Comments on: To boldly go where too many regies have gone before

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:40:21 +0000

She might not have a bottom, but she makes for one crazy pine cone.

By: manou

manou — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:57:38 +0000

Anna Maria Chiuri.

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:42:46 +0000

Who is singing as Pine Cone the Hedgehog?

By: ich bin muede

ich bin muede — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:31:49 +0000

Sorry, this comment was meant to follow on Quanto’s entry at #5.

By: ich bin muede

ich bin muede — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:30:32 +0000

Wow, what a stimulating article, thanks so much for the link. I loved reading it, but I think his equation of Method = Emotional Truth and acting = lying is pretty facile. If a character’s emotional truth, as so often in Method movies, is a matter of feeling sorry for oneself, I’ll take a little pretending by the likes of Ronald Colman that can still take me to a higher plateau. But thanks again.

By: manou

manou — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:58:22 +0000

Ottavio is a wimp but he has the best music.

By: E-news

E-news — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:56:18 +0000

Unless it is a Star-Trek-themed production of Don Giovanni where Giovanni is Kirk, Leporello is Spock, Donna Anna is Uhura, Donna Elvira is an Orion Slave Girl, Zerlina is Nurse Chapel, and Giovanni and the Commendatore fight with pon-farr-style Vulcan lirpas at the top of the show, which ultimately ends with Giovanni falling into the Guardian of Forever. In this case, please, by all means, use imagery that immediately and inevitably screams “Star Trek.”

Masetto is Sulu because he’s a bass. Ottavio can be Chekhov. Or a tribble. No one cares about Ottavio.

By: kashania

kashania — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:29:14 +0000

Good lord, that Ulrica looks like the love child of a porcupine and Jabba the Hut!

By: Will

Will — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:43:31 +0000

Ulrika als porcupine! Does this indicate that her clients come to her when they’re in sticky situations? Or that she has enough spine to tell people unpleasant truths? Or perhaps that she’ll use a quill to send warning notes?

By: Zerbinetta

Zerbinetta — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:13:30 +0000

She’s C3PO, not R2D2!

I haven’t seen the rest of this production, but apparently it is coming out on DVD soon. So far I’ve been able to say that this number must make sense in a context I haven’t seen.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:18:12 +0000

Pomodori putridi?

By: manou

manou — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:47:52 +0000

It seems that the genius costume designer in this production of Ballo is one Arnaldo Pomodoro – who definitely deserves to have some pomodori thrown at him.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:04:38 +0000

Isn’t she a hedgehog?

By: Baritenor

Baritenor — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:55:13 +0000

Cieca, this begs the question…

What are your other fast and hard Rules for Stage Directors?

By: soubrettino

soubrettino — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:51:35 +0000

If I close one eye, I could almost see the this scene in a Hayao Miyazaki light. O porcupine witch!

By: Alto

Alto — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:05:14 +0000

Our Doyenne winks at us as she affects a split infinitive in the headline.

So very sly is she.

By: schweigundtanze

schweigundtanze — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:57:32 +0000

I heard a rumor that a bottomless mezzo dressed as a pine cone is still a bottomless mezzo. Yick.

By: Quanto Painy Fakor

Quanto Painy Fakor — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:41:48 +0000

If Emma Dante is 42 (published age), then I am a real Fakor.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:47:55 +0000

and that vibrato… eeek

By: Quanto Painy Fakor

Quanto Painy Fakor — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:38:33 +0000

I love the Salzburg production of Cellini. The scenes on the rooftop with the helicopter, the great trio of Cellini Theresa and Firamosca (hiding in a movable smoke stack like Groucho Marx), the cell phones, the neighbors, etc, plus the use of a really fine edition to made all of it possible is very entertaining. I too do not understand why Kate was made to look like R2D2 and it must have been so difficult for her working in that dreadful costume, but she pulled it off with great aplomb.

By: Straussmonster

Straussmonster — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:30:05 +0000

I am all for imaginative stagings of problematic works, but I’ve never been able to figure out, in this one, exactly why Ascanio is a robot.

By: Straussmonster

Straussmonster — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:28:38 +0000

Is this the Metroid version of Ballo, or what?

By: Zerbinetta

Zerbinetta — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:17:42 +0000

In the Star Wars division:

Kate Aldrich is a much better singer.

By: Big Q

Big Q — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:56:49 +0000

My first impression was that it’s less Trek than Sendak. “Where the Wild Thing Sings.”

By: rommie

rommie — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:50:19 +0000

and no cieca, you did not just diss on startrek! *snap*

By: Quanto Painy Fakor

Quanto Painy Fakor — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:31:02 +0000

There is an interesting recent article by David Thomson in the WALL STREET JOOURNAL

“something odd is happening to our actors. No one seems to talk about it, but it’s there, and it has to do with our uneasiness over “sincerity.”

This could open a broad discussion of how singers preparing for operatic careers are thrown into situations calling for them to interact with stage directors who do not understand opera or music. It’s all too much for me to think about but there is a problem common to opera and theater that is not often addressed.

Years ago I would have posted something like this first on Opera-L, but thanks to La Cieca and those posting here, Parterre has evolved to be a much more interesting place.

See http://tinyurl.com/yhlyhds

By: squirrel

squirrel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:15:29 +0000

rommie, you are the resident Zeffirelli Boheme expert, so I’m sure you are on to something. However I love a conspiracy theory too!

By: rommie

rommie — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:01:42 +0000

speaking of regie, i have a question. ESPECIALLY DIRECTED TO SQUIRREL:

in the zeff boheme… mimi is immediately made to look like she’s about to die from her uber pale color (stratas)… how come all the recent mimis at the met have been moving a lot like theyre super happy and super energetic?

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:51:07 +0000

the Patricia Payne class

Is that a size of starship?

By: The Vicar of John Wakefield

The Vicar of John Wakefield — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:44:59 +0000

Appalling, nowhere near the Patricia Payne class in the role.