Easy There, Tigers
ACD and The Times’ chief classical music critic Richard Morrison get all hot and bothered about Miss Netrebko’s “visual divertissements” (Morrison) in a fashion that suggests they are really pubescent boys with their first top shelf mag rather than grown men discussing opera. An excerpt from Mr. Morrison:
Until last night sheer bad luck had shielded me from the full-on Anna Netrebko experience. But now that I’ve seen, heard, and inwardly drooled over the sensational 36-year-old Russian soprano at first hand, there’s no going back.
Shaken, stirred, and still quivering at the knees, I’m an altered man.
The odd thing is that Richard Eyre’s 13-year-old Royal Opera staging — hot on period detail, and flaunting surely the largest lampshade in London, but a little tepid in the debauchery department — doesn’t even give Netrebko the chance to display her famed visual divertissements.
When she played Violetta in a modern-dress Salzburg production of Verdi’s opera recently, her little red frock was widely considered the most exciting thing to happen in Austria since the war.
And his sympathizer ACD:
So I tuned in the PBS telecast of the Met’s Puritani last night. Why, you may ask, did I subject myself willingly to this risible piece of typical bel canto trash? To ogle Anna Netrebko, of course.
Both men do go on to say that she’s got pipes as well as jugs/gams/buns but really the whole thing is just embarassing to read. You boys need to get a grip. (in a figurative sense only, of course)
OperaChic is on the case as well.
Doug Palmer | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Page 213 of Jon Stewart’s book America has a very interesting comment about “Russian Beauty”
A.C. Douglas | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Tch, tch, tch. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for isolating a selective quote out of context like that. You quote the beginning of my opening graf, but fail to quote what immediately follows it in that same graf which explains perfectly well why that graf opened as it did. Quote the rest of that short graf, and then dare to label me — without looking the fool, that is — a “pubescent bo[y] with [his] first top shelf mag rather than [a] grown m[a]n discussing opera.”
ACD
Miss Mussel | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Doug–> I’ve got that book around somewhere. I’ll have to have a look for it. If you fancy posting the comment, please do feel free. You’ll likely get to it before I do.
ACD–> What is journalism if not willfully editing quotes to prove your point? Jokes aside, you’ll note that I did mention in the very next sentence that both you and Mr Morrison did say that Netrebko was easy on the ears as well as on the eyes however that isn’t really much of a defense for either of you.
It’s perfectly acceptable to appreciate the virtues of whatever sex you fancy, but there’s really no need to be a letch about it.
Doug Palmer | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Actually its a pair of pictures
A.C. Douglas | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
I repeat, you quote the beginning of my opening graf, but fail to quote what immediately follows it in that same graf (not to mention the rest of that post) which explains perfectly well why that graf opened as it did. To paraphrase someone near and dear to you, What is journalism if not willfully writing as provocatively as one can manage honestly to better and more vividly make one’s point?
Lechery plays no part in this business whatsoever.
ACD
Miss Mussel | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Doug–> Ok. I’ll have a look for the book and the scanner.
ACD–> I re-read your post several times and I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Your point about writing provocatively to make one’s point is well taken and something I generally try to adhere to.
To be honest, the majority of my disgust was directed towards Mr Morrison with you being a sort of accessory after the fact. You must admit though, that the association was voluntary on your part, so, in this case, you’re fair game.
A.C. Douglas | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Your disgust of Morrison for his remarks was as ill-founded and uncalled for as it was in my case. Lechery played no part in either of our remarks, and only someone hypersensitive to such matters (or — Lord preserve us! — a feminist) could have imagined otherwise.
ACD
Miss Mussel | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Surely you must remember that I don’t really count myself among those resident at Camp Feminista.
As for hypersensitivity, not so much. I have better things to do than be constantly offended.