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Since everybody loved so much the quite adorable photos of baby Tiago, here's historical evidence of la Netrebka herself in her baby period -- before she took the opera world by storm after the famous middle period as a janitor.
More Anna after the jump --
One of the many great things that make Giuseppe Filianoti's singing so special -- ignoring for a moment the vocal difficulties that troubled him and that we really hope are a thing of the past -- is that he is that rare being: a passionate reader. His love for the written text is an integral part of what makes his presence on stage so compelling: when so many of his colleagues -- regardless of their vocal abilities -- sometimes do not really seem to understand the meaning of the words they're singing -- Filianoti instead is always about the text, its meaning, the dramatic weight of each sentence.
In a recent Playbill interview, the young Italian tenor shared the skinny on the books that he really, really considers essential. And it's quite a list: Vladimir Nabokov's "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight"; Henry James's "The Lesson of the Master" & "The Real Thing"; Richard Powers's "The Time of Our Singing". Then a classic Italo Svevo, "The Confessions of Zeno"; Joyce's "Dubliners". And then, of course, literary gourmet that he is, he mentions "everything by Italo Calvino".
Metal-encased bewbs, singers hanging upside-down and a technicolor rainbow of circus theatrics from Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino's Götterdämmerung that opened tonight in Florence.
Zubin Mehta conducts the Fura dels baus production.
Click for more bewbiness!
As spoketh from The Metropolitan Opera:
Rolando Villazón has withdrawn from the title role in the Met’s new production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, scheduled for December 3, 2009 through January 2, 2010. He announced today that he is undergoing throat surgery and expects to return to the stage in 2010. The Metropolitan Opera looks forward to his return in future seasons.
A replacement for the role of Hoffmann will be announced at a later date.
Rolando's management early hopes -- that he could be back around the end of the year -- do not seem to be realistic.
After President Obama's opening to Cuba, it was quite natural for the media to ask supporters of the Cuban government their opinion on Washington's new policy.
Claudio Abbado, a Castro fan, spoke about this in an interview with Italian daily "La Stampa":
Now say what you want about Claudione's politics -- personally Opera Chic doesn't care one bit, really, what musicians think about stuff, and for the record her views on the Cuba matter are that despite Castro's obviously inexcusable policies the US embargo is even worse than silly, it's ineffective, and she fully supports President Obama's very welcome policy change, and then some -- but Maestro Abbado at least didn't stop in the middle of a concert to express his views (views that by the way seem to go against the grain of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others -- not simply against those of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board) between movements of a Mahler symphony.
Claudione understands that the podium is not a bully pulpit; he certainly has more brains -- and better manners.
The AP reports:
Deutsche Entertainment AG said in Wednesday's statement that Villazon should be well enough to return to the stage by the end of the year.
Gustavo Dudamel will lead the Filarmonica della Scala next week in Milan with a Mendelssohn/Mahler program (Felix and Gustav's Fourth symphonies); but all the cool kids should go instead, this coming Sunday, May 3, to the general rehearsal for the concert. It will be open to the public, with reasonably priced (for la Scala's standards) tickets, all for the benefit of a really good cause, the Casa della Carità that helps the homeless and the less fortunate among us.
More information at Casa della Carità's website, click here.
"pOpera" star Katherine Jenkins has apparently a brand new fan: Barbra Streisand.
The Welsh singer and her bewbs were invited to Streisand's 67th birthday, where she proceeded to treat the old lady with an undisclosed aria.
Oh, and, by the way, opera fan Hugh Jackman was there, too.
Milan's Orchestra Verdi introduced today to the public their 2009-2010 season (.pdf file of the program here) and their new Music Director, American conductor Xian Zhang, former associate conductor of the NY Phil.
The day after tomorrow, she will lead the Orchestra Verdi in the Vatican, in the presence of the Italian President and the Pope (Haydn, Mozart and Vivaldi in the program). Her Milanese debut as MD will happen on September 6 at la Scala, with a Beethoven/Stravinsky program.
Buon lavoro to Maestra Zhang -- she's now leading an orchestra that experienced his first steps under Carlo Maria Giulini's benevolent direction -- Giulini climbed for the very last time on the podium for a rehearsal with La Verdi, and his first violin is kept on display at the orchestra's Auditorium -- and was later conducted by Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel. It's a young, talented orchestra passionately followed by a faithful Milanese audience: Opera Chic is sure we will experience many wonderful concerts.
Stage and film director Sam Mendes has pulled out of next summer's Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne, Charlotte Higgins reports.
The latest photo of Anna Netrebko & Erwin Schrott's 8-month-old little bebbe, Tiago Aruã. Little Tiago was born in early September 2008.
~*OC*~ tips her hat to Elisa Felici for the photo!
Elisa pointed us to this article where there are even more photos!
Last November, Opera Chic heard about Fort Worth Opera's intention to operafy Reinaldo Arenas's autobiography "Before Night Falls" for their 2010 Summer Festival, and she's been looking forward to the latest developments since.
Today we hear that lead Reinaldo Arenas will be portrayed by the young American baritone, Wes Mason (yummy headshot above).
Cuban-American composer Jorge Martín's new opera is based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas, and was fabulously portrayed by Javier Bardem in Julian Schnabel's 2000 movie, "Before Night Falls". The opera will premiere in late May, 2010.
Opera Chic is seldom interested in what rich celebrities (especially the tax exiles who merrily settled in Switzerland or Monte Carlo) have to say about their audiences personal ethics or, heaven forbid, their politics.
She, for example, would consider quite appalling to learn that a prominent American pianist had interrupted a recital in Warsaw to ask the older members of the audience if they were part of the crowds cheering as the Jewish ghetto burned, orwhether or not they're baffled by the fact that only a few thousand Jews still feel safe enough to live in Poland (there were more than 3 million of them living in Poland in 1939, 90% of whom had been murdered by 1945, and survivors had actually been lynched after their return from the camps -- reminding Poles of this historical fact might land you in jail, by the way, and the local Catholic clergy will call you a liar); asking the audience if they're part of the one million Poles who faithfully tune in to Radio Maryia's racist sermons would be in equally bad taste, just like polling the Polish audience to figure out how many of them collaborated with the Polish Communist regime during its long rule over the country -- to sum it up, one is free to play in the countries one wants, and manners are manners, everywhere you go.
Not to mention, no one cares what performing artists think about stuff.
It would be equally appalling to learn, for example, that a concert pianist had shamefully cracked jokes about gold teeth and safety deposit boxes during a Swiss recital, for example. wtf?
It is therefore quite surprising to read that Krystian Zimerman, who had already said that he'd boycott the US for political reasons (and more power to him for following his principles, one is free to boycott whomever one wants), nevertheless traveled to the States to play -- but chose to give a little lecture to a L.A. audience.
Reports Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times:
“Get your hands off of my country,” he said. He also made reference to the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
About 30 or 40 people in the audience walked out, some shouting obscenities. “Yes,” he answered, “some people when they hear the word military start marching.”
Now, this being L.A. and not, say, the beautiful State of Texas, the audience's reaction doesn't seem to have been bad at all, with quite a lot of cheers (in San Francisco he'd have been elected Mayor the next day); but the plea to "get your hands off of my country" -- is Zimerman Iraqi, by the way? Because we sure as hell haven't invaded Switzerland -- should probably have been sent, via mail, to President Obama and not yelled to the powerless audience of a classical music concert.
But it all boils down to one fact, and it's not even about manners: for all of Zimerman's talent, and his years of study, and his work, people pay him because they just want to hear him play, not talk -- if that makes him feel like a trained monkey, that's his problem, and he should do what Glenn Gould, a much better pianist and a much better man, did in his time: retire to the recording studio and give up public performances. Gould didn't lecture his paying audiences about Polar bears, either -- he did that on the radio. Daniel Barenboim, a much more serious man than Zimerman, has created an orchestra where Jews play with Arabs, devotes a lot of money and time and effort to his causes -- whatever you think of the man -- and writes books that are actual best-sellers.
Zimerman should find himself a book publisher, if he can. Or start broadcasting a talk radio show on Radio Mariya about the evils of America.
But onstage, he should really shut up and play his American piano.
Opera ambassadors Placidone & Bocelli threw around their political weight this weekend.
Andrea Bocelli and wife Veronica Berti were in Caracas meeting with socialist authoritarian liberator dictator presidente Hugo Chávez to make benefit glorious nation of Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Placido Domingo was in Zacatecas meeting with Ciudadano Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, Felipe Calderón.
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Now it's Placidone's turn!
Before touching down in Milan for last night's la prima, Robert Lepage's production of The Rake's Progress touts an almost rock 'n' roll world tour rider stemming through Brussels, London, Lyon, and San Francisco. It's five co-production backers range from Covent Garden to Opéra National de Lyon to Teatro Real. Which is why we're surprised that with such prestige, this production was such a huge miss.
French Canadian Lepage's new(ish) direction [seen last year @ Covent Garden, Rupert Christiansen reviewed it here] is one that's bursting with clever ideas and cinematic allusions, but disjointedness blights every idea from the narrative to the blocking. The continuity has been destroyed, and the production is a whirlwind of tricks. Through the course of Stravinsky's 1951 opera -- based on William Hogarth's series of eight, 18th century paintings -- we find allusions to Cheever & Hockney & Andrew Wyeth, as well as classic American cinematic triumphs like Psycho and Sunset Blvd, but there's too much gimmick and too little profundity. The individual direction fell flat and static, while characters were woodenly blocked and thoughtlessly anchored -- it's cool that Lepage has a nice library and a tasty collection of old DVDs, but still.
Lepage fast-forwards the libretto about 200 years, and the opera begins in homage to the idealized, American-West landscapes from the post-war era of the late 40s and 50s. Lepage employed broad swaths of video projections splashed across a flat-screen backdrop, showing us star-filled evenings (replete with shooting stars) to golden sunsets over the ocean (complete with undulating clouds). But these projections, at best, looked like expensive, snazzy computer screen-savers, especially when props crossed the projection, breaking the illusion. The reality of the video landscapes jarred with the idealized props (like the helium balloon Silver Streak trailer, and the cartoonish Texas saloon). It was all too pastiche to be harmonious. Lepage's tribute to the American landscape was earnest, but misguided. There was no clever commentary on the era that he so ardently tried to emulate; just a hollow and gimmick-filled production. The worst offense is that the singers were painted in such a homogeneous & monochromatic spectrum, that it was difficult to find any resonance. And while his characters were flat, and the lighting was even darker, Lepage had to balance the lack of spark with garishly-colored costumes in purples and magentas, and pulsating neon signs for Vegas's transposed graveyard.
Wanna keep reading? Click the link below...
Continue reading "The Rake's Regression: No Progress Here. Move Along. " »
Via Tom Sutpen, probably the world's coolest blog (Tom has a bigger better version of this photo so please visit)
Daniel Barenboim discussed a number of issues with the Wall Street Journal -- an interview well worth reading, and Opera Chic's favorite quote by the Wagner-loving honorary -Palestinian conductor came when he sent a well-deserved shoutout to Herr Doktor Wilhelm Furtwängler, the mentor of DB's youth and a man whose recordings, judging by Barenboim's own performances, must still be played quite often by DB.
Quote:
In the photo above, via the Lebrecht Collection, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Adolf Hitler.
Maestro of cinematography Jack Cardiff, the man who -- among many masterpieces -- illuminated Black Narcissus and The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp and A Matter Of Life And Death and -- of course, because this is a classical music blog -- The Red Shoes, has passed away at the age of 94.
The best way to remember this great man, this genius of Technicolor (who later in his career became a director), is, simply, to watch once again, in awe, the stunning perfection of the work he did in The Red Shoes.
Opera Chic is lucky to have so many well-connected friends from all around Europe who keep her in-the-loop of so many wonderful, operatic happenings. So it is from a lovely friend from Switzerland that OC heard the first report of Anna Netrebko's Violetta premiere for Opernhaus Zürich, and she is gracious to pass on the report. Pictures above and below also provided by her thoughtful friend.
Anna's return to the Opernhaus Zürich was "a gathering of local and international celebrities", and our source tells us that, inevitably, spotted among the crowds were retired bank magnates & moguls, and well-heeled (and well-plastic-surgeried) socialites. And continuing:
But the best bit:
Brand ambassador!
American bass baritone Eric Owens, fresh from his premiere recital at The Schubert Club's International Artist Series, is back in the 212/646/917 for both his NYC and Carnegie Hall recital premiere.
Blessing the East Coast with his sumptuous, boomin (and in the words of Tommasini, "husky" looool) bass, the Philly boy's concert at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall this Friday night will cover Hugo Wolf Lieder, Sechs Gesänge. Op. 3 by Brahms, and works by Saint-Saëns & Elgar, John Ireland & Roger Quilter.
Ice-hawt Swedish mezzo Malena Ernman, opera & Eurovision star, Lesbian icon of admirably toned arms, seems to be in the middle of an interesting situation back home: her Eurovision song seems to be getting scarce airplay on the radio. The reason? Expressen newspaper thinks it's because her pitch is too operatic and therefore unfit for airplay on pop music stations; others argue that the song in questions simply sucks too bad (Opera Chic unfortunately has no experience of Swedish radio playlists, so she has to sit this one out, not before noticing the seriously buff state of the Swedish lady's arms).
Below, a video of Malena singing a more appropriate "Tu Fosti Tradito":