Opera Chic

Stravinsky's Rite at 100: You Gotta Fight For Your Rite to Party

A lot of things get better with age -- baseball gloves, selvedge denim, beards, Ryan Gosling -- and our deep appreciation of Stravinsky's groundbreakingly-epic The Rite of Spring, the gateway symphony drug of the kool kidz.

Today, the cranky Russian genius of modernism celebrates the 100th anniversary premiere of his game-changing work that coined the awesome phrase "classical riot" and proves that Spring isn't about the weather but rather, a state of mind, this one unflinchingly modern and progressive.

London Recap -- Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex at the Barbican

American Horror Story, Season One. Tate Langdon, played by Evan Peters as a Kurt Cobain throwback that reignited OC's latent lust for grungy boys with dirty, blond hair and banded fisherman sweaters with gnawed thumb-holes (and Jessica Lange, absolute perfection) -- but not necessarily for cold-blooded killers like tattooed Tate, above, who had fogive-me-father-for-I-have-sinned. (Act like you know and we'll gloss over favstar and snapchat -- OC promises to keeps you young, like her coveted YSL Forever Youth Liberator Serum).

During last week's London adventure, OC took in the 70th birthday concert for Sir John Eliot Gardiner with the LSO at the Barbican, birthday cake and Bollinger La Grande Année magnums swapped for Stravinksy's Apollon Musagète and Oedipus Rex (1926–27, rev. 1948).

Apollon Musagète, a half-hour amuse-bouche, the charming accompaniment to Balanchine-choreographed ballet, who must have been just as beguiled as we were when he choreographed it in 1928 (with Coco Chanel as costumiere a year later). With its chamber-like orchestra, the LSO's strings traipsed through Stravinsky's grave (but never dense) passages and shot back its chilling finale.

But the dark gem came post-intermission, Oedipus Rex, neoclassical Stravinsky, unabashed and brightly brassy, his opera-oratorio in Latin (from Jean Cocteau’s take on Sophocles' Athenian tragedy) with the LSO, Fanny Ardant as the flamboyant narrator, four worthy soloists (Stuart Skelton as Oedipus, Jennifer Johnston as Jocasta and Gidon Saks as Creon) and the excellently-unassuming Gentlemen of the Monteverdi Choir in face paint, greased-up as specters in Art Brut versions of Tate Langdon in all his pimply teen angst.

Lightly melodramatic, at times refined with crisply-punctuated brightness affected by the LSO's brass and horns, we loved the ne0-classical throwback paired with the ruthless drama of ancient Greek pagans and its infectious συνεργός, true synergy, under Gardnier's well-controlled gestures.

Rarely performed (although this summer's Bard SummerScape includes O.Rex bundled with Stravinsky's Perséphone), we have to wonder, well, why? With its bottled-up angst, interactive entreaties and calibrated flair, it's the perfect piece to draw the kidz into the concert hall.

Guess what else we did while in London? Aside from chilling with the ENO for a backstage beauty feature on Sinfini Music and pep talks with Cressida Bonas, we found the awesome, stocked classical music department at Foyles on Charing Cross Road.

We also ducked into the ROH's gift shop, and if we had more room in our luggage, we would have stocked up on the Royal Ballet's beauty line.

Igor Stravinsky by Cornell Capa

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Coco & Igor Get it on at the Cinema

 

We've posted before about movie (with the really lazy title) “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky”, a biopic on the life of the Chanel goddess that focuses on her love affair with  married (with four kids) Igor Stravinksy after inviting his family to stay in her Garches villa. WWD ran a short piece on star Anna Mouglalis' thoughts on feminism and misogyny, a curious perspective from a woman who was known to have not a single female friend. She must have been attracted to his bad boy vibe, Stravinsky as the OG of 20th century classical music.

Daniel Harding puts a Tutu over his Frac for Serata Béjart at La Scala

 

The 2009/10 ballet season of Teatro alla Scala opened on Thursday night with a triptych program highlighting three ballet styling of French choreographer Maurice Béjart, who passed away in 2007, leaving behind a legacy of fans and colleagues who spoke about his innovative vision and intellectual choreography. We were kind of disappointed that Scala doesn't make a big fuss of the first ballet like they do in NYC with the ABT and the NYCB, but it didn't dissuade us from putting on a Lanvin lace dress and Alexander McQueen lace-up heels.

Via Stravinksy and Mahler (so perfect for Béjart's rhythms of dance in the modern world), British Maestro Daniel Harding took the Filarmonica della Scala and Il Corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala on a wild adventure full of snappy, intricate Stravinksy and intuitive, burnished Mahler -- his first ballet conducted in Milan was full of win. In all honesty, Opera Chic came for the symphony (we will forever admire the work of Béjart and for what he's done in revolutionizing contemporary dance, but his choreography doesn't speak to us like how we feel after a rousing Brahms or Beethoven) -- C'mon...who could pass up two of Stravinksy's coolest works? 

Sixteen lead dancers took to their skin-tight body stockings to flaunt Béjart's best moves (and their own disciplined musculature), choreographed to Stravinsky's Firebird and Rites of Spring -- then Mahler's Chant du Compagnon Errant accompanied by Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, which was sadly last heard at Scala in 1975.

Even though star etoile Roberto Bolle was forced to withdraw a month prior from Serata Béjart (where he's recovering from minor surgery in Germany), it gave 23-year-old Gabriele Corrado a chance to learn his Mahler and to also have a nice anecdote to tell his friends at dinner parties.

 

Stravinsky's Firebird began with a corps of a dozen mixed dancers in cotton peasant gear of work shirts and loose pants. The firebird, Antonio Sultera, appeared in a bright red body stocking and made Béjart's lean choreography looked effortless. The entire stage was used effectively by both leads (the phoenix was Eris Nezha) and lighting was fabulously clean. Harding's Firebird started as a tenebrous hum tinged with light. He wrapped the orchestra with a lyric, emotive gesture, and his reading expressed a tenderness and vulnerability.

The highlight of the night (for Opera Chic anyway) was Mahler's Chant du Compagnon Errant, accompanied by Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen sung by baritone Christopher Maltman. While the dancers were exceedingly excellent, (Massimo Murru and Gabriele Corrado), the baritone not so much with too many precarious high notes. Again, the choreography never overwhelmed the narrative with gesture or distraction. As lean as Bejart's choreography was, adversely Mahler's music was full of imaginative color, cleverly told by Harding, in perfect control of the soloist, the dancers, and the orchestra (he fared well enough that after the first pause he was gifted with smatterings of bravos as he walked to the podium to start the last half).

Stravinsky's Rites of Spring begins with an awakening of the dancers, lights shifting from midnight blue to golden yellow, signaling the tranition. The male dancers in unitards of greens and browns, the women in flesh-colored body stockings, the work built to a literal climax which melted into an intricate orgy, as unsexy as one could imagine -- not kinky, but kinetic.   

Harding understood well how one should be bright but not shrill, a fine line between the two which was greatly mastered, with great tension full of drive and passion. An uninhibited reading, unrestrained and unafraid to use the full fortissimo of the orchestra. 

Of course, aside from the superb music, one can always stay for the ballet.

 

  

If Igor Stravinsky Was A Gunslinger, There'd Be A Whole Lot Of Dead Copycats

From Tom Sutpen's blog, quite possibly the best website on the Internet, this awesome photograph of Stravinsky holding a negative view of Mozart.

Uncropped photo at Tom's blog.

Sweet Firebird Of Youth: Google Honors Stravinsky's Birthday

Google celebrates Stravinsky's birthday on their homepage; the Internet riots.

(Major props to Tom Service's "Igor beavers" comment -- repeat it fast with a British accent and it sounds so naughty)

Hit Me Baby One More Time: Coco Chanel and Stravinsky Get it On in Paris

(Above: A scene from the new biopic, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky)

Since the Coco Chanel biopic thing has already been milked to death in the past year (Audrey Tautou in "Coco Before Chanel", Shirley MacLaine in the made-for-TV "Coco Chanel"), why not dissect another aspect of the French fashion icon's life? In steps film director Jan Kounen, whose previous films (1997's Doberman and 2004's Blueberry) are filled with gun-toting bank robbers and Wild West violence. He's toned down the angst for his newest film called, "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky", where the two legends share a brief love affair in 1920s Paris.   

Paris 1913. [...] Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. [...] Coco attends the scandalous first performance of The Rite in a chic white dress. The music and ballet are criticized as too modern, too foreign.

Paris 1920, Coco is newly wealthy and successful [...] Igor, following the Russian Revolution is now a penniless refugee living in exile in Paris. Coco is introduced to Igor by Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. The attraction between them is instant and electric. Coco invites Igor along with his wife - now sick with consumption - together with his four children and a menagerie of birds to stay at her new villa, Bel Respiro, in Garches.

(Above: A scene from the new biopic, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky)

Music is scored by Gabriel Yared (who won an Oscar for The English Patient and was nominated for The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain) and the screenplay is based on Chris Greenhalgh's book, liberally adapted from the hazy historical facts.

The film opens with a recreation of Stravinsky's infamous ~classical riot~ at the Champs Elysées theatre in 1913 for the premiere of The Rite of Spring.

Anna Mouglalis plays Coco Chanel, while Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen gives a tepid performance as Iggie. The film just closed the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and while early reviews praise the costume & scenery (all in Art Deco style), there is clear lament over the sterility of the actors' performances. In addition to our two main characters, Elena Morozova plays Catherine Stravinsky and Grigori Manoukov plays Sergeï Diaghilev. Let's just pray they don't turn this one into an opera. Written by Rufus.

You just have to click on the link below to see images from the 62nd Cannes screening at Palais De Festivals, and a chance to see Coco & Iggie & Catherine out of costume!

The Rake's Regression: No Progress Here. Move Along.

Before touching down in Milan for last night's la prima, Robert Lepage's production of The Rake's Progress touts an almost rock 'n' roll world tour rider stemming through Brussels, London, Lyon, and San Francisco. It's five co-production backers range from Covent Garden to Opéra National de Lyon to Teatro Real. Which is why we're surprised that with such prestige, this production was such a huge miss.

French Canadian Lepage's new(ish) direction [seen last year @ Covent Garden, Rupert Christiansen reviewed it here] is one that's bursting with clever ideas and cinematic allusions, but disjointedness blights every idea from the narrative to the blocking. The continuity has been destroyed, and the production is a whirlwind of tricks. Through the course of Stravinsky's 1951 opera -- based on William Hogarth's series of eight, 18th century paintings -- we find allusions to Cheever & Hockney & Andrew Wyeth, as well as classic American cinematic triumphs like Psycho and Sunset Blvd, but there's too much gimmick and too little profundity. The individual direction fell flat and static, while characters were woodenly blocked and thoughtlessly anchored -- it's cool that Lepage has a nice library and a tasty collection of old DVDs, but still.

Lepage fast-forwards the libretto about 200 years, and the opera begins in homage to the idealized, American-West landscapes from the post-war era of the late 40s and 50s. Lepage employed broad swaths of video projections splashed across a flat-screen backdrop, showing us star-filled evenings (replete with shooting stars) to golden sunsets over the ocean (complete with undulating clouds). But these projections, at best, looked like expensive, snazzy computer screen-savers, especially when props crossed the projection, breaking the illusion. The reality of the video landscapes jarred with the idealized props (like the helium balloon Silver Streak trailer, and the cartoonish Texas saloon). It was all too pastiche to be harmonious. Lepage's tribute to the American landscape was earnest, but misguided. There was no clever commentary on the era that he so ardently tried to emulate; just a hollow and gimmick-filled production. The worst offense is that the singers were painted in such a homogeneous & monochromatic spectrum, that it was difficult to find any resonance. And while his characters were flat, and the lighting was even darker, Lepage had to balance the lack of spark with garishly-colored costumes in purples and magentas, and pulsating neon signs for Vegas's transposed graveyard.

Wanna keep reading? Click the link below...

More Rake's Progress Photos Than You Can Shake a Rake At!

Here are a few more images from tonight's la prima of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress @ Vienna's Theater an der Wien.

Too bad there are no previews of the alleged 18+ content from director Martin Kusej. We'll just have to use our ~imaginations~.

Anne Sofie von Otter shows the Wiener Symphoniker what's what with her sultry, divaesque mezzo, Baba the Turk.

In bocca al lupo ragazzi!

♥ ♥ Click on the link below for a whole mess of filthy pics...

Theater an der Wien's "The Rake's Progress" Gets a R-Rating

(Alastair Miles as Nick Shadow & Toby Spence as Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress @ Vienna's Theater an der Wien)

English tenor Toby Spence and English bass Alastair Miles are poised for tomorrow's opening night of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in Vienna's Theater an der Wien. The production will be conducted by that hawter than hale, dewy-skinned, man-gawd Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who will sweat through the Martin Kusej production with the Wiener Symphoniker.

Theater an der Wien is promising such a spicy production, that it is carrying a warning for kids younger than eighteen years old, to shield their innocent eyes from an explicit naked brothel scene and some secksay stripping. If things get too hawt, we've got Anne Sofie von Otter playing the bearded wife to extinguish the flames.

Igor Stravinsky Exhibition in Salzburg

Whilst in Salzburg a few weekends ago, in-between lounging at Tomaselli (the oldest cafe in the Western World, frequented back-in-the-day by Constanze Mozart who lived right next door) and snacking on the miniature slices of Esterhazy torte at Demel, I had an hour to check-out the Igor Strav(w)insky exhibition at the museum der moderne rupertinum. Titled "Ich muss die Kunst anfassen" ("I Need to Feel Art"), the occasion of the exhibit is the 125th birthday anniversary of the Russian composer/conductor. Opera Chic gave readers a little teaser here, when we published one of the awesome exhibition images: an Igor Stravinsky gangsta mugshot taken in Boston on April 15, 1940.

The exhibit is huge, occupying two gallery floors (see image above), with the works arranged chronologically through the life and career of Stravinsky (throughout all the various musical periods), and with plenty of wall-text and exhibition guides (in English). Most of the images are on loan from Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel.

The first room was filled with photographs from Stravinsky’s early childhood, which were passed in the fin de siècle haze of an outlying city of St. Petersburg, spent with his parents, Prussian nanny, and three brothers. (See teh baby Igor to the left, in September 1883, and click for bigger.)

The second room followed his career into the 1920s with "Le Chant du Rossignol", media from "Renard", followed by his only work witha sociopolitical commentary: World War I with "A Soldier’s Tale". (Stravinsky said, "'The Soldier's Tale' remains my only work with a current contemporary reference.") The narrative of the exhibition continued to chronicle Stravinsky’s encounters with Picasso, Man Ray, and Edward Weston.

With his first wife, Stravinksy had two sons named Theodore and Soulima Svjatoslav, and two daughters named Ludmilla and Maria Milene. Since the exhibition was multi-media, and there was an ersatz theater that projected a biopic (Tony Palmer’s “Once at the Border”) interviewing both Soulima and Milene on the lasting impressions of their father. There were also scores, photographs, drawings, and many listening booths with large LCD panels, where one could listen-to and watch selections of his composition and conducting (one such was a documentary on his contribution to Walt Disney’s "Fantasia" with parts of "Le Sacre du Printemps"). (See funny mistake in English-translation exhibition text below. TEH SCARE OF SPRING!)

His segue into success began at an early age by collaboration with Ballets Russes -- the Sergej Diaghilev-organized ballet troupe -- who was responsible for the eventual commission of Stravinsky’s first work, "L’Oiseau de Feu". Soon followed "Pétrouchka" one year later in 1911, and then in 1913, the riotous lol "Le Sacre du Printemps".

Room three further expands on his work, and famous photograph portraits by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon dot the walls (the triptych above is Richard Avedon from November 1969 in NYC) in this packed exhibition, battling wall-space with a pencil sketch by Alberto Giacometti from 1957. Most of the images and mementos here were from after 1941, when he had moved to Hollywood, California and married his second wife, Vera Soudeikina. There are more images: his encounters with Georges Balanchine in New York, and their collaboration for "Apollon Musagète", as well as photos with Walt Disney. The numerous Cartier-Bresson photographs capture the nuances of his life, which ended on April 6, 1971, and where according to his wishes, he was buried in Venice.

A German-language exhibition catalog is available. Also, I remained in the exhibit only one glimpsing, ungenerous hour, and was uninterrupted with any other guests the entire duration. yay. It was a beautiful respite that is highly recommended if you find yourself in Salzburg. The End.

(above: museum der moderne rupertinum in Salzburg, Austria, where the Stravinsky exhibition is found.)

(A photo album can be found here with many additional photographs from the exhibition.)

Stravinsky in Salzburg

"I am not a composer of music, I am an inventor of music" - Igor Stravinsky

Salzburg, where Opera Chic sometimes spends the weekend (not at Riccardo Muti's villa, unfortunately, at least for the moment) and where a certain composer with terrible manners and a funny wig was born 251 years ago, has a very good little museum of modern art, where the exhibit "Stravinsky: I Need To Feel Art" for the 125th anniversary of the composer's birthday has just opened.

Full review and big flickr album tomorrow.

A sneak preview of our review: suffice to say that Stravinsky is gangsta. Photographic evidence below.

Stravinsky @ 125

Even if Stravinsky hadn't written some totally bada$$ music -- and he did, omg he did -- Opera Chic would love him just because he once said that there's more musicality in a trivial aria like La Donna E' Mobile than in the entire Tetralogy.  Heh. Anyway, 2007 is his 125th anniversary, and the New England Conservatory is first out of the gate with a mini-festival of Stravinsky concerts Monday through Thursday, more to follow this spring.