he’s too much
Dr. Jonathan Miller‘s “keenly awaited” new production of La boheme for the English National Opera has been postponed for two nights due to a blizzard in London. “Having made enemies of virtually every individual in the human race, I have concluded that, at 75, I should move on with my life,” Dr. Miller whinged. “My new project is to take offense at such inanimate things such as meteorological phenomena.
“I suppose it is to be expected that such first nights as Elektra as the Bavarian State Opera and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Vienna Volksoper should go off without a hitch whilst my unsentimental reading of the Puccini tearjerker is taken off. Surely Joe Volpe and Angela Gheorghiu must have something to do with this freakish weather.”
Yes Kitty!
Jonathan Miller as Winter Warlock? I like it!
Armerjacquino, to his credit, I think Alfie Boe has realised where he went wrong and is doing his level best to get back the career he blew: Broadway and then Classic FM will prove difficult to shake off, but I do wish him luck in the trying. Elements are still there – the voice is comfortable at the top and not unattractive throughout – I was surprised though at the lack of passion he showed: odd direction/lack of direction maybe? First Rodolpho of my experience to sit next to the dead Mimi and not as much as reach to touch her: mind you the charisma he and Moore generated together suggested they had a nodding acquantance, not much more…
Miller does have a tendency to talk a load of warlocks. (Benny Hill, we salute you.)
Boe was surprisingly good in the small tenor role (not Aegisth — the servant) in Elektra at the ROH last year. It’s not really a world-class voice, though — but that hasn’t stopped any number of current tenors from making a career, including a couple of ‘stars’.