Poll: Who's Got the Best Nickname in Classical Music?
Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - 03:57 PM
Several classical musicians have spent their summer vacations with an unusual endeavor: changing their names.
It raises the question of how fans relate to and identify their favorite musicians. Beyond the names that adorn marquees and Playbills, there are the many nicknames familiar to classical music – "Manny," "Pinky," "MTT."
Which is your favorite? Do you find one nickname particularly suits an artist? Take our poll or leave your write-in choice below:
Comments [13]
My son calls Renee Fleming "Opera Babe".
Other good opera nicknames from the blogs:
La Scoopenda -- Renee Fleming
The Battleship - Maria Guleghina (I think this came from the blog Sieglinde's Diaries)
The Silver Fox - Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Concetta Nardone, Beverly Sills will always be known as Bubbles
The pianist Andras Schiff once founded a chamber orchestra named after himself (but in Italian) - Capella Andrea Barca
Placi! Placido Domingo - Peaceful Sunday - that's a wonderful name.
The best nickname and real name has gotta be Yo Yo (Ma)
What about Trebs for Anna Netrebko? I think it was coined by one of the Wellsung twins (an opera blog), but it seems to have caught on.
A few years ago, I watched an intermission feature with Beverly Sills and Messrs. Zuckerman and Pearlman. She kept calling them Izzy and Pinky. Ugh. How cute, how adorable. My nickname for her was Miss Brooklyn. Brooklynites out there, don't get angry. She did lay it on thick and she did suffer from the "cutes". As for Dear Lenny, how about Pompous Jackass.
Snarky Old Woman is my nickname.
Gustavo D should be called Sexy Beast. Vivaldi was called the Amarous(?) Monk.
The photo on this page does not match its caption. The photo is an album cover featuring Emmanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Itzhak Pearlman (not Pinchas Zukerman), but the caption states "'Pinky' Zukerman and 'Manny' Ax with Yo-Yo Ma"
Slava is still the all-time greatest, but among active musicians, Dudamel's moniker is the best. For extra cool quotient, though, we should drop "The."
Although he's no longer with us, I always liked "Slava" for Rostropovich, since it's also Russian for "Hail!" as in "Hail, Caesar!"
A great man and a great musician.
groovy name.
A fitting name for sure, but a beautiful dude as he has contributed so much to the music world.
Dudamel has so much passion and has done so much for young musicians all over the world, "The Dude" seems a very fitting nick name!
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