Does anyone follow Parterre.com?

[rossthebosssf]

I've been following La Cieca for years both in print as well as online. Anyone else follow this blog? I find it highly entertaining and a bit educational.

[NYCOperaQueen]

Definitely. Operatic life wouldn't be the same without it. I used to write for the print 'zine and still post on parterre.com from time to time (under my nom de parterre).

[+ g56whiz]

I have a bunch of the podcasts on my iPhone. They're great.

[whipped guy]

I had not visited this site in quite a while.... I originally found it when doing a search of the Donizetti Tudor Trilogy and somehow the words "opera queen" brought me there... go figure!!!??? At any rate, I just checked it out and enjoyed reading some reviews of CDs and DVDs... and I thought that in each case they were right on the mark... As an example the recent Decca DVD release of I Puritani was exactly on target in bashing the soprano and finding Florez as not at his best. I need to visit more often... so thanks to the OP for reminding me of this site.

[whipped guy]

I have a bunch of the podcasts on my iPhone. They're great.

Hey g56whiz! Thanks for mentioning those podcasts... I found them yesterday afternoon and they are quite an interesting and diverse collection of performances!

[leigh.bess.toad]

Hey g56whiz! Thanks for mentioning those podcasts... I found them yesterday afternoon and they are quite an interesting and diverse collection of performances!

 

OMFG -- HOW IN THE HELL CAN YOU NOT BE A PARTERRIAN? Where opera is king and you the listeners are queens. I love LaCieca. The Unnatural Acts of Opera recordings are an absolute treasure trove. I have downloaded so many of them. But for me, there are two standouts and both are tributes to artists who recently passed away. The first is the two part tribute to Birgit Nilsson. That was the broadcast that got me hooked on Wagner -- and hearing Birgit do the Liebestod has changed my life for the better. And of course immediately prior to that was the recording with Corelli of In questa reggia and the riddle scene. OMG what sheer magic between those two.

 

The other is more personal, more intense to me -- the tribute to Thomas Stewart. A truly great Wotan and a magnificent human being. He died doing what he loved with who he loved -- playing golf with his wife of about 50 years the great soprano Evelyn Lear. Truly one of the greatest love stories in all of operatc history. Their contribution to the Wagner Society of Washington is unparalleled. He still has, to me, the single greatest publicity photo ever taken. I'm sure you know the one -- the one where he just naturally looks like evil incarnate, the devil himself. And yet he was as kind and generous of a soul as has ever blessed the operatic world. There are some great performances in this tribute -- the John Jacob Niles Gambler Songs which he just owned, Soliloquy from Carousel, and of course the Leb' Wohl from Walkyrie. But when LaCieca played the last piece of the tribute, I lost it and bawled like a baby. Thomas Stewart doing Shenandoah -- "away, i'm bound away, cross the wide Missouri".

 

Yes I am a parterrian. I've made contributions to James Jordan's website, as I have here (hint to everyone else to pitch in here too -- NOW!!!). LaCieca is a treasure. She is my operatic Daddy.

[whipped guy]

OMFG -- HOW IN THE HELL CAN YOU NOT BE A PARTERRIAN?

Because I have been spending far too much time being a sadomasochistian!

[leigh.bess.toad]

Because I have been spending far too much time being a sadomasochistian!

 

Your problem is that sissy-assed music you listen to and you know it. But it's amazing how many parterrians show the same lack of taste in truly great opera such as Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Menotti, John Adams, Kurt Weill and ... well, damn near anyone after the 1830's. :)

 

Except Adams. BOR-ING!

 

[whipped guy]

Your problem is that sissy-assed music you listen to and you know it. But it's amazing how many parterrians show the same lack of taste in truly great opera...

Well... the sub portion of my persona limits my masochistic tendencies to BDSM... When it comes to listening to music I have absolutely no desire to be a masochist...

[leigh.bess.toad]

Well... the sub portion of my persona limits my masochistic tendencies to BDSM... When it comes to listening to music I have absolutely no desire to be a masochist...

 

There is no masochism in Wagner, except for the last 1/2 hour of Rheingold when you've been there for almost 3 hours and can't wait to get to the bathroom. Either that or you play WS right in the theater.

[leigh.bess.toad]

Here is the headshot of Thomas Stewart I was mentioning earlier. Is this not the scariest operatic headshot you have ever seen. And that is all his own hair and is exactly how he looked. Anyone else think he looks like the perfect Mefistofeles?

 

 

 

http://www.playbillarts.com/images/photos/StewartThomasCAMI190.jpg

[+ g56whiz]

Either that or you play WS right in the theater.

 

Damn!! O cudda done that! There were only three people in the four hundred seat theater when I recently saw an HD rebroadcast the The Met's new Das Rheingold. But the other players would have been an 80+ little old lady and the earnest young granddaughter who helped her to her seat.

 

The interconnection of the discussion of La Cieca and BDSM reveals to me why I have reservations on both. Although on opposite ends of a spectrum of presumed masculinity, they share a similar affectedness that bothers me. I'm still searching for my inner slut but it's the real me searching not a character whose personality I'm trying to assume (if that all makes sense).

 

And Tom Stewart was the real thing: a vocal artist whose work remains compelling.

[whipped guy]

The interconnection of the discussion of La Cieca and BDSM reveals to me why I have reservations on both. Although on opposite ends of a spectrum of presumed masculinity, they share a similar affectedness that bothers me.

I find La Cieca and some of the more intense proponents of BDSM to be way over the top... that is why I was somewhat off-put by the "Parterre" website when I first visited it and have not been back much since then... I feel the same way with "Boundgods" on the opposite end of the spectrum... but for some reason, while I think it can get quite a bit over the top, that is a site that I visit on a regular basis... Well at least the free portion of the site...

[+ g56whiz]

feel the same way with "Boundgods" on the opposite end of the spectrum... but for some reason, while I think it can get quite a bit over the top, that is a site that I visit on a regular basis... Well at least the free portion of the site...

 

"Their NakedKombat site does it for me." he said without a segue back to the topic at hand.

[Guest alanm]

On Parterre.com, I use it on occasion for the search feature. I agree with Whipped about La Cieca, a little is about all I can take. The search feature is useful in that I will read a review and eventually get a CD or DVD that I would have otherwise passed on. Example: Netrebko's live recital of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky w/ Barenboim. The "romance" songs are beautifully sung, but unless you read the English transaltion there's a sameness to R-K and then T.

 

So I wait for sales and coupons. Eventually I got it for $4.85 at Borders, $20.50 off the list price. As much as I love Netrebro live, I am not sure I'll be listening to the recital a lot.

 

My spectrum on the other stuff is pretty narrow. But I hired porn star twink Billy Brandt, who loves to be spanked hard, about a decade ago. And I have long since added spanking to my list of sexual delights. Billy Brandt was famous for about a second, but I got him in that second, when he lived near Philadelphia.