In increasing order of tragedy:
Cheryl Studer, a soprano who I've admired for some time, and in fact was the first singer I ever saw in recital, just suffered a heart attack. Baruch Hashem, it seems to be mild, but she's still going to need at least months to recover. I've regretted never hearing her at the Met, especially since their failure to engage her recently seems to be for political reasons, not musical ones. May G-d send her a refuah shleimah (complete healing).
The wonderful American heldentenor James King died on November 20. I am, of course, far too young to have seen him live at the Met (except some brief utterances as Walther von Stolzing in the Meistersinger finale which ended - at 2:oo AM! - the James Levine Gala in 1996), but I have been impressed with the recordings I've heard. My only time really hearing him live was in 1995 or 1996 when he sang - magnificently - the Winterstürme at one of Licia Albanese's Puccini Foundation Galas - and he was 70! Also, I've spoken with some young singers who have studied with him - he was a professor of voice at Indiana University - and they all said he was a wonderful tenor and a really nice guy.
And South African tenor Deon van der Walt, who has sung Mozart roles such as Tamino, Ferrando and Belmonte all over the world - I heard a fine Met broadcast of his Tamino, although I never saw him live - was shot and killed at his winery near Cape Town, allegedly murdered by his father, who then committed suicide. He was only 47. There really are no words.
Baruch dayan emet.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Thursday, November 24, 2005
A singing ICEBERG??!!!
This is not the actual iceberg under discussion, but the photo accompanied the original article on Yahoo. This iceberg is only 700m long and off the coast of Argentina.
Yes, folks. Believe it or not, scientists in the Antarctic have found a 50 kilometer long iceberg that seems to "sing". Actually, it's having a "love duet" with an underwater peninsula - created by its scraping around that land mass they collided. Apparently when the iceberg "got stuck", the water rushing through the crevasses at high pressure created acoustic signals that were picked up by a German research studying earthquakes and tectonic movements on the Ekstroem ice shelf on Antarctica's South Atlantic coast back in 2002 - the study was just published in Science last Friday. While these signals are too low for the human ear to hear normally (ah, this iceberg is a basso!), when played back at higher speed, they sounded like a swarm of bees or like an orchestra warming up, and it goes up and down like a real piece of music.
Here is the link to the original story on Yahoo. Unfortunately, no sound files were provided. Even more tragic, logistics will prevent this talented geological phenomenon from making a Met debut. No doubt, however, considering the slow pace of tectonic change, this iceberg will undoubtedly have a long and marvelous career - assuming global warming doesn't get it first!
Incidentally, in light of my fascination with astronomy, the universe itself "sings". Apparently astrophysicists now believe that the universe "vibrates" on a note about 64 octaves below middle C.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
"Saint Exupery" mystery solved! (I think)
Well, in my quest to find out which saint Antoine de Saint-Exupery is named after, I think I made a breakthrough. Instead of typing "Saint Exupery" into Google, which produced nothing but the author, I typed "Saint Exuperius", and got an index of patron saints. This generated three possiblilities:
1. The aforementioned Saint Exuperius, one of the Martyrs of the Theban Legion, who died in 287 CE at Aaunum, an area of modern Switzerland.
2. Saint Exuperantius, a deacon who was martyred in Spoleto, Italy in 303 CE.
3. The most likely, I think - Saint Exuperance, also known as Exuerantia of Troyes, a nun who died of natural causes in 380 CE and whose relics are venerated in Troyes. It would make sense that a French family would be named after a French saint.
And yes, there are quite a few saints who are patrons of music or musicians besides Cecilia and Gregory (although not specifically opera or any other genre of music); I should also note that Julian the Hospitaller (whom I've actually heard of) is the patron saint of wandering musicians and minstrels, among many other things.. I've posted links if you're interested.
Note that there are thousands of saints listed on this site, and every conceivable topic of patronage. As I said before, I think the Church "decanonized" some of them because there were just too many to handle, so I hope these are still official saints, and that Catholic readers correct me if I'm wrong about any of this!
1. The aforementioned Saint Exuperius, one of the Martyrs of the Theban Legion, who died in 287 CE at Aaunum, an area of modern Switzerland.
2. Saint Exuperantius, a deacon who was martyred in Spoleto, Italy in 303 CE.
3. The most likely, I think - Saint Exuperance, also known as Exuerantia of Troyes, a nun who died of natural causes in 380 CE and whose relics are venerated in Troyes. It would make sense that a French family would be named after a French saint.
And yes, there are quite a few saints who are patrons of music or musicians besides Cecilia and Gregory (although not specifically opera or any other genre of music); I should also note that Julian the Hospitaller (whom I've actually heard of) is the patron saint of wandering musicians and minstrels, among many other things.. I've posted links if you're interested.
Note that there are thousands of saints listed on this site, and every conceivable topic of patronage. As I said before, I think the Church "decanonized" some of them because there were just too many to handle, so I hope these are still official saints, and that Catholic readers correct me if I'm wrong about any of this!
Friday, November 18, 2005
Saints (including Exupery) and blessings
Just who is Saint Exupery? I don't mean the author of The Little Prince, I mean the actual Catholic saint that he and his family is named after. I've tried looking this up but I've had no luck - every reference on Google for 10 pages seemed to be about the author. I don't think it helped matters that the Church recently "downsized" a large number of saints recently, including one of my personal favorites, St. Christopher (because he's the patron saint of travellers). So I have no idea if the gentleman (lady?) in question is even still a saint. Even worse, "Saint Exupery" is probably the French version of a Latin original and I'm probably looking up the wrong name!
Speaking of saints, when I worked, all too briefly, in the Therapeutic Recreation Department of Florence Nightingale Health Center (tragically, they closed in July 2005, several months after I left), one of my favorite colleagues was the Catholic chaplain, Sister Alice Goldsmith, a lovely, indefatigable woman of at least 80 who was there ministering to patients virtually every day - and she was a volunteer! She was from one of the more liberal orders and didn't wear a habit. Because I was only there for three months replacing someone on maternity leave, I didn't get to know her quite as well as I would have liked. We could have had some marvelous theological discussions, I'm sure. I do remember being delighted when she was talking about the possibility of the Church naming someone to be the patron saint of the Internet - I don't remember who the candidates were.
And who is the patron saint of opera? St. Cecilia (no, not Ms. Bartoli, although she's close!), of course, is the patron saint of music in general, and I'm pretty sure St. Gregory, who was responsible for Gregorian chant, has some authority, but I'm not sure if there is another one for opera in particular. Although I imagine St. Ambrose ("Sant'Ambrogio"), the patron saint of Milan - opening night at La Scala is always on his feast day of December 7 - could also be a candidate. By the way, the new pope, who I disagree with on just about everything else, is at least a classical music fan.
The patron saint of this blog is Jussi Björling. Okay, he was a Lutheran, not a Catholic, and like many Swedes, not much of a churchgoer. But I don't doubt for a moment that he was a deeply good and spiritual man. And he sounded like ... well, to avoid being blasphemous, I'll say an archangel.
All frivolity aside, I wonder about proper Jewish responses to great music. There is a brachah (blessing) for just about everything: different kinds of food and drink, seeing beautiful or wondrous natural phenomena, meeting different kinds of distinguished people from kings (which these days I would imagine would also include presidents and such) to Torah scholars to secular scholars, receiving good news, even receiving bad news. One of my favorites is the blessing you're supposed to say when leaving the bathroom. But with the exception of the all-purpose blessing Shehecheyanu ("Blessed are You...who has sustained us, brought us to this time, and has permitted us to reach this season"), there isn't really a blessing for experiencing great art or music. I say this blessing:
a) the first time seeing an opera
*I know of a fan who had an altar to Maria Callas. Literally. I think this is the same guy who started playing a tape recorder with Callas singing "Casta Diva" during one of Renata Scotto's Met performances - apparently to punish her for not being worshipful enough of La Divina. Also, there is another fan of a singer who I'd better not identify who has pictures of her plastered on all four walls and the ceiling of her room, and even had her sheets made up with the singer's face on it. The singer, not surprisingly, reacted in horror upon meeting this person. And last but not least is the rabid, vicious, anti-gay and anti-Semitic nutcase who stuffs any chatboard where he can get away with it with The Gospel of Cheryl Studer. A real pity, as Studer is a fine artist (the first singer I ever saw in recital, way back in 1995) who absolutely doesn't deserve this guy. With any luck, she doesn't even know he exists!
Speaking of saints, when I worked, all too briefly, in the Therapeutic Recreation Department of Florence Nightingale Health Center (tragically, they closed in July 2005, several months after I left), one of my favorite colleagues was the Catholic chaplain, Sister Alice Goldsmith, a lovely, indefatigable woman of at least 80 who was there ministering to patients virtually every day - and she was a volunteer! She was from one of the more liberal orders and didn't wear a habit. Because I was only there for three months replacing someone on maternity leave, I didn't get to know her quite as well as I would have liked. We could have had some marvelous theological discussions, I'm sure. I do remember being delighted when she was talking about the possibility of the Church naming someone to be the patron saint of the Internet - I don't remember who the candidates were.
And who is the patron saint of opera? St. Cecilia (no, not Ms. Bartoli, although she's close!), of course, is the patron saint of music in general, and I'm pretty sure St. Gregory, who was responsible for Gregorian chant, has some authority, but I'm not sure if there is another one for opera in particular. Although I imagine St. Ambrose ("Sant'Ambrogio"), the patron saint of Milan - opening night at La Scala is always on his feast day of December 7 - could also be a candidate. By the way, the new pope, who I disagree with on just about everything else, is at least a classical music fan.
The patron saint of this blog is Jussi Björling. Okay, he was a Lutheran, not a Catholic, and like many Swedes, not much of a churchgoer. But I don't doubt for a moment that he was a deeply good and spiritual man. And he sounded like ... well, to avoid being blasphemous, I'll say an archangel.
All frivolity aside, I wonder about proper Jewish responses to great music. There is a brachah (blessing) for just about everything: different kinds of food and drink, seeing beautiful or wondrous natural phenomena, meeting different kinds of distinguished people from kings (which these days I would imagine would also include presidents and such) to Torah scholars to secular scholars, receiving good news, even receiving bad news. One of my favorites is the blessing you're supposed to say when leaving the bathroom. But with the exception of the all-purpose blessing Shehecheyanu ("Blessed are You...who has sustained us, brought us to this time, and has permitted us to reach this season"), there isn't really a blessing for experiencing great art or music. I say this blessing:
a) the first time seeing an opera
b) the first time in a particular opera house
c) my first performance of the season, or after an otherwise very long hiatus
d) before a performance with a favorite singer that I've been looking forward to for a long time
e) after a really great performance, especially one that I wasn't expecting to be quite so good.
Still, I think instead of such a generalized blessing, which is generally used for any momentous event, there should be something a little more specific for art and/or music. I suspect there isn't one because the ancient and medieval rabbis feared that they might be glorifying paganism, especially when dealing with "graven images" like painting and sculpture. But if anything, I think saying a blessing for art or music, or meeting a great artist of any sort, reminds one just Who is the Source of all artistic inspiration, putting even "pagan" works in G-d's service. Hopefully it would also put one's love of the arts on a higher plane than, shall we say, some of the real ego, nastiness, snideness that goes on this world or the tendency of some fans to literally worship artists. Jokes aside, I don't worship Jussi Björling, or any other of the artists I have gushed or will gush about here.* My very favorite Torah portion is Parashat Vayekhel, the section of Exodus dealing with the building of the Tabernacle and how G-d inspired the two artisans Betzalel (after whom the main art school in Israel is named) and Oholiav with "divine spirit of skill" - thus the desire to create and experience art is holy (I'll write more about this when the parasha comes up this year, probably in March). I would like to see a blessing for encountering a great work of art that goes something like "Blessed are You...who invests human beings with the divine spirit of skill that you gave to Bezalel and Oholiav" (My Hebrew isn't good enough yet for a Hebrew version). This could also include music, but I might also like to see something involving King David, the sweet singer of Israel, for a music blessing.
Actually, one last bit of possible frivolity before I go. Since Bryn Terfel, in addition to being an incredible singer, is also the king of some eeny-weeny island off the coast of Wales called Bardsey, do I say the brachah for meeting a king ("Blessed are You... who shares your glory with mortals") when I next see him? He's only the king of five people and several hundred sheep, and I don't think the sheep had anything to do with picking him, but when am I ever going to get a chance to say that blessing in front of a "legitimate" king or queen (or even president)?
*I know of a fan who had an altar to Maria Callas. Literally. I think this is the same guy who started playing a tape recorder with Callas singing "Casta Diva" during one of Renata Scotto's Met performances - apparently to punish her for not being worshipful enough of La Divina. Also, there is another fan of a singer who I'd better not identify who has pictures of her plastered on all four walls and the ceiling of her room, and even had her sheets made up with the singer's face on it. The singer, not surprisingly, reacted in horror upon meeting this person. And last but not least is the rabid, vicious, anti-gay and anti-Semitic nutcase who stuffs any chatboard where he can get away with it with The Gospel of Cheryl Studer. A real pity, as Studer is a fine artist (the first singer I ever saw in recital, way back in 1995) who absolutely doesn't deserve this guy. With any luck, she doesn't even know he exists!
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Branagh's "Magic Flute" film update: Uh-oh
Back in early August I reported that Kenneth Branagh, one of my favorite film directors, was making a film of The Magic Flute (I am presuming that since Stephen Fry is writing the libretto, it will be in English, so I don't think we should be calling this Die Zauberflote). I just read a new article that came from The Guardian, and in addition to the previously announced casting (Joseph Kaiser as Tamino, newcomer Amy Carson - a recent Cambridge graduate - as Pamina, Lyubov Petrova as the Queen of the Night, Ben Davis as Papageno, and René Pape as Sarastro) it reports that the conductor will be James Conlon leading the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The film will cost $27 million (£15.2 million) and is being bankrolled by Peter Moores, who has financed all the opera-in-English recordings on Chandos. The soundtrack was recorded at Shepperton Studios in September. That's the good news.
Now to what might be the bad news. I assumed that this would not be a "traditional" production - after all, neither Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing or Hamlet take place in the 16th Century, and he updated Love's Labour Lost (which I haven't seen) to make it a 1930's musical. Since the first two films were brilliant - in fact, I would say Much Ado About Nothing is one of the most beautiful, joyous, life-affirming films of the 1990s, I didn't think a time-transplanted production from Branagh would be a problem. I assumed that however he set it, the film would have the very strong element of fantasy, wonder and mystery which is so necessary in this opera. Indeed, one early report referred to Lyubov Petrova's character as "Queen Elizabeth of the Night", so I thought that it might have been updated to an Elizabethan setting. However, apparently Branagh has decided to set the film during World War I, about as unfantastical, setting I can imagine. The Three Ladies will be field nurses and Papageno will be, instead of a birdcatcher, the custodian of the canaries used to detect lethal gas (so much for his innocence!). Per another interview of Branagh by the BBC, Tamino is a young soldier set off on a journey in pursuit of love on the eve of battle, which takes him to a twilight dream world. OK, that last might possibly work, especially for the tests of fire and water. And I'll admit that you can probably get away with a lot more in film than you can on stage. But, despite my admiration for Branagh, I'm still worried.
By the way, Joseph Kaiser, a member of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, has just replaced the originally scheduled Hugh Smith as Mark in Lyric Opera's production of Sir Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage. Rumors are that Lyric Opera paid almost $100,000 for Smith's contract. I'm not familar enough with the opera to comment, but I think Smith (who, admittedly, I last heard at least 5 or 6 years ago) is an excellent tenor and it's a shame he's not getting more promotion. And director Peter Hall has just pulled out at the last minute due to illness.
More on The Magic Flute (actually, this time it is Die Zauberflöte) front: There is a new recording of the opera coming out on DG (I'm not sure whether it is a live or studio recording - I suspect the former): The Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado with Christoph Strehl (who makes his Met debut in the role in 2006-2007) as Tamino, Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina, Erika Miklosa as the Queen of the Night, Hanno Muller-Brachmann as Papageno, and René Pape as Sarastro. Now that I'm not worried about!
Now to what might be the bad news. I assumed that this would not be a "traditional" production - after all, neither Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing or Hamlet take place in the 16th Century, and he updated Love's Labour Lost (which I haven't seen) to make it a 1930's musical. Since the first two films were brilliant - in fact, I would say Much Ado About Nothing is one of the most beautiful, joyous, life-affirming films of the 1990s, I didn't think a time-transplanted production from Branagh would be a problem. I assumed that however he set it, the film would have the very strong element of fantasy, wonder and mystery which is so necessary in this opera. Indeed, one early report referred to Lyubov Petrova's character as "Queen Elizabeth of the Night", so I thought that it might have been updated to an Elizabethan setting. However, apparently Branagh has decided to set the film during World War I, about as unfantastical, setting I can imagine. The Three Ladies will be field nurses and Papageno will be, instead of a birdcatcher, the custodian of the canaries used to detect lethal gas (so much for his innocence!). Per another interview of Branagh by the BBC, Tamino is a young soldier set off on a journey in pursuit of love on the eve of battle, which takes him to a twilight dream world. OK, that last might possibly work, especially for the tests of fire and water. And I'll admit that you can probably get away with a lot more in film than you can on stage. But, despite my admiration for Branagh, I'm still worried.
By the way, Joseph Kaiser, a member of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, has just replaced the originally scheduled Hugh Smith as Mark in Lyric Opera's production of Sir Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage. Rumors are that Lyric Opera paid almost $100,000 for Smith's contract. I'm not familar enough with the opera to comment, but I think Smith (who, admittedly, I last heard at least 5 or 6 years ago) is an excellent tenor and it's a shame he's not getting more promotion. And director Peter Hall has just pulled out at the last minute due to illness.
More on The Magic Flute (actually, this time it is Die Zauberflöte) front: There is a new recording of the opera coming out on DG (I'm not sure whether it is a live or studio recording - I suspect the former): The Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado with Christoph Strehl (who makes his Met debut in the role in 2006-2007) as Tamino, Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina, Erika Miklosa as the Queen of the Night, Hanno Muller-Brachmann as Papageno, and René Pape as Sarastro. Now that I'm not worried about!
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
How's THIS for a Halloween costume?
OK, it's not actually a Halloween costume, but this would have looked fantastic in New York's annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade! I didn't attend, but I did see highlights on the TV news. None of the costumes I saw, some of which were indeed very imaginative and glamorous, could possibly top this one. This is from a performance of Mitridate, re di Ponto, not the (somewhat) familar opera by Mozart done recently at Covent Garden, but a real rarity by Niccolò Porpora, staged at La Fenice earlier this month. It is the first staging of the opera since 1736. The costume, worn by tenor Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani in the title role, was designed by Massimo Gasparon, who directed the production.
I suppose in this day of modernistic, updated stagings (only a few which actually work), we should be grateful that Mr. Zorzi Gustiniani wasn't forced to wear a leather jacket. But, as I've said before, I've become more sensitive than usual to issues of performer safety and comfort, and I wonder if a costume that seems so heavy and unwieldy, with a train that makes Angela Gheorghiu's Met Opening Night and film Tosca gown look miniscule, was such a good idea. However, it might be easier to handle than it looks - costume designers know a lot of tricks for things like this.
If you read Italian (I don't, really), here is a link to site Opera Click for a review and background to the opera, as well as more spectacular costumes.
Thanks to my friend Jean Peccei, who put the picture as the "Front Page Photo" on the Yahoo! Group Opera World, which she moderates with such distinction, as a Halloween gift. However, by the time you read this, the picture will probably have changed.
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