Friday, March 10, 2006

Odds and Ends

Heavens. James Jorden liked Forza even less than the rest of us.

Meanwhile, we'd say Luisa Miller is imploding, except as it happens, cover Eduardo Villa is a more than competent Verdian.

Query: to see Don Pasquale or not so much?
Argument in favor: everyone coming in waves over Juan Diego Florez, and not just that he's Opera Cute. (I think this is a distinct category from Opera Hot.)
Argument against: it is shite.
Argument in favor: Gilda didn't feel like the perfect Trebs role, and we'd like to give her another shot to knock our socks off.
Argument against: knock knock. who's there? shite.
Argument in favor: Suspense of whether James Levine will in fact fall apart in several pieces on the podium.
Argument against: Slightly tired of opera right now, if that's possible. Oh and p.s. shite.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't post over there because I don't have a blogger account, but could someone let the folks at Parterre know that 'marschallin' is the StuderTroll (yes, that one from rmo), and should be destroyed?

Maury D'annato said...

Oh, heavens. I don't own boots half deep enough I'd wade into that one.

Anonymous said...

Someone else seems to have figured it out, but in less blunt language than myself. C'mon, bannination...

Chalkenteros said...

it's anna netrebko for christ's sake. i am so there.

Anonymous said...

Don Pasquale shite? If you (like me) don't have much patience for opera buffa, then this is the opera buffa for you, since it's short shite. I personally love the music and I think it's a better-wrought piece than Elisir. And there's just no excuse for missing a Florez event, let alone a Florez-Netrebko event! And the conductor, TBA, will certainly bring his or her to-be-announced qualities to the score...

Maury D'annato said...

You have a point, I suppose, but given the option of short shite or no shite...well, I'll probably go anyway, and we all know it. I do want to hear Florez. I confuse Don Pasquale and Elisir and in fact probably Fille du Regimerde (had to get a French shite jab in there) so I can't remember which one has a likeable air in it and which one's just pure boredom.

Anonymous said...

Hey, leave Fille du R. alone! It was very exciting for a nine-year-old to see Famous Opera Singers like Sutherland and Pavarotti, back when he gave a shit and could still sing nine high Cs. If I saw Sutherland's performance today, I imagine it would summon up that same feeling of ickiness one feels when watching a June Allyson movie from the 1950s. But, hey, I was just a kid, not yet confused about my sexuality (though the signs were *clearly* there to see) and I laughed and laughed at Joan's Voice Lesson with Monica Sinclair. What can I say? It was a time of innocence... (cue brooding soundtrack)

When they do this piece with Dessay and Florez, it should be fabulous. The lesson scene offers lots of opportunity for camp and is basically a carte-blanche for the soprano to toss in whatever arpeggios, roulades, trills, scales to the stratosphere, whatever she feels like parading to torture her poor rich stuffy aunt who's trying to keep up at the piano. And with Liliane Montevecchi as the Marquise de Berkenfeld and Bea Arthur as the Duchesse de Krakenthorp... well, how can you go wrong?