Gran nuova! Gran nuova!
Juan Diego Flórez will make his role debut as the Duke of Mantua in a new production of Rigoletto on March 31.The event will mark the inauguration of "The International Opera Festival Alejandro Granda" in Peru. Puppylicious Flórez is pictured here with Latin Grammy winner Gian Marco, with whom he shared the stage for a benefit concert for UNICEF last year. (Admittedly, that concert has nothing to do with the current news, but La Cieca wanted an excuse to run this photo.)
In breaking news also relating to puppyliciousness, the renaissance of Rolando Villazón's career will extend into a new medium when the tenor begins principal photography for the role of Rodolfo in a film version of La bohème opposite the Mimi of (who else?) Anna Netrebko. According to La Cieca's source, the pair pre-recorded their music for the movie last year and will begin their on-set lip-synching duties within the month.
Labels: florez, la cieca ci guarda la cieca ci vede, netrebko, puppylicious, tete de peau, villazon
POSTED at
10:06 PM
28 Comments:
Alejandro Granda? I had no idea Alexander the Great ever got anywhere near Peru!
Alejandro Granda, tenor, 1898-1962, born in Callao (Perú), his career took place between 1924 and the late 50s.
Even more astonishing is that the Marcello of the recording - Marius Kwiecien, I think - will apparently be lip-synched by a young Brit....
I hate hate hate opera films. There's not a single one that I wouldn't have rather had a live production video of. And to think we could have had a real freni-vickers otello, bumbry-vickers carmen, or a nucci-verrett macbeth etc. etc.!
I would say the only opera film I have ever even remotely enjoyed is the salome with stratas.
whereas I agree with you, scifisci, about the Stratas Salome (superb; ideal), I have enjoyed other opera films, notably those of Soviet vintage. The 60s Onegin and Boris and Tsar's Bride and Queen of Spades are cherce, acted with great intensity, and the only time you really notice it's lip-sync is when the tsarevich, a young man with some early beard growth, opens his mouth and a mezzo voice pops out of it.
The internet staple IMDB has the full dossier on the La Boheme movie here.
omg the director had a 2001 cameo appearance in "Elvira's Haunted Hills". Good lord.
And how many badly lipsynced movies of Boheme does one really need. Barbara Hendricks made one and frankly, she was better singer than Netrebko. I've seen two good opera movies in my day. The Joseph Losey Don Giovanni (Te Kanawa , Edda Moser, and Teresa Berganza) and the Ingmar Bergman Magic Flute (with a very young Hakan haggggggggarrrrrdddddd, or something like that.)
And Gian Marco? Eminently do-able.
This will be the third movie version. besides the 1988 hendricks/Carreras movie, there was a 1965 Freni movie. If you count the myriad silent versions going all the way back to 1912, and the version with Louis Jourdan as Rodolpho, there have been 17 previous versions on film of the story. It has been broadcast on TV 11 times.
The Hendricks Boheme film wasn't all that bad. One instance of lipsynching, but only because the filming occurred during Carreras' illness.
I would also agree that the Bergman Flute is a masterpiece. The sequence during the overture, of the various faces, has influenced so much filmmaking that has followed.
Unfortunately, Hagegard aside, the singing is pretty second rate- as is Edda Moser's screechy Anna in the Losey Giovanni.
Dang! I thought you were going to tell us the guy on the left was the latest hunkentenor!
Um, IMDB lists Villazon in the role of Colline...
"I hate hate hate opera films."
Oh, come now, surely you can't be referring to the "Pan to Pav" version of Rigoletto?
After seeing Sweeney Todd, I think that opera can make a translation to film, but you need the right components. That may or may not also mean a sacrifice of voice, as we saw with Depp and Bonham-Carter in the lead roles. Slightly different than Rodolfo/Mimi (Colline/Mimi?), however. It'll be interesting to see if the sonic-boom star-power of these two brings the film together (anyone else see the music video they did of O Soave Fanciulla?).
It's a tricky thing, getting the audience to accept that the entire movie will be spoken through rather than sung through. Broadway musicals are starting to get the formula right (thanks to the success of Chicago and Hairspray), the question is how long it can last. Are people going to get tired of the spontaneous song and dance numbers? If not, let's get rolling with some Offenbach adaptations.
If it works with RolAnna, simulcasts may see some competition.
http://cultureonthecheap.wordpress.com
on a different note altogether, has anyone seen the 3 Alagnas new take of Gluck's Orphee in Bologna? I hear (operachic) it's been a disaster...
You might want to check this link to get an idea... the opera has been entirely redone...
http://www.tcbo.it/dettaglio_opera.asp?ID_EVENTO=341
Who cares about Opera to Movies--or anything else...I SAY.."MORE GIAN MARCO...in EVERYTHING..."woof! (LOL!!)
Slap a blonde wig on him and he bears more than a passing resemblance to our own doyenne...
Hmm....
http://cultureonthecheap.wordpress.com
Mimi and Colline? Well, I guess all those comments about Rolando's voice sounding baritonal have some basis. Let's see if this gets distributed in this country. Branaugh's Zauberflote certainly hasn't.
I love Bergman's Zauberflote, especially the Queen of the Night grandly smoking in front of a No Smoking sign and Sarastro studying a Parsifal score.
Branagh's Zauberflote has been dragged about for the past few years, and is just now getting released in the UK. I remember seeing publicity stills for it in a copy of Le Monde from spring of 2006, and it was just written up in Classic FM Magazine to coincide with the December opening across the pond. From what I've heard, not so magic.
But hey, Ken learned how to use CG and now he's sharing it with the world!
http://cultureonthecheap.wordpress.com
Although I don't entirely dislike opera movies (I know it's hypocrisy to admit, but I actually loved the Zeffirelli Otello--even without the Willow Song...), I am so sick of yet another version of LA BOHEME anywhere--the movies, the opera house, in the theatre (a la RENT). Just stop it already--there are a zillion operas out there--why do producers keep shoving LA BOHEME down our throats??!
netrebko should do a salome movie. THAT would be hot.
I happen to like Opera Films, though of course I prefer live performances. The most played disk in my DVD colelction is the Ponnelle-Abbado film of Cenerentola with Flicka, Arazia and Paolo Montarsolo and Claudio Desderi as the clowns. I think it's just about perfectly done. My favorite, though, is Freidrich's Elektra with Rysanek.
don't you all get it......snort.
they don't want to be opera singers anymore.
they all want to be movie stars.
Dessay didn't look for opera it looked for her. whatever.
Angela says not to call her an opera singer she is a movie star...
and now Mr. Bean and New Moffo. It has all been done. This will be short on charm, but very pretty at least Mimi. How to make her look sick, will be interesting. slightly.
Movies. Opera. blechhh.
Regina delle Fate-
Where did you read that? IMDB lists two Baritones, Stephan DeGot and Boaz Daniel, who obviously will be singing Marcello and Schunard.
Because La Boheme is one of the most user-friendly operas. In addition to instantly recognizable arias (thanks in part to Moonstruck), its other less-easily identifiable music is still pretty and melodic. It's a common story, it's not too far-fetched or over-the-top, and it's a great introduction to opera. And if you're shooting for audiences besides opera go-ers, that adds up to a sound venture.
Of course, I'm still waiting on a film version of Young Caesar. Me-ow.
http://cultureonthecheap.wordpress.com
Gian MArco is so hot. And he looks pretty butch, which means he must be a total bottom. He actually looks like many of the men in Treasure Island and SX videos. Maybe he could act out scenes from "Penetrating Wagner's Ring". I'm sorry, but that book just provides too much good material.
OMG, I just googled Gian Marco, and the rest of his images are not at all as cute as this.
Yeah, I was going to say, in some of them he bears an unfortunate resemblance to retired figure skater Scott Hamilton.
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