everything but the bloodhounds
Well, the first thing La Cieca will say about the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala is that for all its sprawling splendor it doesn’t look quite what you’d call entertaining. Or rather let’s say it looks as if it won’t sound very entertaining. The visual element — you know, computer-animated Marc Chagall murals and Waltraud Meier prancing about in a copy of Rosa Ponselle‘s Carmen drag — will likely achieve a level of instant camp approaching that of Rosie O’Donnell‘s variety show last night. (La Cieca had no room for the phrase in the previous run-on sentence, but, anyway, good old Rosa’s “controversial” toreador pants ensemble was of course designed by “dyke, ya know” Valentina.)
Leaving aside such questions as “are there really more than a dozen people in New York iwho are really panting to hear Natalie Dessay sing Violetta,” what La Cieca wonders is: can there be a less appropriate selection for a gala than the final scene from Parsifal, and to close the first half (a la Birdie Coonan) yet? Surely someone at the Met realizes that as soon as the audience starts applauding, some heligie Kunst nut will bellow, “Shuddup! It’s a sacred festival play!”
On the other hand, La Cieca feels that in the current political climate it is a deliciously subversive act for the Met to program this music drama for its anniversary, since the company’s 1903 premiere of the work constituted perhaps the greatest example of theft of intellectual property in operatic history. Pirate-y!
kashania: Surely it’s more than a little ominious that the final sung words of a gala should be “Falsch und feig ist, was dort oben sich freut!”
Peter’sPeck, is there actually anything about any opera or any singer that you like?
It’s the day after my 49th birthday, so I was going to go, but it sounds like a really boring concert, musically. Visually it actually sounds fascinating.
La Cieca: LOL, true enough, but great music!
Cassandra: You obviously missed my follow-up “never mind” post regarding Dessay’s Violetta.
My, my…Dirk Va thank you for asking.
Yes, I favored Flagstad over Traubel, loved Nilsson and Rysanek, Steber was perfection in the Mozart and Lisa Della Casa like rose champagne. Raisa and Milanov, Rise, and Licia Albanese. Siepi and Giaotti are basses in my ear,
I adore Merrill over Warren, Bastianini uber alles, Crespin,
Corelli over most, Tebaldi in anything, Freni in a few things,
Callas in most things, Caballe early, Moffo early, Sutherland, Pavarotti, Horne.
More recent, I liked very much Battle early, Domingo when he can sing all the notes, Zylis Gara, Bianca Berini, some Hvrostofsky, practically no baritones of today other than he, they mostly bellow, or are too lyric. Renee in Mozart and Strauss, early, Millo early, some later things are wonderful and the sound is like no one else today, Borodina when healthy and inspired, some Zajac, ..now of the newer singers,
Giordani also when inspired and rested, Netrebko, all about sound now but may grow more interested in words, great sound, and the tenor who just debuted from poland who’s name starts with a B. Spelling is beyond me this late.
Productions, Carsen some, Franco Z, early all, now some,
Visconti alllllllllll, Biexito NONE, Hugo de Ana some, Otto Schenk most.
at the old age, I know what RPM represented, LOL, I still expand horizons, just not a lot of people are fully formed, sing in pitch, and have a message. The sound for me has to be first rate and few are. Blythe is an example of an ample plummy sound.
In these little sound bites I am negative recently, pity. I want so to be positive about opera. It just doesn’ t sound like anything I remember or will want to remember. Working on staying open.
Well, I don’t understand what is so horrible about ending the first half with the Parsifal finale. It is a great piece – and since it can end a whole evening at the opera, why not the first part of the gala? Also, since the gala is for Domingo partly, it makes good sense to hear him in a Wagner role which is arguably what he has been doing best the last 5-10 years. And probably the fact that his 40 years are being celebrated is the reason for him singing more pieces than anyone else?
Also, this habit of using petnames like Renny and Netty, my, it is so tiring. Ok, Renny I could guess but who the f… is Netty? So nice to be all smug and in the “in”…. This habit is about as annoying as the person (knowledgable and interesting as he often is) that cannot mention singers like Paul Plishka and Samuel Ramey without referring to them as “old buddy” etc.
Tiger
Tiger, I agree, this nicknaming can be a little too annoying at times. (Besides, I believe the accepted nickname for Netrebko is “Trebs,” not “Netty.”)
I suppose we could all go on debating the Parsifal scene’s appropriateness at this event till we all just turn into butter, but I think there’s a more interesting subject for speculation. Who, one wonders, will get to be Kundry in this excerpt? The total absence of vocal requirements would seem to throw open the door to all sorts of exciting possibilities for a glamorous star turn.
How great would it be to have something from ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ or ‘Vanessa’…