For this Fall's opera and symphony opening galas, OC's dipping into OPI's FW2012 twelve-tone palette, inspired by Berlin, specifically the yellow-green shade shade called "Don't Talk Bach to Me".
OPI's current SS2012 palette is a collection of five neutral shades inspired by the New York City Ballet -- Barre My Soul, Care To Dance?, Don't Touch My Tutu!, My Pointe Exactly, You Callin' Me A Lyre? and Pirouette My Whistle.
OC's got enough books to last a nuclear fallout and our marble mosaic floors are practically buckling from the weight. But it's all good, because we can whip out gems like a vintage Karita Mattila and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (and Hildegard Behrens looking like a Guy Bourdin portrait, below) from our La Scala Encyclopedia of the Opera by Giorgio Bagnoli, before the Silver Fox turned totally silver and before the Finnish tomboy became a Nordic Princess.
Scandinavian clothing brand Gant (now Swiss, since Maus Frères owns 96%) includes a reversible, knitted piano scarf from its Fall/Winter 2012 line. We haven't seen one since Morello a few years back.
The Diva watering can, designed last year by Finnish Eero Aarnio for Italian design gawds, Alessi.
"I believe that above all, utilitarian products should be functional, pleasing to the eye, pleasing to touch, and if they happen to bring a smile to your face all the better. That’s a big plus and sometimes it’s reason enough to buy the product." said the artist.
The Lunch with the FT recently lunched with Dustin Hoffman at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons over raw plates, where the American actor outed his directorial debut in a film called Quartet:
[...] starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins as a group of retired opera singers [...]
IMDb breaks it down here:
Cecily, Reggie and Wilfred are in a home for retired opera singers. Every year, on October 10, there is a concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday and they take part. Jean, who used to be married to Reggie, arrives at the home and disrupts their equilibrium. She still acts like a diva, but she refuses to sing. Still, the show must go on... and it does.
New York Magazine interviews Italian ballerina turned model, Anna Zanovello, who walks the runway for the Milan fashion shows and trains as a ballerina.
Former Royal Ballet etoile Sergei Polunin spoke to the press about his sudden departure from the London ballet company last week.
"It's a confusing time at the moment, I have made a big decision and the next one will be important so I don't want to rush it. [...] For the moment I'm concentrating on ballet and on rehearsing. I need a few days alone to think about what I'm doing as I haven't decided yet."
The meltdown came after a period that outlined a break-up, crappy tattoos and tweets about late-night clubbing and scoring heroin. We're pulling for Polunin.
Who's having a bad day? A bad month? Ok, a bad year? For all the honorary mayors of Suckville, illustrator Benjamin Dewey makes tragedy relative in his "Things Could Be Worse" Tragedy Series. Above, a recent sketch from Dewey's oeuvre.
The most talented, naturally gorgeous, intelligent, elegant diva that has ever blessed humanity, Kim Kardashian, wears a Dolce & Gabbana music note dress from the duo's Fall/Winter 2011 Ready-to-Wear Collection on the cover of this month's Harper's Bazzar Arabia.
The entire collection was full of shoes, bags, and prints starring music notes.
One more reason to love French fashion designer Hedi Slimane -- for the symphonically-inspired photos we found on his diary.
We also recommend you to scroll down the front page of his diary where you'll find stunning photos of Amy Winehouse -- and before that, Francis Bean like you've never seen her before.
British fashion designer, original punk rock couture girl, and all around paragon of how to still kick a$$ post-semicentenary Vivienne Westwood dipped into tonight's Claus Guth production of Cosi' fan tutte at the Salzburger Festspiele. She was escorted by her husband Andreas Kronthaler.
Will we see a Westwood-styled opera production in the near future? We can only hope!
Lady Gaga came to The View on Tuesday in a total hounds-tooth look from Ferragamo, but it didn't stop at her hemline. The rocker took a page from Liberace and made the piano the protagonist while belting out Yoü and I.
NYC-based fashion label threeasfour makes symphony instruments part of its f-w 2011/12 collection. Hat tip to Anna Yasmin!
We love the Tate for its immense Turner collection, Kunsthistorisches Museum for its delicious Bruegel, The National Gallery for its fantastic Copley, Cortona's Museo Diocesano for Fra Angelico, and all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Firenze's gli Uffizi -- but Paris' Musée d'Orsay is one of our favorites for the heavy hitters of the French schools.
Aside from the sumptuous Manet, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh (we love the blue crispness in Paul Cézanne's La femme à la cafetière and Gustave Courbet's fleshy The Origin of the World [NSFW]), we always say hello to the portrait of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's wife, Nadezhda, by F. Xavier Winterhalter (image above -- currently in Russia at the Pushkin Museum for an “Inspiration Dior” special event) and Gustave Courbet's 1850 portrait of Hector Berlioz, especially for the backstory:
It was through mediations of Francis Wey, a great friend of Berlioz, that the musician agreed to sit for a portrait at Courbet's studio in 1850. Courbet must have been delighted at such an opportunity. Berlioz, then aged about forty-five years old, was an important figure on the artistic scene, and was a good friend of Victor Hugo, whom Courbet admired.
However, the meeting was not a success. Berlioz was a secretive man, easily offended. Courbet, on the other hand, prided himself on his musical ability, and took advantage of the composer's presence to demonstrate his talents as a singer. "During the sittings", recounted Georges Kial, "[Courbet] took it into his head to sing his songs, "tuneless laments" […] and to offer them as examples of popular music. At first Berlioz thought it was a joke; then, realising that to Courbet it was nothing of the sort, he took him for an idiot". We do not know if it was his annoyance over this that caused Berlioz to refuse the portrait once it was finished.
So cranky! Another lol goes to Courbet's "Protestant minister" portrait of Richard Wagner where you can almost smell him through the canvas.
Classic FM reveals their top 300 best-loved classical music pieces, a user-voted compendium of 2011's Hall of Fame from the country of cottages and horses. The Top 30 rank reveals loads that aren't OC's cup of tea (<---lol). Take a look after the jump, although #1 is the morose genius above, Rachmaninov for his Piano Concerto No. 2
Ok, but the real news here is that after poking around the site, Classic FM has an e-dating service. OC's signing-up. It's...it's for a friend. Not me. I'm a s3x maker.
Her bunga-bunga-loving dad Silvo makes no attempt to support his country's rich opera legacy, routinely bowing out of La Scala's December VIP-laden opening night of the new season.
However daughter Barbara Berlusconi enjoys the occasional night at the opera. She was papped by Italian gossip magazine "A" while attending the opening night of La Scala's Turandot in the company of Milan AC footballer Pato, a Brazilian striker who plays for her dad's Serie A soccer team. After the show, the odd couple (she's his boss's daughter) went to trendy Brazil/Japan-fusion sushi bar Finger's.
This is what happens when you classical music nerds overdose on twitter: #conductormovies.
New Classical 96.3FM powered-up on maple syrup and whipped out their photoshop skillz.
Speaking of twitter + classical music hilarity, this year's operaplot is incipient. With Eric Owens as MC.
An anonymous $ex-haver made $ex on a famous conductor.
Ugh stop pretending like you've had $ex. None of us have ever had $ex!!
Spotted on the streets of Paris during Fashion Week! //via The Man Repeller.
Did you get books for Christmas? Don't be whiny! It means somebody loves you!
Apollo's Angels by Jennifer Homans
Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of ballet. It's like The Red Shoes in book form, without the color red. (UK link here)
Listen To This by Alex Ross
Listen to this -- or listen to nothing. It's pure Ross musical goodness, distilled. (UK link here)
The Prada Life by Gian Luigi Paracchini
Finally the English translation of the Italian biography of the fashion empress. (UK link here)
Serving Genius: Carlo Maria Giulini by Thomas D. Saler
Giulini's genius, his kindness, his work: a comprehensive biography with many in-depth interviews and new information about the late Italian conductor. (UK link here)
Seven Mozart Librettos by JD McClatchy
How do you render Da Ponte's and Metastasio's and Schikaneder's genius (and Varesco, and Stephanie) into English verse? You only need a great poet like McClatchy. (UK link here)
Mozart's Blood by Louise Marley
The first Donna Anna? She was a vampire. Really. (UK link here)
Outtakes by Charles Wright
Anybody don’t like potry go home see television shots of big-hatted cowboys being tolerated by kind horses, as Uncle Jack used to say. (UK link here)
Poems 1959-2009 by Frederick Seidel
Millionaire, bada$$ biker, style icon, Diane Von Furstenberg BFF & one of America's greatest living poets: all Fred, all the time. (UK link here)
Shazam! by Chip Kidd
Kidd is fun fun fun -- his visual genius and his taste make weird old comics soar. (UK link here)
This month's Dazed & Confused magazine runs a 3D photo spread of semi-anonymous, masked French electronic music kings Daft Punk. The duo is celebrating the success (to sci-fi nerds worldwide, at least) of their electronic-symphonic score for the "Tron Legacy" soundtrack. Comprised of 22 tracks (including an overture, an adagio and a nocturne) it was recorded in London by "one hundred world class musicians". Oh okay. With "Tron Legacy" being all about neon and lasers, they should have asked Achim Freyer to style the photoshoot!
Click for the rest!
Continue reading "Chips and Cellos: Daft Punk's "Tron Legacy" Symphony" »
As we enter SAD season, The Guardian writes:
Creative artists are fifth in the top 10 professions with high rates of depressive illness. But does depression attract them to the job? Or does the job make them depressed?
Although we like to chase away the blues with symphony, we offer a preemptive hug to all the emo musicians -- especially David Garrett (above) -- for clinical angst in their pants.
