Opera Chic

Opera Chic and Grazia.it: Giuseppe Albanese Rocks Out to Franz Liszt

Even in a city like Milan that embraces style and fashion so eagerly, not many piano soloists would have the ballz to show up for their concerts with fashion-forward accessories. Italians also take their great composers and musical legacies quite seriously -- you just need to spend a particularly thorny night in La Scala's boo-heaving loggione to understand the passion and the blood-sport that classical music can quickly become. So only a pianist as cool, practiced, and prepared as Giuseppe Albanese could do it with such finesse -- the young Italian pianist took the stage on a sweltering Sunday night at Milan's Teatro degli Arcimboldi in bright red Versace shoes sourced at the Via Montenapoleone Versace boutique...we always melt at even the smallest sythesis of classical music and fashion.

Those red men's shoes (pianist's legs attached) made a good Hungry-Man tv dinner meal of Liszt's Concerto No.1 with Milan's l'Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali.

Read all about it here (in Italian, guys!) although OC will be adding Albanese's quotes in English when she gets back from Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's sweetly-campy L'Italiana in Algeri premiere tonight at Teatro alla Scala because what he said in an interview to OC for Grazia.it pretty much rocked -- like how only Liszt can rock a block party 'til our hair turns gray. 

Versace To Dress Internazionale FC

Donatella Versace, a famous Internazionale FC fan, will from now on dress the (world champion!) soccer team -- this is great news even if Opera Chic likes her Inter players the most when they're shirtless.

Above, the Versace sketch for the new Internazionale FC suit:

 

Bach & Turnage & Farnsworth

Rupert Christiansen on baritone Marcus Farnsworth's two faces:

Marcus Farnsworth, 27, has a hard double act coming up this month, simultaneously rehearsing for both Bach’s sublime solo cantata Ich habe genug and the role of the violent East End punk Eddy in Greek, Mark Anthony Turnage’s abrasive updated version of the Oedipus story.

 

Royal Danish Ballet's Nikolaj Hübbe Photographed by Ethan Levitas for "The New Yorker"

All hail the impressively cool Artistic Director for the Royal Danish Ballet -- who has been photographed by Ethan Levitas for The New Yorker -- the image appears in the July 4 issue to illustrate a Joan Acocella piece and it's worth buying the magazine just for that.

Callas Holds Court

Bearing Witness to 9/11 with the New York Philharmonic

From Daniel J. Wakin comes the New York Philharmonic's announcement for a special memorial concert in remembrance of September 11, 2001. This year's memorial will mark the 10th anniversary of the traumatic terror attack on the World Trade Center and the NYPhil is the first of NYC's cultural orgs to make an announcement.

A free performance of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony will be held at Avery Fisher Hall with soprano Dorothea Röschmann and mezzo Michelle DeYoung. The September 10th evening concert will be broadcast on the radio and on screens in Lincoln Center Plaza. 

We only hope that seats will first go to those who were involved directly in the aftermath of the trauma of September 11.

Fred Steiner (1923-2011), Composer of the "Perry Mason" Theme

Opera Chic has the utmost respect for the men and women who have the gift of creating music that, however popular and simple, is so catchy and effective you can't really forget it, even after decades (one of our talented conductors, Nicola Luisotti, likes to point out that if Beethoven were alive today he would also compose film scores because movie scores are all about effective story-telling with musical means).

It's sad to learn of the passing of a composer of, well, immortal TV themes such as the one for "Perry Mason".  

Variety reports:

Composer Fred Steiner, who wrote the themes for "Perry Mason" and "Rocky and Bullwinkle" and who later became a respected film-music historian and musicologist, died of natural causes Thursday at his home in Ajijic, Mexico. He was 88.

Steiner was Oscar nominated for his contributions to Quincy Jones' 1985 score for "The Color Purple." He also scored, on his own, a handful of features including "Man From Del Rio," "Time Limit," "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre" and "The Sea Gypsies." But it was in television where Steiner made an enduring mark, with memorable scores for seven early-1960s episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and a dozen scores for the original "Star Trek" including such now-classic episodes as "Charlie X," "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "Balance of Terror."

And also:

Steiner's 1974 essay on Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" was the earliest known musicological analysis of a film score, and he earned a Ph.D. in 1981 after writing a dissertation on the life and music of Alfred Newman -- believed to be the first about a film composer to result in a doctorate in musicology in America.

All Day Permanent Red: Katherine Jenkins Recycles

Vital reporting from the Daily Mail:

First Kate Middleton and now Katherine Jenkins is recycling her clothes. The classical star dazzles (again) in a stunning red gown 

 

Terry Gilliam To Direct "Benvenuto Cellini"

Terry Gilliam, recently in New York for Persol's "Magnificent Obsessions" exhibition, has told "Corriere della Sera" that he's going to direct another opera after his "Damnation of Faust".

He chose "Benvenuto Cellini" or, better yet, "Benvenuto Cellini" chose him. TG says he's listening to the Berlioz opera all the time and feels he's this close to the right idea to stage it:

"These days, I listen to 'Benvenuto Cellini', also by Berlioz, all the time, and I just know I'm this close to the right idea to stage this extremely complex opera. But something's still missing and I know it will all come together when I don't expect it, when I'm doing something else, because that's how it works for me: the more I get anxious the more the ideas seem to elude me. I literally lose sleep over this, but the ideas come like this, like an epifania (ed- in Italian) -- that's how they manifest themselves to me.

One only hopes that after learning that the opera has a "Weimar edition", Gilliam doesn't decide to throw Nazis in the mix this time, too.

"The Dancing", by Gerald Stern

Great American poets don't exactly grow on trees and Gerald Stern is one of the greatest -- in a moment of generosity, Amazon.com is offering Stern's latest book of (collected) poems at 90% off

Opera Chic and Grazia Magazine: White Nights in St. Petersburg

Read, in Italian, about OC's adventures in St. Petersburg last week with Valery Gergiev and Montblanc. Go on. You know you want to...

Alagna's O souverain, ô juge, ô père

During the scramble of Men's Fashion Week, we'll leave you with some Alagna salve -- he's magic! Here's Roberto from Opéra Marseilles where he's currently singing Rodrigue in Massenet's Le Cid through June 26 with the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra and Jacques Lacombe.

Champagne Wishes & Caviar Dreams: Montblanc and Gergiev's White Nights Festival

 

OC just returned to Milan from a whirlwind, Northern Lights-trippingly fabulous adventure in St. Petersburg and you didn't -- unless you did -- then we must have toasted beguilingly over glasses of champagne and checked out an ethereal Verdi's Requiem starring Valery Gergiev and this year's young Russian winners of the Montblanc New Voices at the Stars of the White Nights 2011 concert with booming bass Mikhail Petrenko and lyric tenor Sergei Semishkur.

Montblanc's new Haute Joaillerie collection, launched to celebrate the event, competed with the radiance of the Northern Lights that bathe the city during June with an almost 24-hour glow (the photo above OC took on a boat ride around 1am), but a steady flow of dark Russian teas kept us in top form and we'll report back to you with the events. It's well worth the wait as we continue to cocktail-hop our way through Men's Fashion Week, which has just touched-down in Milan and continues for the next couple days. So a 24-hour party welcomes us back from a 24-hour party, and really, what could be better to cure our champagne and caviar hangovers than flourishing cocktails with an international swell of hot, young male models?

Opera Chic and Grazia Magazine: The Maestro's Magic Moves

(Above:Nicola Luisotti shows his emo side. Photo: Brescia and Amisano, Teatro alla Scala)

Opera Chic's latest piece for her weekly column on Grazia.it is up! Last Sunday night at Teatro alla Scala OC dipped in to hear Filarmonica della Scala and Italian maestro Nicola Luisotti for a program of Russian emo hits of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, featuring Georgian pianist Alexander Toradze. 

Go read about it here!

 

John Martin's San Francisco Opera Ring Portraits

(Above: Swedish soprano Nina Stemme by John Martin)

It's only fitting that in a city as cool as San Francisco you'd have an opera super who devotes his off-stage career to even cooler things. Putting the super into super, San Francisco Opera Supernumerary John Martin shares his intimate portraits of the SFO's Wagner Ring headliners, currently running at the War Memorial Opera House.

San Francisco Opera's Ring Cycle opened a couple weeks ago on May 29th with Siegfried, followed by Götterdämmerung. Last night, Das Rheingold premiered to be followed-up by tonight's Die Walküre, one of the Ring operas that we have a sweet spot for.

Donald Runnicles conducts the Francesca Zambello production, in co-production with Washington National Opera. Brünnhilde is sung by Nina Stemme, Wotan by Mark Delavan, Sieglinde by Anja Kampe, and Siegmund by Brandon Jovanovich.

(Above: Amelia Earhart's got nothing on the Valkyrie sisters -- photo by John Martin)

Not Your Grandfather's Steinway

Can you imagine Dinu Lipatti spraying graffiti all over his piano? Yeah, me neither.

Here's Alicia Keys -- rocking custom made Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci, and De Beers bling -- at her “Piano & I” concert in Paris.

Moschino for the English National Ballet

If you happen to catch the awesomely cheeky, effortlessly chic creative director of Moschino, Rossella Jardini, strolling down via della Spiga or in the basement of piazza Cinque Giornate Coin's Eataly, stocking-up on sweet glass pots of bio yogurt and sparkling Lurisia water, make sure to thank her for collaborating with the English National Ballet's fundraiser. 

The sixty-one-year-old London ballet company will throw an outdoor fundraiser gala on June 29 at the 18th century Orangery at Kensington Palace and Signora Jardini's among one of the fashion black belts to contribute her creativity and genius to the occasion.

The Italian fashion designer has created for ENB principal dancer Fernanda Oliveira a black tutu covered in mother-of-pearl buttons, hearts, and flowers (below) to wear during the fund-raising gala.

Villazón Babysits Damrau's Bebbe in Japan

(Photo: Lee Abrahamian/Met Opera)

Out of the 350 travelling members of The Metropolitan Opera (which includes singers, orchestra, chorus, ballet, and staff) it's Diana Damrau’s eight-month-old son Alexander that is the biggest star of the company's current Japan tour. The New York City opera company touched down in Japan on May 30 for three weeks of concerts and operas (Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, and Don Carlo) from June 4 - 19 in Tokyo and Nagoya. It's The Met's seventh Japan tour, and this year is chaperoned by Italian conducting super-powers Fabio Luisi and Gianandrea Noseda.

Soprano Marina Poplavskaya, tenor Marcelo Álvarez, tenor Rolando Villazón, and tenor Alexey Dolgov all came to the resque of the casting department when Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja pulled out of the tour at the last minute, citing radiation fears despite the all-clear from a team of scientists.

Other principals on the tour are Diana Damrau, Barbara Frittoli, Ildar Abdrazakov, Piotr Beczala, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Mariusz Kwiecien, Yonghoon Lee, Željko Lučić, and René Pape.

Follow The Met's Japan tour through photo here and here!

"Ballerinas, Moscow, 1956", by Peter Bock-Schroeder

"Ballerinas, Moscow, 1956". Unique vintage print, Agfacolor, 5.7 x 5.7 cm.

(©Peter Bock-Schroeder/The Estate of Peter Bock-Schroeder/Courtesy of Galerie RTR).

"Going East" is at the Galerie RTR, Paris until 2 July 2011.

(via)

 

Made in Italy x Made in Italy: Tod's & Teatro alla Scala

This afternoon between rainstorms at Teatro alla Scala in Rodotto Toscanini under the bemused, bronzed bust of Giacomo Puccini, La Scala Intendant Stéphane Lissner and Chairman/Prez of Tod's Diego Della Valle were in high spirits for good reason: the lux, Italian moccasin-maker pledged 5.2 million euros (almost $8 million freedom bux) to back La Scala's cultural and youth initiatives, gaining permanent donor status up there with La Scala's eight current, corporate sponsors.

Tod's initiatives are far from the cultural fringe, having recently poured 25 million euros to help restore Rome's crumbling, pollution-stained Colosseum. Della Valle finds it a moral obligation to support his fellow Italian landmarks and institutions, but mostly it's a positive sign for an opera house that has struggled to find donors in the past.

It's not the first time the two Italian heavyweights have collaborated. Back in September 2010 during Women's Fashion Week, Tod's hosted a Milan cocktail to toast the marriage of Made in Italy luxury with Made in Italy culture. "An Italian Dream" was a 5-minute, tightly-choreographed commercial that featured La Scala's corpo di ballo wearing Tod's new suede (ballet-inspired) shoes. Opera Chic was there!

"There Is Only Joy": Rupert Christiansen on Pavarotti

If you're a Pavarotti fan and you're in the UK, the new Daily Telegraph promotion seems pretty cool -- it's always a good day to listen to Pavarotti.

And, we also get a nice Rupert Christiansen riff on Big Luciano: 

His art doesn’t belong exclusively to the operatic cognoscenti: like his great predecessors Caruso, Gigli, Lanza and Björling, he had what used to be called “the common touch” – a simple generosity and open charm that appealed to anyone with music in their heart.

Let’s not be sentimental about this. Pavarotti didn’t have all the gifts. Nobody could pretend he was a great actor, nor was he the most subtle of interpreters. He lacked Domingo’s incredible versatility and intelligence. I would even say that for sheer beauty of sound, his voice doesn’t match either that of the young Giuseppe di Stefano or the young José Carreras.

But Pavarotti was a natural, with a genius for the music of his native Italy. To the elegant bel canto of Bellini and Donizetti, the high romantic operas of Verdi, the lush melancholy melodies of Puccini or the insouciance of Neapolitan song, he brought a voice of perfect focus and clarion purity, crisply and effortlessly articulated. There’s no effort in his singing at its best; there is only joy, and a sense of it being the easiest thing in the world (which it certainly isn’t).

 

"Daphne Guinness: Undressed" (aka, "the coolest woman in the world")

Daphne Guinness: Undressed on Nowness.com.

Opera Chic and Grazia Magazine: OC Parties at Hamburg's Art Scene

(Lang Lang doing his thang thang. Photo: Montblanc)

OC's latest piece is up at Grazia.it and if you can read Italian or want to practice your Italian skillz (or if you know how to use Google Translate HA!), you should definitely check it out here.

But we'll clue you in: Last week, OC was partying in Hamburg (no, not at Thessa's Facebook party!) with Montblanc for a black tie dinner to toast the city's art scene. It was held in the industrial, steel and glass exhibition space of the Deichtorhallen Hamburg where Montblanc fêted one of its twelve winners of this year's Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award.

Keep reading the party report, including a private concert from Lang Lang!

The Link-Up: Thielemann Takes Over Salzburg

"The Dresden State Orchestra will partner the Salzburg Easter Festival, organisers said Tuesday, after Berlin's Philharmonic Orchestra ended its 45-year association with the event".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opera Chic and Grazia Magazine: Vittorio Grigolo's Love Lessons

(Photo: Rada Film/ Cristiano Gigliano)

Charles Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" opens on Monday night at La Scala in Bartlett Sher's 2008 Salzburger Festspiele production -- another remix of William Shakespeare's timeless story that's broken our hearts since we first read it as teenagers. The Elizabethan playwright's star-crossed lovers are sung by Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo and Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze (with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting), a young triptych of fresh talent for Milan's il Piermarini.

For our latest piece on Grazia.it, we asked the young Arezzo-born heart-throb about his love lessons, which you can read here.