'They have yet to do a classical music edition of "Snog, Marry, Avoid"' says cavatina

[Nick Armstrong]

So let's...

Which classical music artists come into the above categories for forum members?

I can start the ball rolling. I would marry Miah Persson.

Any more for any more?

[Anna]

Oh dear, is this going to be a thread about middle-aged geezers lusting over young blonde trumpet players? Miah Persson - personally I'd rather have Anna Netrebko anytime

[Mary Chambers]

I've never seen the programme so don't know exactly what's involved, but from the sound of it, if we're dealing with living people here the 'avoid' category would be a bit mean, wouldn't it? I can think of several, though. In fact, quite a lot.

[Flosshilde]

I'm not allowed to get married.

I'd 'avoid', in the way it's used here, anybody female.

Snog? - that'd be telling & a gentleman never tells.

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh dear, is this going to be a thread about middle-aged geezers lusting over young blonde trumpet players? Miah Persson - personally I'd rather have Anna Netrebko anytime

Nothing in the rules to preclude ladies of a certain, or any, age lusting over virile young gentlemen, whatever their instrument. Don't fancy a spot of Juan Diego Flores with your Weetabix, Anna me duck??

PS For the record, I'd never heard of the programme either, but I quite like the concept... and I think one can 'avoid' without being too nasty. For instance, I'd 'avoid' Valery Gergiev... I don't imagine he cares much!

[salymap]

I always liked and got on with older men, which makes my choice rather limited now. Think I'll watch from the sidelines

[Anna]

Nothing in the rules to preclude ladies of a certain, or any, age lusting over virile young gentlemen, whatever their instrument. Don't fancy a spot of Juan Diego Flores with your Weetabix, Anna me duck??

PS For the record, I'd never heard of the programme either, but I quite like the concept... and I think one can 'avoid' without being too nasty. For instance, I'd 'avoid' Valery Gergiev...

Juan Diego Flores? Ooh, No, not at all, looks far too clean cut and wholesome! Can we indulge in necrophilia? If so, then it'd be a young Puccini, he looks really sultry, dirty and dangerous in his porkpie hat with his sleepy eyes and moustache and fag hanging out of his mouth! Ooh, what am I saying?

[ahinton]

So let's...

It's just an anagram of "Gray moron divas", n'est-ce pas?

[ahinton]

Oh dear, is this going to be a thread about middle-aged geezers lusting over young blonde trumpet players?

Probably - but why? And who are the other young blonde trumpet players anyway?(!). And why do they necessarily have to be blonde and why trumpet players and not - er - violinists?

And why don't I just shut up and stop asking inane questions?

[vinteuil]

One of the great joys of working with musicians was that their talent seemed to bear no relation to their comeliness. It was a repeated delight to be faced with apparently very ordinary-looking, sometimes downright dowdy, people - whom one wdn't give a second glance at on the tube - and then, when they started performing - to be totally transported by the magic of what they had inside them and were able to produce.

Yes, of course some are cuter than others - say Carole Cerasi, or Joshua Bell - but somehow it doesn't matter a jot when they're playing. It's not like one's admiration for tennis players, or actors, or dancers - where the physical attractiveness is certainly part of the appeal.

So, nah, I'm not playing this game...

[Mandryka]

I thought about starting a thread like this once, but didn't quite dare.....

Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli (who seems to have vanished from the radar, at least in the UK) is definitely up my street, though I fear she'd put horns on me....

Regine Crespin had something....she was no great looker but I always found her singing and interpretative skills very persuasive, as - apparently - did many of the men who were fortunate enough to work with her. I'll admit that her Sieglinde really turns me on (she certainly doesn't sound like anyone's over-ripe Auntie).

Netrebko has a very disturbing effect on me. When I see a pic of her, even if its one of the rare non-provocative ones, I come over all primal. Better leave it at that, eh?


I remember Karita Mattila being a very erotic Jenufa.


Outside of opera, well....I hate to be unoriginal, but Nicola Benedetti does it for me (I assume she must be a good violinist; she sure takes a great pic) and I think it would've been fun to spend an afternoon (but no more than an afternoon) with the young Martha Argerich.

[makropulos]

"Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli (who seems to have vanished from the radar, at least in the UK)"

Not if your radar extends northwards a bit: she was Desdemona in Noseda's Otello in Manchester (16th April this year). Since then I think she went on tour with the Met to Japan in the summer, and seems to be quite busy in Europe. But it's certainly a couple of years since I heard her in London - the last time was the Countess in the ROH Figaro (Mackerras, 2008).

[amateur51]

I always liked and got on with older men, which makes my choice rather limited now. Think I'll watch from the sidelines

That's you, Sir Colin Davis and Leslie Phillips on the sidelines, salymap?

[vinteuil]

That's you, Sir Colin Davis and Leslie Phillips on the sidelines, salymap?

... along with Elliot Carter!

[Mandryka]

"Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli (who seems to have vanished from the radar, at least in the UK)"

Not if your radar extends northwards a bit: she was Desdemona in Noseda's Otello in Manchester (16th April this year). Since then I think she went on tour with the Met to Japan in the summer, and seems to be quite busy in Europe. But it's certainly a couple of years since I heard her in London - the last time was the Countess in the ROH Figaro (Mackerras, 2008).

That's good to know. I am in London far more than I'm in Manchester, so I have to struggle to avoid the not at Covent Garden=retired/past it mindset.