parterre box

32 comments

• LittleMasterMiles says:

  A few questions present themselves:

  1. As his wife, why would she need her husband to sign his assets over to her? Surely the widow is the default inheritrix, unless he left a will, trust, or other designation that she was not to be?

  2. Is she really an opera singer? A brief web search turns up nothing on Ms Hill prior to this murder case, though I’m sure others here are more adept at ferretting out obscure singers.

  3. Will the Revlon bar be open prior to The Nose this afternoon? I always feel a bit gypped by one-act operas that eliminate the public-watching spectacle of the Interval. I shall be wearing a grey flannel suit with a red carnation in the buttonhole…

  on March 13, 2010 at 10:45 AM
• 79CXR says:

  Sounds like it would make a good plot for an opera.

  Now who could write the music? and who would play the leading lady?

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:05 AM
• LittleMasterMiles says:

  This sounds like a good Richard Strauss opera to me, but I can’t think who’s doing that sort of thing today. How about Waltraud Meier as Waltraud Hill?

  BTW, are we no longer doing threaded comments?

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:09 AM
• La Valkyrietta says:

  It seems to me modern times are tawdry and decadent. An opera singer murdering for money? Imagine! Adelina Patti used to make $5,000.00 a performance in the nineteenth century. If she ever thought of murder it would be, I would hope, for artistic purposes.

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:24 AM
• La Cieca says:

  I’m thinking that for an opera the name of the femme fatale would have to be changed to something more portentous, such as “Waltraud Überhügel.”

  Or else this would make a great premise for a Charles Busch play.

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:27 AM
• BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK says:

  The whole thing shrieks “Shostakovich” to me, but why would it need to be newly composed? I suggest tailoring the libretto to fit some existent opera with great music but really stupid plots. Some likely candidates? TROVATORE, obviously. FORZA DEL DESTINO, yup with a few adjustments. Definitely CLEMENZA DI TITO would benefit. Or rescue something from undeserved oblivion — DINORAH maybe, and we could get rid of that stupid goat. Or a Weber pastiche with the good parts of OBERON, FREISCHUTZ, ABU HASSAN, EURYANTHE, DIE DREI PINTOS. There are lots of possibilities depending on how it all plays out. And Lordy, what a part for Karita Mattila.

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:29 AM
• yappy says:

  Weird! I’ve heard nothing at all about that case on German radio, also there are no German-language google (ordinary and news) results on the case or the lady involved. You do get results in Slovenian and Chinese though.
  Maybe our media are too slow, or some writer accidentally posted their synopsys on the net.

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:35 AM
• kashania says:

  I blame Peter Gelb.

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:51 AM
• Shocked German says:

  yappy, there is of course extensive coverage on this from the BILD “Zeitung”, for instance here: http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/2010/03/12/opernsaengerin/unter-mordverdacht.html

  In the German version she is a Waltraud G..

  on March 13, 2010 at 11:59 AM
• MontyNostry says:

  Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen

  on March 13, 2010 at 12:02 PM