La Cieca thrilled with belated birthday gift
“Three-time Grammy winner Rene’e Fleming is beloved by classical and opera fans around the world [ça va sans dire], but the superstar soprano has also earned the admiration of a new generation of singers and songwriters …. “
Rufus Wainwright, who performed with Fleming on Elvis Costello‘s television program ‘Spectacle,’ was more than a little excited when she turned up at one of his shows.
“‘I feel like I’m in Alice in Wonderland and I better be good for the Queen,” he remarked…
At least they have one thing in common: they both warble when they sing.
I am going to be sick.
That has to be a misattribution. Surely, She said that about him.
I want this as a reality show: Renee & Rufus – Two Queens in search of an Opera.
They would be ideally cast in “Great Expectations” -I’m sure Rufus could rustle up a score in no time.
With Elina as Estella, one hopes–the video possibilities are staggering.
What about the near incestuous siblings of Dangerous Liasons, its about time that was made into an opera. Fleming’s been pulling a Glenn Close impersonation in her last few Rosenkavalier performances either way.
Actually, Conrad Susa has already scored Dangerous Liansons–premiered in SF with Von Stade as Glenn Close and Fleming as Michelle Pfeiffer. I don’t recall any incestuous siblings, though–Close and Malkovich are ex-lovers, not a brother/sister combo. (Maybe you’re thinking of Les Enfants Terribles, which Philip Glass has done.)
I didn’t know that SF Guy, and I confused the Dangerous Liasons movie and (this is shameful) with the Sarah Michelle Gellar/Ryan Phillipe remake where they are related, but only by marriage, and have never made love. An exploration of SMG’s nethers is the stakes in the wager between them in that remake. I only watched it because I love Buffy I swear!
Neophyte–I confess I’ve seen Cruel Intentions too, but only because my ex is a big Ryan Phillippe fan–I swear, I swear! (And the fact that I’m a big Buffy fan didn’t hurt.) I’d forgotten they were related in that version, though.
An opera + Buffy fan and conscious of systemic racism? Tell me more!
Neophyte–Although I try to be conscious of racism in all its insidious forms, I haven’t shared my thoughts on the subject in this forum; you may be thinking of my fellow San Franciscan CruzSF. However, I’d be glad to discuss how Marti Noxon saved Buffy from the Pucciniesque punish-the-heroines sexism that infected Josh Whedon’s spinoff series Angel. (I’m still mad at him for killing off Cordelia.)
I’m also a big Doctor Who fan, especially the current Matt Smith series. (By the way, Smith has just finished playing Christopher Isherwood in a BBC adaptation of Christopher and His Kind, which will be coming out later this year.) Also silent movies (Mary Pickford in particulsr), and so on…
You are so right! I was so happy awaiting Whedon’s new series, and was so appalled when I finally saw it. It was like experiencing over and over that huge YUCK moment in Kill Bill, when you realize the hospital workers have been using Uma Thurman’s comatose body for sex. Why would anyone in their right mind think THAT was a good premise for a show???
oh, Buffy. you guys aren’t alone.
Yeah, I didn’t perk until they mentioned a Queen either.
SF Guy:
I am so with you about Cordelia. Whedon was pissed at her for getting pregnant and so he killed her off. It was wholly unfaithful to the ethos of the show, so I treat it as having never happened or rather something made right later after the cameras stopped filming.
We all know that the newly unattached (in any way) Zander would have really killed Angel for letting Cordy die without an attempted resurrection, right?
Well, I can see Zander making the attempt, but he was never the most coordinated member of the Scoobies… More likely, Angel would have come out on top, apologhized to Zander for not going the extra mile to save her, and the two of them would have drowned their sorrows at that green guy’s bar. The next morning they’d wake up in bed together, not remembering exactly how they got there…
Wait a sec, I’m straying from the ethos of the show…
And to the other Buffy afficionados out there–yes, I’ve belatedly realized that luvtennis and I should have spelled it Xander.
OMG, I am the biggest fan of Buffy (which I take to be a great work of art). . . I cannot imagine how I misspelled Xander.
Opinionated Neophyte: You should neither feel bad nor apologize for not having known about the production of Dangerous Liasons at SF Opera. It was a big dud. Although not quite as big a dud as A Streetcar Named Desire turned out to be (same house, with Fleming in that too).
Actually, I caught the telecast of Susa’s opera and didn’t think it was half bad, but far from a masterpiece. The first act worked magnificently well, with a set piece (a trio for the three main female characters)that was really quite lovely. However, the opera went downhill from there, and I think I had completely lost interest by the middle of the second act. I remember there being a lot of talk among my opera friends at the time regarding the work, and I taped the darned thing. Wish I still had it so I could re-evaluate it.
Rita Coolidge is not just one of opera’s most celebrated sopranos, but perhaps its most convincing actress. A consummate artist, her one and only role when she stands in the spotlight is to breathe so much life into the opera’s main character that audiences lose themselves in her unforgettable performances. That is the passion of Rita Coolidge.