Stabat Donkey Kong: aka, A Rossinian WTF
Opera Chic buddy & Scala GM Stéphane Lissner, with his magnificent obsession for dress codes, would have pewpd his tailormade Frenchypants.
Because Opera Chic was watching an amazing Carlo Maria Giulini 1981 concert -- OC has for Maestro Giulini the kind of devotion that Catholics have for saints -- a truly transcendent Stabat Mater (Rossini), with the beloved maestro tall and gaunt and gawky and so handsome with his superlong arms, soaring with the music and singing along -- as he liked to do, a habit that would baffle us if it were not him -- with the huge Philharmonia chorus that obviously worshipped him (as they should btw).
And then the director cut to the audience & we saw the infidel:
a super-nerdy d00d in muttonchops & a Donkey Kong or Magilla Gorilla* or whatever T-SHIRT!!! "Prince Alberts"?
*(Opera Chic wasn't even born back then, giv it a rest)
Why oh why???!!!
For reals, man, you're getting out of the house to go listen to the greatest Stabat Mater like, ev4r -- couldn't you wear something really formal like a shirt? Shoes, even? (he was clearly wearing sandals). And LEAVE THAT BONG AT HOME!
Anyway: the music was otherworldy, and a radiant Katia Ricciarelli (OC is a fan) totally looked like a plumper happier Hannah Schygulla without the creepy Fassbinder moments.
And Giulini, well, Giulini...
A++++ WOULD WATCH /LISTEN TO AGAIN!!! AN ASSET!!!
...
Was this a dvd or video cassette? how might i get my dirty mitts on it?
Posted by:alex | March 08, 2007 at 07:18 AM
You go, OC! Here was a conductor who knew how to make music out of the score in front of him...after listening to his recordings everything else sounds like cr-p.
Posted by:ellie | March 08, 2007 at 09:57 AM
alex -- it was a rerun of a BBC broadcast, I'm not sure that there's a DVD, but there's a DG cd of the performance
ellie -- u go u! yay for il maestro! what a man, what a conductor!
Posted by:Opera Chic | March 08, 2007 at 02:17 PM
"L'enregistrement du Stabat Mater en 1982 est marqué par la musicalité et la ferveur du maestro. On n'a pas fait mieux depuis."
http://mapage.noos.fr/giulini/rossini.htm
Posted by:Opera Chic | March 08, 2007 at 02:25 PM