![\"Astrid](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/anzeriVarnay.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 Spirograph needlemaniac defaces legendary (and conveniently deceased) Br\u00fcnnhilde. And so on.<\/p>\n Bavarian State Opera\u2019s anticipated additions to its portrait gallery<\/a> went public yesterday, their twenty-one victims \u2014 er, honored subjects \u2014 being depicted in various media by twenty-one visual artists. Scattered docent notes:<\/p>\n \u2022 Anja Harteros – toner light The needleman in question is Maurizio Anzeri<\/a>, a London-based Italian whose stock-in-trade is embroidered photography, much of it stunning though not usually intended to depict a specific person.<\/p>\n Anzeri likes to cover a face, spurred on perhaps by its energy. It is unclear why, but the Freunde des Nationaltheaters M\u00fcnchen e.V. chose him to portray<\/em> soprano Astrid Varnay<\/a>, and he has overcome the obvious hurdle by recourse to a diptych (shown). Whether he listened to her work for inspiration or direction, or has sensed what she achieved, is anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n Raised in New Jersey, Varnay debuted at the Metropolitan Opera<\/a> at the age of 23 singing Wagner\u2019s Sieglinde and, days later, Br\u00fcnnhilde. After successes in the 1950s at Bavaria\u2019s Bayreuth Festival<\/a> as well as at Bavarian State Opera, she settled in Munich and is buried here.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Bayerische Staatsoper<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: October 17, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Astrid Varnay – best in person
\n\u2022 Brigitte Fassbaender – high treason
\n\u2022 Christian Gerhaher – sun shines out of his … mouth
\n\u2022 Diana Damrau – per piet\u00e0
\n\u2022 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – cluster analysis
\n\u2022 Edita Gruberov\u00e1 – background material
\n\u2022 Fritz Wunderlich – for Hasselblad\u200e
\n\u2022 Hermann Prey – about to …
\n\u2022 Hildegard Behrens – Dietrich? Garbo? both?
\n\u2022 Jonas Kaufmann – David? Cellini? finished?
\n\u2022 J\u00falia V\u00e1rady – ready for her close-up
\n\u2022 Klaus Florian Vogt – Brabant H.S.
\n\u2022 Kurt Moll – a wash
\n\u2022 Lucia Popp – monochrome Sophie
\n\u2022 Margaret Price – unmasked!
\n\u2022 Peter Seiffert – got THaT rigHt!
\n\u2022 Ren\u00e9 Kollo – eye, nose, mouth, eye
\n\u2022 Waltraud Meier – Broadway-bound
\n\u2022 Wolfgang Brendel – every inch the Bavarian
\n\u2022 Wolfgang Koch – unhappy camper<\/p>\n
\nPortraits For a Theater<\/a>
\nPetrenko Preps Strauss Epic<\/a>
\nA Complete Frau, at Last<\/a>
\nPetrenko Hosts Petrenko<\/a>
\nPoulenc Heirs v. Staatsoper<\/a><\/p>\n