#Dorabella from Cosi fan Tutte is one

[tuttocenere]

Probably stupid/asked before but what's the full pic of your pfp and banner?

It's not stupid! I love asks.

The banner is basically a screenshot redraw of the Guglielmo / Dorabella duet from a Cosi fan Tutte recording that I love a lot:

The PFP is a study / portrait of the Countess from a Nozze di Figaro recording that I also love a lot:

I've been thinking about changing the icon but I will always love the banner.

[cartridgeconverter]

My favorite character in operas/musicals is always the highest voiced male character or the lowest voiced female character. Sometimes it's both, see both Dorabella and Ferrando from Cosi Fan Tutte. The one very notable exception is Escamillo from Carmen because of his intense tboy swag

[bonjourxrenae]

So I’ve had this concept for a t-shirt I want to make for a while -

WITCHES

& BITCHES

& BRITCHES

because mezzo-sopranos and contraltos are often typecast as either an older woman/witch, a female antagonist, or as a trouser role.

And y’know what? After singing arias from the roles of Orpheus (Orfeo ed Euridice), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Katisha (The Mikado), Xerxes (Serse)... like, you might as well own it...

[leporellian]

Okay so I’ve been thinking way too much about Così Fan Tutte lately (when am I not) and I would love to know how you might direct it? (I know you mentioned in one of your posts that you’d like to be an opera director so I’m curious!).

so the Fun Thing abc cosi, imo, is that every character, every single one, is in some way a pathetic asshole. 

yes, some of them are More Asshole than others, but ideally every character should be played in such a way that the audience really can’t sympathize with them. the comedy of cosi comes from all these characters turning on each other like hot coils, it’s basically (as i’ve said before many Times) the opera version of it’s always sunny in philadelphia.

now a lot of people say cosi fan tutte is sexist and i see the problem, and i would be lying if i said the opera wasn’t free of error. but the thing is, the sexism comes from the characters in the story, and as said, you are not supposed to like or agree with any of them. the ‘moral’ is a massive, shallow parody of a moral, it’s not supposed to be taken seriously. 

all 3 operas in the daponte trilogy are honestly various parodies of commedia dell’arte- the marriage of figaro examines what happens after the curtain comes down, don giovanni examines the concept and the consequences of one character being a flat, commedia dell’arte-esque stereotype while everyone else is realistically portrayed, and cosi fan tutte is basically the commedia dell’arte setup of a zany plot but with none of the characters being likable or sympathetic. so i would probably doll it up in a lot of commedia dell’arte style costuming and sets- despina wears harlequin, for example. make it obvious that the morals presented are all clearly not to be followed along with, and purposely point out the unlikability of the characters- ferrando is a prickly hothead, guglielmo (i can only spell his name right because he showed up in my webcomic lmaooo) is a smarmy braggart, dorabella is wishy-washy and fickle, fiordigili pretends she is better than everyone else here but turns out to be just as fickle as her sister, despina is a wild hedonist who does not seem capable of caring about anyone but herself, and alfonso is an old sexist creep who’s driving the entire plot for... literally no reason.

and then, at the ending, everything just kind of resets. there are no conflicts, the characters learn nothing, and everyone goes back to the exact same positions they started in at the beginning to the opera- as if to imply that, in some bizarre No Exit-style punishment, the characters are destined to repeat the plot over and over and turn on each other over and over, just as in commedia dell’arte plays, because none of them will ever truly learn otherwise.

[borisbubbles]

03. ESTONIA

Elina Nechayeva - “La Forza” 8th place

You thought this ranking was dead, didn’t you?

As fate would have it, I’ve finally found time to publish new content for you to enjoy, riding the wave of a unexpectedly great edition of JESC, in which Australia’s generic jury evil was once again vanquished by a plucky east-bloc diva. It is ~LA FORZA DEL DESTINO~, y’all.

But before I elaborate on the JESC thoughts that I O U, I will first finish my ranking of ESC Proper.

Let’s be honest, chickens, I was never *not* gonna like a regal Rustonian swan especially one who saunters around in oversized projector dresses and displays the exact same behaviour and personality as Cosi Fan Tutte’s Dorabella 24/sevs (seriously. Elina is *possibly* the only Estonian to have an openly ditzy personality <3), like HELLLOW!  How can I not love her? Look at the state of her:

Gorgeous! She should HAVE WON but alas she was rigged out by a bitter jury and awful taste, what else is new? Now, I’ve heard people (jealous eleni stans) tell that “La Forza” is overrated because it’s “not that special, especially for it’s genre” which... I don’t quite understand? (Especially coming from Eleni fans. ELENI!!) Sorry to tell ya boos, even after all these months, I still think “LaForza” slaps the crap out of the “Fuego’s” and “Toy’s” of this world and here’s why.  

For starters  “La Forza” is only the second *actual* Opera entry in Eurovision canon, after “Sognu”. Note that I am *not* counting all the schlager/opera dalliances the likes of “My Friend”; “La Voix” and “Cvet z Juga” which are just typical Eurodance songs disguised *as* Opera songs.I don’t dislike them (quite the opposite), but they’re *not* of the Opera genre, while “La Forza” indisputably is.

 More importantly however is that “LaForza” manages to both

*Excite visually* 

I’m happy those crowdfunding campaigns payed off for Estonia, if only for the opportunity to turn Elina into a cobweb, an amoeba that farts rose petals and a jacuzzi respectively. Not to mention that Elina herself is gorgeous. 

*Soothe musically* 

Elina’s siren voice is the perfect balm after a full three hours of chicken noises, fuckboi metaphors and air piano’s. #TheVoice is usually something I don’t care about *too much*, but in Elina’s case it manages to calm me down every time I decide to give her song a whirl and that keeps it fresh and fun for me, even after all these months. 

Incidentally, spectacle and belcanto the two reasons to watch opera performances in the first place. I mean, what is opera but a musical in which portly people in lederhosen and capes stab one another with prop swords and mime dying by shrieking at (and over) each other in high-pitched mangled Italian for 15 minutes? La Forza delivered both with flying colours. It’s PERFECT.

Yet perhaps... a bit too perfect?

You know, I hate to admit it, but I initially had Elina *even* higher than third. In fact, when I first compiled this list, she was my #1. Yet, as time went on, I felt like something didn’t fit. I love Elina and I love Estonia in Eurovision (and life.) and I felt they had *EARNED* their first ever #1 spot on a BorisBubbles ESC ranking, after finishing in my top five a bajillion amount of times. Yet... I couldn’t commit. You see, imperfect entries and underdogs have always been my jam *way more* than bouts of seemingly flawless beauty and one must stay true to their character! Now let’s celebrate Estonia Being Great Again and look forward to the impending Tanja/Birgit Co-Op that will take us BY (shit)STORM!! IT’S DESTINY Y’AAAAAA Y’AAAAA Y’AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL *whirls out*

RANKING SO FAR:

03. Estonia (Elina Nechayeva - “La Forza”)

04. Slovenia (Lea Sirk - “Hvala, ne!”)

05. Switzerland (ZiBBZ - “Stones”)

06. Germany (Michael Schulte - “You let me walk alone”)

07. Albania (Eugent Bushpepa - “Mall”)

08. France (Madame Monsieur - “Mercy”)

09. Hungary (AWS - “Viszlát nyár”)

10. Finland (Saara Aalto - “Monsters”)

11. Bulgaria (EQUINOX - “Bones”)

12. Denmark (Rasmussen - “Higher ground”)

13. Malta (Christabelle - “Taboo”)

14. Cyprus (Eleni Foureira - “Fuego”)

15. United Kingdom (SuRie - “Storm”)

16. Serbia (Balkanika - “Nova Deca”)

17. Portugal (Cláudia Pascoal - “O jardim”)

18. The Netherlands (Waylon - “Outlaw in ‘em”)

19. Ukraine (MÉLOVIN - “Under the ladder”)

20. Macedonia (Eye Cue - “Lost and Found”)

21. San Marino (Jessika ft. Jenifer Brening - “Who We Are”)

22. Sweden (Benjamin Ingrosso - “Dance You Off”)

23. Austria (Cesár Sampson - “Nobody but you”)

24. Latvia (Laura Rizzotto - “Funny girl”)

25. Azerbaijan (AISEL - “X my heart”)

26. Israel (Netta - “Toy”)

27. Norway (Alexander Rybak  - “That’s how you write a song”)

28. Montenegro (Vanja Radovanovic - “Inje”)

29. Armenia (Sevak Khanagyan - “Qami”)

30. Poland (Gromee ft. Lukas Meijer - “Light me up”)

31. Greece (Yianna Terzi - “Oniro mou”)

32. Georgia (Iriao - “For you”)

33. Belgium (Sennek - “A matter of time”)

34. Italy (Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro - “Non mi avete fatto niente”)

35. Romania (The Humans - “Goodbye”)

36. Ireland (Ryan O'Shaughnessy - “Together”)

37. Croatia (Franka - “Crazy”)

38. Belarus (ALEKSEEV - “Forever”)

39. Russia (Julia Samoylova - “I Won’t Break”)

40. Spain (Amaia & Alfred - “Tu canción”)

41. Iceland (Ari Ólafsson - “Our choice”)

42. Australia (Jessica Mauboy - “We got love”)

43. Czech Republic (Mikolas Jozef - “Lie to me”)

[operacascadia]

Seattle Opera 2017-18 Season Announcement

So, the 2017-18 Seattle Opera season has been announced, and I gotta say--it’s not hugely inspiring.

August: Madama Butterfly with Lianna Haroutounian and Alexia Voulgaridou in the title role, Alexy Dolgov and Dominick Chenes as Pinkerton, Weston Hurt as Sharpless, Renée Rapier as Suzuki, Carlo Montanaro conducting, in a production from New Zealand Opera, directed by Kate Cherry.

October: Barber of Seville with “TBA” and Sophia Fomina as Rosina, Matthew Grills and Andrew Owens as Almaviva, John Moore and William Liverman as Figaro, Kevin Glavin as Bartolo, and Daniel Sumegi as Basilio, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti, directed by Lindy Hume with a production from Opera Queensland.

January: A revival of the Jonathan Miller staging of Così fan tutte, with Fiordiligi played by Marina Costa-Jackson/Marjukka Tepponen, Dorabella by Ginger Costa-Jackson/Hanna Hipp, Ferrando by Ben Bliss/Tuomas Katajala, Craig Verm/Michael Adams as Guglielmo, Laura Tatulescu as Despina and Kevin Burdette as Alfonso. Paul Daniel will conduct.

February/March: The Seattle Opera premiere of Beatrice & Benedict in a new production and in English translation--or rather, an English version of the libretto using Shakespeare’s original language as much as possible. Beatrice will be played by Daniela Mack/Hanna Hipp, Benedict (if it’s in English, surely it should be Benedick, right?) by Alek Shrader/Andrew Owens. Laura Tatulescu as Hero, Avery Amereau as Ursule, Kevin Burdette as Somarone, Craig Verm as Claudio, and Daniel Sumegi as Don Pedro. Ludovic Morlot, music director of the Seattle Symphony makes his debut at last at the Seattle Opera in this production, as does John Langs, director of the ACT Theater as this production’s stage director.

May: Aida, with Leah Crocetto/Alexandra Lobianco in the title role, with Miljiana Nikolic/Elena Gabouri as Amneris, Brian Jagde/David Pomeroy as Radames, Gordon Hawkins/Alfred Walker as Amonasro, and for a third time this season, Daniel Sumegi as Ramfis. Conducing will be John Fiore, the production will be the recent one seen at San Francisco Opera, directed by Francesca Zambello; the first time one of Zambello’s productions has been seen in Seattle since the revival of Florencia en el Amazonas in 2005.

On the plus side: I love Beatrice et Benedict, and it will be good to finally see it  live. The production sounds interesting, and I’m very much in favor of Ludovic Morlot conducting Berlioz. The Jonathan Miller production of Cosi is a classic, and it will be good to see it again--it will be interesting hearing actual sisters playing Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Leah Crocetto is the debutant I am most excited about, followed by Daniela Mack and Maestro Morlot. On the minus side, I find it very hard to get enthused by Butterfly and Barber. Both of those works are done to death. I can see why the company puts them on--it’s cheaper to put on more famous operas, and they also put more butts in seats. But I don’t recognize the names in the cast--and there isn’t an announced name for the opening night Rosina. Only one 20th century opera and it’s Butterfly, which I’m not sure should even count.

For me, this is the least interesting Seattle Opera season since 2007-08, which was so boring to me that I let my subscription lapse.

I don’t think I’ll do that in this case--the Berlioz and Mozart works should be fantastic, the Verdi should have some good singing, and who knows, maybe the staging for Puccini and Rossini will be interesting? At least the conducting for those two works are in good hands.

[mastcomm]

Review: ‘Così’ at the Met, as Mild as a Coney Island Morning

Pity the Metropolitan Opera’s social media team, forced on Valentine’s Day to promote Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte” on Instagram as an “enchanting romantic comedy.”

“Così,” which opened the following afternoon, is no such thing. It is one of the bitterest works in the repertory: the story of two young men who test their fiancées’ fidelity by disguising themselves and seducing each other’s girl. The title translates roughly to “all women are like that.” Enchanting!

But the Met’s marketers aren’t entirely to blame. Phelim McDermott’s production — updated to mid-20th-century Coney Island, first seen in 2018 and revived with an excellent cast on Saturday — goes more for starry skies, ocean breezes and slowly rotating Ferris wheels than stark suffering. It seems unlikely that many in the audience left questioning the stability of their relationships and the reality of human connection: the test of a great “Così.”

Like too many Met updatings — another 1950s show, the company’s current “Rigoletto,” comes to mind — Mr. McDermott’s staging seems like a fresh take when you see the advertising images, but offers an ultimately old-fashioned vision of the opera. His main intervention is the introduction of a troupe of sideshow performers — including the requisite knife swallower, snake handler and bearded lady — who bustle around the action, gently adding atmosphere and charm.

The staging briefly, barely suggests that these members of “Jungleland: Strange Beings From Every Clime” incite the lovers to their adulterous sexual adventures. A 2016 French production, set in 1930s colonial East Africa, went all the way down that road, explicitly, courageously and movingly tying the work’s gender dynamics to racial ones. But Mr. McDermott is not really interested in teasing out any kinky implications of exoticism. He’s just putting on a carnival.

If this remains a mild “Così,” with the occasional sigh of melancholy, it has a better cast now than at the premiere two years ago, and the general feel of the performance is more relaxed and confident.

The bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, sounding rich and suave as Guglielmo, has the juiciest voice onstage, but the tenor Ben Bliss sings Ferrando with poised sweetness. Nicole Car confronts the challenge of Fiordiligi with a full yet flexible soprano, its tone soft around the edges, and a modest yet honest approach to her arias; this is not a commanding portrayal, but a sympathetic, fluent one. She blends intriguingly with the Dorabella of Serena Malfi, who has a lithe, slightly wiry mezzo-soprano.

The soprano Heidi Stober has been away from the Met for a few seasons, but returns with a cheerfully bright, natural, unexaggerated Despina. Gerald Finley — his bass-baritone of modest size but precise, focused deployment — is a rueful Don Alfonso, the older man who spurs the plot’s cruel games.

In Handel’s “Agrippina,” running through March 7, the conductor Harry Bicket’s triumph is the richness he draws from the Met Orchestra. In “Così,” he does the opposite. I can’t remember ever hearing this ensemble sound so light, almost insubstantial — and I mean that as a compliment. This music, which for all its sublimity can sometimes drag, didn’t rush — at least not after a bracingly brisk overture — but never lagged, the textures as airy as a June morning on Coney Island.

Così Fan Tutte

Through March 14 at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center; metopera.org.

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