I’ll see if he is available for shows.
He’s the type that calls Hunding and Hagen little “sissypants”.
That’s how tough a varmint he is, old Butch boy. Sweet on me, though.

I am thinking that the Rumpus Room is modelled upon several of those SoMa area clubs I done seen. Not fit for a petite personne.

I seem to remember them being well into the Act II duet before the curtain came down. The duet was not going well, and I kept looking around at the audience to see if anyone was reacting the way I was. Either my hearing was way off, or the singing was. I felt so relieved when the curtain came down.

Perhaps one of the L.A.-based Parterrians will be able to shed light on the merits of this particular double-feature, since the production premiered in Long Beach four years ago. Unfortunately, the only review I’ve been able to find so far avoids talking about any of the important issues.

However, perhaps I should read a bit more about it as that may be too facile and felicitous a judgment.

Anyway, it certainly does NOT sound like a description of Bartoli’s instrument. That “Sediziose voci”, for starters, was a festival of tremorous sound and rrrrrolled “erre”‘s to such an extent that it undid any of the import or intention of that all-important opening recitativo.

Ein Kuss!

Please report back with all details. I can hardly wait to hear.

You’ll not trick me into that raunchy Genevieve’s anytime soon, though. Not unless I bring my biker buddy, Butch the MonsterMan with me. He’s six feet six and bathes once every six months, whether or not he needs it. He’ll make sure your raucous patrons don’t aim their “ejecta” matter at ma petite personne!!

I was but a teener, but, ah yes, I remember her well!

Love—
La Dame aux camélias

I do not know if there is a translation or how this will come out in the abominable, usually, Google translation service, but I urge all to give it a try, to read the articles just published by Giulia Grisi and Domenico Donzelli regarding the Bartoli gambit.

In fact, I did referr myself over to Il Corriere della Grisi today, and Domenico Donzelli and Giulia Grisi both had a great deal to say on the matter of this latest Norma. Sig.r Donzelli, for instance, was very annoyed by these falsettisti attempts at singing repertory which is not only dramatic but also had to be projected into auditoriums the size of the Dresden Opera, the Haymarket TheTre in London, and San Carlo di Napoli, which I have been in and may attest to the size of, not to mention the cavernous La Scala di Milano! I will have to go back and read more as I hadn’t the strength to concentrate that much in Italian today.

At any rate, most great Normas of the ottocento, according to either Grisi or Donzelli, were FIRST off, a great Semiramide and then went on to Norma. While I was quite pleased by Bartoli’s Desdemona in Otello last year and therefore kept the door open to the possibility that a proverbial Christmas miracle would occur and out would pop a full blown Norma, well, that didn’t happen, unfortunately.

I can only imagine the riots that would ensue if she took this pasticcio of hers to La Scala!!!! She has wisely gone north with this project and in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is still king.

Thank you again so kindly! I appreciate you going to the trouble of finding all these materials and sharing them with us all. If only she had tried out a heavier Rossini role first, or instead, such as Ermione or the aforementioned and obligatory Semiramide. The rolling of every single “r” as if it were a doppio “r”, was one of the things which snapped the twig for me!!

I bought a very nice album of your music in Italy, Mr Mercadante, and see that you were no slouch at il belcanto, either!!

Yours most humbly and gratefully,
CAMILLE
Lover of Music of the Thirties