parterre box

19 comments

• Clita del Toro says:

  Opera is for sissies don’t know how to compose their own music.

  on February 22, 2012 at 4:49 PM
• pasavant says:

  She really should cut back on the eye makeup.

  on February 22, 2012 at 6:33 PM
• Erdgeist says:

  it just dawned on me, quite violently actually, that there is no opera about an opera singer

  Oh, nooooooo! Not again! Did no one bother to debrief him about this in the last year or so since this statement first appeared in this same context?

  on February 22, 2012 at 9:02 PM
  • ianw2 says:

    The quote makes much more sense in context. I certainly can’t think of an opera that is about the occasional artistic crises a diva may have; only characters in opera who happen to be opera singers, which is background secondary to the real story.

    Of course that doesn’t mean that the story of a diva has been told effectively, or is a particularly interesting plot device for an opera.

    on February 22, 2012 at 9:06 PM
    • whatever says:

      whitney houston, the opera?

      on February 22, 2012 at 9:14 PM
    • Pelleas says:

      Yes, the problem here seems to be that he’s not terribly articulate.

      He always comes off like a poorly read high school kid.

      on February 23, 2012 at 6:06 AM
• sidessa says:

  Pasatieri’s La Divina (written in 1965) is about the last performance of a famous opera singer. The is an excellent recording with Sjeri Greenawald in the title role. Both Tosca and The Impressario come to mind as operas with singers portraying important parts.

  on February 22, 2012 at 10:46 PM
• sidessa says:

  Sheri Greenawald.. sorry.

  on February 22, 2012 at 10:47 PM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  I stopped reading when Woofus told me there’s no opera about an opera singer. Baseball players hit runs; violinists play them – what a crock.

  on February 23, 2012 at 12:08 AM
  • Nerva Nelli says:

    Other opera about opera singers:

    LE CANTATRICE VILLANE (by Fioravanti)
    DER SCHAUSPIELSDIREKTOR
    LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN (Antonia, La Voix, Stella)
    VEC MAKROPULOS
    THE TENOR (by Weisgall)
    THE ASPERN PAPERS

    And does Rufus really think that Monteverdi’s operas are 500 years old? POPPEA is 369 and counting…

    on February 23, 2012 at 12:49 AM
    • Camille says:

      “I DUE ILLUSTRI RIVALI”–ossia
      La vera storia della piccolissima Bianca Castafiore e la grandissima Nerva Nelli.

      Roofus, callate la boca and go read the Victor Book of Opera.

      on February 23, 2012 at 1:00 AM
      • Nerva Nelli says:

        “I DUE ILLUSTRI RIVALI”–ossia
        La vera storia della piccolissima Bianca Castafiore e la grandissima Nerva Nelli.

        …….

        Castafiore had no rivals as DON CARLOS’ Countess of Aremburg, her only role at the Paris Opera and created by Verdi with his usual shrewdness as to matching role to vocalità. Too bad she retired *decades* too early to have been able to create Janacek’s Cleaning Lady.

        on February 23, 2012 at 8:35 AM
    • Baltsamic Vinaigrette says:

      And she doesn’t look a day over 347.

      on February 23, 2012 at 7:32 AM
      • manrico says:

        Ariadne auf Naxos is definitely about a diva’s search for identity as much as it is a composer’s search for the ‘truth.’

        And the Makropulos Affair is all about an aging diva.

        Wainwright has plenty of strengths, but articulating his ideas isn’t one of them. As for opera composing, I’ll decide for myself when I see his opus this Saturday.

        on February 23, 2012 at 8:24 AM
• manrico says:

  oops, see you already listed that one.

  on February 23, 2012 at 8:25 AM
• Clita del Toro says:

  Nessun dorma

  on February 23, 2012 at 10:26 AM
  • Tristan_und says:

    Well, that was hideous. Can we blame the sound system or singing in English?

    on February 25, 2012 at 12:16 PM
• Clita del Toro says:

  New subject for Wainwright opera he can take the leading role:
  httpv://www.videosurf.com/video/marilyn-monroe-scene-from-ladies-of-the-chorus-1239127253

  on February 23, 2012 at 10:33 AM
• Clita del Toro says:

  sorry

  on February 23, 2012 at 10:35 AM