Lazy afternoon
Neither Maria Guleghina nor Marcello Giordani was in best form for the Met’s HD telecast of Turandot — and, truth be told, the lavish Franco Zeffirelli production is beginning to show its age.
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“you no understand, is not enough! he want to KEEES me!”
This looks and sounds like Italian pasta served up to look like Chinese pork buns which instead turns out to be by mistake an imitation Indian curry.
It’s like Christmas on the Upper West Side!
Best bet: cheese bar @ Zabar’s
That, along with some of Harry’s “cat pee chardonnay” and a loaf of Jewish rye, and you can forget about pork buns, hot cross buns, and any other buns.
Since when did Giulietta Simionato play Turandot?
She does look like Simionato, doesn’t she? In fact, her name is Lucia Mannucci, and the group is the Quartetto Cetra. They were extremely popular in Italy in in the 50s, 60s and 70s. They specialized in parodies. I remember a parody of the Count of Montecristo and The Three Musketeers. They also loved opera, and one of their most famous song was In un palco della Scala.
Without a translation it’s hard to tell if there’s any wit to this, but it’s remarkable (at least to me) how clear it is that this stuff is still built-in to Italian culture. It presupposes at least recognition of the subject of parody on the part of the audience. Here, alas, it’s doubtful that more than a tiny percentage of the population would have any clue what’s going on—even without the language difference.
It’s somewhat witty, but they change some of the details. Calef (not Calaf..) is on a quiz show here, not in the royal palace…
Ten years ago, I was in Rome in the summer and going to see Turandot in an outdoor performance at teh Olympic stadium. My cab driver asked me what I was seeing and when I replied “Turandot”, he said: “Oh, that’s a good one!”. Same with the cab driver on the way back. I was amazed! If it had been in Toronto, the driver wouldn’t have known what a Turandot was let alone have an opinion about whether it’s any good or not. God bless the Italians!
Is that Maestro Levine conducting?
Actually in 1976 there was a much more opera-savvy audience in Italy. The mixing of Grand Opera with San Remo festival is perfect. It’s kind of like Sid Caeser and Imogene Coca. This is so refined compared with contemporary Italian.
I can’t wait for the rap version of ‘La Fanciulla del West’
She looks like an Italian Imogene Coca to me. I thought it was an old “Your Show Of Shows” skit before I played the Youtube clip
Somehow, I suspect that even if I spoke Italian, I would not find this funny.