Lights! Camera! Automatons!
What’s opening at the Met tonight may turn out to be a mere bagatelle next to a version of Les Contes d’Hoffmann “filmed in 3D and HD video, featuring 1000 extras, 150 musicians and chorus members from the Paris Opera, 50 dancers and 20 of the world’s greatest singers,” according to the blog By George.
Among the participants mentioned in connection with this Robert Carsen-helmed epic are Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón, Anne Sofie von Otter and Bryn Terfel.
Okay, rather a weird assortment of singers. Mmes. Fleming and Von Otter are currently in their 50’s – presuming that they are doing Antonia and Niklausse aren’t they rather superannuated for those HD closeups? Do gauze and vaseline on the lens work on HD cameras? (For an example see Lucy in “Mame” in the early shots) Maybe they are doing the ghost of Antonia’s mother?
What role would baritone Scott Hendricks be doing – Hermann? Schlemil? A lot of this casting would seem better for a decade ago or more? Villazon could work if his voice ever returns. I would suggest putting Netrebko in as all four heroines – she could track in some high E’s in the recording studio for Olympia and the rest is smooth skating.
In a nod to the Vicar: Give me Moira Shearer, the voices of Margherita Grandi and Bruce Dargavel (he rocks) and wild out-there queens Robert Helpmann and Leonide Massine prancing about in sequins and satin capes in the old Powell-Pressburger movie!
You’re right, Renee is starting to get up there. Maybe we should just take her out behind the barn and shoot her in the face.
!!!
DJ, you should have your mouth washed out with soap! Or maybe some of her perfume…..
Announcing Villazon in anything seems… dangerous at this point.
I do know that Renee will only be participating as Stella -none of the main ladies- and that Joyce DiDonato will be singing the Muse at the beginning but not also Nicklausse.
Everything is being split up, Hendricks will not be doing anything with an aria.
Hendricks as Schlemil then? Von Otter maybe as the Ghost of the Mother?
If the villians are being split up, Terfel is probably doing Miracle. It’s the best one. But if this gets off the ground, ever, it’ll either be the best or worst thing ever.
I believe Paulo Szot is also cast as one of the men, not completely sure who though.
I was sure that this news was some kind of fantasy, but Cassandra seems to know more about it. I can’t imagine that Fleming and Terfel would do an HD film, with it’s close-ups. I’ve seen colleagues on HD and the process was unkind to every single one of them. Of course, they didn’t have Vaseline for the lens that day…
No, it’s definitely happening. They are trying to do location based shooting like that Tosca that came out some years ago. I wasn’t aware of the 3D though. That seems a bit much.
They should add scratch ‘n sniff too..what a thrilling effect it would be when Renee points her bottle of La Voce at the audience and sprays.
Has anyone here actually seen Renee in HD closeup?
I saw her in Onegin and Thais, and she looks fabulous. Not at all like a 50-year-old woman. But these are the kind of comments I would expect here.
Of course, I’ve seen Fleming in HD, in Thais, and she looked great (as I’ve mentioned quite a few times here). But I think that a film, rather than a filmed stage performance, often allows more extreme close-ups. Also, based on seeing my own colleagues, quite fine in real-life close-ups, appear worn and haggard in HD, I worry about this proposed Hoffmann.
Even if Renee does look like she’s 50 (which she is), and is the same age as my mother, she is, most definitely, a MILF.
I still haven’t developed a taste for this opera. I just don’t understand it yet. It seems strange that Renee would do this, and since there is no official announcement I write it off as hearsay and rumor.
Anyway, the real news is that von Otter, Florez, Graham, and Fleming have all been nominated for Grammy awards in the same category! Who will take home the prize? I’m rooting for Renee.
I’m sorry that I couldn’t hear more than the first 45 minutes of tonight’s broadcast. I can’t wait to see the HD broadcast on Dec 19.
While Fleming isn’t a MILF to me, I’d certainly like to see this film once it’s made. In 3D, it could be surreal and mind-blowing.
“In a nod to the Vicar: Give me Moira Shearer, the voices of Margherita Grandi and Bruce Dargavel”
Pity the subpar Americans Ayars and Rounseville were used, though. Where were Una Hale and Edgar Evans ??
There is no corroboration for this on either IMDB or IMDB Pro. The only Tales of Hoffmann listed for Robert Carsen is from 2003. And I googled for a new movie of Hoffmann and got nothing.
It’s just being contracted right now.
Will this them be an Andrea Anderman production (the man who did the famous Tosca on location film? Years ago Anderman announced that he was going to do a multi-venue film production of HOFFMANN and even obtain holds for certain artists for that project (different singers than mentioned here) Who is producing this spectacular? Who will be the conductor?
Better still….with series of ‘continuing films’ like the epic Lord of the Rings,…. what about The Ring Cycle rather the Tales of Hoffmann?
As for usng 3-D :it might be o.k in theaters but at home such 3-D DVD experiences’ that I have watched are frankly bizarre and disorientating. More so, if people watched ‘Tales of Hoffmann creating the old fashioned ’smell-o-rama’ by spraying around Renee’s perfume and guzzling down absinthe at the same time to get into the Parisian mood for it. Then if the performance was bad, well you could always pull an expanded ‘french letter’ over your head & ears! The perfect kit for any opera queen to always have on hand..
Given what happened last night at the Met they just might want to think Calleja instead of Rolando. Based on the reactions found in the chat thread I have to ask when was the last the last time a tenor was compared to the immortal Jussi by so many listeners? For once I would like to see artistry trump PR.
Tim