What I Read This Weekend
Matthew Gurewitsch’s fantastic profile of mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca: “In Central Europe, where the right opera star can still rock the tabloids, Ms. Garanca has been called ‘the blond Netrebko.’” …and… “‘I’m analytical, not wild,’ she said. ‘When I’m onstage my brain is running like a computer. There are different programs, for voice, for acting, for my body, for the conductor, my colleagues, the staging. And in a pinch I just open a file, or many.’”
An uncertain future for Teatro dell’Opera: After living in Rome for a year, no surprise there. I saw one opera in the Eternal City and then spread out to the rest of the country. In a strong capital, you need a strong opera. As it stands now, Rome is the Washington DC to Milan’s (or even Florence’s) New York. Maybe now City Opera will catch a break from the (now repetitive) “Endtimes are upon us” articles.
The titular pun I’d been waiting for in Anne Midgette’s nail that hit the head: “He may have gotten the players to play better, but I’d argue that even Kurt Masur had more of a vision of what he wanted the orchestra to be than Maazel, who simply accepts the orchestra as a given, and gets it to play. I think there has to be more to the exercise than this — and I’m not even talking about extra-musical considerations like outreach, but about artistic vision and profile.” (Maazel T’ov) And a deeper blogxamination of Lorin’s days with the NY Phil and his outbreak of Mahleria courtesy of the LA Times (I’m always amazed at the attention they give classical music there until I realize it all generally comes from NY).
With the Maazel mania, I was also momentarily debating a signed copy of Fiona Maazel’s novel, Last Last Chance, at St. Mark’s bookstore last night. Instead, and perhaps more pragmatically, I seized up Give My Regards to Eighth Street and Opera & the Morbidity of Music.
Which means now’s as good a time as any to mention the latest installment of my column for Classical Singer Magazine, The $50 Week, is all about getting books and music on the cheap. The July issue is on newsstands now, or online if you’re a CS subscriber.
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Tags: anna netrebko, opsters, florence, anne midgette, rome, classical singer mag, opera and the morbidity of music, morton feldman, give my regards to eighth street, last last chance, maazel, fiona maazel, lorin maazel, mahler, mahleria, la times, maazel tov, kurt masur, teatro dell'opera, milan, elina garanca, matthew gurewitsch, garanca, netrebko
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