A big hand for the little lady
Sweet Betsy again rounds up the Saturday afternoon listenables. La Cieca leans toward Manon naturellement, but she should warn you that she’s off like Des Grieux’s cassock at 3:00 pm to jump on the Caramoor Caravan. After the jump (not onto the Caravan!) the complete list of what’s singing who.
1:00-4:30 BBC 3: The Royal Opera House Manon with the Venus-of-the-Steppes and Steps-on-his-Penis. (Do I really need to list anything else?)
1:00-5:00 CBC TWO: Mireille from Paris. Runner-up to Trovatore for the Confusing Opera Plot award. It gets a better performance than it deserves.
1:00-4:00 DEUTSCHLANDRADIO KULTURE: Gretry’s Andromaque. If you like things that are off the beaten track, but not so far off you can never find your way back again, this is a contender.
1:00-5:00 FRANCE MUSIQUE: Iphigénie en Aulide, Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie in Brooklyn, Iphigénie Does Dallas, and If a Génie Meet a Génie Coming’ thro’ the Aeschylus.
1:00-5:00 NPR World of Opera: Pelléas and Mélisande from Duisberg. Not a bad performance, considering that Ozawa conducts the whole show from his hotel suite in Munich.
1:00-5:30 WETA: Il trittico from the Castleton Festival. For my money, the only serious rival to the Manon. It will be interesting to hear what kind of show Maazel is paying for over there.
1:30-5:30 BARTOK RADIO: Francesca Zambella’s production of Christmas Eve, better known as Vakula the Smith, better known as I Cherevichki, better known as The Tsarina’s Slippers, better known as WTF Is This Crap, and not known at all as Happy Herman the Walrus Bender, this is the show that set East-West relations back at least a decade.
1:30-5:00 WFMO: L’elisir d’amore from Chicago. Like an infestation of bed bugs, once Nicole Cabell and Giuseppe Filianoti get into your computer, you can never get rid of them.
2:00-5:00 CESKY ROZHLAS VLTAVA: Il trovatore from the Liceu, the infamous production in which everyone is nude all the time, including Fiorenza Cedolins. Of course, you won’t be able to see all that on the broadcast.
Boy, am I glad I queried our Doyenne about the so-called nude Trovatore. It certainly generated a lot of very amusing remarks! Thank you, lads. (And I STILL don’t want to see Marco Berti in the altogether.)
Meanwhile, I am trying to imagine singers of a certain age, having to wear prostheses–putting it delicately–over their supposedly naked bits that probably at age 50 or so might not be in excellent condition.
On second thought, why am I imagining this? Ick. Enough with the nudity. Give me gorgeous costumes, lavish sets, gilt everywhere, egret plumes, egregious military uniforms–in other words, the works.
I agree, DonCarloF: let’s see Grigolo in an egret plume (but just the one).
God no, he probably looks like an 11 year old down there: hairless. I just shiver at the thought.
Lindoro, as someone else wrote recently, I’m trying to be egalitarian. Besides, my tastes are pretty broad, running all the way from Baroque to yesterday. (Is “egalitarian” the new “slut puppy”?)
OperaCast has been updated for tomorrow with items of such staggering import that you may not be able to keep yourselves from dancing in the street. Consider the following possibilities:
11:00-2:00 LRT KLASSIKA
Ponchielli’s I LITUANI. Actually this is not such a bad opera, sort of like his MARION DELORME, which is the Italian version of “Mr. Peepers.”
1:00-5:00 KBYU
CARMEN from the Utah Festival with Aubrey Babcock and Jason Baldwin in the key roles. It’s so easy to look down our noses at the sincere efforts of our more provincial houses. (Hand me my lorgnette, Conchita.)
1:00-5:00 VPR CLASSICAL is broadcasting the OC album (I think) of Frank Loesser’s “Most Happy Fella.” I’ve been looking for the 3-disc albums for decades, but I doubt this is it.
1:00-5:00 WFMT Network. The LA production of TAMERLANO. (Don’t put that lorgnette away just yet, Conchita.)
1:30-4:30 RADIO OETERREICH. Gedda and Freni as Romeo and Juliette from The Met, 1968. Wouldn’t you think the Viennese would be dipping into their own archives?
2:00-6:00 HR2 KULTUR The Don Carlo from Covent Garden that so excited Parterrians a few weeks back with its sheer display of competence.
2:00-6:00 KLARA. Vivaldi’s ORLANDO FURIOSO in the infamous commercial recording session during which Jennifer Larmore and Marie-Nicole Lemieux remained fully clothed.
2:00-6:00 RADIO TRE. LA TRAVIATA with Myrto Papatanasiu and Antonio Gandia. This comes from the Rome Opera archives back in December, 2009. Ah, they had voices in those days.
Betsy, I’ve got the original cast recording of Most Happy Fella, full dialogue, all three disks. If you’re really looking for it, I’d be more than happy to work out a trade.
Baritenor, much obliged, but yesterday’s broadcast was, indeed, the full version, which I happily now possess. Having brought up Frank Loesser, has there ever been a performance of “Greenwillow” with a real tenor in place of the charming but inadequate Anthony Perkins?
Never Will I Marry is such a terrific song. Wide range and very dramatic. And very interesting coming out of Perkin’s mouth.
I’m listening to the Gretry at the moment. Um, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
And I have opted to view the BBC Television broadcast of Simon Boccanegra from ROH, Covent Garden (recorded 2 July 2010) – excellent camera-work and nice backstage shots and brief comments from Pappano. Great stuff.
Tenorfach