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A bit of Salome from the Royal Opera, with a somewhat less skittish sense of cinematography than what we got from the Met’s HD!
Finally a chance to see Naked Busker Guy Duncan Meadows in action! (And, forgive La Cieca for saying so, but if your leading lady sounds like Nadja Michael, you’d better offer your audience something extra for their money.)
Well, the busker is cute, but apparently he just stepped out of the ocean, because he’s got a little shrinkage goin’ on.
Oh, and La Cieca, the solution I found to the issue with Nadja’s singing was to watch the video with the sound off. She’s sounds quite wonderful that way
Wow. Hope she sounds better on the DVD, I had such expectation to see and hear a young Salome. After the retarded gand-ma we had at the Met HD, it would be another disappointment here. At least she acts like a Salome should and the orchestra seems good.
She actually seems to sing much better than Mattila in this role. But nothing is real until you hear it in the theatre.
That was a busker? I thought it
looked like a flaccid dick! Who
was the soprano – Nadja who? Nice
figure. Did she take it all off?
Innocent
in santa foo
She has an interesting voice. It seems quite accurate musically. It is not the gigantic sound that one expects in the part. But she’s doing it.
As for the Busker, they should have given him a viagra and had him fluffed before walking on with the head in his hand. (That is, the head of John the Baptist in his hand).
She is not bad at all….we need to see more nakedness in operas, so hail to this production.
Off topic, but La Cieca, are we very going to find out the answer to the last Regie quiz? It’s been more than two weeks.
I’m surprised that La Cieca takes issue with Nadja Michael’s voice. I find it to be a rather singular instrument: she cuts a great figure on stage, is a marvelous actress, is very musical, and sings with plenty of passion and fervor that so many singers today seem to be lacking. I find her French Eboli to be quite refreshing and wonderfully interpreted. Perhaps it is not the most “attractive” voice to many American ears, but there is nothing bland or vulgar about the way she produces her sound.
Quiet as it is kept, Salome is not a “heavy” role. We are often too expectant to hear extremely weighty voices in the role, which is probably due to the very centralized tessitura of the part, but, all things considered, it is much lighter than Trovatore or Aida or Nabucco or Fanciulla or Hérodiade!
As for nudity in opera, I don’t always see the point of it. However, I would venture to say that if nudity is an *essential* element of a director’s vision, it would be preferred if the singers were not nude, but rather supers or dancers. Perhaps many of us are waiting for a nude Don Giovanni with Erwin Schrott–I must admit that I wouldn’t refrain from having a glance, but I seriously question the apparent need for asking classical vocalists to bare all for what often seems to theatrically function solely for shock value or the amusement of the audience/director.
Oh my…was there someone singing the final scene of Salome? I am enraptured by that executioner! *squeal!*
La Cieca is right. It will take a generation to beat Mattila’s stirring and stunning Salome, vocally, dramatically and theatrically. And with these elements present, nudity becomes immaterial, if not distracting.
Come on you queens, you know about showers and growers. He is definitely a grower.
Nice to see a man with a hairy crotch for a change, as opposed to the usual grown-men-who-want-to-look-pre-pubescent that is so popular these days
i never understand that the dvd was released, because of this painful singing of Michael. lots of problems with intonation, horrible lehar operetta tremolo – a catastrophy. she is an intelligent actress, but her voice-horrible. i loved mattila,s he sang fantastic and her interpretation vocally was outstanding. what a shame she had to behave like a pippi langstrumpf in the first 20 minutes.i cannot understand that michael shall sing abigaille at the met 2013. is there nobody who can hear correctly. her Lady in munich was horrile also…
LIndoro – spot on. What’s a body without some of nature’s dental floss?
It’s not a conventional soprano but in the middle of all those register shifts something well-worked and musically responsible is going on. And the short phrasing is compensated for by pretty steady tone production. And she looks good.
After her premature retirement we’ll find her “interesting” whish she’d lasted longer and wonder on sites like this where the next Nadja is coming from.
For a minute I thought she was going to give him a blow job. That would have been more interesting than her singing.
Nice body he has. But what a small dick. Poor guy. Doesn’t go with the rest of the package.
But I’m sure McVicar liked it.
Mattila was in great voice for the MET HD and besides some pitch problems, she was almost perfect for most of the role. Dramatically, it was a mess. “Pipi Langstrumpf” or a late fifty Lolita for the entire opera save the last 5 or 10 minutes: it was a superficial and fake intepretation of the role. The worst 7-veils dance ever.
From Nadja M., I feared an ugly voice after reading press critics but in fact it is not if I can judge by those 4 minutes. It only seems to be a really underpowered voice. But the sound may be better on DVD.
And the executioner is naked because… ?
Good call – it is the second time I see a completely naked executioner, by the way. The first time was in a production with the highly unpleasant Josephine Barstow as Salome.
The head (the severed one…) looks like Bryn Terfel? A little ROH revenge of the prop department nerds? Or is he singing that role again?
Now *that’s* what I call getting great head!
She is HIDEOUSLY inaccurate musically! She learned the words and most of the rhythms but hardly any pitch is as written. Reminds me of Nilsson’s first Salome in Swedish.
Just would like to clarify some terms…what is meant exactly by “musically responsible” and “musically accurate”?
beyond the musicality, this is a very dull production. sat through it at the 1st night and was intensely bored. typical mc vicar – huge sets, lots of extras, desperate to shock but failing everywhere. and the naked executioner was so tacky – you could see it coming from the top of the show, with his silly raincoat and bare legs… don’t buy!
we’ll never forget nadja’s brangane at the cso with waltraud’s isolde … they were both amazing, committed, and clearly former mezzos
michael will appear at lyric opposite thomas hampson in the scottish opera (at theatre rehearsal, so we must be superstitious).
ps: loved “this diva looks like that diva” for janowitz / winehouse.
The message: ITS the so called star
regie director’s work, that is to be – ‘noticed’….get it? Oh, the opportunities they have, to recruit and employ for all sorts of ‘inspired reasons’ the passing ‘trade’ from the streets as walk-ons. If people wanted to see a real naked & vigorous visually active flopping ‘poppy show’ Opera Australia’s XXX version a few years ago makes this production looks like the ‘Parents approval’ version for the end of year kid’s kindergarten show.. A slow moving zombie flasher appearing at a dressed up gathering, who’s found something a bit odd ‘downstairs’ to show the genteel folks upstairs. . par for the course in terms of matters of ‘pom’ social class. Then again it IS Britain’s latest take on Salome, a la Hammer Films.
The running around hysterical Salome gives the impression she is ‘busting’ – looking for somewhere to squat down and quickly pee! And this is supposed to be Strauss’ Salome…..???!! I will stick to listening to recordings and just imagine what it should really look like on stage, if Nilsson, Varney ,Borkh, Caballe or Brehens were still singing it.
He seems to have a perfectly normal package. I guess all you commentators are really hung. Wanna share pics?
All this talk about his (possibly) small dick just proves that there is nothing but bitchy bottoms on this site. I was taking in that beefy backside and in pure bliss…
Call me prosaic, but where in hell is the silver charger? Salome should have complained bitterly to Herod that he, Tetrarch, didn’t keep his bargain. It’s not as though the silver charger is a mere after-thought for our young princess of Judea, daughter of Herodias.
Gualtier Maldè, there are some bitchy tops here too! For what it is worth, I think he looked every bit as good as anyone else I have ever seen publicly naked, covered in gore, holding a severed head. Ahhh… It takes me back to junior year.
Kashania: GOOD ONE! Even if it is partially directed at moi, it made me laugh.
However, I would like to point out to all that I never said it was small, just that something could have been done with it for about a minute before his entrance to make it more intriguing. Imagine the psychology, an executioner who gets it up while cutting off his victims heads and bathing in their blood. I think it fits perfectly well in a regie production of Salome.
Of course if I directed Salome and was going to have a naked executioner I would cast Jeff Stryker or someone similar just to get a gasp out of everyone in the audience!
Shame the head emerges before the music says it should.
But I guess that’s what happens when you insist on having an entire naked executioner make his entrance instead of following the stage directions. An arm thrusting out from the cistern could be more dramatic.
And all those extras standing about in frozen positions. So am dram.
And Michael just sounds like a cloudy-voiced second-rater to me, albeit a spunky gal.
You need to get out more. That was one small dick at least in my part of the world. Didn’t go with the rest of that glorious package …
Well jatm and Sig. Malde, I have heard it said “there are showers and there are growers,” so how can we really know about this man? I heard a Johan. once in LA who was totally naked save for a VerySmall fig leaf, literally, pasted on his weenie; it was so amazing and rather embarassing and he remained that way for curtain calls — which was really embarassing, yet later in discussing this with a soprano who ‘knows’ the man, she advised me he is “gangbusters” in that department. So, who’s to know? (Who’s to care?) Of course Grace Moore said Ezio Pinza had a small dick; as does Domingo — but it’s taken him a long way.
Bye,
Flora FtBelvoir
jatm: Hey, I thought your suggestion of some kind of “enhancement” was a fine one.
I just don’t think that it’s small for a flaccid penis.
Look what kashania just said on another thread. Does it apply to this discussion too?
“I seriously doubt that Gelb had unlimited access to the endowment as has been suggested.”
Perhaps he’s a “grower” not a “shower” (as we used to say back in the day.
What would have been even more disturbing was if the executioner *had* gotten aroused by decapitating Jokaanan!
To answer why the execution is naked? Solely because McSicker wanted to see him naked. There isn’t a single dramatic reason for him to be, only to satisfy the director’s fantasy or fetish. And you see this ALL the time in his productions, which is so odd considering so many regard him as being true to the drama. I guess they’re right – until he finds someone he wants to see nude. In that regard, he becomes blandly preDICKtable.
Kashania in their minds their dicks are much bigger- (that’s the only place they are)….although rumour has it that Oncologist Turandot is HUGE- it’s because he stands too close to the radiation machines.
Una Vochay:
I see McVicar is being let loose on La traviata in Scotland (apparently having vowed a few years ago never to touch the piece). Apparently he wants to put back the sex in the relationship between Violettat and Alfredo. And Germont’s appearance at Flora’s party will no doubt be in the nude.
The soprano is Carmen Gianattasio. I’ve heard good things about her — has anyone heard her or seen her live? I think she’s on a Boccanegra DVD.
una vochay: at least I have a dick. What’s your excuse?
How did this thread unravel into an oncological argument about the existence of dick?
well, if we’re going to take this seriously, the executioner could be naked because he is going to perform an act in which he will be sprayed with copious amounts of blood, which would be much easier to wash off the body than out of clothing. But that aside, in a fabulously tawdry piece of theatre like Salome (and I mean that as a compliment), in which nudity is already a required component (veils, anyone?) why not feature such a gorgeous hunk of manflesh?
As for his tiny dick, it wouldn’t tiny after I got started on it….
For one brief moment I thought that Salome wasn’t the only one to get a(some) big head. Sorry fella maybe next time.
Turandot – I don’t feel the need to have an excuse because I’m perfectly happy and secure with what I’ve got, thank you. Sure it doesn’t hit my knees
so perhaps that’s why I can enjoy and appreciate seeing another guy who has a beautiful body and perfectly normal appendage without the need to make facile, belittling remarks?
As an extremely well hung Oncologist, do you think there is any medical evidence to support the theory that the more one’s appendage resembles a donkey’s – the more likely it is that the brain can be similarly described? One or two experiences in the past have led me to wonder if there isn’t some truth in the old adage “the bigger the dick, the smaller the brain.”
Forgive me if I jump to conclusions but your responses frequently do seem to give some credence to this theory.
#46, Una, if I may – recommend you substitute the word “ass” for “donkey.”
The problem with radiation oncologists is they have far too much money, and not really enough imagination about how to spend it. What a bunch!
Una Vochay,
By the same analogy, women with bigger brests have smaller brains? Being an MD (but not an oncologist!) I find this discussion of anatomic appendagies rather unscientific and boring. We all can do better than that, like talking about our passion-opera!
Thank you Mrmyster you are probably totally correct.
Ah Constantine I understand your delusion. Just as you are bored with anatomic talk, some of us are constantly bored by the Rene F posts- but we have to put up with those anyway. Perhaps the trick is to just ignore what you don’t like- it soon goes away. I will go and check my breasts now
UV,
You’re funny and I love it!
McVicar doesnt just go for the nekkid men… i was in Chicago 2 weeks ago and saw his Manon, in which Madame Dessay proudly stepped into the tub and from where i was in the orchestra section, i saw her left boobie… it was all quite nicely done, having her attendant wash her…but i KNOW that Hei-Kyong Hong did not do the same thing several years ago in the same production in Dallas…
There were two drunken men that stripped down to their panties that WOULD have been nice to see naked.