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Italian luxury menswear giant Ermenegildo Zegna uses a La Scala playbill into its current Christmas campaign, which seems like it's that interminable Stéphane Braunschweig Don Carlo from October.
We've caught luxury brands grabbing the Scala coat tails in the past, like this campaign for DSquared2.
The menswear brand, coveted by celebs like Robert De Niro, also dresses Gianandrea Noseda, Valery Gergiev and Placido Domingo and has been a longtime patron of the Mariinsky.
The acceptable behavior is to shut up and listen. Earlier last week, multi-industry heavyweights including Jessye Norman supped in Manhattan's Greenwich Village for ACRIA's 18th annual holiday dinner and fund-raiser.
As a longtime supporter of the AIDS research foundation, Norman spoke to an audience that included fashion and entertainment celebs such as Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Bernadette Peters. Commanding the microphone like Carmen, Norman toasted late ACRIA philanthropist Judith Peabody. From WWD's party reportage:
But when Jessye Norman, regal in an elaborate gown, rose to deliver remarks, one could hear a pin drop. Table conversations stopped, forks went down and the room was still, silenced by the privilege of an audience with the diva.
Norman was paying tribute to the late Judith Peabody and she talked like....this...enunciating...each...word. It left the room hanging on her every turn of phrase as if she were still on an opera stage, one towering grand dame tipping her hat to another.
Diva born and bred.
Vogue Italia and Pomellato have teamed for a charity project "Lock your love. Don’t lock your heart" to benefit the Italian Fondazione Ieo, a non-profit org to benefit the European Institute of Oncology. Three couples were choosen to model the lock and silver charm engraved with inspirational words, among them Roberto Bolle and Svetlana Zakharova, frequent La Scala ballerina partners. The bracelet's on sale from 10th December for 90 euro on Pomellato's website or in Italy-based boutiques, and available on Valentine's Day at Yoox.
Chailly was rumored as front runner as La Scala's next music director by Corriere della Sera back in October and now it's official. Chailly will be sworn in on January 1, 2015, taking the post from Daniel Barenboim.
(Corriere della Sera has excellent screenshots here)
Who: Diana Damrau, soprano. Piotr Beczala, tenor. Daniele Gatti, conductor. Dmitri Tcherniakov, director + extras, an orchestra, journalists, media crews, security, police and impeccably-groomed spectators.
What: Opening night of Teatro alla Scala's 2013-14 Season, La Traviata
When: December 7, the traditional Sant'ambrogio feast day of Milan's patron saint.
Where: Milan, Italy.
How: Euros & couture, fake tans & kiwi-sized jewels.
Why: Dmitri Tcherniakov, why do you hate Giuseppe Verdi so much?
(Corriere della Sera's breakdown)
The aftermath: After all was booed and politely applauded in ten minutes of thanks for months of labor, another war erupted as the VIPs filed out of the theater to check-out minks from the coat check while companions checked-out legs over peach marble floors. Loggionisti who hadn't hightailed out of the upper decks cried 'buffone', eager to lure Gatti et al. for additional curtain call flogging. On the platea floor, the response from a passionate white tie was 'Vai a casa'. Go home.
A few hours earlier, the usual suspects arrived at Scala's marbled, mirrored foyer -- debonaire Robeto Bolle, sprightly Carla Fracci and dignified Giorgio Napolitano -- navigating deep décolletage, architectural up-dos, angry video crews and anxious security apes. Longtime Scala patron Marta Marzotto, reliably dripping in Pucci and Bulgari was MIA with Amazonian sidekick Valeria Marini and her vintage Braccialini purses. We could have used the humor.
The evening began optimistically. After a moment of silence for Mandela, before the curtain rolled back and the opening notes of Traviata swept forward, 'Viva Verdi' was shouted from the galleries. In the month leading-up to opening night, nary a whisper escaped from Scala's backstage about last minute cast changes or stranger-than-fiction conspiracies. The most scandelous rumor encircled Violetta's death, surmised by overdose or atop a washing machine (freak hausfrau accident?) Don’t exhale just yet.
For all of the Italian media press clippings that exited this week detailing Dmitri Tcherniakov's deep respect and meticulously-scoured pages of La Traviata's manuscript, and for all of Daniele Gatti's intelligent remarks on characterization and his restoration of all things Verdi-sacred, the final product was baffling at best. Neither Italian nor French, Tcherniakov borrowed the whitewashed 19th century continental chic that giftwraps dozens of modern stages and trimmed it with dissonant costumes, like his woman in full Native American headdress. Was the Josephine Baker banana skirt costume on loan? Isn't Traviata supposed to be the height of haute bourgeois elegance?
There was technically-solid music making from everyone, including Damrau, although she was as close to Marilyn Monroe as Christina Aguilera's rose-lensed pipe dreams. Misfires here and there in a score marked with affectation apnea, Damrau/Barone flubbed the Act II 'Ah perché qui venni incauta' with a late cue. With eyes wide open, Beczala took the most serious hits for an unintelligent, charmless Alfredo, preparing pasta and chopping vegetables as Germont served trauma and then bringing Violetta sweets and flowers as she lay dying, everyone preoccupied with a vase. If Tcherniakov had a point, he didn’t quite make it.
The most critical held Gatti responsible -- the Milanese maestro who spent his junior years watching the podium from afar in La Scala's loggione -- for allowing such a misguided production. Or maybe it was his in-joke. Outside of Milan, Tcherniakov's shortcoming has been shifted to the public. Boys will be boys, whores will be whores, but dogs usually bark for good reason.
After so many years of non-Italian opening nights -- Wagner, Bizet and more Wagner -- and especially after Lohengrin greeted Verdi's bicentennial birth year at last year's opening, Scala finally welcomed its native son back to the fold, with arms wide open, regardless of Wagner transgressions. But when they rolled back the rock, it was a Frankenstein monster. Seal it back up!
Native Italian opera risks extinction, domestic talent gone fair-weather for Europe and America, although blameless, we've all gotta pay the bills (or find bankrolled Swiss lovers). The public isn't angry, they're afraid.
Paolo Isotta, in a teaser column signed "persona non grata" in today's Corriere, called the whole thing ridiculous and totally unrealistic. He titled his piece "Quelle Camelie sbagliate" (not online), those befuddled camellias, citing the red camellia placed in Damrau's hair during the first and second acts. As everyone knows, says Isotta, the courtesan protagonist of Alexandre Dumas, fils' La Dame aux camélias wore a white camellia at her chest when she was accessible to her lovers and a red one when she wasn't.
He's critical of Gatti, whose Verdi is almost always correct, respectful, informed and enlightened. But Isotta accuses Gatti of playing to the director’s/singers' whims by allowing ridiculous giggles and pauses that sacrificed tempi and for affecting a big band sound, comparing it, at times, to Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado (like the Lucic/Damrau 'Ah non udrai rimproveri').
Beczala, aside from an incredible cadenza before "O mio rimorso, infamia" was given over to sobbing, bleating and braying throughout the remainder of the opera. Damrau, undeniably an amazing coloratura, made an uneven first act full of vocal and acting ticks that simply weren't in the manuscript, seeming not to know when she should cry or laugh. Her 'addio del passato' was solid, but 'Prendi quet'e' immagine' was impeded by bad direction. Isotta also cites her 'amnesia' on flubbed entrances.
Still, for anyone who's been to opening night at La Scala, there's no such thing as a bad night. After all, who could complain? We hope not the singers who garner small fortunes nor the audience whose (admitedly expensive) tickets guarantee equally savagery and delight in a setting that's a tone poem of elegance. What's to hate?
Armani (in Armani)
Bolle
Fracci
Pereira and his wife
The 56th Annual Grammy Awards Nominees have been listed, but you have to scroll
all
the
way
down
to see the classical music idols who've netted 2013 nominations. Winners will be announced on January 26, 2014 at the award ceremony, live from Los Angeles.
La prima della Scala fever spikes and the only medicine is Verdi (and more cowbell). Last night, La Scala opened its doors to an under-30 neophyte litmus in the final La Traviata dress rehearsal before Saturday's official season opener. Applause pounded for Daniele Gatti's Verdi, Diana Damrau's Violetta and Piotr Beczala's Alfredo, with less enthusiasm for Željko Lučić's Germont.
The new production, signed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, places less emphasis on the scenery (scrubbed-up, modernized, mid-19th century throwback) and more 'fantasy' into modern day costumes -- notably Damrau who's been capped with a platinum blond wig of Marilyn Monroe curls (like that Aix-en-Provence Mireille Delunsch Violetta) and wrapped in a costume that oozes glamor (a low-cut blue dress, decolletage dripping with Swarovskyish ice), sexy but naive. In Act II, when Germont comes to tell Violetta that he's got 99 problems but she ain't 1, she's preparing homemade pasta in a well appointed kitchen.
The big shocker, from today's Corriere della Sera by journalist Pierluigi Panza, is that Violetta dies in a wooden chair, in a bare room with one window -- at her side an empty bottle, a telephone (lol landline) and a winter comforter. Austere, Ikea death. The death chair echoes (intentionally or not) the iconic, now-exemplar 1955/56 Scala-Visconti Traviata with Giulini, Di Stefano and Callas, when the world's most stylish diva died in a chair, at the time, very controversial.
Tchernaikov spoke to Corriere della Sera's Giuseppina Manin and explained that his conception of Traviata was inspired by Ingmar Bergman and the psychological games of the protagonists, represented by an intimate, claustrophobic world of closed spaces where nothing is seen beyond the windows. He said:
The social context stays in the shadows. Since Traivata was first staged, 160 years have passed. Everything's changed from then to now. First and foremost, morals. Words like 'reputation', 'honor' and 'sacrifice' sound very different than they did in the mid-19th century. Today no one's without sin and therefore who can judge a prostitute? Violetta of today could totally resemble a movie star. A seductive Marilyn Monroe, a bit irrational, beyond any kind of moral judgement.
Tchernaikov analyzed every page of the score with Gatti and said of the collaboration, "His observations were very useful. What was the trend in the 19th century is no longer the trend today [...] It's better to seek the deep motivations of everyone. You will find that even the terrible Germont has his reasons and justificatons."
While we wait for Saturday night, there's an excellent interview in Corriere della Sera's ViviMilano between Milanese conductor Daniele Gatti and journalist Gian Mario Benzing. This will be Daniele Gatti's second Traviata at La Scala and his second Scala season opener. Gatti's professional Verdi roots were planted when he was 20 with Giovanna d'Arco, then a Rigoletto in Bologna with Nucci and June Anderson. As a former La Scala loggionisti, the Milanese maestro grew up with Verdi in his blood and studied Falstaff often with his composition teacher.
Gatti says that Verdi's Traviata isn't necessarily an Italianate opera as it speaks of the influence of European cultures, notably Parisian, like the opening brindisi with a touch of 'folies bergères' and the waltzes and dances have overtones of French gaiety. The waltzer steps are intertwined with Greek meter -- two short and one long with the accent on the third syllable -- and the Greek tragedy manifests itself in the passage of time, especially towards the finale of anguish/death.
On his particular interpretation, Gatti said:
Everyone has their own ideal Traviata and it's difficult to be convincing. I however will not be a conductor who pulls the chariot of tradition: if you come to hear me, don't expect tradition. I feel pure in front of such a work of art -- when I re-study a score, I push myself to interpret it just like as if I had picked it up fresh from delivery.
[...]
La traviata is an opera that's been most performed and most abused. It's difficult to scrape off all the cliches that have famously accompanied it. Instead, cliches need to be avoided. I'm looking for a style that's dry. Expressive, but dry, and less redundant. I wrote out some mini-variations in the 'ripresa' of some of the cabalettas. For example, the one for the baritone, "No, non udrai rimproveri," you sing it two times and I'll make it much quicker, like a song that's anxious and throbbing -- Germont wants to be an affectionate father, but in reality he believes as an instrument in the hands of gawd and knows only how to put on a sense of guilt.
Gatti doesn't believe that Traviata is verismo and considers it more as realism and he wants none of his singers to use an excessive vocality. "It's a tragedy, but intimate and dignified." He continues: "Violetta is Rigoletto in a skirt who also has this 'hump' -- but her hump is a social deformity that sings about love."
This is Tchernaikov's first Verdi production for La Scala -- he's only exhibited Russian titles for Piermarini in the past -- Prokofiev's The Gambler, Tchaikovsky's Onegin and in March 2014 he's signed to a Rimsky-Korsakov The Tsar's Bride.
Coverboy Gatti
Fashion photographer Andrew Yee has shot some gorgeous work for the FT's 'How to Spend It' supplement in the past, and his latest spread, 'Called to the Barre', is equally aspirational. Models in ballet-inspired gear (like an Oscar de la Renta gown paired with Repetto ballet shoes) has reignited our latent ballerina. Lots more photos at the source, all photos Andrew Yee.
Opera singer as music muse? Nothing new. Opera singer as art muse? Much cooler.
On the 100th birth year anniversary of the late Milanese artist, Piero Fornasetti, Milan's coordinated a centenary retrospective with more than 1,000 objects at the Triennale. A prolific artist, Fornasetti's most iconic work reappropriated Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri's portrait onto objet d'art like plates, above.
According to Fornasetti's son, Barnaba, Piero discovered the 20th century soprano's image in the 1930s in a magazine and was charmed by her perfectly-proportioned face.
(Lina Cavalieri)
“There’s just something magical in the expression in Cavalieri’s eyes,” he [Barnaba] suggests. Growing up surrounded by her face, he wasn’t terribly interested in who she was. “I never asked my father about her,” he explains, “For a long time, I didn’t know her name.” It wasn’t until later in life, when he started to read about Cavalieri, that he developed his own interest. “One day I’d like to make a movie or an opera about her. She was like a rock star.”
OC checked out the Milan exhibition this weekend, and in addition to Cavalieri, opera showed up frequently in Fornasetti's pieces.
(Trays painted with Teatro alla Scala interior and exterior)
And as we were watching the Russian docu-dramz on Anna Netrebko, we noticed that she's got a few Fornasetti plates in her UWS aparment
At last night's 2013 British Fashion Awards, English model/socialite Poppy Delevingne (above) wore a piano shirt-dress from Emilia Wickstead's S/S 2014 collection. All looks below range from $780 to $1,245.
(Image from the 'Verdi e Milano' app)
Better late than never. In the runup to Teatro alla Scala's Traviata 235th season opener on December 7th, Milan's in full rally to celebrate the bicentennial birth year of its opera superhero, Giuseppe Verdi. The new Dmitri Tcherniakov production stars Gatti on the podium, Damrau as La dame aux camélias and Beczala as the dude.
Notable exhibitions around Milan include 'Veni, Vidi, Verdi, La Donna e' Mobile' at Palazzo Morando, 'L’impresa opera – Verdi. Boito. Ricordi' at Palazzo Moriggia and the WOW Museum of Comics presents 'Sempre Verdi', a collection of vintage, Verdi-themed comics in titles such as Mickey Mouse, Dago and Donald Duck.
Giuseppe Verdi's Milan haunts have been tracked, thanks to an app, 'Verdi e Milano', like the Via San Marco church where his Requiem Mass premiered, the Hotel et de Milan where he died and the Casa di Risposo G. Verdi retirement home that he founded.
Violetta in città: Around the city, strains of Traviata are being pumped in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, some of the city's subway stations and at the Linate airport.
If you're not one of the lucky 3k in-house spectators on opening night, you can catch a live stream on Rai5 or in seven movie theaters and a handful of museum auditoriums (including the la Casa di riposo per musicisti Giuseppe Verdi).
Next door, the Trussardi alla Scala restaurant offers a special post-Scala menu at €180.00 per person, offering goose broth, cuttlefish, steamed lobster, duck and dessert, with an option for white truffles at an additional cost.
We spotted a Verdi/Star Wars double-bill in the Milan metro where an exhibition of Star Wars collectibles at the Still Image Museum was juxtaposed with an exhibition in Palazzo Moriggia on the working relationship between Verdi, Boito and Ricordi. "Il mito" in Italian is "the legend", which calls for a Verdi-as-Darth-Vader mash-up or at least a lightsaber duel between the two myths.