Comments on: Math is hard

By: Camille

Camille — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:05:15 +0000

After days of looking @ the Karita/Jayne duo it has finally occurred to me what’s wrong with the comparison: Mattila looks like a younger Phyllis Diller. That is to say, she doesn’t look sexy, but funny. She should stop with the Cougartown crap.

By: Harry

Harry — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:07:33 +0000

pernille; With that pregnant corset ‘prop’ correctly designed when strapped on, Mattila could be in fact getting extra physical ‘vocal support’ by wearing it in that Saariaho opera. It reminds and sounds to me a bit like that opera by Guiseppe Sinopoli “Lou Salome’ another opera about a woman of varied interests.. That is on my shelves somewhere. I think I have played it just once.

By: pernille

pernille — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:32:13 +0000

Listening to the clip from the opera, it sounds like
Kaija Saariaho is not following in the footsteps of Sibelius, but is rather inspired by the sounds from the great Finnish shipyards!

By: pernille

pernille — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:29:22 +0000

Oh thank you for saying that!

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:47:05 +0000

Surely a role for Maija Kowalewska, pernille.

By: pernille

pernille — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:45:11 +0000

Now why did they pick a woman who wasn’t REALLY a mathematician, but a physicist? ( And the tag is “sort of” wrong – it should be “physicists dancing in underwear”

For a woman who really WAS a mathematician go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonya_Kovalevskaya

Now I would love an opera about her ( it would be in Russian, of course, Swedish just doesn’t cut it) and Anna Netrebko could sing the role of Sophia/Sonya. We have the conductor and orchestra that can do it… all we are lacking is a composer – unless someone has an unknown manuscript by Prokofiev hidden away.

By: Camille

Camille — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:11:22 +0000

Thank you for recalling the precise year — knew it was late nineties.

La Cieca was there to see her, as was my spouse and me. I remember Antonacci sang a very interesting rarity (cannot remember title now) that was purported to be the first actual ‘Scena di Pazzia’( mad scene ), in Italian song literature. Maybe I left early, as I do not recall Dido’s Lament.

She had fantastic upper arms and armpits, great histrionic ability, a great gown an coiffure and, ahime, not a lot of voice of any kind at all.

By: NYCOQ

NYCOQ — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:26:26 +0000

Rapt…I would say the same if I lived in L.A. or any other area (read: Palm Beach, Miami, etc.) where plastic surgery seems to be de rigeur. Hell, the person I work with the most has had major work done and STILL will not step foot on stage without lifts as well. I guess what I meant to say is that one loses all perspective of what a natural face (or body) looks like these days. Looking at the paintings of Emelie du Chatelet she looks quite middle-aged. So I guess that was the look they were going for with Mattila.

By: Harry

Harry — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:01:25 +0000

Agreed! I saw the video of Mattila’s Manon Lescaut. Shocked, I thought this is not some young college girl character waylaid onto the wrong paths of life, looking frayed. This is a aged life hardened Mae West running her last desperate lap. I love Manon L and it took a while to get that contradictory image out of my head.

By: MontyNostry

MontyNostry — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:54:43 +0000

I think Vourc’h is a lightish French soprano.
http://www.karenvourch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=93&Itemid=94
Love that apostrophe in her name. It makes it look like the name of an alien race in a Star Trek movie.

By: Blue Byrd

Blue Byrd — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:48:28 +0000

Apparently, Mattila will only be in two of them; the performance on 20 March will feature one Karen Vourc’h. Can’t say she rings any bells.

Any thoughts on Vourc’h? Any idea what to expect?

By: Harry

Harry — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:46:58 +0000

I am ignorant about ‘the end of Pollet’s career’. Can you Troppo Primavera fill me in?
I have her recordings of Les Huguenots, Poulence Voix and that faboulous one of lesser known French Arias. I saw her in the 90′s in a concert version of Berlioz’s ‘Faust’. Lovely singer.

By: Blue Byrd

Blue Byrd — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:40:36 +0000

This production is coming to Amsterdam in a fortnight, for a mere three performances. Looking forward to catching one of them.

By: Harry

Harry — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:31:43 +0000

Exactly. Carrreras’ contribution in Donezetti’s Le Elisiir d’Amore was also a mighty fine rendition. When we remember all the very heavy roles he took on…..you shake your head. It was rumoured he, at one time have designs on doing Verdi’s Otello.

By: Troppo Primavera

Troppo Primavera — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:30:30 +0000

La Grande Pollet was in two memorable productions at the Chatelet-Ariane et Barbe-bleue and Reigen where she played the Prima Donna as a kind of demented Margaret Dumont,beautifully staged by Luc Bondy.She had great comic timing not evident ,obviously,in her Met debut as Cassandra.I doupt very much that it was filmed.What a shame this great soprano’s career ended so suddenly.

By: aloki miyeyi

aloki miyeyi — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:12:45 +0000

From Wikipedia:
“Émilie also liked to dance, was a passable performer on the harpsichord, sang opera, and was an amateur actress.”

What a temptation it must have been for some of our Matilla-denigrating parterrians to fly with that one! Alfred Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that he kept a log of all the critics who wrote that his film was for the birds, and insisted that he named the film just so he could have that amusement.

Here we see a very accomplished singing actress, who happens to inhabit the body and voice that she has, etching a detailed and riveting characterization while giving a certain amount of visceral pleasure from the sound of her voice. How dare she be so competent.

Also from Wikipedia:
“A crater on Venus has been named in her honor, ….” Such wags, those astronomers.

By: Nerva Nelli

Nerva Nelli — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:09:59 +0000

Any Youtube footage of Francoise Pollet as the Theatre du Chatelet?

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:01:07 +0000

Terrible news re: Langridge, although nothing is showing up on Google, just a crytic Wiki link cites his dates as 16 December 1939 – 6 March 2010. But thus far there is nothing else online that I’ve been able to find.

By: Krunoslav

Krunoslav — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:56:08 +0000

I was just going to post this. Recently discovered bowel cancer, it seems. For all the complaining some of us do about unnecessary British imports to North America there are those who have never fallen into that category and he has been one of them. His work in PETER GRIMES, BILLY BUDD, DAS RHEINGOLD and MOSES UND ARON at the Met was outstanding. A *real* artist.

By: suzyQ

suzyQ — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:55:30 +0000

Didn’t know that he was ill. Very sad indeed.

By: armerjacquino

armerjacquino — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:52:39 +0000

Oh no. That is sad news indeed.

By: flamingopera

flamingopera — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:51:00 +0000

Sad news: Philip Langridge passed out last night around 10pm. May he rest in peace

By: rapt

rapt — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:16:43 +0000

What? Only outside New York are there women who can’t afford “work”? This assertion makes me feel uneasy, with its identification of NYC with what must be a small slice of it. (Though I can believe that the assertion may well be true for the sample of people within “the business,” which may be what was really meant to be emphasized here.)

By: armerjacquino

armerjacquino — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:51:08 +0000

What happened to Gasdia? She was 21 when she subbed for Caballé at La Scala, and that was 1982, which would make her only 49 now. But I’ve not heard anything of her for years and years.

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:39:41 +0000

The work Renaaay has had done is very convincing – at least from the auditiorium. I don’t know about close-up.

By: rysanekfreak

rysanekfreak — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:36:19 +0000

How’s this for synchronicity?–if that’s the word.

I had The Nose on Sirius. The music had just started. I also had the TV on with no sound. And up came one of those Omnaris commercials with a picture of a giant nose just dominating the screen. I wish I could have frozen the picture and then listened to the rest of the opera that way.

I was glad that the audience seemed so enthusiastic. The percussion section deserved a special bow. And Mr. Popov sure did sing high.

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:36:07 +0000

I hope you have the Gasdia recording, Javier

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:35:34 +0000

I’d heard that the Joyce Donna del Lago was a co-production with both Houston (with Lawrence Brownlee) and the Met. It’s definitely coming to Covent Garden and going to Barcelona. I’ll be going to the Paris premiere

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:32:32 +0000

Antonacci doesn’t have a huge voice, although that doesn’t seem to have held her back in Paris (where she rarely sings at the Bastille, but more often at the Garnier, Champs-Elysees, Comique and Chatelet. Her UK oepra appearances have been confined to Rodelinda and Ermione at Glyndebourne and one of the lead roles in Mosè in Egitto and Carmen at Covent Garden. Her RO Carmen was thought to be underpowered by some, so it surely wouldn’t register at the Met. She’s a canny lady and chooses her parts and theatres very carefully. She is also a single mother with a young son and she is probably reluctant to spend months away rehearsing and performing in the US. She’s not young any more, either. I’d guess around 50. I’ve seen her as Poppea and Nerone (she could also probably sing Ottavia) and as Agrippina in Munich, Paris and Brussels, and of course that Troyens Cassandre at the Chatelet which was wonderful. Richard’s story about Antonacci and the Met Elviras rings true. She’s not a flouncy diva, but she has a well-developed sense of her own worth and wouldn’t take kindly to being messed about with contracts. She has a big career in some of the highest paying European theatres and in Paris – where she lives – she is an (adopted) national superstar.

By: NYCOQ

NYCOQ — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:58:16 +0000

Not bitchy Cruz…she does look old. Add the pregnant thing in this production and her face looks waaaay beyond the child-bearing years. The lighting is atrocious in this production as well.