Happy Birthday, Piotr Beczala!

Wow!  Forty-seven years and that Polish tenor doesn't look a day over 30.  What's really weird is that he shares the same birthday as my old friend Paolo.  With his guy-next-door looks and splendid lyrical voice, Piotr Beczala is absolutely perfect for passionate teenager roles and young seducer roles.  I'm serious; he looks like someone I might run into at the supermarket or church.  
    
I don't recall precisely when I first heard of him, but I officially recognized the name in the winter of '09 when he sang the role of Lensky in the Met's previous production of Eugene Onegin.  I was seventeen then.  He made my list of favorites three years ago with his interpretation of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor.  He will be returning to the Met in role of the Prince in Rusalka. 

   Happy Birthday, Piotr Beczala!  

Jonas Kaufmann

I don't remember when precisely I first heard this German tenor, but I do recall I was looking up videos on Juan Diego Florez and came across this video of who were thought to be the sexiest opera singers in the world.  This guy was on there.  I must say when I first heard him I couldn't tell if he was a tenor or a baritone ( I swear, his voice is right on the line between tenor and baritone). 

I really can't say how long it's been since I first heard Jonas Kaufmann sing, although I'd reckon somewhere between three to four years approximately.  I have heard him in such roles as the title role of Parsifal (which my younger brother went to see last season), and saw him live in roles of Siegmund in Die Walküre, and the title role in Faust.  I don't know what possessed him to do so, but he is singing the title role in Massenet's Werther this season (why would anyone even so much as want to do that role?  Werther is a wangsty little dope).  

I have seen his website.  This guy is a very sexy tenor and has a very unique voice.  If you haven't heard or seen him before, you need to fix that.  Pronto.  Just don't watch him in Werther.  Kaufmann is so sexy and talented that he can beat anyone at a singing contest.

Wreck of the DANIEL J MORRELL

On this day in 1966, the ore carrier the Daniel J Morrell was making her final run of the season on Lake Huron.  She was traveling with a sister ship, the Edward Townsend.  Both were very old ships; they were built in 1906, six years before the Titanic, and had the same problem with the steel.  The Great Lakes are very cold and the steel made during the early part of the 20th Century got very brittle in cold water.  In fact, many sailors who had been on her said the Morrell was a rust bucket.  She had been mothballed and only called back into service earlier that year.  
      During the trip on November 26th 1966, a late-autumn storm struck Lake Huron and battered the Morrell and the Townsend.  Watchman Dennis Hale recalls that a loud bang woke him up and knocked the books off his shelf.  The Morrell had been buffeted so badly by the storm that she broke in two on the surface.  Hale grabbed a life jacket and a pea coat and managed to get to a life raft with several other crewmates.  The Morrell's bow sank while her stern continued on for five miles before sinking.  Hale's crewmates gradually succumbed to hypothermia and he huddled under their bodies in order to keep warm.  During his time on the raft, he had an strange experience in which an old man told not to eat the ice chips from his pea coat.  Hale was on the life raft for forty hours before being rescued.  He later found out that he alone had survived the sinking.  He never spoke of the incident for twenty years.  He wrote a book a few years ago called Sole Survivor, about his ordeal on Lake Huron that night.  
       After the Morrell sank, there was a crack found in the hull of the Edward Townsend.  This crack was enough to deem her unseaworthy and she was sold for scrap in Europe.  While she was being towed across the Atlantic, however, the Townsend broke and sank near the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland.  

LEGO LORD OF THE RINGS

Yes, Lord of the Rings finally got its LEGO debut last year.  I used to be a serious die-hard fan of the film trilogy before I was introduced to the vocal abilities of folks like Juan Diego Florez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.  All right, I was an Orlando Bloom fangirl, now I'm a Juan Diego Florez fangirl.  Anyways, I'm getting off track here.  

       This game is awesome on so many levels (please forgive the pun; I did not intend it).  For one thing, it goes beyond just having the usual launch-pad hub level.  As with LEGO Batman: DC Superheros, LEGO LOTR has a much larger explorable hub-level.  And that's an understatement.  You don't launch from home base and explore the city; you go from one end of Middle-Earth to another in this game.  What's really awesome is that the game manages to keep the story epic while at the same time throwing in the goofiness that LEGO is famous for.  
       In order to keep the game co-op friendly, some scenes actually have you fighting alongside other characters when it didn't happen in either the book or the movie.  Example: In the scene where Samwise fights the evil spider Shelob, the Orc captain Shagrat is fighting as well, and can actually wield Sting and the Phial of Galadriel!  
       Instead of gold bricks, you have Mithril bricks, which can be used to make various items, ranging from the logical (Mithril sword) to the interesting (Mithril hairbrush) to the downright funny (Mithril disco phial that plays a dance mix and has colored lights!).  The mini-kits are statues of various places, creature, or objects in Middle-Earth.  Oh, and did I mention that there is actually a treasure list of things you can get during gameplay?  Many of them are items in these various side-quests.  Someone in Middle-Earth needs or wants something, and you either forge it or find it during the game. 

The characters are unlocked in the usual manner, but some require a fair bit of tussling before you can unlock them.  I think one of the hardest to unlock is the Witch King because you have to go to Minas Morgul and fight him in a tight corner.  

The only problem I have with the game is the fact that you can't access the interior of Moria in the hub level, but that might be due the Watcher pulling down the door in it's rage.  There are also issues with trying to reach items in some of the levels.  

If you want epic and funny at the same time, this game is for you.  

ANFSTD

A Martian goes a to a car dealership.  "I want the exterior green, the interior green, and the windows tinted green," he says.  "All right," says the salesman.  The Martian buys the car and takes it home with him.  When he shows it to his wife she says, "I like it, but why that particular color?".  "Flesh tones," he replies. 

*facepalm*

This incident happened seventeen years ago, but it makes you groan nonetheless.  Apparently, there were a couple of guys who were devotees of the Hindu goddess Durga.  Tigers are considered sacred to her; so these two guys entered the tiger pen at a zoo in Calcutta and tried to place a wreath on the animal.  The tiger killed one and mauled the other, causing panic and almost a stampede as well.  

What were these men smoking? 

Dima Stars In RIGOLETTO

Eeyup, you'd better believe it!  Dmitri Hvorostovsky is singing his first Met Rigoletto over the radio in less than three weeks.  Read it for yourself!
      It's a shame that he's not doing it in simulcasted the movie theaters.  He looks so sexy even when he's portraying a deformed hunchback (Squee!). 

The broadcast is on December 7th, 2013, at 11:30. 

TOSCA

 WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!  DO NOT READ IF YOU WISH TO DISCOVER THE STORY FOR YOURSELF!

Two weeks ago saw the performance of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca.  It has practically everything your could ask for in a thriller: Great music, lots of suspense, action, and a fairly sizable body count at the end.  
     This opera is written in the Verismo or Realism style.  That means that the music is not going to go in for a lot of fancy flashes and ornamentation.  Also, Puccini wanted the settings to be real places in Rome; namely the Church of Sant'Andrea della Vale, Farnese Palace (now the French Embassy), and Castel Sant'Angelo.

The story is set during the Napoleonic wars, and revolves around two lovers and a sadistic baron.  Floria Tosca is a passionate actress-singer who lives for the love of the painter Mario Cavaradossi and for art.  She is also very prone to jealousy.  Baron Scarpia takes advantage of this jealousy and captures Cavaradossi.  He then gives Tosca a choice: Unless she consents to sex with Scarpia, her boyfriend dies.  

Act 1 takes place inside the Church of Sant'Andrea della Vale.  The church is a Baroque piece of architecture, so the set was designed accordingly.  Cesare Angelotti, a political prisoner, has escaped from Castel Sant'Angelo and is hides in the chapel.  The sacristan comes in, followed shortly thereafter by Mario Cavaradossi.  Cavaradossi is working on a portrait of Mary Magdalene, using the Marchesa Attavanti (who was praying in the church the day before) as the model.  But no matter what woman he's painting, he is in love with only woman; Floria Tosca.  This production had the sacristan hitting the bottle a little too hard and trying to snag the wine from Cavaradossi's  lunch basket.  It also had the portrait of Mary Magdalene unfinished.  
        The Love Duet was done mostly at the dais.  After Tosca leaves, Cavaradossi talks with Angelotti before the two escape at the sound of the cannon firing; warning that a prisoner has fled.  The sacristan is trying to get the choir boys to relax as they celebrate the Italians' victory in battle, complete with the younger boys fighting with paintbrushes.  The Moment Scarpia entered, however, all the cheer just left the room.  This production gave his two henchmen, Spoletta and Sciarrone, an eye patch and a limp respectively (playing up the evil henchmen archetype from the old melodramas).  He plays upon Tosca's jealousy by brandishing the fan left by the Marchesa Attavanti.  Angelotti clearly forgot it in his haste to escape.  Tosca, when she says to the portrait "You will not have him, tonight!", throws the fan at it.  And meanwhile the church is beginning to fill with worshipers.  As Tosca leaves, Scarpia sings about how he'll kill her lover and take her as his own.  As the Mass continues, Scarpia exaggeratedly tries to look pious.  

Act 2 had Scarpia's apartment very sparsely furnished, with a writing desk in the upper left, a fainting couch in the center (no doubt where he rapes women), and his dining table on the right.  He sings about how he prefers to violently conquer women rather than be gentle about it.  And all this while he's relaxing on his fainting couch!  It was as if he plots evil deeds while washing his face in the morning!  Tosca is singing in a new cantata just outside.  Scarpia first interrogates Cavaradossi until Tosca enters.  He then tortures Cavaradossi and Tosca simultaneously; he uses the physical torture on Cavaradossi as psychological torture for Tosca.  Finally, unable to take it much longer, Tosca blurts out Angelotti's hiding place.  Naturally when Cavaradossi finds out he's incredibly ticked; but this is interrupted when Sciarrone enters with bad news: the news of the victory at Marengo was premature.  The French have won the battle.  Cavaradossi struggles to get to his feet as he gloats over the sudden turn of events.  He is taken away. 
       Then Scarpia offers Tosca his deal: If she will consent to sex with him, he will let her lover free.  He even tries to rape her right then and there, taunting her when they here the drums outside.  Tosca is horrified and begins praying, asking God why this has come to pass.  Spoletta enters and reports that Angelotti committed suicide rather than be captured.  Tosca then nods her consent to Scapria, who says that Cavaradossi will be shot in a mock execution like one Count Palmieri before him.  Tosca then asks for a pass out of the country.  But while he's writing the safe conduct, Tosca notices a knife on the table.  She decides to kill him rather than let him rape her.  In this production, she hid the knife behind her back.  Scarpia rolled up his sleeves as he approached her and just as he takes her in his arms, that's when she stabs him to death.  After she kills him, she riffles through the papers on the writing desk, looking for the paper.  She finds it his hand, and then leaves.  

Act 3 took place on the ramparts of Castel Sant'Angelo.  Guards paced the scene as they did their patrol.  The sun was rising and in the distance was Saint Peter's Basilica. In the distance is heard the voice of a shepherd boy.   This was one of Puccini's dramatic devices.  He would put in a brief irrelevant tune of someone just going about their own day-to-day business as a way to highlight the drama that's taking place onstage.  The jailer (played by the manager of the Life 102.5 radio station in this production), had his little desk off to the on which was his lantern and a single piece of paper.  Cavaradossi entered, his hands bound and still bloody from the torture he endured.  He asks the jailer for permission to write a final letter to Tosca.  The jailer allows him (naturally).  Cavaradossi starts writing a few lines and then becomes overwhelmed with emotion as he recalls a tryst he had with Tosca.  Tosca rushes in with the safe conduct and tells of her ordeal with Scarpia.  Cavaradossi praises the hands that committed murder for his sake.  Although I'd heard it before, hearing it live was slightly jarring.  They sing of what they think is a happy future awaiting them.  Tosca coaches Cavaradossi on how to fall after tellng him what Scarpia told her.  The jailer says it's time and Cavaradossi prepares for the supposedly fake execution.  The soldiers fire their guns and Cavaradossi falls.  In this production he fell to his knees before hitting the ground completely.  After the men leave, Tosca goes to rouse him, only to find that Scarpia's promise was a lie: The supposedly fake execution was real.  Spoletta and the soldiers go to arrest Tosca, with one soldier aiming his gun at her.  She falls backwards to her death off the ramparts into the river Tiber after challenging Scarpia to meet her before God.  Translation: "Let God decide which one of us is the bigger sinner!".  

The soprano never wavered in her performance.  Neither did the baritone.  The tenor started out kind of weak in the fist act, but reached perfection in the final act.  I hope Madison opera does this one again. 

EPIC RANT

This is my response to being told that I couldn't enter Freakfest on Saturday because the turnkey that was the gimmick of my wind-up doll costume "could be used as a weapon".

Yes, I was singing this on my way back to the car. 

ANFSTD

A man is sitting in a restaurant and he hears someone say to him, "Hey, that's a nice tie you got there!".  The man starts, looks around and sees nobody talking to him, so he brushes it off.  A few minutes later, he hears a voice again, this time saying, "I love your jacket!".  The man looks around again and sees no one speaking to him.  Still later he hears yet another voice saying to him, "I like your hair!".  The man is so sure that he is hallucinating by this point.  So he turns to the waiter and asks him, "Who keeps talking to me?".  "Oh," the waiter says, "it's the peanuts.  They're complimentary." 

EUGENE ONEGIN Review

I said I would do this, so I will.  I must say, however, that I do not have the discerning eyes and ears of a successful theater critic, so what I say here is simply my opinion of the performance.  

The opera Eugene Onegin centers around the encounter between the country girl Tatyana Larina, and the bored city sophisticate Eugene Onegin.  Tatyana, a shy quiet seventeen-year-old who lives in the world of her romantic novels, falls for the handsome stranger Onegin and writes him a love letter.  Unfortunately for her, Onegin is very self-centered doesn't let her down easy.  His selfish behavior and attitude lead to even more trouble for Tatyana and especially for him, finally coming to a head when he himself falls for Tatyana six years later.  By then she has been married an aristocratic older man who loves her to insanity.  Onegin tries to get Tatyana to run away with him, but she tells him that while she still loves him, she cannot and will not abandon her husband and her duties.  She leaves Onegin to his despair as the curtain falls.  

I have seen women in the role of Tatyana before, but Anna Netrebko was the first soprano who actually looked like she was seventeen.  She also really brought out Tatyana's shyness and love of fantasy really well.  I had never seen a production of Eugene Onegin that had Tatyana getting sensory overload at her own birthday party.
   In the Letter Scene Tatyana writes her letter to Onegin.  Netrebko's best performance was in this scene.  The shy girl who was pensively reading her novels in the first scene was now flushed with a nervous teenage passion for Onegin.  She kept pausing frequently, wondering if she should continue writing or call it off.  She thrashed, she rolled on the floor, she went through several sheets of paper before she was satisfied with what she had. 

Mariusz Kwieciens very new Onegin for me.  I'm more used to the indifferent aloofness that I saw in Dima's and Hyung Yun's portrayals of Onegin.  Kwiecien's interpretation was more of the smooth-talking bad boy variety (probably having something to do with his numerous portrayals of the title role in Don Giovanni).  Perhaps his best scenes were at the end of Act 1 and all of Act 3.  In his aria in Act 1, Kwiecien strutted around snagging an apple in the process.  He was very stiff in that scene, but that was pretty much the point.  What I loved best was just how he brought out Onegin's treating Tatyana like a five-year-old, right down to the chin chuck as he kissed her.  
           His Act 3 performance was also a major highlight.  When I saw either Dima or Hyung Yun do the role, they just stood brooding while the Polonaise played.  Although in those cases, it had to do with the fact that both those productions fused Acts 2 and 3 together.  
Kwiecien came onstage during the Polonaise and he was piling on the champagne.  When he sings his arietta at the end of the scene, he was thrashing on the floor just like Tatyana had been doing in her Letter Scene, but this time alcohol was involved, so it looked way more careless and wobbly than it did passionate.  This same disordered way of moving was also present in the final scene with Tatyana. 

Piotr Beczala as Vladimir Lensky?  (SQUEE!) I had only seen one of his more naive romantic roles and that was Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon.  Beczala brought out the romantic naivete of the young poet who also has an unfortunate little habit of jumping to conclusions without a bungee cord.  No where was this more evident than in Act 2, first when he assumes that Olga no longer loves him, and then in the Duel Scene when he laments his actions almost as if he knows he's going to die.  And both he and Onegin are too proud to call the duel off.  

The other character I'd like to speak of is Gremin.   I forget the name of the bass who sang him, but his portrayal was something else.  the character was aged down in this production to around forty-something instead of sixty-something.  This was the first time I had even seen Gremin actually sing part of his aria to Tatyana.  He's not the exotic charmer that Onegin is, but he honest and kind, and that I think is what keeps Tatyana from leaving him at the end of the opera.  I think the bass brought out that kindness and honesty very well.  

There was only one weak point in the opera and that was the Peasants' Dance.  I don't get it; instead of the traditional circle dances, they had the dance rendered as four guys chasing one girl.  Eh?  Do you care to explain that Deborah Warner?  It did not fit at all.  Where did you even get the idea in the first place?  It's supposed to a rustic harvest dance, not a Frat-Boys-Harassing-A-Girl moment!  

I hope that the Met does this again.  And can they please come up with something traditional for the Peasant's Dance? 

Dima Turns 51 Tomorrow!

I can't believe it.  Dmitri Hvorostovsky is more than half a century old is still sexy hot with an even hotter voice.  He just keeps on getting better and better.

I remember when I first heard him.  My mom and I were driving home from the Arlington Tack Sale and we were listening to the opera.  The opera was Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.  It was the first time I had even heard of an opera by the same man who did my favorite ballet (The Nutcracker for those of you who don't know).  It was Dmitri Hvorostovsky who was singing the title role, although I didn't quite fully know who he was at the time*.  I did, however, recognize Renee Flemming.  It wasn't until about a couple years ago, that I started fully appreciating Dima's talent.  And now look!  I think he's the hottest most talented  baritone ever to come out of Russia.  
 And so Happy Birthday, Dmitri Hvorostovsky!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*And I was still obsessing over Orlando Bloom, who by the way, doesn't even come close to matching Dima when it comes to talent or looks. 

EUGENE ONEGIN: A Comparison Of The Two Productions I saw Live

 WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!  IF YOU WISH TO FIND OUT THE STORY FOR YOURSELF, DO NOT CONTINUE ANY FURTHER!

For my mother's birthday today, I decided to take her to the opera.  It was a new Metropolitan Opera production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's most famous opera Eugene Onegin.  I have already written about the full plot line of the opera, but since this was my second time seeing it live (abiet simulcasted in movie theater), I figured I'd compare and contrast the Madison Opera production, and the new Met production. 

First of all, how are they similar?  Here's one: The chorus in Act 3 were wearing mostly the same colors.  The idea is that high society, while opulent and glamorous, is ultimately pointless.  And the clothes reflect that.  The aging Prince Gremin says that the reason he married Tatyana in the first place was because she was different from all the phonies he's surrounded by all the time.  Tatyana doesn't play all the social games that are associated with the aristocracy; thus she is a breath of fresh air for Gremin. 
         Secondly, the baritones who sang the role of Onegin were very good, not to mention utterly sexy.  I was up in the nosebleed section at the Overture Center in Madison when I saw this two Novembers ago, so it was a little hard to see Hyung Yun's face.  Nonetheless, I was still able to see how he portrayed Onegin, especially in the duel scene and the final act.  I thought Yun did a splendid job showing the effects of Onegin's self-centered behavior. Mariusz Kwiecien, who has performed the role of Onegin throughout Europe, also brought out Onegin's selfish and entitled attitude towards life.  
Heck, both productions featured amazingly talented performers.  I don't think there's any sort of difference in quality between Maria Kanyova's Tatyana and Anna Netrebko's interpretation of the role.  And both productions had Vladamir Lensky wearing glasses, though in the one I saw today, he only put them on to read and to duel. 
        Third off and finally, both had birch trees on the Larin estate.  I don't know if that particular species is common in Russia, or if it was easy to draw.  Whatever the reason, both had birch trees.  

Now on to the differences, of which their are many.  I will only mention three very notable ones.  

Number 1: The setting was updated from the 1820'whatever to 1890 for the simulcast production.  The sets were extremely spacious given the fact that it is Tchaikovsky opera; if you'll recall, Tchaikovsky was the premier writer of dance music is Russian musical history (seriously, is there a single ballet company in the Western Hemisphere that does not perform The Nutcracker every Christmas?).  The clothes were all from the Victorian period in history. 

Number 2: Tatyana's birthday party is always done differently, but usually productions feature nonstop dancing throughout the waltz sequence.  The production at Overture Center had people sitting at tables, dancing, feasting, that sort of thing.  The Met production opened Act 2 with Tatyana and her neighbors reenacting the martyrdom of Saint Tatiana of Rome,* then onto some dancing. 
       Also, Mousier Triquet, usually short and plump(ish), was tall, skinny, and very awkward.  I'm guessing the tenor had some sort of leg injury because they used a brace as part of the costume (the director could have also planned to have Triquet walk with a slight limp).  You know, short and fat or tall and skinny, Mousier Triquet is always portrayed as incredibly over the top and ridiculous.  
      This production put a twist on Lensky's challenging Onegin to a duel.  The Madison Opera production did the usual Throw-Down-The-Glove-When-You-Challenge-Someone-To-A-Duel business with Madame Larina picking up the glove when she begs the two men not to fight in her house.  In the Met production, Lensky threw down his poetry book as the challenge. Onegin did not pick it up,but accepted Lensky's challenge (can someone please explain why they used hunting rifles for Duel Scene rather than pistols?).  

Number 3: The final scene was way different in that the Met production set the scene just outside the palace instead of Tatyana's boudoir.  In this scene, Onegin, who spent much of the previous scene drinking, came onstage and threw himself at Tatyana's feet.  He was much more disheveled than in most productions.  Hyung Yun's portrayal showed an impulsive young man who was still in control of his senses when he tried to get Tatyana to run away with him.  So that was very interesting.  

I would like to say a few words about Mariusz Kweicien's portrayal of Onegin, and Anna Netrebko's portrayal of Tatyana.  In her letter scene, Tatyana thrashes about when she thinks about her passion for Onegin and whether or not she should write her letter to him.  She is an impulsive teenager, but she is also very much honest in her confession.  In Act 3, after Tatyana has been married to Prince Gremin, Onegin finds himself besotted by the woman, and thrashes about the same way Tatyana did, except that he's been drinking quite a bit and so his thrashing looks a lot more like it's from clumsiness rather than from excited passion.  
        In the scene where he gives Tatyana his famous lecture, he snarfs an apple from a crate of produce that the peasant women brought in.  He also condescendingly kisses Tatyana on the mouth before he leaves.  Kwiecien said in the interview following Act 1 that Onegin kisses Tatyana because she is a beautiful girl and he can't resist lovely women (he was also still eating the apple he took from the crate).  In the final scene, just before she leaves him forever, Tatyana kisses Onegin on the mouth as well.  But this time around she's saying, "I still love you, but I'm not leaving my husband."  

I would also like to indulge in a fangirl moment.  Piotr Beczala as Lensky--I just can't say enough about him.  He was so darn hot with those nerd glasses he had for the role.  He splendidly captured the eighteen-year-old poet's wide-eyed romantic idealism and and impulsive jealousy, not to mention a very well performed death scene at the end of Act 2.  And Mariusz Kwiecien, even he can make a stuck-up, self-absorbed jerk who thinks the world exists solely for his own personal entertainment look awesome.  

Special mention goes to mezzo-soprano Elena Zaremba who was our Madame Larina this season.  Last time she sang Eugene Onegin at the Met back in '07, she sang the role of Tatyana's sister Olga.  And Okasna Volkova was perfect as Olga this year.

The folks at the Met have said that Eugene Onegin a tragedy of  mistimed love.  That is not correct.  Instead the tragedy stems from a rich young man's It's-All-About-Me attitude toward life and toward other people.  Even by the final scene he has still not learned his lesson and tries to make Tatyana throw away her respectability and her marriage for him.  Why?  Because it's all about him he thinks.  It has nothing to do with timing.  

For more information about the Madison opera production, read the post from November 2011.  A review of the Met performance is next. 
  _______________________________________________________________________  *Actually, I didn't even know that the Russian Orthodox Church had feast days for saints.  I thought that was strictly a Catholic trademark!

GENISIS: It's Not About The How, It's The Who

Ah, Genesis.  I don't think there's another book in the Bible that is so hotly (and unnecessarily) debated as this one is.  People argue about whether the Bible is talking about six literal days of creation or millions upon millions of years.  And meanwhile the whole point of Genesis gets trampled underfoot and completely ignored.  

Stop.  Just stop.  Back up and start over.  

What do we read when we first start Genesis chapter 1?  "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."  There.  It's right there in the first few words of the Bible.  "In the beginning, God...." it's right there in front of your nose.  God is in the beginning creation.  Continue reading and you see a pattern: And God said..., And God said..., And God said..., it's the same pattern.  It's all about God.  Read the Psalms; they talk a lot about praising God for what He has made.  "When I consider the work of Your hands...,"  that's what God want to hear.  

Reading about the Creation in the Bible should inspire praise to God.  The same goes for reading about the millions of years of Earth's geological history.  It's about who, not how. 




 

Brain Teaser: It's Hard Being The Best

Has anyone ever noticed that every time someone is the best in a story, something bad almost always seems to happen?  No, I'm serious; it seems to be so dang common that there's always trouble when somebody is the best.  Whether it's the fairest maiden, the strongest man, the smartest nerd, etc., trouble seems to be brewing around these guys. 

Why is this such a popular conflict?  Post your answers in the comments. 

THRONE OF BLOOD: MACBETH Recycled In Feudal Japan

 WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!  IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE THE PLOT SPOILED FOR YOU, DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS POST.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies and one of the bloodiest (the other one being Titus Andronicus).  In 1957 Akira Kurosawa recycled the play in Feudal Japan.  

The plot is straightforward enough: Generals Washizu (Macbeth) and Miki (Banquo) work the Lord of Spider's Web Castle (King Duncan).  While returning home victorious from battle they encounter a strange spirit in the forest.  She tells Washizu that he will become Lord of Spider's Web Castle and Miki that his son will become Lord of the castle.  Egged on by his ambitious wife Asaji (Lady Macbeth), Washizu kills the lord and succeeds him.  When Miki stands in the way of his plans, Washizu has him killed.  And it all goes downhill from there.  

There were three things I found very nice and I will give them in chronological order.  Washizu has just murdered the lord and comes in clutching the bloody spear in his hands.  He is frozen with fear and horror and Asaji pries the spear out of his hands and plants on the guards whom she has drugged.  I half expected Asaji to say out loud "Infirm of purpose.  Give me the daggers!", or at least something along those lines.  But neither of them said any word.  And Washizu just stares at his hands as if saying "What hands are here?  Ha!  They pluck out mine eyes.  Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood from my hand?  No, this hand would rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red."  And then Asaji runs through the courtyard crying "Murder!".  

The second one was Washizu having had Miki killed and is currently at a banquet.  He is drinking copious amounts of wine.  He looks over at Miki's vacant mat and suddenly he sees the dead man's ghost.  He is terrified and inadvertently blurts out his crime by saying he would kill him again.  Asaji tried to make up for this by saying that he has had too much to drink.  

 Third one involves Washizu returning to see the spirit who says that only when Spider's Web Forest rises up against him will he be defeated.  In other words, "Macbeth shall ne'r vanquished be until great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him."  And guess what happens?  The forest comes against him.  Not to mention that Asaji goes mad and starts washing her hands trying to remove what she thinks to be the smell of blood.  

The only problem I had with the DVD is that the subtitles weren't all that great.  They were not translated very well and the sentences came out weird.  It wasn't as bad as Zero Wing, however.

This film is definitely a must-see for anyone who loves Shakespeare adaptations.  Oh, and did I mention that the spirit was played by a man?  No doubt a reference to Banquo's comment on the witchs' appearance: "You should be women but your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so." 

IOLANTHE, OR THE PEER AND THE PERI

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!  IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW THE ENDING AHEAD OF TIME, DON'T PROCEED ANY FURTHER!

Friday night was the first performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's satire of the House of Peers and British law Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri.  The cast was small as Iolanthe is not particularly well known among people of my generation.  

I will try to keep this as brief as possible: Years ago, the fairy Iolanthe committed the capital offense of marrying a mortal.  The Fairy Queen was a very close friend of hers, however, so she banished Iolanthe instead on the grounds that Iolanthe never speak to her husband again.  The fairies persuade the Queen to pardon Iolanthe and let her return, which she does.  Iolanthe comes back and reveals that she has a half-fairy, half-mortal hybrid son named Strephon.  He is in love with Phyllis, a ward in the House of Chancery.  She is unaware of his mixed origin.  And to make matters worse, Iolanthe, like all the other fairies, looks like a girl of seventeen.  And to make matters even more worse, Phyllis is also courted by the entire House of Peers.  The Lord Chancellor himself wants Phyllis for his own, so he refuses to let Strephon marry the girl.  Phyllis calls off the engagement when she sees Strephon with his immortally young mother.  But Strephon calls on the fairies to help him and they send him into Parliament and cast a spell making the Peers pass any bills that Strephon may introduce.  

Act 2 opens with guardsman Private Willis singing about politics.  The fairies have fallen in love with the Peers (much to the Queen's chagrin), but it is too late to stop Strephon.  Phyllis finds herself unable to choose which Peer she wants to marry, Lord Tolloller Lord Mountararat.  The two lords find it unbearable as according to family tradition, they must duel to the death if one of them is to marry.  Both renounce Phyllis in the name of friendship.  Meanwhile, the Lord Chancellor has had a sleepless night and finally resolves to marry Phyllis himself.  Finally, Strephon reveals his mixed origin to Phyllis and the two resolve to get married.  Iolanthe welcomes Phyllis as her daughter-in-law, and then reveals that the Lord Chancellor is her husband.  She goes to him and reveals herself to him after twenty-five years, and willingly accepts the death penalty.  But then all the other fairies have married the peers and so all must be put to death.  The Lord Chancellor offers to rewrite the law so that every fairy that does not marry a mortal must die.  The Queen agrees and marries Private Willis (whom she herself has been attracted to).  The mortals all turn into fairies and everyone lives happily ever after.  

The women's chorus looked very young, but then again part of the plot revolves around the fairies looking no older than seventeen. 
 The best gag in the whole performance was this oversize book of the British law which only the Lord Chancellor (played by a small slender baritone), could carry.  Anyone else collapsed under the weight, even a really tall Peer.  In the scene where the Lord Chancellor sings about when her first went to the bar (which means when he first started his legal career), he thrusts the book in Strephon's lap.  When he closed the book it threw up a cloud of dust that made Strephon sneeze (does anyone remember that old chestnut?).  

 I will that that the Queen especially was a little quiet for the role, but was fun nonetheless.  They could have done a better job with the projection in general though. 

There are still three performances left.  If you can, go to the Music Hall in Madison. 

RAN: KING LEAR in Japan

Ah, King Lear.  One of the best tragedies ever written by William Shakespeare.  This timeless tale of a king who misjudges his children's love for him has been performed and adapted over and over again.  This one, Ran (Japanese for rebellion) by filmaker Akiro Kurosawa, resets the story in Feudal Japan.  Instead of a king, Lear is a daimyo.  The three daughter are replaced with three sons, and the character of the bastard Edmund is also gender-flipped in the role of the scheming and vengeful woman Lady Kaede.  

The plot is as follows: The aging warlord Hidetora Ichimonji decides to hand over the reigns to his threes sons Taro (Goneril), Jiro (Regan), and Saburo (Cordelia).  As in the original play, Taro and Jiro flatter their father, whereas Saburo refuses to and disagrees with his father's plan.  For that he banished along with Lord Tango (Earl of Kent) when the latter defends him.  After that, Taro and Jiro wage war upon each other, sending Hidetora into madness, and the kingdom into destruction.  

What was really striking was Lady Kaede, Jiro, and Kurogane.  While Hidetora didn't quite cover himself with glory when he killed Kaede's family in a previous war, it is clear that she only cares about herself.  It is unclear as to whether Lady Sue is related to her or not, but Kaede is willing to use and kill innocent people for her own gain.  Jiro, like Regan, proves spineless and just goes along with what anyone says, whether it be Taro or Kaede.  Kurogane (who you could say might represent Goneril's husband the Duke of Albany), may be no stranger to killings and assassination, outright refuses to just kill someone on a whim, and when he finds out that someone acting on Kaede's orders had murdered someone in cold blood, he's furious.

The only bad part of this film is the director's belief in pessimism.  Not that it makes the movie any bad, but Kurosawa could have turned the pessimism down a few notches. 

This movie is a must see for anyone who likes Shakespeare adaptations of any sort. 

Boy, That's A Let-Down!

In order to get some ideas for my Menu Planning assignment, I'm looking at examples of restaurant menus.  There's a Chinese food menu that has the list all the traditional Chinese dishes and whatnot.  What's in the, kids' menu part of it?  Burgers, fries, hot dogs, all the basic generic stuff.  While I understand how picky kids are about their food, having an American style cheeseburger on a Chinese menu still doesn't fly.  Are there any traditional Chinese foods that can be put on the menu so that it doesn't look out of place? 

ANFSTD

A blonde Unitarian lawyer walks into a bar to change a light bulb.  "Please," says the bartender, "make up your mind what kind of a joke this is!". 

Russian Folk Festival

This festival in Token Creek Park is smaller than Greekfest in Madison, but is fun nonetheless.  There is not to say about this except that it is held one a year in June and is based around the old Russian summer celebration.  

My younger brother and I went to this small fair yesterday.  I made a wreath at a small work table where they were doing that, and I lived dangerously and tried some traditional Russian food potato pies.  This was the first time I actually heard people conversing in Russian.  And what was the best part was simply getting to know some Russian people.  

If you want to go next year, do so.  It's more for getting to know people and enjoying their company.  

Nopony Messes With Our Derpy!

I know this happened last year, but I'm still really ticked at how people handled the appearance of the popular background pony known as Derpy Hooves when she appeared in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season two episode, The Last Roundup.  Hasbro altered her voice in later installations because they thought it was offensive.  I don't care that people thought that her clumsiness and Rainbow Dash's frustration with her was offensive to so-called "mentally challenged" people.  A someone with a learning disability, I can relate to Derpy.  I have had people get frustrated with me due to quirks related to my AS.  So I understand Derpy, and no, she's not used as the butt of stupid jokes.  So why should people get their knickers in a twist over what they saw initially when The Last Roundup first premiered?  She's our Derpy, so don't you muck with her like that!  
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In regards to altering Derpy's voice, I don't anyone could have said it better than Rainbow Dash and Rarity.

Robin Shou

I have become a serious fan of the two Mortal Kombat films from the Nineties (yes I know people don't like the second one, but please don't act like I'm an idiot for liking it).  This was the first time I heard of this Hong Kong martial artist by the name of Robin Shou.  He's a great actor and amazing Wushu martial artist.  I just don't know why he doesn't he appear more often.  I don't care that the Mortal Kombat films weren't all that great; Shou is still a superb actor.  I would love to see more of him, and in major roles at that.  And it would also be so cool if this guy could do something here in the Madison area.  

I have seen his website.  And I would like to see him play against type and do such roles as Cyrano, Macduff, or even Oberon.  Now that would be something. Oh, and how the hey did he pull off Liu Kang's trademark Bicycle Kick in the first Mortal Kombat film?

MADAME BOVARY: What Happens When The Ideal And The Real Collide

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!  IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW THE ENDING YET, DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER!

Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's famous novel about a young woman who believes that life is like a romance novel and lands herself in so much trouble because of it.  When the novel first cam out, Flaubert was put on trial for offending public morality.  I guess it became a classic simply because of the juxtaposition of the heroine's romantic expectations and the reality of how the things actually work out.  And she pays quite a hefty price in the end--literally.  

The story takes place in Normandy in Northern France.  Emma is the daughter of a well-off farmer who spend her time reading romantic novels.  She is courted by and then marries Charles Bovary, a kindly-but-stupid country doctor based in what is now known as Tôtes.  Considering married provincial life dull, boring, and beyond lame, Emma soon grows tired of her husband's company.  After they attend a ball hosted by a Marquis, Emma's yearning for the romantic and luxurious life really begins to take off.  She starts becoming morose and irritable, leading Charles to believe she needs a change of scenery.  They move to the town of Yonville, which Emma also finds dull.  Some time later she gives birth to a daughter, Berthe, and decides that motherhood is also boring.
            Emma later meets a young student named Léon, who shares her love for "the finer things in life".  They start courting in secret until Léon has to leave for Paris to go into legal studies.  Then Rodolphe, a rakish landowner lays his eyes on Emma and decides to woo her himself, and Emma throws herself into the affair, body and soul.  Meanwhile she starts buying a lot of expensive clothes, jewelry, and whatnot on credit.  
            After four years of illicit love, Emma asks Rodolphe to elope with her.  But Rodolphe is worries about Emma's increasing recklessness and willingness to compromise herself.  He writes her a self-excusing letter, ending their relationship.  Emma is devastated and falls gravely ill and turns briefly to religion. When she is nearly recovered, Charles takes her to the opera where she again encounters Léon.  The two start their affair in earnest this time, with Emma lying to her husband regarding her whereabouts.  The affair is passionate, but Léon soon becomes bored with the matter and Emma becomes ambivalent about him.  Meanwhile, Emma continues to be a spendthrift.  
     When the time comes to collect the payment, Emma has racked up 8,000 francs worth of debt.  Panicked at the news, she tries asking for money from various people, including Rodolphe and Léon, only to be turned down.  In despair, she swallows arsenic hoping it would a quick death; even the romance of suicide fails her and she dies in appalling agony.  Poor Charles, being as stupid as he was, never even suspected that Emma was unfaithful to him until some time after she's dead when he finds her letters to Rodolphe and Léon.  He becomes reclusive and dies, leaving little Berthe in the care of elderly relatives, and eventually being sent to work in a cotton mill.  

The main theme focuses on Emma's selfishness and refusal to accept reality.  She stopped maturing mentally and emotionally as a teenager at the convent.  She has not cultivated discernment, so she doesn't even bother to think about whether Charles is a good match or not before she gets married.  She has inbibed so much from the novels she reads that she doesn't think to see life any other way.  In fact, she would rather live in a book than in the real world.  The problem is simply that fact that it's impossible to live in a book where everything is all written out and people get what they want or have coming.  And Emma refuses to see this.  
       She longs for the illusion, the emotion, the luxurious.  To her, happiness and love come in a bejeweled case lined with silk.  An ideal location is a luxurious boudoir on a soft feather bed with satin sheets, or a moonlit balcony on a summer night.  An ideal mate is an aristocrat with money practically growing in his backyard.  None of these ideas match her provincial surroundings, nor does it resemble anything she would likely have.  And Emma refuses to accept this.  
          Emma's desire for the rich and romantic is further fueled when she and Charles attend the Marquis's ball.  She sees all the splendor that she dreams of; the music, the clothes, the jewels, handsome rich men, everything she wants is there.  But it is unavailable to her, and she stills tries to attain it.  She does it by taking advantage of Charles's low IQ and lack of jealousy by lying to him.  She spends his money like a proud baroness, and tries to postpone her debts, only to find that her spendthrift ways have put her and those around her in jeopardy. 
          Her two adulterous affairs revolve around her trying to find the romantic ideal man she yearns for.  She first tries and affair with Léon, a young student.  He to likes romantic tales of love and passion just as much she does.  But he soon has to leave.  Emma then falls in love the wealthy Rodolphe, who seems to have everything she longs for.  Their love lasts for four years.  But he's not as into her as she is into him.  Rodolphe sees her as just another in a long line of mistresses; Emma sees him as the perfect ideal lover she has always dreamed of.  Although he is a Casanova, Rodolphe knows that Emma is married and has a little daughter.  He ends the relationship because he is afraid he will ruin her.  This devastates Emma who wants to get out of her reality and escape into fantasy.  There is also the fact that Emma thinks she's found a duke, count, or some other nobleman.  Rodolph is a country landowner, not that high up the social ladder.
        Emma's romantic ideas are repeatedly smashed throughout the story, and her refusal to be content with what she's got culminate in her committing suicide.  Hoping to die a romantic death, she swallows arsenic and expects the end to take come quickly.  Unfortunately, arsenic does not kill that quickly, and Emma suffers from horrible illness before finally succumbing.  In short, all the romantic ideas that Emma had fail her even in death.  

Madame Bovary is a must-read not only because of such a well-constructed ideal-collides-with-the-real storyline, but also because of Gustave Flaubert's style of writing.  His is a prime example of purple prose done right.  Why do I say that?  Because Flaubert knew how to make it work.  He understood how to use it to convey emotion or describe a scene.  Most importantly, he knew when to use it.  And knowing when to use purple prose is very important when writing a good dramatic story.  

Get this book at your library, or buy your own copy.  Either way, you'll enjoy it.  

GIULIO CESARE: Handelian Eye Candy And Anachronism Stews

Why the heck does Ptolemy look like John Wilkes Booth?  

That's only one of the many questions I have for Sir David McVicar, the man who directed the new Met Production of G. F. Handel's Giulio Cesare, which I saw on Wednesday.  It was a fun Anachronism Stew of British Imperialism, Asian-ish dancing, and sleazy bad guys who for some reason resemble notorious American traitors.  American countertenor David Daniels sang the the title role of Julius Caesar.  French soprano Natalie Dessay, who appeared last season in the title role of La Traviata, sang the role of the alluring Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt.  Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, who I last saw and Hansel in Humperdink's Hansel and Gretal back in '08, sang the trouser role of Pompey's son Sextus.  And contralto Patricia Bardon was Pompey's widow Cornelia.  On top of all that there was Christophe Dumaux Ptolemy and baritone Guido Loconsolo as Achilla.  

The story centers around Caesar and Cleopatra's encounter in 47 B.C., albeit a highly idealized version of the event.  Seventeen-year-old Cleopatra seduces and wins the fifty two-year-old Julius Caesar in order to help her overthrow her brother Ptolemy, with whom she is vying for the the throne of Egypt.  On top of that, Sextus and his mother Cornelia want revenge for Ptolemy's wanton killing of Pompey after Caesar defeated him.  

Act 1 was all about Cleopatra's struggle with her brother Ptolemy for the throne of Egypt and her plan to seduce Caesar over to her side.  Sextus and Cornelia plan their revenge on Ptolemy for killing Pompey, all the while Ptolemy is trying to take the throne and his mook Achilla wants Cornelia for himself.  Cleopatra disguises herself as a handmaiden and comes to find Caesar and the two almost immediately fall in love.  Ptolemy makes both Sextus and Cornelia his prisoners and separates the two, adding Cornelia to his harem.  

Act 2 follows Cleopatra's continuing seduction of Caesar (he still doesn't know her identity), and Sextus and Cornelia's continuing plan for revenge.  Caesar and Cleopatra are about to make love when news comes to him that his enemies are conspiring against him.  Cleopatra reveals her real identity and vows to help Caesar.  He says he fears nothing and runs off to battle.  

Act 3 sees the downfall of Ptolemy and Cleopatra's ascent to power.  Achilla, furious that Ptolemy won't let him have Cornelia, switches allegiance and is killed in battle.  Caesar is believed to have died but in fact survived his encounter with the assassins.  Cleopatra has been captured after summoning Caesar's army and resolves to take her own life, but is stopped just in time by Caesar's arrival.  Sextus kills Ptolemy and Caesar names Cleopatra the sole ruler of Egypt.  

David Daniels was stunning (both in talent and in looks) in the role of Julius Caesar.  His head seemed to wobble just a bit when he sang, but then again he does that a lot.  And Dessay was also great, especially in her first aria of Act 2.  The way she entered for the aria was taken right from a story floating around at that time that Cleopatra rolled herself up in a rug and was thus brought to Caesar.  It's a good thing she was wearing a flesh-colored tank top underneath her rhinestone bikini top, otherwise her costume would have been listed as NSFB*.  What I was expecting but still found surprising was the dancing.  They had six dancers, two of them were with Dessay at all times as they were doing double duty as both dancers and handmaidens.  Dessay did quite a bit of dancing herself.  There were at least three arias that involved her dancing with her two handmaidens. 
      I hadn't seen Alice Coote since I was sixteen, so I almost didn't recognize her at first.  The way she portrayed Pompey's dutiful son was just amazing.  And I can't forget Patricia Bardon as Cornelia.  She brought out the character of the grieving widow in search of vengeance very well. 

If there was one major issue in the opera, it came in Act 3 after Caesar sings his big aria from that act, the men who were lying around dead suddenly come back to life and follow him to victory (except of course or Achilla, who is obviously dead because of his wounds).  That made no sense whatsoever.  Were these guys pretending to be dead?  Were they just drunk?  Did they fall asleep after the storm?  Why did they lie around looking dead and then just pop back up when Caesar resolves to go into battle?  There was also an issue at the very end where everyone is rejoicing in Cleopatra's rise to the throne but they had the already dead characters of Ptolemy and Achilla come back on stage to join the final ensemble (all covered in blood of course).  Are they ghosts?  Are they somehow undead?  Are they figments of Sextus's mind (he seemed to go into one of those "Why Did It Have To Be Done This Way?" moments after killing Ptolemy)?  Why did they come back onstage after being dead?  It made no sense at all. 

            There were three other characters that really stood out: Nirenus, Ptolemy, and Achilla.  Nirenus was sung by Moroccan countertenor Rachid Ben Abdeslam, who  portrayed the character of Cleopatra's spy and confidant as though he were almost a jumpy Victorian cab driver.  But he was also was fun loving and took his job seriously (and wore a fez in a few scenes).  Actually this was the second time I had heard of an African opera singer (the first one being South African coloratura soprano Pretty Yende in the role of the Countess Adele in Le Comte Ory this season).  There aren't very many of those. 
     

 Achilla struck me as the stupidest of all the characters.  Why?  Because as he said as he was dying in Act 3, he counseled Ptolemy to have Pompey killed so that he (Achilla) could marry Cornelia himself.  Uh, Achilla, did you even bother to think that killing Cornelia's husband was probably the dumbest way to try to win her hand?  She wanted to see her husband alive.  Instead you killed him.  What were you thinking you stupid idiot?  
        

  

  
And finally there's Ptolemy.  As I said at the beginning, he looked like John Wilkes Booth.  I don't know if Sir David McVicar did that intentionally, but that's who Ptolemy looked like.  In fact, I was calling him Booth of Arabia, John in Petticoats, all sorts of Civil War/Booth related nicknames.  

It was a good performance all around.  Sir David McVicar did a stupendous job creating such a delightful Anachronism Stew of Bollywood, early 20th Century, and 17th style goofiness.  Now I would love for him to tell us why Booth--er, Ptolemy looked the way he did, and it would also be good to to hear his explanation on why he brought back the dead in Act 3. 
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* Not Safe For Brain.  It means that something is pornographically squicky.

Saudi Arabian Men Exiled For "Being Too Handsome".

Makes about as much sense as a Renegade Dalek Quidditch team, now doesn't it?  

I don't get it either.  My sister brought up the fact that a Saudi Arabian guy, or several guys I should say, were banished from the country for being " too sexy".  And I thought that was limited to a snobbish queen who thought that her step-daughter was besting her at an unofficial beauty contest.  This doesn't make sense.  

There has to be some other reason as to why these guys are being deported.  Are the religiously fanatical law-enforcement guys really worried that the entire female population will turn into squealing fangirls over these guys?  Or is there something else that they don't want to talk about because it will give away what their true motives are? 

My best guess is that there's something else going on that the Powers-That-Be in Saudi Arabia don't want to make public. 

Mariusz Kwiecien

I first heard this singer in the current Met production of Donizetti's psychological masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor in '08 (at least I think it was him).  I was looking at YouTube videos of the Mad Scene and I was startled to see Enrico looking quite handsome, this Polish baritone was singing the role.  In the production I saw in May of '08, Enrico looked like Shaggy Beard in Cathrine Called Birdie.  The one from the Met set the story in the Victorian era and made it out to be a ghost story (which makes me think Mary Zimmerman should have renamed it The Curse of the Fountain or something like that).  

It has been five years since I first heard Mariusz Kwiecien sing.  I actually got to see him live in February of 2010 at Lyric Opera of Chicago when he sang the role of the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro alongside Kyle Ketelsen.  I have also heard him as the strutting peacock Belcore in L'Elisir d'Amore.  I have also seen him a bunch of times on YouTube in various roles, the one that sticks out to me the most is the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni.  Next season he will sing the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin alongside Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala.  

I have seen his website.  This is one amazing barihunk.  While I don't particularly like people talking about seeing him with his shirt off, I still think he's hot.  And I still say that if you haven't heard of or seen him, fix that.  Now. And I still say his voice can kill an opponent in mortal combat. 
 

DON GIOVANNI

Don Giovanni, the Mozart masterpiece was performed by Madison Opera last night at the Overture Center.  This one is a story of seduction, murder, revenge, and damnation.  Making his Madison Opera debut was baritone Kelly Markgraf in the title role (don't ask me why a male has the name "Kelly").  

The opera is based off of Moliere's play Don Juan, which is about a lascivious Spanish nobleman who goes around seducing women let and right.  When the curtain rises he's busy with a beauty while his servant Leporello serves as sentry.  Leporello resents having to serve the Don as he doesn't eat or sleep well.  Then we meet Don Giovanni and his attempted latest conquest, Donna Anna.  Giovanni had snuck into her bedroom and tried to rape her.  She calls for help and her father, a Commendatore, comes to challenge Giovanni.  While Anna runs to find help, the Commendatore fights Giovanni and is fatally wounded.  Giovanni and Leporello leave as Anna and her fiance, Don Ottavio, discover the dead man's body.  Anna and Ottavio both swear revenge.  
    But Giovanni goes off looking for another conquest.  He overhears a woman crying, lamenting after being abandoned by her lover.  When Giovanni goes to console her ("The same way he's consoled about 1,800 other women," Leporello remarks), he discovers it is none other than Donna Elvira, a previous conquest.  Giovanni escapes while Leporello tells Elvira that she is not the first woman Giovanni has seduced, nor is she the last.  He then proceeds to read the list of Giovanni's conquests to her: 640 in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in Turkey, and in Spain 1,300.  That's 2,065 women all told*!  
    Zerlina and Masetto, a peasant couple, are celebrating their wedding when Giovanni comes in and sends Masetto away.  He then attempts to seduce Zerlina, but is foiled when Elvira comes in and tells the girl to flee from Giovanni.  Anna and  Ottavio come in asking Giovanni for help not realizing that he is man who ravished Anna and murdered her father.  They only find out when Giovanni leaves that he is the man they're looking for.  Ottavio is worried about Anna's state of mind.  Meanwhile, Zerlina assures a jealous Masetto that she is faithful.  
     Giovanni has invited the entire wedding party to his house in hopes of getting Zerlina into bed.  In fact, all he can think about is drinking and having sex with as many country wenches as he can get his hands on.  Anna, Ottavio, and Elvira don masks and are invited in by Leporello.  Giovanni tells Leporello to distract Masetto while he dances with Zerlina and drags her into an adjacent room in order to rape her.  She cries out for help and Giovanni tries to lay the blame on Leporello.  But Anna, Ottavio, and Elvira demask, and all Giovanni can do is escape quietly.  

As the second act opens, Leporello wants to leave Giovanni but is easily won back with money. Giovanni plans to seduce Elvira's maid.  But Elvira herself is present, so Giovanni and Leporello switch cloaks in order to fool her so that Giovanni can get on with his conquest.  Once again, Elvira falls for the Don's seductive voice.  Once she and the disguised Leporello leave, Giovanni begins his conquest.  But once again he is interrupted as Masetto and several companions come in looking for him.  But don't recognize him because of his disguise.  Giovanni disarms Masetto and disperses his companions, then proceeds to beat up the young man.  After Giovanni slips away, Zerlina comes by and comforts Masetto, placing his hand on her bosom and telling him where he'll find healing.  
      Meanwhile, Leporello is still with with Elvira , but he can't keep up masquerading as Giovanni for much longer, and is trying to find some means of escape before Elvira discovers the ruse.  Before he an escape, however, he is caught by Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina, and Masetto who think he's Giovanni.  Elvira protests saying that he;s her husband but the others will have none of it.  Everyone is stunned when Leporello reveals his identity.  Ottavio is now certain that Giovanni is the man who attacked Anna and murdered her father, and thus becomes even more determined to take revenge.  Elvira, meanwhile, can only think if Giovanni.  Although he has betrayed her, she still loves him, and she foresees his doom. 
        Giovanni meets up with Leporello outside a cemetery with with several equestrian statues; one of them being that of Anna's late father, the Commendatore.  Giovanni laugh at Leporello's annoyance.  But then the disembodied voice of the Commendatore is heard telling Giovanni that his laughter shall be silenced by dawn.  But Giovanni thinks nothing of it and makes Leporello invite the statue to dinner, which it agrees to.  
        Ottavio is trying to understand why Anna still refuses to marry him and thinks she is being cruel.  Anna assures him that she does in fact love him; she just doesn't think she can marry so soon after her fathers death (not to mention that her father's killer is still at large).  
         Giovanni is eating his meal with gusto as a famished Leporello watches jealously.  Elvira rushes in telling Giovanni that she forgives him and feels only pity for him.  But he laughs her off when she ask that he change his ways and she leaves distraught.  Suddenly she screams and runs off through a different door.  Leporello goes to see what frightened her and lets out a scream to match hers.  Giovanni asks what is going on and Leporello tells him the statue has arrived.  The Commendatore then enters and tells Giovanni to repent.  When Giovanni refuses, the statue drags him down to Hell alive.  
          Anna, Ottavio, Elivra, Zerlina, and Masetto all enter hoping to find Giovanni.  Instead they find Leporello, huddled in a corner all shaken up at what he's just seen.  He tells what happened and the others cannot believe it.  Anna and Ottavio agree to wait a year before getting married so that Anna can get over her father's death.  Elvira, feeling that she has nowhere else to go, decides to take the veil and enter a convent.  Zerlina and Masetto decide to finally go home and have dinner.  And Leporello, now out of work, is going job hunting.  Everyone reflects on the moral of the story: "Thus shall pass all who do evil.  The death of a sinner reflects his life."  

This was the first production of Don Giovanni I saw live onstage.  The sets for the production were mostly tall walls with doorways that were moved periodically throughout the opera, even by the characters themselves (since when did opera characters lean on the fourth wall like that?).  In the background was a painted  screen showing a rose.  This rise changes color often throughout the performance depending on the time of day and the mood.  For example, in the scene where Giovanni and Zerlina have their famous duet, the rose turns passionate red.  In a nighttime scene, it turns either blue or grey.   After the dramatic overture, we meet Leporello outside Donna Anna's house.  He is sitting off to the left looking through the same old book of the Don's conquests.  He is not pleased about being the servant of such a man; he doesn't eat or sleep well.  The story has Don Giovanni wearing mask when he first enters.  In this production, not only was he not wearing a mask, but he was also shirtless.  I suppose they needed an establishing character moment for him, but it still seems excessive.  He jumped off of the balcony followed by Anna, who was clad in her nightgown and wielding a knife to fend off her attacker.  The Commendatore came out and challenged Giovanni while Anna ran for help.  While she was gone, Giovanni murdered the Commendatore and fled.  Anna returns with Don Ottavio and collapses when she sees her father dead.  After she comes round,  they both swear vengeance on the murderer.  
      In this production, when Giovanni and Leporello hide in order to observe Donna Elvira (whom they don't recognize yet), they actually move part of the set.  Elvira entered carrying trunks and was accompanied by two well-dressed footman helping her find her way.  She has been looking all over the place for Giovanni and is determined to  either have him back or else kill him.  She actually looked like she was asking some passers-by if they knew where her missing lover was.  She is both furious and grief-stricken.  And Giovanni is caught completely of guard when discovers her identity.  He gets Leporello cover his escape and with that, Leporello proceeded to read off the list of conquests.  this production left out Elvira's recitative where she swears revenge on the man who betrayed her.  
      Zerlina and Masetto entered followed by wedding guests carrying chairs and throwing flowers about.  Zerlina was clad in a yellow dress with a veil pinned in her hair.  Giovanni entered and not only shooed Masetto away, but invited the party to his place.  Masetto is a peasant, Giovanni is a nobleman.  So there's no way Masetto can protest.  After everyone leaves, Giovanni woos the bride in the famous La ci darem la mano duet.  But the encounter is interrupted by Elvira, who tells the young girl to flee.  I noticed that the rose in the background turned green when Elvira came in.  She's reeling with jealously at the fact that Giovanni is seducing another woman.  Anna and Ottavio enter.  This time Anna is clad in a black dress and she is mourning her father's death.  They find Giovanni, but don't recognize him as the man who murder the Commendatore.  Elvira tells them not to believe Giovanni, and it's only after he leaves that Anna recognizes him by his voice.  Unfortunately, they left out Dalla sua pace in which Ottavio worries about Anna's condition.  He's torn and upset because she's torn and upset.  Actually, Giovanni once saved Ottavio's life.  So he considers Giovanni to be a savior.  And finding out that his friend seduced his beloved and murder her father is really hard on him.  
     Giovanni is looking forward to a night of orgiastic pleasure and some more trophies to put in his book.  This scene had wedding guest coming in drunk and passing out on the cushions and chairs.  Meanwhile, Masetto is jealous and upset with Zerlina for flirting with Giovanni.  Zerlina protests and assures him that she is faithful.  But she is startled and terrified when she hears the Don's voice coming form another room.  She and Masetto hide as Giovanni enters.  In this production, they pretended to be passed out like the others in the room.  Zerlina even tries to hide behind a cushion fort.  Giovanni isn't fooled and temporarily gives her back to Masetto.  Meanwhile, Anna, Ottavio, and Elvira have donned masks and are invited in by Leporello.  he thinks they're just maskers.  Ottavio looked like he was trying to keep Anna from giving them away to early.  The scene had chairs on the left, a couch on the right, a feast in the upper left corner, and a bed that was wheeled in and out of the room, with rose petals falling all over the place.  At one point, Giovanni was sitting on the bed with four women clinging about him.  When the music starts again, Giovanni has Leporello distract Masetto so that he can dance with Zerlina and get her into bed.  This production showed Masetto not dancing with  Leporello, but instead having the latter get him to submit to a bunch of girls.  This production had Giovanni place Zerlina on the bed and wheel her out of the room.  When she cried for help, she was wheeled back in; her hands tied to the bedposts and Giovanni wanted to keep her still while he attempted to rape her.  Giovanni tries to lay the blame on Leporello, but Anna, Ottavio, and Elvira are not fooled, and foil Giovanni's plans by demasking and chasing him out.  I saw one lone rose petal fall and land a bull-eye on one of the cushions.  I thought it added to the atmosphere of disappointment and rage at the fact that the party just got ruined.  

Act 2 had the balcony from Act 1 on the left side.  After bribing Leporello back into service with cash, Giovanni and Leporello switched cloaks as Elvira comes onstage again.  She is clad in her shift in this scene.  She is still feeling betrayed, but falls once again for the Don's seductive voice.  Leporello impersonated Giovanni so that the latter could seduce Elvira's maid (his rich clothes would arouse suspicions a little too easily).  They leave while he sings a remarkable serenade.  He saw Masetto and several others coming looking for him, but they don't recognize him in his disguise.  Giovanni disarmed Masetto, scatters his companions, and beats him up.  Zerlina arrived holding a lantern and wearing a shawl over her dress.  She started kissing him and telling him where he'll find healing.  
      Elvira still thought that Leporello was the Don and Leporello knew he wouldn't be able to  keep up the facade for very long. This production had him lean on the fourth wall again by backing away slowly while pushing a set piece.  But before he could escape, Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina, and Masetto caught him off guard.  Elvira protested, but Leporello got away after revealing who he was.  This Ottavio aria was included.  Il mio tesoro is where he strengthened his resolve to avenge the death of the Commendatore.  In contrast, Elvira lamented Don Giovanni's fate.  He betrayed her, but she still loves him, and in her mind she sees the abyss opening before him and a deadly thunderbolt above his head.  
      Giovanni laughed at the various turn of events and Leporello was not happy that he nearly got killed.  This production featured a gate that led to the graveyard and behind was an equestrian statue atop a large pedestal with the inscription on the side.  I couldn't see the upper half but hearing the disembodied voice was scary enough.  Giovanni talked the reluctant and terrified Leporello into inviting the statue to dinner, which it accepted.  
     Ottavio thought Anna was cruel in that she didn't want to marry him.  She pointed out that she indeed loves him, she just couldn't marry him right then.  
      The feast scene had a full able in the lower right corner plus a few chairs.  Giovanni was eating like a pig, Leporello can only sneak  small bite.  They are listening to the greatest hits of the day, including Mozart's original Non piu andrai from Le Nozze di Figaro ("Now that tune I know too well," Leporello deadpans).  Elvira tried to get Giovnni to change, but he refused.  In the background was the statue and silver petals were falling this time. When Elvira saw the statue, she screamed and ran like a scared rabbit.  Leporello screamed too and then the statue began to knock.  This production had the monument part and out stepped the ghost of Anna's father, the Commendatore, surrounded by fog (did they use liquid nitrogen?) and we hear the strains from the first part of the overture.  This one had the ghost sit down with Giovanni during their exchange. The ghost moved slowly and stiffly, as if they were trying to emphasize the Uncanny Valley aspect of the ghost.  The ghost asks if Giovanni will dine with him; Giovanni accepts.  He takes off his shirts and takes the ghost's hand which is cold as ice.  The ghost tells him to repent, Giovanni will not.  The Commendatore then pulls Giovanni into the monument with hellfire coming up from beneath.  
    Everyone else ran in to find out what happened.  Leporello was crouched behind the table looking totally shaken up, and he told them what happened.  During the moralizing coda, he took a cake from the table and just before the music ended, he took a huge bite from it.  I think that goes to show that he has not eaten well for months.  

  A few performance comments: I thought that Kelly Markgraf looked like Kyle Ketelsen from the distance we were at.  it may have been because of the wig he was wearing.  This was also the first time I saw soprano Elizabeth Caballero.  I had heard her in rebroadcasts of Carmen and la Traviata, but I saw her for the first time in this performance.  The soprano singing Elvira had to be the one I saw in the simulcast of Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, in the role of Biancafiore.  And I can't believe the guy who sang Masetto also sang Count Horn in Un Ballo in Macasara back in November. 

Also, I had always wondered how old Giovanni must be.  If he started his philandering at age fifteen, it is definitely possible that he could be twenty-five.  Then again it could also be, as baritone Simon Keenlyside puts it, that the good days are over and he's not what he used to be.  However old he is, he's good-looking enough that he can charm woman. 

Good performance, good singers, and they shoulld really do this one again. 
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*I did the math.  It sounds impossible, but Don Giovanni is rich enough and travels enough that it is indeed possible that he would have been able to get a woman into bed virtually every night.