5-a-day post (Jonas & Caecilie, DiDonato, artists & fans)

I'm travelling and it is always hard to go from an overflow of live music which I love to death, to nothing or to something as sterile as music played on ones work laptop. So I compensate by digging through the internet or replaying memories in my ear.

Today somebody found this on Itunes: You know Jonas Kaufmann CD Romantic Arias? Well click in the pic and have a 2nd look at the track list! Yes, it is Caecilie!! And a version thereof of his, that i have not heard before. It is a full blown version with full orchestra backing.

Extremely interesting and very different from the Lieder CD. It is very powerful but in a very unique way. After i heard it a couple of times i found that this one and Martha probably best represent Jonas energy in live singing. I like the rest as well, but these come the closest to the empowering emotions of hearing the voice live. And you can feel so much joy in the singing.
The orchestra sound is somewhat unexpected and reminds me of the American Song book, it has that type of almost dancing flow. The voice is warm and integrates well, although the singing remains in full Lied mode. Interesting combination, but a successful one i think. The range and colour of the voice are amazing and it reaches amazing depth in both the upper and the lower register. Watch out for the warm deep embrace of it in the beginning up to the flying highs towards the end. Wow!!!

Treat yourself to this Caecilie and let his voice take you on a soaring trip of sheer musical joy.


And talking about joys.... this is one Joyce i would have liked so much to hear today!! A lucky few are probably just now enjoying a nice chat with the charming DiDonato at the ROH.


I hope somebody will be kind enough to share the experience with the ones of us who couldn't be there. I wish i knew what music pieces Joyce chose for the conversation...


On artists and fans I am going to add some thoughts later today, in connection with ROH Don Giovanni :-) I did go again and i will not bore you with more drooling over the experience, but there are other thoughts i want to share which were triggered by this event.

Ctd'

Anyone here who has an artist’s autograph raise a hand. Anyone who has a picture of themselves with an artist raise the other hand. Thought so! I’m gonna put mine down so that I can make this confession :-)

Until not so long ago I used to think that people who gathered at stage doors where a little bit crazy and that the artists on the receiving end were either poor suffering lambs or egocentric divas. Glups, mea culpa! Of course neither is true, but you have to live the phenomenon to understand what it is all about, and it is neither crazy nor does it have anything to do with the size of one’s ego.

Most of the times as an operagoer you are content with having watched and heard a good performance and having shown your appreciation by a reasonable amount of clapping. Then it is off to the tube and your own bed, chapter closed.

And then one day, a night comes along when everything changes. You don’t just like it, you live it! The music, the singing, the acting is something you have never experienced before. You can’t take your eyes off the stage, your heart is racing, your ears are tingling, your palms are sweating. The curtain falls and somebody or something suddenly possesses you! You jump up and start shouting Bravooo (the neighbours ears be damned!)), you clap like mad and 10 minutes later your palms are red, your voice is hoarse, but you feel you could just float away and jump up to the moon from so much adrenaline. You grab your stuff and, in a blink of an eye, dash out of the door and with steps as accelerated as your heart beat, suddenly find yourself amidst a crowd of people in front of a door that reads: Stage door.
There is excited chatter, there is a lot of ooohhing and ahhhhhing and wowwwing, there are grinning faces and sparkling eyes. And suddenly the artists step through the glass doors, slightly more tired than a few hours ago, but with smiles on their faces as well. There is a bit of a stampede, but at the end of it you emerge through the doors, retracing the artists steps, floating above ground, clutching the program which now boasts the illegible signatures of the heroes of the night :-)

So what happens in those precious few moments in between? And why the sudden change of heart, why join in the stampede?

Fans probably can't really provide validation to artists, either confirm or inform quality. But i hope seeing somebody's radiant face and hearing their voice still trembling from the emotions felt during the performance, does prove that the artist has touched their heart.

To me at least, that’s what the crowds at stage door are all about. Sometimes clapping just isn’t enough, you feel you owe the artists a bit more than that, or you just need to share the happiness they have brought about with them personally. Yes, they may read critics and they will know if they have done well. But this particular form of art is about interaction, it is about putting yourself out there on stage, with only your body and your voice, about taking huge risks in front of 2000 people and more. Something can always go wrong, or it can be the best night of your life. And the critics will rarely say anything about the emotions, the vibrations transmitted and shared. But fans can do that and that is why I believe that artists are not really bothered by the greeting crowds. If they are in a hurry or simply can’t attend, for whatever reason, there is always a way of avoiding it ;-).

So maybe more of us should bring up the courage to go and say how fabulous we found it, and which bit specifically made us explode with excitement. And who wouldn’t like to be told that today their hard work has made at least one person really happy? And aren’t autographs just our way of trying to capture the moment and the memories? To show them off for years to come and say, remember that night we heard X in Y??? The best version of Y I have ever heard or seen!

I fear sometimes the sharing of this joy is lost in the wordless pushing about of papers and signing and especially in the endless flashing of cameras. This not the moment to share life stories with the artists, but it definitely is the right moment to remember what our mommies have told us about “may I?“, ”please” and “thank you”. No amount of excitement should excuse the lack of manners!

But why not say why you want the autograph, what it means to you, how you liked the performance, rather than just pushing a piece of paper into somebody’s face, for whom you definitely have more admiration and respect than that silent gesture implies? You have received during 3 hours or more of performance the truest and most open form of communication an artist is able to give, why not communicate something back? Aren’t we there to give some caring and admiration back? So why make it into a gesture which only implies taking?

And you might find that the experience is greatly improved by it: you might get a personalised smile, you might see joy in the eyes of the artist, you might even get the occasional booming laugh or if you are really really lucky, even that earth-shattering hug! ;-)

With that in mind, I myself will make a promise not to step on anyone’s feet, breath down anyone’s neck, stick my elbows into anyone’s ribs, permanently blind anyone with my flash! ...and I am hoping at least some people will reciprocate :-)

It is fair to advise though, that I have no control over the drooling, swooning or my vocabulary being reduced to fabulous, fantastic, exciting and other synonyms ;-)))


Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts about the subject with me prior to this entry being written, to those who joined me at the door and gave me courage to go there ;-) And also thanks to my very patient friend, who I am afraid will never join the crowd, but who always lets himself be dragged there to be the “stuff” holder (pens, camera, handbag, coat, umbrella, programs, etc he juggles everything while taking the most amazing pictures!).

And a very special thanks to Joyce DiDonato, Simon Keenlyside, Kyle Ketelsen, Ramon Vargas, Miah Persson and Sir Charles Mackerras who patiently, kindly, friendly and with loads of humour attended us all on Friday night! You are not only great artists, you are special people as well!