Why Shit Never Gets Done Around Here

So, on Saturday I had blocked out a couple of hours to get some work done, maybe start digitizing my old VHS boot compilations or trimming down the new (and surprisingly booty) Mary Queen of Scots movie. I had The Hard Nut playing in the background and I thought, "that is the coolest Drosselmeyer EVER. I wonder what else he's been in? I'll just do a quick little web search and then get to work." Well this led to that and I stumbled across the image above from The Met's production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory.  The blood-hound had picked up the scent. I knew that I would be increasing rather than reducing my to-do list.

Opera has a long tradition of what are called "Trouser Roles"(people who like to giggle salaciously sometimes call them "trouser parts").  The world of opera is foreign to me, but given my fondness for women in period costumes badly masquerading as men, it is a topic of some interest. The picture above and to the left is of the Grammy-award winning  mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the role of the page Isolier.



So, hours later I knew much more about Le Comte Ory and Isolier and Joyce DiDonato. Much of it I will forget, but I found a few good videos and am still mulling purchasing the entire DVD. Sadly most of the other clips from Le Comte Ory on youtube are from productions where Isolier is un-booted. But here are a few clips of merit I unearthed. My first impulse was to make and upload my own boot-edits of these clips, but I'm shooting for less work, not more.




These two clips offer some above average views of Joyce's boots. I'm guessing the rampant bi-sexuality and implied menage a trois in this scene is not something that was in the original staging back in 1829.  But I know so little about opera I could be wrong.

The entire production is segmented on youtube but in a pretty poor 360p rip.

Here's a different complete production. Poor video quality, decent boots, ridiculous fake mustache.  Isolier has a good scene at around 18:40.


To wrap up, here's a Master Class at Juilliard that Joyce put on and was nice enough to wear suede knee boots.


Anyway, there's more stuff out there, this is a good starting place. My desire for completeness is losing to my urge to push the "publish" button and be done with this.

One last tip, do an image search for "Der Rosenkavalier Octavian"