this diva looks like that matron
La Cieca is fully aware that Anna Netrebko is a dress size or two bigger now than she was a couple of years ago. And yet, there is no excuse, no excuse I tell you, to transform the young courtesan Violetta Valery into the middle-aged dowager Mrs. Claypool.
Now, La Cieca has a couple of things to rant about here.
First off, 1920s attire is, in general, not particularly flattering one for operatic figures. Lyric sopranos in general tend to be somewhat curvy, in defiance of the flat-busted and boyish-hipped visual aesthetic of the jazz age silhouette. Of course, there were some singers active in the 1920s who look perfectly charming in the fashion of that era.
But, let’s face it, not everybody has Maria Jeritiza‘s height, superb posture or — this is perhaps the most important point here — her “tempestuous” perfectionism. La Jeritza would never have emerged from her Künstlerumkleide in so ill-fitting a garment as this:
[Netrebko photos by Brant Ward / The Chronicle]
But even when this dress is properly fitted on a slimmer soprano (Elizabeth Futral), the line is not particularly flattering.
So can someone remind La Cieca what’s the point of updating Traviata in the 1920s?
Sanford (no 38), you need to see Netrebko in the DVD of Manon from Berlin, then, in which she appears in a clinging gold 50s-style gown for the gambling scene. Shame she sometimes approaches the role as if it’s Santuzza, though, and Villazon is his customary hysterical self.
50 – it was Lindoro – I think. I also support this move if possible.
Lady Beekman: It’s a tiara.
Lorelei Lee: You DO wear it on your head. I just LOVE finding new places to wear diamonds.
#5 Thomas – OMG size 4 to 8??? are there no female editors on the SF Chronicle?? Did Norman Lebrecht write this?
To put US women’s dress sizes in perspective for those of you who, uh, hmm…, don’t wear dresses:
I’m about the size of Natalie Dessay, and wear a size 6. I think I (and Dessay) are too skinny, and am happy to say I’ve recently kept on enough weight to start wearing some size 8′s.
Now the larger example of Marilyn Monroe: IIRC the gold JFK dress was a size 16, all tucked and corsetted into place.
So if I were to hazard a guess, obviously with no more information than the SF Chronicle had, I’d guess Trebs started at about a size 10 and is now about a size 14 or so.
Also the authoritative doctor Papas is, as expected, misinformed again. 10 pounds is what I gain and lose each winter and summer. At +10 lbs, clothes are a bit tighter, but even on my small frame I don’t gain even 1 dress size.
And that is not a tiara, it’s the Burger King birthday child party favor.
… because you don’t really enjoy champagne unless it’s illegal. THAT’S the point of setting it in the ’20s. And they couldn’t update it to, well, now, because the social hypocrisy that is the point of the story is extinct.
I’m delighted Charles’s career is taking off — not only a cutie (and a notable skirt-chaser), but he has a wonderful baritonal quality to his tenor that always appeals to me. (Think Caruso, Melchior, Bergonzi and Domingo, all of whom started out as baritones.)
Cher publique, those photos are the best evidence I’ve seen that she’s pregnant again.