4 posts tagged “opera singers”
Another opera singer! Shit. At least this one has enough weird fun facts associated with it to keep me amused. Also, it looks like someone already has made a stab at organizing some of it--which may or may not prove helpful. Certainly it is an improvement over the last collection, which basically was just crap. I really wanted to take the boxes outside to the dumpster, but we don't go in much for deaccessioning around here.
I'm looking forward to this evening's all Balanchine program at New York City Ballet, which features one of my true favorites, Walpurgisnacht Ballet. This will be my first time seeing Sara (Wrong for Juliet) Mearns in the part originated by Suzanne Farrell. This is one of the few works in which I actually saw Farrell perform while she was still in her prime (I was quite young, BTW) and though I've seen many excellent performances of it over the years, no one ever has done it quite in the same way. Ask la Cour (busy man, these days) is making his debut in the cavalier part, which, admittedly is not a big one. The centerpiece of the program is Liebeslieder Walzer and the evening concludes with Symphony in Three Movements, which always seems to be performed outrageously well (leaving aside Abbi Stafford's rather blah debut in the pas de deux, but tonight it's back to Whelan and Evans). And it all ends at a civilized hour (thanks mainly, to the early curtain).
It will be nice to see some live dancing after two days worth of fuming over Dancing with the Stars on television. I don't know fuck all about competitive ballroom dancing (and don't particularly want to). I caught a few segments of the first two seasons, and, becoming captivated with Cheryl Burke in season 2, rooted for her and watched more episodes of season 3 (which played out as a battle between the forces of good and evil). Season 4 is the first series I have watched more or less from the beginning. And yes, this time around, by week 8, my boyfriend and I were even drawn into the voting, managing to buy Cheryl and Ian Ziering one week more and a trip into the semi-finals. Even so, that performance was a low. Regularly underscored, the team even had to resort to inserting props into their routine in order to get a higher score (as Patsy Stone said, "watch out for wigs"). Sadly, it worked, but you're better than that, Cheryl! I missed last week's penultimate results show and avoided seeing Cheryl actually forced to exit.
I was pretty sure I didn't care about seeing the concluding week once Cheryl was eliminated, but ended up watching anyway. It's funny. I don't remember much about any of the dances. I don't think I even watched that many completely through--in an attempt to avoid the endless commercials and inane filler, I was constantly switching channels while the show was on and often would end up coming back midway through a dance segment or when it was just ending. Most of what I did see I actually found kind of boring. So I doubt the appeal of the show lies that much in the dancing. It's that competitive bullshit that sucks you in.
We threw our votes this week to Laila Ali (though I found her partner distasteful; of the remaining pros I liked Kym the best) mainly in an effort to stave off the inevitable victory of Apolo Anton Ohno. And she even danced last night the best I had seen her. But it happened anyway. Interesting sidenote: Len Goodman (the least contemptible of the judges), declared the conquering Apolo, the "God of War." Did he just confuse the Greek gods Ares and Apollo? Or was the mix-up intentional--a subtle acknowledgment that Ohno's real skills were not as a dancer, but as a competitor. Anyway, Apollo is the leader of the muses; I don't know who the fuck Apolo is.
I know and care even less about short track speed skating than I do competitive ballroom dancing, but Ohno always came across as a (cheating) little turd at the Olympics. On DWTS, obviously he moved well, and probably would make a decent solo dancer, but he was unconvincing in his partnering. I thought Julianne Hough, his partner, was a good dancer, but the combination of the two certainly grates on one. The pair embodies that kind of all American arrogance that makes me want to vomit.
So I guess it was just a day in which evil was meant to (temporarily, we hope) prevail: Congress caved in, the Red Sox kicked the mildly resurgent Yankees asses yet again, and I'm sure lots of other stuff happened too. Maybe today will restore some harmony.
It's snowing enough to be annoying, but not enough to be of any use. For example, we will not get to leave early. Since it indeed is more of a "wintry mix" (isn't winter over soon already?) than a true snowfall, undoubtedly there will not be sufficient accumulation to postpone this family shindig in the dreary, dreary suburbs on Sunday.
I've only made it through one box today and seem unlikely to get through another whole one before I leave (I did two yesterday). Nothing really caught my eye, other than Fritz Kreisler's very cute dog, Rex (much cuter than Mrs. Kreisler). As for opera hotties, so far Lina Cavalieri (she wrote a book on personal beauty) and the even more obscure Coe Glade rank the highest. The men are all pretty unappealing.
I feel like lying down on the floor and seeing if anyone notices.
I will be glad when tomorrow rolls around. Too bad it's St. Patrick's Day, another New York bacchanalia. At least I will be in Chelsea, far away from the parade.
I couldn't resist. I came across a few leaves with photographs of the rather formidable-looking Amalie Materna.
There was an even more striking one in the collection than this image that I found online, but it will have to do for now because I don't feel like scanning it. Intrigued, I tried to find out more about Materna (or is it Materna-Friedrich?). Apparently there is no Wikipedia article, and the singularly uninformative entry in Grove Music Online sent me running to the reference bookshelves. All of the usual suspects had much fuller texts. Baker's (Centennial Edition) probably is the most representative. The following sentence being the key one:
Her dramatic talent, powerful voice, and beauteous features attracted the notice of Wagner, who selected her for the role of Brünhilde in the first Bayreuth Festival of 1876...
Curiously, the print edition of Grove (5th edition, 1959) had the longest, most-balanced, and neutral (relatively non-sexist) entry; much better than the crap that is available online. So remember, children, it's still worth checking out those old books from time to time.
Also, somewhat in keeping with one of last week's QotDs, I can't fucking stand Wagner operas! I tried a couple while I was living in Seattle (where his works are considered a particular strength of Seattle Opera--it figures), but I just didn't get it (nor do I want to).
Word circulated around the office this morning that Starbucks was having one of its periodic free coffee break events. I'm not a huge fan, but I needed some coffee, and with the amount of money I have spent at Starbucks over the years, I certainly feel entitled. Luckily, the closest store to the office is not usually very crowded. They were pushing the iced coffee (which stretches the gift even more for them given the amount of ice they toss in the cup), but it is incredibly warm and muggy out. And it's supposed to snow tomorrow!
Maybe even this weakish coffee will boost my flagging concentration. I just started on another collection this morning. The previous one proved to be short work; I'm waiting to see if there is any response to the e-mail messages I sent out earlier this week about the identity of the creator/donor before I put the finishing touches on that finding aid. And I'm also still waiting for any corrections on another finding aid draft I submitted. This new collection seems fairly tedious--a crash course on late 19th & early 20th century opera singers, but I can't take the time out to actually read most of the stuff.
I can't wait for this week's round of self-imposed asceticism to be over. I am bored and boring in equal measure. But next week promises to be extremely hectic, so it's better to rest up a bit while I can.
