Comments on: Nina Lawson 1926-2008

By: mrs. miller

mrs. miller — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:11:05 +0000

Nina surely would have had some stories about Wigs and Zinka, who seems to have done nothing quietly. And #24 mentioned Birgit’s makeup. All that upturned Turandot eyes stuff she wore. She didn’t look at all exotic in real life, from the pictures I have seen of her.

By: gracegolden

gracegolden — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:58:56 +0000

watched the clip of Joan at the reception in 65, but that Dr. Frank Baxter science film background music brings back bad memories of high school. And there is a utube video of Joan in 57 singing an aria from Emilia di Liverpool. What is the plot of this opus? Does Emilia go Mad in Liverpool? One site I found said that the opera has only had 3 productions since the 1820s.

By: wanderer

wanderer — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:47:10 +0000

Loove that look. I hope this isn’t straying too far from the Nina Lawson tribute, but if you had any doubt about big hair big woman, here’s Joan with mere mortal earthlings (beware Miss Mitchell, there’s long-life batteries in there) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3atXmCi3Pc

By: FightGravityPDX

FightGravityPDX — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:09:49 +0000

Nina’s expertise was only surpassed by her persona; she was such a gift to all that were privileged to work with her, for her, and to enjoy her talent… if you’ve ever been to the Wig dept at the Met, it is amazing and a testament to her legacy….

By: gracegolden

gracegolden — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:51:16 +0000

There is potential for Parterre threads in those 2 Bazaar articles The Beauty Blastoff, and Frug That Fat Away, but the angles of the discussion elude me while watching CNBC hash over the Market Crash. Getting into beechie cattiness; a guy in a political blog I read last night referred to Sarah the Great as Barricuda Mooselini. Dame Joan’s eyes probably do not look any worse than Rudy Gernreich’s warpaint for his “topless swimsuit” models. How soon he crashed and burned! How long ago!

By: klingsor2000

klingsor2000 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:03:50 +0000

I remember that eye makeup well, as seen by me from the family circle (with binoculars) at the premeire of the production, which was also Horne’s Met debut.

Many people commented about the oddness of the makeup at the time, and as I recall it was changed almost immediately to a less distracting shape. She may have worn it for only one or two performances.

It was quite a night. I had gone down to get standing room on Sunday morning in a snowstorm. At 6 a.m., I checked in with the late Helen Quinn as numer 147, just 28 short of a sell-out 175.

The Mira O Norma from that one performance still rings in my ears. I heardthem sing it many times after, but never with quite the same effect.

By: proofer

proofer — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:44:05 +0000

Hmmm – it’s really not that big a step from here to the Amy Winehouse coiffure, is ist?

By: arepo

arepo — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:42:32 +0000

You mean to tell me that is Sutherland’s face and not a composite of different sopranos with La Stupenda’s hair?
And here I thought I was being so smart with some kind of new game here. (Not a bad idea, by the way to have a game of face composites.)
I figured I was going to win by identifying correctly the mouth of Gheorghiu and the nose and cheeks of Netrebko.
As Emily Litella once said: “Never mind!”

By: Scaramuccio

Scaramuccio — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:48:32 +0000

Only on Parterre, I guess, would one learn about the whereabouts of the Esclarmonde ‘armour’. Thank you, ls.

And yes, Windycityman, we did indeed chew the cud about Peter Glossop on another thread (I forget which now).

By: jatm2063

jatm2063 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:39:22 +0000

Oh yeah, I just remembered that my original comment included something about “a bowls eye view of a model barfing, something most of them do regularly”.

Does that offend people here? It hardly seems like it could…..

By: pavel

pavel — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:50:46 +0000

27: I love the phrase “had Barbara Matera run up a set of frocks to wear instead.” Sounds just like something Joanie would say.

By: il lacerato spirito

il lacerato spirito — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:32:21 +0000

The Esclarmonde was definitely Beni Montresor…..it is now in the possession of New York City Opera albeit in many pieces, since it looked like the Turandot many items have beeen “crossed over”

By: WindyCityOperaman

WindyCityOperaman — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:32:20 +0000

Not completely off-topic, but was anything said about the late Peter Glossop who passed away September 10? If you already have, my apologies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbZcEgjd6c4

By: Scaramuccio

Scaramuccio — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:59:17 +0000

Actually, it can hardly be called a frock – more like a Byzantine suit of armour for a princess. How glorious.

By: Scaramuccio

Scaramuccio — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:58:10 +0000

Oh, I just overlapped with La Cieca’s reply – thank you.

By: Scaramuccio

Scaramuccio — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:57:27 +0000

Probably, for the San Francisco production in 1974. It doesn’t say, though. Now I refuse to believe that Esclarmonde is just camp – it teems with great, if pseudo-Wagnerian melodies. Massenet was a genius harnessed to the hyper-kitsch. If he’d done more than just ‘Scenes’ in the orchestral sphere, he’d have been hailed, surely.

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:55:30 +0000

Lizard: According to Dame Joan’s autobiograpy, her Montresor costumes for Esclarmonde turned out badly and so she had Barbara Matera run up a set of frocks to wear instead.

By: Loge Lizard

Loge Lizard — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:40:55 +0000

Per the Esclarmonde costume, Beni Montrasor, perhaps?

By: Scaramuccio

Scaramuccio — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:19:51 +0000

I LOVE this look. Wasn’t Joanie approached by Fellini to be in La Dolce Vita during her beehive redhead days?

Wonder who designed her costume on the Esclarmonde box set cover. I’ve never sacrificed my LPs to the CDs because the big picture is so wonderful.

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:31:25 +0000

The makeup used om Sutherland is no different to some of the’get-up’ used for Birgit Nilsson and others in some of those 60′s and 70′s Wagnerian productions. Where have some of the contributors been, lately?

By: lorenzo.venezia

lorenzo.venezia — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:23:57 +0000

Actually it was an Emanuel Ungaro hat. I remember it well (the cover, that is). I was a Rolling Stones loving, Jean Shrimpton adoring teenaged queen, a loving it!

By: jatm2063

jatm2063 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:43:28 +0000

GASP!

I just realized that I DID post that question before, and it wasn’t put up!

Cieca, did you REDACT me?

(tears streaming down face)

By: Josephine

Josephine — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:35:55 +0000

jatm2063

I believe it is a halo.

By: jatm2063

jatm2063 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:26:52 +0000

I’ll ask again: Is that a hot pink toilet seat around the model’s face above?

By: Rukidn

Rukidn — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:41:54 +0000

annie, your pissing near your food. watch out. This is La Cieca’s realm. Beware, everyone here is here by her grace and invention.

Behave.

By: Loge Lizard

Loge Lizard — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:32:39 +0000

I remember that eye makeup looking odd in Opera News back in 1970, and it still looks odd. But try sitting across the room from your computer monitor and you’ll note how it does amplify the eyes.

Per hndymn’s comments about the old technique of red dots on the inside corners of the eyes: I was taught that that prevented the peformer from appearing cross-eyed on stage! There’s a striking closeup of Moira Shearer in the Red Shoes when she’s dancing Swan Lake at the Mercury Theatre — her eyes are done up like that and her face is illuminated by footlights. It’s an image that oozes the the ambience of the STAGE.

By: PushedUpMezzo

PushedUpMezzo — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:31:15 +0000

Miss Millo has posted a beautiful tribute to Nina Lawson

By: PushedUpMezzo

PushedUpMezzo — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:56:22 +0000

Well I like
a) the hair design which elongates the face and distracts from the Sutherland jaw (wonderful as that was for the voice)
b) the eyes which remind you that Norma was actually a pagan priestess – very star Trek
c) La Cieca for her affectionate and deserved hommage to the people who get our shows on the road for (usually) minimum wages
and I bet Dame Joan would endorse

is the Harpers gal wearing a collar to stop her licking her sores?

By: Josephine

Josephine — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:53:12 +0000

I actually think that is a beautiful picture of Dame Joan Sutherland. To me the hair and the eye make-up make her look regal.

By: Tubsinger

Tubsinger — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:28:52 +0000

Is this La Cieca Bashing Week?

I hope I don’t look like a hopeless suck-up, but I don’t customarily accept invitations to people’s houses to grouse about the hospitality.

If you don’t like her peaches, don’t shake her tree.