Opera Chic

"If Schoenberg Were Popular"

"Delightful!"

Stand By Your Man: Rolando Gets Kinky In Salzburg

Even if preggerified Anna Netrebko had to pull out of her commitment for Salzburg's Roméo Et Juliette, the show goes on as planned with the heavily-hyped Nino Machaidze (Public Enemy's words of wisdom have seldom sounded more appropriate) stepping in to replace La Trebka, Rolando goes ahead as poor Roméo.

As we can see in the photo above, during rehersals he got himself involved in some kinkly role play operatic stuff, pretending that bewby Nino (funnily enough, a dude's name in Italian) is faraway Anna.

The duly sold-out production opens Saturday.

The "Philly Sound" (Of Silence): Philadelphia Orchestra Cancels 2009 European Festivals Tour Due To Lack Of Sponsors & Weak Dollar

The ghost of Eugene Ormandy is very, very angry:

Unable to find sponsorship, the Philadelphia Orchestra has canceled its 2009 European festivals tour.

Such a cancellation is highly unusual, and this one is doubly painful. The concerts in Lucerne, Paris, at the London Proms and the Edinburgh Festival starting in August would have brought the orchestra incalculable artistic credibility with audiences and within the classical industry.

And this was to have been Charles Dutoit's first tour with the orchestra in his new role as chief conductor and artistic adviser.

Reasons for canceling the tour are numerous, said an orchestra spokeswoman, but they include lack of sponsorship and the weak dollar. The increased cost of flying was "icing on the cake," she said.

In a word:

:-(

(link via Arts Journal)

Forza Verdi: Philip Gossett's New Critical Edition Of La Forza Del Destino Is In Teh Haus

Big hugs to our dear Uncle Phil, aka Cavaliere di Gran Croce Philip Gossett, Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Music and in the College at The University of Chicago, whose new critical edition of La Forza del Destino has just been shown to the public for the first time in a semistaged tryout, with dear Takesha Meshé -- an Opera Chic discovery, bYoptches! -- as Leonora.

Last Exit To Salzburg: Claus Guth Injects New Ideas In Don Giovanni, Trims Erwin Schrott's Chest Hair

Claus Guth, that gloomy, silly man, did it again: after his Mozart/ Da Ponte Strindberg Nozze di Figaro two summers ago in Salzburg, all desaturated colors, rotting moldy walls, and flower-busting peasant girls in "Ricevete, O Padroncina", here's his Don Giovanni, that opened last night in Salzburg, with fast food gadgets and intravenous substances and general douchebaggery. Netrebko bebbedadde Erwin Schrott (above left; below) is a needle-crazed Leporello with seriously trimmed chest hair

Let's hear it from Claus himself:

What is modern about this opera about a ladykiller from the 18^th century?
I see this piece as a study of man’s fear of death. What is enjoyment, what is panic, how much can we arrange ourselves in life, protect ourselves from danger, etc – those are the questions that interest me. When and where such questions are set is totally unimportant for such fundamental topics.

The good news is, this time Niki Harnoncourt is not conducting.

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"No one at La Scala gave a *&^ about me!". Tenor Michael Fabiano Joins The Club

American tenor Michael Fabiano, who this past March sang Rinuccio at la Scala in Il Trittico (Opera Chic review here), joins the club:

Fabiano's first experience at a major international opera house proved unsettling. "A terrible experience professionally" is how he sums up his two months at La Scala.

Arriving in Milan, he expected to sing the premiere and the telecast after an Italian tenor was fired before rehearsals began. Conductor Riccardo Chailly embarked on what Fabiano calls "a firing jag." Fabiano survived the firings. Then Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo suddenly arrived. Grigolo got the premiere and the telecast.

To make matters worse, the conductor and the coaches at La Scala forced Fabiano to rework his technique.

Midway through rehearsals, Fabiano's grandfather died. He was unable to return home to attend the funeral. "I was like a bird with clipped wings," he explains. "I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know when I was singing. I needed someone to support me and tell me I could do it. No one at La Scala gave a *&^ about me!"

Fabiano finally sang three performances at the end of the run. He was cheered when he took his curtain call.

Fabiano returned to Philadelphia wiser in the ways of the operatic world.

Wings Of Desire: Daniele Gatti's Anschluss In Bayreuth

Cherry-flavored proppers to maestro Daniele Gatti, whose "Parsifal" marathon in Bayreuth got excellent reviews and an especially good one in today's Corriere della Sera: the august Milanese paper hails the "compassion and humanity" of Gatti's reading of the score that "seduced the Wagner faithful".

 

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(Above, images from Stefan Herheim's production that, by Bayreuth standards, isn't even that kooky).

Vittorio Grigolo Stars in ChiTown Pavarotti Tribute

(above: photograph of Grigolo by Laurent Guiraud. Sauce.)

Our proclaimed heartthrob tenor, Vittorio Grigolo, could be sipping Cristal & Ribena with Kanye and Common this weekend in dat killa Chi.

The young Italian singer (and Harley Davidson owner/rider) is scheduled to appear in a Luciano Pavarotti Tribute Concert tomorrow night, July 26, live from the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Milennium Park.

The tribute is homage to the late Pavarotti's legacy and is part of Chicago's Grant Park 2008 Music Festival. He'll be singing opera arias, Neapolitan songs, and popera songs from his debut CD, Vittorio. He appears with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alberto Meoli and Mexican soprano Olivia Gorra.

The awesomely delicious 98.7 WFMT, Chicago's fine arts and classical station, will carrying the live broadcast, starting tomorrow at 6:30 pm, Chi-zzle time. Yummy yummy party in my tummy.

Pantelleria

Opera Chic's regular schedule of several, informative, finger-lickin' daily pawsts has been lately interrupted by her little trip to Pantelleria, an island blissfully deprived of wifi Internet, and, sadly, of Starbucks franchises. Besides, her little hands were too busy brandishing big sweaty glasses of chilled cedrata (with the occasional drop of Grey Goose here and there).

Things will hopefully go back to the regular schedule soon, as Opera Chic is about to return to the US of A for the rest of the season (Montauk @ land's end ftw).

In the meantime enjoy this poem, as an hommage to the half-crazed old skooly Pantelleria fisherman whom we heard the other morning whistle the Bolero, and as an hommage to the awesome old half-crazed commie Jew that is Gerald Stern, the closest thing to a Poet Laureate this country has produced since poor Frank O'Hara got shafted  by the envious Muses in Fire Island a very bad day exactly 42 years ago.

In all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture

and wrinkled ties and baseball trophies and coffee pots

I have never seen a post-war Philco

with the automatic eye

nor heard Ravel's "Bolero" the way I did

in 1945 in that tiny living room

on Beechwood Boulevard, nor danced as I did

then, my knives all flashing, my hair all streaming,

my mother red with laughter, my father cupping

his left hand under his armpit, doing the dance

of old Ukraine, the sound of his skin half drum,

half fart, the world at last a meadow,

the three of us whirling and singing, the three of us

screaming and falling, as if we were dying,

as if we could never stop--in 1945--

in Pittsburgh, beautiful filthy Pittsburgh, home

of the evil Mellons, 5,000 miles away

from the other dancing--in Poland and Germany--

oh God of mercy, oh wild God.

"She is Simply a Goddess on Stage": Schrott on His BB's Mama

Erwin Schrott, who just launched his shiny-new, official website -- via Decca Music Group, of course -- gushes over his future baby's mama, saying: "Even though the baby isn't born yet, Anna is already a great mother. I knew it from the start." **coughs**. We like it when he sings & looks puuurty...like below, str8 e-chillaxing from his e-gallery.

Lang Lang To Auction Off Communist Piano For Charity

Adidas dude and piano man Lang Lang is auctioning off his red piano* for charity: bidding starts from US$ 165,000. (via)

As that funny looking old British man used to sing, paint it black, yo.

* Idea totally stolen from a more proficient entertainer, by the way

Surgery On Levine Successful; Biopsy To Be Performed.

Big bear hugs and kisses and bunnies to maestro James Levine, who successfully underwent surgery for the removal of a kidney in New York; a biopsy will be performed; maestro Jimmy will spend a few more days in the (unnamed) hospital then will recuperate in the quiet of his home.

Béatrice Uria-Monzon's "Carmen" & Her Nipple Impress Les Chorégies d'Orange

Béatrice Uria-Monzon as Carmen experienced a tasty nip slip and almost poked out Marcelo Alvarez's eye.

Thankfully, dear Marcelo's a big boy (bigger and bigger actually) and he survived unscathed.

Mirella's Transparency: "The Voice Is So Beautiful, And It's Unpretentious. It's Honest"

The new school gives a much deserved shoutout to the old skool:

What I love so much about Freni is that she sings with 110 percent heart. The voice is so beautiful, and it's unpretentious. It's honest, and you can't help but cry when you listen to her sing. She is my vocal idol.

Cabell's right, you know -- she nails exactly what makes Freni so special, the clarity and the simplicity and the beauty of her singing, and how they richochet off each other, making it all so memorable.

(I mean, come on, she's possibly the best Mimì ever).

50,000 People In The Rain Demonstrate How Elitist Classical Music Really Is

49,999 people + Opera Chic cheered last night the awesomeness of Roberto Bolle's free recital in Piazza del Duomo; Mozart's and Rossini's and Bizet's music, Bolle's and Ulyana Lopatkina 's and Ivan Kozlov's and Arman Grigoryan's and Vahe Martirosyan's and Natasha Novotna's and Vaclav Kunes's and Sabrina Brazzo's and Alicia Amatrian's and Jason Reilly's dancing.

Opera Chic saw a lot of kids, a lot of them, and families, an average age about 35 or 40 years younger than the people she sees at la Scala's shows down at the other side's of Milan's Galleria.

Now one has to factor in Bolle's star power, the free tickets and Jumbotrons for those too far away from the stage and all, but still if only Scala's administrators could manage to take all those people from under the rain of piazza Duomo over to la Scala, the future of classical music here would be a-OK for the next generation at least.

The audience is out there, if you take the time to charm them a little and show them that classical music is cool, and the farthest away from boring, if done right. Bolle has done that -- that's why we need his magic.

Mozart Didn't Have Health Insurance, Either: How The US Nurtures Its Classical Music Talent

Thanks to reader Steve for sending the link to an interesting portrait, in the Denver Post, of the life of your average non-Big-Five musician, with numbers:

For example, the Colorado Symphony musician's core 43-week salary hovers around $47,000 a year, about the same as similarly sized orchestras, such as the Oregon Symphony in Portland.

But section musicians in comparable cities with older, larger orchestras and more established reputations make considerably more. The basic annual salary at the St. Louis Symphony, for example, is $73,500 for a 42-week season, and in Baltimore, it's $76,700 for 52 weeks.

More typical here are musicians like Paul Nagem, principal flutist of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, where annual salaries for most members range from $9,600 to $11,500 for 103 concerts and rehearsals. Because the position is not full time, he has no choice but to take on an assortment of other jobs as well.

"It's a necessity, because a small orchestra like the Colorado Springs Philharmonic doesn't pay a person enough to just do that," he said.

Nagem also teaches part time at Colorado College and gives lessons in his home. In addition, he freelances with the Denver-based Colorado Chamber Players and Colorado Ballet Orchestra and substitutes occasionally in the Colorado Symphony.

The biggest problem for him is that none of these jobs provides health insurance.

Universal health care, of course, would be a Bolshevik idea and is then to be shunned at all costs.

Red Hot Peru Chili Pepper: The Daily Telegraph Is Confused

Chilean (Sea) Bass, Peruvian Light Tenor, per me pari sono: The Daily Telegraph rewrites geography:

"the young Chilean tenor Juan Diego Flórez, possibly the best high lyric tenor in the world,"

Well, he might not be as good as that old Dutchman, Tito Schipa, in all fairness.

Water, Water Everywhere: Acqua Fiuggi, Rain & Roberto Bolle's Liquid Moves Will Leave You Soaking Wet (Yeah, Everywhere)

Remember Roberto Bolle's free dance recital in Milan's Piazza del Duomo, at the feet of the 14th Century cathedral?

Well, OC was there and you weren't. Much more tomorrow.

DaPonte + Pinza + Furlanetto = AAA+++ Would Listen Again!!!

In what is a happy coincidence -- or maybe not a coincidence, it's hard to say whenever Mozart is involved -- OC was listening to some totally bada$$ Ezio Pinza just this morning (his Figaro in the historic Salzburg 1937 Nozze conducted by Bruno Walter) when she read that il maestro Ferruccio Furlanetto has won the Ezio Pinza award and will be singing tomorrow night in Vittorio Veneto (Lorenzo Da Ponte's birthplace, bYotches) a free recital.
Pinza & Furlanetto ftw. Obvs, then one imagines a time traveling impresario able to cast the great Pinza and Furlanetto in the same Don Giovanni production, as the Don and Leporello switching roles on alternate nights, with, let's see, Ferenc Fricsay conducting. *succumbs to a bad case of teh vapors*

Wet In 90 Seconds: Roberto Bolle's Mineral Water TV Ad

Topless Natalie Dessay Shocks Norman Lebrecht

‘So when you’re standing opposite Juan Diego and he is doing nine high C’s…’ ‘I’m not impressed,’ exclaims Natalie Dessay with absolute conviction. ‘Either you have the top or not. If you have it, it’s not that difficult.’

Everything you ever wanted -- or needed -- to know about La Nata.

Now It's Chiara's Turn: Muti Hawtness Burns Up Your Summer

It's time for more Muti-spawn hawtness, so suck it h8rs. Ms.Chiara Muti, 35-year-old old daughter of Maestro Riccardo, will be married in Ravenna's Church of Sant'Agata this weekend. On Saturday, July 14, 2008, the Maestro will give away his daughter to 27-year-old French pianist David Fray [pictured above]. Cristina & Riccardo, as well as their parents, were all married in the same church. omg too corny.

Between planning the wedding, Chiara had been pretty busy this past month. For her mother's Ravenna Festival, she spotlighted her vocal talents as la voce recitante for three works, two of those alongside her dad and l’Orchestra giovanile Luigi Cherubini.

Chiara met David in Paris where she was chillaxing to hear one of her father's concerts. Noice. Fabulous grandkids for nonno Riccardo. It'll be birthed in a Cartier placenta and have the voice of a Siren. They should give it the most ridic name ever like Terpsichore Lexus Hybrid Prius Thelxiepeia Muti, because this bb comes from the most gorgeous cheekbones & jaw genes evar.

Well, You Can Tell By The Way I Use My Walk: Walking Around Downtown Milan With Roberto Bolle

 

Primo ballerino del mondo and ballet phenomenon and UNICEF goodwill ambassador and world's hawttest man Roberto Bolle will dance this coming Saturday in Milan's Piazza del Duomo, right on the Cathedral's sagrato, in a free gala: ballet for the peoples, haills yea!

He took the time to share with Corriere della Sera -- big cherry propsicles to the newspaper for giving the world frequent coverage regarding Roberto Bolle's every thing, keep the good stuff coming! -- his favorite places in his adoptive city, Milan (he is officially a native of the Piedmont region, in Trino Vercellese, even if his DNA must have been seriously refined to physical perfection in some supersecret lab in Area 51, NV).

So let's cut to the chase, here, O.K.?

Bolle, besides his grueling schedule of rehearsals and endless training at la Scala, his home since he was still a child, works out at Club 10, the superexclusive gym/spa (with pool) on the penthouse of august Principe di Savoia hotel (generally, membership is unfortunately not open to non-guests, which is a good thing because if you want to ogle Bolle's sweaty, panting, throbbing, Phidias-sculpted body pumping iron, at least pay the 300 euros a night charge, wi-fi not included, for the privilege, what teh hail).

He frequently visits UNICEF's headquarters in via Victor Hugo -- he is their goodwill ambassador and frequently visits the places that need UNICEF the most, Bolle has recently traveled to Darfur with UNICEF -- and is a fan of the many exhibitions at nearby Palazzo Reale, in Piazza Duomo.

He lives close to the Giardini of via Palestro, a very short walk down Via Manzoni from la Scala and the only extravagant habits of the workaholic Roberto are the superfine chocolate sold at Venchi in via Mengoni and the Japanese food at Nobu in Via Manzoni, inside the Armani megastore (where we sincerely hope he enjoys better service than the scandalously negligent, inattentive service mere mortals get there).

Bolle has recently confessed that, as a huge fan of Mikhail Baryshnikov's films -- White Nights a big favorite since when he was a kid & dreamed of becoming a dancer -- and he considers himself open to take the occasional movie role once he retires from ballet. 

The suggestion here is obvious: he's the only man alive who would be able to recreate young Travolta's magic in a remake of Saturday Night Fever. Just imagine Bolle in the opening scene:

And since we cannot really post about him without uploading a photo that rightly underscores Bolle's physique, go nuts:

Juan Diego & Rolando @ Champs Elysees

Last night, Juan Diego Florez and Ronaldo Villazon took Paris by storm in a joint recital:

First inning, opera: JDF as Romeo and Rolando as Tebaldo in Deserto è il luogo, from I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Then JDF in Ah leve-toi soleil from Gounod's Romeo, Ronaldino in O souverain, O juge, O Père from Massenet's Cid, then the All'armi duet from Rossini's Otello.

The second part of the concert, "fue latinoamericana y sentimental".

Get Well Soon Maestro Levine: James Levine Undergoes Surgery To Have Kidney Removed

Opera Chic's most loving hugs & get-well-soon wishes to Maestro Levine, NYC's and Boston's -- and the classical music world's -- treasure.

BSO Music Director James Levine regrets that he will have to withdraw from the balance of the 2008 Tanglewood season. Because of a cyst causing pressure and discomfort, Levine will undergo surgery this week to have a kidney removed. The procedure has been described by Levine’s doctors as curative, with no other treatment necessary and with every expectation for a complete recovery. The anticipated recuperation period is six weeks -leaving ample time to prepare and conduct the season openings of the BSO and the Metropolitan Opera in September.

AP story here.