parterre box

21 comments

• tannengrin says:

  Is it just me or does Ms Garanca look like our doyenne’s (only slightly) younger sister?

  on April 1, 2009 at 9:30 AM
• chicken knock knock says:

  Maybe it’s those piercing eyes with lashes coated with mascara.

  on April 1, 2009 at 10:41 AM
• harry says:

  Sanford I am surprised you mentioned that Serra woman. Talk about one of the weirdest, funny sounding Mozart’s Queen of Night ever committed, on record.

  on April 1, 2009 at 3:12 PM
• Ian says:

  Since we’re (Sort of) talking about pretty boys, Daniel Okulitch was totally out-sung by Keith Phares in tonight’s Grimes. It was pretty excellent apart from some hilarious flubbing in the horns, but Okulitch’s voice is a bit wee for pompous ol’ Swallow.

  on April 1, 2009 at 11:01 PM
• Gualtier Maldè says:

  Sanford mentioned the Serra woman but he actually saw the Gasdia woman in her U.S. debut in “I Capuleti ed i Montecchi”. And who, though he was but a wee babe in swaddling clothes (actually a freshman at Northwestern) was attending the same production? Why Gualtier Maldè himself! And Dennis O’Neill sang Tebaldo just to keep Krunoslav happy (was Gwynne Howell the Lorenzo? Must consult the annals…) Great days for Lyric Opera of Chicago. The next year had Troyanos in a very different role – Kundry to Jon Vicker’s Parsifal.

  on April 1, 2009 at 11:11 PM
• Sanford says:

  Yes, it was Gasdia.

  on April 1, 2009 at 11:33 PM
• Sanford says:

  And did you also attend Von Stade’s wonderful recital at Pick-Staiger?

  on April 1, 2009 at 11:34 PM
• Graciella Scusi says:

  #15 Gualtier : ” but he actually saw the Gasdia woman in her U.S.debut in”I Capuleti ed I Montecchi”

  Her U.S. staged opera debut, though she did sing Gilda in Rigoletto for Muti and the Philadelphia at Carnegie, also with Bruson and, although it was supposed to be Pavarotti, Michael Myers(!) Yes, I believe the same Michael Myers who was everybody’s favorite (well, favorite whipping boy anyway) Normanno in the recent Lucias. I heard that Gasdia was very unhappy with Muti’s tempi and vowed not to sing with him again (Ha!) but of course she did.. I think in ‘La Donna del Lago’, and I remember him being very complimentary about her, at least in print, saying that conducting her was like driving a Ferrari (lol…that is a compliment, isn’t it?). I sat behind Troyanos at the Rigoletto (apparently getting a glimpse of her soon to be colleague at LOC), and thought that Gasdia was a very effective Giulietta; she managed a decent Bellinian line and was petite with very big dark eyes, and had a vulnerable quality which was very appealing.

  on April 2, 2009 at 2:36 AM
• Nerva Nelli says:

  14

  That Geo. Steel is featuring the bland-voiced Okulitch — an ideal Masetto, for all that he takes a Tony-creaming picture– and the often reprehensible, played-out Chris Alden as director in his first new NYCO staging does not bode at all well.

  That’s all Lincoln Center needs: more looks/buzz casting!

  on April 2, 2009 at 6:29 AM
• Tom N says:

  I, for one, cannot blame La Cieca for constantly thinking of J R-M. Thanks for nearly making me spit my coffee!

  on April 2, 2009 at 11:32 AM