I should so be working!!!! And I swear I have been trying since this morning, but there is just too much music in my head getting in the way…. so you will get this “mixed salad” post so I can exorcise the music out of my system :-)
Considering none of the things going through my mind I have heard live it is quite something that they influence me so much, but I guess this is a good thing. I have however heard all of these performances on either radio or TV and whether or not you care to read my thoughts, apparently they want out.
At “home” we are in the middle of the Cardiff Singer of the world competition, which I have never been able to enjoy live, but this has just become my “must do” two years from now. It may not be the most technically accomplished and refined singing you will have ever heard, but that is NOT the point of it! The point is, it is living, breathing and yess, singing proof that opera and song are still very much alive and kicking! And that young people DO love this music, DO want to sing it and that there are exciting voices out there to thrill us for years to come. I can’t explain how much it means to me to see young people singing this music and also young audience discovering it. It is very often that as a relatively young person you feel isolated in the world of classical music, especial I today’s theatres. And almost every time I step into one I ask myself with sadness why the music doesn’t capture the hearts of children and young people? I am inclined to think that it is mostly because they don’t know it rather that they don’t like it. But it is sad to be 30ish and feel like the youngest in the bunch when you to the opera and other classical music events.
Anyways, this competition gives me a boost of confidence that these may be just appearances. The other positive effect is to see young artist absolutely passionate with what they do, with singing and performing. In a house performance it is so often about perfection, the perfectly pitched note, the right gesture, etc that you can forget this is not an ordinary line of work, it is about art and people deeply involved with what they do. This becomes so much more evident in a competition like Cardiff. Of course there is drive and ambition in every competitor, but the passion, the total enthusiasm and raw talent is also there. And at this level it becomes quickly evident who is driven just by ambition and who really wants to do this for all their life, because they simply cannot imagine doing anything else. And in the hall in Cardiff it must be even more exiting, as you probably feel both the nerves and excitement of the competitors in a more direct way. As fully developed artist later they all learn to dissimulate, to hide their emotions and nerves and also maybe no longer dive head first in a performance, but right now they give it their all and you get them on a more open, personal level. I wouldn’t want this on an opera stage ( I really don’t want to see the excruciating effort they make to deliver that amazing performance that blows me away, I think we are really only supposed to see the magic on stage, even though it might sound cruel) but, in such a competition, as an exception, I think that is part of its special appeal and it is also something that shows the potential within them. Full and cold control might not actually convey that this is what they are meant to be doing at this stage in their development.
I have watched excerpts of two nights on line and unfortunately will miss most of the rest, but I plan to catch up as soon as I can on the BBC videos. And we should listen and watch as these are names that we will see soon on opera house posters. I will at this stage no necessarily name all names, let’s see it all and then I might get back and mention some names, especially if they don’t go all the way, but I felt they did leave a mark on me. For the 2 nights that I have seen I have been wowed by sopranos! They must be good if I preferred them above all others :-) . I also got a feeling that the category weakest overall in the opera world at the moment is not the tenor, but the baritone! Yes, we have some amazing ones singing songs and there are a couple of well established names in opera as well. But by far not enough!! An they seem to be still in very scarce supply among young singers as well, which is worrying… Operas don’t stand on tenors and sopranos alone, to get that all rounded, blow your mind effect you need equally good mezzos, baritones and basses. And the latter two are in really scarce supply at the moment, baritones especially… at least the feeling I get these days…
There is of course the usual debate about if singers already performing on big stages should participate or not, etc but at the end of the day I believe the judges are aware of the different opportunities each competitor has had and they don’t judge by them but by the talent and potential of each singer, and as it has been proven time and time again, you never know where the underdog may appear from :-)
For the ones who want to know more about contestants, the competition, see some details here is the BBC site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/cardiffsinger/sites/2009/pages/competitors.shtml
I have some complaints as well ;-) I wish we got some more coverage of the song contest as well, as many of the competitors appear in both and it is really a pity that song is often treated as the poor step sister or opera, because there is much to be gained for both audiences and the young artists emotionally, technically and artistically from the genre. Secondly, it think it is unfair that the BBC videos cannot be watched from abroad. I don’t mean the full program, but one aria each on a competitor’s page either? Why not? I thought this was about opportunities, exposure, etc… so why not let the whole world see one or two arias for each? Why not let the public outside the UK take a liking to an artist before they become part of the engine/ industry? And don’t give me the copyright and such chat, surely a competition like this and the singers themselves deserve a bit of sharing.
And from the young and talented I move ( erm… swiftly? ;-))) to the equally talented but well established ( where I am sure many of the young ones dream to be one day ;-))
Munich… Verdi, Aida, Traviata, Daniele Gatti, Jonas Kaufmann, Angela Gheorghiu, Simon Keenlyside, Salvatore Licitra, Ecaterina Gubanova, Kristin Lewis, Giacomo Prestia, Christian van Horn….Keri- Lynn Wilson
Enough names there to give any opera lover an increased heart-beat! ;-)
Aida – premiere, it is pretty known right now that Gatti was boed! Unbelievable to me! Yes, the march in Aida could have been a tad more imposing, with a bit more gravitas, but otherwise what I heard on Bayern4 was utterly beautiful and it felt like true Verdi, the duet Aida Amneris in the 3rd scene was incredibly elegant and powerful.
Talking Amneris- Ecaterina Gubanova, don’t know how the voices sounded in the house, but over the radio it was catchy and secure in all registers with a nice, full lower register, my kind of mezzo! Brava! I wasn’t nearly as taken with Kristin Lewis Aida. That was some horrendous Italian, so incredibly closed… uuuff! And it felt much less secure both in the upper and lower registers. She was good, but I didn’t feel as deserving of the massive acclaim she got. For me Amneris definitely outshone her.
Salvatore Licitra did the best he can and that is not little. The role is a struggle for any tenor and he has been singing a number of these difficult parts these last years ( I remember a Forza in Wien). His voice has a nice sound but by the end there wasn’t much energy left for some nice piani, still good job… especially as I am trying to think who else out there is singing Radames these days. Not many and none so much better that one could say bah! to Licitra’s performance the other day. I am looking forward to Marcelo Alvarez’ Radames next year in ROH :-) Though even for him the role will be a pretty big hat to fill. The basses… the King was better than Ramphis. Definitely! Better voice, warmer, securer in all areas, just more enjoyable to listen to. CVH ( Christian van Horn) definitely had the edge over Giacomo Prestia imo. Ok the last is more experienced and had from the public reaction sung there quite a number of times before, but I heard what I heard. I am sure that a couple of years down the road CVH will make a wonderful Ramphis and other even more exciting roles. One to listen out for! ( and he deserves a special brownie point for not breaking his neck in those ridiculous space-boots he had to wear!)
Nothing to say about the production, haven’t seen it and the few photos available are neither shocking, nor traditional, neither too out there nor anything else in particular.
On to the next day’s Traviata…. More Verdi!
Can I start by saying one thing? Can somebody please switch Mrs Wilson for Gatti just for the Friday performance?? Pleasseeeee????
One can dream….. Ain’t gonna happen, so I guess I will have to deal with it. That Traviata wasn’t Verdi! Not to me, not compared to any other I have seen or heard. That was… ummm, how to put it… a weird Radezky march type thing with a constant start, rush, run, stop hiiiii hiiii hiiiiii ( insert panting noises from the running), rush, run, stop hiiiiii hiiii….etc I mean – please forgive my bluntness – it was as if the woman had Jack the Ripper himself running behind her!!!! And I can honestly say I am having a hard time being so harsh, I don’t like saying it, but it needs to be said I think. Verdi is not a loud, marching band sound in full rush with some bland, indescript tam tam tam tam foot tapping inserted here and there. It is continuous, flowing, emotional, beautiful arches of music. It didn’t help that this style of conducting also allowed constant interruptions after each aria for applause ( ok, very well deserved applause… but come oooon…)
Lucky for the all the payers of the overpriced seats ( not in general, but if you are a victim of the early booking system you’ll know what I mean… and yes I whinge because for the prices I am paying I have never ever had such bad seats at the ROH!) the singing was in a completely different league. Don’t think they got much rehearsal time, but when Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann and Simon Keenlyside show up for the Traviata, all in excellent form, you can expect not only every note to sit, harmonies to happen, but you end up being touched. The singing was very very good and thank God they knew the score (unlike the Mrs with the baton…) and the three seemed to marvellously end up on the same wave length to deliver some beautiful lines and intertwine their voices to great effect. More after the weekend when I hope to hear it live will all 3 in same form ( crossing fingers AND toes ;-))
Special mention ( cause I know there are more than a few dyyyyying to now this as I was!) Simon Keenlyside made his debut as Germont.. sooooo, was he good?? LOL…. Won’t say… I’ll just keep it to myself and enjoy this glowing feeling ;-)))) …. Ok, I won’t be that bad, he was … ohhhhhh, woooooowwwww, OMG!!!!! You get it, don’t you? Hope he sings it at the ROH soon…those lines, those piani, that elegance, that feeling…. And I haven’t seen it! I’ve read all kinds of comments, but him everyone agrees that it was the best Germont they have ever heard In Munich. I agree that he is one of the very bets I have ever heard (recordings included).
More of this next week…
And NOW I can work! Don’t worry you don’t need to read all this, I just needed to write it :-)
Considering none of the things going through my mind I have heard live it is quite something that they influence me so much, but I guess this is a good thing. I have however heard all of these performances on either radio or TV and whether or not you care to read my thoughts, apparently they want out.
At “home” we are in the middle of the Cardiff Singer of the world competition, which I have never been able to enjoy live, but this has just become my “must do” two years from now. It may not be the most technically accomplished and refined singing you will have ever heard, but that is NOT the point of it! The point is, it is living, breathing and yess, singing proof that opera and song are still very much alive and kicking! And that young people DO love this music, DO want to sing it and that there are exciting voices out there to thrill us for years to come. I can’t explain how much it means to me to see young people singing this music and also young audience discovering it. It is very often that as a relatively young person you feel isolated in the world of classical music, especial I today’s theatres. And almost every time I step into one I ask myself with sadness why the music doesn’t capture the hearts of children and young people? I am inclined to think that it is mostly because they don’t know it rather that they don’t like it. But it is sad to be 30ish and feel like the youngest in the bunch when you to the opera and other classical music events.
Anyways, this competition gives me a boost of confidence that these may be just appearances. The other positive effect is to see young artist absolutely passionate with what they do, with singing and performing. In a house performance it is so often about perfection, the perfectly pitched note, the right gesture, etc that you can forget this is not an ordinary line of work, it is about art and people deeply involved with what they do. This becomes so much more evident in a competition like Cardiff. Of course there is drive and ambition in every competitor, but the passion, the total enthusiasm and raw talent is also there. And at this level it becomes quickly evident who is driven just by ambition and who really wants to do this for all their life, because they simply cannot imagine doing anything else. And in the hall in Cardiff it must be even more exiting, as you probably feel both the nerves and excitement of the competitors in a more direct way. As fully developed artist later they all learn to dissimulate, to hide their emotions and nerves and also maybe no longer dive head first in a performance, but right now they give it their all and you get them on a more open, personal level. I wouldn’t want this on an opera stage ( I really don’t want to see the excruciating effort they make to deliver that amazing performance that blows me away, I think we are really only supposed to see the magic on stage, even though it might sound cruel) but, in such a competition, as an exception, I think that is part of its special appeal and it is also something that shows the potential within them. Full and cold control might not actually convey that this is what they are meant to be doing at this stage in their development.
I have watched excerpts of two nights on line and unfortunately will miss most of the rest, but I plan to catch up as soon as I can on the BBC videos. And we should listen and watch as these are names that we will see soon on opera house posters. I will at this stage no necessarily name all names, let’s see it all and then I might get back and mention some names, especially if they don’t go all the way, but I felt they did leave a mark on me. For the 2 nights that I have seen I have been wowed by sopranos! They must be good if I preferred them above all others :-) . I also got a feeling that the category weakest overall in the opera world at the moment is not the tenor, but the baritone! Yes, we have some amazing ones singing songs and there are a couple of well established names in opera as well. But by far not enough!! An they seem to be still in very scarce supply among young singers as well, which is worrying… Operas don’t stand on tenors and sopranos alone, to get that all rounded, blow your mind effect you need equally good mezzos, baritones and basses. And the latter two are in really scarce supply at the moment, baritones especially… at least the feeling I get these days…
There is of course the usual debate about if singers already performing on big stages should participate or not, etc but at the end of the day I believe the judges are aware of the different opportunities each competitor has had and they don’t judge by them but by the talent and potential of each singer, and as it has been proven time and time again, you never know where the underdog may appear from :-)
For the ones who want to know more about contestants, the competition, see some details here is the BBC site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/cardiffsinger/sites/2009/pages/competitors.shtml
I have some complaints as well ;-) I wish we got some more coverage of the song contest as well, as many of the competitors appear in both and it is really a pity that song is often treated as the poor step sister or opera, because there is much to be gained for both audiences and the young artists emotionally, technically and artistically from the genre. Secondly, it think it is unfair that the BBC videos cannot be watched from abroad. I don’t mean the full program, but one aria each on a competitor’s page either? Why not? I thought this was about opportunities, exposure, etc… so why not let the whole world see one or two arias for each? Why not let the public outside the UK take a liking to an artist before they become part of the engine/ industry? And don’t give me the copyright and such chat, surely a competition like this and the singers themselves deserve a bit of sharing.
And from the young and talented I move ( erm… swiftly? ;-))) to the equally talented but well established ( where I am sure many of the young ones dream to be one day ;-))
Munich… Verdi, Aida, Traviata, Daniele Gatti, Jonas Kaufmann, Angela Gheorghiu, Simon Keenlyside, Salvatore Licitra, Ecaterina Gubanova, Kristin Lewis, Giacomo Prestia, Christian van Horn….Keri- Lynn Wilson
Enough names there to give any opera lover an increased heart-beat! ;-)
Aida – premiere, it is pretty known right now that Gatti was boed! Unbelievable to me! Yes, the march in Aida could have been a tad more imposing, with a bit more gravitas, but otherwise what I heard on Bayern4 was utterly beautiful and it felt like true Verdi, the duet Aida Amneris in the 3rd scene was incredibly elegant and powerful.
Talking Amneris- Ecaterina Gubanova, don’t know how the voices sounded in the house, but over the radio it was catchy and secure in all registers with a nice, full lower register, my kind of mezzo! Brava! I wasn’t nearly as taken with Kristin Lewis Aida. That was some horrendous Italian, so incredibly closed… uuuff! And it felt much less secure both in the upper and lower registers. She was good, but I didn’t feel as deserving of the massive acclaim she got. For me Amneris definitely outshone her.
Salvatore Licitra did the best he can and that is not little. The role is a struggle for any tenor and he has been singing a number of these difficult parts these last years ( I remember a Forza in Wien). His voice has a nice sound but by the end there wasn’t much energy left for some nice piani, still good job… especially as I am trying to think who else out there is singing Radames these days. Not many and none so much better that one could say bah! to Licitra’s performance the other day. I am looking forward to Marcelo Alvarez’ Radames next year in ROH :-) Though even for him the role will be a pretty big hat to fill. The basses… the King was better than Ramphis. Definitely! Better voice, warmer, securer in all areas, just more enjoyable to listen to. CVH ( Christian van Horn) definitely had the edge over Giacomo Prestia imo. Ok the last is more experienced and had from the public reaction sung there quite a number of times before, but I heard what I heard. I am sure that a couple of years down the road CVH will make a wonderful Ramphis and other even more exciting roles. One to listen out for! ( and he deserves a special brownie point for not breaking his neck in those ridiculous space-boots he had to wear!)
Nothing to say about the production, haven’t seen it and the few photos available are neither shocking, nor traditional, neither too out there nor anything else in particular.
On to the next day’s Traviata…. More Verdi!
Can I start by saying one thing? Can somebody please switch Mrs Wilson for Gatti just for the Friday performance?? Pleasseeeee????
One can dream….. Ain’t gonna happen, so I guess I will have to deal with it. That Traviata wasn’t Verdi! Not to me, not compared to any other I have seen or heard. That was… ummm, how to put it… a weird Radezky march type thing with a constant start, rush, run, stop hiiiii hiiii hiiiiii ( insert panting noises from the running), rush, run, stop hiiiiii hiiii….etc I mean – please forgive my bluntness – it was as if the woman had Jack the Ripper himself running behind her!!!! And I can honestly say I am having a hard time being so harsh, I don’t like saying it, but it needs to be said I think. Verdi is not a loud, marching band sound in full rush with some bland, indescript tam tam tam tam foot tapping inserted here and there. It is continuous, flowing, emotional, beautiful arches of music. It didn’t help that this style of conducting also allowed constant interruptions after each aria for applause ( ok, very well deserved applause… but come oooon…)
Lucky for the all the payers of the overpriced seats ( not in general, but if you are a victim of the early booking system you’ll know what I mean… and yes I whinge because for the prices I am paying I have never ever had such bad seats at the ROH!) the singing was in a completely different league. Don’t think they got much rehearsal time, but when Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann and Simon Keenlyside show up for the Traviata, all in excellent form, you can expect not only every note to sit, harmonies to happen, but you end up being touched. The singing was very very good and thank God they knew the score (unlike the Mrs with the baton…) and the three seemed to marvellously end up on the same wave length to deliver some beautiful lines and intertwine their voices to great effect. More after the weekend when I hope to hear it live will all 3 in same form ( crossing fingers AND toes ;-))
Special mention ( cause I know there are more than a few dyyyyying to now this as I was!) Simon Keenlyside made his debut as Germont.. sooooo, was he good?? LOL…. Won’t say… I’ll just keep it to myself and enjoy this glowing feeling ;-)))) …. Ok, I won’t be that bad, he was … ohhhhhh, woooooowwwww, OMG!!!!! You get it, don’t you? Hope he sings it at the ROH soon…those lines, those piani, that elegance, that feeling…. And I haven’t seen it! I’ve read all kinds of comments, but him everyone agrees that it was the best Germont they have ever heard In Munich. I agree that he is one of the very bets I have ever heard (recordings included).
More of this next week…
And NOW I can work! Don’t worry you don’t need to read all this, I just needed to write it :-)
