Florida Grand Opera gets its hump on with extensive prosthetics for an upcoming production of Rigoletto. Baritone Mark Walters, who sings the lead, was recently fitted at Florida Grand Opera's costume studio, blueprinted by director Jeff Buchman for a deeper connection to Verdi's jester.
Walters will be joined by Michael Fabiano as the Duke and Nadine Sierra as Gilda for the premiere on January 28, 2012.
FGO put up photos of the process here, along with the video below.
Miami's Florida Grand Opera dove into bar-coding waters with a new ad campaign offering exclusive content for iPhone and Android users. In a bid to connect with their younger, tech-savvy audiences, a billboard promoting the upcoming run of Don Giovanni (which opened last night and runs through May 14) has been stamped with a QR code, allowing passerbys to unlock a FGO mini-site.
Soooo, how many of FGO's subscribers -- smart phone owners (with QR code-reading capabilities) aside -- can actually see the ad over their steering wheels?
"I believe the world of high fashion and grand opera go together." -- Florida Grand Opera Board President, Jane Robinson.
If there's one thing I know about those words above, it's that I like the way it sounds. At the impetus of the FGO Board President, this upcoming Saturday evening, November 17 (which opens with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte), will bring about a new, fashionable paradigm for the annual Opening Night Gala. For this year's 67th anniversary of the FGO, in addition to the requisite champagne/dinner/dancing post-opera gala, high fashion will reign as the evening's concurrent success. The FGO has their Eres panties in a twist because this season's sets and costumes of Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles have been designed by British fashion icon Zandra Rhodes
For the event's theme, "Celebrating the Fusion of High Fashion and Opera", five prominent fashion designers local to the Miami area had been invited to create original evening gowns inspired by one of the five 2007-08 season productions, which will be clipped to models and paraded around the gala @ the Carnival Center's Ziff Ballet Opera House. The Gala closes with a fundraiser, and the gowns will be auctioned-off to benefit the opera organization.
OC hopes that the Gala is a winner, as we experienced the FGO last February with Renata Scotto-directed, Richard Bonynge-conducted Bellini's La Sonnambula, and can attest that the beach mentality influenced the frock-less masses that streamed into the opera house.
Here below are the divaish offerings from the five local women designers, and we're happy to report that all five would have no problem sheathing our leading ladies of opera. All images were taken from the Miami Herald multimedia slideshow (credits to John VanBeekum & Suzanne K. Mast Lee) found here [with music], but OC condensed it for you below because i <3s u all.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
BELOW -- Julian Chang's Les pêcheurs de perles gown: A $3,400 halter gown with ruffles, made of 2-ply silk. Artist's statement: "I love romantic stories. This dress has a little bit of ethnicity. There's a lot of gold. It's something that's a little more structured but has flow.''
BELOW -- Mayda Cisneros's Cosi fan tutte gown: A $3,800 purple silk taffeta with ruffles. Artist's statement: "This opera has to do with two brothers who are out to prove that women forget who is whom. I really wanted to use ruffles to show flirtiness and flightiness because ruffles to me are the ultimate expression of that. I made them big and bold. Women can be flirty and flighty and strong at the same time."
BELOW -- Victoria Lopez Castro's Tosca gown: A $4,000 ivory silk chiffon, hand-beaded, with ostrich feathers and overcoat in silk velour. Artist's statement: "Tosca was a very vivacious opera singer, and this was the era of Josephine and Napoleon. So I designed something that was wearable -- a scene-stealer effect but very clean."
BELOW -- Ivonne de la Vega's La Bohème gown: A taffeta dress for $5,000 and an asymmetrical silk velvet cape for $2,500. Artist's statement: "It was quite challenging because when I started the research I realized [the lead character] is very poor and dies. It's very dark and gloomy. So I used a dark fabric from the Netherlands and since there are a lot of capes in the opera, I said, 'OK, we have to glam this up a bit.'"
BELOW - Silvia Tcherassi's Julius Caesar gown: A sequin and silk gown for $4,000. Artist's statement: "The dress is a stylish and contemporary version of a roman gown, the blue color represents the color of the Mediterranean ocean at night. It is a dress that without a doubt Cleopatra would have used to seduce Caesar.''
So Opera Chic readers, which one is your favorite? Victoria Lopez Castro's Tosca gown is our preferred...for its clean lines and simplicity. We roundly applaud all the local designers for their hard work and lovely gowns...although in all honesty we'd swap them in an instant for Balenciaga's or M. Bardelli's.
As promised, a few production shots of the Florida Grand Opera from the Saturday February 10, 2007 la prima of the Renata Scotto-directed, Richard Bonynge-conducted Bellini's La Sonnambula. All can be clicked for larger.
vvv Below vvv: Looking-up towards the ceiling of the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida. Snow peas!
vvv Below vvv: Super-titles above the stage flashing in both English and Spanish.
vvv Below vvv: Confetti rains-down onto the audience during the final scene.
vvv Below vvv: Curtain Call, with Carlo Diappi's sets and costumes.
vvv Below vvv: Looking-out over the balcony of the grand auditorium.
(A view of the Florida Grand Opera at night.)
Just fifteen minutes from the pastel-stained waterfront of Miami’s Collins Avenue…in a vacant, concrete sprawl of a South Beach after-thought, awaits a promising contender: The Florida Grand Opera. Florida? Grand opera house? Oh yes. Yes indeed.
At Miami’s newly-erected Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, Opera Chic heard something quite sublime at last night's breathtaking la prima of the Renata Scotto-directed, Richard Bonynge-conducted Bellini's La Sonnambula.
Upon exiting the busy loops of highway that circle Miami, an auspicious auditorium beckons impressively: the façade is a gorgeous mix of clean, green-blue glass, white slabs of pure concrete, luminous and warm marble, and kinetic, golden fountains. The lobby promises even more: stark-white, exposed skeletal structures of the towering construction gleam and entwine towards the enormous ceiling. Unfortunately, after the mind wraps around it all, the interior morphs into that of a giant cruise-ship, and you can’t help but feel like you are embarking on an adventure aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line.
(all aboard! The interior of the Florida Opera House: Miami, Florida, USA.)
The interior auditorium is well thought-out, with clear visibility from all areas, including spatial “partial view” balcony boxes (which officially hold four seats, but you could easily crowd a family of twenty). The only problem is that I seriously think the interior auditorium was designed by the same guy who did the monolith McMansion Manhattan Mormon Temple in Columbus Circle (this heathen visited a few summers ago before it was ordained). It’s covered in ersatz cherry-wood paneling, and then covered again in swaths of coffee-colored, patterned fabric...like a giant Marriot conference room or something. The centered ceiling design resembles giant snow peas (pics coming).
(More interior of the Florida Opera House.)
Luckily, the performance was strong enough to ferry me away from the nouveau riche interior: Mr. Dame Joan Sutherland's conducting was lovely and with excellent structure, providing the perfect accompaniment for the excellent bel canto of soprano Leah Partridge’s Amina. Her clear, sweet, and precise voice strongly reflected the practiced, skilled tone of the entire cast (go Renata go)! Her coloratura and legato stayed warm and beautiful, even through to her last aria, "Ah, non credea mirarti si presto estinto, o fiore," (which is also carved on Bellini’s tomb – and btw, Rossini and Cherubini both held the funeral shroud at the death of the beloved 33-year-old composer in Paris’s Père Lachaise Cemetery.)
Bruce Sledge's Elvino was well-matched to Partridge's gorgeous color – and although he is no JDF – his tenor was a pleasure. David Pittsinger’s Count Rodolfo was also well-executed, with great coherence and anchoring.
The pint-sized Renata Scotto (who sat front row center, and was all smiles during the final curtain call *pictures coming tomorrow*) teamed with Carlo Diappi for sets and costume production, which were minimal, however perfect.
A papier-mâché-esque, giant apple tree was the only scenery for the opening act, to suggest the bucolic, idyllic Swiss village square. Later, it was swapped with a huge, limbed tree for the final sleepwalking scene, where Amina’s stunt double (i saw what u did there) precariously walked the high limb above the stage. A sweet touch during the final wedding scene was confetti released from cavities in the ceiling...showering the audience with bits of colored paper.
It was a flawless evening, and will remain wedged as one of the most memorable opera events. This jaded girl (who rubs shoulders with old European snobbery at La Scala almost weekly) found something quite transcendent in the provincial suburbs of Miami, with super-titles above the stage flashing in both English and Spanish.
(exterior of the Ziff Ballet Opera House in Miami, Florida, USA.)
Now Opera Chic must return to the lush beds of her South Beach hotel, so tomorrow she can enjoying her last morning of splayed palm trees, warm February sun (ok ok today was a little overcast and tomorrow is supposed to drizzle but whatevs I'm golden), and café cubano before heading back to NYC. Tomorrow OC also promises exciting additional images from the La Sonnambula la prima.