Opera Chic

ENO & Terry Gilliam (& Berlioz) Take the Award

The English National Opera was awarded the South Bank Sky Arts Award in opera for its spring 2011 new production of Berlioz's Damnation of Faust in Terry Gilliam's opera directing debut. The ceremony was held two days ago at the Dorchester in London and some other cool stuff won, including Sherlock for best TV drama. Cumberbached!

Terry Gilliam Doesn't Like Faust

What a dick. Check out Gilliam's backstage antics while preparing for his May opera house directing debut with Edward Gardner's ENO for Berlioz's Damnation of Faust.

Terry Gilliam's Berlioz Faust for the ENO Will "Rattle Your Bones and Shake Your Fat"

Although Milan lost its chance, London steals the rebound and it's all net, no backboard. That awesome creator of all things insanely-cool, Terry Gilliam, and the English National Opera wait for Sir Gilliam to f**k up Berlioz for his opera-directing debut in a few months with The Damnation of Faust. Gilliam's shaolin tiger style always brings a cinematic, surreal fantasy like we loved in Fear and Loathing, Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Baron Munchausen but in Faust, love will be his new protagonist in Goethe’s dramatic poem about the desperate, insane depths of love.

Conducting is young, bright thing (and Twilight's R-Patz body-double) Edward Gardner, ENO's Music Director. Christine Rice is Marguerite, Christopher Purves is Mephistopheles, Peter Hoare is Faust.

ENO's website put up a clip of Gilliam talking about Berlioz (above) and, ummmmm, hey, check out @1:25 Gilliam's swastika fetish! Third Reich Faust? Mephistopheles as Hitler? We can hardly wait until May to find out...

Rockstar Terry Gilliam on the Piano

As if you didn't already know.

Although we sometimes pine for his Scala Andrea Chenier which never was (which we broke the story here), Gilliam caressing the piano lounge-style for a behind-the-scenes mini-documentary with indie rockers Arcade Fire almost makes up for it. Almost.  

Terry Gilliam DVD Blowout Sale

Opera Chic is still very sorry that la Scala's genius idea -- hire Terry Gilliam to direct Andrea Chenier -- did not materialize, and it was just too bad.

Amazon UK helpfully helps our Gilliam cravings with a big blowout sale of most of his DVDs -- for less than 4 pounds you can get "Tideland", "Lost in La Mancha", "Brazil", "The Fisher King", "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas". The "Brothers Grimm" is a little more expensive, at almost 5 pounds, but then you get Heath Ledger.

"Monty Python's Flying Circus" is still 67% off.

Terry Gilliam Opens his Cabinet of Wonders in Cannes with "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"

In cinema -- and in opera -- one of the things that matters to most, to Opera Chic, is that artists shouldn't really talk down to their audience -- they should assume a modicum of intelligence on the viewer's, and the listener's, part. Just a tiny bit of it.

Someone who has never tried to sell bootleg goods to his audience is Terry Gilliam:
A man who, by assuming he's not dealing with utter morons, gave us films such as the intensely weird "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas", the deeply unsettling "Brazil", the badly misunderstood "Tideland", the darkly gleeful "12 Monkeys", the strangely moving "The Adventures of Baron Munchahusen" (not to mention, of course, Monty Python). All from a man that in a sheer, and rare, moment of complete brilliance had been chosen two years ago by la Scala to direct Andrea Chenier and eventually the deal fell apart, as Opera Chic warned her readers quite some time before the press reported on it -- and Gilliam spoke to the Times about his new film, to be introduced at Cannes. It's also Heath Ledger's final film, as the young Australian actor died of an accidental overdose in January 2008, only completing about half of his scenes for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped in after Ledger's death to portray the character in the remaining dream sequences.

Here's Terry on audiences:

They try to lower the standard as much as they can to reach what they think is this great dumb audience. And I have always resisted that and wanted to believe in the audience’s intelligence. But if you keep feeding people baby food for long enough they begin to like it.

Scala Cancels Chenier, Replaces It With Traviata; Pregnant Cedolins Out; Devia In; Filianoti To Replace M. Alvarez In Don Carlos

Stephane Lissner, General Manager of Teatro Alla Scala, has announced what Opera Chic readers had been aware of for months now: Terry Gilliam's much-awaited production of Andrea Chenier due to open in June has been scrapped after losing the director (Gilliam), the tenor (Marcelo Alvarez, who also canceled his commitment to star in Don Carlos this coming December for la prima, the 2008-2009 season opener -- he will be replaced by Giuseppe Filianoti) and Fiorenza Cedolins (pregnant: congrats!!!) and conductor Daniel Oren.

La Scala will instead stage Traviata in the old staging by Liliana Cavani that was resurrected -- and bombed horribly -- last July, with Mariella Devia, Renato Bruson, and José Bros.It will be conducted by young Carlo Montanaro.

Unlucky holders of season tickets (photo above) will be able to ask for a refund instead of having to catch this patched-up Traviata. With all due respect to signora Devia whom we admire and love dearly.

La Stampa Follows La Chic: No Gilliam, No Alvarez, No Oren, Farewell Chenier, Welcome Ole Butterfly

Opera Chic told her readers ages ago; the Italian press reports today (in La Stampa). No Gilliam, no Alvarez, no Chenier, no Oren. La Scala's old Butterfly sets will be dug out of the Ansaldo warehaus, and Fiorenza Cedolins will be Cio Cio San. The conductor? La Stampa guesses it'll be maestro Chung.

We'll see. But how sad that an allegedly first-tier house such as la Scala has to lower themselves to recycle singers and sets after they prove themselves unable to keep a production together.

Opera Chic EXCLUSIVE Please Credit operachic.typepad.com Terry Gilliam Withdrew From Scala Engagement Due To Schedule Conflict. Andrea Chenier Still Directorless, May Be Scrapped From Scala Program

Take the drama llama back to the stalls, says writer/director/genius Terry Gilliam's London-based agent, Mel Kenyon, one of the directors at Casarotto Ramsay and Associates, Ltd.

Opera Chic still gets queries regarding the unfortunate cancellation of Mr. Gilliam's La Scala collaboration to direct a new staging of Andrea Chenier at La Scala in June 2008. OC broke the news of the contractual dissolve here, and we've been crying over our cups of Fortnum & Mason finest Japanese sencha ever since.

According to la splendida Signora Mel Kenyon, who represents geniuses for a living, since she's also Mark Ravenhill's agent, and she was the agent of the late great Sarah Kane,

"Mr Gilliam had to withdraw due to the fact his film started shooting much later than anticipated and therefore he simply was not going to be available for the Milan dates."

He's currently directing The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a fantasy-adventure film staring Tom Waits & Heath Ledger, with a release date in 2009 (krazy Gilliamesque photo above...and a photo of the man/myth/legend below). The La Scala slot for Andrea Chenier this 2007-08 season has been riddled with problems, with new rumors surfacing recently that the entire production will be shelved in favor of Madama Butterfly. 

Whateve.r ... as long as i have my F&M Japanese sencha we can wait to see what happens next.

 

Bye Bye Andrea Chenier? Chaos @ Unlucky Scala Production, No Director, No Lead, May Very Well Be Scrapped

As Opera Chic wrote a while ago, the production of Andrea Chenier that was supposed to be directed by Terry Gilliam, in a smart & heavily hyped move, with Marcelo Alvarez as Chenier, has lost director and star. As of now, six months from la prima, four months from the start of ticket sales, they're stuck with Cedolins and Bruson, with no staging and no director (see Scala official website screencaps here, published as fair use). Nicolas Joel was supposed to pick up the responsibility for the staging, but that deal fell apart as well, as la Scala's website indicates.

Now OC hears that Chenier may very well -- in a very VERY unusual move -- be scrapped in favor of another opera.

The question is, which opera would replace Chenier? It may be Butterfly. And the surprises could keep coming. We'll keep ya posted

Terry Gilliam Says No To Scala Engagement As Chenier Director, Nicolas Joel Steps In

Not only la Scala is losing tenor Marcelo Alvarez for both their Andrea Chenier next June and their next Prima, Don Carlos on 12/7/2008, as previously reported; they also lost their most exciting choice for director, Terry Gilliam, who was in charge of giving good ole Chenier a  patina of provocative genius and whose choice had generated much international attention for the opera house.

In Gilliam's place, French veteran Nicolas Joel, former Monty Python member and famous film director of masterpieces such as Brazil, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys.

The good news is, maybe the orchestra will strike again, so it doesn't matter who would have directed the opera because nobody will see it!

Marcelo Alvarez-less Scala Looks For Tenor

The Marcelo Alvarez decision to cancel his Scala engagements -- Andrea Chenier next June directed by Terry Gilliam & conducted by Daniel Oren, with Fiorenza Cedolins, and next year's prima, 12/7/2008 in Don Carlos under Daniele Gatti's baton -- opens a big hole in the season's roster, and in next season's too: if Ian Storey got his Tristan part only after Barenboim's first choice -- Burkhard Fritz -- said no, well, losing a big name like Alvarez TWICE opens a huge can of contractual worms.

If we ran la Scala -- and one day we will, oh we will -- we'd hire the best Chenier out there, Fabio Armiliato. But then we'd have hired him from day 1, and Dessì in Cedolin's place. Then, for shock value, we'd hire Alagna for Don Carlos, settling the lawsuit and getting lots of press for it.

And it would all be a lot of fun.

Now, not so much.