Welcome! The latest passion in my life is opera - I will be sharing a lot of my amazing journey of discovery of the opera world right here, I make no claims of any great knowledge of opera-no high-tech appraisals here, plenty to be found elsewhere- I simply share what I enjoy-this is really just my online scrapbook of my mainly opera memories (some art and music too) and if you happen to drop by I'd love to share them with you.
It may appear that I have been doing little over the summer but the opposite is strangely true. Feet seemed to hardly touch the ground so have had very little time to collect my thoughts and blog.
What an amazing summer that was, too many distractions, starting early on with the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, The BBC Proms, The Olympics and Paralympics have all taken up a considerable amount of time but now I wish to catch up writing about the many memorable experiences of this glorious summer before we get too far into the new opera/concert season ahead, so many beautiful things I wish to capture and share the memories so will be attempting to do so over the coming weeks starting with the unforgettable recital at Wigmore Hall London with the awesome Joyce DiDonato/David Zobel! http://annez-reflectionz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/joyce-didonato-wigmore-hall-london.html
When my very favourite singer is appearing in London, Wigmore Hall no less, don't I just have to be there!!!
So unbelievably excited to be getting the chance to hear Joyce sing in this amazing setting, and so lucky to have managed to get a ticket! As Joyce appears on stage, all smiles, with her lovely accompanist on piano, David Zobel, I know we are in for an amazing recital as she is to take us with her on a tour of Venice in song.
A lovely quip in response to the applause that greets her on stage "You're all just excited cos Andy Murray won" Andy Murray did win his match at Wimbledon today-but no Joyce, we're all so very excited in the expectation of what lies ahead. BBC Radio 3 microphones are here too so it's great to know so many others who cannot be here get to enjoy this recital as well, I am sure many of her devoted fans from around the globe will be listening in.
Joyce opens the recital with two lovely arias by the Venetian Vivaldi from Ercole sul Termodonte, beautifully sung and then immediately, having already captured her audience with those Vivaldi arias, leads us right on with Cinq Melodies de Venise by Faure, perhaps more sentiments - and beautiful, soulful sentiments they are, of love and rapture - of Venice and what it should be, but painting a beautiful mood setting for our eventual arrival in that great city. We cannot doubt now that we have arrived at our destination as Joyce, our tour leader, takes us into Rossini and all the sights and sounds of La Regata Veneziana as we are taken along with Anzoleta as she cheers on her lover Momolo in his gondola race, Joyce's wonderful, humourous character portrayal of this young girl, her singing is just sublime as she delivers these three songs we are right there beside the overly-excited Anzoleta. As rapturous applause rings out, ugh, what, we have to have an interval now, OK if we muuuuuuuuuuuuust, LOL!!
We resume on a more sombre but still delightful note starting, with Schubert's Gondelfahrer (Gondolier) followed by Two Lieder, Venetian airs of Schumann from Myrten to further transport us into the romance that is Venice. I don't want this to end I am so deeply immersed. Joyce moves on now to Three Songs of Venice by Michael Head and then Five Songs from Venezia by Reynaldo Hahn, these are truly beautiful as they speak of love and laughter, along with the torment of a (so-called one suspects) love now faded in What A Shame!, and the last song Spring "just one more month and the nightingale's song will pour it's honey on my soul" - just WOW!! So stunningly beautiful, I'm reduced to tears-all is good! What a wonderful recital, such an incredible program and thankfully all is not quite over yet as more rapturous applause brings back Joyce and David to the stage for encores.
I leave Wigmore Hall on Cloud 9 - at least, my feet, did they touch the ground, I think not, not for days and days after as I re-lived this amazing shared experience that is Joyce and the warmth with which she enfolds her audience and takes them happily, joyfully with her! Come back to Wigmore Hall soon please Joyce, and thank you for all the tears and laughter and the total warmth and joy you bring to your audience!!!
Am now looking forward very, very excitedly to the release of Joyce's album Drama Queens, I just know this will be stunning-take a look at this, if this isn't enough to get excited about I don't know what is!!
Also excited that Joyce will be performing from this album at The Barbican, London next February - not to be missed!!
A little way prior to the Barbican recital, in January 2013 Joyce is appearing at The Metropolitan Opera in Maria Stuarda in the title role, here's a small taste of her performing Maria Stuarda at Houston Grand Opera earlier this year - WOW!
Joyce will also be appearing at The Royal Opera House May/June 2013 in Rossini's La Donna del Lago, I am so very excited about this as I know she will be amazing!!! Here's a little scrumptious taste of what to expect.
John Dee Paul Hilton
Katherine Dee Anna Dennis
Kelley Christopher Robson
Walsingham Steven Page
Elizabeth Melanie Pappenheim
Young Dee Rebecca Sutherland
Young Katherine Victoria Couper
Jane Clemmie Sveaas
(OK, I'm very late, breathlessly trying to catch up - too many distractions going on but this was too good to forget!!!)
Seems like almost a lifetime ago I booked my ticket for Dr Dee having been seriously kicking myself that I missed out on Damon Albarn's first venture into opera with Monkey: Journey to The West, I was not going to miss another opportunity in this collaboration with Rufus Norris producing. I was not alone, a Gorillaz fan I found myself sitting beside an equally excited Blur fan who had purchased his ticket around same time as me, comparing notes at interval and at the end we both went away well impressed with what we had seen and wanting more.
A bit of background here with Damon Albarn and others collaborating in the production talking around the time of the 2011 opening
Having never heard of John Dee until the opera first emerged as part of Manchester's 2011 Festival I was fascinated by what I was hearing about this amazing man, an alchemist, who lived at the time of Queen Elizabeth I and was held in high regard by Elizabeth herself.
We start with a raven, flying out from one of the unoccupied boxes on to the stage above the on-stage musicians - the orchestra itself being seated in the usual orchestra pit. Now I must describe the area in which these on-stage musicians occupy, in short it looks something like a wooden veranda that has become detached from a house, a stage within stage, the musicians sitting inside, to the left hand side there are a few steps that descend to the stage, here sits Damon Albarn with his guitar-the raven lands on the roof. At present this stage within a stage is occupying the full lower third of the stage. The music begins and Damon Albarn sings the first song of the opera, Apple Carts which has a haunting folk-like quality to it.
As he sings various characters, one at a time begin to walk on from stage left atop this veranda. Firstly a punk rocker with bright pink hair, followed by a city gent, then cricketer W G Grace, a suffragette .... aha, we are going back in time with Nelson, Charles I, this is England, our England. As each of the characters walks across the roof of this 'veranda', they walk to the back, position themselves facing forward each in turn then leans back and plunges off the back of the stage as the next character then appears - great hilarity all round at this! After the last character has gone off the back the veranda itself starts to slowly rise above the stage and from beneath appears a dying, elderly John Dee in his sick bed which is pushed by his loving daughter Katherine who perambulates around the stage with her father's deathbed - we then go a bit further back in time as from underneath this bed a short while after we see emerge a young John Dee as the older Dee and his daughter leave the stage.
The young Dee (Rebecca Sutherland) hungry for knowledge
Books, the theme now is books as we start to now move forward in time as the young Dee is surrounded by books of ever-increasing size as he grows up - the books take on almost the style of Elizabethan ruff collars and to my mind are portraying the young Dee thirst for knowledge and learning, moving forward through time now we see Dee was growing up with, through his father's association, close links to the court of Queen Elizabeth. The books increase in size as Dee grows older, actors, one at each end rush across the stage with the very largest man-size books, all the time Dee is ensconced in reading and learning, oh yes we see John Dee is very hungry for knowledge.
Now at the court Dee he is consulted by the Queen's secretary, Walsingham to discern a fitting and auspicious date for the Queen's coronation, consulting the stars a date is set and Dee also finds himself a wife, Jane. Into his life also comes the mysterious Kelley (a countertenor, woweeee, I've been developing a thing for coutertenors these last few months!).
A fabulous part of the visuals for this production are the video projections we see, as pictured here below - characters and symbols display on screen - when depicting the strange project Dee and Kelley set themselves to discover the language of angels, Enochian, consorting with both angels and maybe demons too in their somewhat dubious quest - charlatans I would dub the both of them, or Dee duped by Kelley - eh - which? Must do more reading/investigating of Dee's life, appetite well and truly whetted by this venture. This wonderful opera - yes I found it rather wonderful, or wondrous even, magical, mystical - is a great way to tell a story of a fascinating character in our history, here is Damon Albarn saying, hey take a look at this guy, setting it to music-wonderful range of musical styles - and song, the singing of the characters and Damon Albarn himself as he sets the scene of England at the time and narrates the story as we go, combined with the previously mentioned video projections all combine to create an immensely moving portrayal of John Dee.
Video display for the scene in which Dee and Kelley attempt to discover the language of angels
Duped he must have been to some degree by Kelley as he convinces Dee that an angel has told him he must be allowed to share Dee's wife - mega duped I would say! From rising star at the court we share in many of the highs and lows of Dee's life as he becomes ostracised by the mighty and powerful of the day we return to where we found him at the start, dying, as the veranda lowers back to the stage and Damon Albarn steps onto the stage at Dee's death.
I enjoyed this immensely for what was produced, a delightful production - no sense in stopping to linger on what it could or should have been, I was thoroughly entertained and entranced by what I saw and am now hoping that further opportunities to re-visit this will present themselves in the future, I would definitely go see it again but with the busy butterfly-like life Damon Albarn leads I think he will perhaps wish to move on from Dee and it would not be the same without him, although I do hope that he will make a return to the world of opera at some point in the future and am sure he will have something else just as fascinating for us.
Anthony Roth Costanzo - First Prize Men's Operalia
Congratulations Anthony Roth Costanzo
Just wanted to record (OK jump up and down with excitement) the news from Beijing that American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo is a winner in the men's competition. I was delighted to hear that he had reached the finals having seen him earlier this year for the first time in The Metropolitan Opera's The Enchanted Island Live in HD (reviewed here http://annez-reflectionz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/enchanted-island-met-opera-live-in-hd.html ) broadcast, singing the part of Ferdinand. I was at the time developing a real "thing" for the countertenor voice - am now a fully-fledged countertenor fan - so am truly over the moon now to see a countertenor walking away with first prize at this competition. Anthony shares the award with Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin, each gaining the same number of points from the judges. American tenor Brian Jagde also put in a very impressive performance as did Chinese baritone YunpengWang and both shared second place in the men's competition.
Video clip showing Anthony singing "Stille amare" from Handel's opera Tolomeo in the competition final - no wonder the judges could not resist him!
I would also like to give a shout to American soprano Janai Brugger took first place the ladies part in this competition, well-deserved, I loved her performance.
A huge oversight on my part must now be rectified if only in a small way before the opportunity slips away completely .... it was only last month wasn't it.
Am hugely indebted to the winner of this competition, Laura van der Heijden, who was a well-deserved winner. I am no musician, nor am I hugely knowledgable on the subject of classical music but simply someone who is in the very early stages of gaining an appreciation for this music form having listened to rock and pop all of my life. It is thanks to Laura and her passion for the piece she performed, Walton's Cello Concerto that has brought this lovely piece of music to my notice and I have to add that I simply adored watching her performance, she was beautifully poised and to me it sounded wonderful, though of course I am in no way qualified to comment on her technical ability although I am sure she now has an amazing career ahead of her.
Laura playing Walton's Cello Concerto in the final. Enjoy!
My very first live La Boheme - YES!!! At last, it seems like forever I have been awaiting this opportunity and I can confirm that on this occasion it seems the Opera gods have conspired to fulfil my dreams for a beautiful experience as I follow the tweets on twitter and the posts/pictures on Facebook from Royal Opera House and La Boheme stars Joseph Calleja and Carmen Giannattasio during rehearsals it appears as if something magical and spellbinding it about to emerge, the obvious mutual respect, admiration and cameraderie of singers taking part and director John Copley, that I have witnessed in the build-up fills me with delight. What a glorious team!
The build-up has been agonizing as I am getting so excited, but seriously lovely to follow and my excitement has almost reached fever pitch as I head off to London for my chance to see this beautiful Puccini opera played out at The Royal Opera House. As I take my seat in the Amphitheatre the place seems to be buzzing with excited chatter.
Act I begins and we find the four young men trying to keep warm whilst trying to avoid the pressure from the landlord to produce the rent money, some lovely humour and general camaraderie with lovely genuinely nice vibes of singers obviously very comfortable with each other. All in good voice but I sit there stunned on hearing Joseph Calleja - our Rodolfo - sing live for the very first time. Having seen a couple of operas on TV in which he appeared I must confess I was not prepared for what I now heard - what an amazing voice! So rich, so warm, so, so beautiful, it filled the Opera House and could easily have filled a theatre twice the size, seemingly with little effort it was my best experience thus far of a live in-house opera for this voice alone-Joseph, I am in awe. Am also incredibly impressed with our Marcello/Fabio Capitanucci, always thrilled to see genuinely great singers whose live performance is new to me. As we move on and his Mimi (the lovely Carmen Giannattasio) appears - an extinguished candle, a lost key - I am truly transported to Opera heaven as I witness the very special chemistry between them and have to add that I just adore Carmen's beautiful soprano voice - definitely my kind of soprano, soft-sounding but at the same time rich and full-voiced, adoring her voice which fully reaches me up in the amphitheatre.
As each delivers their Act I arias, Che Gelida Manina/Rodolfo and Si, mia chiamano Mimi/Mimi, I cannot imagine a more fabulous pairing, my heartstrings feel a massive tug as Rodolfo, in the duet 'O soave fanciulla', sings "In you I see the dream I want to dream forever" - gulp - what girl could resist - it is a breathtakingly beautiful through to the end of the scene and I cannot suppress the tears that prick my eyes as the incredible music fades and the curtain falls I almost have to pinch myself to convince myself I am not dreaming. Our pair have met, introduced themselves and fallen in love and my breath has been well and truly taken away already, WOW!
Must just mention how touching it was during Act II as everything goes on around them, including Musetta's famous aria, how our Mimi and Rodolfo maintain their fond caresses and tender, loving looks with each other, think I may have said it before but it is truly magical. OK, so I confess now this is not my most favourite Act in this opera - bit too crowded, so shall swiftly move on.
Skipping on a pace as I fear I must to Act III we find Mimi seeking out Rodolfo and Marcello listens in turn to first Mimi who tells him of Rodolfo deserting her the night before and then as Mimi seemingly departs a fearful Rofolfo, who has realised his beloved Mimi is very ill and probably dying, confesses to Marcello that he is distraught at this and the prospect of losing her, and even more so as he sees that Mimi is still around and has heard his confession to Marcello. The next part moved me the most in the whole opera, as the snow falls and Mimi and Rodolfo sing of their lost love being too strong for them to part straight away, they must wait until the springtime, for the blossom to appear on the trees - again this is so moving and so beautiful, the combination of again the beautiful singing and chemistry between Joseph and Carmen, the mesmerising duet, the very moving words and incredible music of Puccini combine to produce such an emotion-filled scene which at the close I know I am not alone as the tears fall. Gulp, this is incredible, more that I could ever have dreamed of and we are not done yet. How lucky am I!
Act IV, the sad finale as Musetta arrives in the bohemians garret with the news she has found Mimi, now very sick, on the street and has brought her to the garret. The air of sadness is almost overwhelming as Marcello and Musetta leave to sell Musetta's earrings to buy medicine for Mimi and find a doctor, but then I cannot help but smile some and yet be incredibly moved as Colline/Yuri Vorobiev sings a beautiful aria, beautifully 'Vecchia zimara' (Old coat), to his favourite coat he intends to part with and will miss, hoping to get money in which to help Mimi, as he leaves he bids Schaunard/Thomas Oliemans to leave also in order to give Mimi and Rodolfo time on their own. The beautfiul duet, Sonno andati (Have they gone) in which the pair lovingly recall their first meeting - the candle, the lost key - it is achingly beautiful, again Joseph and Carmen's voices mingle amidst more of their tender chemistry. All too soon the others return, Musetta with a muff for Mimi's hands but the tragic conclusion plays out with Mimi falling into unconsciousness and dying as a stricken Rodolfo cries out in anguish.
So many different ingredients combine in this beautiful John Copley production, the music, the singers, the acting a very special pinch of magic, I just felt that all these elements and the cast themselves all pulling in one direction for the ultimate goal of perfection which was undoubtedly achieved-this experience will remain in my memory and my heart forever, I feel very privileged to have witnessed something so very special, so magical; I wanted my first live Boheme to be something dreamy and magical and
this was it and some, not a grain of fairy dust was needed as every
single ingredient that went into the mix produced more than enough magic
to keep me spellbound long, long after the music finished and the
lights dimmed I can't imagine there will be anything now to take it's place on this stage and in my heart...... sigh ...
footnote: as always with my visits to the opera I have yet more fabulous singers to add to the ever-growing list of artistes I love and wish to follow, so much wonderful talent out there
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