Maury flips randomly through the latest Opera News for your doubtless uncontainable amusement

Ok so now for instance this Salome in Innsbruck, directed by Brigitte "Das L-Wort" Fassbaender? It sounds unstintingly moronic and abgefuckt, and yet I'd love to have been there. Firstly because the soprano was supposedly good, but also, isn't an interesting failure more fun these days than a totally non-embarassing retread of something we've seen forty times? I know--the horse is dead; I can put down the stick.

The whole Judith Blegen story really is awfully sad, though I can't say I know her singing. Maybe I should add her to the roster for the ol' daydream where a celebrity decides you're they're best pal. She seems like she'd be a totally sharp conversationalist but also bake you cookies possibly.

Aright, the cover photo of Trebs I think establishes that she is not merely Opera Hot but in fact rather stunning. As someone or other, ostensibly drag queens, used to say in the '90s: Love your Hair! Hope it wins! So then she gets to explain about the e flat on opening night that was extra special flat, just for you, and how she didn't want to do it in the first place but everyone was like in one of those afterschool specials about peer pressure..."c'mon man...it's just an e flat...everyone else is singin' acuti..." and then the slow mo sets in and the claustrophobic distorted audio of everyone chanting "do it! do it! do it!" and first thing you know, she's out there singing what she very gamely admits was basically a D, and then it's just the gateway note, and she's lunging at mid-phrase high f's for no reason, but in the end all her friends gather around and hug her and she admits she has a problem. I actually once saw a pre-edit text of an interview with Gheorghiu and ever since, it's fun to imagine what these things looked like before they were edited for crazy and edited for non-native.

Totally skipped the article on opera reviewers. It was just going to be too devastating when they were asked for their role models and didn't mention me. So since I didn't read it, it's possible they did mention me--the article exists in a kind of Maury-indeterminate state. It's Schrodinger's puff piece.

Speaking of nothing, since there is absolutely no theme or (let's be honest) point to this posting, will someone try to explain the Scotto thing to me? Because I've never gotten it. I realize most of the time these things can't be explained, but on the other hand it's fun to watch people get really red in the face over their faves. I was just watching the Scotto thing on Parterre, and I know La Cieca is hugely pro-Scotto...whatevs, just if there's some recording I should know that will make the little cartoon lightbulb appear over my head, tell me, and tell me why. Oh but wait, Trebs mentions Scotto. Retroactive relevance.

The Kate Aldrich photo makes me laugh. Think for two seconds about sitting in that position. Nobody would ever, for any reason sit in that position, unless to make the statement "Hey I'm not fat."

It goes without saying I am not reading the article about how Don Elisir du Regiment is a great opera.

Is it just me or does Luana Devol come off a little bit, I dunno, high in her mini-interview?

So, right. I haven't been to the opera in absolute aeons, or anyway like a week and a half, but it seems like I'm going to something or other next week. And I promise to have opinions, and to blather on like a drunken socialite. For today I'm off on a convalescent trip to the country, or something like that, and won't even hear the broadcast, helas!