Opera Chic

Van Cliburn Foundation Mourns its Eponymous Hero (1934-2013)

The Van Cliburn Foundation has released a statement in remembrance of the great American pianist who died today at age 78, at home in Texas.

It is with great sadness that Carla Kemp Thompson, chairman of the Van Cliburn Foundation, acknowledges the death of Van Cliburn. Mr. Cliburn died peacefully in his home in Fort Worth, Texas, surrounded by loved ones, on February 27, 2013.

The cause of death was bone cancer. Van Cliburn was 78 years old (born July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, Louisiana - died February 27, 2013, in Fort Worth, Texas). He is survived by his friend of long standing, Thomas L. Smith.

Said Thompson: "Van was a treasured member of the Fort Worth community who belonged to the world. His legacy is one of being a great humanitarian, a great musician, a great colleague, and a great friend to all who knew and loved him. Van is iconic, and we at the Van Cliburn Foundation join the international community in mourning the loss of a true giant."

The Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano, taking place May 24-June 9, 2013, at Fort Worth's Bass Performance Hall, is dedicated to the memory of Van Cliburn.

Haneke's Full of Win

(Haneke's Cosi' for Teatro Real)

In the great tradition of Visconti and Chéreau, two film directors who've crossed seamlessly, lovingly into opera, we'll forever champion Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, one of the greatest living film and opera directors, for his stark, slap-your-face sobriety and unflinching realism that translated perfectly in 2006 at his opera directorial debut with Mozart's melancholy Don Giovanni at the Opera Garnier (clip below).

Last night, his film Amour won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (nominated for five Oscars and lauded with a Palme d'Or last May), the tale of retired music teachers cut down by demoralizing #oldpeopleproblems but buoyed by the immortality of Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major (here by the great Horowitz in Vienna).

Sure, we would have liked to catch Haneke's latest Mozart/Da Ponte project -- Cosi fan tutte that opened this past weekend at Teatro Real but 1. we were traipsing the slippery runways of Milan Fashion Week for Women's Wear Daily 2. Cambreling's on the podium 3. Haneke himself skipped the premiere!

Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923 - 2013) (Updated)

Der Spiegel reports that German conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch, who held positions at the Vienna Symphony, the Bavarian State Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra. passed away on Friday.

Updated, Monday, February 25, 2013:

The Philadelphia Orchestra, where maestro Sawallisch served as its sixth MD from 1993-2003 as was conductor laureate, has issued a few statement. They elaborated that he passed away on Friday at 89 years old in his home in Grassau. Yesterday, they played Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll at an afternoon concert in remembrance.

From Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin comments, “The Philadelphia Orchestra family is profoundly saddened by the death of its beloved former music director, Conductor Laureate Wolfgang Sawallisch. During his 10-year tenure as music director he cared deeply for the Orchestra and its musicians, helped preserve and nurture our Philadelphia Sound, and enriched and expanded upon the Orchestra’s century-old tradition of excellence, leaving us an enduring legacy of artistic achievements. Off the podium he was also a dear friend to many in the Orchestra and in the Philadelphia community. He has been missed, and his memory will be treasured.”

From Philadelphia Orchestra Chairman Richard B. Worley: “Great orchestras are built on a foundation of great music directors, and Wolfgang Sawallisch’s tenure as music director is part of the legacy of our great Orchestra.  Maestro Sawallisch left an indelible mark on our organization, and everyone who knows this Orchestra knows that the ensemble was strengthened under his leadership. We are fortunate to have known him, and we will never forget the way his smile lit up his eyes.”

From Philadelphia Orchestra President and CEO Allison Vulgamore: “A loss such as this deeply affects our artistic and musical community—not just here in Philadelphia but around the world. Wolfgang Sawallisch was a man of profound artistry and unwavering yet quiet dedication. We will continue to honor his rich legacy as would befit him—by making beautiful and inspired music that touches the hearts and minds of all those who will hear it.”

From Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim: “Truly Maestro Sawallisch was a once-in-a-lifetime figure in the world of music. He was the perfect combination of musicianship, craft, and integrity. The Philadelphia Orchestra was his greatest instrument and all of us who had the privilege to perform for him in those transcendent concerts will forever be in his debt.”

Azzedine Alaïa and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Mozart's Nozze

Ahhhhhh-Alaïa. On the runway, off the runway, how we covet the Paris-based, Tunisian-born fashion designer's laser cut leathers and ballerina dresses that hug us in all the right places.

This May, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents the 70(ish) year old designer's costumes for Mozart's Le Nozze, sets by architect Jean Nouvel. Not since the Prada/Herzog and de Meuron/Muti Attila have we been so excited for an opera/fashion fusion. Gustavo Dudamel conducts, Christopher Maltman is the Count and Dorothea Röschmann the Countess.

Dudamel and Conlon Step up in the Wild West

A great man once said, "Cali is where they put they mack down." That poet and prophet was 2Pac Shakur, who must have been looking into his crystal ball at James Conlon's contract extension with the LA Opera through the 2017/18 season. Announced by LA Opera GD Plácido Domingo, the American conductor will continue five more years as MD, which he's held since the 2006/7 season.



Across W 1st Street, King MD of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, gets coverboy treatment for The Economist's supplement.

Opera Chic and The Royal Opera House: Leo Nucci's Nabucco Greatness

(Credit Rudy Amisano and Teatro alla Scala)

Let's count our heroes: Giuseppe Verdi and Bartolomeo Merelli, the Scala intendant who urged a broken-spirited, opera-dejected Verdi to take a chance on Temistocle Solera's libretto based on Nabuchodonosor, a 6th century BC Babylonian despot. We'll also add Leo Nucci and Nicola Luiotti to the list for their recent, prodigious performances at La Scala in a modern, new Daniele Abbado-signed Nabucco that ran through February. After tonight's final replications in Milan, the opera, in-coproduction with the Royal Opera House, will bow in April at Covent Garden with the Nucci/Luisotti Made in Italy perfection, which is why we were honored to write a piece for The Royal Opera House's website about opera's greatest Italian baritone the in the post-Cappuccili era.

The Guardian's La Scala Lust

The Guardian's +1 to the glamorous December 7 Sant'Ambrogio La Scala season opener that bowed under Claus Guth's new Lohengrin was a camera crew. Watch the clip for a December throwback starring everyone's favorite Wagner protagonist, Jonas Kaufmann.

Charlie Siem Vents

 

There are two cool things about the Esquire March piece on violinist Charlie Siem.

1. As the latest face of Giorgio Armani's new fragrance, Eau de Nuit, we'll be seeing more of him in Armani's super-sleek cuts.

2. He shares the sartorial secrets of how he manages to look so good in bespoke menswear while playing:

"To play the violin, I had to wear badly fitted jackets that allowed me to move the way I needed to move. And because I loved clothes and I loved to perform, this was a big problem. So when I was 19, I went to a tailor to get a proper tailor-made suit - something that would fix this problem of mine. And the suits he made me...no luck. So I went to another tailor a few years later - someone who made clothes for people who shoot and hunt - and he found a way to make me a structured, fairly close-fitting jacket with a slit in the back so that I could have full mobility in my shoulders to perform. It made all the difference in the world."

Classical Ballers Daniel Harding & Amos Bocelli (& Bocelli) at Sanremo Finale

Whenever people talk about the Sanremo Festival, we zone out and think about things like petting a dog the wrong way or what high school would have been like if Jose Canseco was our sex ed instructor until there's awkward silence. Since this year's festival drafted classical music swerve in the form of Barenboim and Harding, we'll stand down.

In the end, Harding made it, Barenboim didn't. La Scala's MD was scheduled to play Chopin on the third night but cancelled due to back problems which he said made it impossible to board the plane to Sanremo, so they invited 19-year-old Italian pianist Leonora Armellini in his place.

Tonight's finale rolled out 007 Harding's Wagner/Verdi love with Ride of the Valkyries and Marcia Trionfale and then Andrea Bocelli (in bespoke Corneliani) did a sweet "Love Me Tender" duet with his 18-year-old son Amos on piano (video below!) Aaaaand we're back to thinking about how to pet a dog the wrong way.

lol hells yes to this

.@djharding is not amused. Staring into the sanremo abyss twitter.com/operachic/stat…

— operachic (@operachic) February 16, 2013

Wagner's Palermo, Fit for Nobility

Bellini and tarocco, Renoir and Sicilian twilight -- this was Wagner's Palermo paradise of 1881 where he completed Parsifal under Lucio and Beatrice Tasca's noble hospitality at their 18th century villa. 

If we weren't covering Milan's Fashion Week, we'd be on a plane south to catch the second installation of Graham Vick's Ring Cycle -- Die Walküre which bows on February 21 at Teatro Massimo.

Digs of choice? A week of Wagner's footsteps at the palm-framed Villa Tasca (sleeps up to eight), which starts at €15,730. Sure, it's steep, but you can share your morning brioche with swans named Tristan and Isolde! The FT reports here. 

Opera Chic's Latest for Sinfini Music, Grazia.it & Opera Now Magazine

A great man once said, or he didn't, or whatever -- the point is that we tend to criticize those who we love the most. Which is why we've been wondering what's up with the soggy pity-party that Italy's thrown for its most famous opera hero, Giuseppe Verdi, in his bicentennial birth year? Read about it here for Sinfini Music, cutting throught classical. It's like, yeah, the country that churned out geniuses like Dante & Brunelleschi & Da Vinci & Fellini is holding the elevator for that bearded opera dude? COME ON!

Then head over to Grazia.it for OC's review of the new, minimalist Teatro alla Scala Daniele Abbado Nabucco (co-production of the ROH, LOC & the Liceu) with the stellar Verdi baritone Leo Nucci and the rock-solid musicianship of Nicola Luisotti.

Then grab March's Opera Now (with Montserrat Caballé on the cover) to read reviews of the December 2012 season opening La Traviata starring Carmen Giannattasio at Naples' Teatro di San Carlo and the January 2013 season opening Lohengrin at Dresden's Semperoper with Christian Thielemann on the podium.

Fourth (x) Fourth German Greats with La Verdi and Axelrod

We love Brahms' gloriously-tragic Fourth symphony for its self-cannibalizing, E minor sorrow and although we try not to fall for its emo charms, it's our autumnal soundtrack of 3:00 pm twilights, burgundy-stained lips, white Alba truffles and minks fresh from cold storage.

Brahms' Fourth misery loves its company, and as much as we covet Rattle's kinetic splinters or Daniel Harding's swift-footed modernity to remind us of curious, new-skool Brahms, we often reach for Carlo Maria Giulini & the Wiener Philharmoniker (or the CSO) with its elastic energy, accessible soul and mercurial power.

This past weekend in Milan, Maestro John Axelrod tackled that ghastly-complex fourth in Giulini's melancholy shades with Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, recorded live for Telarc, slated for a September release.

In a joint program of grand German, symphonic columns -- Beethoven's Fourth Symphony was pensive, pastoral and almost bashful at times until that brilliant fourth movement roared down the front gates -- the Brahms cycle was off to a prodigious start.

It's a beast to understand and a monster to conduct with its shape-shifting textures and rhythms, massive variations and codas but La Verdi gave it an earnest shot -- what it lacked in technique was made up with passion, exuberance and intensity.

The first movement began earnestly and melted into lovely strings tension led by concertmaster Luca Santaniello, which rounded into a richer, lusher second movement. The third movement bristled with jubliant, bright tempi before it slammed into the final, smoky fourth movement's intense undercurrents.

We'll be happy to have the souvenir disc in hand this fall and look forward to next month when Brahms' Second Symphony takes the stage

Zubin Mehta Comments on the Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI

A pope (Benedict XVI), a president (Giorgio Napolitano) and a conductor (Zubin Mehta) walk into the Vatican bar. After a couple Grey Goose-soaked hours, a fight breaks out with a table of trust fund kids and their model girlfriends. Benedict XVI lunges Shaolin-style in red Prada slippers, Mehta blocks punches to his face with a Beethoven symphony score and Napolitano absconds with the models. *winks, points his index fingers into the "I'm that guy" pose*

Okay, well, we admit that what actually went down wasn't nearly as exciting: On February 4, Zubin Mehta and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra played at the Vatican for Pope Benedict XVI and Giorgio Napolitano, prez of the Italian Republic, in remembrance of the 84th anniversary of the Lateran Treaty. The Italian VIPs were treated to Verdi's La forza del destino overture and Beethoven's Eroica.

With last week's memorable concert at his back, Mehta commented on yesterday's resignation of the Pope, saying that he was moved by the Pope's post-concert speech after he had played on February 4.

He reiterated that he had already met the Pope during his years in Munich and continues (OC's translation k thnx): "We all remained enchanted by the beautiful speech that the Holy Father had pronounced after the concert, words that revealed a great love and profound understanding of Beethoven and Verdi. Everything that he has accomplished to the end will remain within history, the peace and kindness that he brought through to his travels will remain in the future memory. I want to newly-renew my promise to play for him any time that he wants, and I hope that now that he has more time, he'll have a way to visit Firenze's Maggio Musicale Fiorentino so that he can return to listen to us."

"Capriccio for Carolina" Premieres at NYFW

Every once in a while, Balmain-shoulder-to-Margiela-shoulder at Milan Fashion Week runway shows, we've felt that same operatic rush from the blowback of strutting waifs in sharply-cut Armani silks as a particularly well-etched Rheingold Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla. Which is why we were curious to hear Carolina Herrera's newly-commissioned classical-lite piece for her NYFW Fall 2013 RTW collection. Above, Tom Hodge's "Capriccio for Carolina", based on Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, bowed at Herrera's show today. 

Barenboim on that Upcoming San Remo Appearance

When it was announced last week that Barenboim and Harding would make appearances at this year's Festival di San Remo, we were baffled. And we weren't alone. Today La Repubblica published an interview with Barenboim, who will appear Thursday on the San Remo stage to play a Chopin waltz and nocturne while Harding goes live on Saturday to do what he does best. Which is that thing. That he does best.

San Remo organizers explained that Barenboim (and his Harding proxy) were invited to power-up cultural bragging rights and facilitate this year's theme of sobriety/centrality.

Barenboim explains that he accepted the invitation because he likes to break down barriers between classical music and pop, and cites successful concerts he's played for classically-caught-unawares audiences in the Middle East and Africa.

He says that he doesn't really know much pop music but learned it from his older son, who he says is a hip hop artist best known in Germany.

Young Barenboim met The Beatles and they quizzed him on Beethoven, which was as exciting as when he met Stravinsky in Rome in 1952.

Asked about the classical music crisis he said that it started when classical music stopped being taught in schools. The economic crisis has rendered art as a complete luxury, not a necessity. He thinks the key to saving classical music is instituting a radical change through investments in the younger generations.  

He also talked about being a pianist vs. a conductor ("I'm not a pianist because I can simply be one, but because I must be one"); working at La Scala under the tough Italian financial crisis ("La Scala reflects the Latin temperaments of the country -- impatient, lively and unruly, but there's an enthusiasm that other opera houses don't have.");  and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra ("We're legendary but we're not allowed to play in Palestine, Israel, Iran, Libya or Syria because the governments won't accept the spirit of the orchestra.")

Cranky-Cool Old Guys: Jonathan Miller and Franco Zeffirelli

Two opera veterans share perspectives from their well-earned thrones.

Playwright and opera director Jonathan Miller, who turns 80 next year, speaks out on ageism in the arts:

"When you get to my age, there's a certain point at which you're assumed to be dead" [...] "Ageism has treated me badly. But it's also treated lots of other people badly as well. People assume that you ought to be cheerful all the way and I've got this, I think, unjustified reputation for being grumpy. I'm angry or disappointed at the condescension which I encounter from people who are 30 years younger than I am and know 100 per cent less than I do. That's all."

Ten years his senior, Franco Zeffirelli, who turns 90 on Tuesday, says that he has a few projects up his sleeve. He cites Maria Callas as his favorite diva and says that as someone who knew her, it's all that one needs. 

Carine's Ballet Obsession

When Carine Roitfeld, the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, resigned from the Conde Nast glossy at the end of 2011, we wondered what the femme fatale would do. Take up Mahjong? Nope. Roitfeld invested a decade of Vogue lessons into a personal magazine, CR Fashion Book, which launched last year.

Issue #2 is out and the theme is ballet (which she calls a "personal obsession")  and includes a feature on 37-year-old French dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, Marie-Agnès Gillot, and another one on the new generation of emerging dancers (like Ukrainian-born Sergei Polunin) to round out the editorials.

Frankly, we thought fashion had its Black Swan moment a couple years ago, but we won't complain at finding more arts and culture in style titles.

Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor Club at Teatro alla Scala

Milan last greeted Verdi’s final opera Falstaff in 2004. Nine years ago, Teatro alla Scala was closed, pending restoration, so the Giorgio Strehler production curtained under Muti's baton at Teatro degli Arcimboldi on the city's outskirts, dedicated to Tito Gobbi's death-year 20th anniversary for his enduring, late 1950s whiskered Falstaff with Herbie von Karajan and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

It was also the year of OC's inaugural Milan visit, and over summer break, she visited La Scala's museum, its collections temporarily housed in a stunning palazzo on Corso Magenta that overlooked Santa Maria della Grazia. The Northern Italian city of understated, un-boastful elegance struck OC as one who never tried too hard -- the very definition of cool -- and instantly reverberated with New York-based OC. Aaaand you guys pretty much know the rest of the story.

Falstaff (tonight in its penultimate replication) is the only Robert Carsen- stamped production in Teatro alla Scala’s 2012-13 season (in coproduction with Royal Opera House and the Canadian Opera Company) and as Carsen Crusaders, we weren’t going to miss it. We find his b-side, hidden track of ripe sexuality -- never vulgar or desperate (unless it has to be) -- and his fashion title familiarity a winning match for Milan, and since we’re not convinced that Falstaff needs a traditional Shakespearian director to stage it, we loved it.

We've never supported a buffo Falstaff staging and feel that it needs a delicate balance between commedia lirica and opera seria -- a fat knight mocked in his twilight, a bittersweet glimpse of flawed man too arrogant to realize it until everything converges in absolute absurdity -- tutto nel mondo e' burla -- and that's where a lot of lazy directors get it wrong.

Beethovenish on the NYFW Runways

The fashion world has always relied on its young DJ darlings du jour to blast its armies of models down fashion week runways on dirty, thumping beats. But on Monday, Venezuelan-American fashion designer Carolina Herrera will send her girls down the fall/winter 2013 New York Fashion Week runway to a five-minute classical music pastiche called "Capriccio for Carolina" by English composer Tom Hodge, adapted from Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata.

Herrara commissioned the new work (which cost $40,000 to produce) after tapping Hodge's eclectic Paganini Rocks in one of her past shows, Youtube above.

In Milan, however, leave it to the Italian fashion houses to faithfully tap into their classical music roots -- we've heard Pavarotti and Verdi overtures at Dolce & Gabbana shows and Cavalli, despite runway beats, often wheels out a grand piano pre-show, twinkling with Chopin.

(Maestro Daniel) + (Maestro Daniel) = San Remo 2013

We're talking about Barenboim and Harding. Italy's in a hard-up crisis but ex-husband of Katia Ricciarelli, Pippo Baudo, has managed to scare up funds and will f**k up another late Italian winter with his pointless, culturally-anemic Festival di Sanremo, an embarrassing extravaganza of bad Italian television at its very worst where classical music swag is injected by softcore opera crossovers and misguided-but-legit stars who belt out canned karaoke Nessun Dormas to the sedated crowds, which is why we're baffled to hear that Daniel Barenboim and Daniel Harding will join in this year's circus. 

Adams on Copland

On occasion of his performance last week with the London Symphony Orchestra that included Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring - Suite, John Adams recounted his brilliant past encounters with Copland.

La Scala Intendant Stéphane Lissner Fires Back at Corriere della Sera on its Paolo Isotta Ban

La Scala intendant Stéphane Lissner defends his decision to ban long-serving Corriere della Sera music critic Paolo Isotta from Milan's opera house through a weak sauce letter to the editor published in today's paper.

Lissner dissected Corriere della Sera director Ferruccio De Bortoli's editorial published in yesterday's paper, which was written to defend its music critic Isotta from the baffling La Scala banishment. He adhered that La Scala has taken "a distance" (/lol/semantics/lol/) from Isotta not because he criticises the theater but because he's betrayed the "krinein greco" code (the Greek root for critic i.e. "to evaluate") in which critics weigh logic and ethics into their trade, "to think, to reflect and to mediate understanding between the work of art and the public."

Lissner continues that Isotta went against the ethics of music criticism by wielding personal campaigns and that he used his articles not as moments of reflection but as instruments and weapons of power  -- exactly why La Scala firmly will no loner support persona-non-grata Isotta. La Scala will keep its door open to the rest of Corriere della Sera's journalists, which may turn into a bulletpoint of contention, story definitely to be continued. Taps TomTom >> Point Of Interest >> POI in city >> Dramz = Navigate to Teatro alla Scala.

La Scala Bans Corriere della Sera's Longtime Music Critic, Paolo Isotta

"Teatro alla Scala's door is closed to Corriere's critic Paolo Isotta" heads the letter editorial published in today's Corriere della Sera, signed by the Milan daily newspaper's director, Ferruccio De Bortoli.

Di Bortoli elegantly-whiteknights Corriere della Sera's longtime music critic -- the Neapolitan scholar, author, journalist and notorious crankypants Paolo Isotta -- who has been banned by La Scala's out-bound intendant, Stéphane Lissner. 

Lissner dropped the banhammer following Isotta's enduring criticisms of Daniel Harding and (indirectly) of Claudio Abbado, outlined in a letter sent to Corriere in late October, 2011.

De Bortoli writes that the ban is a smokescreen of La Scala's true problems and defends and praises Isotta, calling the Italian critic extraordinary, intelligent and unpredictable, who understands music better than his Scala detractors. Here's an extract (in Opera Chic's own translation):

Isotta’s no stranger to excess -- editors are also in charge of getting writers to calm down -- but he's an extraordinary, intelligent and unpredictable critic who knows music better than his Scala detractors who think that all praise is due to them, all criticism is suspect and every artist’s whim is legitimate. Lissner wrote me in October 2011 -- something I doubt that he would have done with the press in his own country, but then he maybe considers us a colony -- asking for Isotta’s head.

Isotta's provocative, razor-sharp reviews, buttressed by Latin phrases, are hotly contested and equally coveted among Milan’s classical music fetishists. Corriere can still draw from its excellent cache of classical music reviewers, but Corriere without Isotta's backend knowledge and ruthless wit frankly sucks.

Since the beginning of the year, Isotta's called-out Harding's Verdi Falstaff as "heavy and pedantic" and said that his Wagner with Filarmonica della Scala was so soft that it made one think of a "Wagner omosessuale". Isotta's swag levels are *thunderclouds roll in, howling wind licks at his bespoke Marinella suit* officially too fabulous for La Scala.