All we like sheep
“Pampered” Australian sheep who listen to opera have (once again!) produced the world’s finest wool.
Rumors from Salzburg suggest the parting of the ways with Renee Fleming was not so amicable as we are led to believe: the word La Cieca keeps hearing is “Scheissdosende.” (Well, actually, she just invented that word, but it sums up the feeling at the Mozarteum.)
Oh, and latest word from backstage is: Domingo “wants” to sing the broadcast of Cyrano, but nobody’s betting on it.
Listening to Bocelli all day is not my idea of pampering.
I suppose letting your flock listen to Dame Kiri sing Mozart all day might keep them calm (even with those Wagnerian wolves lurking nearby), and perhaps even a little Sutherland or Caballe singing Bellini, but would we REALLY want the little lambs to hear Varnay’s Elektra or Callas’s Medea at grazing or nap time?
I think not.
((My cats once heard June Anderson’s Norma on the radio and hid behind the hot water heater for two days. Only repeated promises of fresh salmon and no more June Anderson Norma got them to emerge from their safe haven.))
I now envision all the frenzied sheep rushing over the edge of some cliff into the turbulent Scottish sea just because someone played the wrong artist singing the wrong music at the wrong volume.
Well, I can’t speak for all sheep, but since my name is Marie Lamb, I think that if I were the four-legged variety of lamb, I might pass on the Bocelli, too! Perhaps some nice renditions of “Sheep May Safely Graze” or “He Shall Feed His Flock” might be good for wool production, or perhaps the Shepherd’s song from “Tosca” might work! Maybe Rossini’s “La Pastorella” would do if the sheep like coloratura sopranos! And we can’t forget the Canteloube
“Chants d’Auvergne,” several of which have to do with shepherds.
There are all those 18th-century bergerettes and pastourelles as well. Gosh, the sheep may have more to listen to than we thought!
The real truth in the sacking of the disgusting American scatter that is this Renee Fleming is most likely that the Mozarteum people heard her and decided they didn’t want to turn the celebrations into an orgy of bad singing. The Mozarteum is not a cheap bordello, after all.
Any comments, by the way, on Eaglen as Rosalinde in Seattle?!
Well, as expected, I heard from reputable sources that Eaglen’s Rosalinde was, let’s say, lacking vocally and dramatically.
Although, she did get to sing Isolde’s Liebestod during one of the performances as a tribute to Birgit Nilsson.
Now, I’m all for suspending my disbelieft when the singing is brilliant (see Caballe in chaps in Forza)… but the whole disguise principle on which the plot hinges is impossible with Eaglen as Rosalinde. “Oh, my wife is gone, but who is this unrecognizable enormous Hungarian?” There are many reasons that this role has been traditionally associated with glamour pusses like Schwarzkopf, Te Kanawa, Felicity Lott, etc. And since when does Eaglen have a D?! The thought of a Liebestod during Fledermaus does tickle though, and Birgit would have loved it.