Death of the diva(s)

This year has been marked by the passing of quite a few very famous opera singers including Canadian Maureen Forrester, Italian Bass-baritone Cesare Siepi (one of my favorites), English tenor Philip Langridge and most recently, the Australian, Dame Joan Sutherland and American Shirley Verrett.
These singers were all household names internationally and set the standard for excellent operatic singing during the 20th century (with many others).
Here are just two samples of their work:

Note the ease with which each of these singers sings...truly beautiful singing (bel canto).

For more about Shirley Verrett check out the NY Times article on her :
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/arts/music/06verrett.html

Thank you!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Opera Hamilton for a memorable experience. Also a big bravo and thank you to the wonderful cast, director and conductor!

I hope to work with all of you very soon.

Sing in!

Most people don't really know what goes on during a rehearsal period for an opera. I've written in the past about a typical day, but I thought I'd write a bit more about the process. The singers, director and conductor usually arrive in the host city one day before rehearsals begin. If it's your home town, then you're in luck! No planes, trains and/or automobiles not to mention jet lag. Depending on the company the first rehearsal involves sing through the opera, or a sing in. In each singer's contract it is stipulated that they must sing full voice during this rehearsal (anywhere from 3-6 hrs). They must also know the music by memory. If they do not sing full voice or do not know the music, then they are back on the plane. That's it, no second chances. Forget a pay cheque.
The sing in is one of the more stressful days. You've arrived the night before and are probably exhausted and you must sing through the opera in front of a full cast of people who you probably have never met(never mind the director of the company, conductor and other vips). This sing in is their first impression of you.
The good part is that everyone else is in the same operatic boat (sea-doo?).
After the sing in, it's on to staging the opera. This is done in order unless the director decides otherwise or unless there is a singer that is missing a rehearsal for whatever reason.
That's when the fun begins!
If you are interested in learning more about what happens behind the scenes and also hearing from the performers, you may want to download the Lyric Opera of Chicago Podcasts from iTunes. It's free!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lyric-opera-chicago-podcasts/id264656099?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Butterfly

Having had the pleasure of performing with this wonderful artist, I thought I would share a clip of her singing Un bel dì vedremo, from Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
In this aria, Butterfly dreams of a day when her Pinkerton ( a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy) will return to her. There is a reason that this opera is one of the most popular in the world. Puccini certainly knew how to write a good tune!
Hiromi Omura sang this role in Montreal a few years ago and it was one of the highlights of my operatic life so far.
Enjoy!

Click for Concerts

I'm not sure what we did before the Internet. There are so many great sites and musical links online. There are some excellent recordings of live concerts online through CBC/Radio-Canada's website. My favourites are the jazz and classical concerts, but they have many different genres. In a time when our public broadcaster is cutting staff, intelligent programming (just my opinion) and budgets for live recordings of great Canadian artists, it's good to know that there are still some events being covered.
Stay tuned for my future rant on my view of what public broadcasting should be.
In the meantime check out some shows (online or the old fashioned way)!

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/

The Tenor

Two posts in a week! I'm getting there.

I thought that this interview with the preeminent Canadian tenor Ben Heppner was very interesting. You may recognize him from the Winter Olympics, or from the stage of the Met or the COC. Ben has performed just about everywhere in the world and is very well respected and down to earth.

What I find very pertinent (selfishly) to my own career are his comments on family and travel. I love what I do and I love to discover new places and I love waking up in random cities and countries. However after 5 weeks in a hotel room(no matter how good) it's nice to come home.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/ben-heppner-international-opera-star-and-homebody/article1645095/

Here is Ben in a slightly dated production.....Great singing though!

and we're back....

It turns out that I'm not that great at posting regularly. I hope to change this over the summer months when I am not as busy.

One of the most common questions I am asked is, " What company do you work for?"

Well....my own, sort of. All singers in a way are their own bosses. Many singers start their professional careers by working for a company in that company's young artist or ensemble program. This can last anywhere between 1-3 years. During that time you are an employee of the opera company. After 'graduating' you are typically on your own. Opera companies hire you on a contract basis. That means that you are hired for x amount of time to do y number shows. For example, a singer can be hired for a 5 week contract consisting of 3.5 weeks of rehearsals and 4 shows. The singer is paid per show and is technically not paid for the rehearsal period. This means that if he/she is too ill to perform, then they do not get paid for that performance.

The goal is to string together a number of contracts during a season and hopefully space them out in such a way that there is enough time to learn new roles, practice and be vocally rested/healthy.

As a side note, there are singers that work as company employees. They are mainly in Europe and work under fest contracts. More on that at a later point.

Basically I (along with my colleagues) am self-employed.

Revenue Canada agrees.

Now time to do my taxes...oops.

Enjoy the summer festival season!

If the Schu fits....

Obviously posting regularly is not my forte(no pun intended). I will over the next coming weeks try to update more often.

When people think of opera, they usually associate it with Pavarotti or Domingo or Callas (or pick your favorite). They also tend to associate opera with Puccini, Verdi, Wagner or Mozart. As they should!

However many opera singers not only sing opera, but oratorio and art song as well. Oratorio is opera based on a biblical text that is not staged. Good examples of this are Handel's Messiah, or Mendelssohn's Elijah.

Art song or Lied (meaning song in German), or Mélodie (in French) is a more intimate form of Western Classical singing. It involves a pianist and a singer (or occasionally a small string ensemble). Typically the performing venue is much smaller than an opera house (ranging from 50 - 1000 seats). This music focuses on the text and the interplay between the singer and the piano. There are no elephants, zebras, giraffes or costumes.

There are many well known composers that wrote hundreds of art songs based on poetry from little known poets to the heavy weights such as Heinrich Heine, Victor Hugo and even Shakespeare.

My favorite art song composers are Schubert, Schumann, Fauré, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Duparc...and the list goes on.

This type of intimate art form is not performed as often in North America as in Europe. If you have a chance to experience it, do so! They are a quick fix for the music bug (1-1.5 hours max).

Here's a great example of this increasingly rare art form (written by Robert Schumann with poetry by Joseph von Eichendorff):

Mozart

One of the perks of being a singer is having the opportunity to travel to many different places. This month I am in beautiful Victoria, B.C.

Although rehearsing takes up quite a bit of the day, I do get a chance to enjoy the city and the beautiful scenery. I am working with a very talented group of people on Mozart's masterpiece, Cosi fan tutte.

This scene is taken from a Glyndebourne Festival in England (http://www.glyndebourne.com/). The DVD is one of my favorites as it combines excellent singing with convincing acting and the genius of Mozart and his librettist,Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Mozart is one of my favorite composers. He knew how to write for the voice and he built in all of the drama into the score. He was truly a genius and it's a pleasure to be able to work on his operas. Cosi fan tutte, like Nozze di Figaro or Don Giovanni (or really any of his works) is a life work. I could spend my whole life studying and performing it and never perfect it. It is that complex and well written.

Check out Pacific Opera Victoria's website for more information. It's a great company, city and opera!

http://www.pov.bc.ca/

Tech week

Ah, Tech week!

Tech week is probably the most stressful time for a singer (or a director or a conductor etc.). This is the first time that the production moves from the rehearsal space to the theatre. Typically during an opera run, we spend 2-3 weeks in a rehearsal hall that bears no resemblance to the actual stage that we perform on.

Monday night is tech rehearsal and the first night that we get to see the set. It is here that we find out that some things don't work so well in the hall. We practice entrances, spacing and anything that involves technical aspects (opening doors, entering from trap doors, climbing/descending stairs). Some of these may be very simple and others are quite complex. It's almost always stressful due to the lack of time that we have to get accustomed to the sets and the (usually) much larger space we have to work on.

Tuesday is music night! It's here where we wander the stage and concentrate on getting it together with the conductor and orchestra(the term is wandelprobe, which means wandering rehearsal). This rehearsal is strictly for music. It's the first time we get to sing with the orchestra (up until then the rehearsals are with piano).

Wednesday night is piano dress rehearsal typically, although this may vary from theatre to theatre. We are fully costumed and made up (make up, wigs if necessary). We run the show from the top but without the orchestra.

Thursday is dress rehearsal, with an audience typically (students, or various invitees). This is the real deal, with costumes, orchestra and no stopping (in theory).

Friday is off and then it's showtime on Saturday.

More to come about the latest opera that I am in!

Welcome!

I have recently launched my website and have decided to start a blog alongside.

I'll be blogging periodically about opera, concerts, my own performing, and basically anything I come across that I find interesting in the classical world.

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Austrian Bass-baritone Florian Boesch in recital along with Roger Vignoles at the piano. The program consisted of Schumann and Schubert lied(songs). It was a fabulous recital. Boesch has an incredible lower and middle voice and was able to vary the mood using a wide array of colours. Each piece was well sung and well performed dramatically. He already has a stellar career performing across Europe in the major recital halls and opera houses. Go see him if you have the chance!

In the upcoming days I'll be blogging about my recent and upcoming operas!

Meanwhile enjoy the Olympics!