Comments on: Rachele Gilmore's 100 MPH Fastball

Rachele Gilmore's 100 MPH Fastball

danny the boy — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:30:55 -0800

Andy Ihnatko writes a charmingly enthusiastic post about listening to the same aria, from the same production, sung in two very different ways: by the star, and by the understudy: Rachele Gilmore's 100 MPH Fastball

The audience gasps at Rachele Gilmore (the understudy's) performance. The Met Archives shows her having performed twice, 12/23 and 12/26/09, the video being from her debut. It's a bit of inside ~~baseball~~ opera explained really well. I recommend watching the two videos sequentially for maximum effect.

By: danny the boy

danny the boy — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:39:23 -0800

After watching Kim's performance, Gilmore seems so... physically awkward in comparison (yes, she's supposed to be an automaton, but her stiffness is somehow non-robotic). You can see the little mistakes she makes, like jumping the gun on her little hop after being wound up for the first time. Totally nervous. But then she starts to SING. A good friend was at the second performance and remembers being amazed that she was the understudy.

By: exogenous

exogenous — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:47:52 -0800

That was truly lovely, but I'm about to head down to Florida to see some spring training games, and my quick glance and excited link-following left me disappointed at not seeing a woman literally pitch a 100 MPH fastball.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:50:08 -0800

holy shit

By: Foci for Analysis

Foci for Analysis — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:50:54 -0800

she doesn't necessarily need to protect her voice for the next two weeks of performances. This, no?

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:57:01 -0800

Awesome. Thanks for posting this.

By: slkinsey

slkinsey — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:57:04 -0800

I wouldn't necessarily say that "understudy" is quite the word for it ("cover" is the usual industry term, fwiw). The Met will usually try to replace an international A-level star singer with another international A-level star singer if given sufficient notice of illness or reasonable suspicion that the singer will withdraw (it's also not uncommon for one high-level singer who is appearing in later performances to serve as the cover for some earlier performances). That said, generally speaking all of the covers at the Met are excellent singers who are expected to go out and at least do an extremely good job on short notice. From all appearances Ms. Gilmore sings this particular repertoire at a very high level, and this clearly was known when she was engaged as the cover. It's also true that singers with the biological gifts for this particular repertoire (high coloratura) tend to be "ready" at a much younger age than singers whose physiology lends itself to other repertoire (say, late romantic and verismo opera). she doesn't necessarily need to protect her voice for the next two weeks of performances. This, no? Not really. On my casual listen, she didn't seem to be doing anything particularly taxing for her instrument.

By: Panjandrum

Panjandrum — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:57:06 -0800

the man playing Spalanzani (the inventor) eventually chose to mill about behind Gilmore, accepting the handshakes and congratulations of the partygoers, as though the 17-minute ovation were for his character's engineering virtuosity instead of for Gilmore's vocal virtuosity. I'm not even sure I could physically manage a 5 minute ovation. Gilmore has some powerful aural drugs.

By: Eyebrows McGee

Eyebrows McGee — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:57:31 -0800

I don't actually like opera, and I've never heard of the show or either of the singers, but the second lady's voice was so beautiful that it made me cry a little.

By: Sternmeyer

Sternmeyer — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:01:22 -0800

Unbefuckinglievable. I saw the production starring Kim and I enjoyed it, but now I feel cheated because I could have seen this.

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:08:33 -0800

the second lady's voice was so beautiful that it made me cry a little. My mom is an opera singer and voice teacher/coach and that particular aria was constantly being sung by my mom and others in our home when I was growing up. So I had a similar reaction, but for, I suppose, more complex reasons.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:11:01 -0800

I don't actually like opera, and I've never heard of the show or either of the singers, but the second lady's voice was so beautiful that it made me cry a little. posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:57 PM on March 9 [+] [!] Me too. I don't think I've Opera has ever, until now, felt visceral to me.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:16:26 -0800

Here's another video of her performing the same aria at a previous performance.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:34:04 -0800

Extremely talented people that dedicate their lives to the opera blow me away. Bravo.

By: Philosopher Dirtbike

Philosopher Dirtbike — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:43:59 -0800

From here, Gilmore singing some Orff (that I don't recognize). Get it while it's still up...

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:01:16 -0800

This recording was from 2009. This season, Rachele performed the same role at Teatro alla Scala. Not too bad for an IU grad.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:01:33 -0800

God, both of those performances blew me away.

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:12:18 -0800

Not too bad for an IU grad. Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music is one of the best music schools in the world, and its opera theatre and voice programs are consistently ranked number one above the schools that get more attention in the popular media.

By: seanmpuckett

seanmpuckett — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:17:08 -0800

Kim's was a was solid, smooth, polished and quintessentially polished performance -- a pro at the top of her game; everything one could hope for at the Met. Or any live event. Gilmore's performance was wobbly, flawed, passionate, raw, scary, breathtakingly beautiful; the epitome of what one really wants to see in a live event -- a human at the peak of their ability, pouring everything they have into their art and right on the crackling edge of liminality. I heard someone once describe proper jazz when played by proper jazz musicians as "dangerous; you won't be sure whether the next notes to come out will kill the player, or you." I had popcorn at my desk; I stopped eating it and my mouth hung open.

By: The Confessor

The Confessor — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:23:26 -0800

I've found the range of the Olympia role listed at Eb4 to Eb6. My music theory is very rusty, but my understanding is that this encompasses the first Eb above middle C to the first Eb above the top of the clef. If you're a pianist, that's three of those "extender" lines above the top of the treble-clefed staff. For (more contemporary) comparison, I believe the highest note demanded by the Christine part in The Phantom of the Opera (with the phantom urging her on at the end) is either that very note, or a half-step above. The Queen of the Night aria, considered one of the more demanding operatic soprano roles, tops out at F6... but demands that the performer exercise great power and control at the very top of that range. What Rachele Gilmore did was extend some of the vocal runs an additional perfect fourth, or five half-steps, beyond what was demanded, to Ab6. You'll occasionally hear some higher notes in popular music (Mariah can/could hit notes in the 7th octave), but in popular music one need only fill a microphone. Rachele Gilmour filled a theater with that voice.

By: The Confessor

The Confessor — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:24:46 -0800

(And people who know what they are talking about can feel free to dispute my "layman's analysis".)

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:09:08 -0800

Holy smokes. I'm not into opera at all, but that was really amazing.

By: Mcable

Mcable — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:19:52 -0800

I love opera, but I don't know crap about music. That was the most amazing thing I've seen in a long time, and thanks to everyone for explaining why.

By: chatongriffes

chatongriffes — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:25:58 -0800

Wow... I just listened to them both in a row and then listened to Rachele's performance again as soon as it had finished. Gorgeous.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:44:11 -0800

I was there for that. My niece was dancing in the wild party scenes. Quite a few people seemed to know in advance that the note was coming. The score had been hastily changed during rehearsal to accommodate her special abilities, and the performers had witnessed this, and word got out.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:53:48 -0800

BTW, that's my niece, Allison Clancy, sitting on the stage in the front on the right hand side, with the red hair (she dyed and cut it for the show, rather than wear a wig) and the stick-on bra thingies.

By: slkinsey

slkinsey — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:00:13 -0800

In case it's unclear: Ornamentation of the second verse in Olympia's aria is quite common to the point of being expected. There would have been no need to change the score or anything like that. As with any ornamentation, the singer is expected to feature the things he/she does best. I'm not trying to take anything away from Ms. Gimore, whose performance is really excellent. But soprani who sing this sort of thing and have access to extra-high high notes is not as uncommon as one might think (go to the end for the money notes).

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:03:50 -0800

There would have been no need to change the score or anything like that. I was told that some of the instrumental parts were passed forward and alterations were penciled in.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:09:21 -0800

I love how, in the video I linked above, the musicians react to her virtuosity... grins ear to ear.

By: slkinsey

slkinsey — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:29:36 -0800

I was told that some of the instrumental parts were passed forward and alterations were penciled in. I just listened straight through both performances performance with the score. Gilmore didn't do anything that would have required special markings or modifications of the parts compared to Kim's performance (in fact the two performances are remarkably similar in most aspects, as one would expect), and the orchestra played what they always play. Again, this isn't to take anything away from Ms. Gilmore. It's a fabulous performance, and the exposure was clearly was a major turning point in her career. The point I'm making is just that it's not exactly an unprecedented performance where she did all kinds of things no one ever has done before and was head and shoulders above all others in the role who came before her -- and secondarily that this fact may not be obvious to those who don't know much about opera, this type of soprano voice and this aria. What she did do, was come out and kick ass at a high level. And, from what I can tell, she continues to kick ass at this sort of thing.

By: rodii

rodii — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:57:15 -0800

From here, Gilmore singing some Orff (that I don't recognize). That's "In Trutina" from Carmina Burana--maybe the loveliest section of the whole piece. Here's the great Lucia Popp performing it. There's another coloratura showpiece a few seconds later: Dulcissime.

By: carter

carter — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:18:00 -0800

This was fantastic, thanks for posting! Right from her first notes, I thought that Gilmore's voice sounded much richer.

By: owlrigh

owlrigh — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:32:27 -0800

... oh my god. I cried a bit at Gilmore's performance. I thought that Kim's performance was pretty good, and was going, hey, opera that looks interesting! But was otherwise not inclined to watch opera. But then, Gilmore came up, and I put my headphones on, because there was something about it that /felt/ just, /more/. And wowza. That would have been so awesome to see live.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:30:22 -0800

I adored Ms. Gilmore's talent and virtuosity, but there was something about Ms. Kim's performance which truly floored me. Maybe just the clear understanding that ever single moment, not just in the singing but in the "acting" of it was fine-tuned to absolute perfection, without losing the enjoyment of the piece. I'm having a much tougher time choosing between the two.

By: Benny Andajetz

Benny Andajetz — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:35:43 -0800

That was incredible. She has such a nice tone, too. Some coloraturas sound really shrill to me; her voice has a "roundness" that I really like. Thanks for the link. Also, not that it has anything to do with anything - she's really cute, too.

By: Nimmie Amee

Nimmie Amee — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:40:58 -0800

This was wonderful and reminded me just how much I love the opera.

By: rmd1023

rmd1023 — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:41:58 -0800

I love that one of the commenters on the article put the last 30s of Gilmore's performance through a spectrum analyzer.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:33:14 -0800

Thanks for posting this here!

By: ecourbanist

ecourbanist — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:33:37 -0800

soprano vs. soprano. great post. now i want to find more sites with musical duels. for my vote: kim is technically better but gilmore's voice is more thrilling.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:50:57 -0800

Agreeing with the above. In my opinion, Kim had the technical chops and the part down pat. Gilmore had passion, which can never be underestimated. I remember being a stage manager at a reunion concert for local bands from the 50's. The first night was pretty good and the crowd ate it up. After the show, I stayed around until 3 or 4 in the morning to keep the venue available to the performers and jammed a little on conga. (I love drumming, just never learned how to play a drum kit.) It was kind of cool, apparently my conga playing was good enough for some of the bands to ask me to sit in on their sets the second night. Which I declined as my stage manager duties kept me busy enough. Anyway, that second night seemed really for the performers and the crowd was along for the ride. I still swear I could hear one of the singers ripping his vocal cords to bloody shreds, but he was in the song until the bitter end, and up to that point, he would give it everything he had. That's what Gilmore's performance reminded me off, FWIW.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:13:27 -0800

This is probably a non-sequiter, but having grown up in the theater and being involved in an opera production currently (fine, it's the Georgetown Gilbert & Sullivan Society's current production of The Mikado. It's still opera) I'm reminded of my absolutely favorite moments in a lifetime of theater. One is from our production of Urinetown. Our technically strongest performer at that time was always confined to supporting character roles, and was playing Penelope Pennywise in this one. She had a ball with it, as she always did, but in the climax of "Why Did I Listen To That Man," I was waiting in the wings at her side, and could only see her, and watched her drenching with sweat every night, having just run all around the stage for god knows how long, and throwing everything she had into an aria line buried within the harmony, one which went from legato to staccato at whim, and which made me want to cry every time I heard it. The other was in our production of David Ives' It's All in the Timing. For those who don't know it, it's a pretty humorous collection of short plays based in humor more suited to the late 70s, early 80s, but filled with enough clever wordplay and whatnot to be still entertaining today. One of the pieces is called "Seven Menus," which is seven short scenes in the same restaurant, with a shifting cast of characters coupled up as we go from scene to scene, playing off of the dynamics of the different individuals being coupled differently. Now, my friend Chris is barely an actor. At this time, he was essentially Gareth from Community. He was playing one of these guys - a kind of dorky guy with a love for puns which his friends suffer with minimal agitation, and who is with the love of his life, who encourages him. Later in the piece, he is with a different woman, for whom he has changed, and there is one throwaway line: "Well, if you've got a niche, scratch it!. I'm sorry." Chris filled this one stupid line with every ounce of self-doubt, self-loathing, romantic futility, and everything else he could, and still made it understated. The best actors in the world couldn't have done this better, because they didn't have a lifetime of unmitigated romantic loserdom behind them from which to draw that perfect read. It broke my heart every single night. (Chris recently got engaged to the love of his life, BTW. Hooray for happy endings!)

By: dancestoblue

dancestoblue — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:04:00 -0800

Eyebrows McGee: "I don't actually like opera, and I've never heard of the show or either of the singers, but the second lady's voice was so beautiful that it made me cry a little" seanmpuckett: " ... Gilmore's performance was wobbly, flawed, passionate, raw, scary, breathtakingly beautiful; the epitome of what one really wants to see in a live event -- a human at the peak of their ability, pouring everything they have into their art and right on the crackling edge of liminality." She blew me out of my shoes. And more, far more than "just" her voice -- her presence, from the second that video started until the second it ended, that performance was magic. Gilmore was magic. I would not have wanted to like it -- here's some gal wearing a wacky hat, yowling like a cat on a fence on an autumn night, is what I'd have said if I was with my brothers, for sure, or most anyone else, really. And watching Kim, while I absolutely recognized that she was doing something that no one I know could do, perhaps could ever do, it didn't catch me; I felt respectful in the same way maybe that I'm respectful of a guy who can throw a baseball 104mph with pinpoint accuracy or write tight, flawless code real fast, or make seventeen million bucks with some multi-level marketing business. A skill, very unusual, interesting, where's the cheese dip? But Gilmore. She could have been wearing forty-six of those wacky crowns, she could have had them duct-taped all over her, it wouldn't matter a bit -- what she was doing would have come through. Art, Capital A Art, right there in front of us, not live -- oh, too bad for me, for us -- but at least we get to see it, and hear it. Oh, we thank you, gods of technology, for the cameras that caught it, for this laptop which is in fact in my lap, for the HD download of the performance now nestled cozy on my hard drive... I just can't believe how great she is. Can you imagine what it's like to be her, to live her life, to know that people know that she can cast spells? She's not but 30 years old. From what (very, very little) I know she still has plenty of years left to her, that opera singers can often sing for decades. I hope that she can, I hope that she does. And then she's a beauty on top of everything else -- how can life be even remotely considered fair? Maybe she has big feet, maybe she has trouble buying shoes that fit comfortably, we could take comfort in that, not that I'd want her to hurt at all but maybe just a little bit, to remind her that we are all out here suffering the slings and arrows and stuff, and not being magic at all hardly, maybe the shoes could hurt her feet the tiniest bit until they've stretched out a touch. It'd be only fair. I can scarce imagine myself going to an opera -- all those mopes wearing tuxes, those old, powdered gals festooned in glittering jewels -- but I'd go if I had the chance to hear her sing, to experience her performance. Great post, OP, best of web. Made me marvel, and cry.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:12:27 -0800

...all those mopes wearing tuxes, those old, powdered gals festooned in glittering jewels The people on the left and right of me handing one set of opera glasses back and forth iacross me, leaning side to side around the tall guy in front of me, fiddling with the sub-titles menu on back of the seats, wishing I'd done more research on the complicated plot, squinting for clues in the program in the dark, trying to follow which one of the red-haired minxes was my niece -- it was really hard to "be here now." It's much easier to follow for me now than it was then, thanks for linking this. My niece hadn't seen this video, and she thanks you too.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:55:11 -0800

So Gilmore just finished a run at La Scala, the first reprise of this role since her debut, and surely people from across the globe came to see her. And oh what they saw, she was dressed in an enormous rubber "fat suit." Oh dear, I hope the director knew what he was doing, and that it worked. She performed alternating nights with Vassiliki Karayanni. Here you can see Karayanni performing The Doll's Song in 2004. I was entranced by Gilmore's performance, I must have listened to it 20 times. I even found myself unconsciously whistling the tune, only noticing what I was doing when I failed to hit the high notes, even transposed into the lower register I could whistle. So I had learn more, and compare Gilmore's performance to others like Karayanni and Kim. I think I understand what was so entrancing, as Sean remarked: Gilmore's performance was wobbly, flawed, passionate, raw, scary, breathtakingly beautiful; Wobbly and flawed? Perhaps by technical operatic standards that I don't know of? But then I compared her performance back to Kim's. Kim is controlled and precise, the clockwork doll. The moments when Gilmore shakes her body up and down, making the expression of the notes wobbly, makes Kim's look lifeless in comparison. The flaws are purposeful and make the doll transcend its clockwork mechanism. An institution like the Met has existed for well over a century, with thousands of performances. A young woman spent her life training and preparing to appear on that stage. They came together for just a few minutes, this is the moment they each existed for, and people are still talking about it years later. They may still be talking about it decades from now.

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 13:26:33 -0800

The recording of Gilmore is so much worse, it's hard to compare the two. But it was less precise, for sure, on those arpeggios. And I don't think that's because of her movements. Kim did some interesting and effective ones too. But Gilmore has a way with phrasing, and that superhuman coloratura which even a century-old wax recording couldn't conceal.