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Posted

Just to add...Raul G. Manzo adores opera! He's Chicago based instead of New York, but The Chicago Lyric is a fantastic opera company and they have excellent productions along with World-Class opera stars/singers! Just saying, if you'd like to visit Chicago during opera season, you couldn't do much better than have the great RGM on your arm! I know from personal experience!!! :):);)

 

TruHart1 :cool:

Posted
Just to add...Raul G. Manzo adores opera! He's Chicago based instead of New York, but The Chicago Lyric is a fantastic opera company and they have excellent productions along with World-Class opera stars/singers! Just saying, if you'd like to visit Chicago during opera season, you couldn't do much better than have the great RGM on your arm! I know from personal experience!!! :):);)

 

TruHart1 :cool:

Yes, I should have mentioned Raul! I knew that we would hit it off when he mentioned that he cried at a performance of Bellini's Norma, and if you have seen my postings in the Arts Forum (and I will be posting more there about it as well) you know that is one of my favorite operas.

 

He would never mention the name or names , but it seems that artists who have appeared at Lyric Opera of Chicago have hired him over the years.

  • 1 month later...
Posted
I'm on the East Coast treating myself to a 3-day weekend in NYC. I saw porn actor/producer Michael Lucas last night at "Manon Lescaut" at the Met. I had never seen him in person and, yes, he's hard to miss. He is very good-looking with his chiseled bone structure and he was wearing a tailored suit. He's now in his 40's but looks younger.

Doesn't he also produce a series of porn about men in suits? He is quite handsome.

http://www.lucasentertainment.com/content/models/859/gallery/Michael_Lucas_036.jpg

Posted
There were plenty of audience members in street clothes, not suits. The way the audience is dwindling we should be glad they are there at all.

 

no excuse. this isn't catering to the lcd, it's opera. if you can't show up not looking like you just woke up, don't go

Posted (edited)
There were plenty of audience members in street clothes, not suits. The way the audience is dwindling we should be glad they are there at all.

no excuse. this isn't catering to the lcd, it's opera. if you can't show up not looking like you just woke up, don't go

I'll have to agree to disagree @jimboivyo since I believe like @sutherland the MET needs asses to fill seats to survive, whether those asses belong to a well-dressed Michael Lucas or a casually dressed Austin Wolfe! Both asses quite impressive, BTW, even though the hotties in question both call themselves tops!!! :);):rolleyes:

For me the elitist attitude of some people, many of whom never attend the opera at all, is very old fashioned and out-of-date, mainly because I have believed for many years that opera needs a wider appeal in order to not become an endangered art form.

 

[Edited to add: The MET's official dress code has been quite relaxed since the late 1960's so that's how old-fashioned the elitist viewpoint is for attendees of that "august" opera house!]

 

TruHart1 :cool:

Edited by TruHart1
Posted

In the days before the stock market crash, men wore white tie and tails in the orchestra, boxes, and grand tier. The "Dress Circle" is called that because you were expected to be in black tie, at least. Above that, the balcony and family circle, there was no dress code but in those days no one would have gone in casual attire.

 

Monday remained "white tie requested" until the company left the old Met for Lincoln Center. The last time I was there, a few years ago, anything went but most of the audience was at least presentable. In college I used to do standing room at the Met, and as I remember orchestra standing room was mostly well-dressed, family circle standing room, where many are extreme opera fanatics, was pretty informal, even quirky and sloppy.

 

If ancient rituals interest you, check out this text from Emily Post's Etiquette from the 1920s, about how gentlemen are to behave in an opera box.

 

http://www.bartleby.com/95/6.html

Posted

A couple of years ago I recall that the MET website recommended that one dress comfortably. I would not go in a tank top and gym shorts which is my preferred mode of dress, but I do dress comfortably and in what I think is an appropriate fashion with dress pants and a classy casual type shirt. Let's just say that I have never felt out of place and my preferred seating area is the Dress Circle followed by the Grand Tier . Of course earlier in this thread we discussed and posted pictures from the MET's website depicting the various way that folks dress. It seems that anything goes and indeed the MET is encouraging that.

 

Since Joan Sutherland was mentioned I do recall seeing an older gentleman wearing jeans and a lumberjack style plaid flannel shirt at a Sutherland performance of I Puritani many years ago. That was in the orchestra section and his seats were halfway down the isle. So times have changes, there were no tiaras but back then I thought that he looked out of place. That would not be the case now, but still I personally would not consider going that route unless someone gave me tickets at the last moment and I had nothing better to wear!

Posted

I will say that I like some formality with a relaxed sense of style and class. Le Bernardin requires men to wear jackets during dinner. So does the New York Athletic Club. There is nothing wrong with dressing up. It adds to the overall experience of a cultural event or a good meal.

Posted
I will say that I like some formality with a relaxed sense of style and class. Le Bernardin requires men to wear jackets during dinner. So does the New York Athletic Club. There is nothing wrong with dressing up. It adds to the overall experience of a cultural event or a good meal.

 

this is also my view

 

I'm not saying it's always and only a tux, just to dress appro for the environment. times haven't changed so much that folks shouldnt realize this :)

Posted

am confused-you said he seemed to be enjoying himself, but now you say maybe not.....??? I know he lifted an opera singer out of the sea on Fire Island before she sang something, but that was a paid stunt!

Posted

Well I think he really DID enjoy himself, although he looked a bit awkward walking in there as somebody's arm candy. We were seated next to each other in the Orchestra section. I will say, Austin filled up that seat rather well ...

Posted
A couple of years ago I recall that the MET website recommended that one dress comfortably. I would not go in a tank top and gym shorts which is my preferred mode of dress, but I do dress comfortably and in what I think is an appropriate fashion with dress pants and a classy casual type shirt. Let's just say that I have never felt out of place and my preferred seating area is the Dress Circle followed by the Grand Tier . Of course earlier in this thread we discussed and posted pictures from the MET's website depicting the various way that folks dress. It seems that anything goes and indeed the MET is encouraging that.

 

Since Joan Sutherland was mentioned I do recall seeing an older gentleman wearing jeans and a lumberjack style plaid flannel shirt at a Sutherland performance of I Puritani many years ago. That was in the orchestra section and his seats were halfway down the isle. So times have changes, there were no tiaras but back then I thought that he looked out of place. That would not be the case now, but still I personally would not consider going that route unless someone gave me tickets at the last moment and I had nothing better to wear!

I can't say that Austin Wolfe liked Das Rheingold, but his paying companion certainly did. And only Austin, with the body of a Teutonic God, could walk into the Met wearing a tank top. Lesser mortals ...
For a fleeting momeent I thought that I could get away with wearing a tank top to the MET, but alas the part about the "body of a Teutonic God" proves to be the proverbial fly in the ointment! :(
Posted
I will say that I like some formality with a relaxed sense of style and class. Le Bernardin requires men to wear jackets during dinner. So does the New York Athletic Club. There is nothing wrong with dressing up. It adds to the overall experience of a cultural event or a good meal.

That's about it. Le Cirque, the Four Seasons etc don't anymore. It's a loosing battle. That having been said, if I am paying an escort, he'd best not dress to embarrass.

Posted

Well, this kind of echoes the discussion we have had in the Callas Remastered thread the last couple of days regarding looks vs. size vs voice, etc.

 

All I can say is that given the size of his biceps, I almost didn't care if he was able to sing the D-flat at the conclusion of the piece. Well he hit it... neither the best nor the worst that I have heard. I know he has sung roles such as the Duke in Rigoletto. I can easily see how some director would be able to have him appear shirtless and still respect the intentions of both the librettist and composer.

 

Worth another look...

 

http://logoonline.mtvnimages.com/uri/mgid:uma:image:logotv.com:10958909?quality=0.8&format=jpg&height=495&width=660

 

Or two...

 

maxresdefault.jpg

Posted (edited)

LOL! One of the first times I attended the MET back in 1979 in orchestra standing room, there was a very hot leather guy in full leather gear, tee shirt bursting the seams from his muscularity, chaps over faded, tight blue jeans! It was a complete, uncut Così fan tutte (with TeKanawa's Fiordiligi) almost four hours with one intermission and Maestro Levine doing his Mozartian slow tempi in the pit! Whenever I was bored by anything during that performance, I just looked over at the leather guy (he was to the left in the row in front of me!) and it always perked me right up!!! :):);) (That wasn't you @whipped guy was it?)

 

I've been fine with casual dress at the MET ever since. :D:D:D

 

Wow! Signor Fanale is quite the discovery! There do seem to be more "barihunks" in the business than hunky tenors. I know another tenor now whose career I will begin following right this minute! Thank you loads, @Despardo (and yes, there's a pun there! :rolleyes:;);))

 

TruHart1 :cool:

Edited by TruHart1
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