Campbell Vertesi

Earlier on, I posted about the bias towards recent recordings in Sirius Met Broadcasts.  This week, Sirius has redeemed itself somewhat, by playing many more recordings from the 'golden age' of the century.  I got to hear a wonderful Sutherland/Gedda/Flagello Sonnambula from the 60s - Gedda singing so well that at one point I yelled "Bravo!" and applauded him alone in my car, 40 years too late.  Truly exquisite.  There isn't a singer alive who can do what he did in that recording.

Unfortunately,  the repeat rate seems to be the same - about 50% of broadcasts are repeats from earlier in the week.  I'm starting to think that they take a set of 10 broadcasts, and then mix those up over the 21 time slots in the week.  Maybe they do it to make sure each opera gets a shot in each timeslot?  That way a listener who only tunes in at, say, 8am and 5pm could hear all 10 within the week.  The down side is that someone with an irregular schedule like mine has to suffer through the repeats.  And they have to suffer through the repeats, too.  Not only that, but they have to deal with the repetition!

Not that it's suffering to be forced to listen to Rise Stevens and Richard Tucker's Carmen over and over again... and even Alagna's Werther (which I've now heard twice, and am in for once more this weekend) is very well done,  and worth re-hearing.  But when I get to the same recording for the third time that week... but I start to tire of it, knowing what a huge catalogue they have to draw on. But it's not suffering to be forced to listen to Rise Stevens and Richard Tucker's Carmen over and over again. 

Maybe they could use a two or three week rotation instead?  That's assuming it's not a technical issue - IE they only get 10 recordings transcribed every week.  A three week rotation of 30 recordings would mean the same total number of repeats, but they could be spread out.  So I might be forced to listen to Rise Stevens and Richard Tucker's Carmen over and over again, but it would at least be over a three week spread, with some other stuff in between.

By the way, I'm going to have to get up extra early for Corelli's debut on my Sirius radio: it looks to be a stunning Don Carlo from 1964, with Corelli, Rysanek and Tozzi.  The good news is, if I miss it I'm sure to hear it again (and again) later in the week.  The bad news is, if I don't miss it I'm sure to hear it again (and again) later in the week.

Just digging this hole further... for discussion on why there might be a bias towards newer recordings, albeit with poorer singing, on Sirius digital radio, please comment on the original post.

I took the time to sit down and make some graphs for you all on the subject, using the extremely small sample size of four days.  I can get the schedule for next week too, but the results would be skewed: they're doing a special week of Levine's favorite broadcasts, so of course all of them would be relatively recent.

With the data available - 4 days, 19 operas (excluding live broadcasts), here is a graph of the broadcasts by decade (click for a larger version):

Total number of repeated broadcasts:10 (approximately 53%)

 Occurrences of singers by name isn't interesting in such a small sample, and with so many repeats.  It is worth noting however that there is no Hines, Siepi, Bjoerling, Del Monaco... 

From a very  limited data set, I have to be careful drawing any conclusions - but this does support my anecdotal evidence.  What is interesting is the 20 year gap in recordings, and that they seem to avoid the 90's and plug the 80's and the very recent recordings... and of course, the number of repeats.  More than half the recordings they play were aired in the previous three days.   That means they got 3 full days of airtime out of fewer than 10 recordings! 

Once this upcoming 'week of Levine' is over, I'll try again for a larger sample size.  Across 19 broadcast time slots, skipping the 40s and 50s isn't such a big deal.  If there's a trend across several weeks though, you can expect another crabby post.

Regular readers (those muscular, witty, discerning people) will know that I recently got a Sirius digita radio set for my car. For the non-tech-oriented: digital radio is a new way to send radio broadcasts, in crystal clear CD quality audio. It works very similarly to a regular radio, except for the quality difference, and that the spectrum is owned by private companies (rather than the FCC). This means that in order to get a channel, you pay a company, rather than a politician. There are several competing systems (XM, Digital Radio, Sirius... more?), but the reason I have Sirius is because of the Met.

Part of the Metropolitan's initiative to release all of their archival broadcast recordings was to purchase a radio station on Sirius, and broadcast met archives, all day long. In truth, it's about 5 full operas a day, with a lot of filler music (lieder, chansons, and other drivel) in between. I love it.

So every morning and night, during my hour commute to/from school, or to/from rehearsal, I get to listen to great singing. But I've noticed a bias in the recordings they play: it seems to be almost always recordings from the last 20-25 years. Maybe this is perception bias - I'm looking up their program schedules now. But it's interesting that I have yet to hear any recordings from the 40's or 50's. This morning I heard my first recording from the 60's... but there's been lots from the 80's and 90's.

The frustrating thing about this time bias is the caliber of the singing: the 80's and 90's were a period of serious decline in the quality of singer on the Met stage. So I've suffered through hours of mediocre warbling, with the occasional redeeming moment when John Vickers or Placido Domingo opens their mouth.

There is also a gaping hole in the repertory of singers I get to hear: hardly any of the real ear-popping greats. How is it that I've yet to hear Jerome Hines, Cesare Siepi, George London, Robert Merrill, Lawrence Tibbett, Richard Tucker, Jussi Bjoerling, Renata Tebaldi, Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas or Roberta Peters? How is it possible that this morning was the first Corelli I've heard? This is certainly not a random sampling of Met archives.

There also seems to be a repetition issue. I've heard the same 70's Tozzi/Domingo Faust three times now - a poor showing for Tozzi in this one, too... don't we have any other Fausts to hear? Oh how I would kill to hear a Hines Faust!

As an example: Let's get a sample line up: tomorrow, Friday January 11th, we get:

6:00 AM Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
2/27/1937-Papi; Pons, Jagel, Brownlee, Pinza (WONDERFUL. I heard it two days ago though. No other Lucias lying around?)

9:00 AM Verdi: La Forza del Destino
3/24/1984-Levine; Price, Giacomini, Nucci, Jones, Fissore, Giaiotti (ooh! Leontyne Price! I thought she had been erased from history)

12:00 PM Puccini: Tosca
4/16/1994-Badea; Guleghina, Pavarotti, Morris

3:00 PM Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
2/9/2002-Runnicles; Furlanetto, Uecker, Isokoski, Jepson, Mattei,Plishka (heard this last night)

6:00 PM Massenet: Thaïs
1/28/1978-Pritchard; Sills, Gibbs, Milnes, Morris (heard it last week, I think...)

9:00 PM Rossini: L'Assedio di Corinto
4/19/1975-Schippers; Sills, Verrett, Theyard, Díaz

Does anyone else notice the time bias here? And why are we repeating broadcasts? They are (generally) good recordings (that '37 Lammermoor is phenomenal. Pinza sounds like God himself), but come on! We have three quarters of a century to choose from! How many Nozzes are there in the Met library? Why repeat Furlinetto's?  Can we hear Siepi's, just once PLEEEEEEASE?

And kind of frighteningly: why wouldn't the Met put it's best foot forward on these broadcasts, by picking out the crown jewels of its' library?  What rationale could lead to the selection of anything but the best of the best recordings?

I have a few theories:

Saving the best for purchase - the Met is still (AFAIK) selling their archives as well. Maybe they're saving those eargasmic jewels for sale.

Audio quality - Bryn's theory is that they may be avoiding earlier recordings because the audio quality isn't as good... and the assumption is that a digital radio subscriber is interested in only the best audio quality.

Not everything is digitized yet - It also may just be because not all of the archives are digitized yet. They have literally thousands of recordings, and the press releases have all mentioned that this is an ongoing project. Maybe they're doing them in reverse chronological order. But then, where did that Lucia di Lammermoor come from?

Embarrassment - I hate that this is even a possibility in my mind. That they avoid the incredible works because they put the modern Live broadcasts into such a poor light. That if I had just heard Moffo/Bonisolli/Bechi sing Traviata, it would cast last night's live Hong/Kim/Taylor Traviata (I think that was the cast) into sharp relief. Not that last night's broadcast was dreadful or anything, but let's be serious: beside Moffo or Callas, one couldn't help but notice the difference.

What's your opinion? Why does the sampling seem so biased against the Met's best era and best recordings?

UPDATE: I forgot one other possible explanation:

Marketing: Emphasis is placed on singers still working and singing with the Met... for a bit of artificial prestige for the singers, and therefore for the house.  People arrive at the Met recognizing singers' names, and having been told at least once before that singer X is a 'great singer' by virtue of their radio presence - whatever the truth of the matter. 

This would explain the steady diet of Domingo: I've never heard so much of that tenor as I have in the last few weeks.  He's on at least one broadcast a day, usually more.  Don't get me wrong: he's one of the Great Tenors of the Century, no doubt about it, but maybe they're plugging him over Corelli because one of them is still singing at the Met. 

It's also worth noting that I have yet to hear a peep out of Pavarotti, despite his career that spans the emphasized period on Sirius.  This would support the Marketing theory, since Pav doesn't sing much at the Met anymore.

 I welcome your thoughts on the matter.  Remember, if you're concerned about criticizing the Met or singers who are still working, you can always post anonymously.