Friday Afternoon Wrap-Up, Shirtless Edition
Sieglinde has always held that opera and porn are twin sisters separated at birth. (Obvious similarities include: throat, tessitura, and tissue.) So she's shocked that we don't get much of one in the other. But here's good news from Geneva:
Nina Stemme outshines the porn star in Geneva's Tannhäuser [AP, via andante.com]
Sieglinde notes the following: (1) French porn star Hervé-Pierre Gustave (a.k.a. HPG) appears as the god/bull Zeus in Act I, but Nina Stemme, the Elisabeth, doesn't appear till Act II, and any queen knows that it's the Venus who dominates Act I. The AP reviewer, Bradley S. Klapper, was apparently too busy checking out HPG to even notice the work of Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet, because she appears nowhere in his review. In Sieglinde's mind, a larger instance of "outshining." It's one thing to not review the acting in porn, quite another to not review the singing in opera. (As absurd as writing a review of Powertool and not making a smallest mention of Jeff Stryker's powertool.) (2) Article continues: "By the Hall of Song — where Tannhäuser's ode to sensual love lands him in hot water — Gould appeared clearly fatigued, his revelation of a liaison with Venus ultimately arriving with more of a whimper than a bang." Don't they sell Viagra in Europe as well? (3) French director Oliver Py is described as "Catholic and homosexual": is this possible? I mean, can you imagine being Catholic and homosexual? Sieglinde's equal-opportunity imagination can't even picture that one.
Meanwhile, in other subway news, "if you see something, say something." In ths spirit of such sage advice from New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Sieglinde brings you the Diaries' craigslist.org ad du jour:
Looking for cute and masculine. New to this - 26 [craigslist.org]
The ad is a few days old, but how many gymrats do you think responded to "I am into all sorts of things from working out to opera."? I'll bet you my signed Renée program he's still looking. Help Sieglinde help this boy out, and rush to fill his e-box with lots of love.
And speaking of jockstraps: that opera and football (or basketball) don't mix is maxim, but somehow opera and baseball do. Queens, Sieglinde brings to your attention her favorite website this weekend:
Boston Red Sox Nation: End Game? [bostondirtdogs.com]
(New England is once again engulfed in deep doubt and despair; another century of Ring drought is brewing in the cold fall air. Go White Sox!)
