Who's the liar now?

I should have tried to put some money on that bet.

If you want to call yourself a verbal abuser, I'd say that's the only truthful thing you've said.

Do you have to be so damn obvious? It's bad style. It's worse morality, but anyone who issues psychiatric diagnoses on a lettercol doesn't have much of that to start with.

Contemptible.

One of the best bullshit detectors around these parts!

Thank you.

At least that woman who was sent to jail for inducing her daughter's classmate to suicide was sly enough to pretend to be a teen-aged boy.

Anyone who brags about verbal abuse and his skill at Angelstreeting (smartguy can Google if smartguy doesn't know) is really, to borrow a phrase, a hopeless case.

I'd rather talk about opera. I'm going to Seattle for the Ring this year!

What are you, the Westbrook Pegler of the faux-therapy set?

STFU, sweetie-pie.

This is supposed to work in the real world, not just the world of Walter.

It doesn't, but it's an astonishing display of solipsism coupled with the toddler's "I know you are, but what am I."

Send your bill to Salon.

You know, things were a hell of a lot easier before sex became an accomplishment, a status symbol, a resume item, a process, a news story, and got accomplanied by mental and physical health concerns, and so much worry.

Bring back the back seat!

(I'm joking.)

But it's hard to be joyful and spontaneous under a microscope.

None of your beeswax.

Tacky.

I think Hillary's spokesman answered him brilliantly.

>>>>>I heard her the year she was booed on opening night in NORMA. Had to sing "Casta Diva" pianissimo to control her vibrato."

Wait, Scotto? Or Sills? Note how the world is going to hell in a handbasket without Sills. She's opera's jewish mother.>>>>

Scotto. I only heard Sills once, as Gilda, in Boston. Her vibrato was going up and down one full interval by then, but the voice was unbelievably sweet. She was great for the NYC Opera. I miss her.

>>>>>" I'd love to go to La Scala for opera as a contact sport. I was at TRISTAN when they booed one of Heppner's substitutes"

Heppner is an example of what too much weightloss surgery does to you. Debbie Viogt didn't fall quite as hard, but there's still a decline.>>>>>>

She got through Isolde without breaking a sweat. If she sang in Stiffelio, I may have heard her before, but I thought she was brilliant.

>>>>>>>Opera should ALWAYS be full contact. When I went with people in undergad it was like a rock concert- there was one night of Werther that was all Conservatory students in the audience. classic.>>>>>>

That sounds like fun. Heard Bernstein conduct Beethoven's Sixth for a private performance in Boston. It was wild.

>>>>>>>" Flores...heard him encore "ah mes amis..."

Flores has grown on me, a little... well, no, JUST for ah mes amis. (though Bjorling still owns that AND the pearl fishers duet)>>>>>>

I liked those C's. I liked how he handled the encore. Bjorling -- you know more about it than I -- but Bjorling owns Calaf in Turandot. (Nilsson, Gedda...THAT recording with Leinsdorf)

>>>>>>>>"Met Sherrill Milnes. He's in his late 70s and he's still a fox."

If by fox you mean 'crazy and hairy like a...'>>>>

I thought he was very handsome. Pardon me if I say that singers are even nuttier than audiences, though I sort of swatted a hummer in the duet between Carlo (Domingo) and Posa, and Met audiences are crazy.

>>>>>>>>"Domingophile, much? I am."

Nah. I liked him as he got to the older end of his Tenor days (his Pagliacci in 2000 was something!), but I disagree with so much of what he does at LA Opera... Except bringing The Fly... in which my friend Dan was totally naked on stage.>>>>>

Did you see GIANNI SCHICCHI? I thought his choice of Woody Allen as director was brilliant. He was an astonishing Parsifal and Siegmund: it takes a Spaniard to understand Grail iconography, and the Spring Song was sheer seduction.

>>>>>>>"Oh YEAH. Very much a French singer, very ironic. "

John Relyea = Canadian. I thought he was Quebecois, but he doesn't have much of an accent, so maybe not. Incredibly good natured (and thus a great Figaro), but also super intense. I think he coined the term 'the baritone national anthem in french' for avant de quiter :)>>>>

Definitely Canadian, but I mean in French music.I am trying, on sheer ear power, to "get" the distinction between French and Italian opera. Heard Bryn Terfel in his debut year as Figaro.

>>>>>>>>"If you're talking pretty and talented, Ramey in his early career. "

i grew up listening to Ramey as Figaro, but pretty he is not. He's 5'5", dresses like a 80s pimp, and, relevant to this thread, is on his third trophy wife from back home in Kansas!>>>>

I wish you hadn't said that. He was something in Attila.

>>>>>>>>Giordani might be a wonderful man... but, tenors? meh. ;)>>>>

You're not alone in that. But he did a good Pinkerton last year.

"You're missing Palumbo's chorus. It is incredible, especially in FAUST. And Ozawa and Barenboim ruffling up Levine's sonorous orchestra."

That's what I've heard.... Seji taught me almost everything I know about not over-singing Ravel and other 20th century French. It's sreved me well. He's an amazing guy.>>>>

I envy you that.

>>>>>>Maybe someone can even teach Levine what appropriate Mozart tempi are???? (Maybe it's the towel on his arm throwing him off. A few years ago the doctor told him his tremor would go away if he would get rid of it, but he hasn't yet.... a family friend was concert master there for a thousand years. Oy the stories!)>>>>>

He's better with the Germans, IMHO.

Sexism be damned.

MadMatt, that was an image I did NOT need.

Brain bleach, please.