Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Can One Cigarette Harm Your Baby

Anna Caterina Antonacci is the greatest!


... yet it is simple!

Heard last night in his show "Altre Stelle, it is extraordinary.

Program:
Etienne Nicolas Mehul

Andante from Symphony No. 2

Hector Berlioz

Death of Ophelia, Op. 18. (Part 1)

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Sicilian extracted from Armida

Jean Philippe Rameau
cruel mother loves (air Phaedra, Hippolytus and Aricia)
Cristoph Willibald Gluck

Finally it is in my power (Air Armida)
Ballet des Ombres happy (Orpheus and Eurydice)
Renaud, sky eludes me! Fatal penalty. The treacherous Renaud eludes me. When the barbarian was in my power (three tunes from Armide)

Luigi Cherubini

Medea, Act II opening
From dreadful state that consumes me (air Medea)

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Air Furies (Orphee et Eurydice)

Hector Berlioz
At sea, look! six vessels (air Dido in Les Troyens)
Ah! I'm dying! Farewell, proud city (monologue and air Dido)
Death of Ophelia, Op.18 (part 2)

Everything impresses me in the choices of Anna Caterina Antonacci: In his song, first . Respect of style, always, impeccable diction, in all directories. Never has the choice of the facility at risk not to appear brighter than those who only account for the vocal swagger. She has tried everything in these records, counting voice in composers like Monteverdi's madrigals.

must have courage to try out standards in this way a solo show based on the unspectacular, the simple class, thepresent, the ability to capture the scene.

In all her appearances, she is like a kind of star that illuminates the scene (hence the title of the show, Altre Stelle, wahouw!) And this time she chose these heroines lyyrique French Tragedy.

The success was complete, one will be amazed with the only mainetenant want to hear all these roles in full. After his Cassandra Trojans by Berlioz, tragically, his Alice Ford in Falstaff by Verdi, comic, his Bizet's Carmen, with great intelligence, his Monteverdi sorry, but you it will give us those heroines that summon demons scene?

I look forward to the integral roles on stage, this show is too awesome not to have now!

Monday, April 27, 2009

A Acrostic Poem For Guitar

Verdi's Macbeth - Opera Bastille - Spirit, are you there?


here's a great show to discuss conventional stagings or transposed.
Debate
it is time to have, in fact, with the arrival of Nicolas Joel in the direction of the Paris Opera, the days of the German Regietheater are counted in our beautiful capital. Perhaps also the days of staging, as staged by Nicolas Joel itself are planned, and frankly, between staged by Nicolas Joel and no staging, the difference is not always obvious ... But that's another debate.

With this staging of Dmitri Tcherniakov, we are facing another problem: that of staging very detailed but incomprehensible. It

the second time I see a staging of this Russian. He presented a Eugene Onegin Tchaikovsky's classic but very slightly transposed in September, with a direction of actors bluffing.

In this Macbeth, too, the direction of actors is impressive. Nothing is left to chance, every gesture is thought and meaning. The concern is that when I say that, I mean, it is clear that every gesture is thought and makes sense. The concern is that we do not understand what the director has thought and what direction he wanted to give.

Scotland No, no witches, no forest advance. Not even kilts or halberds. A microcosm philistine that we follow from Google Earth, history told us that it could be anywhere (though it seems that it is in Russia), anytime: the costumes, elegant, are strange point of view, they are "bourgeois XX" without precise time.

Otherwise, it is an urban guerrilla warfare followed through Google Earth.

Macbeth is a notable local poor. The awareness of his mediocrity mixed with his lust for power, aided by his wife, makes him believe that he became king of Scotland, basically. Ensuing few murders and a revolt not as clear his wife is trying to save face.

Nothing is easy to follow.

Witches have been replaced by a chorus. Why? What is the supernatural so scary for a director of the XXI century? Frankly, I have no idea. I see it as a kind of conformism of intellectuals who equate any aspect of this subculture. Actually, I do not know.

The viewer of this Verdi is constantly faced with two problems:




- follow the staging. It is difficult, many things are suggested and characters described are quite complex.

- follow the original. This is necessary because it is the text that is sung.

The alternative would be: totally stop reading the surtitles and simply follow the stage action. Or does that read the surtitles and do not watch.

Or do like me, trying to keep both, but perilous fiscal stimulus to the brain (the Paris Opera and could help people
affected by Alzheimer's disease: test your skills and abilities of abstraction to follow two stories at the same time with no link). Another

question I ask myself sometimes why such director does not he write, rather than rewriting the parts of others? A lack of courage, the choice of the facility? Because in this case, it is doubtful the slightest interest in the plot of Verdi or Shakespeare. Finally, I do not know either ...

Another thing bothers me: it's become very fashionable to sing behind a veil. Here, as projections of Google Earth are made on the entire surface of the stage, there is a transparent veil which shields the film, but it does mean that the singers sing continuously behind the veil, even behind this veil and curtains when in addition there is a curtain on stage. Given the acoustics of the Opera Bastille, which tends to stifle the voices, it's pure stupidity.

Anyway I had a good time, it's good theater Tcherniakov fact, you never get bored for a moment to follow what happens on stage. It is very elegant without being decoration, definitely something resonates among its staging and the world in which we live. He makes Regietheater strictly a staged dialectic, which questions the work. Onegin and September shows that this is not a fan of gratuitous provocation nor the technological trendy.

The direction of the Chief Teodor Currentzis is very funny. He is young, fired, hand in all directions. It is both fashionable and angry. It is far from the norm of the conductor seriously (Richard Strauss said he ran with one hand in his waistcoat pocket and that if he was using it to run is that there was a big worry). Currentzis is onomatopoeia, breath, waving his arms windmilling, pointing in odd directions, is in itself almost an annex to the staging. Nevertheless, it offers a very dramatic version of the score, not the bluster is its way of being and result is interesting and lively. I do not know how it will evolve towards more sober or not, but a leader who emerges something nice.



Originally, Carlos Alvarez, who was to provide the title role. Verdi-baritone has been a chaotic season and was replaced by Dmitri Tiliakos, excellent. It embodies a Macbeth overtaken by events, the song is subtle touching, but his voice is perhaps not sufficiently planned for the huge room of Bastille. Nevertheless, there have been air of great beauty (the final aria from Macbeth, in particular).

Violetta Urmana is much more involved than what you may read here and there, even if it does not identify with Lady Macbeth raging. The stamp is not beautiful in itself, it suffers a bit in the treble, but rather it is an impressive command. This is the song without added sugar, simple and powerful. It is not a bad actress either, contrary to my fears. Stefano Secco

MacDuff is a luxury in a singing lesson with a Verdi tenor, which I find more impressive every time I hear it, and Ferruccio Furlanetto was always her voice with its enormous impact.

All these elements make this interesting Macbeth production, even if not necessarily perfect or fully polished (I think I'm getting better mastery of the art of phrase that means nothing ...)


Church Anniversary Congratulation Letter

A little sugar in the Storm: Riders to the Sea by Ralph Vaughan Williams


by a small hook theater does not usually of opera: the Athenaeum - Louis Jouvet.

From April 8 to 11, there was a show about "Riders to the Sea" by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1937), a performance advantage of Rheims who finished grade is a French tour with a young cast assembled for the occasion .

was an opportunity to experience an opera composer that does not haunt the opera house, we can not say.

The piece is by John Millington Synge, Irish poet wandering, written in 1903. The action takes place in the Aran Islands in a bitter and violent universe. This may evoke the Sinners Iceland Pierre Loti, but in an even more desolate. Synge writes in "The Aran Islands" "This cry of pain-consciousness seems to lay bare for a moment and reveal the mood of human beings who feel their isolation from a world whose winds and waves make war against them. They are usually silent, but in the presence of death, while sham of indifference or patience is forgotten, and they howl of despair, Pitou, to the horror of the fate that they are all doomed. " (quoted in the program, translation by P. Leyris).

is dark and beautiful. I felt that the music of Ralph Vaughan-Williams fading subject. It's nice to hear a beautiful lyrical to the Anglo-Saxon music that evokes the film, but it runs in circles After a moment, and it sounds very sweet compared to the text. inserts Beautiful Irish melodies, very well orchestrated.

My favorite is the song cycle on Stevenson's texts, early show.

proper interpretation of singers: Jacqueline Mayeur, Patrice Verdelet, Elsa Levy, Sevan Manoukian. Excellent small orchestra of the Grand Theatre de Reims and the Champagne Thibaut choir directed by Jean-Luc Tingaud.








Discover Ralphie!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Frontier Junction Lincoln Logs Instructions

Rolando Villazon Werther great - Edit: Suspension operation of his career.


Well, I'll add my stone to the edifice of the rumor, but a stone interrogative. This

Werther given at the Opera Bastille in a pretty elegant staging by Jürgen Rose, beautifully conducted by Kent Nagano (yes, I like the directions of international standard with full details and we will normally scratch because the style does is not French, include wheezing like Plasson) and a beautiful voice board with Susan Graham, Ludovic Tézier Alain Vernhes.

But the corridors buzzing with rumors about the vocal health of Rolando Villazon.

Flash Back. Two years ago. Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Bastille. Stormed by the public queues last minute crazy, Villazon is the star to be understood. Capital sympathy he enjoys is huge, almost everyone is convinced that he will hear an event.

Today. The queues are more sparse. It must also say that Werther attracts less likely that the Tales of Hoffmann. But what is different is the atmosphere. The lines buzzing with comments on the status of the voice of lead singer. Everyone seems to want to bring his expertise. Certainties fuse "the voice is damaged, for sure" and has his theory about why the problems, overwork, amateurism in the choice of roles, lack of preparation, heavy roles chosen.

And the debate is not confined to the public of the most painful of the opera, thanks to an article in a boundless stupidity of Marie-Aude Roux in Le Monde, are all aware of the rumor.

What is the origin of the rumors? Just after the Tales of Hoffmann Bastille, Villazon was arrested three months. "The doctors said six months' provide experts who, in addition, must be in the doctor's office when Villazon consulted. Finally, I guess, otherwise how would they know what they say doctors, or is it just malicious gossip?

Since his return, Villazon is the subject of the worst scans. Any representation canceled is the source of speculation of all kinds, any quack recorded pirate is immediately relayed to YouTube learned with flood of comments on this incident would mark the undeniable decline of tenor voice premature.

But between the two performances I attended, actually, what we hear?

A character, always the same, which gives everything on stage. Too, say the Cassandras. The voice is beautiful, radiant. The actor is disarming, awkward but charismatic beyond anything I know. It carries all the reticence in his first appearance on stage. His diction French is a bit strange, probably because of an issue which I think is very throat. I feel it is a very good diction, though accented vowels and consonants with all but the huge Bastille these qualities are lost, it would require a more intimate room. But it is Rolando Villazon, and rightly triumph every time. But still, the damage is done. The comments are a bit skeptical, nobody wants to join without noting that "it knows that there is a problem."

But who knows what, exactly? Nothing.

Rolando Villazon ensures that there is no problem. After the hearing, I do not recall such large differences between the two services, two years apart.

Is what he says true? After all, I have no evidence to say otherwise. But I did not hear voice hidden in deep trouble when he sang Hoffmann, and again in difficulty in Werther, from my skepticism that I compare two of the same singer in her bad days? I do not know. I find that there is little concrete and lots of rumors in these stories.

The music journalists, themselves, do not get wet, but they attack so insidious suddenly praising the merits of the version sung baritone Werther by Ludovic Tézier, as if to say "word to the wise, hello!".

I find it distasteful, loose, only latent and malicious attacks.

I am tempted to trust Rolando Villazon. It was extraordinary in this Werther, why not say so? And wait to see next season how things evolve, as the directions of operas continue to trust him and engage him in a very busy schedule. If there is problem, then we'll see if there are none, this period has been an unpleasant interlude in the career of a singer it was fashionable to praise without reserves two years ago and then denigrate without accurate information this year.

Me I'm impatient. And happy to see that the audience applauded in every performance, more than deserved.

Edit: So there was indeed a problem, this time recognized. Rolando Villazon is repaired vocal cords, announced April 29. It doiut stop until the end of the year.

Good luck! and good recovery!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Blue Packaged Gummmi Bears

Dusapin - The cycle of seven forms at the Cité de la Musique


On March 27, 2009, the Liege Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Pascal Rophé gave the City of Music the entire cycle forms of Pascal Dusapin. It seems that this cycle is now complete, it has become over the years a symphonic work of great magnitude written and created over the years and whose total duration should be longer than 2 hours.

GB
Extenso
Apex
Clam
Exeo
Reverso
Uncut (creation)

Dusapin's music his own, he gets a clean style with a complex method of writing based on a base material fairly simple, it really is not tonal, it seems you modal methods using scores of 4-5, but can coexist with others. It creates a original harmony, some contemplative, some moving with simple melodic lines that stretch or tangle.

It's nice to hear, there is a sense of music accessible but a bit monotonous. Dusapin claims a certain chaos in his music, I think it is included in elegant orchestrations that make it harmless. Go hand in simple patterns that will be disturbed, full on time dilation with variations on the grounds of Go seems you Apex is a complex construction of interlocking rhythms with spasms and a subtle harmony. It's always in good taste, I think Dusapin, he has invented something, invented political chaos. Carefully, he claims a work on music as a kind of physical matter that model physical phenomena playing on blistering, leveling, folds, fingerprints ... This is the basis of Clam. Sound waves that affect the stability and instability in Exeo.

There is a nice feeling, but also a sense of music essentially decorative. And quite repetitive if Dusapin claims every time a different method of writing, an opposition, a contradiction, a reversal ... Yet I seem to hear the same beautiful and mysterious from beginning to end.

Very nice performance
the orchestra of Liege.

No way to find this great cycle for orchestra or a party, but the Dusapin, there MusicMe on, for example the disk of the same family: