CB: So, you've been to see Un Giorno di Regno. I love that opera. Have always wanted to see it in the 'house'. I'd forgotten it was being done this year.

BC: Not only had I never heard this opera live, I've never heard it before - period. The Penguin Opera on CD guide gave the Philips one with Carreras a fab review, saying that when sung and played well the opera was a delight. Do you use that guide? It's really good

CB: I do use the Penguin Guide - they like Carreras - or I did, until I bought a fortune's worth of recordings. Now I try to blindfold myself if passing by a music store.

BC: It was a Royal Opera House concert performance. With the ROH decidedly in the financial soup for the last three years, their annual Verdi Festival has become increasingly less festive. Nothing in London last year and only Giorno and the Requiem this year. Plus, they couldn't really get too many big names since they could never plan ahead. Never mind. A chance to discover a new star, although in this case, the tenor turned out to be more like an asteroid.

Here's the 'Report Card'....
• Belfiore - Vladimir Chernov (very good, beautiful hair too)
• Il Tesoriere - Donald Maxwell (wonderful, one of the stars of the night)
• Baron Kelbar - John Del Carlo (ditto)
• Eduardo - Carlo Scibelli ("excruciating" is perhaps an overstatement, but...)
• Marchesa - Iano Tamar ( good but crap diction)
• Giulietta - Susanne Mentzer (good but was stuck with the tenor as her lover, and therefore a tad 'uninvolved')
• Conductor - Maurizio Benini (excellent)
• Orchestra & Chorus - Royal Opera House (excellent.)

CB: I love Chernov's voice. I think he's perfect for Belfiore, and he really does have great hair. I like his looks. He moves like a dancer. Have you noticed that? I watched him in the Met's disaster Forza del Destino. On TV. I wasn't at the Met. It beat the hell out of watching the tenor, who was seriously overweight and overparted. Chernov looks like he trained in ballet.

BC: I wonder if he did. When I saw him in Simon Boccanegra he was swathed in enormous heavy velvet robes. How pleasant it must have been for him since it was July and the ROH didn't have air-conditioning. There, his panther-ness was somewhat restricted. But, you should have seen him in a white-tie and tails sitting on a chair. His body language was still within the bounds of good taste, of course, but quite...er...'inviting'.

I saw it at the second performance. Rupert Christiansen was the critic who reviewed the first one and said the tenor was "excruciating". Christiansen's quite 'sound', but this time I was hoping he was wrong. Well, unfortunately, he wasn't far off. Canny, it was cringing! The tenor just sang badly, and, perhaps mercifully, got completely drowned out in duets etc. I felt sorry for him. He must have known he wasn't doing too well from the beginning, and he just had to keep plowing on.

You know that big tenor bit where's he's singing about "E uno spasimo l' amor" ? Well, everyone in my row, including me, just buried ourselves in our librettos to see just how much more he had to go, and to distract ourselves from the debacle. And after the scene, he got booed by some people. Visitors from La Scala? This is almost unheard of in Britain. People do boo goofy directors here, but not hapless singers. We're very polite and kind. Well, I thought that was cruel. After that... I really felt sorry for him because there he was up there on the platform, quite young, with no costume to hide behind and he still had lots of the opera to go.

CB: Giorno is the only opera where Verdi himself put in a C for the tenor, as opposed to the transposed C in Il Trovatore. Your poor soul who couldn't sing, probably agonized over that C through the whole first half.

BC: Funny you should mention that. Actually, he hit the high C. Thank God! It was one of the few things he got right. And interestingly, for that tiny little bit leading up to it, his voice actually became almost beautiful. Go figure.

CB: I'm like you, I really do feel terribly sorry for the tenor. You know he didn't go out there to sing badly. I'm convinced singers really try to do their very best every time out. Some just don't have it. I've been thinking a lot about what people often say about singers - "that they will develop and improve". I don't believe it for a minute. They might improve on their reading and interpretation of roles, but not in sound of voice, coloring, phrasing, diction, dynamics, ...I've inherited a lot of Carreras' very early NYCO and San Francisco operas. He had everything from the very beginning. I don't think a lot of that can be taught. Certainly, technique can be and should be taught, but the rest of it, is inborn - I'm convinced. The "develop" crap is just that. The voices do become naturally darker, but that's about it.

BC: I agree about singers 'having it' at the beginning or not at all. I'm a great believer in the innateness of that kind of musical talent. Have you ever read Sloboda's stuff on the psychology of music? He doesn't agree with us. However, his arguments are crap. Anyhow, back to Un Giorno di Regno. I thought it was a lovely opera, delightful in fact. Now I really want to see it in 'full dress'. And, I guess I'll bite the bullet and buy the Philips set. I could tell Edoardo had some lovely things to sing.

CB: Belle, you must buy the recording! If you could enjoy the opera with an "excruciating" tenor, then you'd love the recording. Cossotto is at the top of her game, but fortunately not over-the-top as she often could be. I have to confess a real affinity for her voice, especially in the soprano range. Norman is excellent, if a little heavy voiced with lousy Italian - she was very young then too. Amazingly, her many duets with Carreras are just fantastic. I was afraid she'd blow him out of the water. Both soprano roles could be - and are on this recording - sung by mezzos. But, you can distinguish between these two, easily. Wixell is his usual reliable self. I particularly like him buffo roles. I really quite like him in everything I've heard, even if it's not popular. Carreras is at his meltingly, long lined phrasing, beautiful legato best. Yet he is able to get into the buffa parts just as well. His voice is so beautiful in this that it makes me cry at what has been lost.

I play this opera all the time. In fact, I think I know it by heart. Want me to sing all the roles for you? No! You do not! There is just something about it that I love. I never tire of it. It's so much fun, such lovely music, gorgeous ensemble singing and it doesn't get on my nerves. I can have it on in the background without wanting to turn it down when some squally soprano takes forever to die. It reminds me a lot of Rossini in many parts, but with Verdi's touch throughout. I know this is considered one of his 'lesser' operas. Most scholars think it's pretty lousy. But I know what I like and this is it.

A month later...

CB: I just heard your Giorno on the radio. You're right, Belle. That tenor is bad, with a capital B. He really can't sing, plus his voice is ugly, even if he could sing. I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the cast. Loved the opera. Conductor was really with it - great performance almost ruined by the tenor. I thought Mentzer was a little heavy-voiced - how does one say what I mean? - for the role, just as I think Norman was. But that's purely taste.

BC: 'heavy-voiced'....Hmmm. Maybe...'more belting than melting'? By the way, when I was in the States, I bought the Philips Giorno. What a difference a tenor makes! As you always say, Canny, "I know what I like and this is it".