Born On This Day- Opera Greats, James Levine & William Fregosi

In Manhattan, mid-1970s, I was studying acting at HB Studios & I was working for ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers). My cubicle at ASCAP had a view of the Chagall tapestries in the Metropolitan Opera House lobby. Because my shift was in the evening, I was often treated to a special of view of the art & the fountains at Lincoln Center. When the weather was acceptable, I would have my lunch on the steps of the Opera House.

NYC being one of the most expensive places to live, I jumped at the chance to have an extra income when one of the staff members of the Met told me of an opening doing part time in the box office of the famed opera house.

The Met had a series of concerts to introduce classical music & opera to school age children. These magical afternoons were hosted by Danny Kaye. At a certain point in the concert, Kaye would explain how many people it took to put on an opera production & the curtain would rise to reveal about 200 people: technicians, stagehands, designers, orchestra members, chorus, soloists, office personnel, & front of the house staff. There I would stand for 60 seconds as the audience gasped & applauded, sounds I have always loved.

I stood near to a chubby, frizzy haired gentleman with large aviator glasses. This would be James Levine, at the time, the musical director of The Metropolitan Opera Company. Today he is the Artistic Director of the company, & in rather ill health.



Levine's tenure with the company is considered it's golden era. He developed the orchestra & chorus to an unparalleled level of achievement, excellence & recognition. Levine spends more than 7 months of the year with the Company, unique in the music world. This season at the Metropolitan Opera, he leads a new production of Wagner's Tristan & Isolde, the first at the Met in 25 years, Verdi's Otello, Schoenberg's Moses & Aron, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande & Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen & the world premiere performances of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby, commissioned in honor of the 25^th anniversary of his Met debut.

Why am I blathering on & on about a figure in the world of opera, when I care so very little about this art form? Well, Levine is gay & a major musical figure & today is his 67th birthday, but mostly I am framing this post around the birthday of one of my true favorite figures of the world of Opera & Theatre: William Fregosi.



I met William "Cha Cha" Fregosi in the world of blogging when I became a fan of his- Designerblog. He is one of only a handful of fellow bloggers that I have had the pleasure of meeting in person. I spent a lovely summer evening in the Boys' Fort with him, his husband, my husband & the critters. We had some wine & told some stories.

Fregosi is an amazingly talented & celebrated set & lighting designer.  He is retired as Technical Coordinator/Scenic Designer for Theater Arts at MIT after 35 years. He has also been a Visiting Instructor at University of Chicago. Fregosi grew up in NYC, & attended many concerts & theatre experiences while growing up.

He holds a BFA from Boston University & an MFA from Brandeis.Fregosi has designed for Theater Company of Boston, Hasty Pudding Shows, National Jewish Theater, & Boston Center for the Arts. He designed for the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young People's Concerts, the first 2 seasons for Boston Lyric Opera, & 5 seasons for Associate Artists Opera. Fregosi has lectured nationwide for the Wagner Societies of New York, Boston, Honolulu & San Francisco). He is a regular reviewer for The Opera Quarterly. 
 
For Intermezzo Company in Boston, Fregosi was the set & lighting designer for Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea in 2009 & this season's The Andree Expedition. This spring he designed & co-wrote the libretto, along with his handsome husband Fritz "boom-boom" Bell, A Place of Beauty, an opera about Isabella Stewart Gardner.

What's up next for Fregosi? This autumn he is debuting his new work- Steve's Hot Pants, an operetta about climate change & masturbation techniques, for which he is doing the sets, lights, costumes, score, lyrics & book for The NoPo Community Players. This new work will join the repretory of my all canine production of Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba & my all naked Fiddler On The Roof *(that's some hairy Jews!).

The Cossack Chorus from Fiddler On The Roof

* Footnote: I had "appeared in the Danny Kaye Concerts for Children at The Metropolitan House at Lincoln Center" on my acting resume for 20 years.

Pears & Blass... A Pair Of Birthdays On June 22nd

"Style is primarily a matter of instinct.”

William Ralph Blass was a very handsome man, who happened to be gay. He produced clothes for many renowned women including Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Pat Buckley, Brooke Astor, Nancy Kissinger, Happy Rockefeller, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessye Norman, Barbra Streisand, & Barbara Walters.

Bill Blass's life epitomised the Gatsby-esque American dream. Along with Oscar de la Renta, Blass was the American designer who most successfully brought together the roles of couturier & social butterfly.

At one point in my life I thought that escorting society dames to parties, lunches & events might just be the ticket for me. I had my eye on Diana Vreeland in the mid-1970s. Blass was one of the most successful 'walkers' ever. He was an indefatigable partygoer, showing up with some of the richest women in Manhattan at every party, gallery opening & hip restaurant. He not only loved the world of glamour, big money, high profile & style, but understood how to dress it, which is why his company was so successful for more than 30 years.

He was one of the founder members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). He was the first to receive the CFDA Perignon Award for Humanitarian leadership beyond fashion. He donated the $25,000 prize to the AIDS care centre of New York Hospital. He was also a major donor to Gay Men's Health Crisis at a time when well known people were silent about AIDS. Bill Blass died of cancer aged 79.

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Pears on the left & Britten on the right.

For 40 years, Peter Pears was the lover/partner of composer Benjamin Britten, who wrote the leading roles in many of his operas & song for Pears.Their partnership is important for the vast body of music & recordings it produced, & because many homosexual subjects figured in their work. Because Opera is just not gay enough.

Pears became a leading lyric tenor of the Sadler's Wells Opera, where he developed an extensive repertoire, but Pears's greatest triumph in this company, was his creation of the title role of the tortured & homosexual outcast in Britten's Peter Grimes (1945).

For the next 30+ years, Pears created many operatic roles that Britten wrote for him, including the title role in Albert Herring (1947), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (1951), Essex in Gloriana (1953), Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw (1954), Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), the Madwoman in Curlew River (1964), Nebuchadnezzar in The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966), the Tempter in The Prodigal Son (1968), Sir Philip Wingrave in Owen Wingrave (1971), & Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1973).

In 1974, Pears made, at last, his debut at the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York, in the 1st American performance of Death in Venice. I wonder if my friend Will, the esteemed theatre & opera designer was in the house?

Even after Britten's death in 1976, Pears continued his singing career until nearly the age of 70. He spent the remainder of his life teaching & administering the Britten-Pears School. Pears was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, & died on April 3, 1986. He is buried next to Britten.

A Morning With The Post Apocalyptic Bohemians...

This is an aesthetic that the Husband finds to have an agreeablely austere allure:

This is the actuality..

with ample amounts of accountability on my part: 



Born On This Day- April 4th... Designer & Hip-Hop Artist Lil' Jake

Today marks the birthday of my good close personal friend, the designer/ hip-hop artist- Lil'Jake.

Jake came into my life via the Husband. They became fast friends while working together at a posh, pricey Portland Pearl District shoppe that sold bedding & linens to Portland's monied, nouveau riche, & old guard. The Husband & the Jaker were held together by their mutual love for the exclusive, entitled customers who desired lavish, lush, luxurious linens... but only if they didn't need to be pleasant.

Lil' Jake & I have always gotten along. We have never had a cross word, intrigue or fight in the nearly decade of being friends. We speak a special, secret language that mortals can not hear- Show Biz Talk. Other people in our lives tune us out, but we can go for hours. One of our favorite pastimes involves recasting Broadway Shows & movies.

Emmy winning rapper & Broadway veteran, Jake France enjoys a rich, varied performing career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, recitalist, university professor, design librarian, editor, publisher, fine arts administrator, set designer & commercial designer. His work as a designer has been featured in Popular Mechanics, Boy's Life, Highlights, & Elle Decor Libya, NW Home Chickens, New Age Traveler & Portland Poser. He also very occasionally posts on his own site: The Kenton Collective.

Jake graduated summa cum laude, with an AA in the Hospitality Arts from Obsorbine Junior College in 2000. His senior thesis involved canning insects for fun & profit.

During the late aughts, Lil'Jake was a leader in the early 21st century Brooklyn Hipster movement & was responsible for several special facial hair selections. While living in Brooklyn, Jake released an EP- Foot & Mouth Disease which spawned the hit dance re-mix- I Wanna Touch Your Body With My Body. He is listed in Who's Who in American Women, Who's Who in Brooklyn, Who's Who in American Design, Who's Gay in America, & the International Who's Ho Is Whose. He has performed with the Biscuit Boys, The Tel Aviv Twisters, Viva Iraq!, & The Tri-Met Clown Posse Players. He was the recipient of The Minnie Maddern Fiske award for his work as Second Whore From The Left in the Chateau d' Ville Dinner Theatre production of the Christian industrial rock musical-  Babble On, Babylon!

Next up for this busy boy? He is working on a special project with my husband. I don't know what it is. Everything is hush-hush. 2011 brings the release of his long in the making Art Book-  The Annotated & Illustrated 101 Gay Love Making Positions.



Today,on this special birthday, Jake comes out as gay publicly, right here at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia!

Fine Dining

When we moved into Post Apocalyptic Bohemia 9+ years ago, we dismissed what had been described as the "formal dining room" as a nook of little importance. The Husband announced that this space would never be a dining room & that we would be treating the space as a "nook" off the front room.

In 2004, the Husband took this space down to the bare studs. We lived with it this way for 6 years. I loved it! It was very Post Apocalyptic Bohemian, the style that I go for. I was always inspired by spaces in Venice that were elegance layered with decay. I always thought I could love in a reclaimed ruin.

We seem to be getting all grown up. Darn! The Husband, with some help from T, has been finishing this space (or at least until he gets his next big idea). What I enjoy the most is the gradual transformation from the least desirable part of the house to my favorite spot to sit & just be. Larry & Junior find it to be inviting also.

Two of the walls are boards that the Husband cut, bleached & stained to look the color of Oregon driftwood. In late February, he plastered the other wall, repeating the stripe made from the joining of the boards of the other wall. It took the Husband 5 tries to create an effect he was pleased with. At one point the Husband had buffed the plaster, without the stripes, so that it looked like animal hide. We both hated the result. Tears were shed, with the Husband doubting his own talent. I never doubted him.


The Husband & I met 34 years ago in the Theatre World. He was an extraordinary set designer & his talent is what first drew me to him. The telling is in the details. Here are a few details from a space truly transformed through talent & tenacity: