Mix Tape!

Now that I am back in the society of those who have legitimate computers, I feel an mp3 post is warranted. Back when I abandoned the work computer, I spent about 7 hours one night offloading the 20 GBs of music I had accumulated there onto CDs. Unfortunately, that master plan didn't work out so good, as about half are registering as blank. But such is life. Here are some tracks that made it out alive...

"Stille Tranen" (mp3) from Liederkreis, Op. 39, Schumann. For some stupid reason I think I wrote that I was underwhelmed by Matthias Goerne after seeing him live last year. F that. His Schumann is exquisite.

"Standchen" (mp3) from Schwanengesang, Schubert. For some compare n' contrast fun, here's some Schumann from the chairman of the (german lieder singing) board, DFD.

"Cants Magic: Energic" (mp3) and "Prelude No. 1" (mp3) Federico Mompou, Stephen Hough. Some years ago, staying late at work one night, some of Mompou's pieces came on the radio. I was entranced, as was the coworker sitting opposite me, someone with little interest otherwise in the piano repertoire, and we continued to talk about and listen to these from time to time for as long as we worked together. A line from Stephen Hough's notes to this album has always stuck with me: "In the light of Artur Schnabel's quaint yet charming generalization, 'Mozart is a garden; Schubert is a forest--in sunlight and shadow; Beethoven is a mountain range', perhaps Mompou is a window box...Indeed there is always an element of distance in Mompou between subject and objects--the children's games, the singing and dancing are seen and heard from the next street; and his music thrives indoors in the city, not in the sultry southern sun of Moorish Spain."

"Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust..." (mp3) from Parsifal, Act II, Wagner. While killing time during a brief stopover in London this summer, I ducked into this CD shop next door to the ENO and came out with this 1954 Parsifal from the Met. Astrid Varnay sings Kundry, with Svet Svanholm in the title role, George London as Amfortas and Hans Hotter as the 'Manz. It's a pretty great recording overall, but what can I say. Varnay kills me. I feel like seeing her Kundry live would have done permanent brain damage.

"Etude No. 11 Op. 8" (mp3) and "Vers La Flamme" (mp3), op. 72, Scriabin, Vladimir Horowitz. This past Christmas I got my mother David Dubal's Conversations with Horowitz book, replete with a CD of Horowitz discussing his life and the piano. It's quite a thing to listen to Horowitz talk about the master composers and interpreters as living breathing artists. It reminds one of what living the tradition of this music really means--a far cry from the extremes of dead culture-bashing and sappy reverence we seem to always come back to these days.

"Come in quest'ora bruna" (mp3) from Simon Boccanegra, Verdi, Victoria De Los Angeles, Opera di Roma, 1958. Yeah, I know people were kind of blah about the Boccanegras this year, and for good reason it seems, but stuff like this makes me wish I'd gotten to see it in the flesh for the first time.

"Death Serenade" (mp3) from Dances of Death, Mussorgsky, Ewa Podles. Poodles Trovatore or Bust.

Act II duet between Mazeppa and Maria (mp3) from Mazeppa, Tchaikovsky, Sergei Lefkerus and Galina Gorchakova, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi conducts. It is a bummer that Mazeppa, which, despite a controversial production (which was in fact kick ass) was indisputably one of the most exciting new pieces in the house last year, is nowhere to be seen. Remember the awesomeness! Bring it back!

"Le Ciel Dans Une Chambre" (mp3) And we'll close with an awfully lovely song by the French (Italian actually) singer Carla Bruni...

The Devil in Ms. Valery

J: Netrebazonko gala was tonight
J: did you get a computer?
A: not yet
A: how was it?
J: the Mexicano had some cracking
J: but also sounded awesome for most of it
A: cracking...jeez
J: and Trebs sounded and looked way hot
J: yeah I don't know what that was about
J: they camped it up a bit, which was awesome
A: was it packed?
J: like, in the Saint Sulpice scene she grabbed him and started makng out like crazy
A: !
J: it was crazy packed
A: maybe they need to make an opera-porno
J: that would be awesome
J: Man-in
A: Rigol-anal-o
J: hah
A: La Traviata (with fucking)
J: haha
J: La Boheme and Rolando Villazon's Cock
A: now in HD
J: on another note
J: the Met's Tristan looks awesome
A: oh neat
J: here is a picture of Jane Eaglen realizing what her voice sounds like
A: hah
A: "crud"
J: haha
A: PS...
A: great moment in the laundromat the other day
J: yes?
A: "And I'm telling you"
A: came on the radio
J: uh uh
A: and this woman behind me responds "Mmm. Take it."
J: ahhhh!!
A: Lotsa love for Jennifer Hudson down here on the South Side
J: natch

Off topic

So, if you live in this country and your home gets electricity, it's pretty unlikely you haven't seen this already, but for those of you who've been in a coma or something since the weekend, I feel compelled to post Alanis Morisette's tremendous take on the reigning frontrunner for worst song of the new millenium: the Black Eyed Peas and Fergie's "My Humps". You can rejoin society by watching it here. My god...I am suddenly so in love with Alanis Morrisette. Please tell me this means she is taking requests now.

Is anyone else kind of into Torsten Kerl?

The other month I randomly got really into this Tote Stadt DVD he was in a few years back, not putting two and two together that he was to be part of the AeH cast. It seems like the reception has been kind of lukewarm out there...perhaps due to his bailing during the prima or the somewhat unknown quantity of his debut material or just simple lack of enthusiasm. But man...listening to the Helena broadcast the other day I couldn't get enough. I feel like his voice is pretty close to my ideal balance of lusciousness and accuracy in Strauss and Strauss-ish tenor parts. Also, he has this photo montage posted on his web site:



Obviously, you must be ok with that amount of Kerl.

Seville Blows

So, I also got to catch the second to last Barbiere last weekend, and truth be told, between JDF, Peter Mattei, Joyce Dx2 and such a lovely production, I was feeling remarkably charitable towards it around the 50 minute mark. Had I misjudged? Was I wrong to say it should be consigned to the dustbin of history? That it was a malignant leech sucking the blood from repertories around the world?

This Barbiere certainly takes a valiant stab at overcoming the usual lamenesses. It boasts a spare, elegant production that doesn't oversell the thin story; singers that can actually, you know, sing all the notes; and direction and singers with comic instincts sharp enough to actually breathe some life into the dessicated farce bits. And I mean, what's not to love about an opening in which you get to hear JDF sing both Ecco Ridente and that other pretty song? Good deal right?

Well, I thought so. And then we got to one of the parts where they go back and forth about some stupid letter thing for like 15 minutes, and I was reminded why I said all those mean and also correct things in the first place.

The way I see it, comedy in opera falls into three categories: 1) Those pieces which may or may not have the funny left in them, but there's really no way of knowing, since all the funny bits are done in that arch funny-esque style which is used to represent farce in historical works but isn't actually intended to make audiences laugh. Which isn't a bad thing per se. Comedy is hard, and it's reasonable sometimes to just revive good music without going the distance to exhume old comedy. 2) Then there are pieces which are often done in aforementioned funny-esque style but which, in the hands of capable actors and directors, can actually be delightful and truly funny comedies again: think the Met's Cosi or perhaps last year's Don Pasquale. 3) And finally, there are those pieces which, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, just aren't going to be funny ever, ever, again. It's not their fault. It's just the nature of comedy. 10 years is a long life span for funniness, to say nothing of 200 years. I feel Barbiere falls into this last category. I mean, maybe things would be different if 80 percent of the music wasn't simply a tiresome byproduct of that unfunniness, but it is, so they aren't.

OK. Enough ragging on it. You know it's not personal, right JDF? It's not your fault your rep is connected to some played out operas. I would hate to think I've done anything to offend you and that--oh mercy--that aching honey awesome voice. Like, you have to wonder if Joyce DiDonato, standing two feet away from the orifice producing that sound, doesn't come just a little bit in the last scene. If sun-dappled sweetness was a lethal weapon, he'd be a murderer.

Joyce for her part was splendid as well--I was really into a mezzo voice for Rosina. Peter Mattei, with his usual delicious sound, turned in a completely original Figaro. The jocky camraderie between him and JDF in the first act was pitch perfect. If only they hadn't been up against the drag that is the rest of Barbiere. I mean, not like I won't be there when they come to Chicago next year. K. Back to the Helena b-cast.

Annie Get Your Speer

Despite my inability to resist that title...no, the DC Walkure did not pick up where Rheingold left off with the insufferable old west stuff. However, I don't know how the WNO or Francesca Zambello's people put together the godawful video projections that are threatening to be a staple of this "American" Ring, but they seriously need to get a handle on this before someone comes up with the money for Siegfried. In a production that otherwise scored some significant improvements over last year's craptastic Rheingold, the video component was terribly ill-concieved.

And it's not just that it's in bad taste to intersperse extremely literal video sequences with metaphorical stage designs. I mean, they look like they were created using a Make-Your-Own-Music-Video booth at the mall from around 1991. During the running through the forest sequences, before the first act and between Act II scenes 1 and 2, we got what was quite clearly the product of some guy running around Rock Creek Park with a video cam vigorously pushing of the sun flare effect button. During the Ride of the Valkyries, there were seriously like silohuettes of bomber planes and parachuting men in different sizes and different shades of lilac and yellow bouncing around the scrim. It looked so dumb I had to close my eyes at one point just to avoid going into Act III all pissed.

This and a few other mis-steps (i.e. a lame device whereby fallen warriors are denoted with big placards imprinted with a multicultural gallery of faces) are really a shame, because as I said, this production has a lot more going for it than the first installment.

The first act is no huge revelation: Hunding's house as suburban prison and Hunding as nightmare asshole husband. But there was something more specific here that made it unique, a sort of Blue Velvet inspired, dark underbelly of hyper-bad 50's decorating taste, cheap looking leather jackets and rifles thing that resonated with story. It did what modern interpretations of the Ring should do: used contemporary motifs to subtly evoke the archetypes in the story. It's not about making it "accessible" to modern audiences or anything so trite, it's about opening the audience's mind to the universe of possibilities contained in these characters. Last year's Rheingold, with its "everyone find a buddy in the AP American History textbook" approach, demonstrated what not to do--try to wed the story to some overly specific historical or social program.

I grew fond of the first scene of Act II, which was a standard Wotan as CEO thing. Kind of a no-brainer, but I thought the set, a board room with a huge picture of turn of the century lower Manhattan peeking through dramatic clouds, was handsome. And again, it's ok for Wotan to be a CEO in that scene as long as the rest of the story isn't forced to conform to it. Scene II had the duel thicket under a highway with a cornfield in the background. I kept thinking a specifically suburban highway embankment, perhaps lit by the glow of big box store neon signs, would have been more clever, but I was basically ok with it.

Act III was the least successful--after the intolerable opening sequence, the concept was a very mushy militaristic thing, with Valkyries in paratrooper outfits and Brunnhilde's rock painted with helicopter landing pad colors. Despite the Nazi and Apocalypse Now associations that everyone seems unable to shake, it never ceases to amaze how little Wagner's brand of bombast seems to fit with the depths of 20th century war and annihalation which no one could have dreamed of in the middle of Europe's peaceful century. Kudos, though, for the big-time fire effect at the end. I do hope Alan Held still has eyebrows by the end of this run.

So that's it for the production. 'Progress' seems like too strong a word, but I didn't leave thinking 'abject failure' like last time.

And now to the small matter of the sangin':

Anna Kampe: Anna Kampe's Sieglinde was surely the breakout highlight of the evening. Between a stunning voice packing cool Mattila style radiance and splendid acting, she was a great match for the Flamingo's Siegmund. I have no idea how big the voice is, since everyone sounds deafening in the Kennedy Center OH, but it's a great sound, and she she is a tremendous singer.

El Domingo: I mean. It's just the goddamndest thing. I feel like singing with him must be almost unnerving, like if your grandpa opened his mouth and out came this super-hot 30-year old voice. The others were good, as I'll get to, but the Act I closer between him and Kampe probably produced the most unmitigated vocal excitement of the evening. Not that I know from German really, but if I had to give an opinion, this seemed like a less on night for Domingo's Deustch abilities. Not that I gave a rat's ass, of course.

Alan Held: Really a first-rate Wotan from Alan Held, vocally and dramatically, and especially appropriate to this size production. He turned the Act II monologue from an obligatory retread into something really exciting and engrossing, and honestly had me seeing it a whole new light. Likewise some of the more repetitive stretches in the the Act III convo. Now, it's true he doesn't have that special dark chocoloate resonance you want in your really top-tier Wotan. And it showed especially in "Der Augen Leuschtendes Paar" which lacked the glue necessary to really hold things together. But overall it was a terribly effective performance.

Linda Watson: Hmm. The jury is still out on Linda Watson. I remember really liking her on the Bayreuth bcasts last summer. I acknowledged the pitchiness (ht: Randy Jackson) but I loved the rich upper register and the chrome plated spine running top to bottom through her range. The spine was in evidence in DC, for sure, but I found myself really not liking the sound of her top. Now, I am more than prepared to be indifferent to any given Brunnhilde's upper register and love everything else. A real beloved top in that role seems kind of reserved for the select immortals. But I don't think I can sign on to a sound I actively find abrasive. Now, she's totally a great actress, and, despite the pitch problems (which seemed here mostly a product of exhaustion) I was down with the rest of her voice. And I mean, we could be listening to Jane Eaglen for the love of god, so let's not be flip about a solid Brunnhilde. But I dunno...more data points are called for.

Elena Zaremba: Tommassini I think called her wobbly, and to be sure it was on the big mean pointy voiced side of the Fricka spectrum rather than Christa Ludwig side. But I think I'm into that sort of thing where Fricka is concerned, so brava.

WNO Orchestra and Heinz Fricke: Mixed feelings here. As far as Fricke is concerned, for every moment I thought was really fine, and these were mostly in the gentler portions of the score, there was another moment where I was thinking "man, he really phoned in that passage." Also, the magic fire music was almost bizarrely rushed. Of course, comparing the one live performance I've seen to the myriad classic recordings in my head isn't really a good basis for criticism, so I'll just say that Fricke had some nice moments, but this Walkure reading leaned toward sweat on the brow rather than organic miracle of sound. On the other hand, J and I listened to the Karajan 1951 Act III on the drive home, and I found myself discovering many new ways to appreciate that incredible reading. So thanks for that.

Thankfully, the orchestra has definitely solved the power problems which plagued it during Rheingold--big moments here were duly big and satisfying. But, uh...we need to talk about the horn section. Serious pitch and crispiness issues all over the place. I never realized how important horns are to Walkure until I heard them suck like that. Get it together, people.

Phew. Well, that's probably more than you wanted to hear about a production you probably aren't going to see. But it was my first live Walkure, so there were some things to be said. Barring the little issue of how they are going to pay for it and who the hell they are going to get to play Siegfried, I'm looking forward to Round III...

The All-knowing Scallop

J: so wait---you are coming to NY and then going down to DC right?
A: yes
J: when do you get here?
A: Tuesday
J: are you doing interviews?
A: one in DC on Friday
J: Weds night is a Barbiere
A: I was thinking about that
A: I'm tempted by that Chenier
A: but I have to be at the interview at 10
A: love that Vurmana
J: for serious
J: it's sort of too bad you're not here for a Helena
J: like
J: the production is lame
J: have you looked at pictures?
J: but the singing is so great
A: no
A: are there clear pictures?
J: *pics*
A: um
A: otay
J: I mean...
J: *pic*
A: you know, if a character is called the omniscient
mussel, you should really have someone pop out of a gd shell
J: the Omniscient Mussel is all "well, this is awkward"
A: ha
J: that black thing is the OM
A: right
A: I see no shell
A: no life size shell, at least
J: and NO IDEA who the guy running is
J: this is never explained
A: jeez
A: and what boring ass smocks on everyone
A: that looks dumb
J: it really does
J: the audience commentary was great
J: "what is that guy running?.....so, she entered on a bed...where are they now?"
A: haha
A: I wonder how many more craptastic volpe premieres there are in the pipeline
A: I would have liked to have been there when they let Gelb in on the secret designs
A: "Why is that guy running? Well did we already build it? How big? Crud."
J: haha

I Lost 135 Pounds for THIS?

The small older woman in front of me spoke quietly:

"Oh God...," she said wearily, as the curtain opened on the 2nd act of Thursday evening's prima of "Die Ägyptische Helena".

Oh God, indeed.

Now and then it's amusing to consider what would happen if you gave a bunch of immensely pretentious undergraduate theater students a wad of cash, a huge scene shop, and a wildly impenetrable text. While I'm not totally certain how that particular scenario would shake out, I have a feeling it would look at least somewhat like this.

Ohhhh boy. This is one freaking ugly production, folks. It's sort of like....Disney's Tomorrowland with a hint of pre-remodel sea foam green lobby of Alice Tully Hall. In a word: Boooo. Now, much like Maury, I can't bring myself to full-fledged boo-ing. But, a few quiet boo's and giggles between my companion and myself certainly proved satisfying.

The boo's, however, were reserved exclusively for the production. Musically, it was really a very fine evening. Torsten Kerl, the weakest link (Goodbye.), mercifully excused himself and his throat infection after a rocky first act. He was replaced by the very solid Michael Hendrick, who, given the opportunity to sing the entire role may or may not prove to be fairly awesome. And what do you know--a glance at the Met website tells us he will indeed sing the role tomorrow evening. Good news. Now I have plans tomorrow night.

Damrau was in excellent form, as usual. I have to admit--I'm a pretty big fan. She really has a Voice That Won't Quit™. And oh, how I do love a Dependable Singer. Damrau exists somewhere well beyond the dependable, however. And how nice to hear her in Strauss again. It was, after all, her Zerbinetta that at least partially prompted the creation of the Wellsung blog.

One D. Voigt was the real star of the evening. Going out on a limb...I'm going to say that in SOME ways, her performance in this trumps even her Chicago Salome. Not that I find a ton of value in pitting two excellent performances from the same singer against one another but...this role is pretty freaking merciless. She sings it with total ease and confidence. Obviously I enjoyed Salome a lot more--the production was less retarded, and please, it's goddamn Salome.

Anyway, Voigt is the queen. Of everything. And it's terrific that she is a a good sport about this stupid production. Like, she had to have nearly lost her lunch when she first saw the plywood comet or the Omniscient Mussel Covered in Tar.

Speaking of the Mussel of Dreams--poor, poor Jill Grove. Act one: covered head to toe in tar. Act two: in confectioner's sugar. She sang well, though the OmniMuss isn't exactly the role upon which to build a career or anything.

Overall, I'm giving this thing the thumbs up. Yes, the production sucks. A lot. And yes, the libretto makes NO sense. And no, no one would say it's Strauss' finest score. But there are lovely moments. Voigt and Damrau tear it up.

And really, outside of Dresden, are we ever going to see this again?

Strauss, Cheaper!

So....I know ticket sales are up this year, but has anyone noticed that the blue plate special this week appears to be the Ägyptische Helena prima?

What the F? I suppose the if-we-mount-it-they-will-come-(at-least-on-the-first-night) philosophy that seems to have driven ticket prices of new production premieres into the stratosphere is not totally panning out...

The other Helena performances seem to be selling nicely.

Anyway, my full price tickets and I will be there on Thursday.

Nunforgettable!

Arg. Well, this is a severely late review of Lyric's Dialogues of the Carmelites, which J and I took in two (or three) weeks ago, but it still has two shows left, so I feel compelled to represent.

This is a lovely production: minimalist, classy and blessed with moments of really stunning beauty. In one scene, when the sisters are informed of their sentence, they are dressed in all black--then slowly recede into the crowd of citizens, becoming indistinguishable in the dimming lights, only to reemerge from the crowd in brilliant white robes. Wow. And the lighting design throughout is an ever fascinating essay in shades of blue, gray, and white, thoughtfully enhancing the careful shading in the story. I shall say it again. Why the h can't City Opera pull off productions like this? This production pulls off more elegant moments, armed more or less with only nun get-ups, than NYCO had in its whole season last year.

Also, Felicity Palmer is a rockstar. Clad in a shroud, hair a scrappy blond mop, she OWNS the stage as the Old Prioress. Her death sequence is one of those rare marriages of opera and the sort of balls out acting that would be at home on the straight stage. It is shocking, at times nauseating, and completely chill inducing. Awesome.

As J noted at the time, it's a bit harder to feel too strongly about the other vocal parts of Carmelites. Bayrakdarian as Blanch-a de la Forc-a was no doubt excellent, as was Pat Racette in the Mother Superior/(New Prioress?) role. But the real beauty in Dialogues doesn't lie in the solo writing, but in Poulenc's stunning orchestral and choral effects. These are brought off tremendously by the ensemble and the Lyric band, under Andrew Davis, who masterfully structures Poulenc's patterns for dramatic impact.

Just to ensure you're getting it fair and balanced, though, some downsides: 1. the guillotine woosh sound was a bit too ambiguous for my tastes. Maybe a woosh-thud would solve this problem? J says he thinks its actually a manipulation of some percussion instrument that's written into the score, tho, so maybe I am out of luck. 2. they have the nuns doing this kind of tai-chi dance as they are singing the Salve Regina and getting axed...it gets a bit old after like 74 executions. 3. not really a downside per se, but sopranos in nun costumes are really hard to tell apart, and the plot involves some confusing shifts in the nun-archy. Read the notes BEFORE the lights go down if you're not familiar. And tell me if you understand how promotion works in the convent. I feel like one of them gets passed over for Pat Racette but I don't know who or for which post.

Long story short: Poulenc kicks ass; don't wait for the DVD.

So

I know everyone's probably seen it at this point, but I feel it necessary to point out that this is essentially the definition of humor for my mother, lifelong piano teacher and cat lover.

Belated Jenufa love

Since much not-ink has been spilt already on the finer points of the current Jenufa, I shall eschew the play by play in favor of a numbered list format:

1. The Mattila: If Karita Mattila, after she retires (God forbid), decides to become some kind of Finnish Mother Teresa, and then when she passes (again, God forbid), the Vatican starts taking calls for granting her sainthood seriously, and needs to drum up the requisite three miracles, I feel they might have a not unserious screening of her Jenufa. No one is cured of leoprosy or anything, but I think it qualifies as a minor opera-miracle. An operacle if you will. Quoth my previously unfamiliar seat mate at intermission, "Why don't they put her in everything? No, seriously..."

2. Forst: So, yes, I am bummed that I won't see La Silj. The reports suggest that being in the same room with her Kostelnicka is a bit like being impaled through the chest by some large blunt yet also pointy object, only more pleasant. That sounds awesome. But Forst, whose Herodias we recently enjoyed concurrently with the Dance of the 1/7 Voigts did not disappoint.

3. Silvasti: Silvasti's Laca is the stuff Laca-related dreams are made of. Wow.

4. Production: Mattila-epiphany seatmate pointed out how this production has really great blocking for opera. That plus the wonderful, spot on design helps really locate Jenufa where it should be: alongside the great realist human dramas of Chekhov and Ibsen.

5. General: Listening to this cast is likely diving into a giant bowl of half and half, that's how creamy the Slavic goodness is. It's Smetanalicious.

6. A-holes behind me: Don't you look like nicely dressed, well to do people in your 30s...and you're sitting in orchestra row P, so you must have money or actually care, right? Why then do you break into chortles at the precise moment when Forst shreiks "Fruit of Sin" before taking the baby to the river? We both know you know that's not supposed to be funny. Are you in middle school? Seriously people.

7. Insanity: One afternoon left, bitches who haven't been yet. I got on a plane and sacrificed my stats grade for it. What are you gonna do? Huh? Wanna go? Right now? Professing enjoyment of opera, living in the tri state area, and not seeing this should be grounds for finding someone criminally insane.

Nous sommes "it"

Sieglinde comes out of hiding, announcing herself with a new design and a tag. The game: pick up the nearest book, turn to page 123, and copy the 5th, 6th and 7th sentences. The result:

"Thus the R² also can be expressed as one minus the ratio of the sum of squared residuals to the total sum of squares:

R² = 1 - (SSR/TSS).

Finally, the R² of the regression of Y on the single regressor X is the square of the correlation coefficient between Y and X. The R² ranges between zero and one."

That's from a swell read entitled Introduction to Econometrics, by James H. Stock and Mark W. Watson.

I tag Maury, Chalkenteros, and Mr. Patrick J. Smith.

Onegin Vacation

So, in an act of utter disrespect for the statistics midterm I have to take tomorrow afternoon, I spent the weekend taking in some long denied entertainment back east. After all, the shame of a poor showing on the midterm should be forgotten by the final, but the shame of missing out on Mattilla Jenufa would last a lifetime.

Friday's Eugene Onegin opening was the first order of business, though, thanks to a last minute ticket procured by J's near pathological enjoyment of hitting refresh on Met ticket pages. There's no denying this is a classy showing, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was a tad too smooth.

Maybe my expectations for Tchaikovsky are out of whack thanks to last season's beloved spectacular-spectacular Mazeppa. Maybe it's that the big blank slate set starts out feeling "inventive" but ends up kind of static and annoying. Maybe it's that I didn't find Renaay bothersome and cringe inducing so much as I just found myself distracted when she was on stage (tho decidedly less so in the last act). Props: her pureed diction thing stayed home tonight, and the Beautiful Voice^TM FX were present but doled out tastefully. Demerits: is that really the loudest you can sing? Seriously? Sing out Renaay!!

In sum, there seemed to be a little something missing there, but no biggie. Let it be noted, however, that Hvorostovsky certainly wasn't an accomplice. Lest you have to sit through my clumsy paraphrase, I'll just say "my sentiments exactly" and blockquote Maury:

Hvorostovky is such an obvious choice in this. He's not quite handsome but extremely interesting-looking, and his vocal suavity and the hint of coldness about him are Onegin in a nutshell. Additionally, he sings the fuckity fuck out of Onegin's splendid, introverted, better-than-the-tenor-aria aria.

Fuckity-fuck, indeed.

Rrrramon sounded nice. More importantly, he managed once more to avoid a velour leprachaun costume. With any luck, he will one day live that down.

Thoughts on Saturday's Jenufalicious delights next...

WHO WANTS TO SEE ONEGIN?

Ah-hem.

Announcing the first ever Wellsung Giveaway Spectacular!

Two extra Onegin tickets for tomorrow night, 2/9, have fallen into our lap.

Thud.

The seats are crappy, Like, honestly crappy. Family Circle row K. But this entire run has been sold out for weeks....yet here we find ourselves staring at a pair of tickets to a sold out *event* that could potentially go unused.

Rather than stand in freezing cold air haggling with a throng of, er, enthusiastic Renee fanatics, we decided to GIVE them away to YOU.

All you have to do is email us an argument laying out just how badly you want to see Renaaay & Co. tomorrow night. The most heartfelt, gut wrenching, desperate argument wins. We'll post your argument on the blog and meet you in front of the Met at 7:40 tomorrow night with your tickets.

E-mail your plea to: jf@filmrk.com

Good Luck.....

Love, exciting and new...

A: the library dvd section is pretty good
A: I am happy to report
J: oh sexcellent
A: curtain just went up on this T&I w/ Waltraud Meier
A: the set is like love boat
A: the guy doing the sailor song just served Waltraud a daiquiri
J: hah
J: that is ridiculous
J: who is the T?
A: Jon Frederic West
J: oh yeah, him
A: Waltraud is doing it up...too bad she is standing next to a canary yellow deck chair
J: where is this boat sailing from?
A: I guess its like the Ireland-Grand Cayman-Cornwall tour
J: like 14 nights or so I guess
J: but which opera company is it?
A: Bayerische staatsoper
J: ah

...

A: um, Tristan just rolled a floral print couch onstage for the Act 2 bidness
J: hah
A: they are tossing cushions now
J: this sounds silly
A: yeah
A: it is kind of inoffensive silly
A: but it definitely doesn't "work" in any sense
A: waltraud is pretty good...but it doesn't feel as comfortable as her Kundry
A: the Tristan is pretty nice for now, but he has a bad habit of constantly looking at the prompter, which is distracting in closeups
J: hm
J: yeah the the Barenboim (I think) T und I with w-traud is not totally wonderful
A: it is such a weird part
A: there's really no telling who one is going to like or not like in it
J: like Toni Braxton
A: haha
A: exactly like
J: Carol Channing maybe
A: oh man
A: that is amazing
J: I'd listen to a Channing Liebestod
A: we need to find someone who both does a good Carol Channing impersonation and knows the Narrative/Curse
A: this needs to be realized
A: lord knows there is someone in the parterre comments section that fits that description
J: I'm almost certain of it
J: Patty Wortham does a pretty bang up Carol Channing. we could teach it to her
A: that would be so, so awesome
A: despite minor vocal misgivings in this, Waltraud is still really fun to watch
A: she has such a neat face
J: http://news.siu.edu/photos/channing.jpg
A: I mean
A: obviously not that neat
J: clearly
A: I now also want to see a scene between Carol Channing and a muppet Carol Channing
A: I feel one would lose track
J: i.e.
A: aaaahhhh!!!!
J: haha
A: well I guess that's what I'll be dreaming about this evening

SOTU

J: oh Jim Webb, what are you doing
A: ?
J: the Democratic Response
J: is a little dull and random
A: arg
A: they need to put that thing out of its misery
J: the response?
A: yes
A: every
A: single time
A: I didn't get to watch
A: anything awesome?
J: not at all
J: other than the general apathy of the audience
A: you know what is a weird word?
A: "Hillary"
A: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
J: HillaryHillaryHillaryHillary
A: it doesn't seem like a name at all
A: Could you close the window? I'm feeling hillary.
J: "you seem off tonight"
J: "yeah...I'm just a bit hillary, it's not a big deal"
A: see?
A: and it's a somewhat unnerving word, whatever it means
J: I think the whole Obama is hot thing is weird. I think he is a tad odd looking
A: ditto
A: I don't know where that came from
A: p.s. the subject of tomorrow's microeconomics class is simply "Entry"
J: hah
J: It would be nice to have a president with a massive cock
A: indeed...his cock may even be larger than Hillary's
J: I bet it is
J: you should try to join his gym
J: and do some recon
A: good point
A: he must work out around here somewhere
J: I would think so
A: the new television is alive
J: you have a new TV?
J: how is it?
A: fine
A: I need to get an antenna or something
A: it is fairly big
A: barack is doing a good job
J: oh I am watching a different network I think
J: he was on earlier
J: Pelosi was doing this weird crooked mouth thing that looked like she was chewing on something
A: that woman just doesnt look good on television
A: at least they don't let her respond anymore
J: yeah thank god
J: she always comes off as just this side of sane
A: like the worst fembot ever made
J: she's manufactured by the same company who made Laura Bush but is like meant for a really niche market
A: haha

Opera, Chicago-style

Bryan Griffin, in the current Lyric F-Mouse cast takes some time out to represent...
I'm thinking not even Peter Gelb has considered Met cross-promotions with the Giants. Go Bears!

Siegfried out to pasture?

J: http://www.dc-opera.org/newsmedia/news/documents/07-08CastList.pdf
A: huh
A: I wonder if that Handel is any good
J: huh indeed
A: I have only vague knowledge of the elektra people
J: the Fliegende Holla could be neat
J: tho one wonders:
J: wha' happened to Siegfried?
A: oh right
A: um
A: oops
A: did they run out of bandannas?
J: yeah I mean
J: perhaps they ran out of dyed macaroni
A: ha
A: Plastico is all "glue faster! Arriba!"
J: hahaha
J: Frrancesca! Where the Indians? Oh god.
A: haha
J: I bet they didn't have a Siegfried lined up
J: and time ran out
A: that's a good reason, I guess
A: whoa
A: scroll to the bottom of the news page
J: the scary portrait?
A: yeah
J: that is upsetting
A: oh man
A: I don't like that at all
J: Antoine Schneck is messed up
A: imagine having that in your house
J: hahah
J: in the bathroom perhaps
A: "these vases are from italy...and that's the disembodied head of placido domingo"
A: haha
A: like, on the back of the door facing the toilet
J: haha
J: maybe it talks
A: no button, it just says stuff once in a while
J: it looks like he's saying something
J: like
J: eeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhh
A: haha
A: totally
A: !
A: I need to close that tab now

Your Once and Future Brunnhilde

A: dude
A: classic debbie action
J: whoa
J: her hair is nuts
A: it's like a mane
J: Voigt: Lioness
A: word
A: watch out Pav
A: she's a maneater
J: hah
J: "Watch out Pav she'll chew you up"
A: Pav looks like he might be down for that
J: he is in the older, gross phase
A: talk about letting yourself go