Opera Chic

Mozart's Don Giovanni @ the Sydney Opera House, Minus the Peen

Here are the latest shots of the controversial Elk Neidhardt production of Mozart's Don Giovanni for the Sydney Opera House. For the backstory, go here. Sadly, no shots yet of bass-encased tejfeles uborkasaláta. We'll wait.

(Above: Hungarian bass Gábor Bretz as Don Giovanni and Australian soprano Amy Wilkinson as Zerlina.)

(Above: Hungarian bass Gábor Bretz as Don Giovanni and Austrailian soprano Rachelle Durkin as Donna Anna.)

I Only Enjoy Mozart When There's Nudity: Don Giovanni Thong Flap @ Sydney Opera House

Controversy is brewing over an upcoming production of Mozart's Don Giovanni for the Sydney Opera House. German director Elk Neidhardt has updated the Don, to be sung by 34-year-old Hungarian bass Gábor Bretz [pictured above], as "a playboy who parties and beds women and takes drugs". This will include a scene of Bretz exiting from an on-stage shower, wearing nothing but a flesh-colored G-string. And padding?? This opera could make you lose your virginity.

Neidhardt spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald and denied that Opera Australia asked her to censor the nudity, further reiterating, "People who expect full-frontal nudity will be disappointed. In Germany, no one would raise an eyebrow at nudity. The English National Opera featured a penis being cut off and thrown across the stage." Flying p3nix in the name of art! I <3 opera!

Here's a screen-shot of the warning carried on the SOH website:

"Just popping out for a pack of f*gs": Marber's Don Juan Has A Blackberry Chock Full O' Numbers

But can he still shock as he did 300 years ago, old Don Juan? Of course not, says Marber. "These days we have seen it all." The best a modern playwright can do, he says, is to make us laugh. And, he adds, to unsettle us just a little.

Words of wisdom -- despite the occasional lollertastic Anglicisms -- from Patrick Marber re: his version of Don Juan, now going down under.

La Poplavskaya Gets a B, Ervino Makes London Feel All Tingly

Those h0rny Londoners may miss Anna (get well soon xoxoxo OperaChic) , but Erwin Schrott's massive pex are stealing teh show (no kwai!) in Don Giovanni. Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph is impressed (by teh pecks), and not impressed (by the Russian lady with bad hair):

Erwin Schrott is the most sardonic, seductive, witty and mercurial Don Giovanni I have ever seen (ed: daym!).

This hugely gifted (ed: !!!) Uruguayan bass oozes sex appeal, but he doesn't just preen his good looks and firm pecs - this is a subtle and thoughtful characterisation of an insouciantly self-centred aristocrat, sung with clarity and sensitivity.

His comic timing was immaculate, the champagne aria fizzed, the serenade melted, and he was dragged down to hell with splendid heroic defiance. An enthralling star turn.

The evening's other big attraction was the over-hyped Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, who cried off sick.

She was replaced as Donna Anna by the Royal Opera's resident apprentice, Marina Poplavskaya, who gave an intense but wayward and nervous performance - sometimes thrilling, sometimes off-pitch.

Hers is clearly a potentially major talent, but Mozart is not, I think, her bag. I want to hear her sweep through Verdi or Tchaikovsky.

2 wrdz: Lady Macbeth!!!

Dudamel's Don Giovanni on RAI television

Tonight, lucky Italians will be able to catch on RAIDUE Gustavo Dudamel's supercool Mussbach-directed Don Giovanni we saw at la Scala last October. Any kind readers who feel like sending poor Opera Chic an .avi file or something will receive her neverending gratitude, and a shout out on this blog. kthnxbi.