Baci @ Classica For the Following Post

(**Please go here if you're looking for Marcelo Alvarez's surprise La Scala cancellations...)

OC gets down on her knees and sends giant, soft kisses to Classica Italia for last night's re-broadcast of the December 7, 2007 Tristan und Isolde live from Teatro alla Scala. How sweet it was to stay in last night and nurse my lingering Tristan und Isolde hangover with the hair of the dog that bit me: moar vagnair. Although this time, Triscuits Underpantsies went much better with OC draped across the couch, wrapped in 00s Eres & 90s Paul Costelloe under a 80s Bardelli cream cashmere blanket & sipping on some gin & juice Cremes Gaja red. Yah, it was teh bomb and yah u wish u were here.

We have to say that live, Barenboim's warmth and delicate mastery of the orchestra didn't translate as we had wished to the plasma, nor did the impact of Meier's acting. The suckiness of Act II lulled me again to sleep, but I was roused promptly by some of Meier's howling. So it's all good. 

Here below are screenshots of the spectacle. And damn...on 42" plasma, Meier's forehead barely cracked an inch under her most forced of laments. And now the legal stuff: The following shots are pictures taken from a television broadcast, and are not promotional materials of Teatro alla Scala.

 

Above: Act I, The chorus & Kurwenal, sung by Gerd Grochowski

Above: Act I, scenery.

Above: Act I, Waltraud Meier singing Isolde.

 

Above: Act I, Waltraud Meier singing Isolde.

Above: Act I, Ian Storey singing Tristan.

Above: Act II, Waltraud Meier singing Isolde and Brangäne's Michelle De Young

Above: Act II, Ian Storey singing Tristan & Waltraud Meier's Isolde

   

Above: Act II, Ian Storey singing Tristan & Waltraud Meier's Isolde

Above: Act II, König Marke's Matti Salminen

Above: Act III, Barenboim arrives for Act III's awesomeness

Above: Act III, Dying Tristan & Kurwenal's Gerd Grochowski

Above: Act III, You're all gonna die!

Above: Waltraud Meier's Isolde takes a final bow @ curtain call

Above: König Marke as Matti Salminen @ curtain call

Above: Ian Storey singing Tristan @ curtain call

 

Above: Barenboim @ curtain call

Above: Director Patrice Chéreau

Comments

[Miss Johnson From London]

Thank you for the photographs of the opening night "Tristan." Having heard a fair number of Brangänes in the theatre in my day (including Grace Hoffman and Tatiana Troyanos), and having been exposed to any number of directorial takes on (or swipes at) "T&I," I am gobsmacked by why a director or costume and make-up people would think it in the best interests of the opera to turn Brangäne into a XX version of Fafner. My deepest sympathies to Michelle de Young. If, as the reviews have it, she did not sing well, do people think you can costume a woman to look like a monster when she is performing the epitome of a sororial role and expect her to sound like Sigrid Onegin? Some years ago, a friend of mine who was singing Brangäne hit the roof when she was asked to perform it wearing a contemporary business suit--in
retrospect, she's lucky she wasn't costumed
as King Kong...

At any rate, Miss Opera Chic, thanks again
for your reportage and Wagner martyrdom at
Scala...better you than me!

Love & kisses,
Miss J

[fignaz]

I'm just downloading the video myself, so haven't seen the whole thing. But from some of those screenshots Ian Storey looks like he could double for William Petersen on CSI & Kurwenal looks like he's been seeing Ryan Seacrest's barber !