Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Ezell's Under Attack | "It's just my man flesh, Jesus... »

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Seattle Opera’s I puritani and a Letter of the (Other) Day

posted by on May 13 at 14:42 PM

eglisepuritani.jpg
Photo by Rozarii Lynch


Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are your last chances to see Seattle Opera’s new I Puritani (my review and my farewell to Seattle). I can’t tell you which cast to see. Do you want to see the one with all the stunning male singers and one v.v. shitty female lead? or the one with the absolutely splendid female lead and v.v. good male cast? Just kidding, go see the second one, on Friday.

I had a dream last night where I was at this soirée for rich, white opera donors (what a riot those people are), and Seattle Opera General Manager Speight Jenkins spotted me from across the room and dashed over to say, “I need you to come with me; we need to talk, mister.” And I totally gave him the Talk to the Hand gesture, a Puerto Rican hip swivel, and a forceful “Absolutely not.”

I got this juicy email a few days ago from someone working on the production:

Hi! I just read your review of I Puritani. I can’t give you my name since I am working in this opera, but I have to tell you that you are right on, as most of the cast and crew would agree with you. Of course, Larry [Brownlee] is going to be (when he reaches the full maturity of his singing voice, around 45 or 50) a true great, investing the time he does rehearsing as well as simply working on his art.

How many times have we already wondered “why isn’t Eglise in the gold cast”? I stand in the wings, working every night, and she simply brings me to tears. If she wasn’t already happily married I would court her like the demented fan I am. Moving to New York may get you a better regular run of singers, but DAMN I am glad you saw her perform this piece!

-Secret Opera Worker

With this Riccardo, Mariusz Kwiecien’s voice has become strangely coarse since his Giovanni here last season. Someone in the press room—don’t remember who—said that Kwiecien had mentioned modeling himself after mid-century baritone Ettore Bastianini. Follia! Bastianini may have been an exciting singer, but he was not a refined one, and his voice was a size bigger than Kwiecien’s.

Sidenotes: Is my vision going bad, or was that Mariusz sitting next to Speight Jenkins at the matinee? With all those promotional personal introductions going on around them, can we expect a pet baritone in Seattle’s future? And shit, while we’re moving new singers into heavier rep innappropriate for their voices, let’s go ahead and sign him up for Wotan now. Also who was that other fellow who seemed to be following Kwiecien around? I’m can’t say it wasn’t his boyfriend, but there’s a lot of stuff I probably can’t say. Szszszsz!

Lawrence Brownlee takes the insane high F in “Credeasi misera.” It’s not beautiful, but it’s there and it’s real. Curious as to what it sounds like?

Even better, here’s a splice of nine audio recordings (live, mostly) of other tenors going for that F.

And for those audience members who, like me, are in love with Eglise Gutierrez, good news: She’s coming back for Traviata and Lucia. Of course also on the roster for Lucia is Patrizia Ciofi, who’s not horrible. It’ll be interesting to see who gets favored for the main (and broadcast) cast, but I’m pretty sure I know the answer. In any case, I hope Gutierrez decides to slim down in the middle. Oh, come on—I’m talking about the middle of her voice, but I guess nowadays, the other couldn’t hurt.

RSS icon Comments

1

Opera nerds are the kwaziest people.

Posted by michael strangeways | May 13, 2008 2:54 PM
2

v.v.

Posted by what | May 13, 2008 3:00 PM
3

Peace.

Posted by Mr. Poe | May 13, 2008 3:02 PM
4

v.v. = very, very

Posted by Nick | May 13, 2008 3:04 PM
5

you make opera so....intriguing that I buy tix and then end up disappointed. Really fabulous review and then follow-up here. Thx!

Posted by jackseattle | May 13, 2008 3:11 PM
6

@5:

Going to the opera is like thrift store shopping. You know what you're looking for, and sometimes you find it exactly where it should be, and sometimes they have it, but some dumbass has put it on the rack with the dental hygenist scrubs, but you were going that way anyway, so you luck out.

Of course, there are times when they don't have shit for shit.

Posted by Nick | May 13, 2008 3:19 PM
7

seattle opera staff is rife with big ol' closet queens, with mr. jenkins being the biggest queen of all. i used to be a opera volunteer, and i couldn't fathom why these guys couldn't be out to everyone, especially in opera! i ask you!

Posted by scary tyler moore | May 13, 2008 3:57 PM
8

@7:

GURL, after you sang along with the Hojotoho! I played the other night at Slog Happy, I knew I loved you.

Don't get me started with the gayness at Seattle Opera. I've had cast members invite me into their dressing rooms and to after-performance drinks at their apartments.

Someone who'd been in the chorus a long time told me that before I joined, SJ came out to the company. As if that voice needs a coming out speech!

Posted by Nick | May 13, 2008 4:04 PM
9

OK, I watched Jen Graves's posted video of a dog nursing kittens. Then I listened to your clip of 9 tenors chasing an F note. See, this is the kind of quality journalism I expect from Slog.

Posted by MyDogBen | May 13, 2008 7:50 PM
10

Am not certain you are the one, Nick, BUT: a friend of mine and an opera subscriber spoke with you recently. According to him, you said you would be reviewing Eye Puritani for The Stranger. And then he asked me: "Why do you ever expect me to take The Stranger seriously?" If such is the case, I can understand why SP8 might wish to engage you in a thoughtful conversation.

Posted by RHETT ORACLE | May 13, 2008 10:17 PM
11

That certainly was not I, as I speak a million languages and have known this opera inside out since I was 16.

Posted by Nick | May 14, 2008 1:01 AM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).