Ich möchte eine Schweizerin werden!!!!!!

Why would I like to be a Swiss???? Evidently because of La Boheme Live from Bern Suburbs.
That was the coolest thing ever (after the ZürichHauptbahnhofTraviata) what I saw on live television, and as a Swiss I could be proud of my county and the Arte Channel supporting opera.

So yesterday I was watching this Live Opera event, but during the 1st and partly the 2nd act I had some connection problems so the transmission was not really enjoyable.

But other people with normal connection could watch 7 camera-broadcast, and they could choose from the different views. Evidently the camera 1 was the best, but you could follow the orchestra (they were playing in the shopping center next to the McDonalds - LoL) and the other channel broadcasting some interviews with the locals. And on the arte-web you could post your opinion as well. Thank God the 90% of the opinions were soooooo positive, so I was really happy... I didn't care about the haters/snobs/idiots they were so lame, better not to mention them :)

As I said the orchestra was playing in the mall (at the McDonalds) next to the "Hochhaus" (is there a normal English word for the place where they did it??? I'm not sure...)
1st act happened in the laundry, in an apartment, and in the garden of that apartment.
2nd act in the shopping center :) and mainly at the restaurant of the mall
3rd act on the street and near a cafe
4th act in an artist-apartment (?), and then outside - and the best thing: Mimi really did go out between the people - to die there... at the end she died on the stairs of the bus 14, and when she died the bus took her away... it was really moving... OK, but evidently everybody cries when Mimi dies, right???

I could write a lot about this, so let's see the most important details.

LOVED the whole idea. This is the best thing you an do with opera in the 21st Century and also the haters should admit this. It was so exciting to see the people was watching the singers, others were involved accidentally or on purpose in the opera. And it is so bizarre to see an opera going on between real people. And not just to watch it on stage, far from you, and furthermore you have to put on uncomfortable dresses and sit there for hours...

Loved the technical solution. As far as I could notice with my not so good working connection, there were no big mistakes and everything was going on as planned. And it should have been a big technical effort...

Loved the interviews during the opera with the singers - they were answering in character so we could hear what Musetta thinks about the actual situation. And the interviews, the comments were simultaneously translated into French (from German - so bravo to the translators as well!!!)
Another plus: there were French subtitles - this is not a plus for me :) but for the people... :)

Besides involving people they were using locals as amateur actors as well. In a break they showed us how a girl was rehearsing for taking part in the 3rd act, showing the way to Mimi where Rodolfo is. And then when I saw that girl in action, I was really proud even if it was a small role... and there was an old couple passing by Rodolfo and Mimi at the end of 3rd act, evidently it was set up like that, but it was so moving...

So only as an initiative it is so important and a big step that I'm so happy that this happened - I can still believe in people and in miracles :)))

Ok, and now about the flaws... Sorry but I have to mention these things as well, although I don't consider these details negatively.

The singers... Unfortunately the idiots/haters could find a crucial point in this to slam the whole production... For example it was Saimir Pirgu's debut as Rodolfo... He was not the best, but not the worse tenor I saw in that part. With some time he will be better for sure! (I really liked him as Don Ottavio last time in Hungary where he was singing with the yummie Ildebrando D'Archangelo...) And Maya Boog wasn't the best either. I preferred Musetta... So generally the singers were average but they really had nice moments...
The problem is that people think that if an opera is coming to the TV and it is live there should be 1st class singers and STARS... I don't think so.
I don't know the reason behind this, not to use operastars in these kind of productions, but there could be several reasons. Besides the obvious one - they want to spend more money on the technical background and not to pay millions for a bitchy star - maybe the 'real stars' don't want to participate in productions like this because at the moment is really controversial, I think. Or the producers don't want to use big stars (=theoretically excellent voice) not to take off the attention from the idea, from the production. I'm sure if Anna or/and Rolando were singing in this, the whole neighborhood or the city would have been full of crazy screaming operafans. And this is not what they wanted...

I neither could understand completely the idea of the director... The costumes were maybe traditional costumes, sorta... but it was a mix-up, and in the 4th act they were using a laptop, driving a car, etc... so it was a bit confusing, maybe with the costumes they wanted to separate the singers form the audience - but as they were singing it was really evident who was who :)
But there was not to much to think about this part of the concept as you were concentrating on the unusual situations anyway...

And another disturbing factor: as the singers had to change locations, they did a lot of strange breaks during an act as well... So if you were used to hear the 1st act together (as we all were :)) forget it!!!! After the laundry scene the guys run to the apartment so you had to listen to an interview with 2 nice elderly ladies - they were evidently washing meanwhile the bohemes were singing...

So with all the pros and contras - the whole idea wins over everything. Even if opera houses try to get more audiences, there is no other choice - you have to bring the opera to the people!

What was wrong with the Zürich-Hauptbahnhof-Traviata????

Actually nothing.

Last year I discovered this strange opera-production some days before the tv-broadcast, but unfortunately I couldn't watch the opera live here in Hungary - I just found the videos on youtube. And I got really excited. Finally somebody realizes that we should do crazy things with opera - like make Violetta sing at the 9th platform, surrounded by surprised travelers. Because evidently if you continue to make old fashioned boring productions, your audience gets old (they are already...) and they die.
And even if there were some flaws, or I was not happy with all the singers, it didn't matter because the whole package was so fresh and positively strange. Of course my fellow companions at some music forums were not so excited, they were totally disgusted "how can the Swiss do this to La Traviata" "and opera is so sacred that can't be performed in a train station"... and so long...

Then this year we will have "La Boheme in the Suburbs" in Bern. And ARTE channel is so nice with us that you can watch it also online!!!!
(more info here - and there will be also live blogging so I think this is more than a 21st century operablogger could wish for herself!!!!!)

Stay tuned tomorrow - on the 29th September, 19.55
(I think I will be on twitter as well...)

I'm confused... Marcello Giordani o Massimo Giordano????

This is just a post with useful information in case you would be confused with Italian names and with these Italian tenors. There was a time when I muxed up those 2 names, so I want to help you not to make the same mistakes I did :)

So this is Massimo Giordano - he is getting pretty famous or something, for example he is touring in Scandinavia with Anna Netrebko nowadays, and he gets big roles in big opera houses - just google it...
I met him once, he is very Italian :) - that's a good thing...













And the other one is MARCELLO Giordani. He is a bit "older" but more famous as he sings quite every day at the MET - they are using him really frequently, also for the HD broadcasts. And this is a good thing as generally he gives a very high level performance...
I saw him once in Budapest - at the Bartoli concert... He looks Italian... :)

Why Hungarian-culture-news-people doesn't care?

I'm writing this totally because of pedantry - but I have to. In case we are talking about not caring about the truth and do the things right, I get nervous every time :)

So we have the website www.kultura.hu where a news was published (sorry but if you want to read this you have to know Hungarian :)) basically about Angela canceling Carmen at the MET (which is good for the Menschheit I think) and postponing it to 2010. And they say the reason is that she wanted to sing with his husband Roberto the Sicilian, and in April/May 2010 they can sing together - awwwww.... happiness sunshine....

My problem is that this is bullsh#t, hate when people doesn't care and just publish news incorrectly in an important (?) cultural website.

As everybody knows (see for example here or evidently they can see it on the web of the MET) Angela cancelled the performances of Carmen where she was scheduled to sing with her nice husband, and like this in April her partner will be Jonas Kaufmann - Angela's Pinkerton and the tenor which is clearly a pushed-up a bariton.

So when I noticed this small problem in that news, I wrote a nice letter for the cultural-news-people that they should change this because it is not true what they are writing about - but they did not answer (ok, no problem, don't need answers) and either changed the news.

This is my story for today, hope one day kultura.hu-readers will know the real news. But I think they wont... and kultura.hu continues to publish without any control.

But at least she cancelled... Angela as Carmen???? A nightmare!

A VIP twitter follower...

It's a big day, my dear readers, Carnegie Hall is following me on Twitter.
I think this is really funny, but just for me and because of reasons I won't tell.
So I'm delighted that they are following me :)
Maybe I would be more delighted if they did not have caused me nightmares in the past but with time every memory changes in a positive way, so I have to repeat I'm delighted :)
Goodnight...

I have to change...

I decided to change my attitude and I bought my first ticket in years (it could be 5-7yrs) at the Hungarian Opera House. I will see Fidelio in September. I choose this because it is a new production with a lot of controversy - generally people hate it!!!!!!! Cooool. This is for me then.
I just spent about 3,2 Euro. They don't deserve more.

I wanted to see also Manon Lescaut, then thank God I remembered that that is a really shitty production, ML is ok, but the tenor s#cks big time and the biggest mistake in my opinion that they moved the Intermezzo from the 2-3act to the 3-4act. WHAAAAAAT? You can not do that, you stupid people. Don't change Giacomo's music or else I get mad :)
So I cancelled my ticket from the shopping cart and I just got Fidelio.

Then in October I will see something else - you have to go with them very slowly and carefuly.

And of course I try to get free tickets then I will be more happy and maybe more positive regarding their wrongdoing :)

Offtopic - I forgot to love Mike Patton in 1997 but I love him again

OK, I know this has nothing to do with opera and classical music.
But he is a genius.
And thank you and the amazing Faith No More for yesterday's concert.


(photo from quart.hu)

MET 2009/2010 season calendar - get interactive and don't print a thing...

Although I generally dislike the MET-productions and all the hype around it, their interactive season calendar is what I call perfection and 21st Century. But evidently you should have all the millions of dollars to spend it on the looks...

Russians rule Operalia 2009

Although I had some ticket-misery I ended in a row right behind the jury. (Mr. Holender from Wiener Staatsoper was really close... and thank you Mr.G for the ticket!)

Now I think it is better to start with the participants and the program. 15 singers entered to the Final Round - 2 of them were only zarzuela singers - 13 singers performed the following opera arias. (To make all of you happy I don't mess up the program with my remarks you will find it below... :))

Opera arias:

1. Jordan Bisch, bass, USA / Verdi: I Vespri siciliani - O tu Palermo
2. Beatriz Diaz, soprano, Spain / Gounod: Faust - Ah! Je ris de me voir si belle
3. Dimitrios Flemotomos, tenor, Greece / Meyerbeer: L'Africaine - O Paradis
4. Anita Watson, soprano, Australia / Catalani: La Wally - Ebben? Ne andro lontana
5. Orhan Yildiz, baritone, Turkey / Bellini: I Puritani - Ah! Per sempre io ti perdei
6. Elizabeth Bailey, soprano, United Kingdom / Donizetti: Linda di Chamonix - O luce di quest'anima
7. Alexey Kudrya, tenor, Russia / Tchaikovsky: Evgeny Onegin - Kuda, Kuda, Kuda vy udalilis
8. Auxiliadora Toledano, soprano, Spain / Bellini: La Sonnambula - Ah, non credea mirarti
9. Yang Yang, tenor, China / Donizetti: La Fille du Regiment - Ah mes amis... Pour mon ame
10. Julia Novikova, soprano, Russia / Delibes: Lakme - Ou va la jeune Hindoue
11. Kostas Smoriginas, bass-baritone, Lithuanua / Borodin: Prince Igor - Ni sna ni otdycha izmuchenoj duse
12. Angel Blue, sopano, USA / Massenet: Herodiade - Il est doux, il est bon
13. Wenwei Zhang, China, bass / Verdi: Macbeth - Come dal ciel precipita

Zarzuela arias:

1. Auxiliadora Toledano, soprano, Spain / Nieto&Gimenez: El barbero de Sevilla - Me llaman la primorosa
2. Dimitrios Flemotomos, tenor, Greece / Sorozabal: La tabernera del puerto - No puede ser
3. Brigitta Simon, soprano, Hungary / El barberillo de Lavapies - Cancion de Paloma
4. Arnold Rutkowski, tenor, Poland / Sorozabal: La tabernera del puerto - No puede ser
5. Angle Blue, soprano, USA / Chapi: Las hijas del Zebedeo - Las Carceleras

My opinion:

1. I really liked Jordan Bisch, it was a strong start for the competition but after all the singers performed I thought he is good, but so are some others. As I see generally basses/baritons a lot of times put their angry face on during an aria. In an opera evidently it is ok, but in a concert/competition could get a bit ridiculous.

2. Loved Beatriz's dress!!! She had a nice, light voice and performed without any difficulty Marguerite's aria.

3. The Greek tenor, Dimitrios has chosen the O paradis aria which is I think a little bit too short for a competition. He did it wonderfully - receiving a big applause from the audience, but I wanted to hear more from him in order to know his voice better... Maybe his program during the semifinals and other preliminary rounds has already convinced the jury about his qualities...

4. I think Ebben, ne andro lontana was not Anita Watson's aria. I prefer this aria with a more powerful voice, and although Anita has a beautiful voice in some places was not enough for me. She also must have had a good previous performance at the competition - if she ended on the 3rd place... (and did not really like her Italian articulation either... I was hearing only the vowels...)

5. The bariton from Turkey was a little bit boring for me. But he won the "best dress" competiton wearing a shiny black suit.

6. The UK soprano was ok, but not the best. Her coluratura voice was adapted to the Donizetti aria, but for me the aria itself was irritating a bit... But she looked amazing on stage :)

7. (Finally my favorite...) The Russian tenor, Alexey fortunately singed the Lenski aria I've already found on youtube (see previous post) and did an excellent job. Of course a mother tongue aria is a safe choice but with his beautiful slavic voice it was an easy triupmh.

8. I've already heard the Spanish soprano, Auxiliadora Toledano in Barcelona at the competition Francisco Vinas in 2008. She won there a special prize for something, but I had the same impression of her like this time. In that competition she performed an opera aria (maybe Caro nome, I'm not sure...) and a zarzuela aria - the same as here! And evidently she was better in the zarzuela. This time she was singing Ah non credea mirarti from Sonnambula, and it was boring, bad choices of voice-dynamic and sometimes pianissimis not audibles and it was more a zarzuela aria than something from the Sonnambula. So hearing her performing I thought I was becoming a Sonnambula myself.... (haha bad joke) And some crazy fans of her thought that Ah non giunge is not part of the aria, so they started to applaud before she started Ah non giunge... At this point Mr. Holender got sooo pissed of, I'm sure he got really fed up with this audience... But Auxiliadora had a nice dress :) if this counts.

9. Yang Yang must have a nice voice in a small room but in a big opera house if the orchestra plays a bit lauder his voice disappears. Although he managed through all the high C-s of the Ah mes amis aria, at the end I was thinking to go home and listen to the Florez-version.

10. Then we had Julia Novikova performing the Bell song from Lakme. In the beginning I thought that this aria will be a wrong choice for her as well but very soon I've changed my mind as she was amazing and brilliant in this aria. Check it out in youtube in a last year performance. And she was dressed like an Ice Princess.

11. The Lithuanian bass-baritone was also excellent (I think now my vocabulary is getting smaller and smaller, sorry...).

12. Angel Blue was also one of my favorites. She performed an aria from the not so known (for me) Massenet's Herodiade and delivered a powerful performance with passion and naturalness. (What a beautiful dress!!!! Want to have it...)

13. Wenwei Zhang also put the angry face on. But performed well.

Zarzuela's:
1. As I said before Auxiliadora is a good zarzuela performer. And she changed her dress - classy!!
2. The Greek tenor kicked ass with this zarzuela aria - No puede ser...
3. Poor Hungarian soprano, Brigitta Simon was evidently pushed into the Final. She must have been the best (?) of the 3 Hungarian contestants, and evidently the Jury had to push somebody from the locals into the final. She was below average, had a terrible dress, more terrible hair and an ugly Spanish fan to look Spanish. Sorry girl... But she is 21 years old so she has a lot of time to find herself...
4. Then we had the Polish tenor who was performing only a zarzuela aria, the same as Dimitrios - No puede ser! literally :) ... but as his fellow singer did a great job before it was hard to outshine him.
5. The American soprano, Angel Blue was a lovely zarzuela performer - but too bad she did not change dress like the Spanish girl... Hehe just kidding. She won the zarzuela prize so she did not have to change any dress.

The audience could vote for the Rolex Audience prize. I voted for Angel Blue and Alexey Kudrya. I was quite sure that Julia Novikova would win, so in case Angel Blue does not win anything she could have a Rolex watch at least... And Alexey was my favorite so I had to vote for him.

By the way - about my previsions (don't get confused!!! MY prevision): 1st place - Julia, Alexey / 2nd place - Angel, Kostas / 3rd place - Dimitrios, Beatriz / Zarzuela: Auxiliadora, Dimitrios - so I was not so wrong about the final results but I do not agree with Auxiliadora's 3rd place, and Jordan Bisch 2nd place. But as I did not see any preliminary round, I could be wrong. It happens :)

My special prizes - Best dress& suit: to Angel Blue wearing a nice dark green gown with some feathers! (Hope I can get some pics...) - to Orhan Yildiz for the shiny black suit.

Ok this was too long maybe... But in the meantime Operalia published on their website the official results so I have to update my result page as well because I missed a tiny thing...

Other remarks (sometimes not positive :) be careful) about the competition and surroundings:

• horrible ticket prizes: (22/29/66/92/296 Euro) - I don't know what was the reason for it but like this they have exluded the normal audience interested in the competition, including young singers or professionals. For 22-29 euro you don't see too much, these were the last floors/rows ticket - for 296 and 96 euro you could sit in the Parterre/1st Floor. Who can afford these prizes???
• this was the reason the public was mixed and terrible: we had 80% VIPs and invited guests... VIPs of Rolex, Local policticians with wife, dressed up (so at the end I was really underdressed...), more politicians, sponsors, cultural business moguls and not so moguls of the culture, some lost celebrities, misplaced press - they were seated in really bad places, friends&family of the competitors, and maybe 15-20% people who bought the ticket. So you could hear really funny conversations between these persons...
  
• The stage decoration and background was also terrible. The orchestra was placed in the pit - I prefer them on stage, even if this is an opera house, I think it is better to have the orchestra on stage during a competition. Because if they are alone on stage you want to put something behind them. And this time they ended up with a big screen which is ok for some short films but it is terrible to display silly pictures and design photos during the performance. It is totally disctracting. Why am I watching 2 eyes during a zarzuela aria??? Why??? Better to chose a plain dark/black background.
• Opening ceremony: local politician (deputy mayor of Budapest) thinks he can speak English and translate himself. He can not do any of these things. And his pronunciation was sooo bad. So please leave this to somebody else. But not to the presenter lady either !!! She was speaking really good English but sometimes she did not translate some important things. The reason? Nobody knows. And she tought that it is ok to translate during an applause. Everybody hears better during an applause, right???
• Better not to speak about the Awards Ceremony. Mr. Domingo is not the best Award Presenter but he does not have to be it... So there was a small confusion who is getting what including some quick ideas of smart people in offering prizes in the last moment... (I'm sure the Budapest Spring Festival was not aware about the decision that the Spanish-ZarzuelaGirl should perform at next year's festival..... And the Opera House's prize was also a last minute prize...)
• and what happened to the mezzo-sopranos????? impossible that there was nobody enough good to enter into the finals... If they let Brigitta enter, why not a mezzo-soprano????
  

Ok, so far that's all.
There is no big conclusion: it is hard to organize a competition that's for sure. But it is good to hear young, talented singers if you can afford the ticket - or you can just get one for free :)

(I will post some pics as well... But later...)

Operalia 2009 - final results - UPDATED

Yesterday was the final round of the Operalia 2009. As far as I could see there was no official results published until this point on the www.operalia.org , so the final results below are not official. But I was there, so here you are...
(Update: about at 7pm they published the results so it is official now - and I missed out one...)

Special prizes:

• Culturarte prize: Arnold Rutkowski, tenor, Poland (10.000 USD)
  
• Special prize offered by Pécs: Kostas Smoriginas, bass-baritone, Lithuania (it is a special Zsolnay vase - should be expensive... and a possibility for a concert in Pécs)
  
• Sprize prize offered by Budapest: Auxiliadora Toledano, soprano, Spain (a possibility for a concert at next year's Budapest Spring Festival)
  
• Rolex Audience Prize - Female voice: Julia Novikova, soprano, Russia (Rolex watch)
  
• Rolex Audience Prize - Male voice: Dimitrios Flemotomos, tenor, Greece (Rolex watch)
• Update: this one was missing: special prize from the Hungarian State Opera House - possibility to perform in a role during the season 2010-11: for Alexey Kudrya, tenor, Russia

Zarzuela prize - Female voice: Angel Blue, soprano, USA (10.000 USD)
Zarzuela prize - Male voice: Dimitrios Flemotomos, tenor, Greece (10.000 USD)

3rd prize - Female voice: Auxiliadora Toledano, soprano, Spain & Anita Watson, soprano, Australia (10.000 USD)
3rd prize - Male voice: Kostas Smoriginas, bass-baritone, Lithuania & Wenwei Zhang, bass, China (10.000 USD)

2nd prize - Female voice: Angel Blue, soprano, USA (20.000 USD)
2nd prize - Male voice: Jordan Bisch, bass, USA & Dimitrios Flemotomos, tenor, Greece (20.000 USD)

1st prize - Female voice: Julia Novikova, soprano, Russia (30.000 USD)
1st prize - Male voice: Alexey Kudrya, tenor, Russia (30.000 USD)

(Later on you can read my impressions as well. Hope these results are correct :))) - I'm quite sure they are correct, but I was a bit excited because of family matters :)))) so better wait for the official results...)

Congratulations to all the contestants it was a really enjoyable evening!

Operalia 2009 in Hungary - the week before the final

Operalia in 2009 is held in Hungary - everything before the Final is in Pécs, and the Final with 12 singers will be at the Opera House in Budapest (1st August) and then again back to Pécs because there will be a Gala concert (free access!!!) with the finalists and of course with Placido.

I'm really happy that this year my country is hosting this event, but I don't know the reasons... They are saying that Placido really loved to do concerts in Pécs during the last years so he thought that it could be fun to do the Operalia in Pécs. Maybe also the local politicians did a great on lobbying at the Operalia organizers because the project "European Capital of Culture - 2010 Pécs" - and they made this competition part of the next years cultural events. But as it is totally impossible to "do a great job as a politician" I better leave this argument and write about the singers...

Today at 6pm they did the Semifinals where 24 singers participated. Now it is 10 pm and I have no personal connections/insider there so the results will be published tomorrow...

But I've already checked out some of the 24 singers entered in the semifinals, and I just want to share some thougts.

I prefer the singers with not too much professional background. A lot of them - ca. the 50-60% - have already participated at several competitions and many of them have already worked in bigger opera houses or performed in different important concert venues. Yes, of course, they are good, but I prefer the less known singers. Evidently now from the 24 I can not tell you which one will be in the final round, but I have favorites...

Here you are a small selection:

• the only Hungarian is: Brigitta Simon (soprano) - she is in the Zarzuela round. (The only thing I've found on youtube was this - she is singing for a bellydancer, if she is actually on this recording... but I think it is funny :) - bit surreal as well...)
• one of bests - a Russian tenor, Alexey Kudrya - hope he will make it until the final and then perform this!!!!! haha... but he could be serious as Lenski...
  
• then we have a Twitterer - Valda Wilson @valdissima and she is from Australia - as my ex-singing-teacher - so GO Aussies GO!!!!
• we have only 2 mezzo-sopranos - is this normal???? I want mooooore mezzos!!!! WHERE ARE THEY???
• then we have 2 singers from China - the tenor, from the clips on YouTube, seems to me a little robot. A really well trained robot with beautiful voice, but too robotish for me. Evidently he can sing as many highC-s as he have to... but unfortunately asian male singers are not my thing, so let's see the others...
• USA baritone, Lee Poulis is a cutie
• and Kostas Smoriginas, from Lithuania is a powerful bass
• and we have millions of sopranos. Just youtube them. They are everywhere.... :) A Queen of the Night for example....
  

Tomorrow we will have more infos...
Good luck for the participants!!!!!!

Everybody does Händel

Our favourite Ildebrando has joined the label Deutsche Grammophon as a solo-artist, and already signed a contract (details here) with DG.
And the result is: a Händel CD will come out in late August - "including selections from Agrippina, Ariodante, Giulio Cesare, Orlando, Rodelinda, and Serse".
(And later, to make more money, they will release a Mozart album as well.)

So if you are not into the tenor-thing, after Rolando's tenor-selection of Händel you can listen to Ildebrando's beautiful dark voice....

Here you are the cover



And if this is not enough, HERE you can find some photoshopped pics of him.... As you could see it on the cd-cover as well... But he does not look like this!!!! Anyway - waiting for the cd to come out...

The Queen of all Wagner Operas...

... in a very bad photo made by me with my phone.

YESS. She is the beautiful and wonderful Waltraud Meier.

The legends are with us!

OK, after the shower-scene - some class and style.
DAME JOAN SUTHERLAND!!!!!!!
Thank you for all the wonderful singing!
(VIA Parsifal - http://parsifal79.blogspot.com)




(And now I hope I won't find any silly stuff - to keep the dignity :))))

I want him in MY shower. Right now.

I know that my blog is already full of men but this footage is essential.

Some follow up.

I was really busy during the last 2 months, so there was no blog-post. Although I twittered or tweeted (I'm not sure about this new words...) about Cecilia's concerts (you can find me on twitter @AskMeAboutOpera).
I also participated at TheOmniscientMussel's operaplot competition - I didn't win - awwwww how sad - but I think I did really funny stuff... - unfortunately I just had 2 hours to write something and then I produced 3 or 4 entries which was a big effort from my part I think...
Then I was forced (no, actually I wasn't) to work with a loooooot of horses, and I did some weddingsinger stuff as well. And now I'm back.

About last night... Ok, it was long time ago.... (DG aka Ildebrando)

So this will be my short (at least I'm trying to be short) and delayed review about the Don Giovanni I was mentioning before.

And the most important thing about this concert was Ildebrando of course. Evidently I want to marry him, any time, anywhere. He is the short, good looking Italian MAN I totally adore. And yes, he can sing too. And he is not a histerical tenor. (And I saw him, YESSSS, from really close...)

Anyway. It was a really simple, but in the same time brilliant and exciting performance. Concert version, so there was no other option for anybody besides the music/singing and some acting. And the conductor, the adorable Adam Fischer (yes, he was the conductor of Cecilia's Maria album) who was conducting without the score - and he was playing along with the singers. The Don Giovanni-Leporello duo was a typical handsome man-big belly man partnership, in this case really funny. Donna Anna (Krassimira Stoyanova) was superb, his usually "without balls" Don Ottavio seemed to have balls this time, even he was a jump-in-singer - Saimir Pirgu. Zerlina had big boobies with a glittering voice, sometime a bit overplayed, and his Masetto was forgettable, but generally Masettos are not so important... They just get beatened.

Donna Elvira's singing was also excellent (whole cast see in my previous post, I'm too lazy now to copy everybody, shame on me), and the Commendatore's acting was too statuesqe, but as you know he is becoming a statue, so you are not wondering about this.

And our beloved Ildebrando d'Archangelo, the owner of the most beautiful Italian name on earth, was sexy and funny, and whatsoever. (Last time I saw him in October, again Don Giovanni, but he was singing the part of Leporello, and I was sitting 2327657621546 meters away in the audience, in the last row at the MET, I didn't realize that he is so good. And I have to admit as well that I fell asleep after 5 minutes, because the jetlag... Sorry...)

So please Ildebrando, after marrying me, keep singing DonGiovanni (with Erwin Schrott as Leporello, of course) and I can die FELICE :))))

And evidently, thank you Wolfie for writing this THING for us. The world needed it.

If you think Radames should wear golden shiny leggings, this is not a surprise for you...

Again, our favourite Mr. C. is presenting us the high fashion of Opera Characters.
Fortunately he had really nice legs back in 1999.

(pic: a screenshot from a clip)

Breaking news - finally I will have it!!!!!! But what???

FINALLY... Very soon I will have the DVD of this amazing movie...
Here you are, the poster, so you know what I will be watching...


But unfortunately I still don't know what to do.... Evidently I wanted to watch this really sad movie at a cinema, but as Hungary is really far from the civilization, the next possibility to see this "live" was in Vienna...
And you know that it is way more coooler to cry around during this opera in a big movie theater with cinema sound and to see Anna+Rolando's big face in front of you like they were giants...
And it is sooo lame to watch this only at home on your small tv. So I have to go to a friends house who has big screen tv or something like that. But I think I don't have a friend like that... Awwww what a shame.
Anyway, I try to watch this in a good qualitiy and to convince somebody to join me at my 'Let's see the Boheme and cry a lot'-Party. And then I will let you know if Anna is still so beautiful as usual.

Opera could be fun - if you have only 140 characters...

Meanwhile trying to catch up with the new posts, here you are, some candy.

Other blogger, The Omniscient Mussel, made a contest on Twitter (I don't like it, I mean Twitter - ok, I admit, it is useful for something, but until this point - not for me...) and the results are here.

The idea was to do opera-plots with 140 characters. And to be funny and explain the totally nonsense story of operas... You have to check it out - it is hilarious.

The best material was presented by the user "urbanophile" describing Maestro Béla Bartók's 'A kékszakállú herceg vára' - hope you don't mind the Hungarian words :)

Ur a psycho but I married you anyway. “Don’t ask me about my business.” Sorry, I gots to know. Ok, it’s Door #7 for you, bitch.

So, good night, bitches :)

DonGiovanni tonight...

This night I will see Don Giovanni for the 5372652372387 time. Ok, maybe it is only the 10th time I attend a live performance of Wolfie's masterpiece.

And it will be a concert version. Ooooooh what a shame.

BUTTTTTTTT I really hope to see from the closest, this hottie - an ex-Escamillo-on-da-horse.

I already saw Ildebrando d'Archangelo at the MET, singing Leporello, but this time we will se how is he doing as DonJuan.

The others...

Don Giovanni: Ildebrando D`Arcangelo

Commendatore: Dan Paul Dimitrescu

Donna Anna: Krassimira Stoyanova

Don Ottavio: Saimir Pirgu

Donna Elvira: Aga Mikolaj

Leporello: Wolfgang Bankl

Zerlina: Alexandra Reinprecht

Masetto: Nagy Zoltán

Leporello hotness

A sweaty Leporello treated badly.

© AP

(In a Claus Guth production of Don Giovanni. Salzburg 2008. Erwin Schrott is the sweaty one.)

I like this production, but a lot of people don't. Because they don't like drog addict DonGiovannis and Leporellos. They love the "I'm in a traditional peridod dress" DonGiovannis. I think this is more fun.

New blog on the horizon - Anne Midgette

As the poor people have to read also some reliable and solid posts (not like my silly ones...), we are really happy that another professional journalist is became a blogger.

Anne Midgette, from the Washington Post started The Classical Beat and seems to be more than interesting.

I'm looking forward to see Ms. Midgette's posts especially because she made me feel sooooooo proud in February, writing this nice review about an old couple from Hungary - capturing the essence of that unforgettable moment of the music history.

Never be late

I see now, that it is really hard to write about the latest news. Because it is possible that somebody else in the world has the same ideas as you, gets the brand new information before you, and writes it down before you. You have to be quick.

So after reading this http://parterre.com/?p=3255 I gave up to write about Rolando's Werther in Paris and the cancellation at the MET. Not because I have the same opinion, but.... there is no but, I wanted to be revolutionary HAHA.

So as this post has no sense, just keep reading my other stuff.

Because I have to

Thanks to (user) PerTeQuaggiu on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/PerTeQuaggiu), our beloved Master is alive, more than ever. So you just have to check this user's channel, and you will find sooooomany interesting footage of Giacomo & co. He is hunting, using the modern technology like the motor boat, motorcycle and whatsoever. And besides composing which is obvious he had to do, he is talking to women. So you can se HIM flirting with a girl in the village. Ok, maybe I was just thinking that he is doing that...

Those videos are evidently silent movies, BUT, if you have never heard the Maestro's voice, just listen to this. In 1907, during the preparations for La Fanciulla del West, he went to NYC together with his wife, and their voice was recorded. So here you are: Giacomo (and ELVIRA!!!!) talking to the people of America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPXPZWilkAk

Garden-party Violetta

A small present before the week-end, some vintage Netrebko from the past... Singing from La Traviata and showing some legs. Which is good. If you are beautiful like her.

(from The Princess Diaries 2)

Simply touching (before going to sleep, you have to watch this!)

If you want to be a singer - or just educated

YouTube is your friend.

And this user is also your friend because he/she shares with you the knowledge of knowlegde for singers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Operalala

Here you will find ca. 300 videos of masterclass (only with sound, no image) recorded in 1971-72, at the Julliard School (where the ballerinas are really running around in tu-tu skirts and stockings... I saw that with my own eyes!!!)...

And of course Maria is giving those incredibly useful classes about how to sing. And yes, she is cruel. Ok, not evil cruel but supporting cruel, because she knows everything so you should listen to her!!!!!!!!

Enjoy, and use the force!!!!!

This happens when you are a prepared journalist and you are asking questions... and Placido is answering

Not just "opera is boring" even this interview is boring.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/188227

But Placido is a gentleman and doesn't send the stupidquestionsasking person to hell.

So thank you Newsweek.

(via parterre.com)

Some hotness

I know you want and love this :)

And yes, opera singers should have muscles (ok, he has also some extra weight as well, but who cares????)

And nice curly black hair.... Grrrrrrrrr.

(and sorry for not posting the source of the picture, I don't remember from where I got this...)

Role models - the old foxes...

I would like to give you some really useful information, what you should read, if you want to be updated in the opera-classicalmusic-Iloveoperastars-world.

First of all.

http://operachic.typepad.com/

This young lady living in Milan is an essential, basic, unmissable. I think she is the Perez Hilton of the OperaWorld. She knows everything before everybody. And sometime you can get some gossip as well.

And the second favourite is:

http://mostlyopera.blogspot.com/

She (also a woman :)) is living in Denmark and travels a lot and has amazing reviews, she is way more reserved than OC, but this is the key, I really belive her because she seems to be very objective. She is more into Wagner and contemporary works, so if you are interested in the Italian sillyness, this is not a good place for you.

Some others, without any order...

http://parterre.com/

If you are more interested in the US happenings, everything about the MET, New York, and those people's opinion who are seeing and hearing every night some 1st class stars and divas, like Renée, Placido, Natalie, Juan Diego, Waltraut, Anna, Rolando, etc... then this is your place.

For fans of Barcelona and the Liceu (for fans I mean myself) 2 blogs

http://gtltornt.wordpress.com/

She/he (I thik more a she) started new kind of posts now, I have to study the system to have some additional opinion. The problem generally is that after I left my beloved town of Barcelona, I don't like to read about the productions at the Liceu because it makes me cry. And sorrow.

But you should visit this blog :)

The other one is:

http://ximo.wordpress.com/

He is writing in Catalan (there is a translator program too), I suppose he is Catalan (and once I thougt I knew him, and maybe I really do) and sometimes he is making some contests, not easy ones, so I decided to not participate anymore because I started to cry. And sorrow. :)

A greek one, with immensely interesting productions at the Greek National Opera - I should go there once - but sometimes there are the toooo fan-ish stories - which is good, but maybe not for me.

http://parsifal79.blogspot.com/

Speaking of fans: if you don't want to miss anything about Anna

http://anna-netrebko.blogspot.com/

And if you go to London to visit your family-member, read this before:

http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/

And if you think that singers are dumb and don't have any interesting thoughts - you will be shocked:

http://yankeediva.blogspot.com/

And finally if you are a woman looking for a man - or more precisely you are excited to see some flesh of male singers: http://barihunks.blogspot.com/

Have a nice blog-reading-time!!!!

Good old Giacomo

Giacomo was born 151 years ago (in 1858 - if you can not arrive to this conclusion :)), so we should celebrate!!!!!!!! Ok, of course, you are asking why 151???????
I wanted to celebrate him last year but I was too busy, so let's do the 151Years Celebration...

Later on I will try to worship THE MASTER, Puccini, of course... but not with lame banalities like everybody does, because generally the anniversaries are soooooo boring, we can se the Boheme for the 214253625 time, in a 50 years old production and then some concert with arias like Recondita armonia.... NO. This makes me sick. This is boring. We don't need this.
Let's start with a nice photo of the MasterGiacomo and me. In Viareggio, long time ago... And of course, you won't see my head. I am a bunny or something.

There should be a first one...

Behold People, this is my Blog!!!!!!!!!!
And this is my first post... generally the first posts are hard to write, so I won't try to do a perfect 1st one.
Anyway.
During the last weeks and months and years I discovered a lot of reeaaaalllly interesting blogs about operas, performances, opera houses, and first of all, opera singers.
Then I was thinking... As I have a lot of immensely amusing stories, personal experiences, and gossip about this world, I have to share it with the people out there...:)
So here we are.
About me: female, 31 - getting really old - and living in no man's land... (Hungary...) from where I have to escape several times.

And get excited about my second one!!!!!!!

PS: My English is totally gappy :) but I don't really care... So don't write me about this... I know that!