David Daniels (left) headlines a special sneak preview of The Enchanted Island on Wednesday, December 7 at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. Also on hand will be Danielle de Niese, Lisette Oropesa and Luca Pisaroni, plus the pasticcio’s creative team, writer Jeremy Sams and director-designer team Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch. Midge Woolsey hosts. Tickets are $25.oo, but a very clever parterrrian has the chance to attend gratis, as detailed after the jump. Read more »
La Cieca hears that parterre fave David Daniels will get all eponymous and stuff for a world premiere opera entitled Oscar, based on the life of Oscar Wilde, for Santa Fe Opera in 2013, with Opera Company of Philadelphia to follow. The work is to boast music by Theodore Morrison and a libretto and stage direction by John Cox.
Among symbolic classical tropes, one of my favorites (perhaps because only another classicist will understand it) is Nessus’ Shirt, an emblem of glory (a promotion, say, or an expensive luxury) that destroys you. Read more »
Now, don’t you go thinking that Peter Gelb doesn’t listen to his public, which intersects quite steeply, of course, with the cher public. For instance, just the other day La Cieca and a couple of others were lamenting that opera has lost some of it mad silly gay folie lately. Lo and behold, today it appears that Met is putting together what looks to be the mad silly gay camp highlight of the 2011-2012 season, a baroque pastiche called The Enchanted Island.
Oh, yes, La Cieca agrees that an opera based on the life and career of Hillary Rodham Clinton sounds like a great idea. But is this really a role for David Daniels?
Due to server snafu, La Cieca has had to repost the “Che Faremo” poll. Please feel free to vote again (or for the first time!) Who should replace Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the Met’s production of Orfeo? Alice Coote David Daniels Susan Graham Bejun Mehta Ewa Podles Dolora Zajick Nessuno — cancel the production!
Posted, by some odd coincidence, to a David Daniels discussion board: “Remember, a Baroque opera has the same structure as a hard-core porn film: several minutes of boring dialogue/recitative, and then ten-minute sessions/arias where the stars show off their assets and climax in a spectacular ‘cadenza’.”
(1) Alessandra Marc is the soprano who was inspired by Leontyne Price‘s “Zweite Brautnacht.” (2) David Daniels’ favorite soap is “The Guiding Light.” (3) Evelyn Lear sang “The Boy from Ipanema.”
Cher Public