Juliette Galstian: Artist Portrait

Well, well, my Christmas season sure started on a good note this year. Look what I've got in my stereo already!

That's right, Juliette Galstian has released a a solo recital CD! Many opera fans will have known Juliette Galstian as the dark-voiced title character of Gluck's Iphigenie in Tauride and as Susanna in Paisiello's Nina (that features Cecilia Bartoli) DVDs from Zurich Opera. She was also a convincing Rinaldo at the same house a few years ago before seemingly fell off the face of the earth, or at least from the operatic stages.

I was tempted to report her a missing person since it ought to be a crime for someone that talented to go into hiding at the prime of her career. As it turns out, though, she has been having some fun with a proper teaching job at the Conservatoire de Geneve... and recording a lovely disc in her spare time.

The disc contains 23 very diverse art songs in 7 different languages and styles ranging from Bellini to Strauss, Wolf, Tchaikovsky, Donaudy, Rubinstein, Gounod and even some intriguing Armenian folksong arranged by Vardapet. Heck, she even does a Britten in English!

Her voice has darkened some more (don't ask me how that was possible) with so rich a lower register now that I can't help wishing I could see her on stage as Carmen or even Marina in Boris Godunov... She goes so well singing the Russian songs!



Galstian is accompanied on the piano by Claude Lavoix, and it is a nice partnership of two very musical musicians. I'm afraid the beautiful booklet that comes with the disc doesn't have libretto, but her diction is clear enough to not need one if you understand Italian, French or English. CD is available for purchase through Galstian's website. A good Christmas present for your opera fan friends, if you ask me.

Just missing Juliette Galstian

Can you use some dark hot voice and infectious personality to warm a chilly winter day with? So can I! Here is the (sadly rarely seen on stage anymore) talented Juliette Galstian as opera's most famous tuneful gypsy.


Does Carmen ever come better intoned than this? It's a shame Mme Galstian is spending more time teaching than singing on the operatic stages now. Lucky for her students, but not for us audience at large!

Feeling like a seguedile...

My brain was going a bit addled with many shifty equations shuffling in my head. Must have a good and demented break!

Juliette Galstian to the rescue...

A Watch-ful Post

Vesselina Kasarova watch: The mesmerizing Bulgarian mezzo is spending June in Tokyo, Japan, making her house debut at the New National Theater as the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella).

Juliette Galstian watch: The gorgeous dark-voiced Armenian mezzo had recently updated her website, changed management rep, and will be singing Cornelia in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto at the Cour des Hospices in Beaune (France) on 11 July.

Dorothea Röschmann watch: The German soprano with the golden voice is singing Polly in Weill's The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) at Barbican Hall in London and at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.


Christiane Karg watch: The young German soprano recently granted me a cyber interview and is off to sing Silvia in a performance of Haydn's L'isola disabilita at the Musikverein in Vienna this weekend before coming back to resume performances as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Frankfurt.

Gay Penguins watch: Z and Vielpunkt, the gay German Humboldt penguins, had adopted an abandoned penguinette and are having a good time mothering it in their little corner at the Zoo am Meer in Bremerhaven... Who still says that homosexuality is unnatural now? These two aren't even the only gay birds at the same zoo...

Smorg watch: My friends keep telling me to eat something... Why? I'm not a Wagnerian soprano, I can't hit the high C in triple forte and I sure as heck don't want to look as though I could either.


But, anyhow, after having spent a week having the same noodle soup for dinner (instant noodle is my cooking specialty), this 6" long Vietnamese beef sandwich from Sau Voi Deli at Ranch Market on Clairemont Mesa Blvd is what I'm having for dinner tonight... Neither cheese nor any sort of sauces are needed on this thing. It's just grilled beef with really crushy fresh vegetables on a chewy bun. I suspect it is quite healthy, but, thankfully, the tastes doesn't betray that quality!

Galstian: Another Mezzo To Fantasize About

After having spent years lighting up the stage as a soprano, Juliette Galstian, the Armenian opera singer, added her lustrous voice to the mezzo-soprano repertoire in a well received performance as Handel's Rinaldo at Zurich Opera last year.

With a voice and a personality like this, I can't wait to see a Carmen from her. She's quite up for the role!