"She does not feel self-conscious when she is on stage. It is only when she returns to the wings that she feels a little shy."

I'm reading "Why I’m performing Wagner naked at the Royal Opera aged 81/Illona Linthwaite won’t let being nude in front of 2,200 people stop her from defying the ‘bad press’ given to older women" (London Times).

“The curtain goes up and there’s nothing happening, it’s just me. I thought that was really frightening and then when it happened, I thought, actually, this is brilliant,” she said.

The role is Erda, in "Siegfried."

Erda is usually “frocked her up to the nines” in gossamer gowns, Linthwaite said, but Barrie Kosky, the director, wanted the octogenarian’s body to symbolise nature and remind the audience of their mortality.... 

That's the director's view — an old woman reminds you of death — not the old woman's. She thinks she's there to remind you of life: 

She thinks her performance is something of a political act in a country she views as “spiritually arid” for its lack of empathy towards older people. Ultimately, she wants the audience to look at her and see the future not as a tragedy, but an adventure. She wants people to feel: “Hey, I’m looking forward to 80.”

I asked Grok: "If you saw Erda in 'Siegfried' portrayed by an old woman would she remind you of death or life?" [ADDED: The actual full question was "What views are attributed to the character Erda in 'Siegfried' and if you saw her portrayed by an old woman would she remind you of death or life?"

Answer:

"Cecilia Giménez, famed for ‘Monkey Christ’ mural mishap, dies at 94."

The Guardian reports.

Amid the storm of mockery and bad publicity over what became known as the Monkey Christ, Giménez took to her bed with an attack of anxiety, losing 17kg (37lb) in the process. However, she soon found that notoriety had an upside as people began bidding to buy her own art, which she sold on eBay, and she later donated the proceeds to a Catholic charity. The botched restoration became first an internet sensation and then a tourist attraction and the church began charging for admission. Ryanair laid on special flights to Zaragoza, the nearest airport, and today thousands of people continue to visit the village to see her work....

They made an opera about it:

"Hughes’s libretto is full of smart, Maga-bashing one-liners, dodgy rhymes and contrived but nevertheless funny exchanges that (possibly) hold a mirror up to the weird actualite of family life in Trumpland."

"At one point we learn that the president has mistaken Melania’s body-double for his wife — with predictable consequences. The comedy isn’t subtle, but neither is its target."

From "Melania the Opera review — a sweary, funny first lady faces the music/The year is 2027 and Russia invades Slovenia: what would Melania do? The composer Jeremy Limb and singer Melinda Hughes dive into Trumpland in a smart, Maga-bashing piece" (London Times).

Is "actualite" a typo (for "actuality") or is the Times using the word the OED spells "actualité" (with an accent on the "e")? That word is defined as "An event from real life, a news item; (in plural) news, current affairs. Also: a work representing or recording such an event."

Among the quotes, from 1859, "the subject of her Saintship is not a matter of mere historical interest, but aspires to the dignity of an 'actualité.'"

"In April 2005, Mr. Rendall was singing Radamès in Verdi’s 'Aida'... part of the stage collapsed.... He was 'knocked down at least 15 feet and tried to crawl to safety to avoid being crushed...'"

"'I thought I was going to die,' a fate that awaits Radamès in the opera but is not normally faced by tenors singing the role.... Seven years earlier... Mr. Rendall was singing Canio in 'I Pagliacci' in Milwaukee in November 1998... when he nearly stabbed to death the baritone Kimm Julian. The last scene includes, in the libretto, just such a stabbing, when Canio kills Silvio, the lover of his unfaithful wife. 'I’d been given my props when we started rehearsing, and these included a knife for the stabbing scene,' Mr. Rendall later told The New York Times. 'At the crucial moment, just as I’d done 12 times before, I pushed the button to make the blade retract. But when I looked down, I saw to my amazement that the blade was still out.' Mr. Julian, blood-soaked, collapsed. The blade had gone three inches into his chest and narrowly missed killing him. When the police arrived the director inadvertently gave them the plot of 'Pagliacci'; unfamiliar with the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo’s text, they believed Mr. Rendall had stabbed Mr. Julian in a fit of jealousy...."

From "David Rendall, Tenor Who Suffered Operatic Mishaps, Dies at 76/He appeared regularly at the Metropolitan Opera and sang in major European opera houses, but a stage accident in 2005 nearly ended his career" (NYT).

"More than anyone I know, his approach to work and life was Socratic. Questions meant so much to him; he was suspicious of answers, certainly easy ones."

Said the opera director Daniel Fish, quoted in "John Conklin, Designer of Fantastical Opera Sets, Dies at 88/Realizing a childhood dream, he created scenery that was highly conceptual yet playful for the Glimmerglass Festival, New York City Opera and other companies" (NYT).

In an early meeting about the [Bard College production of “Oklahoma!”], “John reached into one of the drawers in his studio and pulled some sparkly fringe, a miniature version of the stuff you see hanging over used-car lots, and asked, ‘What if we hung this over the space?,” Mr. Fish said in an email. “That ‘what if’ was key to John’s creative process.”

We were watching Trump's Oaks, Pennsylvania town hall live, so we experienced the shift from talk to pure music....

... and if you didn't watch live, you can still watch the video and thereby have your own opinion of what happened... and of the way the mainstream media are reporting it. You're unlikely to sit through the whole thing, as we did. We were there in real time, like the people in the auditorium, to hear Trump answer some questions.

Trump comes out at 1:05:00. He speaks for 15 minutes before any question is asked. Then he takes the first question and then the second and third, but at 1:38:00, there's a medical emergency that goes on for quite a while. 

Four minutes into the incident, Trump says "This is a little bit of a tough one, I think." After the crowd begins singing "God Bless America," Trump asks his music person to play the recording of "Ave Maria"... which makes me think the person in the audience is dying. Trump seems to have determined not to restart the town hall until it can be known that the person has been helped. It's a silent demonstration of caring, so perhaps he's calculating that this is as good a statement as anything he might say and that speaking would be an implicit statement of not caring.

At 1:45:00, there's an attempt to return to the town hall format, but 3 minutes later, there's another medical emergency.

I don't know what was your favorite part of Trump's Butler rally yesterday.

Perhaps it was the moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, a silence broken by an opera voice, singing live, "Ave Maria"....

But maybe it was for you, as it was for me, the return of opera, after Trump's long speech and his concluding dance to "YMCA," when he beckons the opera singer — Christopher Macchio — back onto the stage and remains on stage and listens through the performance of 5 songs, not all opera songs, but all delivered operatically: "Nessun Dorma," "Hallelujah" (the song Leonard Cohen's estate complained about Trump's using in 2020), "America the Beautiful" (including the lesser-known fourth verse, the one with "alabaster cities"), "How Great Thou Art," and "God Bless America." 

Who does that? Who subjects a present-day audience to that much unexpected opera? Especially after they've been confined for 4+ hours. Especially with the almost-assassinated former President looming there, swaying, through the whole thing. The operatic interlude finally ends, and a brash and incredibly annoying pop song plays — something I can tell is called "Gloria." No, no, not the Van Morrison "Gloria." It's this awfulness. A good choice if the message is: Time to get out here.

It's my understanding that Trump loves music and likes to be the one to choose the music, and he just assumes people should hear what he wants to play. You can take that as a metaphor if you like.

"Excuse me. It’s a performance; it’s not a recital. Respect the audience. Respect me."

Said the opera star, quoted in "A Soprano Who Despises Encores Interrupts Her Co-Star’s/Angela Gheorghiu drew criticism after she stormed onstage to stop a tenor’s encore during a performance of 'Tosca' in Seoul" (NYT).

Gheorghiu, 59, a diva of the old school known for her preternatural voice and strong-willed demeanor, faced an immediate backlash.... Her managers released a statement on Wednesday saying that she had been assured by the conductor, Jee Joong-bae, and the production team in Seoul that there would be no encores. She said she had declined a suggestion by Jee that she sing an encore “to maintain the integrity of the performance.”...

Gheorghiu saw the encore by Kim, who was singing the role of Cavaradossi, Tosca’s lover, as a “personal affront given her strong convictions on this matter,” the statement said....

She's right about encores. They interfere with the immersion in the theatrical narrative. But so do breaking character and storming off. Both are pretty amusing though, I would think. But how can the audience reengage with a love story between Cavaradossi and Tosca when Kim and Gheorghiu are in hot conflict? I don't know. Maybe that's amusing too.

What do you say — encores or no encores? At least it's obvious that there should be agreement on the subject before the performance starts... unless this whole thing is a publicity stunt. It got me interested in Gheorghiu. Was that the point?

ADDED: I like the quote in the post title, but in what language was it spoken? It's an Italian opera, and the performance was in South Korea. Gheorghiu was born in Romania.

"Jolie signed up to the film knowing she would actually have to learn how to sing opera...."

"'I was terribly nervous,” she said... 'I spent almost seven months training....' [Director Pablo Larraín knew the actress could capture Callas’s magnetic presence and relate to the pressures the singer felt around her fame, but he strenuously did not want this to be a lip-syncing job. He planned on shooting close-ups of Jolie as Callas and felt it would immediately feel inauthentic to the audience if his lead actress didn’t know the sensation of singing opera, even if the sounds used in the film aren’t entirely her own.... [Jolie] listened endlessly to tapes of Callas teaching others how to sing opera... What we hear in the film are tracks mixing Jolie and Callas. The moments of Callas in her prime are mostly Callas with a fragment of Jolie — and then at other, more raw points, particularly as her voice degrades, it’s more Jolie...."

From "Angelina Jolie soars into the Oscar race with Venice film ‘Maria’/Jolie, who’s been locked in a legal battle with ex Brad Pitt, called the role of legendary opera singer Maria Callas 'therapy I didn’t know I needed'" (WaPo).

A quote from Jolie: "I think when your life is full, when you’ve felt a certain level of despair, of pain, of love, at a certain point, there [are] only certain sounds that can match that feeling. And to me, the immensity of the feeling encapsulated within the sounds of opera, there’s nothing like it, … It is the only sound that would explain that pain."

"Sean 'Diddy' Combs aggressively marketed himself to the ultra-rich as he turned his edgy rap glamor into a billion-dollar fortune."

"Billionaires told The Post he would cold email with business proposals, while other Wall Streeters acclaimed him as a 'genius' and one CEO of the New York Stock Exchange called him an 'inspiration' on a par with the Founding Fathers.... [H]e partnered with billionaire investor Ron Burkle; was 'mentored' by hedge fund guru Ray Dalio; had his fashion line sold in Macy’s and Dillards; went into business with alcohol giant Diageo; opened the New York Stock Exchange with Estée Lauder heir William Lauder; struck deals with Zac Posen and Liz Claiborne; 50% owned his own TV channel Revolt; launched a water range with Mark Wahlberg; and teamed up with Salesforce’s Marc Benioff to launch a black business marketplace.... 'He was a master entrepreneur,' one music business insider... told The Post. 'He was a super intelligent hardworking guy and a genius at brands… he turned Cîroc into a billion dollar business.'"

From "Secrets of Diddy’s billionaire boys club: Rapper wooed Wall Street elite — who praised him as ‘genius’ before sex trafficking probe" (NY Post).

The article touts what it calls his "cache": "Diddy also used his own cache — the promise of entry into a world of celebrity — to attract investment for his projects.... [One] move gave him instant social cache. It let him rub shoulders, lucratively, with a New York social dynasty and in turn gave their decades-old brand a fresh, contemporary glamor...."

A "cache" is a hidden store of goods or ammo. Pronounced, some may be surprised to learn, "kash."

"Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, one of opera’s biggest stars, sued the Metropolitan Opera... alleging discrimination when the company dropped her after Russia invaded Ukraine."

"The suit... includes claims of national origin discrimination, breach of contract and defamation.... Met general manager Peter Gelb said at the time she 'is one of the greatest singers in Met history, but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine, there was no way forward.' Netrebko had made several statements opposing the war and violence at the time of her ouster, but did not agree to Gelb’s request that she specifically condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to her suit..."

WaPo reports.

"With a libretto written by... first-time opera makers, the show has Rousselle largely mumbling, rather than singing. Her mumbles are then translated..."

"... for the audience using supertitles.... Despite the opera’s central character being named Blake, 'the only reason people are going to see this is because of Kurt Cobain’s celebrity,' [said a Cobain biographer].... The idea for making 'Last Days' also had little to do with Cobain as a person, said [Oliver] Leith, the Royal Opera House’s composer-in-residence.... [Agathe Rousselle, who plays the Cobain character] best known for starring in the horror movie 'Titane' as a woman sexually attracted to cars, said... [s]he was bullied at school and one day one of the school’s popular girls threw a CD of Nirvana’s 'Nevermind' at her, sneering, 'That’s the kind of thing you weirdo would listen to,' Rousselle recalled. When she got home, she immediately played it. 'I lost my mind to it,' she said.... [Rousselle] said the opera was not about Cobain, but bigger issues like how 'becoming a myth will kill you' and 'the absurdity of being famous and wanting to disappear when you’re recognizable to pretty much everyone.' The opera could have been made about Amy Winehouse or Janis Joplin and still made the same points, she added."

From "A Kurt Cobain Opera Examines the Myth, Not the Man/The creators of 'Last Days,' an eagerly anticipated opera about a grunge star’s final days, insist it’s really about how society treats its icons" (NYT).

"Nothing could be less representative of Maria Callas, as no opera singer, not even a second-grade student at music school, would ever adopt such a pose with crossed arms in front of their chest."

"Opera is about singing and … freeing up the voice. If Callas were to try singing, in real life, in the stance conceived by the sculptor, the result would be like a violinist trying to play on a broken violin."

Said one former opera singer, quoted in "Gandhi in heels? Maria Callas statue hits the wrong note/Critics compare figure of famous soprano erected in Greek capital to an Oscar statuette" (The Guardian).

"Her father was an immigrant from Odessa, her mother was born four months after her family arrived from Poland. Her mother later worked as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn."

"Ruth used to ask, 'What is the difference between a bookkeeper in Brooklyn and a Supreme Court Justice?' Her answer, one generation. It has been said that Ruth wanted to be an opera virtuoso, but became a rockstar instead.... She was not an opera star, but she found her stage right behind me in our courtroom...."

From "John Roberts Memorial Speech for Ruth Bader Ginsburg Transcript September 23."

"Metropolitan Opera, After Shutting Its Doors, Will Offer Free Streams From Live in HD Catalog."

Playbill reports.

The performances, originally captured as live broadcasts in movie theatres worldwide, will begin at 7:30 PM [March 16th] on the company's website.... [T]he videos in the nightly series will be made available for free for 20 hours following the initial stream.

The lineup seems designed to welcome opera beginners. It begins with "Carmen," and the next night is "La Bohème."

This is great. I love seeing the silver lining. People are stuck without things to go out and do, but they can watch streamed video, and the public's need for entertainment can be met, and the forced seclusion can be used to build new interest in the best of performance arts.

I remember taking my sons to see "Carmen" when they were very young — the story and the music are so accessible and enjoyable to almost anyone.

(I'm not seeing where you need to click to get to the live stream, but we should be able to find that out by March 16th.)

"Major League Baseball will suspend all operations and likely delay the start of the 2020 season due to the coronavirus outbreak..."

Sports Illustrated reports.

I have tickets to the Ring cycle at the Chicago Lyric Opera next month:

Wagner’s Ring cycle is one of the greatest achievements in Western culture and an immersive adventure that every opera lover should experience. Lyric is proud to present a brand-new Ring in April 2020 — a rare and monumental undertaking that will attract audiences from all over the world to the city of Chicago.

I've already accepted that I can't go, but I wonder when (if?) it will be canceled (postponed?). I don't think the audiences "from all over the world" can make it.

"For decades, Placido Domingo, one of the most celebrated and powerful men in opera, has tried to pressure women into sexual relationships by dangling jobs and then sometimes punishing the women professionally..."

"... when they refused his advances, numerous accusers told The Associated Press.... Eight singers and a dancer have told the AP that they were sexually harassed by the long-married, Spanish-born superstar in encounters that took place over three decades beginning in the late 1980s, at venues that included opera companies where he held top managerial positions....  In addition to the nine accusers, a half-dozen other women told the AP that suggestive overtures by Domingo made them uncomfortable.... The AP also spoke to almost three dozen other singers, dancers, orchestra musicians, members of backstage staff, voice teachers and an administrator who said they witnessed inappropriate sexually tinged behavior by Domingo and that he pursued younger women with impunity. Domingo did not respond to detailed questions from the AP about specific incidents, but issued a statement saying: 'The allegations from these unnamed individuals dating back as many as thirty years are deeply troubling, and as presented, inaccurate.'"

AP reports.

"Trump on Show" — the opera, in Cantonese — opens today in Hong Kong.

I love the poster:



The story — as recounted in WaPo — "revolves around Trump’s fictional twin brother (inspired by Barack Obama’s real-life half brother, Mark Obama Ndesandjo, who lives in China). The Trump twin in the opera grew up in China after being separated from his wet nurse on a trip during World War II, ending up in an orphanage and eventually living through the upheavals of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. 'Growing up, he was constantly being discriminated against because he was blond, a foreigner,' [the opera's creator Li Kui-ming] said of Trump’s fictitious twin brother. 'But he speaks Cantonese. So through him, we can bring out the modern history of China.' Eventually, Trump and his twin brother are able to reunite. At one point in the opera, Kim Jong Un visits the United States and meets with Trump, who teaches the North Korean leader how to turn his country’s economy around overnight by partnering with Coca-Cola to develop a Coke brand infused with ginseng."

"An up-and-coming baritone singer alleges he was drugged and violently raped in 2010 by two of opera/classical music’s shining stars, David Daniels and Scott Walters."

"Daniels, 52, the most famous countertenor in the world, has been a favorite of the Metropolitan Opera, while his now-husband Walters, 36, is a respected conductor. The couple is so highly regarded that they were married in 2014 by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Samuel Schultz claims that in 2010, the same couple drugged and raped him following a performance in Texas, leaving him unconscious. He claims that he awoke the next afternoon in a strange bed, disoriented, in pain and bleeding from the rectum."

Reports The Daily News.

"The last thing I wanted was Western elite people going to the Salzburg opera and having a lot of fun seeing how ‘stupid’ the Arabs are."

"You must be very politically aware that we are not laughing about, but we are laughing with... What I believe is that, according to the political context you’re in, you must be very aware of the references you’re using and how you present human suffering or human madness, whether it’s a tragedy or a comedic opera... You must be very careful about whose side you’re on when you deal with characters in an opera. But you must also be very sure that you’re not turning your art form into a gourmet experience for vocal fudge-makers... The piece at its core, in a certain way, is a very Western take on Islamic culture, and normally Mustafa is portrayed as just stupid and ugly and the Italians are clever and very heroic... That was something I was not interested in at all. We had to find another story line to keep the genius of Rossini and the music and the libretto, and keep it as a real comedy, because it’s important to laugh. But comedy is serious business, and you must know what you are laughing about."

From a NYT article about a new production of the 1813 Rossini opera "The Italian Girl in Algiers," which is about a Turkish leader who rejects his own wife because she is a Muslim and therefore (as the NYT puts it) "too ingratiating and submissive," and seeks "the exciting temperament and sexual prowess of an Italian woman." The title of the article, strangely effacing the anti-Muslim problem, is "Taking On 19th-Century Opera Stereotypes for the #MeToo Era."