So today, amid no furniture, I watched the re-broadcast of Lucia di Lammermoor from the Met in HD series. I think the Met in HD is a great idea still getting its legs. This production was worlds better than the Boheme I saw with Gheorghiu and Vargas last year, but when we saw it in theatres my boyfriend and I were the only people with all of their original teeth.
What started as a few Tweets in reaction to seeing this production on the small screen and on our home turf turned into a full blown Live Tweet of the performance–a concept many opera, dance, and orchestral companies are considering implementing into their concert series. This reminds me of Vancouver Opera’s recent Blogger Night at the Opera, allowing a live-feed but with less pressure to write longer posts. In fact, the bite-sized comments, facts, thoughts, questions, praises, and critiques are the perfect medium to allow a continual flow during the performance without causing Tweeps to get too caught up in what to say. Most of these tweets took me all of five seconds to hammer out. More blog platforms (including WordPress, on which this blog is hosted) are also offering templates that allow for these Bridget Jones-like entries, which could be kept for posterity on the company website (and not clog up a ton of Twitter/Facebook feeds, which is exactly what I inflicted on my poor, unsuspecting friends and colleagues).
But what really would have been fun is to have gone head-to-head, tweet-to-tweet with a Met staffer who had worked on the piece, offering two sides of the coin.
The impressions from my side are below (read from the bottom up)…
- And we’re at curtain, concluding my live Tweeting of the Lucia broadcast. Which, if nothing else, clogged up everyone’s feeds quite nicely.
- I got nothing new to say for Tu Che a Dio; except that in the Who’s Afraid of Opera version, they do it first. (Thanks, Mom)
- These mourners totally remind me of Eleanor Rigby.
- Technically, it’s good. But Beczala is losing me in the final inning pathos-wise. Maybe Rolando > Piotr? http://tiny.cc/SVphO
- Finally, a high note!
- Sorry, Anna. You can never, ever top Dessay’s scream (@ 7:52 in this clip): http://tiny.cc/EGrYY
- Revisiting the sexual tension between Lucia & Enrico by having her imagine him as Edgardo. Love these little intricacies.
- Anthony, this one’s for you: Where’s the high E?
- But kind of amazing how I didn’t pick up on the missed notes in the mad scene the first time around.
- Seeing the mad scene again is making me think this isn’t Anna’s role. Or it isn’t her time for the role. But she’s such. A. Good. Actress.
- (Spoiler alert): With all this teetering on suicide from Lucia and Edgardo, why does L’s ghost need to help E shove the knife in @ the end?
- You could save that set for Rusalka and do a killer “Song to the Moon.”
- Raimondo totally knows that all hell is about to break loose. And then enter Lucia.
- Can someone explain the red dress to white dress switch? Were they doing an Asian wedding in 19th Century Scotland?
- There’s barely anything on the set but two amazing singers. Yes, that’s really all you need.
- Dear Mariusz Kwiecien (Part II): You can run me through with your conquering sword any time
- I’m tempted to make a Polish joke, but Beczala and Kwiecien going at it in the oft-cut scene is just too damn good.
- And, as always, thanks to Viewers Like You. I think that was one of my first sentences as a kid.
- And now a word from our sponsors: Thanks, Toll Brothers! Rock on Irene Diamond Fund! Go NEA! Love Vivian Milstein! Hats off to CPB!
- G-d, between that top note and the scrim that comes down at the end I could live in the Act 2 finale.
- I love this one chorus member who knows, because he’s behind Netrebs, he’ll probably be on camera and works it like he’s on ANTM.
- I’m so picky about Enrico’s “Rispondi,” and Beczala knocks it out of the park. (Wish the Yankees could do the same…)
- Oh, shut up, R, you totally want them to kill one another. That “lives by the sword” bit is irony at its finest.
- Still can’t decide how I feel about the sextet staging. But boy is it clever. Especially when Lucia PTFO’s.
- Enrico is such a shyster.
- Is the Raim./Luc. duet really necessary? I get that it adds to R’s profile as the orchestrator of the tragedy, but it’s not working for me.
- Aaaaand now Netrebs is singing from the floor. I forgot about this part–the gift that keeps on giving! (Seriously)
- This productions remains one of the best explorations of the character of Enrico. Wish they had given Raimondo the prominence he’s due.
- This Lucia/Enrico relationship borders on incestuous at times in that sort of Donna Tartt/”The Secret History” kind of way.
- Geez, some of these camera angles just scream “bad indie film.” And don’t do Netrebs and her baby weight any favors.
- Ha! I never noticed that ghostface killa makes an appearance in the background of the Act II opening as well.
- Oh, are we not doing intermission chats? Was that only if I paid $25 for a movie ticket and sat in a room full of septuagenarians?
- Still, I love me a full-throated tenor.
- Piotr Beczala > Rolando Villazon (maybe), but needs more pathos in the voice. What was that “Ah, Lucia” about?
- I guess I’m live-Tweeting this Lucia-cast (after seeing it in HD in Feb.): Anna Netrebko sees dead people.
- Dear Mariusz Kwiecien: I can’t decide on what I love more; your name or your sustained note at the end of Act I Scene i.
- My apartment may be nearly empty, but at least I have Lucia on PBS to fill the void.
