Midweek midtacular
Where else would La Cieca be this Sunday but basking the the star radiance of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala? Now! With 100% more Met artists, including Elizabeth Futral, Samuel Ramey, José Cura, René Pape, James Morris, Marcello Giordani, Patricia Racette, Joseph Calleja, Angela Marambio, Sandra Radvanovsky and Aprile Millo. The galalicious fun begins at 6:00 PM at Avery Fisher Hall.
At least one former winner of the Tucker award won't be appearing, darn it, because she's just finished a gala benefit of her own at La Scala. It's Renaaay, of course, and the new (to La Cieca) blog Opera Chic describes the scene:
And did La Cieca mention that they're bringing back Big Gay Date Night at the Met? For just $95 you get an orchestra seat, pre-performance hors d’oeuvres, intermission champagne and dessert, and, just possibly, some post-performance nooky. Boheme is on November 21, but La Cieca thinks that the best husband material will be found at the February 2 Jenufa. (For that matter, surely the combination of Karita Mattila and Anja Silja will attract an upscale lesbian crowd as well.)
Plus: don't forget the Smart Singer Tricks on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight, beginning at 11:35 pm (US Eastern and Pacific time) on CBS-TV.
At least one former winner of the Tucker award won't be appearing, darn it, because she's just finished a gala benefit of her own at La Scala. It's Renaaay, of course, and the new (to La Cieca) blog Opera Chic describes the scene:
Interestingly, La Fleming had arranged to be basked in the glow of a peachy, pinkish spotlight. Hartmut Höll instead was replete in the flat, sterile, blue/white light, which by default, is implemented for every other normal recital. I mean, homegirl looked good, but it was like Liz Taylor and her vaseline filters.La Cieca feels like she was there, I tell you, and wait until you read the breathless paragraphs detailing The Frock (by Gianfranco Ferré, of course.)
And did La Cieca mention that they're bringing back Big Gay Date Night at the Met? For just $95 you get an orchestra seat, pre-performance hors d’oeuvres, intermission champagne and dessert, and, just possibly, some post-performance nooky. Boheme is on November 21, but La Cieca thinks that the best husband material will be found at the February 2 Jenufa. (For that matter, surely the combination of Karita Mattila and Anja Silja will attract an upscale lesbian crowd as well.)
Plus: don't forget the Smart Singer Tricks on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight, beginning at 11:35 pm (US Eastern and Pacific time) on CBS-TV.
Labels: blind, fleming, gala, gay gay gay gay gay, giordani, met, millo, operachic
POSTED at
7:38 PM
19 Comments:
WOW! Lesbian and Gay night at the Met. We've come a long way!!!
Smart Singer Tricks?
Hey, thanks for the shout-out, La Cieca!
Oof ... all the text is now one giant hyperlink with no particular destination. Maybe some html needs to be fixed? Meta-tags?
Post-performance nooky?
Are you suggesting that there are gay souls who would attend the opera purely (or impurely) to lock eyes and then, without further ado, lips and even more furtive body parts someplace like that long corridor beyond the Family Circle Exit sign with a cigarette pack in the door so we can get back in afterwards? Or rush home without proper introductions and have at one another, the strains of Wagner or Puccini or Janacek not yet stilled in our ears?
Do you really think gay opera lovers are that shallow?
You, sir (or madam, or whatever you are behind that Venetian 17th-century domino and all the lace) are a cad. Fie, La Cieca, fie.
The hors d'oeuvres and champagne with Jenufa kind of intrigues me, actually. Too bad they run so little Wagner at the Met these days.
Well, with the half-hour intermissions the met takes, I am MORE than glad Wagner shows up so infrequently. I mean, at what would one return home, 3 AM?
I guess that wasn't a quickie you had in the corridor, eh, baritenor? It's the white powder that slows you down.
(Met performances of everything almost always end before midnight, my dear -- the Unions are a caution.)
Anja Silja as Kostelnicka? Karita Mattila as Jenufa? Who cares what gender or sexual preference you are? This pairing in this particular opera just sounds fucking awesome. Be there or be square.
Will members of the cast,chorus, ballet, backstage tours and management join in the festivities?
hans lick, I love the word "fie" I don't get to use it as much as I would like. When I first discovered it in my youth, I would say it to my mom (my real mom, that is) and she thought, at first, I was trying to say another "F" word and proceeded to slap me into oblivion. However, after that altercation, I went, for awhile, around the house saying "fie" to everyone and to everything until my brother and sister beat me up in order to get me to stop--so I played a recording of Callas's Medea very LOUD as revenge!
Wow, that IS vengeful! Mommy would be proud, CallasOrphan.
I really can't emphasize enough that it was LOUD--the neighbors complained--my real mom finally made me cut the volume. Now, baritenor, you get a clue why my family thought that I was kinda weird. In fact, my sister and brother, to this day, talk about Callas and Medea--not too nicely. I tried to damage them for life and I think that I did!
San Francisco used to have Looking for a Husband Night at War Memorial back in the 1970s and '80s. Not officially sanctioned, of course. I don't remember now if it was Tuesday night or Wednesday, but it was definitely mid-week. I was amazed at the sights and sounds near the upstairs bars.
This was the first time I saw ass-less chaps displaying bare butt cheeks...at the opera! During "Simon Boccanegra"!!! It was a most festive sight.
The cruising was absolutely ferocious. Down in the big basement bar area, the guys tended to wear Richard Gere "American Gigolo" outfits and seem so much less approachable.
Alas, I did NOT find my husband.
rysanekfreak those guys did not know a "good thing" at all!!
rysanekfreak, perhaps you did not find your husband there because he and two or three other American gigolos were in the grand tier mensroom -- that was always lively, especially during Act II of Parsifal -- so I hear -- I was in the auditorium on such occasions, eyes and ears glued to the stage. Darlings, when the baton goes up, prurient thought is forgotten -- until the intermission.
Back in the '80s, the Met had a "German series" that I subscribed to for a couple of years -- Wagner, Strauss, Fidelio -- that was De Facto if not De Jure "looking for somebody's husband" night. Full leathers at the opera -- so distracting -- especially when sweaty palms got stuck to one's knees and had to be pulled up without making disturbing noises. I miss that series -- especially for the repertory, actually.
Don Giovanni, late 90's, SFO. I miscalculated how much I drank before the first act and had to pee really bad about halfway through the act.
I was in standing, upstairs, so I raced to the mens room (quietly, of course). Just before the door, I saw a hottie on the rail and gave him the once over.
30 seconds later, said hottie was knocking on the stall door. He came in, we began and then burst out laughing at how absurd the whole situation was. We said our goodbyes and returned to our respective places on the rail.
To this day, I've not heard the Zerlina/Leporello duet in person.
Henry, what a lovely story--there ain't nothing like being given "the once over" by a hottie at the opera--puts everything in perspective!
Not to be outdone, David Gockley has implemented a Rainbow Series at SFO. The following is a direct quote from the glossy brochure breathlessly describing the upcoming Der Rosenkavalier:
What happens when a boy, disguised as a girl, falls in love? And what if she's really a woman in a boy's costume? This bittersweet tale of fading youth and budding love has long been a lesbian favorite.
As the dear departed Anna would say, "I am not making this up."
Hello - I found you via Technorati. I was in the Tucker chorus and would be curious to hear what you thought of the Tucker Gala. Were you worn out by one powerhouse number after another?
The only numbers that blew me away were Pape's Coronoation scene from Boris. Cura's Corsaro and Otello scenes and Giordani and Millo in Chenier. I liked Calleja in the Romeo aria (better than his Duke) but found the rest of it pretty routine. Furtral has no business doing Viennese operetta, and while Radonovsky sang the Ernani Involami correctly it certainly was short on passion or abandon. In fact the only singer who gave Verdi his due was Cura. He was exciting. Ramey still sounds respectable and gives a performance and Morris did his usual stchick but seemed bored. Racette was better as Desdemona than in the Boito but while I like her and she shows commitment, the overall mood of the singing was cautious from everyone except Cura, who was a throwback to the kind of confident singing that we use to expect from tenors in this rep. Millo and Radanovsky looked fabulous. even though Millo is definitely channelling Milanov when it comes to deportment and style as well as mannerisms. Mariambo should make a sturdy Mimi, a little Renoiresque with a big spinto voice. Pape's second number was a mistake in New York, slurred lyrics reminiscent of Sutherland. We should have more of Cura in New York, he is exciting. Would love to see his Otello.
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