Opera Chic

Photo-Friendly Bryn Terfel Represents Wales (AGAIN!)

(Terfel by Cambridge Jones) 

Ahhhh! Bass-baritone Welshman Bryn Terfel has been awesomely (and scarily) captured by photographer Cambridge Jones in a new photo exhibition of famous Welsh people including Anthony Hopkins, Michael Sheen, Rhys Ifans, and Shirley Bassey. Also included is Katy Jenkins (although we didn't find portraits of Charlotte Church or Catherine Zeta Jones)!   

The portraits of Jones' "Talking Pictures" comes to Lincoln Center Plaza's NYPL for the Performing Arts on Sept. 23, just in time for NYC's classical music season openings.

(Above: Jenkins by Cambridge Jones)

Purring in Mantova

It's cool and all that the live-action Rigoletto from Mantova brought us so many treats: Domingo as baritone (again) in another career milestone, the gorgeous Renaissance palazzi and fortresses of Mantova, and the lush, cinematic vision of a talented cast and crew. But for OC, it pales in comparison to a small item found in La Repubblica. During filming, the cast and crew of over 350 people warmed to a stray cat that was hanging out at the Rocca di Sparafucile. Ingratiating himself to the cast, they called him "Sparafucilino", elected him as mascot and called him a good luck charm. We only hope that one of those 350 gave little Sparafucilino a warm home full of tuna and catnip.

"We're All Fans of ENO"

Rupert Christiansen on English National Opera, and why it matters:

But the overall quality of performance must be the ultimate measure of success. The young music director, Edward Gardner, is a major asset, popular with the press and public, and both orchestra and chorus are in excellent nick. A welcome renewal of commitment to the nurturing of young British or British-trained singers has been made this season, with a decrease in the import of Americans. The casting in general looks strong.

(last year's OC interview with ENO MUsic Director Edward Gardner is here)

For Kaff: "A Voice is a Person"

Boris Terk, Kathleen Ferrier biographer, has a new book out about the great -- greatest, probably -- mezzo: "A Voice is a Person".

Dr.Terk just dropped by Olivier Bellamy's radio show, and coolness ensued.

Ozawa Back to the Podium

Reuters reports:

Japan's most famous orchestral conductor, Seiji Ozawa, returned briefly to the stage Sunday following a nine month battle with throat cancer. Ozawa arrived to open the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto city, central Japan, to deafening applause, explaining that he was back as he took up the conductor's baton for Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings" but with a bad back.

"Allow me to apologize to you today. I was taken care of by superb doctors so I can say I have graduated from being a cancer patient but there's one small snag -- my back, which had in the past given me trouble is bad again," Ozawa told concert-goers.

Honored to have you back, maestro.

Bohemian Like Banksy: "Exit Though The Gift Shop"

One day Opera Chic will finally see an opera house hire Banksy as production designer for the coolest Bohème ever. In the meantime, all we're left with is his forthcoming DVD, "Exit Through the Gift Shop".

La Valchiria: Milan's Francesca Schiavone, Opera Fan, in 2010 US Open Quarterfinals

She won Roland Garros against all odds, the first Italian woman ever to win a Grand Slam singles event.

She's just moved to the US Open quarterfinals, where she'll find Serena Venus Williams.

She's an opera fan.

“Music like tennis is an art,’’ Schiavone said, remembering the time years ago when she attended the opera at La Scala in her hometown, Milan, sneaking in because she had not enough money. “It was wonderful, but I forget the name of the opera.’’

Maybe it was “Die Walkure,’’ featuring Brunhilde, the warrior. I could see Schiavone in the role, swinging a racket instead of a sword. But she shouldn’t give up the lioness gig.

She's only 5ft 5½in, she's accustomed to be considered a long shot, a dark horse, but her t-Shirt says "Nothing is Impossible", and she's living proof that sometimes it is true.

Go Francesca go!

Voice Piece for Soprano and Wish Tree

Yoko Ono contributes to the evolving vernacular of contemporary American composition. Gawd Bless her soul, Yoko won't be on this fluffy green earth forever. One day, some lucky soprano will have to continue the legacy that Ono's mapped-out in her "Voice Piece for Soprano and Wish Tree".

Conclusion of Rigoletto a Mantova

«Rigoletto a Mantova» concluded late tonight after three separate installations had been shown, live, on Italian television. If you missed them, you can read OC's take on Part I here and Part II here.

 

Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro made us lust after the Renaissance settings of Mantova's landmarks, including insanely-cool Rocca di Sparafucile (above) that was the location for tonight's Part III. Much darker, duskier and foggier, Act III hinted at the opera's nightmarish, cruel underbelly. OC still loves the opera\cinema hybrid despite the fizzling chemistry and anti-climactic camera work from Marco Bellocchio -- we feel that he royally overstepped the final scene outside Rocca, robbing Placidone of an Emmy moment. And we didn't like the (fake) lightning that flashed in almost every scene, at times reducing the delicious scenery to a campy horror flick.  

Vittorio Grigolo as Duca di Mantova sweated his way through the first scene -- a gorgeous stone kitchen with a wooden floor, and a fire that had been kindled in the hearth that turned the normally powdered, collected Grigolo into a sweaty, steaming hot mess that we imagined manhandling his way across Mantova. Nino Surguladze as Maddalena was fierce, even her sweat-flecked bewbs were fabulous.  

We fell a bit out of love with Julia Novikova's Gilda She brought it in Act I, but each progressive act we found ourselves bored. When she was murdered (in a been-there-done-that strobe light effect of darkness battling light), we didn't feel any remorse -- and that made us feel dirty!     

Ruggero Raimondi reinforced again what we've said from the beginning: Sparafucile isn't a bit part. Raimondi brought dignity -- the Harry Dean Stanton of the opera world. Vocally he showed some strain by Part III, but he looked every part the murderer. A character straight out of a Robert Louis Stevenson book, he was absolutely mutinous.    

Tonight, the psychological depth from Placidone was tamed, even slightly tranquillized, although still dignified. He was an aloof Rigoletto. The shame, pathos, and madness had been ditched for a declawed reading. Sadly, Domingo in one of opera's biggest WTF moments didn't work for us. He was too introspective. But to be fair, Marco Bellocchio's camera work took a lot away from the final scene. Instead of shooting Domingo's face with his copious tears, he panned to Gilda instead, who wasn't very effective in portraying the slowly-dying daughter. For Domingo's finale, we would have liked more if he borrowed from Leo Nucci's ham-flavored Rigoletto. So Domingo -- for the original Se7en «What's in the box?» moment -- fizzled. Brad Pitt as Domingo (as Rigoletto) and Gilda as Gwyneth Paltrow's head in a box.  

We kept waiting for Mehta to go insane and unleash the surly hounds of Verdi from his podium in nearby Teatro Bibiena with Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai, but it never happened. Maledizione. Still, for this unconventional Rigoletto, we briefly lived the dream. We transcended. And we can live with that.  

You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog

Young Glenn Gould and friend (ph. Sony Music, via)

Scorrer Fa il Pianto sul Mio Cor: Placidone's Tears

Act II of Placido Domingo's "Rigoletto" from Mantua is just over, live on Italian TV -- Act III to follow tonight at 11:10PM, and there are a few more first impressions, before a full review to come tomorrow.

DP Vittorio Storaro -- the man who shot Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist, Apocalypse Now (now in a new edition), Reds, The Last Emperor among many others -- switched beautifully from the Caravaggio, oil-lamp palette from last night to a fantastic, multilayered use of natural day light coming from the large windows of the Palazzo.

Conductor Zubin Mehta speeded up the tempi a lot -- last night's tempi, as OC reported, were definitely dragging, probably due to technical issues -- the show goes live, the orchestra is elsewhere, the singers have to pick up cues from carefully placed small LCD screens showing them thje conductor. Act II had the benefit of speedier tempi, a very lively, elegant Verdi.

Vittorio Grigolo, looking hotter and hotter, dripped sexual tension and youthful vigor -- until Placidone showed up and gave a performance that, far from perfect vocally, especially in the "Vendetta, tremenda vendetta" where his lack of vocal weight was clear, is astonishing in its psychological depth.

As OC wrote last night, PD's Rigoletto is a court jester of intimate dignity, that carries the weight of his shame, of his sins -- a man on the brink of madness whose cruelty is played very close to his chest, a man who understands that it's the love for his daughter that keeps him human -- that keeps him sane.

Julia Novikova, who wasn't particularly strong in Act I (nerves? if that's the case, it's very human and understandable), grew a lot in Act II, vocally and especially dramatically.Even if Domingo had declared to the Italian press that Rigoletto moves him so much that he was afraid he'd cry during the performance, we did not expect that to actually happen. But fleetingly, in Marco Bellocchio's close up (more tomorrow in the full review about Bellocchio's many subtle, wildly intelligent touches) in the natural light and deep shadow of Storaro's genius -- Storaro's Rigoletto is a primal, merciless story of good vs evil, of light versus darkness -- "Ah! piangi, fanciulla, scorrer fa il pianto sul mio cor" was underscored by Domingo's tears. Staring in his daughter's eyes, Domingo's Rigoletto cries. Gilda, in her fear and sorrow, calls that "the voice of an angel", an angel to comfort her -- Domingo understood that it is indeed an angel speaking, not one with wings but one of the better angels of our nature. It's Rigoletto's humanity singing, the reason for Rigoletto's -- and Domingo's -- tears.

For all its vocal limitations (and thankfully this is a miked-up TV show, no necessity to project in an opera house), this is an extraordinary performance.

More tonight about Act III, and a full review tomorrow.

Placidone's Rigoletto in Mantua: First Impressions After Act I

 

Part I of «Rigoletto a Mantova», a hybrid of opera, cinema, and Giuseppe Verdi (and yeah, Placidone, Mantova, blah blah blah) just finished its RAI broadcast. It doesn't make any sense to write a critical review of a virtual opera as an real-life opera -- i.e., in proper opera house, singers on the stage without wires or mics, conductor + and orchestra in the pit. Instead we witnessed a live TV show where the singers were in an ancient Palazzo (Ducale), the conductor and orchestra were off elsewhere, there was mic'ing and cables, including the lighting, which goes against the grain of everything that we usually define as opera. And that's okay.

That said: After Act I (Act II and Act III will be broadcast, again live, tomorrow by RAI1 here), Opera Chic can share a few of her impressions. It's entirely unfair to judge the singers, obviously, and everybody was waiting for Placidone's big Rigoletto unveiling, so this needs to be addressed.

What really struck Opera Chic was the slow conducting (Zubin Mehta had to slow things down because it must have been a nightmare to keep things together under those conditions -- already at a slower-than-normal tempo-- a fast Rigoletto would probably fall apart anyway) and the way Mehta didn't really seem to be meshing with the singers. Again, the orchestra was somewhere else and everything had to be linked and patched together.

Placidone kept his vocal powder dry -- tenor-turned-baritone, whatever -- but really, in a stroke of genius, in this Act I -- we'll see tomorrow -- he managed to create a Rigoletto as profile in brinkmanship. Placidone's actually on the brink vocally, as Rigoletto? OK then -- so he realizes this. And turns Rigoletto on its head, making that a key of his interpretation of the character. Rigoletto as a man on the brink of madness and of cruelty. Rigoletto as a weak man playing his cards very close to the chest. But the key here is the shaky balance between weakness -- it's always the curse (never his fault) to the tragic end -- and the love for his daughter.

The voice? Most of the notes are there, the way they were in Boccanegra. Still, Opera Chic thinks he's more Don Giovanni than Simone. Or Rigoletto.

But it's such a treat to see the red carpet being rolled out for opera -- on prime time Italian State TV on a Saturday night with the Italian President as MC. It warms every opera lover's heart, regardless of the results -- and frankly, we can't wait for tomorrow's conclusion! 

If you missed the live blogging of Act I, scroll down past this post or just click here!

Liveblogging Placido Domingo's "Rigoletto"

8:31PM You know, that's why Opera Chic moved to Italy and is still here after all these years: the Italian President introduced to RAI's audience the live Rigoletto from Mantua, praising Verdi's genius. Imagine the same thing happening in the US.

8:36PM Grigolo! Questa o quella!

8:38PM Placidone in a funny red hat!!!

8:40PM The cinematography's really yellow, warm warm warm palette!

8:41PM Director Bellocchio loves his close ups.

8:45PM Palazzo Ducale is, simply, stunning.

8:46PM Sii maledetto! Ten minutes in and they're already sweating like crazy -- in close up!!!

8:50PM Maestro Storaro lit up that alley like a Caravaggio, he's the Michael Jordan of cinematography

8:51PM Raimondi is just class. No small parts, etc.

8:56PM Quel vecchio maledivami! Go Placidone, show then how it's done.

8:58PM Deh, non parlare al misero... Placidone's eyes welling up...Gilda lacks that sweetness. Storaro going for the realistic candle-lit effect, insanely warm colors. Plasma's loving the deep deep blacks

9:04PM Quanto affetto! Quali cure! Gilda's getting shrill...Not that seriously reviewing opera on TV, not broadcast from an actual opera house but from a building not designed for the performance, with the orchestra and conducto rmakes much sense anyway...

9:09PM Still trying to recover from the sight of Placidone in a funny jester hat thirty minutes ago... singing Rigoletto... really

9:15PM E' il sol dell'anima...That's one handsome, sweet puppy of a Duke... poor Gilda (and that courtyard is really, really cool)

9:17PM OMG the Kiss!

9:18PM Caro nome!!!!!

9:20PM Not the best Caro Nome ever

9:20PM Zubin you're losing her....

9:21PM Big big challenge to sing under this conditions, in a courtyard, no conductor, crazy miking, earbuds, wild marking, lights everywhere, ALL live on TV

9:24PM She0's walking inside... tracking shot...

9:25PM Da quel vecchio fui maledetto... in near darkness... Placidone loving that cloak

9:29PM Son bendato! Always scary, creepy. Bellocchio pulls back, fast. It's a good idea...

9:30PM La maledizione, aaaaaaaaaaand-- we fade to black.

More Photos from the Live Action Rigoletto in Mantova

(Above: Act II, Domingo in Mantova's Palazzo Ducale)

More photos from the live-from-Mantova Rigoletto (covered here, here, and here). 

^^^UPDATE^^^: you can watch it live, online via ZDF. 

 

(Above: Act II in Mantova's Palazzo Ducale)

 

(Above: Domingo as Rigoletto)

^^^Click for ten more!^^^

Domingo as Rigoletto, Raimondi as Sparafucile

First view of Domingo and Raimondi in tomorrow night's world premiere of Rigoletto in Mantova. 

Mozart's Requiem Mass Gets a Makeover in Kevin Guilfoile's New Book

 

Imagine if Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor had been recreated exactly as Mozart had wished, with the help of a secret mathematical map. Kevin Guilfoile made it happen in his new book, The Thousand (the follow-up to Cast of Shadows) which has been excerpted by the New York Times. 

BSO's Highway to Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone

 

Boston Pops rolls out the big logs for their 125th anniversary season and invites jesus christ superstar 80s pop legend, Kenny Loggins. Loggins joins Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart in a September 10th concert, which includes hits from the BSO's 2009 CD Red Sox Album (booooo! OC's a NY Yankees girl). If OC could embed a loop of Loggins' Highway to the Danger Zone, Footloose, and I'm Alright, this awesome site would be a little more awesome(er). 

Crankier Than Franco: Carla Fracci Skewers Aronofsky's "Black Swan", Eats It For Dinner

Opera Chic is totally excited by "Black Swan", the new Darren Aronofsky film -- maybe it won't be as unforgettable as the most amazing ballet film ever, "The Red Shoes", but that's setting the bar way too high. Ballet is a fantastic topic and OC will always be grateful to Darren for bringing to the screen one of the greatest American novels of the last century anyway.

Well, the movie was just unveiled at the Venice Film Festival, and the buzz surrounding it is good, but there's someone who really, really, really hated the film: Carla Fracci.

Crankier than Franco Zeffirelli, the unsinkable ballerina was quoted in today's Corriere della Sera giving Darren & Nata a lot of thumbs down:

"An absurd film, that renders a terrible service to the ballet world".

They're not quoting her in the trailer, actually.

Chailly and Bollani Swing to Gershwin

Gewandhaus zu Leipzig © Gert Mothes 

Bearded Italian jazzerific pianist Stefano Bollani tag-teamed with fellow-bearded Italian maestro Riccardo Chailly in Germany for a concert of George Gershwin's swingiest hits. Leipzig's Gewandhausorchester spun the American soundtrack live from Leipzig's acoustically popping concert hall: Rhapsody in Blue, Catfish Row Symphony Suite, Concerto in F, and the rarely performed Rialto Ripples. The CD drops in two weeks (in Italy) -- you'd better start growing your beards now if you want to keep up. 

More Beef Than a Texas Burger Joint: Zeffirelli's Threat to Florence's Mayor

 

Firenze non avrà la mia eredità artistica! Florence will not have my artistic legacy, says Franco Zeffirelli.

Between his body of work including opera productions, writings, films, and television works, Florence can suck it! 

Frengo's diss list keeps getting longer. After publicly criticizing a slew of opera singers and opera directors and houses in the past couple years, the Italian maestro of hyper-realistic opera productions (and yeah, some movies) lashed out at Florence's Mayor, Matteo Renzi, in an open letter (and an exclusive interview) to be published in tomorrow's Florence-based daily, La Nazione. 

Franco's shopping around a new school devoted to the art of theater -- and he's trying to figure out which city -- and which institution -- will inherit his massive archives (a memorabilia bukkake of papers, sketches, costumes, letters, his library of art books, scores).

Florence seemed to be the front-runner (Moscow, New York, and Rome are apparently part of the game, too).

But now Zeffirelli laments that there are too many unpredictable obstacles and Florence's city hall is not helping. He's therefore threatening to move his school -- and his stuff -- to another city, maybe overseas.

We're sending the cranky Maestro some much needed hugs, and additional pages for his burgeoning ban book!

"Là ci darem la mano": Mario Petri, Graziella Sciutti; Nino Sanzogno, Cond. (Naples, 1958)

Carnegie Hall Tower's Last Tenant

The last resident moves out of the 116-year-old studio apartments in Carnegie Hall Tower. The commerical and residental studios are being demolished to create new spaces for Carnegie Hall.

New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham says goodbye [video].

 

Lincoln Center Spotting!

Tommy Ton of Jak & Jil Blog posted images from a photoshoot which was shot around the slick streets of NYC for the upcoming 2010 edition of Fashion Night Out. Seven models converged in the middle of Lincoln Center, and The Metropolitan Opera House made the cut.

Henry Cotton's: Steampunk Without the Punk

 

It's called brass, which existed centuries before geeks got their hands on steampunk. Here's an update to last month's Corso Venezia Henry Cotton's windows. As much as we love the shout-out to brass, it's not working for us.   

 

 

Keep reading for real steampunk

Style Icons: Stella's Mom

(photos via the unmissable Child of the Moon) 

Rehearsal Photos from the Mantova Rigoletto

 

ZDF offers a slide show of rehearsal photos from the live-action Rigolettothat's taking Mantova by storm on September 4. It's Rigolettowith Placido Domingo and Vittorio Griogolo in the true-to-libretto locations of Verdi's opera (OC posted about it here).

Access it here.

Catching Up With Alessandra Ferri

 

Io Donna spoke to one of our favorite Italian, (semi) retired ballerinas, NYC-based Alessandra Ferri. Since her last official performance three years ago (she still consults with ballet organizations) Ferri's dropped the tights but is almost always in black leggings and t-shirts, a casual uniform that she could wear 24/7. ("Potrei essere vestita cosi' tutti i giorni e quasi sempre lo sono. E' una mise con cui posso andare ovunque"). She confessed her personal likes are scalding-hot baths in silence ("Un bel bagno con acqua molto calda, a una temperatura che mi cuoce la pelle"); her husband's (photographer Fabrizio Ferri) pasta sauce full of herbs, fennel, special almonds, capers, and rosemary ("Un sugo davvero da sogno"); and bike rides or walks in the Northern fields of Central Park ("A New York adoro la parte nord del Central Park, un po' piu' misteriosa e meno affollata").

But she also gave a shout-out to her NYC fans and recalls with fondness her favorite audience: on her last appearance at The Metropolitan Opera house three years ago, they gave her an applause that had a different sound -- an applause that was full of intense gratitude by an appreciative American audience.

Ferri is clearly loving her time away from the stage. Frankly, she deserves it.

 

Luisi in Genoa: Carlo Felice's Massive Financial Crisis Makes Fabio Luisi's "Principal Conductor" Post "Premature", "Not Necessary"

Last month, Fabio Luisi, The Metropolitan Opera's Principal Guest Conductor from the 2010-11 season, had been also named Principal Conductor of Genoa's glorious Teatro Carlo Felice; shortly thereafter, it was revealed that the opera house's finances were in much, much worse shape than everybody was led to first believe.

In a recent interview with "la Repubblica", the Genovese maestro had much to say about the financial crisis of the theater, which came as a surprise in its severity. Luisi's appointment, which was the result of his willingness to help Carlo Felice, was tied to certain conditions and programing that never materialized. Of course, he'll help Genova and Carlo Felice in whatever means that they'd ask for his help, but without an Artistic Director and without the prospect of immediate programming, a figure like a Principal Conductor in this moment would be a premature, unnescessary choice.

He went on to say that he's willing to help Carlo Felice as much as he can, but without a firm contract, it's impossible to keep oneself "on call" all the time. Regardless, he'll make himself available for the theater's needs as early as this October and also has batted around the idea of a New Year's Concert.

Continue reading after the jump for Maestro Luisi's ideas to help Carlo Felice out of the economic crisis and what he thinks about the state of Italian opera [all translations OC's kthnxbi].

Opera Chic Breaks Down the Current State of Italian Opera for BBC Music Magazine: Mad Houses

 

Opera Chic was invited by BBC Music Magazine to write a 3-page feature on the state of Italian opera for their September 2010 edition. Under the severe glare of coverboy Maestro Riccardo Muti, OC's proud to be within the pages of the world's best-selling classical music magazine.

So what does OC have to say about the current crisis that's been plaguing Italian (and really, the world's) opera houses? You'll have to buy the September issue to find out! Hey, it comes with a free Mahler's 7th CD (with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Maestro Gianandrea Noseda). And if that's not reason enough, there's also an author profile with OC's mug shot.

You can't get the CD tracks for free, but after the jump is a tiny preview...

Tomorrow's Stars -- But You Don't Have to Wait Until Tomorrow: Merola Opera Program

(Above: soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Daniel Montenegro)

This past weekend at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, twenty-five young, aspiring opera singers from the 2010 Merola Opera Program sang in the Grand Finale concert after participating in an 11-week training program. Ok guys now that the program is over, get your party on! Eat spicy take-out after midnight, french kiss random strangers, and scream yourselves silly in drafty, all-night karaoke bars! 

(Above: Alexander Lewis and Janai Brugger-Orman)

(Photos:Kristen Loken)

Hotel MilanoScala: Milan's First Eco (and Opera) Friendly Hotel

 

Milan has its share of boutique hotels -- from Corso Como's Maison Moschino to Corso Matteotti's Boscolo -- but as OC was hanging out in deserted Milan the past week, she walked past the latest contender in the city's stake for tourist dollars (pounds/yen/rubles) on via dell'Orso: Hotel MilanoScala [warning: embedded music filez], an opera-themed hotel that opens on August 30.

The 4-star hotel has sixty-two rooms throughout seven floors, with amenities capitalizing on Milan's rich legacy of classical music: a "Prima Donna" bar and a restaurant called "La Traviata" (although there's a neutrally-named "Sky Terrace Bar", too). Suites have been named after Italy's opera theaters and operas (Carmen, Aida, La Fenice, San Carlo, etc.) Starting at 200 euro-a-night and running through 500, frankly we expected worse for this restored 19th century mansion just a block away from La Scala. Props to them (regardless of how they change OC's neighborhood) for being Milan's first zero-emission hotel.

 

   

Live Action Hero Grigolo Heads to Mantova for an Open Air Rigoletto

All the world's a(n) (opera) stage. Verdi's Rigoletto takes it to the streets for a live-action performance of the opera, where the singers will wander Mantova's authentic landmarks noted in Francesco Maria Piave's libretto: Palazzo Te, Palazzo Ducale, and Castello di San Giorgio will be lousy with opera spectators and singers -- among them Ruggero Raimondi, Placidone Domingone (singing for the first time Rigoletto), and Vittorio Griogolo as the Duke. RAI's Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale will provide the soundtrack, conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta.

Directed by Marco Bellocchio, RAI will broadcast «Rigoletto a Mantova» live to 138 countries on September 4 & 5. Although the interactive idea isn't particularly new (there's a live "Tosca in the Settings and Times of Tosca" from 1992 and a "La Traviata à Paris" from 2000), it attracts both opera fans and haters.  

Vittorio Grigolo spoke to Corriere della Sera (above) about the possible backlash from critics and opera purists who could crankily pan the unconventional Rigoletto as a detraction from the Opera is Serious Business ethic. Grigolo doesn't really care as long as the event has the potential to bring young people closer to opera. He also says it's important for him to sing and develop his career when he's young so that it attracts teens and new audiences to opera -- because if he doesn't e/insure a loyal following now, who will come to see him in 2035 when he hopes to still be singing? Don't worry, OC will be there in 2035 to hear him in Alfano's Cyrano...in vintage Alaia and orthopedic Roger Vivier.

Abbado's Magic: Lucerne Goes Silent for Mahler's Ninth

There are nights when the music you just listened to simply overwhelms you, when you just don't feel like doing what you've been trained to -- to clap your hands, stand up, cheer, whatever. The music is still with you, within you, even when the sound stops. The music still echoes, in a way, and breaking the silence simply seems wrong. Because what you just experienced is so deep and, in a way, fragile, that you want to hold on to it just a bit longer, and you know the applause will somehow break the spell.

Opera Chic experienced this phenomenon last year, at la Scala, with the Barenboim/Quasthoff "Winterreise". Apparently, very much the same thing happened the other night in Lucerne, for Claudio Abbado's performance on the podium, conducting his beloved Mahler's Ninth.

The always perceptive Carla Moreni, in Il Sole 24 Ore, a financial newspaper with an excellent arts coverage, was present. And her review in today's paper, unfortunately not available online -- the headline reads, beautifully, "Mahler's Ninth, The Perfect Silence" -- indicates that the audience was so stunned by the finale that, literally, nobody clapped their hands for three minutes after the final notes dissolved in the air.

And, eventually, an ovation lasting twenty full minutes rocked the auditorium.

But then, in a way, this is just Claudio being Claudio.

 

Zeffirelli: How Puccini Made Oriana Fallaci Cry

Gianandrea Gavazzeni, that underrated conductor and incredibly interesting musicologist (those who can't read Italian are unaware of this fact because his many books and essays about Italian opera haven't been translated), once said that La Bohème makes us cry not because the music is especially moving but because it's just truly awful to see Mimi die. We just want those kids to be happy, and that's why the ending always slays us, said Gavazzeni. And Mimi's magic is so powerful that she, as we'll see, can make even the most jaded hard-a$$es cry.

And Franco Zeffirelli just told "Corriere della Sera" a fantastic story: back in the 1980s, he invited his friend Oriana Fallaci -- who wasn't particularly an opera fan -- to his La Bohème at The Metropolitan Opera (with Teresa Stratas as Mimi) (translation copyright Opera Chic kthnxbi!): 

She made a bizarre entrance: dressed all in black, wearing a giant hat as large as an umbrella, to the dismay of those who were sitting behind her. Naturally, she didn't take it off. After curtain calls, she came to my dressing room and hugged me. I realized she had been crying. Mimi's story had moved her deeply. That was Oriana: tough on the outside, but a closeted Romantic. Take off that hat and show us your tears, I told her. She wiped off her tears with the back of her hand and said: "I'm furious -- I never cry".

Bonus anecdote: Fallaci once asked Zeffirelli: "Did we ever sleep together?". Frengo gracefully answered, "Sadly, no". Can you just imagine a Fallaci-Zeffirelli love child?! Run!!!

 
 
Opera Chic doesn't really care what anyone says or where anyone stands on the political spectrum. She's a huge fan of Fallaci's writings -- up to 2002 ("The Rage and the Pride"); OC has the greatest admiration for Fallaci's determination in becoming wildly successful in an appallingly sexist men's club such as Italian big league journalism in the 1950s and 1960s;  Fallaci's war reporting, her famous "Interview with History", her "Inshallah" novel, are simply stunning. In her final books (by then she insisted, unwisely, on doing her own English translations, and that did not do her any favors, btw), not to mention in the opinions she cheerily shared with various interviewers. There's much to disagree with, but Fallaci had a great life, wrote some unforgettable, incredibly powerful, deeply personal journalism; and when New York needed her, and Israel needed her, and America needed her, she always stepped up to the plate. 

One does not have to agree with everything a writer ever said to consider that writer a hero -- this is the case with Fallaci, for Opera Chic. 

Holding it Down in Boston and NYC, Is Levine Still up to Task? Opera Chic in Maclean's Magazine

(photo from article, credit Richard Termine/The New York Times)

Jaime J. Weinman's "The case of the missing conductor" discusses in Canadian weekly magazine Maclean's  the dual-city (super)conducting (super)efforts of Maestro James Levine under the duress of not-so-great health.

Opera Chic contributed a quote.

Read the piece here!

OC only half-jokingly refers to The Met as "The House That Jimmy  Built", because the Levine era meant everything -- vision, integrity, and incredibly high quality of the conducting. Levine changed the karaoke mentality of the old school Met, the irrelevant conductor beating time and the music as mere accompaniment for the singers and whatever action was happening on stage.  He's the American star conductor who took over the greatest American orchestra -- Bernstein never cared enough about conducting opera, he maybe had too much stuff going on at the same time, and Schippers died way too young. This means no American giant of the podium, before Levine, had turned a big opera institution into a beautiful musical machine. The Met is what it is today, musically, thanks to Levine.

Arguably, there are three giants left conducting music nowadays -- Abbado, Muti, and Levine. Everybody else -- as wonderful as they are -- is either not as good as them, or just too young. The problem, obviously, is that Levine's declining health  (it has been declining for a while now, unfortunately) means that it's one thing to have to conduct sitting down or stop using one's left arm as he had to do -- this would be bad enough.

But surgeries, cancellations, and a general air of uncertainty is by now a significant problem.

Major, wonderful conductors have had to scale down their commitments to due health problems lately -- from Abbado to Temirkanov to Janssons. And one only has to think about the devastating effect of Carlos Kleiber's emotional problems on his career -- and we're talking about the greatest conducting talent since, well, probably Furtwaengler.

It's sad but conducting is such hard physical work that health problems can truly do a lot of damage. If Levine can't solve his long-standing health issues, a less stressful Guest Conductor post could be created for him.

OC's contenders for a hypothetical new Met MD? 

La Katia's Solution to the Italian Opera Houses Crisis: Kick the Bums Out!

Never one to go quietly into retirement, Katia Ricciarelli has been keeping herself busy off the opera stage: television appearances (she's been guest on a handful of Italian cooking shows), movie cameos, theater (she acted in Peter Quilter's "Glorious", a theatrical production about Florence Foster Jenkins). The 64-year-old Italian soprano spoke with Panorama magazine and confessed that she's been blessed to have lived out her dreams although she always realized it could all be gone one day (all translations are under Opera Chic's copyright and credit kthxbi!):

Ricciarelli on being gracious:

"Sometimes I think that I have nothing to dream about, because life gave me everything. And I thank God for it, he gave me dreams and allowed them to become real".

She also spoke about the state of opera, a subject that makes la signora Katia have words:

"Opera singers should never forget that we are dealing with an art that's often dramatically incoherent -- like the guy who yells 'Allarmi! Allarmi!" and then stands still -- or like the lady who has only a few minutes to live and she's still singing, singing, singing... Opera is riddled with incoherent stuff. And it repeats hundred-year-old shows over and over for an audience that never changes, either."

"We need change, we need to renew. Send the old people home, let them retire. Unless we want Italian opera houses to slip into chaos, filled as they are now with stuffed shirts. The present situation is this: opera is an old lady with no makeup on. I train young artists in my Accademia, and as Artistic Director in Lecce (ed: Teatro Politeama Greco) I always promote young artists. I did the same and at Sferisterio di Macerata (ed: she was Artistic Director from 2003 to 2005)."

Ricciarelli has interesting ideas re: budget cuts for Italian opera houses, too:

"We need to accept them. Workers need to be guaranteed, but so much money is wasted pointlessly. Very high fees are paid to old singers who don't have it anymore, who lack any real motivation to be on stage. Don't make me name names, but I remember this singer, in Vienna: as soon as he had a significant break, he ran over to the casino. Still wearing his costume."

Rich people, La Ricciarelli, says, are part of the problem:

"They're cheapasses (in Italian: 'pulciosi'). They never give money to the arts, they park their Ferraris in front of the opera house then ask you for free seats. They never honor their responsibility to be patrons of the arts."

She also takes the time for an impression of her beloved Herbert Von Karajan's heavily-accented Italian, and she says something that impressed Opera Chic a lot. That she's always considered singing for conductors like Karajan, Abbado, Kleiber as "assuming a distinguished responsibility". It's a beautiful way of putting it, and they're probably words to live by.

Eleonora Abbagnato's Mediterranean Holiday, Part II

In Stefano Gabbana's cool photo diary of his Mediterranean holiday, uploaded in real time via the designer's iPhone, we just found this gem: aperitivi with Eleonora Abbagnato, prima ballerina at Opéra Garnier.

More about Abbagnato's holidays here.

"Do You Think You Could Sing... Pagliacci?"

See also:

Black Swan Preview Now Online

Darren Aronofsky's upcoming thriller Black Swan takes us backstage in NYC's competitive ballet world where Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis star as two rival ballerinas to net the lead role in Swan Lake. The long-awaited trailer is up!

Dancing For Lenny in Sicily

This October marks twenty years since Leonard Bernstein's death and on the occassion, Taormina's Teatro Antico hosts a dance gala devoted to his memory. Tomorrow night, an international roster of ballerinas from ABT, NYCB,and Hamburg Ballet will dance to the choreography of Jerome Robbins and John Neumeier. The first half of the gala is dedicated to Lenny's Broadway works (West Side Story, Candide, and On the Town), and after the pause is Jerome Robbins/Lenny's ballet, Fancy Free. Enrico Castiglione conducts Lenny's greatest hits while principals model costumes by Giorgio Armani and Broadway collaborator Oliver Smith.