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I went to the Live from the Met cinema broadcast of The Merry Widow yesterday evening. It was a lot of fun, being the sort of production described as ‘lavishly mounted’ on every front, and having Thomas Allen in it. But the memory that will remain most with me is perhaps not the singing, or dancing, or even the decision to shove an extra aria in the finale pulled from a different Lehar piece (WTF, suddenly she’s singing generic praise of love?), but the introduction and interval interviews presented by Joyce DiDonato, who is an American singer and a woman who never misses the chance to use an adjective.
I take back all that I have ever said about the writing advice not to use adjectives. I have found the scriptwriter who really, really needed to hear it. Every singer was introduced as “the adjective [Renee Fleming]”. In one instance before an interview she used five in a row (by that point it was so bizarrre in effect I was counting). Some of what seemed a bit weird to me was presumably expected US vs. British presentation styles*, but no one needs five adjectives in a row like that! I wonder if the singers compare what they got during subsequent performances, ranking the relative merits of being ‘radiant’ vs. ‘American’?
The Met website has tons of clips of previous broadcasts on it, which I can see is going to keep me happy for some time.
*Speaking of transatlantic style difference, I have never seen so many polo necks on an audience before.
I take back all that I have ever said about the writing advice not to use adjectives. I have found the scriptwriter who really, really needed to hear it. Every singer was introduced as “the adjective [Renee Fleming]”. In one instance before an interview she used five in a row (by that point it was so bizarrre in effect I was counting). Some of what seemed a bit weird to me was presumably expected US vs. British presentation styles*, but no one needs five adjectives in a row like that! I wonder if the singers compare what they got during subsequent performances, ranking the relative merits of being ‘radiant’ vs. ‘American’?
The Met website has tons of clips of previous broadcasts on it, which I can see is going to keep me happy for some time.
*Speaking of transatlantic style difference, I have never seen so many polo necks on an audience before.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 11:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 01:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 04:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 01:22 pm (UTC)Anyway. My main thought about the interval interviews was "these poor people have been doing all that singing and probably just want to get back to their dressing rooms and put their feet up and change into their Pontevedran costumes for Act II and here you are over-enthusiastically interrogating them. Let them go!" I think Finnish has inured me to mass front-loading of adjectives.
I am pleased that I introduced the lady sitting next to me to the thought that someone had had to translate the libretto/subtitles.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 04:24 pm (UTC)Well done on spreading the translation word! They forgot to put them on for the first act in my cinema, so I was a bit surprised when they turned up afterwards.
I hope the laptop is feeling better. Mine took 24 hours after an unfortunate glass of red wine, but did recover. I also had to pick wine+dust out from between the keys with tweezers.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 03:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 03:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 03:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-18 03:52 pm (UTC)Artistic Impression
Date: 2015-01-18 04:08 pm (UTC)RE: Artistic Impression
Date: 2015-01-19 08:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-19 10:15 am (UTC)http://huntingcoloradostyle.com/content/mental-disorders-drugs-cheap-usa-no-prescription-mental-disorders-drugs-visa
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