Her haunted heart is in the right place
Soprano Renée Fleming, target of a jibe or three on this site over the years, shows what finer stuff she’s made of on January 11 when she gives a recital for the benefit of Treatment Action Group in the intimate setting of a SoHo loft, recently dubbed “Carnegie Hall South” in the New York Times.
Fleming will be joined jazz pianist/composer Fred Hersch for a program of popular and classical selections. Here’s more information on tickets to the event.
Treatment Action Group, La Cieca is informed, is an AIDS research policy think tank that has its roots in ACT UP. In the 15+ years that TAG has been around, it’s been instrumental in setting the US and Global agenda for HIV research. In particular, TAG established the idea of expanded access whereby patients without other options could gain access to experimental medicines without being in clinical trials. They’ve been a constant force in demanding the types of basic research and clinical studies that meet the need of patients in the real world. Recently, their focus has expanded to include tuberculosis and hepatitis which are responsible for so many of the deaths due to HIV outside the US.
Posted it once, will post it again.
For me, this it THE definition of filth. Despicable.
Here I droops my vings in Essen, Germany
those aren’t the only things drooping too!
on the upside, she does make Cunegonde’s suffering sooo brittle!
Absolutely! And I think it proves something about operatic filth…you can have a fine voice and still be a dirty rotten little opera whore. I think this is the most often fucked up aria in the soprano rep. Everyone trots it out and almost none of them understand how to put it across. Girls, please listen Barbara Cook immediately! That’s how it’s done.
folks, is CANDIDE a broadway musical or an opera?
nobody knows. Will write Lenny an Email
Hmmm. Scientific examination of DVD covers, CD covers and Wikipedia points towards ‘comic operetta’.
i find it so tickling that “broadway musical” stars get to do better interpretations of it than “opera” stars.
Mein Gott. Such vit. My zides, zey are krecking.
What dreadful singing.
June Anderson did a perfectly respectable Glitter back in the 80s with Lenny on the podium
My favorite version of Glitter and Be Gay is, get this, Madeline Kahn’s. She sang Cunegonde at a concert in 1968 opposite Alan Arkin as Pangloss and Irra Petina as the Old Lady. I have a pirate in horrible sound, but she knocks it way, way way out of the park.
My fave Glitter and Be Gay is Maureen McGovern’s, though I do like Kristen Chenoweth’s also.
Girls and boys should listen to Barbara Cook, period. She is one of the greatest vocal artists of our time. It was brilliant of Juilliard to engage her for master classes, not with the theater department but opera. Unlike most singers in any genre, she knows how to directly get to the heart of the lyric, singing with beauty and simplicity.
I desperately want to hear that Kahn “Glitter and be gay”…please post it
It seems like a bit of an operatic urban legend.
When you guys say “filth” do you really mean that it’s horrible or are you just kidding? I think Simone Kermes Glitter is great and I like the dress. It reminds me of what Uma Thurman wore as Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin movie.
http://www.comicbookhotties.com/images/poison-ivy/large/uma-thurman-picture-14.jpg
When I first heard S. Kermes it was in her studio recording of Rodelinda and I thought she was stiff and boring (I preferred Fleming…still do) but she’s actually the complete opposite. She’s dancing around and enjoying herself…it’s not filth…it’s great. Her dresses match her personality.
I honestly think this is filth. She is so out of style and has no real sense of humour for this. And the shticks just make her seem bored and out of her wits, definitely not enjoying herself. I honestly hate this kind of “show”, like her sister Patricia Petibon and HER awful scamperings around the stage. I just can’t watch it, and just to think that THIS passes nowadays as good quality entertainment. To me it’s just a freak show.
Nah, you don’t really believe that, you just like bitching.
Sure I think she’s a paragon of style and discretion
Regarding her totally impulsive stage antics and her inability to respect ‘the natural line and flow of a piece of music’ which what she is allegedly singing….
In polite terms, she should be considered ‘exceptionally common’. No poise, no sense of occasion or elegant concert presence. Banner headline: ‘Kermit the frog….She would ideally cast as The Who’s Acid Queen in ‘Tommy’!, eating up all the scenery along the way as she goes into her routine.
A unpredictable vaudevillian banshee that can sing unfortunately, up in opera’s vocal range: doing what they used to call ‘another example of their typical turn……. ‘a novelty act’.
In her terms it also becomes grotesque
Wow, seriously you guys need to chill. She’s a banshee who doesn’t “respect” the natural vocal line? You forgot to mention that she also changed the words a little. People are supposed to enjoy music, her job is to entertain. Like I said, you guys just like to bitch.
i agree with javier. Damn y’all. CHILL OUT. you guys will age quicker if you keep on hating so much. *COUGH HARRY COUGH*
she’s interesting in the baroque and classical roles, perhaps romantic roles arent for her as it requires a more realized sense of dramatic exposition.
BUT AGAIN.. CHILL OUT. it’s done..2 people in this thread like her to an extent the rest hate her. ok.
“unpredictable vaudevillian banshee”
I’m totally using that at Christmas Eve dinner.
Purls und ruby rings…okay filth aside I have yet to see this Kermes woman in an attractive gown. she defnitely has NO GAY FRIENDS!
I have often thought that Kermes MUST be a gay drag queen…
Jane Archibald as Cunegonde could be fun. I’ll hear her next week -- with Karan Armstrong as the Old Lady, and Keith Lewis as Governor. I am slightly nervous for Karan Armstrong, though. This is her 26 years ago, and we all remember that Japanse private concert posted here with her as one of the Valkyries:
Well, Armstrong pole danced herself bravely through the part, without a voice, alas. There really should be a law against pole dancing chamber singers.
But Jane Archibald and Michael Spyres were both excellent. Archibald never looked stupid on stage, and her voice, although a bit whiteish, is exceptionally well produced, and very expressive. Her Glitter (dancing toilet bowls!) got the biggest ovation of the evening. Loved her.
Michael Spyres had to play Candide as a nerd, and he is not the world’s greatest actor, but I loved his voice so much, it did not really matter.
Too bad her coloratura is largely poor and her intonation so bad and her delivery of Italian so inexpressive and lame.
But this is the kind of circus act a certain kind of dizzy queen adores.
I’ve heard Kermes sing well, but here she’s like Nina Hagen trying to channel Lauren Flanigan.
“this is the kind of circus act a certain kind of dizzy queen adores”
That one I’m going to save for New Year’s Eve.
You guys are the best!
Love June Anderson as Cunegonde. No need to “channel” her inner crazed greedy whore, it’s already built in.
Re RF – well I have nothing nice to say so I won’t say anything, aside from the fact that if I don’t look too closely she looks mildly retarded. Listening didn’t help that impression.
Hey, mental retardation is nothing to joke about. I’m retarded.
Who’s joking?
To me everything is a joke.
BTW RF herself recorded her own version of Glitter on her American aria album. Not bad at all, despite the horrible manic laughter at the very end.
I don’t know why, but Fleming’s “Pearls and ruby rings” in that album was the most frightening thing I’ve ever heard aside from Tebaldi’s “tre assi e un paio” scream. Presumably that Cunegonde ran on caffeine excess.
LMAO
Freilich, sie ist ganz toll
Here’s some more absolute and utter filth from the circus act Simone Kermes.
This makes me want to tear up the walls. Notice the awfully off-style cadenza at 3:25, definitely the worst that I have ever heard.
OMG just found this… girl, you need to change your medication
Previously in former remarks watching this Kermes woman… I was advised to ‘chill out’. I will know explain why observing such public antics out of a performer sends chills down my spine. I once represented one soprano who was really talented but stuffed up badly with her unprofessional antics. During performances, she would change previous instructions given by a director. If she meant to be say, just remain off a bright lit spot area , she would deliberately ‘creep’ and become the center of attention. If she was supposed to be knocked down or ‘faint’ that was not good enough…..she would put on a show of ‘death rattles’- it was just uncontrollable attention seeking.
She lacked DISCIPLINE! Furious directors proclaimed ‘she will not take direction!. That lack of discipline I see here in Kermes, reminded me of my ‘headaches’ past. Best, avoided by anyone who has experienced dealing with such situations..