# Your Nightmare Scenario opera announcement?



## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

For me it would be something like: "Jon Secada is Otello." Anyone here have similar fanciful imaginings of an unspeakeable phobia still in the future?


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

This would never happen (I hope), and it would not be an opera announcement, but these days you never know.

Katherine Jenkins is Carmen. Opening Friday at select theaters.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ haha, I wanted to answer Katherine Jenkins as Rosina or in a trouser role :lol:


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

^^ Haha!

KJ in anything

"Unfortunately Jonas Kaufmann is ill and Paul Potts will sing the role of Cavaradossi"


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

That the entire year's season is nothing but Wagner and Puccini.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

"Tonight's performance of ALCINA will feature a cast of no one but countertenors"


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Andrea Bocelli takes over for James Levine at the Met...


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

guythegreg said:


> Andrea Bocelli takes over for James Levine at the Met...


Lol! A bit cruel, but lol!


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

"Bryn Terfel to create the role of Dracula, in the new eponymous opera." Well, thinking about it a little bit more, actually, that sounds a bit interesting, but with a chaotic potential.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ I am amazed there is no opera based on Dracula and I'm sure Terfel would make a jolly Drac


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

Anna Netrebko as Isolde


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^ you never know  and Bocelli as Tristan? would fill the house to the brim!


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

Also, this guy playing Calaf in Turandot:


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Lol! A bit of the late Callas wobble there. But the accompanying pianist must be included in that operatic production. Zucker at it again, still, I see.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

^^ regie production: reset it in Switzerland and have have them all yodel it away! I think it would be extremely amusing, with accordions and polkas instead of of faux-Chinese tunes.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Jobis said:


> Also, this guy playing Calaf in Turandot:


Ye gods! What on earth possesses people to record things like this?


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I thought of an even worse nightmare:

"Ms De Niese and Mr Christie both came down ill very suddenly this afternoon. The role of Poppea will be taken over by David Daniels. And, filling in for our orchestra this evening will be Peter Hurford on our house organ!"


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

How about Kathleen Battle as Brunnhilde ? Eeeeeeek !!!!!!!


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

deggial said:


> ^^ regie production: reset it in Switzerland and have have them all yodel it away! I think it would be extremely amusing, with accordions and polkas instead of of faux-Chinese tunes.


I assume you mean Turandot... A lot of ops for yodeling in that one.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

This edgy new production of _L'elisir d'amore_ marks the opera directing debut of noted film director Quentin Tarantino. We wish to thank our premiere corporate sponsor of this production, Winchester Ammunition, and well as Black & Decker for generously providing the on-stage chainsaws.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Cavaradossi said:


> This edgy new production of _L'elisir d'amore_ marks the opera directing debut of noted film director Quentin Tarantino. We wish to thank our premiere corporate sponsor of this production, Winchester Ammunition, and well as Black & Decker for generously providing the on-stage chainsaws.


Outstanding! Lol! I get it - Nemorino (Christopher Waltz) shoots Dulcamara (Bruce Willis) when he learns that the elixir was just cough syrup. And with new dialog too.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Cavaradossi said:


> This edgy new production of _L'elisir d'amore_ marks the opera directing debut of noted film director Quentin Tarantino. We wish to thank our premiere corporate sponsor of this production, Winchester Ammunition, and well as Black & Decker for generously providing the on-stage chainsaws.


You're officially on a roll... :lol:


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our performance of Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel". In this corner, weighing in at 285 pounds is our 50 year old Hansel, Ektarina Plumpadopolous. And, in this corner, weighing in at a svelte 235 is our up-and-coming star, Helga Chubbissen. And, you fans of realism will be glad to know, after the witch fattens him up, the role of Hansel will be assumed by 302 pound Olga Paddedchovia. And now, we begin....."


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

For me it would be finding out that a countertenor has been cast as Cherubino. I like countertenors, but I don't want to hear them in the Mozart trouser roles.


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

We had the situation here in DC many years ago when the opera orchestra was on strike, so the music for _Don Carlos_ was provided by two grand pianos. And not even Ferrante and Teicher. I didn't go.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

And of course at the other end of the nightmare scenario. Tenor surprise.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
is proud to present
_"Music of the Night"_
A season of Andrew Lloyd-Webber operas


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

"Elton John to rewrite Verdi's Aida." 

Oh..... No..... wait...... Oh, never mind.


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

It would be what I've just written about on another thread...the passing of Montserrat Caballe. I'm not _the_ hugest fan but it would seem like the last piece of that super jigsaw of vocal talent that I grew-up knowing & appreciating...having dropped out of sight through a crack in the floorboards of Time.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

JCarmel said:


> It would be what I've just written about on another thread...the passing of Montserrat Caballe. I'm not _the_ hugest fan but it would seem like the last piece of that super jigsaw of vocal talent that I grew-up knowing & appreciating...having dropped out of sight through a crack in the floorboards of Time.


That would be a bummer. I've not been her greatest fan, but the thought of the source of those floating notes... just floating away herself, her earthly weight all nonsense now, is too melancholy to contemplate.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

sospiro said:


> And of course at the other end of the nightmare scenario. Tenor surprise.


haha, that was just weird. Two tenors in one! Even better if one of them sang Mimi


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Hoffmann said:


> We had the situation here in DC many years ago when the opera orchestra was on strike, so the music for _Don Carlos_ was provided by two grand pianos. And not even Ferrante and Teicher. I didn't go.


now that would go with a minimalist regie production. They could have turned off the lights and equipped the singers with torches which they could turn on and off as they sang.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

"Michael von zur Muehlen is being brought in at great expense to direct Handel's Rodelinda."

If the director's name is unfamiliar, here's one of his productions that I had the misfortune of seeing.

http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/2008/10/the-flying-dutchman-will-slaughter-your-dog-leipzig-riots-production-suspended.html


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Hoffmann said:


> We had the situation here in DC many years ago when the opera orchestra was on strike, so the music for _Don Carlos_ was provided by two grand pianos. And not even Ferrante and Teicher. I didn't go.





deggial said:


> now that would go with a minimalist regie production. They could have turned off the lights and equipped the singers with torches which they could turn on and off as they sang.


A few years go, we attended an Opera in Cinema screening of Anna Bolena from the Florence Maggio Musicale. When a piano commenced the overture, that's exactly what I thought: "uh-oh...here we go...brace yourself for Regie...".

When the orchestra never came in, I gradually figured out it was a good old fashioned Italian _sciopero_. Kind of crass of the orchestra to strike on the night they knew the performance was being filmed. (But I suppose maybe their issue was the filming.)

We, and most of the audience, toughed it out - as did the singers, admirably. Now Anna Bolena is one thing, but Don Carlos with that magnficent brass intro to the final act rendered on piano? That would be unbearable torture.


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## Pamina (Sep 5, 2012)

The Metropolitan Opera is bankrupt and ceasing operations.

The Met is my favorite opera company and probably the most visible and prominent one in the US, so this would be devastating.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Pamina said:


> The Metropolitan Opera is bankrupt and ceasing operations.
> 
> The Met is my favorite opera company and probably the most visible and prominent one in the US, so this would be devastating.


I think you hit the jackpot with this post, Pamina. That would be the ultimate nightmare scenario! To be followed by a dearth in operatic recordings, due to a growing lack of interest among the music-listening public. I stay up nights and worry about this.


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## Pamina (Sep 5, 2012)

I think opera companies folding is definitely something to worry about. I mean look at the New York City Opera's sad story. Many other smaller companies have shut down as well. There isn't the financial support and interest in the art form is declining. The global economic problems and glut of entertainment options available are partly to blame. Lack of interest comes from things like the large array of other entertainments out there, the perceptions that opera is passé and hard to understand or like, as well as a decline in arts education. Here in the US most kids don't get exposed to or taught about opera and not much about classical music either. These are things to worry about when it comes to opera's future. And I'm not that old (only 40), and I got into opera all on my own in high school after seeing it in the movie "Amadeus".


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Pamina said:


> I think opera companies folding is definitely something to worry about. I mean look at the New York City Opera's sad story. Many other smaller companies have shut down as well. There isn't the financial support and interest in the art form is declining. The global economic problems and glut of entertainment options available are partly to blame. Lack of interest comes from things like the large array of other entertainments out there, the perceptions that opera is passé and hard to understand or like, as well as a decline in arts education. Here in the US most kids don't get exposed to or taught about opera and not much about classical music either. These are things to worry about when it comes to opera's future. And I'm not that old (only 40), and I got into opera all on my own in high school after seeing it in the movie "Amadeus".


True. Too true. Sadly true. And at the heart of it, as you mentioned, a decline in arts education in general. The inclination to like what was once known as fine and cultured is now termed "elitist". So seems to be everything termed that is not completely cheap and debased. It would be elitist indeed if only a few were left with the means and opportunity to enjoy something like opera.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Jackie Evancho as Lauretta in _Gianni Schicci_, or Katherine Jenkins as Elvira in the mezzo version of _I Puritani_.

Nick Jonas as the tenor lead in_ Die Fledermaus_. I mean, he sang Marius in _Les Miserables_ (very badly), so why not try him in Viennese operetta?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> Jackie Evancho as Lauretta in _Gianni Schicci_, or Katherine Jenkins as Elvira in the mezzo version of _I Puritani_.
> 
> Nick Jonas as the tenor lead in_ Die Fledermaus_. I mean, he sang Marius in _Les Miserables_ (very badly), so why not try him in Viennese operetta?


As you are on fire, do find a role for J, Bieber :lol:


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Pugg said:


> As you are on fire, do find a role for J, Bieber :lol:


Maybe he could sing, not in opera, but in something by Heinrich Biber. (I didn't think of that, by the way -- my brother did. He plays a lot of Biber on the violin.)


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

"Ladies and Gentlemen:
We are pleased and honored to announce that all future operas at the Met will be directed by none other than Calixto Bieito."


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> Maybe he could sing, not in opera, but in something by Heinrich Biber. (I didn't think of that, by the way -- my brother did. He plays a lot of Biber on the violin.)


My guess was that you where going to say: "Death in Venice" from Britten


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I endured the nightmare of watching Caspar Holten mangle Don Giovanni at ROH.


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