The Twelve White Shirts of Christmas, 2019 (12)

[And, finally, no 12 Days of White Shirt Christmas would be complete without a screencap from this production, which I still have not overcome, but then, why would I want to overcome this level of peak White Shirt pining, when I can just be overcome with it? – Myrtò Papatanasiu (Sifare) in Mozart’s “Mitridate, rè di Ponto”, Paris/TCE 2016]

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On the twelfth Day of Christmas, the White Shirts sent to me:

one supremely pining Prince of Ponto.

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and…

…one call for the nightingale, and the nightingale only:

Leonor Bonilla (Giulietta) and Raffaella Lupinacci (Romeo) in Vaccaj’s “Giulietta e Romeo”, Martina Franca 2018

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…one Southern Italian dude who probably makes a mean espresso (with lots of crema):

Kathryn Lewek (Ginevra) and Cecilia Bartoli (Ariodante) in Handel’s “Ariodante”, Salzburg 2017

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…one apparition in a tux who is out to raise the dead:

Marianne Crebassa (Orphée) in Gluck’s “Orphée et Eurydice”, Paris/Opéra Comique 2018

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…one perpetually horizontal pageboy:

Diana Haller (Cherubino) in Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”, Stuttgart 2019

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…one night with enough champagne to put the blame on it (though obviously, it was the mezzo):

Gaëlle Arquez (Juditha) and Teresa Iervolino (Holofernes) in Vivaldi’s “Juditha triumphans”, Amsterdam 2019

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…one case of mezzo sleeve art to keep framed against the wall:

Joyce DiDonato (Romeo) in Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montechi”, Barcelona 2016

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…one delighted look at the menu that, today, serves Warrior Prince(ss):

Varduhi Abrahamyan (Arsace) and Salome Jicia (Semiramide) in Rossini’s “Semiramide”, Pesaro 2019

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…one soprano/mezzo entanglement island getaway:

Nicole Chevalier (Elettra) and Paula Murrihy (Idamante) in Mozart’s “Idomeneo”, Salzburg 2019

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…one upstanding, cross-dressing contralto shirt collar:

Delphine Galou (Amastre) in Handel’s “Serse”, Reggio Emilia 2019

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…one smirking muse at the mic, with a soprano on her arm:

Patricia Petibon (Giulietta) and Michele Losier (Nicklausse) in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”, Brussels 2019

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…a poet with the first edition of “The Oak Tree”.

Kate Lindsey (Orlando) in Neuwirth’s “Orlando”, Vienna/State Opera 2019

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