Good evening, Father Strauss! Good morning to you, Strauss Junior!

I love reading composers' biographies! They are always so interesting. I'm reading Hans Fantel's The Waltz Kings and it is so intriguing/entertaining.

Johann Strauss I was an interesting guy. Very interesting. He had an equally interesting life. He was:

1. Locked up as a child by his master bookbinder. The bookbinder's wife felt bad and let him out. He ran away with his violin and fended for himself until a musician found him and took him under his wing.

2. Abducted (with his thirty-piece orchestra) by the Czar of Russia. The Czar made him give a concert. He did apologize afterward.

3. Father of ten children, the first of which was Johann Strauss II. He forbade Johann II to learn music. Johann II was to be Johann I's greatest rival.

4. Very sick on a long coach-ride back to Vienna. He miraculous survived the long trip, but just as they were in sight of Vienna, the horses spooked and the carriage smashed against a tree. Strauss emerged uninjured. Once in Vienna, he recovered (much to the chagrin of the newspaper writers; how anticlimactic!).

And so many more crazy things happened. I have just started reading about Johann Strauss, Jr, the composer of (among many other famous things) Die Fledermaus. He was an intense guy, much like his father. It's so interesting to watch families and what gets passed down from parent to child. Both Johann Strausses were extremely ambitious, determined, and musical. I'm looking forward to learning about the younger of the two.

Chacun à son goût

I have officially been cast as Prince Orlofsky! YAY!

Excuse me while I go brush up on my Russian...

Chopin & George Sand in Majorca

One of the great ironies of the world is Chopin’s trip with George Sand to Majorca. I’m surprised he would go at all. But that is beside the point.

The funniest thing of all is this: while they (Chopin, George Sand, and her two children) were in Cartuja, they stayed in a monastery. The place had been inhabited by monks just a few years before but the government had driven them out and repossessed the land for their own use. Now foreigners took up residence in the monk’s cells. What a strange place for Chopin and George Sand to stay!

I’ll be honest: I really don’t understand their relationship (yet). It is so utterly complex and the facts are muddled and cloudy; I can’t seem to get a clear fix on what actually went on. This relationship has obviously intrigued others; there are a great many books written on the subject and during the course of every thing written on Chopin, George Sand is brought up. And vice versa. They are both “famous” in their own respects. I suppose it is a curiosity that two celebrities (of two different worlds) would have had an affair, but the interest in this relationship seems to extend past that. I can’t put my finger on it. Not yet. This is one of my summer projects: figure out the Chopin/George Sand relationship.

Meanwhile, I’m excited to listen to the music that Chopin wrote while residing here. Majorca is so exotic— so singular a place. I cannot wait to hear what sort of music it inspired. More to come.

Opera Chatter

My friend George had a great idea to start a group on Facebook that discusses opera. We pick a different opera every week (or whatever), everyone listens to it, and then we discuss. It's a great way to learn operas fast and see what other people think. Discussing will help us all remember. Besides, we have some heavy-hitting opera buffs in the group, so it should prove interesting.

Check us out if this interests you.

Le nozze di Figaro is up right now. Come over and start the opera chatter!

DONE!

My semester is finally OVER.

I just printed out my honors project. It's getting bound tomorrow, I'm handing it in, and then I'm officially officially DONE.

I made it. Shocking.

Don't Dream It's Over

I just finished my semester-long Mozart project. YESSS!! What fun it was! And I learned so much... It's pretty much the best thing I did for school ever. And I think that's because I forgot it was for school. :)

I was so happy and relieved and sad (!) when I finished that I just sat there staring at the last line and there were tears in my eyes. Tears! I don't know where they came from. I swear, I have no idea. I didn't know how much this project meant/means to me. I guess that's what happens when you work on something for so long and then it's over. (Well, okay, there's still a lot of revising to be done, but the writing of it is done.) I spent so much time and thought-space and daydreaming on this. I can't help but feel attached to it.

And it's Mozart after all. I feel attached to anything connected to him. I don't know why; I just do.

Three days, three finals, and two juries to get through. I can make it! I will survive!

I don't want to rush it. Once this week is over, half of my friends are going home and I won't see them for another 4 months. :( Thankfully not all of my friends live far away. Still, I'm going to miss the heck out of some of them. Roadtrip!

So next year's opera is officially Die Fledermaus (in English). Auditions are the first week in the fall semester. I'm excited! This is going to be a fun show.

Update

Opera scenes went relatively well. I had fun.

And for those who care, I got to watch about 40 minutes of the MetPlayer over the weekend. I watched 10 minutes of Falstaff (Susan Graham is so mischievous and Barbara Bonney is so aggressive!) which was uber-entertaining and about 30 minutes of Damnation of Faust. The Faust was cool but immensely slow-moving. I don't think I would have enjoyed sitting through that entire thing (unless, maybe, if I knew the music better...). Nevertheless, the singers rocked! Susan Graham was so amazing (and playing a girl!). They were all so fantastic and I would have liked to listen to more of it but that was all the time I could spare!

I had a productive lesson with Tammy yesterday and my jury/petition is Monday! Ahhh! My rehearsal is Friday. I need sleep and practice before then! We'll see what happens...

It's the music awards dinner tonight and I'm really excited. It's going to be so much fun! I definitely need the chill time. It's the best way to spend my few hours of nonwork. :)

Cherubino Comes Out To Play

Tomorrow is opera scenes and I'm really excited. And a little nervous. I've done so much work on my scene and it has had magical moments. I just really want my performance to be just as good as my rehearsals. That's the biggest thing making me nervous right now.

Second -- there's going to be some important people watching. Tammy will be there and Donna (another voice teacher in the school who's influential in the opera casting) and Dr. Ramael. In a way, this is my audition for next year's opera. I'm not going to have a formal audition (since I'm already "in the troupe") so this is it. That makes me a little nervous, too.

Third -- Mummigans and my little sister will be attending. I'm nervous to know what they'll think of what I've done with the scene. Mom heard me singing the aria Saturday and she commented on how comfortable I was with it. I do feel really comfortable with it. It's so nice to have gotten to this new level where the music is a part of me and I don't even have to think about it.

However, that raises another question. When I'm singing and not thinking about technique, am I doing things right? Is Tammy going to be happy with it? I have a lesson right before the performance. What if she gives me some huge change to deal with? Worst comes to worst, I'll probably just ignore it. :) I'm so bad.

No matter what, I just want to have fun. The thing that we've created is, at its core, a game. I've had fun rehearsing it; I just want to be able to bring that into the performance. I have totally shrugged off self-consciousness. I don't want it to rear its ugly head again.

Ah! There are so many question marks in this entry! I didn't mean for that at all. I have little, nagging questions. It's not so bad as it sounds. I'm not super-nervous at all-- just a little bit. But I think a little bit of nerves usually does one good. It gets the adrenaline pumping. "Adrenaline" and "Cherubino" are almost synonyms so that should work in my favor.

Ok, I have way too much work to do right now. I must be going.

Review: Met's La Cenerentola

La Cenerentola, Rossini

Metropolitan Opera House, May 1st, 2009

Conductor: Maurizio Benini

Angelina: Elina Garanca

Prince Ramiro: Lawrence Brownlee

Don Magnifico: Alessandro Corbelli

Dandini: Simone Alberghini

Alidoro: John Relyea

Production: Cesare Lievi

Summary Ratings (1-5):

Music Performance: 4

Singing: 5

Acting: 5

Production: 3.5

Staging: 3.5

Overall: 4

Let me say: the strongest thing of the night was the singing. Everyone was fantastic! There weren't any disappointments. I was extremely pleased on this account.

Elina Garanca was perfect as always. I loved her take on Cenerentola-- she was so cute and clumsy and unassuming. She was a pleasure to watch and to listen to (but that was expected).

I'd never heard Lawrence Brownlee live. He did not disappoint. His tenor voice is creamy and never strident. Aka worth listening to.

All the other singers were amazing. Of course I've waited too long to review this; I don't remember the nuances. I was just stunned by the fact that everyone was extraordinary. There was not a boring voice in the entire cast.

The production was a little old, but I enjoyed it. The staging was focused, logical, and understandable (something not to be taken for granted these days...). I liked the sparse sets, although I would have liked to see something more in the ball scene.

I think the greatest letdown of the night was Rossini himself. I didn't listen to La Cenerentola before coming. Sure, I knew the important arias/duets/etc, but I had never sat down and listened to the entire thing. Always meant to, but never did. I think I know why I never got through it. The music is boring! For Rossini, this one (musically) is a bit of a letdown. It has its moments of beauty, but on the whole, the music is nothing special. I would never want to listen to it. The staging saves the audience member the boredom of the music (the characters and story are great!) but shame on Rossini. He must have popped this one out on a week's notice or something. Very much non-inspired.

However, it was a great night. The singers and Mr. Benini did a fantastic job with what they had to work with. It was extremely enjoyable and it was very nice to meet Elina Garanca at the stage door.

Angelina

In a few hours, I will be seated in the (somewhat humble) seats of the Family Circle and listening to the gorgeous voice of Ms. Elina Garanca. I am super-psyched about La Cenerentola! I've been looking forward to it for months (aka ever since I bought the tickets last September). I saw her Rosina last season and it was stunning. Lawrence Brownlee should be fantastic as well. I've never heard him live, but I've only heard good things about him.

So I'm geeking out over Elina. There's nothing else to say about it; there are only noises. I'll give a full report when I return (although you might have to wait for it--I'm SWAMPED with work right now. I might not be able to watch my free opera on MetPlayer this weekend! It's that bad...).