Kitty: [singing]
Aux armes, citoyens !
Formez vos bataillons !
Marchons ! Marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons !
Andrew: Don't think you quite know what it is to sing that, now, right now, in America.
Kitty: Cat always prepared. My Saturday Night Live Napoleon! And what happened to our Saturday Night movie and our Saturday Night singing? Meow?!!
Andrew: I know, I'm so, so sorry. Was exhausted. Planting all the flowers in our garden. There's like 50 holes to be dug and fertilized and ..watered, then mulched and...
Kitty: [pause] she looks out the upstairs window. [just checking, pause] Dispiace. Impressivo, maestro.
Andrew: [quietly smiling] Well I'm glad someone appreciates all my efforts, Kit!
Meow, indeed!
Need to keep all the humans 'happy', sort of. The Globe Theatre, London streams a new Shakespeare archive every 2 weeks. Totally was wowed by The Winters Tale: such clarity of verse speaking, conveying precisely every inch of that text. Can't speak of The Merry Wives of Windsor (currently streaming) but certainly will now watch. The Royal Court's Cypress Avenue (now off-line) was an extraordinary piece of theatre. (Many may well have been repulsed by it). But as Graham Greene once, 'the giddy line' and it trod its line of belief/delusion/depravity with the most sardonic of tones. Stephen Rea has always been the most brave actor and human being. His performance is just out of this world, yet totally in it. Covid is to thank for seeing this performance. Now THAT is an irony worthy of David Ireland's play.
If you fancy some Monteverdi with a twist the Bayrishe Staatsoper (until June 13) streams its 'flower-power' camper-van L'Orfeo. Gimmicky? If anything it enhances the gorgeous music rather than detracts. Great singing, and greatly conducted by Ivor Bolten.
Thomas Adès's The Exterminating Angel (inspired by filmmaker Luis Buñuel's seminal surrealist classic El Ángel Exterminador). Seeing is truly believing. Let alone listening. And then some. Available on-demand from The Met Opera.
Talk about incendiary, Mozart's final opera La Clemenza di Tito is all that. And more. The Jean-Pierre Ponnelle Met Opera production (he died in 1988) is everything Ponnelle was lauded for: there's not 'tat' to be seen or thought anywhere. (available for rent on demand) Every costume detail, every performance nuance. He was the master of 'classic' production with zest and zist. Early music specialist Harry Bicket conducting! But we must move on. Would love to see Peter Sellars' Salzburg production from 2017. He could never screw that up. Nor did he ever.
Watch a gorgeous Wigmore Hall recital from British soprano Lucy Crowe (Servilia in The Met Clemenza).
Great news on one animal front: China has removed pangolins from its official list of traditional Chinese medicine treatments, according to reports.
Kitty: Cattivo so bella!
Andrew: Guess you liked Non più di fiori…
Kitty: none of them forsook love…true love can gets you into big-bird trouble!…[pause] I'll never be able to sing like that. She was cat-tastik!
Andrew: Sing as Kitty and they all will follow. Keep up your practicing. Watch the birds. How do they alight on a tiny branch, then hop and swavver again? It seems effortless. It's because they're born with that instinct. How many cats you know can sing?
Kitty: [in listening mode, good point]
Andrew: So something/somewhere/someone has given you a gift to pass onto this crazy world.
Kitty: …burning things down isn't a solution, is it? Nothing comes of nothing. I remember how angry Mama was when they all betrayed her. She was only meowing the truth! They would not listen...
