Opera Chic

Opera Chic's Latest for Sinfini Music, Grazia.it & Opera Now Magazine

A great man once said, or he didn't, or whatever -- the point is that we tend to criticize those who we love the most. Which is why we've been wondering what's up with the soggy pity-party that Italy's thrown for its most famous opera hero, Giuseppe Verdi, in his bicentennial birth year? Read about it here for Sinfini Music, cutting throught classical. It's like, yeah, the country that churned out geniuses like Dante & Brunelleschi & Da Vinci & Fellini is holding the elevator for that bearded opera dude? COME ON!

Then head over to Grazia.it for OC's review of the new, minimalist Teatro alla Scala Daniele Abbado Nabucco (co-production of the ROH, LOC & the Liceu) with the stellar Verdi baritone Leo Nucci and the rock-solid musicianship of Nicola Luisotti.

Then grab March's Opera Now (with Montserrat Caballé on the cover) to read reviews of the December 2012 season opening La Traviata starring Carmen Giannattasio at Naples' Teatro di San Carlo and the January 2013 season opening Lohengrin at Dresden's Semperoper with Christian Thielemann on the podium.

Opera Now Magazine & OC: Carmen Giannattasio February Cover Feature

Last month in the garrulous kingdom of Naples, Neapolitan bel canto superstar Carmen Giannattasio chatted with OC on behalf of Opera Now magazine (in perfect, British-inflected English), between grueling La Traviata replications that had unfolded since Teatro San Carlo's big-bang December 5 season opener a week earlier. 

Onstage, Giannattasio projected a towering, slash & burn Violetta who smashed protons like that car-destroying bonus stage in Street Fighter II. Offstage, still under the shadow of a diva, she's adorably petite.

She's currently at Milan's Teatro alla Scala as Alice in the Robert Carsen production of Verdi's Falstaff, taking over all replications from her split-role counterpart Barbara Frittoli, who withdrew from illness. Giannattasio jives with Ambrogio Maestri and Bryn Terfel who split the Shakespearean title role. After the January 15 premiere, Corriere della Sera's notoriously cranky critic Isotta gave Giannattasio glowing reviews, calling her "la deliziosa", which earns her the OC moniker "Gianna-tasty-o".

You can read the cover feature, penned by OC, in this month's Opera Now. The Neapolitan diva shares a heartbreaking story of an almost-career-destroying eating disorder, pens an inspiring message to young singers, divulges her most coveted (future) roles and recounts days and nights with London glitterati where she currently resides. In the same issue, you can also read OC's official Lohengrin review of the Teatro alla Scala season opener from December 7, 2012.

OC & Opera Now Magazine: Covergirl Nino Machaidze

Opera Chic snagged 29-year-old Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze during rare downtime in Milan (where she lives with her Italian husband, baritone Guido Loconsolo) for Opera Now magazine's November cover feature. In the profile, Nino shares tons about her romantic personal life, career philosophies and future roles. Drop it like it's hot.

Opera Chic for Opera Now: Don Giovanni Recap

(Don Giovanni at Teatro alla Scala, credit Brescia e Amisano)

Opera Chic reviewed La Scala's Mozart season opener Don Giovanni in Robert Carsen's new production for Opera Now. A pared-down online abstract of a forthcoming print review can be found on Opera Now's website. You'll have to shell-out some LSD //librae, solidi, denarii// to read the longer, juicier, girth-ier print review when the January 2012 edition of Opera Now hits the newsstands!