Double Baroque Trouble

Is the title too Harry Potterish? Ah well, this has been a week of studying languages (Italian and French mostly, I’m kinda running away from the German), talking a lot about opera (I really had a blast at the #operarox live show, really, those people are awesome, they get me! It’s so difficult to find people who are willing to talk about opera nonstop), and watching new stuff (new to me, this stuff is ancient actually).



Sarah Connolly as Cesare and Danielle De Niese as Cleopatra

Well, I’m gonna talk about the two last operas that I saw, Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Monteverdi’s L'incoronazzione de Poppea both productions from the Glyndebourne Opera and also staring Danielle De Niese as the leading lady. What I think is super cool about these baroque operas is that gender isn’t really an issue, I mean, you have women playing man and man playing women and it’s ok. And it works, and that for me is awesome, especially since I came from a very theatrical background where gender sometimes really doesn’t matter.



Danielle De Niese as Poppea

and Alice Coote as Nero

 

Well I automatically feel in love with the two leading couples! I love this more fiery kind of love that both have as opposed to sweet and tender one, I like love with action! Also I think it’s so cool how both ladies start off maybe not really in love with the guys, but then fall helplessly for them (especially Cleopatra, she turns out to be so devoted to Cesare!). And really, I don’t blame them because, those guys are really something! I don’t know if it’s the fact that they are Emperors, they have that power allure, although the power doesn’t attract me, what does it’s the attitude and the posture one has when it has absolute power. Does that even make sense?

Well, I loved both productions, I thought they were very well done, and it was my first time seeing both and they were both staged in a nontraditional setting. But as I’ve said before, these stories live through so many years because they are timeless. So you get it when Cleopatra wears a little black dress to seduce Cesare and then does the victory dance when she’s successful! I absolutely adored the guy who was the lady in waiting for Cleopatra (his character is a guy) so funny, like the sassy gay friend! Who would have thought there were sassy gay friends in Ancient Egypt! Again TIMELESS stuff!

While watching Poppea I made sure my bedroom door was locked, the last thing I needed was my parents walking into one of those spicy scenes. The opera itself kinda shocked me a little bit because I kept going back to something Tony Pappano said in a documentary about Italian opera, that Monteverdi was 70 something years old in the 17^th century holding the most important church musician position when he wrote this opera. And it’s pretty steamy; it’s one of the fieriest things I’ve seen so far in the world of opera.



Danielle De Niese as Cleopatra



I love Danielle De Niesse, I think she’s so fresh and she brings something so hers to the pieces. She’s a very physical performer, which I like very much, she can move, she can dance while singing and that I think adds so much to the whole interpretation of the operas. Sarah Connolly stole my heart as Cesare, she’s one of those women that just KNOW how to play man, she’s got the man swag, and I felt a lot of attraction toward her Cesare, she looked really hot. But to me, you really can't tell that she's a woman in that costume or whenever she plays guys really. Just to be sure, I asked my sister (expert cross-dressing cosplayer that she is) if she looked like a real man or not, and she told me she definitely did. Another mezzo who has got the man swag up her sleeve is Alice Coote who was playing the ever scary Nero (he scares me because he’s kinda like a serial killer). I’ve said before on the Cendrillon post that she is such a marvelous pants role performer and in this that the character is so different from Prince Charmant, she also nails.



Sarah Connolly as Cesare

I particularly like the scene in the second act where Nero is singing a duet with one of his senate companions (I really don’t know who that guy is actually) and they are talking about ruby red lips, delicious, irresistible, and it’s just so sexy! The music, Alice’s face changes with every passing phrase, Nero seems to at first be talking about Poppea’s lips, but then he looks at his fellow differently, and at first it’s an odd feeling for him, but then he kinda surrenders to it and just enjoys singing about the guy’s lips. And then singing about it isn’t enough, he has to kiss him, so he does and it’s a very “hold your breath” moment, he seems to enjoy it and but then he can’t do that, so with all his absolute power and grace he drowns the guy, still singing about the red lips! For me that was unbelievable, it was so intense, I loved it! 

But to me one of the most moving piece of music in Poppea is the final duet, oh God, it's so beautiful and the way they end in unison, they are one! And even though this opera is about power, sex and passion, with that duet it ends up being a piece about love and about two people who adore each other. Even though historically Nero kills Poppea one year after with a kick on her pregnant stomach, but let’s just pretend they lived happily ever after :)



 Alice Coote as Nero

Well, I don’t care about what other people say baroque opera rocks!

Baroque Hercules

Well then, we are doing this hun! Yesterday was pretty busy, even though I didn’t step foot outside my apartment there was never a dull moment. It’s Christmas Eve, yay! The Christmas parties are gonna be in my house, we the people here are going sort of insane. My Christmas wish? To be able to put up the layout I made for this site instead of using this awful layout made by blogger, it’s so cool, it features my 3 favorite opera performers, Juan Diego Florez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato. And Blair Waldorf ‘cause she’s awesome hahaha.  OMG! It's a Christmas miracle! I got to put up the layout, it's not exactly the way I wanted, but it's there at least! New Christmas wish, to be able to watch Drama Queens: Larger Than Life which is so not airing here in Brasil :( You see why I complain so much about this country! Another thing I really wanted to watch was the Tucker Gala, well, I didn't, did I? The best I could do was follow what was happening on twitter, oh life!

Now let’s stop the ranting and get down to some serious business, yesterday I watched my first production of Handel’s Hercules. And since I’m a super fan of Joyce DiDonato’s (you people will notice this from an early stage since I’ll probably mention her in every post) I’ll always prefer to watch the productions that she’s done. Just to make it more organized I’ll put the cast list up.

William Shimell (Hercules)
Joyce DiDonato (Dejanira)
Toby Spence (Hyllus)
Ingela Bohlin (Iole)
Malena Ernman (Lichas)
Simon Kirkbride (Prist of Jupiter)

Orchestre et Choer des Arts Florissants
William Christie (Conductor)

I really liked it, I was very confused at first, since it wasn’t a traditional setting and I didn’t know the story I got a bit puzzled but then I realized something quite ridiculous. I’m a big big fan of these fantasy reality books like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson, I mean BIG time fan, I absolutely love it, my adolescence was practically based on Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings alone. So I’m reading the new Percy Jackson book and there is a part where Jason (a son of Zeus, Jupiter, actually since he’s roman) and Piper (a daughter of Aphrodite) go to this island where Hercules is. And the continuing chapters tell a little bit about Hercules and his wife, and Nessus, and it wasn’t until like the middle of the second act that I made that connection, that I actually knew the story because I had read it in Percy Jackson. And if I’m not mistaken Dejanira kills herself at the end. Now that should have been in the opera, it would have been a KICK ASS aria! Not that “Where Shall I Fly” isn’t kick ass enough, it is. As my singing teacher told me the other day is a awesome mad song ‘cause it’s a mezzo’s mad song, needless to say that my teacher is a mezzo, I’m a soprano, but I agree with her.

Anyways, watching the whole thing I had only already seen Joyce DiDonato, Malena Ernman (in a wonderful production of Dido and Aeneas) and Toby Spence (in Barber of Seville same setting as the wheelchair Barber but with no wheelchair and a darker shade of blonde on Joyce’s head) perform before.

 Something that made me uncomfortable, and please, this is not criticism, I don’t write critics, I prefer to write about the good stuff and that’s it! Anyway, what made me uncomfortable was the sand, the stage was filled with sand, and I’m from a seaside town, so I know how sand can work its way through your clothes and itch endlessly. I actually felt sorry for the guy playing Hercules because he was lying on the sand wearing fake blood, and man, fake blood looks really good, very real, but it feels very gross against the skin, again I speak with experience, I already wore that, and it’s not pleasant. Imagine the fake blood with the sand getting all clingy on your face, and you have to sing and die, kudos for our Hercules, that was heroic.

But the highlight of the opera was without a DOUBT Dejanira’s “Where Shall I Fly?” it was the only aria that I already knew prior to watching this, but it was exquisite, and so awesome to actually understand why she was going crazy! And Joyce goes crazy like no one else! Just superb! The chorus was also really really good, they really did sound as one, and is a passage where they do several subto piano that I got goose pups all over, well very done indeed.