The Jonas Kaufmann Phenomenon : San Francisco Classical Voice

The Jonas Kaufmann Phenomenon : San Francisco Classical Voice

More from Tony....

photo "borrowed" from the Accademia Nazionale website :-)


..... Smith ;-)))) Or better know as the lovely Tony Pappano ;-)
On an otherwise grey and dull Sunday , with nothing to look forward to than suitcase packing for yet more work travel at inhumanly early hours of the morning I luckily stumbled upon this wonderful interview with Tony Pappano in the Guardian which made me feel the warm Italian sun and think of a rich and fragrant glass of wine with a background of glorious and heart lifting music (maybe not Va pensiero, but definitely some Verdi ;-))

Click here to enjoy the interview for yourself.


It’s filled with wonderful sweet and sad childhood memories, with Pappano’s search of roots and identity between America, the UK and Italy, with a sense of healthy competitiveness between his two orchestras and various stories of music and life. You get some unexpected insights into the everyday life on an Italian orchestra, between the funny and the passionate.
And you can also find out interesting things about future plans for both the Santa Cecilia and the ROH. Among the latter a promise very dear to me of more Italian repertoire at the ROH, among which an Otello (which ,if information from other interviews is correct, may be with Anja Harteros and possibly Marcelo Alvarez), more Rossini and hopefully even a new production of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci.

But going back to the main focus of the interview, Pappano’s work with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, here is the link to their website:

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

If like me you rush to have a glimpse of that Guillaume Tell poster, alas it is not on line ;-) But there is plently of interesting stuff, including a possibility to listen to the concerts on line via PappanoinWeb!

You can also find the UK tour dates of the ANSC and buy tickets on line:

Thursday 17 March at 19.45 Tournée - Basingstoke, The Anvil
Antonio Pappano direttore
Boris Berezovsky pianoforte
Verdi ..... Aida: Sinfonia
Liszt ..... Concerto per pianoforte n. 1
Mahler ..... Sinfonia n. 1 "Il Titano"

Friday 18 March at 19.30 Tournée - Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
Antonio Pappano direttore
Boris Berezovsky pianoforte
Verdi ..... Aida: Sinfonia
Liszt ..... Concerto per pianoforte n. 1
Respighi ..... Pini e Fontane di Roma"

Saturday 19 March at 19.30 Tournée - Birmingham, Symphony Hall
Antonio Pappano direttore
Boris Berezovsky pianoforte
Verdi ..... Aida: Sinfonia
Liszt ..... Concerto per pianoforte n. 1
Mahler ..... Sinfonia n. 1 "Il Titano"

Go see! :-)

Wish i could too, but since i can’t i’ll give at least the PappanoinWeb live streaming a try :-))

Grazie Tony for brightening up my Sunday and In bocca al lupo! to the ANSC for their UK tour!

Bogdan Mihai Rosenblatt Recital today!

Check out this recital today at St John's, Smith Square:


BOGDAN MIHAI Tenor
Iain Burnside Pianist

Songs and arias by composers including Vinci, Caccini, Carissimi, Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti.
For further details on the programme look here at the dedicated Rosenblatt recital site for today's event.


Tenor Bogdan Mihai studied in Bucharest and has appeared with great success as Leicester in Maria Stuarda and Roberto in Roberto Devereux, both by Donizetti. He also triumphed as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at both the Stuttgart Staatsoper and Dresden Semperoper and received extraordinary reviews in the international press singing the role of the Italian tenor in the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier.
Future commitments include the roles of Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Municipal Santiago de Chile, and as Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival.

For those lucky ones who can be there you are in for a treat! Check this out:


And here one more and wishing that Bogdan will be back soon to London so that i can hear him live as well!

And here is some more insight into Bogdan:

Rosenblatt Recitals in conversation with Bogdan Mihai:

When did you realise you wanted a career in music?

I began my career in music at 6 when I started to study violin, that was very helpful to my current career as an opera singer. It was my first singing teacher, Cristina Magureanu, who encouraged me to pursue a career in opera. She taught me about the voice, made me listen to music, see opera performances and never settle for less. I believe that the basis of a solid vocal technique is entirely up to the training provided by your first singing coach. The quality of the learning you get at this stage is decisive.

You began your musical career studying as a baritone at the University of Music in Bucharest , but whilst studying in Italy with soprano Mirella Freni, you decided to sing as a tenor. Could you tell us more about this important event in your career? What did you learn from Mirella Freni?

It’s true, I started as a baritone. My high school teacher and then maestro Nicolae Constantinescu from the Academy of Music , did not want to risk anything by pushing me to pursue a different tessitura and repertoire that might have damaged my voice at that time. They protected me and I am grateful for that.
Changing the tessitura was quite unexpected and it was a very difficult decision to make. I had been singing as baritone for 8 years by then.
After graduating from the Academy of Music in Bucharest I auditioned for a masterclass with Mirella Freni in Italy . Presenting myself as baritone, I got the most surprising reply: – “Per me non sei baritono, sei tenore...se vuoi entrare nellá mia accademia, devi cambiare la tessitura vocale…” (“You look like a tenor to me, not a baritone… if you wish to attend my academy you must change your tessitura…”).
I learnt a lot from soprano Mirella Freni. One of the most important things was repositioning the voice to the tenor range, acquiring the luminosity in a voice that had been trained as a different tessitura (baritone). I am truly grateful to Mirella Freni for working with me, for her patience and, most of all, for believing in me: she used to say: “Vedrai che con il tempo canterai tutto, dei avere pazienzia...” (“You’ll see, as time goes by, you will be able to sing everything, you need to be patient…”).

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

Any time I’m looking for a bit of advice, I look to Joseph Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”.

Could you tell us, according to you, what is the biggest myth about singing?

I have heard a lot of myths in all the theatres I have sung in, mostly related to things that bring bad luck to artists: do not wear lavender coloured clothes when you enter a theatre, do not cross the stage wearing your everyday clothes and there are many more… I never pay attention to such things, I don’t really believe in them. It’s the body and mind’s strength that keeps us going and supports us in doing what we want to do.

What has been your most challenging role to date?
It was Count Almaviva from “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” by Rossini, there is no doubt about it. I sang the role in almost 50 performances and there was always something new to add to it, to discover and improve. I like to believe that we never stop studying, no matter how experienced we are.

What three items would you take to a desert island?
Well, it’s difficult to choose but I’ll try: my iPod with lots of music (all kinds of music, not only opera), family photos and a lot of Romanian traditional food cooked by my mother.

If you weren’t an opera singer what would you be?
A film actor, definitely.
　
You performed in many different countries in the last years. Do you have a favourite city in the world and/or a favourite building?
Stuttgart Staatsoper is very dear to me. I made my international debut here and it’s where I first met and worked with the great English conductor David Parry for “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” by Rossini. Later on I made my debut in “Der Rosenkavalier” by Strauss. This theatre represents great memories and important moments of my career. I am honoured that they invite me to sing there every year.

Do you visit London often? How long will you stay in London next month and what will you do there?
I do not visit London very often, I was here for the first time last summer to sing in the British premiere of “Armida” by Rossini conducted by maestro David Parry. It was a two-month stay. I am now coming back to London to sing a recital at St. John’s Smith Square , a wonderful occasion to meet the British public again. I wish I came back more often so let’s wait and see what the future has to offer…
My future engagements include “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” at Riga Opera House, Mozart’s Requiem in Bucharest, then a revival of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” with maestro Parry conducting in Stuttgart. I will be singing at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro this summer (“Petite Messe Solennelle” and “Adelaide di Borgona”), ”Le Comte Ory” by Rossini at Grand Theatre du Geneve, “Aureliano in Palmira” by Rossini at Martina Franca Festival and it goes on… All my future engagements are listed on my official website: www.bogdanmihai.com