Freestyle Regie
Last week’s Regie quiz can be summed up in three little words: “far too easy!” Practically everybody got it right on the first guess: Die Frau Ohne Schatten, as seen at the Opernhaus Zürich in a production by the hopelessly conventional David Pountney. A somewhat less conventional production of a far less conventional opera follows the jump.
This week, since the opera represented is very obscure indeed, La Cieca welcomes the cher public to let their fancy run wild. Any guess at a title will do, so long as you can come up with a plausible and/or whimsical rationale.
Platee?
The first pic makes me think Grétry’s Beauty and the Beast. I’ll keep thinking though.
I don’t know why, but all those lion skin had me thinking Ercole sul Termodonte. The Amazons have been transformed into modern-day ultra feminists but the guys are stuck with fur-ry shirts. Stocking is the new girdle!
Anyways, why can’t I read the comments from the very long threads (>150 comments) anymore? I scroll down to find some more Bumbry vs Price anecdotes, and all I found is blank square rectangles. M’aidez, s’il vous plaît!
‘Peter Grimes’. Quite obviously so.
1. Auntie converses with Bob Boles: ‘A man should have hobbies to cheer his private life’.
2. Interior of ‘The Boar’. The storm. Enter Grimes with umbrella: ‘Now the Great bear and Pleiades’.
3. The Embroidery aria. Balstrode admires Ellen’s handiwork. ‘These stitches tell a curious tale.’
Two guesses, I have. (Don’t know if that’s kosher or not).
1. Die Zauberflote (obviously because of the bird)
and strictly a guess, because I’ve never seen it
2. Cunning Little Vixen.
Given my poor record heretofore, I imagine the answer will be either Billy Budd or Cosi
I recently registered with Opera_L, which I have never looked at before, but I saw a mention here that La Cieca was posting articles there. I have been unable to understand how to navigate the site, but I am receiving dozens of emails every day, which are mostly blather. Today in my in-box I find an Opera L posting by one David H Spence, a lengthy and not really interesting “think piece” on Met productions, and current quality among singers, which includes the phrase “really fag it up to help sell the thing.” Mr. Spence has a web address, http://www.thedavidsoperaworldblog.blogspot.com, where, alas, I can find no contact information, as I certainly have a few things to say to this man. But I will refrain from any further comment, and I will withdraw from Opera-L, and take refuge in the blissful notion that I can pretend I know nothing of the existence of Mr. Spence.
aloki miyeyi-san, many posters here are members of Opera-Hell, though I will never tell who. It has declined horribly in the past four or so years. There are believe it or not very bright people who mainly lurk, only sometimes posting there. But they have been beaten back by a bunch of fools whose idiocy, philistinism, bigotry is sometimes a wonder to behold, and occasionally a shock even after a long time of seeing morons post on opera (never music of course). And one of the worst has just returned — this troll self published a book on ‘bel canto’ so preposterously full of errors of all kinds that it should be obligatory reading for students of the rabidly stupid and clinically slow.
If you don’t want the he-mails in your box you can read it on the web. You will learn to skip the worthless 85%.
Opera-L certainly has a lot of bilge. There are a few posters worth reading such as our doyenne. At any rate, Mr. Spence’s postings should have his mailing address as part of them.
And also his address is in his profile in his blog.
You can set opera-l to receive very few emails. I get mine combined into a single post that I receive several times a day (3-4 a day depending on activity).
I agree with Mrs. J. The quality of the posting has gone down quite a lot. When I joined 12-13 years ago it was amazing what you could learn. These days i do skip a lot, but there is a gol nugget in the middle of the sand every once in a while.
Postings on Parterre Box are good enough for me, often very enlightening and educational. Too much drek on Opera-L and the flame wars were ridiculous. I finally gave up on Opera-L a couple of years ago and miss it about as much I miss my defunct Facebook account.
OMG just entered this Mr. Spence’s blog for curiosity’s sake.
Admittedly, English is far from being my mother tongue, but I think I can read fluently (even American papers) and makes myself understood this way or another, but I’m not really sure that Mr. Spence’s English has any resemblance to correct grammar and reasonable syntax. A few sentences made my head spin. The man is obviously suffering from a severe case of Wernicke syndrome, due to loss of brain tissue. Here is an example:
“One need not even lightly italicize to the extent that Sinopoli does with the VPO on DGG to make such places count, at just mild threat of breaking up the line.Numerous orchestras however, including the Met itself under Levine with orchestra in top form if not cast quite as much (other than especially Voigt and Pape as Orest and partly Hanna Schwarz as the queen), though better than today, to go along with it seven years ago, has done better. They have even certainly more meaningfully, with company under Joe Volpe’s oversight the last time on a Saturday brought so much more nuance out as well, without having to resort to underlining what here might get missed otherwise.”
Here’s an article about the Wernicke aphasia, for those of us who do not have DSM-IV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptive_aphasia
Aaargh! It looks like it’s been translated from the original Tagalog with Google software.
Aloki Miyeyi–You should have responded to Opera-L. It would have shown that somebody is reading or trying to read Mr. Spence’s postings, which are at least on music, and which nobody else pays any mind to. And the shitstorm you would have caused would have been at least as interesting and probably as informative as 90% of what gets posted there these days.
At long last: Mignon!
1. Jarno releases Mingon from her cage and tells her to just dance!
2. The acting troupe heads over to the castle: “Qui m’aime me suive”
3. After a stunning debut, Philine sings “Je suis Andrea McArdle” Natch! Almost too obvious.
It’s ABOUT TIME that Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire had a Regie production:
1. Blanche’s first encounter with Stanley Kowalski
2. Blanche’s illl-fated birthday party
3. The arrival at the asylum