Netrebkos to headline Verona’s centenary
NewsThe Arena di Verona has announced the semi-banned Anna Netrebko and her husband Yusif Eyvazov as the opening stars of its centenary season.
They will appear in Aida.
The Arena’s artistic director Cecilia Gasdia is among the couple’s fiercest supporters.
She is also a fervent advocate of singers blacking up for African roles.
Cecilia Gasdia sounds like a good leader. Netrebko is one of the finest singers today and “blackening up” is one of biggest nothing-burgers ever seen by man.
Netrebko is a backer of Russian war criminals. Blackface is an outdated and offensive practice dropped by most international opera companies.
Gasdia may be a good leader in selling tickets but it appears she lacks any moral compass.
Blackface is something only a few people in the West, with waaaay to much sparetime on their hands, care about. For most people, it is like carrying a baguette under their arm pretending to be French. Totally innocent.
As when it comes to “backer of Russian war criminals” this is a language drowned in emotions with very little precision.
But Serge;
Why does she then have to make such a big number of herself ?
Typical of the Italian opera world it would seem, unfortunately.
‘Blackface is an outdated and offensive practice’
You say that as though it’s a fact. Nothing is absolutely ‘offensive’ and with a bit of luck the woke mania will be seen as an aberration before too long.
Is it only the Negroid that you think need protection? Are there circumstances in which you think Caucasian characteristics need special preservation?
You sound like another JP I know, one who liked to indulge in pills for a bit too long.
Are there ANY Russians who unlike you are not racist and fascist, pro-war mongering etc.? JUST ONE EVEN???
Tom Phillips, yes, there are millions of Russians who are not racist, fascist and war mongers. Many in Russia fear they will be arrested and lose their jobs if they speak against Putin. Those who live outside Russia worry about assassination and fear reprisals against their families in Russia. This is true in every repressive society, including Western nations that favor Cancel Culture if they don’t agree with your ideas.
My friend Petrov, he’s a good guy.
Whose conducting?
Gergiev? 😉
If that’s what you call it.
Italian fascists are very fond of their russian counterparts, nothing new here. Gasdia ran for election on behalf of the fascist Fratelli d’Italia, she lost the election but got an opera festival. How cute. If other opera singers had balls they would avoid this event by a wide margin – but in this milieu only Nina Stemme and Karita Matilla have balls.
Conservatives being called fascists are so jumped the shark. It’s lost its meaning (except in Ukraine). Find something new to slander with. Hint: racist is also so yesterday. I know you can do better.
In December 2012, FdI emerged from a right-wing split within Silvio Berlusconi’s party, The People of Freedom (PdL).[19] The bulk of FdI’s leadership including Meloni (who has led the party since 2014) and its symbol (the tricolour flame),[20] come from the post-fascist National Alliance (AN), which was founded in 1995 and merged into PdL in 2009.[21] AN was the successor to the Italian Social Movement (MSI), active from 1945 to 1995,[22][23] a neo-fascist party successor to the National Fascist Party (1921–1943) and the Republican Fascist Party (1943–1945)
Mea culpa. I didn’t look into this before I wrote. You are right, though. This past December Meloni gave full support for Ukraine. This is definitely a tell.
Try to translate fascio (it’s what you mesn by fascist) from Italian, you’ll be surprised.
Hello HB, you didn’t bother to remove the reference numbers, which indicates that you were quoting from Wikipedia without acknowledging that fact. Wikipedia is a wonderful resource, but serious historians and researchers are (rightly) wary about quoting from it because it is not professionally edited.
The information you presented may be correct and objective, but it would still be better to preface such posts with “From Wikipedia: …” so that readers can form their own opinions as to the reliability of the data.
Rant over. I’ll get my coat.
Yes, it was from Wikipedia. If you have a better version of historical facts you may want to present it to us, unlearned plebeians.
Comrade commissar H actually being a pawn for fascists in russia is so 1950’s but some continue to offer support because it’s their only means of income. Your post is beyond bringing coals to Newcastle because it encourages a mass murderer and endangers the lives of innocent men women and children.
If the shoe fits.
Gasdia did very well in Arena, getting through an almost bankrupt situation and giving new oxygen to the foundation in term of finances, visibility and the coming back of great artists. And ending a critical situation that was lasting way too long.
She is certainly not a fascist, she is an artist coming from a bourgeois conservative cultured background, that is very different thing.
I assume that if someone runs for election on behalf of a party then he or she has views like those advocated by this party – in this case we are talking about a fascist party. If not, then another term can be used – for example, an opportunist. Or a careerist. And what does it have to do with what family one comes from? or what profession one has?
Conservatism and fascism are increasingly merged these days – not that there was ever such an insurmountable barrier between them in the best of times.
You mean like the Twitter files?
Blacking up? What’s next a video montage of Jolson performing numbers from the Jazz Singer? If the objective was to increase clicks for business that is merely sad if it is a more fundamental demonstration of belief it is an anachronism fortunately universally denounced.
I don’t give a damn about blacking up. I have no problem with any kind of stage makeup.
As a likely Caucasian male that is incredibly noble of you.
Let’s be realistic: in fifty years black people will still be moaning and blaming someone and something else. Meanwhile, everyone else will get on with things and each other.
Let’s be realistic in 50 years you’ll still be pushing Caucasian grievances as an excuse why no one cares about your petulant racist posts except fellow travelers. Ask your caregiver to send down another slice of meatloaf to your basement hideout.
The great black soprano Grace Bumbry supported Anna Netrebko and lectured Angel Blue on the difference between theatrical makeup and blackface in racist minstrel shows. More European opera houses are dropping requirements for dark makeup.
Grace Bumbry could imitate Karajan mixing a salad, and he would not get upset.
https://youtu.be/fv0uWSI5Fjs?t=1279
Dropping requirements for dark makeup is not the solution.
It’s just a woke signal but doesn’t actively support the careers of singers of colour.
Clearly, Grace Bumbry is the arbiter on issues of race and racism in the theater. As I recall Domingo darkened his skin when he portrayed Iago. Why not use him as the decider given that he is Hispanic then again all those credible accusations of abuse might not make him as credible as “the” spokesperson.
Trust Potpourri to write “argumentation” that cancels itself. As the saying goes, who has friends like you doesn’t need enemies. You, Potpourri, have managed to take it one step further, you don’t need friends, you don’t need enemies, you are self-sufficient.
If more European opera houses are dropping requirements for dark makeup, and they are right, it follows that they don’t give a fig about the great black MEZZO-soprano Grace Bumbry’s opinion (mezzo-soprano, Potporri, not soprano; she sang a few roles commonly essayed by both sopranos and mezzo-sopranos; she chanced a few soprano roles with very limited success). If the great black mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry is of a different opinion than those European houses unspecified by name, only by numbers, but the houses are right, it means that she is sadly out of touch. If the great black mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry is right, it follows that the those unspecified European houses are sadly lacking in the intelligence, European arts history, and common sense departments. I leave it as homework exercise to you to find out if there are more combinations, or if two of mine describe actually the same relationship from different perspectives.
And trust Potpourri to write manipulative comments by putting words in famous people’s mouths in order to legitimize her/his own preference and elevate it to “fact”, half-truths being the preferred tactics. (You didn’t succeed but gotta give you points for trying.) The great black mezzo-soprano DID lecture Angel Blue (and anyone else who happened to read her statement) on the difference between the centuries-old European tradition of theatrical makeup, and US blackface in racist 19th C minstrel shows. Grace Bumbry did NOT defend Anna Netrebko.
And trust Potpourri to go bat for her/his idol’s EVERY move, not distinguishing between the idol’s reprehensible actions and statements (more than enough), the idol’s revealing but unintentional farts (many), and the idol doing as she was told, once in a while (stick to the Arena production). Now if only singing on pitch, without a wobble, without lumps, with Italian diction and phrasing instead of Russian or just sloppy vocalizing, and refraining from cracking three times per performance, would be a matter as simple as doing as you’re told, but unfortunately it isn’t. Anyway, I’m sure the Arena tourists won’t mind, after all they’re there to take selfies “look ma I’m attending OPERA”, munch their popcorn, slurp their beverage of choice, talk to each other, film each other and occasionally the stage, and check their phones every other minute, actions they aren’t allowed to do in an opera house, much to their distress. The funny thing is they don’t realize that uploading those private films exposes what’s going on in the audience.
Good reason to boycott the place – both artistically and morally.
Wasn’t 1913 the year the festival was founded?
It was founded in 1913, but there were gaps. The festival didn’t run every year since 1913.
The Beverly Hillbillies have taken over Verona.