The never-ending story
Zack Woolfe, shirtless, and Seth Colter Walls take the High Line when deconstructing Dark Hope. [The Awl]
Cher Public
- La Valkyrietta: Voigt ain’t Fanciulla, period. I loved her the last time I was happy seeing her live in that... 5:14 PM
- brunettino: Shucks — AC was my guess too based partly on the French used in the clue, but I got here too... 5:10 PM
- Camille: Gee, that is bizarre—R 11;I was thinking of you a while back and wanting to let you know I HAD... 4:02 PM
- kashania: I also checked out the second act finale and agree completely. It’s rare that a moment of hysteria... 3:59 PM
- Lucy: Like arepo, I’m seeing Andrea Chenier: 1. Courtroom scene, just before “Si, fui soldato.”... 3:51 PM
- grimoaldo: Hi Camille, you were interested in “Craig’ ;s Wife” with Rosalind Russell.I watched... 3:20 PM
- Camille: “Inno ad Imene”. Sorry. Just had to try it on for size. Thanks, operaguy. 3:11 PM
- lorenzo.venezia: hair-raising. that’s why the tee shirts were so surprising. it has been a while since the... 3:04 PM
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C’mon…give it a frigging break …ALREADY…!!!
…this is beginning to make the FOX-ies/Tea-baggers attacks on Obama pale in comparison…
PLEASE….. a 6 month (at the very lest) moritorium on drilling …this recording…??
La Cieca sometimes gets the surely mistaken impression that the cher public is perhaps the slightest bit ungrateful. She links to what she considers a well-written and amusing piece discussing a project by a famous opera singer, and because you don’t particularly feel like reading it, you seem to imply that you don’t want anyone else to read it either.
Is it so hard to click “close tab?” And if you can manage that, how about you forward to La Cieca links to all these fascinating operatic subjects that are being discussed all over the web during this lull time between the regular season and summer festival time? When there’s something more interesting than “Dark Hope” to post about, La Cieca will be happy to do so. Until then, she reserves her right as editor to choose what goes on the site. Okay?
Aaw! I loved the article. It was clever, amusing, and accurate. Also, it introduced me to a couple of insightful columnists.
Thank you!
Hear, hear! (I’m bookmarking The Awl.)
My favorite line:
“She is now going for June-Cleaver-As-MILF.”
I can’t agree that RF needs to sing more bel canto, however. I say we hit her in the head, dose her with St. John’s Wort, and make her sing Elektra.
Dear Cieca – the monstrously ungrateful and, dare I say it, filthy minded cher public seems to take pleasure in playing silly word games, besmirching opera titles in the pursuit of some puerile enjoyment and childish sniggering. I am shocked, I tell you, shocked.
I only wrote this because I wanted to see my post in pink.
I can see my post in pink any time I look down.
Is that what it’s called in Bulgarian?
In Bulgarian, we have no name for it. We merely worship it.
How appropriately Bulgar.
Does Parterre.com really need another Renee bashing thread? I think not……
“Renee Fleming is a MESS. Yes, ‘Depuis le jour’ is about remembering your first sexual encounter, but it shouldn’t sound as if you still have a throatful of cum.”
Did that by any chance come from Parterre Box?
Renée, of course, means reborn. I foresee many more reincarnations before she can be laid to rest.
Here’s something la Phlegmming has not done yet;
La Cieca @ 1.1 – I think you’re being a little coy in your response. I fully recognize this your blog, you are entitled to post whatever you please, and you certainly don’t need our approval for anything you do here. However, given the prestige of this site and the intelligence of most of your posts, I think there are some of us who feel the extended “Renee-bashing” (even when justified) is a little, well, childish and sinking to a level below your usual work.
As Ms. Streisand was once reported to say to a fawning director, “Don’t butter me up. I’m not a piece of toast.”
The Fleming thing has been going on for almost as long as there has been a parterre box; longer, in fact, than there has been a parterre.com. (The “cum” quip originated in May of 1996 and the site launched online in the fall of that year.)
The point is: she is the most famous opera singer in the world, and she is deliberately courting attention by producing and promoting this CD. What La Cieca writes about Fleming is in reaction to what Fleming says and does. I do the same thing about other opera singers, but mostly they don’t set up the joke so well or so often as Fleming does.
There’s a more serious point here, which is that I do disapprove of the way Ms. Fleming practices her art, and, in particular, I disapprove of her singing and behaving the way she does when she is, in fact, and by her own doing, in a position of authority as a role model. You will remember that our JJ attended and wrote about a master class that Fleming did last winter, and the piece was very positive. Fleming said some very intelligent things and it is obvious that she has worked long and hard both on her voice and herself. This makes it all the more disappointing (and, therefore, to my mind, worthy of censure) that she seems so often to fail to follow her own advice: instead of singing honestly and truly and acting with sincerity, she puts on an act that is both untrue to herself as an artist and to the music she is supposed to be serving. I’m not going to presume to call what she does hypocrisy, but I am going to call it a waste and a shame.
At the moment I can’t think of another operatic artist who is simultaneously at the top of her (or his) profession and putting forth so much phoniness in the guise of art. You point out a few examples and La Cieca will be glad to unleash the hounds.
In the summer of ’75 or so, there was a little summer comedy show on TV called “Keep on Truckin” One of the sketches involved Maria Callas promoting her latest record album: Calls Sings the Hits. The comedienne portraying the diva delivered an hilarious rendition of “The ‘in’ Crowd” in faux operatic voice. For some reason, “Dark Hope” made me think of that.
Cara Cieca, it seems that I am in the minority of those that still enjoy very much all the RF bashing. I’ve been a closet RF basher for a long time before I found your blog. But if you will have to ease it up, because of the majority, I would very much enjoy some Angela Gheorghiu bashing, I think she is a fertile soil for that.
Well, La C, I could buy this rather pompous explanation if it didn’t appear that you were taking every casual remark she makes out of context, not to mention pursuing this “Dark Hope” thing “endlessly” (Get it?) If indeed this higher purpose was your intention, and not some Guiness Book of World Record for opera blog comments, then consider the point made and move on.
I don’t buy “pompous,” but I do agree with let’s move on.
Renéegata…e felice
Yeah we get it…awful album. Did anyone expect it to be good? So, who’s going to Caramoor and Tanglewood this summer?
CARAMOOR….!!..YESSS..!! ( every chance I get…..)
and….Bard….(for “Die Ferne Klange”)
I would love to go to Tanglewood… but… without a car… it is kinda difficult……
Yes, please, let’s at least talk about something else. I mostly lurk around here, but even that can be a bit of a headache when there’s too much single-string harping.
Looking very much forward to Caramoor and Bard this summer. Is anyone going to the Book of the Seven Seals? I don’t know the piece, so put off deciding on it. Any thought on that being worth another evening away from my partner (we don’t share the same taste in music, for the most part)?
Closest I’ll get is Food City and WalMart.
Maybe we could vote on an opera for vivesection.
OTELLO from Vilnius, Lithuania
MARIA STUARDA from Covent Garden
Monteverdi’s ORFEO
CAPRICCIO from Victoria, BC
A Carl Orff double-header
MEDEA IN CORINTO (I’ve heard this and it’s fascinating)
LITTLE WOMEN from Canada (Heard it too and recommend it)
IL TROVATORE (For the masochistic)
GOTTERDAMMERUNG from Los Angeles
Cavalli’s GIASONE
BILLY BUDD from Glyndebourne (Manou’s seen it; I defer)
KAT’A KABANOVA from Covent Garden
Rossini’s OTELLO (This one is cool)
LA SONNAMBULA with Dessay
IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE with Najda Michael
MACBETTO from Brussels. Is Scott Hendricks the new baritone to watch?