Opera Outing: Turandot at the Met

TD and I recently took our nephew Aaron on his first trip to the Metropolitan Opera to see Turandot by Puccini. You know Turandot – the Pekingese princess who had her suitors executed if they did not answer three riddles correctly. What a fun date she must have been...

This was the last opera by Puccini, who had already completed some of the most popular in the repertoire including La Boheme, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly. In fact Turandot was unfinished in 1924 when Puccini died suddenly of a heart attack.

The last bit of Turandot was completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and the opera premiered in Milan that same year. The production at the Met was designed by Franco Zeffirelli in 1987 and is renowned for its sparkle, extravagance and golden glitter. In fact, the intermission between the first and second acts was almost one hour long in order to complete the set change for Princess Turandot's fantastic Chinese palace (pictured at the top of this post) which featured bridges, ponds, columns and roofed turrets. The glorious music, lavish costumes and ornate set created a spectacular and satisfying feast for the senses.

It's always exciting to cross the plaza at Lincoln Center and approach the Metropolitan Opera House in anticipation.

The house seats 3,800 people each night, and it looked like every seat was taken.
3,800 going in the front door –

We settled into cozy seats at the front of the balcony for a wonderful view.

I realized at intermission that part of the great pleasure of going to the Met is that everything is covered in red velvet. The seats, the railings, the stairs, the walls. It's like you're inside a jewel box, or on one long red carpet.

No photos allowed, but I did capture the cast at the curtain call. Irene Theorin played Turandot and Walter Fraccaro was Calaf, the successful suitor. The entire cast was wonderful.

Then down the red velvet stairs –

3,800 people going out - 

It's always such a treat to go the Met, and I am enjoying learning more about opera, one production at a time. What's next? Maybe Aida, another strong princess from the ancient world, courtesy of Verdi.
Blog bonus: watch the finale of Turandot at the Met –

Movie Outing: Anna Karenina

I recently took myself over to the Chelsea Cinema to see Anna Karenina, the movie based on Tolstoy's tragic novel from 1877, and which stars Keira Knightley and is directed by Joe Wright. I have been a big fan of these two since they made Pride & Prejudice together which is one of my very favorite movies.

The movie opened at Thanksgiving so I thought by now the theater would be fairly empty so I arrived a little late to find in the dark a completely packed house. I spotted one seat in the last row and asked two old ladies sitting on the aisle if I could kindly pass. One lady tried to stand up once, twice, and on the third attempt she got half-way up and said to me, "You better go by while the going is good!" I squeezed past and settled into a cozy, comfy seat perfectly situated in the middle of the row where the splendors of Russia unfolded before me.

This novel has been made into movies before, most famously starring Greta Garbo, but for this version Joe Wright decided to film the production mostly within an old theater instead of on location in Russia. It's a risky approach but I thought the movie was very beautiful and I recommend it, especially if you are looking for a luxurious eyeful during these dark dreary days of January. The screenplay was written by the English playwright Sir Tom Stoppard. The production design including the clothes and the sets is wonderful, and it inspires you to take home some of the elegance with you. I won't summarize the 900-page novel here, but you do know that for Anna, who is trying to escape the confines of a deadly dull marriage, it does not end well.

Wrapped in silks and jewels and furs, Keira Knightley is jaw-droppingly gorgeous in the title role, and thankfully the camera does linger on her lovely face. (Photos are movie stills from Focus Features and from Vogue magazine; click on photos to enlarge.)

 

A recent issue of Vogue magazine featured the stars of the movie – here is Keira in Vogue:



The English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Count Alexi Vronksy, the rich calvary officer who the unhappily married Anna falls for.

Here is Taylor-Johnson photographed in Vogue, not blonde.

Jude Law plays Anna's long suffering diplomat husband.
 


In Vogue he wears a dramatic coat by Prada.



Konstantin Levin, who shares a parallel plot with Anna's story, is played by the striking Irish actor Domnhnall Gleason.

The clothes in the movie were designed by Jacqueline Durran, who worked with Joe Wright on Pride & Prejudice, for which she received an Academy Award, and on Atonement; do you remember Keira Knightley's sinuously elegant emerald green evening gown in that movie? Durran was this week nominated for an Oscar for Anna Karenina, and I hope she wins. Eric Wilson at The New York Times wrote a very interesting piece about how Durran combined 1870's shapes with 1950's couture by Balenciaga to create gowns which looked historical but also modern for Anna Karenina.

To add to the modern note, jewelry in the movie is from Chanel; Keira Knightley is the spokesperson for Chanel fragrance.

I really enjoyed the movie which, I understand, is quite faithful to the novel (I haven't read it!). Afterwards I had visions of tsarist Russia dancing in my head. I'd like to return to it again.
Blog bonus: movie trailer

Ivy Style at F.I.T.

I am a big fan of the exhibits at the Museum at F.I.T. and so I thought it would be fun to organize a guided tour through the current exhibition for my department at work. In the fashion marketing department, we are always looking for creative inspiration so what better place to visit than the Museum at F.I.T.  I contacted some friends there and soon enough we had a tour arranged with Patricia Mears, the deputy director of the museum and the curator of the current exhibit called "Ivy Style" which celebrates the handsome, timeless, Ivy League college menswear look.

"Ivy Style” explores this uniquely American invention from its beginnings at the turn of the last century up until today with the designs of Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. The show’s impressive installation includes settings that recreate a college quad, classrooms and a retail university shop. On the insightful tour for the marketing department, Patricia noted that Ivy League style is a signature American creation that mixes up a wealthy, moneyed look with a sporty, casual attitude – for example wearing a bow tie with madras shorts or a tuxedo with no socks. Ivy style takes dressy men's clothes down a notch with a relaxed nonchalance. She also pointed out that although the Ivy League look is now thought of as classic and conservative, it was considered leading edge in the 1920’s and 30’s when magazines eagerly reported on the latest fashion trends that young college men were wearing.

“Ivy Style” is up until January 5th at the Museum at the corner of 7th Avenue and 27th Street, and admission is free. Check it out if you can, and learn more about American men's style and the themes that shaped it. Thank you to F.I.T. and Patricia Mears for the great tour!  

Happy Holidays from NYC

At the Jane Street Tavern where we had a drink, TD drew a Christmas tree on the paper table cloth.

Dear reader, I hope you are having a joyful holiday season. I have been a little sad this time around. My mother loved Christmas, and I have many wonderful memories of family Christmases growing up. Even last year when she was declining, we had a jolly Christmastime in Connecticut. But TD and I have been having some fun adventures in NYC this holiday season. New York City is cheering me –

At ABC Carpet & Home, a beautiful Victorian Santa was poised to talk to children on a long velvet bench. (click on photos to enlarge)

I love the retail displays at ABC – they sprinkle flower petals and glitter nonchalantly over everything.

I went up to Grand Central Station one Saturday afternoon to meet my high school friend Suzy Ferenczy MacEnroe, and discovered there the newish Apple store which has been ingeniously integrated into the hallowed halls of the great train station. The elves, I mean "geniuses", wore festive red tee shirts.

Up at Rockefeller Center, skaters circled on the rink under glittering golden flags and the renowned  Rockefeller Center tree –

We were invited to celebrate the 50th birthday of our friend Toby Usnik at a lunch at the University Club on Fifth Avenue. Toby is the head of corporate communications and chief sustainability officer at Christie's auction house and his partner Harlan who I have been pals with forever is the president and chief executive of Armani Exchange. The Saturday night before the party we read in The New York Times that Harlan and Toby had been married! So the party was both a birthday and wedding celebration. Read their story here.
This wonderful and inspiring event at the University Club was held in one of the great rooms in New York –

There was a birthday/wedding cake on every table.

Up Fifth Avenue at Bergdorf Goodman, the gorgeous windows were inspired by the Ziegfeld Follies from the 1920's and 30's.

Downtown, the unfinished tower rising at 1 World Trade Center was lit for the holidays. Electricians working on the construction had installed colored wrappers on the building's lights. The top of the tower disappeared into a foggy night.

Our friends PR impresario James Laforce and his husband Stephen Henderson along with Fernando Santangelo hosted the best holiday party ever. It was held at 5 Beekman Street, downtown near City Hall. The building, constructed in the late nineteenth century and featuring one of the first elevators in the city, is now completely deserted, and so the party had a spooky theme. When we walked into the lobby we saw an upside-down Christmas tree hung over a piano where a ghoulish looking musician played.

Overhead rose the open nine-story atrium with a glass roof above.

The old elevator lifted us up to the eighth and ninth floors which were jammed with revelers for one of those parties where you run into everybody you have ever known. All of the bartenders and waiters wore grey makeup which made them look ghost-like. It was just a blast.

One brisk day I took a walk around picturesque Brooklyn Heights. The sidewalk of an old apartment building was lined with big pots stuffed with cabbage roses and cyclamen – cheerful plantings for the winter season.

At home, we always love our colorful, warm Christmas tree decorated with personal ornaments and mementos.

We have happy plans with family and friends for the holidays, and I'm grateful for the present moment and the gifts of the day. I wish you and yours the best for this holiday season and the new year to come.

A Video Trip to the Flower Market with Carolyne Roehm

The cover of Carolyne Roehm's new book. 

Carolyne Roehm, a wonderful friend of this blog, has just published a sumptuous new book called "Flowers". You may remember that TD and I visited Carolyne in her amazing apartment for a video interview when she published her last book two years ago called "A Passion for Interiors". That post is the third most popular post ever on the blog. Then we attended her swell book party at the Carlton Hobbs gallery which is one if the most beautiful places in the city. Recently, we stopped by Carolyne's to celebrate the publication of Nathan Turner's  book "American Style".

With her new book, her eleventh, Carolyne has outdone herself. It's over sized, it's heavy, it's gorgeous. Carolyne has a wonderfully elegant style which is all her own, and this book features flowers right out of her own lush gardens which she has arranged and photographed herself. The result is an objet d'art which you want to leave open and view continually. 
I recently met Carolyne in the New York City Flower District on West 28th Street for a video interview which you will find at the end of this post. But first, last week there was a book party at Carlton Hobbs! 

Again the former Vanderbilt mansion provided the perfect setting, and Carolyne enlisted the help of some friends for the party. Sculptor Vladimir Kanevsky crafts delicate flowers out of fine porcelain, and Carolyne asked him to reproduce her flowers in porcelain. Some of the results can be seen on the fireplace mantle and table here. The tulips on the table replicate the book's cover. These pale, poetic creations truly did look real. (click on photos to enlarge)

Doors in the landing at the top of the stairs were lined with watercolors by artist Page Lee Hufty. Here, Carolyne's red and white tulips were interpreted in graceful paint.


Downstairs in a side gallery, stacks of "Flowers" were at home with antiques and art.

Bright flowers decorated the loo, too.

I leafed through the book and later scanned some of my favorite photos. This book is one big meditation on the beauty of flowers.

A colorful bouquet of lilacs, viburnum and tulips captures the joy of spring -

A profusion of luscious peonies -

Carolyne arranged summer flowers in a Majorca vase -

A celebration of autumn dahlias -

Happily, Carolyne agreed to talk one morning in the Flower District about her love of flowers. She met me, with my good friend Scott Brasher who made this video, at 8 a.m. when the area is bustling with business and noise. I hope you enjoy this visit with Carolyne –

The Birth of Beatrix Potter at the Morgan Library & Musuem

The old-fashioned house and garden at Hill Top Farm, Beatrix Potter's home in the English Lake District where she wrote many of her books, is open to the public.

I recently attended a preview of a new exhibition about Beatrix Potter at the Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Avenue. The Morgan is a favorite spot of mine in NYC and I have been interested in the life and work of Beatrix Potter, the Edwardian self-educated artist who turned her personal passion into a publishing empire which has sold more than more 150 million books in 36 languages. As a girl, Beatrix was creative and loved nature and the English countryside, which became the subject of her artwork.
Here is Beatrix walking her pet rabbit Benjamin Bunny. I like her strictly tailored velvet jacket, long woolen skirt and flourishing hat.

At the press preview, curator John Birdwell came into the small gallery on the second floor where the exhibit "Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters" is housed. The origins of the publishing jaggernaut, he said, was an eight page illustrated letter which Beatrix sent to a young friend. Mounted on the wall of the gallery, it began, "My dear Noel, I don't know what to write to you today so I will tell you a story..." Over the eight pages, she wrote out the narrative and drew illustrations of a tale about the disobedient Peter Rabbit. Later, Beatrix turned the idea into a book which six publishers rejected. So she published a version herself. Finally, a publisher came forward. And the rest is Peter Rabbit history.

The exhibition celebrates the "casual elegance of her literary style, her storytelling sensibilities, and mastery of illustration." Most of the drawings are black and white, but I especially liked this inviting watercolor which captures the charm of a secret English garden. (click to enlarge photo)

 

Beatrix Potter went on to write more books about numerous country creatures and became the bestselling 20th century children's book author. Throughout her work, she retained that writing quality of narrating a private letter to an individual child, which was the secret to her success. 

 

Check out this charming, small show at the Morgan which is up until January 27, 2013. And while you're there, don't miss Mr. Morgan's library and office.