You Know You're a Mezzo When...

...you can get away with this.

This is the lovely Malena Ernman, mezzo-soprano and European pop sensation. She is to be admired for her versatility, personality, and undivaness. (And did I mention her amazing biceps?) I love a opera singer who can take a picture like that and get away with it.

<3

You can find the Facebook page dedicated to her here. (You will find more flattering pictures there.) If you want to see her in action, check out her La Voix winning performance and an opera aria.

Progression

It's time for random updates on random things. Hurray.

1. My Austria trip is all-go (!), but Ann Murray canceled her master class. EPIC SADNESS. I'm not sad about having to study with someone else (they're all amazing, I'm sure), but I'm pretty bummed about Ms. Murray canceling. I'm sure she had a good reason, but I'm still sad. What can you do? My trip is still going to be amazing. I still have insane palpitations just thinking about it. SALZBURG and VIENNA. There are few words that excite me more than those two.

2. My first post-operation lesson with Tammy went splendidly. Shockingly, the operation did not fix my ten-thousand technical shortcomings. (HAH) Seriously, though: this operation has changed my life. I can breathe a thousand times better, I can smell and I can taste and my life is good. My passagio is significantly stronger (that's the first thing that I noticed and also the first thing that Tammy commented on). So, yay for that. I'm happy. And things are still going to get better because I'm still not 100% recovered. Modern medicine, I love you!

3. I discovered a Puccini opera that I actually really like! Madama Butterfly is tragic yet stunning. The beauty of it overwhelmed me. I love everything about it: the music, the characters, the plot, the setting...everything. Ah, <3 at first listen. Puccini, you have been saved from my I-don't-care list! You go, Puccini!

4. I am in love with Orlofsky. Epically. I cannot get him out of my head! My sister is sick of "Chacun a son gout" already. I'M NOT! I love his music, his attitude, everything. I cannot wait to start rehearsals. (Or to get my dialogue...Isabel, that's a shout-out to you. You have no idea how you make me suffer...) So it seems like I have love-affairs with all the characters I play. I guess it's a good thing they're always boys. :P

So, in short, life is good. Summer is rushing through my veins and I couldn't be happier.

Apparently New Ideas Are Not So New

My mother always hems and haws about modernized operas. They bother me sometimes, but that's another story.

My point is, I always thought we only started modernizing operas recently. As it turns out, this is not true.

I've been reading Angus Heriot's The Castrati in Opera (extremely informational and just as entertaining) and I learned that they "modernized" operas back in the 18th century just like they do today. Dido was careful to pick up her hoop-dress when she dove into her funeral pyre and Julius Caesar wore the most exquisite embroidered stockings. And we can't forget about the ghosts of Shakespeare's stories donning powdered wigs! So this is not such a new idea after all.

I suppose the fact that we're so accustomed to movies affects our view of opera. Films are, on the whole, meticulous about accurately recreating the time period in which they are set. Taking things out of their time-period is a "new" idea to us 21th century people. This is why Titus of Rome in an Italian suit is a strange sight.

I believe there is a conception that taking operas out of their appropriate time-period makes a production "creative" or "new" or "inventive." Quite the contrary. Done correctly, a modernization doesn't add much to an opera. Done incorrectly, a modernization destroys an opera. Overall, I don't see the inherent good of this practice. It is possible to do something "new" and "creative" without taking the work out of its setting.

Perfect example: Anthony Minghella’s Madama Butterfly (Metropolitan Opera, Patricia Racette). No one can say that it wasn't creative and inventive and new. It kept to the time period and yet was something completely different from previous productions. The production was effective and absolutely gorgeous. And it still harkened to modern-style opera with its stark set (as opposed to the lavish sets of the past few decades). My point: you don't have to change the time period in order to create something new!

There are some operas which cannot be removed from their natural setting. Perfect example: Der Rosenkavalier. How can you set that opera anywhere but 18th century Vienna? I cannot begin to explain the consequences of such an action. To make a long argument short: changing the setting would undermine the objective of the plot. It would cease to be Der Rosenkavalier. It would be something new and horrifically inferior to its predecessor.

Ok, so my little rant is over. I'm sorry if anyone's upset.

Jealous Much?

This is jealousy x2!! Josh Groban AND Kiri Te Kanawa! What is this? How did he get so lucky? I guess I could also say "how did she get so lucky" but Kiri's amazing enough to get a picture with anyone she wants.

This picture made my day. :)

New Music

Just bought:

Carla Bruni: Comme si de rien n'était

Vesselina Kasarova: Mozart Arias

BLISS!

Two women with sexy voices and great taste in music. Can't wait to thoroughly engross myself in both albums!

Here's to new music! (and amazon.com!)

The World Knows About Real Music? OMGOSH!

This made my day.









Happy birthday, Stravinsky.

Stuck!

I am such a restless person. I always forget this fact until I'm challenged with it.

I have been stuck on the couch since my surgery on Thursday and it looks like I'm going to be here for at least a few more days. I'm not exaggerating here: I'm even sleeping on the couch because I have to sleep sitting up. Torture!

However, there is a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. This surgery couldn't have come at a better time. I have time to waste. To rest. My Austrian Adventure is yet to come and my concert series is also far enough away for safety. I have time to sit and think and be with myself. All day long. I best make good use of it.

At the suggestion of my good friend, I've purchased one month's worth of MetPlayer. What a great suggestion! Now I am not limited to my own library of opera DVDs. Today I watched Orfeo ed Euridice and Fidelio. Both are definitely in my top-five favorite operas. I'd seen the Orfeo live in January and I'd never seen a production of Fidelio that I really liked until today.

I enjoyed Mark Morris' Orfeo: the overall concept was good and well-delivered. My one complaint about that production is the singers. I'm not a huge fan of any of them. Stephanie Blythe's portrayal did not excite me. Daniele DeNiese's acting doesn't appeal to me and don't get me started about Heidi Grant Murphy (this has been going on for a while). I love watching Mark Morris' dance troupe and the chorus was fantastic. The music, of course, was sublime.

I watched the 2000 Jürgen Flimm production of Fidelio with Karita Mattila as Leonore. I thoroughly enjoyed this production. The singers were fantastic, the staging was good, and the music... Fidelio is definitely one of my favorites. It is so Beethoven. I really liked Mattila's portrayal of Leonore. It was convincing and moving. Granted she is not my absolute favorite singer, but she did a fantastic job with this role. I also enjoyed Jennifer Welch-Babidge's Marzelline. I didn't care much about that character until I saw this production. I felt a whole new life in this character throughout and especially at the end. Almost everyone wins in the end; Marzelline is the only one whose fate is unjust. But I guess that's what a good ending is: bittersweet.

There's another light at the end of the tunnel. When I recover, I'll breathe a million times better than I used to. In fact, because of the extent of my surgery, I'll be breathing better than the average person. How's that? Sounds pretty sweet to me.

Further up and further in! There's so much to look forward to!

It's Real...

The paperwork came in the mail yesterday. I'm all registered for my master class with Ann Murray at the Salzburg Mozarteum. My Austrian adventure is underway.

I think I could die right now. Here I am, a baby mezzo with so much to prove, stepping out into the wide world-- braving the Atlantic and setting my feet on my homeland for the first time. It feels like a pilgrimage: visiting the birthplace and deathplace of my beloved Composer-Muse. I think I'm going to fall to pieces the second I get there.

Who would have thought this would happen? How could I have guessed that before my 21st birthday I'd be stepping into Austria? This is not how I planned things! Life has a way of going in a different direction than we planned.

But this is so much more exciting than the things I planned! Here I am, a girl who loves her home more than anywhere else in the world and I'm going into a lifestyle that is, by its very nature, transient. But it is so much fuller and rewarding! I can't believe that I've gotten this lucky. I can't believe it!

I leave August 8th. There's much to be done before that...

Happiness = An Opera Score

My Fledermaus score came in the mail. HURRAY! I feel like a real opera singer now. (ha)

It's smaller than I expected. The translation is more atrocious than I was expecting. It was so much work to get the score!

I called the Schirmer (ugh) distributor and asked for "The Bat" because Isabel told me to.

"I've never heard of that," the man says.

"You know, like Die Fledermaus but in English. The operetta by Strauss."

"Um, let me look."

I get terrible waiting music for a minute, then he comes back,

"You want The Hat? H-A-T?"

"No!" I answer. "The Bat. B-A-T. Like the thing that flies."

"Oh, one moment."

More terrible music.

"Ok," he says. "That's $41."

What? Isabel said it was $18.95.

"Are you sure there isn't another one?" I ask.

"Oh, yeah, here it is."

UGH. So I hoped to Orpheus that he got all my info right. And he did. My score came in the mail. Hurray! Its shiny redness is sitting on my bed pleading to be highlighted.

I'm also very excited about my honors project next semester. Tammy is letting me take lessons for honors credit. I'm doing a project on Mahler's Ruckertlieder. Ahhhh. Mahler + amazing poetry + research = love! Tammy is too good to me.

So much to do! This summer is anything but boring.