us. We struggle so, yes?

Now some instruments can just pull out and fix this. Clarinets can lengthen their instrument by doing this at a joint. Oboes can’t.

We suffer. We suffer for our art. We suffer in silence. No?

Well, I should probably do some reeding. And no, that’s not a misspelling of “reading”. Duh. Ciao for now.