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Metropolitan Opera New Year’s Eve Gala Click here for tickets Dec 31 at 4pm ET My choice for this strangest of all New Year’s Eves is a Metropolitan Opera Gala from, no, not the Met, this year is too peculiar for that, but from the Parktheater in Augsburg, Germany. Even the location is odd; the Parktheater is an ornate Neo-Baroque marvel of glass and cast-iron, opened in 1886, and designed to evoke the English pleasure gardens of the 18th and 19th centuries, presumably designed by someone who had never seen one. On Dec 31 at 4pm ET, two sopranos and two tenors, Angel Blue, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, and Matthew Polenzani, will ring in the new year with what promises to be a dazzling gala performance, including arias, duets, and ensembles from Donizetti to Puccini, as well as arrangements of operetta and Neapolitan songs. The singers, fortunately, are not neo-Baroque. They represent the youngest and shiniest of the Met’s stars and, from the programme, each will be singing to their strengths or, at least, their favourite operatic ‘lollypops’. All your favourites will be performed and there won’t be a single song you can’t sing along to from La Donna e Mobile and Che Gelida Manina to, all together now, Auld Lang Syne. Seems to me that, until we’ve heard that hoary old chestnut sung by four of opera’s biggest stars, we haven’t lived. The tickets are $20, which seems to me a bargain for this concert, especially as it will be available for 14 days following its first broadcast. I’m telling you about this a little early – usually the blog doesn’t extend beyond the current week – because, should you want to, you can give this concert as a gift. Pinocchio – Chichester Festival Theatre Click here to watch Dec 22-23 at 2pm UK time Never let it be said that this blog doesn’t pay attention to the oldest and the youngest readers (and their parents). Here is a brand new version of this classic tale, written especially for the Chichester Festival Youth Theatre by Anna Ledwich. You remember the story, or maybe you don’t. Geppetto picks up a piece of wood and begins to carve – and a small wooden boy is revealed. A puppet, Pinocchio, who can’t stop getting into trouble, despite the best efforts of the Blue Fairy and the Cricket to keep him on track. His intentions may be good but the temptation to discover the wonders of the world keep getting in the way. As does his nose, which gets longer with every lie he tells. Pinocchio will be live streamed from Chichester Festival Theatre and is recommended for ages 7+. Tickets are a minimum of £10 but you are asked to pay more if you can. All That Jazz Click here to watch Of all the versions of All That Jazz I’ve seen, from many different London and New York casts of the musical Chicago, Bebe Neuwirth is my favourite. There is a crispness and an irony in her technique and personality that comes out in this performance and makes me giggle. But here too is the legendary Ann Reinking coming on to dance with her in a mashup of Hot Honey Rag. This rather fuzzy film from the 1997 Tony Awards shows the difference in style of these two great performers who were both born to dance Bob Fosse’s choreography. We lost Ann Reinking this week and, for me, the loss is as great as the loss of John le Carre. But both of them in one week? Too much. Nothing to be done but to reread le Carre and watch this clip over and over. The Gruffalo and The Snail and the Whale Click here for tickets for The Gruffalo Click here for tickets for The Snail and the Whale From Dec 21 For the littlest theatre lovers, those aged 3+, come The Gruffalo and The Snail and the Whale, two of the most beloved children’s stories, based on the classic books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, dramatized and filmed, and available from Dec 21 to watch at home. Tickets from £10 per household per stream. I Won’t Be Seeing You This Christmas - Christine Andreas Click here to watch Sometimes there’s a song that just hits at exactly the right moment. Even better when it’s a really good song. This is a new song by David Friedman, I Won’t Be Seeing You This Christmas, sung by one of the truly great American cabaret and concert singers, Christine Andreas. If you don’t know her, you should, and I hope this will serve as introduction to both the singer and the song. It was arranged by David Siegel and Christine’s husband and performing partner, Martin Silvestri. This is, for me, by far the best of this year’s new Christmas offerings. I hope you will agree. Iestyn Davies with Arcangelo Click here to watch I was mesmerised earlier this week, listening to the countertenor, Iestyn Davies with Arcangelo, singing a concert of music including Handel’s nine German arias. Arcangelo plays Handel’s Violin Sonata in A, Geminiani’s F major cello sonata, and Marin Marais’ 1701 Les voix humaines. There’s also some music by a seemingly very important composer called Anon. Sublime. This stream from the Wigmore Hall is available until Jan 13 and I highly recommend it. Iestyn Davies needs no introduction for lovers of early music and/or those of us who adore the countertenor voice, but Arcangelo – harpsichord, lute, cello, violin - may be new to you as it was to me. Song sheets and translations are available free on the website with a single click. Streams from Wigmore Hall are free but I give them £10 each time I watch one of their programmes, to keep them going, and to contribute at least something to these amazing artists so that they aren’t working for nothing. David Raleigh – Christmas, My Piano and Me Click here to watch December 23 at 9pm ET (6pm PT) but available for us in Europe the following day on his Facebook page Join David Raleigh, a fine American jazz and cabaret performer, around the piano for a virtual evening of Christmas songs and carols, as well as a few highlights from the "Quarantine Serenade" series he performed earlier this year. Free. Christine Pedi: Snow Bizness Click here for tickets Christine Pedi is a very clever singing impressionist who can easily make you believe you are listening to Barbra Streisand, Joan Rivers, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews and a host of other favourite divas. Musical theatre actress Pedi conjures them up in her joyful annual holiday celebration SNOW BIZNESS. With a voice as big as the sea and a tail as big as a kite (her description, not mine) there are comic takes on holiday classics, impressions galore including her ‘legendary’ (again, her description, not mine) “12 Divas of Christmas” plus a warm & fuzzy seasonal standard or 2. The show was filmed on the “City sidewalks dressed in holiday style” al fresco on the front stoop of the New York brownstone of popular cabaret nightspot Don’t Tell Mamas. Devoted (but responsibly spaced & fashionably masked) Broadway friends and fans joined in the party. We may be in a lockdown but let nothing you dismay, Christine Pedi will ring out the old and ring in the new with plenty of wit and even more warmth. Everyone leaves with a smile on their face. And this year we need it more than ever. Tickets are $20 plus a ‘service fee’ of $3.50. Metropolitan Opera – Favourites Click here to watch A few items back, we were talking about the Met gala, so I checked this week’s nightly opera stream from the Met. It’s a winner. It includes all the favourite operas in the repertoire – Massenet’s Cendrillon (Kathleen Kim, Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote, Stephanie Blythe), Puccini’s La Boheme (the classic 1982 production with Teresa Stratas, Renata Scotto, José Carreras, Richard Stilwell, and James Morris, conducted by James Levine)., Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Ying Huang, Erika Miklósa, Matthew Polenzani, Nathan Gunn), Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Isabel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee), Lehar’s The Merry Widow (Renee Fleming with Kelli O'Hara, Nathan Gunn, Alek Shrader, Thomas Allen, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, having the time of their lives), Verdi’s Falstaff (Ambrogio Maestri in the title role and Stephanie Blythe as a perfect Mistress Quickly) and, of course, on Christmas Day, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Couldn’t leave that one out. All these amazing treats are free – don’t say Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents. Each one starts at 7.30 ET (which is 12.30 UK time, but is then available for 24 hours, free, on the Met website. No need to book, nothing to pay, just tune in to the website and keep scrolling down until you reach your choice. If it's the right day, then click on Watch Now. Rockettes – Radio City Music Hall, New York Click here to watch You can’t be in New York at Christmas without going to see the annual spectacular at Radio City Music Hall at least once. New Yorkers pretend to be snooty about it but Christmas always sees them sneaking into the gorgeous Art Deco surroundings for their winter ‘fix’ of the Rockettes. The Christmas Spectacular at Radio City is what New Yorkers have instead of pantos, and the centre of the show is the Rockettes. This is a troupe of dancers with impossibly long legs and boundless energy who dance in perfect synchronisation. Last time I saw them there were 36 of them, with perfect timing, performing precision feats in unison which looked impossible from the audience. “How do they do that?” is the question that buzzes round the theatre as they all fall down together. I found this piece of film that tells how. It takes us into the Rockettes rehearsal room so we can appreciate how very precise they have to be and how remarkable they are and have been since 1933.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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