Aaaahriodante: we came, we perved, we cornered Prina
😀 😀 😀 yes, that’s exactly what Anik and and I did tonight at the best Baroque venue in the world, aka Theater an der Wien (did I mention how in love I am with this venue? It’s been so good to me so far!). And there is pictorial evidence of Polinesso in our clutches, which I will post after a bit of doctoring to preserve Anik’s dignity.
In case you were wondering, the show per se was [ insert your superlative of choice here; hell, insert more than one ] too. Truly a wonderful night of opera and tandem perving 😉 (shoulders…! And Polinesso at work). There will also be civilised posts about this, fear not. Well, mostly civilised…
ps: I was in Vienna and it did not rain. Clearly I did something very, very special to deserve this mini holiday. Or I will have to pay dearly one day. But for everything to fall in place like this… aaaah. And to have someone likeminded to share it with 🙂 Belinda freakin Carlisle was right.
edit 14/05/17: there are surprisingly still tickets on sale for the Barbican show on Tuesday. If you’re in London do yourself a favour and book!
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Posted on May 12, 2017, in baroque, live performances, mezzos & contraltos, theater an der wien and tagged ariodante, handel, sonia prina, theater an der wien. Bookmark the permalink. 118 Comments.
opera, innit? 
liiiiiiiike !!! will be lurking!
Well, I need some sleep but the whole story is funny in many ways (hint: upgrade from heaven 😉 ) and I can see myself telling it many times from now on, so I want to take my time. But maybe Anik won’t be able to sit on her hands too long 😉
jeah jeah, sleep, over rated! 😀
i’m so happy to hear these reports! me suuuuper like! striking up convo with Prina! But i find her also very approachable and warm.!
(i take it you were too much in a daze to ask for her entire next year schedule?? Agathe, it is up to you now to ask! or Dehggi, when you see her again at the Barbican! i’m sure she’d be thrilled to hear you see her twice!)
I told her I will see her on Tuesday 😀 she said “you’re a singer, right?” And I was like [ smooth ] “do I have to be a singer to like you?” The Barbican is no good for that kind of thing but I will try Wiggy in September. There is a very funny bit about just how we both (us fangirls, I mean, Prima was just amused) felt when… Well, you will have to tune in to my (our?) report for the story.
full of suspense! while i have to work the next 12 hours while you both sleep and dream well! 🙂
you know, Ariodante is not exactly the opera where you go simply because of Polinesso.. but she completely changed my view.. and now, yes, i’m thinking about that Sep at Wiggy! (and there’s that Halle’s Händel Agathe mentioned in June..) In any case, sleep well, i’ll be having wonderful images in head of her lovely exchanges with you, as well as stage performance!
[you’re smooth!]
Smoothness: I said I took notes during the webcast 😉 and I totally leered without shame! She smiled back so I’m all lalala, she smiled at me.
I would love to see the Halle recital but it looks kind of a hard place to get to. Also Agathe needs her opportunity 😉 after tonight I can be generous.
… just casual lurking…
I had the hardest time falling asleep, you of all people should know what I mean by that. And I’m up already but I have to be careful and not miss my flight. I surprisingly made it home without one wrong turn last night but I was really grateful for the half an hour or so walk to clear my head a bit 🙂
u know 1 nite ago i had a dream we were both in vienna, but you to go meet up w Anik for Ariodande while I, for some stupid reason, only came to Vienna for some random thing and now heading back to the airport. I was beating myself up think what the hell were you thinking not looking at schedule when coming here and being so short sighted!. then thought since i already spent the 21 hr transatlatic flight it was time to call up the airline to delay my flight for 1 nite, at however expensive it is!! and woke up while looking for airline phone #…
You have the silliest dreams! Always topical. I don’t know how you do it. Incidentally, I also had a dream the night/morning before but I can’t talk about it here 😉 suffice to say it foretold it was going to be a special day.
haha, freudian dream 😉
(don’t miss the flight! it’s expensive! but do write while in transit on the flight..)
(jeah, normally i dream of missing a show i actually attend.. this is getting deep, sweating over a show 1 ocean away!)
Freudian dream in Vienna 😀 you know we all sweated (leered) over your show as well 😉
you cornered her, I was just the bumbling goalpost to left (not much dignity left, I am afraid). Amazing show, though, and Prina LEGIT makes people go weak in the knees when she walks past.
Scene:
Prina walks towards us as we stand chatting in front of the portal.
me: “oh my. Oh. Dehggi, don’t pass out, don’t pass don’t, don’t pass out.”
Dehggi: “Oh.”
Prina walks past, we stare after her, ten seconds pass in silence.
Dehggi (breathless): “Wow. I am actually weak in the knees.”
Me(equally breathless): “Me too.”
we hold onto the portal, grin stupidly, agree that this is sort of embarrassing, and keep on grinning stupidly regardless.
Prina comes back.
Dehggi: “I’m gonna say something.”
Me: “No, we couldn’t possibly…”
Dehggi: “She walks b TWICE? This is a sign of heaven!”
Yes, but had you not been there I would’ve long gone home 😀 sounds like teamwork to me. And, come on, TWICE??? When does that ever happen?!
in the typical crowd you both clearly stood out 😉 i am sure she thought oh how cool, young enthusiastics, let me walk past them once more to see if they wanted to chat up
haha, I’m sure that’s exactly what she thought! She was with a friend who was also a contralto, who immediately agreed to take the picture for us. Contraltos = ❤
Young enthusiastics, yeah, hello 40. Never too old to get starry-eyed over contraltos, though, it would seem.
We’re not 40 yet! A few more months, a few more contraltos 😉
now THERE’S a goal.
(I am thinking about Halle, too. Probably can’t because of classes, but their Händelfestspiele are LOVELY. – It is actually fairly good to reach via Halle/Leipzig airport and also via Berlin (cheaper). The festival crowd is laid-back and personal and I probably could hook you up since I’ve got friends in town, one of whom has ties to the Handel society.)
Well… don’t give me ideas. Or please do 😉 we should talk about it when I get home/ you have some time. Would love to meet Agathe too 🙂
(i’m listening in…)
But there are no classes that monday (bank holiday)? 🙂 And, currently, I’m going all by myself, would be so great if we could all meet up!
True. Glitch in the Matrix just for the White Shirts. Or perhaps our swooning upset the space-time continumm.
I don’t know if I called it upset 😉
I love everything about this.
Madness, right? Of the good kind.
The BEST kind.
OMG how did you bring up the courage to chat her up? I can’t say how much I was enjoying this post over breakfast (including built-in suspense line about the “hint from heaven”). And yes, your reply was very smooth 🙂 Don’t expect any “first hand” information from my side, at least not from Elbphilharmonie (it’s so posh, I guess it doesn’t even have an artists entrance, probably singers are brought in by helicopter or so).
Halle, maybe, although, I would probably need your company to be up to it. But I agree, it is difficult to reach, BUT, a whole evening of Prina singing Händel, quite worth some effort.
(Thinking about September as well).
I think I was on a roll yesterday. Or maybe that coffee at Cafe Drechsler was that good 😉 At Wiggy you would most likely have no problem, just ask thadieu.
Now it is pouring (so much that my shoes soaked through from underneath on my way to the office this morning
Sign I was leaving Vienna 😀 I’m a bit pruney myself, not quite as bad as at Poppea. Hope your cold doesn’t get worse and thanks for chatting in spite of it. Really fun times!
really fun times.
Voice is gone again, but it is so worth it. Good thing I don’t have to give any lectures today, just prep them.
I was amused to see you posting past your bedtime 😉
I am SO TIRED.
I forgot the cornerstore bakery is closed Saturday’s, so I had to take a hike to get breakfast. In the downpour.
Went to office kitchen to get tea, thought about last night, found myself back in office without tea. On next try, poured boiling tea water over my hand.
40, here I come.
I left my postcard and magnet at the host’s place (not the mohnstrudel though), but I made it to the airport instead of back at TADW 😉
Ps: imagine Polinesso fussing over that poor hand 😉
ha, Polinesso approach: Dalinda breaks her arm, and he’d be “Babe, want me to punch you out with my brass knuckles?”
And she’d be like “this is my lucky day!”
Haha, you’re quite near hopeless it seems!
about the strudel? most certainly 😀 my favourite since I was a kid.
who started this whole Prina thing again…?!
I also want to know how it started! what as the giveaway performance?
Cesare from Tours (?), and that rehearsal clip from Aix (HAIR!) and Agathe being over the moon. It was totally Agathe’s fault. 😉
oh, so it’s a new thing? sounds like she’s been a diehard for aaaaages.
Agathe, yes, but thadieu and I are more recent.
for real?! ha.
don’t forget Dehggi’s review of Prina’s recital at Wiggy. that was a very important influence for me. coupled with her Cesare from Toulon (while tackling the chicken with breast plates).
(while tackling the chicken with breast plates)
that will make a contralto fan out of anyone. I actually missed all that fun. Later on I remember I forgot I should’ve said (to her) something about the recent Rodelinda, though we were all converts by that time. There are so many good things 😀
It’s all HER fault, I’m only to blame in terms oflive blog exposure.
yea, she’s one bad mofo 😉
For me, Rinaldo, I was pretty much gone after watching that the first time!
that’s a question to ask her: how was it singing Venti turbini on that suspended bike?
The way I see it: She did! (Prina, not Degghi), I’m only reacting.
not sure ’bout 40, sounds like Polinesso hangover to me..
The best kind. No offense to Coote, she rocked too, but the opera should be called Polinesso 😉
Hey, you didn’t write a lot about her yet, am curious, any signs of chickenpox left? (I mean in the sense of exhaustion, not chickenpox scars)
I wouldn’t say so but you should also check with Anik because I was all starry eyed the entire night. Like I said, there would be an entry about everything, this is just a teaser because it was fun and also because I knew I wouldn’t be writing the big one any time soon.
just finished reading Anik’s wonderful review and it seems if there ever was such a thing like the opposite of chickenpox, it has happened with Coote’s performance yesterday. Can’t wait to hear her!
good luck tomorrow 😀 did she actually have chickenpox at her age?
Handelover.
t-shirt! (front, with Polinesso art in back!)
not in back, ON back.
i know what is in the back, Prina’s spiky coif 😀
btw, the plane had a 2hour delay due to a… broken toilet. So I just got out of the shower. Nice weather here too!
ja, them pollen flying mad!
those flights you know, you think you’re in for a short one and it occupies all day. too bad you didn’t have a connection in Hamburg, else i was quite sure you’d have shared same row with Polinesso 😉
😀 (and just to mention, SP is 41, so!)
yeah well. Rockers have more stamina.
the power is in the skull tattoo 😉
BY THE POWER OF CONTRALTOSKULL…..!
the secret chant! :-O
Although she would probably be neither He-Man no he-Ra, but some kind of oddly appealing Skeletor? I don’t know.
ok, I’m crap at that stuff but the thing the chant brought to mind was disco black metal 😉
isn’t that the best age for opera singers?
No idea, JDD and Barcellona are both 48, so, there are lots of best ages I guess :-), But seriously, probably very much an individual thing.
Barcellona is going strong but far as I know JDD started quite a bit later than the others with the limelight. Anyway, certainly 41 is treating Prina great 🙂
41 is like unto nada, Young People! Just sayin’… 😛
So Vienna must finally have caught up to your presence! 😉
Have a safe journey home.
I think Vienna and I are a match made in heaven. I was thinking up a whole list of (opera related) good deeds I would do if I were independently wealthy enough to get a place here.
hey, if Brexit-Dystopia chased you out, Austria is a nice enough place (and more or less affordable thanks to decades of left governance). I really have to figure out whom to blackmail/beguile for tenure. sigh
Mohnstrudel ❤ (I bought 2 logs). Network, someone must know something and spill the info. Get that person drunk or show them a racy opera production relevant to their inclination (or both).
only just caught up to your post link – LOL (also, true)
keep an eye out, i often call them something else than the main title 😉
oh, I do that with photos sometimes. fun, fun, fun.
One of the few things I miss in reading via the reader – no permalinks.
(also listening in… and ja, given i have no idea what you’re talking about.. and i’m using reader and seeing nothing.. let me get on proper computer…
also Anik, be prepared.. i might write a chapter in the comment section on your latest vocal description review.. once i get to the proper computer.)
look at the address bar of the aaaahriodante post.
😉
that was my feeling when i wrote my review. it became the “Prina extravaganza”.
she owns \m/ and yes, she’s very easy going.
Ah, quite fitting!
Oh, looking forward to it!
(and just open dehggi’s post, too, and just check the actual link, which is the more fitting title 😉
it is 😉 that will be reflected in the long post to come.
(it’s a saturday, and we’re not live blogging, i feel so lost! but you both need major recovery times 😉 . I think this might be the right occasion for Agathe to write her first review too..)
yes, everybody who attends one of these is required (by mezzo/contralto fandom law) to write one 😉 Otherwise we (mezzo/contralto mafia) will take the badge away.
(are you taking a swipe at my Juditha missing post? 😉 . but i was very compelled to write about Prina and Mingardo and the rest… wow, i feel good this year already: ACA 2x, A.Hallenberg (that was ear opening), Galou 3x, Mingardo 2x, Prina 1x (not all x’s are the same, this was an eye&ear opening, but also a confession i have been really looking forward to and didn’t want to miss the op to hear her live..), JDD 1x. Missing is only A.Coote who i would have really loved to hear live in this role,
and some MP…, i know she’s not a mezzo, but…)actually not, my sarcasm was asleep this past couple of days, I was all “I love this” and “I love that”, really out of character for me 😉 I even tapped my seatmate on the plane to let him know I enjoyed the author of the book he was reading.
BUT NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT!
😀
i haven’t seen this smitten side of you yet! 😉
you know, it started with going to the Schonbrunn, though I think it would’ve killed you, because it was all fragrant trees and plants and whatnot. With a great view of Vienna.
ja, i’d be walking around with gas mask!
(∂ , not my fault, you asked about it 😉 ).
I’m afraid to click!
no no, don’t be afraid 🙂
btw, I can never pass up the opportunity to listen to Hallenberg’s Dopo notte on repeat. I think if someone came to me and asked me to help them get into Baroque singing I would send them out to see Hallenberg 2-3 times. Once to get the feel of how Baroque singing should sound, the second time to just enjoy it and the third time to possibly start picking out all the wonderful things she can do. Then we can move on to other singers, because if they enjoyed themselves even a little bit, they might be able to feel the difference between good and bad Baroque singing.
(i know you are ignoring the đ clik but i forgive u 😛 )
you’re too kind 😉 if you guys hadn’t shrouded it in mystery there would be nothing to ignore!
And you know that I am not ignoring it… 😉
(off topic a bit.. but inspired by Polinesso’s swagger all the way across the ocean, and by the shirt-carrying technique at the bar, i finished 4 pull ups (!!) and will now go for a jog in the 31ºC.. then will come back for proper commenting on vocal description..)
mad props to you, Dr. T
4 pull-ups, that is steep!
bless the contralto&mezzo power
amen!
and the occasional ð soprano!
(jeah, i didn’t want to sound like i was pushing… that was the inspiration for the pull-up bar , with the contralto&mezzo energy boost )
4? my oh my 😉 who’s turning into a gym bunny now 😀
(btw, you know it’s all bragging, coz it happens like 2x a year.. and all downhill from there.. i collapsed after only 200m into the jog and huffed and puffed dragging feet home … may be i need a contralto tattoo!! with ∂ on the other side..)
what the hell is that ∂ you two are passing around? masonic handshake?
you should do it 2x for every one of the ladies you saw this year (nice roster, btw!)
i think you posted a comment somewhere about singing along with Lucarnio’s aria? coz i had a dream (again!) at the opera (with you, again!) and i was tapping feet and singing LOUD along with the tenor, and you were giving me this look, half what the hell? and half amused at my over-enthusiasm…
that look would be correct 😀 so last night gave you Ariodante dreams?
I may have sung along! It’s catchy (that one aria he repeats through the night with different lyrics).
(no no, dream was before your Barbican night! i lost track of days. in dream i was repeating “poW POW POW” getting all excited about the instrument part of the aria… then looked around and realized it was Loud 😉 )
hahaha! it’s the Ariodante season all right 😉
I find his arias quite distinct (forget about the lukewarm duet in the end), but Portillo’s voice is very smooth and maybe the overall approach was similar (or certain contralto had overlayered everything else).
hehe, I’m half facetious 😉 I’m usually not very inested in the tenor material.
Oh I like tenors, at least those of earlier repertoire, not so much the Verdi and later tenors and I mostly prefer them to baritones. But otherwise it seems we have quite similar taste, even in men (I think you mentioned Pisaroni and Gerhaher more than once, haha, and that’s already it for me reg. baritones)
Pisaroni and Gerhaher: more fodder for the fangirling 😉 I don’t dislike tenors per se, it’s just hello mezzos and contralto, goodbye tenors.