Opera Suggestions

[kwanfan1818]

Patti Smiths Top Five Operas

Scroll for the video.

I'm sure that many people who ask G-d why they have to suffer are as delusional as Tosca.

[reckless]

I woke up at 5 a.m. to watch the live-stream of the Operalia competition from Beijing. American soprano Janai Brugger swept all the women's awards -- opera, zarzuela, and the audience award. The men's awards were heavily divided, with first and second place in the opera category ties. Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin and American counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo shared the top prize in the opera repertoire.

Brugger is amazing. She won the Met competition earlier in the year and I saw her a few weeks ago as Musetta in La Boheme, where she absolutely stole the show. She has a tremendous future.

Amartuvshin has an incredible voice. I think he needs to work a little more at conveying the emotion of a piece, but I'm still very surprised by the tie.

It's available for rewatching here

[SaSherka]

reckless, 5 a.m. wow! I only watched the live awards as I couldn't wake up to watch the final live. I only heard Costanzo live twice before, so I am really excited he won (will watch the broadcast later). I hope to catch that LA Opera's La Boheme radio broadcast with Janai on June 23 (will post the link later). Curious to see where she goes after LA Opera young artist program.

[reckless]

I'll admit that I had not planned on waking that early. I just happened to wake up and remembered that it was streaming. On a side note, I laughed yesterday when your congratulatory tweet showed up in my twitter stream.

I'm also very interested in seeing where Janai Brugger goes from here. There are only a few young actors and singers that I've seen who have made me really think "this person will be a huge success." After seeing her Musetta, I was left with that impression of Janai. We will definitely miss her in LA.

[SaSherka]

On a side note, I laughed yesterday when your congratulatory tweet showed up in my twitter stream.

Busted! Haha! Twitter works in mysterious ways!
I watched almost the whole broadcast and In addition to top winners, I liked the Russian mezzos.

[kwanfan1818]

From Operavore

Sage Advice

[kwanfan1818]

I was in San Francisco this weekend, and I heard Ferruccio Furlanetto as Atilla. That he was great was no surprise, but a lot of people were surprised by Quinn Kelsey, the Ezio. I wasn't, because he was a Amonasro in Vancouver Opera's "Aida" a couple of months ago, but I still don't know why he's not more well known.

The big surprise for me was "The Magic Flute." I only went to hear Alek Shrader, the tenor who sang "A mes amis" in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions, which was part of the documentary "The Audition" -- I wanted to hear what he sounded like live, from the back row. (Lovely voice.)

OperaVision = In the Balcony, for a subset of performances per opera, they drop two screens from the ceiling and show the opera through cameras. It's like watching a Met HD, albeit on a smaller screen, but hearing it live, the best of both worlds plus you still can always watch the stage. Plus the camera caught the entrance of the conductor, Rory Macdonald. (Without OV, from the Balcony he looks like an ant, if you can see him at all.) For this opera, it was always better to keep watching the stage, because of the way the projections blended into each other.

The Queen of the Night, Albina Shagimuratova, was the vocal star, but the best part of the opera were the sets and costumes by painter/sculptor Jun Kaneko, and realized by two video artists. The video gives a better sense of the singers, but the photos give a better sense of the production.

The good news is that it's a co-production with four other companies, and two will present it next season:

Opera Carolina (January 19, 24, 27 2013) -- Belk Theater
Opera Omaha (February 22, 24 2013) -- Orpheum Theater

I can't find when Washington National Opera (Kennedy Center) and Lyric Opera of Kansas City plan to show it, but it's worth seeing when they do. It doesn't matter who sings it.

[emason]

Thanks for the report. I've made it to Chicago for the opera. Next on my wish list is San Francisco.

[kwanfan1818]

I'm meeting some friends in Dallas for a weekend of "Moby Dick" and the Bellini "The Capulets and the Montagues" (with Joyce diDonato as Romeo) next fall. (They want to see Ben Heppner as Ahab; I'd rather have waited for Jay Hunter Morris.)

The SFO season is broken in two: the longer fall season with five-six operas, and then the shorter June-July with three after the SF Ballet season. Their summer clashes with the NY ballet season, and I would avoid the opera on Pride weekend: I wouldn't do it again if Melchior, Leider, and Schorr rose from the dead to sing The Ring.

I'm considering flying into Oakland: last Friday, due to fog SFO was down to one runway, and my 3:15pm flight took off well after we were supposed to have landed, and I missed "Nixon in China."

[kwanfan1818]

Can't believe I missed this:

http://barihunks.blogspot.ca/2012/06...s-sexiest.html

[emason]

Well, you just made my day.

[kwanfan1818]

Luca Pisaroni just posted a picture of his young self with Luciano Pavarotti to his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...5683966&type=1

Pisaroni used to sing to Pavarotti albums, wanting to be a tenor, but then puberty happened.

[SaSherka]

I am going to Bel Canto at Caramoor for the first time. This Saturday is Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia with Ewa Podleś and then possibly Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in 2 weeks. http://www.caramoor.org/festival/opera
I drove an extra mile to get a CD from my library network and then found the whole thing on Spotify... Already heard Rossini borrowing pieces from himself...

[kwanfan1818]

Reports, we want reports! (I've never been to Caramoor.)

The weekend "Einstein at the Beach" is playing in Berkeley, there are no performances of The Montagues and the Capulets at San Francisco Opera, i.e., no JDD

(Lohengrin, Schloengrin...)

[SaSherka]

Oh, right, reports...
Here you go
NY Times
WSJ
Detailed blog post from OperaTeen

I went to hear Ms. Podleś as I was impressed hearing her in Rossini's Tancredi at Opera Boston almost 3 years ago, but I was also very impressed with the tenor, Michael Spyres! He almost stole the show with his "mad" aria. Caramoor felt like a mini-version of Tanglewood, scenery-wise, but I also really liked the pre-opera programming, with 2 concerts by Caramoor's young artists as well as an insightful lecture.

I chose to skip I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Aldrich & Gutierrez this past weekend, as Caramoor isn't as easy to get to for a day.

PS, kwanfan, what do you mean no JDD at SFO? The performances are in the Fall and she's still on the cast list??

[emason]

OK, opera fans, Met tickets are on sale. I am going to:

Les Troyens Monday 12/17
Parsifal on Feb. 27
Francesca da Rimini March 12
Giulio Cesare April 30

I'm saving the rest of my budget for some possible HD broadcasts.

Anyone else here going to anything?

[kwanfan1818]

Met tickets go on sale in Canada on 22 August to Met members, but two years ago, our local theater also sold them to SCENE members (the Cineplex affiliate program) in advance, important because for the last few years, all but the first five rows of the live showings have been sold out the day tickets go on sale, and the Encores months in advance. I'm hoping the same is true this year, since the sound system in the Cineplex theater is so much better than at the Park theater (where I can always get a same-day ticket).

I'm planning to try to see all of them except "Elisir d'Amore," which annoys me. I'd skip "Rigoletto," but the production sounds interesting.

[emason]

I'm planning to try to see all of them except "Elisir d'Amore," which annoys me. I'd skip "Rigoletto," but the production sounds interesting.

Rigoletto annoys me. I find Gilda the most useless woman in all of opera and don't want to waste an evening with her.

[SaSherka]

Hello-hello!
Got tickets to Maria Stuarda (1/4), Les Troyens (1/5) and Parsifal (3/2). Will also get Dialogues a bit later and will see about La Clemenza, Francesca, Rigoletto (just for Damrau & Beczala), Giulio Cesare and anything else if schedule allows. Will most likely end up at all HDs one way or another.

PS I am going to JDD's recital at Carnegie Hall and to the dual Fleming/Graham recital in Boston.

[kwanfan1818]

PS I am going to JDD's recital at Carnegie Hall