Thursday, December 2
Met: Rodelinda 12.02.04
Boys and babes, Mother Hilli is back from the dead; sincere apologies to the Western World and those anonymous thousands who read us at work. Atlanta got to be a crowded, so I thought I'd escape on a holiday.
Regrettably, Outer Mongolia doesn't see much Handel, so I just had to fly back to New York tonight to hear the lovely Metropolitan's weird sensation of the year—our dear Renee's Rodelinda (interestingly as rare the big city as it is in Mongolia) which, I'm glad to repeat, features countertenors (which we got lots of in Mongolia: the traditional kind—still into eununchs and such after all these centuries). More on my return later [including exclusive pics]. I'm here to telegraph to y'all the insane success of the entire cast. Beginning with Queen Rodelinda Renée Fleming, whom everyone secretly wishes would bomb an evening so they can tell their loser friends that they were there, but who doesn't bomb ever, which annoys the scandal fanciers, I'm sure. She's an automatic success. I'm counting the debut of Kobie van Rensburg as a success. The three bitches Stephanie Blythe (Eduige), David Daniels (Bertarido), and Bejun Mehta (Unulfo) provided the requisite inhuman vocal calisthenics, and boy did they all exude hormones (testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, respectively). Nothing excites Hilli more than women trapped in men's bodies singing like women dressed as men, and vice versa. John Relyea (Garibaldo) is hot. In the production, he mounts a horse, so of course it follows that we should say he's a stud on a stud. His singing, from what I gathered the few moments I wasn't glued to the old opera glasses, nearly lived up to his looks.
The artistic braintrust headed by Stephen Wadsworth got an unusually warm reception during their curtain calls (Hilli has a few things to say about it, but maybe the rant will have to wait till after a second viewing), as did the debuting maestro Harry Bicket, who has an exquisite sense of the baroque. I'm spent, boys and babes. Now go read the raves on Opera-L… or just skip to someone with taste, restraint, and wit.
Check back for a more fleshed-out look at the production and some more reactions.
Regrettably, Outer Mongolia doesn't see much Handel, so I just had to fly back to New York tonight to hear the lovely Metropolitan's weird sensation of the year—our dear Renee's Rodelinda (interestingly as rare the big city as it is in Mongolia) which, I'm glad to repeat, features countertenors (which we got lots of in Mongolia: the traditional kind—still into eununchs and such after all these centuries). More on my return later [including exclusive pics]. I'm here to telegraph to y'all the insane success of the entire cast. Beginning with Queen Rodelinda Renée Fleming, whom everyone secretly wishes would bomb an evening so they can tell their loser friends that they were there, but who doesn't bomb ever, which annoys the scandal fanciers, I'm sure. She's an automatic success. I'm counting the debut of Kobie van Rensburg as a success. The three bitches Stephanie Blythe (Eduige), David Daniels (Bertarido), and Bejun Mehta (Unulfo) provided the requisite inhuman vocal calisthenics, and boy did they all exude hormones (testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, respectively). Nothing excites Hilli more than women trapped in men's bodies singing like women dressed as men, and vice versa. John Relyea (Garibaldo) is hot. In the production, he mounts a horse, so of course it follows that we should say he's a stud on a stud. His singing, from what I gathered the few moments I wasn't glued to the old opera glasses, nearly lived up to his looks.
The artistic braintrust headed by Stephen Wadsworth got an unusually warm reception during their curtain calls (Hilli has a few things to say about it, but maybe the rant will have to wait till after a second viewing), as did the debuting maestro Harry Bicket, who has an exquisite sense of the baroque. I'm spent, boys and babes. Now go read the raves on Opera-L… or just skip to someone with taste, restraint, and wit.
Check back for a more fleshed-out look at the production and some more reactions.
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