Opera fandom is often built around a preoccupation — zealous, territorial, absolute — with distinctive voices.
Maria Callas, Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Luciano Pavarotti — they’re all immediately identifiable by timbre alone.
Teatro Nuovo, the brainchild of the bel canto specialist Will Crutchfield, inverts that value system.
It asks: What would happen if all of the singers onstage shared a particular school of singing and even a certain vocal quality?
The singers in the two casts largely shared a vocal profile and style — a trim yet colorful sound with a quick, understated vibrato and an emphasis on legato, portamento and unaspirated coloratura.
Persons:
Maria Callas, Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Luciano Pavarotti — they’re, Will Crutchfield, Donizetti’s, ”, Federico, Luigi Ricci’s “
Organizations:
Teatro Nuovo, Theater, Lincoln Center