Watch out 'prentice, Peetah Grimes is glaring at you...

A: just saw the wno peter grimz
J: oh!
J: and?
J: man that Michael Steele is a douche
A: pretty good
A: nice pat racette time
A: christopher ventris was the pg
A: who sounded v nice
A: excepting some rough patches
J: it's a tough sing
J: I loved what's his face who sang it at the met last year
A: oh yeah
A: he sounded nice
J: esp the end part where he's all "Grimes grimes grimes grimes griiiimes"
A: ha
A: i like that part
J: me too
A: when the woman speaks to him the first time after that she should be all "grimes grimes grimes?"
A: just to fuck with him
J: hah
A: the chorus was great
A: how did they do that falling off the cliff thing at the met?
A: it was way dumb here
A: like, the boy just fell off the back of this four foot tall hut
J: they fall off the cliff?
A: and there was this little "EEEEeeeee...." noise
A: when he dies
J: heh
J: I totally don't remember what the Met did
A: the child thrashing was also minimal, relative to what it sounded like there
A: it was mostly really severe pointing
J: haha
J: stern looks

Gala Postgame

J: woo
A: that was SO entertaining right??
J: it was neat
J: nothing was totally amazing, though the Dessay Traviata bit was awesome
A: heppner's fried sounded great
J: oh huh--it was very quiet in the house
J: but he didn't crack
A: interesting
A: i was loving it on the radio
J: DV is so freaking loud
A: d-vo's brunnhilde does not really excite me tho
A: oh yeah?
J: so so loud
J: I was way into her until the very last note
J: the other two insane high notes were excellent
J: anyway, Christine is gonna show us how it's done
A: yeah dude
A: i can't wait for that s***
J: hah Mary Kate Olsen was there
A: that renee tote stadt sounded really nice
J: so pretty
A: they are so close to having a whole tote stadt
A: when is it going to happen
J: I know.....
A: i don't know who would be paul
A: but between thamps and renee making the songs like calling cards
J: I'd be bummed if T Ham were the Harlequin
A: well, prepare youself
J: hah
J: it's such a small part; would he do it?
A: yeah, perhaps not
A: it would def be funny if he was all "get gelb on the phone...tell him i fucking OWN harlequin at the met"
J: he's screaming on the other end with white face paint and huge black eyeleashes
A: haha

Gala 4

So, am I being naive or is this a crazy enjoyable gala? That Renaay Marietta Lied, was, to borrow a phrase from our RNC chairman, "off the hook."

Gala 3

PS, listening to this on crappy computer speakers sux. My laptop can in no way handle Dessay's top. Also PS, why isn't this on TV here in real time? Time was, I wager, that all public stations on the eastern seaboard would have carried something like this live. At least the possibility of seeing a rebroadcast of Met stuff is better in DC than Chicago, where the WTTW has become a glorified infomercial for shitty music DVDs you wouldn't be caught dead purchasing.

Gala 2

Real plush ode to zeff tenor section...the Calleja/Che Gelida Manina was gorgeous...everytime I forget how magically light + rich his voice is. Giordani's Nessun Dorma was real meaty too. That's what it sounds like P. Potts.

Gala

OMG...I am so gay for Ben Heppner's Siegfried. I know it turns out that 50 percent of mentions of him have to do with the spectacular spectacular vocal blowups, but JC this is amazing.

D-Vo...eh. What I'm fantasizing about now is a Heppner-Brewer matchup. Assuming I love her as much as I expect to next month, that could be SICK.

Le Sacre du Sonnambula

J: you really missed quite a scene at the Met tonight
A: yeah?
A: do tell
J: well the new Sonnambula opened with Dessay and Florez
J: and Mary Zimmerman directed it
J: and the whole production was basically mocking how retarded Sonnambula is
A: heh
J: and it was cute and fun
J: and hilarious at the end
J: and Sonnambula is not a comedy
J: so anyway
A: way to redeem yourself MZ
J: the traditionalists in the audience were NONE too pleased
J: and this shit was seriously boo'd
A: whoa
J: like major major boo-age
J: the curtain call ground to a halt
A: hardcore
A: !
J: like, no one took a second bow
J: and it was like a huge Dessay/Florez thing and they were way awesome and everyone was nuts for them
A: damn
A: who knew people were willing to go out on a limb for frreakin' sonnambula
J: so after the curtain call abruptly ended
A: jes
J: well
J: there were these 40ish gays next to us
J: who turned around and sassed the crabby old Long Island people boo-ing behind us
J: this was balcony btw
J: and an argument ensued about whether it was OK to boo like that
J: and it got heated and tons of people were weighing in
J: wow
J: and then finally one of the gays goes "oh whatever! pleas just go back to Long Island."
A: !
J: and the crabby old guy
J: goes "yeah? well go back to Greenwich Village...or CHELSEA! WHERE YOU LIVE!!!"
A: oh snap
J: and the gay guy just calmly said "wait...that's supposed to be a bad thing?"
A: heh
A: nice
J: man
J: that was nuts
A: its like the rite of spring premeire but for...sonnambula
J: at the end Dessay just puts on this hilarious like swiss miss dress and starts dancing around like a crazed fool
J: it's so excellent
A: hah!
A: that is good

Albums from the deep

Ripped this meme-note thing off Facebook, as it seemed like a good blog exercise. The instructions are:

Think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. When you finish, tag 15 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it.

So just to be clear, you don't have to be proud of them or even really like the specific recording anymore, but you do need to be able to identify a period where you listened to the record, cassette tape, CD, or computer file over and over again ad nauseum because you just couldn't get enough. To that end, I think it is also nice to arrange them chronologically in the order you heard them. I like that there are 15, so you can get a good chunk of time in...of course, 15 allows you to be a little bit choosy about what you include, but do try to make it interesting.

Here's what I'm going with:

1. Roxette - Look Sharp
2. La Boheme - Beecham; Bjorling, De los Angeles
3. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
4. Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto - Rachmoninoff himself playing, Philadelphia?
5. Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline
6. Simon and Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence
7. Cosi fan Tutte - Ostman; Drottingham Orch
8. Grateful Dead - American Beauty
9. Sweeney Todd - Orig. B'way Cast
10. Phoebe Snow - Greatest Hits
11. Well Tempered Clavier Bk 1 - Glenn Gould
12. Leonard Cohen - Greatest Hits
13. Nanci Griffiths - Other Voices, Other Rooms
14. Lohengrin - Solti; Domingo, Norman, etc.
15. Old Crow Medicine Show - OCMS
16. Brahms Requiem - Previn/RPO

Oops. That was 16. Oh well. Anyhow, I don't think I'm going to tag 15 people (tagging has grown excessive, no?), but I would sort of like to see what Maury and Lisa Hirsch and Patrick the PW have to say about this, so you may consider yourselves tagged if you pass by this way. The rest of you should just do it if you feel so inclined, in comments or at your own space...

Milk

Well, it appears the Indians edged out the gays at the Oscars last night, but Sean Penn getting Best Actor and Dustin Lance Black getting original screenplay were both pretty good consolation prizes. And these things needed to be said, at the Oscars, in recognition of this remarkable movie, in this trying year:





If you haven't seen it, can you PLEASE go see it now? I know you are thinking that it is a tedious political biopic that you already agree with, but it is really so much better than that. It is one of the few movies about a political figure I have seen that manages to totally avoid dumbing down the subject material and turning it into a historical "Behind the Music" episode. The drama in Milk is the drama of the ideas and emotional themes of the time. Also, it is beautifully made and filled with fascinating period details. Go!

Well Played: Lyric Opera

Looks like LOC took my advice from the other week and threw together a very choice new website, replete with fancy seat selector and everything! Check it.

Mendelssohn shout-out

Before it passes, let's take a moment for the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth. From the Songs Without Words:



I remember my mother playing these as a child--like Chopin they have this deep melancholy sound which you never really forget, and I was fascinated by the title.

A little later, Mendelssohn's Laudate Pueri was a beloved staple in the choir I sang in, as it was for so many other children's choirs:



Still later, I learned about the spectacular violin concerto. Here's Heifetz:



Something I read a little while ago was trying to distinguish between Mendelssohn and say, Wagner, by noting that however enjoyable Mendelssohn is, the history of music would nonetheless have progressed as it did. Maybe that's true, but, well, just see Matthew Guerreri in regards to this:

"Greenpoint"

Love this.

So sweet

Not too much of note going on at Lyric next season (PDF? Seriously? LOC needs to fix its internets situation stat). Though there is the small matter of...MATTILA IN KATA KABANOVA!!!!!

Goes a little something like this:



You're going to need a doctor's note to justify missing this one.

Hot Steva

Check it (h/t J):



Update: More hot Steva. This guy is really good:

Yikes

What is going on with our sweet, sweet Giuseppe Filianoti? I know this has been brewing for a while, the La Scala thing, etc., but I hadn't really focused on it before listening to the Rigoletto b-cast today. I mean, he didn't pull any Heppners, but it was worse--Heppner of course sounds brilliant the entire rest of the time, while the the sound here was generally labored and off putting throughout.

Three years ago, after seeing one of those celebrated Lucias, I believe I referred to him as "some kind of kick-ass opera cyborg" due to his beautiful tone and inhuman breath control. Today? It sounds like he's been possessed by the spirit of bad night late stage Alagna.

The juxtaposition of his and RV's troubles is disturbing. I mean, won't anyone please think of the tenors? Why are these two brilliant voices essentially toasted before 40?

Rolandon't

J: dude
A: yes?
J: seriously disastrous Lucia tonight
A: oh no
J: Villazon is toast, man
A: brutal
A: sad
A: like, unpleasant, or seriously fucked up
J: like, Heppner bad
A: !!!
A: oh shit
A: that is so awkward
J: he bailed before act 3
J: and so did we
A: sometimes everyone just needs to walk away
J: he went for this one not-that-high note
J: at the end of the quintet
J: and he held it forever but it sounded like....sandpaper
A: christ jesus
J: and then
J: he just stopped
J: and Trebs was staring at him and the audience gasped
J: it was such good stuff
A: oh. my. god.
J: and then he just collected himself and did the note again!
J: and it was better
A: wha???
J: then he sorta fumbled to the finish
A: rolando
A: honestly
A: what the f
J: Rolandon't
A: Roland'oh
J: Trebs is so shitty in Bel Canto
A: eh
A: yeah
A: was she cute with the baby pudge?
J: she is cute
A: you missed the bonkers scene tho?
J: yeah, she didn't sound good in this and I bet people cheered for nine minutes
J: it would have been annoying
A: that's fair
A: well
A: i mean, back in the day, i.e. 2005
A: it was always like that doesn't sound comfortable but i guess he knows what he is doing
J: right
A: so the vocal chickens have come home to roost
J: the opera chickens.
J: welcome home.
J: oh no, Villazon's wife's name is Lucia
A: oops
A: did you go with greg?
J: yeah
A: are there many more?
J: there are 3 more
A: arg
A: why is she doing this stuff
A: one does a certain thing well
A: why not stick with it?
A: its not like a cop out
A: its just not doing stuff you KIND OF SUCK AT on the met stage
J: she should sing:
J: Suor Angelica
A: word
J: Manon
A: YES
J: which she does
J: Manon Lescaut
J: I want her to try Butterfly
J: it's a big voice
A: renaay don't own that no' mo'
J: esp on top
A: trebs can get in on that
J: and like...do Russian stuff!
A: OMG
A: yes
A: where is the russian stuff!?!?
J: like, that soprano role in Mazeppa
J: shed own that shit
A: damn
A: that would be rad
A: where was she for that mazeppa?
A: why did we have that random woman?
A: that could have been like a big time trebs show
J: I may need to put on that Mazeppa

Holiday Movie PSA

No opera opportunities over the holiday, but I did manage to hit up some of the holiday season/Oscar bait offerings. Be advised:

1. Milk - OK. This is just so clearly the only legitimate contender for Best Picture. No, I haven't seen the old baby man Brad Pitt picture yet, but I kind of feel like I can still claim preemptive outrage that it is going to be considered serious competition. I read the Randy Shilts book in high school I think, and couldn't stop thinking about what an amazing big time movie biopic Harvey Milk would make if done properly, and lo these many years later, it has arrived. Milk is a deeply affecting and serious movie about history and politics and ideas and questions directly relevant to the moment, both Prop 8 and the prospects for a broader re-invigoration of a national politics about equality and civil rights (Rick Warren speed bump aside. WTF Obama???).

The depth of Sean Penn's portrayal of Harvey Milk is shocking. He does something infinitely harder than playing a hero or martyr: he demonstrates how people actually make politics out of relationships. How do you even start to figure out how to play that? His death at the end is devastating, not because you're mourning for the movement, but because you've grown so attached to his character.

Moreover, it is just an incredibly well made movie. Gus van Sant is able to totally avoid the usual pitfalls of the biopic that can make such movies feel like plodding chores. Nor does it have that annoying historical sheen. In the phrase of the Variety review, Milk fills "lived in". Also, the documentary footage is impeccably interspersed, used sparingly enough to avoid undermining the new footage.

Reading about it since seeing it, I feel like maybe there is some weird backlash against it (a suspicion compounded by the Golden Globes snubbing). Like it would be too perfect for Hollywood to give a movie about a gay political hero best picture given Prop 8 and Obama triumphalism. If so, that is some BULLSHIT. I have not had strong Best Picture preferences for a few years, but this year it will be a total travesty if the gimmicky Brad Pitt thing or Batman or Nazi Kate Winslet wins instead. Bah.

2. The Wrestler - This is a movie that keeps it real, folks, I mean--for reals real. But, it is important to note that it is not quite a "downer" movie in the way "Dancer in the Dark" was a downer movie. For one, it spends a lot of time creating this truly fascinating (and gross) backstage world of low rent professional wrestling, but not for cheap laughs. Rather it plays like one of those documentaries at once disturbed and intrigued by its subjects but firmly operating under the conceit that theirs is a deep world worth engaging. Second, Mickey Rourke's performance doesn't really allow it to become a downer, because his character is fundamentally good-natured and can take care of himself and never feels like a pawn of some sadistic omnipotent filmmaker, which is quite an achievement considering the scene with the staples. You don't pity him, per se, but sort of join him as he resigns himself to the fact that his luck has run out. So, still a downer, clearly, but as someone who doesn't have a lot of patience for the genre at large, I think this is different and better. He still shouldn't beat out Sean Penn, but I wouldn't be irate if it went down like that.

3. Slumdog Millionaire - As advertised, very satisfying and then some. It ends more neatly and fairytale-ish than it begins, which could be bothersome, but whatever. While the story and assemblage of actors playing the main roles at different ages are enchanting (except for the adult version of the girl, who was bland and too pretty), the Indian setting is the real entertainment, with nicely observed glimpses into slums as well as call centers. Clearly not Milk competition for Best Picture, but I hope it doesn't end up as a sort of Indian "Little Miss Sunshine" for 2008. This is much worthier.

Tristan Bust

Well THAT was something of a lowpoint in my operagoing career, and on my first attempt to see T n' I live, no less. Serious weak sauce alert.

I spent the first act in the penalty box (thanks Delaware!) which was packed for some reason. Watson sounded nicht gut on the List Hall sound system. Like, actual cringe, muttering "Damn" under my breath, nails on a larynx unpleasant at some points.

I got up to my balc box for Act II and some tourist d-bag sitting in my seat says "What, you're just coming for the second act?" Dick. The good news about Act II was that Watson sounded perfectly fine in person. The bad news was that it was way, way boring. I would have thought Tristan could basically work under any circumstances, but I would have been wrong. It does not work when there is zero chemistry going on among the principals. I mean, when Konig Marke's monologue is the most exciting thing in the show, that's just not cool.

Now, I don't want to totally blame the principals. Watson certainly deserves the gratitude reserved for people willing to cover Wagner. That is some thankless shiz right there. And c'mon...it was the last perf in a run where the conductor was the biggest story, not to mention a Saturday night and snowing. Also, she was up there with Seiffert, who despite his nice sounding voice clearly could not act his way out of a plastic bag. (Exercise: Pretend you have just been run through with a broadsword. Does that make you happy, sad, or the same?)

Also: I know I'm the last person in the universe to get an opinion about this production, but does anyone else feel like the Met picked it up at IKEA? It's all soothing Nordic colors, competing faux wood veneers, modernish lines, and a bit cheap looking. Lest this production get in a show without one flub, you'll be glad to know the lift for the obelisk thing got caught or something when Melot is busting in during Act II and there was this sort of awkward section where no one knew where to look because Marke hadn't arrived from under the stage yet.

I was thinking about maybe not saying this in public, but oh well. I bailed on Act III. I wanted to just forget the whole business and go home and make plane tickets for Voigt/Forbis in Chicago next month. I just didn't want my first time to be like that, and I think we can all agree this was just the tip, right?

Good.

One night only...unfortunately the wrong one

Going up to NY to catch the last T u' I of the season tomorrow, but when Dalayman sicks out do I get the luxury cover? Of course not. I get L-dubs. Not like she is bad. But safe to say it is a serious non-event. I dunno. Maybe her Isolde is awesome and no one knows it and I will eat my hat.

Maybe.

I know what'll cheer us up...moose chili!

A: *link*
J: haha
A: dude
A: the palin interview on fox right now is ABSURD
A: there is a huge bear head behind greta van susteren
J: haha
J: hah
J: ridiculous
J: is it live?
A: no
A: they are all over the place
A: she is going to cook moose after the commercial, I think
A: and make GVS eat it
J: wait
J: really?
A: i half heard a promo for it last night, and I swear to God i heard "moose stew"
A: and a teaser definitely had a kitchen in it
J: good lord
A: that is sad about shitty opera
J: dude.
J: like, the end
A: how do you bounce back from that
A: maybe they should do a "make your own opera" thing
J: like, build a bear workshop?
A: ha
A: exactly
A: like "make your own opera" Thursdays
A: and they just open up the state theatre
A: and you get to come and yell onstage and stuff
J: and have like costume bins lying around
J: and like some old boxes of scores
A: yeah
J: perhaps some paint, and some boards, nails, etc
A: "alaska has so much to offer the nation in terms of national security"
A: and
A: "alaska is the richest state in the nation...in terms of its natural resources"
J: haha
J: no one gives a fuck about your state Pei Lin
A: Why you no go away Pei Lin, no one like you no more
A: "moose chili"
A: seriously
J: I'd eat that