Butterfly from ROH 2.7.11

[kernelbogey]

Once again we are subjected to fatuous interviews with artists who have poor command of English, and IMO, very little useful to say about the work. KD's questions are toe-curlingly embarassing.

[DracoM]

Beat me to it! The bluddy Met Juntwait / Siff mutual back-scratchingfest carp format repeated by the BBC! So all that vilification of it on the R3 messageboards as usual fell on deaf ears.


Grrrr!

[Bert Coules]

I was just thinking exactly the same thing. We were also presented with an "expert" who was totally incapable of putting a coherent point across and had to be spoon-fed prompts. Really, what is the point?

[kernelbogey]

Fifteen b***** minutes of it too. It added nothing to the performance. But note the question 'If you didn't know the opera, what would you listen out for?'. I.e. the naive listener comes first here....

[Bert Coules]

I've absolutely no objection to catering for a newcomer to the work, or even a newcomer to opera in general, but there are far better ways to do it.

[Alf-Prufrock]

mutual back-scratchingfest carp format

I might agree with this if I knew what it meant. 'Madame Stickleback' ?

[kernelbogey]

Actually this is the carp format here....

This man is so boring. But I'm glad to know that Giacomo had the first lawn sprinkler system in Italy. It has radically changed my view of the work.

BTW I'm getting a lot of dropouts on digital. Anyone else?

[Frances_iom]

... but there are far better ways to do it.

the mute switch is useful - not sure that a broadcast of opera sung in original language is the ideal item for newcomers - fine they will recognise the popular bleeding chunks but if you have never seen a production it must be very difficult to remain on top of the action (an English language production at least removes this problem) tho I guess Butterfly is probably one of the easiest to visualise.
Was it just reception on the Island or was the first half plagued by short gaps in transmission ?

[kernelbogey]

Was it just reception on the Island or was the first half plagued by short gaps in transmission ?

Yes that's what I meant by dropouts. It's happening about once every five minutes - less than a second of loss of transmission.

[Bert Coules]

There was an apology after act 1 for the technical faults.

[kernelbogey]

Missed that Bert - went out to the garden to avoid the dreaded KD! Opolais is doing fantastically well for someone with a cold. Why did they bother with the announcement?

[Bert Coules]

Presumably at the singer's insistence, to cover herself for any less-than-acceptable moments, should they occur.

It's sometimes been suggested of course that some singers are prone to having announcements like that made, and for the same reason, even when they're in perfect health.

[kernelbogey]

KD's questions are toe-curlingly embarassing.

OMG it's not KD but Suzy Klein. She's slipped several more notches down in my estimation: very poor 'interviewing'.

[Frances_iom]

..very poor 'interviewing'.

I suspect she was working from a crib sheet - she didn't appear to listen to any of the answers as tho she had a set of prepared points to make and like RW wouldn't acknowledge anything that contradicted her script.

[kernelbogey]

yes but SUCH naive questions.... I believe she has a degree in music. Patronising or wot?