Les Nouvelles

Houseplants on Vacation at the Hammer

2011-10-31T14:16:00.001-07:00

Houseplant Vacation from machine project on Vimeo.

2011-09-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Harpsichord Sales, 1600–2010

2011-08-11T16:22:00.001-07:00

2011-07-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

we have gone transonic for the final time

2011-07-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

However America will continue the dream by going deeper into space to expand our knowledge of the universe but in research, not travel. As we become a "second-rate space country", I can't help to feel nostalgic for a time so filled with imagination and wonder.

les sylphides

2011-07-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

BALLETS RUSSES - FESTIVAL OF NARCISSUS

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Tragedy on the Sea Nymph

2011-05-23T12:17:00.001-07:00

Tragedy on the Sea Nymph from machine project on Vimeo.

Here is a nice little documentary video on my work

Tragedy on the Sea Nymph - an Operetta in Three Acts Starring an All Dog Cast.

I am in the beginning stages of planning the Midwest premiere at the Walker Art Center on July 21st. If you know of any opera singers or a conductor in the Minneapolis area let me know!

The amazing collaborators, without whom none of this would be possible, not mentioned in the documentary include (please excuse the iphone photos):

Co-producer Mark Allen

Cinematographer Amanda Law

Composer and inspiration Lewis Pesacov

unveiling

2011-01-12T18:23:00.001-08:00

Meredith Monk

2011-01-03T10:48:00.001-08:00

2010-12-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

strange wonders

2010-11-15T12:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73UCCHjoQrM

YSS

2010-10-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last week NASA announced that 2011 is THE YEAR OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM (YSS). I still don't know what this means exactly, but it really captured the imagination -- from what I can tell here is the list that comprises YSS:

"During YSS, we'll see triple the [usual] number of launches, flybys and orbital insertions," says Jim Green, Director of Planetary Science at NASA headquarters. "There hasn't been anything quite like it in the history of the Space Age."

Green continues: ""History will remember the period Oct. 2010 through Aug. 2012 as a golden age of planetary exploration... The second half of 2011 will be as busy as some entire decades of the Space Age."

1. Astrobiology: O/OREOS, a shoebox-sized satellite designed to test the durability of life in space. Short for "Organism/ORganic Exposure to Orbital Stresses" will be launched this November.

2. Dawn Mission: Dawn spacecraft w”ill investigate two of the largest proto-planets in the main asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. The mission's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largest protoplanets remaining intact since their formation. Ceres and Vesta have many contrasting characteristics that are thought to have resulted from them forming in two different regions of the early solar system.”

"For a full month Dawn will be able to see Vesta even more clearly than Hubble can," marvels Green. "The only way to top that would be to go into orbit." ( Dawn's next target is dwarf planet Ceres, nearly spherical, rich in water ice, and totally unexplored.)"

Other exploration/spacecraft -

Launch of the Juno spacecraft to Jupiter (August) the launch of GRAIL to map the gravitational field of the Moon (September), and the launch of a roving science lab named "Curiosity" to Mars (November).

3. Martian Year: A new chapter begins in the exploration of Mars:

Curiosity lands on Mars. “The roving nuclear-powered science lab will take off across the red sands sniffing the air for methane (a possible sign of life) and sampling rocks and soil for organic molecules. Curiosity's advanced sensors and unprecedented mobility are expected to open a new chapter in exploration of the Red Planet.”

While I'm waiting for updates from these explorations, these old galaxy photos will have to satisfy the craving for new NASA images:

Head in the Troposphere

2010-08-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Skyscapes provided many pondertunities on this trip.

While on the road I saw more weather changes in 5 days then I have in 5 years in LA. The lightening storms and coalescence of clouds amazed. The lightening's staccato, the thunder's echo; clouds like dessert - whipped, layered, spun, sugared, clouds like dreams - infinite and lovely. I now better understand the french expression coupe de foudre - love at first sight/lightening strike. This region is hotter than love and full of electricity.

A highlight of Santa Fe was, of course, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. However on view was the abstraction show that I saw in January at the Whitney. I was happy to see some of those pieces again - especially the watercolors - but it would have been nice to see some iconic works from the collection while in the land that so enchanted her.

I unabashedly love GOK, so it was astonishing that I discovered something about her work that was below the surface and it took going to NM to figure out. I was thinking about, for maybe the first time, her absolute necessity to abstract - selection, elimination, emphasis - to get to the real meaning of a thing. Especially in a landscape whose beauty (color, texture, minimal, barren, essential) in unexplainable, abstraction becomes the most definite form for the intangible thing. Looking at her work I know how she felt about what she was looking at - the actual feeling that it gave her (as opposed to a recreation or interpretation).

And her framing - all that tension at the edges - she is framing a place at the edge, precipice, horizon line, the last moment before something breaks or changes. I understand that she saw this all around her in NM and that with these feelings it gave her, she had to find a way to give back to the world-- so as she says she couldn't sing so she had to paint.

Which is making me think about american transcendental aesthetics in nature (seriously). Nature does inspire and on this trip I had very powerful firsthand experience of the aesthetic value of the wild. It was a relief to escape the city of SantaFe, whose simulations of Native American culture felt exploitive, not attempting to preserving the heritage, but regionalizing the culture to kitch, tourism/marketing. The objects in windows provided commodity and entertainment for tourists, they are completely disconnected from their original meaning and/or purposes. These objects have lost all signification, simulacra, creating an illusion making it more desirable for people to buy into the message that our government (or whoever) wants to send Native American people. It was depressing, so every opportunity to have experiences in nature that transcended real life was treasured. Escape...

Land of Enchantment Part 2

2010-08-29T01:05:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a ride with my best friend

2010-08-23T09:39:00.001-07:00

Selections from DAY 1 & DAY 2...

Not pictured, woman practicing her hand-made flute at river's edge

I have waited my entire life for this photo - hi-fiving over an energy vortex!

Certifiably Extragalactic

2010-08-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Thinking about things that are "out of this world" -- which naturally leads to spending 3 hours on NASA Images and then from there, we get here.... Lynette Cook, wherever you are, I would like to offer you a major solo exhibition, titled Certifiably Extragalactic. Date TBD, but shortly after my High Times centerfolds retrospective.

This is the last post before SantaFe. I am really looking forward to reviewing the operas - it has been too long.

paris for my sagittarius

2010-08-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

Paris 2007, Centre de Pompidou / Chicago 2010, AIC

2010-08-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is what it looks like to see your favorite painting by your favorite artist with your favorite friend in your favorite cities at your favorite museums in a 3 year span.

PS - Missing you Lori...

old stars, new stars, hidden stars, california nebula

2010-08-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

BURCHFIELD FOR L

2010-08-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

good vibes, staring into the oblivion, escape, sweet dreams, "magic moments and luminous presence 1.0"

poor simone

2010-08-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

Recently Simone has been very jealous... Little does she know all this laptopping is for her aria. To reassure her I sing her favorite song, both versions.

AND

initial thoughts - look/feel for titling

2010-08-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

I really love the look and feel of this for the titling of Simone's opera. Its more than a decade earlier (1729) than the setting I had imagined, but maybe I can make it work...

Interstellar stuff, mostly nebulae

2010-07-23T23:13:00.000-07:00

Behold -- Asteroid Lutetia

2010-07-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

2010-07-10T23:09:00.001-07:00

2010-07-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

Melting...

2010-07-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

I love Lia Origoni's interpretation of this piece

Photoshoot!

2010-06-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Une Femme Inadaptée

2010-06-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

Looking through Marie Laurencin images as source material for a new play in the works makes me feel that I am in need of a good frolic in a forest or meadow...and that I want to spend more time with Simone.

2010-06-01T16:34:00.001-07:00

cuddlecore / twee...

2010-04-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

This is still amazing...

2010-04-11T02:02:00.001-07:00

OTTODIX

2010-03-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

I am heartbroken that I will miss this show – the first American retrospective of Otto Dix at Neue Galerie. A german critic said it best, “Dix comes across like a natural disaster”. Horror, grotesque, rage, nihilism, Lustmord, misogyny…or as Dix would say “ puke – kitsh – noise – shit”… so good.

Feel like a stranger

2010-03-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

Listened to Grateful Dead records this week for the first time since I was 18. Turns out I really fucking like the Grateful Dead. There I said it. I just listened to this beautiful song over and over again - a song I can't believe I forgot about. The only question now is who can lend me their copy of Rocking the Cradle, Grateful Dead in Egypt 1978? I need a miracle dudes and my birthday is a month from today.

Antique Microscope Slides from the Victorian Era 1830-1890

2010-02-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

From The Cabinet of Curiosities

the knife - Tomorrow, in a year

2010-02-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

A Darwin electro-opera

This might be the most amazing thing ever.

Tomorrow, in a year is a collaboration between the knife (who wrote most of the music and the libretto), Berlin dance-rock act Mt. Sims and chamber experimentalist Planningtorock, produced by the Danish theatre group Hotel Pro Forma. It is a opera (yes, a full on electro opera) based on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

Review to come shortly, I am still too excited and enjoying it too much to put into words. But I can say…please, please, please let this come to Los Angeles, it will make 2010.

2010-02-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

lynda benglis artforum 2010

2010-02-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Simone de Beauvoir, Chicago, 1950.

HC

2010-02-11T23:57:00.000-08:00

HCWestermann - wasn't he so dreamy? He was a working class dandy.

I have been thinking about him and his work since my recent visit to chicago. His images are so manly and American - during the time he was making art, sculptures were a man's work - working with one's hands. These images are from a very odd book about HC as the "warrior artist", investigating how war and manhood impacted his art.

Matthew Barney at Sadie Coles

2010-01-26T18:03:00.000-08:00

NYC 2010

2010-01-25T21:26:00.001-08:00

Tamerlano

2010-01-22T23:13:00.000-08:00

Its been to long to review this opera properly [see below], however I am still fascinated and wanted to do the research on the baroque instruments the orchestra played for the performance. It turns out that Handel's scores are quite skeletal and he often doesn't specify which instruments are meant to play. Accordingly, the modern-instrument orchestra adds 2 harpsichords and 2 pluckers (the musician's vernacular) on theorbos, baroque guitar, and lute. The continuo cellist uses a baroque cello.

supercrush signing at LA OPERA, word.

2009-11-30T22:46:00.001-08:00

[image from LAT]

Wow, I still can't believe it happened. Opera club "met" and was "photographed" with PD on Wednesday night.

We were really lucky to be about 25 in a line of 500 fans waiting for him after his 3 1/2-hour performance of Handel's Tamerlano [I am working on the review now, will post soon] He was there to promote the release of his new DVDs – he began at 11:30pm and signed the last DVD at 1:30am!

I was so nervous, I barely uttered a "Hiiiiii" and "Thank You". Other highlights...he said my name a couple of times to make sure he got it right and I just nodded like an idiot. #1 time in my life when I wish I spoke Spanish, it could have been muy romántico...Here is the [PG] script of what I might have said en Español - I love you, you are one of the most devastatingly talented and handsome men on this planet and gracias.

4,000 years of women in science

2009-11-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

I just scored this amazing book on crystals and crystal growing from the late 50's/early 60's. I loved the intro so much I had to pull some quotes because not only are they great advice for the burgeoning scientist, but simple advice for life in general. Of course the book is written for him, or he, so I changed the pronoun in the quotes below.

"To practice science, you need only curiosity, patience, thoughtfulness and time"
"Inclusive visualization, the reasonable simplification, the logical deduction, are all the ingredients of both truth and beauty in the scientist inner world. You may even hear her say of some physical theory, 'The theory is so beautiful that it must be true."

ps I will be starting the experiments next week, stay tuned.

G-OK

2009-10-27T21:16:00.001-07:00

["

I caught the Georgia O’Keeffe fever…

I borrowed this amazing, dense, exhibition catalogue for a traveling GOK show that turned out to be the first show mounted after her death. The great thing about this catalogue is that it is 1/2 images and 1/2 letters written by GOK to various friends - Stieglitz, Paul Strand etc.. The letters are idiosyncratic, ostensibly simple and naïve (much like the way some male critics dismissed her “feminine” work) – but always reveal basic truths in life. However, some of my favorite parts of the letters are in the way she describes nature and the experience of nature in a long meandering, wondrous, childlike way.

Here are some things I really loved so far, with no edits:

“There is a bit of bitch in every good cook”

“Its funny – I like it- but learning to live is so queer. They start us out in life with such ridiculous notions.” – 1916

[Here she is talking about living in South Carolina and wanting to connect with Stieglitz]

”Next to New York it’s the finest think I know – here I feel like Im in a shoe that doesn’t fit. – So far I’ve forgotten it by dreaming I guess and Im disgusted with dreams now – I want real things – live people to take hold of – to see- and to talk to – Music that makes hole in the sky – and Anita – I want to love as hard as I can and I cant let myself – When he is far away I cant feel sure that he wants me to - even though I know it – so Im only feeling lukewarm when I want to be hot and cant let myself –Its damnable – but it doesn’t mater so long as its just me – “ 1916

Also is 1916 she briefly mentions a BAKST book that her friend had sent. I love the thought of her pouring over the colors and textures of the costumes, savoring every moment.

The second half seem to be more about her experience as a woman and as an artist – dealing with critique, exhaustion, finding the space and inspiration to make art.

"What I want written - I do not know - I have no definite idea of what it should be - but a woman who has lived many things and who sees lines and colors as an expression of living - might say something that a man cant - I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore - Men have done all they can do about it. " - 1925

[In reference to how she would like her work to be written about in the press]

"And all the ladies who like my things will think they are becoming intellectual. Its wonderful And the men will think them much safer if my method is french" -1927

[In response to an review about her recent work, where Henry McBride wrote that her paintings were intellectual rather than emotional because "the processes are concealed. The tones melt smoothly into each other as though satin rather than rough, canvas were the base. Emotion would not permit such plodding precision." He explained that her method was "French" because she planned everything out in her mind before starting to paint. weird...]

There is so many more letters to read and post, until then...

phantoms of the met operas and audiences

2009-10-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

vs.

Opera has a problem…its time to usher in the new era, reach a more diverse [younger] audience, Core audience [especially at the Met] is aging into extinction. Maybe its time for some of the worn out productions fade away with them.

This was literally heard in September at the Met on the occasion of the new production of the beloved Tosca - when the “adventurous Swiss director” Luc Bondy and the production team appeared onstage they were accosted with boos.

The negative reaction to a new production [read below about the LA Opera Ring debut] when the opera is a staple, the bread and butter to any venue, especially the luxurious, realistic Zeffirelli production is not surprising. Old productions are like home, any new reading of an opera, new interpretations can feel cold. But who is to say that there is a final interpretation for any opera? We should give directors space to interpret a work and not just churn out the staples. So yea, lets shake it up a bit, this is not about offending the audience, its about breathing new life into something, shaking up the opera itself.
What are our expectations for an opera, where do those expectations come from - it is most likely cliché, a fake tradition of opera, of “European” opera. Opera is an import, supertitles were invented to placate American audiences because so few speak a foreign language and over the top theatrics became en vogue for probably some of the same reasons – powerful visuals were needed to help audiences along because they aren’t familiar with the libretto or the language.

But this is opera – the music and storyline are so over the top even without a highly visual production, most of the stories are familiar and have been adapted into contemporary stories, movies, or anyone can do the research on the story, history, before going to see an opera…times have changed dramatically [pun intended] the contemporary audience should be able to handle more “difficult” productions.

Bondy's direction assumed that the audience a bit about European history - set at the beginning of the Napoleonic wars – he might have assumed that the audience had heard of Stendhal's Italian Chronicles. Do American audiences not want to work for it, do they want to be led by a heavy handed direction that forces the viewer through every single nuance of a libretto. Do American audiences only want Moulin Rouge?

In this production, stripped of its sentimentality, the viewer had to think about what was being performed. Its time for opera to reach an audience that isn’t stuck with the old, romanticized vision of opera. Where minimal, stark sets and intellectual stagings are not an insult and things can be left to the imagination. Younger people who have had more exposure to avant guard theatre, performance actions/art, are more open to the possibility for something to happen on stage and not just being entertained.

The Elixir of Love [L'Elisir Amore] LA OPERA Opening Gala

2009-09-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

"You might as well ask the breeze why it flits from flower to flower; that's just the way it's made." Adina

Disclaimer: I apologize in advance for this poorly written review; I am fascinated with the Met’s Tosca debacle and the Met in general, which I am trying to write about now… Also because this is J.C first Bel Canto opera in LA I thought I would focus on that instead of a reviewing something I don't have much to say about.

Opera club represented this year at the LA opera season opener [the audience actually sang the national anthem at the beginning of the opera with the U-S-A flag in the spotlight, I was irritated as you can imagine, this isn’t fucking baseball its opera…] or opening gala as I would like to think it was, even though it didn’t feel very special. I could sense/feel that new austerity that one can see/feel when looking around the rest of the art world. For the most part the tuxes, gowns, gloves and tiaras were left at home, but there were some memorable outfits, mostly sported by older patrons reliving the days of ostentatious patronage.

The opera itself was modest as well. The performances were quite good, by mostly young, unfamiliar singers, it was disappointing to miss the extremely popular tenor Rolando Villazón [Vocal cord surgery] and Ruggero Raimondi [torn tendon] who was to make his company debut. There were set and curtain problems, but none so disrupting as the backstage antics during the second act. It was like the back of the set was not completed, or parts of it were lost it storage. So you could see shadows of people back stage, its was extremely distracting. My other major complaint is the costumes and set were all the same tone and when you are sitting in the cheap seats there was little differentiation between characters and it was all a little blah.

Here is a little synopy from the LA Opera:

“Before Wagner's Tristan and Isolde mutually swallowed their love potion, Donizetti's erudite Italian farm girl, Adina, read aloud about it….

One of opera's most popular comedies, The Elixir of Love tells the story of a magic love potion and the destiny of a love triangle involving a lovable bumpkin, a dashing sergeant and the bewitching town flirt. Filled with light-hearted charm and bursting with feel-good laughs, The Elixir of Love features effervescent Italian melodies and plenty of bel canto vocal fireworks.”

Bel canto is a classical period of classical music – it is the art of beautiful singing. It corresponds, roughly, with the first half of the 19th century, and is associated with its greatest Italian composers Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.

Bel canto emphasizes on the voice as the most important, expressive element in opera. Also, the chorus plays a large role in bel canto, often interrupting the singer to agree or comment on what they have just said -- they interact musically and dramatically with the soloist underscore melodies as orchestras might do in other operas. Love, passion, jealousy and yearning are almost exclusive subjects, whether tragic, comic or historical.

In this period a form of singing called "patter" was developed. The orchestra plays both melody and accompaniment alike, and the usually basso buffo character rapidly declaimed a text. Patter is highly exaggerated when opera is mocked or imitated in other artforms -- think of a sneaky villain in the shadows rapidly, in a humorous way, revealing his plan to kidnap a beautiful girl or foil someone’s plans.

However, it is not all lighthearted fun, Elixir of Love contains one of opera’s greatest tenor arias "Una furtiva lagrima" [A furtive tear]. The lovestruck Nemorino, sings a poignant song in which he realizes that Adina’s loves him when he notices a tear in her eye. It is the only break you get in the whole opera - a calm, tender,quiet moment.

Bel canto is so well loved, but as James Conlon says in his notes, “Despite its popularity, it has fallen victim to an enormous intellectual snobbery among many musicians, critics, musicologists and non-professional lovers of classical music. Most conservatories, music appreciation classes (where they still exist) gloss over it. Music history courses have a strong Germanic bias.” In other words, its not high brow or intellectionally valued, but instead has a high emotional value for fans. Even though the focus is the singing, the music is still very complex and often expresses many seemingly different and or opposed emotions at once [usually about love...naturally]. Thinking about his idea has brought me a closer to why I think it is that I have become so interested in opera – its so simple - the music tells you something words cannot, the music helps to express or describe a complication implicit in human emotions that words can’t express.

BON IVER SUNRISE SHOW AT HOLLYWOOD FOREVER

2009-09-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

“Let’s do it again maybe or maybe never again”

I am still trying to wake from the dream that was this morning. We arrived at Hollywood Forever Cemetery at 4am to see a special sunrise performance from Bon Iver and almost immediately after finding prime seating we were greeted by Buddhist Monks chanting a morning prayer. At this point the whole cemetery was still dark and covered in a creepy, thick fog/mist. Then Bon Iver took stage - the sound was amazing from the first note. There were still big moments, he hardly toned it down for the early hours for which I was so thankful. [It still felt like going to a rock show]
It was all so dreamy, visually I couldn't really describe how beautiful and poetic the experience was. As everyone/thing was lulled awake, the color of the sky progressed from milky lavender to powder blue. Once the stage and crowd were fully revealed from the darkness, almost on cue the birds started chirping. My heart broke the first time I heard For Emma, and as it was forever ago, it ached again this morning. A really unique music going experience that I will never forget. There is some great audio like this one on youtube.

Supercrush in Vanity Fair España

2009-09-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

So handsome...soo airbrushed!

SUMMER WASTING

2009-09-02T22:21:00.001-07:00

Fun found me this summer…Besides having a lovely visit from BFF and being the best house sitter ever, I think my sonic experiences were the most memorable. I saw so many bands this summer, almost as many as I saw in all of last year. In preparing for opera club season opener I have to get back into practice and update this long neglected blog.

Here are some sonic highlights from this summer:

Sunn 0)))
I had the pleasure of their live act at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, It absolutely melted eardrums. Drone doom metal at its finest. Fucking epic, relentlessly LOUD. Listening to this genre I often immediately hit an impenetrable wall of sound, however Sunn has this amazing ability to pull you in so deep with their intricate explorations and slow, heavy soundscapes. I don’t find the music dark at all, I relate their music to the earth and the unknown/mysteries of nature. And I love, love the theatrics - smog, cloaks, and crazy scarecrow headdresses. But I what I was most impressed with is that their sound is so heavy that it completely overwhelms you with a physical presence around and inside you. BTW I am totally devotee of Stephen O’Malley’s blog.

Neuroacoustics (sonic healing)
After living in LA for four years it finally happened – I made it to the Integratron. I have been totally obsessed with this place and it did not disappoint. Here are some key reasons this is one of the most amazing places on earth:
VanTassel, the guy who developed the Integratron in the 1950’s called it "a time machine, a rejuvenation machine and an anti-gravity device." His theory for rejuvenation was based on the recharging of the human cell structure using a powerful negative ion field. Scientists travel from around the world to study the Integratron. One geophysicist described it this way, "The building, just sitting there, is a mass battery." A nuclear physicist called the sound chamber "a magnetic room."

So while there I got two “sound baths” :
“The Sound Bath is a sonic healing session that you can experience while resting comfortably in the integratron's highly resonant, multi-wave sound chamber. We play a series of 9 quartz crystal singing bowls, each one keyed to the major energy centers of the body”

The experience blew my mind. It was just a very unique sensation that I believe could have transformative possibilities. You feel like your mind and body is actually generating the sound. Once the sound is inside you can start to feel energy release from your body wash over you and then hover over you with slight pressure, like a magnet holding you to the earth. The sound vibrates from within and takes over senses. I can’t wait to go back.

Unfortunately I have not yet felt any healing effects and actually the opposite happened and I contracted a freak illness - Labyrinthitis.

Labyrinthitis is an ear disorder that involves irritation and swelling of the inner ear. The following raised my risk for labyrinthitis: Drinking large amounts of alcohol, stress and fatigue. The following were the daily symptoms: Abnormal sensation of movement (vertigo), dizziness, nausea and vomiting, loss of balance, such as falling toward one side. Thank you to Lori for being such a good friend and helping me get through.

Thank you summer, it’s been fun. Now back to work, LA Opera season starts 9/12 with Elixir of Love, it will be the first Bel Canto opera James Colon has conducted in LA, I am so excited!

Die Walküre: still feeling black and blue all over

2009-04-21T23:37:00.001-07:00

Die Walküre is certainly the most popular and frequently performed of the Ring operas, featuring one of the most notorious pieces of opera music, Ride of the Valkyries, however it wasn’t easily recognized as such in this production. The music was as moving and powerful as Wagner would demand it to be, but the visual interpretation of the story is just so removed from the emotion of the opera. Which I have learned to love about this production and after experiencing more than 8 hours of his vision, I feel like I get a better sense of what Achim Freyer was getting at, it didn’t feel so curious and alienating.

Obviously Wagner’s intention was to see the four operas together, the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts, and I think it might be a mistake for the LA Opera to show this particular production in pieces. Experiencing the works together the viewer can draw more connections in what is an extremely provocative, symbol-laden and obscure production.

My very first impression is really that Plácido Domingo got his Star Wars Opera in a way, the light sabers were unrelenting. (BTW the Lucas produced Ring estimate was $60million) It was actually quite distracting to the moment in the opera and to other visual elements and it got really boring and just silly. So silly that Anthony Tommasini titled his NY Times review “A Trip to Valhalla: Grab Your Neon Light Saber”

I was lucky enough to see supecrush Plácido Domingo’s performance as Siegmund, – it was really important to all the patrons for PD to perform one of his signature roles in a production that he backed which has received almost overwhelming disappointment and contempt. Beyond his presence symbolicly, I can say is that at 68 he is fucking amazing, maybe he doesn’t have the range or flexibility in his voice any more, but whatevs total star power. I was disappointed that his costume really restricted some movement and muffled his voice a couple of times, and the makeup obscured his dreaminess.

So Die Walküre continues with the highly stylized visuals: stark, dark, lonely shadows and silhouettes. Even more than in Das Reingold there is less distinction between set piece, prop and costume. Which results in this intense opposition between object and image that makes it very difficult to identify and self reference what you are seeing to the external world.

The expressionistic techniques are best when used to express emotions felt in extreme situations - fear, anger, but not so much love and joy. There are moments in the first act of Die Walküre, which should be painfully beautiful, achingly romantic, that fall completely flat and clunky in this production. As well as in the final scene of father and daughter parting, in both the music is written explicitly to move you to tears, the emotional cues in the music are just that powerful. This heavy handed symbolism, starkness, the stylized costumes, robotic movements (and the fact that none of the characters thus far have had ANY physical contact) removes all possibility for real human emotion, its totally missing a human dimension.

Like a visual artist, I feel like Freyer is transforming the piece into a private, personal vision, which should intensify the illusion of reality for the viewer. Removing the audience from reality then would deepen the their interaction with the piece. But after 8 long sleepy hours, I feel like his work is an expression of the reality of the times we live in: raw, violent and dark, disconnected and disillusioned.

How to Crash An Elopement

2009-04-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

Just show up and sign some legally binding paperwork. Last weekend, not only did I get to behold Dinah Shore weekend in Palm Springs, but I was also witness to my BFF marriage. There is nothing more I can say here that I haven't already told the new bride. It was super fun and I can't wait to distribute the pills at their one year anniversary party in PS. xo

The Burgess Shale turns 100…

2009-04-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

The chance of anything becoming a fossil is miniscule, all the right conditions have to be present in the exact order for anything to be truly fossilized and thus identified and categorized. Just another way that science reminds us that life is brief and difficult…

Discovered in 1909 in the Canadian Rocky Mountains by Charles D. Walcott, the Burgess is the most significant fossil bed discovery ever. The fossil records here are the best preserved of the Cambrian era (the fossils date 505 million years ago). It is unique because both the hard and soft bodies are represented in the specimens. These fauna discoveries continue to challenge scientific views of the evolution of life.

What I love about these exceptional fossil findings is that it allows for total fantasy and imagination. Its all very mysterious that many of the body designs left no descendents, as if they totally disappeared from the evolutionary line, completely unrelated to any body type we recognize today.

This is Hallucigenia - one of the most commenly referenced specimen noted for its totally unique body type and no known descendent. They are so bizarre – at first they were thought to be able to walk on spikes/tentacles on the underneath and on top of its body. These fossils and their body types/ anatomy inspire car and robot designers.

Stephen J. Gould’s book, Wonderful Life, made the fossils/site ultra famous. It is, highly debated amazing read, I highly recommend listening to it during a mind numbing commute.

Side note: Anyone who would like to travel to BC to check out some awesome fossils, please call me asap. Heart.

Das Rheingold and complaining

2009-03-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

First a little complaining…
A couple of weeks ago, Opera club hustled some last minute rush tickets to the new production of Wagner’s Das Reingold. As we were high-fiving all the way to the doors we realized our seats were in the front row. WTF, why is there a front row in contemporary opera houses? Thankfully Das Reingold isn’t a complicated or overly ridiculous plot that requires the assistance of titling, but still, why would you ever sit that close live? One misses the whole vision of the director because one is looking directly up to the performers. Again, we were lucky because the stage for this performance was at an incredible 11 ft pitched angle, so we were able to see most of the action.

Now on to the reviewing, but wait more complaining…
Wait!...more complaining, I have to because this is so outrageous. The couple sitting directly behind us (umm, in row 2) were hands down the most obnoxious opera fans ever, and they were fans, I heard some of their discussion. The wife took out a nail file and filed her nails TWICE during the performance. In public, completely out of context, there is no mistaking that sound. It was shocking, opera club did look back disapprovingly and I think Kat gave a shush. But it got worse; the husband started heckling James Conlon (musical director and conductor of the LA Opera) during the final curtain call. He yelled “You Suck Conlon” TWICE…is this baseball? We were sitting so uncomfortable close that you could see James Conlon flinch and kind of look out into the crowd after each offence.

And finally a l disclaimer: Wagner the man was a renowned anti-Semite, Hitler was his biggest fan. So you really have to take that leap and decide to love the music, not the man.

Synopsis: “Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is a monumental experience that tells a unified story, drawn from Norse mythology, over the course of four complete operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. It's a portrayal of a legendary war between gods and mortals for control of the earth. The plot concerns an epic struggle to win control of a magic ring that gives its bearer the power to rule the world. Created by the evil dwarf Alberich, the ring is successively possessed by Wotan, the king of the gods, then by the dragon Fafner, and eventually by Wotan's grandson, Siegfried. Ultimately, the ring comes into the possession of Siegfried's widow Brünnhilde, who returns the ring to its source, thus ending the reign of the gods. “

Directed and designed by visionary Achim Freyer, the 74-year old dark, postmodern German director/artist, L.A. Opera’s adaptation of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold was simultaneously fascinating, boring and overall just kind of outrageous. Any new production of the Ring is challenging and expensive - The Ring Cycle is the largest work in the history of Western music – but this was an immense visual overhaul of the Ring as we know it

First, I have to admit it was a visual feast. It was by no means a literal interpretation of the Das Reingold. Visually it was most similar to expressionistic or symbolistic avant-garde, experimental cinema. One is immediately struck by the aesthetics of extreme non-realism drawn from twentieth-century German Expressionism, which a huge influence on the director.

The stage was very dark and was further obscured by a full-length scrim reflecting colored neon bands of light. (light was the only contemporary element to the whole production) This surface layer added a really nice texture and dark, mysterious mood to the already surreal stage and costuming. All the performers were either wearing or insideof large masks and props. (An effective visual reinforcement of the otherworldliness of the story, gods, goddesses, giants, dwarfs) The costumes and props, the costumes were often used as props, were all rendered as highly stylized, geometric forms. Together this resulted in beautifully abstracted shapes floating through the stage on different planes accentuated by the 11-foot pitch in the stage.

A great example of this building on planes and layers is (the best costume by far) was the neon hands of Frika. The neon would fllip on only while she sang her parts. It was an added another dimension to the stage, the bright abstracted shape appearing intermittedly within the dark stage was mesmerizing.

Furthermore, not only was the stylized sets drawn from expressionistic films, but also the robotic, mechanized movements of the performers. These are conscious choices for the director, it is a devise used to focus in on the symbolism or the mythic in the art work. I can see how this would be really distracting to people, but the theory is that these mechanical movements take the viewer out of the experience, out of the uncanniness of performance, and into the meaning of the piece.

Oh, and there was a light saber in this production! (the LA Opera cannot get away from an ill fated proposed Star Wars Ring cycle. I can’t dwell on that because it would so blow minds…)

I am not in love with most German opera, usually the singing is a bit irritating, but with the Ring there is something about the words and music coalescing that makes it beautiful and you really can’t separate the words from the music, the words become instruments. Its alchemy. In this production, the words and music were sometimes the only thing working together –I was most struck with the simultaneous attraction and repulsion I felt for some of the visual aspects, some of the choices just missed the mark and I didn’t have a reference point to get there.

In the end, I guess it was wonderful, sweeping and perplexingly wonderful – I just read somewhere that the origin of philosophy in “wonder” is the fascinated admiration of what is so remarkable as not to be immediately comprehensible. I feel that way about a lot of art I see - I love what I don’t understand.

In spite of the heaviness and it being far too serious, (they are German) I found the opera to be accessible to anyone, but the experience might just be weird and boring if you don’t like opera.

On the other hand, the opera traditionalists are completely outraged about this production, in general they don’t understand the imagery and staging and they will never get over the fact that the LA Opera spent $32 million on the whole cycle. (In addition to which the LA Opera cut 17% of their staff and reduced the number of performances next season to 48 from 64!)

But the shows go on…The next opera in the cycle is Die Walkure, starring my supercrush Placido Domingo as Siegmund.

more from the kiln...

2009-01-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

This latest firing was rather disappointing. Not only did I have hideous glazes, but I also lost a bunch of work: lids and tops were stuck together therefore destroying these delicate tear, wish, hope jars and containers, big beautiful bows for 3 other pieces all broke off and cannot be repaired....ugh. Here are some really bad pictures of what did survive. These are all porcelain with a white shino glaze. The surface looks crackly, shiny, a little like candy, but I am having a problem with the underglaze, so they are not as white as I would like, there are some orange-ish burnt looking places on the pieces where the glaze was thin. Anyway, I am taking a break from pottery while I start my new job. I have 6 bow and tassel pieces I just finished and will be out of the kiln any day now.

New Blue Ribbon

2008-11-19T11:46:00.001-08:00

The bows are all breaking in the kiln, but it seems that the ribbons are okay...its all trial and error.

Dr. Atomic at the Metropolitian Opera

2008-11-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

But we saw it via HD Broadcast in Alhambra..
For everything I know about American opera so far, I should have hated this opera…but I didn’t! The more I think about Dr. Atomic the more I really liked the premise for the story. And I have to say that the librettos were written beautifully and the music is outstanding. The music was so engaging it was the only thing that held my interest throughout and saved the entire opera from being a boring wreck…because it could have gone that way…easily.

Here is the brief synopsis from wikipedia
“The first act takes place about a month before the bomb is to be tested, and the second act is set in the early morning of July 15, 1945 (the day of the test). During the second act, time frequently slows down for the characters and then snaps back into reality. The opera ends in the final, prolonged moment before the bomb is detonated. Although the original commission for the opera suggested that U.S. physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," be fashioned as a twentieth-century Doctor Faustus, Adams and Sellars deliberately attempted to avoid this characterization.
The work centers on Kitty Oppenheimer, Robert's wife, and her anxiety over her husband's project, set against tensions among key players in the Manhattan Project, especially General Leslie Groves. Sellars adapted the libretto from primary historical sources. The libretto also quotes from the Bhagavad Gita, songs of the Tewa, the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, and the poetry of Muriel Rukeyser.”

Peter Sellars assembled the libretto from textbooks, memoirs of the physicists, Native American songs and poetry. It was very rich and fluid when emotion was expressed, but stiff when facts were stated/sung by the chorus. The poetry helped to advance the love story between Oppenheimer and his wife, Kitty. But what was surprising is that it also helped to describe an underlying theme of the opera which I think is that knowledge can lead to suffering and pain.

But this opera is about Physics afterall…one little factoid I love and that John Adams is so embarrassed with is that some of the physics quoted in the opera is just plain wrong, inaccurate. The biggest blunder is in the opening act the chorus sings, "Energy can be neither created nor destroyed but only altered in form," Einstein discovered that energy and matter can be transformed together which is what makes the atomic bomb possible.

First the worst: The last 2 hours was devoted to the anticipation that leads to the testing with the government officials. It was high drama when leading up to the test as everything was breaking apart: the weather was uncooperative, they miscalculated fallout distances.. blah blah, physics stuff, blah. It was drawn out, totally uninteresting, disjointed. I wanted to sneak a little nap, but I was afraid I would miss this grand finale. And then when the bomb was finally dropped, it was more like a fissile. The effects were totally anticlimactic and a real disappointment. I wanted to be able to shield my eyes and fall back in my seat, but I barely blinked.

Now the best: the most memorable and enjoyable scene was the Oppenheimer / Kitty love scene. (Has an opera every succeeded that didn’t have a love story entwined throughout?) Before I go into that I have to describe that there is an almost total lack of color in the whole production, which adds to the more sobering and serious tones of the opera. That is except for Kitty, who wears bright, purples and pinks animating the scenes she is in.

In this intimate bedroom scene husband and wife are doing the most mundane married couple activity, reading in bed. Kitty is trying to get her husband’s attention or distract him from work starts with the simple question “Am I in your light?” which leads into some beautiful poetry from feminist poet Muriel Rukeyser. But it is still all very chaste, not like the aggressive humping in “The Fly”. I really loved it and wanted to read it again, so here it is:

Kitty:
Am I in your light?
No, go on reading
(The hackneyed light of evening quarrelling with the bulbs;
the book’s bent rectangle solid on your knees)
only my fingers in your hair, only, my eyes
splitting the skull to tickle your brain with love
in a slow caress blurring the mind,
kissing your mouth awake
opening the body’s mouth stopping the words.

This light is thick with birds, and
evening warns us beautifully of death.
Slowly I bend over you, slowly your breath
runs rhythms through my blood
as if I said
I love you
and you should raise your head.

listening, speaking into the covert night
Did someone say something?
Love, am I in your light?
Am I?

Then Oppenheimer sings a Charles Baudelaire poem to Kitty. Then at the end the scene they sing a beautiful libretto together about pain, loneliness and fear:

The motive of it all was loneliness,
All the panic encounters and despair
Were bred in fear of the lost night, apart,
Outlined by pain, alone. Promiscuous
As mercy. Fear-led and led again to fear
... toward the cave where part fire and part
Pity lived in that voluptuousness
To end one and begin another loneliness.

New Pottery - Works in Progress

2008-11-11T10:05:00.001-08:00

Madama Butterfly

2008-10-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Opera America rates Madama Butterfly as the #1 most performed Opera in North America. I think it is worth talking about because its appeal sustains one hundred years of trends and I it is revered as the most romantic, tragic opera of all time.
Set in turn of the century Nagasaki, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, an American naval officer marries (or purchased his bride for 100 yen) a delicate, Japanese geisha named Butterfly. He does this with the intention to abandon the marriage contract to marry an American woman once it suits him to do so. Butterfly on the other hand, is truly in love with this man. Her options are limited because her family is poor and a pimp basically owns her. Therefore she transfers all her love and loyalty from her family to her new husband, it the utmost desperately, romantic and heroic way. After staying a short time he departs for America with no indication of when he will return. She waits 3 painful years of sacrifice and heartbreak, had his son and remains fiercely loyal to him. Pinkerton returns after 3 years with his new American wife. Butterfly realizes that they are going to take her son from her so she kills herself with the same dagger that her father committed suicide.
The LA Opera presented a beautiful minimalist staging by Robert Wilson. It did not have the traditional scenes of Japanese interiors, screens, etc. It was completely stripped down to these amazing costumes and light. There was little movement and without the props, the characters used hand gestures to express most of the action. The costumes were stark, monochromatic, and boldly shaped. The lighting concentrated on single singers, spot llighting, against a gradiated color backdrop. What happened visually is pure abstraction – the figures were rendered more as shapes moving around on stage. It was really striking and I am surprised it was so successful. This stark presentation funneled all attention to the singing and the emotions; the true essential expression of the opera – love, longing, and loss.
The music, of course, was the same. At times this original-ish score seems a little predicable and stereotypical of what “oriental” music would sound like. But at the time Puccini made the best effort to create authentic sounds of the east intermingled in the western score. That is part of the reason why it is so popular today – the mix of cultures and eastern textures.
MB has become such an iconic opera, but it wasn’t an immediate success, which is really surprising for the hit-maker. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long. This story was the basis for the play “Madame Butterfly” that Puccini saw in London 1900. He didn’t understand a word, but was so moved that we sought out the operatic rights. He finished the first draft in 1904; it was performed in Milan and written off as a complete disaster. He then rewrote it five times, polishing and embellishing along the way. Finally in 1907, Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version, which has become known as the "standard version". Today, the standard version of the opera is the version most often performed around the world. However, the original version is often still performed in Italy.
I think what makes MB so popular today is essentially the mix of cultures and the heartbreak. It is one of the most tragic, romantic opera ever…and that is what people want out of the opera experience, right? I know I want to be kicked when I am down.

Other Interesting Bits About MB:

Iconic Opera inspires all art forms. John Galliano for Dior Spring 2007 couture collection was based on Madama Butterfly.

The Broadway musical Miss Saigon was, in part, based on Madama Butterfly. The story was moved to Vietnam and Thailand and set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Fall of Saigon, but the central themes are largely unchanged

Weezer’s 1996 Album Pinkerton was based loosely on the opera.

In Progress

2008-10-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some works in progress...

I wanted to make these ribbon curls coming off the bow. I just can't get it right - they look totally overworked and I have to start over. BUT there is an idea in there.

This I love. I want to make these big droopy bows on vases and pitchers and I think this is starting to look like I imagined. C'est tres romantique!

Do I really have to say anything...other than its not quite done. Nap, Je t'adore.

Pottery!

2008-10-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some older pieces I finally got back...I think I made these at the beginning of the summer. They are really wonky, practice pieces.

These I am going to perfect and try to sell - wish jars and tear jars. I am still working on getting all the details right especially the glazes and illustrations. I have some more tests to run because this isn't even close to a prototype...

I love the way the shino glaze is turning out on these pieces. I wanted an aged feeling to these pieces. Really I am trying to get a victorian look or feel...I think I am getting closer.

Not pictured due to hideousness: 12 bowls, 3 plates, 6 little vases

My Bloody Valentine

2008-10-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Or How I got my mind blown by 17:39 minutes of noise.
And it wasn't just my mind, body parts shook, vibrated, rattled... Thank god I have done some drugs in my life and my mind was open to this experience because it was par with drug-induced euphoria.
The venue was odd, the Santa Monica Civic Center, very echo-y which I think helped the sonic obliteration. They played many of their songs straight as recorded, like I wanted to hear them and dreamed about since high school. It wasn't until the last song did they rip through all your senses for almost 18 minutes. I think the song was "You Make Me Realize"? My first thought was, okay, this is what it sounds like during an atomic explosion, and then I was physically moved, thrown off balance from the force of the sound. I cannot imagine anything louder in my life, its probably impossible.
I was really nervous about lights falling or ceiling caving in it seemed dangerously loud...seriously I had eyed all the emergency exits...it was that fucking intense. But once I gave in, closed my eyes, and felt it with my whole body and mind. I could have been anywhere, the music was so loud it obscured any sense of place, up, down, inside, out..it was just pure sonic heaven.
Ohh and the visuals helped, it was sometimes predictable - trippy shapes and patterns, but really what made is visually unforgettable was the insane blinding white light and strobes. They burnt my retinas and only accentuated every punch in the eardrums. Again, it was a complete sensory overload. We were destroyed.
I heard someone say that they played at 132 decibels and that the threshold for pain and eardrum damage is 130. My fingers were smashing those ear plugs so tight that I could only make out 40% of the music - all subtly was lost. In the end I heard some of my favorite music played live, and then was kicked in the head by a auditory revelation.

The Fly

2008-09-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

I have to say it…”Be afraid…Be very afraid”

For the first time, and perhaps last time, Opera Club was joined by arm candy to view the latest performance at the LA Opera, “The Fly”. It promised to be a very interesting event that we thought they would enjoy. And really… how could we miss, it looked fantastic! Especially because it brought together award-winning composer Howard Shore and director David Cronenberg again for the Opera version of the film they made together in the 80’s.

But it was a miss, almost a complete miss. With all their experience working together, with a film and a story to fill in the gaps, one would expect that the operatic adoption would have been much more successful. Well, it wasn’t a complete disaster…its worth writing about.

On paper it had many elements that would have made any opera engaging and super entertaining: Full-frontal nudity, fondling, grinding/writhing in pleasure, sex on laboratory equipment, baboon puppets. But with all that it still fell flat and was a little embarrassing to watch. I think the main problem is that this story is really a love story and that got lost. It was muddled in the focus on the staging and total over explanation of the teleporter machine - how it functioned and what the success would mean for mankind. (which is, by the way, “freedom from the flesh”)

The story line is a mélange of Cronenberg’s 80’s film and the original short story. It was set back to the 1950s, like the story, which was actually the most successful element of the whole performance. The synopsis, briefly, a scientist invents a teleporter that transports matter across two telepods. He falls in love with a scientific journalist and in a fit of jealous rage, with a champagne buzz (no pun intended), decides to teleport himself to illustrate his power etc... Now, this is the main action, the teleportation, which I was very curious to see how it would go down on stage.

Here is what that looked like:

The actor strips down naked and enters one telepod, walks around the stage – offstage - to then emerge from the other telepod across stage, surrounded by smoke and backlit with a bright white light. Which surely did nothing to obscure his nudity. This, of course, elicited laughter from two guests, yes, they started laughing. Fortunantly, Opera Club was a little too focused on adjusting their binoculars on the stage to take much notice of them, but there was some reprimanding afterwards. To which they feigned offence that we took them to a performance with nudity where they, “had to see some guy’s bag”.

Visually this opera was really great. I thought the set was dynamic and intriguing, consistently full of action. In the laboratory, the main prop was this totally awesome 50’s sci-fi style computer. It was this gigantic object with flashing lights, control panels, knobs and a keyboard for some sweet late night jams. Oh, and it was voice activated, so rad. I have nothing to say about the fly costume itself or the transformation from Seth Brundle, to Brundlefly. It was just fine.

Next, the music and singing…In general, the difference between and opera and a musical is that an opera is sung through, but a musical has dialogue between songs. “The Fly” was not quite an opera in the classical sense, so it would be categorized as a “popular opera”. I think this is because it is mostly sung dialogue with no major arias? In an opera the dialogue is replaced with recitatives, which is intoned like speech. I feel that when an opera is written in English these recitatives sound odd and really flat. That really sums up the singing in this opera – it was totally conversational, I couldn’t distinguish what was a true song vs. what was just dialogue. There was very little change in intonation between the characters. It was repetitive and droning.

But, I was kind of in love with the computer’s voice It was very HAL 9000, as a unaffected machine voice, but female. An off-stage chorus sings the voice who making it totally believable as a “machine”. I found myself desperately wanting that computer to start “talking” to interrupt a very predictable dialogue.

And like the dialogue, the music is totally static. Like the vocal writing, it was repetitive and written in big blocks of rhythms. I felt like Shore tried hard to write an opera instead of using his talents to write a score to an opera. I could hardly distinguish the music from the vocal dialogue, it was very frustrating. I don’t even have a impression of what the music sounded like because it was dominated by the vocals. And I do think that my man Plácido Domingo should share the blame, he did conduct not to mention co-commissioned the work.

Now a little opera break until October 10th and then back to the classics with Madama Butterfly. Next on the blog, pottery...

LA OPERA Season Opens

2008-09-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Finally!

The season looks really good… To be honest I have spent my summer listening to old opera albums, counting down the days. And I am so, so grateful to have something to take me away from my disgust and fear of Sarah Palin.

Puccini’s Il Trittico opened the season. It is a super popular opera; it is actually a triptych of 3 separate short operas. But the only thing blog-worthly item was the third opera, and Puccini’s only comedy, "Gianni Schicchi", which was directed by Woody Allen.

In his operatic debut Allen took many, many liberties. Most of the comedy was gimmicky and the whole opera was hyper-sexualized, but overall it was very entertaining. First of all, he updated Florence and the characters from the year 1299 to about 1950’s. The costumes and set made me feel like I was watching a black and white movie. Imagine something a little mafioso/gangster: slicked back hair, gold, pinstriped suits mixed with what I can only describe as a little “West Side Story”.

My favorite thing about this interpretation is that in "O Mio Babbino Caro", one of the most famous arias in Opera, Allen managed obscure the aria a little by making it more funny than melodramatic. It lost some of its power, but we all know what it should sound like, so it was a really nice surprise.

Evidently Plácido Domingo has been courting Allen for four years! I am excited to see who else he can wrangle into opera. Woody Allen brought out droves of people. It was so packed and full of horrifically inappropriate opera behavior. Um, this isn’t musical theatre…this is the Opera. I have never witnessed bar lines so long and so much disruptive chatter and moving about, stumbling drunk or otherwise in the middle of the performance.

Oh and the outfits…let me just say that going to the opera is not an excuse to get one more wear out of that bridesmaid dress.

Side note…more about that hunky P.D

Julian Schnabel was hired to paint a portrait of Plácido Domingo for the Metropolitan Opera. Every single Julian Schnabel article I have ever read goes along exactly like this article:

1. describe the pajamas 2. mention his palatial estate in the West Village 3. and somehow note that he orders people around. But I liked that the writer did point out the abysmal portraiture that the Met has collected, which is so true… and that P.D felt a little self -conscious in his old costume.