Yesterday’s news, tomorrow
Wow! That Daniel J. Wakin story appearing in tomorrow’s Times has everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at Luc Bondy’s rear end!
There’s mystery, intrigue, pithy quotations from Peter Gelb, ungracious maundering from Franco Zeffirelli, plus of course that stuff about next season’s Tosca you previously gleaned from parterre.com two weeks ago, last week, and today. [NYT]
gibt mir den kopf des luc bondy!!!!!!!!!
Duelling Toscas!!!1!
As I said on an earlier thread Gelb seems to be absolutely LOVING this whole controversy. Having both productions in one season will generate enormous PR. I predict many Tommasinni “think” pieces.
Franco will no doubt be sending daily, incoherent missives through the NY Times. Let the fur fly!
Gelb is a genius….
You know, I usually find myself rolling my eyes at Joshua Kosmann, but he gained major points in my books for the “weenies” comment. Because, seriously, I would love to see what happens when you NY guys get a REALLY shitty production instead of just a kind of disappointing one. And no, HOFFMANN doesn’t count as really shitty. I’m talking some crazy German deconstructionist approach, like LA’s insane Ring Cycle.
Yes…but if the SF critic had actually SEEN it in the house instead of the “cleaned up for PBS” version, he might hold some credibility. The production was “doctored” for the cameras…and not what opening night audience saw. Another asshole critic……..
Kosman is actually a very good critic. Much better than some NYC critics, Bernheimer and JJ excepted. If Kosman liked the HD version good for him. Should he have made perjorative remarks about Met audiences without seeing the production live? No, but he’s hardly an asshole.
So whose big donor’s kid ran afowl of Elena Doria?
Met’s Kids Sing on Without Mother Hen
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/arts/music/21chorus.html?scp=1&sq=doria&st=cse
It seems Mr. Wakin is copying verbatim our Cieca’s entries.
OT: Today’s Giacomo Puccini’s Birthday. Auguri!
Shocking news! I hope Elena is getting her full benefits and a big severence pay.
Still…he made a blanket statement without ever seeing it live for himself. He had no right to criticize what a NYC audience saw…and the use of the term “weenies” hardly makes him a good critic.
With every passing second the Times slides further and further into cultural irrelevance.
Kosman is a very nice man and a reliable critic, though sometimes his conversance with opera leaves something to be desired. You have to remember one thing about Joshua, he is the product of a music education under Joseph Kerman at Berkeley, a fate i would wish for no one! Shabby little shocking professor! Joaquin Nin Culmel once told me, “I am the man who hired Kerman; biggest mistake of my life!”
On a completely unrelated note, after seeing the new MET Hoffmann and Kathleen Kim as Olympia it struck me (he said ducking) that if nothing else they have finally found a soprano they can put opposite Barry Banks to make him look tall!
This woman must be no more than 3 feet tall. And very bottom heavy. No matter how she sounded she looked ridiculous in that costume and if Gelb is hiring for how people look on stage it wasn’t evident in those short, fat legs and that wide ass when she bent over.
Sorry. Happy Holidays!
But Kerman also was a fucking genius in his own fach.
Kosman might be a nice man, but I find myself disagreeing with his assessments so often that I don’t read his reviews until after I’ve seen the performance myself.
Wow, you’ve earned your name!
in real life, she is a tiny, tiny woman. she has hips, yes, but she is really quite small. would you rather have some stick figure soprano who can’t sing? cause i am sure we can find plenty of those. i would take kim over a screeching skelator dessay any day.
yes, operabitch, you on the other must be a beauty to behold. like medea or one of the witches in macbeth.
Since I’m not on the stage it doesn’t really matter what I look like. Why don’t people get that?
Tiny? I was in the front row. She may be tiny from the waist up but from the waist down she looked like a cow. It was UGLY.
thank goodness you are not on stage. let’s hope you also put a bag over your head when you go outside.
what you write here does matter though. you should choose your words carefully, you ugly whore.
Here ya go!
I thought K Kim looked cute as Olympia although when watching her she reminded me of Bobby Lee from MAdTV when he does his Connie Chung impersonitations.
Lucky pierre: you might want to take your own advice, dear. Don’t be so bitter.
Wow, you are just taking hateful and nasty to a whole new level, aren’t you?
Well, they do say what goes around, comes around; I’d just like to be there when this little bon mot comes back to bite you in the butt…
I love how “Gelb is all about lookism!” and then he hires someone who isn’t perfect, and it’s all, “Look at that ugly cow!”
There have been some of the most hateful, mysogenistic comments made here lately with no moderation, that I really feel uncomfortable reading the comments anymore, for fear of what I’m going to read. Call me supersensitive, but, as a performer myself, I’d rather not hang around somewhere I’m likely to see someone calling me horrible things and making comments about my appearance.
She has been an outstanding teacher and mentor; I vastly admire her and have to wonder what the real story is?? Maybe she was just there too long?
Dolls often look ridiculous; that’s part of the game!
She is tiny. She did look like some kind of bizarre mechanical doll in her costume (Hello! It’s Olympia!)And I thought her performance was delightful, spectacular, stunning! I wish I could have seen her in Rinaldo.
operabitch, take your medication.