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APR|L.99

La Gran SCGIIEI

Proves Opera Can Be _ M
Good AND Good for You 

e.
I‘ 1,.

BY MARK CARTER

magine a 200-lb soprano tripping down castle steps while trilling like a canary.
Envision a scene from Wagner’s Ride of the I/Zzlkyries where the cast, while vying
for the spotlight, are dressed in tacky ball gowns and wielding spears and boas.» If
you can picture either of these situations, then you have some idea of what La Gran
Scena Opera is about. Burlesque? Definitely, but burlesque is only a part of thei
story. Even though this all-male company sings in falsettos and falsies, they haveran
appreciation and an understanding of what makes opera a compelling art form. Combinin
comedy and the sublime, these divas convulse their audiences with laughter and instill in the
a feeling that opera can be loved and laughed at —— at the same time. W‘ “ . M W. ,
Company creator and artistic director Ira Siff plays Vera Galup-Borszkh, whose ‘w gs
makeup are reminiscent of Lucille Ball or our own Cherry Tartt and Yolanda.;An agele 75
acter with a very long career, Vera is affectionately referred to'as_. La Dementi, ”
described her performance as Bette Midler on Benzedrine. While thehumor is ever-
has been known to make audiences fall into worshipful hushes at the beauty of them
soprano voice is stratospheric, capable of amazing strength, and has been: called ear4sp tti gb
at least one writer. . . ‘ A "C "   ‘ Iii
I recently spoke with Siff about arias, applause, and architecture. f

How would you describe what you do? I  _, V

I do somewhere between a spoof of and a tribute to grand opera that reflects affectionately 7
but through a distorted mirror, what I grew up with when I was a kid living in New York City"
and going to the old Metropolitan Opera —— a very grand and gilded palazzo, not the cheesy
Lincoln Center. ,
A One of the things I remember from last time I was at Lincoln Center was the gold leaf A
falling from the ceiling. V  ; _ I , V ? ~

Well, that is the new place. Who’n_eeds it? That was the ‘60s, the worst period of archi-q *
tecture. Here we are, stuck with it the worst kind of nightmare. They were all
built at the wrong time. They managed totake very expensive ingredients,
like redwoods from Africa and precious stone, and make it look
like Formica and poured concrete. ,It’s a-mess. It was
the period. ’ '

When I was a kid the old Met
was a dingy-looking place
outside, but inside, it was a
golden horseshoe on 39th and
Broadway. It was quite
grand, with a lot of history. I
began to go on the instigation of
a high school friend, who literally
dragged me to sit through a perfor-
mance that starred a very young Joan
Sutherland. I was completely swept away. I had
never seen anything so dramatic or funny in my entire
life. She was startling. Pandemonium broke loose when she finished.
The placejust went bananas. This was a time before the now ubiquitous and extreme- A .
ly meaningless standing ovation that greets any performance penned by Andrew Lloyd Weber or even worse. This
was a time when people responded for a reason — the reason not bemg because they just paid $75 for a Broadway
show and they’d better pat themselves on the back. They spontaneously responded to performances.

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