Opera Alert

[+ Lucky]

Definitely not the Britney Spears type...but I can't sing a single show tune either. I did visit the Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop last week, but no osmosis occurred.

[operalover21]

Definitely not the Britney Spears type...but I can't sing a single show tune either. I did visit the Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop last week, but no osmosis occurred.

 

You gotta do more than go in the gift shop! No show tunes, no opera? Bad gay man, bad gay man!

[+ Lucky]

See me get my punishment here:

 

http://obscurestore.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c5ca853ef012875b94ad1970c-75wi

[whipped guy]

See me get my punishment here:

 

http://obscurestore.typepad.com/.a/6...94ad1970c-75wi

 

Can I be punished as well? After all I didn't get the Judy, Liza, or Show-Tune gene!

[Guest alanm]

I even had a heated argument about it with a very well-reviewed and popular escort in NYC.

 

I was never quite sure if I were watching a rehearsal of the Bellini opera or the “real-life” interaction of those participating in the so-called rehearsal. In addition there was quite a bit of busy and distracting stage action. While I don’t like updating, I will tolerate it if done with respect.

 

I would really enjoy a heated argument about opera with an escort. Would you let me know the escort's name. Would appreciate it greatly.

 

I like the opera, either the classic version or this one -- more or less opera on c. meth. I was never confused about what was happening on stage -- the actual opera or preparing to sing the opera. I'll take any chance I can to see and listen to Florez and Dessay perfrom as a modern couple, who convinced me they really were in love.

 

I do agree about Callas' brillance.

[whipped guy]

I like the opera, either the classic version or this one -- more or less opera on c. meth...

 

Actually La Sonnambula is one of my very favorite operas and I had been trying to see it performed all my life… hence my disappointment. Needless to say I was never able to get into the City for the very few instances that it was staged or even performed in concert. So finally, after waiting an eternity, I finally get to see the opera and it is presented in this unusual updating. Now, this is the opera that I consider to Bellini’s best composition as it contains a never ending series of long (oh so long) melodies that are at times serene, placid, elegiac, and yes even joyful and filled with moments of ecstasy… melodies that are analogous to a sublime string of cultured pearls. Now if this piece were staged as much as is Aida and the producers wanted to attempt something different such as setting it in a terrorist camp on banks of the Nile I could see their point. But the piece is fragile, of its time, quite moving… and had not been staged at the Met in almost a generation. Why not respect the original concept… or if it needed to be updated why not totally respect the music? It is actually the disrespect shown to Bellini that really killed things for me.

 

Now in fairness, the updating did work reasonably well until the finale of the piece. The great crowning cabaletta “Ah! Non giunge” is the quintessential cabaletta of jubilation and is the epitome of expressing total elation in vocal terms. To be treated in such a cavalier fashion by the staging so as to elicit loud bursts of laughter from the audience was quite disrespectful to the essence of the music… and especially since a decision was made to use the critical edition of the score which restores Bellini’s original version of the first stanza. Now in this final section of the opera I always think of Sutherland wowing the audience with her astonishing pyrotechnics or even better the Visconti staging with a bejeweled Callas where Amina was transformed into a prima donna from the Nineteenth Century. In this last instance Visconti actually momentarily left the Swiss village behind as he put Callas front and center stage and turned up the lights in the auditorium. Yes it was a deviation from Bellini’s concept… but one that respected the spirit of the music, the Bel canto tradition, and was ultimately based on and deferential to Romani’s words and Bellini’s music… That’s what was missing at the MET.

[operalover21]

Actually La Sonnambula is one of my very favorite operas and I had been trying to see it performed all my life… hence my disappointment. Needless to say I was never able to get into the City for the very few instances that it was staged or even performed in concert. So finally, after waiting an eternity, I finally get to see the opera and it is presented in this unusual updating. Now, this is the opera that I consider to Bellini’s best composition as it contains a never ending series of long (oh so long) melodies that are at times serene, placid, elegiac, and yes even joyful and filled with moments of ecstasy… melodies that are analogous to a sublime string of cultured pearls. Now if this piece were staged as much as is Aida and the producers wanted to attempt something different such as setting it in a terrorist camp on banks of the Nile I could see their point. But the piece is fragile, of its time, quite moving… and had not been staged at the Met in almost a generation. Why not respect the original concept… or if it needed to be updated why not totally respect the music? It is actually the disrespect shown to Bellini that really killed things for me.

 

Now in fairness, the updating did work reasonably well until the finale of the piece. The great crowning cabaletta “Ah! Non giunge” is the quintessential cabaletta of jubilation and is the epitome of expressing total elation in vocal terms. To be treated in such a cavalier fashion by the staging so as to elicit loud bursts of laughter from the audience was quite disrespectful to the essence of the music… and especially since a decision was made to use the critical edition of the score which restores Bellini’s original version of the first stanza. Now in this final section of the opera I always think of Sutherland wowing the audience with her astonishing pyrotechnics or even better the Visconti staging with a bejeweled Callas where Amina was transformed into a prima donna from the Nineteenth Century. In this last instance Visconti actually momentarily left the Swiss village behind as he put Callas front and center stage and turned up the lights in the auditorium. Yes it was a deviation from Bellini’s concept… but one that respected the spirit of the music, the Bel canto tradition, and was ultimately based on and deferential to Romani’s words and Bellini’s music… That’s what was missing at the MET.

 

I've seen it many times and believe me what you saw is as good as it gets with that boring opera with a stinker of a libretto. I saw Sutherland (great voice, dramatically inert) do it and Dessay acted rings around her. I have to have more than just great vocals. I think Zimmerman and Dessay made it interesting which is hard to do with such a stupid story.

[whipped guy]

Stupid!

 

I think Zimmerman and Dessay made it interesting which is hard to do with such a stupid story.

 

Yes they definitely made it interesting, and perhaps I am old-fashioned, but I have always been moved by this opera... deeply moved... and never bored... and moved by the piece as originally conceived! For me it is a gentle pastoral opera that epitomizes the the bel in bel canto. However, I can easily see how one can consider it to be "stupid". Many things operatic can be considered to be "stupid"... Rigoletto... both the opera and the character can be considered to be "stupid"... The plot of Trovatore can be thought of as "stupid", and a list as long as Leporello's can certainly be compiled of all the "stupidity" in opera!

 

So as I said above, different things are important to different individuals... In addition, we all perceive things differently. That's what makes opera (and life in general) so interesting and ultimately enjoyable...

[operalover21]

Yes they definitely made it interesting, and perhaps I am old-fashioned, but I have always been moved by this opera... deeply moved... and never bored... and moved by the piece as originally conceived! For me it is a gentle pastoral opera that epitomizes the the bel in bel canto. However, I can easily see how one can consider it to be "stupid". Many things operatic can be considered to be "stupid"... Rigoletto... both the opera and the character can be considered to be "stupid"... The plot of Trovatore can be thought of as "stupid", and a list as long as Leporello's can certainly be compiled of all the "stupidity" in opera!

 

So as I said above, different things are important to different individuals... In addition, we all perceive things differently. That's what makes opera (and life in general) so interesting and ultimately enjoyable...

 

We just all respond differently to different things. No right or wrong. This opera has just always made me laugh but, than again, so does The Exorcist!

[JT Brooklyn]

Yes they definitely made it interesting, and perhaps I am old-fashioned, but I have always been moved by this opera... deeply moved... and never bored... and moved by the piece as originally conceived! For me it is a gentle pastoral opera that epitomizes the the bel in bel canto. However, I can easily see how one can consider it to be "stupid". Many things operatic can be considered to be "stupid"... Rigoletto... both the opera and the character can be considered to be "stupid"... The plot of Trovatore can be thought of as "stupid", and a list as long as Leporello's can certainly be compiled of all the "stupidity" in opera!

 

So as I said above, different things are important to different individuals... In addition, we all perceive things differently. That's what makes opera (and life in general) so interesting and ultimately enjoyable...

 

BRAVO Mr Whip!

[Guest greatness]

In "Pretty Woman"

 

In the movie Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts to see La Traviata (The Fallen One) by Verdi. Julia worries that she will not be able to understand the opera in italian but Richard appeases Julia by telling her she will understand because the music is very powerful. At that moment I was about to pull Richard Gere out of my TV screen and kiss him. So hot Julia indeed understands Violetta (who is somehow related to her character) and cries.

 

From the movie...

 

"People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic. People love it or they hate it. If they love it they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it but it will never become part of their soul."

 

I can just reach an orgasm just listening to the above lines by Richard Gere.. One of my dreams is a true love taking me to an opera and he softly translates music to my ears.

 

I need a song~~~

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco1xFvfhRE

[Guest greatness]

Lucia Popp and Placido Dimingo - BRINIDISI (La traviata)

 

So called "Drinking Song" from La traviata

 

[+ Italiano]

A true diva singing about another diva:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmN8YT9Avg4