Renee Fleming and the Super Bowl National Anthem

Chances are good that if you live in the USA then by now you'd have heard about Renee Fleming, that opera soprano that blew just about everyone (well, at least all the ones with good hearing and functioning ability to recognize great singing when they chance on it) away singing one of the most abused national anthems on the planet before the Super Bowl started last Sunday. Clips of it are now all over Youtube... for good reasons:


I'm not necessarily a Fleming fan, but dudes, she was much better than the football that followed and a real class act in her rendition (and could give a masterclass on how to cope with that tune's many technical difficulties). If you had never experienced opera before, there is plenty more where this came from, you know? If you liked (or, like most of us, opera fans included, are blown away by) this singing, go look for more Fleming and her many amazing operatic colleague on Youtube and at the opera house near you.


And if you are here in San Diego... the opera season is on now at the Civic Theater in downtown! I'm afraid I missed Pagliacci, the first show of the season. I'm hoping to catch one of the upcoming L'Elixir d'amore in February, though, and the one off performance of Verdi's requiem is not to be missed either. Why leave singers like Fleming just for the obnoxious opera fans? Come join the fun and the thrill! :oD

One Last Moment in Time for Whitney Houston

I don't generally follow the private lives of performance artists, but it sure sucks when they leave the struggle sooner than we fans are prepared for... if one can prepare for such a thing.

RIP Whitney Houston, and best wishes to her loved ones.

Get Well Soon, Salvatore Licitra!

Salvatore Licitra, the Italian - Swiss tenor had a bad crash on his scooter in Sicily over the weekend and is still in very serious condition (he didn't have a helmet on) at the hospital.

As you can see, aside from being a bloody good opera singer, the man also has a heart of gold. Obviously he won't now be able to sing in the Teatro Communal di Bologna's tour of Japan that was planned for next month (September). Let's all hope for his complete and speedy recovery. We need good people like him around!

Edited 5 Sept 2011: Sadly, Salvatore Licitra passed away after 9 days in a coma at the Garibaldi Hospital in Catania. 

SDSO & Toni Braxton Opened 2010 Summer Pops

There is a couple of hurricane off the western Mexico coast that is sending thick clouds over San Diego this weekend. It makes for a great outdoor weather for sun-sensitive me (I have SLE that loves to flare up when that big ball of helium gets to shine without any cover in the summer months). All the same, I was expecting a warmer weather while walking around the Marina District yesterday afternoon looking for a good photo shot to send to my Aussie friend.

Where do you go in the Marina District of downtown San Diego for a good photo shot? The Top of the Hyatt Lounge on the 40th floor of the Manchester Grand Hyatt's Harbor Tower, of course...


I looked down on the Embarcadero Marina Park - South (there are two of them enclosing the Marriott Marina) and spotted the tent stage and grandstand they had erected for the San Diego Symphony's Summer Pops season and couldn't resist dropping in to see if there was still any cheap ticket left available (the symphony itself rarely sells out, but this weekend they are teaming up with pop's soulful queen Toni Braxton to open the season... that makes for a different ballgame!). To my surprise, the place was only a quarter full and there were plenty of seats available so I grabbed on in the Cabaret section on the lawn in front of the stand...

One new feature for the summer pops this year.... They actually force-check your camera. Not that that prevented photo-taking inside the concert aria since most cellphones these days come equipped with a camera. Most people are good about not taking photo of the performers during the show... They mainly just take photos of themselves (and most didn't use flash, thanks goodness!).

The concert opened with a virtual battle of the brass with two different brass sections (the scaled down SDSO was joining forces with the Civic Youth Orchestra, East County Youth Orchestra, and San Diego State University Young Artists Symphony) flanking the stage with Giovanni Gabrieli's 1597 Canzon septimi toni #2, a rarely heard number that, while quite obviously fun for Matthew Garbutt to conduct, gave plenty of evidence of the reasons for its neglect (the thing even ended on a hanging note without any resolution).

They SDSO' string section then took over the stage for the first movements from Mozart's 1st Symphony (in E flat major) and the famous serenade, Eine kleine Nachtmusik. As much as I love the SDSO, I must confess that their violin section is the most soulless bunch of technical perfectionists of the symphonies I've heard yet... They can make technically demanding pieces sound easy, but for all their virtuoso proficiency I fail to hear any point to the strings of notes they play. It is actually more frustrating than hearing someone trying to muddle through a piece of music that is beyond their ability to technically cope with. It reminds me of a much conjectured line that goes; 'God gave me the talent to sing, and so I sing'. To which I wish a question is added; 'But aren't you interested in the 'Why?' of it? Why did 'god' give you the ability to sing... if not to actually communicate something to those who may hear your sound?'

The sound amplification system was also rather ill-balanced for the orchestra with the brass and double basses getting too much unneeded help while the lighter strings were often nearly drowned out. I guess having to share the playbill with a pop band didn't help the set up.

The most objectionable thing about this night at the symphony, though, was this 50 minutes long intermission that came with an awkward rich-section-only donation auction. While most people in the audience were impressed by the promotional video that both depict the ritual handing off the baton from Jahja Ling to Matthew Garbut via a bunch of enthusiastic-kids-in-relay and the Bridgepoint Education music reach out program to young kids, the pandering-to-the-rich-in-total-oblivious-to-the-rest-of-the-audience donation auction that followed it was especially TASTELESS considering today's sociopolitical climate.
                                                     

   
The majority of the audience was forced to sit and watch as partly tuxedoed CEO's held the stage while asking their chums in the rich 'Champagne' seating section to pledge anywhere from $250 - $5,000 donations via a paddle that no other seating sections had (the good folks in front of me in the Cabaret were seriously considering donating when they realized that they weren't equipped with any auction paddle or other goodies the auctioneer was talking about). I realize that the symphonies and the operas in the USA are mostly subsidized by their wealthier patrons rather than by ticket sales, but all the same... Couldn't this sort of thing have been done in a more private setting before the performance? Why should the general and less well cashed audience have to sit through this money-flaunting business for 50 minutes while waiting to hear the concert they had paid to attend?

The crowd had thinned to about a fifth of total capacity when Toni Braxton - now sporting a very sexy short blond hairdo - and her familiar band arrived on the stage, thankfully, with a more inclusive attitude and a greater ability to inject fun into even a cold and cloudy evening gathering of symphony goers. Her seductively dark and husky voice seems still recovering from a recent illness and I was rather alarmed to almost mistake her voice for that of the late Michael Jackson (a lot of 'Uh!..Uh! with not very audible something in between) and her diction was pretty indecipherable at first. She warmed up after a while, though, and sounded quite good in the not so heavily accompanied selections of old hits (Unbreak My Heart, Man Enough, etc) and new songs from the recently released CD, Pulse.



The lass has a star presence and easy-to-love down-to-earth personality that managed to get the mostly symphony-going crowd swaying and waving and even attempting to sing along (not as loudly as she'd like, I'm afraid. Most of us didn't know the lyrics even to her mega hit 'Unbreak My Heart'.... That's how pathetically unhip we classical music heads are!). Her little black dress was feeling the night chill, however, and kept trying to slip off as she tried to dance. I dare say that most of the men in the audience wouldn't mind it if she had let the thing drop, but it was a rather drafty and cold night so that would have been quite unpleasant, temperature-wise, for the first lady of the show...

By the final number the lackluster opening symphonic act was largely forgotten, overshadowed by the Braxton bomb that could still rock the park even when not firing on all cylinders. Vocally she was far from perfect, but she connected fully even with an unfamiliar crowd and communicated loud and clear that her first tour after a long absence is something to look forward to.

RIP Giuletta Simionato (1910 - 5 May 2010)

A sad news for the operatic world today. Giulietta Simionato (12 May 1910 - 5 May 2010), the great Italian mezzo-soprano (also known as Maria Callas' best friend and singing partner), passed away at Via di Trigoria in Rome, Italy earlier today. Simionato was a superstar in Romantic Period Italian opera from the 1930's until her retirement in 1966 and helped ushering in the rejuvenation of the bel canto operas... for which I shall be eternally grateful.

There are many good clips of La Simionato on Youtube and elsewhere. This one features her in the wonderful Santuzza-Turiddu duet from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana from 1955 with Giuseppe Di Stefano. One good news is that she is very well represented on good quality CDs. There is nothing like getting to hear her live, of course (I didn't... I wasn't even the sparkle in my father's eyes yet when she retired from the singing scene), but even an electronically captured glimpse of her is worth seeking out.



This should also remind many of us not to take the wonderful singers performing on the stage today for granted. They won't always be there. If you have a chance to catch someone like Jonas Kaufmann, Edita Gruberova, Nina Stemme, Patricia Racette, Vesselina Kasarova, Renee Fleming, Ewa Podles, Bryn Terfel, Juan Diego Florez, Ramon Vargas, Simon Keenlyside and others live today, for Pete's sake, don't put it off!

A Glimpse of Kasarova and Mijanovic in Agrippina

A potentially time-limited treat for fans of mezzo-sopranos Vesselina Kasarova and Marijana Mijanovic. This video clip of snippets from the Zurich Opera's 2009 production (David Pountney production) of Handel's Agrippina with interviews with a few principal singers is available at the Opernhaus's OpernTV page.

I suspect that it won't stay on the OpernTV page for more than a few months (will likely get knocked off once the clips from this season are put up), though.

Edited 1 April 2010: Cheers to Opernhaus Zurich! They had gone and post this clip on their Youtube channel, so here it is!


Click here to visit the Zurich Opera's Youtube Channel.

Kevin Cole & Marvin Hamlisch did Gershwin at San Diego Symphony

Marvin Hamlisch and pianist Kevin Cole jazzed up symphony season with two evening performances of Gershwin tunes at Copley Symphony Hall this weekend.

Aside from getting to hear the numbers listed in the program, Saturday night audiences were also treated to many musical and conversational bonuses. The show started with Maestro Hamlisch taking the piano and serenade someone in the audience with the 'Happy Birthday' tune in the styles of Bach, Mozart, Chopin, and Gershwin (concert goers were successfully cajoled into joining in during the last variation... Most of us couldn't sing in tune, but there was strength in number!). He and the versatile San Diego Symphony then proceeded to acoustically hypnotize the now quieted down spectators with lively takes on the 'Overture to Girl Crazy', 'Swanee', medleys of Gershwin film scores, show tunes, and selections from 'Porgy and Bess' (yes, you know a few tunes from this 'opera', too! At least the one shown in the clip below).



The SDSO's pianist/celeste-player Mary Barranger took an impromptu but sultry turn at the piano with 'the 2nd Piano Prelude' as the fun loving Hamlisch jived the orchestra into a full blown jazz fever highlighted by excellently demented instrumental solo passages.
Kevin Cole's lively playing of 'Rhapsody in Blue' (plus an encore) gave the hall the jitterbug and his rendition of 'Our Love Is Here To Stay' hushed the house (the dude could even sing really well!). A second grand piano was magically produced at the end and the two pianists gave a rousing jamming session of 'I Got Rhythm'.

After the final curtain both Hamlisch and Cole took a seat at the stage apron and fielded questions from the remaining audiences for nearly half an hour afterward. I think they all took off for a reception at a hotel nearby afterward, but I didn't go. Had to catch a bus home at 10:40PM.

Happy Holiday Shout Outs

It's that festive time of the year again! I'm too well stuffed to think of anything interesting to say so I'll cop out by giving a shout out to a few do-gooders I've heard about recently... in no particular order:

1. Jefferson Lab is making science fun and easy to understand with their excellent Youtube channel.


This is how real science is done, mates! You observe a phenomenon and make predictive guesses (hypotheses) on what makes it go the way it does. Predictiveness is the key! If this causes that to happen, then what will happen if I do this and that to it? This is what makes a scientific guess (hypothesis) special. You can falsify it against real observation and see if you guessed wrong or not.

2. Rachel Maddow, the adorable (though at times in a rather irritating manner) and as-smart-as-a-whip host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show and at Air America Radio is making it hard for me to completely give up on journalism.

Photo: The Rachel Maddow Show

She is quite to the left of me and we disagree on a few issues, but she has convinced me that she always does her very best to get the facts straight before reporting them... And that in the rare occasions that she doesn't she always promptly corrects herself and apologizes. Never mind what David Frum says. The lass is an honest and straight shooter who is also a pleasure to both agree and disagree with!

3. Prince William of Wales spending a homeless night out on the frozen street of London for a good cause. It is too easy to sit in a well heated home while lumping all street people together as being deserving of their misfortunes. Some are, to be sure, but many more aren't and it really doesn't take much to help them get back on their feet. It takes guts for a prince to voluntarily have a taste of it without shining a spotlight onto himself (only one photo was released well after the deed was performed). Photo: Centrepoint/AP

I think his mum would be proud!

4. Joyce DiDonato. The American mezzo-soprano not only burns down the stage with her intensity and superb skills every time she goes to work, but also keeps a refreshingly down to earth and regularly updated blog that allows us outsiders a good glimpse at life as a deservedly successful performance artist.

Photo: Sheila Rock

She also posted the best holiday greetings on it this year with a generous gesture worth imitating!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to all my friends and readers, of course! Thanks for putting up with my smorginess all this time. I'm taking your remarkable patience for granted now and hereby impose upon you yet another one of my operatic indulgences...


This is the marvelous Vesselina Kasarova really rocking the boat (or rather, the concert house in Bremen) with Ariodante's final bravura aria, Dopo notte. Merrily accompanying her from the orchestra is Maestro Harry Bicket (obviously from his pace setting... another rock music lover in disguise as a classical conductor!)!

La casa nueva de Kasarova

Vesselina Kasarova's official website finally came back online with a completely new (and much improved) look this morning, thanks to much labor of love by her husband, Roger Kaufmann, and their friend Thomas.


Check it out. Her performance schedule makes me want to move to the more cultured continent (Europe)! The distinctly fascinating Bulgarian-Swiss mezzo is now in Madrid for Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri at Teatro Real which will be broadcast on Radio Clásica on November 10th. You haven't heard a truly feisty Isabella until you've heard Kasarova sing Pensa alla patria!

What doeth thou, Waltraud Meier?

Waltraud Meier, the German dramatic mezzo-soprano, is another combustible operatic fire hazard I find nearly impossible to ignore when she is on the stage.


To tell the truth, she is rather hard to label nowadays... What other mezzo today can sing Elisabeth (in Tannhaeuser) or Isolde like she can? This clip is from the DVD documentary of her called Waltraud Meier: Ich folge dem innern Triebe (I Follow A Voice Within Me). The title is taken from one of Mahler's Lieder... which probably fits her well. It also reminds me of what another favorite mezzo of mine, Vesselina Kasarova, likes to say - ich folge meinem Intuition (I follow my intuition). Hmmmph! Maybe that's why these gals are splendidly expressive artists while I'm a stiff nerd (my instinct sucks... and that's an understatement).

At any rate, upon watching this DVD I was persuaded to give my DVDs of Wagner's Lohengrin another try (have 3 of them, but sadly none has Meier as Ortrud... which means that a shopping trip is in order). I had already reviewed the Met DVD with Peter Hoffmann and Eva Marton as Lohengrin and Elsa (with the great Leonie Rysanek as Ortrud)... Somehow didn't like it that much. Last night I had a go at another DVD from the Bayreuth Festival with Hoffmann again as Lohengrin (in much better vocal shape there), Karan Armstrong as Elsa, and Elizabeth Connell as Ortrud.

Armstrong's husband, Goetz Friedrich, directed the show and it shows! It's a much more gripping story telling with good use of light and the Bayreuth stage. Somehow I'm not all that sold on Armstrong as Elsa (though I was quite impressed with her wide shoulders)... Elizabeth Connell... she doesn't look like an Ortrud, nor does she sound like one, but man, that lass can really act! She's this small little gal with a sweet voice that exudes meanness that makes your skin crawls. If she physically resembles her stage presence, she'd be something like 8 foot tall.

Anyhow... as much as I liked last night's viewing, the 3rd Lohengrin DVD will have to wait a while before getting on my 'at bat' tray. This weekend is reserved for a bel canto revival at yours truly.

The 4th week of June 2009

It seems that the sky was darker than usual on Thursday (June 25th) night. The twinkly firmament was missing 2 very high-wattage stars; Farrah Fawcett (1947 - 2009) and Michael Jackson (1958 - 2009)


Being decidedly unhip when it comes to the Hollywood scene, I don't know much about Farrah Fawcett except that my dad liked watching Charlie's Angels way too much for my mom's liking when she was starring in it and that she had fought a very public battle with cancer this past year. I know a bit more about Michael Jackson, though. He was the biggest thing on the pop music scene when I hit the records-buying age... though I only bought one of his albums (my taste was more toward the music of Simon & Garfunkel and Billy Joel back then). It was quite fascinating seeing the difference in various people's reaction to the two deaths...

The thing that struck me about Mr. Jackson's life and death is actually how similar his story was to that of Maria Callas, the late great Greek-American soprano. I had just finished reading Arianna Stassinopoulos (Huffington, as it turned out)'s biography of Callas a few weeks ago. She was also a supremely talented artist who revolutionized her art form and whose personality transcended her medium... Even today, when you ask a non opera fan to name a few famous opera singers, chances are good that her name will pop up before any of today's brightest opera stars (perhaps with the exception of Anna Netrebko)... even though she's been dead since 1977. Callas also suffered from her fame and didn't communicate well when she was off the stage, and passed away feeling more alone and unappreciated than she really was.
Before I read Stassinopoulos (Huffington)'s book, I had also read a few other opera singers' memoir that mention La Divina. Eileen Farrell met her while dining in London and was struck by how disproportional Callas' appreciation was of Farrell's simple gesture of stopping at her table to introduce herself. Regine Crespin airs her regret at not having reached out to the down-trodden diva before she died. Considering the last years of Callas and Jackson and one can't help feeling at least a little appalled at the tragedy of how someone can rise so high only to suffer so much at the end.... Even though both were living quite well by normal people's standard.

Perhaps Jackson would have been a little comforted had he read about what happened to Callas after her demise. It is quite amazing how sanctifying death can do for you... While contemporary critics were full of criticism for her unorthodox voice and way of singing, posthumously her singing is now nearly universally considered to be beyond reproach. Everyone feels for her for being dumped by the 'cad' Aristotle Onassis in favor of Jacqueline Kennedy, though nobody talks about how Callas' affair with Onassis had caused his then wife, Tina, to end their marriage. So.... perhaps a few years from now Michael Jackson's image will be similarly fully rehabilitated the way Callas' was. It's a shame that he wouldn't be around to enjoy it.

There are already posts going up all over the place properly mourning Fawcett and Jackson... so I'll go the other way and spend the weekend appreciating the still living great talents who have made it big without losing their sense of self and place in the world instead. It is not easy to stay in touch with what 'normal' is when one has made it to the top of the mountain only to find that one dislikes the exposure of having nowhere to hide from others' line of sight. Kudos to those who are successful without losing touch with their humanity... and also to those around them, the family and friends, who enable that to happen (we often lavish praise and sympathy on our celebrated idols while neglecting those who actually have to live with them... I'm sure the 'supporting cast' aren't having it any easier than the stars are either). Better show my appreciation for them while they are still around to see it than the other way around... I figure.


(these clips were posted on Youtube by Parsifalito)
And so... my first swig of Crush's finest orange soda of the weekend goes to the comforting knowledge that for every 'tragedy' of Maria Callas or Michael Jackson, there are the well-grounded Birgit Nilsson, Astrid Varnay, Leonie Rysanek, Teresa Stratas, Edita Gruberova, Natalie Dessay, Renee Fleming, Marilyn Horne, Vesselina Kasarova, Joyce DiDonato, Patricia Racette, et.al.; that it is entirely very possible to master the flame without being consumed by it...

Hey Susan Boyle -Stay the way you are ONLY if you want to

I admit that I'm not a fan of reality tv shows. Aside from 3 or 4 episodes of 'The Mole' many years ago, I've never been able to even watch an entire episode of any of the reality/talent-search shows I've tried over the years. Frankly, I don't find them all that interesting.

That said, I am very grateful to a friend who forwarded me a link to a youtube clip of the episode of Britain's Got Talent that is gathering millions of hits.

It, of course, is this show when frumpy and not-quite-young-anymore Susan Boyle walks confidently up on the stage, faces down a largely credulous audience, and delivers a piece of singing that blows everyone away.... against all odds. And, watching it, I am as inspired as everyone else and might just be more willing to give the reality talent-search tv shows more watching attempts for it.

Now, however, I'm hearing things said about this episode that I find rather bothering - especially since I've heard this sort of things before. Over and over again.

No, it isn't even the nitpicking by-the-minute updates on what Susan Boyle had done to herself since then. There are many more significant and newsworthy things I'd like to hear about than whether Susan Boyle had been corrupted by the instant fame because she had dyed her hair and bought a new leather jacket. It's the 'she should stay exactly as she is and refuse (or not be allowed) any make-over to make her look better' because 'her frumpiness is what we loved her for in the first place.'

To which, I say - Susan, darling, screw them! It's your life. Stay the way you are ONLY if that is what you want and what you are content with.... NOT because that's what society would like to condescendingly product-package you as now. It is just as unfair to expect young lasses to look like bulimic models to have a career in performance arts as it is to expect someone to remain homely against her will - all just so that some people can continue to project their own visions/wishes onto another person to force them to play a role (as an inspirational idol or whatever) that they hadn't sign up for in the first place.

Susan Boyle. You clearly stated that your dream is to be a professional singer. And you have proven that you have the voice and musicality for it. If you show up looking nice and singing well on the next round and are then criticized for being a human being who has a mind and wants about her own appearance rather than a permanently stunted sheep forever stuck in a box labeled 'the unattractive underdog' so that people can keep gratify their righteous selves by cheerfully pitying, then we'll find out just exactly what the 'Boyle Mania' is all about, now, won't we?

It won't take anything away from your singing ability.... It'll just weed out those who really cheer for you for your art and because they respect you as an individual from those who are just looking to have an 'underdog of the day' ad infinitum to cheer for simply because they want to keep being distracted away from having to turn that moral/ethical/whatever spotlight onto themselves for once.