Dream Mezzo Roles

So, these last few days I’ve been wanting to write so much, almost like in the beginning of the blog when I’d post every day. Ah well, who listened to La Traviata on Thursday night? It was quite something hun? This one I really wish I was actually seeing, I mean, Placido and Diana in roles debuts, it’s too good to miss. Well there is another radio broadcast on the 30^th so I’ll have to make do with that.

I’ve decided to make the dream role thing a series, I already got loads of categories like Dream Pants Roles, Dream French Roles, Dream Baroque Roles, Dream Mozart Roles… But today I decided I’d talk about roles I’m not very likely to play, My Dream Mezzo Roles.

This is in no particular order, but the first role I wrote down was Carmen from Bizet’s Carmen. I mean, she is all kinds of awesome, and absolutely can have the world on the tip of her finger. Apart from the fact that the music written for this whole opera is just perfection, and one of my favorites, the character is so iconic that I’d love to give it a go. She’s a proud woman which I like a lot, plus you get to die on stage maybe being murdered by Jonas Kauffmann, you never know… (So not gonna happen!)

Vesselina Kasarova as Carmen

Another French heroin(ish) that I’d love to play is Charlotte from Massenet’s Werther. At first I must admit she kind of annoyed me a bit because she wouldn’t just give in and run away with Werther. But in this sort of situation you have to put yourself in their shoes but not with your 21^st Century they can get a divorce anyway eyes but with their eyes and see how they were brought up and such to see that it is absurd and against everything they believe leaving one’s spouse. It’s sad, but true, I’d love to play the parts they are together in the third act and she almost gives in, it’s such a dramatic role and I love it.

Alice Coote as Charlotte

Still talking about the fantastic roles Massenet wrote for mezzos one of my biggest dream roles is definitely Cendrillon/Lucette in his Cendrillon. This one is mainly because of the beautiful, beautiful music that is written for Cinderella, and who never wanted to play a princess, hun? It might as well be in French and with lush and melodramatic melodies! Plus the trio from the third act makes it all worth it, and the way Prince Charmant and Cendrillon love each other is so different from say Cenerentola and her whole “let good reign” motto. They are indescribably in love not just dazzled by one another, and that I think is super!

 Joyce Didonato as Cendrillon in the 2008 Royal Opera House production

Now let’s go, back, back, back to one of favorite baroque characters, the most definitely unstable Dejanira from Handel’s Hercules. I say that Dejanira’s mad aria “Where Shall I Fly?” is hands down the best mad scene/aria EVER! I know what you are gonna say, what about Lucia? Yeah, I get that a lot, but think about it, Dejanira just killed the REAL love of her life, not someone she was forced to marry, but someone she wanted to grow old with and whom she utterly adored, and she, with her suspicion killed him. And the fact that she starts also hallucinating is fantastic, but it’s not the nice kind of hallucination like in Lucia, it’s the sisters or whomever that have come to judge her and punish her. Awesome role!

Alice Coote as Dejarina

Something I just could not leave out is Rosina from Rossini's Il Barbieri di Siviglia one of the sassiest roles in opera. I mean she has beautiful arias and musical interventions and actually is smarter than anyone else in this opera. Sure she gets fooled by Figaro and Almaviva to think Almaviva is Lindoro, but she makes up the most ridiculously brilliant excuses to get out of trouble. Plus she is the kind of strong proud character I love (funny how these are always the Spanish girls, Carmen, Rosina, Beatrice). And it’s comedy, as much as I love to die on stage, making the audience laugh does something to me, it gives me a lot of joy, that sometimes I laugh myself because I’m so happy they laughed at my joke, but I have that under control now…

Vesselina Kasarova as Rosina

Last but definitely not least is the amazing Béatrice from Berlioz’s Beatrice et Bénédict. I’ve already played this character in the Shakespearean play Much Ado About Nothing and I must say it’s one of the most fun roles I’ve ever played. She’s , just like Rosina, sassy and impetuous, plus you get to real spit on the guy before you say, “Ahh, ok, I love you too, let’s get married”. The fights they have are absolutely delicious and their vocal exchange is hard to match!

Joyce DiDonato as Béatrice in the Houston Grand Opera in 2008

That’s basically it, again my examples of the roles floated around my favorite singers (aka Joyce DiDonato, Vesselina Kasarova and Alice Coote). Today I have a pretty wild party to go to, and still have to make lunch. Yesterday I made risotto while singing along to Danielle De Niese’s Cleopatra arias and Joyce DiDonato’s Furore. So when my mum asked me what was my secret because it tasted wonderful I just said “Well, I sang on it” hahaha I’m pathetic, ok bye!

Confessions of a Shopaholic!

Where do I start? First by saying, holy cow, I haven’t posted in a while hun… I’m still in my never ending Orlando trip here in the US. But I’m getting back to Brasil tomorrow and actually getting there on Saturday and going straight to the movie theatre to watch Rigoletto. Everything you can imagine went wrong in regards to my dreamy trip to NY this weekend, as you may know, it didn’t happen. Yeah, damn snow that cancelled my flight on Friday and made me lose my Rigoletto and my mum’s mind. She got real upset about it, and I decided that for her sake I wouldn’t go, I was sure that she would get real sick if I went. So as you may imagine, I’m very upset and have been compulsively shopping ever since (in Amazon and Macy’s, oh credit card bill).

I have never been this upset before; I’m seriously feeling very broken. I had been planning and paying for this trip to NY myself for months now and I was so looking forward to meeting some of the terrific people I’ve befriended on twitter. What really got to me the most apart from not seeing my friends was not being able to watch Rigoletto. You see, two of my favorite opera singers are in this production. Piotr Beczala was my first tenor crush and it was in last year’s production of Manon, in which he was playing De Chevalier de Griex, that I feel in love with opera. And Diana Damrau is hands down my favorite soprano, I could listen to her sing any part, do anything, she’s the coloratura light of my life (SOPRANO coloratura light of my life, the coloratura light of my life is Joyce!). And plus I was gonna get to meet them on Monday, actually talk to them and have Diana sign all my cds! That I think was what I was most looking forward to.

And of course seeing the HOT Mariusz in Elisir wouldn’t be bad eighter, all of the cast of Elisir is very dear to me, Matthew Polenzani, Anna Netrebko and Erwin Shrott all hold a very dear place in my heart. So yeah, I was very and continue to be UTTERLY upset about everything that happened.

THANK GOD I decided to order on Amazon most of the things I planned to buy at the Met store! And that was actually what I wanted to talk about, I’m sorry if the beginning of this post is sort of depressing but I had to let it out somehow.

Well I got in total 16 cds, 4 books and 1 DVD! Yeah, a lot of stuff, but all very much necessary, let’s start with the cds, shall we?

So Joyce DiDonato is like my idol and favorite singer of all time, so I bought 5 of her CDS! I was most craving to get my hands on the so well acclaimed Drama Queens and Furore. I was most hooked on Diva Divo, the idea is already very intriguing but the different colors she brings to the table with this recording is just out of this world! I also got Rossini: Colbran, the muse, because well, I love Rossini and the Songs by Fauré, Hahn and Head Arias by Rossini and Handel. Very pleased with all of them for sure!

Then my second diva, I got 2 Diana Damrau CDS. Coloraturas for obvious reasons that have already been brought up in this post and the Mozart Arias one, because Mozart rocks my world and so does Diana!

I also got stuff from my favorite barihunks ;) Simon Keenlyside’s Tales of Opera and Erwin Schrott’s Opera Arias cds. Alongside with the baritones I also got some things from some of my favorite tenors, Juan Diego Florez’s Rossini Arias for again obvious reasons and Joseph Calleja’s The Maltese Tenor because I find his voice’s color so different and intriguing I can’t get enough of it!

Other two sopranos that hold a very dear place in my heart and in my opera CD collection have completely different voices. First we have Danielle DeNiece’s Handel Arias cd that is Dani doing what does best, baroque, baroque, baroque! And then we have Sondra Radvanovsky also doing what she does best, Verdi in her Verdi Arias cd.

And to end my perfect cd collection, at least for now, the amazing recording of Don Giovanni with Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Don Giovanni, Diana Damrau as Donna Anna, Joyce DiDonato as Donna Elvira, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello, Rolando Villazon as Don Ottavio, Konstantin Wolff as Masetto and Vitalij Kowaljow as Zerlina. This is truly an opera treasure and a dream cast, although I would have picked another Ottavio, but that’s another story.

Then on to the books I didn’t get all the one I wanted but elas!

These three books give you an idea of how the opera singer life is, from three very different points of view with three very different enphasis, the point of view of a successful opera singer, the point of view of a jornalist and the point of view of a teacher

This one I actually started reading yesterday, right after I opened the box containing it. It’s Renée Fleming’s The Inner Voice that is absolutely amazing and it is a MUST have for anyone who is aspiring to be an opera singer. I’m not gonna talk a lot about it right now because when I finish reading it I want to do post only on it. But it’s GOOOOOOD!

Then I got something I thought I would enjoy reading thoroughly, Joshua Jampol’s Living Opera, a series of interviews with many opera singers, young ones and old in many stages of their operatic careers.

This one I got because of Joyce’s first or second vlog in which she recommends this said book that was written by her vocal instructor called The Naked Voice by W. Stephen Smith.

Something that I saw in a book store in Brasil last year that got me salivating with Mozart hunger but was like R$150,00, which would be $70,00, I got on Amazon for $30! The Seven Mozart Librettos: A Verse Translation, this is every Mozart fan’s dream come true! And the pages are all aged and the ends are made as if they’ve been sort of eaten by time, it’s a gorgeous gigantic book and I LOVE IT!

And finally a book one of my good friend and most faithful silent reader of this blog recommended to have as a quick answer go to book The Eyewitness Companion of Opera by Alan Riding and Leslie Dunton Downer.

Now finally, for the one and only DVD I got. CENDRILLON my all time favorite French opera EVER, the Royal Opera House production with Joyce DiDonato as Cendrillon, Alice Coote as Prince Charmant, Eglise Gutirrrez as La Fée and Ewa Podles as Madame de la Haltiere. Just bliss!

Apart from the fact I bought so many clothes I had to buy myself an extra bag to take them back home with me to Brasil, and I spend the little that was left of my money in Slytherin themed stuff in the Harry Potter park (where I cried, a lot). But in my own defense, the things here are so much cheaper than in Brasil, I had to make to most of it ;)

Ok, I’m gonna stop now! You all have a good one and wish me a safe journey back to my culturally undeveloped country! ;) Cheers! Oh and Happy Valantines Day everyone, it's not Valentine's Day in Brasil though, ours is on the 12th of June.

AND HAPPY BDAY TO JOYCE DIDONATO AND RENEE FLEMING THAT GET MORE FABULOUS ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER :)

My first post on Cendrillon!

Yesterday was Christmas day and I must confess I had the best Christmas ever! Since I live in Brasil the season now is summer, so, hot as hell summer. So we had a barbecue by the pool with constant jumping inside it, it was the only way to keep our bodies in a bearable temperature. But it was rather fun! So since we’re talking about good times, let’s talk about something I love love love from my favorite French composer…

My first post on Massenet’s Cendrillon. So I haven’t watched the whole opera yet for one simple reason, I can’t find it anywhere on the internet, and stores just don’t sell these DVDs here in Brazil. Yes, yes, there are many, many productions out there on YouTube of Cendrillon, but I wanna watch the one from the Royal Opera House with Joyce DiDonato and Alice Coot!

There are a few clips, manly of Joyce, on YouTube from this opera, and only watching these snippets already made me absolutely fall in love with this opera! I already love Massenet, Manon was the opera that made me like opera in general after all, and oh God, it is impossible not to fall in love with his Cinderella. I’ve put up there the videos of the parts I’m gonna talk about in case you guys wanna see it.

One of the parts I like the most is the trio at the end of the third act! How the mezzos voices entwine and just sound so lovely, the color that comes out of it is superb! A especific moment in that trio is when the Fairy Godmother finally lets Cendrillon and the Prince Charmant see each other. The chorus kicks in ever so softly with a little melody that sounds so much like a Disney dream (I’m sure Disney stole this idea or something from Massenet).  And Cendrillon just looks scared and even a little ashamed because she’s in rags (correct me if I’m wrong, it’s just what I see) in front of her Prince, but then the prince calls her out and they embrace and it’s just SO ROMANTIC! God, really, I’m not a very romantic person, but, this moment is so full of pure sentiment and love, oh, it brings tears to my eyes, ‘cause at the end of the day they are so young and ingénue!  And especially when they arrive to plead mercy to the Fairy Godmother, the sound is just, crazy good (I wish you people could see my face, it describes what I feel about this moment perfectly!).

Oh and then there is Cendrillon’s and Prince Charmart’s alone encounter, which is just, so good! The guy is head over hills in love with her, and she can hardly believe that she’s actually there nevertheless that the prince himself feel for her. It’s just, this piece found its way through my heart and I must say, I can listen to it over and over again, and even though I don’t speak French, the music speaks for itself. The music alone can tell the story. And Alice Coot has some serious man swag going on. I showed this to my sister (my sister is a cosplayer so she's more than used to seeing girls playing boys, she herself does that a lot, so she can't be fooled easly) and she was astonished to learn that it was a woman. She could only tell once Alice started singing, but she tells me that before that she could have sworn Alice was in fact a man!

Another part that I love is Cendrillon’s first aria, oh sooo melancholic, and not in an annoying way (I normally find melancholic stuff irritating), it’s just Massenet, and I love his music! Well this first aria is awesome, so of course I went out there and asked my teacher if I could sing it. Yeah, I’m really a soprano so you can only guess that she said no. I was a bit upset, but she let me pick anything from the soprano French repertoire. But then when I downloaded the whole score from IMSLP the characters descriptions says that Cendrillon is a soprano! Don't believe me? I'll printscreen it for you! LOL Just in case you are wondering, I printed the part for this aria, just in case :)

Reste au foyer petit grillon, résignetoi Cendrille!

Sometimes I think the voice is like women’s hair, we’re never satisfied with it, it’s always “Oh, it could be slightly darker” or “Why can’t I reach that note with that color?” these little phrases even seem as if I’m talking about hair for Christ sakes!

I love French and I love French opera, so this is definitely not my only post on Cendrillon, but I just wanted to leave my first impression of the piece. Have a good one peeps!