“Götterdämmerung, the final installment of Lepage’s Ring, arrived in January, rounding out what must be considered a historic achievement. Pound for pound, ton for ton, it is the most witless and wasteful production in modern operatic history…. It’s an embarrassment that this catastrophically vapid spectacle is what New York has to offer to the world on the occasion of the Wagner bicentennial, which arrives next year.” [The New Yorker]
Controversial diva Marina Poplavskaya is the subject of a profile in the current New Yorker that does not include any bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end, but that’s about the only life experience omitted. Highlights include the soprano’s lugging a trolley full of luggage across 14 lanes of Buenos Aires traffic following a dispute with a hotel manager, marking up in a dozen different colors the orchestra score of the Verdi Requiem, and the bit where she runs out the stage door in full evening dress, hops on a motorcycle, and zips off to the airport. Believe me, this is worth subscribing!
Congratuations to David H. Koch for a lavish profile in The New Yorker celebrating his social success with Kennedys and Trumps and especially his munificence with artistic and cultural organizations including the New York City Opera! And further kudos to The New Yorker for noting high up in the article that the publicity-shy philanthropist is “best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government, and on the Obama Administration in particular.” [The New Yorker]
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