Met Gala Idols

RANDY: "Dawg, keepin it real, it wasn't good for me dawg. The Mimi was good, I liked it, but the Manon was not comin' together. And the Adina, that was pitchy, dawg. And you, man, there's something wrong, man. Your Nemorino, I'm not feelin' it."

PAULA: "Like, I'm really proud of you, to sing like that with a lot of heart. I like that. Not your best performance, but you tried your best, I know it. Maybe you picked the wrong songs. And maybe you oversang a bit. But I like the energy. And the chemistry, it's so real. And guys, you look great!"

SIMON: "Donizetti must be turning in his grave tonight. Really mediocre performances. Very bad vocal. You sounded hoarse and pushed, and you there just sounded dreadful. It was like bad karaoke performed by someone's drunken mom and dad during a wedding on a cruise ship. I don't know if you are really ready for this stage of the game."

RYAN: (to Simon) "Shut up and just come out, fag."

[via Sirius]

UPDATE: Sieglinde should note that (a) she was home eavesdropping via Sirius, (b) she participated in the wonderful parterre chat at Chez Cieca, where (c) nearly all expressed disappointment with the 'trainwreck' of a gala, and (d) after having listened to the recording again this morning, with rested ears, she's not revising her impressions. However, in the interest of balance (huh?), she notes that reports coming from people who were in house are much more positive. Maury says "L'elisir was when it all came together. Villazon's vocal troubles apparently vanished, and Netrebko sounded about the best I've ever heard her." In Opera-L, a well-respected poster says, after detailing his Manon creds (from Moffo to Fleming): "I cannot imagine a better Manon until Netrebko last night." This is odd, but not entirely a surprise. There are widely-acknowledged limitations of such radio transmissions, whose compression can be severe and can truncate parts of the 'timbre' and dynamic spectra that make the voice sparkle and mystify. Another limitation is the mics' suspect ability to capture and relay charm and sex appeal, qualities gaining more prominence in the operatic arena than ever before.

Miscellanea

1. Pair has been chosen; tickets have been sent by mail.

2. This morning, my partner needed some music for his novel class, which is currently reading Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. There's a meaningful scene in the opera house. He wanted to set up today's discussion by playing some of the music from Gounod's Faust, the opera in question, specifically a recording of the duet between Marguerite and Faust, "Laisse-moi, laisse-moi contempler." Out of all the recordings I own, the duet I chose was from the radio broadcast of the Met on tour in Boston on April 6, 1940. Richard Crooks was the Faust and Helen Jepson the Marguerite. They imbued the duet with a kind of elegance rare in today's crop of verismo-styled singers. Crooks in particular poured such a serene sweetness, more breathed than sung-- made me wonder how anyone in the audience could have heard him at all. It's just transcendent.

3. Tonight, the Netrebazon Gala to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Met at Lincoln Center. I'm not there; I'll tune in via Sirius; Sieglinde liveblogging highly unlikely. But there's a livechat at parterre, hosted by Mama Cieca.

Opening Day 2007

M4M blind date at the opera

[UPDATED]

I just posted this ad on craigslist:

I have an entire 4-seat balcony box (nice view, great sound) for the season premiere of the opera GIULIO CESARE at the Metropolitan Opera this Friday, April 6. I won't be able to attend, and none of my friends could make it, so I thought of a fun thing to do with the tickets:

I'm looking to match up two guys for a 'blind' date. Here's the deal: I'd like to give away this 4-seat box for the evening, for free, but I'm only looking for TWO guys to share the box, in the interest of comfort and privacy. If you're interested in going to this wonderful revival of a Handel masterpiece, and would like to possibly meet a nice guy, a potential friend (or possibly more?) with similar interests, then all you need to do is:

(a) send me a short e-mail describing yourself, your interests, your stats, whatever you feel like including in your personal description.
(b) then tell me what kind of guy you're interested in meeting, as a potential new friend, or more ... the more specific, the better, of course.
(c) Because this is happening in less than a week, I need to hear from you by Tuesday morning, at the latest, so I can send the tickets out by mail in time for Friday.

I promise to do the following:

(a) Out of all the responses, I'll find the best matching pair. I will not guarantee that you'll meet your one true soulmate or anything, but I'll try my best.
(b) I will NEVER reveal to anyone else, nor publish in any blog, any information about the winning pair, which box they're located, or any other piece of info that can identify them to anyone else in the universe.
(c) I will not divulge any info about the other replies that didn't get chosen. Your e-mails will be acknowledged with an e-mail response, and will be DELETED forever. Really, I have no interest in making more out of this than to give two guys a great time at the opera.
(c) For the winning couple, I will not ask about how the 'date' turned out. It's your choice if you want to keep it private. I'd of course be DYING to know how it turns out, but any info is entirely voluntary, and will be kept as privileged info.

SERIOUS REPLIES ONLY. And no, this is NOT an April Fools prank.

Sieglinde
(Sieglinde's Diaries)

I repeat: this is not an April Fools stunt, and I will not speak about this, in this blog or with anyone, unless I have express permission from the participants (winning or otherwise). You can either e-mail me via craigslist, or directly at: castadivanyc (at) gmail.com.

UPDATE: I received more e-mails than I expected, thank you all for taking me seriously. (I mean, if I come across this kind of thing in some blog, I'd probably have a chuckle and move on without any thought of participating just because I've been raised Catholic and suspicious.) There are a few pairing possibilities, and I expect to e-mail the 'winning' couple tonight. A number of e-mails asked (a) why I'm only inviting 2 to a box of 4 (or why not 2 couples, the more the merrier), and (b) why only gay men. Well folks, have you sat in one of those balcony boxes? There's really only enough space for three grown people to have sightlines (and legroom) that don't involve Cirque du Soleil-type contortions. A pair of couples is an intriguing idea, filled with possibilities and permutations, but that would also require a more sophisticated algorithm for selecting the 'winners', and there are just too many more things that can go wrong, so no to that suggestion. And finally, a big duh in response to the second question. I don't have the first idea about what lesbians really mean when they say "attractive" or "muscular", and as far as single straight people hooking up at the OPERA-- I mean, can such a thing really happen.