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Reality beats our Photoshop skillz: a couple images of JDF's supercute facial hair.
Eat teh dust, Clark Gable!!!111
On March 2, in a night of off-the-charts sublime beauty even for Tuscany's standards, Maestro Riccardo Muti will conduct Schumann's Concerto for Cello in A minor, op. 129, and Schubert's Fourth Symphony inside Arezzo's Basilica di San Francesco, right under the newly restored Piero della Francesca frescos of La Leggenda Della Vera Croce.
The Great Maestro will also receive an honorary degree from Università di Arezzo.
CONGRATS MAESTRO!!!
In a follow-up to this recent Flórez post citing the lamby-voiced tenor's promise to encore at tonight's La Fille Du Regiment la prima, I captured the article below:
Opera Chic predicts that at tonight's La Fille Du Regiment at La Scala, Flórez is going to go off the deep end. Like way off. Like off the entire frikkin planet. Teasers promised l8r tonight...
American blogger Of the Kosmos was in Berlin this past weekend to take-in the Thursday, February 8th performance of the René Pape-sung, Daniel Barenboim-conducted Wagner's (discreetely spits v. lady-like) Parsifal at the Staatsoper. Although OtK's excellent seats provided great photos of Pape et alia, here are a few more. Thanks OtK for the review.
/btw, what is it with Pape? He is devastatingly handsome in person...but I have yet to see a picture where his features don't slide around all Picasso-like, and land indiscriminately on his face. Further proof needed before I can laugh at this.
Also, New York City opera-blogger SarahB shares on her website a lovely curtain-call video clip from the current h0ttest ticket in town: the Gergiev-conducted, Fleming-Vargas-Hvorostovsky-sung Eugene Onegin at the NYC MET Opera. A huge brava to SarahB, who fills her free time with the most exhausting list of cultural events, you'd think she is in reality a super-human robot ninja.
/Can I just say that I *hate* the new website format that the MET has implemented this season: that inane feature where they progressively erase all the prior, expired performances from the current production details. COME MAI?! MAH ZEH?!
Rolando Selleck
Opera Chic's dear hardcore readers are debating whether or not Juan Diego's sometime choice of pencil mustache is lam3 or not.
Answer: OF COURSE NOT!
'Cos EVERYbody in opera looks better in a mustache. Photographic evidence follows.
Juan Diego Jeremy
Opera Chic herself has a weakness for 1970s p9rn star 'stache, and she hopes Juan Diego decides to one day do a 1970s style Elisir d'Amore, where Nemorino is decked out with big fat mustachioes all Starsky & Hutch-like, in bell bottoms and bushy sheep hair and nylon shirts like the Beastie Boys in the Sabotage video and Adina is all Daisy Dukes and platform shoes and dirty, frizztastic hair.
James "El Jimbo" Levine
Best concert ev4r! Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Kolja Blacher & Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a "concerto straordinario" @ "Ferrara Musica" on March 30, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara.
It's the 40th anniversary of the recording of Prokofiev's "Piano Concerto n. 3" by Argerich and Abbado, so the program is as follows:
We're so there it isn't even funnay.
Opera Chic came back home (aka Milano) just in time to catch her boyfriend (he just doesn't know that yet) Juan Diego Florez's appearance at la Scala, starting tomorrow night, in La Fille Du Regiment.
And in today's Corriere della Sera our sweet Giovan Diego hints that, if we'll cheer loud enuff, he'll generously give us an encore of "Ah, mes amis" and its killer 9 high Cs!!!!!!!111
Quote:
"If, tomorrow night at la Scala, they'll insist on me giving an encore, maybe I'll do that -- the famous nine high Cs of the 'Ah, mes amis' aria. In London, where I've just appeared in the Donizetti opera, I didn't do an encore, even if the cheering was loud and sustained. But I did an encore at Carlo Felice in Genova, in 2005, when Decca made the DVD"
JDF repeats that he doesn't plan to add Verdi to his repertorio (except for his Fenton) but that "in a few years, in Dresden, I'll be the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto"!!!OMG!!!
In the meantime, Opera Chic will be at la Scala tomorrow nite in a choice position to report on the happenings. And she'll totally scream "BIIIIIIIIS!!! BIIIIIIIIS!!!" (ie, "Twice").
Until next time, hat tip to our buddy Jay-Z:
Now can I get an encore, do you want more
Cookin raw with the Brooklyn boy
So for one last time I need y'all to roar
IT'S A GENIUS IDEA: Beck (aka "Cool As A Catatonic Cucumber" Beck) does Kindertotenlieder, Gwen Stefani sings Exsultate Jubilate, Beyoncé covers Hugo Wolf, Cat Power purrs Haendel's Delirio & then bares her crotch (NSFW link). The possibilities are endless:
Stop your sneering. It could actually work. But given the current state of cultural consumerism, we have, instead, courtesy of Sony Classical, We All Love Ennio Morricone. The disc, due in stores Tuesday, celebrates the music of the prolific Italian film composer with performances by Celine Dion, Renee Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters and more.
WE *HEART* U MAESTRO MORRICONE JUST TELL CELINE SHES L4M3!!! BL4ME!! (b3wbs)
The Los Angeles Times thinks that the opera version of The Grapes Of Wrath is teh awezzom, and its composer Ricky Ian Gordon is so cool he evidently isn't even human anymore:
"Ricky Ian Gordon, an exuberant New York songwriter with one foot on Broadway, one in the Copland style and an extra foot or two available for rhapsodic operatic elaborations."
One word: eeeeewwww.
(photo Michal Daniel / The Minnesota Opera)
And Opera Chic's prophecy on film directors' crossover into opera is still going strong: Canadian creeponysterical film director and opera fan David Cronenberg...
has teamed up with tenor Placido Domingo and Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore to create an opera based on Cronenberg's 1986 movie, The Fly.
The unlikely trio made an official announcement Friday in Paris saying the co-production between Theatre du Chatelet in Paris and the Los Angeles Opera would open in Paris July 1, 2008, and then move to Los Angeles in September.
Teh key aria writes itself, Howie: "I'm becoming... Brundlefly!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!111"
Opera Chic's vintage luggage is packed, the ticket's ready, passport too -- expect lighter posting in the next 24 hours (unless there's wifi in, like, space). A nice (yea, w0tevs) red-eye flight is about take Opera Chic back to Milan, where, on Tuesday, she'll be safe in the arms -- so to speak -- of her Juan Diego.
Surprisingly, Paris Hilton got bored the other night
@ the Vienna Opera Ball (she had been -- as OC reported -- previously booed by a bunch of unruly Viennese Bolsheviks).
Live TV coverage repeatedly showed her looking bored as she sat in her luxury box at the State Opera House.
As debutantes in white dresses and their escorts in black tuxedos and tails marched into the ornate ballroom, Hilton was seen resting her head in her hands, absentmindedly flipping through the program and fiddling with her mobile phone.
Opera Chic says, u0tevs! Because Paris was holding in her rapacious, bony hands a secksylicious obsidian-black Leica D-LUX 3 -- ah, if only we hadn't just bought a (beautiful, don't get us wrong) Canon SD900! We love our cute little (1-year) old Leica C-LUX 1, aiight, but for this girl at least, pixel size matters.
We assume it matters for Paris, too.
Jessica "Mighty Terpsichore" Duchen reports that, according to the intrepid detectives at Gramophone magazine (aka the Barely Legal of classical music nerds -- and nerdettes like Opera Chic) the legend of obscure, oldskool female "pianistic talent" Joyce Hatto is not standing up to digital scrutiny & doublecheks: it all started because totally lofi iTunes (aka "DRM who? Moi? No qway Josay!") identified one of her records as "a recording on BIS by the Hungarian pianist Laszlo Simon", and further tests prove many more deceptions. ITS ALL LIES! L I E S!
Who was Joyce Hatto then? Lam3r than Windows 95? More spyware-infested than Windows 98? More b00tleg than Vista???
Opera Chic's theory: a poorer, not as snazzily dressed Milli Vanilli. But we sure liked the Space Age, ozone-layer-busting, Jetsons hairstyle!
And Jessica's updates keep coming!
Say it ain't so, Mr. Holmes!
Poor Brahms. And poor maestro Gelmetti:
Sydney doesn't flock to Brahms the way it flocks to Beethoven and Mahler. We tend to give him the respect we gave to the Queen pre-Princess Diana. Can Gelmetti do a Helen Mirren for Brahms?
Memo to Gelmetti (for Brahms it's 2 L8): try with a blonde wig + more bewbs
Tim "The Sultan of Snark" Page gets his freak zing on with composer (and ex US President!) John Adams:
Readers of a certain age may recall a television program called "Name That Tune," wherein a few notes would be played and contestants would attempt to identify the song. John Adams's "Harmonielehre" (1985), which the National Symphony Orchestra played last night at the Kennedy Center in honor of the composer's 60th birthday, might have been better named "Spot That Influence," for there isn't much in its 40-odd minutes that seems uniquely Adams's own.
Thankfully, signor Page also thinks that eventually, thanks to Leonard "We'll Play All Of Beethoven 9 in 60 seconds" Slatkin's conducting the piece "manages to win one over with a certain hammered, visceral excitement".
Memo to Signor Page: sir, we totally dig ur stuff BUT please don't send us a happy birthday card OK?
“I knew I wanted to write a symphony. I knew that it had to be an American work; and I wanted to demonstrate how the blues, so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to the highest musical level.”
-- William Grant Still
Tomorrow Night the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra will play an important work by an American maestro: William Grant Still's First Symphony.
Maestro Still, as WikipAEdia helpfully points out, was "the first African-American to ever conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony of his own performed by a major orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television".
So give it up for the late, great maestro! Yay!
(and -- memo to American symphony managers: pleez try not to remember about Still's existence only like once a year for Black History Month ok? thx bi)
There exists in Hollywood a certain Academy Award nominated Best Actor who has a penchant for opera -- and not for attending opera, but for actually singing.
Currently in Italy to promote the Italian premiere of his latest film "The Last King of Scotland", American actor Forest Whitaker appeared earlier tonight on Mediaset's Canale 5 "Maurizio Costanzo Show".
All went according to plan until Whitaker confessed to his prior dabbling in the musical art of opera (he was a vocal student studying tenor at the Music Conservatory at the University of Southern California, and graduated in 1982).
The actor, upon being prompted by Costanzo, then displayed his tenorific prowess. It was luckily captured by a good friend in Milan (however with the limitations of a camera phone) and then uploaded to the ubiquitous YouTube. Enjoy!
This just in: in the photo above you can see Paris Hilton on her way to the Wiener Opernball.
A few minutes after this picture had been taken, Viennese protesters have been arrested by the Austrian police. Apparently they were demonstrating against the capitalist extravaganza -- a ball made to measure for about 4,500 rich elderly Austrian industrialists and the usual suspects of such occasions, ie their second wives & their plastic surgeons, loserish TV personalities, high-end escorts, various skanks -- and to protest Hilton's presence at the ball (in the past, the Opernball had welcomed such luminaries as Geri Halliwell -- aka Whatevs Spice -- and Carmen Electra).
That's why earlier in the day Hilton had gotten pelted by tissues, lipstick, and cigarette packs -- it was the same unruly bunch! Viennese commies do not dig her (& they probably got scammed by some eBay seller the time they tried to buy one of her dozens of secret superhawt "stolen" lol video to boot).
The PR fiasco ruined Hilton's day and she canceled her visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (she's a HUGE Bruegel fan) and to Beethoven's tomb (just kidding!).
Now, Opera Chic does not smoke and thinks it's an ICKY habit. And she is against violence in any form. But twenty years ago America used to send Lenny to Vienna (Opera Chic usually stays at the Sacher and they still have on display a fantastic photo of a caped Lenny exiting the hotel and walking towards the Staatsoper); now we send them Carmen and Paris & her fakea$$ passport. You cannot really really blame the Austrian commies for being p'ed off, can you.
vvvvUPDATEvvvv
Good story/pic here.
You already know that Anna Netrebko (who often plays a whore in Traviata) and Paris Hilton (who has yet to appear in Traviata but) are the stars (heh) of the Wiener Opernball in Vienna TONITE!!!OMGrofl.
And lucky Austrians were almost saved by sheer dumb (huh, yeah) luck: Hilton 's passport had expired but the US government came to the rescue!!!
Let's hear it from the International Herald Tribune, that went totally "gaga" (lol) for the heiress:
Hilton ran into a problem in Munich, Germany, Wednesday when it turned out her passport had expired. Susan McCaw, U.S. ambassador to Austria, had to vouch for Hilton to get her across the border, APA reported.
"Oh nothing, just my passport expired," Hilton said when asked to explain what happened.
Oh, OK. See, if you represent the US government in Iraq you get to "lose" 12 billion dollars in cash (it's 363 tons); you represent us in Austria, you end up arguing with some German immigration cop who wants to arrest Paris Hilton because her passport just expired without warning her first. lame! (Opera Chic is already the unofficial Honorary Consul to La Scala and this is more than enough for her -- and she doesn't have to bail anybody out of jail. Well, she hasn't yet. But she'd certainly love to "lose" a few tons of US govt cash shopping around via S. Andrea!)
Anyway, trying deperately not to be upstaged, Netrebko is doing a Marilyn impersonation, a All That Jazz number, and she'll arm wrestle Arnold "Bibendum" Schwarzenegger, too.
GO ANNA GO!
love, OC
