Opera Chic

Titan Und Isolde: Ian Storey Will Sing For Four Hours Then Will Break You In Two

In a news-conference today at la Scala, the Patrice Chereau production of Tristan Und Isolde that will open the season at la Scala  on Dec. 7, a nicely graying Ian Storey and a spectacularly facially-tight-as-drum fiftysomething Waltraud Meier (a great idea for a director would be, Isolde dies after a botched Botox injection -- obviously poisoned by the Jews, to, you know, follow the composer's intent) talked shop with a bunch of journalists who, we're told, were basically only interested in one thing, ie,  "are the unions going to let you sing or will the opera house be shut down by a strike as they have threatened for weeks now?" (the smart money is on, the show will go on) but had to settle for a lot of Wagner talk instead (and some additional amazement @ la signora Meier's impressivley fresh visage).

OC was instead impressed by Storey's dedication: we're told that the big hulking honking tenor -- possibly the hardest working man in showbusiness, and certainly the one who can benchpress the hugest weight -- admitted that he sometimes studies his role even 7 hours a day because singing Tristan is more difficult than singing three Otellos at the same time, and then he hits the gym for 2 hours a day.

PS We'd love to run some pictures of the Chereau massively gloomy production -- complete with wailing Roman wall -- and of Isolde's hair extensions, but la Scala (and their lawyers) are among the minority of readers who do not particularly like us, so we're not publishing their press photos, thank you very much.

The Billy Budd Boys Bunch: Harding, Bostridge, Gunn, Lemalu, Rose, Kennedy, Etc

Too bad that on Dec. 7 Opera Chic will be stuck in Milan at la Scala, dawdging paparazzi & rawking some improbable demi-couture at la Prima (the Barenboim-Chéreau Tristan that has us already bored to tears one week before the actual performance); because the place where we'd much rather be is London, the Barbican to be more precise: Britten's Billy Budd will come to life under the mad baton skillz of Daniel Harding and with the voices of our main man Ian Bostridge, and Nathan Gunn, John Relyea, Jonathan Lemalu, Matthew Rose and Andrew Kennedy.

As Comandante Bostridge (by the way, if you don't have his Henze CD, that insanely fierce piece of work, you're automatically not one of the cool kids and OC will not invite you to her parties) himself has explained in an interview,

When I ask him how he sees the character of Vere, Bostridge responds 'I don't really.' But is he a sympathetic character, for instance? 'I think I just have to sing it and see. It's not the way I work, really; I don't subject the person I'm playing to psychoanalysis. I do it, then you take away from it what you want as a member of the audience. I think that's particularly pertinent to Britten, because it's the way he works. He makes everything very ambiguous – the music conflicts with the libretto and you're never quite sure where you are. It's very unsettling. I don't think it's really possible to sum up some of these characters in a straightforward way – which makes them rather real, in fact.'

Instead of savoring the beauty of Bostridge's phrasing and of Harding's ownage of the LSO, OC will be at la Scala trying to survive among the bad plastic surgery, the logorrheic politicians, the TV supercheesy celebrities, the cabana boys, the perennially agitated fashion designers in black t-shirts, the meatpacking industry magnates with bad combovers, and their generally ho-baggy escorts. Listening, to add insult to injury, to Reichmarschall Wagner.

Not to mention, our real problem for that night is, Louboutins or McQueens?

(ph. Steve Pyke)

Do I Make Ya Horney? Lindsay Kemp Rams Offenbach

Soprano Giuseppina Piunti toots her own horn during the dress rehearsal of Offennbach's Hoffman Tales, directed by Brit bizarro Lindsay Kemp, in Santander, Spain. Premieres on Dec. 1 at Cantabria's Festivals Palace. (Epa/Cobo)

The Funeral, The Lawsuits... And Now The TV Movie! Pavarotti's Neverending Mess

Luciano Pavarotti's life will become a TV movie: the production company led by film director Gabriele Muccino (he directed among other things the Will Smith vehicle The Pursuit Of Happyness) has bought the rights of an Italian Pavarotti bio that tastefully came out like five days after the great tenor's death.

The search is on for the actor who'll play Big Luciano.

OC votes for Dom De Luise.

Bring It On: All Hail Riccardo Muti II, The Future King

Mad props to the Muti family: maestro Riccardo Muti is a grandaddy now! 36 year old Francesco Muti -- the insanely hawt son of il maestro and of signora Cristina Mazzavillani Muti  -- and his wife Susanna have had a baby last week. The baby has been named after his world-famous grandaddy.

Let's all welcome baby Riccardo and let's hope that he has inherited not only the family good looks but also his grandaddy musical talent!

Three Strikes You're In: Unions Get Their $$$ After Killing Two Requiems For Toscanini And One Così, La Prima At La Scala Is Saved. Tristan Goes Ahead

The long, superboring saga of the strikes at la Scala is ovah -- to recap, unions canceled three shows, two Verdi Requiems for Toscanini, one of them in Parma the other at La Scala, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, and one Così Fan Tutte (that sucked so bad their strike can only be seen as merciful for the audience).

Today, an emergency meeting at the Ministry For Culture in Rome has signaled that the unions will get their new contract, and Tristan Und Isolde planned for Dec. 7 will go ahead.

Now, if you have $3,000.00 dollars to buy your platea ticket from the bloodthirsty scalpers -- the ticket got magically sold out in, like, 30 seconds in pure Scala fashion -- you're in!

www.dgwebshop.com will be launched at midnight tonight European Standard Time (27 / 28 November, 2007). So what.

Opera Chic, proudly, does not own a iTunes account because she's not a fan of poorly-ripped, DRM-laden music (unless there is no other choice, and in that case it'd better be free). So we're not particularly excited by the news of the new DG online music store. Which will contain about 2,400 albums (600 of them are currently out-of-print) ripped @ 320 kbps, with single tracks selling (and that's quite steep) for about US$ 1.29 1.29 euros, which is about 1.90 dollars, which is like, a lot: it's as of now password-protected, but a few hours from now the Deutsche Grammophon version of iTunes will is now open for business

^^^update^^^

First impressions: it took DG so long to finally go digital, and it's fitting that their website is hardly revolutionary. The interface is pretty easy to use, if quite ugly; much of the out of print material that is offered is kind of "meh". And what's in print mostly costs more in mp3 format than in uncompressed, CD format -- especially once you consider that 320kbps is better than the superlame 128, but it's hardly uncompressed. I mean, assuming you like Roberto Alagna, why spend 20 bucks on the DG mp3s (plus pdf booklet) of our dear Roburto's Opera Arias when you can get the cd for less than bucks?

Keep in mind, DG has been a pioneer of the CD era (thanks to cranky old money-hungry Herb) but this very late entry into the digital online market is disappointing — but then, those were the pre Universal-Vivendi years.

Maybe it's the supereuro's fault, but this DG thang isn't rawking our D&G tights

You Happy Puppet: Die Walkuere Scares Vienna

Michaela Schuster is Fricka and Juha Uusitalo is Wotan in the Vienna Staatsoper's Die Walkuere: the opera, directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf and conducted by "Francesco" Welser-Moest will have its premiere on December 2, 2007 (ph. Reuters/Leonhard Foeger)

Viva La Diva: Katherine Jenkins & Darcey Bussell Vs The Spice Girls & La Callas

Who needs la Maria and la Audrey, those old bags, when you have the magic trio of Katherine Jenkins (aka Our Queen Of The Mikes) and her gigantosaurus bewbs?

(Darcey Bussellout, who, unlike KJ, once had an actual career in the arts, was there too)

After 18 months of preparation, the Britextravaganza Viva La Diva is finally rawking:

Bussell makes a straight-laced Audrey Hepburn in a take on Funny Face, foil to a brisk (though disgracefully uncredited) Miss Prescott. There's a sultry menace in "The Dance of the Knights" from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and loads of gusto in Jenkins' frothy impression of Doris Day as Calamity Jane in "Deadwood Stage".

Highlights include the colour expressionism of an episode from The Red Shoes in which Bussell reaches delirious heights in the role of Moira Shearer, and Natalie Wood's burlesque striptease routine from Gipsy. Jonathan Cope is the lead male dancer, proving his versatility in a number of roles, while Bob Fosse's hand-twirling, shoulder-shrugging, sexy strutting gets a look-in, too.

The finale with the entire company, an excellent ensemble, is a gorgeous summation of a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Jenkins is a little inhibited as a hoofer and Bussell needs to relax as a chanteuse, but they'll get accustomed to their new roles.

Jenkins's "Somewhere" from West Side Story was a little detached, the Gipsy Song from Carmen less than sultry, but her brave stab at Maria Callas in Rossini's "Una voce poca fa" from The Barber of Seville was airy and natural, while her homage to Marilyn Monroe in "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" sparkled.

OC is all in favor of weird Broadway-style shows (and we like Luhrmann's weirdykinz Moulin Rouge, too, except for the Nirvana desecration) and Zeus knows media hype and clumsy newspaper writing are Siamese twins; but, really, the only way for Jenkins to take "a brave stab" at la Maria -- and we say this while standing proudly on the Team Tebaldi side -- would have been to travel back in time, steal a  steak knife in the Savini kitchen and try to attack la Callas as she was ripping her usual pre-Scala raw meat dinner to shreds, fangs glistening with rapturous joy. Beating the Spice Girls scrawny, Botox'd a$$es in the UK charts, while wearing a really powerful mike, does not even begin to, ahem, cut it.

For our UK readers: the tour opened at The Lowry, Salford (25th and 26th November) and then goes on to the Brighton Centre (29th), Cardiff Arena (1st December), Bristol Colston Hall (5th December), Bournemouth IC (7th Dec), Hammersmith Apollo (11th and 12th Dec), Birmingham Symphony Hall (16th and 17th Dec), Nottingham Royal Centre (20th Dec) and Glasgow SECC (21st Dec).

Don Giovanni, L.A. Misogynist? No Way!

The L.A. Times on the revival of the LA Opera Don Giovanni:

"I thought I detected a thread of misogyny running through the production".

Lorenzo DaPonte, that famously PC man, would never had agreed to that.

And seriously, even if Friend of Opera Chic Tim Mangan, a man of unimpeachable taste, writes on the OC Register that "Director Mariusz Trelinski puts himself very much front and center, and though he cannot quite elbow poor Mozart out of the limelight, he does manage a great deal of distraction", who cares when you deck out Erwin Schrott in a Fu Manchu outfit/hairstyle + seriously tight bright pants + a plunging neckline, hairy chest galore?

Ervino verbally illuminates us re: his character: “He’s totally a storyteller. I think he’s such a liar, you know?”

Not to mention, like, teh rapeZorZ!

Maestro Gianandrea Noseda Wins @ The Internet, Goes Hunting for Respighi's and Maderna's "Hidden Jewels"; Pittsburgh Gives Him A Standing O.

The recording industry deems a record gold if it sells 500,000 copies and platinum if it sells 1 million. So what do you call a free classical download that was accessed 1.4 million times over a brief period? Shocking, that's what. Yet that's what happened when live recordings of Gianandrea Noseda's conducting of Beethoven's complete symphonies with the BBC Philharmonic were made available for free over the Internet for three weeks in 2005.

Young Milanese maestro (and BBC Philharmonic Chief Conductor) Gianandrea Noseda, who looks like the cute shy lawyer who lives down the hall and, sadly, maybe for his good manners and his lack of arrogance and bravado gets more often than not forgotten whenever people discuss really, really talented conductors -- the wonderful Roberto Abbado is another victim of the same phenomenon -- is currently getting the ovations he deserves: nowadays he's burning the PSO's Heinz Hall down with a series of concerts with program of rare elegance and refinement: Respighi's "Metamorphoseon Modi XII" and his  "Burlesque" (Noseda is recording some bada$$ Respighi here), Bruno Maderna's "Music of Gaiety" -- in which the super-avantgarde BM orchestrated pieces from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, a manuscript of keyboard works from the 16th and 17th centuries -- and much more.

Noseda is -- very smartly -- proceeding with small, if elegant, steps in his opera conducting career: but OC is ready to bet that, in a few years, we'll have in him one of our most interesting opera conductors.

Valery Gergiev Will Force Your Climax

Guardian critic goes to Gergiev concert, wishes he hadn't:

Yet he launched into the first movement with a generic, up-and-at-'em approach that gave no hint of the size of the work, or that Mahler's musical architecture might demand anything more than hyperventilating theatricality. Every climax was forced home, every speed pushed to extremes. The brash first movement was followed by a homogenised Andante, squeezed out like toothpaste; a Scherzo whose grotesqueries were played up like Prokofiev; and a last movement that was just one lurid episode after another, without a hint of the formal subtlety and expressive depth that make it the greatest and most tragic of Mahler's finales.

OC wasn't there, luckily, but she trust this account: as cool as the on-the-wagon Gergiev can be, there is probably no other major conductor who can suck so bad as he can, at any given moment.

David Beckham Goes Down Under: Fun With Balls @ Sidney Opera

For some reason, David Beckham's sponsors thought that, after losing at American soccer with his LA team and losing at European soccer with his England national team, what he really needed was a trip at the other end of the planet in order to have his picture taken while juggling a soccer ball, seal-like, in front of one of the most famous opera houses in the world.

He still looks pretty hawt despite his grayish complexion and chin stubble -- he has more hair there than in the rest of his body put together, top of the head included -- but that golden-stripes-on-navy pajama top really has got to go.

What's more, he'd probably lose at the opera, too!

Nicoletta Mantovani Sues Friends For US $ 44,000,000

Luciano Pavarotti's widow has sued two friends of the late tenor for 30 million euros (US$44 million), claiming their comments about her marriage were defamatory, her lawyer said Monday. Nicoletta Mantovani filed the lawsuit last month after warning that speculation about the state of her marriage to Pavarotti would not be tolerated, her lawyer said.

Pavarotti died Sept. 6 of pancreatic cancer at age 71.

Refreshed

Flipping pages this weekend, and we came across the newest version of the Renée Fleming Rolex ad. Hooray for reshoots (and Photoshop). We love ourselves some Renée as much as anyone else out there, but up close it looks like a 1970s Virginia Slims ad. You've come a long way, baby! 

Here's a bonus ad:

Hört der Mutter Schwur!

We admit that we are jealous of those who will be at tomorrow's almost-sold-out Metropolitan Opera matinee Die Zauberflöte, for more reasons than one (the sweetness of Joseph Kaiser's Tamino and the trippy puppetry of Julie Taymor). However, the most pressing reason is that it is the last chance to catch (@ the MET this season) the vocal and acting agility of Diana Damrau's Königin der Nacht -- her most frequently sung role, and lately, one of the more thrilling Der Hölle Rache.

For those of you who haven't caught the diva ranting (and let's give a hearty thanks to reader Crew Mantle), here below is a YouTube clip (#2 on google rank for "Diana Damrau"). We love her Ice Capades glitterific bodysuit, her gothy, Count Chocula widow's peak, and that crazy look in her eyes as she fondles the knife.

Farewell To Béjart: The Tributes Pour In

Carla Fracci mourns -- via news agency ANSA -- the disappearance of "the God of dance", and says that the news of his death "strike like a hurricane"; Roberto Bolle's regret for the death of "the great innovator, the artist withour borders, central figure of the dance of the twentieth century: I've always been fascinated by the raw power of his work, the dialogue between dance and the other arts, between daily life and intellectual life". Luciana Savignano's tears  for "the man who changed my life forever, opened up a new world in front of my eyes, and taught me how dance could be something else, and so much more than what I thought it was".

Bejart, Dance For The XX Siecle And Beyond: Why We'll Miss Our Favorite Plagiarist So Much

Béjart is dance as obsession, he is dance as the art of the 20th Century: from music to fashion to spirituality, Africa and Molière and Islam and the light of distant stars made blinding in the glory of the stage, Béjart is dance. Béjart is Chopin and electronica, Stravinsky and Freddie Mercury; he is power and elegance and blue jeans, speed and brains and instinct -- the wizard of dance. He saw everything and listened to everything and breathed everything in and he turned everything into material -- even plagiarizing, whatevs -- because if like Béjart you think that dance is everything then everything is dance, too.

If the French still had their currency instead of that big pricey Euro they should slap his face on a big fat bill, and the Swiss should carve out a chunk of the Alps and sculpt his big head, Rushmore-like, on the side of a mountain.

Because if you've been to the ballet even once in your life, you've seen a Béjart performance, even if the master was not involved. Bonne nuit Maurice.

Maurice Béjart, 1927-2007

Reuters dispatch:

MAURICE BEJART HAS DIED IN A SWISS HOSPITAL, A SPOKESWOMAN FOR BEJART BALLET LAUSANNE SAID ON THURSDAY.

Bejart, a former dancer who turned 80 on Jan. 1, had been in and out of hospital in recent months, suffering from exhaustion as well as kidney and heart problems. "He died early this morning at Lausanne hospital," spokeswoman Roxanne Aybek told Reuters.

He moved in 1987 from Brussels to Switzerland where he founded the troupe in the lakeside city of Lausanne. Its 35 dancers are in rehearsals for a new production called "Around the World in 80 Minutes", to be premiered on Dec. 20 in Lausanne.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE LAND OF SO WHAT

HAPPY THXGVNG from a city where nobody cares (except for the sweet little drogheria that had this endearingly kraptacular display up, in honor of us expats)

Let's Put on Our Unitards & Have Fun!

(Above: Leighton Meester & Nicole Fiscella @ the 2007-2008 New York City Ballet Opening Night, November 20, 2007.)

Last night opened the 2007-08 season of the New York City Ballet @ Lincoln Center with a Gala event honoring the 100th anniversary of Lincoln Kirstein's birth year titled, "Dancing for Lincoln; a Centennial Celebration."

The New York Social Diary reports the evening in wonderful detail, from celebrity sightings (Michael J. Fox & Tracey Pollen, Christy Turlington) right down to the menu ("Roasted filet of beef, 21 Club sauce, baby artichokes, green peas, asparagus tips, puree of rutabaga"). We must send <3s to David Patrick Columbia for the proceeding commentary, impressed with Valentino almost as much as we are (minus the scary perma-tan).

"It was a black tie evening, and very dressy for the ladies. The fabled Valentino was present as well, with his partner Giancarlo Giametti. The now legendary high fashion team always add glamour wherever they go, so European, suave, chic, elegant – and all kinda thrown away, like movie stars. The Italians have so much style."

Hush Hush Sweet Klytemnestra

Agnes Baltsa (Klytemnestra) tries to arm wrestle Nadine Secunde (Elektra) in Richard Strauss's Elektra; rehearsals at the State Opera House in Budapest, premieres Nov. 24. Murder, obviously, starts in the heart. (ph. EPA)

"Nibbling, nibbling, little mouse! Who's nibbling on my little house?"

The November 22 edition of Panorama had a nice spread on the current "Hansel & Gretel" exhibition @ the Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery at The Metropolitan Opera House, which just opened November 16 (and runs through February 2008). 

The 40-odd artworks, penned/printed/drawn mostly from The New Yorker magazine artists in celebration of the anticipated opera @ the MET, Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, with a new production by Richard Jones, and featuring the unstoppable power team Christine Schäfer & Alice Coote in the title roles...& Jurowski conducting? *crickets*. La prima is on December 24! Merry xmas, motherfathers!

The New Yorker artists used the Brothers Grimm’s Hänsel und Gretel fairytale for inspiration, and they put up a nice thumbnail gallery of all the works here, but the best few were curated for the Panorama article.

 

DANG THAT SYSTEM IS BOOMIN!: Steinway & Sons Rawks Out [For a Price]

We first heard about the anticipated Steinway & Sons sound system over the summer, when the buzz seemed like a hazy, xanax-induced dream, but it has incredibly come to fruition: Now the groveling, unworthy public can fork over $150,000.00 USD for their very own Steinway & Sons Model D Music System. The system is the collaboration between the historic piano crafters, Steinway & Sons, and Peter Lyngdorf, “Europe's preeminent developer of high-performance digital music systems."

Listen to me now as you are lounging on your Le Corbusier chaise lounges in your Steinway Black Tie Formal Wear collection, waiting for your supermodel boyfriends to come home from their Vogue Hommes photo shoots:

The sound system is the first of its kind to use a fully digital amplification technology. Designed with everything in mind, "no cost or effort has been spared." It also features a patented RoomPerfect system that can somehow read the dimensions and placement of the system within the room, and make audio adjustments accordingly. Each unit -- which comprises of a CD-player head unit & two loudspeakers that weigh 500 lbs apiece -- takes 170 of work, approximately 8 weeks to assemble by hand, and features a volume wheel made of gold-plated brass.

You can browse the 27-page brochure [@ their website here], and choose from almost 50 different lacquers if the default classic, glossy Steinway black clashes with your Kandinskys and Klees hanging on the wall.

GUYS IT PLAYS CDS!!!

I'd rather save 50K and get me some of that limited edition Karl Lagerfeld Steinway & Sons instead.

Weekend Article Round-Up: We Read Them So You Don't Have To

Better late than never, says Opera Chic, as she feeds you some yummy bits from this past weekend's cache of leisure reading.

We got a kick out of La Repubblica's take on the current La Scala strike, appropriating the famous Scala wreath and shield (as OC did before Scala threatened legal action) in a humorous headline. And yes, the Italian papers are writing about the Scala strike ad nauseam, but it doesn't really churn our butter, so here's the best we found out of the boring lot:

We also found an article in 15-21 November issue of le nouvel Observateur on the lithe countertenor, Philippe Jaroussky. O hai here it is. If you can get past the egregious gushing ("Il a tous les talents, toutes les grâces. La jeunesse, le charme, la simplicité, la gentillesse,") it's not so bad, and gives a background of the rarely-heard religious opera, Il Sant'Alessio from 1632, by 17th century composer Stefano Landi. The opera may be familiar to American audiences as having last been heard a few weeks ago in NYC's Rose Theater (for Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series) in a semi-staged production with period-instrument orchestra, Les Arts Florissants. Opening tomorrow in Paris @ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the travails of Sant'Alessio will be presented in a fully-staged version, featuring a cast of almost all countertenors (Jaroussky included) with a few falsetto thrown in, making an all-male cast. Mmmm salsiccia-fest!

We also got a titter out of the 15-21 Novembre edition of Tuttomilano, which made a Don Giovanni-inspired graphic out of Zerlina's "Vorrei e non vorrei". The copy barges on about Iskon, a Milan-based focus group for studying structural "systematic constellations", which they will discuss in a weekend workshop. I read their website in both Italian and English like 3x, and still can't quite figure out exactly what these psychotherapist hippies actually do. We're soooo not going.

Then we found this sweet article on Zubin Mehta in Sunday’s La Repubblica, titled “Bacchette magiche” (we're so stealing that from now on), where Mehta says he longs to return to his homeland, India, and wants to live in Bombay (maybe all the while retaining his Los Angeles mansion and Tuscan villa?), because he is a man who is 100% Indian (he says his family even speaks the same dialect and pronunciation as Gandhi did, la lingua gujarati). His says his favorite works to conduct are Beethoven’s Eroica, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Wagner’s Die Walküre. Then he started talking about his love of Israel, the time @ King David Hotel in Jerusalem where he was almost shot, more on India, and then about his marriages. We still +heart+ the maestro, and we especially warship his wife, but it was all kind of meh.   

Then there was a beautiful, stark photograph of Vladimir Ashkenazy with accompanying words penned by the retired artist himself. The pianist wrote that he lives in a strange reality, because in his wildest dreams, he never could have imagined a life filled with such gorgeous music. He has small hands and short fingers, and when he was a teenager, he had tried to play Rachmaninov's Piano Concerti 2&3, but never thought that he would finish because there were too many notes, especially ones that would have taken bigger hands to play. Despite his physical limitations, he never wanted bigger hands (lies!). Then he spoke about the past, and said that his parents were very young in 1930s Russia when they were married (dad = 21, mom = 20). Life was so difficult for the newlyweds that when his mother became pregnant with him, his father wanted his mother to abort! Ahhh! Then he spoke about the first time he was ordered to conduct in a concert by Barenboim, which exited to tough criticism.     

Finally, the November 17 edition of Io Donna ran a small piece on American tenor, John Osborn, who will be singing the role of Arnold in Rossini's Guillaume Tell, which will be presented in concert version under the magic wand (heh) of Antonio Pappano and the orchestra and chorus dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia later this week.

In all honestly, we did nothing other than skim the piece, noting roundly that Osborn bears a striking resemblance to devoted crush, Mario López’s A.C. Slater from the 80s sitcom "Saved By The Bell"…and we were reminded of Mr. López’s last public appearance this past Halloween 2007 as the hottest Roman, um, gladiator in the history of the universe. Pleasant dreams!

Anthem In A Minor Key: It's Almost As Cool As Terme di Caracalla For The 1990 World Cup, Almost

Placido Domingo sings the national anthem before the 2007 Major League Soccer Cup, Houston Dynamo vs New England Revolution in DC  (Layton/Getty/AFP)

Martha Nussbaum: Saariaho + Louise Glück + Dawn Upshaw = TEH AWESOME

If you could choose any three University professors and give them a one-year sabbatical together to solve a problem, develop a theory or make a discovery, who would they be and what task would you assign them?

I would like to see composer Kaija Saariaho compose a setting of poet Louise Glück's amazing recent cycle Averno for performance by Dawn Upshaw. Glück has a university appointment at Yale and Upshaw at Bard; I can't find evidence of a university appointment for Saariaho, so if you won't accept her, I will substitute Osvaldo Golijov, who is appointed at Holy Cross. But I actually think Saariaho's style suits the poems better.

Also sprach Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law & Ethics in the Law School, Philosophy and the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

Somebody name Professor Nussbaum general manager of some major opera house like, NOW

Cecilia Bartoli, "unarguably the most exciting and original classical singer in the world today"

Rupert Christiansen, that smartypants, cranks out a weirdly sweet Valentine to La Ceci in the Daily Telegraph.

(Obviously he sometimes wants, and we quote, "to smack her", because he never went shoe shopping with her, and that makes him angry).

Anyway, we join him in a triple yay for La Ceci.

*****update*****

Blogger gtl torn t, who rulZ all the things Liceu, flew to Berlin to warship Cecilia Bartoli

The Gr8 Nureyev -- In More Ways Than 1

We recently revisited this iconic Richard Avedon 1961 portrait of Rudolf Nureyev, in Paris, posing with nothing but two loaves of smiling bread.

ok, well, we had to alter the image to make it safe for those browsing OC from work. Or university. Or whatever puritanical prison of censorship you happen to work in. p('_')p

Tempting, isn't it...to make clicky-click? ok, enough: you serious internet business guys have been duly warned. Click link below for the NSFW [NOT SAFE FOR WORK*] (or prudes) version of Nureyev in all his glory. NSFW link here.

*webpage contains loads of gorgeous male nudity...yay for that.

Today's Trivia: It's Verdicentric

Exactly 168 years ago today, Maestro Giuseppe Verdi unleashed his very first opera to the world, Oberto conte di San Bonifacio, a drama in two acts with libretto by Solera. With that intrepid, inaugural foray into the world, his opera premiered at La Scala, on November 17, 1839, and was enough of a success that he was further commissioned by Bartolomeo Merelli, l'impresario della scala, to write three more.

We now tip our hats to Maestro Verdi, and thank him for his contribution to opera. //ok, now its time to put our hats back on. 

La Scala's Second Milan Strike Victim: Così Ban Tutte

The axe falls again, and another La Scala performance gets flayed from the itinerary, (technically this is the third performance to get cancelled, although, only the second one to get cancelled at Teatro alla Scala -- the second performance was the Requiem @ Parma), confusing tourists and angering music fans who may have traveled from afar to visit the famed Milan opera house.

Two silver linings in the face of such annoyances? This production of Così is pretty weak, so it’s not like anyone is really missing out on a stellar event at the theater. Secondly, this time, La Scala was at least considerate enough to supply the cancellation announcement in English, to the relief of non-Italian speakers everywhere. In case you missed it, here was the confusing scene at the November 9, 2007 cancellation of Verdi's Requiem. NOW WAS THAT SO HARD??!! Here is a close-up of the English language explaination:

"The Management of the theatre regrets to announce that due to a strike organised by the SLC-CGIL, FISTEL-CISL, UILCOM-UIL and FIALS Trade Unions, the performance of Cosi fan tutte due to take place that day is cancelled."

David McVicar's Giulio Cesare Comes, Sees And Conquers Chicago

The genius production of Giulio Cesare that the genius of David McVicar has dreamt up in 2005 at Glyndebourne (and its DVD plays on heavy rotation at Casa Opera Chic in the glory of operatic plasma, together with McVicar's Nozze, his darkly shimmering Zauberfloete, his Engels-is-my-homeboy industrial-revolution Rigoletto) is now enjoying a well-deserved triumph in Chicago at the Lyric Opera.

Big raves for hawt hawt hawt Danielle de Niese, who's being described by the papers as "a Cleopatra so sex-kitten-seductive  that no red-blooded Roman general could possibly resist her" (a Cleopatra on MySpace, tasty!)

The Tribune editors, sadly, couldn't resist the century-old handle-Handel thing, but we're all for dumb humor, so more powah to them, etc.

No mention of a McVicar staging is complete without a quote of one of the great man's greatest moments (the following paragraphs are painted in Chanel Black Satin -- limited edition, by0tches!!! --  on OC's walk-in closet's door)

Anyway, what's wrong with a little elitism from an art form that can be difficult to grasp? Opera often explores painful things like brutal sex, murder and suicide and you leave the theatre with your soul shredded. But that's the point of great art.

Some people find hip hop completely inaccessible but nobody calls it elitist. No one says Barbra Streisand is inaccessible but it costs just as much to see her than to go to Covent Garden

u can say that again mang!

7 For All Mankind's L.A. Opening (Sadly, Without OC)

 

(Photo credit: Chris Weeks)

With part of last summer’s vacation passed in Los Angeles, OC couldn’t get enough of the street style that is so unique to the USA’s West Coast. We loved checking out the coolest LA designers, boutiques, and labels, and went everywhere from Scout to American Rag to the giant Paul Smith warehouse (yes, it's rilly heaven on earth).

While slapping my vintage Gucci white patent leather flats across the concrete of trendy Robertson Boulevard, I almost went flailing across the street @ seeing a 7 For All Mankind storefront, a reigning producer of American-made denim products, the quality & cuts almost too painfully gorgeous and comfortable to be classified as jeans. But when OC got closer, she saw the storefront was merely a large placard placeholder, announcing that 7 For All Mankind store was coming in Fall 2007. For now we would have to be sated by Robertson’s denim neighbor Adriano Goldschmied.

(This is what greeted OC when she visited L.A.'s Robertson Boulevard this past July...a 7 For All Mankind teaser.)

Frankly, we’ve had our fill of J Brand and Rock & Republic and Rag & Bone, while 7s always rise to the top, and were dismayed that we would have to wait until our next L.A. vacation to visit the store. However, following the Hollywood celebrity scene, we noticed that the Robertson store had opened shortly ago -- this past Thursday, November 15 to be exact. We graciously contacted e-friend, the awesome photographer Chris Weeks (you can visit both his site and his blog), and he generously and kindly forwarded us some photographs of the festivities.

The store rang in its birth Thursday night with various scensters and denim-junkies, including style-renovator to the stars, Rachel Zoe, the affable party girl Cory Kennedy, while host Aaron Battista representing 7, welcomed all. We wish we could have been rocking our 7s and Chanel platforms @ the opening night, but will make it our mission to stock-up in L.A. the next time we’re out. Or 7 For All Mankind could kindly open a store in Milan!

(Above: Opening night of 7 For All Mankind denim on Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles)

(Above: Retail space of the 7 For All Mankind Roberston Boulevard store, braeking my <3)

(Above: From L --> R: 7 For All Mankind mang, Aaron Battista, Alex Sum, and Rachel Zoe)

(Above: Pretty lady Cory Kennedy @ the 7 For All Mankind Robertson opening)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Update: Speaking of this weekend's openings, OC would be very envious of her NYC-based readers if not for the fact we already have two here in Milan. What it is what it is? It's Muji! Formerly, USAers could only find a smattering of the Japanese-based Muji products @ the MoMA gift shop...that alluring display of shiny, matte metal office supplies; tiny, clear bottles and travel containers; and compact, no-frills paper products. The first independent Muji shop just opened yesterday in SoHo, NYC, and if you've never been, it's beyond worth checking out.

One Day To Go: Tomorrow Night Orlando (Mit Hells Angels) Goes Bananies In Vienna

Kurt Streit performs on stage for the dress rehearsal of Joseph Haydn's "Orlando Paladino", @ Vienna's Theater an der Wien. Premieres tomorrow night. Love the toy gun.

Eva Mei and Bernard Richter as Angelica and Medoro

Juliane Banse, Bernhard Berchtold and Jonathan Lemalu as Eurilla, Licone and Rodomonte

eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

New Scala Strike Kills Second Requiem For Toscanini

Another strike of the Scala orchestra has canceled the second Verdi Requiem in memory of Arturo Toscanini (they should have appeared in Parma's marvelous cathedral next Saturday, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, soloists Adriana Damato, Marina Domashenko, Marcelo Álvarez, Kwangchul Youn). The even wasn't just a commemoration of Toscanini's death in 1957, it also marked the return of la Scala in Parma. The last time la Scala played there had been, with Verdi's Requiem, on 4/4/1980: soloists Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, Elena Obratzsova and Ruggero Raimondi, cond. Claudio Abbado.

OC hears that, if anything, this new  slap in the face has made the Scala management less likely to cave in to the unions requests. La prima of Dec. 7 (Tristan Und Isolde, directed by Chéreau, conducted by Barenboim) may very well be canceled.