Opera Chic

George Steel, The Opera Chic Interview, From Lincoln Center

(Above: Photo George Steel by Ren Perez)

Today opens VOX: Contemporary American Opera Lab, New York City Opera’s annual festival of free-of-charge, open-to-the public orchestral excerpts from new American operas (American composers and librettists). Currently on its 11th season and running for two days, the musical works are performed by the City Opera Orchestra, chorus, and soloists, and takes place at NYU's Skirball Centerfor the Performing Arts (free, but reservations need to be made at NYCO's website.

In the VOX program, NYCO concentrates their four point mission of making opera accessible to all audiences, championing new works, promoting American opera and encouraging young talent. It also uniquely provides a fertile staging ground for future NYCO productions, where works-in-progress are heard, giving composers a rare opportunity to see their works realized in true scale. Basically, it's scene, but for the classical music scensters.  

General Manager and Artistic Director of NYCO, George Steel, is dedicated to giving VOX the attention it deserves, completely involved in the programming, and making it increasingly central to NYCO's heart. He brings eleven former years of programming contemporary music from his leadership role as Executive Director of Miller Theatre at Columbia University, a well-rounded base for curating two days of varied music.

George Steel recently spoke with Opera Chic from New York City Opera’s home, the David H. Koch Theater, to give her the latest on what’s going on with NYCO and VOX.

Click the link below to read the full interview (including Steel's favorite composers and what he sometimes wears under his performance jacket!)

Lincoln Center to Become Even More ~Fabulous~

Fashion week in NYC is synonymous with ~The Tents~, those expansive, white temporary venues erected over NYC's midtown Bryant Park to hold the quick & dirty runway shows, Spring and Fall.

This year for NYC's Fall Fashion Week, the models, stylists, buyers, press, and fashion editors are moving uptown (and further west) as Fashion Week sponsor Mercedes-Benz has just announced that the September 9-16 events will be held at Lincoln Center. More specifically, Damrosch Park.  

Citing Lincoln Center's recent renovations, a rep called the new campus as "aesthetically spectacular as well as extremely accessible", which is good for attendees (an estimated 232K of them), and is able to meet the demands of the techno-savvy fashionistas. Even Diane Von Furstenberg and Anna Wintour attended the meeting to show their support.
 
But NYC's opera patrons don't have to worry, as timing is perfect: Fashion Week falls two weeks before the opening of the Lincoln Center's season heavy hitters (The Metropolitan, NYCO, NY Philharmonic, Carnegie, New York City Ballet, etc...) so you don't have to fret about finding room among the fashion crowds for pre-theater drinks at Bar Boulud or Jean-Georges.

 

Kate the Great + Ken the Great = Great x Great!

Ken Howard's photo of American mezzo Kate Aldrich as Carmen is flawless with bewbage. Kate prepares to sing her last NYC Carmen performance on Saturday at the Metropolitan Opera against Jonas Kaufmann's Don José. Aldrich took over the role after Angela Gheorghiu canceled, the Romanian soprano stating that she was unprepared. Or the dog ate my music score. Or the dog ate my vocal cords.

Click the link below for a close up!

Opera For The People: Bocelli Goes to the World Cup

 

Andrea Bocelli to headline 'Grand Finale' concert at soccer World Cup.

 

Sing For Hope, Play For Hope in 88 Ways

NYC non-profit arts organization, Sing for Hope, hosts an upcoming summer initiative called Play Me, I'm Yours. Play Me brings 60 pianos to the streets of NYC in an arts campaign disguised as a happening, which had success last year in London, São Paulo, Bristol, Birmingham, and Sydney. The pianos arrive to various locationns throughout NYC's five boroughs on June 21 but will be gone on July 5. Baritone Nathan Gunn is participating, in good company with board members Placido Domingo and Renée Fleming. We're not sure that it would work (for lots of reasons) in Milan, but OC would be all over it.  

Internazionale FC Goes to the Champions League Final

Barcelona undone by 10-man Inter and Mourinho.

Internazionale Fc loses 0-1 in Barcelona and moves on to Champions League Final (Inter had won 3-1 the first leg in Milan a week ago, and it makes it 3-2 on aggregate). The final will be played in Madrid, May 22, vs Bayern Munich.

DJ Giorgio Armani Rocks Dubai

 

Il Sole 24 Ore's fashion correspondent, Paola Bottelli, whose blog is indispensable reading for all things fashion-related, snapped and just posted the (above) amazing photo of Giorgio Armani as mixmaster, DJ'ing at last night's party in Dubai for Armani's new luxury hotel. 

Nude Bolle? No Photography Allowed (Also, Soccer Players Go To The Ballet)

 

Corriere della Sera reports last night's triumph -- the paper calls it a "frenzy" -- in Naples, at Teatro San Carlo, for Roberto Bolle's "Giselle".

Due to the dancer's full frontal nudity, no photography was allowed in the opera house -- no press photographers were present -- and the policy was also strictly enforced among the audience.

It's also interesting to note that two professional soccer players -- goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis and wingback Erminio Rullo, both from the local major league team, Napoli -- were present at the gala.  

Which makes one think about how many NFL or MLB players routinely hang out at the ballet in the US.

Callas and Opera for the People

The skirt that is covered in the dreams you dare to dream. Promoting The Opera Show [audio warning!], the photo above (from Io Donna) gets creative with Maria Callas' legacy.

 

Opera Chic Exclusive: Fabio Luisi To Be Named New Principal Guest Conductor of The Metropolitan Opera

OPERA CHIC EXCLUSIVE, PLEASE CREDIT OPERACHIC.COM

 

Italian conductor Fabio Luisi will soon be officially named Principal Guest Conductor of NYC's Metropolitan Opera: his contract will go from 2010/11 through 2012/13.

 

*** update ***

 

The New York Times confirms that this is indeed the case.

 

*** update #2 ***

 

From The Metropolitan Opera press office at 5pm, April 27:

Fabio Luisi will become Principal Guest Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, the company’s General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine announced today. The Italian maestro, who made his Met debut in 2005 with Don Carlo, will take up the post beginning with the 2010-11 season. [...] In the 2010-11 season, the Italian maestro will return for Ariadne auf Naxos and Rigoletto. Luisi is only the second principal guest conductor in Met history, following Valery Gergiev who held the position from 1998 to 2008.

 

“It is a great honor for me to work with the Metropolitan Opera continuously in the coming years,” said Luisi. “Everything in this company meets the highest artistic standards: music staff, chorus, technical department, stage directors, and the Met Orchestra – one of the very best orchestras in the world – with which I enjoy every minute that we make music together.”

Full Frontal Bolle

 

Tonight at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Roberto Bolle will appear completely naked in Mats Ek's "Giselle".

Juan Diego Flórez Fix

It's been way too long since we've posted about JDF, so here's a nice photo of the Peruvian tenor with Jesus Lopez Cobos in Madrid. He's currently at Teatro Real singing Arturo in Bellini's I Puritani, which opens in a couple days.

 

A Streetcar Named Placido

He's once, twice, three times a Domingo. Sette ran a small piece on ~Christus Domingus~ in praise of his multi-tasking: as a singer, a conductor, and a talent agent. Placido Domingo is currently judging in his Operalia competition, which is taking place for the first time in Italy, right now at La Scala. The ten finalists will sing it out in a final concert on May 2 at Scala.

Milan has accomodated Domingo fever with Operalia signs posted in the windows of Milan's smaller shops. Even sides of trams have been slapped with Operalia posters, which is rare for Italy's understated PR approaches.

 

 

Italian Ballerina Eleonora Abbagnato, Onstage Even When She's Offstage

 

Prima Ballerina at Opéra Garnier for almost a decade, the 31-year-old ballerina from Palermo turns heads when she's offstage as much as when she's on. She wraps her pilates-sculpted body(that she trains 7 hours a day) in D&G, Cavalli, and Valentino. She lives in Montmartre and counts French Garmier colleague, Benjamin Pech, as her best friend. She's redefining what it means to be a ballerina secks symbol, exploring a new age from the retired Italian pros, Carla Fracci and Alessandra Ferri.

Eleonora's also tried out acting (three years ago she appeared on RaiUno's reality show "Dancing with the Stars") and writing (her book "Un angelo sulle punte" came out last year), so it comes as no surprise to find the ballerina in a fashion shoot from a few months ago.   

 

Click to see more photos from the photo spread

Scala Embraces Brand Marketing in Milan: Piermarini Pop-up Shops

La Scala's stepped-up their game and have put in strategically located pop-up shops around Milan. We found the Scala merchandise in a few locations around the city, hoping to corner some of Milan's Spring (and Salone del Mobile's) tourists: In the gift shop of La Triennale, Milan's huge museum space that hosts traveling art and design exhibitions (photos below) and at Rinascente's basement Design Supermarket. Welcome to the 21st century. Now buy a Medea candle.

~*~

(Medea candle!)

Click the link below to see the display (with Callas) from Rinascente...

Milan's Mayor Says Yes To 150 Trees For Downtown (Abbado & Piano Wanted 3,500); Coca-Cola Ready To Pitch In

Letizia Moratti, Milan's Mayor already said on the record (see video above) that she thinks Renzo Piano's and Claudio Abbado's project to plant more trees in downtown Milan is too expensive. Despite city hall's opposition to the project, though, Corriere della Sera reports today that some corporate sponsors -- Coca Cola is ready to pitch in, for example -- are trying to find the necessary 10 million euros.

The mayor would approve a much smaller plan for Milan's downtown (from the cathedral square, Piazza Duomo, to the Castello Sforzesco): 150 trees instead of the 3,500 in Piano's detailed plan (see drawing below).

Lame?

Lame.

What About David McVicar's Aida? "It Looks A Little Like Stargate", Marcelo Alvarez Helpfully Explains. Oh, And He Doesn't Really Like Opera Blogs

One of the many reasons why we love Marcelo? Dude has a way with words:

“I’m very engaged with the production,” Alvarez announces, explaining that this Aïda is no “earthy” Egypt but a mix of evocative ancient traditions: Aztec Mexico, Ancient Greece and samurai warriors. “It looks a little like Stargate [the sci-fi TV series],” he beams.

Oh and he also thinks opera blogs are the cancer of the opera world!

Lame, Lame, Lame: Milan City Government Sinks the Claudio Abbado / Renzo Piano Plan To Plant More Trees

 

Trees -- as Reynaldo Arenas wrote -- have a secret life that is only revealed to those willing to climb them. Italo Calvino knew that, too.

That's why it was so thrilling that Claudio Abbado had requested that thousands of trees be planted in Milan, his native city, before he came to conduct, again, at la Scala (he'll appear at the opera house in June to conduct Mahler's Second Symphony). And how cool was it that Renzo Piano himself had dreamed up a plan to make Milan much greener?

Sadly, Milan's city government has very lamely decided that the Abbado-Piano plan is apparently too expensive, and it has therefore been sunk, as Corriere della Sera reports today.

Renzo Piano explained today in the Milanese paper how his plan would have changed the city, made it better, gentler, not simply greener. "Peccato", is the final word of Piano's essay -- it's a pity.

But it's more than that -- it's a shame, really. Shame shame shame.

Inter 3 - Barçelona 1

 
"Milito outshines Messi as Inter wins big"

ie, the fresh prince of Milan strikes again.

More Video Diaries from Scala Das Rheingold Director Guy Cassiers

Belgian director Guy Cassiers published two more of his video diaries as he prepares for the May 13 opening of Das Rheingoldat La Scala. Now with even more René Pape!

Chris Cunningham, Classical Music Fan

Chris Cunningham is the dude who (warning: scary link) seriously creeped us out with the videos he made for (the following link is very NSFW, Not Safe For Work) Aphex Twin and Portishead and Bjork and his -- also creepy -- Sony ads.

But what he really likes to listen to, is classical music:

These days, his tastes run more to Bartók, Ligeti, Varèse and Debussy.

Opera Chic for W Magazine's Editors' Blog: Top Ten from Salone del Mobile

Opera Chic reports for W Magazine's Editors' Blog on the top ten objects that caught her eye during Milan's Furniture Fair, Salone del Mobile.

~**Go here for the goods!**~ 

Madga Olivero's Birthday Party In Torino

Magda Olivero lives in Milan, not far away from la Scala.

She, as we know, turned 100-years-old on March 25th, and was honored on Saturday night in Torino for her long career (which began in 1932 on the radio), at a sweet birthday party organized and hosted by Teatro Regio. She will soon be presented with honorary citizenship to the city (she was born not far away from Turin, in the region of Piedmont). 

Although Torino's Regio has only a fraction of the funding that La Scala flaunts and wasn't exactly the opera theater in which la Magda sang at through much of her career (that instead was done at La Scala), Teatro Regio di Torino did the right thing and celebrated the soprano with a huge turnout. That's the textbook definition of a class act.

Henze on Auden: “You can’t expect me to talk about Auden with dry lips!”

Hans Werner Henze, the greatest living composer, just talked with the Times of London about Elegy For Young Lovers, WH Auden, and other cool topics:

“Originally we imagined Mittenhofer as an actor,” Henze says. “But Auden pointed out that an actor is just some poor bastard who learns lines. There’s not much creativity there. ‘We need a creative artist,’ he said, ‘to make the moral of our story as terrible and dramatic as it needs to be’.” And the moral is? “That it’s a mistake to look up to creative geniuses as if they are heroes or gods,” Henze replies. “As often as not they are horrible people who inflict terrible things on other people.”

But is it possible to be a creative genius and yet also behave decently? Doesn’t the making of great art require uncompromising, single-minded selfishness? Henze shakes his head sadly. “I’ve always believed that it must be possible to create art without ruining people’s lives.”

Placido & Barenboim's Big Simon Booo-canegra: Corriere Weighs In

From yesterday's Corriere della Sera, Milan's daily newspaper: "Piermarini: contestato Barenboim, Applausi (e "buu") a Domingo".

"Piermarini [La Scala]: Contested Barenboim, Applause (and boos) at Domingo"

Some boos welcomed Placido Domingo, yesterday night at the premiere of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra: at his entrance to the stage and at the end of the third act. At the end of the opera, however, the tenor, here in the role of the baritone, had returned to the stage only 45 days after an operation on his colon, and was welcomed with applause that lasted around 14 minutes and some isolated boos. Many of the protesters there instead reserved most of their booing for the conductor, Daniel Barenboim, and also some for the director, Federico Tiezzi, not only at the end of the performance, but also at the entrance after the intermission, where there was an exchange of insults (culminating in an unusually heard "Vaff..." between the detractors and an advocate from the audience.

All translations from OC tia.