bostonman

I read the play when I was in high school, in the process of my coming out. I remember hating it so much, and not identifying with any of the characters. I already knew that gay men didn't all live and behave like that, but the stereotypes and cruel bitchiness and divisiveness really bothered me. I've never seen the film, I've never seen the play onstage. And that's fine with me. As someone who works in theatre, I certainly don't expect all shows to be "relevant" or current in their outlook - otherwise we'd have ditched most of the classics long ago. But why anyone wants to revive this terrible and backward-looking piece of shit, I'll never know.

...which is exactly what you're doing on this thread. Trolls do what they do for attention. I'm sad that you feel you have to do it this way. There would be friendlier and more rewarding ways of finding attention out here. And I mean this sincerely.

I saw the HD of this production with Nina Stemme 2 seasons ago. Stemme herself was riveting, and as I recall, the musical performance on everyone's part was uniformely thrilling. Chereau couldn't resist fucking around with the plot (particularly the ending) which annoyed me. But still, it was a great night at the opera.

Well, almost. He never says anything of the kind, and the painting is of a woman with BLUE eyes lol. It's Tosca who tells Cavaradossi "ma, falle gli occhi neri" (the intention being "but, paint her eyes to be black, like mine are"). The closest HE comes to this is in his aria, when he compares the blue-eyed woman in the painting to Tosca's darker eyes. But yes, of course, if a translator is choosing to use "black eyes," he deserves the derision he gets. What's a shame about that moment with Tosca is that I've always felt it should be funny - but because of the playfulness and flirtiness in the scene, not because a translator hasn't thought about the unintended nature of the colloquial expression. Another pitfall in supertitles is the tone. I once saw a Don Giovanni which went for a rather archaic ("old libretto-ese") translation in its supertitles, and buttoned almost every phrase with an exclamation point. Which made the whole thing seem way more melodramatic than would ever be necessary. The opposite can also be true, when a translator decides to get too "hip" and try to make everything sound like it's in current slang. That can be equally as bad as archaic phrasing.

It has been available for a few years now. And the performance is also on the Met On Demand site. But it was not commercially available at all for a long, long time, even as many of the other telecasts were.

The English Bartered Bride and Mahagonny were, in fact, Levine's productions. The current Fledermaus (debut was on New Years' Eve 2013) has English lyrics by Jeremy Sams and (a needlessly crass) English book by Douglas Carter Beane. Frosch was played by Danny Burstein. Dom DeLuise's Frosch goes back to the 1980's-90's and the old Otto Schenk production, which I think indeed was sung in German with English dialogue.

Oh, I know, lol. And indeed, hard to imagine cutting "Gates" for any reason.

Sounds like they should have cut the "iah" off the title...

The Met will be doing Akhnaten in the 2019-20 season. Same director who did the Met's Satyagraha, though I don't know if it will be the same designers. But if it is, I'd expect quite an eye-catching and wonderfully eccentric/inventive spectacle, as their Satyagraha was.

Actually, I don't think it was until the late 20th century that they started routinely presenting Russian or Czech operas in the original languages. And yet, there was still a production of The Bartered Bride in the late 70's done in English. Mahagonny was also done in English. There was a famous 1950's production of Cosi Fan Tutte in English. Wozzeck's Met premiere was also in English. And although we may consider operetta in a different category, it's been traditional to present Met productions of Fledermaus in English - and the current rep's Fledermaus and Merry Widow suffer from terribly amateur translations by Jeremy Sams. I think that Hansel and Gretel has generally been done in English at the Met, as a way to bring in the kids. Currently there are also heavily abridged "family" productions of The Barber Of Seville and The Magic Flute in English. Also, they've never done the original Don Carlos in French...even though they've done the 5-act version of the score.

Well, you got the first letter right...

The final scene of Carmelites is one of the most powerful and emotionally shattering musical scenes I know. I cannot hear it without getting emotionally wound up. Incredible stuff. Though yes, all the works you mentioned have moments of equally powerful magic. The Rosenkavalier trio deserves its fame, not only for its musical beauty, but for the emotional journey the 3 characters present us with. Likewise it's hard not to get caught up in Salome's appropriately lurid final scene, which fascinates us as much as it reviles us. (Also, I love the tense confrontation scene between Salome and Herod as she keeps insisting on Jokanaan's head.) As long as we're on Strauss, I can't not mention Ariadne Auf Naxos and Elektra, which are both huge favorites of mine. I have great admiration for both Wozzeck and Lulu - and I love both scores a lot - but I think that Wozzeck is generally better theatre - it's a more taut story and just more visceral, IMO. Lulu has a lot of great moments, both musically and dramatically, but I think on the whole it's not quite as dramatically satisfying. But it is fascinating. One of the 20th century works that the Met has done (and for which the video is FINALLY available after too long) that has had a major impact on me is Weill's Mahagonny. Seeing the original telecast from the Met (as a teen) was a revelatory experience for me, and it was my introduction to Weill and Brecht as well - Weill has since become one of my favorite composers. And that opera holds a very special, and very powerful, place in my heart.

Ironic, given that this site brings together many of us who are fans of men, lol. I admit to not knowing Death In Venice very well. But I'm a huge huge fan of Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, as well as Albert Herring. Without hesitation, I'd say that Peter Grimes is one of the top great masterworks of the 20th century.

Yes - but of course Shakespeare largely borrowed his plots as well, etc - so this was nothing new. I believe Cosi Fan Tutte was an original idea. Gianni Schicchi was based on a scant reference to the title character in Dante's Inferno, but the details of the opera are all original. Just to name two originals. Ades' maginificent recent operatic treatment of Bunuel's film The Exterminating Angel has now played the Met, as well as a few European houses. But Sondheim is also currently working on a musical which will be partially based on the same film.

Though, of course, not her last new stage role - that would be Dolly Levi. Although I'm also tempted to say that her 1966 revival of Annie Get Your Gun was in some respects a new musical - the book was rewritten, songs from the 1946 version (and the characters that sang them) were cut, one new song was added ("An Old Fashioned Wedding") and the whole score was newly arranged and orchestrated. But I suppose that's all a big technicality, lol.

That’s the term.

Of course. No question.

Time to ignore...

Without personal experience? I've never once judged his ability as an escort. I've only talked about my experience in trying to set up an appointment with him. Which didn't go well. That was personal experience, and that was enough.

No. You know why? Because I very rarely even contact an escort who doesn't have his fees listed. And if I see an ad where I feel the fees are too high, I simply don't contact him. Odd, though. The only other conversation I've had out here about price concerns another Boston escort who snuck in a "travel fee" after the fact. Again, it wasn't something he had initially discussed, nor was it listed in his ad. It wasn't until we were about to meet that he mentioned it. (Even though I had been clear about my location from the beginning - and it's not like it was anything exotic lol.) The bottom line is, when escorts aren't being upfront about their fees, they should expect clients to call foul. When escorts ARE upfront, and clients still challenge the price, THAT's a problem. But I'm not in that latter category. And I'd appreciate you stopping the judgement calls. Thank you.

The "if" was referring to the other posters in this thread who have made similar comments about high prices and awkward conversations. I'm not sure why you're carrying Cody's cross. It's as if you want us all to be "fake news." Please stop.

He posted his ad on RM on July 8, 2017. (That info is in the ad.) He's not "new to this" anymore. I contacted him in August. At that point he may have still been new. (I don't know that any of us know if this was his first foray at escorting or not.) He's certainly not "new" at this point, so if he's still playing rate games, that cannot be an excuse any longer.

You're being ridiculous. I was not the one that asked for a lower price - he was the one that offered. Without my suggesting he do so. Period. It was totally his ball in this case. He has to decide if he's going to stand firm to his initial prices or not. Seems like he's the conflicted one here.

"Cheap" is not the point, nor the intention. The general rate in Boston right now, based on the RM ads I see, is 250/300. I think if you're going to ask for more than that, especially when you don't list the rates in your ad, so clients have to ask and only find out about your higher-than-average fee during the conversation, there's possibly going to be some "sticker shock." I tend to think that if he listed his fee upfront (which some escorts are doing in the body of their ad, so that it's visible to those who don't use the apps), he might avoid that conversation, and only get clients who would pay that price without hesitation. I personally have never asked an escort to go below their listed price. But when a price isn't listed, there's a different dynamic set up. It puts both client and escort on the spot, and I don't think it winds up fair for either guy in the process. If an escort is demanding a higher price, he should list it upfront, and stop being so cagey.

I was in contact with him sometime back last summer I think. Since his rates are "ask me," I asked, and it was rather high. I politely said it was out of my price range, but then he said he could compromise. He initiated that. He agreed to go down to a rate that worked for me. But then after that he got kinda difficult - like he regretted that decision. He seemed friendly at first, but then he started seeming a bit dismissive. He said he couldn't meet that day, but that we should get in touch the next day. I said ok, and left it at that. It really seemed to me he was trying to put me off, which in turn put me off. So I never met him.