Opera Chic

Ai Weiwei For Corriere della Sera's "La Lettura"

Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading daily newspaper -- Opera Chic has recently written for Corriere's Style magazine --launched yesterday its new Sunday books and arts section, called "La Lettura".

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, detained this past April without formal charges and in secret after he joined the call for a democratic “Jasmine Revolution” in China, was released in June but is still being prosecuted by authorities. 

"Corriere" commissioned "La Lettura"'s first cover to Ai Weiwei, and it's shattering: a grainy, gloomy self-portrait of the artist -- with a wrist chained to his chair that eloquently reminds us that art is a powerful, dangerous thing.

Berlusconi-Busting Haendel Flashmob in Piazza del Quirinale

A flashmob of violinists and ersatz choristers sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Haendel's Messiah in Rome's Piazza del Quirinale to toast PM Berlusconi's dismissal earlier tonight in Rome.

The Pianist with Opera (and Fashion) in his Heart: Jean-Yves Thibaudet Exclusive Interview

It's the eve of an American, two-city program with Austrian mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager that brings him back to the periphery of the opera world that he loves so much. French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet offers NYC and Boston the rarer works of Liszt Lieder and (normally-known Brahms Lieder), an antidote to Liszt's ~Greatest Hits~ that everyone's been churning out during the Hungarian composer's 200th birth year. The two peerless performers are well-matched -- we were hypnotized by Kirchschlager's killer kurves in a Milan Mahler recital a couple years ago, and aside from her bulletproof technique and the rousing Kurt Weill cabaret encores, she was an on-stage tractor beam in a figure-hugging, very rock'n'roll dress.

Versatile, lively, and unwavering, Thibaudet swings from composer to composer with big ideas as easily as he swings between genre. His Liszt Opera Transcriptions CD from almost a decade ago ignited a curious crossover of Liszt into the works of Wagner, Mozart, Donizetti, etc., while showcasing his clarity, brilliance, and energy. Even his concert garb pushes the boundaries – the pianist’s stylist is the British doyenne of lux-punk rock, Vivienne Westwood. 

The two-city tour runs this weekend, with the first show tonight in Boston and the second one tomorrow night at Carnegie's Zankel Hall.

Click the link below to read the full interview...

Angela Does Adriana

Czech this Youtube audio of last night's Carnegie Hall concert performance of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur with Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann. The Opera Orchestra of New York was conducted by Alberto Veronesi (OC's been to feschion parties in his family's gorgeous Milan San Babila palazzo but she's still never heard him conduct live -- an odd dichotomy). A NY Times adjective-heavy review here.

David Lynch + Opera = Forever Awesome

Every night when OC goes to bed in Eres lace and linen Bellora, she says a little prayer that one day David Lynch will bring his avant-garde ideas (and hair) to opera. We always said that he'd be a perfect fit, especially after his The Air is On Fire exhibition that we caught in Milan a while back.

Recently, the American genius was in Catania, Italy for a local benefit and wanted to visit the city's opera house after hearing that it was one of the most gorgeous in Italy.

During the informal visit to Catania's Teatro Massimo Bellini, Lynch told intendant Rita Gari Cinquegrana (above), "When I decided to direct an opera, I'd really like to do it in this theater."

As OC wrote a while back, we'd love to see a Lynchian Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth. And there's this: "Opera Chic doesn't see why a smart, cool opera house should not commission him an opera staging."

On a High Note: Filarmonica della Scala Opens its 30th

Filarmonica della Scala opened its 30th season late last week in a concert of Verdi, Debussy and Strauss -- and OC was there. Read about it here for OC's Stasera Esco column at Grazia.

Roméo et Juliette for L.A. Opera

(Photo by Robert Millard for LA Opera)

While Gounod's Roméo et Juliette tale was told through a modern narrative in Bolzano (post below), the feuding Italian families stayed traditional for Ian Judge's L.A. Opera's production that opened a couple nights ago.

Vittorio Grigolo as Roméo and Nino Machaidze as Juliette (recent L.A. Times interview here and review here) were led by Placidone on the podium.

(Photos by Robert Millard for LA Opera)

Gounod Wears Prada: Teatro Comunale di Bolzano's Roméo et Juliette

The fashion industry is full of archetypes that could match opera's most awesome antagonists and drama that could sustain the grandest opera: backstabbing stylists, misogynistic designers, opportunistic assistants, crying models, ruthless journalists and self-aggrandizing PR -- and that's just the public side of the catwalk.

Manfred Schweigkofler's new production of Charles Gounod's opera Romeo et Juliette takes fashion as inspiration for Shakespeare's greatest love story. Schweigkofler has turned the feuding Verona families into dueling Italian fashion houses for Teatro Comunale di Bolzano's new production of R+J.

Models, paparazzi, and catwalks -- and as Enrico Girardi's review for Corriere della Sera recounts (not yet online) -- there are stylists, mass media and rivers of cocaine. Juliette is the model/daughter of the Capulets maison and Romeo is son of the rival fashion house, the Montagues.

Girardi's impression was that the audience was initially perplexed but nevertheless applauded the cast at the final curtain call, thanks to the fresh voices of the young cast (Paolo Fanale as Roméo and Monica Tarone as Juliette). All's fair in love and war. And fashion.

Prettiest Ballerina in the World

When OC was a little girl, Dorothy's ruby slippers were the most coveted shoes in her world -- but Xtian Louboutin seriously KO's it with his 8-inch-heel ballerina slippers that were created for an English National Ballet fundraiser. Unwearable, sure, but all of OC's Louboutins are carefully rationed -- that red sole disappears almost immediately, especially on Milan's unforgiving cobblestones.

The Richard Tucker Foundation Celebrates Angela Meade (With an Exclusive Quote from Barry Tucker)

“Richard Tucker was one of my gods. In my life there has always been that great voice to use as an inspiration”
Luciano Pavarotti



Equally gifted in cantorial music and opera, the Jewish kid from Brooklyn who became one of opera's biggest stars of the mid-20th century annually celebrates the industry that unconditionally embraced him.

Tomorrow night, November 6, Avery Fisher Hall hosts the 36th annual Richard Tucker Gala where the enduring legacy of the American tenor will be celebrated in the city that he called home.

The gala also honors the recipient of the annual Richard Tucker Award and this year's winner is American soprano Angela Meade. The bel canto superstar has lots to sing about -- the purse is $30,000 -- and she's now in stellar company of past recipients such as Renée Fleming, Aprile Millo, Dolora Zajick, Deborah Voigt, Patricia Racette, Stephanie Blythe, Joyce DiDonato and John Relyea -- among many others.

After his passing in 1975, The Richard Tucker Music Foundation was established as a non-profit cultural org to honor the artist's legacy and to support American opera singers with awards and study grants.

During the gala, Meade will perform “Santo di patria” from Verdi’s Attila and she'll be joined by colleagues: Stephanie Blythe, Maria Guleghina, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, Yonghoon Lee, Željko Lučić, Marina Poplavskaya, Dolora Zajick and Marcello Giordani. Maestro Emmanuel Villaume conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society.

President and board member, Barry Tucker, shared an exclusive quote with Opera Chic about the 2011 award:

We were thrilled to give the Richard Tucker Award to Angela Meade, who we know will make us very proud. I first heard Angela when she gave a concert in Stamford, Connecticut: she sang "Pace Pace" and my jaw really dropped. I hadn't heard it sung like that in more than 30 years - incredible! Since then I've heard her sing Norma, as well as in other concert programs, and I am really impressed with this terrific young singer - both the amazing quality of her voice and how she uses it in these difficult pieces. At last year's Tucker Gala concert she wowed the audience with the end of Lucrezia Borgia.

Barely anyone knew her but I can't tell you how many people asked me about her afterwards, even with all the big-name stars on that gala. At this year's concert she's singing "Santo la patria" from Atilla and the end of Act One of Norma with Zajick and Giordani; these are some veteran heavy hitters, but I know Angela can keep up with them.

Over the last 37 years, the Tucker Foundation has given the Tucker Award to singers from Zajick and Fleming to DiDonato and Brownlee just as their careers took off and before they became international stars. I feel that Angela follows in that great tradition and I have really high hopes for her.

(Angela Meade, photo by Dario Acosta)

Meade made her professional debut in March 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera as Elvira in Verdi's Ernani, substituting on 24 hours notice a sick colleague to good reviews. She recently finished singing the title role in Anna Bolena at The Met in the production that opened the current season and had the critics swooning.

During the summer of 2009, Meade was lauded for her dashed Babylonian queen as the title role in the critical edition of Rossini's Semiramide at Caramoor, praised for her solid skills and confidence.

She's an undiva casta diva that makes easy work of Bellini's Norma, a role cherished by sopranos for its deeply emotional challenges.

Raymonda, All Made Up, Cheers to Shiseido

(Image: Marco Brescia)

Official Teatro alla Scala partner Shiseido, entering its second year as the first beauty company in the theater's history to share the unique role, was on make-up duty for the massive ballet corps during the run of grand ballet Raymonda, which closed last night at Milan's opera house.

OC was at opening night (along wiht Carla Fracci, review on Grazia.it's Stasera Esco here) for the revival of the late-19th century masterpiece and was mesmerized by the meticulous costumes (more than 500), razor-sharp ballet skills, and grand pageantry.

Shiseido's make-up team dipped into the original sketches extracted from the library archives at Harvard and the theater library in St. Petersburg that were used for the inaugural 1898 production. Inspiration was based on Russia's Imperial period at the end of the 19th century as well as strong female figures: Oscar Wilde's Salome, Mata Hari, the women in Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings, and Laura Antonelli in Visconti's L'innocente.

The look was about natural skin and strong black brows and eyes, accentuated by a Shiseido cream eye shadow called Black Caviar. As if make-up wasn't delicious enough, Shiseido dares us to eat its Black Caviar with a dollop of crème fraîche.

(Backstage Shiseido at Raymonda Teatro alla Scala -- Eris Nezha and Marta Romanga -- Luca Chiaudano/Photomovie)

(Backstage Shiseido at Raymonda Teatro alla Scala -- Eris Nezha and Marta Romanga -- Luca Chiaudano/Photomovie)

(Image: Marco Brescia)

Things Could be Worse (at the Opera)

Who's having a bad day? A bad month? Ok, a bad year? For all the honorary mayors of Suckville, illustrator Benjamin Dewey makes tragedy relative in his "Things Could Be Worse" Tragedy Series. Above, a recent sketch from Dewey's oeuvre.

Stefan Knüpfer Will Tune You Up: "Pianomania -- In Search Of The Perfect Sound"

Turan:

As "Pianomania" gradually reveals, Knüpfer is able to do this so well because he is as much of a crazed perfectionist as the pianists themselves, maybe even more so. Someone who has bad dreams about torn strings and turns off the radio if he hears an ineptly tuned piano on the air, Knüpfer is fully capable of taking a piano apart and putting it back together again. If replacement hammerheads are 0.7 millimeter too narrow — about one-thirty-third of an inch off — he will notice in an instant.

Renata Tebaldi Competition on Air

This Sunday, November 6 at 8:15am, the final concert of Renata Tebaldi International Competition winners will air on Rai5. The 4th annual competition, organized by the Renata Tebaldi Foundation, ended on September 24 at Teatro Nuovo di Dogana after a 10-day trial of conferences and competitions.

The winner was Canadian soprano Teresa Sedlmair (above with Niksa Simetovic, president of the Renata Tebaldi Foundation and Bruno Cagli, president of the international jury). Second up was Italian tenor Davide Giusti and the third prize went to Korean soprano Jaeeun Lee.

She Did it Her Way: Hélène Grimaud in The New Yorker

A New Yorker profile by D.T. Max on Hélène Grimaud makes us wish we had an eccentric childhood. The pianist, author, individualist and conservationist lays it down to a mental sountrack of Chopin and Mozart.