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!