We’re here, we’re mainstream, get used to it
So, who said this?
“… all opera hovers on the border of parody. No other performing art — except possibly dance — so exposes its practitioners to ridicule. Part of the thrill of opera is pitting sheer volume against human limitations, the constant awareness of the possibility of failure.”
Was it James McCourt? Ethan Mordden? Wayne Koestenbaum? Enzo Bordello?None of the above, actually. Would you believe it’s Anne Midgette, writing in the New York Times? Can it be that the queer opera aesthetic has gone utterly mainstream? Or is it simply that (as La Cieca has so long suspected) Ms. Midgette is a gay man trapped in a woman’s body?
Well, either way, AM has some intriguing points to make about Olive Middleton (recently the subject of a Donald Collup retrospective) and Vera Galupe-Borszkh (whose entire career is a retrospective of sorts). Midgette certainly makes La Cieca eager to delved into the delights of Collup’s Middleton CDs, produced with all the loving care so celebrated a camp diva deserves.
This is awful, but someone just found Trrill.com by Googling anne midgette bitch. These opera fags, I swear!
She’s obviously never seen a bullfight.
Listen to Olive Middleton sing the Sempre Libera – hysterical!
If you haven’t heard the CD compilation “The Muse Surmounted,” you must get it. It’s a collection of some of the most bizarre soprano vocalism ever.
Olive Middleton is represented by a version of the “Trovatore” Miserere that must be heard to be believed, and even then…. When she goes for an optional high note with 30 seconds to go, the audience actually cheers. And at the end of it, a huge ovation. I love her for it.
“It’s not the beauty of the voice; it’s the commitment to the music.”
I LOVE those album covers of Olive Middleton – what a hoot!! Truly one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen- but boy I get confused.
I take it Olive is or was a real woman? – but Mari Lyn is not? – although Mari’s voice (if it is) does sound “real” and not just falsetto. I’m confused- although not so confused that I don’t realise there’s more hanging between Mme Galupe Borsche’s legs than fresh air!
I’m just hope the art of “high campery” continues in all its forms for a long time- it does our art good and it is a reminder to us all not to take ourselves toooo seriously.