And the lorgnette goes to…
The results are in for the first annual Pubie Awards, nominated and voted upon by you, the Cher Public. Turnout this year was spectacular, with some categories racking up as many as 2,647 votes. A few of the races were close, and La Cieca thinks you’ll see an upset or two among the winners, after the jump.
Best new production at the Met:
From the House of the Dead
Worst New Production at the Met:
Attila
Best Revival at the Met:
La Boheme
Worst Revival at the Met:
Der Fliegende Hollander
Best NYCO production:
Don Giovanni
Best “off-Broadway” opera production:
Il Mondo della Luna (Gotham Chamber Opera)
Best Performance by a Diva:
Anna Netrebko in La boheme
Worst Performance by a Diva:
Renee Fleming in Armida
Best Performance by a Divo:
Jonas Kaufmann in Carmen
Worst Performance by a Divo:
Marcello Giordani in Turandot
Best Performance in a Non-Diva Role:
Stephanie Blythe in Suor Angelica
Worst Performance in a Non-Diva Role:
Carlo Guelfi in Aida
Maestro of the Year:
Riccardo Muti
Einspringer of the Year:
Rachele Gilmore in Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Worst Night of Filth:
Tosca on opening night
And now the honorary awards (the “Lorgnette d’argent”) also nominated by you, the cher public:
- Best Bitch-fight: Luc Bondy vs. Franco Zefferelli
- Most Anticipated Cancellation: Angela Gheorghiu (not) in Carmen.
- Lifetime Achievement: Charles Anthony
- Special Recognition for Outstanding Excellence in the Fields of Tireless Indefatigability and Persistent Proflicacy: BETSY_ANN_BOBOLINK
BAB’s award was richly deserved. The lady is a camp! Cosi fan Muti instead of Cosi fan Luisi? Ah, well…
Just a guess on my part: Muti might have won because he salvaged (musically) what was a massive failure of a production, thus his achievement looks bigger.
Muti’s conducting was thrilling. He would have been considered great in any circumstances.
It’s hard to argue with any of the “winners” though I thought that Turandot could have swept the worst awards. That was truly a miserable run of performances.
Somebody completely jacked the quiz and I’m serious.
For the “Best Performance by a Diva” Joyce Didonato was heading by far the quiz, then somebody voted voted and voted for anna netrebko so that she could win.
Same thing for the “Best Revival at the Met”. Lulu was first for the first five days.
And same thing for the “Worst performance by a diva”. Maria Glueghina was first by far then after a few days somebody voted a lot for Renéé Fleming so that she could win the award.
Same thing for “the best conductor of the year”: it was Luisi who was going to win then somebody voted and voted for Muti.
For the “worst performance by a divo” too: Uusitalo and Licitra were first, then Giordani flew by.
Flamingopera: I’m SHOCKED! Who would do such a thing at this site? You mean people voted more than once? You would think they had an agenda or something!
Well, La Cieca did invite people to “vote early and often”.
It’s too bad Petersen wasn’t nominated for Best Diva in Lulu. Hands down my favorite performance of the year. Strange, too, that Giordani was voted worst divo, ahead of Uusitalo and Licitra. The night I saw him, he was pretty thrilling.
May have been more ballot box stuffing than some of the artful stuffing in Vanity Fair’s June soccer spread.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/05/world-cup-cover-story.html&style=&source=vanwww.google.detyfairmag&service=bit.ly'‘
Or ballet box stuffing.
Could you just remind me which show JDD was up for? Barbiere?
Monty, Yes, JDD for Barbiere.
I think many of us are anxiously awaiting BAB’s acceptance speech.
Miss Bobolink weeps.
When she recovers, she will have a few things to say.
Congrats to Miss Bobolink. A sweeter, juicier bird could hardly be found.
Juicy in what sense?
I often find Betsy’s bons mots so ripe, so simultaneously sweet and sour, so full of nectaricious sustenance, that I have to wipe my mouth afterward.
I’m often ROTFLMFAO. La C provides the nectar and a certain Bee produces the honey. When BAB and Manou get going, OMG…
Do you ever swallow?
Ooops, wrong bird.
BAB, Don’t be robin me of any secrets.
Non ho studiato ornitologia.
“Non ho”: that’s our Betsy!
Thing One is “WTF is ‘proflicacy’?”
The quality or characteristic of being prolific, of course.
Prolificacy?
Well, in this age, you should never step out without your profilacy, you need to be safe.
Prophelactictitariousness should taught in the schools, but, alas, it is not.
Damn these old fingers. That should obviously be ‘prophelacticitariousanism.’
La Cieca, judging from your no-comment (so far) to opera dunce above, I gather there was no way for you to monitor & control multiple voting by the same party. A pity that the ‘Lulu’ revival lost its lead in the best revival category, since–surprise!–I think the ‘Lulus’ this season were among the best things I’ve heard at the Met in recent years. In their wake–I heard two in the house–I’ve been listening to the Boulez/Stratas recording as well as the Levine/Malfitano pirate from 1988. Im a huge fan of Chereau, Boulez, & Stratas, but boy do they get everything wrong in the ’78 recording! The scale of the piece is miniaturized, the performance is all but affectless, the orchestral account without inflection, and the theatrical tone deadly serious, killing all the black comedy. The Levine, by contrast, is hugely scaled, radiantly expressive, and often hilarious (like the recent Met performances). What a pity he had to bow out from this revival, since he has been giving some wonderful performances of late, although not the recent Tosca (maybe he’s bored with it); I’m thinking primarily of his recent work with the BSO.
It does look like there were a lot of votes cast by a very small group of voters — this is strongly suggested by the large number of votes in several categories and a significantly smaller total number of votes in other categories. For next year’s Pubies La Cieca will set up the voting so each reader can vote once a day, and that should produce a more representative result. (This despite the fact that the posting got more pageviews than anything since the year-beginning Carmen chat.)
To be fair, La Cieca, you DID say “vote early and often” (as thomas noted). *I* voted only once in every category for which I felt eligible, but we can hardly blame people for following instructions. (or CAN we …?)
La Cieca: Think of it this way. You now have your own PUBIE-GATE!
well, congrats to all the winners. Like with every award given, I do not agree with several of the recipients (Nebby as Mimi, specially given the other choices?; Tosca a night of filth, given what we witnessed in Turandon’t?)
That being said, just like La Cieca said, it is an honor just to be nominated. I hope some of the “worst” nominees are indeed notifies of their prize and come forward to claim the fruit of their effort.
It was supposed to be Joyce didonato but somebdy jacked the quiz by voting a lot so that Netrebko could win.
Well, it happens in the best of circles. Several years ago the movie Crash won Best Picture when it should’ve crashed at the door.
Too bad we can’t vote for “best picture associated with the winners” I would pick “Miss Fern” – Much better than the actual costuming and sets for Atilla.