Opera Chic

Lissner to Ferri: Hit Me Baby One More Time!

Scala General Manager and open collar shirt hater Stéphane "Jacket Required, Kinda" Lissner has asked the off-teh-charts awesome Alessandra Ferri, who danced the other night for the last time at la Scala (bringing the house insanely down as if Italy had won again the soccer World Cup), to come back, please come back one last time.

So, when her commitments abroad will have been satisfied, the 43-going-on-10 phenomenon may come back for a huge gala/star-studded event: frankly, the only proper way to say thank you to a true a legend for her career.

art brut

Joshua Bell gets pwnz0rd

A million dollars will not go very far these days

This upcoming Monday afternoon at Christie's New York, a 1729 (Faciebat Anno 1729) Antonio Stradivari violin will be up for auction, starting at the minimal bid of $1 million USD (fascinating lineage here). ///hahaha.. only 1 mil for a Stradivarius?? Let's talk when ur ready to spend some real $$$$ to play with the big dawgs ;-p

It was manufactured slightly after the :golden period: (1700-1720) from the Cremonian violin craftsman, who started making violins in the 1660s. Only 600 of the total 700 crafted instruments survive.

As part of the auction process, violin-enthusiasts are allowed to take said violin for a test-drive from its exhibition room in Rockefeller Plaza, for a few days before the auction (subject to Christie's discretion relying on instinct and trust). Only a smattering of musicians and admirers have stepped-up to the challenge, both professional violinists and violin aficionados alike. From an article in the IHT, one of the intrepid few was a young student at Juilliard, Albert Cheng:

A graduate student studying the violin at the Juilliard School, Cheng approached the Stradivarius with striking verve. When it was taken from its glass case, Cheng took the violin by its neck and twirled it as if it were a tennis racket. A label hung from the violin, like the price tag on Minnie Pearl's hat. Cheng played Bach for a minute or so. "Of course, it's the best instrument in here," he said. "This has a purer, more brilliant sound than the others and projects more." [ed: 125 other rare violins can be currently found in the same Christie's exhibition room.]

Previous Stradivarius Christie's auctions include a historic bid last year for a 1707 Stradivarius, that was sold for a record $3.5 million, the most for any stringed instrument.

Opera Chic is putting this little baby on her Amazon wish list, and will wait patiently for one of her admirers to DHL this overpriced hunk of polished dolomite wood to her Milan palazzo. tia tia t00dles~~

La dame aux Camélias Initial Recap

Back from the marathon La dame aux Camélias at Teatro alla Scala, where two twenty-minute gaping-wide intermissions added to an already exhausting night of dancing, and Opera Chic is all too ready to fall into bed. Tomorrow will come a full report, but for now, here’s a quick recap:

• Roberto Bolle makes sexay-time with some random slut and then Alessandra Ferri, which is kind of h0tt, but then sulks like an annoying emo fanboy after the dirty deed with the former. (^so^ not hot) 
• Bolle hones his $kill$ as a break-dancer, demonstrating some particularly sweeet 80s' street moves; courtesy of Neumeier.
• Alessandra Ferri dodges a shoddy, unraveling tutu for ten precarious minutes during Act II. La costumière must be pretty embarrassed.
• Some drunk lady’s bracelet crashes loudly down from the galleria onto a piece of stage. It was probably a David Aubrey. just sayin'...
• The orchestra left the pit for Act II to go play pool; or they went to smoke something-something.
• The pianississimo of this ballet quickly displayed that OC isn't nearly the only one sick in Milan.

Did that make any sense at all? Other than that, I’m convinced that Ferri will forever look like she’s sixteen, and Bolle has dropped so much weight since his golden thong-encased Marcia Trionfale that his waist is now smaller than Ferri’s. Or maybe even smaller than his own neck. Ew.

Alessandra Ferri's Last La Scala Performances EV4R!

Milanese ballerina Alessandra Ferri has been featured countless times in the Italian newspapers the past month, apropos of her forthcoming, ultimate departure from the stage. She had announced late October 2006 that her retirement from the world of ballet was imminent after dancing for 22-years with the ABT in NYC (and after making steady appearances in Milan as a permanent guest artist at La Scala...OC saw her last February 2006 in the Mario Pistoni/Nino Rota/Federico Fellini La Strada production as Gelsomina).

Since March 20, 2007’s la prima of La dame aux Camélias here at La Scala, Ferri is currently winding-down the last two performances of her final stage appearances in Italy, and Opera Chic has been lucky enough to book one of these remaining shows. omg yay yay yay! Even better is that her interpretation of Marguerite Gautier will be accompanied by Roberto Bolle’s Armand Duval. mad stylin'

Ferri’s last stage performance ev4r will be dancing later this summer in New York City. On Saturday, June 23, 2007, she will wave a final goodbye to the world of dance in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet opposite Roberto Bolle with the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Ferri had been mulling-over the decision to quit dancing for quite a while. She states that doesn't really have plans for the future, but hints that she wants to dedicate time to her family and young children. Husband Fabrizio Ferri, an Italian photographer, was frequently seen at La Scala when his wife was performing...also responsible for taking the photograph of his wife that begins this post.

The ballerina admits in interview that her one regret is that she never was able to work with George Balanchine. Maybe she'll spend her retirement building a time machine.

This current La Scala production of La Dame aux Camélias is a new staging, choreographed by John Neumeier, following the production of the München Bayerische Staatsoper, and set to Frédérik Chopin.

OC has heard mixed reviews, but will be there tonight to report first-hand the glory of Ferri and Bolle. Unfortunately, it must be stated that Bolle is costumed in a full faux tuxedo: spandex black pants and jacket (and one lovely reader had graciously forwarded OC some images from la prima which corroborates the tragedy). sigh. We can't will them all, can we?

La Repubblica and Corriere articles on Ferri from a few weeks ago:

 

On the list: From the extensive library at the Opera Chic Headquarters

A recent bout of sickness enabled Opera Chic to peruse her ginormous library, and rediscover some of the old treasures that were optimistically bought, and unfortunately shelved before reading, when hectic social calendars ensued. Nevertheless, they brought me necessary diversion from the bronchial cough that settled in my Mimi-esque lungs. oh sweet lovely books of myne u nevar let me down ;__;

First was "Pietro Mascagni and His Operas," by Alan Mallach; Northeastern University Press, 2002. It is a combination of epistolary exchanges weaved into a biography. Mallach implemented a generous plucking of the 4,200 letters between Mascagni and Anna Lolli, his mistress for more than thirty years, which provided a portrait of a "flamboyant, combative, and emotional man". Well, duh. He's writing to his frikking mistress! Here's an excerpt: “Mia Annuccia: Returned to Milan. Hung out with The Duce today, but instead of discussing The Beast of Berlin's invasion of Poland, all he wanted to talk about was a new recipe he found for filetto ai mirtilli. Super lame. We dined on manzo in salsa verde, and some of the parsley got stuck in his front teeth halfway through the meal...but I didn't tell him. heh heh heh." Looks like someone needs a brush-up on their translations skills, eh? O__O

Next to tackle is, "Henri Duparc: Complete Songs for Voice and Piano"; Dover Publications, 1995. The sheetmusic consists of sixteen songs and one duet (La fuite) set to works by Goethe, Gautier, and Baudelaire. Included are "songs of love and regret, of soulful reflection and protest, of hope and flight and resignation." Whoa, hay...slow down there buddy. This is all a little to emo for my blood. It will be a challenge to suffuse it with a little OC-flava, but I think I'm up to task. 

Lastly, my biggest challenge (in Italian) is another epistolary exchange, "Gino Marinuzzi: Tema con Variazioni; Epistolario Artistico di un Grande Direttore D'Orchestra," from Mondadori, 1995. This book divulges the letters between conductor Gino Marinuzzi and his friends, family, and various theaters. Wish me luck with this monster. ::rawr::

If anyone has read a note-worthy lol, music-minded novel/essay/flava of the month/etc, please bring it to my attention!! "Reading is FUNdamental"! [tia]...no stupid jokes like omg u need to sit down and memorize the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians stat becuz ur musicology is teh suck plz no thnx bi...[tia]

Anglophiles Rejoice: Beethovenfest Bonn 2007

WilkommenWelcome to the 2007 Beethovenfest Bonn! We hope you like everything about Britain because this year's annual Beethoven festival program will highlight Beethoven's influence with the Land of Tea-Time, Worchester sauce, and lol crumpets lol.

Titled, "Joy! -- Beethoven and the British Cultural Sphere," (A Schiller "Ode an die Freude"-inspired name) the festival will thusly showcase British conductors and artists -- such as the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis, and Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Beethovenfest Bonn 2007 will be held from August 24th to September 23rd, 2007, and will feature 61 performances, featuring works by Henry Purcell, Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten, in addition to contemporary British composers.

Although Beethoven never actually made a visit to England, biographers assert that he had great desire to travel there. Beethoven suffered from Anglophilia. How sexy. He was inspired in one symphonic work by the Duke of Wellington’s 1821 victory ("Wellingtons Sieg oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria"), where one can find allusions to both "Rule Britannia" and "God Save the King."

Indeed, Beethoven had very special ties with The Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1827, it was documented by one of the Directors:

[...] "When the Society learnt that Beethoven was both ill and much in need of money, the Directors decided that a sum of £100 should be sent to him 'to be applied to his comforts and necessities'. The money, held up en route, reached him only a few days before he died, but time enough for him to express his heartfelt appreciation to the Society. Schindler, his amanuensis, reported that 'the Society had comforted his last days, and that event on the brink of the grave he thanked the Society and the whole English nation for the great gift, God bless them.'"

I dreamed I sang a duet at the Met in my Maidenform bra!

“I'm beside myself with joy -- Maidenform and I make such marvelous music together with Sweet Music©! The genius lies in the cups, each exquisitely sculptured from 8 separate triangles. Ingenious new "lifts" in the undercups hit a high note in comfort and curves!”

This is one of the highlights from the successful, nostalgic "I Dreamed" Maidenform bra ad campaign that was launched in 1949, and lasted well through the 1960s. [An article on Ida Rosenthal, founder and chair(woman) of American company Maidenform can be found here.] The advertisements highlighted models in both everyday situations and extraordinary scenarios, wearing nothing but the appropriate costumes accented with Maidenform bras.

"Sweet Music", a specific model of bra, was available for a mere $2.50, and was proclaimed as the: "Sweetest bra this side of heaven...it was born to be worn with the 'Empire Look'". The actual bra can be found here. No offense, but when OC makes her triumphant debut at the MET, you sure as heyll won’t find no Maidenform supporting my (.)(.) I’d have to be paid in the souls of the innocent to put that bewb armor near my tender skin.

Another ad from the “I Dreamed” series features the epiphany, “I dreamed I played in an all-girl orchestra in my maidenform bra.” Or maybe it's one of Gérard Mortier's edgy new ideas for the NYCO.

The all-girl orchestra is pretty hot, tho. In fact, it reminds me of this vvvvv

51 opera roles, more Strauss, Appalachian Music in Nashville, a New Traviata: La Fleming Conquers Malaysia

La Renée Fleming was recently in Malaysia for a recital at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in Kuala Lumpur.

We quote la Signora, who also discussed her new Traviata film and her increasing interest in jazz:

“I’m now working on a recording of Appalachian folk music with authentic string instrumentation.(ed: conducted by John Eliot Gardiner in a Stetson hat. kidding!) I’ve always loved their music and I decided to do a lot of research on it “.

Well.

Hee-Haw!

I guess.

Can we just give a close-up of that sweet, sweet bling she's flaunting? I'm ♥sweating♥ her mad styles. Keepin it real with the fingernails, tho'. Let's hope she doesn't get into any drunken bar fights without her claws ;__;

Teddy Tahu Rhodes Says NO to the Death Penalty, Thankfully Keeps Saying YES to Hawt Abs

That big lumberjack of a sek-say baritone, surfer dude Teddy "Abz of Steel" Tahu Rhodes, is back as convicted killer Joseph de Rocher in the Dead Man Walking opera (he had already starred in the role in 2003). Leave it to him to make a murderer hawt as, huh, hell.

In the picture right above, TTR, sadly with abs concealed under his shirt, is standing next to Sister Helen Prejean, author of the Dead Man Walking book. 

And we can only close a post as depressing as one on the death penalty with the uplifting image of Teddy's abs in glorious close-up (100% size image pops up, watch out! those things attack!).

Legion d'Honneur For Daniel Barenboim!!!111

As we write, Jacques Chirac is heading to the French Embassy in Berlin to award the awesome Maestro Scaligero Daniel Barenboim a knightship: give it up for Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, le maestro Daniel Barenboim! In Chirac's words, the Legion d'Honneur  has been award to "l'immense artiste, l'ami de la France et l'intellectuel engagé pour la paix au Proche-Orient".

Vive la France! Vive Barenboim! Kol Hakavod! כל הכבוד

Soho The Dog's Quiz

It's a Sunday. We're sick. We took Soho the Dog's test.

1. Name an opera you love for the libretto, even though you don't particularly like the music.

L'Eroe Cinese, Metastasio

2. Name a piece you wish Glenn Gould had played.

Chopsticks. That'd be fun, and gawd knows Glenn needed to unclench.

3. If you had to choose: Charles Ives or Carl Ruggles?

Who?

4. Name a piece you're glad Glenn Gould never played.

A Scott Joplin rag. Or did he?

5. What's your favorite unlikely solo passage in the repertoire?

An old Paul Bowles zarzuela.

6. What's a Euro-trash high-concept opera production you'd love to see? (No Mortier-haters get to duck this one, either—be creative.)

I'll quote myself here.

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.

7. Name an instance of non-standard concert dress you wish you hadn't seen.

Anything worn by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

8. What aging rock-and-roll star do you wish had tried composing large-scale chorus and orchestra works instead of Paul McCartney?

Ringo Starr. He's sadly underrated.

9. If you had to choose: Carl Nielsen or Jean Sibelius?

Come on, it's not even a question, Sibelius 4evar.

10. If it was scientifically proven that Beethoven's 9th Symphony caused irreversible brain damage, would you still listen to it?

I've listened to it so many times that it's too late anyway.

Do we pass or fail?

yae ol' linky tyme! “I make clicks so you dont have to!”

Pretty slow news weekend, yase, yase, but Opera Chic is battling a reprehensible Italian virus that has infiltrated her coddled American immune system. A prescription of chicken soup and matzo balls? Ginger ale? I don’t think so...

After spending an ungodly amount of my first year here quick prey to germs, the sure way to get back to health is a generous splash of Cedrata, sciroppo di cedro (our trusted brand Tassoni) mixed with the gassiest of gassy water, Alpi Cozie frizzante, to settle the queasiest of stomachs. If that doesn't work, the beacon of hope relies in discrete nibbles of Citrosodina. For sustenance, a yummy mix of Polenta ai Funghi Porcini from San Candido. Or some Barilla Stelline with olive oil (never bought in stores, btw, but rather, gifted from friends in thick glass bottles when they come calling from native Toscana.)

Therefore, this post is proudly brought to you by Cedrata, which is powering-up the Opera Chic back-end lol. Also, +10 Enchanted Cedrata of Brescia Syrup. Also, +5 Magic Gola Action. Also, +6 Golden Citrosodina.

I'm so proud of my internaut colleagues, and am lucky to be counted among the talented mass of music bloggers. **internet flexin**

While perusing, I omitted a few of the gems from many bloggers on my link-lists, but send loads of ((hugs)) & :-* :-* from Opera Chic regardless. And I promise a holla-back the next time. Here's the roll call:

♥ ♥ Sounds & Fury eloquently encapsulates the precise quandary that plagues VVagner: The Movie, thus restoring balance to the universe.

♥ ♥ Soho the Dog proposes a quirky quiz to test your leniencies given ten precious, musically-minded questions (which garnered meaty comments).

♥ ♥ Jessica Duchen batters-up to Soho the Dog's challenge, quite possibly reading into the very mind of Opera Chic with her spot-on reply to the Beethoven Ninth question:

Q: If it was scientifically proven that Beethoven's 9th Symphony caused irreversible brain damage, would you still listen to it?
A: Yesdht3icbeutnaoehfgbnauedw278r&!*

♥ ♥ Caro Zio Norman displays the acute photographic memory of one of his readers, recalling two stirringly similar bucolic CD covers between Simon Rattle and Christian Thielemann. His post is all sorts of awesome. But if it comes to a showdown, our $$$ is on Thielemann, no doubt.

♥ ♥ Parsifal's site documents the Rolando Villazón Gone-Greek-Rush-Week recital from October 25, 2006 (lol October surprise lol) at the NYC UN Conference Hall, with rapidshare/rawwrrrr yummy cupcake goodness: "The concert has been telecasted in Greece and i managed to rip off the audio of Rolando's great performance." Pirates! Pirates of teh internets!

♥ ♥ From the vast, always-open workshop of La Cieca, comes a mélange of info and YouTube footage reflecting on the evolution of the parterre website.

♥ ♥ Our Lady ACB of The Concert had an exhilarating brush this week with Angela Gheorghiu, in the corridors of NYC’s MET Opera House; she left the scene of the incident unscathed, her soul intact. Sadly, Gheorghiu unpwned.

♥ ♥ The Alex Ross-ter introduces a renegade guest blogger, a purported master of tricksy posting styles.

♥ ♥ And lastly: after Matthias Röder of Zeitschichten criticized on his blog (in late January) of the new La Scala dress code, I am fearful that Lissner sent a ninja snypa to his house, as we have not heard from him since!

Pier Luigi Pizzi's Match Point: La Pietra del Paragone as Tennis Match, plus Seks

Pier Luigi Pizzi makes Madrid feel all tingly (especially the tennis fans) with his refreshing, Lacosterrific production of Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone @ Madrid's Teatro Real.

Set! Match! Abs! Bewbs!

Devia di Lammermoor is Anna Bolena

The fine lady and great soprano that is Mariella "Devia di Lammermoor" Devia, we discover, in her glorious career hadn't yet appeared in Anna Bolena: she'll debut in the role tonight. Our main man Graham Vick is teh mind behind the staging, in Verona.

The rest of the cast: Michele Pertusi (Enrico VIII), Francesco Meli (Riccardo Percy), Marco Spotti (Rocheford), Marina Domashenko (Giovanna Seymur). The opera hasn't been staged in Verona in the last 160 years (only three editions til today at Teatro Filarmonico: in 1833, 1835 e 1843). This Anna will be conducted by Lu Jia, replicas on the 27th, 29th, and on April 1 and 4.

Wagner: The TV Movie -- No One is Safe!

Although this one isn't in the imdb's top 50 music movies of all time [not officially categorized as a movie; rather a "TV Series"], it was greatly lauded in its day (a bit before OC's time...back in 1983), and clocks in at a tedious nine hours.

Tony Palmer’s "Wagner", written as a biographical landscape of the life and times of the self-titled nineteenth century composer, was recently resurrected from the broadcasting dead on Italy's Classica satellite channel ::vary nice:: The film epic was orchestrated with the “Greatest Hits” of Wagner’s career, played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Sir Georg Solti.

The original nine-hour epic bio-pic has been edited and abridged by Tony Palmer into a more manageable four-hour version, but every bit still packed with cameo appearances from classic Hollywood stars. Richard Burton, in one of his last performances ev4r, nails his presentation as Richard Wagner, making him every bit egotistical and haughty as legend had it. Vanessa Redgrave plays Cosima, with Wagner-patron Ludwig II's advisers played by John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier. Filmed in authentic locations around Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, the movie was awarded for its stunning and vivid production.

The whole production (or the brief hour that I was able to stomach) seemed a little too self-congratulatory, a wank-fest of German nationalism, with no true engagement of Wagner's rabid anti-Semitism, misogyny and general d0uchebaggery. What a kitschy, tragic mess. It’s ironic that a man who wrote such long-winded operas was treated justly to an interminable marathon of a motion picture. hay im the guy everyones ♥ ♥, im wanger, worrship meeeee!

Comrade Harding Goes to China

After conducting an impressive Salome here at la Scala,  almost-honorary-Milanese Daniel Harding came back to London  where he's all over his new "irresistible if obscure" gig as guest conductor of the LSO. And Comrade Harding will be soon flying, together with the LSO, to China. Where he will hold concerts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

But the fun part is that

As part of the tour, LSO and its sole sponsor Rolls Royce plc, a world-leading provider of power systems and services, will hold, in partnership with a Chinese company Poly Culture and Arts and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, a Masterclass, during which three students will have the opportunity to conduct members of the LSO under the guidance of Daniel Harding. The Masterclass will be held in Beijing from April 19 to 20.

Now isn't that cool.

Anyway: Opera Chic was delighted to read in the Independent our intrepid Daniel Harding sensibly point out that

We have spent so much time re-evaluating 18th-century performance practice, but what about the 19th and 20th centuries?

The point being that the opera-as-funeral-like-event-for-teh-rich-peoples attitude needs a bit of readjusting, as of 2007. La Scala itself was a famous venue for card-playing, the Ridotto dei Palchi a sort of casino, where fortunes were literally made and lost by Rawdon Crawley-esque opera fans. And operas, of course, were performed with the house lights always on, burning bright. And silence-in-the-audience was of course a very relative concept in those unruly times.

It was of course the great Maestro Toscanini to change everything -- lights out, absolute silence,  no encores, no applause even after very popular arias. Now, here at Opera Chic Headquarters (it's like the BatCave, only not underground, and in a 200-year-old Milanese palazzo) -- we're not nostalgicks for the opera-as-Moulin-Rouge distant past, and we like to listen in peace, but there's no denying that the stony looks one gets for shifting in one's seat or, gawd forbid, eating some candy really really need to go. The authoritarian streak -- audio fascism? -- inherent in nowadays symphony halls or opera houses is a thing of a distant, way-too-Prussian past.

So give it up for maestro Harding and his new ideas and his China-bound team, the LSO (by the way their new box set, Beethoven 1-9 conducted by Haitink, looks pretty yummy -- even if, of course, our favorite LSO performance ev4r is the old Beethoven 9 conducted by our beloved Maestro Giulini in the 1960s).

Easter Music Blowout: Dudamel in Lucerne, Rattle does Wagner, Barenboim/Boulez Do Mahler; We'll Go Ski.

Now, Opera Chic is going to Cortina d'Ampezzo to breath the clean air and eat the tasty Knoedel (spinach, no meat thx) and ski @ 130 mph more dangerously than some crazed Manga character.

But actual classical music lovers, instead, tend to choose more musical -- if a bit staid not to say b0ring -- destinations such as Lucerne, Berlin, Salzburg (been there already!) or Schwetzinger (where is that? It must be the South Dakota of Europe, quite difficult to pinpoint on a map).

A handy Bloomberg piece (thanks Mr. Mayor!) gives us the whole map.

To sum it up:

The Lucerne Easter Festival, starting March 24: has two resident orchestras this year, Venezuela's Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (chief conductor Gustavo Dudamel), and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons. 

El Dudamel will conduct pretty kicka$$ works such as Mahler 5, Rueckert-Lieder (Kozena), Ravel's La Valse, Tchaikovsky 5, Rachmaninov 3rd piano concerto (Yefim Bronfman).         

Jansons will lead his Germans in Mahler 7 (guys, why not the Third, Opera Chic's favorite Mahler symphony???), then works by Schubert, Haydn and Gounod the next day.

Sadly, Nikolaus "The Taxidermist" Harnoncourt will appear at the Festival as well, always eager to embalm astonishingly beautiful works with his trademark glacial tempi and gloomily desaturated colors.

Wagner-lovers (ie, not us) can enjoy the old neckbearded Nazi's feverish musical dreams of racial purity in Salzburg (more on Herr Richard's appalling neckbeard fetish here), where our Lord of nerdy-cool Sir Simon Rattle (Levine, Rattle, Dudamel -- why do we like conductors with Afros so much?) will condcut the BPO in Das Rheingold,' staged by Stephane Braunschweig, in the cast Willard White, Robert Gambill and Anna Larsson. The Berlin Philharmonic and Rattle will thankfully give three further concerts.

Those in search of a musical holiday with a de-nazification bonus, here's our unimpeachable hero Daniel Barenboim, who will conduct Staatskapelle in a Mahler Cycle in Berlin for the Festtage, with his BFF&E Pierre Boulez.

The beautiful sounds of poor old forgotten Giovanni Legrenzi will echo in Schwetzingen, for the annual Festival (April 24). So, if you wanna get down with Legrenzi's 1683 Il Giustino in a baroque moment of raprture, check it out, all info is here.

Christine Brewer Replaces Mattila, Voigt, Fleming; Says She's Ready to Replace Bush, Too

Christine Brewer is not only a talented singer, a tolerant woman (she didn't kill the criminally insane costume designer of this most unfortunate production, and who wouldn't have, seriously) but she can also be basically omnipresent: first she replaced Opera Chic's beloved Renèe Fleming (@ the gala of the first Festival del Sole in the Napa Valley), Deborah Voigt (Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with our Jimbo Levine and the BSO) and now she's going to sub for Karita Mattila, again with Levine and the BSO, in Fidelio.

We were seriously thinking to hire an intern to sub for us during the Easter holidays (Opera Chic is going to Cortina d'Ampezzo and you're not), but we're thinking of calling La Brewer instead.

A Remembrance of Voices Silenced by the Holocaust

In a related vein as LA Opera Music Director James Conlon's project "Recovered Voices" to express the myriad silenced during the Nazi regime, comes a new project that is worthy of endless merit.

Begun in 1991 by Italian pianist and composer Francesco Lotoro and Professor David Meghnagi, the project is a compilation of forgotten and unheard musical works that were furtively penned by prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps and various WWII interment and prison camps from 1933-1945, men and women who eventually died in the camps before their works could be realized. The majority of materials was found in Terezin, a death camp where most of the Czech Jews were killed during WWII.

This collection of precious scraps of paper has slowly evolved into a viable oeuvre of musical history. The compilation of sheet music, letters, and photos will formally exhibit and find a home in Italy this September at Università degli Studi Roma Tre. The Roman University expects a vast collection of over 4,000 papers and 13,000 microfiches. Lotoro has already recorded five CDs of the anticipated 32-set collection. He said:

“We are trying to right a great wrong: These musicians were hoping for a musical life for themselves, and they would have had it if their destiny had been different."

Te Kanawa Wins The Panties War

Dame (and hawt MILF) Kiri Te Kanawa won teh War Of teh Undies we had already reported on:

Opera diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa prevailed Wednesday in a lawsuit that sought damages from her because she had canceled appearances with an Australian pop singer after learning women threw their underwear at him on stage.

The New South Wales state Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit, which sought up to $1.5 million in damages. Te Kanawa was sued by concert promotion company Leading Edge after the planned concerts in 2005 with singer John Farnham fell through.

There was of course no need to get one's panties in a twist.

Ernst Haefliger, 1919-2007

At Opera Chic Headquarters we often play Das Lied Von Der Erde -- mostly, obviously, the mono Walter/Ferrier version -- but we sometimes blast Walter's stereo version, not nearly as good because Ferrier does not sing in it. But we always enjoy Ernst Haefliger's tenor voice in it, and we were saddened to read that Herr Haefliger passed away last Saturday, aged 87.

Haefliger's voice is also part of Ferenc Fricsay's otherworldly Fidelio, another OperaChic favorite.

The Ross Is Nice

Mad props to signor Alex Ross: his forthcoming book and future NYTimes bestseller, The Rest Is Noise (aka "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Music, Ev4r") has a cover and an Amazon page.

Cheers!

Tugan Sokhiev: I Wanted To Join a Boy Band But I was Too Young

Vladimir "Dressed By Ermenegildo Zegna" Jurowski, Daniel "Interestingly, Mozart Was A Manchester United Fan, Too" Harding, Gustavo "Behold My Sweet, Sweet Afro" Dudamel, and Tomas "I can go sloooooooooooooower than Celibidache If You Really Insist, And Even If You Don't" Netopil have a colleague in the almost-underage conductor club: Tugan "I say I'm 29, I look 19, I'm actually 9" Sokhiev.

He has just conducted Philharmonia at Queen Elizabeth Hall, in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite and Tchaikovsky's Fourth.

The Independent loved it; The Guardian wrote that it suXored. When in doubt, Opera Chic has a rule: she sticks to her Temirkanov cd.

(Now, was "Uncle Solly" -- back when he was 9 years old -- as good as Sokhiev is now?  He probably wasn't. WhatevS. But we bet that he already looked 70)

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet Romeo

(image from Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake".)

From the creator of the all-male 1995 London "Swan Lake", British choreographer Matthew Bourne explores more paths of traditional gender-bending, this time with the classic Prokofiev ballet Romeo and Juliet. Bourne’s new plans include killing-off Juliet, implementing an entirely male cast, providing Romeo with a male lover, and renaming the ballet "Romeo, Romeo". He is intent on portraying a convincing gay relationship among the main characters. Quoteth he:

“It’s more to do with dancing than with sexuality. A male dancer, whether he’s gay or straight, fits into a relationship with a female partner very happily. Getting away from that, making a convincing love duet, a romantic, sexual duet, for two men that is comfortable to do and comfortable to watch — I don’t know if you can. I’ve never seen it done.”

Homosexual undercurrents in Shakespeare’s work are nothing new, and there has been an abundance of speculation regarding the sexuality of Romeo’s bff4e Mercutio, as well as cousin Benvolio. If all goes well during initial rehearsals this summer, the company could begin "Romeo, Romeo" as early as next year.