Opera Chic

Listen To This: Alex Ross's New Book

Listen To This, the new book by Alex Ross -- coming after the monster success of The Rest Is Noise -- will be fed by Farrar, Straus and Giroux to our hungry maws at the end of September.

Maestro Ross explains:

The new book is a panoramic tour of the musical world, touching variously on Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Verdi, Brahms, Marian Anderson, Frank Sinatra, Cecil Taylor, Led Zeppelin, Björk, Radiohead, Mitsuko Uchida, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Luther Adams, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Bob Dylan, and the Malcolm X Shabazz High School Marching Band. In the Preface, I say that the aim is to "approach music not as a self-sufficient sphere but as a way of knowing the world." The book includes material already published in The New Yorker as well as pieces written or heavily revised for the occasion.

That's Enough, Emma Dante

For anyone who (wisely) passed over her CarmenLa Scala debut last month, there's another chance to catch Emma Dante, the ~edgy~ (and when we say ~edgy~ we're referring to Dante's un-ironic affectation of a Ralph Macchio 1984 Karate Kid rattail) director's stage work. Le Pulle (Palermo slang for "Whores") opened in Napoli last year and makes its way to Milan. The "operetta amorale" features a squad of trannies (and a troupe of blow-up dolls) and their conversations about lace, sequins, corsets, and ostrich feathers. This actually sounds much better than the thought of suffering through her Carmen again.

NSFW photos under the cut...

Black Swan: Where the Backstory is More Interesting than the Actual Movie

 

We've been resisting to post about Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, a forthcoming psychological thriller flick about the uber-competitive world of NYC ballerinas clawing their way to the top of Swan Lake's Odette -- where the supernatural plot doesn't really even matter because in the end, the screenplay boasts an angsty lesbian secks scene between the two star ballerinas, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis (and also a rape -- Vincent Cassel's "Yevna" gets his rape on with Portman's "Nina" -- the two of them pictured above) (and also Winona Ryder as a washed-up ballerina). Currently being shot in and around Lincoln Center, Portman and Kunis even showed-up for the American Ballet Theatre Fall Gala back in October.

But while we find the plot totally uninteresting, the behind-the-scenes action could make its own screenplay:

French dancer and choreographyer Benjamin Millepied, who calls NYC his home as a New York City Ballet principal, and was brought on by director Aronofsky to supervise the choreography, has been liberally pilfering from the set. It seems in the months together coaching lead Natalie Portman, the two have grown fond of each other, enough that Millepied kicked his former live-in girlfriend of three years, American Ballet Theatre ballerina, Isabella Boylston, to the curb:

Is Natalie Portman a home wrecker? The notoriously private actress has reportedly been dating Benjamin Millepied, 32, the New York City Ballet dancer who's choreographing her new movie, "The Black Swan." "They've been dating since the fall, although she told friends that she hasn't gone public with it because she was waiting to see if things got serious," a source tells Page Six. "But the real reason she was quiet about things is that Ben had a live-in girlfriend of three years when they met. She was a ballerina at the American Ballet Theater. She had been talking about marrying him and was blindsided by the split. She moved out right after New Year's Eve." 

 

You can find a clip of Isabella dancing on Millepied's YouTube account here (and the [formerly happy] couple above). We just hope Millepied knows that he's dating Devendra Banhart's leftovers (see below)...

Natalie Dessay Sleepwalks Through the French Press

On the occasion of Bellini's La Sonnambula opening at Paris's Opéra Bastille (on January 25), it's been a week of heavy rotation for Natalie Dessay, singing Amina in the Marco Arturo Marelli production led by Italian maestro Evelino Pidò. 

The petite French soprano spoke to Elle France about her Sonnambula and more: that fateful 2001 Sonnambula in Vienna where she first realized there was a serious problem with her nodes ("it felt like there was a permanent grain of sand stuck in my throat"), her three cats ("Kyste, Polype et Nodule"), what it's like to be a mom with teenagers (aged 11 & 14), and Marelli's production (like Thomams Mann's The Magic Mountain). She also spoke to Le Figaro in depth about her career and the Paris production. 

 

Gianandrea Gavazzeni's Centennial Imprint

He may have been born 100 years ago, but his cranky, private, reserved, melancholy facade still lingers in Italy. Bergamo-born maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni is being commemorated by Bergamo's Teatro Donizetti, appropriately enough as the maestro who never let anyone forget his hometown roots. Much of Bergamo's landscapes including "Bergamo Alta" -- the historic medieval section of the city -- was used to inspire his musical compositions (notably his "Concerto Bergamasco"). 

As Principal Conductor at La Scala for almost half a century, Gavazzeni not only counted Callas, Gencer, and Karajan as close friends, but also Mascagni, Puccini, Pizzetti & Giordano -- and fiercely championed their works. He died in 1996 of pneumonia complications while being cared for by his second wife, soprano Denia Mazzola. As intricate as his life in Milan was, he preferred simple meals in Bergamo where afterward, he'd sit at the piano and play Donizetti. And then he'd play the St. Elmo's Fire theme song. No joke.

Los Angeles Opera Celebrates Their 25th With a Stellar Line-up for 2010/2011

 

The Los Angeles Opera today announced their 2010-11 season and it's hotter than the blinding California sun...brb...gotta put on our Chanel sunglasses. Ok. General Director Plácido Domingo knows how to give the Angelenos the biggest bang for their buck and he's lined-up a sweet season.

Next season will launch the world premiere of a Los Angeles Opera commission, Il Postino (The Postman, based on the "dreams do come true" 1994 film), which will open the season on September 23, 2010. Previously delayed, Mexican composer Daniel Catán's Spanish-language opera and libretto was supposed to open this past season starring Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon as the title role of Mario Puoppolo (obviously, it never happened). A year later, tenor Charles Castronovo will sing the timid postman with an additionally talented cast: Placido Domingo sings the role of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda; Chilean soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domâs will sing Matilde Neruda; and Spanish mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola-Herrera is Donna Rosa.
 
While he's not jetting around Europe making great music, Music Director James Conlon will conduct four of the six opero productions.The season ends on March 30, 2011, and in addition to the mixture of old favorites and enticing new works, it will also offer three recitals (a veritable sausagefest with René Pape, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Jonas Kaufmann in his L.A. Opera debut) and a birthday party gala to celebrate their big 25th in April 2011 (fun fact: Otello opened the season back in 1986). 

The rest of the line-up includes Mozart's Nozze with Daniel Okulitch as Figaro & Bo Skovhus as the Count; Wagner's Lohengrin with Ben Heppner & Soile Isokoski in the seventh Wagner opera conducted by Conlon for the Los Angeles Opera; Verdi's Rigoletto, conducted by Conlon who's currently in Milan conducting a sold-out run of Verdi's masterpiece at La Scala; Rossini's Il Turco in Italia in Christof Loy's production that made the rounds in Europe; and Britten's The Turn of the Screw, last heard in 1991 at the L.A. Opera, which will begin a four-year program to celebrate the 1913 centenary of Britten's birth.

Shaving Her Head: Renée Fleming Could Have Been Our Britney Spears

"My biggest escape fantasy as a young adult was moving to Aspen, Colorado, and becoming a masseuse -- shaving my head."

NO RENEE! YOUR POWER IS IN YOUR SOFT SILKY GOLDEN HAIR!

Thank goodness we'll never see the likes of this from the American diva.

Geocaching David Beckham's Milan: Opera Chic In W Magazine's Editors' Blog

It's Opera Chic Wednesday in W Magazine's Editors' Blog: ~**click here and read all about Beckham's favorite restaurants, gyms, and his swanky hotel suite.**~

January 27, All Day Every Day Until the End of Time

Rolando v Rupert

It's unusual to see an opera singer, either still active on the stage or retired, who takes the time to write a rebuke (and an impressively humorless, passive-aggressive one at that) to a critic's review.

Rolando Villazon did just that.

To recap:

"Popstar to Operastar makes me sick",

argued Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph.

"'Popstar to Operastar' is only a television show",

answers Rolando Villazon today in the same paper. 

Opera Chic's take? The problem here is that, quite simply, you shouldn't answer your critic in writing, but on the stage, by singing. Villazon can't do that at the present time; he's therefore stranded on the island of bad reality TV. He can rationalize all he wants his presence on that show, but he really shouldn't waste time answering his critics in writing: unless he wants to kickstart a crossover career because he knows that, for medical reasons, he won't be able to sing unamplified anymore -- or for much longer, after his comeback -- that's one thing.

To act all offended because one critic slapped him around a bit, is entirely another.

If Pavarotti could take the critical heat for his crossover initiatives, Villazon -- whose major career lasted all 4 years before it came to a grinding halt, unlike Pavarotti's, because the Big Man moved to the big Three Tenors extravaganzas after three decades of solid work on stage -- should be able to take the heat, also.

Giving up Their Habits in Bern

 

(Photo: Annette Boutellier)

This past weekend, Stadttheater Bern unveiled a new production of Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. Fourty-year-old Serbian conductor Srboljub Dinić led the Berner Symphonieorchester while Swiss soprano Rachel Harnisch sang Blanche. Dagmar Fabisch's Missoni-flecked costumes were knittingly good. 

We know there's nothing cexy about nuns (nor should there be!), but if anyone knows how to make a nun look good, it's Italian soprano Daniela Dessì. Click after the cut to see la Dessì as the hawtest nun around the convent.

 

Seniority Rules at Opera di Roma's Falstaff

 
(Above: Renato Bruson as Falstaff at Opera di Roma's Zeffirelli production)

Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, was his last opera for a good reason: old dude was in his 80s when he wrote it and he died less than a decade after its premiere (in his regal suite at Grand Hotel Et De Milan).

So it's actually quite fitting that Opera di Roma launched (this past Friday) their 2010 season opener with a Falstaff manned by men in their twilights. The opera house resurrected Franco Zeffirelli's (he's 87-years-old) classic & beloved production, which had already been used nine times since it premiered in 1956.

On the podium, Israeli conductor Ascher Fisch needs to keep track of his star Sir Johns for the run. The lead is being split between four singers: Renato Bruson (at 76-years-old), Ruggero Raimondi (at 69-years-old), Juan Pons (at 64-years-old), and the youngest, Alberto Mastromarino (who ironically doesn't divulge his age).

Renato Bruson sang the premiere with Myrto Papatanasiu (Alice), Carlos Álvarez (Ford), and Laura Giordano (Nannetta). Too bad Leo Nucci is currently here singing in James Conlon's unforgettable Rigoletto for Scala..he coulda been a contender! 

(Above: Bruson with Carlos Álvarez)
 
 

Milito's Symphony No. 9

Nine-Man Inter Milan Wins Derby 2-0

Daniele Gatti Makes Elektra Electrifiying for Zurich Opera (And a Cameo by Agnes Baltsa Isn't so Bad Either!)

(Above: Irène Friedli, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Sen Guo, Liuba Chuchrova. Photo: Hans Jörg Michel.)

The New Music Director of the Zurich Opernhaus, Daniele Gatti, led the premiere of Strauss's Elektra in Martin Kusej's 2003 reprised production which opened last night.

The Milanese Maestro held firm the poduim, conducting the Orchester der Oper Zürich in the insanely taxing, expressionist work last heard at the Opernhaus Zurich seven years ago in the same production (with Christoph von Dohnányi conducting his Yamamotos off).

Eva Johansson sings the lead. Greek mezzo and former big playa in Herbie von Karajan's scarily awesome circle of singers, Agnes Baltsa, sings Klytämnestra. Sassy American soprano Emily Magee rounds-out the cast as Chrysothemis.

We're happy to hand Gatti his Elektra victory by his adoring Swiss fans, which is only made sweeter by last night's massacre at San Siro where Internationale FC handed Milan AC their collective a$$es on a platter in a 2-0 triumph. Although Gatti may call Zurich his new home, he'll never stop cheering for gli azzurri.

(Above: Eva Johansson. Photo: Hans Jörg Michel.)  

 

(Above: Emily Magee. Photo: Hans Jörg Michel.) 

You'll have to click the link below to see photos of the fabulous Ms. Agnes Baltsa. Are you ready?

Winter Vacation with the New York Philharmonic: But You Can Stay Warm & Toasty at Home

Chaperon (and Music Director of the New York Philharmonic) Alan Gilbert packed it up again (we last checked-in a few months ago with Gilbert during his "Asian Horizons" tour) from NYC's Upper West Side and took his orchestra on a European tour. Swapping-out skyscrapers for Gaudi, the NY Philharmonic just gave their first concert in their inaugural city of Barcelona at the Palau de la Música Catalana.

Nine cities in total, the tour will take them through Europe (Spain, Switzerland, Germany, France, and England) in a scatter-shot program. Even American baritone Thomas Hampson is along for the ride, performing Adams' The Wound Dresser.The NYPhils are tweeting the event live from Europe, where you can watch and even vicariously munch on delicious seafood with those famished musicians as they get their grub on at a Barcelona marisquería.

We're also rather fond of the photos, especially the one below -- homage to a bit of NYC SoHo style: Jil Sander's first collection for Uniqlo (or a worthy approximation) isanely popular piume jacket, modeled by NYPhil violinist Hae-Young Ham...reprezent! And stay warm!

 

 

Marcelo Álvarez Sings us Puccini for Make Benefit Glorious

Earlier this week in Georgia, a benefit concert to raise funds for Haiti's youngest victims of the catastrophic earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation on January 12 found Marcelo Álvarez, where the Argentinian tenor unleashed his Puccini might with breathtakingly famous arias, Nessun Dorma (below) and E lucevan le stelle (above).

Sponosored by charitable org, Iavnava, started by Georgian opera singer Paata Burchuladze, the event was held at Georgia's Tbilisi Opera House.

If You Lift Me Up, Just Get Me Through This Night

HOPE FOR HAITI NOW

"Sassy" Opera Chic In the Irish Times: Karlin Lillington FTW

O.K., what could be cooler than waking up to find oneself in the pages of the Irish Times?

Well, waking up to find oneself in the pages of the Irish Times in Karlin Lillington's column!

Link:

Sassy blogs like Opera Chic (http://operachic.typepad.com/) take a fabulously pop-culture approach to what is sometimes seen as a stuffy old medium (some incredibly gorgeous and sexy new singers sure help the process).

Opera Chic is very proud of being HUGE in Ireland (there was serious talk to rename St. Stephen's Green after her, in fact). In the meantime, she is renaming her blog, just for today, O'OC.

Opera Chic for W Magazine's Editors' Blog, Part II

Wednesday is the best day! Opera Chic dropped in at W Magazine yesterday, where a shiny new post waits for those fashion-loving operaphiles at the Editors' Blog.

Opera Chic talks about the merry marriage between opera houses and fashion houses, so go there and school yourself! Go read this: W Magazine Editors' Blog "Miuccia at the Met (and other fashion/opera encounters)"!

And in case you missed last week's contribution, click here.

 

Lindsay Lohan Will Attend the 2010 Wiener Opernball But Probably Won't Remember a Thing

American, um, actress (??) (although we won't deny it on a stack of chocolate-covered bibles that we have a thing for The Parent Trap & Mean Girls) Lindsay Lohan was chosen by Richard Lunger, the Austrian business-dude and biggest pimp ever who decides every year which young, female celebrity to personally invite to the high-profile Wiener Opernball at the Vienna Staatsoper as his date.

Lunger previously choose for the Wiener Opernball soirée in 2009 Nicollette Sheridan; 2008 was the American burlesque lover, Dita von Teese (who competed in the cleavage department with a then pregnant la Netrebko); and in 2007 we had a jaded and bored Paris Hilton who notably yawned as the young debutants and escorts fancy-danced. 

Lohan, who was appointed recently as ~artistic adviser~ to the house of Italian fashion Ungaro, had better be wearing an Ungaro gown to the event! She's already pissed-off poor Emanuel enough!

 

Here's the most recent photo of la Lohan, taken two days ago where she was spotted in a glittered hoodie for the Golden Globes.

 
  

Riccardone Will Conduct Your Verdi, Direct It, Design The Sets, Sing, And Play A Few Instruments, Too

Riccardo Muti explains Verdi to Opera News:

Verdi, as I said before, tells you exactly what is the mood, what is the atmosphere. Sometimes he indicates even the way a singer must come onstage. For example, in La Traviata. [He hums a bit.] That is the entrance of Papa Germont. Verdi writes music that tells you even how fast Germont must come in or how slow he must come in. The interval [hums again] is so large, it defines very well how pompous and irritating and not nice is this person who is coming in to speak to Violetta.

I'm using this example because I saw a Traviata of a very famous stage director — I will not mention the name — in which during [hums entrance music] the singer for Germont was not onstage. Then after this phrase ended — in the silence — Germont came in very fast and very angry. [Growls.] "Madamigella Valery?"

This is more example of a director who doesn't hear the music and works against the music. Verdi's not telling you from which direction Germont comes, how he is dressed, et cetera, et cetera. But through this music, he is telling you the personality of this man, his low and heavy way of coming into this woman's house. Verdi gives you this man's soul in this music, yes?

Yes.

(OC's favorite bit, 100% Riccardone: ""Sorry. Sorry Verdi, for this E-flat I will make an exception."). He sees dead composers, that's the secret of his success.

Conlon & Nucci Take Over La Scala: Corriere della Sera Hails "Unforgettable" Rigoletto

Leo Nucci's and James Conlon's "Rigoletto" currently at la Scala, hasn't just earned a huge 9-minute ovation at the end of the premiere a few nights ago (as reported on Opera Chic): Corriere della Sera's chief critic -- usually very hard to please, and many big names in the business carry the scars to prove it -- unusually hails Nucci's and Conlon's work as "unforgettable". Conlon, writes Corriere,

"speaks perfect Italian, and he ruthlessly chases the «parola scenica» that singers nowadays tend to overlook... a Rigoletto such as this, under Conlon's baton, is unforgettable. He is an authoritative maestro, and manages to repair, for the time being, Scala's orchestral sound, and he makes it shine -- from strings to brass.  He has a perfect understanding of the dramatic relationship between moments of different intensity. He's fluent in the interpretive tradition the way conductors of the old school used to be fluent. His control of the score is steely, and we hear that from the beginning -- he elegantly conducts the archaic dances of the opening scene... Conlon is one of the maestri who deserve to appear every year here"

Nucci? Well, according to the Milanese daily,

"if he's Rigoletto, the night's success is guaranteed: he is a good, humble man, witty and a scholar of acoustics: he radiates a sort of charisma that somehow makes the entire cast sing at their best".

Chip Kidd, We Salute You

O.C.'s willing to bet that there's not a single reader that hasn't flipped over the cover of one of Chip Kidd's seriously killer book jackets -- even if you're illiterate and literally can't understand a single one of these words you're reading right now.

Chip Kidd, the American book jacket designer, gave ravenous readers (and graphic design junkies) the sexiest, edgiest, coolest and most revolutionary examples of how radical graphic design works when given the Kidd treatment -- straight from his office at Alfred A. Knopf where he sits as Evil Cheese Monkey Overlord (actually, he's the Associate Art Director).

The ageless graphic designer (and novelist) has worked with everyone, and his clout is thick and greasy like an un-brushed pony mane: Don DeLillo, Elmore Leonard, J.D. McClatchy (sweeeet!), Alex Ross (amen!), Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, etc. infinity. His 20+ years of design work at Knopf is cataloged in his book, Work: 1986-2006, and as O.C. was revisiting it the other day, she remembered a Maria Callas treatment of "The Voice, The Story", designed by Kidd in 1997 for Highbridge Audio.  

Even better is his description, full of Courtney Love love:

"Maria Callas burned out harder and faster than any punk rocker could ever dream of, with enough horribly gorgeous fire to scorch Courtney Love to a crisp. This audio documentary of her life plays like a totally engrossing operatic novel and will have you weeping copiously by the fourth tape."

Wait -- what's a "tape"?!

Muti's Piano Recital @ Bollate Prison: "Music Belongs To Everybody"

Riccardo Muti visited earlier today the prison of the city of Bollate, on the outskirts of Milan, where he gave a 2-hour piano recital (Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Rossini, Beethoven) for 50 inmates, ANSA news agency reports.  The Italian conductor called his piano recital "a dialog, not a concert", took some time to chat with the inmates, sign autographs and pose for photos and explained that "music belongs to everybody". "I came here -- he told ANSA -- To  give meaning to my profession. Otherwise, I'd simply spend all my time standing on a podium, showing my backside to the people in the audience". Muti was invited by a group of inmates, who are also classical music fans, and promised he'll be back to Bollate prison in the summer.

Taking it Back to 1988: Musical Stairs in Milan's Piazza del Duomo

 

Musical stairs will always be part of the same landscape as Penny Marshall's late '80s movie, Big. And we're quite willing to throwdown with anyone who disagrees on this basic fact.

The other day as O.C. was cutting through Piazza del Duomo in her heeled & quilted Marc Jacobs Wellingtons (she's not about to sacrifice another pair of her Bottega Veneta lace-up leather boots to Milan's surly Rain Gods) on her way to Bagutta for fresh coda di rospo alla griglia, she passed the city of Milan's latest effort to scare people on their way up & down into the subway. Milan installed musical stairs on the staircase of the Red Line's Duomo stop and people were tripping. Not literally, 'tho. O.C. took a few pictures and video for youse guise.

More pretty M'lan photos and another youtube video wait for you after the cut!