Talk the stalk
Dawn Fatale (pictured) shares with us a horoscope:
Today you might want to do some research into a subject that fascinates you. You could be swept up in enthusiasm. You may, for example, be developing an infatuation with a movie star or musical performer. Maybe you will join their fan club and look for articles about them on the Web.. Give yourself time to have fun and to find out more!
“As far as I can tell,” Dawn concludes,”this means I’m going to become a stalker.”
While we’re waiting for the news of Dawn’s arrest just outside the home of Jonas Kaufmann, La Cieca thought it would be fun to hear from you, the cher public, a) tales of operatic stalking, or b) advice for the aspiring stalker. Nota bene: your doyenne expects for you to change the names of the guilty parties in the most outrageous and campy ways imaginable.
Hey Taminophile- James King’s not going to say “Taminophile studied with me – not much of a voice”.
Well, Ruxton, maybe he would, although being dead such pronouncements are a bit beyond him. I have heard teachers say such things many times. And certainly students have a right to express their opinions.
You have a point, and it really is poor form for me to make such a statement publicly. But if ever there was an appropriate forum for poor form, here it is!
I’m sure many people have said “That Taminophile! No mystery there why the singing career never happened!”
OTOH, my point is that if you pay for lessons, you are the consumer and have a perfect right to pass very vocal judgment on what you have purchased.
Absolutely Betsy Ann! …I’m sure tamiophile’s got a lovely voice – I just succumbed to a wee joke because the opportunity was cavenous. Please do not get a mouth like a cats bum or take me too seriously. I never do!
“Get a mouth like a cat’s bum !” Is that what you just said? “Get a mouth like a cat’s bum.” I can imagine that as the first day in Mme. Schwarzkopf’a atelier.
Frrrshht, dju must make der mout like der katz’s asshole, all schmoopied up like, ja ja, verstehn sie? Und den, der voice kums out like der dead maus ———-pppppptttttt. Ja ja. Only mit mooosik. I love it.
Hahaha – Schwarzkopf had little patience with adoring fans. She signed in an Amsterdam record store once. First she complained about the music they had on (the Szell Four Last Songs), she wanted to hear Wiener Blut “the best thing I ever recorded”). Someone in line had brought an old photo for her to sign – she looked at it with horror, and told the guy who brought it that she looked like she had a bad stomach ache, and tore up the photo!
It seems like she had little patience, period. I’ve seen the videos of her master classes!
I once attended master classes of hers at a very small venue in Carmel (Hidden Valley) and could easily have talked to her during the breaks (others did). But she just scared the shit out of me. This confirms that I made the right decision.
This song?
So glad you remember the great diva Mme Schwarzkopf as do I with so much affection and obvious admiration he said, pudting der der katt kleen vas all undt ze pidgeons).
About 35 years ago, when I was about 22, I went to a concert with the Berkeley symphony orchestra, in a small room with ordinary folding chairs, with Kent Nagano as the unknown young conductor. There were 3 or 4 young singers on the program, including a soprano named Luana DeVol. All I remember her singing that night was Papagena with some baritone in the Magic Flute last act duet. Don’t know why I remembered that… another lady that same night sang the Immolation Scene, and I don’t remember her name at all (I just remember the girl I took with me, near the end as I was literally hanging on to my chair, leaning over saying, “Is Wagner playing all 100 leitmotivs at the same time right now?”) But I remembered Luana ever since, maybe because she had the biggest mouth I had ever seen on any human being. Anyway, she went off to small German houses for many years after that, to emerge years later as one of the leading hochdramatische sängerinnen in Germany, specializing in all the flamethrower roles like Isolde, Brunnhilde, Turandot, etc. Several times over the years I had looked up her website, just to marvel at how far she had come since I had seen her first.
So just a few years ago, my first time in Madrid, I saw a poster for Frau, to be performed that very night. I thought, wouldn’t it be great if she is singing tonight? So I went to find out, and believe it or not, she was! So I had to get a ticket. I had no decent clothes at all on that trip, but I didn’t care — blue jeans and hiking boots were good enough. Loved the performance, everybody was great, and the production was nice. And of course she did great too. Afterwards, I waited outside the stage door for nearly an hour… everybody else was gone, and I was feeling silly for hanging around and about to leave too, but finally she came out, walking with a cane, with a young couple. She went back in for some reason, and I asked the couple if that was Luana for sure, and they were surprised to hear an Okie accent (I live in OK now), and were real friendly — he was her son, with his wife, from Colorado. We talked quite a bit till she came back out, they were exceptionally nice, and I told her how I had sort of followed her career since that concert way back in Berkeley in the 70′s when she sang Papagena, and now clear up to the Dyer’s Wife… one end of the spectrum to the other. She had no memory of that concert at all! And was amazed that I did. I asked her who the other lady might have been who did the Immolation that night, and she didn’t remember either, so I guess I’ll never know. But it tickled her to death, and the son too, that I remembered all that (he wasn’t even born yet at the time).
She autographed my program booklet — she wrote: “Here’s to déjà vu! Luana DeVol”. And the son told me there’s a small town of DeVol in Oklahoma that her grandfather had founded.
That’s a good sweet one. Perfect for this time of night.