Txtng the La Scala season premiere
Nuns, Doppelgängers, ball gags, “third arms“?
Your own Squirrel is on the scene at Symphony Space offering his eyewitness account of the prima of Carmen (as seen on HD, liveish from Milan). Up-to-the-minute coverage follows the jump.
4:05 PM: I guess u know who is being loudly booed right now.
4:00 PM: Kaufmann showered with flowers. Carmen booed? Unclear. Carmen whacked in face w bouquet ouch!
3:38 PM: Vendors outside bullfight are selling human limbs? Wtf
3:32 PM: Pause b4 4th and final act. Steeling myself 4 brutality and horror.
3:30 PM: People, micaela becomes his mother and dies right there!
3:15 PM: Um why does micaela in act 3 have streaks of gray hair? Oh wait…she IS HIS MOTHER?!
2:45 PM: Great. Now audience is arguing over merits of bullfighting. Good grief!
2:38: Promenading.
2:37 PM: Carmen n jose sporting lots of leave in conditioner and she looks downright swarthy!
2:30 PM: Cam needs to pan away from kaufmann when he sings bcuz he is a big drooler!
2:22 PM: Squirrel is freezing in here! Fine atto secondo. Peduzzi sets like met carmen. Costume very conservative. Dance boheme flamenco w lots of upskirts. The Upskirt Carmen?
1:50 PM: PETA has hijacked toreador song? Huge screens w pics of slatghtrd bulls!
1:30 PM: Many italian dignitaries in regalia and also txting! Animated and ornery crowd here on 95th st! No seats left. I get a slightly dishrntld vibe.
1:16 PM: Act 1 duet stagd like lucia mad scene w michaela in wedding dress!
1:05 PM: Brnbnboim pudgy had trbl sittng down on podium stool crazy lauhgter.
Carmn not a nun… Yet? No body dbls yet exept ltl boys in tidy wities with act 1 soldiers
1:02 PM: Prductn not nrly weird enuf. Mostly straigt scenes. Lotta violnce!
1:00 PM: Intermission.
12:56 PM: Kaufmn snds good but is totlly boring actor very conceited lookng
12:55 PM: This is hilarious! Hair pullng n upskirts galore!
11:55 AM: Italn opera crowd looks bored! We r o n 5 min delay. oops lights down.
11:48 AM: Vibrnt expctant crowd here folks
11:41 AM: Gosh hope kaufman pulls thru no good being raped by an undrstudy!
11:30 AM: The Corriere della Sera calls punk regista and opera newbie Emma Dante‘s production ”La Carmen eretica.” Check back all afternoon for live dispatches of the carnage!
The fiasco – er, show – begins today at 12 noon EST and will also be streaming on RAI3. A wrap-up report will follow, after the blood is all mopped up.
Don José: Jonas Kaufmann
Escamillo: Erwin Schrott
Carmen: Anita Rachvelishvili
Micaëla: Adriana DamatoConductor: Daniel Barenboim
Staging & Costumes: Emma Dante
Sets: Richard Peduzzi
Lights: Dominique Bruguière
I just love this chorus.
Are we doing something like extended Carmen Excerpts? Cuts are coming left and right. Thank God there were none that I could detect in the chorus.
Squirrel, was the Italian or the local cinema audience arguing over bullfighting
And now we get the bravo/boo duet, which is the obligatory finale of every Scala prima.
and you proved yourself right
Just back from the HD relay in London (very few geriatric spectators and a whole row of vocal Italians in front of me who made wonderful remarks – “i raggazzini in mutandine!!” “la Carmen e brutta e troppo grassa”…).
The production obviously started with Emma (I-have- never-even-been-to-La-Scala) Dante dreaming up all kinds of silliness only to be slapped down by Barenboim – result: lots of disconnected silly bits cropping up unexpectedly, like :
1. The ragazzini mentioned above – they are on the soldier’s backs (under their uniform) and jump out in their underpants cartwheeling across the stage
2. The cigarette girls come on with flowers in their mouths which they then throw in the fountain. They have a brief moment of wearing a kind of nun’s wimple, but they end up in flimsy slips
3. Carmen is (sometimes – Barenboim permitting) surrounded by 4/5 simpering little girls
4. Micaela always comes on with a couple of priests and a huge cross, sometimes supporting a large statue of Christ (it falls off and breaks, which may or may not have been intended) – she does indeed transmogrify into Jose’s old Mum, but I must say that this image is quite arresting
5. the mountain act has human trees – all the cast lie down when the cards are being read, and a couple of crosses pop up with several black clad mourners kneeling in front of them
6. in the last act the chorus announces the various matadors, picadors, chulos, etc, but we see what Emma Dante thinks is a good idea: lines of topless men walking on their knees, topless men standing up and rolling and unrolling swathes of red silk round their midriff, etc
7. also, during the Toreador song, two gigantic posters are unrolled showing very bloody and very dead bulls
8. The death scene is horribly overdone, with Jose trying to rape Carmen
There is also an amazing amount of hair pulling throughout the production – don’t know why
Okay – that’s enough silliness. Good(ish) things:
1. The neophyte Carmen has a lovely voice but needs acting lessons – she is also sadly much less attractive than the Frasquita and especially Mercedes (Adriana Kucerova)
2. Schrott is very handsome and I thought perfectly fine – I saw Ildebrando d’Arcangelo a few weeks ago at Covent Garden and he was a disappointment, so it was good to see a strong virile Escamillo. Lucky Anna!
3. Kaufmann….meh. The voice is OK, if a little “veiled”, not limpid – and I agree that he is self regarding and a wooden actor.
4. Micaela was pretty dire and much too feisty (seeing that she is supposed to be this little shy village maiden)
Sorry this is rambling – just jottings really.
Rambling but appreciated.
Well, y’all exist on a much higher plane than I do. Cuz all I kept thinking was that it’s very, very clear to me why Trebs wants to spend more time at home.
wasnt Verrett booed by the loggionisti during the 84 Prima of Scala with Carmen as well?
SQUIRREL!
You look rakishly adorable in your fedora. You must always wear it when on the Parterre beat.
thanks camille
i actually look shockingly similar to that avatar – as today’s Symphony Space audience can probably attest
Looked like the usual consortium of geriatrics. Hopefully they were not all dining at McDonalds.
I take it you were less than thrilled with the Carmen? Anna can have Erwin — even if he is *hawt* he doesn’t have much of a voice.
If you are half as cute as that Squirrel in the foto you would still be adorable!