http://micaelabaranello.blogspot.com/2006/05/when-i-direct-parsifal.html
This in particular kind of killed me:
The Holy Spring will be on stage. Preferably, a deep pool with a small waterfall. Whenever anyone is baptized, they will be dumped into it. None of this "few drops of imaginary water on the top of the head" crap. In Act I, the trainee knights dump Amfortas right off his litter and into it as well. All must make a reappearance a few bars later, soaking wet and gasping for air.I've been back on a Gencer bender, me. In my spare time. And also grooving on Lisitsian, yesiree Bob. And I stumbled upon a cheap-enough-I-couldn't-not copy of the Cigna/Olivero/Merli Turandot at Academy. I'd always wanted to hear it. In fact, it's...flawed but compelling. What's with Cigna anyway? I knew her first from a "Suicidio!" from I believe sometime around the same year as the Turandot, only she sounds rock solid there. In the Norma I have, she's a bit of a spaz, likewise the Turandot. Not unenjoyably so, but I wish it sounded more like the Suicidio. Ah well. Also just downloaded Neko Case's "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" but that's neither here nor opera.
8 comments:
OMG, I'm in love with Neko Case. She has the widest vocal color range I've heard in a long time! I can't have that CD on in the car on my way to rehearsals, though, 'cuz I sing along at full blast and totally wreck my voice... =]
You know, I always miss her for some reason. She sells out extremely quickly.
Well, there's no IMDB except for the Met there kind of is, the Metropolitan Opera Database, which is a few years old and really nice to have around. But that's just one house. It would be a huge task otherwise since unlike movies, operas are performed several times a run, often with different casts.
I saw Diva a million years ago and am due for a re-watching, but my impression is that Wilhelmina Wiggins Fernandez, no, didn't do much after the movie. It seems to me, fishing around in my murky memory, there may be one disc of her. I couldn't say why, but can probably find out fairly easily and will get back to you. (If you're dying to see the whole issue discussed in endless detail with varying degrees of sanity, what I'm probably going to do is search the opera-L archives for her name.)
The interesting thing to note is that the aria she sings over and over again in the film is from an opera nobody ever puts on, in which the heroine dies in an avalanche.
La Wally gets done in Italy once in a while. Of course, to think that American companies would do anything remotely interesting in terms of choosing rep and not just dragging out more boring beyond words Handel snooze-fests and third-rate Verdi that should be entombed forever and saying "See! We're refereshing the standard rep!" is asking too much, I'm afraid.
Re: Wilhelmenia Fernandez, as she is now. The invaluable Operabase reveals two management companies. My French reading comprehension is awful, but it appears that she's doing musicals and Porgy and Bess.
Info here, if you're interested:
http://tinyurl.com/ky3vf
You say the Parsifal libretto is "mystical crap". Gee, you must be a big fan of "The Da Vinci Code".
Howdy anonymous. If you're really asking what I think of the Da Vinci Code, I think it's poorly written but highly diverting fluff. And right or wrong, if it gets people to question religion and patriarchy, I think it's served an important purpose regardless of its quality. If you're new to these pages, you should probably know I am unapologetically not a fan of christianity or pretty much any other system of belief that of the form "my god is bigger than your god" and if that rubs you wrong, I would like to suggest with no particular spite or sarcasm that you find more wholesome reading material. Life's too short, you know?
Hi maeve66. dont know when you asked about Wilhelmena Fernandez but about 10 years ago I did alot of digging around on her. I had the same thought as you did. I called the met in New York since that is where I was finding her work at the time. They told me she had a problem with her mgnt company and distribution here in the states. She did alot of standard song stuff but not alot of opera releases here in the states. I just love her. Good luck.
I also have been looking for any recording by Wilhelmena Fernandez. I found a Google reference to an album, Dive 20th Anniversary Edito, but have been unable to actually FIND that album. Though the local music store did have a gospel album by Fernandez. Still looking for an opera recording!
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