I know that NYC has been all-a-titter at the recent reappearance of the universally-acknowledged-Peruvian hottie JDF in recent days for his much anticipated Count Almaviva …
...but here in Milan, there has been a brand new hawtness that is setting everyone’s nether-regions ablaze.
Yes, we have our very own latin lover, and he’s got more hair, more sparkle, and more pull than your ballet-dancing, guitar-strumming, lamby-voiced, inca kola-chugging Peruvian fairy-prince.
Who dat?
Let me hear you say G.D.
Tonight in Milan marks the finale of il maestro giovincello Gustavo Dudamel’s Teatro alla Scala premiere, which began last month with la prima of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni on October 10, 2006.
There was so much anticipation at the beginning of October for this young director’s debut at Teatro alla Scala. Pretty awesome for me is that I know his wife, Eloísa, in a vague social capacity, as last month we shared certain morning activities together, and the excitement leading-up to la prima was palpable among our group. And let me just tell you that homegirl is as effervescent, witty, and bright as she appears...and I was duly impressed, because she was so committed to our daily activities, that she was in attendance the very morning of her husband’s premiere. Listen, if my husband was to premiere at Teatro alla Scala, I’d be laid-up in the gorgeous Hotel Sacher Spa in Vienna for a week-straight, making sure that my pores were scrubbed clean, and my hair laid brilliant and shiny. Damn straight.
The reaction to Dudamel's la prima was mixed, but they all followed the same general principal that although Dudamel is provocative and precocious, he needs many more seasons to properly mature. He has a problem with capturing and presenting the cohesive theme of an overall work, and therefore conducts somewhat erratically. When he has his heart into a passage, it is gorgeous and breath-taking...but when he's distracted, he's lost.
The critics’ lamentations were quantified this morning, when I saw Dudamel conduct Mahler’s 3rd for the inauguration (you can find the official Filarmonica announcement as a Word Document here: Download comunicato stampa.doc) of the Filarmonica della Scala season. La 7 (channel 7 here in Milan) was carrying a broadcast of his performance from this past Monday, November 6th concerto at Teatro alla Scala, and I was able to discern his conducting.
Dudamel had a fairly loose grasp of the first movement, and it sounded chaotic, like it could slip away from him at any moment. The Menuetto was gorgeous however, suffused with paramount control and sentiment. (btw, the most worn-out version of Mahler's 3rd in our house is the 1969 Barbirolli Berliner, which is truely a masterpiece, and I can't recommend it enough.) He captured well Mahler's 3rd, but there were a few glitches that clashed with his overall proficiency. But no one really cares about his conducting right now; because unless he develops a crippling crystal meth addiction, or gets caught indulging in a shoplifting fix at Saks, they know he will eventually pull his sh*t together, and become the 'Next Big Thing".
In the meantime, Dudamel and his bubbly Venezuelan wife have been making the social rounds in Milan, and fashionably strutted between the covers of Corriere della Sera Magazine’s (edition #39 from September 29, 2006) flippant “Benvestiti/Malvestiti” (Best & Worst Dressed List) photo layout as two gorgeous benvestiti, alongside the likes of Cate Blanchett, Gisele Bündchen, and Prince Charles. (Although one of my favorite celebrity websites trashed the benvestito of Cate Blanchett, saying of the very same dress that, “the absurdly ethereal collar that makes it look like her head is the centerpiece in a macabre gift basket.”) heh.
Interestingly enough, the Dudamel picture chosen for the Corriere layout was cribbed directly from this webpage, which curated recent pictures of the Dudamels’ among the random company of a past event in Rome for the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de Venezuela "Simón Bolívar", (Youth Orchestra Simón Bolívar that Dudamel has been conducting since he was sixteen-years-old), which hosted such magically random couples as Claudio and Daniele Abbado, Paolo and Matie Bulgari, and Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi. 
But why the hell in the name of holy god would you put on a public website a picture with his mouth all agape like that? Somebody please tell his agent before nasty photoshoppers like me get our agile little hands on it...
Btw, if you go to Dudamel’s website, and go to his personal favorites section, you’ll find gems such as this:
♥Historical personalities whom I despise most: Hitler (Right on, my Sephardic brother!)
♥Favorite name: Eloísa (awwwwwwwww!!)
Gustavo and Eloísa Dudamel rawk my socks.