già la brunch è preparata
Oh, but this looks dire.
Not the fellow wallowing amidst the counterpane, obviously — he’s rather dishy if you like that type — but rather what he’s advertising. It’s a reworking of Don Giovanni called (La Cieca only wishes she were making this up) “The Gay Don,” to be previewed on July 4 at the London Pride festival in Trafalgar Square.
If MusicOMH can be trusted, the gaydaptation is “set in a 1980s club and with most of the Don’s conquests as men rather than women.”
…Zerlina becomes Zac a young James Dean type, Masetto becomes Marina the vampish fiancée of Zac who gets stood up, Don Ottavio is Olga the beautiful and imposing Russian immigrant who is besotted with Alan ( Donna Anna)…
Oh, you can write the rest for yourselves. La Cieca is going to sign off now as she imagines with a shudder the staging of “Là ci darem la mano.”
The interesting questions are:
1) How will Leporello be treated?
2) Will the Don do the Commendattore before (after?) killing him?
“if you like that type”?
I think that’s just taking relativism too, too far.
1) Leporello will be given minimum wage and told to keep the party drugs in separate pockets in case of confusion. I assume he’ll have, um, swarthier skin than the guy in the photo.
2) An s&m scene gone wrong. First the handcuffs, then whacking him with riding crop, then the blade that was supposed to be buttoned when it entered the guy still tearfully begging for more. I see Rene Pape in that role.
but
3) Donna Elvira is who? a corrupted priesthood candidate torn between justice and trying to save his raper’s soul?
“Edward (Donna Elvira) is a closeted older gay guy demanding vengeance on Don Giovanni’s for his sexual exploitation of so many young men.”
They don’t say on Don Giovanni’s what, but La Cieca has her suspicions.
On Don Giovanni’s sword, obviously.
Wow. No wonder they found this concept irresistible, given the ease with which Elvira translates into an old queen seeking vengeance due to inexplicable and unrealistic Shavian motivations.
@5: Yeah, his nut-brown sword.
Leporello will obviously be the Don’s fag hag.
Seeing as Gregorio Marañón, Spanish polymath, yonks ago in the 20s analysed the Don’s behaviour as stemming from his desire to repress or counter his homosexuality, these guys are rather late. How, on the other hand, is the Don supposed to stand out in a gay club? Certainly not with his paultry little laundry list.
Who can blame these idiots, given the success (albeit years ago) of Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake?” It wasn’t a fresh approach then and it isn’t fresh now…
And talking of things gay gay gay gay gay – Have I missed it or has a veil been drawn here over Ms Wainwright’s foray into opera? http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article6578049.ece
This is so much more interesting than Renee Phlegmming’s moaning, Netrebko’s comings and goings and Denyce’s latest newfound persona. Can’t wait to see the video of this Giovanni.
Condanna, La Cieca has already lifted that veil.
9. “But, but, but… since Tuesday, a thousand three.”
Dong Giovanni
So… instead of dragging him into hell, the Commendatore drags The Gay Don into a Slim Whitman concert?
Mozart wept.
There have been many (serious) suggestions that Don Giovanni is a repressed homosexual his exploitation of women nothing more than a displacement of what he wants to do with men – maybe Daddy! Nothing new there. But it is so much more interesting if left inexplicit.
So yes, Scott, Mozart wept; me too!
“Cry Me a River!”
That’s gross.
In other news: just watched “Fidelio” from the MET (DVD) with Karita Mattila, Rene Pape, and Ben Heppner. WONDERFUL – Mattila is fearless. Check it out if you haven’t already seen it.
Who’se excited for Mattila Tosca?
The Met’s godawful production of Fidelio looks far better on small screen, so you’re lucky, Florezrocks. The cameras are carefully focused to avoid the many inanities of the staging.
No one is excited about Mattila’s Tosca. We all hope she gets it out of her system and returns to fach as soon as she can.
Yeah the gay Swan Lake has died away completely, as far as I know. Good riddance. Perhaps this kind of thing has to happen once, as a kind of innoculation against it ever happening again.
Surely the Met will come to its senses and send on Elizabeth Whitehouse and that Michaels-Moore chap in place of those absurd Finns.
I’m not sure about the Gay Swan Lake being completely dead yet. I saw it in London only a couple of seasons back. Mildly amusing. Perhaps the success of Billy Elliot will make it drag out its sorry existence way beyond its best-by date, like some balletic equivalent of madame Gruberova.
This reminds me of last year’s Donna Giovanna – aweful:
http://www.davidlevimusic.com/bio.html
i defo know where i will NOT be going on saturday!
“some balletic equivalent of madame Gruberova.”
Wouldn’t that have been Karin von Aroldingen?
I always thought Matthew Bourne had a very elegant answer to the gender question. He was asked ‘Why did you use men in the corps de ballet? They’re supposed to be women’ and he smiled and said ‘They’re supposed to be swans’.
The Gay Don doesn’t look too encouraging. Although Ranjit Bolt’s a good and respectable writer, so all hope isn’t lost.
La ci darem la testa.
I think this would be a lot more interesting if the ladies were played by men, as ladies. I would love to hear what some good sopranistas could do with the roles…Jaroussky as Donna Anna? why not?
Cencic as Elvira.
One thing I will give this project is that it’s truthfully billing itself as an adaptation. The score and libretto are being reworked to create a new take. Chances are that the end result will be forgettable and forgotten. But at least it’s not a director completely changing the opera while presenting it strictly as Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
I feel that great masterworks can inspire all kinds of updates and adaptations, so long as the production is truthful in presenting the piece as a new work — a piece inspired by Mozart’s masterpiece.
Yeah Kashania, good point, and one apparently missed by Lydia Language re Pina Bausch’s Bluebeard, clearly billed as a reworking and not the original.
I agree that, as long as it is clearly billed as an adaption based on the original Da Ponte libretto and with music by Mozart, something interesting or amusing may come out of it. And it probably can be done seriously, not as slapstick or a joke.
I’ve often thought that Boheme offers a perfect gay plot. Two guys meet and go to bed the same night? Been done before. One is promiscuos and the other one is jealous. A friend is a drag queen. They are artistic, poor and share apartments. It ends tragically. What else is new? Musetta’s and Mimi’s music could easily be adapted for tenor voices.
Doesn’t the muffin’s right leg seem oddly out of place in the pic?
Ed: I thought the same thing but then realised that we only see the right buttock. The leg is the left one!
Hmmm… I don’t think so kashania. If it were his left leg, we would see his left hip bending towards us.
Oh fuck! It’s someone else’s leg! Now I feel silly. The muffin is Gay Don, and he is eyeing his latest conquest’s feet. A larger frame would show Gay Don’s feet by the other man’s face, right? Since there are still sheets on the bed I’m guessing the night is young and the toes are still dry, my god those Brits go right for the fancy stuff don’t they.
More Gay gay gay gay gay stuff: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article6625256.ece
A week away from It. I tremble.
Finally, the Don Giovanni for Teddy Tahu Rhodes!
Left buttock, right leg.
Just ran a check on Bourne’s boys: they’re still at it, the swan is taking its time with its song and dance.
http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Matthew-Bournes-Swan-Lake-09
But isn’t the angle wrong, Sanford? The muffin would need another leg joint for that to be his own right leg. I’m still thinking “Là ci darem il piede”.
Me too -Ed. It even seems the wrong tone and hairiness to me. There’s at least one extra member in those sheets.
Sanford: I think you’re right. I got my right and left mixed up (clearly the photo has caused me to lose my bearings).
Suggests to me two males just coming out of
the sixty-nine position, possibly to rest before
joining the rest of the cast for Swan Lake?
You can just never tell about these Brit boys.
Don’t forget Archie Bunker’s immortal line:
‘England ain’t a kingdom, it’s a fagdom!’
These comments are not meant in any way
to be disapproving, I hasten to add. I am
still a bit rattled by the news of Sarah Palin.
She just might be a wonderful replacement
for Margaret Juntwait. Especially when it comes
to Russian opera.