I think maybe it'll be more entertaining if I do this from memory, because I am sort of famously un-detail-oriented and I'll get all kinds of things wrong and you'll be all "but Maury, you moronic fuck, Voigt is not either singing her first Papageno," and we'll all have a good laugh.
So. Things I want to see in the coming season after all these mouth-watering press releases of the last week or so only I probably won't because in the words of Hedwig, travel exhausts me, plus anyway who's got the greenbacks?
[Please note, two of the links are to pdf files, so if that crashes your browser or anything...]
Book I
Reasons to go to Chicago:
1) Voigt disproving my assertion that on August 4, 2001 (DV's birthday; hoped everyone would spontaneously burst into "Happy Birthday" during curtain calls but my vision was apparently not shared) I was hearing her one and only Salome. She sings it in Chicago, lookin' all fit, in a staged production with the often enjoyably gutsy Judith Forst as mumsy and Alan Held as pops. Zambello and Tsypin ought to dream up something worthy of the occasion. Seriously, you know what the great thing about Voigt and Salome is, as evidenced by her readings of the final scene in concert more than her somewhat nervous semi-staged role performance? For once she's not playing wronged nobility, and I think she's gonna run with it.
2) Mark Delavan and Paul Groves addressing the bear community's charges that Iphegenie has too often been cast with twinks. [um, link is not especially worksafe.]
3) Oh hey wouldn't it be great if major companies would stage challenging works of subtle, subversive beauty like Die Fledermaus?
4) Lyric has an excellent young artist program, so when LHL cancels her Mere Marie, you'll probably get someone really good as a cover. (I kid because I love.) Meanwhile, Isabel Bayrakdarian and the ageless although surely at this point rather aged Felicity Palmer light up the marquee pretty well themselves. p.s. It's a Robert Carsen production, which in my limited experience is cause for rejoicing. p.p.s. yeah I'm not doing this from memory anymore.
5) You've read her blog, now hear what I'm thinking is her big role mainstage debut in this house. "Thinking wrongly," he edited, "very wrongly indeed, as she has sung the little tiny comprimaria roles of Donna Anna, Pamina, and Marguerite." Jeez, D'Annato, do your homework.
6) Galuzin belts Calaf. Me, I like that kind of thing.
Book II
Reasons to go to Seattle:
1) Well you've got to be curious how Vaness is sounding these days. (Customary snark mitigator: the acting is bound to be sure-footed, and besides, we're still kind of laughing with-not-at her after that weird interview in Opera News many years ago in which, out of left field, she vehemently but not hatefully denied all those rumors of lesbianism we have to admit we'd never heard in the first place. Good times.)
2) Dana Beth Miller in Don Giovanni. It's been long enough since I vaguely knew her that I think I can fairly say I'm not shilling when I describe her as a young singer to look out for. Plush, purdy voice.
3) Podles is Giulio Cesare. Man, this is almost enough to get plane-averse MD' to cross the country. Sets by Paul Steinberg. [ok, minor shout out. forgive me.]
Book III
Reasons to go to San Francisco:
1) The press materials about "San Francisco Opera Unveils New Visual Identity" are kind of hilariously overstated. Wonder Twin powers, activate! Form of: an opera company!
2) Admit it, you kind of want to do David Gockley. Oh, that's just me? Hey it's really quiet in here.
3) "Hey, I heard they're doing Die Fledermaus in Chicago but I'm stuck on the west coast. Fuck! How am I ever going to hear this neglected masterpiece?!?!"
4) Ok, ok. I'll stop picking on San Francisco. The City by the Baaaaay. Um, Rosenkavalier cast could work out pretty well. Yeah, I was 100% perplexed by Isokoski's mess of a Marguerite, but am hanging on to the idea that her glorious 4 last recording means there's good Strauss in there.
5) More Carsen, more Iphegenie. Rigoletto costumes by Constance Hoffman. Really good sushi. I don't know, don't ask me--I don't go that far west...
8 comments:
Don't suppose you have links for these season announcements...
D'oh! Going to correct my large-ish mistake.
Well, you've heard my theory about the Orfeo.
Anyway, there's also that Chicago Trovatore. Plus: Radvanovsky, Delavan. Minus: everyone's favorite Eurotrashiste, Dave McVicar. Double minus: check the fine print -- Gelb has bought half the production.
Nah, that silence isn't about your response to Gockley, one is simply stupified over La Rosenberg in full drag. That necklace would never get through airport security...
Another reason for going to Chicago is the sleepiest audience on the planet -it's a really quiet house except for the snoring. I was once sitting next to David Gockley and I could hear his botox at work!
Seriously? I have to admit I didn't go all that frequently in Chicago because there's no such thing as standing room, the cheap seats feel much further away than FamCirc@Met, and I was a grad student. I do have a horrible memory of watching the entire first act of Siegfried with someone's hearing aid emitting a high pitched tone. But then the owner of the hearing aid was very possibly asleep, so as you say...
There's a line in a John Guare play, "Silver Beaver. Why?" You just reminded me of it.
I had just made a joke in the entry about SF Opera's press release making me think of the Superfriends. There's no real reason. Welcome to my head.
Oh, well, I can't say I'm curious about Vaness's current vocal condition, having suffered through her sad decline over the last bunch of years.
I'm wondering when LHL will cancel the SFS concert I bought tickets to earlier this week.
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