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Summer reading! What's on your list?
NYC-based fashion label threeasfour makes symphony instruments part of its f-w 2011/12 collection. Hat tip to Anna Yasmin!
The awesome Italian maestro turns 70 today (video via the CSO YouTube channel).
Update: Muti today in Salzburg with Macbeth cast!
Opera jet-setters Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott arrived for the opening night of Salzburger Festspiele in a convertible car that matched Erwin's new haircolor. Too rock'n'roll for a limo!
UPDATE: We just came across a few photos of the duo earlier this month at a fashion show in Berlin. That's what we're talking about.
Ok, we'll admit it -- we're fascinated by legacies. There's something about mitochondria that makes us trill. A couple weeks ago at Grazia.it, we grilled Gabriel, and this week, we're all about one of the van Zweden kids, Anna-Sophia. The young Dutch daugher of Jaap van Zweden has just graduated from the University of Amsterdam and her career beckons. She's got tons of cards up her (sleeveless) Givenchy gown, and we can't wait to see where they fall.
Read about her here on OC's Stasera Esco column for Grazia.it.
Or, if your Italian is lame (lamer!), click the link below for the English translation.
Continue reading "Opera Chic & Grazia.it: Anna-Sophia van Zweden in Profile" »
Wagnerfest officially opened its 100th opera festival today in Bayreuth with a performance of Doogie Howser.
The normally camera-friendly Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina kept a low profile (to the American paps at least). A newly-svelte Katharina shelved the overflowing bewbs and p0rn curlz from the past couple years for a sober look. A suggestion of bewb.
Here she was in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Home girl's called in a stylist and has been passing up the Wiener.
Other guests included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Maria Furtwaengler, Eva Lind, German singer Margot Werner and her husband Jochen Litt, Ulrike Huebner, and Veronica Ferres.
Maria Furtwaengler
German singer Margot Werner and her husband Jochen Litt
Eva Lind
Merkel
Ulrike Huebner
Veronica Ferres
La Repubblica posts a clip (below) of pop violinist Josh Vietti (lol at 2:50's jig dance) "Alzate il volume, il violinista hip-hop vi stupirà" about the West Coast musician. After picking-up the violin at age 4, he combined his musical skills with his love of hip-hop and took it to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica where he performed for pocket change until he was courted by big-time producers. His new CD "Street Violin" combines Kanye and /ugh/ Chris Brown /ugh/ with strings.
The hip-hop violinist genre is expanding, but like Miri Ben-Ari and Paul Dateh (and recently Hahn-Bin), we're behind anything classical that shakes our rump.
Spoiler Alert: Erwin Schrott and Anna Netrebko are in love. Fo'realz.
The Russian soprano and Uruguayan baritone bask in the cover-story spotlight of Corriere della Sera's Io Donna in an article called "Viviamo d'Arte, Viviamo d'Amore" which the "superstar couple of opera" spoke in ways that would make Romeo & Juliet blush, accompanied by pull quotes like (all translations are property of OC kthnxbi):
"The opera that we interpret best? Our love story. Full of jealousy like a melodrama, and full of romantic banquets (if Erwin cooks)"
...and...
"They're gorgeous, bravi and glam: Called the 'Brad and Angelia of Opera' but their feet are on the ground. And in the final hours before their first tour together -- between a kiss or two -- they confess. Playful jokes included."
The article opened with a description of the photo shoot in Paris where the chemistry between the two was described as "sparkling magic", playful as lovesick teenagers (Schrott is 39 and Anna will be 40 in September) to which Anna (described as "today's star of bel canto") responded, "It's our normal life -- this is."
Called "la coppia piu' bella dell'Opera" where "mi amor" was batted between the two, they held nothing back, including their sex life (sex-havers having sex):
Russian, English, Spanish -- What's the language you guys speak?
Erwin: We speak in English with a bit of Russian and a bit of Spanish.
Anna: To Tiago I speak Russian and Erwin speaks Spanish.
In moments of love?
Erwin: Spanish, naturally.
You live in both Vienna and New York, but where is home?
Erwin: Wherever she is.
Anna: Wherever he is.
And Anna spoke about her curves:
You guys are the proof that vocal force doesn't depend on big bodies. Anna, they define you as "Audrey Hepburn with a voice" like that which Callas aspired to.
Anna: No no, i'm the opposite of Callas. Callas wanted to become Hepburn after she was robust. Fifteen years ago I was a tiny little thing, now I'm "piu rotonda" but I love myself like this. Above all, Erwin loves me more like this (she turns to Erwin and says, "Isn't that right, mi amor?" and the two start again with the kissing, and Erwin makes gestures of huge approval --ndr.]
Anna: My real problem is that Erwin's a huge talent in the kitchen and I like to eat.
Erwin: For years I helped my dad in his restaurant. Now I have a dream to open a restaurant in Vienna.
In the recent spell of Netrebko re-branding (personally, we're all for Netrebko 2.0 and encourage all of our perfume-launching, restaurant-opening, crossover-embracing opera singers), if we see Trebs snuggling up to Jusin Bieber (like Kim Kardashian did), don't count us as surprised.
Click the link for the rest of the photos and the article!
Continue reading "Mi Amor, Mi Amor: Anna and Erwin's Io Donna Cover Love Story " »
...would he put Cio-Cio San in his Madame Butterfly skyscrapers? LiLo could probably pull it off -- the comeback role of a lifetime!
From Corriere della Sera comes a profile on young South African soprano Pretty Yende, "Pretty Yende's Fairytale from Apartheid to La Scala" where the 26-year-old soprano spoke about growing up in Piet Retief.
"I'm living proof that commericals can change lives", she said after seeing a tv ad for British Airways set to an (at the time unnamed) opera aria that played in the background, described as "heavenly". She asked her music teacher at school about it and asked if it was "human or supernatural". "Human and entirely possible, " said her teacher. Later she discovered that the aria was the flower duet from Delibes' Lakme.
Music had always been part of her background, although in the form of folk songs and spirituals that she sang with her family. After studying at a music academy in Cape Town, she came to La Scala's Accademia where she sang mostly bel canto. She won the Lelya Gencer prize last year, and just finished singing Elvira in L'Italiana in Algeri at Scala. Next season, she sings 4 roles at Scala: Barbarina in Nozze, Norina in Don Pasquale, Musetta in Boheme and a priestess in Aida.
In addition to vocal drills, she adds the gym to her training, "I was chubby! I lost 20 kili [44 lbs.] and it was really hard because I love to eat. Lasagne alla bolognese is my weakness."
And on being a minority in Italy?
"My parents suffered through apartheid. Me, not so much, even if I wasn't allowed to go to the white schools. Italy suits me fine. Sometimes I'm embarrassed in public when I get a catcall or when someone sees me as different. It all just needs a little patience..."
(credit Alessandro Dobici)
Since his Milan adventures earlier this summer at La Scala for Roméo et Juliette left us wanting more of the Italian tenor, we caught up with Vittorio Grigolo in a quick chat about his summer plans.
Frankly, we're in good company -- we swapped Grigolo anecdotes with Pucci-robed opera doyenne Marta Marzotto at a summer cocktail on Corso Venezia and saw Giorgio Armani give the singer a congratulatory hug backstage after his last La Scala Romeo et Juliette performance.
You can practice your Italian here for OC's latest column on Grazia.it.
If the lazy summer days have caught up to you, click the link below for the English translation!
Continue reading "Opera Chic & Grazia.it: Grigolo's Big, Fashionable Summer " »
Browsing today's Corriere, we found a new series of ads for Alitalia with cover boy and girl Riccardo Muti and Eleonora Abbagnato.
The Napoletano Dynamite didn't hold much back when speaking to Corriere della Sera in an interview that ran in today's paper.
Riccardo Muti's recently returned from a whirlwind Kenya adventure with his Orchestra Cherubini kids, part of a Ravenna Festival initiative that gave a performance of Italian classics -- and Hakuna Matata from The Lion King. lloll.
Muti turns 70 on July 28 and shared a few thoughts [all translations are OC's kthnx]:
For 41 years I celebrate my birthday at the Salzburg Fesival by coincidence of my operatic appointments. For the future, I'm seriously thinking about devoting more time to myself, like the expression in Latin: Primum vivere. [first you must live, then you can philosophise, Primum vivere deinde philosophari]. In Salzburg I'll limit my concerts with the Wiener. Despite the engagements I've already received, I won't condut opera. For myself at 70 years -- I'm not feeling it. So many people thought that after I fell off the podium in Chicago that I would have slowed down or that i would have relaxed. Instead, they found that I have a heart in superb condition.
In the run-up of a sold-out August 3rd performance of Verdi's Macbeth for the Salzburg Festival, directed by Peter Stein with the Vienna Philharmonic, he'll be at his Anif-district villa.
How will he celebrate his birthday?
For my 60th birthday, the Vienna Orchestra prepared a marvelous ceremony, they played for me and the chorus sang Schubert while slipping themselves into the garden of my villa in Anif while I was reading the newspaper. Now I don't know if there will be any surprises, but certainly something will happen. The Wiener decided to extend to me the honor of becoming an honorary mentor, even after giving me everything that was already possible -- l'Anello d'Oro [the Wiener's special honor], the medals of Strauss, Nicolai, Mozart -- I'm a member of the Musikverein and of the Staatsoper.
His icons? He cites soloists such as Casadesus, Richter, and Arrau. For conductors, Antonino Votto was a hero, "a technical and ethical point of reference with the imprint of Toscanini."
On Carlos Kleiber: "We were friends, he was a brilliant and bright light, a star."
He cites Azio Corghi for teaching him blazing counterpoint in composition studies and Maria Carbone for teaching him the secrets of technical voice.
On Missa Solemnis: "I directed Beethoven's 9th at 46 years old. I still haven't gotten near to conducting Missa Solemnis -- I have to resolve a few problems in my head [the text..testo not testa!] first."
He disses the emerging cult of directors who run away with concepts that marginalize the music and young conductors who don't know any better:
Strehler said that to be a good conductor you need a good director and vice versa. This type of appreciation is already lost. Rushing is the enemy of music. Today you start to conduct at 22 years old without having done the necessary study, without any theatrical preparation, without realizing that every arrangement has a weight, a color, an accent, pertaining to how the singer supports the sentence. They're put into a hole where they perform and the directors have taken the upper hand. Opera's in a dangerous moment. All of the serious singers are complaining.
His favorite productions of all time?
Agnese di Hohenstaufen in Florence with Enriquez and the scenography by Corrado Cagli; Iphigénie en Tauride with scenography by Manzu'; Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Falstaff with Strehler at La Scala and still Die Walküre at Scala; Orfeo ed Euridice with Ronconi and Pizzi.
Last night Dudamel waved it* around the Hollywood Bowl for Puccini’s Turandot -- with Christine Brewer in the lead, Frank Porretta as Calaf, and Hei-Kyung Hong as Liù -- in a benefit concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for its Musicians Pension Fund.
*his baton, you perverts!
If only OC could be in London -- not just for the martinis at Dukes Hotel or the cream tea at The Lanesborough -- but for Tony Pappano's William Tell Rossini ball buster (in concert performance) for the Proms with Orchestra di Santa Cecilia
The affable Italian-American conductor spoke to Corriere della Sera's Sette and said he'll be in Salzburg in 2013 for Don Carlos, Berlioz's Troyens at Covent Garden and the Proms next year and then for Scala in 2014.
As MD of Rome's Orchestra di Santa Cecilia and London's ROH, he spoke about the difference of the two cities: "In London the offers are vast. It has to conquer the audience. Also the highest level of work in Rome. In Italy, however, the world of classical music has to change a lot."
The Londoner shared his ideas about putting young butts in the concert halls (or not), which composers have a natural beat, his favorite composers, and his upcoming projects.
Since we love you all so much, we've got the director's cut in english translation for you after the jump!
Continue reading "Opera Chic and Grazia.it: Gabriel Prokofiev is Nonclassical in Every Way" »
French choreographer Roland Petit's work with Teatro alla Scala, San Francisco Ballet, and the Bolshoi will never be forgotten, nor will his collaboraitons with Hollywood (below, "Daddy Long Legs" from 1954 with Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron).
Clip thanks to The Guardian's coverage.
After commentary and opinion from many on the precarious future of New York City Opera, here's the full text of the open letter penned by American soprano Catherine Malfitano and Cori Ellison.
Opera Chic can geek out hard and admits to having a soft spot for opera crossover darlings who straddle the tech world -- Lang Lang, Gabriel Prokofiev, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hampson, among others -- which is why we throw a big ups to Mirabilia, an Italian group of opera lovers, all under 30-years-old, who are behind a multi-faceted firm that taps into opera and classical music through graphic & website design, marketing, and management. The Palermo-based firm also represents a handful of opera and symphony dudes (one of whom is in our sponsored side-bar ad, Italian conductor Gianluca Marciano.)
In addition to only a handful of Italian design firms (and the only from South Italy), Mirabilia was recently highlighted for excellence in design by inclusion in the recent Logo Design Book Vol. 3, edited by Julius Wiedemann, and published by Taschen.
To read Mirabilia's message of gratitude, translated from Italian by OC, click the link below.
Continue reading "Sponsored Post: Mirabilia Gets Published" »
The L.A. Times' Culture Monster has a good round-up of Master Class reviews, found here.
(Above: Ponnelle's sweet L'italiana in Algeri at Teatro alla Scala, Credits: Brescia e Amisano, Teatro alla Scala)
Opera Chic's latest piece for Grazia.it is a review of the opening night of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1970s-era endearing production of Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri at La Scala with the kids of Accademia del Teatro alla Scala.
Lawrence Brownlee K.O.'d as Lindoro so OC caught up with the American tenor for a small interview -- all of which you can read about here.
In a Pixar movie waiting to be green lighted, the bee colonies on the roofs of Opéra national de Paris and the Grand Palais welcome a fellow colony in Paris -- the roof of the Luis Vuitton building on rue du Pont Neuf.
The ecologically-approved bee network was started by beekeeper Nicolas Geant who saw great potential in cultivating bees in unconventional spaces -- skyscrapers in NYC and balconies in London included.
The LVMH group, the French luxury goods conglomerate that owns Vuitton, has already made 165 pounds of the sweet nectar, poured into 500 glass containers with a minimal "La Belle Jardiniere" label, reserved for their special clients. When OC goes for her next Vuitton fitting, she'll tell you if it's liquid gold!