L'Shanah Tovah!

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs, and your stocks not fall.

And may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol. your white blood count and your mortgage (or rent) not rise.

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, your gastroenterologist, your urologist, your proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your plumber, and the IRS.

May you find a way to travel from anywhere to anywhere during rush hour in less than an hour, and (if you drive) when you get there may you find a parking space.

May this Yom Tov find you seated around the dinner table, together with your beloved family and cherished friends, ushering in the Jewish New Year ahead.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner, may your checkbook and budget balance, and may they include generous amounts for tsedakah (charity).

May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to your partner, your child(ren) and your parent(s). You can say it to your secretary, your nurse, your butcher, your photographer, your masseur/masseuse, your seamstress, your hairdresser or your gym instructor, but not with a "twinkle" in your eye.

May we live as intended, in a world at peace with the awareness of the beauty in every sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's smile and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous part of ourselves.

May G-d bless you with every happiness, great health, peace and much love during the next year and all those that follow.

-- from and E-mail sent by a (non-Jewish) coworker of mine to every Jewish person he knows. I think this is reworked from at least two or three different rabbi's greetings to congregants quoted in various Rosh Hashana anthologies.

Wishing a good and sweet year to my Jewish brothers and sisters and dear friend of any faith. And Ramadan Mubarak to any Muslim readers. Although I think it's a few days before it starts.

And, of course, lots of fabulous music, especially opera!

I am finally...OVERWEIGHT!

...as opposed to being obese, that is.

On May 3 I weighed 220lbs, and I said, "That's it." Although that's not quite as bad as the 230 I was about 5 or 6 years ago, I was determined at the very least to get myself below 180, the marking point for "obese" at my height (5'5"). Although I was determined to be under 200 lbs by the time I went to London on June 14 and met Lulu and Angela (I missed by about 4lbs), this was almost entirely a health issue, not an aesthetic one. My father died at the age of 57 of heart failure (and since I've definitely inherited his temper, I may well have inherited other risk factors as well), I have a heart murmur (according to the doctor, nothing to worry about - but I still have to take antibiotics when I go to the dentist and let's just say Amoxycillin and my stomach are not on friendly terms!), and before I started this, I was tired, lethargic, depressed, irritable, and occasionally even murderous.

Partially because I've been reading a lot of books about a raw-food diet (I have been a vegetarian - mostly vegan - for virtually all my adult life), and partially because it's extremely cheap, I've been eating almost exclusively fruit from the various stands around work, Lara Bars (made from dried fruit and nuts), Maya Bars (same thing with raw cacao) and splurging for Shabbat dinner on wonderful salads from Bonobo's on 23rd Street and 5th Avenue - they also have a divine raw bell pepper and coconut soup. When they have a Community Kiddush at B'nai Jeshurun after Saturday morning services - usually twice a month - I have the salads and the spreads (humus, baba ganoush, etc) and one chocolate rugelach with fruit. I've also been doing "water only" cleansing fasts on Sunday to clean myself out and counteract any Shabbat overindulgences. So I've basically been eating very healthily. I was less "good" while in London, but that was only four days...

Well, since today is the day before my 37th birthday, I weighed myself - I wouldn't weigh myself tomorrow because I think doing so on Shabbat is a really bad idea - and I am now 178lbs. Of course, I have been regularly weighing myself in the interim. But this is the first time in at least 15 years since I've been down that low. I think I was only under 200 once, during a brief and ultimately unsucessful attempt at Atkins (all that meat did not appeal to me).

With Rosh Hashanah and all the other ensuing Jewish holidays and their feasts, I don't doubt I'll gain some of this back - but I'll be very good afterwards - I have no intention of ever seeing 190 again. Of course, I know that the slower it comes off the longer it will stay off, and considering that I'm now starting to buy new clothes (going from 2X to Large and even Medium) and how many compliments I've been getting, plus - most importantly - the improvement in my mood, I have ample reason to continue on this track.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures, either "before" or "after". Although I'll probably start taking them another 20lbs from now. This has more to do with lack of digital camera than anything else.

Oh, and I have no interest whatsoever in little black dresses!

"Where'er You...DON'T... Walk"?

Bummer! While looking over the schedule for New York City Opera's upcoming new production of Semele, it became obvious I will probably have to miss it. All the performances conflict with either the Jewish High Holy Days, Shabbat (which, technically, is even higher than the High Holy Days) or my Wednesday choral rehearsals (we're preparing Durufle's Requiem and possibly Holst's Festival Te Deum for a concert November 5). I can't skip a rehearsal for it because I'm already planning to miss one in order to see La Gioconda at the Met with Marcello Giordani. The other two performances conflict with Idomeneo (although I suppose I don't have to go the opening night of the production) and, more importantly, a rally in Central Park to stop the genocide in Darfur. If I do go I'll probably postpone Idomeneo. I'm not that nuts about the opera (20 minutes of plot in 3 1/2 hours), but it's a wonderful cast - I never want to miss Ben Heppner and I'm eager to finally see Dorothea Roschmann.

If I do miss Semele, it would a shame because I've never seen the opera (although I have heard the wonderful recording with Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, et al) and because I have the greatest respect for its two stars, Elizabeth Futral (Semele) and Vivica Genaux (Juno/Ino). I'll admit Genaux doesn't have quite enough of the contralto quality I think the role needs (Blythe! BLYTHE! BLYTHE!), but she's a fabulous musician and I don't doubt she can put forward an elegant, regal presence. Tenor Robert Breault (Jupiter), who I heard under the auspices of OONY - I can't remember in what, but I did like him - is nobody to sneeze at either.

On the other hand, it is a new production. And apparently a "concept production". At least I think this opera, and other operas that are essentially mythology or fantasy, might be able to tolerate that better than something more "realistic".

Oh well. I guess I'll have to console myself with John McCormack's and (especially) Roland Hayes' renditions of the aria I mangled in the title of this post, and possibly Genaux's new album of Handel and Hasse arias which comes out next Tuesday if it's playing on a Tower Records listening station.

At least a friend of mine from work (the same guy I took to see Angela in La Traviata) and I are going to see Carmen on September 14. It looks like a great cast - Israeli mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham in the title role (she's had raves at Glyndebourne in the part) and a wonderful young soprano named Latonia Moore debuting as Micaela. And Mark Duffin, who played a murderous soldier with great high notes in The Mines of Sulphur last year, takes on another murderous soldier with great high notes in Don Jose. I regret I am totally unfamiliar with the Escamillo, baritone Adrian Gans.

Under Construction, or, What's The Opposite Of A Yenta?

OK, folks, you just may have noticed that I haven't updated this blog since February. As a matter of fact, I got a very friendly comment on my last post to that effect (thanks, Paul!). So much for being a "yenta" who just talks and talks and talks, usually a nasty, incurable gossip (which I am not)... maybe when I get my Big Raise in October 2007 and can buy my own computer, I'll post every day or several times a day. Maybe I should rename this blog to whatever the opposite of a yenta is, but I can't figure out what that is. A commentator to Maury D'Annato's blog suggested baleboosteh, but that's not it either - you can easily be both (1). I have no idea what the Yiddish word is for some one who is shy, quiet, retiring, taciturn... uh, Leo Rosten, in der yenner welt (the other world), can you help?

So, what's my excuse for not being as much of a yenta as I claim? Basically, I don't have my own computer, so I have to pay for internet time, which tends to be expensive. And I either have time only to read my E-mail, or if I buy a whole day at an internet cafe (like I did today), I inevitably get distracted with other things. While in the future my first priority will be to report on things that just happened (my future Met and NYCO visits, that is), I will try to "cheat" and eventually "fill in" all the missing posts, properly backdated. There's a lot of stuff you guys missed...

Not the least of which was my trip to London. Of course, this was primarily for the Royal Opera's Tosca with Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel, Antonio Pappano, et. al. (unfortunately, not with Marcelo Alvarez, but with his probably equally indisposed understudy, Nicola Rossi Giordano(2)). As I expected, this was alone worth the $1,200 I spent on the trip, but I also got to see the British Theater Institution The Mousetrap, Chicago with former Doctor Who companion Bonnie Langford (herself almost a British Theater Institution!), and, as a last minute replacement for several other possibilities (namely Shakespeare's Globe, which I should have gotten tickets to before I left!), a double bill of Duke Bluebeard's Castle (with Albert Dohmen and Christine Rice) and Erwartung (with another Angela, Frau Denoke), also at the Royal Opera. I had a nice hotel in Russell Square between two beautiful parks, the weather was glorious (the sun sets after 1oPM!), and the food was pretty good too - London is a wonderful city to be a vegetarian in, even though there are almost no restaurants open after 11PM. The British Museum is one of the world's greatest treasures, which made me feel proud to be a human being. And I finally got to meet my good friend Lulu. Oh yeah, we got to meet Angela too (Lulu knows her). I was so overwhelmed by the performance I almost cried. She gave me a hug. Too bad no Tony or Bryn as well (3).

Actually, in the case of the London trip, I'd better organize my posts on that by topic, not by date!

The other big event of the summer was my trip to the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield, Massachusetts, where, as I said I would back in February, I sang alto in the chorus for the Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem. In addition to rehearsing for 25 hours and performing this perfect piece for the alto voice, I explored the nearby towns of Great Barrington (lots of great art galleries and craft shops) and Lenox (where I sampled a fantabulous Grand Marnier truffle and almost bumped into James Levine - literally), went to the Berkshire Botanical Gardens (rain made the greenery even more beautiful) and saw Gurrelieder at Tanglewood with Levine conducting and Christine Brewer, Waltraud Meier, Johan Botha, and Matthew Polenzani as soloists. Oh, the BSO also played the Requiem's fourth movement ("Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth") in memory of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Oh yes, and the wonderful couple who drove me to Tanglewood reintroduced me to the wonders of Flanders and Swann.

I hope to give more details on these events, as well as:

1. The "Good Riddance Gala" for "Uncle Joe" Volpe, aka the Volpego, the Volpexit, and most creatively, Volpedämmerung (which, baruch Hashem, I didn't pay good money to attend, but experienced on WQXR). What a dispiriting experience, just like nearly the entire Volpe era! All right, Natalie Dessay (the highlight), Ramon Vargas, Juan Diego Florez, Dolora Zajick, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Rene Pape were great or pretty close (and it was nice to have the preview of Don Carlo). Roberto Alagna would have been great if he had sung something other than Cyrano de Bergerac - it's a fine opera but not easily excerptible -and what the heck was he doing there, honoring a man who gained much of his recent fame by trashing him and his wife? Everything else was either dead average or unlistenable. The low came at the beginning, when Deborah Voigt sang a novelty song which trashed Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti (4), and of course shoved the whole weight loss thing down our throats. Renee Fleming's overdone, "bad jazz" audition for the Trovatore Leonora made me almost gag (and the latest rumor is that she got the part - and the far superior Sondra Radvanovsky was bought out). And Denyce Graves, who didn't produce one clear consonant, seemed to be auditioning for the Grand Inquisitor instead of any decent mezzo role.
2. Possibly the New York Philharmonic Memorial Concert at Saint John the Divine, where poor Maestra Xian Zhang had to spend so much effort compensating for the echoey acoustics it was virtually impossible to judge her conducting - and frankly, I think it might just be a better idea to give the free concert at Avery Fisher Hall! I still hope to hear the maestra in circumstances with decent acoustics.
3. The Anna Netrebko Show (aka Don Pasquale)
4. Fidelio in the company my best friend, Bradley Wilber of Met Futures Page fame. He knows Alan Held, the Pizzaro, and we got to go backstage and meet him. Unlike Pizzaro, Held is a doll. I guess it's true that actors who play villains tend to be especially nice, because they can work out their dark sides on stage. He's also very tall, and thanks to his high- pitched laugh, I have decided to cast him as Voldemort in my Harry Potter opera. Now all I have to do is to ask Brad to ask Alan if that's OK...
5. That long-promised Complete Report on Angela's Met Traviatas.
6. Some more interesting You Tube links I found but could not post several months ago.
7. Some even older, unfinished posts. Especially the one about Volpe's Blonde Fetish and Racism at the Met. Hopefully with Gelb in charge it will be long out-of-date.

When and if those are all, or mostly, done, I'll edit or delete this post. If I can't do them, then this post will serve as the "report" on these events. Actually I might not need to do some of them, since in true yenta fashion, this post wound up longer than I anticipated.

(1) Baleboosteh is the feminine of baleboss, which comes from the Hebrew baal habayit - "master of the house". Baleboss usually refers to a proprietor of a shop or other business, and a baleboosteh means a) the wife of a baleboss, b) a female business owner, or most commonly c) a really fabulous homemaker, one whose floor you can eat off of. So technically, any of these ladies can be a yenta as well.

(2) No relation, I am certain, to Marcello Giordani, Massimo Giordano, or Nicola Rossi-Lemeni.

(3) I have met Angela before, on at least 3 or 4 other occasions, and only once was she anything less than totally gracious, kind, and completely the antithesis of the monster that certain professional gossip columnists posing as music journalists portray her as. Even then, she was only a little reserved and wary - it was probably her first time dealing with the American public and her sister had just died. Oh, yes, Roberto is a sweetheart, too. Just very shy. Also, when I met him after his New York Philharmonic debut, Tony struck me as a very warm-hearted, loving person, and very modest. Bryn is very outgoing and a lot of fun.

(4) And as we now know, Pavarotti has pancreatic cancer, folks, and even then people knew he was genuinely ill, although they assumed it was the flu.

The great opera star Placido Flamingo!

After finding that clip of Robin Schlotz on YouTube, to which I was directed to by numerous Opera-L postings as well as by the amazed members of the Yahoo! Gheorghiu and Alagna club, I decided to see what other operatic offerings were available. I regret to say about 90% of what I found when I put "opera" in the site's search function was rank (really rank) amateurs attempting selections from Phantom of the Opera, and a lot of the rest is soap opera stuff! OK, there was Emmy Rossum's screen test for the Phantom film (which I haven't seen yet), and she's not half bad - she interpolated some interesting coloratura into "Think of Me", but it's mostly dire.

But quite to my delight I did find, after about 10 pages of mediocrity, I found two clips with an opera star every child, certainly, should know about: the greatest (and most dangerous), flamingo opera star, Placido Flamingo, a marvelous Muppet introduced on Sesame Street(1) I would guess about 10 years ago. Perhaps more - Richard Hunt, who provided Maestro Flamingo's marvelous tenor voice, has since passed away. Unfortunately, the only pictures I could find of Maestro Flamingo are way too small to be clearly seen here. And I can't find a picture of him with his namesake, although I clearly remember seeing one!

This clip shows a performance of the opera Peligro ("danger" in Spanish) live from the Nestropolitan Opera House ("Live from The Nest", ha ha ha), introduced by a Muppet named Phil Harmonic. The opera itself sounds a little like "That's Amore". Unfortunately, we only get to hear the first act of this masterpiece, for reasons that I will let Mr. Harmonic inform you of.




And this one is a performance (from Pretty Great Performances, live from Barnegie Hall) of the Italian Street Song from Naughty Marietta, where Maestro Flamingo is joined by the Sesame Street All-Animal Orchestra conducted by "world-renowned very good sport" Seiji Ozawa. Yes, that is Maestro Ozawa, not a Muppet version! (2)



(Note: While this may the fault of the computer I've been using, I've found that it takes an awfully long time to download these videos, and they're often interrupted. Once downloaded, however, you should have no trouble replaying them.

Unfortunately, this was all I could find of these delightful "operas" - no La Grouchiata with Wilhelmina Fernandez (and Oscar the Grouch), for example. I am also certain that there must have been a sketch with Maestro Flamingo and his namesake singing together. Not to mention I also would love to be able to find a clip of Meryl Streep taking acting lessons from Meryl Sheep!

I also wish find some of the operas that played on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, created by and starring the wonderful baritone John Reardon. When I was five or six years old I would regularly run home and say "Mama, Mama, there's going to be an opera on Mister Rogers!". Much later, when I was about ten or so, I remember a particular opera about a kitty that wanted to be a star (that is, in the sky), and Reardon was her father. I was absolutely shocked when, after growing up, I bought the incredible La Boheme recording with Jussi Björling, Victoria De Los Angeles, and Robert Merrill, and Reardon was Schaunard! I had no idea he was a "real" opera singer!

(I actually cried when he died, as I did with Fred Rogers)

By the way, speaking of Maestro Flamingo's namesake, I was watching a rerun of The Cosby Show from about 20 years ago where he guest starred. Cliff Huxtable, Bill Cosby's character, is a obstetrician, and Domingo played Alberto, a Spanish colleague who comes to his house for a visit. Domingo, who looks shockingly young (it's been a while since he's had black hair) sings "Besame Mucho", and Cosby's efforts to imitate him are hilarious. After Alberto leaves, Cliff's wife Clair (Phylicia Rahsad) comments on his "rich, strong voice", leading to another round of imitations from hubby!

Domingo (as well as Beverly Sills) also had several quite memorable visits to the Carol Burnett Show, but that's for another time.

(1)For non-American readers of this blog - Sesame Street is one of our oldest and most prestigious children's shows, having been around since I was a baby, maybe before. I'm pretty sure it helped me learn to read - at the age of 2. It is so famous that a great many famous people - actors, singers, musicians, writers, etc. have appeared on it, probably to impress their kids!There are also many different versions of the show in different countries, such as Rechov Sumsum in Israel and Yiftah-ha-Simsim in Arabic-speaking countries. I think the British equivalent (not a clone of the American show like the ones I just mentioned) is TISWAS.

(2) I really hope that a DVD version is released of a marvelous video from Deutsche Grammophon called A Prokofiev Fantasy with Peter and the Wolf. Basically, this is a dramatization, narrated by Sting, with the Spitting Image puppets (probably best known in the US for their contribution to Genesis' "Land of Confusion" video) conducted by Claudio Abbado. It shows what a sense of humor Maestro Abbado has, although that should be evident from his handling of Rossini. Before Peter and the Wolf, the orchestra plays the March in D, during which we see several Spitting Image puppets of conductors - I think Ozawa, von Karajan and Mehta- fighting in the pit until Abbado sweeps in and starts conducting, and then with a morph shot, he turns into a Spitting Image puppet! And this is only the beginning of the fun! The musical program also includes the Classical Symphony and Overture on Hebrew Themes.

Hey, Tony! Have I got a Shepherd Boy for YOU!

Just listen to this 13 year old boy sing a fabulous Queen of the Night aria!



What fabulous Fs! What energy and intensity! What anger in the voice (if not the face), which so many Queens lack! Only very minor intonation problems! What a beautiful swell on the final "Hör"!

He could give some Queens who have sung in major houses a run for their money!

His name is Robin Schlotz and as of last July when this was recorded, he was a member of the Tölzer Knabenchor. He is now 14 and has probably left. I suspect he'll probably grow into a splendid baritone or bass rather than a tenor or countertenor. What a shame it would be to lose all those high Fs! Maybe if we're lucky he'll wind up like "male soprano" Michael Maniaci*.

To explain the title of this post - one of the members of the Yahoo! Gheorghiu and Alagna club, not seeing the credit on this video from You Tube, thought that he was James Savage-Hanford, who played the Shepherd Boy in the Pappano/Gheorghiu/Alagna Tosca (and was also seen being conducted by Tony in the studio scenes in the film, showing off lots of braces) . What a coup Covent Garden would have if they could cast Robin, and have luxury casting even in this role! The aforementioned, and excellent, Master Savage-Hanford is now definitely too old.

Unfortunately, I'm sure the role of the Shepherd Boy in the Covent Garden Tosca in June has already been cast - the management is very good at announcing smaller parts as soon as the season is announced, unlike the Met who waits until the last minute. And it is unknown as to whether Robin can sing in Italian. Also, especially at this delicate stage in his vocal development, one doesn't want to force him to do too much too fast. Although after that aria, the Shepherd Boy's solo would be a walk in the park!

* Who, by the way, is making his Met debut next April as Nireno in Giulio Cesare.

Celeste Amneris?

Aida

Music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni
Performance of Monday night, February 13, 2005, the 1,092nd Metropolitan Opera performance of this work.

Conductor: James Conlon

Aida: Andrea Gruber
Radames: Johan Botha
Amneris: Olga Borodina
Amonasro: Juan Pons
Ramfis: Kwangchoul Youn
The King of Egypt: Hao Jian Tiang
Messenger: Ronald Naldi
Priestess: Jennifer Check

Actually, the title of this post comes from an article or in one of the major opera magazines (probably Opera News, but I'm not so sure) to find a way to make a really long opera really short. The winner went something like: "Rhinemaidens: 'Give us back our gold!' Alberich: 'OK!'" The number two winner was "Radames comes out and sings 'Celeste Amneris'"!

Humor aside, Amneris should be "celeste": an antagonist, yes, but not the outright villain even many of the greatest mezzos (e.g. Fedora Barbieri and Giulietta Simionato) make her; someone who you can feel a twinge of pity for that she can't have Radames and who is as worthy of being loved as much as Aida is. After all, as many opera fans know, Verdi was considering calling this opera Amneris instead of Aida. Thanks to Olga Borodina, a serious candidate for the greatest dramatic mezzo of our age, that was definitely the opera's title in last night's performance. I suspect this would have been true even with a superior singer in the title role. In fact, Olga (1) was the primary reason I made a return visit to this opera this season after seeing it in October.

While Olga cannot compete with the equally marvelous Dolora Zajick for sheer blood and gut vocalism (although her voice is hardly small), she more than makes up for it in terms of nuance, tenderness, and humanity. In fact, vulnerability is one of her strongest suits. This Amneris is clearly a woman on the wrong end of a love triangle, flawed by jealousy but by no means a villain. Listening to her is like wallowing in... I don't know... molten butterscotch? Her timbre is incredibly rich, warm, and ductile, with an almost contraltoish bottom, easy high notes, beautiful phrasing and enormous dynamic and expressive variety. If she is not a "great actress" she still exudes nobility and dignity as much as haughtiness. The Judgement Scene is an utter triumph. My only problem is I would have liked to have seen even half as much expression in her face as I heard in her voice.

[By the way, I hope to have a post up in a few days called "Amneris as 'Pharoah's Daughter'". I mean the one in Shmot (Exodus).]

The first time I heard Johan Botha in Italian opera was about 10 years ago on a CD called The Puccini Experience, where he sang (not very well) many of the major Puccini heroes - in fact, my thought at the time was he was really an overparted comprimario. Far more impressive, I thought, were baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore and a then virtually unknown soprano ... named Angela Gheorghiu. I later heard bits of him in Elektra that was much more impressive, and I figured he was simply better in German opera than in Italian. His Met debut was as Canio in Pagliacci, and I remember by being shocked at how good he was on the broadcast. While I have been very impressed with his Met work in German opera, I hadn't had the chance to hear him in Italian live until now (I missed his Calaf last year, purported to be excellent). Like Ben Heppner, whose German repertory he often shares, his is an essentially lyric, clarion voice, and he took a welcome lyric approach to the role. I was delighted that he actually attempted (although, admittedly, did not quite succeed) to sing the final high B flat in "Celeste Aida" piano, pianissimo, morendo. If anything, his Radames was so sweet and loving that I couldn't imagine him hurting a fly, let alone ransacking Ethiopia! I also admit I prefer a fuller voice in this role. I'll be very happy to hear him sing the title role in Don Carlo next year. However, one of my sources sources sources spoke to Mr. Botha and says that he will be singing Otello at the Met in 2007-2008! That I'm not so sure is a good idea, despite Heppner's triumph.

By the way, Botha's reasonably new disc of Wagner arias on the Arte Nova label, conducted by Simone Young, is wonderful.

I tend to think of Juan Pons as a house baritone - he's at the Met less for the quality of his singing than the fact that he's extremely reliable and dependable and he does what he's told. I also suspect that the fact that he is managed by Herbert Breslin had a lot to do with his long Met career - if you wanted Luciano Pavarotti, you had to take the rest of Breslin's roster (2). I often find him very dull, although because he is often loud, he gets lots of applause. I will, however, give him credit for being a good actor, and his hulking presence is a plus as, say, Rigoletto. Here he gave a good, solid, decently acted but ultimately not very memorable performance - I would have particularly liked more tenderness and/or wheedling in the Nile Scene.

Kwangchoul Youn was certainly a great improvement over Paata Burchuladze earlier - with a firm, clear, focused, well-projected voice as well as an air of authority and supercilliousness. Admittedly, he doesn't have the kind of presence that someone like Rene Pape might, but ironically enough, I think Pape has only sung the King and not Ramfis. I certainly don't think Youn could do the kind of justice to King Marke (which he will apparently be singing in 2007-2008) that Pape could, but maybe a harder, colder Marke might work. However, I would love to hear Youn as Colline, because, as a French critic said about Ildebrando D'Arcangelo in the role for the Decca La Boheme recording with Alagna and Gheorghiu, he actually sounds like a student instead of a dean of the faculty (and if you look at his headshot in the Met Season Book, he looks like one too, especially with the glasses). Incidentally, I wouldn't mind hearing Olga's fab (maybe khorosho is a better word) husband Ildar Abdrazakov as Ramfis, although he also sounds like a young man.

Hao Jiang Tian was an excellent King, if not quite as hugely sonorous as Morris Robinson. This is another singer for whom it is long past time for the Met to be offering major roles - the closest so far have been Timur and Colline. Ronald Naldi as the Messenger was his usual pleasant, reliable self.

And then there's Andrea Gruber.

Oy vey.

Unlike some opera bloggers, I really don't enjoy saying nasty things about singers. Per a number of people I talked to, this was by no means her only bad night. I'll be nice and say I just hope she's having a temporary bad stretch or has been adversely affected by the weather. I suspect, though, that singing Minnie - a known "voice killer"- at Covent Garden this past September probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. I will give her credit for intensity and passion, especially in the first act, as well as some interesting acting choices - for example when she said "Mio padre!" after the Egyptians sing "Amonasro!" "Il Re!", she was absolutely thrilled and proud of her father - for most sopranos, it's a moment of terror or at least secrecy. Or her whispered "Sventurata! Che dissi?"And the top of her voice - rather steely - isn't too bad (despite a high C in "O patria mia" that made me wince), and neither is the very bottom. But the middle of her voice is squally, edgy and curdled, and much of her pianissimo singing was very unpleasant. It was a performance where might wish for the High Priestess (in this case the marvelous and still very underrated Jennifer Check - when is the Met going to give her a major role?) to have sung the title role instead! I'm also by no means the only one who was rather desperately wishing for Angela Brown (whose Met debut in this I missed due to financial hardship, but everybody I know raved and I loved her spirituals album), who was unfortunately in Philadelphia wowing audiences as Cilla in Margaret Garner. At least she is supposedly coming back not only for Aida but also for Un Ballo in Maschera in 2007-2008.

It didn't help matters that the wig Gruber was wearing made her look like some comedienne - Chloris Leachman? A taller Rhea Pearlman? Possibly marvelous New Age composer Constance Demby? A pity as her publicity shots show her as a white-haired glamor lady.

I'll just say that if this is not something temporary that Gruber can fix (and I sincerely hope it is), the Met shouldn't rehire her - and if future performances are this bad, the Met should just buy out her contract. After all, if some far superior singers (Swenson, Hong, Radvanovsky) might have that happen (I hope not), why not her? Admittedly, the Turandot scheduled for next year might work - although I'm sure there are better casting choices - but I'm not looking forward to her Tosca.

I actually noticed James Conlon's conducting this time - notably detail and subtlety in the Prelude, and the fact that he took Ramfis' cries of "Radames! Radames! Radames!", and their echoes in the brass, much faster than usual. I also noted excellent support for Olga during the Judgement Scene - which she did not have under Carlo Rizzi in 1999. I still want to hear a lot more of Conlon before I can judge whether he's a fit replacement for James Levine whenever he leaves (2071, at this rate!). However, I have heard rumors that Peter Gelb is talking to Tony...


(1) Yes, she is one of the artists, like Roberto, Angela, Bryn and Tony, who I think of on a first name/nickname basis. Actually, I tend to think of her as "Olllllllllgaaaaaaa".
(2) This is standard with a lot of managements - you want the big star(s), you have to take the lesser names (and occasionally talents). Admittedly, this is how a lot of young unknowns get exposure.

Selig sind

Well, folks, it's official. After a 3 year absence due to lack of funds, I am finally going to be singing at the Berkshire Choral Festival! I'll be there from July 9th to July 16, and the concert, on July 15th, will be Brahms' magnificent Ein Deutsches Requiem, which I've wanted to sing for ages. Admittedly, this was my second choice, after the Verdi Requiem, but since this was the 25th anniversary of BCF, the people who attended last year got first dibs and signed up then. Two friends of mine from the St. George's Choral Society are going for the Verdi Requiem week, conducted by the legendary curmudgeon Robert Page, under whom I sang Elijah in 2001*. My conductor will be John Alexander, Music Director of the Pacific Chorale. The name and group are familiar, but what they have actually done escapes me - I'm going to have to investigate recordings. Per Amazon they've done a few contemporary pieces like Richard Danielpour's Requiem, but not Brahms'. Actually, my third choice was the Mozart Requiem with a conductor I'm dying to work with, Jane Glover, but my priority is always works I haven't sung over works I have.

Das Grass ist Verdorret - The grounds of the Berkshire School, where the Choral Festival rehearses and performs. Here the choristers are all lined up for a concert.

I just love Brahms' vocal works. Brahms is for the alto voice what Puccini is for the soprano voice. His alto lines are often considerably more beautiful and interesting than the ones he wrote for soprano. When I first "sang" the Requiem - a runthrough at one of the many choral summer sings given in New York City - it felt so unbelievably right. I don't read music all that well and I certainly can't sight-sing (the reason I'm not in more "prestigious" choruses), but I knew exactly what was coming next - it wasn't predictable as much as totally natural and organic. I love the four Opus 17 songs for women's voices, horn, and harp , as well as the Nänie, almost as much. And one of these days I dream of being the soloist in the Alto Rhapsody. Maybe even the two songs for alto and viola...

And Berkshire, even without the singing, is an absolutely wonderful experience. The scenery is just drop-dead gorgeous (the above picture doesn't even remotely do it justice), although sometimes I wish we could be there in the fall when the foliage turns, but then the Berkshire School is in session. You can see stars - and even whole constellations! - at night, which you can't in New York City. There are field trips every day to places like the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Hancock Shaker Village, and we even go to Tanglewood on Friday nights (and this time it's a really great concert - James Levine conducting Guerrelieder!). They also have two voluntary classes a day on everything from the composer of the week to rounds to South African songs. The food is pretty good, too, although someone has to tell the kitchen that ice cream and singing usually don't mix.

The only drawback is that it's dorm living (although I've had single rooms in the years I've been there), and if you're not in the air conditioned dorm (which costs extra and apparently has very thin walls so you can hear everything you don't want to hear) you need to bring or rent a fan. I didn't find this a problem. Oh, and the last time I went, I had tons of mosquito bites on my feet, and no Lanacane. Witch hazel controlled the worst of it until I got to the bus station in Sheffield to go home and found some calamine lotion.

Because I'm under 40 and they desperately want "young people", I get a nice discount - a whole week will be only $500 (as opposed to about $800) plus cost of music (about $10) and transportation (probably about $40). Oh, yes, I'll have to buy a new white shirt and black skirt. I hope I can handle this and London at the same time.

They also have weeks at Canterbury Cathedral (if I'm lucky, maybe next year it will dovetail with something irresistable at Covent Garden - this year it was the Bach Saint John Passion which I will not touch with a 10-foot pole, even if they remove the anti-Semitic elements as some choruses do), and in Salzburg (which almost always coincide with the Jewish High Holy Days). Unfortunately, they no longer have weeks in Santa Fe, where I could have gone to the Santa Fe Opera and seen a spectacular sky, although I would have probably needed to get there early to acclimate to the altitude.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this - and I wonder if the soloists will be anyone I'm familiar with?

* Then again, at least for the altos, Elijah is a very easy work - nothing musically difficult like, say, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (which I've also sung at Berkshire). All you have to do is learn the notes and do what the conductor tells you to. As a matter of fact, Maestro Page said he was very impressed by how prepared the altos were! I imagine, though, for the Verdi Requiem, and for Honneger's Jeanne D'Arc de Bucher, which is where he got his reputation, the situation would be much different.

Tentative "Traviata" twitterings

Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta in Act III (or as the Met plays it, Act II, Scene II) of La Traviata.

Since I intend to see virtually all the performances of La Traviata starring Angela Gheorghiu (and possibly the February 23 performance with Mary Dunleavy as well), I have decided to wait until the end of the run to do a full and comprehensive review. This probably means after February 27, since her last performance, on March 3, is a Friday night - and I don't think I'm interested enough in seeing José Luis Duval, the second-cast tenor, to violate Shabbat (1).

But right now, I have to say that at last, at last, we have the real thing as Violetta. Angela was just glorious. I can't quite say seeing her portrayal last night was worth the 8 year wait - since I firmly believe that her previous absence from this production was due to backstage skullduggery at the Met and not her (or Roberto's) "whims" or "difficulty" - but it was easily her greatest triumph here (2). Never have I seen a more beautifully sung, physically expressive, deeply felt, emotionally moving Violetta. If anything, her portrayal reminded me of Ferruccio Furlanetto's equally stunning King Phillip last season - so full of subtlety and nuance that someone who wasn't sitting very close or didn't have a good pair of binoculars might not even notice the details (3). My criticisms are mostly picky and can wait until later - although I did miss some of the manic energy she showed on the Solti video (with an inferior supporting cast)

This supporting cast was not inferior. Indeed, this was a wonderful ensemble. Jonas Kaufmann made a quite an auspicious Met debut. His voice is a little darker and more baritonal than I would like for Alfredo, but is rich and warm. He flubbed the high C at the end of "O mio rimorso" (slightly flat), but I suspect that may have been due to the weather, and the overall performance was so fine I was more than willing to forgive him. Frankly, I got more pleasure from him than I did from Rolando Villazon in Rigoletto on Wednesday. He's an excellent actor, vocal and physical who had good chemistry with Angela - and (not that it matters all that much?) he looks like a romance novel cover. Or a fairy-tale prince, which should be very appropriate considering next year's Tamino. Pictures will be provided in the full review.

Anthony Michaels-Moore's voice is much bigger than I would think from his Met Silvios and Marcellos, rich, dark, powerful and warm. He brought out Germont's rectitude, authority, sympathy, and eventual self-recrimination. He may yield to Dwayne Croft for subtlety and a clearer arc of the evolution of feeling towards Violetta, but, but is still a fine actor and also had good chemistry with Angela. Based on this, I wouldn't mind hearing him in some of the really big Verdi roles - maybe even Rigoletto.

Due to the talent and charisma of the singers, and the restaging (especially of Act I, "demanded" by Angela) makes a heck of a lot more sense (4). Thanks to this, the characters of the comprimarii - particularly Dr. Grenvil (LeRoy Lehr) and Baron Douphol (John Hancock) - are a lot clearer. Best of the small roles is the vastly underrated Earle Patriarco as the Marquis.

Oh, yes, Angela's new costumes are gorgeous (but lose the fur, please). Now why was she so "difficult" for asking for them when Divine Renee could bring her own with no problem?

This is easily the best Traviata I've ever seen, and can hold its own with some famous recordings. What a shame this wasn't telecast. And since Angela's future plans at the Met, while mostly mouthwatering, do not include Violetta to the best of my knowledge, go and savor this while you have the chance.

(1) Although per the MP3 files on this website, Duval sounds wonderful, if a little too loud in places. There are a few opera arias and Mexican songs, but it's mostly musical theater songs (Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Oklahoma, South Pacific, etc.) sung in Spanish.

(2)Then again, I say that every time Angela unveils a new role at the Met!

(3) And rumor has it that Furlanetto will be singing Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra opposite Angela's Amelia next season. Oh, frabjous day!

(4) Unfortunately, that stupid stage elevator in the final act going from Violetta's boudoir to her living room to immense applause, destroying "Addio del passato", is still there!

Minor correction to "Idiot" post

Antonio Pappano is not conducting the June performances of Le Nozze di Figaro - Sir Colin Davis is. Of course, he's not exactly chopped liver, and I've never heard him conduct an opera (unless you want to count the Verdi Requiem as one - I heard him conduct that twice). Tony is conducting the January and February performances, and according to the reviews I've been reading, he's playing the harpsichord continuo as well (I wonder if Sir Colin will do the same?). David McVicar's production, updated to the 1830s (which is when Les Miserables takes place) does look interesting. Pity I won't get to see it, at least this year, without a miracle. The later Tosca performances are now almost sold out.

The Doctor is in at last - and he's making house calls in the US!

The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) with his TARDIS.

After all the recent operatic tragedies, there is at least some wonderful news on the science fiction front. My beloved Doctor Who, recently resurrected in England with a new series (now in it's second season), is finally coming to the United States! Initially, we fans thought it would be coming only on DVD, and only available in Canada. But then it was announced the DVD would be coming out in the US in February, and then that it would be postponed until July because...the series was going to be shown on the Sci-Fi Channel! The "first" season (I wonder if that really should be the 27th, as it does follow from the old show and the TV movie, with Doctor #9) begins broadcasting on March 17 at 9:00 PM, each episode to have several showings a week. I presume we won't get Season Two until well after it shows in the UK - probably next year.

Now if only the Sci-Fi Channel, or BBC America, would get the old series, as it hasn't been broadcast in New York in probably 15 years. Then again, it is coming out on DVD, slowly but surely.

And for those of you who are clueless about Who, I will go into more information when the time arrives.

How do you say COMPLETE IDIOT in Romanian???

I have been fantasizing ever since I first heard it announced last March about going back to Covent Garden to see Angela Gheorghiu in her first staged Tosca. On records, she is one of the very best, combining a nearly-Callas level of intensity with a far more beautiful voice. Bryn Terfel as Scarpia is icing on the cake, and, of course, the pairing of Pappano and Puccini is as natural as the pairing of Pepperoni and Pizza (try saying that five times fast!) OK, Marcelo Alvarez is an excellent tenor when he's not singing in French, but we all know who should be singing Cavaradossi. Along with Bryn (who stole the whole evening, as Figaro as well as Scarpia), Angela sang Act II of the opera at the Met's Opening Night Gala in September, providing a tantalizing preview. Although she was slightly inaudible in the middle of her voice during big orchestral outbursts, I don't think this would be a problem at a smaller house like Covent Garden. While I no longer have the "sell your kids to get a ticket-this will be Angela's greatest triumph!" feeling that I did after seeing the Jacquot film, it's still not something I want to miss. Not to mention it's been 6 years since I've been to London, which is way too long for an Anglophile such as myself. Well, now that I'm actually earning some money, this might actually become a reality, although I'll still have to forgo a few things in order for it to happen. No more than bare minimum monthly payments on debts.

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, focus of vacation dreams

Unfortunately, getting tickets to Covent Garden is a pretty difficult proposition, at least for the "hot" shows. I am now very surprised that I was able to get tickets for the February 2000 Romeo et Juliette with such ease - I just called Covent Garden the morning the tickets went on sale. The rules have undoubtedly changed since then. As far as I can tell, you pretty much have to be a member of the Friends of Covent Garden or have otherwise made a donation to the Royal Opera to get a "hot ticket" because those worthies have advanced booking. Having been unable to get tickets for either La Rondine or Faust(1) because all the tickets had been snapped up before they went on sale to the general public, I had considered joining the Friends to ensure I could get tickets for Tosca, or frankly, any future show with Angela (she is apparently doing Faust in September), Roberto, Tony, or possibly one or two other irresistables. But it costs £75 (about $125), which is a little more than I can immediately spare due to my desire to pay down my date and indulge in some New York opera dates. Fortunately, I do have a dear, sweet, young friend in London (the future famous Thai soprano Lullalit Supatravanij) who let me use her Friends account to order my Tosca ticket. Since Friends Online Booking opened on Tuesday, and I went on the site on Thursday, I figure there would be no problem getting tickets.

Until I screwed up.

Initially, I had fantasized about buying a ticket for the last performance on July 8, figuring I might be able to sneak off to Orange to see Roberto in Aida 3 days later. Well, not only would that set me back a further £950 (Over $1500? Oy!), but Angela isn't singing that performance - her last is July 1st and there's too much of a gap between the dates (2). No way I could afford that much time in London. And I've also signed up for the Berkshire Choral Festival and I have no idea what week they actually put me in. I should know in a day or two.

The opening night performance, on June 13th, is a big expensive gala with tickets going up to £1000, and probably even the cheapest seats are about £300, way beyond my price range (despite the additional incentive of a Karita Mattila recital the day before at Wigmore Hall). Also, more importantly, I will be in a concert on June 18 of Jewish music with Nashir! The Rottenberg Chorale at Merkin Hall. Dress rehearsal is Sunday the 11th and and the last rehearsal is the 14th, which would make going to London that week difficult. So, I would aim to get tickets for June 23rd, and possibly also for June 26th, and seeing if there was anything else in terms of opera or theater in intervening days.

So I eagerly went to a Tasti De-Lite near work where you can sign on for much cheaper computer time than at Kinko's, and went to work with my credit card. I didn't want to go beyond £50 if possible, and I wound up spending £45 (about $80), the highest price range available in the Ampitheater (next up was £115 in the Balcony - too much!). I was happy that I got a reasonably good seat on the side (P35), a little higher up than I wanted, and without armrests, but considering that Covent Garden is smaller than the Met and my 12X binoculars, I would probably have no problems seeing or hearing. Plus it looked like a good view of Tony! Unfortunately, I was so excited and in such a hurry (and having some trouble with the booking page) that...

I BOUGHT THE TICKET FOR THE WRONG DATE!!!

June 16th. Two days before my concert. Probably because it was the first date listed on the booking site.

Well, I thought, no problem. I'll just go back on, buy a ticket with the right date, and sell the "wrong" one. Nope. The booking said "maximum of two tickets" and that's not per date as I originally thought, it's per production! So I'm stuck with this one. Fortunately, Lulu already bought her ticket, otherwise I might have shut her out by accident.

Even worse, the June 23 performance had the £50 seats available! And I would have also been able to get a seat for a performance of Le Nozze di Figaro the night after with a good cast and conducted by Tony, no less! Nothing else is going on at Covent Garden on the 15th or 17th, and as far as I know, the only other opera that weekend is at Holland Park. Although I will check the other music venue sites, there doesn't seem to be anything that appealing on first glance. And the regular theater.

Well, the situation isn't hopeless, at least. If I can't get a ticket for the 23rd by regular booking, I imagine there is someone in Operaland who would rather go on the 16th than on the 23rd, and I can swap. Worse comes the worst, I'll just go on that date - at least several other members of the Yahoo! Gheorghiu and Alagna club (where I am a moderator) will be going then, most likely, including Lulu, and I can actually get to meet them. And since I'll be spending less time in London, I don't have to take as much vacation time or spend as much money - although it's still likely to be at least $1,000, mostly for the airfare. I'll just have to fly home on Sunday morning in order to make the concert (less sightseeing time), and hope I'm not too jet-lagged (I'll probably have time to nap), or even worse, that there isn't some kind of flight delay. I definitely don't want to miss the concert - not only is the music very beautiful, but the conductor is a really nice guy and a dreamboat.

But even if everything turns out OK, this is just so embarassing! I feel like Nemorino: "Io son sempre un idiota"! He certainly has more brains than I did (3)!

If I go backstage to meet Angela after one of the Traviatas (considering that Roberto's health is still less than perfect, I'm still not sure how good an idea that is), I might tell her of my folly. It would be a good laugh. And I can ask her my title question.

(Probably "idiota toata" or something)

(1) Actually, I almost did buy a ticket off EBay for the Faust about 2 weeks before the performance, but I was unemployed at the time and couldn't spare the money for the plane fare and hotel.

(2) And frankly, I don't terribly relish the idea of going to Orange - it's one of the most right-wing, anti-Semitic and "Front National" areas of France. The mayor threw all the books by Jewish authors out of the libraries.

(3) And that's leaving aside my argument that Nemorino is far more intelligent than he's usually given credit for!

A belated "Flute", or: How Internet Opera makes me a better Jew...

Baruch Hashem! I've just discovered that I can listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts (and possibly other broadcasts as well) without having to violate the Jewish Sabbath! I admit that my Shabbat observance is considerably less than perfect, but I don't like the idea that there has to be conflict between my religious obligations and my love of opera. And frankly, since I eat, breathe, and sleep opera virtually every other day of the week, on Shabbat I need to "rest" from that as much as from work. Well, that's all over now. I have in the past year discovered the joys of internet radio, hampered only by the fact that I don't have my own computer and can only listen in a noisy internet cafe. Today I discovered that there is a station that plays the Met broadcasts on Sunday - namely KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska. That's not much of a surprise since if it were broadcast "live" in Alaska it would be at 9AM! I assume the time varies by the length of the opera, but it usually begins 4PM ET. Thanks to the wonderful internet radio schedule site Operacast for showing me the way!

(And it's -13° F in Fairbanks today. Brrrr....)

The performance today, of Die Zauberflöte, seemed, well, average. I think most of the problem was the same as with the BBC Proms Walküre I "reviewed" in July - there was too much background noise and I was otherwise too distracted to notice details. Also the earphones I was using are not of the best quality and there was a lot of feedback on high notes. And I missed the first half hour. Partially for those reasons, I will not comment on Paul Daniel's conducting, even though he was one of the things I was most looking forward to. Today was his debut.

Mary Dunleavy has been a good Queen of the Night at the Met (and I loved her Countess de Folleville in Il Viaggio a Reims at NYCO) but I'm not sure her "promotion" ("demotion"?) to Pamina was such a good idea. She didn't have nearly enough pathos in "Ach, ich fühls", but that may have been a deliberate choice - she seemed more terrified and even angry. The voice itself seemed far too slender could have used more richness. In light of this I wonder if it's a good idea that other coloraturas such as Diana Damrau and Natalie Dessay are taking Pamina on. Violetta will probably suit Dunleavy better, even if I doubt if she's a match for Angela Gheorghiu. Erika Miklosa definitely made more of an impression in the theater when I saw her last year. Here, beauty and accuracy were there, but none of the Queen's torrential anger (admittedly this is a problem with just about every soprano who takes on the role) and not quite enough of the sorrowful mother at the beginning. Anna Christy was not nearly as charming and delightful as Papagena opposite Nathan Gunn's Papageno as she was as Hortense Briggs opposite his Clyde Griffiths in An American Tragedy.

The men were better. My initial predictions of Morris Robinson's Sarastro proved correct - huge, gravelly, powerful, authoritative voice, but he needed more wisdom and benevolence. The Commendatore - absolutely. Sarastro- I'm not so sure(1). Nathan Gunn was a rich-voiced, warm-hearted Papageno, but I missed innocence, naivete, and detail of character. Still, I'm glad the Met is finally giving him some attention and is clearly preparing him for great things. He just won the first Beverly Sills Award - I'm sure $50,000 will come in handy with five kids!

I was surprised how good Eric Cutler was. I've never been a fan of his - I thought his First Prisoner in Fidelio was underwhelming (the role may be small, but it needs a great tenor - I have a recording of a radio concert where Fritz Wunderlich sings it, and I remember reading how Otto Klemperer after being given a list of "star" names for a late '50s production dismissed them and said "Who is the First Prisoner?") and at a Young Artists Gala the Met did a few years ago proved to be the most unromantic Romeo I could ever imagine. Admittedly he has some promise as a lieder singer. He seems typical of too many contemporary American singers - reasonably talented, but gets the work and the plaudits because he's a "nice", "hardworking" guy who does what he's told - in other words, he kowtows to nutcase directors and authoritarian managements and knows how to say all the "right things" to journalists. Definitely not somebody who deserves either the Richard Tucker Award or to be singing I Puritani with Anna Netrebko next year - both prizes should have gone to Lawrence Brownlee!(2) Nevertheless, he may have more feel for Mozart than the above-mentioned operas. Unfortunately, I tuned in too late for his "Dies Bildnis". He otherwise sang quite beautifully, with some (although not quite enough) nobility and feeling. Definitely superior to Gregory Turay, although I doubt to Matthew Polenzani (who I missed) or Jonas Kaufmann (who does it next year).

If I am able to get a ticket - this fantasmagoric Julie Taymor production always sells out - I hope to be able to give a truer evaluation in the theater. I may very well be living at the Met in February - I will probably see all of Angela's non-Shabbat Traviatas (I have my ticket to the first) plus the Villazon/Netrebko Rigoletto, Borodina in Aida and Samson et Dalila, and the Voigt/Licitra Forza.

(1) One bit of very good news - Robinson is now a recording artist! He signed a contract with Decca and he will be coming out with a disc of hymns, spirituals and gospel sometime this spring. I don't doubt this is music he feels very deeply about and can do wonderfully, but can't we hear something other than spirituals from an African-American singer? (I was so happy when Lawrence Brownlee's first disc was bel canto songs!) How about some actual opera or lieder, maybe a disc of Mozart bass roles for the Mozart year? I have the feeling Decca is thinking "crossover!" At least another wonderful young African-American artist, Cardiff Singer of the World soprano Nicole Cabell is getting an actual opera disc from Decca in 2006.


(2) Then again, Mr. Cutler is Caucasian, and despite giving some of its subsidiary awards to African-American singers (and making sure to have Denyce Graves at its gala every year) the Richard Tucker Foundation still hasn't given any major awards to one. I have the feeling they've gone out of their way to avoid doing so. And Mr. Brownlee will only be the fifth African-American tenor to sing at the Met since Marian Anderson arrived when he makes his debut next season as Almaviva. Disgusting.

AAAAAGGGGGH!

And Marilyn Horne has pancreatic cancer!!!!!!

(Dear G-d, I hope that's not what Roberto has!)

The good news, at least, is that it's localized, and she has an excellent chance of full recovery. There will be no changes to her schedule - including all the masterclasses she's doing around her birthday for the Marilyn Horne Foundation.

I am actually optimistic about Roberto, as Angela has apparently not cancelled either her concert in Philadelphia or the Met Traviatas, even the later performances. Presumably this means Roberto is improving or at least in stable condition (maybe he could even come to New York with her). However, with Roberto out of comission until at least March, Angela is now the family breadwinner - and $90,000 (?) for 6 performances is nothing to sneeze at.

In addition to wishing Roberto (once again) and Marilyn a refuah shleimah, I pray that I will not have to change the name of this blog to "Operatic Illness of the Week"! At least with the Met season starting up again tomorrow, there will be a few other things to talk about.

Not AGAIN!

I thought after that last awful week we had in the opera world at the end of November 2005 (Cheryl Studer's heart attack, the death of James King, the murder of Deon van der Walt by his own father), there would be an end to tragedy for a while. Unfortunately, we're having a second week of tragedy. Birgit Nilsson died yesterday, and my beloved Roberto Alagna is apparently very sick with some kind of severe hypoglycemia (and I can only hope that's not a symptom of something worse!) and is forced to cancel all his performances through at least January and February and possibly March as well. Not surprisingly, to be with him, his wife Angela Gheorghiu cancelled her concert in Dresden tomorrow, and may have cancelled her appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra the Met Traviatas as well. Not that I can really blame her. But I've been waiting 10 years to see her Violetta!

Baruch dayan emet. And may G-d send Roberto a refuah shleimah.

Further comments to follow. I just hope that superstition isn't true about bad things happening in threes...

What a HORRIBLE week for the opera world!

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.

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.

"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!

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

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!

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!