Blonde date
There is one point upon which all viewers of this release will agree, no matter how they feel about the music, the staging, or the price of tea in mythological Sicily. Danielle de Niese, that gorgeous young Australian-American soprano whose beauty has made her a sought-after interpreter of many great roles in the age of the opera bus ad and the HD broadcast, is a total disaster as a blonde. From her first appearance, gamboling about in front of a painting of a forest, to her final bow, the WigFail being modeled by the diva serves as an eternal and chilling reminder to us all that the wrong hairdo can completely destroy one’s beauty, even in the extraordinarily unlikely event that one is as lovely as Ms. de Niese to begin with.
There’s no getting past the wig, but all the same, we must soldier on. The events kick off with an endless act in which various characters, including the nymph Galatea (Ms. de Niese), the shepherd Acis (a sweet Charles Workman) and Acis’s friend, another shepherd named Damon, sing happily about how happy they are to be alive and, in the case of Acis and Galatea, to love one another. Throughout their singing, dancers from the Royal Opera House’s ballet company writhe and leap behind them in nude body stockings. (Their movements are graceful and seem impeccably choreographed, but I have to confess that throughout this act I was praying to the Greek gods for someone to pull out a dagger, scream out a ragged Maria Callas high note, or flip a table. My prayers were not answered.)
In Act 2, something finally happens, after the chorus has warned us at some length that something is going to happen. A potbellied, sweaty villain named Polyphemus (played by the convincingly creepy Matthew Rose) enters and sings “O ruddier than the cherry,” an aria in which he reveals his lust for Galatea. For some reason, he sings this aria while sitting on a boulder next to a taxidermied wolf, which is entirely unmoved by his wicked lust. (Speaking of wicked lust, Polyphemus’s dancing double, Eric Underwood, cuts an commanding figure in his body stocking.)
Some bucolic shenanigans occur, involving another shepherd (Ji-Min Park) who makes the most of his soothing aria “Would you gain the tender creature”; an argument; a pledge of undying love; lots more leaping around in nude body stockings; and, finally, the sudden murder of Acis by Polyphemus. Ms. de Niese stands downstage center to deliver a serviceable “Must I my Acis still bemoan” while the chorus and dancers walk in semi-circular formations behind her. The chorus reminds her of a divine loophole that will allow her to transform her lover’s dead body into a fountain (I don’t know), and de Niese gamely participates in an uncomfortably long triumphal ballet with a dancer representing Acis’s spirit.
De Niese is fine throughout; I’m not familiar enough with the role to know if she missed opportunities to unleash vocal splendor, but she certainly did a fine job of projecting “winsome” and hitting the required notes. Workman is slightly overmatched by Acis’s music, adding a little more strain than would be ideal to his portrayal. Rose’s Polyphemus is sufficiently sad and scary; given the blandness of the surrounding characterizations, his role would have benefited from a less naturalistic approach. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Charles Christopher Hogwood, gives an excellent, inflected reading of the score; I’m not sure my enjoyment of the piece would have been impeded if it had no visual accompaniment at all.
Oh Daniella, it didn’t work for Serena Williams circa 2002-03, why would you think it would work for you. I think I remember reading that in one of her early clashes with Met management back in 1980 or 1982 the Battle Ax refused to wear a blonde wig in “Abduction,” maybe she knew what she was doing all along?
We seem to be talking a lot about race on this site lately, and I don’t want to go down there again. I just think its really…odd that in a staging so non-traditional it allows for near nudity (and large exposed gut) that no one was like, “you know girl..you can just wear a brunette wig” and moved on with their lives. Instead, we can’t help but dwell on it and for what purpose? Is the message to young singers of color that they will be asked to look ridiculous to play roles outside of Ulrica, Aida and other “natural brunettes? Is the message to audiences, “suspend your disbelief about what we’re doing up here, except when it comes to the pigmentation of the singers.”
I’m probably more annoyed because I can’t really abide Danielle Deniese either way. She always sounds *so* labored, gulps down air like a drowning victim, clumsiest trills of a “major Handelian” and fancies herself quite the artiste. I just have the ooky feeling she was like “no, no, totally put the blond wig on, it’s more *real*” or some other such nonsense.
Maybe someone did a Volpe on her and said that the wig was going on stage, with or without her.
I totally agree with you -- the wig added absolutely nothing to the production, and it’s not like the male leads were asked to do anything extraordinary with their appearances.
Since it didn’t seem to be an essential element of the production, my guess is either that de Niese was offered it by someone with no aesthetic sense and didn’t want to seem “difficult,” or that she’s wanted to try blonde and thought this was a low-risk way of doing it, since it’s someone else’s fault she looks terrible. I wish I’d had the option of blaming someone else’s design choice that unfortunate teenage summer I used “Sun-In”…
I was in my 20s when I went through my blonde phase. Yes, a dark-skinned Iranian with bonde hair. I blame my weakness for blondrs.
I really do not understand the wig. She is a nymph, a mythical figure! Why someone feels compelled to make her blonde is beyond my comprehension, unless someones idea of ideal beauty is a bad hair day where the carpet does not match the drapes.
Ok, “an assignment is an assignment.” But why assign a review to someone who clearly has no familiarity with the piece or the genre? It’s not as if there are many English pastoral operas around, but Acis is clearly a masterpiece (even Mozart thought so since he did a German-language adaptation of it that has been recorded a time or two) that will transcend this condescending review. And getting the conductor’s first name wrong doesn’t help the reviewer’s credibility either.
I believe La Cieca chose me for this particular review because of my decades of experience in the field of wig criticism.
If you like the piece, I’m sure you will enjoy this DVD; I think it actually may be the only commercially available way to enjoy Acis and Galatea from the comfort of your home screening room.
Christopher Hogwood’s brother, presumably.
La Cieca- please correct it! Hogwood deserves better…
Which one?
‘Charles’ Hogwood.
Yes, I imagine Chuck loves his Klemperer records and is mortified at being publicly associated with this DVD.
Evil twin. Will fix.
Hurrah!
I own this video already…on Blu-Ray. The blonde wig is not the only costuming travesty in my opinion. The sweaters and shawls and all the ugly layers make me feel sweaty just watching them. I love it when Charles Workman cleans off his right foot and puts on his left boot, while singing “Sound th’alarm.” Then he sharpens his stick, which is the extent of the stage direction without any benefit of his spirit dancer guy. I like him more than DeNiese because I think he has better technique, though not a beautiful voice, and he’s real cute, with really long skinny legs. You are right, the dancing is sublime, though I don’t understand when and why they dance and then they don’t, and, when they don’t, there is a lot of uninspired, standing around “acting.” Fortunately, this is a masterpiece, and Handel wins out in the end.
It’s “Love sounds th’alarm.” LOVE IT!
I love Acis and Galatea. And it’s not so naive as it might seem at first. It’s really one of Handel’s cautionary tales. Common fellow Acis ignores the genuine love of his friend Damon, and is done in by his pursuit of the wealthy and powerful, represented by a nymph and cyclopse in this case. As far as DdN goes…when you start messing with her looks, you’re messing with her best quality, in my opinion.
So, I love Handel like a tender lover, but Acis and Galatea is pretty boring slop. It has a few moments that are fantastic, and if you don’t know the show you think “Gee, this show must be great to have such amazing music in it!” and then you watch it and it’s like good God, what’s the point? Sorry Mozart, you picked a dud. Your love of Messiah was much more understandable.
Also, this production was complete poopypants. The costumes looked like they came out of a second-hand store and the stuffed animals were creepy as fuck. And the dancing, though beautiful, was weird and pointless.*
The Dido was executed much better I think, and it was weird to see an opening act that good being followed up with such a blech production of a schlocky opera.**
* my opinions only
** “blech” and “schlocky” are both technical theatrical terms
Well, with love like that, who needs an abusive boyfriend? To me the point of Acis and Galatea is its irony: Galatea is never in any real danger, after all, she has magical powers. So Acis sacrifices himself for nothing, and the crowd ends up praising Galatea’s awesomeness.
I’m not one of those people who thinks less of someone for liking what I don’t. I’m sincerely glad you like it. And again, there is some sublime music. It’s just not a piece that works particularly well for me. *shrug* But I’m hardly Handel’s abusive boyfriend. I love him and his operas dearly. This time he just ran into a door. Or fell down the stairs, I swear.
I agree, dear E-news. It’s fascinating to me how these works can still mean different things to different people….even after all this time.
Oh W-News, I DO like your style.
Don’t mind the W; I’m dyslxelic.
Here a review of the same dvd (in Italian):
http://www.gbopera.it/archives/7209
The wig notwithstanding, I wanted to like this work more than I did. My first time seeing/hearing it. Gorgeous on bluray, to be sure; but certainly not life-altering and, at times, downright silly.