Dagospia was covering -- via Umberto Pizzi's merciless, Arbus-like lens -- Opera di Roma's March 17 la prima of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide (with Riccardo Muti m.c.'ing the festivities) in their trademark, unflattering paparazzi force.
For a limited time, Dago is running the full set of photos.
As we write Riccardo Muti is conducting @ Opera di Roma the premiere of Iphigénie en Aulide -- part of his recently-hatched plan to create a special relationship with the Roman house: after conducting there Verdi's Otello this past December, after this Gluck he'll conduct Idomeneo next year and Nabucco in 2011.
The Iphigénie is directed by Yannis Kokkos, Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova is Iphigénie, Russian bass Alexey Tikhomirov is Agamemnon, Russian mezzo Ekaterina Gubanova is Clytemnestre and French tenor Avi Klemberg is Achilles.
Annette Seiltgen (L, Clytemnestre) and Cassandre Berthon (R, Iphigenie) rehearse the new production of Iphigénie En Aulide, Claude Schnitzler conductor, that debuts at Filature Hall in Mulhouse tonight. The 1774 tragedy is performed with the Opera National du Rhin's chorus and the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse. As per director Renaud Doucet's (of the Barbe Et Doucet team, the Dolce & Gabbana of opera direction) vision, Gluck's opera, beloved by Roussseau and Kirsten Dunst (aka Marie Antoinette), takes place in a watery, 1980s Euro -discothéque Aulis, populated by characters in gray leather pants and leftover guys in suits and sunglasses from The Matrix.
(Here you can see Avi Klemberg-Achilles in a safari suit embrace Cassandre Berthon-Iphigénie).
Doucet's money quote, read recently by OC in a French magazine, is that:
"Music doesn't exist... emotions create the music, not the other way around".