Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Anna and the Opera

Didn’t get around to sharing this article back in December on the rise of soprano Anna Netrebko. Now she’ll be part of a new home with the opening of LA’s new opera hall. The exciting part:

Domingo is a longtime friend of Mr. Luhrmann’s (he provided the voice of the Moon in the Australian movie director’s “Moulin Rouge”), and is in talks with the film director to create an opera. It’s just one project in the company’s ongoing mambo with the movies: The fall season will be previewed with a summer run of the Sondheim musical, “A Little Night Music,” starring Jeremy Irons, and will include another Sondheim show, “Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” The opera company has also invited two movie directors, William Friedkin and Maximilian Schell, to direct productions. But, without question, the piece de resistance of the season’s announcements hovers on the horizon like summer lightning, sending a bolt of excitement through the city: plans for a $60 million production in 2007 of the Wagner “Ring Cycle” in conjunction with George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic special-effects company.

Performing pit for Sweeney was definitely a highlight in college. Come to think of it, I’ve done pit for “A Little Night Music” too. I always thought pit orchestars were loads of fun. Sondheim is a true genius. Hm…an ILM collaboration on Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” sounds incredible — perhaps worth the sole purpose of a trip to LA (assuming it’s still around in 2007 :)
Read the full article here.