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Happy 80th Birthday to Ephraim Owen Goldberg aka Frank Gehry, the Pritzker laureate architect who, among many other extraordinary buildings, has created L.A.'s Walt Disney Concert Hall, the world's coolest -- and most stylish, and most musical -- hunk of shiny metal.
The great man himself just spake words of wisdom to the Los Angeles Times:
~*O.C.*~ is rawking exclusive pictures from the final dress rehearsal of Vincenzo Bellini's La Sonnambula at The Metropolitan Opera. Opening Monday, March 2, 2009, the production has our most favorite singers cutting up the stage: Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez and French soprano Natalie Dessay, who will be doing anything but sleepwalking through the new Mary Zimmerman production.
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(All photos credit Stephen Chernin)
Dolce e Gabbana, those big opera fans that OC runs into quite often at la Scala, have given today on Milan's runways a sweet shoutout to the great Maria -- she appears on t-shirts by the duo for the D&G collection, and other prints by the duo replicate vintage opera playbills.
La Fenice's playbills, though, even D&G really wanted la Scala's. But licensing was problematic.
As Opera Chic knows well, la Scala is particular whenever their historic logo is used -- even by blogs. And they couldn't reach a commercial agreement with Dolce and Gabbana.
The consequence?
D&G shirts with the Fenice logo and "Norma" playbill, not la Scala's.
Stefano and Domenico spoke to the media after the show and regretted "that la Scala did not give us the chance to use their logo. But la Fenice is perfect! Our style is heavily influenced by Visconti and he shot 'Senso' at la Fenice...".
A spokesperson for the Milanese opera house told news agency ANSA that "we didn't have enough time... a review process is necessary whenever la Scala's logo is licensed".
Click the link below for more...
One, two, three!
La Scala's "I Due Foscari" that opens on March 24 was supposed to have IMG's Carlo Montanaro as the conductor; but Montanaro won't be there next month, though (Opera Chic leaves to the reader the answer to the question whether the fiasco of his Traviata last season at la Scala has anything to do with this).
La Scala then announced Nello Santi as Montanaro's replacement; and as of today they still have Santi as the conductor on their website page for I Due Foscari. The choice made OC very happy -- Maestro Santi is a seasoned, excellent Verdi conductor.
But Opera Chic bets her new Costume National stilettos that Maestro Santi won't be there on March 24. Apparently due to "creative differences" over the choice, of all people, of the second-cast soprano to relieve lead Svetla Vassileva of her duties for a couple nights.
Opera Chic would never suggest that the young soprano in question also has a father who is a seasoned, excellent Verdi conductor.
Whatevs!
Anyway: another Italian conductor, younger than Santi, Opera Chic bets, will replace the replacement in that august pit.
(the photo above: Lee Friedlander's "New York", 1963)
+++update+++
La Scala miracolously -- and discreetly -- sent out a press release in the early evening, Stefano Ranzani replaces Nello Santi, no reason given.
Everybody seems to be crazy scared of the new e-book reader, the Kindle 2, as of late.
Thankfully, not everybody thinks this is a prelude to disaster: Erica Wagner, literary editor of the Times of London, not only has written a delicious short story collection and a really cool novel, but also understands that the Kindle is just a tool, and it won't make books obsolete anytime soon.
"New technology can be applied to rather more than just the information a book contains - it can be applied to the object itself. Once upon a time, all books looked, for the most part, very much alike (and isn't it interesting that the useful cliché, “you can't tell a book by its cover”, dates from this time - and yet is still applicable when every book has a different cover?). The notion of drawing a reader in with a flashy cover is a relatively new- fangled idea, though it would be difficult to argue that many mass-market paperbacks, say, were objects of desire in and of themselves. Most books, churned off the kinds of huge presses that can produce them by the squillion, can't compete in the beauty stakes with those produced in tiny numbers by the old-fashioned letterpress method"
Personally, Opera Chic uses her Kindle (when in the US, but the Kindle2's guts contain a SIM card slot that make future connectivity in Europe quite likely) to read the books that she, frankly, wouldn't really bother keep in her library anyway. The important stuff -- Beckett's letters, or Proust, or Alagna's autobiography -- she'll always buy in the papery oldskooley version.
Jersey girl Amanda Urban, the super agent -- aka "Binky" -- just spake words of wisdom to Haaretz:
This dude doesn't get it, as most commenters of his piece grimly point out, so we won't elaborate more -- let just say the Telegraph joins in the glorious tradition of those who just knew -- knew -- that the tape deck with that sneaky "REC" button would kill music, and who later knew -- knew -- that the VCR would kill the film industry because everybody would tape movies from TV and, like, watch them.
Someone who understands the Internet quite a bit, William Gibson, is actually, very quietly, using his blog to preview -- for free! the horror! -- bits and pieces of his forthcoming novel.
Opera Chic is not scared at all whenever technology offers us new hardware; she mostly cares about the content anyway. And nicely printed good books -- as long as there are trees around to be cut down -- will always have their special grace.
In closing, words of wisdom re: art and technology by David Lynch (audio Not Safe For Work):
The bad thing about the classical recording industry is that it might not be there much longer.
The good thing about it, if you want to work for them (and frankly, why would you), is that you don't even have to know who Cecilia Bartoli is.
(The two facts above might actually be not entirely unrelated to one another).
Norman "Uncle Normy" Lebrecht has obtained a hilarious memo from Universal Classics
where some "Promotions Executive at Universal Music Group" writes Cecilia Bartoli's name as "Tutula Bartley". Which is a stroke of genius if it's a joke; if it's not, it makes the trouble these people are going through to a bit easier to understand.
Jessica Duchen might not be the biggest fan of Handel's ever.
(This is an example of British understatement).
She writes in the Independent:
More on her blog -- the director's cut, with extra snark.
If you invite the delightful Jess over for tea, please hide your antique copy of Mainwaring's
Memoirs of the life of the late George Frederic Handel.
Just so you know.
The "Inter v Manchester United" Champions League game the other night was essentially a pretext to allow famous conductors to have a nice outing. Manchester United fan Daniel Harding and Interista Daniele Gatti were interviewed by Repubblica: Harding flew to Milan in order to be able to be presente at glorious San Siro stadium; Gatti was stuck in Munich working; but Daniel Barenboim, Argentinian like many Inter players (Esteban Cambiasso, Javier Zanetti, Julio Cruz) was at San Siro, too, having a free night before his final Tristan Und Isolde at la Scala.
A most musical night, it had very few fortissimi: an eventual 0-0 that turns the return game in Manchester two weeks from now in a sort of Cavalleria Rusticana.
An unabashed Inter fan, Opera Chic sides with maestri Gatti & Barenboim: Forza Inter!
OC is proud to share with you a cache of images from last night's Dessay/Flórez round-table: "Moonlight Becomes You: Dessay, Flórez and Sonnambula" at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House, Elena Park with omg Margaret Juntwait as the moderator. The two petite superstars were on hand to answer questions and discuss their upcoming performance of Bellini's La Sonnambula, opening Monday, March 2. The Mary Zimmerman production will be conducted by Evelino Pidò. Pictures have been graciously provided by two of OC's dearest East Coast collaborators! ♥ ♥
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**~CLICK ON LINK B-LOW 4 MOAR SEKSINESS!~**
Continue reading "Dessay and Flórez at the MET for Bellini's La Sonnambula" »
We've been raised -- those of us who simply weren't born yet when Fritz and Tito and Maria and Renata were singing -- we've been raised with this sense that somehow the good days are gone forever, that we missed out on the really great stuff.
There's something to be said for that argument, even if those prickly generations of old school music fans, with their Marias and Titos and all that, they did miss out on the years when Verdi himself conducted his Requiem for the first time in a Milanese church, when Wagner (as in Richard, not his wretched descendants) was doing his thing and Von Bulow was conducting. And you can go back even farther down the rabbit hole of music history. And it eventually becomes silly.
Anyway, Opera Chic, tonight, realized that she may have missed on some seriously genius stuff because she wasn't even born. But tonight she has seen and heard Thomas Quasthoff sing Winterreise at la Scala, and she's not sure she'd trade this experience, as of now, for anything else. Whatever the golden age of classical music might be, it sure was present on la Scala's stage tonight, with all due respect to the great music of the past.
Not to mention, Maestro Quasthoff sang with Daniel Barenboim at the piano and a visibly moved Alfred Brendel in the audience (that's one of the coolest things about la Scala; Maurizio Pollini lives here in Milan so quite often you find yourself sitting a few rows away from the maestro, impeccably and meticulously dressed the way his music would make you think he dresses; Carlo Bergonzi used to show up a lot, too, to check out the new singers, see what the kids are up to, always generous with praise and encouragement and insights; tonight we did indeed get a most admirable visitor, Maestro Brendel, who might have missed his old line of work a little more than the usual).
Opera Chic is still too shaken by the wonders she has witnessed, so the full review is coming tomorrow.
Let her just add, as a sidenote, that one small gesture, at the end of the evening, made Opera Chic realize why we all forgive so much to that overworked, spread-out-too-thin, overconfident in his admittedly large genius, Daniel Barenboim -- and to his Napoleon-sized ego, quite obviously large even for classical music superstar standards. We forgive him so much not only because whenever he's properly rehearsed and really focused (the way he was tonight) he can play -- or conduct -- like very few (if any) of his contemporaries can -- his talent is that scorching.
We forgive him so much because of his generosity, because it's real -- because as Schubert's journey was over and the audience leapt up and cheered and raved and yelled and stomped their feet (eventually for something like 15 minutes) in a way you don't really see often at la Scala, Barenboim only emerged from deeper inside the stage once: he sweetly left the spotlight to Quasthoff, to let him enjoy his moment. Then he got near Quasthoff's tiny podium, smiled at him, bowed his head in sign of respect, and then simply caressed Quasthoff's cheek. Once, almost stealthily, with great tenderness.
For some reason, as Opera Chic hungrily waited for that killer glissando that opens up the world of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue -- probably the most famous incipit in classical music, together with Beethoven's Fifth -- in the audience of Milan's Auditorium yesterday morning, Opera Chic was expecting a reading that, in pure Francesco Maria Colombo fashion, would be elegant, dry-as-a-martini, not shaken, not stirred, but beautifully laid out in the silvery textures that are already a trademark of the Milanese maestro (Opera Chic has basked, in the past, in FMC's argentine Debussy, in his impossibly refined and sparkling Reynaldo Hahn, in his surprisingly warm and human Sibelius so far away from the frozen cliché we have all grown to hate -- FMC's Sibelius is not music for polar bears but for living, breathing, warm-bodied and warm-hearted humans, finally).
Instead, Maestro Colombo, the pianist Maestro Giuseppe Gullotta, and the wonderful kids of Orchestra Verdi -- the same orchestra that only a few nights ago had given a not-so-stunning, slightly unfocused performance of Verdi's Requiem under Maestro Wayne Marshall's baton, truth to be told -- they all created something beautiful, and surprising.
Ignited by a solo clarinet -- Opera Chic unfortunately is not aware of the young professore's name, but he did give a fantastic, incandescent performance seriously worthy of a world-class soloist -- that was proudly pointing out that this would not be a polite, bemusedly detached rendering of Gershwin's work as it so often happens, Colombo's Rhapsody burned brightly with the fire of Gershwin's sassy, brave gusto -- keeping the chaos inherent in the writing under admirable control. This was a Rhapsody in Blue that proudly displayed the multilayered, multicultural greatness of Gershwin's inspiration -- these are the Roaring Twenties, hear them roar. That was the bluesy, jazzy, folksy genius of the Russian Jew who created with apparent effortlessness the greatest mosaic of American's character -- where diversity is strength, and the culture is even greater than the sum of his thousands of parts.
And Giuseppe Gullotta -- looking very, very young in his untucked tight black shirt, tuxedo pants and shoes that were an impressive contrast with Colombo's morning suit -- simply surprised us: Opera Chic confesses she had been unaware of this maestro's work, but the rich sound, the precision, the sheer controlled fury he displayed in the trickiest passages make her think that this black-shirted, jet-black-haired maestro 's name might not remain unknown to the greater public for much longer.
The newspaper Repubblica had published a short blurb for the concert -- "Colombo Explains the Secrets of Rhapsody In Blue" the headline said -- and indeed the morning concert was part of the lecture series given by Colombo -- who's a former critic for Corriere della Sera -- about great works of the 20th Century.
But then, as interesting as his lecture that preceded the concert was -- complete with videos of Gershwin playing, an audio of the Rhapsody's 1924 opening night, crazy tempi choices and all, slide show of the Whistler paintings that inspired Ira Gershwin to name the work Rhapsody in Blue -- as interesting as it was, Colombo/Gullotta and the Verdi orchestra managed to illustrate it all in music -- the racket of the train where Gershwin had the idea for the piece, the chaos of the Metropolis, the rush to complete the work and introduce it to the public in a crazily competitive commercial environment. It was all there, in the music, up on the Auditorium's stage. You could also hear Porgy And Bess -- that masterpiece of Straussian proportions duly savaged right after its debut by the self-appointed, porcine guardians of High Culture -- trying to burst out of the Rhapsody the way Minerva exited Zeus's head, ready to take over the Twentieth Century.
Colombo the critic once wrote that Gershwin's Twentieth Century is the century of Garbo, Coco Chanel, and Manhattan's skyscrapers lit up in the night; and his Milanese Rhapsody was such unabashed, sassy, moving fun that, after the ovations of the nearly-sold-out Auditorium, Opera Chic found herself surprised to hear people in the audience speak Italian, because she just felt like going out for bagels, the Sunday Times, and maybe some Starbucks in the blinding sunlight and crisp ocean air of a Sunday winter morning in Manhattan.
The Los Angeles Times has a nice photo gallery of L.A.'s Rheingold; the always insightful Tim Mangan in the OC Register has words.
Achim Freyer's production for the complete Ring carries a cool 32-million-dollars price tag in the middle of a big recession; curiously Freyer, in Hebrew, means "sucker".
We just need to figure out who's being suckered here exactly.
South-African born and raised in England, 35-year-old Daniel Hope was heralded by the Italian press in the days before his performance this past Tuesday at Milan's Conservatorio (for Società del Quartetto di Milano's 2008-09 season) as the conduit for a little glamor and fresh blood at our old-skool music halls ('tho fresh blood for near-taxidermied Conservatorio is like 60 years old). Toting his Antonio Gagliano violin -- acquired from the legendary Yehudi Menuhim 15 years ago -- Hope's fluffy 'fro of ginger hair and his impressive clique of friends (Mia Farrow, Sting, Stewie Copeland, and Uri Cane...not to mention his current tenure as Associate Artistic Director of Chamber Music with the Savannah Music Festival where he jams with the likes of Chick Corea, Bella Fleck, and Savion Glover) helped sell tickets to a traditional Milanese audience who'd rather flock to the more conventional, by-the-book violinists like as Uto Ughi and Shlomo Mintz.
**Click on the secksy link below to read the full review and see all the write-ups of Daniel Hope from Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, and ViviMilano, in addition to the program list**
Continue reading "He's Got Rhythm: Daniel Hope's Concerto @ Milan's Conservatorio" »
NPR reveals the content of Lincoln's hand-cranked, cast-iron iPod
"We know that Lincoln liked the opera Martha, by Friedrich von Flotow, and had it performed during the festivities for his second inaugural," Hoffman says. "Martha is not performed very often now, and it's mainly known for one very beautiful aria, 'Ach so fromm,' where the male romantic lead, Lionel, sings a love song to the title character, Martha.
"We also know that one month before he died — on March 15, 1865 — Lincoln attended a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute at the National Theatre in Washington," Hoffman says.
In beautiful bipartisan fashion, our greatest President in the history of Everything was also a big fan of "Dixie" (yeah, that Dixie) -- about which, after the war he said:
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Tim Smith has the big man's reaction:
How do I express how deeply honored I am, how personally touched I feel, and how very much this prize means to me? Over the years I have been privileged to receive some wonderful tributes from world leaders and respected professional organizations for which I am most grateful, and I can say without hesitation, that this commendation from Birgit is one of my highest achievements...
There's more, Tim has the whole statement on his blog.
Diane Haithman helpfully points out that the LA Opera's Rheingold that opens Saturday night in L.A. is long but not that long -- it clocks in at 2 hrs 45 mins, ie two minutes less than The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (another difference: Brad Pitt is not a Nazi).
Bryn Terfel talks to the Independent:
But then, the Welsh big boy's knees were "almost touching" the interviewer, quote unquote, and it all went downhill from there.
As part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Symphony+ events (a new series of pre & post concert happenings), Bostonians can finally shed their Timberlands & Filene's toss-offs and embrace inspiration from ~Project Mozart~.
The BSO has invited 11 fashion students from Boston area colleges (Lasell, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Mount Ida) to slug it out in the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and design evening-wear based on the Austrian bada$$ & his music. With a cash advance budget of $150, we're predicting BeDazzlers & velvet. Prove us wrong, future Starbucks-fetching Program Assistants of America!
~Project Mozart~ celebrates the upcoming BSO all-Mozart programs, which ran February 12, 17 & 19 at Symphony Hall. All of the dresses had the opportunity to be judged before each February concert evening, worn by models. The winner gets a feature in Boston Common Magazine and a department store shopping spree from Bloomingdales Y.E.S. department! Weeeeee!
Tonight is the final round! *ding ding ding*The winner will be announced at the post-concert reception tonight at 10:10 pm in Higginson Hall. Symphony Hall doors will open at 6:30 pm tonight for the pre-concert judging and reception.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra -- just back from their whirlwind, inaugural tour around Far East Asia -- has just announced their 2009-2010 season, and we're all over it like the Exxon Valdez was all over Prince William Sound. That's right...like crude oil all over a sweet little baby penguin.
If we were to adapt that quirky fantasy that Major League Baseball fans so often reenact, and create a scorecard of symphony's heaviest hitters, the CSO's upcoming season pretty much nails a chunk of our dream roster. Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink, Conductor Emeritus Pierre Boulez and Music Director designate Riccardo Muti have made good use of their trifecta of scary coolness.
Kicking off the 119th season on Saturday, October 3, 2009 Paavo Järvi will conduct the CSO with Renée Fleming in a selection of Bernstein, Barber & Strauss.
The list of twenty-four visiting conductors boasts Roberto Abbado, Christoph von Dohnányi, Pierre Boulez (the CSO also offers a month long celebration of the French composer/conductor with "A Tribute to Pierre Boulez at 85", a set of 4 concerts of Messiaen, Berg, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring), Sir Andrew Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gianandrea Noseda, Vladimir Jurowski, Esa-Pekka Salonen...and of course, our main man Riccardo Muti (conducting Mozart's Haffner, Bruckner's second, and Brahm's German Requiem).
Special events are myriad: an end-of-January-2010 New York Tour @ Carnegie Hall (with Pierre Boulez conducting); an early summer Beethoven Festival (with Haitink conducting a complete cycle of all nine symphonies, which incidentally closes the season during the weekend of Friday, June 18, 2010 with the Ninth...soloists include Jessica Rivera and Eric Owens); A Passion Week in March 2010, with Golijov's "La Pasión según San Marcos" and Bach's "The Passion According to Saint John".
Visiting musicians are Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Nicole Cabell, Yefim Bronfman, Radu Lupu, Mitsuko Uchida (conducting and playing in an all Mozart program) Peter Serkin, Emanuel Ax, Christian Tetzlaff, and Yo-Yo Ma.
And lastly, crossover fun is provided via John William's musical tribute to the late English film writer David Lean, featuring Lynn Redgrave & Michael York as narrators...and music from Harry Potter. heh.
Norman Lebrecht breaks the news of the engagement between of soprano Danielle De Niese and Gus Christie of Glyndebourne, the former wildlife documentary-maker and current Grand Fromage of British opera.