That Antony Hegarty would record a Puccini aria, and do it beautifully, isn’t a bit surprising. That Antony would have done the whole thing for an Italian coffee company, well, that’s another bag of beans.
Lavazza Coffee has apparently convinced Antony—the frontman for Antony and the Johnsons—to record a fully orchestrated version of the one of the most famous tenor arias of all time, Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.” (You can listen to the madness here.) As you can see from the accompanying press photo, Lavazza has managed to make Antony—an artist whose persona is dedicated to slipping under (and over) gender’s boundaries—look about as conventionally female as possible. (Plus, doesn’t he look a little uncomfortable, like he just remembered he forgot to feed his cat?) But the recording, made with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, is pretty gorgeous. Antony does nothing wrong here. Sung admirably in Italian, Antony and his trademark vibrato were made for this song—all opera queen stereotypes aside.
But of course it’s all just so silly—almost as silly as Johnny Rotten doing a butter commercial. Yes, complaining about musicians you admire doing commercials is a little like complaining about a rainy day. But the problem, as in the Rotten ad, is the juxtaposition. Gay, gender-bending and (until very recently) relatively unknown artist on the one hand, world-conquering coffee company from virile Mediterranean nation on the other. What’s the angle? What’s the pitch? What the hell?
It doesn’t have to be this way. Corporations and rock stars can get along just fine. That Converse commercial with Pharrell, Santogold, and Julian Casablancas two summers ago—stills of which were pasted all over New York subways—got a little annoying, sure, but it made perfect sense. And Madonna shilling for H&M, totally. Justin Timberlake for Pepsi and Sony, sure. Lenny Kravitz, Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton, and Plain White T’s for Kohl’s, why not. Youth brands, or those remaking themselves over as youth brands, will go after rock stars—the youth brand. This makes sense.
But while there may be a touch of youth associated with Lavazza (glamorous Europeans, bustling cafes, speeding Vespas, and the like), the same cannot be said of Antony. The singer brings to mind many things, but teenager isn’t one of them. If it was an air of world-weary sophistication Lavazza was after it could have found someone better, say Leonard Cohen or Marianne Faithful. Then again, “Nessun Dorma” might have posed a challenge for old Lenny.
Who knows—any country who elects a philandering primer minister of Silvio Berlusconi’s caliber can’t much be trusted in matters of taste.
