Opera Chic

Soho The Dog's Quiz

It's a Sunday. We're sick. We took Soho the Dog's test.

1. Name an opera you love for the libretto, even though you don't particularly like the music.

L'Eroe Cinese, Metastasio

2. Name a piece you wish Glenn Gould had played.

Chopsticks. That'd be fun, and gawd knows Glenn needed to unclench.

3. If you had to choose: Charles Ives or Carl Ruggles?

Who?

4. Name a piece you're glad Glenn Gould never played.

A Scott Joplin rag. Or did he?

5. What's your favorite unlikely solo passage in the repertoire?

An old Paul Bowles zarzuela.

6. What's a Euro-trash high-concept opera production you'd love to see? (No Mortier-haters get to duck this one, either—be creative.)

I'll quote myself here.

Opera Chic herself has a weakness for 1970s p9rn star 'stache, and she hopes Juan Diego decides to one day do a 1970s style Elisir d'Amore, where Nemorino is decked out with big fat mustachioes all Starsky & Hutch-like, in bell bottoms and bushy sheep hair and nylon shirts like the Beastie Boys in the Sabotage video and  Adina is all Daisy Dukes and platform shoes and dirty, frizztastic hair.

7. Name an instance of non-standard concert dress you wish you hadn't seen.

Anything worn by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

8. What aging rock-and-roll star do you wish had tried composing large-scale chorus and orchestra works instead of Paul McCartney?

Ringo Starr. He's sadly underrated.

9. If you had to choose: Carl Nielsen or Jean Sibelius?

Come on, it's not even a question, Sibelius 4evar.

10. If it was scientifically proven that Beethoven's 9th Symphony caused irreversible brain damage, would you still listen to it?

I've listened to it so many times that it's too late anyway.

Do we pass or fail?

yae ol' linky tyme! “I make clicks so you dont have to!”

Pretty slow news weekend, yase, yase, but Opera Chic is battling a reprehensible Italian virus that has infiltrated her coddled American immune system. A prescription of chicken soup and matzo balls? Ginger ale? I don’t think so...

After spending an ungodly amount of my first year here quick prey to germs, the sure way to get back to health is a generous splash of Cedrata, sciroppo di cedro (our trusted brand Tassoni) mixed with the gassiest of gassy water, Alpi Cozie frizzante, to settle the queasiest of stomachs. If that doesn't work, the beacon of hope relies in discrete nibbles of Citrosodina. For sustenance, a yummy mix of Polenta ai Funghi Porcini from San Candido. Or some Barilla Stelline with olive oil (never bought in stores, btw, but rather, gifted from friends in thick glass bottles when they come calling from native Toscana.)

Therefore, this post is proudly brought to you by Cedrata, which is powering-up the Opera Chic back-end lol. Also, +10 Enchanted Cedrata of Brescia Syrup. Also, +5 Magic Gola Action. Also, +6 Golden Citrosodina.

I'm so proud of my internaut colleagues, and am lucky to be counted among the talented mass of music bloggers. **internet flexin**

While perusing, I omitted a few of the gems from many bloggers on my link-lists, but send loads of ((hugs)) & :-* :-* from Opera Chic regardless. And I promise a holla-back the next time. Here's the roll call:

♥ ♥ Sounds & Fury eloquently encapsulates the precise quandary that plagues VVagner: The Movie, thus restoring balance to the universe.

♥ ♥ Soho the Dog proposes a quirky quiz to test your leniencies given ten precious, musically-minded questions (which garnered meaty comments).

♥ ♥ Jessica Duchen batters-up to Soho the Dog's challenge, quite possibly reading into the very mind of Opera Chic with her spot-on reply to the Beethoven Ninth question:

Q: If it was scientifically proven that Beethoven's 9th Symphony caused irreversible brain damage, would you still listen to it?
A: Yesdht3icbeutnaoehfgbnauedw278r&!*

♥ ♥ Caro Zio Norman displays the acute photographic memory of one of his readers, recalling two stirringly similar bucolic CD covers between Simon Rattle and Christian Thielemann. His post is all sorts of awesome. But if it comes to a showdown, our $$$ is on Thielemann, no doubt.

♥ ♥ Parsifal's site documents the Rolando Villazón Gone-Greek-Rush-Week recital from October 25, 2006 (lol October surprise lol) at the NYC UN Conference Hall, with rapidshare/rawwrrrr yummy cupcake goodness: "The concert has been telecasted in Greece and i managed to rip off the audio of Rolando's great performance." Pirates! Pirates of teh internets!

♥ ♥ From the vast, always-open workshop of La Cieca, comes a mélange of info and YouTube footage reflecting on the evolution of the parterre website.

♥ ♥ Our Lady ACB of The Concert had an exhilarating brush this week with Angela Gheorghiu, in the corridors of NYC’s MET Opera House; she left the scene of the incident unscathed, her soul intact. Sadly, Gheorghiu unpwned.

♥ ♥ The Alex Ross-ter introduces a renegade guest blogger, a purported master of tricksy posting styles.

♥ ♥ And lastly: after Matthias Röder of Zeitschichten criticized on his blog (in late January) of the new La Scala dress code, I am fearful that Lissner sent a ninja snypa to his house, as we have not heard from him since!