soap hunk: ‘opera shrank my wang!’
The colleague who sent the following item to La Cieca called it “the best opera story of the year,” and your doyenne cannot but agree.
It seems that back in 2001 a young actor named Juan Pablo di Pace did a nude scene in David McVicar‘s production of Rigoletto for the Royal Opera. A photograph of a scene from the opera (including the starkers super) has been used since then in the ROH’s advertising of the production. (Meanwhile, Juan Pablo has risen from the ranks of nude walkons to achieve fame and fortune as a star of the BBC Scotland soap River City.)Â
Now, don’t get him wrong, Juan Pablo is totally okay with nudity. the problem here is that in the Rigoletto photo “a crucial part of his anatomy has been air-brushed unflatteringly, making it appear much smaller than it is in real life.”
Apparently each time the photo was recycled for another advertising campaign, the Photoshop police snipped a smidge more off poor Juan Pablo’s package, to the point that the 2005 version of the poster “made it look like he barely had one at all.”
You can click on the image to enlarge. The photo, I mean.
The original article in the Daily Mail helpfully adds that the Verdi’s opera “tells the story of Rigoletto, a bitter hunchbacked jester who seeks vengeance on the Duke of Mantua for seducing his only daughter. But the plan backfires and leads to tragedy.” Not unlike Juan Pablo’s nude scene, La Cieca concludes.
Juan Pablo actually is doing quite well thank you very much. He has been cast as Petros in the movie version of “Mamma Mia!” with Meryl Streep. Check out his website:
http://www.juanpablodipace.com/
In the Spanga Festival film of Rigoletto, the tenor Carlos Da Cruz as the duke, a cute furry “otter” appears naked. Nicely packaged and if that is shrinkage in the pool then, well que Dios bendiga tu madre as they say in BA.
He does a repeat in last year’s Spanga Samson et Dalila, w/ one of the ugliest voiced Dalilas in captivity! In this muddled, because it makes no linear narrative sense, updated production. In the 2nd act he displays a cute bubble butt. In the dungeon scene and last act he is naked through out. He is tortured in a cage and instead of being tethered to a mill stone he is chained to a stationary bike and must continually peddle it as it is the electric generator! In the words of the the immortal Emory. “Mary, don’t ask!”
Ray back to the cave, promise!
I could do di Pace or McVicar *tomorrow*. It’s a question of flexibility and breath control!
Isn’t there a play by good old ws. entitled”Much
Ado About Nothing ” just asking
This is indeed available on dvd (Opus Arte). It appears to be the same guy…and not shown to much better advantage than he is in the photo.
The Duke of Manhoodtua
Duke of Man(hood)tua?
“Pablo… datemi pace…”
The missing member has entered the international news cycle … but we heard it HERE first:
LONDON (Reuters Life!) – Britain’s Royal Opera House agreed to stop using a picture in its advertisements after an actor complained that his penis had been air brushed out of a nude image.
Argentinian Juan Pablo Di Pace, who stars alongside Meryl Streep and Colin Firth in the new film version of Mamma Mia!, appeared to have no penis at all in the full-frontal shot used in publicity material for a production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.
The actor complained to the opera house via his lawyer that the photograph, taken during a 2001 production of the same opera, was used to promote shows six years later, even though he no longer worked there.
“In his letter he expressed a concern that, to Juan’s embarrassment, his penis had been airbrushed out,” said a Royal Opera House spokesman.
“We explained in our correspondence with him that we had legal reasons why we had to do that because we are not allowed to display posters with nudity.”
The picture features a nude and seemingly unconscious Di Pace supported by a woman in the centre of a busy scene.
In posters for the show, which appeared at London Underground stations, the actor’s modesty was covered by a cloak, while in brochures and leaflets his penis disappeared entirely.
“Basically, when he was a kid he agreed to get his kit off. He had no agent, he obviously had a good body, they used it and he agreed, fairly naively. He’s 28 now, and he basically just said they should get a new poster — he’s not even in this show,” Di Pace’s publicist told Reuters.
The Royal Opera House, established in 1728, said it would not use the image again.
(Reporting by Chloe Fussell, editing by Paul Casciato)