Tara Erraught Is Having Her Adele Dazeem Moment In Opera

A picture of Tara Erraught as Sesto in
Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at
Bayerische Staatsoper
in February 2014 (Photo: Facebook)

Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught has been in the news lately for British press fat-shaming her in a production of Der Rosenkavalier. Other opera singers, most notably Alice Coote's open letter lashing the critics, have voiced their opinions on the matter as well. Even the fashion magazine Elle is weighing in on the issue. Of course the greatest offense here is the critics NOT actually critiquing the singing of an opera, but trying to focus in on someone's appearance. Now, what universe do these men live in that they think Tara Erraught is overweight? It is with great hope that Ms. Erraught is quite aware of her vocal talents and takes pride in her gorgeous physical appearance. This might just be her succès de scandale. John Travolta famously butchered Idina Menzel's name into Adele Dazeem at the Academy Awards just before she sang "Let it go" from Disney's hit film Frozen. The Broadway star now says she was shaken for about 8 seconds before singing, but now in hindsight it was the greatest thing to happen in her career because now millions more people know her by name that may not otherwise have paid attention after her performance. Tara Erraught should soak up all the attention in this moment and ignore those silly men with their limp quills. Her exquisite figure and career will have the last laugh. A photo from the Glyndebourne Rosenkavalier production is after the jump.

Fun Insider Secret Onstage At The Metropolitan Opera

(Photo: Jonathan Tichler/MET Opera)

"Another small insider homage could be found on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera this month, in its lavish production of Der Rosenkavalier, by Richard Strauss. In the third act, after the boorish Baron Ochs’s attempted assignation at a tavern goes disastrously and hilariously wrong, he is besieged with bills from the innkeeper and a host of others. Invisible to the audience — whether sitting in the back of the Family Circle or the front of the orchestra — is what the long paper bills thrust at him actually say. In flowing cursive writing, the bills list the cast from the current production’s 1969 premiere, starting with the conductor, Karl Böhm, and naming everyone from Leonie Rysanek, who sang the Marschallin, to Christa Ludwig, who sang Octavian, to Charles Anthony, who was the innkeeper that night (and who sang some 2,928 mostly small roles at the Met during his long career). The tradition of these kinds of in jokes goes back centuries. Mozart’s Don Giovanni has an allusion in the last act to his own Le Nozze di Figaro." [Source]

Christoph Waltz Makes Directorial Debut At De Vlaamse Opera

Christopher Waltz, Academy Award-winning actor, makes his opera directorial debut with Der Rosenkavalier at De Vlaamse Opera this evening. The Austrian-German star of Quentin Tarantino's films Inglorious Bastards and Django Unchained grew up in Vienna where he studied acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. He also attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. He started as a stage actor, performing at venues such as Zurich's Schauspielhaus Zürich, Vienna's Burgtheater, and the Salzburg Festival. He became a prolific television actor. In 2000, he made his directorial debut, with the German television production Wenn man sich traut. Mr. Waltz comes from a theatrical family and so the Flemish opera cast rehearsed scenes without music to help gain more insight to their characters. [Source, Source, Source] Cast list is after the jump.

Vogue Features Erin Morley Stepping Into MET Strauss Role

The Girl Gets the Rose: Soprano Morley
will sing the role of Sophie at the MET in
Der Rosenkavalier (Photo: Dario Acosta)

"Tonight, Der Rosenkavalier returns to the stage at the Metropolitan Opera. Written by Richard Strauss (with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal), the opera was a smashing success the night it debuted in Dresden in 1911—and continues to be so to this day. It tells the complicated story of the romantic entanglement of four characters: a loutish baron; his fiancée, a bourgeois innocent named Sophie von Faninal; the handsome Count Octavian Rofrano; and the Marschallin, a married, older woman with whom Octavian is having an affair. The soprano Mojca Erdmann was originally cast to play Sophie, but will be unable to go onstage tonight due to fighting a recent bout with pneumonia. But opera fans needn’t be sad—her understudy, the talented and beautiful Erin Morley, 33, has stepped in to sing the part. Morley is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and received her master’s from Juilliard; she was also a Lindemann Young Artist. She took a moment recently to talk about her big Met debut, which will surely be the beginning of a glittering operatic career." Read the interview by clicking here. [Source]

Knight of the Rose Sells Out in 1911

Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, Renée Fleming
"Marie Thérèse! Hab' mir's gelobt"

Der Rosenkavalier (Op. 59) (The Knight of the Rose) is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. It was first performed at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on January 26, 1911 under the direction of Max Reinhardt. Until the premiere, the working title was Ochs von Lerchenau. (The choice of the name Ochs is not accidental, for in German Ochs is translated as ox, which depicts the character of the Baron throughout the opera.)