In two special Israel performances to celebrate the holiday season, Riccardo Chailly led Zurich's Orchestra La Scintilla, the Dresden Chamber Choir, and a handful of soloists in Bach's Christmas Oratorio. Both concerts were held in historic churches, the Xmas eve concert in Bethlehem while today's Xmas day concert was in Jerusalem. Let's hope Chailly & friends could fit in some sightseeing. Merry Xmas, Y'all!
As la Ceci gets ready to kick off her North American tour, our raging girl crush throbs even harder for the Italian, Malibran-loving mezzo. We've been told that her single 2:00pm show for March 1st, 2009 in Toronto, Canada had sold out *so quickly* that she's spontaneously added an additional show ON THE VERY SAME DAY at 7:00 pm! She'll toss off those gorgeous cadenzas and florid, ringing passages like a mecha-mezzo after, what, a two hour rest? As for the orchestra, we have no doubt that la Scintilla rolls like that.
La Bartoli will be presenting two shows on her stateside tour: the program "Salon Romantique" with Italian pianist Sergio Ciomei -and/or- her program, "La rivoluzione romantica" with Ada Pesch's excellent La Scintilla. The first performance is on February 17 in Orange County, California, and ends on March 3, 2009 in New York's Carnegie Hall.
Ceci's recitals from February 17 through February 25 is her program "Salon Romantique" with Italian pianist Sergio Ciomei, while March 1 & March 3 is her program, "La rivoluzione romantica" with Ada Pesch's excellent La Scintilla.
Here's the line-up of Cecilia Bartoli's North America & Canada Maria Tour:
February 17, 2009___Orange County, CA: "Salon Romantique" w/ Sergio Ciomei
February 19, 2009___Santa Barbara, CA: "Salon Romantique" w/ Sergio Ciomei
February 22, 2009___Berkeley, CA: "Salon Romantique" w/ Sergio Ciomei
February 25, 2009___Vancouver, Canada: "Salon Romantique" w/ Sergio Ciomei
March 1, 2009 (am)__Toronto, Canada: La rivoluzione romantica" w/ La Scintill
March 1, 2009 (pm)__Toronto, Canada: La rivoluzione romantica" w/ La Scintilla
March 3, 2009_______Carnegie Hall, NYC: La rivoluzione romantica" w/ La Scintilla
Kicking off the Georg Friedrich Händel celebration year of 2009 (the 250th anniversary of Händel's death), it was pretty easy to pick the revival of Semele at the Opernhaus Zürich however wedged between a bevy of current Italian superstar productions (mainly, Teatro Comunale di Bologna's I Puritani with our two favorite leading men, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and Juan Diego Florez). But after running a few linear algebraic equations, where la Ceci + La Scintilla + Carsen + Händel x Starbucks = EPIC, Zürich it the clear winner.
Next time under the dry, biting, ruthless winds of wintertime Zürich, O.C. will wrap herself in a few more layers of cashmere. This time, her Celine patent leather black booties, Jil Sander black pod cashmere dress, and Prada cropped black jacket just weren't enough to lock out the chill. We consider ourselves duly warned for next time...but at least this time we warmed-up with endless cups of (ummm, seriously marked-up) Starbucks.
We've already gushed about William Christie's elegant and gratifying sound with period-piece ensemble, La Scintilla -- and 48 hours later, those stripped-down tones still haunt us. La Scintilla, which principal concertmaster of the Orchester der Oper Zürich's Ada Pesch founded together with Oper Zürich, is an ensemble of young musicians who finger and blow (omg) gorgeously historical instruments, coloring a catalog of mainly Baroque works. We were reeling under their enchanting, purified sound of understated woodwinds, precise strings, and a smattering of buffered horns. Maestro Christie conducted with such sparkle and enthusiasm and elegance that even boring old George H. would have clapped his hands like crazy, and forgiven director Carsen for that scene with Juno brandishing a giant glitter dildo. O hai! La Scintilla will perform Händel's Agrippina in May -- we're soooo there (and before that, Carsen's Alcina comes to la Scala).
We had high expectations of hearing la Bartoli on the opera stage, after falling under her spell a few months ago when we caught her in live recital (also with la Scintilla) at Torino's Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli @ Lingotto. And we have a weakness for Semele, that beautiful work of compelling drama -- the cautionary tale of the bad things that will happen to you, mere human, if you decide to mingle with the gods -- a most British tale of the steely nature of social order that premiered, appropriately, in Haendel's adoptive city, London.
Director Robert Carsen painted the priestess in particularly human shades, tainted with vices and weakness shared by mortals -- mainly vanity, which was fully executed during her memorable aria, "Myself I shall adore." Bartoli made it easy work convincing us of Semele's giddy vanity, completely overcome with her own bejeweled reflection. She suffused key parts of William Congreve's English libretto with her delicious, light humor and brought a bit of spark to Robert Carsen's toned-down direction. "Endless pleasure, endless love" was a highlight, as la Ceci pranced around the stage weightless, barefoot, and wrapped temptingly in a bed sheet -- she just soars. Her trademark coloratura set the house on fire and provoked a few spontaneous applause sessions throughout the evening. Gorgeous ornaments and agile passages having no problems projecting through the small shoebox that is the Opernhaus, la Ceci, as always, melded with the orchestra as easily as a spoken dialogue -- her good humor is infectious.
Canadian director Robert Carsen's send-up of the British royal family was overt and gleeful, although it has been apparently toned down since the death of Princess Diana (Carsen's Semele production has been around since 1996, where it premiered at the Festival d'Aix en Provence). Our former love/hate (more love than hate) relationship with the monstrously talented Carsen has expanded into a new gray mousy areas, as we were impressed by his direction of Semele (the merciless grabbybutt habits of Jupiter a humorous high point of the evening), but not blown away as we were in March 2008 with his Salome in Torino. When he's on point, Carsen's witty and biting and perfectly sarcastic, pulling in classic pop icons and lambasting them appropriately. Not to mention his unabashed and unflinching, well, eroticism that breathes so much s3xiness into his visions. We can always count on Carsen to shake it up and make us sweat.
Friday night at Zurich we were slightly crushing on Carsen again...his simple sets and clever direction left us appropriately breathless (especially the scene with twinkling stars and twilight, la Ceci balancing an illuminated globe -- Chaplin-like --in her outstretched arms). And we understand how hard it is to compete with the Zurich opera house's gilded rococo cream and gold interior, gorgeous oils depicting pastoral scenes painted on the ceiling. This historic theater -- which hosted the premiere of Berg's Lulu in 1937 and Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron in 1957 -- is endearingly intimate and refreshingly historic (you almost expect the incandescent glow of limelight illuminating the singers), and the theater retains a miniature dollhouse feel (the orchestra is really just so tiny, even compared to Scala's moderate layout).
Semele's sister, Ino, was sung convincingly and expertley as Liliana Nikiteanu. But more captivating was Birgit Remmert's Juno. In homage to Queen Elizabeth II (to la Ceci's Diana), Remmert's zest was inertia, a zaftig goddess straight from Mel Brooks's casting genius. Delightful comic relief was extended by Rebeca Olvera's Iris, a pint-sized messenger depicted as a bumbling, nebbish secretary who experienced her own s3xual awakening when she was lustily ambushed by Anton Scharinger's Somnus. We were awed by Charles Workman's Jupiter, who exhibited well against la Ceci, peppered with believable chemistry and passion. Thomas Michael Allen as Athamas also held his role well on stage. We also applauded perfect English diction from the entire cast. Chor der Oper Zürich sang brilliantly and adhered to Carsen's always-entertaining expectations of the chorus as an organic, high-visibility element.
What remains with you, in the end, is the way Carsen's concept -- his satire on celebrity culture and on the inherently heartless laws of high society -- you just can't win with those people can you -- and his biting wit and talent for little clever sight gags -- mixed beautifully with Christie's delicately nuanced reading of the score; and it's interesting to note how you basically need two geniuses to stop Bartoli from running away with the show, she's generally so unstoppable.
(Above: Opernhaus Zürich puts out trays of free Ricola cough drops! How sweet is that?)
(Above: Opernhaus Zürich)
(Above: a composite shot of Opernhaus Zürich)
The only possible way for Opera Chic to begin this Haendel year in an appropriate manner was to go to Zurich. Not simply to Starbucks -- even if the Swiss town flaunts the closest Starbucks to OC's adoptive city of Milan, an uneasy 200 miles away (and OC necessarily supports Starbucks as a show of patriotism -- freedom coffee!). Not simply to Starbucks for gallons of gingerbread latte, but on to the Opernhaus -- that pretty little mousetrap of a theater -- amid the usual paparazzi frenzy -- where Opera Chic checked out Robert Carsen's already classic production of Haendel's "Semele", with the sparkling Scintilla orchestra conducted by Uncle Bill, aka Maestro William Christie, Membre de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, honorary French citizen with a cool Legion d'Honneur to show for it, helluva guy.
That's what Opera Chic did last night. A full review is forthcoming, if you behave.
But since Semele was Cecilia Bartoli (the DVD of this production, recorded in 2007 during its first run in Zurich, is coming out next month: but the cool kids -- OC among them -- had already watched the satellite broadcast on Arte TV last year) la Ceci, having the pop-art tendency to paint everything around her in the brilliant rainbow of her coloratura -- and the review will have to be mostly about her and her explosion of talent -- that's what divas do, face it -- the least we can do now is to dedicate a small separate post to the musical engine of the evening: Maestro Christie, la Scintilla's Konzertmeister aka the flawless Ada Pesch, and the professori of Scintilla's period instrument orchestra.
Christie's greatness -- what makes him so radically, even anthropologically different from so many unworthy prophets of the HIP movement, peddler of a scorched sound -- is that he's not only a scholar -- he knows Rameau better than old Jean Philippe knew his own stuff -- but that he infuses every work he tackles with a delicate, elegant sound, as natural as breathing. Nothing to do with the hard strings, jarring brass, unsubtle phrasing and threadbare sound of so many HIP conductors. Christie's magic lies in the fact that he can be witty or sad, but he's always so elegant, and deeply human.
Beethoven studied Haendel -- the greatest composer who ever lived, he said -- respectfully trying to "unravel" his mysteries. Maestro Christie (in the photo below, his workstation in the pit at the Opernhaus last night) attacks Haendel's secrets with a smile: and we thank him, and la Scintilla, for this.
OC dissed some of the more fabulous Milan Fashion RTW Spring 2009 shows + parties yesterday to chillax instead with the Agile Queen herself, Cecilia Bartoli, and caravaned to Torino's Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli @ Lingotto, where la Ceci was performing as part of the MiTo festival -- Torino/Milano Festival Internazionale della Musica. The kewl thing is that the auditorium was located in a very Americanesque business center, boasting a full food court and gigantic stretches of concreted indoor space, and OC almost felt like she was back in some awesome movie like Heathers or Bring it On. Regardless, OC strutted her gorgeous a$$ through the mall in Gucci black suede booties, black Marni silk pants, two layered Helmut Lang sheer tank tops, and a cashmere/wool blend black vintage Joseph capelet. The standbye 1940s Gucci midollino purse and a fistful o' brass knuckles from smacking up the bytches. just playin.
For the recital, Cecilia Bartoli was appearing with the Orchestra La Scintilla dell'Opera di Zurigo, flaunting OC's favorite affectation -- period instruments. k thnx bi. Ok, at least they were gorgeous to look at, especially Robert Pickup's blond & red-lined clarinet, which he fingered for Donizetti's Andante sostenuto. It was a very Louboutin moment with that secksay red lining peeking out from the interior.
Ada Pesch was supposed to be the conductor/first violinist, but it was announced that she had broken her wrist in an accident and was being replaced by some other chick. Can you even imagine how much that would suck to break your wrist if you were la Ceci's first violinist? I'd just splint it up in a makeshift Alexander McQueen skullprint scarf, pop a few vicodin, and march my a$$ on stage. [edit: It has been since confirmed that Concertmaster Ada Pesch indeed sucked it up, marched her bandaged & broken wrist onto the stage like a pro...but handed the solos over to a substitute. We wish her a speedy recovery.]
The program was more or less an alternation of the orchestral ensemble playing a small interlude, scherzo, or ouverture, and then Ceci singing one of her Maria Malibran La rivoluzione romantica CD tracks. TBQH, we're not huge fans of the intellectual Malibran program that she's been doing in circuits for the last year. It's just too romantic for our more metal tastes. /m\/m\ But TBQH, we'll take live & uncut Ceci any way we can get her.
After the opening work by the ensemble, Ceci stepped out in a royalblue, princess-style, satin gown. The gown had a tight, sleeveless bodice, and a gigantic puff of a skirt which fell to the floor. As la Ceci walked off the stage and back she lifted the hem and glided as gracefully as a geisha with her little, sandal'd feet clacking like a baby duck. The skirt and bodice were embellished with crystals skimming along the hems in baroque design. She had accessorized with a gorgeous diamond necklace fully blinging-out of control, which bathed light and sparkle everywhere during the performance. La Ceci's been rocking these same gowns for the Maria Malibran recitals, as reported by Intermezzo, who methodically went to both *both* of Ceci's recitals in December 2007 at the Barbican. Check them out here and here (Our darling Parsifal was also there). Ceci was rocking that 1980s half-up/half-down hairstyle that she favors, and although she mos def lost weight since last December and looks pretty tite, her dress is not forgiving for teh back fett or squashed gigantosaurus bewbs.
The auditorium was pretty freaking large, and we worried that poor Ceci wouldn't quite fill the space with her voice -- and at times, her small but perfect amplification got kinda toned down in the beautiful wood beams of the new big theater. But almost all the time she stayed afloat. The orchestra was full of sweet kids, and had a spirited, lovely, enthusiastic sound, but they didn't pass the test for OC. They played with odd dynamics, unpredictable tempi, and overall had a wet, squishy, shapeless sound. We were surprised at the way some works were overly polished and restrained, and absolutely hated the double-time rush of Michael William Balfe's Yon Moon O'er the Mountains, where our favorite lycanthropic lullaby was hasty, not tasty.
The works by Manuel del Populo Vicente Garcia (Ceci sang "E non lo vedo...Son regina" and the orchestra played the ouverture from La figlia dell'aria) were soporific, followed by another tired match, "Cari giorni" by Giuseppe Persiani. "Infelice" by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy barely supported the evening, and it wasn't until Rossini's "Nacqui all'affanno...non piu' mesta" that La Ceci's flame gutted the audience.
Once she delved into the more lively works, her voice was incredible, vital, and one that cannot be close to being replicated on the most mastered&remixed of CD recordings. Her speed, clarity, and accuracy were off the charts. Her voice was light and agile, throwing off her tradmark, elaborate ornamentation techniques like a super-mecha. Her running passages hit us with the force of a speeding locomotive. And we sensed not a single ounce of tension, nor did she exert any extra force. She was stunningly flawless. Really. She has irony-defeating mad skillZ. One can only bow one's expensively-coiffed head as a sign of respect for Ceci's talent and her scholarship.
The expression in her voice was truly tremendous. You can see how she interacts with each instrument as if it were a creature of flesh and blood. She reacted to the music and soloists almost as a child [childlike in her pure mannerisms & unrestrained devotion], and she would study the mood & tone until the music became, to her, a life form as real as her own body. She's insane.
After the intermission, she changed her gown to the exact same one, except in a flat red, sumptuous rich color, the same exact embellishments as the royalblue gown prior. She had taken-off her incredible necklace, tho (either that or some Cary Grant like international jewel thief stole the thing, chased by la Ceci's henchmen like in that Beastie Boys video).
At the end of the performance, she was handed individual red roses (that were handed to the audience at the auditorium door), and made a nice show of three bis.
First was a Malibran-penned cabaletta from La Tarantella,the second was from the papi of Malibrán, Manuel García's Yo que soy Contrabandista, with an entire entourage of flamenco p33ps following la Ceci to the stage comprised of two guitars and someone with castanets.
Last was another interpretation of Non piu mesta from La Cenerentola, this time done with different trills and ornamentation, while la Ceci took a playful read, waving to the balcony excitedly during the aria with her open palms like a cheerleader.
Away from the lounge chair critics and myopic a$$holes who sit around with their sound systems and label singers, la Ceci cannot be rated on her discs alone. She must be heard & seen for it to be believed...her absolute, supreme authority as one of the most prepared and confident performers in our lifetime. Nobody knows, obvs, how la Maria Malibran actually sounded. But it's pretty difficult to argue that her vintage stilettos are way too big for la Ceci to fill.
La Ceci then orbited back to earth, as she shook hands with almost every fan that handed her a rose from the stage, and she really didn't pull any diva yeayeaokthximtirednowgo stuff...There she was: sweaty, sticky, bewbs akimbo, interacting with her fans, blazing a full smile, with no affectation. La Ceci simply outclasses. Face it.