Tuesday, April 19, 2011

old news

Read the Peter G Davis review of the original run of Atys at BAM here* (with a production still so cool I tore it out of New York Magazine and still have it), which is also interesting for the editorial snapshot it gives of the NYC opera scene of 1989.  Has anything changed?  And no, that Peter Sellars Tannhäuser never did make it to New York.

*arrow back to p. 60 for the beginning of the article, for some reason the link lands you on p. 62.

5 comments:

  1. I will never understand what happened to Jennifer Smith. I discovered her voice recently thanks to a CD of Platée (Minkowski baton) in which she is a flawless Folie, with the voice not even comparable to the strange sounds of Mireille Delunsch who made the role famous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1EE6CSIo6A&feature=related. Why are the gods of casting so inscrutable? Though maybe La Smith withdrew from singing by the time of this production. Any idea?

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  2. Yeah, that Platée CD was done in 1992, about the same time as this Amadigi

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHmQGd4Yo5k

    but the Platée DVD was done in the mid-aughts, so probably La Smith was about hanging up her spurs by then.

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  3. Btw, did you get my email? Sent you some Alcina samples via RapidShare.

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  4. Yeah, I'm totally forking over for this one. Thanks for the promo.

    And congratulations on your Awl piece! That was a fun read, and I see it's already generating enthusiastically illustrative youtube postings on parterre -- which is totally the mark of success :-)

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  5. I actually thought I'd quench your thirst for it with part one, so you wouldn't have to buy it... Those CD sets of operas are ridiculously expensive. I get them all from the library.

    (Yes, I was chuffed by the Parterre repost. Of course, the boys quickly switch to their favourite topics regardless: sopranos, last night at the Met, a dramatic mezzo who's been dead for 25 years, and more sopranos... But I am still thoroughly chuffed by La C's curatorial decision.)

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