parterre box

73 comments

• BillyBoy says:

  and no one said

  hairograpy!

  on December 8, 2009 at 10:42 PM
  • MontyNostry says:

    It will be interesting to see what this does or doesn’t do to Anita R’s career. Will other houses pick up on her willy nilly or will she be allowed to mature a little before further major exposure.

    By the way, I think that this young raven-haired mezzo — who is at La Scala’s academy — is more interesting, though also still work in progress.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCHDnQ5L3qg

    on December 9, 2009 at 3:55 AM
• spiderman says:

  is it true? zefirelli is going for it again. dante for him is “the devil”. poor old zef seems to need higher medication (first bondy, then dessi, now dante)… all in 2 1/2 month.

  on December 9, 2009 at 9:51 AM
• Harry says:

  Is it me or what? That La Scala Carmen clip enterely suggests something boring and pedestrian. No matter whether people want rate it solely becayse ‘Kaufmann is in the cast….gee whiz!’ To think people are willing to dress up and pay big money to attend such dire dross presentation.
  For Don Jose, being completely passive: as the Carmen attempts her stage antics at sitting on him and ‘showing pussy’ in some ‘man or mouse’ test. That ridiculous ‘I’M SO HOT’ gesture! The way she keeps sliding her hands irritating ,up and down her legs like she is into cramps from secondary’s of VD infection. ……….. A comment of ‘I could swear Carmen’s got at least scabies or crabs’ – comes to mind. That probably explains Don Jose’s apprehensiveness in this production. With the health of the Carmen character herself NOT with the disruptive situation, he has placed himself in. It is all rather comical.

  Plus where is the mercurial ‘flick of the wrist’ musical flashes, or the rhythmic pointing that is synonymous with Carmen, as an opera? Either, out of the singers or from Barenboim directing the orchestra?

  on December 9, 2009 at 12:06 PM
  • MontyNostry says:

    No, Harry, it isn’t just you. Making Carmen boring is an achievement in itself, I guess.

    on December 9, 2009 at 1:10 PM
• wladek says:

  from what you see and hear it is about two people in heat ,neither
  can sing well- Carmen a vulgarity
  to the hilt and poor Jose doing
  the best he can with whatever
  technique he has. This ain’t Carmen
  as much as what goes on in the
  back alley with two cats in summer heat .None seem to have any artistic
  dignity whatsoever .They miss the
  point of the opera entirely.

  on December 9, 2009 at 12:07 PM
• Harry says:

  Many years ago there was an extensive video documentary on Regina Resnik directing Carmen in Hamburg with Domingo.
  Having also sung the main title role many times: she pointed out the directing pitfalls associated with Carmen. She was clear and concise about her approach, with none of the ‘mod’ veneer of feminist bullshit – construct, we hear today. I loved it when someone asked her what is the essence, of what Carmen’s character was about. In a flash without pause, she walked over, picked up a rose, gestured to some man to smell it and then threw it to the floor and trampled on it. Bang!…..in an instant, Resnik showed she was not only fully competent but well prepared for any contingency situation, a director finds themselves in. She spoke about the culture surrounding Spanish army soldiers for that period and how she herself, saw Carmen. As a ‘walking dead’ fatalistic character, who lives rather dangerously with her life choices. Someone. sub-consciously looking for some candidate to come along to kill her. Others may differ with such a concept, but it cannot be denied such experienced forthright people as Resnik never ever left themselves open to accusations of being ill prepared or ‘ditherers’ for such tasks.

  Today, too many directors wear that particular fault almost, as a badge of honor, not as a crime! Even, by becoming their own ‘self- conjecturing chatter-boxes’ in print or voice media about what they did, long after an event, they ‘allegedly directed’.
  They have no core or real foundation for what they wish to, or appear to – stand for. Being so anonymous and blank, perhaps give it another week and they will give a completely different view of what they just stated ‘as truth’.

  on December 9, 2009 at 1:03 PM
• wladek says:

  Harry- absolutely right !!!! Carmen
  is all about those cards ,every turn
  of the card is what she fears most -
  the inevitable – the rest is window dressing -and when you see it done
  the way Bizet moves it -the whole
  thing changes as an expierence – it
  takes great artists to achieve this, and
  we ain’t got many of those around.

  on December 9, 2009 at 2:19 PM
• Jay says:

  From what I heard streamed, Barenboim’s conducting wasn’t a patch on LB’s take on Carmen at the Met back in the 1970s. Oy, vey, talk about turgid. Henry Lewis, never one of my favorites, at least kept the production moving. This was the “gay bar in San Juan” production. At least that’s how someone described the Act II tavern set.

  on December 9, 2009 at 5:49 PM
  • Jay says:

    I meant to say Henry Lewis kept the performance moving. Svoboda, of course, designed the production, which I liked, though many others didn’t.

    on December 9, 2009 at 5:51 PM
  • MontyNostry says:

    I can believe it. LB could be terminally self-indulgent. His recording of Rosenkavalier is another example. Very beautiful, but set in aspic.

    on December 9, 2009 at 8:02 PM
• squirrel says:

  Tru dat. The LB carmen is not just sluggish but a “deconstruction” of its elements

  on December 9, 2009 at 6:07 PM
• The Vicar of John Wakefield says:

  All one needs for a capital staging of CARMEN is a bit of all right like Joyce Blackham,

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/35891355@N03/3318057181/

  on December 9, 2009 at 6:53 PM
  • manou says:

    OMG – bedroom scene? Escaping breasts? Two gay abandons? AND the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal….

    I fear the Vicar will soon be defrocked.

    on December 9, 2009 at 7:02 PM
    • MontyNostry says:

      Were breasts allowed in South Africa during the apartheid era?

      on December 9, 2009 at 8:11 PM
  • J. G. Pastorkyna says:

    Vicar, this WAS the occasion to mention Katherine Pring. She was indeed the best Carmen I ever saw, at the Coliseum, circa 1977. What joie de vivre, yet what fatalism. And the way she spilled that cart of watermelons at the end of Act 1. Terrific!! Also, having spent three acts barefoot, you could see Carmen was self conscious in her act IV finery. I still remember it. Oddly enough, I believe the Micaela was Linda Esther Gray.

    on December 9, 2009 at 7:08 PM
• CerquettiFarrell says:

  Best, most intelligent and moving card scene in my experience (yes!) is the glyndebourne staging by MacVicar and Jordan in the pit. Von Otter was spot on. Now you can kill me.
  The best conductor of the score IMHO. Well, Beecham and Cluytens are there too.

  Here’s the quintet

  on December 9, 2009 at 7:05 PM
  • CruzSF says:

    Would this production count as regie?

    Despite the heaving bosoms, this excerpt seems to have very little heat. No one seems to sing or act with abandon. I do like the very clear diction, though.

    on December 9, 2009 at 9:06 PM
  • Alto says:

    Utterly refreshing.

    on December 10, 2009 at 3:18 AM