parterre box

12 comments

• 1
  SuorAngelica says:

  July 16, 2009 at 11:49 PM

  Brilliant image, cara Cieca!
  They can call it “popera” if they like, but it’s pap. Amazing.
  But thanks, Fresno Bee, for the typo, since it inspired such a witty response from La Cieca,doyenne even of Photoshop.
• 2
  The Logical Tenor says:

  July 17, 2009 at 12:15 AM

  Ah, Simon Cowell, the man behind Spice Girls, Teletubbies and now THIS.

  There is a special room in hell for this man, mark my words.
• 3
  Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  July 17, 2009 at 4:22 AM

  Like true detective, La Cieca has found a way to whip it good!
  Just whip it.
• 4
  Will says:

  July 17, 2009 at 6:54 AM

  You know, I think they’re pretty harmless. They don’t claim to be opera singers, like Bocelli’s machine does–they know they’re a pop boy band with classical crossover. I haven’t seen any major claims made that we should embrace them because they’ll bring the young generation into the opera house, and they’re pleasingly decorative. I think we can safely return to our usual topics, and let them make their money. If opera dies, it isn’t Il Divo that’s going to be nailing down the lid.
• 5
  Ruxton says:

  July 17, 2009 at 9:49 AM

  Well said Will! Paws off Il Divo.
  To criticise them in here is just plain snobbery.

  They are a different genre but they still sing “music” and I’d rather see them than a jazz band or heavy metal or rap any day! (I also wouldn’t mind entertaining them individually either and they wouldn’t even need an orchestra)
• 6
  chacowhacko says:

  July 17, 2009 at 10:06 AM

  “You should be able to,” Buhler says, “transmit the sentiment of the song you’re singing without them understanding the words. That’s when you’re an artist.”

  What horseshit. What he is describing is a theremin concert.
• 7
  Cassandra says:

  July 17, 2009 at 12:34 PM

  Why is the gay one always stuck in the back?
• 8
  Will says:

  July 17, 2009 at 1:10 PM

  Because he wants to be conveniently placed?
• 9
  Grimgerde2 says:

  July 17, 2009 at 1:31 PM

  Q: Are we not opera singers? A: We are Il Divo!
• 10
  Krunoslav says:

  July 17, 2009 at 2:47 PM

  I have heard David Miller sing Faust and Hoffmann in opera houses. Overparted but not awful.
• 11
  Ruxton says:

  July 17, 2009 at 11:05 PM

  Didn’t know there was a gay “Divo” – and if you look at the photo second from left is an optical illusion. If you look closely at the photo couldn’t he be in the front?
• 12
  Hans Lick says:

  July 19, 2009 at 10:01 PM

  It’s either Lohengrin, Act II (the four disgruntled knights) or Parsifal, Act I (the four ungruntled squires). Of course, it is arguable that the four squires grew up, abandoned Monsalvat for nearby (by TGV) Brabant, and have been marking time for the boss’s son to show up ever since.