The next free Met audio stream is Le Comte Ory on Thursday at 7:30pm ET, with Juan Diego Florez, Karine Deshayes and Pretty Yende in her Met debut.
Two interviews of note (in German) from NDR's Klassik a la Carte, the first with Margarethe von Trotta about her new film Hannah Arendt, why she tends to make films about women, plus a short mention of her next project, Die abhandene Welt; the second with baritone Bernd Weikl, about Verdi, Wagner, why he never did sing Wotan, usw.
From Arte LiveWeb, a short film, Cecilia Bartoli on the Trail of Agostino Steffani in Versailles, wherein our intrepid mezzo, with the aid of loyal sidekick Philippe Jaroussky and a small band of highly-trained chorister ninjas, discovers that Diego Fasolis is really a spy...or something. Okay I wasn't really clear on the bald guy part. At any rate he appears to have some nefarious plan to eliminate his musicians and replace them with a single theremin. But will he succeed?
Lastly, RIP Aaron Swartz. If I'd been blessed with wizard powers like that, I'd have dl'd JSTOR for the whole planet too.
O heaven. And for us Germanically-challanged, a few highlights from the von T interview, maybe?
ReplyDeleteI was hoping someone with better German would jump in. but oh well :-) As soon as I can listen with both ears, bc the new project sounded kewl but I was surround by loud conversations in English at the time.
DeleteApparently, Sukowa sings in the new film.
DeleteThank you for the info. On Thursday night I'll be awake and watch Le Comte Ory. I admire Juan Diego Florez who is in a class of his own.
ReplyDeleteThis opera will be staged at the Theater an der Wien coming Feb. Le Comte:Lawrence Brownlee, his wife:Cecilia Bartoli I can hardly wait!
Hi lotus, you'll only be able to listen to JDF I'm afraid. The Met has not yet caught up to BayStaats et al. in running video online. Still, it should sound good.
DeleteTotally jealous about Brownlee/Bartoli, though. I bet that will be fabulous :-)
Yes, I could only listen to it, but not bad, because I had a chance to read full scores at the same time. It prevented me from distracting:-) I'm distracted easily, you know.
DeleteThe sound was excellent, more than I expected. I also find it nice that during the intermission the tenor Piotr Beczala came and talked about this and that.
Florez sang fantastic with great precision. The young primadonna Pretty Yende was a surprise. What a voice! Hope to see and hear her here in Europe.
Now I'm looking forward to the performance in Vienna.