Reacquainting myself with the OTHER Met!

I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time in G-d knows when today, and did something I've always wanted to do, namely join the museum. I figure I'll be going often enough that a $60 Met Net membership will pay for itself very quickly, when the "Suggested Admission" is $20. I'm actually a bit embarassed that I don't do more museum-going considering I live in one of the great museum cities of the world, and when I was in London I spent almost all my time in museums (4 hours in the British Museum, of course, is not enough. You could live there and not see everything). When I get the Big Raise in October, that should all change. I definitely want to join the American Museum of Natural History, for the Planetarium if nothing else, and they have what looks like an interesting exhibit on mythical beasts - scientific explanations for mermaids and the like.

I went today because it was my last chance to see an utterly fabulous exhibit on "Venice and the Islamic World". (Will expand later). Note to self: Never go to a special exhibition on the last day - everybody and their mothers wanted to get in!

I didn't have time to do much else except gawk in the gift shop. I mean I do get a 10% discount now, but some of the jewelry and reproductions are very expensive. Some of the books/exhibit catalogs may be worth getting (usually $50 in paperback). I definitely want the Islamic Venice one. My main interest was actually getting some real art for my walls (I have lots of calendars, some very "arty", e.g. Renoir, Van Gogh, John William Waterhouse, Jewish Art, etc, but that's not the same thing. The posters are not too bad, ranging from $10-$25, some on sale for as little as $2, but G-d forbid you actually want to frame them - that will probably add a minimum of $50. They had a digital reproduction of a Mary Casatt painting for $125 (understandable considering the extreme detail), but with a frame (admittedly gilded), it was $425!

Maybe I'll have better luck on Overstock.com? I remember seeing some nice, large framed reproductions for $50-$100...

Preview of Angela's new CD

While the idiot loggionisti at La Scala are currently booing Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta (predictable - she isn't Italian, she isn't Callas, her husband is "Spanish", she's too famous, and she didn't pay them clapping money), a more sensible audience at the Milanese sewer ... er... theater went pretty wild over a song recital she did there last year, shortly to be released on CD by EMI. Arie antiche, songs by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Massenet and several Romanian composers (the best known of whom is probably Tiberiu Bredicianu) as well as "I Could Have Danced All Night" and (oh, no Angela, not again) "O mio babbino caro". One minute sound bites are here. They're wonderful - never have I heard a more sheerly joyous "Me voglio fà'na casa", a song I associate almost exclusively with tenors, primarily Carlo Bergonzi. Or a warm and seductive "A vuchella" - I think the only non-tenor I've heard sing this is Cesare Siepi (oh, no wait, I also heard his possible "successor" Roberto Scandiuzzi, but the point is, not a woman). And the Romanian material looks very interesting indeed. She seem to be having a lot of fun, figuratively (though not literally!) taking her hair down, which is a bit of a change. And I would frankly rather have her do more stuff like this than sing the same 7 or 8 arias over and over again in every city in the world, even if not everybody follows her around. Her My World recital CD is one of my favorites of hers and when I first heard it I thought she would be a song recitalist to rival Victoria De Los Angeles in scope and breadth. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be happening. In fact my one real artistic criticism of her is that she's conservative almost to the point of timidity (unlike Roberto, who rushes in where fools and angels fear to tread). (1)

To be fair to the La Scala audience, apparently most of them loved her Violetta, but I don't see why any artist - even ones I don't like (2) - should have to put up with that kind of politically motivated garbage from a bunch of hooligans. I am emphatically not one of those who cherish the idea of "opera as blood sport". I have the feeling if she survives this run, she'll probably eventually wind up queen there. I'm still hoping that she and Roberto will be able to do Manon Lescaut there. Or somewhere. Maybe Covent Garden with Tony? They are apparently recording it. And Tony is apparently preparing a new production of the Other Manon with The Other Couple...

Anyway, the CD will be released in both the UK and the US on August 28.
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(1) Actually, her diction isn't always the greatest, but that's a problem with a lot of sopranos and I am, I suppose, ultimately comparing her with Roberto, who has, in general, some of the best diction I've ever heard from a singer (it was the second thing I noticed, after the beauty of the voice), and the best French diction from any singer since Georges Thill.

(2) For example, Luciano Pavarotti wasn't booed for cracking a high B in Don Carlo, he was booed because the loggionisti decided he had become too popular outside Italy. And Renee Fleming, what ever my issues with her as a singer of bel canto (or almost anything, these days), she did not deserve to have people screaming "va, va, puttana Americana!" at her. No, I'm not going to translate that.

Oy

Beverly Sills, and Regine Crespin? In the SAME WEEK????

And just yesterday I saw a multidisc set of all Crespin's solo Decca recitals (I already have her EMI ones). Maybe that's why J&R had it out, although they didn't say anything.

I'm still haunted by her recording of Ravel's "Scheherezade" ("Asie! Asie")

Baruch dayan emet.