What was it Frederick Ashton said about the pitfalls of nude ballet? – things moving after the music stopping…….having to sing and the physical effort involved is even less welcome to watch….. Those poor opera diva/o’s have enough to contend with without having to bare their all.

“Straight” theater came from the Greeks too, but still threre was no nudity.

I’d watch out for that Soeur Blanche, by the way.

She strikes me as something of a loose cannon. I don’t think you’d be able to rely on her in your hour of need.

And, meremarie, some of the more tradition-bound of my compatriots used to BOIL at the ‘Lady Hall’ thing. Her ‘title’, as the wife of a knight, would have been ‘Maria, Lady Hall’ which is altogether different. The kind of thing that bothers people who are bothered by that kind of thing.

But it’s an odd relationship, very co-dependent,
in modern parlance ( something of no interest at
all to 18th century audiences I’m sure) BUT,
and I’m sure this will raise a few hackles…
I thought the Peter Sellars ‘Spanish Harlem’
DON G. really worked, with the Afro-American Perry
brothers, twins, as the Don and Leporello, Lorraine
Hunt’s Elvira, struggling a bit with the tessitura
but an intense early memento of a great artist, and
the most convincing Anna/Ottavio relationship I’ve seen…certainly not the only DON G. I would want
to own, and none of the singers would compare favorably with the best, but an example, for me, of
‘regie’ stimulating and enhancing a great work.

a case of signing the box on the.. BOX!! LOL!

Now I really AM aroused!… Behrens, and Solti and Box… Oh MY!

The first total nudity I ever saw on the opera stage – not sure of the year – 1972? – was Carol Neblett’s Poppaea at the New York City Opera. Long before Bumbry became the first nude Salome.

As dear Anna used to say:

“I. Was. Not. Nude.”

It may have looked like I stripped down to my “perfume and jewels” but we artists have WAYS.

Besides, Herr Lick, my first Salome was in *1970* at the Garden.

By the way, Behrens’ naked Brunnhilde wouldn’t have been too grisly a sight. She was no spring chicken when she sang Salome, but she certainly revealed all then. I remember getting her to sign the cover of my Karajan box booklet, between the breasts and bush of the naked lady in the art-image. She was delightful about it all – wearing a leopard-skin coat (not carrying a box of eggs), I seem to remember.

In actual fact though, I would tend to second you general point, especially because of all of the above. I mean just trying to hold her tight, then one hand up the night-gown, between her legs, the other, as she says herself, over her mouth to stifle her cries (attempted cries, allegedely!)… really no time to get naked or even no NEED!

(is it weird that I am being aroused by my own account of this scene?? LOL )

That’s singer power for you, I suppose.

Anyway, I think the piece is much stronger if there is genuine outrage on the side of the ‘angels’: Anna and Elvira are not sops (and I don’t mean sopranos), and even Ottavio needn’t come across as utterly wet if he’s seen as young, naive and inexperienced.

THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD…ARE YOU READING ABOUT ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE SINGERS?
Good Joan H., not the most athletic performers on stage by that period, danced her seven veils dance fully clothed and excited the senses of the ‘good taste’ audience…. by discarding progressively each of seven little different coloured hankies, tucked in the belt of her dress!(This, was told to me by one of her fellow performers in the production)

Another time back in the 80′s, there was a production of Samson & Deliah. Naked creatures crawling up and down a well lit huge cobweb of ropes upstage. Unfortunely one male got too close to the leg of a fellow female artist. His ‘member’ got ‘highly warmed up’ as a result, so to speak. The female got a little terrified / embarrassed / or startled …. tried to quickly retreat away from his apppendage. The audience noticed this disturbing distraction,and turned their full attention to the new temperory ‘rising star’ of the opera. To hell with the music, or the operatic stars singing the actual opera!

True, but there is also the question over how much of the truth she is actually revealing to Don Ottavio during this conversation – a spring-off point for many interesting directorial concepts regarding the psychology of Donna Anna…

Take Me Out was a lousy play pretending to be about a subject it never even approached; without the nude scene they’d never have sold the tickets, and yet the only scenes that were written at all well were the monologues of Denis O’Hare as a fag accountant who has just discovered baseball. Clearly these were the only moments that resonated with the playwright’s own experience.

If an opera singer has to take her/his clothes off to express sex, s/he can’t be much of a singer. Isn’t that right, Mr. Gunn?

I may have to lie down…

Set your alarm cock, er, clock, drearie, you’ll have ot be up much earlier, and then no one will care. This is Cieca’s realm.
Got it.?

Um, really? Because it makes perfect sense to me, especially in that period of dress. You’re telling me that Anna would have taken off dress, corset, underskirts, and various other accoutrements in the course of a rape? She would do everything she could to keep her clothes ON.

Not ridiculous in the slightest, and is only made ridiculous by the laziness of the regie.

That was the most RIDICULOUS remark. Come on!

Well, part of this is a convention of a theater where nudity was inconceivable. But more to the point, Donna Anna’s account of the pre-curtain encounter specifies that Don Giovanni advanced no farther in his nefarious purpose than embracing her tightly and, for a moment, preventing her crying out. Once she regained her freedom, she screamed and Don Giovanni fled. So there is no necessary reason that much, if any, undressing took place.

Even had the sexual encounter been consummated, the principals might well have remained mostly dressed; in fact would probably not have stripped down because of the time constraint. Perhaps one or two of the readers of parterre.com may recall incidents from their own lives when they performed a furtive sexual act while more or less fully clothed. (Not with each other, La Cieca means, but, well, you get the idea.)