Opera Chic

buon compleanno a me!

whare were u 1 year ago? OC was publishing her very first blog entry, "Mozart + women in pants + bewbs = good times," and the course of online opera blogging was skewed 4evah!

In the course of one full year, we saw the marginally more talented half of the Angelagna Gheorto couple go bananies (as we had predicted) and we saw him get slapped around by all, disappear, and try a hairy comeback. We saw Angela quit Rome and then later Chicago quit her!

We've shared our love for the great forgotten maestri (Toscanin's 50th year of passing), and we have shared our sadness for the passing of the great ones like Menotti, Pavarotti, Rostropovich, and Sills.

We've seen a natural phenomenon take la Scala by storm, and we've had la Scala's lawyers come after our 10 Corso Como clad a$$.

We've had exclusive interviews and statements from guests such as Opera di Roma's GM Francesco Ernani, Juan Diego Florez on Pavarotti's passing, and Elaine Alvarez when she stepped-in for the recently-fired Gheorghiu. We’ve participated in numerous interviews & stories, and have been linked across the globe.

In the past year, we’ve taken in this very abbreviated list (and sadly, OC has left out dozens of performances that she had seen and not reported on...such as Carsen’s La Scala Kata Kabanova, Ferri’s La Scala La Strada/The Cage, etc infinity infinity ): @ La Scala, we’ve brought to you detailed reviews of Ascanio in Alba, a Renée Fleming recital, the Aida la prima, Juan Diego Florez's La Fille (with his record-breaking high C encore), Harding's Salome, Alessandra Ferri's last-ish ballet performance in Milan with Roberto Bolle in La dame aux Camélias, Adriana Lecouvreur with Dessi & Armiliato, Gergiev & Znaider, Jenůfa with Silja, a Jonas Kaufmann recital, a Leo Nucci recital, Barenboim & the West-Eastern Divan, Pretre in Piazza del Duomo, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth, Carsen's Candide, Gheorghiu in Traviata, and waaaaay too many more to list.

In the rest of Italy, we’ve brought you all reports of Evgeny Kissin, Don Calandrino with Muti in Salzburg, Sokolov @ Conservatorio, Muti’s Ravenna Don Pasquale, Muti w/ the Wiener in Ravenna, Temirkanov's Parma La Traviata, and we’ve covered Milan’s lowliest and loftiest venues from La Scala to Conservatorio G. Verdi to Teatro dal Verme.

In the USA, we’ve brought you to the NYC Maria Callas Swarovski exhibit, Muti with the NY Phil, La Sonnambula @ the Florida Grand Opera, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Yefim Bronfman with the NY Phil, the American premiere of Tan Dun’s Tea in Santa Fe, the Sills tribute in NYC, Glass's Orphée (and Gluck & Monteverdi) @ Glimmerglass, Margaret Garner @ NYCO, and the MET's Lucia season opener with Dessay.   

Thank you, thank you, thank you all...all of you readers and commenters that have been with OC from the beginning (and middle, and end). I <3 u. Yes, u.

Strangely, this is still my favorite post of all time (with picture from above): The year was 1981.

wat it do wat it do! dis is OC representin Milan, so hit a shortie up. Dis secksay shortie needs sum luv so holla at ya girl! First 1 2 send OC a nekkid shout-out gets a special sumthin sumthin!

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|.Opera Chic Blog.|||'""|""\__,_
| ___OC 4evar ___ l||__|__|__|)
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Get Better or GET OUT

"Montreal Symphony Orchestra music director Kent Nagano has told the members of the St. Lawrence Choir - the amateur heart of the MSO Chorus since 1986 - that they must improve their performance standards or he will reconstitute the chorus by resorting to an unspecified 'plan B'."

You can read more here.

omg nagano punish them. punish them with your flaming sword of 'plan b' justice. that's so hawt its insane.

~*Fyred fRum tHa Ch0ir 4 bEIn 2 fAby0Lus*~ 

Elisabetta Armiato Retires; After Alessandra Ferri, La Scala Loses Another Great Ballerina

Elisabetta Armiato, prima ballerina interprete of Teatro alla Scala, announced earlier today her retirement.

After Alessandra Ferri's retirement, another major loss for the art, and for la Scala.

Nicoletta Mantovani Speaks, Italian Print Media Picks It Up

Italian newspapers definitely took notice of last night's Nicoletta Mantovani-Pavarotti appearance on Rai 3 Che Tempo Che Fa, as the Sunday papers all reported on the interview. A few that OC read can be found below:

Il Giorno's front page vvvvvvv

Il Giorno continued article vvvvvvvv

 

From La Repubblica's front page vvvvvvvvvv

La Repubblica's continued article:

 

Finally, from Corriere della Sera:

 

Elaine Supernova: La Alvarez Takes Washington, DC

We're happy to report the unstoppable state of unholy domination that has been rapidly reached by Elaine Alvarez, the young soprano who came, saw, and won La Bohéme at Chicago Lyric Opera after a General Manager not to be messed with had rightly fired Angela Gheorghiu's capricious a$$: less than a month after her Chicago triumph, La Alvarez will replace this coming Tuesday, at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, ailing Anne Schwanewilms in a recital. La Alvarez will lay down teh ownage on songs by Stenhammar, Sibelius, Liszt, Strauss and Bo Linde.

Thomas Bagwell will rawk the piano keys.

Recap for our Eastern Seaboard readers:

Vocal Arts Society Recital Series at the Kennedy Center
Tuesday October 30th, 2007 at 7:30pm
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center

Tkts here.

Be there or be noticeably unhip.

Gustavo In The Candy Store

When he came home from school at lunchtime, he would arrange his Fisher-Price toy figures as if they were an orchestra, making a little box for the conductor, and put a record on the phonograph; he would ask her not to break up the orchestra while he was in music class so that he could resume directing the musicians on his return. One time his grandmother took him to see his father perform in a classical concert in Barquisimeto. “He was very small, I thought he was going to fall asleep,” she told me. “And he was completely attentive to details of the instruments. He said, ‘Grandmother, I like this music.’ ”

Gustavo Dudamel's toy story in tomorrow's NYT Magazine

Screenshots: Nicoletta Mantovani on Che Tempo Che Fa

Here are a few parting screenshots as OC heads out for Saturday festivites. Notte Bianca, y'all!

 

Nicoletta Mantovani With Fabio Fazio: "My Yoko Ono Letter"

After one hour into Rai Tre's Che Tempo Che Fa, Nicoletta Mantovani-Pavarotti spoke. First of all, let's keep it in mind that host Fabio Fazio is a close family friend of Pavarotti, which was mentioned at the start of the interview.

Nicoletta Mantovani conservatively appeared on Che Tempo Che Fa in black slacks, a black v-neck sweater, black stilettos, with her hair perfectly quaffed in a soft, soft orangey-blond mane.

Totaling a little less than thirty minutes, Fazio & Mantovani spoke about not terribly interesting things, and certainly not about the controversial Pavarotti estate. They spoke about remembrance of Big Luciano, and the things we already knew about his hobbies, leisure, and personality. They spoke about her 4-year-old daughter Alice, about her Multiple Sclerosis.

Of interest, Mantovani said that Yoko Ono had sent her a letter of condolence when Pavarotti passed away, which is pretty cool.

Also of note, she stated that she has no disagreement with Pavarotti’s three oldest daughters Lorenza, Cristina, and Giuliana.

Lastly, she hopes that this is the end of the Pavarotti estate debates as far as her involvement is concerned.

Rai 3 Che Tempo Che Fa: Interview with Nicoletta Mantovani

Rai 3's Che Tempo Che Fa with host Fabio Fazio started like 10 minutes ago. Waiting for Nicoletta Mantovani's interview...

Stay tuned for screenshots and details!

Update1: +50 mins in: ugh. they put her @ the end of the show or something. Almost an hour in, and i've suffered through a load of boring interviews and lame commericals. If I miss my dinner reservations, I'm going to strangle someone...

A Musical Portrait of Chuck Close, A Chuck Close Portrait Of Renée Fleming

"Meryl Streep, who was outfitted in the evening's sponsor, Akris, picked her favorites. 'I think his self-portrait is amazing because it's so intense,' she said. 'And I love the Renée Fleming one so much that I can hardly stand it.'"

Opera Chic -- since they started without her -- joins from afar the celebrity lovefest for Chuck Close's -- and La Renay's -- genius.

(The portrait above will only set you back 70 or 80 grand: Opera Chic got hers off of eBay for less.)

Here's a picture of la Renée (with Caroline Brown and Amy Phelanat) at the Whitney Gala and Studio Party for Chuck Close, wearing Akris. *sigh* We preferred Ferré...

(Photo: Sherly Rabbani and Josephine Solimene for Style dot com)

We would have loved to see Fleming in Lisa Perry's silkscreen VVVVVVVvvvvvvv

   
(Photo: Sherly Rabbani and Josephine Solimene for Style dot com) 

Clap Your Hands Or Eri Klas Will Punch You

For his conducting debut he led "West Side Story" with drum sticks, he has the same birthday as his compatriot Neeme Järvi, and was his country's junior lightweight boxing champion.

That is to say, Eri Klas will not only f*Xxor your symphony hall up, he will also kick your a$$ if you don't like it. Tonight and tomorrow the taurine conductor is taking his boxing gloves off to rawk Cincinnati's concert hall with Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Grieg's "Holberg Suite" and Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major, featuring CSO konzertmeister Timothy Lees.

Kayoko Dan Will Lead You To Safety: Lexington Symphony Welcomes New Candidate For Orchestra Sheep Herder

"My dog is a border collie, and I'm kind of like her because I feel like I have to make sure I keep my eyes on everyone and make sure everyone is safe".

The Conductor as sheep dog, as told by Assistant Conductor of The Phoenix Symphony and candidate for the Lexington Symphony Music Director job, Kayoko Dan.

Lav Letters

Inspired by Edmond Rostand’s 1897 romantic comedy, Cyrano de Bergerac, this opera season saw the October world premiere of Michigan Opera Theater’s Cyrano by Company Founder and General Director, David DiChiera (with librettist/director Bernard Uzan) at the Detroit Opera house. (oh look! It's Leah Partridge as Roxane! We <3 her!) While poking around the Michigan Opera Theater’s website, OC had a few extra minutes to peruse their "Secret Love Letter Contest", which had taken place earlier this month.

Readers were encouraged to emulate Cyrano & Roxane, by sending-in their most original, anonymous love letters for a chance to win first prize: two box seats to tonight's performance of Cyrano at the Michigan Opera, a limousine escort, and dinner @ the DOH Cadillac Café. The deadline has passed earlier this month, and a winner has already been announced. However, you can find the winners, finalists, and all entries on their website. Most poems were yawningly predictable with syrupy, calorific quotes such as, “The essence of your sweet smelling cologne is intoxicating”. laaaaame. However, others were mind-bendingly insane, such as one found in finalist's poem called, “Let me be your Yoko Ono”.

Here is an excerpt from poet “Mr. Deadeye Eddy”, who although lost the contest, is clearly the biggest winner:

[...]"How nice it would be to get all dudded up and go to the opera with you.

For you, I would wear my best flannel shirt - you know, the one with the sleeves."

Mr. Deadeye Eddy is a graduate of the prestigious C. Thomas Howell Memorial Middle School, and now teaches at Lynn Aloysius Belvedere University.

Nicoletta Mantovani's Damage Control: Will Appear On TV Talk Show "To Set The Record Straight"

With a follow-up from Tuesday's breaking news that OC exclusively brought you, regarding the Nicoletta Mantovani-Pavarotti Multiple Sclerosis shocker, Italian magazine Chi unleashes some damage control in their October 31, n.43 edition.

The cover screams, "Nicoletta Mantovani, Nasconde un drammatico segreto." [trans: "Nicoletta Mantovani, Hides a Dramatic Secret".] Yeah, more like, "Nasconde dei drammatici segreti". U gots 2 pluralize -- or recognize.

The article goes on to paint Nicoletta in layers of bravery and courage, dignity and perseverance, and slaps a cheesy copy/paste from the Midtown New York Multiple Sclerosis Research Center's website layered over Mantovani and little Alice walking along NYC’s Central Park. The article contines in bold: 

"Only the parents and friends most dear to her knew that the young widow of Pavarotti had a serious reason to fly to the States every month. There she attended a center that specializes in Multiple Sclerosis, an illness that she has combated for two years, in silence and with dignity. The high cost of the cure explains also the generous benefits that the tenor left in her favor."

Although the article in Chi opens with the sentence, "Di fronte al gossip delle ultime settimane Nicoletta Mantovani ha scelto di tacere," [trans: "In the face of the gossip from the most recent week, Nicoletta had chosen to be quiet."], Mantovani has apparently stepped up her game. She will appear on Saturday night on Fabio Fazio's talk show, Italy's  most widely watched talk show, "to set the record straight" on all that has been going down lately. OC, of course, promises to give a first-hand account of her first TV appearence since her husband's death.

R.B. Kitaj, 1932-2007: The Best Bohème Sets You'll Never See

We often ask ourselves, how many Bohèmes can one endure in one's life before one says, basta? We either need a new, exciting voice (with a sprinklage of teh drama to boot) or, say, really special set designs.

One of the lamest things to ever happen to the world of opera, is that no opera house has ever hired R.B. Kitaj, who passed away yesterday this past Sunday in Los Angeles, to design their sets.  OC's choice, if she could travel back in time, conquer a major opera house General Managership, and hire Kitaj, would be Bohème: RBK's (the artist, not the sneaker) quintessentially Belle Epoque spirit would have created wondrous images for that opera. And, we'd have totally dug a Kitaj Lulu, too. The list is long, really.

Copyrights Are Forever: Universal Edition Shuts Down College Kid's Music Score Library, Threatens Massive Lawsuits

Music and theatre publisher Universal Edition has effectively shut down a very useful college student's website, the Canadian International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP): the site had to go offline following a scary cease and desist warning (.pdf file) by Universal's lawyers.

The IMSLP, an online library for music scores no longer protected by copyright, has been warned by Universal lawyers to install a complicated and expensive filtering systems because Béla Bartók's (died in 1945), Alban Berg's (died in 1935) and Gustav Mahler's (who died in 1911) works are apparently still under copyright in some countries (in Canada, where IMSLP is based, copyrights expire 50 years after the author's death, in Europe, 70 years after; at the North Pole, they last 575 years and many polar bears have been sued for whistling Monteverdi arias without copyright clearance) and hence the site's owner was about to get sued big time by Universal Edition.

Advice to our readers: if you're prone to singing opera arias in the shower, be very careful whose works you perform: you might very well have to pay performance fees to some giganticor music company. Consult your lawyers first; if necessary, install a telephone in your shower.

§§§update§§§

Project Gutenberg tries to come to the rescue; Slashdot debates the issue

Does My Hair Look Big In These? "Pique Dame" Piques Our Follicular Interest

Dress rehearsals of Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame proceed at full blast in Vienna: here Nadia Krasteva (center-right, top) and Martina Serafin (center-right) under the watchful, horrified eyes of crazily 'fro'ed Maestro Seiji Ozawa.

Neil Shicoff, envious of all this hairy happenings, instead sports a mysterious, freshly dyed furry mammal over his skull (click for pop-up hi-res image. warning: scawy). 

The premiere's on October 28, so let's hope they all find a hair stylist by then. (fotos Reuters/Herwig Prammer)

It's Jessye -- Miss Norman if You're Nasty

The University of Michigan-Dearborn's African American Studies department recently sponsored the showing of the documentary on the great Jessye Norman. Norman is an alumni of UMich, where she had procured a Masters in Music. Although Norman wasn’t in attendance, her brother was there for a Q&A afterwards.

The documentary confessed Norman’s pedestrian pleasures, where she stated: "I love walks on the beach. I love to hear children in the garden playing. I love oceans, mountains, racing horses and Mr. Bean movies." We also love all of the above minus one aberration. Guess which one. No it's not horses.

Norman was recently in Michigan this past Sunday -- a force to be reckoned with @ 62 years old -- at the Detroit Opera House this past October 21, 2007 for an early evening recital.

Ok, that's enough of you Miss Norman. You know I can't think about you without thinking of those damn fine Thin Mints and Tagalongs. I mean, was there even any other kind??!!

//o hay & while we're on the subject of great sopranos, today is Miss Cheryl Studer's b'day. YOURE WELCOME!

Anne Sofie Von Otter's Resurrection

The hurried pencil drawings are eloquent. One is of a café, with smartly dressed people listening to a three-piece band. But there are no drinks on the tables, there's a soldier on duty outside, and everyone has dead eyes. There's more life in the portraits done by an opera librettist of his musical friends: they wear their clothes with rakish elegance, and are clearly in full creative flow. And there's one detail that these artists often include: a Star of David on the breast-pocket, bearing the word "Jude"

Anne Sofie Von Otter, to her everlasting credit, brings back to life the music written in Terezin. Via Jessicamusic.

La signora Von Otter also had personal reasons to do this project:

According to historians, Baron von Otter, secretary to the Swedish Legation in Berlin, had learned horrific details about the mass killing of Jews when he shared a compartment on a train in August 1942 with SS officer Kurt Gerstein. As head of the Technical Disinfection Department of the Waffen SS, Gerstein was charged with improving the efficiency of the gas chambers by using the toxic agent Zyklon-B.The Nazi officer unburdened his soul to von Otter during the night-long train ride to Berlin from Warsaw.

“This was news to my father. He didn’t know about the death camps, but at the (Swedish) Foreign Ministry they did, apparently,” Anne Sofie von Otter told Sveriges Radio, the national public radio channel. “Nothing came of it.”                

“I know that my father was troubled for the rest of his life, because no action was taken,” she said. “One can do this project for its own sake, but I am also doing it a little bit in memory of my papa.”

   

Beereft of Sleep, Running on High Spirits, Gergiev is a "Super Conductor"!

Transitions Online runs a profile titled, “Super Conductor” on Valery Gergiev and his great strides with St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky. His inhuman devotion is bewildering to all, quoting that he conducts nearly 300 concerts a year: “A popular joke has him conducting morning rehearsals in Britain, afternoon rehearsals in Germany, and an evening performance in St. Petersburg.” Personally, we liked the part about his May Opera Bastille performances the best:

“In May, the maestro was due to conduct two performances in the Opera Bastille. For the first performance, he arrived at the hall almost 40 minutes late, blaming travel delays. The management grumbled but swallowed its irritation. When the same thing happened for the second performance, a few days later, upon arrival the Russian maestro found another conductor already leading the orchestra.”

O RLY? That's not really how the story goes, but we kinda like this version better.

BREAKING NEWS: Pesaro District Attorney Office Could Open An Official Investigation Into Pavarotti Will Under Suspicion Of Foul Play; Nicoletta Mantovani Multiple Sclerosis Shocker

The sadness never ends: Pesaro Assistant DA Massimo DiPatria could open an official investigation into the filing of Luciano Pavarotti's last will, that, as Opera Chic has explained, contradicts his previously filed will, leaving most of his fortune to his second wife Nicoletta.

The reason behind such an astonishing situation? The unbelievable news that came yesterday: a massive, massive overdraft, around 10 million dollars, has been found in Pavarotti's bank accounts for reasons that remain unclear.

There is widespread suspicion that somebody may have cynically used Pavarotti's illness and his detachment from day-to-day financial affairs to diminish his liquid assets, moving money elsewhere and thus diminishing the cut eventually available to the legitimate heirs.

According to Italian newsweekly "Chi", Luciano Pavarotti's second wife Nicoletta Mantovani has been diagnosed in 2005 with MS, and is in the care of Saud A.Sadiq, MD, at Multiple Sclerosis Research Center.

In this ugly mess, Katia Ricciarelli's words the other day on Italian TV sound strangely fitting: the soprano, who fondly remembered the tenor's generosity in opening his New York home to friends who were singing in New York, told Buona Domenica Sunday talk show that "Big Luciano was the most generous man, I find the brawl over his fortune to be a disgusting thing, they barely waited until his funeral was over. He gave us all so much, and didn't deserve that his name ended in the papers because of the lawsuits over his will".

OC proudly endorses la signora Ricciarelli's statement.

Muti & Zeffirelli & Dessì-Armiliato & DeChirico Take The City Of Rome

Franco Zeffirelli (he's set to direct Tosca) and Riccardo Muti (he'll conduct Otello) and Daniela Dessì & Fabio Armiliato (La Fanciulla del West) are among the marquee names of the 2008 stagione at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Giorgio De Chirico, from the great artist studio in the sky, will be the set designer for a ballet marathon that sounds extremely cool. And then a rare Mascagni, a Dvorak, and more.

GM Francesco Ernani, at the Campidoglio, has introduced to the press this morning the very interesting program: Zeffirelli's spanking new Tosca premieres on January 14, Fiorenza Cedolins and Renato Bruson in the cast; Puccini will also be honored (2008 is the 150th anniversary of the maestro's birth) with La fanciulla del West (premieres on April 8), with the wonderful  lovebirds Daniela Dessì (as Minnie) and Fabio Armiliato (as, huh, Dick). Dessì, obviously THE Puccini soprano of this day and age, is a wonderful gift to Puccini fans for il maestro's birthday party in Rome (if only la Scala had cast her and Armiliato in their Andrea Chenier next season, they'd have a great party, too).

Rome's 2008 cartellone has 16 operas and 23 ballets, including the summer season at Terme di Caracalla. The ballet season will be inaugurated on January 30 with a very interesting Giorgio De Chirico extravaganza: GDC's sets will be used for La giara by Alfredo Casella, Stravinsky's Apollon Musagete, Le Bal by Vittorio Rieti, Bacchus et Ariane by Albert Roussel -- everything will be reproduced based on the original designs and the original materials.

In February, Rusalka -- some Antonin Dvorak to soothe our ears (Gunter Neohold conductor, Ludek Gplat direktor, Angelas Blanca Gulin as the nymphtastic Rusalka)

October 7, 2008, is the day of a really delicious forgotten Mascagni (OC is a fangirl and if you aren't, boo): Amica, a work that had its premiere in Rome in 1907 (and here, bafflingly, we have to announce the debut at Opera di Roma for Andrea Bocelli, in Mascagni's gem -- wtf indeed). The off-tha-hooc coolness of Oscar couple Ezio Frigerio - Franca Squarciapino will do sets and costumes for Rosenkavalier; and Riccardo Muti, deliciously, in a meanie mean p1mpslap to la Scala, his old workplace, has moved the premiere of his Rome Otello up to December 6, 2008; stealing the Scala thunder, because the Milanese opera house the following day will have its La Prima with Don Carlo, conducted by Daniele Gatti, Stéphane Braunschweig director.

And then the obvious question is, what would you rather see, Muti's Otello (with a supersecret -- OC knows he's a Eastern European young man with a very secksy demeanor -- new singer personally picked by Riccardo Muti) or Gatti's Don Carlos? Excitement in Rome or blak ties and gloom in Milan?

Ferraro Opera --- Not to be Confused with Teatro Comunale di Ferrara

These groce chocolates have been invading the supermarkets in Milan. Why opera, you ask? According to the Ferrero website:

"Il suo nome evoca le atmosfere di gran classe del mondo dell'opera, richiamando l'armonia sinfonica di gusto, derivante dall'unione di puro cioccolato extra fondente e cognac della migliore qualità."

So basically, "Its name is evocative of the high-class ambience of the opera world, bringing to mind the symphonic harmony of taste..." lol

~w3lc0me 2 da el3ganz~  Yeah, I bought one. To feed to my pet llama.

//**This chocolate is in no way affiliated with Ferrara Opera, the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara.

Vienna Makes Me Roffle: NOT Opera Related

Moar Vienna randomness...

^^^^ kittymilk. srsly vienna, u rulez

^^^^^^ omg swiss mary-juana drink will get ur mouth high.

^^^^^ i swear it looked more perverted in person!

^^^^^^^^ this is pretty old skool rite here.

^^^^ alessi, i know, he's italian. but damn. just damn.

^^^^^ superbad represent. I am McLovin'

^^^^^ Billa truck. We dream of Billa.

Vienna Makes Me Roffle: Opera Related

Moar Vienna madness...

^^^^ the offical Mozart tour bus.

^^^^^ we just missed this!!

^^^^^ Wiener Staatsoper trailer.

^^^^^ i laughed. Out loud.

^^^^^ it was a mirror.

^^^^795€ = $1130 USD for this pocket watch, but it plays Mozart's greatest hits!

Detail of Mozart pocket watch ^^^^

^^^^ a clear shot of the Wiener Staatsoper from the terrace of the Albertina.