Opera Chic

Non Più Di Fiori: Salzburg Blooms For Muti's "Orfeo ed Euridice"

All eyez on Salzburger Festspiele tonight as Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" opens: Riccardo Muti at the helm of the production that, coming right after the crazy "Dionysos" by Wolfgang Rihm, is one of the major events of this summer season.

Besides tonight's premiere, the opera will rawk the Grosses Festpielhaus on August 3, 7, 13, 19, 21, 24. On August 15, Muti will flaunt the Wiener in a big Prokofiev concert -- his 200th apparition on the Salzburg stage since his now-famous debut as a young man conducting "Don Pasquale" on Herbie Von K.'s request.

"Orfeo" is directed by Dieter Dorn, sets and costumes by Juergen Rose. The cast: Elisabeth Kulman (Orfeo) Genia Kuehmeier (Euridice), Christiane Karg (Amore). Many more production photos after the jump...

Gustavo Goes To Amoeba

Even this proud New Yorker admits that Amoeba is probably the best record store in America.

And Gustavo Dudamel goes there, too.

Petibon Models Lingerie for Salzburger Festspiele (and Berg's Lulu)

© Salzburger Festspiele / Monika Rittershaus

What is it with Patricia Petibon and scathing Lulus? Remember this? We last saw the French coloratura as an underwhelming Morgana, poorly-suited to Haendel's Alcina here at La Scala in March 2009 as she was heartily booed for a flighty interpretation and a problematic voice. But when Petibon sticks to what suits her, the elegant redhead rocks our world. She's currently in Salzburg, poised to sing the lead in Berg's Lulu which opens on August 1 for the 2010 Salzburger Festspiele.

Vera Nemirova's direction calls for Lulu to be in lingerie, but this is ridic -- underwear 2 sizes too small makes her banging body look like she sits in a dark room in front of a computer and posts on an opera blog all day. Wait a sec...

NSFW photos are waiting under the cut for the assorted Puritans up in here...

Living it up at the Hotel Zeffirelli

 

Lenny stayed there. And Callas & Diaghilev (Liza Minelli & Elton John, too). Franco Zeffirelli's exclusive Positano seafront villa, la Villa Tre Ville, was once a revolving door of fabulousness. Now it's your turn...
 
Welcome to Hotel Frengo. Thirteen rooms, some still in Frengo's original interior design (the Zeffirelli Suite boasts many of his books and furniture bought in Syria). There's also the Traviata Suite, the Bernstein Suit, and the Callas Suite. Frengo opens his home as a B&B (on crack) for a lucky few if you can line up the funds: Prices range from 1,100 euro-a-night to 5,000.00/night.

The estate is comprised of three separate villas, perched on a mountainside overlooking Positano with views of the Amalfi Coast via 800 feet of shoreline. The full realtor's description is here.

Frengo sold the Villa in 2007 so these days you can find him entertaining his guests at his house in Rome.

Renée Fleming: The Grace Kelly of Opera (also "La Regina del Metropolitan")

 

Renée Fleming gave a big-a$$ interview to Corriere della Sera the other day (online here). "Renée Fleming, la Grace Kelly della lirica" and "La regina del Metropolitan" is how the American soprano was described -- couched as an iconic figure that Hitchcock would have loved: "Blond and sweet, the face of an angel with an icy glance, markedly elegant in the most fabulous clothes with an intense sensuality hidden behind aristocratic mannerisms." Curtsey to the Queen, plebs!

She spoke about her latest CD, Dark Hope, and some of her past roles. She remembers her La Scala premiere in 1993 as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni which exited to great applause. But in 1996 she returned to boos for Lucrezia Borgia. What does she have to say about that: "Yeah, it was lame, but at La Scala, you know, that's what happens. They even booed Pavarotti. La Scala is a special theater, it's a temple of opera. Opera is like a sporting event, complete wtih the rallying fans on each side. To make sure that the incident it wasn't going to give me a complex, I came back as soon as I could -- 7 months later -- and it was a triumph." 

And of the voice that her fans love so much? "It's a gift and a mystery, no one knows when it will go or when it will leave you. To sing is always a risk, at every age. But it's this fact which makes singing so exciting."

Renée is back in Italy, performing tonight in a Gala at Torre del Lago's Puccini Festival, a warm-up for a second Gala performance at Cortona's Tuscan Sun Festival. 

Hans Zimmer's Spooky Grandeur: "Inception"

 

Inception, the movie that makes this Summer almost worth living through -- almost -- has many cool things going on for it. Christoper Nolan's intoxicating love for cinema -- his characters always dream mashed-up film frames, from 2001 to Shining to La Jetée to silly James Bond movies; the little cruel visual jokes -- all reality is eventually unreliable because cinema is always more real anyway; the fact that Nolan is probably the only man in Hollywood, with the exception of Gore Vidal, who's read Calvino, and gawd bless him for it; Leonardo DiCaprio's successful attempts at hiding his double chin (we still <3 you Leo).

But one of the things that fascinated Opera Chic the most was the spooky grandeur of Hans Zimmer's score.

Maestro Zimmer just spoke to the Los Angeles Times: and while in the process of singing an ode to, well, Johnny Marr (forgive Zimmer, he's old), he makes quite a few interesting points:

"Instrumentalists aren’t interchangeable," Zimmer continued. "I’m thinking about Jacqueline du Pre playing Elgar Cello Concerto. There are many great performances, but her performance it that performance. I said to Chris, ‘What about Johnny Marr?’ I was going to ditch it if it wasn’t going to be Johnny."

The fact that Zimmer and Nolan had the balls to recycle "Non, je ne regrette rien" -- quite probably the most lamely overused cliché in the history of music -- as a key plot element and the movie's loopy, bizarre version of the song actually works -- well, it just makes one grateful for the fact that Nolan didn't go into investment banking and chose film directing instead.

Roberto, A Young Gun

 

Twenty three years ago baby-faced Roberto Alagna sang Puccini -- and now it's on YouTube in this vintage clip. He's like the missing Young Gun -- just one more reason why the West was wild. OC would have (*maybe) macked on young Roberto Alagna.

Italian Songstress Dreams Big

 

Italian pop singer Patty Pravo whose been cranking out songs since the 60s told Grazia magazine that her big dream as she gets older is not to open a celebrity restaurant, but to conduct an orchestra. You know, really, anyone can put on a frac and wave around a little stick at a sea of music nerds.

Lucky for us, the lady knows her limits: "Vorrei dirigere un'orchestra. Ho studiato per farlo e vorrei tornare indietro e ricominciare da li. Ma prima avrei bisogno di almeno un anno di studio". "I'd like to conduct an orchestra. I studied how to do it and I'd like to go back and start from there. But first I'd need at least one year of studying."

I think it would be fun to run a newspaper! Weeee! Future conducting stars rejoice! OC's taking off a year to become a conductor -- a great excuse to snort ritalin, brush up on my beer pong skillz, and use my parent's credit cards "for textbooks"!

Come to Where the Wagner is: Bayreuth 2010 Arrivals

Ok, now that Bayreuther Festspiele 2010's long-awaited premiere is over we can get to the best part of the opening: celebrity arrivals. Today we had The Merkel and her ~crazy pants~, Katharina Wagner's Lincoln Hawk Over The Top arms (sadly, no Mariah Carey curlz like she sported last year -- instead we've got awesome Lee press ons). But no matter how many miles of dark roots everyone touched-up or how many layers of spanx everyone sucked themselves into, the Queen of the Ball was André Leon Talley, the fiercest guest in all of Bayreuth -- NAY in all of Germany -- and his lovely date, the Countess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.  

(Above: Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier)

(Above: Angela Merkel makes a statement. Her husband Joachim Sauer is not amused)

Click for more, including ALT...

Rats! Bayreuther Festspiele Debuts Hans Neuenfels' Lohengrin, OC has the Photos!

(Above: Elders. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

Bayreuther Festspiele 2010 is about to get real and OC has exclusive photos of German director Hans Neuenfels' brand new Wanger Lohengrin production. Neuenfels collaborated with Reinhard von der Thannen's costume design for technicolor leads anchored by a rat-suited chorus. Swans, rodents, and Jonas Kaufmann's hair...it's like Wild Kingdom up in Bayreuth. What's not to love? Conductor Andris Nelsons is all over Kaufmann's high profile Bayreuther Festspiele debute and we're all over these photos. Who put the rodents all up in Lohengrin? Our hero, that's who.

(Above: Evelyn Herlitzius as Ortrud and Annette Dasch as Elsa. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

 
(Above: Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Jorg Schulze)

Click the link below for so much more...

Buon Compleanno, Maestro Muti!

Chi-town legend, rockstar, and current Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Riccardo Muti will celebrate his 69th birthday in a few days. The CSO staff and some random Chicagoans show him some birthday love in the video above.

Roberto Bolle Drops in on Kate Moss VF Profile

 

At the salon getting her hair did, OC was cruising through Vanity Fair Italia's edition with Brangelina on the cover, and came across a piece on Kate Moss. Above is obvs the best photo in the feature: the British model in NYC, 2008, with Donald Trump, Roberto Bolle and Zac Posen.   

Annette Dasch Walks it Off in Lohengrin Accident

 

As we wrote in the post below, the Bayreuther Festspiele is gearing-up for their opening night this Sunday with a new production of Wagner's Lohengrin. But in the days before the festival starts, the production is already making headlines: At last night's dress rehearsal as Elsa's Annette Dasch was backstage changing costumes for the final act, the soprano was struck on her head by one of the Parsifal props. Suffering a light concussion, she was unable to finish rehearsals (her cover, Anna Gabler, finished for her still rocking out in her street clothes). It's all good, thankfully, as Dasch will appear in Sunday's opening night.   

Jonas Kaufmann in Bayreuther Festspiele Debut

 

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann will make his Bayreuther Festspiele debut later this week, singing the title role in Hans Neuenfels' new production of Lohengrin. With opening night on July 25, the Wagner opera officially kicks-off the 2010 festival, the 99th edition of the 24/7 Wagner festival.

Andris Nelsons conducts Kaufmann as Lohengrin and Annette Dasch as Elsa. With Wagnerian singing lately at a trickle, can Kaufmann fill the void? He already did last summer in Munich for the Bayerische Staatsoper's opera festival, exiting to fabulous reviews.

German director Hans Neuenfels (below) spoke to the press a few days ago about his highly-anticipated new staging of Wagner's opera, the first new staging that the Festspielhaus has sanctioned in two years, along with the first new production under the leadership of the late Wolfgang Wagner's daughters, Eva and Katharina. We're praying that Katharina styles her Mariah Carey silky p0rn curlz like she did at last year's opening night Gala. Guurl, don't let us down!

 

Teddy Tahu Rhodes Does Mozart Down Under

 

 

Tomorrow night opens Sydney Opera House's Le Nozze di Figarowith hawt slab of New Zealand meat pie, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, in his Figaro role debut. Having already mastered the Countin Mozart's opera buffa, his lyric baritone will devour Non piu andrai for dinner. 

(Above: TTR & Taryn Fiebig's Susanna)

(Above: Sian Pendry's Cherubino & TTR)

Angie Rocks Out With Placidone in Madrid

Girl, where've you been? Fresh faced Angela Gheorghiu hung out with Plácido Domingo in Madrid yesterday for a press conference promoting Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Teatro Real hosted opening night this past weekend with Jesús López Cobos conducting Giancarlo del Monaco's production. Tomorrow night, the star-crammed cast takes the rotation: Domingo as lead Boccanegra, Gheorghiu as Amelia, big-a$$ bass Ferruccio Furlanetto as Fiesco, and Marcello Giordani as Adorno. When Angie, Placidone, Furlanetto and Giordani are off doing whatever it is that makes them all so fabulous, this current run of Teatro Real's Boccanegra stars Inva Mula as Amelia, Giacomo Prestia as Fiesco, Fabio Sartori as Adorno, and George Gagnidze as Boccanegra.  

 
Photo: ANSA and AP

Click the link below for one more photo of Angie and Placidone...

Nicoletta Mantovani and her ~Companion~ do not Take Vacation Together

 

A few weeks ago in the Italian press, weekly gossip magazine Chi reported that Nicoletta Mantovani, widow of Luciano Pavarotti for almost three years, was in a new relationship with Filippo Vernassa. Five years Mantovani's junior, Vernassa is the "direttore organizzativo" at Bologna-based Teatro Europa Auditorium, the same city where Mantovani lives and currently serves the local government offices as Councilor of Culture.

Mantovani and Vernassa were seen frequently walking hand-in-hand through the streets of Bologna with daughter Alice, the new couple (seen above) also making an appearance together at a benefit dinner for Mantovani's MS campaigns.

Vernassa's PR is keeping quiet on the manner while Mantovani has said that the two are just friends.

Now Chi publishes some photos of vacationing Nicoletta Mantovani, relaxing in the sun with 7-year-old daughter Alice in Forte dei Marmi, where Mantovani makes it clear that she's vacationing with Alice and her 69-year-old dad, Gianni -- Vernassa wasn't invited.

 

Click the link below for some Mantovani bikini pix!

Whoopi Goldberg as Erda For Life Ball 2010

 

This weekend, Vienna hosted the Life Ball, the city's annual gala to raise funds and awareness for AIDS research. Backed by celebrity power (Liz Hurley, Elton John, Sharon Stone, Bill Clinton, and Dita von Teese), the star that shone the brightest this year was Whoopi Goldberg. Miss Whoopi took over Wiener Rathausplatz, Wagner-style as Erda, accompanied by Bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny.

Orf has the footage here (embedding disabled) so fast-forward to 32:00 to jump right to the performance. Keep listening for a Beethoven's Ninth mash-up followed by a slow as faq presto movement.

 

Chailly In Talks with "one of the great American musical institutions"

 
Uncle Normy, aka Norman Lebrecht, has just interviewed Riccardo Chailly, that sweet big bear of a man, for the BBC

... he has never headed a US orchestra, despite early triumphs in Chicago. But his eyes lit up when I pressed the point and he specified that he was in talks with 'one of the great American musical institutions'.

Should we get him a Red Sox hat already?

"Il Canto degli Italiani": Italy's National Anthem, Conducted by Riccardo Muti

Italians love to hate on Italy's unfortunate national anthem, nicknamed "Fratelli d'Italia" or "L'inno di Mameli" (Goffredo Mameli wrote the lyrics, the music is in fact by forgotten Michele Novaro) so much that many would like to simply replace it with "Va' Pensiero".

Riccardo Muti just conducted the anthem in a benefit concert in Trieste:

Tim Mangan's New Blog: Classical Life

Timothy Mangan, one of America's most insightful music critics, a Paul Bowles scholar, and the last man to interview Carlo Maria Giulini in the English-speaking press, has a new blog, called Classical Life, now that Mangan's paper, The OC Register, unwisely chose to shut down the OC Register's wonderful Arts blog.

Misc. Music from OC's Inbox

(Above: Henry Cotton's' Corso Venezia brass-heavy window)

(Above: an ad for L'espresso with violin-inspired haute couture)

(Above: Swarovsky's "Nabucco", "Tosca" and "Idomeneo" binoculars)

(Above: The head chef of Paris' Hotel Le Meurice talks about the honey that's cultivated on the roof of Paris Opéra: "We even source honey from hives kept on the roof of the Opéra and the Grand Palais -- it is the purest honey you can find because pesticides are completely banned in teh city of Paris." )  

Something Like a Phenomenon: Fenomenale Juan Diego!

 

Third time's a charm for Juan Diego Flórez (check out Opera Chic's exclusive interview with him here): After two* performances of Il Barbiere di Siviglia at La Scala (*#1 was obliterated due to a union strike and #2 was sung by most of the second cast), Flórez's opening night came on July 12 where he took the opera theater by storm with a triumphant Count Almaviva. Like we were expecting anything less?

Milan's newspaper, Corriere della Sera called Flórez "Fenomenale", opening the review: "Flórez is probably the only contemporary singer in the world where it's worth it to buy a ticket to his performances even if the conducting, company, or direction isn't worth the time."

La Scala used a forty-one-year old revival of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's sets, directions, and costumes to welcome the Peruvian tenor who hadn't been back on the Scala stage since a 2008 recital. Phenomenally phenomenal!

Third Annual Danzfest Gala Sets Eleonora Abbagnato in Motion

 

Summer school for ballerinas -- "Danzfest" as it's called in Italy-- kicked off a few nights ago at Cattolica's Teatro della Regina, where Eleonora Abbagnato (above and below) danced with Paris Opera colleague Benjamin Pech to Debussy. Also performing was Silvia Azzoni with Alexabder Riabko and twins Jiri and Otto Bubenicek. Lady in White Carla Fracci will close the event at the end of the month -- not by dancing, but to present the final scholarships for next year's Danzfest event.

 

King of the Podium, King of the Runway

 

"Thundercats Orchestra Conductor line" is what VH1's BWE blog called these photos from Chanel's F/W 2011 Haute Couture Paris show last week, where models walked the runway under Unkle Karl Lagerfeld's eternally-sunglass covered eyes, accompanied by lion-headed male models in white tie and tails (and boots). This is even better than the time that Fabio Luisi conducted in a Pink Panther costume (last video on this page)! We <3 u half-lion half-conductor thundercat!

 

~Click the link below to see more looks from the show~