Digging deep

Did you all hear that the Met is starting a subscription where you can pay-per-view or subscribe for unlimited downloads of historic video recordings?? SWEET!

Met in HD Times Square Broadcast

Drake and I went to see the Met HD broadcast of the opening night gala with Renee Fleming in Times Square. It felt so festive to see all of our big opera stars plastered all over Broad-way!photo by Ken Howard Metropolitan Opera

Of course all the talk on the internets was about Renee's designer gowns. I saw the very end of the Traviata (Christian LaCroix) and the Manon (Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel). Karl. C'mon! This is our big chance at mainstream glam! There should be no one more glamorous than an opera singer broadcast from an opening night gala plastered all over Times Square!! To me it looked like a very basic unembellished costume piece, one which I have seen come out of the tall cardboard boxes from Malabar for every show I've ever been in. At least give me some spangles on the neck or something, geez. At least she had a very dramatic cape for the second scene. That was a sweet cape, but the second she removed it in her brazen seduction of the (almost) priest, I was plunged into the gray dress doldrums again. She also lost a full 2 feet of height without the cape.

photo credit Metropolitan Opera
Is it silly of me to feel "popular" after seeing this broadcast? I feel distinctly happy with the genre of opera (and with Peter Gelb) for working the mainstream system. Renee Fleming is EVERYWHERE
these days! New Yorkers, you know what I'm talking about-- with her side-braids -hair-in-the-face-bedroom-eyes photo in every subway stop and on buses up and down the five boroughs. I dare say they could've picked a better picture... I hate hair in the face pictures.




Love the Doctor Atomic pics that I've seen! They're all over Williamsburg (which means that Doctor Atomic=trendy)

More Andrew

Andrew

Andrew came out to Williamsburg a couple weeks ago and we had a great studio/outdoor session. I feel like we're old friends already. We ran into him at the Met Broadcast of Opening Night in Times Square and sat together for the Manon! I missed the Cappriccio, which he said was definitely the best part of the broadcast.

I hear that the Met is starting a new streaming video subscription! like $150/year to see all of their historical recordings... worth it? I think so!

The others...

Here are some of Alissa's other shots. Fierce. (a word which feels tainted now, post-last-season's Project Runway overuse, but is intended sincerely)
Look! 3/4!!! Look out, opera world! we're shooting 3/4 now! Is it just me, or do these shots totally address the new kind of glam marketing toward which opera is heading?

Alissa

OK, so Alissa came to her headshot session ready to rock. She worked every single frame, and I'm not joking. Drake is working on the final edits and here is the first one. It was in the first ten frames of the shoot. We were just warming up! wait till you see the others....

Opera marketing

Of great interest for those of us looking into management. A great
article about marketability in light of HD broadcasts and such. "hot
people only vs. prima la voce"

http://www.artsjournal.com/lifesapitch/2008/08/talk-to-me-about-opera-ma
nagem.html

Why yes, there was a pie fight on my block tonight....

This is why I love NYC. Tonight after work there was a pie fight on our block. The Brick Theater is having an International Clown Theater Festival and it kicked off today with a parade that started in Union Square (where the noses were distributed) and ended in a pie fight on our block The main event had several seatings and devolved into an underwear-only pie fight, naturally.

Good Times

We went up to Lake Placid for Labor Day weekend for a visit with Ashley and her family and had SUCH a great time. We played Baci, we went swimming and water skiing, went on a hike, played with Ruby and had severe puppy envy, and didn't want to go home at all....