Here I am caught by the camera in an impromptu interview between acts of our LA BOHEME Dress rehearsal (Young People's Night at the Opera) at the Harrison Opera House, with a hall packed with school children, anticipating the continuing thrills they are about to experience when we resume.
Click here to watch..
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Seriously, Someone Has To Do That
Did you ever wonder how the parts get prepared for all orchestral and opera performances?
Well someone has to do that. And he or she is called a Music Librarian.
Even before the first rehearsal, parts have to be ordered, marked with cuts, bowings, expression marks, etc., so that the chorus and orchestra can follow the same guidelines. The person who does that job, is called a 'music librarian.'
This job is often split in an opera company such as ours, between the Music Department -- in our case headed by Associate Artistic Director and Conductor Joe Walsh, who orders the edition and the parts and then discusses and identifies and distributes the cuts, and also in his case prepares all the preliminary chorus parts with diction and translation markings for the first rehearsal, --- and the Symphony librarian, who is hired to place the cuts, bowings, and important markings into the orchestral parts which will be rehearsed and performed by our two orchestras depending upon the opera -- the Virginia Symphony or the Richmond Symphony.
I think this article by the Seattle Opera Music Librarian will give you a good view of what needs to happen before even the first rehearsal.
Click here to read it.
Well someone has to do that. And he or she is called a Music Librarian.
Even before the first rehearsal, parts have to be ordered, marked with cuts, bowings, expression marks, etc., so that the chorus and orchestra can follow the same guidelines. The person who does that job, is called a 'music librarian.'
This job is often split in an opera company such as ours, between the Music Department -- in our case headed by Associate Artistic Director and Conductor Joe Walsh, who orders the edition and the parts and then discusses and identifies and distributes the cuts, and also in his case prepares all the preliminary chorus parts with diction and translation markings for the first rehearsal, --- and the Symphony librarian, who is hired to place the cuts, bowings, and important markings into the orchestral parts which will be rehearsed and performed by our two orchestras depending upon the opera -- the Virginia Symphony or the Richmond Symphony.
I think this article by the Seattle Opera Music Librarian will give you a good view of what needs to happen before even the first rehearsal.
Click here to read it.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
BIRGIT NILSSON AND HER AMAZING VOCAL TECHNIQUE, AND MANON AND HERS
You really have to hear and watch the young Birgit Nilsson negotiate the difficulties of Wagner's Liebestod in concert with orchestra to appreciate the enormous control she has technically. It has many close-ups of her face, which demonstrate the accurate techical adjustments to maximize the inner height and flow of air behind her "mask" -- which keep the continuity of the air stream in the right place for continued resonance without engaging other unnecessary muscles. Watch particularly the physical calm of her body, the changing facial muscles and mouth position as the pitches and words flow in a continuous vocal line; each note perfectly supported and positioned. And the side view at the final phrases -- at around 4:50 -- is most instructive. Definitely the LEXUS of vocal techniques.
We are about to open Donizett's DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT with Manon Strauss Evrard in the title role. Although both the voice and the repertoire are bel cantorather than Wagnerian I think there are many similarities of technical prowess -- Manon's moving much faster and in a much more varied way as the repertoire demands of course. But here we have an equally prodigious vocal talent and technique in its early stages, but one driven by a totally engaged and fast-paced physical and musical vocal personality. Very interesting. Don't miss it! Starting Nov 14 in Virginia.
We are about to open Donizett's DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT with Manon Strauss Evrard in the title role. Although both the voice and the repertoire are bel cantorather than Wagnerian I think there are many similarities of technical prowess -- Manon's moving much faster and in a much more varied way as the repertoire demands of course. But here we have an equally prodigious vocal talent and technique in its early stages, but one driven by a totally engaged and fast-paced physical and musical vocal personality. Very interesting. Don't miss it! Starting Nov 14 in Virginia.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
BOHEME OPENS IN FAIRFAX-DC AT GMU
Terrific opening last night! Thrilling orchestral mix with voices in the Center for the Arts. Looking forward to Sunday.
Click on this for info.
Click on this for info.
Friday, October 9, 2009
MET AT THE MOVIES
Don't forget to sign up for MET AT THE MOVIES starting this Saturday (tomorrow) with Luc Bondy's production of TOSCA which was so controversial in the press recently. (Replacing the lavish Zeffirelli one)
Click on MET MOVIES for the complete 2009-10 schedule.
Interesting articles on this:
MET Opens
Bondy’s TOSCA
More bumps for MET TOSCA
Tommasini’s TOSCA LA RING halfway comparisons on production concepts
German vs American taste in opera production
’TOSCA’ (Monday) Say what you will about Franco Zeffirelli’s extravagantly realistic 1985 production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” it was a hit with audiences. A similar future does not look likely for the Met’s new production. On opening night the cast was cheered, but the director Luc Bondy and the production team were vehemently booed. The sets give the staging a spare, stark, forbidding and, in Scarpia’s study, a strangely garish look. But it is Mr. Bondy’s attempt to flesh out the dark side of the opera that goes seriously wrong, especially in his handling of Scarpia, who becomes a cartoonish villain and sadistic weirdo: this chief of police, an aristocrat, is sexually aroused by a statue of the Madonna and consorts with prostitutes in his study. The charismatic soprano Karita Mattila may not be the vocal ideal as Tosca, but she sings with gleaming sound, intelligence and fearless abandon. The tenor Marcelo Álvarez excels as Cavaradossi, singing with Italianate style and impassioned expressivity. The baritone George Gagnidze brings his leathery, bellowing voice to the role of Scarpia, but cannot survive the tasteless excess of Mr. Bondy’s conception. James Levine conducts a vibrant performance. (Through May 13.) At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center , (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $20 to $375. (Anthony Tommasini)
In Chicago Another Tosca opens
Click on MET MOVIES for the complete 2009-10 schedule.
Interesting articles on this:
MET Opens
Bondy’s TOSCA
More bumps for MET TOSCA
Tommasini’s TOSCA LA RING halfway comparisons on production concepts
German vs American taste in opera production
’TOSCA’ (Monday) Say what you will about Franco Zeffirelli’s extravagantly realistic 1985 production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” it was a hit with audiences. A similar future does not look likely for the Met’s new production. On opening night the cast was cheered, but the director Luc Bondy and the production team were vehemently booed. The sets give the staging a spare, stark, forbidding and, in Scarpia’s study, a strangely garish look. But it is Mr. Bondy’s attempt to flesh out the dark side of the opera that goes seriously wrong, especially in his handling of Scarpia, who becomes a cartoonish villain and sadistic weirdo: this chief of police, an aristocrat, is sexually aroused by a statue of the Madonna and consorts with prostitutes in his study. The charismatic soprano Karita Mattila may not be the vocal ideal as Tosca, but she sings with gleaming sound, intelligence and fearless abandon. The tenor Marcelo Álvarez excels as Cavaradossi, singing with Italianate style and impassioned expressivity. The baritone George Gagnidze brings his leathery, bellowing voice to the role of Scarpia, but cannot survive the tasteless excess of Mr. Bondy’s conception. James Levine conducts a vibrant performance. (Through May 13.) At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center , (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $20 to $375. (Anthony Tommasini)
In Chicago Another Tosca opens
CYBER DIRIGENT (CONDUCTOR)
Conductor of the future --or do it yourself. Coming soon to a remote near you...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Down Memory Lane
This article by Frank Johnson jogged my own memory about my early attraction to opera.
First read the article:
Frank Johnson: why being clasped by Maria Callas was my finest hour
By Frank Johnson
Last Updated: 7:23AM BST 04/10/2009
Renowned as a peerless parliamentary sketchwriter, the Telegraph's Frank Johnson also had a passion for opera. In an extract from a new collection edited by his widow, he recalls the thrill of performing at Covent Garden, aged 14, with the legendary Maria Callas
Frank Johnson was master of the parliamentary sketch
Experience has taught me that one interesting thing has happened to everyone, but only one. Politicians, most columnists and nearly everyone who goes on television are under the impression that everything that has happened to them is interesting. Such people are no exceptions to this remorseless law.
All of which is by way of being an overture to the announcement that the interesting thing that happened to me took place when I appeared with Maria Callas in the first two performances at Covent Garden of Bellini'sNorma.
The secondary school in Shoreditch of which I was an inmate happened to supply the human material for the children's parts at the Royal Opera House. The qualification for getting into this academy was stiff: one had to fail the 11-plus. In my day, one had to be almost feral to fail the 11-plus. I shall always be grateful to my early teachers that I managed the feat.
Having won a place in the school, the privileged pupils discovered that, because the rehearsals took place during the day, if you volunteered for the opera, you got out of maths. On the strength of a few mid-1950s television programmes, I disliked opera. On the strength of a few lessons, I feared maths. I volunteered for the opera.
My Covent Garden debut was in 1955 as one of the Nibelheim dwarfs in Das Rheingold. We were required to scream when the late Otakar Kraus, the greatest of Covent Garden Alberichs, cursed the ring. Over the next three years, we were the urchins in Act One ofCarmen, the urchins in Act Two of Bohème, the urchins in Acts One and Two of Otello, and both Trojan and Carthaginian urchins at various stages of Berlioz's immense The Trojans.
It was extraordinarily casual. In some of the works we were required to sing. But of the vocal arts we were entirely deficient. We simply shouted with the utmost vigour, usually in English, such was Covent Garden's linguistic policy at that time.
Early in 1957, we learned that there was an opera coming which would require only two of us: Norma. Apparently, the heroine of that name had two children, whom she decides to stab to death, changing her mind at the last minute and opting instead for a duet with a mezzo-soprano. I and a boy called Arthur were chosen. The choice was dictated by our height rather than innate musicality, which was just as well since no singing was required.
I embarked on this memoir resolved to be honest, to tell only that which I could remember. So now the sad truth must be faced: of this, the one moment of my life which makes me immortal, I can recall very little. Just a few images in my memory. For I was just turned 14.
I remember that there seemed to be something exciting and tense about the atmosphere in the weeks before the performance. Arthur and I were constantly enjoined to be on our best behaviour, especially at the first rehearsal. At some point, we must have learned that someone exceptional was involved, which meant someone with a foreign name. Hitherto, the singers tended to have such names as Elsie Morrison and James Johnston, the latter a ringing Irish tenor who used to tell Carmen: "Carmen, oil never leaf your soid."
Then, probably in the Daily Mirror, Arthur and I learned with some consternation that a woman was coming to Covent Garden who was known as ''Opera's Tigress''. Furthermore, she had been in a ''storm'' in New York. She had got the sack for a baritone who had held a final note longer than she had in a duet. The latter was untrue, as the books now make clear, but that was no good to Arthur and me at the time.
Come the rehearsal, the late Christopher West, the producer, seemed nervous. An efficient-looking woman came in wearing sculpted horn-rimmed glasses, a tight black sweater, a green two-piece suit and stockings with black seams down the back to which were affixed stiletto heels in accordance with the fashion of the day. (Pubescent boys take note of such details.)
"That's her," Arthur said.
"Don't be bloody daft," I distinctly remember telling him. "That's West's secretary." But Arthur was right.
"These are the children," West said to the great soprano of the age.
"They're a little big," she replied, speaking I recall with a sort of American accent. At this, West, a somewhat epicene figure, began to flap his wrists with some consternation. He gabbled something about younger ones not being allowed on stage under British law. Callas stared at us. Arthur and I cowed. If this bitch gets the boot for baritones, what would she do to us, we no doubt pondered, I regret, in our rough way.
"I understand," Callas told West, who breathed again. But there was still trouble. It came, however, not from Callas but from the mezzo-soprano, the late Ebe Stignani. She was singing Norma's rival in love, the "young temple virgin Adalgisa". Stignani was 52 at the time. I now know that she was a singer of much distinction. "Her acting was all in the voice," says my edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Opera, which was just as well, because she was a short, round woman with a terrifying face. "Not understand to him, not understand to him, Maria," she told Callas. "They're too bigga."
Though I cannot claw the precise words back from memory, Callas replied with something about even the great Stignani having to abide by the law. West giggled.
I remember little of the two performances themselves. But I do recall that when we emerged from Covent Garden Underground station, people were already at the barriers offering clusters of £5 notes for return tickets.
And I could not forget that when Callas bore down on us with the knife, her nostrils flared; that when, dropping the knife, she repentantly clasped us to her bosom, her perfume smelt like that of an aunt who was always kissing me; and that at the first performance there penetrated, into my left eye, the top of the diva's right breast, which partnership remained throughout the subsequent duet with Stignani.
In that eye, I felt the most distinct pain as that voice of myth and legend rose and fell. In the other eye, all I could see was the exit sign at the far corner of the gallery. At the second performance, I ducked and secured a safer refuge in a more central portion of the diva's bosom. And that is all. Still, there are few men who can truthfully say that their eye made contact with the right nipple of Maria Callas.
Best Seat in the House by Frank Johnson (JR Books, £18.99) is available from Telegraph Books for £16.99 plus £1.25 p&p. Call 0844 871 1516 or go to books.telegraph.co.uk
I have a similar confession to make...
In ANDREA CHENIER at the MET, at the tender age of 14, I was regularly clasped to the surprisingly plush bosom of mezzo Sandra Warfield (wife of tenor James McCracken) who tearfully bid me an emotional good-bye as she gave her only tangible remaining gift -- her 14 year old grandson -- to the cause of the French Revolution in the extended solo vignette MADELON scene in Act 3.
And that is how my more "mature" love of opera really caught fire ... so to speak.
First read the article:
Frank Johnson: why being clasped by Maria Callas was my finest hour
By Frank Johnson
Last Updated: 7:23AM BST 04/10/2009
Renowned as a peerless parliamentary sketchwriter, the Telegraph's Frank Johnson also had a passion for opera. In an extract from a new collection edited by his widow, he recalls the thrill of performing at Covent Garden, aged 14, with the legendary Maria Callas
Frank Johnson was master of the parliamentary sketch
Experience has taught me that one interesting thing has happened to everyone, but only one. Politicians, most columnists and nearly everyone who goes on television are under the impression that everything that has happened to them is interesting. Such people are no exceptions to this remorseless law.
All of which is by way of being an overture to the announcement that the interesting thing that happened to me took place when I appeared with Maria Callas in the first two performances at Covent Garden of Bellini'sNorma.
The secondary school in Shoreditch of which I was an inmate happened to supply the human material for the children's parts at the Royal Opera House. The qualification for getting into this academy was stiff: one had to fail the 11-plus. In my day, one had to be almost feral to fail the 11-plus. I shall always be grateful to my early teachers that I managed the feat.
Having won a place in the school, the privileged pupils discovered that, because the rehearsals took place during the day, if you volunteered for the opera, you got out of maths. On the strength of a few mid-1950s television programmes, I disliked opera. On the strength of a few lessons, I feared maths. I volunteered for the opera.
My Covent Garden debut was in 1955 as one of the Nibelheim dwarfs in Das Rheingold. We were required to scream when the late Otakar Kraus, the greatest of Covent Garden Alberichs, cursed the ring. Over the next three years, we were the urchins in Act One ofCarmen, the urchins in Act Two of Bohème, the urchins in Acts One and Two of Otello, and both Trojan and Carthaginian urchins at various stages of Berlioz's immense The Trojans.
It was extraordinarily casual. In some of the works we were required to sing. But of the vocal arts we were entirely deficient. We simply shouted with the utmost vigour, usually in English, such was Covent Garden's linguistic policy at that time.
Early in 1957, we learned that there was an opera coming which would require only two of us: Norma. Apparently, the heroine of that name had two children, whom she decides to stab to death, changing her mind at the last minute and opting instead for a duet with a mezzo-soprano. I and a boy called Arthur were chosen. The choice was dictated by our height rather than innate musicality, which was just as well since no singing was required.
I embarked on this memoir resolved to be honest, to tell only that which I could remember. So now the sad truth must be faced: of this, the one moment of my life which makes me immortal, I can recall very little. Just a few images in my memory. For I was just turned 14.
I remember that there seemed to be something exciting and tense about the atmosphere in the weeks before the performance. Arthur and I were constantly enjoined to be on our best behaviour, especially at the first rehearsal. At some point, we must have learned that someone exceptional was involved, which meant someone with a foreign name. Hitherto, the singers tended to have such names as Elsie Morrison and James Johnston, the latter a ringing Irish tenor who used to tell Carmen: "Carmen, oil never leaf your soid."
Then, probably in the Daily Mirror, Arthur and I learned with some consternation that a woman was coming to Covent Garden who was known as ''Opera's Tigress''. Furthermore, she had been in a ''storm'' in New York. She had got the sack for a baritone who had held a final note longer than she had in a duet. The latter was untrue, as the books now make clear, but that was no good to Arthur and me at the time.
Come the rehearsal, the late Christopher West, the producer, seemed nervous. An efficient-looking woman came in wearing sculpted horn-rimmed glasses, a tight black sweater, a green two-piece suit and stockings with black seams down the back to which were affixed stiletto heels in accordance with the fashion of the day. (Pubescent boys take note of such details.)
"That's her," Arthur said.
"Don't be bloody daft," I distinctly remember telling him. "That's West's secretary." But Arthur was right.
"These are the children," West said to the great soprano of the age.
"They're a little big," she replied, speaking I recall with a sort of American accent. At this, West, a somewhat epicene figure, began to flap his wrists with some consternation. He gabbled something about younger ones not being allowed on stage under British law. Callas stared at us. Arthur and I cowed. If this bitch gets the boot for baritones, what would she do to us, we no doubt pondered, I regret, in our rough way.
"I understand," Callas told West, who breathed again. But there was still trouble. It came, however, not from Callas but from the mezzo-soprano, the late Ebe Stignani. She was singing Norma's rival in love, the "young temple virgin Adalgisa". Stignani was 52 at the time. I now know that she was a singer of much distinction. "Her acting was all in the voice," says my edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Opera, which was just as well, because she was a short, round woman with a terrifying face. "Not understand to him, not understand to him, Maria," she told Callas. "They're too bigga."
Though I cannot claw the precise words back from memory, Callas replied with something about even the great Stignani having to abide by the law. West giggled.
I remember little of the two performances themselves. But I do recall that when we emerged from Covent Garden Underground station, people were already at the barriers offering clusters of £5 notes for return tickets.
And I could not forget that when Callas bore down on us with the knife, her nostrils flared; that when, dropping the knife, she repentantly clasped us to her bosom, her perfume smelt like that of an aunt who was always kissing me; and that at the first performance there penetrated, into my left eye, the top of the diva's right breast, which partnership remained throughout the subsequent duet with Stignani.
In that eye, I felt the most distinct pain as that voice of myth and legend rose and fell. In the other eye, all I could see was the exit sign at the far corner of the gallery. At the second performance, I ducked and secured a safer refuge in a more central portion of the diva's bosom. And that is all. Still, there are few men who can truthfully say that their eye made contact with the right nipple of Maria Callas.
Best Seat in the House by Frank Johnson (JR Books, £18.99) is available from Telegraph Books for £16.99 plus £1.25 p&p. Call 0844 871 1516 or go to books.telegraph.co.uk
I have a similar confession to make...
In ANDREA CHENIER at the MET, at the tender age of 14, I was regularly clasped to the surprisingly plush bosom of mezzo Sandra Warfield (wife of tenor James McCracken) who tearfully bid me an emotional good-bye as she gave her only tangible remaining gift -- her 14 year old grandson -- to the cause of the French Revolution in the extended solo vignette MADELON scene in Act 3.
And that is how my more "mature" love of opera really caught fire ... so to speak.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
VOA the 35th season
I am very excited about opening our 35th Anniversary Season this Saturday night. Last season was a very special one, and before we embark on our new one, I thought I would summarize the high points of both seasons.
Last season started with my 100th production personally conducted for Virginia Opera (which surpassed 700 performances!!) -- TROVATORE to kick off our 34th Virginia Opera season with a stellar returning cast and some IOA favorites.....Eilana Lappalainen, Jeniece Golbourne, Gustavo Lopez Manzitti, and Nmon Ford. The fabulous celebration party honoring me was sold out on October 12 -- thank you all -- especially Dot (Doumar) and Dixie (Wolf) --- for a truly incredible party!!!
I was very proud to present members of our TROVATORE cast at the IOA HARMONIE CLUB OPERA GALA on October 29th. We followed that with 5 Masterclasses in NYC at the Lincoln Center Institute in November, and then I accompanied Thea on a whirlwind 2-week tour of her performances and premieres and honors in London, Newcastle (where I went on my first pheasant hunt on the Blagdon Estate where we stayed!), Glasgow and Edinburgh, where we also saw (and made) many friends. We stayed in (VOA donor) Carol Colburn Hogel's Carlton Terrace home in Edinburgh. Her DUNARD FUND also supports the Edinburgh International Festival.
Back in NYC we held our VOA annual auditions and coachings before the holidays as usual. Among the knock-out singers was Fikile Mvinjelwa, an extraordinary South African baritione -- already covering leading roles --Rigoletto and Amonasro -- at the MET.
Jane Redding, whom I had taken to China last season with Cristina Nassif, sang Adina (ELIXIR) in Virginia prior to the New Year. Our sensational debuting TOSCA Mary Elizabeth Williams came to Africa with me to sing in three concerts at the Maputo (Mozambique) International Music Festival in April along with tenor Daniel Snyder (our Hoffmann). But not before the glorious Manon Strauss Evrard closed our season with her first Rosina in one of the zaniest and most fast-paced BARBER OF SEVILLE's ever, where she demonstrated a unique and natural and outrageously funny affinity for comedy . The director of that BARBER was Greg Ganakas who is from the B'dway and musicals world (he had done OKLAHOMA and CAROUSEL for us in the past), and who brought a very special theatrical zaniness to this BARBER, his first directorial assignment in Italian (opens up some interesting possibilities for the future). Greg is preparing an intensely theatrical PORGY & BESS for us in Virginia to close this season. Manon of course is back after BOHEME to debut another title role with Virginia Opera, this time Donizett's DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT.
Moira Forjaz, the Director of the Maputo Festival -- introduced to me via my prior HARMONIE CLUB GALA and NYC MASTERCLASSES -- invited me to bring two of our best singers and our own Joe Walsh to Africa where he trained the Majescoral (local chorus) to join us for TRAVIATA and CARMEN ensembles, and where between the AIDA duets, CHENIER, WALKURE, TOSCA and TURANDOT arias, we were also treated to some music in the Xhosa tradition. The Festival was a huge success, and Moira has successfully shifted this year's MAPUTO INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL to later in May/June so that it would clear our PORGY dates in Virginia, and also so that Joe and I can accept her offers to return to Maputo for her 6th Festival, bringing some of our PORGY AND BESS singers to Mozambique after we close in Virginia.
Thea and I then flew to Cape Town where I met wonderful singers and key music people. Masterclasses at Cape Town Opera and at the University of Cape Town were very thrilling, and filled with operatic talent. Cape Town has a very well developed operatic environment thanks to one person, Dr. Angelo Gobbato who came to CT from Italy (at the age of 7), and realized how fabulous the Xhosa and Zulu voices, vowels and singing traditions were. He taught them opera right through the apartheid period In fact Fikile Mvinjelwa was one of his early students. We had a three hour breakfast with Angelo -- a fabulous person and pioneer of opera in SA --- the day before we left.
Then, in exchange for coaching him there in Cape Town, Fikile took Thea and me around to four of the townships which surround CT -- Langa, Kayelishia, Gaanga, and Guguletu. He had grown up in the oldest, Langa Township, and his mother-in-law still lives (very comfortably) there. His two young daughters tried to teach us both how to click in Xhosa, but we haven't yet mastered the variety and sheer technique of theirs yet. But we had no trouble devouring the lunch served at Mzoli's Meat -- a famous butcher/restaurant in Guguletu Township!
With the whole opera field reeling from the economic meltdown this year, we have delivered four extraordinary productions and artists, and have also extended the resonance and reputation of Virginia Opera now to a fifth continent, -- Africa, ---singing for Ambassadors and international and national audiences there.
I am also proud to announce that Virginia Opera has just hired Fikile Mvinjelwa to sing a title role to open our 2010-11 season. You will love him.
Moira then introduced us in Lisbon, where she lives, on the way back to NYC last May. We saw the famous Sao Carlo Opera House (the scene of Callas' famous Lisbon Traviata) and even got to hear some of their chorus and young artists.
After returning from Maputo, I judged the IRENE DALIS INTERNATIONAL VOCAL COMPETITION in San Jose and held a series of Masterclasses (August 5-9) again in the stunning Beverly Hills home of Jon and Lillian Lovelace whose previous support of VOA has been extraordinarily generous
[I have photos of all of the above uploaded via PICASA on my gmail account.]
As we look ahead to this BOHEME, I can't wait to unveil it in our opening Saturday Night this week. The entire cast is superb, as is our director, Julia Pevzner. Our lovely Tatiana Veronica Mitina is here singing a superlative Mimi, along with some sensational debuts in the cast.
Cristina Nassif who sang a season preview in the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk this summer for us, sings Donna Elvira in Jan/Feb's DON GIOVANNI; Manon has been singing in Europe where she sang in Pesaro last summer, and she arrives in VA in two weeks to begin rehearsals as our THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT
Last season started with my 100th production personally conducted for Virginia Opera (which surpassed 700 performances!!) -- TROVATORE to kick off our 34th Virginia Opera season with a stellar returning cast and some IOA favorites.....Eilana Lappalainen, Jeniece Golbourne, Gustavo Lopez Manzitti, and Nmon Ford. The fabulous celebration party honoring me was sold out on October 12 -- thank you all -- especially Dot (Doumar) and Dixie (Wolf) --- for a truly incredible party!!!
I was very proud to present members of our TROVATORE cast at the IOA HARMONIE CLUB OPERA GALA on October 29th. We followed that with 5 Masterclasses in NYC at the Lincoln Center Institute in November, and then I accompanied Thea on a whirlwind 2-week tour of her performances and premieres and honors in London, Newcastle (where I went on my first pheasant hunt on the Blagdon Estate where we stayed!), Glasgow and Edinburgh, where we also saw (and made) many friends. We stayed in (VOA donor) Carol Colburn Hogel's Carlton Terrace home in Edinburgh. Her DUNARD FUND also supports the Edinburgh International Festival.
Back in NYC we held our VOA annual auditions and coachings before the holidays as usual. Among the knock-out singers was Fikile Mvinjelwa, an extraordinary South African baritione -- already covering leading roles --Rigoletto and Amonasro -- at the MET.
Jane Redding, whom I had taken to China last season with Cristina Nassif, sang Adina (ELIXIR) in Virginia prior to the New Year. Our sensational debuting TOSCA Mary Elizabeth Williams came to Africa with me to sing in three concerts at the Maputo (Mozambique) International Music Festival in April along with tenor Daniel Snyder (our Hoffmann). But not before the glorious Manon Strauss Evrard closed our season with her first Rosina in one of the zaniest and most fast-paced BARBER OF SEVILLE's ever, where she demonstrated a unique and natural and outrageously funny affinity for comedy . The director of that BARBER was Greg Ganakas who is from the B'dway and musicals world (he had done OKLAHOMA and CAROUSEL for us in the past), and who brought a very special theatrical zaniness to this BARBER, his first directorial assignment in Italian (opens up some interesting possibilities for the future). Greg is preparing an intensely theatrical PORGY & BESS for us in Virginia to close this season. Manon of course is back after BOHEME to debut another title role with Virginia Opera, this time Donizett's DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT.
Moira Forjaz, the Director of the Maputo Festival -- introduced to me via my prior HARMONIE CLUB GALA and NYC MASTERCLASSES -- invited me to bring two of our best singers and our own Joe Walsh to Africa where he trained the Majescoral (local chorus) to join us for TRAVIATA and CARMEN ensembles, and where between the AIDA duets, CHENIER, WALKURE, TOSCA and TURANDOT arias, we were also treated to some music in the Xhosa tradition. The Festival was a huge success, and Moira has successfully shifted this year's MAPUTO INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL to later in May/June so that it would clear our PORGY dates in Virginia, and also so that Joe and I can accept her offers to return to Maputo for her 6th Festival, bringing some of our PORGY AND BESS singers to Mozambique after we close in Virginia.
Thea and I then flew to Cape Town where I met wonderful singers and key music people. Masterclasses at Cape Town Opera and at the University of Cape Town were very thrilling, and filled with operatic talent. Cape Town has a very well developed operatic environment thanks to one person, Dr. Angelo Gobbato who came to CT from Italy (at the age of 7), and realized how fabulous the Xhosa and Zulu voices, vowels and singing traditions were. He taught them opera right through the apartheid period In fact Fikile Mvinjelwa was one of his early students. We had a three hour breakfast with Angelo -- a fabulous person and pioneer of opera in SA --- the day before we left.
Then, in exchange for coaching him there in Cape Town, Fikile took Thea and me around to four of the townships which surround CT -- Langa, Kayelishia, Gaanga, and Guguletu. He had grown up in the oldest, Langa Township, and his mother-in-law still lives (very comfortably) there. His two young daughters tried to teach us both how to click in Xhosa, but we haven't yet mastered the variety and sheer technique of theirs yet. But we had no trouble devouring the lunch served at Mzoli's Meat -- a famous butcher/restaurant in Guguletu Township!
With the whole opera field reeling from the economic meltdown this year, we have delivered four extraordinary productions and artists, and have also extended the resonance and reputation of Virginia Opera now to a fifth continent, -- Africa, ---singing for Ambassadors and international and national audiences there.
I am also proud to announce that Virginia Opera has just hired Fikile Mvinjelwa to sing a title role to open our 2010-11 season. You will love him.
Moira then introduced us in Lisbon, where she lives, on the way back to NYC last May. We saw the famous Sao Carlo Opera House (the scene of Callas' famous Lisbon Traviata) and even got to hear some of their chorus and young artists.
After returning from Maputo, I judged the IRENE DALIS INTERNATIONAL VOCAL COMPETITION in San Jose and held a series of Masterclasses (August 5-9) again in the stunning Beverly Hills home of Jon and Lillian Lovelace whose previous support of VOA has been extraordinarily generous
[I have photos of all of the above uploaded via PICASA on my gmail account.]
As we look ahead to this BOHEME, I can't wait to unveil it in our opening Saturday Night this week. The entire cast is superb, as is our director, Julia Pevzner. Our lovely Tatiana Veronica Mitina is here singing a superlative Mimi, along with some sensational debuts in the cast.
Cristina Nassif who sang a season preview in the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk this summer for us, sings Donna Elvira in Jan/Feb's DON GIOVANNI; Manon has been singing in Europe where she sang in Pesaro last summer, and she arrives in VA in two weeks to begin rehearsals as our THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT
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