(Above: Anna Netrebko as Mimì and Piotr Beczala as Rodolfo)
Attention Mall Shoppers: Thirty-seven year old Venezian opera director Damiano Michieletto's idea for La Bohème -- opening tomorrow night at the Salzburg Festival with Beczala as Rodolfo, Trebs as Mimì and Machaidze as Musetta -- is Paris as a cross-section framed within Google Maps and dropped into a mall. The young bohemians are mallrats who live in "a glorious age of illusion and utopias, like children, irresponsible. Rodolfo is snappy and irritable and Mimi is fragile." Judging by costumes, it's set in the ~other~ mall where kids clocked each other with masterlocks and stole from Hot Topic, Spenser's and Chess King.
Tomorrow night's la prima will start at 7:00pm on Radio3, streaming live from the Grosses Festspielhaus, featuring interviews with Michieletto and Gatti on the podium with the Wiener Philharmoniker. All photos Silvia Lelli.
Susan Graham was front and center (and then backstage) for the Saturday night premiere of La Bohème at the Los Angeles Opera. Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello sang Puccini's tragic couple with Patrick Summers on the podium.
"For the first time I can remember, an opera premiere in London has been
cancelled by severe weather. The snow is six inches thick on the ground
and Jonathan Miller's keenly awaited return to the Coliseum will have to be awaited until Wednesday, as English
National Opera cannot guarantee getting its employees - let alone the
audience - safely home to bed.
He found a way of stopping the formidable Angela Gheorghiu from
over-emoting in the last act of La Traviata. “I said to her: Take it
from me, I'm a doctor. Dying is a full-time business. You haven't time
to do a lap of honour. Chances are you're incontinent, anyway. Do stay
in bed.' She resisted me. Then she suddenly started crying and talked
about sitting beside her sister as she was dying.” ... “Put Rosenkavalier in 1911, when it was written, and
you suddenly hear the shot in Sarajevo. The Marschallin goes around the
house trying to stop the clocks. It's not because she's old — she's 35
— it's because she knows the old world is finished. Octavian will die
on the first day at the front.” ... “Two things I can't bear about opera,” he volunteers. “I can't bear
that Zeffirelli-esque, picturesque historical kitsch, which seems to me
to be just sedentary tourism on the part of the audience. And on the
other hand I can't bear what has infected England which is a German
Konzept-regie where you disfigure it, make it interesting in order to
show there's a director at work. It's fraudulent rubbish.”
There's also a tasty little Shakespeherian anecdote re: Sir Laurence Olivier and his love for, quote unquote, "the Hebrews".
A little video of Miller talking about the pitfalls of Bohème:
Now, one of the cool things that happen to you when you move to Europe is that you start rethinking the whole clear-cut "genius vs charlatan" thing -- you slowly learn that the two categories are not necessarily antithetical and sometimes even partly overlap. Sir Jonathan seems to be an example of such a phenomenon.
Surprise choice? If you think so, you have never heard him conduct. Fabio Luisi is Opera Chic's Conductor of the Year 2008 because he has a German brain and an Italian heart. Because with the Dresden Staatskapelle – “Dresden’s gold”, wrote the following day august Corriere della Sera newspaper -- he appeared at la Scala, in a benefit concert, and showed those of us who were ready to listen that Heldenleben (with the original finale, and Konzertmeister Kai Vogler teaching how you play the violin) is a masterpiece of subtlety and even irony far different than the usual windbaggy, sappy, irony-free piece we’re accustomed to hear (and that includes Herbie, genius as he was, photographed with his airplane and his Porsche, triumphant over his enemies). Luisi can do Wagner, he can do Italian opera (AND he recorded “Jerusalem”, that forgotten Verdi masterpiece). Because he once conducted in a Pink Panther costume (long story). Because his website seriously rules. Because he published his autobiography in Germany and Austria, and he isn’t even 50. He went so native that now he even speaks Italian with a faint Teutonic inflection. He has two cute pugs. Luisi downright rawks.
SINGER OF THE YEAR, FEMALE Diana Damrau Because if an alien race of giant rabid mutant penguins threatened to invade Earth she’d wear her Queen of the Night costume and she’d stare them into submission even before opening her mouth. Then she’d proceed to bash all their heads with a baseball bat and she’d make herself an alien penguin sandwich. On rye. With mayo.
SINGER OF THE YEAR, MALE Ernesto Palacio What? He retired years ago? Yes, he did – as a singer, OK. But he manages Juan Diego Florez in a way that he makes us wish he ran the careers of so many singers of great talent we see crash and burn for so many reasons. Maestro Palacio is behind Juan Diego’s decision to drop for the time being the Duke of Mantua after one preview in Lima and one run in Dresden; Palacio understands that the increased visibility that Verdi gives you is not worth damaging your voice; Verdi (except for Fenton, but you don’t really build a career on that role) is too heavy for Juan Diego’s perfectly tuned instrument. Hence, he will not push his voice to do Verdi. Better to be the king of Rossini and Donizetti, “el mejor tenor libero de la historia” in Placido Domingo’s words, than to be just another tenor who pushed his voice and crashed and burned. Opera Chic knows he’s busy but she’d like Palacio to be an adviser for her personal decisions, too – like a life coach. Fish or chicken? Ask Palacio. Seaside or mountains? Ask Palacio. Creme brulee or panettone? Ask Palacio.
OPERA PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR Salomé, with Nicola Beller Carbone, directed by Robert Carsen, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, Teatro Regio di Torino Salome in a Vegas casino vault? Horrible slimy old men stripping down during the dance of the seven veils instead of Salome? Salome surviving the end of the opera, in a genius plot twist? Leave it to Carsen to twist the Strauss opera on its ear finding new layers of meaning in that wonderful way of his. Whenever Carsen is on, he’s totally on. Noseda (OC did not hear him conduct when she saw Salome, it was his night off, but she's well aware of his work) may be the most underrated major conductor out there. And Teatro Regio di Torino does very interesting first class productions without the same massive amount of public financing enjoyed for example by la Scala.
NEW WORK OF THE YEAR “Elogium Musicum”, Hans Werner Henze On October 2, 2008, Riccardo Chailly conducted in Leipzig Hans Werner Henze's latest work, Elogium Musicum Amatissimi Amici Nunc Remoti, the 25-minutes elegy Henze wrote -- with prominent Classics professor Franco Serpa's Latin text -- in memory of Henze's companion of more than 40 years, Fausto Moroni, who died unexpectedly in April 2007. It's the story of two falcons always flying side by side, until one of them disappears from the sky; the music begins as a heartbreakingly beautiful string quartet, in quiet and serenity that gets increasingly animate -- then the second movement, "Nox", Night, becomes dissonant and chaotic and upsetting, a tempest of sorrow.
It's a stunning work by a man who had to endure a crushing blow and nevertheless turned it into art, a work made even more heartbreaking by the fact that, as the music in the finale seems to resign itself to disappear into nothingness, an alto saxophone appears, faintly at first, then stronger: it's Fausto. And Hans Werner Henze's dark night of the soul ends in the warm light of an Italian dawn.
Well, what to say of a work of such power? In the indifference of the blissfully distracted American media, German opinion immediately understood that we are dealing with a historic work here: Neues Deutschland called the elegy Henze's "Opus summum", the pinnacle of his work. The economy and precision of Henze's writing reminded Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of Verdi's Quattro Pezzi Sacri. "History is being made again, finally, in Leipzig", exulted the Leipziger Volkszeitung.
This is just a silly blog of a silly girl somewhere on the Internet; and our calling Elogium Musicum the new work of the year 2008 is nothing. But our admiration is real -- as is the timeless beauty of that elegy.
DUMBEST DECISION OF THE YEAR La Scala unions' strike for 3 nights of Dudamel's Boheme. The winner, hands down, is the Scala unions who senselessly -- and masochistically -- chose to sink the first three nights of Gustavo Dudamel's "La Bohéme" at la Scala. A hot young conductor, an interesting young cast (among them the really cool James Valenti) and Franco Zeffirelli's super-famous staging of the work, all at la Scala, made for a really cool event. The cancellation created a flurry of reimbursements for the three sold-out shows, didn't do anything to advance the contract drama that was protracted to this month a few hours before la prima and is probably not entirely over yet anyway. What it did, it punished the audience and disrespected a conductor who had already conducted an interesting Don Giovanni at la Scala -- but who won't appear in another opera here in Milan for a while now. The opera had the eventual greenlight by the unions in the second half of July, in the semi-deserted city, in the silence of the international media -- despite Dudamel's prominence -- and even hometown paper Corriere della Sera relegated the show to a small notice. But then la Scala's leadership in shooting themselves in the foot is a well known fact.
Below, Dudamel's triumph in Berlin with the same opera.
Live on Radiotre, Italian listeners have been treated earlier tonight to a live broadcast of the premiere of La Bohéme from Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova. Cristina Gallardo Domâs was supposed to be Mimì, only she fell ill a few hours before the show was supposed to start. Alerted in the late afternoon, young American soprano Elaine Alvarez -- who only fourteen months ago had never sung in a major opera company -- as Cristina's understudy came to the rescue the way she did when Angela Gheorghiu was fired from Chicago's Bohème last year and Elaine A., her understudy, stepped in and made critics swoon.
La Alvarez barged ahead with her trademark warm colors, displaying her blooming powerful soprano and -- judging by the audience's reactions, since we obvs had no visuals -- her knack for raw, emotional acting that made her Chicago Mimi such a treat.
After coming in from the wings to pwn first Gheorghiu, then Gallardo Domâs, we have only a piece of advice to sopranos she'll end up in the same production of Bohéme with: worry.
^^^update^^^
Audio update: download the first act of last night Bohème by clicking here
The long wait is finally over. La Bohème ~the 2008 movie~ has finallyexited tothe Austrian public today, while the screening party was held earlier this week. Enjoy below three pictures of fashion icon Rolando Villazón and wife Lucia from the premiere in Vienna. O Rolando, we love you so, but your navy velvet smoking jacket is just so Twin Peaks. neways, La Trebs was nowhere to be found, but her management issued a statement graceful excusing her from the festivities. Blanked by Anna!
~*~ ~*~ (above: The Villazon's with Robert Dornhelm)
As if there hasn't been enough news about Anna Netrebko lately, here's a leeeetle beet more. Puccini's La bohème, the Musikfilm, starring Netrebko and Villazón has put online the official poster and trailer in anticipation of the 10 October, 2008 Austrian release date.
You can check out the trailer here and download the poster here.
From la Scala's website (the website, at least, unlike the rest of the theater, is not on strike)
"La bohème - Performances on 7, 9 & 11 July: The
management of the theatre deeply regrets to announce that due to a
strike organised by the SLC-CGIL, FISTEL CISL, UILCOM UIL and FIALS
trade unions, the performances of La bohème due to take place on Monday 7, Wednesday 9 and Friday 11 July 2008 are cancelled."
As already reported by Opera Chic, this extremely lame decision by the unions kills the only really interesting show la Scala was going to offer for the next 12 months -- and considering that the management of the theater has huge public funding available when compared to all the other massively underfunded Italian opera houses, this doesn't make the management and GM Stephane Lissner look particularly good either (not to mention, the already heavily-burdened Italian taxpayers are heavily subsidizing la Scala with these embarrassing results; in a time of deep financial distress for the government, one shudders to think of what would happen if the theater had to try to find its funding without constantly nagging the taxpayers -- most of whom will never set foot in the opera house anyway -- for more cash).
Dudamel -- just like Daniel Harding, and many other major-league conductors and singers -- is too expensive now for la Scala, so he won't be at la Scala for a while, after this Bohème eventually -- if at all -- has its course in the second half of July (Opera Chic, by then, will be on holiday), in the semideserted city.
The upcoming Bohéme, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, is the last OMG-IT'S-UNMISSABLE show to appear at La Scala for the next, like, year, considering how weak, on-the-cheap, repertory-heavy and star-deprived next season will be (the already really expensive tickets, on the other hand, will cost 10% more).
Scala workers, today, have duly decided to go on strike and sink the first three shows of the boy wonder of the podium (who, like another rising star, Daniel Harding, has not been booked to appear at la Scala next season and possibly neither in the 2010-11 season): anyway, the premiere of July 7 and the second and third show, on the 9th and 11th will not happen unless the unions decide to cancel the cancellation.
O.K., the production is the old dusty one by Zeffirelli since the theater clearly didn't want to shell out the cash to rent a newer production to give Dudamel, but still, this is pretty sad in so many ways.
Tragically enough, that big secksy man that is James Valenti (see image above) will be part of la Scala's Bohème we'll be subjected to in a couple months, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, in Franco Zeffirelli's dusty old staging. No little kids waving flags there, right?
One of the more detached Bohèmes that OC has been to, with every eye in the house bone dry and tissues unused by the time Ramón Vargas uttered, "Che vuol dire quell'andare e venire...", though not all fault of the tenor. The chemistry between the Ceauşescu-ian ice princess and our Mexican lyric-of-many-scarves was not terribly convincing, and Gheorghiu was detached, while Vargas remained aloof when scenes called for them to converge. Both singers acted independently well enough, but a sense of platonic buddies pervaded their scenes together. Gheorgs couldn't wait for her death scene to be over, squirming uncomfortably and stroking her jaw, while Teh Fargster kept hovering over her and kept like 3-inches away at all times.
The best performance was by Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti, who guided the tipsy, capsizable ship of Puccini's La Bohème to the safe shores. Angela Gheorghiu was at the helm of S.S. Unprepared, struggling to match obvious and egregious orchestral cues, at one point transposing notes at the end of a passage that was waiting for her measures ahead, and giving Maestro Luisotti the best workout he's had in years. Things got so precarious at one moment that Luisotti abandoned his orchestra and began furiously guiding the short-of-sight Gheorghiu through one of her simpler, later act songs with gigantic and florid flutters of his hand, matching her swells with the ebbs of the orchestra. Gheorghiu hasn't been doing her homework, and bombed the oral quiz. Vargas was more or less on point and the house clearly loves him. His Che gelida manina! wasn't anywhere close to perfection, but he received a wall of spontaneous bravi from the crowds, despite the fact that his voice at the higher notes was pinched, and he strangled a passage.
When Gheorgs wasn't singing to the beat of her own drummer that mysteriously thumped away inside her own head, or searching for the proper facial expression instead of her dependable fallback knotted brows, or beginning her scenes in a timid, inaudible voice that grew in confidence and volume as the act gelled, what did emit from her was a gorgeous, tender, well controlled voice. Act I was a mess for her entrances, while Act III had her struggling once again against the orchesetra. More insulting than her sloppiness was the male leader of the local Gheorghiu fan club, who screamed encouragement from the Family Circle at the end of an early aria "BRAVO". FAIL! U FAIL @ LIFE!
The perfect sound coaxed by Maestro Luisotti from the Metropolitan Orchestra was at moments heavenly. His mastery of Puccini's well-known score was a stellar interpretation, his idiosyncrasies insanely sexay and elegantly succinct, picking-up passages that can easily delve into sentimentality and sappiness. Afterall, it was Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti's grandpappy that duck hunted with Puccini himself, so we expected a lot from the legacy of Puccini's circle of friends.
One of the highlights of the night was the presentation of two plaques to Mistah Franco Frengo Zeffirelli, who toddled onstage at the end of Act II's immense and unforgettable Cafe Momus scene before the first intermission to speak a few words. Gelb came out and elaborated that they were putting up two commemorative plaques on the stage walls. Frengo then thanked everyone, and personally thanked Mirella Freni, Carlos Kleiber, and Luciano Pavarotti. And Opera Chic. And his legions of silk and cashmere scarves. We <3 u Frengo!
There were a few opening night issues that have to be worked out, such as when Vargas and Gheorghiu remained in shadowed darkness during Act III's "Donde lieta usci". But more on that tomorrow, cuz this OC without sleep thing is about to get ugly.
Below are some exclusive shots from the Austria set of director Robert Dornhelm's La Bohème, with *~opera stars~* Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón singing the leads. We all know we're gonna see this one, so here's a preview. Her cap in the picture above looks like a giant thong.
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SUM1s BEAN CRYI?NG!-->
No bebbe! Not in the snow! You'll get all chapped!
Renata Scotto has been a peerless soprano and is a director of sneaky, sardonic brilliance: forget about consumption, in her Chicago production poor Mimì dies of heartbreak because Rodolfo is married and cheating on his wife.
Into the breach went her understudy, young soprano
Elaine Alvarez, who had never before sung with a major American opera
company. She looked and sounded fully prepared to take on this
touchstone Puccini role.
Far from displaying any obvious nerves, Alvarez looked and sounded like
a poised veteran. As the consumptive seamstress Mimi, Alvarez on Monday
revealed an appealingly natural stage presence and a big, vibrant lyric
soprano the color of deep burgundy. The voice bloomed under pressure
the way you want a Puccini voice to bloom, yet kept its warm tonal
finish when she floated the high pianissimos opera lovers wait for in
rapt anticipation. Conveying lyric pathos seems to come as naturally to Alvarez as breathing.
***
Impressive 'La Boheme' debut for Mimi understudy -- Daily Herald
I first worked with Elaine when I was the Assistant Conductor at the
Music Academy of the West in 2003. She was, even then, a consummate
professional with an extraordinary voice/talent. She's a wonderful
person, as well, and deserves all of attention she has and will
continue to receive. Brava Elaine!
*~*If you are looking for the Opera Chic exclusive interview with Gheorghiu-replacement Elaine Alvarez, go here.*~*
Many thanks to Chicago's classical music station, 98.7 WFMT, who dutifully provide a live stream -- 24-hours a day, 7-days a week -- from anywhere in the world, accessible with an internet connection (and a computer) (and electricity) (and/or ears).
Anyone in Chicago who can’t make it to the theater (and those of us outside of the Windy City) can listen to the highly-anticipated, post-Gheorghiu-fallout Lyric Opera of Chicago’s la prima of La Bohème of October 1, with the soon-to-be-opera-supah-stah soprano Elaine Alvarez.
You can listen to the live 98.7 WFMT stream via links to WinAmp, Windows Media Player, iTunes, or RealPlayer. However, first-time listeners must sign-up for a free account to access the streams. To do that, GO HERE, click on the media playa of your choice -- which will direct first time users to a sign-in page, where they can quickly/easily register an account.
You can bet that OC will be listening to The Bucksbaum Family Lyric Opera Broadcast live from the Civic Opera House, on Monday, October 1, 2007 at 7:15 pm (Chicago time!!) -- //Which means 8:15 pm New York City time, and tragically, 2:15 am Milan time. A quick apology to all my Milan friends, but get ur rest, i'll SoundForge it, k?
