#234 The Smell of Victory

It's pretty straightforward and literal: winning and nothing else. No second meanings, just transparent message: Triumph! Triumph!

Böhme debuted in this role in 1930. The recording is from 1959, yet he sings here very openly and civilly.

Composer: Carl Maria von Weber
Work: Der Freischütz, "Schweig, schweig, damit dich niemand warnt!"
Recording: Kurt Böhme, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eugen Jochum

#205 The Smell of Two Monologues

This is the first CD I bought after arriving to San Francisco. British opera kept me connected to Europe. Sorcerer, die, is about a total misunderstanding. It's not a dialogue, we have two monologues here, two persons not listening. Listen to the beginning: Sorcerer, die! – Caliban, why? How pregnant.

Smell the music itself. How it goes up, how quickly it is reversed. How the motifs are different for Caliban and for Prospero. How they merge into something taunting. How it gets basilisk touch.

Composer: Thomas Adès
Work: The Tempest, "Sorcerer, die"
Recording: Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Thomas Adès

#203 The Smell of Despair

Des Grieux is totally despair. The images of his past are hunting him: It's hard to forget about Manon. His determination is switching to submission, just to win the battle again.

What I like most at Alagna's singing, is how he's able to express his determination. The first fuyez! are not real, he's in two minds. But then, he returns to God. The decision has been made, nobody can convince him back: Fuyez! Loin de moi!

Composer: Jules Massenet
Work: Manon, "Je suis seul!... Ah, fuyez"
Recording: Roberto Alagna, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Richard Armstrong

#200 The Smell of Hiding

Everybody is hiding something here: Amneris, Aida, Radames, and even orchestra. It's a play in play, full of affectation, graduated. Will it hold together? The storm at the end brings perishable relief, not for long.

The singers here do not want to push too much, it's the orchestra sound that starts to incite. They just want to keep pace with it. Nothing really happens, yet the tragedy just arrived. Not wanted, just unavoidable.

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Work: Aida, "Vieni, o diletta, appressati"
Recording: Elena Obraztsova, Katia Ricciarelli, Plácido Domingo, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Claudio Abbado

#156 The Smell of Sunshine

This wedding march is so gentle, so fragile. It is full of hope and expectation but the feelings are mixed–death is near. Sun is rising but for how long?

Bělohlávek works magically with dynamics, and wonderfully balances the sound of orchestra and chorus.

Composer: Antonín Dvořák
Work: Rusalka, "Květiny bílé po cestě"
Recording: Mischa Schelomianski, Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek

#149 The Smell of Quiver

Very humble touch with a great upheaval–this is big and very moving. Humility and submission mixed with high expectations.

A famous, well-known aria but always fresh with young Price. Listen to her and you just want a better destiny for Madama Butterfly.

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Work: Madama Butterfly, "Un bel di vedremo"
Recording: Leontyne Price, Rome Opera Orchestra, Oliviero de Fabritiis

#144 The Smell of Comedy

Now that's a cunning vixen! That's a way how to get married! And all the animals are concurring: Wanna get married? No problem, here you are, let's celebrate!

The music is so funny and so joyful. It's capturing a happy part of vixen's life, ending the second act.

Composer: Leoš Janáček
Work: The Cunning Little Vixen, "Kdybyste věděli, co já viděla"
Recording: Helena Tattermuschová, Eva Zikmundová, Jaroslava Procházková, Jaroslava Dobrá, Prague National Chorus and Orchestra, Bohumil Gregor

#119 The Smell of Dominance

Figaro, pretending he's obliging and ready to please, shows his prevalence here. It's an accepted challenge: Oh, you would like to dance (read: sleep with my wife)? My pleasure! But be prepared, my dear, because I'm the cat and you're the mouse in this game.

D'Arcangelo is a great Figaro (and Leporello). He's combining satire and menace into an amusing mix. All for fun!

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Work: The Marriage of Figaro, "Se vuol ballare, signor Contino"
Recording: Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt

#114 The Smell of Everlasting Sleep

There's no hope in the music, no hope in the words. Painful, victimizing love. In this aria, Federico invokes  peaceful sleep but he wants to be punished, he wants to suffer. The only imaginable sleep would be death.

Alagna has a strong voice, sometimes too strong for me, so I've tried to find something soft in his 1995 recital. His voice is sad and beautiful, his passion is self-consuming. You don't need to know the whole opera to guess he'll kill himself soon.

Composer: Francesco Cilea
Work: L'Arlesiana, "Ela solita storia del pastore..."
Recording: Roberto Alagna, The London Philharmonic, Richard Armstrong

#96 The Smell of Knowing Better

Do you smell it? Leporello's predominance, his advantage? How safe he feels he is, how confident? And the music is totally clear: it's a game, it's a twiddling: randy cat and half-dead mouse.

The period instruments of EBS give the aria rough edges; it's wild, not so rounded. Donna Elvira should have known better.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Work: Don Giovanni, "Madamina, il catalogo è questo"
Recording: Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner

#95 The Smell of Sadness

Silent grief: all dead, all dead. Gone are flowers, gone is love. Decent lamentations.

Netrebko keeps the serene way. She's not exalted, yo can smell the resigned sadness in her voice. It's not but it should be raining outside.

Composer: Vincenzo Bellini
Work: La sonnambula, "Ah! Non credea mirarti"
Recording: Anna Netrebko, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Claudio Abbado

#91 The Smell of Pischinger

This might be a small opera (no overture!) but it's a real gem. Strong, solid harmonies, unorthodox use of counterpoint, demanding voice parts.

Here's a Greek drama in wagnerian settings. The Manager rules unfailingly in his grocery store but he's also a lyrical bloke (3'21''). Minor problems are always quickly resolved but the real tragedy comes at 6'35'': pischinger was stolen and bonuses are in danger.

Composer: Jaromír Vomáčka
Work: Samoobsluha
Recording: Milan Karpíšek, Settleři, Kvartet Inkognito, Jiří Štuchal

#70 The Smell of Mockery

Kožená is definitely not your typical Carmen. But listen closely to the energy, how she's hissing out, listen to the broken smile. She's superior and you have no chance.

Minkowski sets fast tempo and keeps bright sound. In the finale, the music goes into a vortex. Carmen flies high with her last whoop, while we route to drowning.

Composer: Georges Bizet
Work: Carmen, "Les tringles des sistres tintaient"
Recording: Magdalena Kožená, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Marc Minkowski

#65 The Smell of Supremacy

This is a proud, absolute claim: I have nothing to lose, death is here for everyone. The music supports the words, it's fatal and fatalistic. Even when Herman also cries, the music is aloof and predetermined.

Herman sings "today it's you, tomorrow it's me" but it's he who will kill himself in the next minute. There's a breakdown in the second verse, we feel how lonely Herman is, we feel cold (1'13''), and yet he stands up again, face up, as strong as never before.

Composer: Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Work: The Queen of Spades, "Chto nasha zhizn?"
Recording: Gegam Grigorian, Kirov Opera and Orchestra, Valery Gergiev

#56 The Smell of His Master's Voice

Smell the history. This recording was made in Vienna in June 1933, it's the first recording of the opera. Here's the conflict between Jeník and Mařenka. Each of them has his and her side of truth. They're not listening, it's not a dialogue but rather two monologues.

However, the music is telling us something: it's the same melody for Jeník and for Mařenka. They don't communicate but they belong together. At the end of the duet, they combine their voices, singing in tandem. They're separated but not for long.

Composer: Bedřich Smetana
Work: The Bartered Bride, "Tak tvrdošíjná, dívko, jsi"
Recording: Ada Nordenová, Vladimír Tomš, Chorus and Orchestra of the National Opera Company of Prague, Otakar Ostrčil

#55 The Smell of River

This river is a wide, slow river. It flows in a relaxing manner and if there's an excitement (1'31''), it's a controlled one. Drift along, it's an amazing journey.

Jansons is able to stretch the orchestra out and keep the motion pulsing. Slow, natural, it's not sentimental in strings, yet wonderfully emotional in brasswinds.

Composer: Richard Wagner
Work: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Prelude to Act I
Recording: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariss Jansons

#44 The Smell of Fragility

Sure, Papageno's aria sounds joyful. But it's so fragile, so subtle, one is afraid to breathe. The music is fleet-footed: hopsasa!

Gerald Finley is pretty convincing as Papageno. Here's a land of good, nothing wrong can happen here. And we just swallow the bait. It really was ein Netz.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Work: The Magic Flute, "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja"
Recording: Gerald Finley, The English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner

#39 The Smell of Dancing Lessons

Electric guitars, saxophones and drums in a suite from an opera. And I smell my first dancing lessons. Crisscross of legs, babel of movements.

However, it's not an ordinary lesson. This one has a touch of David Lynch (listen at 0'12''). Like if you're one of the dancing dwarfs. A one time experience you don't want to go through again.

Composer: Michael Tippett
Work: Suite from New Year, V. Donny's Skarade
Recording: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox

#3 The Smell of Betrayal

It's a weird situation: Vanessa is expecting her lover Anatol but she doesn't want him to see her face. She has waited for him for twenty years and now she's afraid she's old, not pretty anymore. So she's asking him to declare his love to her shadow (remember, after twenty years of abandonment!) or leave at instant.

Now here's the thing. Vanessa does not know she's not talking to her Anatol but to his son. She knows nothing about the tragedy to come. However, the music knows. It gives you a hint: Something's very wrong. The mirrors will be covered again.

Composer: Samuel Barber
Work: Vanessa, "Do not utter a word"
Recording: Kate Royal, Orchestra of English National Opera, Edward Gardner