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Tackling weighty issues in the realm of the superheroes, villains and divas
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Greer Grimsley in Santa Fe Salome by Ken Howard 2006
Opera is known for tackling weighty issues. The territory of gods, royalty, warriors and women. So I was watching the View recently and Sherri Sheperd says she has an opera singer friend who feels concerned about his weight. Not for his own health or well-being so much as marketability. On that note each of the singers I have chatted with recently have also mentioned health. Fred Matthews, Siggy Seigel, Greer Grimsley. So isn’t it funny when performers get questioned for baring too much? To me it just goes back to the question of what is art, particularly with the Anna Nicole Smith opera in the works.
Incidentally there’s a great picture of Greer as JtB from Santa Fe, photographed by Ken Howard in 2006.
A reviewer says Jokanaan, John the Baptist, would probably look like Hell after his imprisonment and a biblical diet of crickets so why is Greer performing bare chested. I say the audience sees JtB through Salome’s eyes as desirable. His clothes would have been in tatters as any mortal’s spirit would have been. So has Santa Fe reviewer Charles Downey seen the sexy DVD from Covent Garden? It’s Salome played by Maria Ewing and Michael Devlin as John the Baptist? Michael wears nothing but his white hide, a wild mane of black hair and a loin cloth.
Yet Downey praises Greer’s apocalyptic performance. Commanding even from the cistern, resonant, the high point of the production.
Although Downey notes:
I know that Salome sings a lot about Jokanaan's white body, but I don't think it requires him to be costumed bare-chested, as Grimsley was here. In fact, to be true to the story in the Gospels, Jokanaan would probably look pretty much like hell warmed over, after living on grasshoppers in the wilderness and then rotting in Herod's prison.
So I ask you, Charles Downey, why ask why.
As for Anna Nicole, Greer got back to me with his and his wife Luretta Bybee's vote on who to play Anna. He agreed with me, MAM. MaryAnn McCormick.
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As it turns out MAM performed in Venice with Greer in Die Walkure. She emailed me on Tuesday.
Someone told me today that there is an article in the paper (maybe the New York Times) about this commission. Elaine Padmore is spearheading it.
MAM also says about Greer and Luretta:
They are so great. Greer is such a terrific singer and colleague. We sang in Venice together in Die Walkeure. He is easily the best Wagnerian baritone around today!
I also had coffee and lunch with opera photographer John Martin this week, who asks, what makes Anna Nicole’s story an opera. He and I went to the Grove on Fillmore on a rainy Tuesday morning. She died, I said. And he seemed to agree and elaborated or one-upped me. First your son, then you. Well, I felt bad with my cough and cold but not that bad. Needing sustenance after my Earl Grey with honey and his cappucino, he and I moved on to La Boulange across Fillmore. It offers French onion soup each day. They offered a comforting bowl of French lentil too. John and I got onto the subject of his book on opera singers and I mentioned the controversial nature of the costume for John the Baptist in Salome. John Martin will be photographing cast members backstage this season instead of supering for the first time in many years. He said perhaps I could help out. He wants to get those photographed to tell stories to go with the photographs.
He also mentioned he used to photograph architectural details in Pacific Heights, a few blocks away. I’ve been walking a couple of French Bulldogs there all week and admired a brick structure with columns at the front door, the entire façade covered in glorious vines that must have taken a hundred years to grow. It’s old money along Broadway and Pacific he said, the Gettys.
I put the red polo shirts on Bev and Bistro and went promenading with a view of the Bay from the Golden Gate to Alcatraz. Down the five flights of stairs . . . the elevator has been out all week and somebody even got stuck in it. I'm knackered . . . but I've been writing my column with a view of the Victorians and their rooftops and a Catholic cathedral and a sandstone colored synagogue with it's slate black dome . . . rain or shine . . . Photo by Travis Rew.
John says the vines I mentioned on that Pacific Heights mansion are actually bad for the brick, they keep in moisture. Nevertheless he says the houses were immaculate, not a speck of dust, and usually just one couple living in them. The stories they must have to tell with their view of the Bay.
In closing, John sent a photo. Here's Natale Dessay, the French coloratura soprano and one of Siggy's favorites, photographed by John Martin last summer. What does she see over her shoulder? Do you remember her after Lucia di Lammermoor at AT&T last June on that warm summer night, tossing her baseball cap to the audience? Other members of the cast came out waving foam fingers? Go Giants, We're Number One!
Photo: John Martin, jfmdigital.com
Meanwhile Morgan Jones is looking forward to the Academy of Friends celebration of the Oscars on Sunday. She volunteers with the SFOpera, SFSymphony, and the SFBallet. She and her son Myles super at the opera.
Morgan emails I have had artist receptions to prepare brownies for, and am getting my brownie truffles into stores, and coffee houses. I am currently preparing for the Academy of Friends Gala on Sunday, Feb. 22nd, 1200+ "Serendipity! Brownie Truffles". Then I have to begin preparing for the SF International Chocolate Salon, March 21st.
Weighty issues on hold. I imagine it will be a special year at the Academy of Friends, which is an AIDS and HIV fundraiser. Specifically with Milk and Marin's Sean Penn up for awards. This year it's billed as a night of superheroes, villains and divas.
Greer Grimsley Impressions, Passions, Stand by Me, Dreams
Siggy team player part I and part II
Tosca featured in film Milk
Tosca and how opera's embattled stay in fighting shape
Fred Matthews sang Porgy & Bess 756 times
Fred Matthews produces Cavalcade of Stars III February 2009
Opera announces 2009/2010 season
Oscar Wilde and the 'love that dares not speak it's name'
Contact the writer at SFOperaExaminer@Yahoo.com.
MAM headshot courtesy of MAM
Photos of Morgan Jones and truffles courtesy of Morgan Jones
For more info: www.SFOpera.com
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