Juan Diego Florez and Julia Trappe

They were married (again?) in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Florez's native Peru. The Lima Cathedral has not held a wedding since 1949. It seems like the press went wild in Peru! Here in America we're more worried about Jay-Z marrying Beyonce. =P

Congratulations to both!!!!!


Happy Listening!! =)


PS. I'm listening to the Boheme again (Sirius) and I starting to notice the slowness as compared to the two recordings I have. At some points it's more apparent than others. It doesn't irk me as much as it does some other people.

"La Boheme Makes Me Wish I Had Consumption"

I would like to start this review by profusely thanking Peter Gelb for all that he has done. I've done this before and I'll do it again. Peter Gelb is a genius. His HD broadcasts bring the Met all over the world to all sorts of people that would never think to enter an opera house. I bow down to you, Mr. Gelb.

Now that I'm done groveling let me tell you about the opera.

It was perfection. After such an ending I can hardly give anyone a bad review. I was in tears a full twenty minutes before Mimi died and during "Donda lieta usci." Angela Gheorghiu, who you know is not by any means my favorite soprano, was so wonderful. Whenever I see a singer I don't particularly care for they always win me over! I'm a sucker for wonderful performers. Ms. Gheorghiu's voice is so lovely and what an actress! She might take a long time to get to the stage door because she has to pick the scenery from her teeth first. One thing that irked me was that when she sings she moves around so much. She mouth goes all over and, at least from what I saw, her body is constantly moving. Ramon Vargas was a very effecting Rodolfo. I saw him first last season in Onegin and he was better in this I think. He has more to do here and more to sing. At first he was a either a little tentative or not fully warmed up. By the end of "Che Gelida Manina" he was beautiful. His high notes were fabulous. During the third and fourth act he was so heartbreaking, you really felt for Rodolfo.

Out of what opera adoring universe did Ludovic Tezier spring from? I had never heard of him before today, but my gosh what a voice! The first time he opened his mouth I had to gasp and thought "Who is that??" Some people were not so thrilled by him, but I was! He was rather handsome, but even with my eyes closed (which they never were, by the way) I could hear that his voice was rich and beautiful. Oren Gradus and Quinn Kelsey were agile (to say the least) and hysterically funny as Colline and Schaunard. The "Vecchia Zimarra" by Mr. Gradus was beautiful and sentimental. Schaunard is usually a character who is forgotten or just floats into the background. Not this Schaunard, he was front and center with his humor and charm. Ainhoa Arteta, who I saw in this role last season, was funny, flirty, and had a marvelous voice. Her "Quando M'en Vo" definitely stood out, and her acting quite overshadowed Ms. Gheorghiu in the second act. It was great because at the end she really cried when Mimi died. After the curtain came down we (that is, the people in the movie theaters) saw her continually wipe her eyes and her cheeks. Fantastic! Paul Plishka, of course, was a comic force for this opera. His Benoit/Alcindoro combination were so funny. It's so great to still have him around and just hanging around the house. Nicola Luisotti conducted fabulously. I've heard people complaining that he took it too slow. It's interesting, because in the theaters no one complained about it, but everyone who heard it on the radio said it was slow! Interesting...

As usual, there's nothing to be said about the chorus and orchestra that hasn't been said already. Remarkable. Truly spectacular.

Renee Fleming hosted today and what a cute job she did! We saw the obvious question cards for the interviews, which caused a few chuckles, but that's not a huge problem. She interviewed the head of the Children's Chorus and the children themselves, Angela and Ramon, Joe Clark (now a regular for interviews), and Nicola Luisotti. There was a tribute to Franco Zefferelli (who I didn't mention before because I don't need to say anything about the production) that had clips from all of his productions from the Met including Tosca, Otello, Cavalleria/Pagliacci, Turandot, and others. Another montage, if you will, featured a clip or two from every HD broadcast both last season and this season. There was a trailer for the upcoming Fille broadcast with footage from the Covent Garden production.

The backstage camera angles were so incredible. During the pause between Act I and Act II you saw the Parisian rooftops slide off the stage and the Latin Quarter (with the whole chorus already on board) moved slowly and quietly from stage right. The whole set moved onto the stage. It was insane. I couldn't get enough of it.

Renee also mentioned that next season there will be ten HD broadcasts to theaters everywhere. Guess who's excited!!!! =)

Happy Listening!! =)

Who's Excited For Boheme in HD???

Me! Me! I'm excited!!!!

My local movie theater is showing it today. It's the first one they've done, so I'm praying there's no glitches. I easily bought tickets this morning (hardly in advance...), so I hope that doesn't mean that there won't be a lot of people there. I know of quite a few opera enthusiasts in town. However, some might have gone to the bigger movie theater a couple of towns over. Oh well, I'm pumped.

Speaking of HD Broadcasts, I loved the Romeo et Juliette the other night on PBS. I remembered so much about it from seeing it in October. Of course, I saw Marcello Giordani and he was fabulous, but Alagna held his own. Anna was great, and when she passed the camera backstage she made a funny face which I thought was cute. Some of the camera angles were amazing, especially during curtain calls. I'm just upset they didn't show the intermission features.

Happy Listening!!! =)

Be Jealous. Because I Am!!! And Other News

Hearing about anything exciting that happens at the Met makes me want to drop out of school and just live in the Met. Not a bad life. I'll make friend with the Grand Tier Restaurant people, get great food. I'll steal an usher outfit and show everyone how well I know my way around. Plus, you get paid to watch the opera! Usher!!!!!!!!!!! (Dream college job.)
If anyone would like to support me in my new life style feel free to let me know. If you knows someone who knows someone who can get me a little space where I can live in the Met, that's cool. If a friend of a friend can arrange to get me free tickets every night that would be pretty great also.

What prompted this ramble? Well, hearing about the fabulous tribute to Franco Zefferelli is one thing. The 347th performance of Boheme is another. Oh wait, they're the same thing. A star studded event that cut right in the middle of the performance, after the famous and illustrious Act II. Some of the guests were (just to name a few) Rosalind Elias, Richard Stilwell, Lucine Amara, Eva Marton, Leona Mitchell and Justino Diaz. Nice. I was there in spirit of course, but it's not the same. Oh yeah, I heard the actual performance was good, too. Just if you were wondering.

In totally unrelated and random news:
So I have two major crushes in the opera world. It's bad, because they're both married. There's also the age thing. Whatever. Brad Pitt is old(er), too. =P So anyway, my two major crushes are:

Juan Diego Florez. You don't even know. No, you really don't know. Julia Trappe is lucky she got there first. So, JDF is staring in Rigoletto in Peru right now. I'm temporarily moving my home from the Met to Peru. Opera Chic has a couple of videos showing the ever amazing Juan Diego in the ever amazing role of the Duke of Mantua. *sigh* Dear Peter Gelb, give this man a Rigoletto. I seem to be ordering Peter Gelb around a lot lately. Still, Juan Diego deserves it.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Married before I got there. Oh, well. It started with the Onegin last season where my friend and I dubbed him "white haired guy." For a while that's all we talked about and our other friends thought we were nuts. Well, she got over him. Umm... me? Not so much. He's still one of the best barihunks in the business and the NY Times knows how to tell it to you straight. He's just fabulous. Really, really fabulous. (P.S. In the first video of him I really wish they didn't make him wear a wig... oh well)


Quick Recap:
I'm dropping out of school and living at the Met (it's a secret of course). I'm then taking a vacation to Peru and seeing JDF in Rigoletto. I'm stealing some one's job as an usher at the Met. Oh, and I also told you me two secret (not really, it was quite obvious) operatic crushes.
Get it?
Got it?
Good.



Happy Listening!! =)

La Boheme

On Saturday I went to see the truly spectacular Zeffirelli production of "La Boheme" at the Met and the amazing cast was as follows...

Mimi- Elena Evseeva
Rodolfo- Marcello Giordani
Marcello-Dwayne Croft
Musetta- Einhoa Arteta
Colline- John Relyea
Schaunard- Aaron St. Clair Nicholson
Benoit/Alcindoro- Paul Plishka
Conductor- Carlo Rizzi

Elena Evseeva was a moving and adorable Mimi. Her singing was impeccable and crystal clear. Marcello Giordani was an absolutely stunning Rodolfo. I was not sure what I would think of him before the performance, even though the New York Times (and my parents) loved him. I went into the house expecting a little less than I should have. I thought since all the hype in the paper that I should expect a lot, but I didn't want to be disappointed. Oh goodness, I wouldn't have been! He was marvelous! Tall, handsome, Italian, his voice was marvelous ("Che Gelida Manina" brought the house down), but sadly, he's taken. Oh well, so much for that.
Ms. Arteta's Musetta was flirty, pretty, and fun! Her waltz was one of the highlights that evening. Her acting was flawless and her high notes loud. Hey, I like loud.
The rest of the cast was amazing. Especially in that final scene, oh baby. I must admit, I cried. But who doesn't cry at the finale of "La Boheme?" Seriously! It's so depressing. She just dies, everyone except for the love of her life knows that shes dead, he yells "Mimi!!!" over her dead body. What's worse??? *sob* I cried.