More He Sang She Sang -- Michael Fabiano/Mefistofele Edition

Michael Fabiano appeared today on He Sang She Sang. Mr. Fabiano chats about Mefistofele, singing, his life philosophtm his new marriage, flying, and his ArtSmart foundation. 

Thomas Hampson on the Singing "Industry"

In a recent interview on a new (to me, but it's been around for about five years) blog, Thomas Hampson talks about how the opera singing industry has changed since he started his career. Back then...

“There was this foregone conclusion that with every operatic role and experience, you should develop into something vocally and theatrically better,” Hampson says. “I don’t see that kind of emphasis today.”

What he does see is a focus not on developing opera singers, but on developing opera productions. With the integrity of a singular production a growing priority, companies are on the hunt for singers who fit a specific aesthetic – be it musical or visual; and in response, singers are training not to become autonomous and unique artists, but to become useful to the operatic industry. In fact, they’re persuaded to do so, Hampson argues. “We no longer encourage young singers to become singers. We teach them how to become voices that are useful for an industry purpose. That bothers me a lot, as a pedagogue.”

Read the entire interview here, and check out more articles and opera info at the website. 

James Jordan’s Afternoon Delight – Parterre Saturday Webcasts

Those of us who feel lost in the summer without our Saturday Met broadcasts, look no further. Parterre Saturday Afternoon (now playing its ninth show as I type) offers rare/historical/interesting/beautiful (choose all that apply) performances streamed in real time from Parterre Box Presents La Cieca blog site and on YouTube as operazine. 

Even better, the streams remain on YouTube for future listening. I just caught up with the stream from last week featuring Beverly Sills singing Mozart and Strauss.

Today, in between acts of Gounod’s Faust (an opera I rarely seek out, but always love when I come across it), James offers a two-part interview with tenor Michael Fabiano. James is a font of operatic knowledge to begin with. And Parterre's followers offer humorous and informative thoughts, opinions, gossip, and trivia in the comments sections.

If you're looking for me next Saturday, I'll be at my computer (or on my phone) lisetning to Parterre Saturday Afternoon! Bravo James!! 

The Met: Live in HD 2018-2019 Season Announced

• Aida 10/06/2018
• Samson et Dalila 10/20/2018
• La Fanciulla del West 10/27/2018
• Marnie 11/10/2018
• La Traviata 12/15/2018 
• Adriana Lecouvreur 01/12/2019
• Carmen 02/02/2019 
• La Fille du Régiment 03/02/2019
• Die Walküre 03/30/2019
• Dialogues des Carmélites 05/11/2019

More information is available at the Met website. 

Also, Parterre Box has a super discussion of the new season and changes at the Met.

Gratuitous Friday* – Dorothea, Vesselina, and Luca, (and Mozart)

I just found a Luca Pisaroni fanpage on Facebook; joining the group made me look back at my Luca posts. Due to the ephemeral nature of YouTube and the fact that Dropbox abolished the Public folder, I am missing a lot of music from my old blog posts**. I am not sure I even posted this one before, but it’s worth a replay either way. 

This is that slightly kinky "I'm going to smell your hair and there's nothing you can do about it"** version of Publio. (And, of course, the amazing vocal and dramatic talents of DR and VK!)

Happy Weekend!

*It’s Friday somewhere!

**I'd love to go back and replace all the missing files, but my energy's probably better spent finding new stuff. 

***This is a paraphrase of the observation made by opera blogger, Earworm. I cannot find the particular post where she said this (it may have been in a comments section of my blog), but here is the link to her blog.

A (Literally) Cool Concept – Winterreise Winterized

I just saw this written up over at the Barihunks^® blog. Baritone Christopher Herbert has come up with an interactive, wintry way to present Schubert’s mammoth song cycle. You can read more about Chris' project at Barihunks^®. 

Except for the part about standing about in the cold, I'd love to attend one of these performances. 

Benjamin Appl: Life as a Singer (BBC Interview)

German baritone Benjamin Appl didn't just suddenly appear on the music scene (Barihunks® has been following him for a bit), but he's new on my horizon. I am borderline obsessed with his recent Schwarzenberg Schubert recital (still available from Ö1 Radio for a few more days). 

Although still young, Benjamin has been busy, studying and performing in Europe, the UK, and the United States.  He is a BBC New Generation Artist; and during the 2015/16 season he also will be an ECHO Rising Stars artist, appearing in recital at the major venues throughout Europe. A few of his recital performances can be found on YT (stay tuned); and I am on the lookout for a recording of his recent Wigmore performance (broadcast on BBC Radio 3 a few months ago), and any others that may be out there. 

Here is Herr Appl's recent interview with the BBC:

Yet Another Reason to Love Rinat Shaham

"I am trying with all my power to do other roles, but as long as my cleavage is more or less up and my vibrato is not wider than a major third, I wouldn’t mind sprinkling my life with Carmens until it’s simply not hirable anymore." 

This quote is from her brief but infomative Parterre Box interview from earlier this week. Among other things, she talks about her repertoire and the benefits (to the singers and the audience) of working with contemporary directors like Stefan Herheim and Krzysztof Warlikowski. In addition to her Carmens, Cherubinos (Cherubini?), and Cendrillions, Ms. Shaham is a rocking Donna Elvira (see yesterday's and other related posts). She's also a gracious Twitter correspondent (@Rinatshaham). More please! 

Luca Pisaroni and Thomas Hampson in a Duo-Interview

Remy Franck, a journalist in Luxembourg, interviews our buddies for his blog/web-journal Pizzicato. Thomas and Luca compare and contrast building an operatic career "back then" (Thomas) and now (Luca). Not too much of the discussion will be brand new to us, but both gentlemen are articulate and fun to hear from. Young singers would do well to spend a few minutes reading this interview.

Photo © Remy Franck

LP and TH note that sometimes extensive experience in a role can be detrimental (in the eye of the director). TH kind of dances around the concept of Regie without actually naming it, reminding us that "...regardless of the event pressure and all this fantastic theatrical things that we enjoy, opera is a musical art form."  [Ed. note: AMEN!]

If you tend toward the anti-regie side you could say he is against it. But if you are pro- regie you'd probably say he's for it. Both LP and TH have enthusiastically and successfully performed in what could be termed Regie productions. So clearly, while there are always limits, and they keep the music first and foremost, they are open to new ideas, too. Although, apparently director Willi Decker once accused TH of being a musicologist (presumably during the Traviata production, which TH neither names nor comments on). I think Thomas should take that as a compliment. There are many much worse things you could call a singer! 

I just discovered Pizzicato via a link from LP's Facebook page.  The site has many interesting articles and news bits in both German (mostly) and English (I suspect this interview was conducted in German, then translated), including a little piece about another blogger-whom-I-shall-not-name who is known for misinformation and inciting controversy; Pizzicato also contains many DVD and CD reviews.

I Always Wondered about Figaro and the Count...

From the Barihunks Blog: I think this counts as an April Fool, but it is  an interesting plot twist! 

Barihunks confounding Susanna offstage in Vienna Marriage

Degout and Esposito

Following Earwormopera Around on YouTube

Lately it seems that every third interesting opera video I click on is posted by none other than the blogger known as Earwormopera, under the nom d'Tube musicalpunchlines. 

This is not a bad thing. In fact, it's a very good thing*. Clearly, Earworm and I have very similar tastes. In fact, many of my readers may know that I was greatly inspired by the Earworm to start my own blog. (Fans of this blog can thank Earworm. Non-fans can...well, non-fans can do whatever you want—so long as it's not illegal or immoral.)

Since I've been kind of stuck in Don Giovanni-land lately, I'd like to share one of my (many) favorite clips from the Claus Guth production in Salzburg, featuring one of Earworm's and my all-time favorite sopranos: Dorothea Röschmann.

*In fact, the only thing better would be if there were even more clips on the musicalpunchlines channel! (Hint, hint!)

Other People's Blogs

The Eyes Have It points us to a great interview with conductor Marin Alsop on BBC's Desert Island Discs. (You can download this show as a podcast, too.)

Dorothea Röschmann – An Appreciation alerts us to a new recital recording by...you guessed it: Dorothea Röschmann!

Over at opera, innit, dehggial didn't like Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges; but at least now we know where to find it at YT.

La Monnaie's Orphee – Some Background

Photo: Bernd Uhlig

After a prompt from Lydia (definitelytheopera), I decided to look up some additional information (in English) on this new, moving production of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice. The official videos at the La Monnaie site are apparently quite informative; but only if you understand French and/or Dutch better than I do. Thus my Anglo-centric search for more info. 

So, here is notice that appeared in early June in the KULTURKOMPASSET blog that previews the concept of the production. 

Here is an article about Locked-in Syndrome (LiS) or pseudocoma from The Brain Foundation; and an interview with LiS Survivor Richard Marsh

And here are two reviews in English: from the blog londongrip; and from the New York Times.

This is a co-production with the Weiner Festwochen, and it was seen in Vienna in May, sung in Italian. Over at The Opera Critic, you can find links to reviews (in German) of those performances, plus a few reviews (in French) of the current La Monnaie incarnation.

More About Orphée – Online Soon from La Monnaie

Opera Cake (the blogger) calls La Monnaie's new Orphée et Eurydice "simply devastating," and says we need to see in person. While OC did not reveal why (but promised a fuller review soon), I've a feeling some of it has to do with the projections (see below, and other photos at La Monnaie's site.)

Unfortunately, many of us in the U.S. can't pop over to Brussels within the next few weeks. So we won't be able see it in person. We will have get by with watching it online. And we can do that on-demand for about 20 days, starting this coming Wednesday, July 9.

© Bernd Uhlig

Orphée et Eurydice 

Christoph W. Gluck/Hector Berlioz

Orphée  Stéphanie d'Oustrac

Eurydice Sabine Devieilhe

Music direction Hervé Niquet

Staging, set design, lighting & costumes  Romeo Castellucci

Come on Manon, let's go!

I used to think (in my young childhood*) the opera was called Manon, Let's Go. And it's not totally nonsensical. I mean, when you think about it, that's basically what Des Grieux and Lescaut say to her in Act 2 while she's busy scooping up her jewelry instead of running from the police. 

Anyway, the reason for this post is to highlight the bounty of "making of" videos the ROH has posted for their new production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut. (This was Puccini's first big hit. Apparently, he could easily have retired and lived off his profits from Edgar and Manon. But fortunately, he didn't rest on his laurels, or he never would have written La Boheme, and a few other big hits!)

Blogger eyesometric provides us with a bunch of other links about this production, and also reminds us that the BBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting a live performance of this new production from the ROH featuring Kristine Opolais, Jonas Kaufmann, and Christopher Maltman with Anthony Pappano waving the stick. 

Meanwhile, here are those videos:

*Yes, I was already listening to opera as a young child. I used to record the Met broadcasts on my reel-to-reel for frequent playback. One that I listened to over and over was an Ariadne with Tatiana Troyanos and…well, I didn’t care about who else was in it at that point. 

Surprising (and Not so Surprising) Search Keywords

I just upgraded my stat counter (beyond the Blogger freebie to a product called, interestingly enough, StatCounter*). I do like to check my blogger stats to see which posts are getting the most clicks. 

While I am waiting for StatCounter to start tallying fun stats about my blog, I decided to take a look at what search terms are leading people my way.

Not surprising (in no particular order)

Tara Erraught
Jonas Kaufmann
Peter Mattei
Malin Hartelius
Miah Persson
Diana Damrau
Nina Stemme
Rolando Villazon
Alison Hagley
Ian Storey
Anja Harteros

Somewhat surprising (people are actually searching the title of the blog!)

regie or not regie

Totally surprising (I need to find this version of Idomeneo)

arbace porn videos

*Thanks to stray for directing me to StatCounter.

Just Curious...

...about all the traffic from Facebook to this morning's Rosenkavalier post. (Mr. Regie, we've noticed some unusual activity in your account.)

Mind you, I'm not complaining. Just wondering who posted it where on Facebook? Hmmmmm...

Tara Erraught: Eines der größtenTalente der Opernwelt

I wouldn’t even have heard about this if the director of the Wolf Trap Opera Company Kim Pensinger Witman, hadn’t blogged about it. (I wasn’t thrilled with the title of the post, but hey, whatever.) 

Lord knows I don’t/won’t read that blogger-who-shall-not-be-named-at-my-blog, who made a point of firing everyone up. (I used to post a link to his blog but I decided I don’t want to encourage all his nonsense.) But then, I was curious about why this post here at RnR was suddenly getting (relatively) heavy traffic again. 

Size-ism is so 1990s! So much has been said, that I have little to add; but I do have two things to say about all the Tara Erraught hoopla:

1. It's the director's fault.
2. They love you in Germany, Tara! And I think you're great, too. Don't let the British press b*ast*rds get you down.

And then I found this video posted by the Bavarian Radio at YouTube on May 16th. Tara Erraught: One of the greatest talents of the opera world! 

Indeed! Brava Tara!

From Kasarova to Lehtipuu via Other People's Blogs

Today, for some reason (probably because I saw the CD on the shelf), I decided to listen to Vesselina Kasarova's Lieder recital from 1999. Then I decided to see if I had ever gotten around to ripping it to iTunes. 

Aha! There it is in iTunes, but there's no cover photo (iTunes is not great at tracking down classical album covers.) So, of course, I Google images for "Kasarova Lieder."

The first image was the CD cover (now duly saved and linked to the files in iTunes). The fourth image linked me to a blog post by Smorgy called Why I Love Vesselina Kasarova. That Smorgy loves Kasarova is not news, but why Smorgy loves Kasarova was a new story for me. And it's a wonderful story. Her post also touches on indiscriminate "music criticism" that has little to do music or with actual criticism.

Gratuitous Malin Hartelius and Luca Pisaroni Post

An opera blog with the intriguing name Kinderkuchen for the FBI is published by an intriguing blogger known as Dr. B, who is a fellow musician, a fellow opera fan, and a fellow Jonas Kaufmann groupie. KftF is a source of thoughtful posts about opera, particularity in New York City, and the occasional helpfully translated article or interview. If you don't already, you should follow Dr. B. 

The latest KftF post points us to a tumblr site called operaselfies, which contains...well, selfies taken by opera singers. It's great fun, particularly since there is a heavy concentration of photos of and by Joyce DiDonato and Erwin Schrott. I have to say I am not sure the above photo of Malin and Luca counts as a selfie, but it's wonderful and it definitely illustrates the Opera Selfies motto: 

Opera singers are ridiculous.
This is why we love them.