Sunday
May062007
Episode 20 - Angela Gheorghiu ('ll never work in this town again)
Sunday, May 6, 2007 at 12:07AM 
Angela goes crazy too...cheap tickets at LA Opera...HD broadcasts save the Canadian cinema industry...Minnesota Opera breaks color AND sex barriers in one swoop...more cross-over crap...Muslim extremists attack children's opera website.
This weeks panel is Ethan Watermeier, Roberta Rice, and Brian MacGilvray, fresh from the birth of his son!
Reader Comments (7)
Her Teeth Are Fine
Found a pic of Angela Gheorghiu, proving that her teeth are, alas, fine.
Link- http://www.dedoelen.nl/concertgebouw/art/uploads/Gheorghiu_fotoReneSeghers2.jpg
P.S. Can we please never, ever refer to her as anything else but "La Batshit" from now on?
Re: The Met And The Movies
Who cares if people are going to the movies to see opera? At least they're seeing it. I think there's a good chance that, over the next few seasons, more companies will join the flock, bringing opera to more people than ever before. This can ONLY lead (hopefully) to a healthy curiosity among audiences for the flesh-and-blood form, with OperaNow!' s assistance, of course.
Re: Opera as Musical Theatre
"I think the art of singing is something to be preserved." I couldn't have said it better. However, those of us living/working in the field need to be more and more careful about projecting any sort of elitism in favor of opera or operatic singing vs. that of musical theatre. It's a big reason why people feel alienated to this day, even WITH supertitles, movies and, dare I say it, podcasts.
Love you guys, can't wait for the live show!
Guess Who's Gay?
Let's get the obvious one's out of the way:
1. Brian Asawa, countertenor
2. David Daniels, countertenor
3. Patricia Racette, soprano
4. Beth Clayton, mezzo-soprano
My First Revelation is...
5. Dion Molinas, tenor, Australia's 'Ten Tenors'
Any rebuttals???
more "La Batshit" teeth-
http://www.dedoelen.nl/concertgebouw/art/uploads/Gheorghiu_fotoReneSeghers2.jpg
I guess there's no family dental plan.
[from a 2003 review of Tosca, film version]
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20030613/ai_n12503025
"At times, the passions boil over. Though she sings beautifully (as does Alagna), Gheorghiu often descends into melodramatic excess. In her tightly corseted gowns, the soprano bugs out her orbs, arches her back, flexes her eyebrows and generally flounces about in grand diva manner. If she heaved those melons any further up her breastplate, hers wouldn't be the only eyes popping. As Mario, Alagna adds moments of needed restraint. With his dashing manner, he even looks the part, unlike the chubby tenors often cast in the role. (In the extreme closeup, however, he appears to need serious dental work, to rein in a lower incisor pushing up like a Bugs Bunny snaggletooth.)"
As to the worry about "projecting any sort of elitism," either you accept that opera and musical theater demand distinct styles of singing or you don't. That doesn't require a value judgment in favor of one or the other. A desire to preserve the operatic art says nothing about its inherent superiority to other art forms; it just says it's worth preserving. We don't train to be opera singers because we're better than music theater singers; we do it because we love opera. If people feel alienated or threatened by the rigorous standards of operatic singing, the solution is not to compromise or apologize for those standards; if anything it's to do a better job of broadcasting their appeal. People aren't afraid of exclusivity when they get to take part in it. I tried during the podcast to convey that both art forms are valid provided they are true to their ideals.
Points well taken
I guess my only point is that opera shouldn't be exclusive at all. After all, it's for the people, isn't it? Given the obvious stylistic singing differences between the classical and popular music theatre styles, there's really only two kinds of singing: good and bad. Opera's greatest plight has been educating the masses in its simplicity of direct emotional drama. I don't think there's any one reason why people are alienated from opera, but it's our job to continually and fervently reveal this to as many newcomers as possible.
P.S. My prior comment was not intended to expose anyone's elitism; it was a general observation. Looking forward to the live show!
A few observations on your good and salient points.
Opera should not be exclusive, but it is. And it has little to do with the art itself or how it speaks to "the people." Rather, it is a function of the often prohibitively expensive tickets. I am in NY, and while I can search out some inexpensive (read, $100) tickets at "lesser" operas, for a seat at the Met you are looking at well north of $200 a ticket. And if you are looking for a bargain by subscribing, the Met requires that you buy tickets to 7 or so operas at the modest price of $1,500+. That, my friends, is a barrier to entry. (but I will note that the Met has started the rush ticket program, which is great, provided you can afford to stand in front of Lincoln Center for 4 hours on a weekday).
And how else can the public be educated/enlightened about opera? Sure, you can buy CDs or read books, but for the layperson who is not musically trained (like me), I think the only way to be exposed to the art in such a way that it becomes a passion is to be there live and in person.
As for the alienation point, and my apologies in advance for the cliche, but people fear what they do not understand. I think that most people, including well-educated people, believe that opera is a "park and bark" with an overweight soprano with long blond braides and a viking helmet. We all know that that could not be further from the truth. But that is the universal belief, like it or not.
I could go on for days about this, but I will raise one more point. I don't think that written opera reviews (from the NYT for example) help the cause. They are intimidating and confusing. Try this experiment: find a friend or relative with little knowledge of or experience with opera and give them an opera review to read. I bet that you will have a friend or relative with less interest in opera than before she read the review.
Which leads me to my final point - bravo to Michael et al for the podcast. I think it serves an important role and fills a crucial void. It makes the opera world accessible (from an educational standpoint) and understandable. And once it is accessible and understandable, you are half way home.
Re: a few observations on good points
I am wondering how the price of opera tickets (average price) compares to the price of Wicked tickets, or any other popular broadway show? Or even tickets to see a Laker's game or a football game? Is opera really expensive compared to these other forms of entertainment that don't seem to have any trouble filling the seats? I would love for someone to do a comparison study.