There's no wrinkle on his brow, no how!
La Cieca has to say she has never taken much interest in the music of John Corigliano; in fact, she believes she used the phrase "Technicolor twaddle" to describe The Ghosts of Versailles. But your doyenne must give credit where credit is due. Boyfriend is looking fucking amazing for a 70-year-old!
Take a look at these two images that accompanied Steve Smith's NY Times preview of the Brooklyn Philharmonic's upcoming Corigliano festival:
At left is Corigliano 8 years ago when he won the Academy Award for The Red Violin; at right is a recent photo of the composer. Is it just me, or does he look more refreshed -- or shall we just say younger -- at 70 than he did at 62?
At this rate, Corigliano will look a dewy 35 by the time the Met revives Ghosts in 2010! Though, come to think of it, collaborating with Angela Gheorghiu has been known to add a crease or two to even the most youthful punim. What a pity if America's hottest septuagenarian composer should end up looking his age!
Take a look at these two images that accompanied Steve Smith's NY Times preview of the Brooklyn Philharmonic's upcoming Corigliano festival:
At left is Corigliano 8 years ago when he won the Academy Award for The Red Violin; at right is a recent photo of the composer. Is it just me, or does he look more refreshed -- or shall we just say younger -- at 70 than he did at 62?
At this rate, Corigliano will look a dewy 35 by the time the Met revives Ghosts in 2010! Though, come to think of it, collaborating with Angela Gheorghiu has been known to add a crease or two to even the most youthful punim. What a pity if America's hottest septuagenarian composer should end up looking his age!
POSTED at
1:20 AM
20 Comments:
Am I missing something? He looks MUCH older on the right.
Sorry but I have to agree...
His dour expression in the recent pic must be the result of hearing that Michael Christie is to conduct one of his works.
This is not to put down Corgliano's looks, but I speak from personal experience: One looks good for one's age and then suddenly within 7 or 8 months it all catches up with you. I was a perky 50 year old and then one day I casually got in my car to drive to the market and glanced into the rear veiw mirror and and old woman was staring back at me. At first I thought it was Helen Hays, the first lady of the American theatre, but NO! it was ME! The shock of that moment added another 15 years to my age. Something to think about pussycats.
The vision's getting blurred.
Isn't that absurd?
Lord, Lord Lord!
That woman is me!
Technicolor twaddle sounds about right for Ghosts, Cieca. But HE looked very good when I bumped into him at the premiere. And his wind concertos (under Middle Eastern influence) possess much charm.
is just you baby,he looks much better viva el violin rojo
Is this what parterre box is reduced to? Lame ageist, empty comments...Who would have thought this site would eventually become...dare I say...BORING!
nice quote sean ferguson.
i guess i'm in the minority that finds ghosts a lot of fun.
Oh...I am so sorry if I contributed to the bordom factor. Well, I will try to jazz things up:
No Doug, you are not the only one, I too foungd "The Ghosts" intriguing and more. I am not sure what technicolor twaddle means. Does it mean it is like "movie music"?
I enjoyed "Ghosts" too. 'Technicolor twaddle,' for those of you who might have missed the reference, is from Dinah's 'What a movie' from Bernstein's "Trouble in Tahiti."
Technicolor twaddle is far too kind. I thought it made "Phantom of the Opera" look like Pfitzner's "Palestrina". Did Hakan Haagergard ever work again after selling himself to "Ghosts of Versailles"? Ron Moody would have been far better cast.
I am so sorry but I disagree with the above assesment. But I am interested to know if you are implying that Haagergard's career ended because he chose to be in that oepra. Because there were other singers in that cast whose careers went seemingly inscathed. Renee Fleming for one.
also - if it's such a career killer, why is Vampyra so interested?
My above post meant to say 'unscathed' instead of 'inscathed'. Sorry.
I found Ghosts to be entertaining and moving.
Back when I was a violist, I played some of his orchestral works -- and liked them. So'd the audiences.
Taking a photograph of somebody from above, with semi-bright lighting, is a common technique for erasing at least a few years of time's ravages.
In ::ahem:: 36 or so years, if I look that good at 70, or can be made to look that good, I'll probably just chuckle at whatever small-hearted youngsters feel compelled to arch their eyebrows.
LPR
I saw Hakan Hagagard as Wozzeck at Santa Fe Opera about six years ago, he was wonderful
I loved "Ghosts." It might not be a great opera, but it has some great parts, particularly Marie Antoinette. I just don't get the vitiol hurled at the poor thing. It is what it is, and I would rather hear it than another indifferent "Boheme" or "Aida." I don't know if Gheorghiu can really bring Marie Antoinette off. She is not enough of a Kunst diva. Stratas might have been a little off the beam, but when she was on, she was devastating, and she would get lost in a part in a way that Gheorghiu (or Netrebko, for that matter) haven't been able to do (I hold hope on Netrebko though). There is a really steely core to these women. They are not going to end up in Casa Verdi remembering their old glories. We don't live in that kind of world, and that, like everything in life, is both good and bad.
Well, perhaps it was because I was standing, but I found "Ghosts" long and boring - and musically without any inspiration. Some of the numbers struck me as simply hopeless, and not deserving to be given a hearing (rather than some of the hundreds of good tunes and nice routines from new muscials).
The piece was late arriving and I felt the composer had clearly had difficulty writing an opera, something of which he had little experience.
Hakan H. is one of my favourite singers (I shall always remember with incredible affection the lovely recital he gavce, with lots of Swedish folk songs, at the 92nd Street Y). But he seemed to disappear in the years after "Ghosts". I am so pleased someone saw him not long ago.
'I just don't get the vitiol hurled at the poor thing [GHOSTS]. It is what it is, and I would rather hear it than another indifferent "Boheme" or "Aida."'
Why, oh why, do people always trot out something like 'another indifferent "Boheme" or "Aida"' as the only possible alternative? Is not a good performance of such operas imaginable by these people? Is it so difficult for them to imagine something better than the vulgar mess that is *Ghosts* that they can only conjure up 'another indifferent "Boheme" or "Aida"' to fill its place on the stage?
I'd also like to stand up in defense of even 'another indifferent "Boheme" or "Aida"' if the only alternative is another appalling rodeo like "GHOSTS."
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