There was a boy, A very strange enchanted boy…
David and Iman are pictured above at the opening of the Lincoln Center Metropolitan Opera 2006-2007 Season in New York last night. They were there to see director Anthony Minghella‘s new production of Puccini?s Madama Butterfly.
The performance was notable for at least two reasons, the first being the employment of a small puppet boy, (used to portray Butterfly?s own boy) manipulated by three puppeteers cloaked in black who stand behind him. Apparently the effect was both bizarre and lifelike and was a surreal alternative to the more traditional rosy-cheeked child actor in a sailor’s outfit.
The second reason was a simulcast of the performance in Times Square, where the giant Panasonic, Nasdaq and Reuters screens beamed the opera north to a blocked-off section of Broadway. Here the event was enjoyed for free by seated viewers and passers by alike.
Anyway, David and Iman were immaculately turned out in some lovely clobber, and I bet they smelled nice too.
(Footnote: I dashed off the item above first thing this morning before any news of it had really broke anywhere. But I hung fire on posting as DB had kindly agreed to write a few words for the news item. On my return from a hard day’s toil in the fields, he had written what I think is better suited to a