Opera Chic

These Two Again: The Official Video

The King's Beethoven

Best use of Beethoven's music in a major motion picture for the year 2010?

"The King's Speech".

The countdown begins -- four blinks of a red light followed by steady red. Bertie's fear is agonizing to watch.

And then this: As Firth struggles at first, we hear the ominous chugging of musical chords. Moments later, the calm, gentle Allegretto of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony spreads over the pulsing rhythm. The melody is smooth, unruffled, an aural metaphor for Bertie's aspirations.

With Logue silently prompting him through the difficult spots, the sweet, melancholic music unfolds, building in intensity, then subsiding, lasting exactly as long as the speech.

Bach To Basics: "Zanaida"

Bach archives, Zwickau, Germany: an original score of the Johann Christian Bach opera 'Zanaida'. Known to be lost for a long time, the rediscovered opera will be staged for the first time in 250 years @ the Bach Festival (June 11-20) in Leipzig, download the program in pdf here. The score is part of the Elias N. Kulukundis collection and will remain in Germany for 10 years (an exhibition is planned for 2012). (ph. EPA)

Dessay's Madeleines

Natalie Dessay likes Streisand, Rattle, Netrebko, Hunt-Lieberson, Yun Sun Nah, Brahms, et al..

More on Olivier Bellamy's blog.

Rene Pape Will Scare Your Pants Off

Pape in L.A.:

The Chandler has poor bass acoustics, and Pape programmed none of the Wagner or Mussorgsky in which he excels. Instead, an imposing opera star offered intimate songs by Schubert, Hugo Wolf and Schumann in a room and with a voice seemingly far too large for them.

All bets, it turned out, were off.

 

The Golden Globes Go To The Ballet: Best Dramatic Actress, Natalie Portman for "Black Swan"

Natalie Portman won her Golden Globe wearing Viktor & Rolf (ph. AFP)

Death in Venice, Cancellation in Milan

From La Scala's website, Ian Bostridge has pulled out of his Death in Venice performances scheduled for this March.

Roberto Bolle and Beatrice Carbone @ Mariano Vivanco's "Uomini" Party

 

Roberto Bolle & Beatrice Carbone showed up last night at the Dolce&Gabbana store on Corso Venezia to enhance the hotness factor of the opening for the photo exhibit "Uomini" by Mariano Vivanco -- all black and white images of seriously handsome models, "a celebration of male nudity" -- in the book there's also a special appearence by Tony Ward's privates (in full page close-up, we'd scan the page but it'd be very NSFW). Some images, mostly tame and safe for work, are here.

Sadly, Bolle appeared at the party but he's not part of the "Uomini" book itself; just go back to the classic Bruce Weber book if you're jonesing for moah Bolle.

Slaves To Love: Dolce & Gabbana's Bryan Ferry Moment

Just off Milan's runways -- Dolce & Gabbana's new collection "Eccentric Tailoring" inspired by Bryan Ferry's cucumberrifically cool style was introduced to the public with the great man himself present -- Sir Bryan (honor hereby bestowed by OC) perennially stylish. Fuller shoulders, shorter jackets, slim low-crotch pants, chunky shoes and a general air of eccentric coolness. Ferry received a (rare for a guest to a runway show) ovation -- also present was Roberto Bolle and Anna Dello Russo (in a tuxedo!) to enhance the awesomeness.

Full show embedded here, more images after the cut:

 

Breakfast At Netrebko's

The New York Times has breakfast at Anna's (and Erwin's and Tiago's):

I am energetic as soon as I get up, and immediately I’m cooking breakfast because I want to eat! I make kasha for my son; it’s like oatmeal with milk. I have my Starbucks coffee with sugar and milk, and then I make eggs. I can make eggs 15 different ways. With tomato. With cheese. I like to put cheese on the bread and toast it in the oven. Nothing sweet in the morning unless my husband is here; then he’s the chef, and he makes a big breakfast, and it’s very dangerous for me because I’m trying to stay in shape.

Bayreuth, Texas: The Ring According To Wenders

Opera Chic is not losing sleep over the "will Wenders take the Bayreuth gig or won't he?" thing.

She only wishes he'd set it in Texas & cast Harry Dean Stanton as a sad, weather-beaten Wotan

Nastassja as Brunnhilde would be pretty cool, too.

Matthew Bourne on "Black Swan": "You Either Love It Or Hate It: I Was On The Side Of Loving It"

Today's "The Times", behind a paywall, has a nice review by Matthew Bourne of "Black Swan" -- despite the negative, misleading headline (it's a Murdoch paper after all), Bourne liked it:

"Black Swan goes to a surreal place with those dreamlike elements. You either love it or hate it; I was on the side of loving it".

Read more by clicking below and clicking on the photo [ your browser must allow pop-ups, at least for this site ]; you also get as a bonus Portman's photo for Miss Dior Chérie...

Chiara Muti Photographed By Paolo Roversi For Vogue Italia Beauty

Dress by Lanvin.

Timeo Danaos, Etc: Les Troyens in Warsaw, With Stormtroopers

Images from a dress rehearsal of the "Les Troyens" conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Carlus Padrissa at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw (Reuters/Kacper Pempel)

THIS JUST IN: Alvarez Out Of Tonight's Met TOSCA, To Be Replaced By Roberto Alagna

Another Metropolitan Opera Debut for Radvanovsky

Chicago native soprano Sondra Radvanovsky made her Metropolitan Opera re-debut earlier today in NYC, this time as host of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West for the live HD broadcast. The Met's Fanciulla revival stars Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani and Nicola Luisotti conducting, which commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the opera's 1910 World Premiere at The Met.

That girl's got some ~true grit~ taking on hosting duties -- she'll be back at The Met on Monday singing the premiere of Tosca!

 

 

Charlotte Church Curses to Esquire

(Photos by Chris Heads)

Charlotte Church only came here to do two things: curse like a sailor and drink beer -- and it looks like she's all out of beer. The 24-year-old Welsh singer is featured in American men's magazine Esquire this month in an article called, "You're Just Angry Because You've Got Sucha A Small One" that burned people left and right. The recently separated (from her rugby player Gavin Henson) mother of two "Welsh pocket rocket" revealed that she she buys all her lingerie online (who does that?!) and loves Christian Louboutins (who doesn't?) She also inferred that The Queen is senile, Tony Blair's a pervert, George Bush is an idiot, and Simon Cowell's a charlatan. What? We'll bet that all of that came out wrong. You can read a few highlights here.

The rest of the scans are under the cut!

The King (of the LA Phil) and The Queen (Latifah) on Jay Leno

Queen Latifah and the King of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, on Jan Leno's The Tonight Show.

Josh Groban Sings Kanye West's Tweets

(Photo: NY Daily News)

Yo Groban, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish. Monday night's Jimmy Kimmel Live featured Josh Gro-BAHN in the performance of a lifetime. Groban set Kanye West's non sequitur tweets (Classical music is tight yo, I make awesome decisions in bike stores, French fries are the devil, etc.) to piano in a fake CD compilation called, "Josh Groban's The Best Tweets of Kanye West." This one's got Grammy written all over it. Go for the gold.

(OC follows OMGosh's tweets, but a big thanks to an awesome reader in San Francisco!)

Opera News Essentials -- Essential Opera Blogger

From Opera News' Essentials now on Opera News

Placido Domingo in Portrait -- Julian Schnabel, 2008

From the January 2011 French Photo magazine, Placido Domingo stands among living legends Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken, and Lou Reed in a stunning 2008 polaroid by Julian Schnabel in his Simon Boccanegra gear. 

\m/ metal \m/ Placidone's portrait is 1000000000000 times sicker when listening to Queen's Flash Gordon Battle Theme (below). We can't believe it's 2011 and no one has written a Flash Gordon opera yet. C'mon.

The portrait was taken from here:

On Friday, using a giant, dolly-mounted Polaroid camera from the ’70s, Mr. Schnabel took the B-list actor Mickey Rourke’s photograph for a forthcoming Village Voice article about his new film, “The Wrestler.” And then he painted Plácido Domingo.

Katharina Wagner's Meistersinger on DVD

Opera Chic has always thought that Meistersinger -- regardless of its creator's intentions -- is a hilarious comedy of Monty Pythonesque proportions.

The Katharina Wagner staging of it can only confirm OC's hypothesis -- and it's now available on DVD (UK link here).

Click for more!

Lang Lang Plays With His Food

What do you when you're basking in global $pon$or$hip$ from the world's most recognizable corporations/institutions (Sony, Adidas, Steinway, Aegon, Audi, Versace, Mont Blanc, ad nauseum)? You do whatever the f**k you want! You wanna put an apple on the piano and roll it around the keys? Go for it.

Lang Lang plays with his food while recording the soundtrack for Sony's racing game, Gran Turismo 5. If this leads to a sponsorship from Apple, Lang Lang's current status will be upgraded from player to baller. Fast forward to second 0:43 for Lang(x2)'s apple antics.

Lang Lang plays works by Chopin, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Beethoven for Gran Turismo's soundtrack. Here's what piano looks like under the influence of The Fast and The Furious:

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino's Sea of Red Ink: - € 15,000,000

Opera Chic has a soft spot for the wonderful Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (after all, it's in Florence that she spent one of her most memorable nights at the opera).

The glorious institution is sinking in an ocean of red ink, € 15,000,000 (about US$ 20,000,000) are missing.

It got so bad that they just let go their excellent PR chief, who had run the public relations show in Florence for 20 years.

Pete Postlethwaite, 1946-2011

You see actors like Postlethwaite once in a generation, if you're lucky.

Goodbye Mr. Kobayashi .