According to the Sept. 29th feature published on the Staatsoper blog, the new Gluck “Armide” in Vienna (staging: Ivan Alexandre) might have an interesting queer angle.
The production already has a strong pitch: Marc Minkowski will conduct and bring Les Musiciens du Louvre, for both “Armide” and “Alcina” (while the Vienna Phil are touring Japan with Kasarova’s Composer). Plus Gaëlle Arquez will sing Armide. And now it seems the staging is adding another twist.
Welcome to the White Shirt live comment thread for Mozart’s “Figaro” from Dutch National Opera Amsterdam (2016), staged by David Bösch and under the baton of Ivor Bolton who conducts the NEtherlands Chamber Orchestra.
The cast sports Eleonora Buratto as Countess, Christiane Karg as Susanne, Marianne Crébassa as Cherubino, Stéphane Degout as Count, Alex Exposito as Figaro, Katharine Goeldne as Marcellina, Louise Kemeny as Barbarina, Umberto Chiummo as Bartolo, Krystian Adam as Basilio, Jeroen de Vaal as Don Curzio and Matteo Peirone as Antonio.
The production is available via ARTE and via The Opera Platform, the production info is linked above. The libretto in Italian, English or German can be found here (space to swoon at Crébassa as Monocherubino Bleu can be found below this this post).
Continue reading “The Amsterdam 2016 “Le nozze di Figaro” Liveblogging Thread”
Welcome to the White Shirt live comment thread for Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro” from the Aix-en-Provence festival in 2012, starring
Patricia Petibon as Susanna
Malin Byström as the Countess
Kate Lindsey as Cherubino
Kyle Ketelsen as Figaro
Paulo Szot as Count
Anna Maria Panzarella as Marcellina
Mario Luperi as Bartolo
John Graham-Hall as Basilio
Emanuele Giannino as Don Curzio
Mari Eriksmoen and Barbarina
René Schirrer as Antonio
Jérémie Rhorer conducts Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, the staging is by Richard Brunel.
The production is available on YT; the libretto in English, German and Italian can be found here.
[The only setting – except for a soap opera – in which a perfectly reasonable line of dialogue is “Your husband is my sister”: a Vivaldi opera, of course.
It is also the only setting in which the thus informed heroine reacts by saying “Oh. What scheme is this – I am your sister’s lover?!” She then waits until the tenor (whom she is supposedly in love with) runs off, to finally dedicate an aria of her own to her bi-curiosity overall doubts of whom she is attracted to, starting with, “I’m a little butterfly ambling back and forth between two flames: both seem beautiful.” – Vivaldi’s “Arsilda, regina di Ponto” (what is in the water in Ponto that has women in trousers flock to its queens, really?) as recorded by Federico Maria Sardelli with Modo Antiquo, 2007.]
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Continue reading “White Skirt Wednesday: Lo sposo tuo è la mia germana“
[Latin Oratorio Problems: When you are in love with your army commander who keeps ogling the enemy instead. – Paola Gardina (Vagaus) in Vivaldi’s “Juditha Triumphans”, Venice 2015.]
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On the heels of last week’s “Juditha Triumphans” Liveblogging, we ended up talking about trouser roles (as if we ever did much else), which in this case is to blame on Paola Gardina’s Vagaus (see above), which led to thadieu digging up an August 2014 interview with Gardina from a local Rovigo (Gardina’s hometown) news outlet. It’s a small feature on Gardina’s career, in which, upon being asked which roles she prefers, she answers, „I like the roles of young men, barely more than adolescents, who arrive on the stage of life with all their anxieties and insecurities, their enthusiasm and their wish to get to know love.“
It is a lovely interview, and a lovely answer – much more about a phase in life than about gender – and as I pointed this out in commenting, it made me realize how this answer stood out as something rare to me. I examined my own relief and happiness at reading the statement, and then I turned disgruntled because it should not be a rare occurrence to find a singer who enjoys singing trouser roles and says so.
Continue reading “Through Geschwitz’s Lorgnette: Trouser Role Politics”
[Since, clearly, this deserves some more spotlight than just a fleeting line in a comment discussion: “Tornami a vagheggiar” from Handel’s “Alcina” sung and acted by Patricia Petibon (Kristina Hammarström’s Bradamante is not putting up much resistance), Milan 2009. – Clip with thanks to Gudrun74]
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Continue reading “White Skirt Wednesday: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”
Queer Lorgnette 