Dionne had come out of Flo Greenberg’s Scepter Records in the Brill Building and had been a major success in the Sixties, all while making the first recordings of the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. With Scepter going under, she switched to Ahmet Ertegun’s Atlantic Records and went in a different direction, teaming with the Spinners, who had left Motown. This recording brought her back to Burt and his new partner, Carol Bayer Sager. That’s Burt on keyboards, and that's Stevie, Gladys and Elton as the friends.
Dear Friend,
What Is It with the Metropolitan Opera’s set and costume design???
There were two Met productions this weekend, the Pearl Fishers and MacBeth.
Now, while I understand that The Pearl Fishers was an early work by Bizet, and not considered his best effort, it could have easily been elevated by its exotic, sun-drenched locale (Sri Lanka”) and its glamorous heroine (A priestess of an eastern pagan religion). But no. Dreary, raggedy, monochromatic costumes that can’t make up their mind what century they belong to, and brutalist sets that evoke “The Flying Dutchman marries the Desk Set” sets. Seriously...one set was a wall full of filing cabinets!
So. I nixed that, and went to the computer room and FReeped the rest of the night.
Now, tonight, was the Met doing Macbeth. Let’s see...Shakespeare. Check. Verdi. Check. Anna Netrebko. Check. Love ‘em all...so this should be good.
WRONG! The sets were so dark, industrial, and gloomy, I felt like The glorious music was being presented at the bottom of a 30 yard dumpster!
As if Scotland wasn’t gloomy enough for that “Scottish Opera”?
Last Year’s “Carmen” though, was the worst. (I’ll bet you remember me complaining about THAT!)
Grrrrrrr