Don't make me huck a shoe

So ... you're standing in line at the Security Checkpoint of Anywhere USA International Airport when you start to panic because you've realized that you've mistakenly packed *all* of your toiletries in your carry-on - thus breaking the "ounces per product per traveler" rule.

Don't lie to me, Friends ... you know you've been there. We all have.

Suddenly, some big, burly woman with whom no one would stand a chance in a street fight rips your Tom's of Maine Deodorant, your new jar of American Crew Fiber, your bottle of (let's be honest, here) TRESemme shampoo and bottle of your favorite cologne - John Varvatos Vintage, right out of your bag and puts it into the dreaded "confiscated" bin.

It's enough to make a guy take a shoe out of the nasty gray bin and huck it in the general direction of the nearest TSA officer.

Guess what, Ladies and Gents? According to UrbanDaddy.com - you need not worry about this very trauma ever again:

And now, your Dopp kit delivered straight to...wherever you're about to be.

Your couriers: Suite Arrival, a new service that lets you order your shampoo/soap/exotic oil of preference to be sent directly to your chosen hotel, online now.

In short, it's like having an online assistant to pack and ship your grooming supplies. So instead of sacrificing your soap at the security line—or chancing it that your hotel has the organic bamboo-aloe-whale-fat shampoo that keeps your follicles looking so luscious and Redfordian—they'll ship it to your hotel, where it will be sitting, waiting for you in your suite when you arrive. (As of press time, they are not transporting personal bathers.)

You guys, I can't. This is just too amazing for me to comprehend. It's brilliant.

The next time you're heading out and stressed because you can't make everything fit in a rinky-dink ziplock bag - just remember: Suite Arrival - your "online assistant".

Don't make me huck a shoe

Director Zambello is going to Cooperstown

Kate Taylor of the Wall Street Journal is reporting:

Glimmerglass Opera, the 35-year-old summer opera festival in Cooperstown, N.Y., has named Francesca Zambello as its general and artistic manager, replacing Michael MacLeod. Ms. Zambello, who has worked at many of the world's major opera houses and also directed Disney's The Little Mermaid on Broadway, will likely give the small company, which presents four operas a season, a higher profile.

"I have been after her for, oh, most of the decade," Sherwin Goldman, president of Glimmerglass's board, said in a phone interview. He said that Ms. Zambello will assume her post in September and will announce soon after a "major overhaul" of the company. Asked what that might entail, Mr. Goldman said, "I think some exciting breakthroughs of new ways to consider how to produce a festival." He added: "Everything's on the table."

For more, visit the Wall Street Journal online.

[Photo: Zambello with Sherie Rene Scott as Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid on Broadway.]

Director Zambello is going to Cooperstown

On the MET's Attila by: Samuel Ramey (I was the Pope)

Here's the funny thing about writing - you just never know who is going to be reading what you've written. In addition, you never know who is going to make a comment - as Yours Truly found out when I wrote a certain article about Danielle de Niese.

On March 6th, Scott Cantrell wrote a piece in the Dallas Morning News about the MET's production of Attila that prompted a comment by a member of the cast - more on that after some of the articles highlights. Cantrell wrote in part:

In 130 years, you'd think the Metropolitan Opera had covered the significant repertory. But not until last month, 164 years after its Venice premiere, did Verdi's Attila reach the MET. And it came with some starry names.

The sets were by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who have some Texas notoriety: Picked to expand Austin's Blanton Museum of Art, they withdrew in 1999 ... international outrage ensued. Costumes were by fashion maven Miuccia Prada. The conductor was Riccardo Muti, in his own belated Met debut.

It's hard to defend Verdi's opera about the head of the Huns as great music. The vocal writing is pretty formulaic, and at this early stage in his career Verdi had exactly three devices for accompaniment: insistent pulsings, arpeggios and oompahs.

The opera can be salvaged, sort of, by great singers, and by a director with real imagination. At the MET, it has, well, one of the former.

At Saturday's matinee reprise, Violeta Urmana, portraying the Roman princess Odabella, was announced as suffering from a cold ... ever thereafter, she sang and acted with a passion and expressiveness scarcely suggested by either her friends or foes.

Ildar Abdrazakov's Attila looked more like a bar bouncer than the scourge of Europe. His bass was pleasant enough, but when Samuel Ramey [L. as Leone] briefly appeared as the Roman bishop Leone, even through a wide wobble one was reminded how thrilling a great bass voice can be...

... Known for buildings of elegant finesse, [set designers] Herzog and de Meuron supplied a first-act pile of concrete slabs and rebar that looked like the aftermath of an earthquake. Scenes in the woods were set beneath, and in holes within, a wall of vegetation as dense as a tropical jungle. (The opera's setting, remember, is fifth-century Italy.) The chorus sang stirringly, but lined up downstage like half-buried Qin Dynasty warriors.

Muti and the orchestra made all that could be made of the score. Pierre Audi, who has some prominence in Europe, was listed as director, but there was little evidence of directorial concept – or, frankly, anything but the most obvious interactions among the dramatis personae.

The Prada costumes made much of crinkly dark crepe and what looked like Naugahyde. But the gold duds for the aborted Attila-Odabella wedding dazzled.

Now, as we all know, the MET is doing all sorts of "new and exciting" things this season - like the Luc Bondy Tosca for instance [pause for sighs of annoyance].

No matter the issues at the MET, we very rarely hear comments about productions from singers - and if we do, it's usually from a singer who is flapping their jaws just to get the publicity.

Not so, this time. If you read through the comments at the end of the article, you find there is a lot of talk about Samuel Ramey [R. as Attila] - some even directly addressing Mr. Ramey. Well, it just so happens that Sammy Sammerstein not only read the article, but commented on it as well:

It is unfortunate that for the Met's first production of ATTILA they could not do a more "conventional" production. The sets and the costumes had nothing to do with the period of the opera or the characters. I know from having been at rehearsals that the director gave the singers nothing and the set prevented them from doing anything dramatically. The production is a fiasco!

Samuel Ramey(I was the Pope).

I'm sorry - but that made me howl in an inappropriately loud manner - Samuel Ramey (I was the Pope). I love it.

Now, isn't it easy enough in this day and age for someone to pose as Mr. Ramey - saying whatever they want under his name? Potentially.

Except for these little details: Mr. Ramey posted the comment under an aol.com email address. I happen to know, having corresponded with Mr. Ramey years ago while preparing to sing Rev. Blitch in Floyd's Susannah, that this is indeed his email address. In addition, our dearest La Cieca received an email from Mr. Ramey confirming that he did, in fact, make the comment.

In a "PS" of sorts, Mr. Ramey posted another comment:

I should add that musically it was incredible. Muti truly loves the early Verdi operas and, especially, ATTILA. I know from experience as I recorded the opera with him and performed it with him at La Scala almost 20 years ago(the title part).

Here's what: there *are* still some singers out there who recognize, even where the MET is concerned, that sometimes you have to make your opinion known - and not just for the sake of publicity, but because you actually stand for artistic integrity.

Bravo, Sam Ramey!

On the MET's Attila by: Samuel Ramey (I was the Pope)

"There ain't no decency left..."

Here's a question: Where do people get off acting like they don't know any better - or better yet, where do people get off acting like, as the line from Chicago puts it, "they ain't got no class"?

Before I go any further- let me just remind you, Chickens, that I don't assume to be the end-all and be-all of class. But, I at least know when to chill-the-hell-out.

So - last night, if you watched the Oscars, you saw an awkward exchange when producer Elinor Burkett wrestled the microphone away from director-producer Roger Ross Williams after their film, Music by Prudence won for Best Documentary Short.

Williams was Kanye’d.

As we know, there are two sides to every story. But, before I take you there - here is the video. Brought to you by Mediaite.com:



Salon.com, where Elinor Burkett used to be a contributor, is reporting:

What really happened? We reached both shortly after by cell phone, and got both sides of the story. We first reached Burkett ... [while] she took a smoking break as the proceedings continued inside:

People are already saying you "pulled a Kanye." What happened?

BURKETT: What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn't invited to any of them. And he's not speaking to me. So we weren't even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won. And then, as I'm sure you saw, when we won, he raced up there to accept the award. And his mother took her cane and blocked me. So I couldn't get up there very fast.

Can you explain the reason behind the conflict?

BURKETT: The movie was supposed to be about the entire band, Liyana. And the [band members] were very clear they did not want to participate if it ended up being just about one person. The director and HBO decided to focus solely on Prudence ...

And that led to the rift. But didn't you see him at other events to discuss what would happen if you won?

BURKETT: He won't talk to me! This whole week, there have been events thrown by the International Documentary Association, and he hasn't passed any of the invitations on to me.

The movie was my idea. I live in Zimbabwe. Roger had never even heard of Zimbabwe before I told him about this. And you know, I felt my role in this has been denigrated again and again, and it wasn't going to happen this time.

How do you feel about the final product?

BURKETT: The final product, it's not that it's bad. It's not what I envisioned when I came up with this project. And it's not what we promised the boys in the band. It's just not what we wanted it to be.

About 15 minutes later, Salon reached director-producer Roger Ross Williams by cell phone as he celebrated backstage with family and friends. We asked for his side of the story.

How did that happen?

WILLIAMS: Only one person is allowed to accept the award. I was the director, and she was removed from the project nearly a year ago, but she was able to still qualify as a producer on the project, and be an official nominee. But she was very angry -- she actually removed herself from the project – because she wanted more creative control.

But couldn't you decide ahead of time who would speak?

WILLIAMS: That was handled by the publicist for the academy. I don't know what they told her. The academy is very clear that only one person can speak. I own the film. She has no claim whatsoever. She has nothing to do with the movie. She just ambushed me. I was sort of in shock.

You seemed to run up there pretty fast. Didn't you see her coming up the aisle? What did you think was going to happen when she got there?

WILLIAMS: I just expected her to stand there. I had a speech prepared.

She claims she found the movie's story, that she brought it to you.

WILLIAMS: No, not at all. The truth is that she saw the band perform [in Zimbabwe], and told me about that, and then I opened up a dialogue with the [King George VI School & Centre for Children with Physical Disabilities] school and went on my own – which you would've heard about in my speech -- and spent $6,000 going to Africa shooting myself. And when people expressed interest in the film, I asked her to come on board. And then I regretted that decision. Then she sued.

It was quite a tussle. Does this diminish the Oscar at all?

WILLIAMS: Absolutely not. It's such a career achievement, to win an Academy Award. This is what the business is. There are times when there's disagreement and dispute and you always hope that people will rise up to the occasion. It doesn't diminish it. She disowns it and doesn't want any part of the film. I'm so proud of the movie .

OK, did your mother try and block her with her cane?

WILLIAMS: My mother got up to hug me. And my mother is 87 years old. She was excited. What are people saying about it?

They're saying it looked like she pulled a Kanye.

WILLIAMS: She did! She pulled a Kanye. And it's a shame, because this is such positive, happy film.

If you look at the footage right after the winner was announced, you can see Williams take off in a sprint to the stage - and in the back, you can see Burkett struggling to get out of the aisle.

Hmmmmm -

I don't know, I think it's a huge publicity stunt - after all, just look at all the press.

"There ain't no decency left..."

빌리 엘리엇 - The Musical

So, let's pretend that your a musical about an aspiring young dancer in a British coal-mining town and you've become a hugetastic hit in Britain, America and Australia, what do you do next? Take your show to South Korea, of course. From the New York Times:

The producers of Billy Elliot: The Musical said that a Korean-language version of the show, adapted from the 2000 Stephen Daldry film, would play in Seoul starting in August after years of planning that began long before Billy Elliot won the 2009 Tony Award for best musical.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Eric Fellner, a co-chairman of Working Title Films, which produced the Billy Elliot movie and produces its stage incarnations, said that the company was first approached about foreign versions of the musical about five years ago, just as the original West End show was starting up...

...Local actors have been hired for the South Korean cast, including a team of four young Billys, and some dialogue or other minor elements may be changed to suit the hometown crowd. But over all the show (whose music is by Elton John and whose book and lyrics are by Lee Hall) will remain intact, and the show’s American design and construction team has built the sets for the Seoul production.

Mr. Fellner said that a Japanese version of the “Billy Elliot” musical was being prepared for the summer of 2011, and talks were continuing with German and Dutch producers but nothing had been set yet.

[Photo: The Korean Billys By Megistella/Agence France-Presse]

빌리 엘리엇 - The Musical

What to do now?

Ladies and Gents - I must apologize for my radio-silence.

I'm afraid I've been suffering from a minor case of "Blogger's Block". I have nothing. No funny stories - no news to share (that you haven't already seen elsewhere) - in fact, I don't even have any news that I can dress up in a pretty bow for you.

[sigh]

What's a blogger to do? I've surfed YouTube and found the same clips I've been looking at for ages. I've even resorted to looking at Google Images for inspiration - no inspirational images to be had, but I did find this:

In honor of Antonio Vivaldi's 332nd birthday, Google has paid homage with it's name by cleverly capturing the 4 seasons.

What to do now?

What makes opera grand?

Let's ask Leonard Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein made a few instructional appearances in the 1950s on Omnibus, a television program about science and the arts. Some of the appearances have just been released on DVD.

Want to see Bernstein's ideas on what makes opera grand? Check out the New York Times video here.

What makes opera grand?