Archive for the ‘Opera’ Category
On Ludwig
In which The Gay Recluse loves Luchino Visconti best. In Ludwig, Luchino Visconti’s four-hour treatment of the 19th-century King of Bavaria, we are introduced to the king as a young man, but learn almost immediately — in what feels like a flash-forward — that he will eventually be dethroned by the state legislature for maybe being insane. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Dissonance, Film, Gay, Obsession, Opera, Resignation, Ruins | 3 Comments
Tags: Bavaria, Kings, Luchino Visconti, Ludwig, Richard Wagner
In which The Gay Recluse regrets not seeing Waltraud Meier’s Isolde. Before Friday night’s show at the Met, both the lead Isolde and her cover were sick and had to cancel. This sometimes happens! At the last minute, the Met was able to track down Waltraud Meier, who agreed to fly in from Munich for […]
Filed under: Longing, New York City, Opera | 5 Comments
Tags: Alchemy, Isolde, Jet Lag, Marathons, Waltraud Meier
In which The Gay Recluse works in the garden. Time of Photographs: April 20, 2008, afternoon (ish) Today, a first in the garden! We heard an opera singer. She was doing scales in a nearby apartment. Her window was definitely open. She was loud! And she was struggling to hit her high notes. (She was […]
Filed under: Architecture, Memory, Opera, Resignation, Ruins, The Gay Recluse, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Frank Lloyd Wright, Garden Statues, Hinoki Cypress, Mezzo, Opera, Scottish Broom, Singing
In which The Gay Recluse compares the Richard Wagner opera Tristan and Isolde (first performed in Munich in 1865; financed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and now running at The Metropolitan Opera) with Loveless, the final record by My Bloody Valentine (Creation, 1991). While the music is dissonant, it’s never abrasive; it’s just another […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Good Rock, Longing, Memory, Opera, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bavaria, Creation Records, Gesasmtkunstwerk, King Ludwig II, Loveless, Munich, My Bloody Valenting, Richard Wagner, Tristan and Isolde
In which The Gay Recluse ponders a sampling of recent search terms used to find the very pages you are now reading. Note: All search terms listed are in the exact form provided by WordPress.com, which is the host (at least for a while) of this blog. Hyperlinks to relevant posts included. Search: gay stereotypes […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, Infrastructure, Language, Memory, Opera, Search, The Times, Traffic, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beatrice, Clementines, Cornell, Crack House, Drug Lords, Edmund White, English Elm, Frank Rich, Gay Stereotypes, Geraldine Ferraro, Opera, SUV, Theta Drug
Back at work this morning we find our blood still coursing with the slow, oscillating melodies of last night’s third act of Die Walküre at the Met. By the end (and really, by the middle of the first act) it was sublime and transcendent, so that all of our quibbling about the final dress seemed […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Opera, Pessimism, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Die Walküre, Jim Morris, Richard Wagner, Stephanie Blythe, The Metropolitan Opera, The United States
At the opera last week, we ran into a friend who we were surprised to note had gained at least 500 pounds since we had last seen him. “You’ve gained weight,” we said, not wanting to ignore the obvious. “Are you in good health?” “More than good,” he nodded enthusiastically, and then began to explain. […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Gay, History, Opera, Pessimism, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baudelaire, Cities, Dick Cavett, Modernity, New York Times, Obese, Opera, Spleen
On Norma
Yesterday — what luck! — a final dress rehearsal for Norma at the Metropolitan Opera. The first thing we note, incredibly enough, is that the audience on average is even older than the one into which we immersed ourselves the other night at Aida. Can you imagine it? What a rare oasis from capitalism! How […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Longing, Opera, Pessimism, Politicians | Leave a Comment
Tags: , Bellini, Bernard Kerik, Dolora Zajick, Hasmik Papian, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Norma, Rudy Giuliani, The Metropolitan Opera, The Odyssey
Stark and imperial, during the day the white travertine facade of the Metropolitan Opera seems as inviting as a walk across a desert, but at night glows like a beacon to the modern, urban spirit in which it was conceived. The cloud-like apparitions of Chagall’s paintings hypnotize us and soften the disdain of the high roman arches through which we pass […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Good Rock, Memory, Opera, Resignation, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Aida, Amneris, Chagall, Giuseppe Verdi, Lincoln Center, Luciana D'Intino, New York City, Opera, Rademes, The Metropolitan Opera
On Albus Dumbledore
Last night at the midtown bistro ______, we were pleased to find Des Esseintes at the bar, his thin hand clutched around a tumbler of amber-colored liquid. We asked about this, and he confirmed it was a single highland malt from the ____ distillery, which he had long professed to be the most burnished yet […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Dream, Gay, Opera, Writers-British, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: Albus Dumbledore, Aristocracy, Opera, Paparazzi, Whiskey
A young runner — perhaps twenty years old — had stopped to stretch at one of the Parcourse installations in Rock Creek Park; it did not take more than a single glance to realize why he looked so familiar. In a short conversation, he confirmed that he had in fact just this year graduated from […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Good Rock, Infrastructure, Landscape, Memory, Nostalgia, Opera, Pleasure, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Center for Marine Conservation, Cornell University, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Parks, Rock Creek Park, Running, Stretching, The Meat Puppets, The Smiths, Washington DC
On Die Tote Stadt
The modern hotel is a mammoth, sprawling fortress on a hill; its endless hallways are dim and silent and uniform except for the temporal, scattered remains of room service left outside a door. If we see anyone at all — and this is rare, although we have been told the hotel is fully occupied — […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Infrastructure, Opera, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Keycard, Marriott Wardman Park, Paranoia, The Dead City
I sat down in Terminal C next to an older woman, who in a long black dress and ostrich-feather hat appeared oddly elegant among all the business suits. “I hope it’s not too crowded,” I remarked in a somewhat stilted attempt to engage this mysterious woman in conversation, as if we were both waiting to […]
Filed under: Dream, Gay, Memory, Opera, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: LGA, Liebestod, Opera, Spleen, Tristan and Isolde, Wagner
On Burma
Our heart goes out to the Burmese monks of Myanmar but our mind drifts back to the post-hardcore band from Boston. As much as any other band in our collection, Mission of Burma was one whose impenetrable mystique electrified us at an age when we were still anxious to be electrified. The songs were angular and dissonant, […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Memory, Opera, Politicians | Leave a Comment
Tags: Boston, Democracy, Mission of Burma, Myanmar, Post-hardcore
Since we last saw the hills around Saratoga a few days ago, they have become drab and mundane, the color of an unwatered suburban lawn, while further south the Catskills have grown equally tired and pedestrian. Did we really talk with any enthusiasm about wanting to visit either of these spots? Even the Hudson River […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Memory, Obsession, Opera, The Autumn Garden, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adirondacks, Catskills, George Washington Bridge, Hudson River Valley, Palisades Parkway, Saratoga Springs, Washington Heights
On Twilight of the Idols
Did you not see it? Did you not experience the thrill of David Schwimmer emerging from a limousine to shine his brilliant aura across the travertine plaza to the vaunted Roman arches of the Metropolitan Opera? (How many times have we been enraptured by his finely nuanced work and thought, “If only we could see […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Opera, Pessimism, Philosophers | Leave a Comment
Tags: Abu Ghraib, Dame Joan, Donizetti, My Bloody Valentine, The Metropolitan Opera, The New York Times
The Gay Recluse 