“It’s about this whale…”
Preternaturally boyish composer Jake Heggie is putting finishing touches on his orchestration for his opera Moby-Dick. The cetacean tuner, “huge strings” and all, is set for an April debut in Dallas. [KERA]
In less jolly news, Los Angeles Opera is beginning to wonder if this is the best of times to launch a Ring cycle with a price tag of $32 million. [LA Times]
I find myself thinking “some day, cher Cieca is going to run out of perfectly apt, unexpectedly funny quotations to serve as headlines,” and yet she never has (and I suppose, never will). This one, however obvious, made me laugh inordinately. I admire this especially because I’ve never been any good at this in my own writing.
Ditto. Dittissimo.
“cetacean tuner”!! Well I hope this tuner is dolphin safe.
Damn you girls are on FIRE today.
In other girls-on-fire news, I’m heartbroken to hear the bad news about LA’s Götterdämmerung. From what I’ve seen, its mad, painterly aesthetic is one of the most visually startling ever to grace the American stage. As always, I blame Alberto Vilar.
” The cetacean tuner”
Brava, DIVA!
Let’s get to the important question: who’s going to sing Moby Dick?
Who’s going to sing Moby Dick?
Teddy Tahu Rhodes, surely …
What do you know about him that we don’t…?
There are several sopranos, past and present, who’d be aptly cast as the whale. But pul-leez, hold off on naming names.
Inveterate Gossip (your comment 4.1) has another ‘possibility of meaning ‘…..though I’m sure it as not intended to sound, quite that way. We do have fertile minds here. you must remember.
OK, I can’t resist telling this brief anecdote, and I truly apologize in advance if any of you are offended, but remember, we were sixteen at the time. My friend and I had gone to see the movie and, as we exited, his first words were, “I couldn’t tell Moby’s Dick from Gregory’s Pecker.” Well, we laughed our asses off back then,anyway.
As always, I blame Alberto Vilar
Not far from the truth. The Ring in Los Angeles has been around for, what? a decade or so. It was originally supposed to have been done with George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, paid for in part by Vilar. It never happened, obviously, but the Ring has been a big sinkhole of cash since.
Luckily, the two operas that I care about that are in the future, Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten and Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, have (I think) been paid for by whoever wrote the checks for the Recovered Voices project.
Dan Johnson,(2.1) from the pic stills shown from the 3 other parts of L.A ’s Ring cycle..reputed to cost $32 million…where did the money go? It looks like the designer just went to a Wal Mart sale and brought up all the clearance light saber toys from a old promotion of Star Wars merchandise…. to go with a few Peter Greenaway background art props. Another flawed Ring comin’ up….. we will sure be hearing ’bout it from all the Ring queens that jet about to see every production. And coming is L.A’s Gotterdammerung?…… I hope not they way that finacially sounds.
Perhaps the devotees are studying for a Masters Degree in ‘Bayreuthonics’.Having to hand in their tickets studs from the last Ring they attended, checked against the last Ring held elewhere: each semester.
Failure to do so, would invite expulsion from the Course, one assumes.
I am waiting for a production where it is not the gold everybody is seeking, but perhaps a special power giving mp3 player or a newly created video control game.
Harry, i will never give up my ticket stud.
Dear All Opera Companies,
Productions cost more and more, and look cheaper and cheaper. Can I get some expensive-looking Regie, please?
Also, stop producing the Ring. You can’t cast it properly and it’s sinking you.
Love,
Squirrel
“cetacean tuner” made me truly laugh out loud—I like to think that Roz Russell would have appreciated it too…
I think that Jake Heggie is getting operatic ideas above his cetacean, frankly.
But he’s Jake Heggie and we’re not.