Prestige New York magazine blows a raspberry (:-p~~) at those stodgy old traditionalist, conservative farts in Verona, Bayreuth, Salzburg and their ilk by branding 2009's Münchner Opernfestspiele alternatively as "hip, smart and sexy" -- although with five packed weeks of a Verdi-strong program, we don't doubt that there will be a few stimulating moments.
Since OC just visited the Bayerische Staatsoper less than one month ago to hear Gatti's graceful Verdi's Aida and Angela & Jonas's crowd-pleasing Traviata, we'll pack up the Vuitton & Goyard luggage for next summer's festival (although we hope that all the yummy provisions we picked-up from Munich's insanely-awesome Alois Dallmayr can sustain us).
Too bad Prestige's quarterly Summer edition went to press before tenor Piotr Beczala was called in to replace Rolando Villazón in the title role in Massenet's Werther, as we spotted ~The Ghost of Career Past~ in the photo spread.