Reminder: Oughty but nice
La Cieca reminds the cher public: you still have one week to come up with a top ten list about the decade from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2009, with the winner taking home a $100 Amazon gift card
Clever contributor Devon Estes (not pictured) has suggested to La Cieca what may well turn out to be the bestest discussion idea in many a moon. With the turn of the decade approaching and the end of the Oughts near at hand, what better way to mark the passing of the first decade of a new millennium than by making lists?
Your task, cher public: create one or several top ten lists of the best or worst in opera from January 1, 2000 until (extrapolating) December 31, 2009. These lists can be of singers, productions, events, recordings — whatever you think can best and most entertainingly be condensed into a list of the magical 10.
As with any of these open-ended comment fests, La Cieca thinks the best contributions are those that include nice, vivid details. She is not averse to the use of YouTube clips or external links to help illustrate the points you are trying to make.
La Cieca will keep this discussion thread open through the end of 2009, and as soon as she recovers from the double-whammy New Year’s Eve of the Met’s new Carmen production and the traditional Countess De Lave “wee juggie,” (also not picture) La Cieca will award that gift that goes with everything, a $100 Amazon gift card
And discuss, please! Discuss!
The Top Ten Participants I Have Most Enjoyed Reading on Parterre Box During the Last Decade
10. The Marschallin. I always loved his throbbing Cheryl Studerection. He was so wrong so often and such an easy target for those of us who didn’t share in his adoration, but he was always so much fun. I miss him (if, indeed, he is gone).
9. Squirrel. Ever since I saw him bogarting that fedora and trenchcoat on his way to an HD event, I knew he was going to be fun. We old nuts love our bushytailed young nuts, and we just hope the young nuts like Squirrel will love us in return when we are trying to explain why Claudia Muzio is more important in the grand scheme of things than…say…Anna Netrebko.
8. Wenarto. Keeping the hot-mess crazy in this crazy old world. I eagerly anticipate each clip, no matter how inappropriate to the thread. There is a place for crazy, and this certainly is it.
7. Lindoro Almaviva. It’s good to read comments by a singer about singing. Those of us who can’t even sing in the shower can learn a thing or two from people who have actually sung opera on stage.
6. Maury D’annato. Without doubt, this is the all-time best operatic nom de blog in the history of blogging. I just wish he would do four or five entries per day on his own blog, but I do enjoy his fabulous forays over here to parterre box.
5. Paddypig. I have always loved reading him and missed him for the longest time until his recent reappearance hereabouts. Please participate more often now and don’t be reluctant to bitchslap those who deserve it…and even those who don’t.
4. The Regie Buster. I don’t know if this is one person or several, but I love it when someone reveals the answer to the regie quiz and I can read it before our doyenne redacts the shit out of it.
3. Famous Quickly. No thread is ever near completion until we’ve heard from her. I never get tired of her solipsistic input. She could have compiled a much better list than this; it’s merely a matter of taste and willpower.
2. The Vicar of John Wakefield. I love him for being the Karl Rove of British cheerleading. I can just hear his history lecture to attentive school children about how that glorious British ship Titanic was sunk by the evil Teutonic (or Gallic or Iberian or Roman) iceberg. Yes, Vicar!—Dominion and Empire!! They still mean something! And I can just see our Vicar enjoying an elegant candlelight supper with Hyacinth Bucket, discussing how no one could sing Gluck’s Orpheus the way Dame Clara Butt did.
(and drum roll please….My Number One favorite person to read on parterre box is…)
1. Mrsjohnclaggert. The only person in the blogosphere for whom TLTR never applies. The longer, the better. I wish every entry were twice, nay three times!, as long. I wish you would stop feuding with those dreadful people over at opera-L and devote more time to us. I mean, we really need to know which pre-WW I Italian diva recorded the best fragments from Giordano’s Mala vita. If you don’t tell us, who can?
Yo, what say? Group hug, y’all?
Why, Rysanekfreak, how sweet of you! If only more people thought that way!!!! But one is an army, thank you. And it is nice of La Cieca to allow me to hold forth as I do, shamelessly. Yes, I should give up Opera Hell, but I want to strike two or three of them dead and watch them clutch and scream their way to a slow agonizing cessation. Is that so much to ask?
Congratulations Mrs. John Claggert – but let us not have these spots of abandonment this next decade. Your memories of past performances and experiences (no matter how hazy they may become) are essential reading.
Bill
I am at something of a disadvantage here. Since I only started opera going in 2004, I can’t really talk about “the decade.” But a lot has happened in the past five years and I think we’re all agreed that the biggest game-changer in Opera today has been the Met’s HD Transmissions. One of the most…intriguing features of seeing these in the movie theaters are Gelb’s use of other singers to host the broadcast: rather than the professional broadcasters or celebrity presenters used in the previous eras of Live from the Met (Peter Allen, we hardly knew ye), he has roped in some of his biggest stars to host the transmissions and do intermission interviews with the stars and the production team. However, since these interviews are live, the interviewers are often not very professional, and they are often being held among colleagues and friends, the atmosphere can often lead to gaffs and bloopers. So, I present:
THE TEN MOST UNCOMFORTABLE, UNPREDICTABLE OR UNINTENTIONALLY HILARIOUS MOMENTS AT THE MET’S HD TRANSMISSION BACKSTAGE SEGMENTS
10. RENEE FLEMING INTERVIEWS THE PRODUCTION MANAGER AS FILLER
A brief pause for a set change occurs between acts three and four of Aida, run sans intermission. Since the HD directors can’t let his international audience sit there simply watching a set change for five minutes, he throws host Renée Fleming onstage with a microphone and the Met’s Production Manager to talk about watching a set change (Oh, Gary Halvorson, don’t you know the first rule of cinema is “show, don’t tell?”). He barely has time to talk about how efficient the Met’s set changes are when his very efficient set change is over and he is whisked off back behind the scenes.
9. KARITA MATTILA SURPRISES RENEE FLEMING WITH SPLITS
After Act One of Manon Lescaut, Karita Mattila rushes backstage for the usual chat with Renée Fleming. The subject of Mattila’s upcoming high c/flat splits combo comes up, and the Finnish soprano, without a word of warning, practices the later half of the bit right there and then, giving Fleming the giggles.
8. NATALIE DESSAY AND ANNA NETREBKO CHAT ABOUT LUCIA. IT’S AWKWARD.
The choice of Natalie Dessay as an interviewer for the HD transmission of Lucia, in hindsight, was probably not a good idea. Not only was she glued to the script, but as she was standing next to Anna Netrebko, one couldn’t help compare the two singer’s highly controversial performances in Mary Zimmerman’s production. On the video, both appear aware of this and Netrebko, in particular, looked like she would rather be anywhere else. Piotr Beczala, stuck in the middle, was wise enough to keep smiling and speak charmingly in Polish as Dessay bumbles around and Netrebko grimaces at the eleventh or so question about her new baby.
7. ANNA NETREBKO FLAUNTS HER CHINCHILLA
After the Antonia act of Hoffmann, Anna Netrebko enters her interview with Deborah Voigt in high spirits. Talking about (plugging) her beautiful costumes in this production, she mentions that she is wearing a real chinchilla stole as Stella. Voigt, perhaps with an eye towards the fur-is-murder crowd, attempts to softly deny that claim, but Netrebko, oblivious, corrects her before Voigt hurriedly changes the subject. Awkward? Yes. Also? Hilarious.
6. FELICITY PALMER IS A PARTY CRASHER
Since the interviews are held backstage or in the wings, there are always a good number of people milling about in the background. One of the funniest instances of an unintended observer came just before Act III of Peter Grimes. While Natalie Dessay reads off a prompter in the foreground, plugging the many wonders of the Met, Felicity Palmer appears in the corridor behind her, saw the cameras, freezes, smiled sheepishly, turned around veneer slowly and walked quickly the other way.
5. JUAN DIEGO FLOREZ TALKS ABOUT HIS UNDERWEAR; DEBBIE VOIGT IS MORTIFIED
As #7 demonstrates, Deborah Voigt can’t be described as unflappable. After Act one of La Somnambular, Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez head backstage to chat with Debbie V. The mood is light and the two singers are obviously coming off an adrenaline rush. In response to a question about the production-as-rehearsal concept, Natalie Dessay reveals several of the costume pieces come from her own wardrobe. This prompts JDF to crack a joke that he provided his own socks and underwear. While Dessay cracks up, Voigt goes white, mutters something about “yes, underwear, ladies and gentlemen” and changed the subject. Because that solves everything.
4. RENEE FLEMING CONFUSES DoLORA ZAJICK
During the interviews, a certain amount of ass-kissing usually ensues, often from the host to the singers, to reinforce, if necessary the fact that everyone is very good. Sometimes, it backfires. During Aida, Renee Fleming shares an anecdote about being blown away by how loud Dolora Zajick is when they sang together, and, hilariously, Zajick shoots her a look as if she’s grown another head. By all accounts, it’s not hard to make the famously weird Zajick confused, and Fleming’s innocent comment does just enough to make the great mezzo look like a perplexed twelve-year-old.
3. KARITA MATTILA HAS A POTTY MOUTH
Right before Salome, Deborah Voigt and Karita Mattila engaged in a highly congratulatory conversation about how hard it is to sing Salome. Apparently this is enough to get Mattila’s blood pumped, because as the interview ends, she blurts out “Let’s go kick some ass!” Voigt’s eyes bulge out comically as she realizes Mattila just said “ass” in front of an audience of millions. As a hilarious coda, when Mattila greats the supers and choristers onstage, she is not milked, but if you read lips, it is obvious she is telling each and every one of them to “kick ass.” Amazing.
2. ROBERTO ALAGNA FLIRTS WITH RENEE FLEMING IN FRONT OF ANGELA GHEORGHIU
If you saw this without hearing rumors that the Alagnas’ marriage was in jeopardy or basically dead in the water, you heard them as soon as the interview was over. Alana is all over Fleming, nothing too overt, nothing that can’t be construed as friendly banter among colleges, just enough to be a little…sleazy with his wife standing right there. And Gheorgiu looks totally DONE with the interview, and eventually just leaves. It’s squirm-inducing….and also slightly appealing to the sadist in each of us.
1. THE PERFECT STORM: BARTLETT SHER ILLUSTRATES MURPHY’S LAW
Just before the Antonia act of Hoffmann, Deborah Voigt got Bartlett Sheer to discuss his production concept and goals for the opera. Unfortunately, they were upstaged by one of the most incredible sights ever caught on film: Anna Netrebko’s pre-show dance. As Netrebko walks to her place, she performs a strange mambo/shimmy/Charleston combo that will haunt my memory forever. I have no idea if she was aware she was in the shot, if she was off in her own little world or she was actually trying to upstage her director. Whatever the truth is, you can’t take your eyes off her. Later, Voigt ends the interview and then is told to stall for time. They end up waving hello to Netrebko. These things really are live.
Great list, Baritenor, and congratulations on finding a way to contribute despite a recent plunge into opera-going. I haven’t found a way to do the same. I missed the entire first year of HD transmissions but will catch them on DVD. I’ve noticed that at some points, the interview features are more interesting than the productions.
I’ll join in the fun. Here are my top 10 reasons I keep coming back to parterre box:
1. The gossip/scoops. The gossip on parterre I find to be one of a kind — you can filter the usual muck from a bunch of anonymous posters and just revel in the fact that La Cieca has assembled a wonderful group of spies and sources whose scoops and dish are very often confirmed days later by the “official” press.
2. The long-running gags. La Cieca’s “fascination” with Fleming, the regie quizzes, the blogs pointing out Anthony Tommasinni’s fixation on good-looking males, the blind items. All these have been fixtures on parterre for years but give the site its character.
3. The long series of investigative articles La Cieca was able to post about the woes of the NYC Opera. This was NOT gossip, it was NOT scoop, it was deadly serious, and the ups and downs of the NYC Opera were as suspenseful as any Hitchcock movie.
4. La Cieca herself. It’s kind of amazing how she can get so many bitchy personalities to actually get along, and I think she does it by artfully directing the conversations with her always informative, fascinating posts. To see the results when the moderator does not try to direct the conversation: Opera Hell.
5. The posters. It’s anonymous, although the regulars’ actual ID’s are mostly well-known, and an eclectic bunch. Some are of course trolls but La Cieca gets rid of them pretty quickly. Others, like mrsjohnclaggart are really treasure troves of information.
6. The site design. It’s undergone several reincarnations, but the tone of the blog (bitchy, funny, informative, and full of love for opera) has always been apparent from the way JJ designs this board.
7. The Sirius opening night chats. Always a ton of fun, I don’t often contribute but I always do learn something new, and sometimes I run back to parterre chat just to see what the queens have to say.
8. The prize offerings. I’ve never won, but just the fact that La Cieca offers them shows me that she cares about her bloggers, she cares about the site, and she cares about promoting opera.
9. The Dress Rehearsal reviews. GualtierM has done a wonderful job giving extremely detailed reviews of the dress rehearsals of new productions, so very often we know what we’re getting before opening night. The performance reviews from various posters are also a great reason I return to the site.
And last but not least,
10. The flamewars. They usually aren’t the silly pissing matches of opera-l, but the natural result of having a high concentration in one place of people inordinately passionate about one subject: opera. They’re snarky, informed, lively, nasty, and although La Cieca does a good job keeping a lid on many of them, they are another reason I keep coming back to the site.
I guess I need to develop thicker skin because even when attacks are not directed at me, I just hate the flamewars. Some beloved commenters are fountains of information, yes, but as demonstrated today, they can sometimes be fountains of something else and not at all pleasant.
As most of you know, I’ve been reading Parterre for less than a year. I come here for the comraderie, the information, and the fun. Good-natured ribbing is fun. Attacks (to me) are not fun.
Dear CruzSF,
I hate that you’ve been told you need to develop a thicker skin. Maybe it truly is necessary for survival but I really wonder why some people feel this is the place to learn it. Tell me, is it an essential part of being gay? Is it an essential part of loving and/or enjoying opera? I don’t like it when I’m on the receiving end, and I don’t like it when I see others being bashed and I don’t like it when I am asked to accept it as part of the Parterre Box experience. Maybe it’s the way things are, but you can’t convince me it’s the way things have to be.
I hope you’re right, Betsy Ann, I hope it isn’t the way it must be. I hope a thicker skin isn’t part of loving and enjoying opera. I actually find listening to opera to be, at bottom, joyful. That any of it ever works at all, given all the variables of time, performers, rehearsals, talent or lack thereof, acoustics of the specific venue … is just amazing and a miracle. Maybe I’m naive, but I hope to never lose that joy in listening to opera, or in the community of opera fans, despite some others’ attempts to beat that joy out of me.
BTW, if you find No Expert or Squirrel around here, they are very friendly and welcoming. They don’t attack, even when one disagrees with them.
You know CruzSF, the other day I heard Kristin Chenoweth express her views on religion: it’s like a tasty piece of fish…enjoy it and don’t choke on the little bones that you may find every once in a while. I guess that’s the same way I feel about Parterre.
No Expert, that’s a beautiful attitude. Thanks!
My dear friend, Betsy Ann, I see you have come round after your long afternoon sleep (I think in mental hospitals it is called ‘snowing’ the patient). Anent (please look up the word) the following: “I don’t like it when I’m on the receiving end” but my darling you attacked me, without provocation, irrelevantly to the discussion at hand and in a really nasty way. Your blaming others for your own actions is called ‘disassociation of affect’ but I’m sure you know that, your doctors must have discussed it with you — often I wager. To expect to attack someone and be invulnerable to response (though mine to you were mainly teasing) suggest delayed development typical of the mentally and socially challenged. You know if you are not having much luck with your medications, combination therapy has been shown to help. Also, GROWING UP.
If you don’t like a poster, either for content or manner, you can always ignore them. You can also disagree with them in a reasonable way. I don’t think such disagreements are usually met here or anywhere with hostility (though in my case wordy over explanation may result, a bad habit I’m trying to break).
But generally if you have nothing nice to say about someone it is best not to say it and if you do say it then you are a hypcrite if not mentally ill or just stupid (or all three) if you don’t expect some form of retaliation.
However, crazed sillies like you don’t bother me as much as the disgusting cretin posting for the first time (I ween) as “Doberdawg” (the nom de net alone is a confession of stupidity) using ridiculous ad hominem personal attacks instead of attempting to refute intelligent points made seriously and in detail. I despise these cyber bullies and meet them on their own terms. But as this can become a cycle, of course, I won’t be responding to it, or an ally who recently appeared. Those interchanges are over.
Cruz, I do not stalk people on this board; there are many opinions expressed, some more sophisticated than others and that is about par and there’s nothing wrong with it. But some “people”, usually the know nothings, troll these boards looking for people to attack and they are a problem. Your best bet it not to worry about developing a thick skin (you are unlikely to become a target) but to read the people who interest you, contribute what you can and ignore the rest. As all net boards have demonstrated (including, my lawyer informed me, the dog breeding and knitting boards) there are people who exist simply to destabilize the boards they come across with vicious, irrelevant and in some cases constant personal attacks, sometimes on particular contributors, sometimes in general. La Cieca has been good at weeding those people out eventually but does allow it seems some freedom.
Except that you will see some stupid horrors popping up now and again often going after me, you needn’t worry. You should ignore me and my detractors and focus on the plentiful content here that has nothing to do with me, and the asseverations of the lame and halt, some just vicious, and some like Betsy Ann who (les sigh) just can’t help themselves.
Right, as usual, Mrs C. There is nothing more corrosive to social intercourse than the person who holds her head in her hands and wails, “Why can’t people just be GOOD?” as though she herself belonged to another species and weren’t looking out of the corner of her eye to see whom she can irritate into misbehaving.
God i love you both, even when we are bashing each other. (Thankfully, I have never bee on the receiving end from Mrs. J. i would hate to feel one of those punches)
This reminds me of a year old story that happened on FB as I was getting ready to attend my 20th High school reunion. The big group was chatting it up onFB and emailing every day ( how i missed you guys and all that bull). Then someone decides to talk politics. I bowed out saying that if I opened my mouth, people would not like what came out of it.
To make the story short, someone mentioned a candidate that I despised above all else because this person had less brain matter than a bird. Well, I opened my mouth and 2 days latter there was the call from my best friend: I created this group so we could be nice to each other, let’s not talk politics because you guys obviously can be nice to which I responded … told you not to open that box
Unfortunately, some people do not understand that what bind people together is not niceties but conflict. How people solve conflict and the deeper understanding comes after it is what makes these kinds of groups a close niche.
Much as Cassy bashes me and Alto might dislike me, I could not live without MOST of their posts because they talk from expertise; and i respect that, even when I disagree.