Gay blades
So a member of the cher public writes, “The odious Command Opera says that Netrebko has cancelled the Mariinsky Bolenas” which, according to the Mariinsky site certainly seems to be true. Or at least what seems to be true is that the rumored or planned production of Anna Bolena at the Mariinsky is not happening for whatever reason.
La Cieca wonders exactly when that would have come together since the soprano is booked for Don Pasquale through November 18 of this year, followed by guest performances of La boheme in mid-December and concerts at the start of the new year.
Does anyone recall if that Anna Bolena was officially announced? The closest La Cieca can find is a post on the Netrebko fan blog from November. The first officially scheduled Bolena for Netrebko is in April 2011 in Vienna, followed of course by the opening night of the Met’s 2011-12 season, but you all knew that.
And about the “odious” part, now honestly, “Miss Netrebko can never ascend to the dramatic vocal heights of Miss Callas vocally as Anna Bolena and accept this reality, however the artist may certainly equal someone such as Miss Scotto…. The Metropolitan audience who applaud even banal performances wildly, cannot be counted on to do so this time. There are effete knives out for Miss Netrebko in certain quarters of the city to make certain she will NOT be favourably compared to Miss Callas.” I mean, honestly.
CommandOpera is a hot mess in a hoop skirt. Not gonna lie to you – I get about 3 sentences into one of the “CREW” posts and bounce right-on-out. They’re nothing more than a redundant and over-blown exercises in thesaurus use. Like this recent yawn-fest:
“All this is to advise that COMMANDOpera will be around for another complete season of covering Opera globally, in a manner no other venue is capable. Those in the know recognise this was not necessarily a given, however this writer finds his health significantly restored from the chaos of three months ago. During that period, one gave a great deal of consideration to the necessity of time required to maintain such a venture as COMMANDOpera. Yet the weight of speaking intelligently as a serious informational venue on the art form of Opera for readers who are tired of gossip driven sites was the most inescapable point, the elephant in the room.”
Seriously?!?! Push on, Friends. Why encourage that kind of crazy-talk when we have our dearest and lovely La Cieca? Although I may not always agree with La C. or those who may be lucky enough to post here, one thing’s for sure, I’m guaranteed to laugh. Better to laugh than to smack my head on the keyboard because I’ve fallen asleep.
Woops – I got a little crazy. Please excuse the typographical nastiness:
“a redundant and over-blown exercise in thesaurus use.”
That does sound like a truck-full of shit.
I am not looking forward to the Bolenas, but at least give her the chance to succeed or fail on it before we write the review.
I am just testing my new phone, buona sera tutte.
Netrebko sang Violetta at SF while canceling the Met’s. Is she really affraid of the singing? Not Netrebko. The Met’s Traviata is the Decker’s production from the 2005 SDalzburg festival that made Netrebko an intrnational superstar. The production went on DVD and the original 2-disc set was sold out quickly. Netrebko wants this Traviata to remain unique and very wisely she doesn’t want to do it again. Whoever is going to sing it will be haunted by Netrebko’s Salzuburg’s performance. I’m sure she will sing, again, Violetta in other production, even at the Met.
If the person is able to sing the notes, give them true life and actually be accurate with it, they will have nothing to fear.
Netrebko has so far approximated anything that has to do with Violetta, at least when it comes to the music and no soprano who is able to out-sing Nebby (and there is plenty of those0 should fear being compared. The production is what the production is, i am sure a good soprano can do just as well or better than Nebby in that production.