Opera Chic

The 1893 Turin Manon Lescaut Will Grab Your Attention (And Your Butt. Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Especially)

Riccardo Chailly is bangin' the 1893 complete version of the Turin premiere of Manon Lescaut, at Leipziger Opernhaus. That version, unheard for the last 115 years, comes back to life thanks to Chailly and director Giancarlo del Monaco.

In the cast, many OC regulars, from the hawt Francesca Patané and the meaty Teddy Tahu Rhodes to the unwilling participant in the Roberto Alagna-manufactured drama at la Scala, Antonello Palombi.

Here's the whole playbill:

Conductor: Riccardo Chailly
Production: Giancarlo del Monaco
Stage design: Johannes Leiacker
Costumes: Birgit Wentsch
Choir director: Sören Eckhoff
Oper Leipzig Choir
Gewandhaus Orchestra

The Cast

Manon Lescaut: Sondra Radvanowski/Francesca Patané
Sergeant Lescaut: Teddy T. Rhodes
Chevalier Des Grieux: Aleksandrs Antonenko/Antonello Palombi
Geronte de Ravoir: James Moellenhoff

Makes one want to grab some tickets and get one's butts over to Leipzig.

Maruska Albertazzi's Lucky Day

For those of you who hate when things go unresolved, an update:

From Opera di Roma's buff-Salome-actress Maruska Albertazzi's blog comes a new entry regarding the status of her missing briefcase and the accompanying media.

As of this past Monday, Albertazzi's cabbie, "Mr. Roma 31", returned her bag with the documents and her "special" autographed photograph is quite the happy ending.

WANTED: MARUSKA ALBERTAZZI'S CABBIE

Actress Maruska Albertazzi, one of the two Salomes in the barenaked, nude, naked, Brazilian-waxed, scandalous, pant-pant Salome at Opera di Roma (the other Salome is hawt soprano Francesca Patané), has a (NSFW) blog.

And a few minutes ago she has posted an entry explaining that after tonight's show, she took a cab to go to dinner with her family. And she left a small briefcase in the taxi's trunk. Inside an envelope, there were "personal documents of great importance" and an 8x10 glossy of the actress, naked. Nuda.

Maruska is asking the cabbie to kindly bring back the documents.

He can keep the photo.

If said, hopefully non-horny taxi driver reads Opera Chic, we are happy to join the kind Miss Albertazzi in requesting he please brings back the documents.

And if he does keep the photo, would he please scan it and send a nice hi-res file to Opera Chic's e-mail addy? THX

Even More Francesca Patané Hawtness

As promised (and btw, a shoutout to all the thousands of opera lovers who come here daily googling and yahooing and AOLing for "Francesca Patané nuda"), here is a NSFW set of new, nude Francesca Patané images from Rome's naked Salome.

Critics pan Salome; the audience boos; the Internets ogle

Today's Corriere della Sera (story not online, see photo below) reports that last night, la prima in Rome of Giorgio Albertazzi's superhawt staging of the Strauss opera (barenaked Francesca Patané is Salome, NSFW gallery is here) has not gone well: director Albertazzi -- a legend of Italian theatre and cinema, unforgettable in Last Year At Marienbad -- has been booed by the (not nearly as snarky as La Scala's) audience.

The audience and the critics have been kinder with Patanè's performance. And reporters guarantee that Maruska Albertazzi (the actress who plays Salome in a tacked-on, non-musical prologue), as promised was completely naked. And her crotch, as promised by the director and anticipated by Opera Chic, was completely hairless.

The question remains, though: Brazilian wax or simple razor?

PS: Opera Chic promises her kind readers who are Salome fans, Patané fans, or just horny, that she'll post more hi-res pictures of Salome tomorrow. Today has just been very, very busy.

More Francesca Patané / Albertazzi pictures

Corriere della Sera's website links a NSFW gallery of the Rome Salome: the NSFW images are here.

Tanz für mich, Salome!!

Remember this post where I reported on Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's super erotic Salome with the late Giuseppe Patanè's daughter Francesca and her "Never Say Never" nude on-stage appearance?

Well, Opera Chic ensures that you don't have to haul yourself over to Rome just to get a glimpse of the action. Patanè certainly bared-it-all (aside from ultra-thin pasties and some fake henna tattoos).

The edited images (with strategically-placed kawaii ^__^) appear below...

However, if you are *still* aching to see Patanè's unedited assets, follow the download links below for the NSFW untinkered, scintillating, smoking-hawt jpegs NSFW:

Download patanesalome01.jpg (NSFW)

Download patanesalome02.jpg (NSFW)

vvvvUPDATEvvvv

As dear reader fignaz pointed-out, Patanè is rawkin' teh stockin'.

 

Sexy time @ Rome Opera with Salome x2

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma opens their season on January 16, 2007 with a bang, that promises to be supple, silky and smooth, and last 1-2 months. What?!? Okay, let's try this again:

Corriere della Sera has reported that Opera di Roma is presenting a new production of Strauss' Salome, conducted by Alain Lombard and directed by Giorgio Albertazzi, which is sending everyone clamoring for tickets. The reason?

In addition to promising sex, violence, and eroticism, and boasting the lead role of Salome as the cult-favorite soprano, Francesca Patanè, daughter of famous Italian conductor Giuseppe Patanè (who tragically died in 1989 while conducting Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Bavarian State Opera), there has been scripted a fifteen-minute prologue which will display, "due Salome al prezzo di una. E tutt'e due nude," which reads, "Two Salomes for the price of one, and both are nude."

OMG things like this don't happen at the opera!!! Two naked Salomes, you say?! Now, if that isn't enough nudity in the name of l'art pour l'art, this Salome offers a bit more:

The counterpart Salome for Francesca Patanè's soprano will be played by actress Maruska Albertazzi (no relation to the producer), who will portray the non-singing Salome in the prologue.

In adition to the usual perk of nudity (albeit usually wrapped in a flesh-colored body-stocking), Maruska Albertazzi has vowed to make her nubile appearance "sara nuda, completamente depilata," which translates, "I will be naked, completely hairless." [ed: shaved or waxed, whatevs -- there isn't really anything lost in translation here...because the point is, she will be appearing (down there) "bald as an eagle."]

Apparently, this isn't such a bold leap for Maruska Albertazzi (LINK NOT SAFE FOR WORK), who had previously appeared in 2003 in an extremely trashy/erotic movie "Fallo!", followed by a handful of naked on-stage performances. Hay, LAY OFF! She's an exotic DANCER. What she does is ART! ^____^

This performance will also mark the first time that Francesca Patanè has agreed to appear on stage naked. Not so shocking, as we've already seen tons of sopranos embrace semi-nudity for the sake of Salome. But Patanè was once quoted in an interview in 1995 saying, "non mi sarei mai spogliata in scene," or, that she would never appear naked on stage. When questioned about her former stance, she utters three simple words, "mai dire mai" (translation: "Never say never"). Okay Patanè, time to dust-off the backpeddle bike and start peddling!

Francesca Patanè has always been the undisputed princess of contention among Opera Chic's closest circle of friends, and none of us can particularly agree on our approval; although those who admire her, tend to laud her for her spotless technique. As I favor the delicate little doves of coloratura, you can imagine my take on the hearty, red-haired sauciness of Patanè. Well, you can be the judge, too...if you are lucky enough to sample Patanè's voice on this incredibly bootleg recording (found at the very discerning Buscemi Dischi on Corso Magenta) released from Kicco Classic.