http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/03/spider_kama_sutra.php

I didn’t mean to dismiss anyone’s enjoyment of the ballet, I was just saying why I felt it sold the music short. And although the ballet WAS a perfect foreshadowing of the story for Rinaldo’s benefit, it would by extension “shred the plot” And I certainly didn’t mean to claim to be anything but a balletmane, which I understand to be a nice word for “freak”

“A live spider would have scurried off the set” just shows how prejudicial some people are about Nature’s Dearest Friend. No, Jay, a thousand times, No. A live spider would have tried to help, to comfort and console, to say to the diva, “Just a little higher, Darling, and a bit more body to the tone.”

The uninformed posters here have absolutely no clue how much they owe to the humble spider. You think Natalie Dessay achieves her acting style alone? Hah ! Or, as the French would say, Hah ! Ten industrious arachnids are scurrying around her anatomy giving her the motivation to scurry and flail madly. True art needs such assitance from time to time. Would Leonie Rysanek be remembered as such a great actress if it were not for a well-timed puncture at a major pain point? And she was not the only Viennese favorite to depend on spiders. IDLT drop names, BMDF Christa Ludwig told me that many times during their brief marriage, she would have to medicate Walter Berry’s butt most extensively, especially after FROSCH. If you are looking for true unsung heroes, Berry could not be depended on to follow stage directions specifically and would often sit when least expected. Those spiders gave their lives, friends, THEIR LIVES so you might enjoy a great characterization. For other supportive anecdotes, I refer you to my monograph, Der Platz von Shpeiders in der Musikalishes Pedagogie und Erektile Dysfunktion.

Not only in acting are spiders of great service. I know I am doing a great disservice to the blessed memory of Betty Blackhead who did nothing to dispel the rumor that she supplied the famed High C for Flagstad’s Isolde. You will read it here first that that note was actually supplied by the extraordinarily talented spider, Amanda Simsmut, (Yes, Vicar, a Commonwealth arachnid). Again, IDLTDNBMDF, the noted voice teacher MH confided to me that she wished she had a spider to put in each student’s ear to help them when they vary from pitch.

But there is still a distasteful prejudice about having spiders appear on-stage. Joe Volpe actually intended to address the problem and had persuaded James Morris to retire in 2004, ceding Wotan to a daddy-long-legs named Hans Felgenspurer who would watch him nightly from the wings. Hans’ career was cut tragically short when a newly-hired stagehand swatted him with a copy of Hustler.

So don’t be so smug and self-righteous, Jay, in thinking you can speak for the spiders. You may be very good in most things, but you don’t know jack-maggot about spiders.

Still, having heard this ballet music twice via XM, I expected something less pleasant than what I finally saw. Loved the costumes, the smiles, the cuteness of it all, the obvious references to Rinaldo being overcome by female beauty, and the way the light dancing turned to an orgy. A perfect (maybe too obvious?) allegory of what Armida really represented, although Rinaldo was too blinded by love to see the truth. Now there’s an idea: how about putting some doubts in his heart from seeing the ballet?

I give Renee a bye on her singing, because she is what she is at this stage of her career, and I don’t have the ear to hear what you all did. But I do have problems with the way the story “ends.” The soldiers’ call to Rinaldo to return to his life of martial prowess is a classic argument to reject a pleasant, nonviolent female world. But Armida is not genuinely a pleasant, nonviolent female. The libretto misses connecting the dots here. (On the other hand, it’s left open whether she’ll use her wand and annihilate all of them in revenge.)

In this story manhood is defined solely by counting coup. I can see why some people in this thread are sick to death of these same old values and themes and are looking to modern operas to talk about more complex issues in straightforward terms. With weird musical accompaniment.

I’d rather hear a live violinist stray off pitch than canned perfection. However, given the dire economic situation many performing arts groups are coping with, there may be ever more canned music. If and when this happens, I’ll be home watching DVDs, or whatever.

I should also mention that with Finale, I programed the entire first movement of the Trout Quintet, with a mouse no less. Using Finale and Cubase, I can produce rehearsal tracks for musicians, so that, for instance, a violinist learning the Trout could rehearse with the other 4 musicians, even when live musicians aren’t available. I hate canned music for performances such as for a lot of Broadway shows, where reduced orchestras are used and supplemented with synthesizers.

And, although I wouldn’t go see it again on the screen, it was interesting.
A number of things stick in my mind this morning.

The applause distortion – believe me, it sounded “boosted” for certain performers – it was much more tepid in the house.

Why didn’t the camera work/editing allow us to see the string soloists while they were playing??? Certainly for some of the time we could have been devoted to them instead of staring at pretty frocks.

The ballet, which in the words of one of my companions ( a serious balletomane like me) seemed like “rhythmic gymnastics” in the house, but was just pure camp ( in the philosophical sense, not cultural) on screen. It is really a cheap shot to mock Rossini’s 19th century charming rhythms for comic effect.

A few notes seemed “patched” – but couldn’t they have done something for the god-awful boner of RF’s towards the end? In all fairness to her, this is going to be played over, and over, and over.

The intermission chatter – very revealing – RF referred to coloratura’s similarities to gospel – I think I would enjoy her singing more if she spent more hours studying Rossini than diversifying.

The unfortunate remarks about the performance history of Armida were rather irritating because the public deserves better. At least one of the tenors set DV right when he countered that not all the tenors in the world capable of singing Rossini were captured for this production. Mentioning Geneva’s “La Donna del Lago” was a wonderful gesture on his part) Another singer remarked that RF wasn’t there for the first few rehearsals but that they had rehearsed with Angela, her wonderful cover. Good for him!

I’ll leave the judgement about acting choices to someone with some expertise, but somehow acting like a pouty teenager does not evoke a sorceress to me.

The tenors. This performance run at the Met will probably be remembered for the time when Armida will be thought of as “the tenors” opera, rather than the soprano. The audience at the HD performance certainly seemed to respond in a way that points in that direction.

DCF Thanks for the Porgy&Bess observation, it did cross my mind, and I couldn’t quite put a finger on it. It wasn’t as obvious “live” but sure seemed that way on the screen.

But what shocked me even more was the comment made by Alex when giving the answer: “We were talking about High C’s, something EVERY tenor must have.”!

That sure is news to me. When was the last time Placido sang a High C in public??

Apparently Alex and his contestants get their “opera” info from those Andrea Bocelli and Charlotte Church “specials” that are always run during pledge drives.