A loyal reader calls this little number “the worst gown I’ve ever seen.”
La Cieca she agrees that Mme. Guleghina’s fashion faux pas here just screams, “that was no lady, that was Lady Macbeth.” On the other hand, your doyenne has seen some rather ghastly frocks in her time, and she’s sure, cher public, that you have seen worse. If you have, send a jpg (preferably 350 pixels wide or larger) or a link to lacieca@parterre.com. Let’s dish!
That grand old man of music André Previn is writing another opera, following up on the clamorous success of 1998’s A Streetcar Named Desire. The commission for Houston Grand Opera is Brief Encounter, based on Noel Coward’s one-act play Still Life as well as the screenplay for the eponymous film. (First Tennessee Williams, then Noel Coward … surely a collaboration with Jean Genet is the next logical step!) Well, anyway, the premiere of Brief Encounter, most likely omitting the above imagery, is set for May of 2009. Too long a wait, you say? Well, in the meantime, sit back and enjoy an excerpt from Previn’s one universally recognized masterpiece.
A legendary Lulu crosses over.
As dear Rosalind Russell used to say, “It’s about this whale…“
[Via Likely Impossibilities]
“Directed by Francesca Zambello, this Little Mermaid burdens its performers with ungainly guess-what-I-am costumes (by Tatiana Noginova) and a distracting set (by George Tsypin) awash in pastels gone sour and unidentifiable giant tchotchkes that suggest a Luau Lounge whipped up by an acid-head heiress in the 1960s. The whole enterprise is soaked in that sparkly garishness that only a very young child — or possibly a tackiness-worshiping drag queen — might find pretty.
“….Ms. Zambello, best known as an adventurous director of operas, rarely lets jokes, songs or set pieces register clearly. And the impression is often of costumed employees from the Magic Kingdom of Disney World, wandering around and occasionally singing to entertain visiting children.” — Ben Brantley, New York Times
In related news, the family of Roger Bart send their condolences.
While we’re waiting for the restoration of Stephen Costello’s ringing rendition of “O Holy Night,” La Cieca thought you might like to hear another great American tenor’s take on the classic carol.
“Starring Leona Mitchell (star of the Metropolitan Opera and other major opera houses around the world) and Sarah Rice (the original Johanna in SWEENEY TODD on Broadway), Leona & Sarah, Songs for the Heart & Soul. These two friends join their thrilling voices in an evening of songs, melodie, chanson and an aria or two, with a little gospel/inspirational thrown in for good measure, to uplift the heart and warm the winter-weary spirit. Come be transported and bask in the musical sunshine!
“BCD concerts have been called ‘Life-affirming’, ’show-stopping’, ‘Like Babette’s feast for the ear’ by reviewers and audience members lucky enough to have seen our previous performances. Don’t miss out on this heartbreakingly beautiful and thrilling concert.”
If, through some miracle of recombinant DNA manipulation, Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh
