And then, there’s these two mezzos, and their “Cendrillon” media appearances (Met premiere tonight, and as stray pointed out below, the audio is live broadcast!) are a delight. Read this, and I dare you not to smile. It won’t work.
No awkward explanations on trouser roles.
No “I AM SO IN TOUCH WITH MY FEMININITY!!! I need to point this out!!”
No trying to sell opera by mainstreamlining it.
Just mezzo sounds and fairytales.
(And a happily ever after, and magic.)
I wonder if a singer actually said “I don’t care about femininity/maculinity, next question”, would they print it?
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ps: the interview is very cute, you’re right. They are great role models to young mezzos, who have a tough way ahead of them at this point.
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True on all three counts, I wish it were only on two.
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me too…
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I literally could not stop the smiles and “awwwww!” Bless them.
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“The sensuality and the innocence that comes by having two female voices so close in harmony—the union of those voices as two females—makes you breathless in the audience if we do our job right,” DiDonato explains. “You don’t want to breathe, and you feel transported.”
“It’s incredibly sexy,” adds Coote. “It’s very rare that you would hear two people singing a love duet where they can build gradually like jazz, and then eventually arrive exactly on the same note and climax together, as it were.”
I love how unapologetic this is. What award can WE give them?!
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*happy sigh*
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And now I’m just YouTubing the first “Cendrillon” I can find, because I wish I could watch this one.
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Is there one? I think both the original London run of this and the KOB ballet take are in the WS archives.
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I found a random production from 2008. Don’t know anything about the cast, but Massenet is still easy on the ears. I’ll have to go foraging for that original London run!
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Oh shit! It’s this one: https://qlorgnette.wordpress.com/2018/02/12/whirt-shirt-monday-cinderella/
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And the prince’s hair/jacket combo is still reminding me of that Janeway fanart.
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/jawline
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/sigh*
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Oh yes, THAT one.
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There is a full version of this on YT??
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Omg it’s sooo cuuuuute
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It’s out on SVD! Which one is that 2008?
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Yep! I heart it. Putting it in my pocket with all my other faves.
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And this is why queer ladies need clothes with pockets!
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making the world a better place:
mezzo-sopranos championing fellow mezzo-sopranos (JDD/Coote FTW; plus the TNG version – which will be more vital when both move past 40 – Erraught/Brewer).
Also, unapologetically championing across gender divides. BECAUSE.
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I mean
The (social) media surroudning this revival is nothing but a delight.
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Apropos mezzos, I was looking up the Scala “Francesca da Rimini” because of Diana Haller participating, but instead of stills with Haller, there is this, so — yeah, we definitely need more mezzos than that size contest. Good Lord.
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also, why anyone would feel the need to program “Francesca da Rimini”…

But one thing is to recount a plot that is basically “three types of patriarchy beating themselves and the woman they claim to love to death”; and the other is describing the woman staarting an affair with brother 2 this way:
WTeverlovingF, Scala.
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Now, taken as read, what this says at the end is that when a man touches her, she forsakes her identity. Which isn’t a good thing to do, but it’s a precise statement of inauthenticity, and so has diagnostic value.
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It does, and it intersects with female identity being force-linked to chastity or being set up for persecution.
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