Opera Chic

Robert Carsen's Kewlest Salome Locks it Down in Torino

(above: Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils @ Torino's Teatro Regio. Photo: Ramella and Giannese/Piva) 

ok, there are 2 versions of Salome: the kewl one (Carsen) adn the boring one (every1 elses) and we must unite teh two salomes so there can be a final showdown of level bosses with Carsen 4 the win! OC was treated to the kewl one on Sunday afternoon in Torino, where director Robert Carsen wowed the audience like clearing 4x4x4x4x4x Tetris rows with Korobeiniki blasting on the stereo.

The curtain rose on Herod’s palace, which was meticulously visualized as a sterile and commanding Las Vegas casino vault, excellently realized via floor to ceiling safety deposit boxes, and a gigantic, thick circular vault door on the right wall. Imposing walls covered in a grid of safes, and polished marble slabs covered the floor like a Manhattan mecha office lobby. On the left was a floor-to-ceiling escalator bank (but sadly, non-mechanized stairs). In front of the escalator was a security station, which consisted of a brushed metal banquette with nine plasma screens broadcasting eye-in-the-sky transmissions from around Herod’s casino. As Narraboth (sang by an excellent, light, and emotive Jörg Dürmüller) waxed poetic on the beauty and paleness of the princess, he simultaneously stared at her visage reclining on a lounge, unbeknownst to the security camera that was transmitting her every action to the plasma screen display.

Soldiers were updated as security personnel. Extras disguised as lounge waitresses were in 70s disco Egyptian garb, gold wedge sandals and short sparkling Cleopatra skirts wrapped around their hips, while the men went topless in Roman battle costume and the occasional helmet.

   

(above: Robert Carsen's Salome @ Torino's Teatro Regio. Photo: Ramella and Giannese/Piva) 

Enter Salome, sung by German soprano Nicola Beller Carbone, who again, was physically and vocally on point, but was lacking an overall charisma. Dressed in black Reeboks, black spandex capris, and a long black tank, she appeared to have just cruised in from a low-intensity workout at the gym. She was the perfect bored teen -- stormy, emo, and petulant, lounging carelessly on the security banquette.

It was when Mark S. Doss's plastic Jochanaan was summoned from the depths of the bank vault (via the vault door) that conductor of the evening, Roberto Fores Veses, really p00ped his frac, and his weakness was almost offensive. There was no attention paid to the leitmotifs or corresponding orchestral cues. There was no suspense, terror, or fire. Only big noise via the exaggerated gestures of a young conductor who flung his arms for a wall of sound. No shape, no dynamic, and forte to piano was managed by pure circumstance rather than technique. Overall the timbre of the orchestra was overbearing and effectively drowned-out all nuance of singing. The only goose bumps of the night were powered by Carsen's spot-on direction and vision.

After Jochanaan retreated back into his hidey-hole, Carsen's Jews appear in the guise of Herod & Herodias’ guests, dressed in cocktail party mode...rich silk dresses on the trophy wives and tuxedos on the retired lawyers and bankers. It was so refreshing not to have the stereotypical rabbinical Jews rushing around in circles mashing their spiny fingers together, tallit and payis flying about.

We met Herod, sleazy nouveaux riches and casino owner, who orders refreshments served by topless waitresses. Herodias was a washed-up Las Vegas showgirl, sporting an auburn wig, a gold sheath dress, and gold stiletto heels, while Herod was a slumlord dressed in a gaudy grey salesman suit and pink shirt.

(above: Robert Carsen's Salome @ Torino's Teatro Regio. Photo: Ramella and Giannese/Piva)

Tanz für mich was the apex of brilliance. We will always have a love/hate relationship with Robert Carsen. He is bursting full with such original ideas and revolutionary concepts, but sometimes goes astray in a heavy-handed, rebellious approach, slamming down genius with such forceful hammyfists that it becomes derivative, eye rolling drama...like a sullen teen who thrives on negative attention. We saw it in his Scala Candide last year as a prime example, and he went astray again in his Vienna Manon Lescaut (we did however love his Scala Kát'a Kabanová, but we saw that before we started blogging sucks 4 u!).

When obstinate, moody Salome finally agreed to dance her famous "Dance of the Seven Veils", she strutted out on stage dressed as a xerox copy of her washed-up, attention-whore  mother (sung by a screeching, trashy, but excellent Dagmar Pecková) in the same red wig, golden cocktail dress, and too-high heels, looking just as ill fit and age-inappropriate as her mother.

Manfred Voss's innovative lighting killed the stage floods and bathed the entire scene in gorgeous glittering gold, warm and sensuous, a pulsating, dynamic backdrop for the sickest Dot7Vs that OC ever saw. Salome strutted over and confronted her shocked mother doppleganger, jauntily mocking her and threatening her with overt sexuality.

(above: curtain call, the party guests)

Salome began dancing a cabaret-style seduction, plucking the retirees from the audience of her parent's party guests and grinding against them, pulling away the cashmere scarves of old men and leaving them stunned and breathless on the floor. Herod and Herodias were seated apart, stage front, and while her mother looked away uncomfortably, Herod was gleefully tantalized. Salome began a chair dance, and the retirees got up and danced around her, their clothes beginning to molt off their gyrating bodies. They took their handkerchiefs from their pockets and placed them over their faces, twirling around the oversexed Salome in anonymous frenzy. The whole dance built to a literally climatic finish, and Herod followed his stepdaughter's every erotic thrust with a large video camera, simultaneously broadcasting the action on the nine plasma screens at the security desk. wtf? Taking incest to a whole new level, this generation to be broadcast on YouTube or released for profit.

(above: curtain call, Jochanaan)

The dance is so unforgiving, so sexual -- she mimes fellatio on one of the men (old enough to be her grandfather), mimes sodomy from another, and even fellates her gold stiletto when her secksual appetite cannot be sated by the men. Salome dropped her dress to her ankles and finished the seduction in a cream silk slip. The men were literally rolling around on the floor at her feet in pure secksal ecstacy, air humping and pulling off their layers as quickly as their feverish hands could manage.

The end scene, and the men have shed all their clothes, all writhing around stark naked on the stage, white old man butts polarized as the gold lighting faded away and became an intense, harsh wash of white light. The plasma screens recorded all the action, close-ups of Salome's thrill of seduction, interplayed with x-rated shots of a women’s naked bits. At the end, she attacked her mother, grinding her lips against hers in a victorious struggle for matriarchal power. The Dance of the Seven Veils never gets me hawt, like not even close *yawn yawn* but this one was insanely suffused with raw eroticism and over stimulated incestuous taboo between father and daughter. It was off the higgety. ok pls dont start the rapture before i lose my virginity yae gawds.

(above: curtain call, Nicola Beller Carbone)

As the audience settled down and everyone tried to imagine garbage men on the toilet, nuns baking cookies, and homeless men playing chess, the scene segued into Ich verlange von dir den Kopf des Jochanaan, Salome turned haughty and absolutely unyielding, a girl suddenly aware of the powerful wield of blooming sexuality, and the manipulation over her father. Herod, still holding the video recorder, zoomed in on her face when she asked for Jochanaan's head. When he offered to bribe her with jewels, he plucked safety deposit keys from a ring, which his shallow party guests snatched and rushed off to capitalize on. Gold sand and glitter spontaneously poured from half a dozen of the uppermost boxes, raining down the background for a glorious effect.

(above: Robert Carsen's Salome @ Torino's Teatro Regio. Photo: Ramella and Giannese/Piva) 

As the head of Jochanaan is brought to Salome via the revelers who entered the vault door, it was brought to her bloodless and rubbery. Before the final kiss, the revelers, unable to feign pity or reflect on the severity of the beheaded saint, play a round of kickball with the rubber head. As Salome slinked off into the vault wall that broke apart to reveal a desert landscape, with the head of the prophet raised over her shoulders in outstretched arms, Herod instead called for his wife Herodias to be killed, to which the bloodthirsty revelers gleefully and instantly agreed.

Lights slammed shut, and this was the best direction of Salome OC could ever imagine. For the first time, OC can visualize why the 20th century opera was banned and criticized at its inception. The juxtaposition of the Dot7Vs and Herod's final blame raised the discourse to a conceptual level that worked in so many ways. I'm gonna go start a facebook group for this...brb.

(above: Teatro Regio Torino)

(above: exterior of Teatro Regio Torino)

(above: exterior front of Teatro Regio Torino)

(above: Downtown Torino)

(above: interior of Teatro Regio Torino)

Bi Bi Baby: Carsen's Salome, Lipstick Thespian

Moah images from Robert Carsen's Salome in Turin.

Also, below, the dance of the seven veils -- she stays dressed while the rich h0rny dirty old men (a classic Carsen touch, with the usual subtle political undertones) who warship her, literally lose their pants.

Ocean's Salome: Robert Carsen Locks Strauss In A Vault

Robert Carsen, nowhere to be seen these days around Milan since his problematic Candide last season (the one with George W. Bush, Silvio Berlusconi and other world leaders dancing in their underwares that underwent a bit of a rewrite before it was introduced to la Scala audience's delicate sensibilities), is about to introduce his Salome (his second, actually, since he already did one in the early 1990s with Kent Nagano using the French language libretto) to audiences in Turin.

One week from now the Teatro Regio di Torino will be turned, Ocean's 11 style, into a luxury casino's vault, complete with big screens with the "live" footage of security cameras around the casino's floor, for Carsen's Salome.   

Among Carsen's ideas, besides the Ocean's 11 casino thing, the fact that Salome won't get n4ked but a bunch of lewd onlookers will -- Nicola Beller Carbone will stay clothed, random old fat maen will drop trou. Grammy winner Mark S. Doss, as Jokanaan, in a rare concession to orthodoxy, will indeed lose his head.

Gianandrea Noseda is conducting; he has already introduced his Salome, in concert form, with the Turin cast, in Manchester. Audio of the performance is still here, for another 48 hours courtesy of the BBC

Carsen's Manon Lescaut with Wondertwins Fabiela Dessabio at the Wiener

Showing to a perplexingly lukewarm Viennese audience at the Wiener Staatsoper last tonight, Puccini's Manon Lescaut was a pure delight stemming from the warm, rich, practiced voices of leads Fabio Armiliato (Renato Des Grieux) and Daniela Dessi (Manon Lescaut). In all honesty, OC passed half the performance with her eyes half-closed, bathing in the fabio-lus duets of Fabiela Dessabio, and relegating Carsen's chaotic direction as an abstract turkey leftover to the overstuffed, graying audience. We do love Carsen, a man-child filled with such polished, retro, big-spender ideas, but when he's bad, he gets it all wrong. And this Carsen production is all sorts of wrong. He steam-rolled over the libretto and infused the direction in his own lofty, updated, modern visions, while leaving the poetic corset to flounder hopelessly on stage. The most glaring detraction was setting the majority of action not in a public square, but instead in a half covered luxury mall, gleaming windows displaying retro ladies evening wear.

By Act IV, when Manon is supposedly dying in the desert, it just doesn't make any sense as she begs Des Grieux to find water sprawled on the faux marble floor in front of the opulent window displays. I mean, break into Applebees or CVS or something...or better yet, drag your dying a$$ over to Starbucks and get a frap. whatevs. it was too difficult to suspend belief, and it just didn't work. Carsen was so far from the libretto and mainstream conceptions that I almost thought again he had liberally altered the libretto himself to suit the new action as he did with Lenny's Candide at La Scala earlier this year.

Act I opened with the chorus mercilessly pruned of any members over 30, dressed as rejects from those GAP commercials that ran a few years ago and loitering about the half-covered mall area. A homeless man loitered in the back on his makeshift cardboard bed, and trash littered the marbled pavement. Des Grieux swaggered out in a black leather coat and a hoodie underneath. ick. Armiliato's supreme skillz thankfully made the costume melt beneath his creamy voice, and his wardrobe thankfully wasn't a gigantic detraction. "Donna non vidi mai" was exceptional, a clear and powerful delivery.

 

Manon entered in a blue trench, a platinum blond wig in a tight braid down her back. Dessi slammed the role, as always pumping out the exact notes in perfect control and poise, sweet color and effortless grace. And btw, although her natural brown hair suits her just fine, she looked smoking in platinum gold. I was all like damn.  daayyum! When Des Grieux and Manon absconded, they did so in a Benz that was literally backed onto the stage.  As two students (bearing the likeness of Manon and Des Grieux) reinacted the scene before Lescaut and Geronte, piles of money were emptied from a suitcase onto the body of a writhing Manon, swiftly changing the narrative of Manon from heroine to gold-digging slut. Carsen, like Puccini had been accused, cannot help pervade a tinge of mysogony that is unappealing and overt. Carsen falls into, once again, an underlying objectification of women, and the narrative turns from that of a courageous woman to one dependant on her man and his wealth.

Act II called for a costume and set change, and Manon appeared in a black silk chemise, surrounded by attendees and hang-ons, Mistress Barbie in full effect. Instead of window displays, they were in a luxury, minimalist penthouse apartment overlooking a not-Paris city center, with the only furniture appearing as large, flat couches dropped in the middle of the stage and a pile of cushions in the corner.  Dessi's "L'ora, o Tirsi, è vaga e bella" was gorgeous and touching, but the overstuffed audience was all like yea ok MOAR.

When Geronte showed-off the hawtness of Manon to his friends, Carsen decided on staging a photoshoot, with four identical flappers in magenta bobbed wigs dancing behind her, awash in a sea of magenta light. um, what? And again, the whole rapz0rs scene at the end of the act was super lame. As Geronte's Matrix-Stormtroopers emptied Manon's packed suitcases, they spilled the booty of jewels and money all over the ground, which remained on stage throughout the rest of the evening.

Act III spun further out of control, arias sung while fondling jewels and a chorus dressed in evening ewar, culminating with a parade of Manon with a dozen other incarcerated prisons participating in an evening-wear fashion show, flash bulbs popping throughout the whole moronic scene in a seizure-inducing pattern. ok, Carsen, we get it. Capitalism, his favorite pet flogging boy, is again beaten like a dead horse. WE GET IT OK? The entire event distracted insanely from the excellent singing (and original libretto), and was embarrassingly ridiculous. The only thing that saved it was the meaty duets among Dessi and Armiliato, leaving OC almost breathless at the absolute harmony between teh two onstage-offstage lovers. Their chemistry was under perfect control and gauge, scope and credibility.

Act IV was the most ridiculous of all, the desert represented as the same covered mall from Act I (and II & III). How Dessi was able to act herself through that direction was a miracle, and props to her for putting on such a professional face.  Her acting was so pristine, that it was almost too much for Carsen's perplexing direction, and came off as incongruent to the coldness of his sets. "Sola, perduta, abbandonata" from Dessi was off the hook, but again, she suffused so much emotion into the aria, while the scenery and direction was so careless and jibing.

The audience last night was cooly detacted and blase, barely breaking into applause after the most stellar duets and arias by Dessi. OC was somewhat incredulous, and thought back to the thunderous Adriana Lecouvreur that she saw last April at La Scala, where the loggioni flipped out -- and rightfully so -- after the supa-powa duo wonder twins Dessi & Armiliato rocked the Piermarini casbah. Last night, Armiliato and Dessi sang their big hearts away, and intertwined their techniques so flawlessly, but barely any shouts of brava peppered the audience. In fact, one of the only applauses inserted spontaneously into the opera last night was after the Act III intermezzo. HA!  Also: Jeff Koons. His monstrosity of a curtain "Geisha" -- a cross between Basquiat & Murakami -- hanging over the stage comes from a larger body of work called "Hulk Elvis" (the big green monstah is in teh haus in all his horrorsome fearfulness). Enough for now...more on his curtain later.

Other thoughts? The Wiener Staatsoper is a gigantic arena, feeling more vacuous than The Metropolitan Opera house, and decorated less than a high school auditorium.  wtf? Filled to the brim with grey old ladies and tourists (Americans in Vienna is at like saturation point this week, thanks to Columbus Day which must have insured enough vacation days for international travel), everyone was stuffed with too much knoedel and sacher torte to lift a hand for applause. The ghost of Puccini himself could have been conjured on the stage tonight, and the audience would have still sat back and farted. Applause was pitiful and not on the level that was deserved. At all. Yeah, the La Scala loggionisti are annoying and sometimes super lame and they may not always be in good faith, but I am thankful that they are a reliable barometer of talent, and was awakened to the mystique of Fabiela Dessabio, who are revered as sacred in their thorny hands.

My Big Fat Candide Review

The three big papers in Italy (Corriere, La Stampa, and La Repubblica) all reported a t0tally excited reception (10 minutes of applause –- but we’ll get to that later) for Robert Carsen's direction --> appropriation --> adaptation of Leonard Bernstein's Candide from the Wednesday, June 20 la prima at Teatro alla Scala. Don’t get us wrong. We liked many things about it: the witty tributes to cultural icons and shared historical legacy, the dying flicker of optimism and increasing commodification of American culture since the death of JFK, and the rise of the tacky and misguided nouveau riche. (yawnz0rs)

But by the end of the night, the audience is pushed into the role of a bemused parent battling the sudden onset of puberty of a confused and rebellious teenager. Carsen inelegantly slams his dogma and paints his social-commentary-couched-in-irreverent opinions in such broad strokes, that a few times OC found herself rolling her eyes to his modern citations ('does the audience like me yet?! I wont stop referencing our shared cultural history until I am liked.')

But Carsen’s production was equally brilliant compared to even the most tenuous parts: a brief allusion to Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, complete with a saxophone-wielding cross-dressing Jack Lemmon as Maximilian, uttering the famous (ed: Joe E. Brown's in the original movie) line, "well, nobody's perfect". While I lolled, not one of the Italians near me uttered a single sound. And of course, Glitter and Be Gay was set to the iconic Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, as Cunegonde is transformed into Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. What we also respected from Carsen was the elegant handling of the inherent anti-war message, which was thankfully not foisted heavily into the structure of Carsen's moral edits, and rather delievered with wit and grace.

The stage, as you all have seen/read by now, is set inside a giant television from the 1950s with rounded rectangle frames, reminiscent of a giant vintage metal lunchbox. The opening credits are certainly brilliant enough, all in English in whimsical font, as well as the appealing nostalgic pastiche of stock footage, all taken from idealized, pastel, and frothy clips of happy American 1950s families -- panning the camera over white picket fences and brand new ranch homes, spliced with footage of the JFK wedding, a NASA space launch, etc...all saturated in a warm orange glow of nostalgia. However, Voltaire giving the audience the middle finger to signify the opening of Act I is a little too, well, *rolls eyes*.

But in the age of MTV and lightning-fast edits, OC found the overall production riddled with a bad case of ADHD *omg brb something shiny*! It was impossible to focus on the overture with the media presentation buzzing and flashing behind (there was also a similar presentation after the first intermission). The problem with this entire production is that Bernstein’s music and creation takes complete backstage to Carsen's self-laudatory, egotistical omg shared inheritance omg direction. He's like Orson Welles on crack. Carsen uses Lenny’s Candide as a vehicle to perpetuate his convictions and his own brand of heavy-handed social commentary, and to present his own, updated version of Voltaire’s novel. The music was a mere afterthought, a batch of stringed notes for the background of Carsen's direction. This was all in great contrast to the 2004 Candide OC saw in NYC, a love-fest hommage to Bernstein...where at one point in scene, an album of Lenny's West Side Story was used as a prop in tribute to the great maestro, the audience bursting out in applause.

The La Scala orchestra was completely incapable of getting down that fundamental, unique ,brash Lenny sound. They washed it entirely in their patented La Scala Italianate (duh) treatment -- although very beautiful and evocative in its own right -- but not even close. But then again, no one was really listening to the music rite? so who cares!

The final word on the cut scenes? As the legend goes *cue grandpappy voice*, it all began back in December 2006 when Stéphane Lissner took his adolescent son (note: OC isn’t a parent, but I prolly wouldn’t recommend this opera for 13-year-olds) to the December 26th Paris production at the Théâtre du Châtelet, and decided that Carsen's vision of Candide was "not in line with the artistic production of La Scala". Many meetings behind closed doors in January 2007 between Lissner and Carsen were held, where eventually they agreed upon a “Milan-Safe” version, cutting roughly 15-minutes of staging from the Paris version, including two songs of Dr. Pangloss (but hinted-at in the newspaper for reasons wanting to conserve Lamert Wilson’s voice. um okay yaaaah).

Now, thanks to video captures of the January 2007 Arte' channel broadcast of the uncensored and uncut Paris production, those who can’t get to the theater can revel in Carsen’s controversial vision (Again, Opera Chic has been forbidden by la Scala's lawyers to publish la Scala promotional material that is freely distributed to the media, and shots from inside the theater.) Here were most of the edits:

In the famous scene with Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, and Putin floating drunkenly among split oil tanks (at la prima, two of those tanks had a ‘wardrobe malfunction’, and remained distractedly and ominously on stage ten minutes through the Las Vegas scene) Putin thankfully doesn't vomit (making instead very audible hiccups), and Berlusconi is dressed in longer briefs (instead of a little Speedo seen in Paris). The neckties of the five world leaders have been left in the dressing room, but that was explained for the reasons of new, improved masks that didn’t need the neckties to conceal the creases in the material.

No molesting, pAEdophile priests or priest/church jokes…specifically the line, "Farebbero comodo alla nostra confraternita" (but instead Dr. Pangloss grossly molests Paquette through a few scenes.) Also cut was the entire scene of the cardinals arriving in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lots of cracks at the Mormons, however remained, upon Candide’s arrival in Salt Lake City, UT. Not many Mormons in Italia!

Dr. Pangloss/Voltaire/Martin, played by the excellent Lambert Wilson, narrates in Italian language (instead of English) marring the production with an ersatz and disjointed feel (Lissner had said that such long stretches of English would bore and lose the interest of the general audience). Even the last few lines in the ending scene uttered by Candide and Voltaire are spoken in Italian.

Appearing in scene, although reportedly once agreed to be cut by Carsen, was Kim Criswell’s Old Lady, who said she was the daughter of a Polish pope ("Sono figlia di un papa polacco") because I remember being like, 'oh great, here comes the Pole joke.

But can we just address the screaming headlines that state the Candide la prima received bountiful applause? Well, yes, technically there was roughly 10 minutes of applause. People liked it, yes. But whoever coordinated the curtain calls split-up the massive, massive chorus into much smaller sets of about 15 members, each line of chorus singers taking an isolated, separate bow. Technically and literally, because the chorus (ed: and the mimes and the dancers) was split into small bodies among such a large group, it took a very long time. When the principals finally came together with Carsen, Axelrod, et al, after the entire chorus had taken their like, 8 minutes of curtain calls, there was only *one* ovation for them. The curtain went down once, and was raised one additional instance for a final, second ovation. THIS CASE HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY CLOSED.

Now to make this monster post even more GINORMOUS, here are some more screenshots from the December 2006 Paris production, broadcast last January by Arté on satellite, not from La Scala's production:

Above: Dr. Pangloss's history lesson

Above: The chorus and the earthquake

Above: auto-da-fé with hanging of Candide and Pangloss. Oh yeah: And the KKK.

Above: Cunegonde's Glitter and Be Gay

Above: Escape from Hawaii to the Titantic

Above: Bush drunk on a raft

Above: Blair drunk on a raft

Above: More rafts

Above: Las Vegas and The Old Lady

Above: cul8r

La Scala's Censorship of Carsen's Candide

And what about those adjustments that Robert Carsen worked-out with Stéphane Lissner to adapt his production for a Milan & Italy safe version? Tonight the caricature of Silvio Berlusconi was dressed in longer briefs, unlike at the Théâtre du Châtelet production where he flaunted speedos (see below). As we anticipated, he wore no tie. What you can see posted are vidcaps of the Arte' broadcast, last January, of the uncensored and uncut Paris production.

These Paris-Candide vidcaps show scenes that have been cut from la Scala's staging.

Opera Chic has been forbidden by la Scala's lawyers to publish Scala promotional material that is freely distributed to the media, so there will be no Candide at la Scala images here until tomorrow, when Italian law will allow us to reproduce, in fair use, pages of newspapers that have published those images.

whew!

Enjoy.

In Milan, swiftly axed from the production (about 15 minutes, 2 musical numbers and a lot of anti-Catholic Church jokes) was Candide's arrival into Santa Fe, New Mexico. Below, find the Théâtre du Châtelet production of Carsen's staging of Candide, (thanks to ARTE airing it this past January) which included the scene.

Why is the Vatican still so powerful here, that the Scala GM Lissner axed all the anti-Catholic content but kept the anti-Berlusconi shtick, thus enraging the very Milan city government that yearly endows la Scala with a fat donation?

In a few words, because the Church and the Catholic organizations are so powerful here that, when the (nominally) center-left central government led by Romano Prodi tried to pass a very mellow law allowing some form of protections to civil unions, straight and gay unions alike, the Church had successfully lobbied Catholic politicians to sink the government in a Senate vote (the government usually has a small majority there, but they magically lost it on that issue) and they sent ONE MILLION people to a demonstration in Rome, the awesomely named "Family Day", in English, to flex some bada$$ Catholic muscle.

Needless to say, the civil unions plan has been shelved indefinitely.

The Catholic Church also won big two years ago, sinking a referendum that would have given more leeway to stem cell research and in vitro fertilization (abortion, on the other hand, is still legal here...it is not clear for how long, though). And a recent "offensive" art exhibit in Bologna has created a big fuss, with the (leftist) city government withholding support to the artist and actually apologizing to the Church.

To sum it up: Scala GM Stephane Lissner is more worried by the Vatican's possible wrath than by Silvio Berlusconi's certain discomfort at being mocked on la Scala's stage. Lissner may be right, but Opera Chic is not so sure -- He lost about 2 million euros of Milan government funding anyway. And we doubt the Vatican is going to send him a thank-you note, much less a check for 2 cool mils.   

Why Can’t Anyone Just Leave Poor Lenny Alone?

[Do not insert a "best of both possible worlds" joke here]

First it was the NYC elementary school that thought it would be cool to do a biographical sketch in the very cemetery where Lenny’s body resides. Then Carsen took out his beat-down stick and whacked with all his might to create something simultaneously kind of laudable, but incomprehensibly *not* Bernstein’s Candide.   

Herpes jokes, a grabby-hands Pangloss, Cunégonde as a “shiksa b*tch”, the immigrants to the New World referred to as, “wops, kikes, spics, [insert additional offensive slang here], and the KKK dancing a hoe-down. It’s like, okay Carsen, WE GET IT. I mean, just how many times can you hear "West Failure" (for “Westfalia”) before it gets old?! Yeah, um: 3x.

Amazingly, through all the racial slurs and barbs, Carsen had at least enough sense to not drop the n-bomb…but then again, even if he did, I don’t think the audience would have cared, as there was indeed a warm reception for Carsen’s antics at La Scala tonight. Lots of cheers when Carsen (wearing one of the most hideous -- dark purple and white striped -- suits I’ve seen in my entire life) came onstage to take his curtain call. A smattering of boos, but really just a miniscule dollop compared to the wild cheering. For the American experience, Carsen leaves one with a complete dichotomy of both nostalgia and embarrassment. Embarrassment for the egregious metaphors and couched social criticisms via an extremely altered libretto. Or as the La Scala flyer states, “Liberamente adattato da Robert Carsen”, freely adapted. "Liberamente adattato" my a$$. That was straight-up misappropriation.

Carsen, your anti-establishment, anti-globalization, anti-TV shtick is hijacking Lenny’s musical/operetta/opera (I’m sooo not getting into this debate fyi tia) REPORTED REPORTED!!   more tomorrow...

Finally Candide! More or less.

(photo above from the Theatre Du Chatelet production in Dec. 2007, NOT from la Scala's current production)

Since there are still tickets available a few hours before the show -- no sold out crowd for that -- and there's nothing good on television, Opera Chic has decided to go check out the scandal-heavy Robert Carsen staging of Candide -- l'"affaire Candide" that earned Opera Chic a few high-placed enemies and cost la Scala's management a big fat cut in government-funding (because, really, ridiculing ex Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in a city heavily dominated, politically and otherwise, by Berlusconi and his allies, is not the smartest move for those who need government funds -- the decision by the center-right mayor of Milan to pull 2 million euros out of the yearly funds given to la Scala has been considered a pretty evident payback for the decision to go on and stage the "offensive", politically charged Candide anyway. That and, of course, the Scala decision to be mean towards Scala-loving Opera Chic has not helped either lol).

Opera Chic didn't particularly like that Candide on TV, the opera was broadcast by Arté last January, because really, how tired it is to argue that TV is bad for you and that America has lost her optimism since JFK was murdered? that's just bOring! and makes Opera Chic (who usually loves Carsen's work) goes zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz with sleep. A gifted director, he may not be a politcal artist. 

Anyway.

The latest news are:

* the scene with Berlusconi, Bush, Blair, Chirac and Putin (three of whom are now either out of office or on their way out, one has a below-zero approval rating and the other has been accused of murder on CNN by a dying, poisoned Russian ex spy) in their underwear has remained more or less untouched, only their neckties are missing

* all the satire against the Catholic Church ("I'm the daughter of the Polish pope!", lots of jokes about pAEdophile priests) has been carefully and completely deleted

* the show, 15 mins shorter than the Paris production, is still kinda lame

But then, Candide had never been staged at la Scala before. And Opera Chic will always love Lenny.

So off we go, in a few hours. We'll report on possible stirrings in the audience. So stay tuned later.

Candide: Satire Defanged = Box Office Dud?

Want a ticket for the defanged Candide?

Help yourself, uncharacteristically there seems to be plenty available.

Lissner: Candide Is On, But With Pants

Today's la Repubblica certifies that Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi, George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin and Jacques chirac will indeed appear in Robert Carsen's staging of Candide at la Scala next June 20 as originally planned.

But no more underwear: the heads of state will wear pants.

This, and other changes to the original staging, will be fine-tuned by Carsen and his co-director, Scala General Manager Stéphane Lissner as soon as Carsen comes back from Japan where Maestro Ozawa is conducting Carsen's staging of Tannhauser.

(pictured above, Lissner and Carsen hard at work on their Candide rewrites)

Stèphane Lissner to Robert Carsen: 'Dude, La Scala No Habla El English, capisc?'

Quadrilingual Bang & Olufsen fan (Opera Chic prefers vintage McIntosh, thank you very much) Robert Carsen speaks about his controversial Candide censored torpedoed by Scala General Manager and all-out tough guy Stéphane "Jacket Required, Or Maybe Not" Lissner:

The scene involving Bush and the other semi-clad statesmen floating on an oil slick, Carsen says, was never mentioned in his conversations with Lissner. ``Stephane had this concern for the Scala audience,'' he says. ``There's so much in English that they would just tune out.'' Carsen plans to adjust the show for Milan; exactly how will be hammered out later.

Memo to future Scala directors of politically very sensitive material: whatever you do, translate all the dialogue from English into Italian, and be careful how you translate "Berlusconi Suxxx0r!", in Italian it's "Viva Berlusconi!". Then delete the politcally sensitive material, because in Italian it sounds even worse. Then pocket your massive fee. And you'll all be alrighty.

Pleez Hammer Lissner don't hurt'em! (in the photo below, Carsen and Lissner hard at work rewriting Candide in a Scala-safe version)

PS Opera Chic truly loved Carsen's staging of Dialogues Des Carmélites and his Kát'a Kabanová. But the d00d likes Craigie Aitchison, and he loses points in OC's scorecard. wtf?

BREAKING CANDIDE/CARSEN/LA SCALA NEWS: NOW WITH MORE FRANCE

Opera Chic has been privileged to receive some juicy news concerning the evolving Candide fuss between Teatro alla Scala GM Stéphane Lissner and Director Robert Carsen.

As Opera Chic reported a few days ago, Lissner was quoted saying that Carsen had proposed to him meeting this January to, "evaluate the opera together via DVD, scene for scene, " to decide which cuts will be implemented before Candide sees the light of day in Milan.

Well, Opera Chic has learned that the sup4r hawt, GM-on-Director meeting will be on Monday, January 15th, 2007. Yes, the tête-à-tête will be on America's Martin Luther King Day (and 25 Tevet, 5767 representing all the Frumsters in da house).

Another tidbit: Le Monde writes today (Stéphane Lissner reprogramme "Candide" à la Scala de Milan) that Lissner had already spoken to Jean-Luc Choplin, GM of Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet about his concerns with the staging (where Lissner was in attendance on December 26, 2006 with his son).

Choplin is quoted by Le Monde saying that on December 28, 2006, he received a fax from Stéphane Lissner, asking him for a meeting on January 8, 2007. But Lissner had cancelled Candide without further contacting Choplin, snubbing his French colleague. Choplin states his confusion of Lissner's actions, especially the diss, because they had worked together since the inception.

I think someone might have drugged Lissner's panettone gastronomico during his Natale lunch, because he's just been wacky lately...

More l8r!

Lissner officially explains the reinstatement of Carsen's Candide at La Scala, as Opera Chic anticipated

From today's Corriere della Sera, an article discussing Candide: as Opera Chic wrote last night, Stéphane Lissner’s earlier statement that cancelled Director Robert Carsen’s production of Bernstein’s Candide at La Scala is no longer valid -- Canadian director Robert Carsen has agreed to make changes that will allow the opera (that premiered in Paris earlier this month) to be staged here.

Lissner (General Manager of Teatro alla Scala) had made his decision to axe the opera from the 2006-07 rotation at Teatro alla Scala two days ago, which Opera Chic had reported here.

In today's interview, Lissner defends his earlier decision to cut Candide, and points out that what works in Paris and London doesn't necessarily work in Milan, and that Carsen's Paris Candide just wasn't in line with his artistic vision of what is suitable for Teatro alla Scala. Why?

According to Lissner -- that of course, cannot really admit to having caved into political pressure (the staging makes fun of ex Italia PM Berlusconi, among other politicians, and while Berlusconi is not PM anymore, his party is still all-powerful in Milan) -- the production was initially axed because Carsen took liberties with the libretto that weren’t approved for La Scala.

Read on:

Lissner: “Candide” alla Scala se sarà revisionato da Carsen (Lissner: Candid will be at La Scala if it is revised by Carsen)

Il regista si è ditto disponibile all’operazione (The director said he was available to prepare [changes] to the operation)

L’allestimento di Parigi non è adatto a Milano (The staging in Paris is not adaptable to Milan)

The translation follows:

"Turned down the very first instance by Lissner, Candide could in certain reality, come back to La Scala. From New York came this announcement from the General Manager, after having spoken to Carsen via telephone. Carsen had always been loved by the Milanese audience, especially for his prior productions at La Scala of Dialogues des Carmélites and Kát'a Kabanová (the latter Opera Chic saw on March 22 this past year at La Scala, and thoroughly enjoyed it [despite Gardiner's pedestrian conducting]) (see image below), and told Lissner he is willing to assist Teatro alla Scala by substantially modifying the opera."

"Lissner said of Carsen, 'He proposed to me that we should meet together in January, and evaluate the opera together via DVD, scene for scene. I am a man of discussion, and a man of the theater. I decided to accept the offer. I know how much this opera is anticipated to appear at La Scala, and how disappointed everyone would be at its cancellation.'"

"The job ahead, however, is hefty and not easy, Lissner admits. He thinks back to the night of Santo Stefano (December 26, 2006), when he was with his 13-year-old son at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, in order to attend the popular opera, in which all of Paris was talking about, and an opera that was applauded by the public."

"Lissner said specifically of that night, 'I can confess, that to me, the opera was entertaining/enjoyable; but when it was over, my son whispered to me incredulously, ‘Dad, but is this show is coming to La Scala?’"

"'I tried to keep down a final giggle, and said to him, 'No, this opera won't come [to La Scala].'"

[The question is proposed to Lissner:] "But why then won’t Candide come to La Scala?"

[Lissner responds:] "Because it doesn't fit into my line of what is good for La Scala. At this point it comes down to an agreement between tradition and modernity. And I didn't make this decision because of the famous scene with the heads of state in their underwear. Simply, I made it for a load of other reasons; more specifically is that Carsen had made changes to the libretto. He added allusions and some situations in a style that just do not conform with those of La Scala."

[The question is proposed to Lissner:] "A good example of this may be the harsh jokes towards the church or the pedophile priests?"

[Lissner responds:] "I don't want to get into the details. I knew that people were saying that we must not censor things, and other such nonsense, but it’s not really like that at all. Candide is known to be a subversive work, and Carsen is truly an individual who is able to capitalize on that spirit. I knew this well [when he was hired for the job]. But whatever works at London and Paris for Carsen, is not necessarily successful at La Scala. I want to open La Scala to new ideas, to a diverse public, but without giving the impression of instigating controversy and provocation."

"Carsen said that he was disappointed and surprised at the decision, but is able to modify his opera."

I can't wait for the January tête-a-tête behind closed doors! Opera Chic promises to report all the details!

BREAKING NEWS: CANDIDE DIRECTOR CAVES IN, WILL KILL POLITICAL CONTENT

OPERA CHIC EXCLUSIVE! PLEASE CREDIT OPERA CHIC!

No dancing Berlusconis, no horny priests, and less pacifism for La Scala's forthcoming Candide. Opera Chic has just heard that a few hours ago, Teatro alla Scala General Manager Stéphane Lissner had a very tense phone conversation with Candide Director Robert Carsen, and Lissner's hard-line Draconian rule seems to have WON THIS ROUND.

Rumor has it that Carsen has privately agreed to make some editorial changes and cuts to the controversial parts of the opera that Lissner has deemed "unbecoming" of Teatro alla Scala's artistic direction, in exchange that Lissner will void and retract last night’s decision to drop the opera from the 2006-07 season. (Opera Chic had reported early last evening here and here when Lissner had axed Carsen's Candide from the current La Scala season.)

Opera Chic can only assume that Carsen sucked-up his artistic vision and caved to the demands of Lissner because he did not want to:

a) permanently ruin his very lucrative (the budget for his July 2006 Candide at La Scala exceeds 1.5 million dollars) relationship with the theater for possible future productions.

b) renounce the obvious media exposure that Candide at La Scala will bring him.

Anyway, despite obvious political pressures, Carsen's Candide will be reinstated (albeit, a slightly compromised, G-Rated version) in the Teatro alla Scala program rotation for the 2006-07 season.

vvvvUPDATEvvvv

Carsen's un-edited, French version of Bernstein's Candide, will air in January 2007 on ARTE Channel, which is part of the European satellite package (I get it via SKY here in Milan). The air-date is very soon: it is scheduled for Saturday, January 20 at 10:10 pm. OMG I'm so rescheduling my Saturday night plans! Party at my house!

Also of note is American blogger "Of the Kosmos", who is living in Paris, gave a brief review (in progress) of Carsen's direction of Bernstein's Candide, after attending the show at Théâtre du Châtelet earlier this month.   

Candide OUT!

(image taken from IHT article linked in post below)

OKAY GUYS< WE HAVE AN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

TEATRO: LA SCALA CHIUDE LE PORTE AL 'CANDIDE' (Teatro alla Scala closes the doors on Candide)

Milano, 28 dic. (Adnkronos) - Il Candide non andra' in scena al Teatro alla Scala di Milano. Nonostante l'opera di Berneist fosse gia' in cartellone nella stagione in corso, il Sovrintendente e Direttore Artistico del Teatro, Ste'phane Lissner ha ritenuto l'allestimento dell'opera (per la regia di Robert Carsen) ''non in linea con la produzione artistica scaligera'' ed ha dunque deciso di rinunciare alla coproduzione.

Translation: "Candide will not come on stage at Milan's Teatro alla Scala. Despite the fact that Bernstein's opera was already in all of the posters/media for the season that is already going-on right now, GM and Artistic Director Mr. Stephane Lissner has stopped all rehearsals and preparations of the opera (under the production of Robert Carsen), saying, 'It is not in line with the artistic production of La Scala,' and has therefore decided to abandon the production."

No doubt this will be making the news in the next few days. Lissner rules with an iron fist, and Lenny's ghost will not feast at La Scala.

vvvvUPDATEvvvv

The buzz here towards why Lissner dropped Candide (aside from cowering away from an already controversial new direction)? Apparently Lissner was in Paris earlier this week and saw the opera at Théâtre du Châtelet. However, rumor has it that Robert Carsen had surreptitously added some provocative and polemic speeches that were not in the original libretto by Bernstein, Hellman, Latouche, and Wilbur. NAUGHTY!

It's an Opera Apocalypse these days...

Breaking La Scala news!! (NOT about Alagna)

Opera Chic has just learned that Leonard Bernstein's Candide, which was to be heralded with an exciting new staging for the upcoming 2007 season at Teatro alla Scala by Robert Carsen, has been cut and cancelled from the 2007 program.

Background on the new production from La Stampa is here: La Stampa only wrote about the upcoming production a few days ago, with a broad review (btw, the image above is also taken from La Stampa).

The reason? GM and Artistic Director Stéphane Lissner made the decision to cut it after an “anti-Berlusconi” scene in Robert Carsen’s new production was drawing too much criticism. You can see in the picture that Carsen places Berlusconi in the company of other international leaders as Bush, Blair, Chirac and Putin, all appearing drunk, clothed in only underwear and neckties...and apparently Putin vomits after the troop arrives in Venice, then parties at a casino. heh.

The June 20th La Prima was supposed to include John Axelrod conducting. Candide was supposed to be sung by William Burden, and Cunegonde by Anna Christy.

More from Opera Chic as the story continues to break...

UPDATEvvvvv:

An article in English here from the International Herald Tribune that gives great background to Carsen's very controversial production.

The native-Canadian Carsen has tagged his new production of Candide with an overt anti-United States bias, stating:

"I felt we could parallel Candide's loss of optimism and the way the world has lost its optimism about an idealized America since the death of John F. Kennedy," Carsen said in a telephone interview just hours after his production was given a rapturous reception at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on Monday evening [after the premiere in Paris]."