Comments on: I would like a waffle

By: Famous Quickly

Famous Quickly — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:15:18 +0000

I spoke with Blanche and Roz and we are deeply — no, PROFOUNDLY — in awe of the way you keep those popular culture references coming despite the high odds that no one else here is remotely as hip and “inside” as you.

That says “guts” to us veteran mezzos…

By: speedbump

speedbump — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:25:10 +0000

Dan: I also have to give you props for the brilliant reference to Alexyss K. Tylor in your review. AMAZING. This remix is dedicated to you:

By: Maury D

Maury D — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:52:48 +0000

Why do I never get to be the blond (he sighed) or get the blond, but that’s a whole other tragedy.

By: Harry

Harry — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:42:38 +0000

Well Evil Incarnate’s (Blackhead’s) Ariadne under Von Karajan is so goddam slow during the second Act, you want to pick up a strong whip and thrash the bloody thing back into life. Ariadne may ask Bacchus “are we there yet?’ at one stage, but the listener wants to instead know, ‘is the fuckin’ thing (the opera) finished yet? Her best perfomance is in Capriccio.

Gueberova is truly spectacular as Zerbinetta in the Solti/Price version, more so than her contribution in the Philips- Jessye Norman version. The Ryansek/Jurinac vesion…a few flat notes here & there. The one thing I find worrying, with the Kempe version is Janowitz…that tubular sound she tends to make. King on the other hand is fine there, as Bacchus.
Ah! though, since it is such a magic opera, I am glad to have so many versions to listen to.

Now, now Mrs John Claggart we know you will simmer down. Maybe Manou and Betsy Ann might become ‘parterre buddies’ of yours yet.Stranger things have happened. Each one of us, must humbly admit ‘We all have been involved contributed in catfights’ here that we also possibly helped to start. Leading then to the troubles we cause La Cieca: making her giving all of us, a smack from time to time.

By: rysanekfreak

rysanekfreak — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:24:48 +0000

Why didn’t manou get an Oscar Wilde picture for that delicious comment at #8?

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:20:21 +0000

Squirrel and Maury! (Wocka-wocka)

By: CruzSF

CruzSF — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:47:30 +0000

Hahahahaha. YES.

By: Maury D

Maury D — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:42:49 +0000

Ah well. In my day people who make the same joke hundreds of times and don’t say much of anything else aren’t invited to many dinner parties. It’s a question of tedium and inanity.

By: mrsjohnclaggart

mrsjohnclaggart — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:16:15 +0000

Oh Harry!!! How could you break my shrinking heart? It would be as though you had spent precious gold on portraits of Manrou, the “fish” woman of London with fins for hands and that fish’s mouth — a famous mouth among aficionados of the grotesque and she (I believe her parents won a civil law suit to stop people from calling her ‘it’)certainly has used it to give pleasure and succor especially to the homeless in sewers.

I wonder if you have the portrait of Manrou on the rusty garbage can lid drawn cunningly to resemble our own Betsy-Ann, where Manrou’s shark’s mouth like labia majora features so prominently (Betsy Ann while having Manrou on her head as platter is reaching up to hold the seaweed curtains back). They need to sustain one another, rather touching actually.

But I think the Levine Ariadne to which you are referring is best for the recording of the orchestra, especially piano and harmonium blend. You mean you don’t worship Kempe? How about Herbie with sublime Seefried and Evil Incarnate’s best operatic performance? You don’t love the Salzburg opening night with the greatest Jurinac and then Ludwig’s only Ariadne (sharp, then flat, and then running out of steam fast but TONS of fun)? How about one of the greatest Lisa’s performances? There’s even the Leonie RCA, with the greatest Jurinac — it’s tremendous fun and frankly I have heard far worse than Becky Peterson and Jacob Pincus Perelmuth!!! And of course there’s the DVD from Aix with the sublime Troyanos (orchestra gives her a standing ovation at the end of the prologue) and the greatest Regine? Or the great Chicago pirate with Jochum conducting (tremendous R Strauss conductor not many of the operas documented with him), the sublime Seefried, Crespin even better than at Aix and the delicious Reri Grist (and you can hear all their voices bounce out into the huge house, Crespin’s immense easy volume for once in evidence)?

Oh, Harry have you kept Besty Ann’s first attacks on me? With her preposterous malapropisms and idiotic vocabulary, amongst the most sheerly stupid posts in Parterre history, no doubt fed her by Manrou? I think I have them around, maybe I’ll repost them.

Evviva Tebaldi.

By: Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:40:55 +0000

I totally didn’t get it until speedbump pointed it out. [ashamed]

By: Maury D

Maury D — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:48:25 +0000

Oh hooray, I thought the Twin Peaks ref might end up being an inside joke between me and me!

By: Harry

Harry — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:26:55 +0000

How ironic . How fickle people are. In 1988 I saw Ben Heppner do Bacchus 3 or more times. It was the ‘stuff of dreams’. The audiences loved it so much one night they forced the particular House’s protocol to be broken for the first time- That of never having another curtain call once house lights came up. In the lights up: tthere was revealed a full standing ovation and the audience demanding ‘lift the bloody curtain or else’!

I feel for the fellow mentioned that covered it at the MET, under horrendous conditions. It is a ‘bitch’ of a role with some god -almighty traps. Those moments, where the temor gets one crack (no pun!) to position the note, and
there is no second chances. There is one of those notes ‘sounding’ in my head as I write. Used to it some often, I have been known to even play the complete opera at breakfast time – my favorite , the version with Garry Lakes, Tomawa-Sintow and Baltsa.

By: Harry

Harry — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:01:05 +0000

Oh dear! With singers that may be ideal in some R.Strauss. Then we hear the old adage from everybody…. “Quick, look – they have done a Isolde or two…. they wll make a great Brunnhilde”. Here we go again. The only dramatic thing that usually happens, is the comments tha then start: how ‘dramatic’ the condition of their voice has become. The opera house back door suddenly opens for an another faster exit.

Similiarity: Mothers of tiny tots impressed with little daughter’s ‘progress at ballet school, Ballet teacher putting the dear things up on point, prematurely -doing damage as a result..

By: speedbump

speedbump — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:41:02 +0000

Wow Maury, a Twin Peaks reference and a Rosenkavlier reference in the same sentence. Bravo!

By: Harry

Harry — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:38:47 +0000

Agree about Stemme’s contributions in the Domingo Tristan. What are those ravinga from others, about? For a Brunnhilde??!!! ‘They wish’ and that is about it will be..a bit of romancing.

By: LittleMasterMiles

LittleMasterMiles — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:54:11 +0000

We’re not getting back into Tommasini’s _Carmen_ article again, are we?

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:26:12 +0000

And some of them don’t even dance.

By: Famous Quickly

Famous Quickly — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:38:55 +0000

In my day, young men of this sort held jobs as bank tellers and largely kept silent at dinner parties.

But then, who today dances, who sings? NOBODIES.

By: Mrs Rance

Mrs Rance — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:41:54 +0000

Yes I think Stemme has something going for her, and I have to admit I thought of Brunnhilde during her ARIADNE.

By: manou

manou — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:37:28 +0000

Did Godot turn up after this dialogue?

By: parpignol

parpignol — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:51:59 +0000

Armide was wonderful, and I’d never heard a note of it before. . .
funny, the NY Times making much of the fact that it was sold out, when in fact the tickets were being practically given away at fifteen bucks. . .
nice performance of Carmen tonight, everyone in good form, and Escamillo sighted afterwards at Fiorello. . .
and the little program bio of Jovanovich mentions that Bacchus is in his repertory; now that could come in handy!

By: sterlingkay

sterlingkay — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:50:08 +0000

Well….Ms. Stemme must be getting used to working with problematic tenors….her Tristan at Covent Garden was Heppner and he was in horrible form both nights. I felt so bad for her during the second act, having to deal with Big Ben’s constant cracking and ill-tuned singing. Much like last night.

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:53:29 +0000

Wonderful news, sterlingkay; I can’t wait to hear
it. Will the Met pick this up, do you suppose? Of
course there is the matter of an adequate tenor.

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:52:31 +0000

Sorry about typo – read Stemme for Stimme, though
as typos go that one is on the right track!

By: sterlingkay

sterlingkay — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:47:09 +0000

I heard two performances of Stemme’s ISOLDE at Covent Garden…she was glorious, not only vocally but dramatically. By far the best ISOLDE I have ever heard live and I go back to Nilsson.

By: Straussmonster

Straussmonster — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:34:37 +0000

OTT, but I know at least one other loyal Parterre reader was at the Opera Lafayette Armide the other night (Wednesday)–anyone else go? I enjoyed myself thoroughly, but I admit to having known the work inside out and backward beforehand. Any other takes on it?

By: Arianna a Nasso

Arianna a Nasso — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:07:51 +0000

“Let’s just hope she’s not otherwise booked!”

Why would such a high-quality artist be sitting around with months of her 10-11 calendar free? That doesn’t make sense. Her schedule has been pretty busy for years now.

By: scifisci

scifisci — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:11:43 +0000

I had never been impressed with Stemme prior to hearing her live. The voice seemed to be forced a lot and she had that awful goat vibrato. However, her voice sounded nothing like that last night. The warm and fullness in the middle is especially amazing.

By: mrmyster

mrmyster — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:15:19 +0000

Boy oh boy, this is Attitude Central!!!
Were we meant to read all that? Jeez! To what effect?
As for Ms. Stimme, have you listened to her recording,
the one with Domingo, of Tristan und Isolde? Made, what?
five years, six, ago? She was very clearly under great stress
to sing it then, especially in Act II her voice loses some
support and color, you can sense the tension and forcing.
I was not then expecting her to be much.
Now, we have all these raves. What happened? Did she
stop the heavy stuff and build her voice – when, how, with
whom. I gotta hear it to believe it, and look forward to
doing so. Of course, Ariadne is NOT Isolde or Bruna,
for sure!

By: rysanekfreak

rysanekfreak — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:05:26 +0000

Opera hot?

It’s not who invented it. It’s who made it famous. Such as, oh, I don’t know, the Rossini Crescendo, which was not invented by Rossini.

I love the Squirrel-Maury duet, almost Tristanesque in length, if not in passion. What other combos can we have?— The Vicar and MrsJohnClaggert?