Le snore
What is it about Natalie Dessay, La Cieca wonders, that provokes journalists to badmouth La sonnambula?
As, for example, Christian Merlin in Le Figaro, who characterizes a new production of the Bellini gem thusly: “À l’Opéra Bastille, Natalie Dessay domine de tout son talent une soirée grise, dans une œuvre à l’intérêt limité.”
You are not alone, dearest Cerquetti/Farrell…count me in as a lover, too
Why say you that it be unsingable in modern pitch, and by that are you referring to 440? Probably around 432 in 1831?–but I truly do not know absolutely for sure.
A big hug to you from halfway around the world!
Mme Cerquetti-Farrell — you get 2 hugs instead of 1. It posted twice and corrected version (2nd) reads properly.
Wishing you well. I have to add I have a feeling similar to Missus J.Claggart about Don Juan, as well, the overwhelming approbation, love, and reverence for Idomeneo. Strange that.
A bientot!
Mme CF receives the hugs and rends them back with gentle bonhomie and genuine warmth!
# 17 your brilliant selections of this Youtube clip of the hand job should here for all to see. Maybe La Dessay could learn to do it on horseback in various yoga positions and spare everyone her disdain for opera, her lack of technique and accomplished singing
This French hussy should stick to cabaret ditties in the Place Pigalle.
She cannot approach the level of such fine Strauss singers as Barbara Holt and jennifer Eddy, let alone Carlye, Harwood or Flott!
A live performance of Sonnambula with Dessay from Opera Bastille will be shown by Mezzo tv on Monday, February 15 at 7:30 p.m. CET. Unfortunately, no internet broadcast…
cool, all the good parts will be on youtube so don’t worry.
Well, Henry Holland, you are an idiot, which sadly is not what I meant
What a sad man you are. I met you briefly twice in the early 90′s through friends of friends of friends and I thought you were kind of a bitter old queen then, nice to see you’re at least consistent.
your criticism is that of a limited, slow witted dolt with no imagination and sensitivity
And yours is of a playground bully, someone of accomplishment so used to being the center of attention and being fawned over for his alleged genius at writing that you stomp all over a blogger who traffics in snark and an office manager who loves 20th century and contemporary opera.
hence the characterization of someone with a great talent as ‘insipid’
I find his operas “inspid”, how am I to know whether Bellini himself was? For someone so haughty about language, you sure mangle it a lot.
(strange that in a medium where writing is of the essence, you dismiss its value, I assume you are quite slow)
This is a blog, you buffoon, not the Musical Times or some scholarly journal. For a professional writer, you sure don’t know how to focus, you just ramble and it’s boring.
You are a typical grotesque queen that haunts these sorts of boards and while I doubt you are really young you are truly an immature nonentity as too many people on these blogs are — a sad prophicy for what future is left with your limits, shallowness and crass stupidity.
And what future is left to YOU, you bitter old queen? Good god, such bile for someone who dashed off a post on a blog while waiting for my boss to get off the phone, called someone’s work you admire “insipid” and who just can’t get over the fact that the sheer force of your intellectual bullying won’t change his mind.
Like Michiko Klitpalace (and I’m more anti-goon such as you than I am misogynist), You seem to be unaware of the complexity of Strauss’ relationship to the Nazi’s.
[groans, buries head in hands] I know all that, you sad old man. I’ve read dozens of books on Strauss, from hagiographies to hatchet jobs, countless articles about the man and his times and all that, I know all that. That’s totally irrelevant to anything I’ve posted! I simply noted that Opera Chic banned me surrounding issues about Strauss, I didn’t feel the need to write 1000 words on my feelings about the matter. I only defended her because of your quite demented ravings about her.
I get it though: she starts a blog, it’s a success in the opera blogosphere and yet there you are, the big man on campus that no one really listens to and who hides behind a pseudonym which prevents most people from searching out your stuff. It must be galling, I’m sure.
You wouldn’t have bothered with your uninteresting but stupid self revelations if in someway my opinions didn’t matter to you
Well, at least one other poster here isn’t as self-absorbed as you are and responds to what I wrote, not what they *think* I wrote:
armerjacquino says:
January 31, 2010 at 6:51 AM
To be fair, Mrs JC, Henry Holland was not touting personal preference in quite the way you describe- he mentioned the music he likes to illustrate the absurd subjectivity of the phrase ‘who dislikes Bellini dislikes music’. Whether one loves or hates Bellini, that kind of dismissive hyperbole isn’t at all helpful.
Don’t flatter yourself, you tit. I only brought up my tastes to make an obvious point: someone who loves Lear and Die Soldaten and other post-war serialist operas isn’t very likely to have an overwhelming interest in Bellini –just as someone who thinks opera ended with Verdi isn’t likely to be much interested in The Second Mrs. Kong– and to counter the idea that I was some bumpkin from Philadelphia who only knew Boheme and Aida, that I can read scores, analyse them and so forth.
Grotesques like you rob me when they read me
Hahahahahahaha, mein Gott, the ego on you A.I., if we could convert it to a renewable fuel source, the oil industry would be out of business tomorrow. Finally, I found this delicious bit:
[name changed ->] MJC has not been working much recently — at least not as a playwright. He pays the rent on his Chelsea apartment by writing for newspapers and magazines about opera, music, even starlets. He spends an inordinate amount of time cruising opera Websites, where he is not always welcome, given his affiliation with the Establishment press. “I am hated, I am loathed, I was tossed from AOL for starting flame wars. Without warning, a cabal went and got me thrown off. Opera people are nuts,” he comments, without irony.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was…..
Oh give it up, you juddering joke, everything you write, EVERYTHING has been written before and before and who cares? I think you are a preposterous moron and fool. Odd that you can’t seem to accept that. You are never going to change my opinion about myself, the facts of my life or anybody else’s mind. YOU DON’T MATTER, honey. Get that through your head. You’ll be happier.