Exciting Concerts to Come!

Hello there world! Was that stadium turned into a slaughter house or what? But I don't really wanna talk about it because quite frankly I don't give a shit about football. I didn't even watch any of the games! I have no patience to watch those games, I feel I could be doing something much more productive with my time. 

Anyways this last Thursday was my birthday and I can safely say that I was able to do everything I love and be with all the people that I love. I had a fabulous voice lesson with my fabulous teacher. Sang Mozart who is one of my favorite composers. Went to the book store and bought the other 2 books from the Fifty Shades trilogy (holy shit it’s so good!). Had a great lunch with a complete stranger who turned out to be super nice. Then I went to the MAC store because I got a free makeup for my birthday. It was kinda terrifying during the process of the make up because at some point I did think I was gonna look ridiculous but once it was finished it looked AMAZING! I'll post a picture bellow.Then I went to a nearby Starbucks to start reading Fifty Shades Darker (I got the pretty hard cover one because they had run out of paperbacks). And can you actually believe that the guy who sat next to me all smiles and nice manners actually scolded at me when he saw the title of my book. Fucking jerk. Then I went to my aunt’s house where we had popcorn, salame, cheese and chips while we drank Lemoncello and then red wine and laughed and chatted and laughed some more. My friend Caio was to pick me up but he was late because Prince Harry was visiting the building he works in, how awesome is that, hun? When I got into his car I was extremely tipsy and holding a bag of popcorn which I handed to him, a gift from my aunt. I got to meet his new boyfriend who is really nice and very friendly and since traffic was chaotic we had a lot of time to chat. I arrived at the bar I had told my friends to meet me in 45 minutes late, they were all already there though. Then I drank several mojitos and had a blast of a good time! We even read bits of Fifty Shades Darker out loud for some laughs. Thankfully the book is in English so the amount of people who actually had the capacity of understanding what we were laughing at was small. Bottom line, GREAT BIRTHDAY.

that's me in the cool make up and with my happy drink!

I’m real excited because even though Brazil lost, what a humiliating game, I’ve started prepping today for the two most important concerts of my year in Brazil, so fuck football. First in the beginning of next month we will receive the lovely Natalie Dessay and her husband. And I know, I know I might have bad-mouthed her a little bit here for walking out of opera as if they were a worn out pair unwanted Louboutins. But that was over a year ago so sod it.

She’s doing this lovely, lovely, lovely chanson repertoire and I couldn’t help with cheer and giggle as I saw the great list of Faure chansons I adore listed out! The other ones I must admit I do not know but that’s the great thing about YouTube and that great little program I have in my pc that downloads audios from Youtube. I have over a month to become acquainted with these songs so I can fully appreciate them when Natalie sings them. 

I find that to most rewarding because, for instance, even though I loved Jonas’ concert I didn’t know any of the songs he sang, not even one. And even though it was Jonas Kaufmann and he’s like a God, I know I would have enjoyed myself much more had I known the music. Like I enjoyed myself watching Gerry Finley sing Schubert’s Winterreisse. Gosh I can remember like it was yeterday how Gute Nacht just pierced my heart and literally made me cry, he drew freaking tears from me. And I want that experience repeated because I ADORE chanson with an almost scary force, they just speak to me. I’m not a very lieder person but chansons just hit the right spot. It's taste I guess, but they get to me, and to have an actual French person (and not just any person, it’s freaking Natalie Dessay) sing them it’s really something, so I’m super excited. I’m probably going on both days, haven’t decided yet but probably going to both performances.

And then towards the end of next month one of the inspirations of my life nicest people I’ve ever met is coming back. Joyce, the coolest opera singer EVER! I got the news that she was scheduled to sing in São Paulo in August of this year a little bit before going to NYC in October of last year and actually meeting her in person. So I actually got to ask her about that engagement and she told me she was super excited about coming back to Brazil and that the audience was simply superb! But I must say I was expecting a repertoire of opera favorites for this concert and when I saw it I was a bit shocked. Because I’m one of those fans that knows basically everything she sings and then I felt at loss looking through the rep and recognizing very few pieces. 

Joyce being her awesome self!

But no worries, I have already downloaded every single one of the songs, including one by Villa Lobos that I simply loved from an opera called Magdalena “”. It’s quite cool, this version bellow is sung by a great Brazilian mezzo soprano called Luciana Bueno. I remember the first time I saw her live on stage I was extremely shocked at how good she was, that was because she was playing the first wife in the musical “The King and I” and all of a sudden there’s this huge gorgeous operatic voice amongst the much shier musical theater ones. She was DA BOMB in that musical. Funnily enough this same musical was conducted by my own voice teacher who is all kinds of awesome herself.

But anyways, back to the topic, Joyce’s concert which I’m super excited about plus I’m taking ton of friends to see it and we will fangirl and it will be awesome. From the stuff I do know she is doing only two Drama Queens arias, “Piangero la sorte mia” which I one of my personal favorites so there’s a big YAY for that and “Morte col fiero aspetto” which is also one of my favorites. But I would just DIIIIIE (and this is the seventeen year old ´die´) if he sang Madre Diletta, it’s my favorite track from the whole CD and it turns me into a puddle of feels. Stuff that I didn’t know includes Haydn’s Ariadne of Naxos (I downloaded a version with Vesselina Kasarova posted by my good friend Mike, thanks hon!) and some Santoliquido (had no idea of his existence until today) canzonettas. But I’m still hopeful for operatic encores, SEVERAL, pretty please!! If I can expeculate, what I would love to hear as encores. Some Rossini awesomeness like “Tanti Affetti”, “Una Voce Poco Fa” and “Non Piu Mesta”. Also some Baroque bliss she does so well, like “Ombra mai Fu” or “Lasciami piangere”. Or Mozart, what I wouldn’t give for “Ecco il Punto oooh Vitelia/ Non piu di fiori” or even a simple “Deh Viene non tardar”. If she sang in French I would quite possibly DIE (that seventeen year old DIE again), like “Je suis gris” or ANY aria from Cendrillon (like THAT’s gonna happen).

Anyhow I’m excited and since I’m SUPER UBER nice I’m posting here the repertoires both are doing followed by links of the pieces in my favorite versions for us all to get acquainted.  My computer i kind of fucked up right now so I'll post the links when I can.

Natalie's and Laurent's Repertoire

Gabriel Faure

Puisqu'Ici Bas Toute Ame (V. Hugo)

Clair de Lune (letra P. Verlaine)

Après un Rêve (R. Bussine)

Mandoline (P. Verlaine)

Les berceaux (S. Prudhomme)

Prison (P. Verlaine)

Fleur jetée (A. Silvestre)

Pleurs d'Or (A.V. Samain)

Henri Duparc

Invitation au Voyage (C. Baudelaire)

Au Pays où se Fait la Guerre (T. Gautier)

Soupir (S. Prudhomme)

La Vague et la Cloche (F. Coppée)

La Fuite (T. Gautier)           

Francis Poulenc

Colloque (P. Valéry)

Calligrammes (7 poèmes de G. Apollinaire)

L'espionne

Mutation

Vers le sud

Il pleut

La grâce exilée

Aussi bien que les cigales

Voyage: Adieu amour nuage qui fuit

Fiançailles pour Rire (6 poèmes de L. de Vilmorin)

Leo Delibes

Les Trois Oiseaux (F. Coppée)

Charles-Marie Widor

Nocturne (A. Dorchain)

Qu'un Songe au Ciel m'Enlève (V. Hugo)

Joyce’s Repertoire

HAYDN - Arianna a Naxos

SANTOLIQUIDO I canti della Sera

1. L’assiolo canta

2. Alba di luna sul bosco

3. Tristezza crepuscolare

4. L’incontro

ROSSINI Beltà crudele

La Danza

HASSE/HANDEL "Drama Queens”

Morte col fiero aspetto (Antonio e Cleopatra)

Piangerò (Giulio Cesare)

AMERICAN SONGS

Beautiful Dreamer (Canção de Stephen Foster / Arr. David Krane)

Lovely Jimmie (Jerome Kern)

Food for Thought (Heitor Villa-Lobos de “Magdalena”)

ROSSINI Riedi al soglio (Zelmira)

Vesselina Kasarova, no words to describe

Ok, I just arrived home after the most amazing concert of my life! I know what you might be thinking, “Wasn’t it the same as yesterday?”, well, the repertoire might have been the same, but the performance most certainly wasn’t.

Started off my day pretty well, had loads of cool opera lessons, sang some good old Monteverdi repertoire and then I couldn’t resist it. When my teacher asked if I wanted to do anything else, anything at all, I had only one question for her “Do you have a Le Nozze di Figaro score here?”, and I sang the BEST Voi che sapete of my existence! It just travelled right out of my mouth, it was delicious to sing and such joy, and a lot of cheekbones, all thanks to Vesselina.

After quite a stressful day and a stressful getting to the concert hall, there I was Sala São Paulo, alone, as none of my friends had arrived. Thank God for twitter, I bought Vesselina’s Arias cd, I couldn’t resist it! All my friends decided to arrive at the same time, and we chatted enthusiastically about opera.

Then, BAM, big moment, I went to my fabulous center front row seat and the excitement just kept building up! The Camerata came in and played the modern piece just as well as yesterday. They are such an amazing group, and it’s fascinating to see so up close how orchestra players do their craft.

But there is no way to outshine the sun, again, when Vesselina walked in it was as if the whole orchestra disappeared and it was just her! And just as she arrived on her space to sing, she spotted me and mouthed a “Hi!” blinking her eyes in acknowledgment and my person almost died. She did the same for Otávio, and I can say for the both of us that we were in the clouds and she hadn’t even started singing yet. It wasn’t long until we reached the stars when she rocked the Mozart out of us. And yet again those penetrating eyes looked at me at “Voi che sapete che cosa è amor”, but this time it was the opening phrase. And since she already knew who I was her looks towards me changed from ‘I’m looking at the nice girl who’s smiling’ to ‘I’m looking at that girl who came yesterday and was such a sweetie’ or something like that. The thing is most of the times she’d look at me I felt a sort of connection, because she’d look differently, like happily, like ‘Yay, you are here again and I’m glad you are enjoying yourself!’

First part of the concert, singing Mozart repertoire, photo by Jaqueline Vilela

I might be totally wrong, but you can say I was under the influence of that magnificent voice and I was seeing things and she was just being nice. In her Sesto arias I didn’t feel like I was breathing, I nearly cried at Parto, Parto remembering the first time I’d ever seen her and said “Wow, this one is GOOD!” . I don’t want to sound repetitive but I must point out again that her interpretations were marvelous! Even though she was wearing a dress you could see Cherubino, young, yearning for what people call love, excited about something he does not truly comprehend, in her eyes, in her movements, in her face, everything. So I couldn’t help but smile, because Cherubino makes me smile, he’s a lovely character and she WAS Cherubino.

Same with Sesto, that’s probably another reason why I almost cried watching her sing Parto, Parto, because it is such a love devoted song, but it’s also a sad song. Her GUARDAMEs were poignant and heart breaking, you could almost see Vitelia there as Vesselina looked with such conviction towards where she’d be.

Non so piu cosa son, caso faccio! Photo by Jaqueline Vilela

One thing that was quite interesting about her in general is that she was wearing rather simple dresses, but she looked like a Goddess. And not because of makeup and hair, those were simple too, but because she glowed! The light that came from within her made her look divine, her joy in singing and her happiness of being able to sing here for a new audience. You could just feel that.

Parto, parto! Photo by Jaqueline Vilela

Well intermission time and all friends come to talk and I’m totally basking at the fact she said “Hi” to me. But something quite annoying happened during intermission, I know we’re all entitled to our opinions, but I don’t think its fit to trash someone’s performance while you are still in it loud and clear for the world to hear. That’s what I heard some girls do and a sentence that had my ears burning was “Well, as singers, we are very disappointed at her performance”. I’m sorry guys if I’m going out of line here but, WHAT? These people were my age. I always say, you are going to say someone sucks you’d better be able to do better than that person; otherwise you’re just bitchy and jealous. There I’ve said it. Sorry if I was rude.

Intermission was over and here she comes again and off we go to the Rossini fireworks. It always gets to me how she can move so much, in all sorts of directions and in so many ways and still keep her voice just right. Plus doing amazing and intelligent dynamics, they were not what you’d normally hear, she’s made them her own, but they still express what they need to express, which I think is the perfect combination for a memorable performance.

And her choice of movement at first might seem strange, but when you come to think of it, all the roles she sang, but Rosina, were pants roles. She’s playing guys, she has to have a different posture if she wants to be true to the character and articulate what the story is telling us. And it still amazes me how she can rock those pants roles arias in a dress. That’s just the thing, some people get so carried away by their clothes, makeup and hair that the clothes normally wear them. It’s the complete opposite with Vesselina, the dresses were pretty, but she was wearing them, she owned them, not the other way round. Her first dress had the sides opened so when she’d walk we could see almost her whole leg. And I’m just gonna say it, she looked hot in that dress, but it was clearly just one little element, because it took me a while to notice her legs.

But away from her legs and back to the performance, it was unbelievable. I’m sensing that this post is getting too personal and I’m afraid to screw things up by being honest, but I’m just going to say what I felt.

The introduction of the first Tancredi aria was quite long, and she looked a bit nervous. She smiled warmly at everyone but somehow I could tell something was off. So I started sending her all the good vibes I could possibly give, thinking of really giving her all the protection she would need. Before I knew it I was asking to God to protect her and make sure she’d have a good time and feel good while singing to us. She sang the aria near to perfection and when she came to bow after the aria she made the cross sign and I really didn’t know what to think. It did help though, I guess. Please don’t take this the wrong way, I don’t want to convert anyone, I’m just saying what happened. Again I could be totally wrong, this is just how I see it.

When her last aria in the program started first I felt like laughing my behind off because there was someone coughing real hard somewhere in the audience and she just looked out for the person and asked the conductor to wait for the person to stop. Me and my friends were laughing at lot at this and she was quite amused, but most of the audience was quiet. And then I felt like crying, I really didn’t want it to end. It was really so bittersweet and one of those moments in which you try to take in as much as you can. The aria ended and almost immediately I was on my feet screaming like crazy BRAVA, BRAVA! I’m gonna tell you my hands never hurt so much because of clapping, but it was worth it, because she was back for that great encore. She looked at me and Otavio quite often during those bows mouthing thank yous.

Second half with amazing Rossini repertoire, photo by Jaqueline Vilela

Encore, encore and since I knew she was only doing one I really had fun with this, especially because, as I’ve said before, she was singing Una Voce Poco Fa. Fun fact, before she actually began the encore she pointed out to some people leaving the hall and looked puzzled at the conductor, making the people leaving extremely uncomfortable. She had the most adorable puzzled look on her face and I just said loud "Ah, o azar é deles!" (which translates to “Ah, it’s their loss”) and then she shrugged her shoulders and PARAM PARAM (that’s the written version of the beginning of the aria). The aria was fun, it was delicious to watch as she literally played with the Rossini lines, and made her fantastic ornamentation together with stellar and funny acting. I couldn’t tear the smile out of my face, again you can feel that she feels such immense joy and fulfillment in doing this, it just comes over in the voice and in the eyes.

Let me talk a bit about the eyes, they are just the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen! I had already noticed she knew how to act so well with her eyes in Carmen when she’d look at José before she seduces him to set her free. Those eyes, wow, just wow!

Me and my opera girlfriends before the concert

And then, the best moment of my ENTIRE LIFE happened. She was bowing, thanking everyone so very much and me and Otavio screaming like good fanboys/fangirls do. Out of the blue she comes to the edge of the stage, lowers down, extends her hand to me, I take her hand hardly believing this is actually happening, and she says like “Thank you so very much for being here” (I don't really remember the exact words, I was too excited), then she lets go, does the same thing with Otavio and we both DIE! I mean, what? I just turned to my friend and said “Did that just really happen? Did I die and go to heaven or something?”.

She did another encore, she sang the final bit of one of the Rossini arias she had done, and the crowd was insane for her. We clapped as if there was no tomorrow, and I myself clapped hoping she’d never stop encoring (does that verb even exist?). After it was over some people came to talk to us because she had reached out for us and been so very amazing. It was really one of the most incredible moments of my entire life!

We got in line to talk to her again, but we were the last ones and since she’s a fantastic human being and wants to chat with everyone, when our turn came we could only exchange a few words, and I kept saying “You are so marvelous, you were terrific, I loved it” damn, I wanted to tell her how much her Master Class had helped me, how much I loved her interpretation of Sesto, how extremely touched and honored I was that she reached out to me, of all people, to thank during the concert. But there was no time, I got my cds signed, she held my hands and said something like “Thank you so much for this” (I don't remember the exact words she used, I was in a state of complete bliss), and then she had to go. But as we were in the parking lot we spotted her and she waved at us quite enthusiastically.

What I came to conclude is the following, do what you love and you will have all the love in the world to give, be generous, help people, give people a shot, and listen to opera because it’s awesome!

Ps; I’m writing this FOUR page post sitting on the floor of the bathroom of my cousin’s apartment, I normally write outside in the balcony when he’s asleep, but it’s kinda chilly out there today, and oh man, it’s 3:50 in the morning, I’m so doomed tomorrow!

Peace peeps!

Vesselina Kasarova, the sweetest opera singer ever!

Ok, this is by far, hands down, THE BEST EFFING DAY OF MY LIFE! Oh Lord, where do I begin? I was actually having a pretty awful day, with a test I was terrified of being cancelled and having to take the elevator with a teacher who detests me (who was giving the test by the way). But it all seems like a long lost memory now.



Vesselina Kasarova and me backstage after the performance

I got in the concert hall about 3 hours before the performance, changed in the ladies room, and let me tell you, that is hard to do when you’ve put on some weight and the skirts isn’t closing so easily. I basically spend most of my time reading and when the house opened I went to the store and got one of Vesselina’s cds, the Rossini Arias and Duets one with Juan Diego Florez. The lady of the store took a liking to me after we chatted about Jonas Kaufmann’s awesomeness and she told there was going to be a pre performance thing, where a specialist talked about the repertoire. I went up stairs and watched a rather nice talk about the composers and arias. It ended at 8:45 and performance started at 9, so I rushed downstairs and got to my FABULOUS front row center seat and then I met my opera BFF.

His name is Otavio and he the man version of moi, we talked about everything time allowed us to talk about. From Massenet to Rossini and all the good things in life. I was so excited, I made a great opera bff who actually speaks my language and can go to these things with me! But enough of that, let’s get down to business.

Enters on stage the strings section of the Camerata Berg and majestically play Fabian Müller’s Maden, Motten und Muotathal. It is a group made by soloists, and that becomes so clear, they ARE the music, they breathe together but have absolutely unique and wonderful individual interpretations. I must sing my praise to the spala who was terrific, Florian Donderer.

Then enters the queen, yes, queen, because she has such a strong presence and demands all eyes on her. You know the orchestra was extraordinary but when Vesselina walked on stage I couldn’t tear my eyes off of her! And then she starts destroying my heart singing Cherubino, first Non So Piu Cosa Son Cosa Faccio. Reason number one I love sitting in the front row, you are so close to the singer, so close, you can see and hear everything, and I love that. Reason number two, the performer can actually see you, and she did see me and Otavio alright, we were looking at her smiling like too idiots and then she did it, she smiled back and I nearly died. The best thing about it was that she kept looking at us quite often, she sang Voi che sapette, and I nearly broke down. When she goes back to “Voi che sapette, che cosa è amor” she did it looking right at us, it was INSANE. All the Mozart feelings I was freaking out, happiness emanated from every pore in my body! And her voice, oh God, what a voice, so powerful, so strong and yet she is a master in dynamic, what she does with her voice and the interpretations were truly inspiring. Plus her dress was GORGEOUS!

Then the Camerata played the opening of Haydn’s opera “L’Isola Desabitata”, it was fantastic, but I must admit I was trying to recover from what Vesselina had just done. Then she came back and broke me to pieces again this time with another Mozart favorite of mine, Sesto. She started off with Parto, ma tu ben mio which is hands down my favorite aria from the whole opera. And she kept looking at us, and it was so cool, sometimes I’d feel she was singing just for us two! I smiled at her when she did those flawless coloraturas and she smiled back, it was really just like a dream come true! Then she sang “Deh, per questo instante solo” and I was gone, it was magnificent. I already had elected her the best Sesto ever in my opinion, but now it is so much more than official. Just MAGNIFICENT, and the looking at us, I had just met Otavio and I was squeezing his leg with excitement. Then comes intermission and I can hardly speak! I didn’t even move from my precious little best seat in da house! Intermission flew with one of the most sincere and awesome conversations I’ve ever had.

My actual distance from the stage, that was my view, SO CLOSE!

Then she comes back to rock some Rossini into our hearts, and oh she does, first with Tancredi the opera that literally launched her in the international opera business. I can’t even explain what that was, it was so incredible, maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to describe it more accurately. But it was something out of this world, her whole body sang, and oh yes, she was still looking at us. I’d love it when she’d sing whole phrases looking at me, or an awesome coloratura bit fixating those penetrating eyes in my dumb face. Because, yes, I looked like an idiot, I had to keep reminding myself to close my mouth. Just so much dynamic and those effortless high notes that seemed impossible since she was singing low notes and then BAM! She’d rock those high notes as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

Then the Camerata played Mozart’s 40^th Symphony, oh I love that symphony, one of my favorites. That’s when I thought my friends from college should totally be here, these people are masters of their art, each and every one of them. Something quite unpleasant happened during that though, a mobile phone started ringing. The conductor immediately stopped and kinda danced to the rhythm of it until the person turned it off. I found that quite funny, but the audience in general didn’t.

Then she came back for her last aria, ah, so sad! Again Rossini, this time from the opera Semiramide, “Ah quel giorno ognor rammento”. I was also taken to another dimension when she sang this one, I remember she kept also looking at us, and smiling. At one point she actually spit quite a lot and made an apology face with that sweet, sweet smile of hers to us and I was like “Spit all you want, I love you!”. Again flawless effortless coloraturas, inspiring crescendos and pianos, pianissimos! She is like a super hero of the voice, she can do anything she wants, and the interpretation told a story and I never wanted to leave.

People, she was so close, it’s like, really, really close, like imagine you are sitting in the movie theatre, my distance to hers when she came near the edge of the stage would be the distance between the rows in the movie theatre. You could feel the music emanating (I like this word a lot) from her, and she was completely given to give us her best.

Encore time, we cheered like crazy Backstreet Boys fans and she came back! And what was the encore? UNA FREAKING VOCE POCO FA, just my all time favorite Rossini aria EVER. When the music started you could feel the audience go, “Ah yes!” and I let out a quite out “YES!”. I can’t begin to describe this woman’s ability with coloratura and ornamentation; she totally made it her own, with her unique “MA” and her witty interpretation of the amazing Rosina. Then we obviously wanted more, but then after taking some bows the orchestra quickly left and so did Vesselina.

So Otávio was smart and got in touch with her management before hand, therefore he got us a backstage pass. After waiting a bit there she was, again only a few feet away from me! I was freaking out, and she was being so cool to everyone, hugging and talking, truly amazing! After a few minutes me and my friend were up to talk to her, Otavio made a BIG love declaration and she nearly cried, it was a very emotional moment, I myself was almost crying at her crying. She took her time to talk to us about the concert, about the repertoire, it was almost as if I was talking to a friend, she was so open and friendly, it was truly a blessed evening indeed! Then I talked to her, the girl before me (a singer also) said to her “Oh you are such an inspiration to me” and I was like "Holy crap, I was gonna say that!" And that was exactly my opening line to her "You know I was going to tell you you are such a great inspiration to me as a singer but then that girl before me just did it and ruined my line!", she laughed, I make opera singers laugh, that’s my thing! I told her I adored her and worshiped her performance tonight and that every time she’d look at me during the performance I felt immense joy. She was touched and so very grateful that we went to talk to her. I got my pictures and I’m VERY happy now.

Vesselina and my new bff Otavio, she was so touched it was truly amazing!

I came back home giggling like an idiot, but I don’t care because Vesselina Kasarova just totally rocked my world and I feel like a million bucks! There will be another post on this concert since I’m watching the concert again tomorrow.

Peace people, live, love, laugh and listen to opera!

Meeting Renée Fleming

As I’m writing this I’m also working on my next year’s repertoire. Doing something I thoroughly enjoy, writing the lyrics down, translating them, getting the pronunciation right and looking for the meaning of every single word. It’s fun, and it’s of paramount importance for the work, many people just get the musical part done and stumble through the lyrics as if they were not as important and most of the time not even knowing what they are saying. I don’t like that.

Well anyways, I wanna talk about one of the happiest days in my musical life. The day I went to Renée Fleming’s concert in Sala São Paulo. It wasn’t just because it was Renée Fleming and she’s AWESOME, and she did four encores. It was because for the first time in months I felt like I was in a place where people understood me. ‘Cause most of the time, even in college (and must I highlight that my major is music, and I’m talking about musicians and even aspiring opera singers) people don’t want to talk about opera and everything that entwines it. Sometimes it’s easier for me to talk about these things with non musician friends than with them. I have a handful of friends (here in Brasil) who talk about opera and know what they are talking about, that is very sad. But on Renée’s concert I got to meet so many people like me, that live and breathe opera. It was really awesome!

Let me put out the repertoire she sang that night, and must I say, divinely so.

Claude Debussy – Ariettes Oubliées

Green / Il pleure dans mon cour / Chevaux de bois

Joseph Canteloube – Chants D’Auvergne

Baïlèro / Malurous qu’o uno fenno / La delaïssando

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Walzer aus wier – Frag mich oft  / Die Tote Stadt – Mariettas Lied

Richard Strauss – Lieder

Ständchen (Opus 17, nº 2) / Morgen! (Opus 27, nº 4) / Zueignung (Opus 10, nº 1)

Giuseppe Verdi – Otello

Mi madre aveva uma povera ancella... Piangea cantando... Ave Maria

 

Ruggero Leoncavallo – La Bohème

Musette svaria sulla bocca viva / Mimì Pinson, la biondinetta

Francesco Cilea – Andriana Lecouvreur

Io son l’umile ancella

Encores

Oh Mio Babbino Caro

O Silver Moon

Something in French

Azulão

So let’s start from the beginning, I get there about three hours earlier because my college is real near there, but it’s also SUPER dangerous to walk around there at night. I spend most of my time playing Sudoku. Well I met my faithful two friends who share my enthusiasm for opera (they are also singers in the making) and the place started bursting with opera lovers. I don’t know if this is normal, but many people went up to us started talking about Renée, opera, and singing and it was like a dream come true. All those people felt what I felt!  



First pic that I took. My actual distance of her



I’m going to tell you something very naughty that me and my two girlfriends did. ‘Cause here in Brasil, apart from the fact that these events hardly ever happen, the organization is kind enough to set aside the front role tickets to VIP people, who never show up. That’s great for us! My friend Jaqueline who is very experienced in this field (the field of sitting on seats that aren’t hers I mean) guided us through it, and before we knew it the concert began and we were sitting in the front role!



When Renée walked in my eyes started watering, I couldn’t believe what I saw, she was like an Opera Goddess! She looked gorgeous as usual, very classy! So I’m not gonna pretend I know much about Chamber Music, ‘cause I don’t, and she sang a great deal of chamber music. But the Debussy I did know ‘cause I almost did this cycle, but I’m not even gonna talk about the singing because it was superb! I was so dazed by it that I only noticed there were subtitles in the third song! Her interpretations were very just right you know, I wish I knew the repertoire so I could expand on the subject, but I don’t :(

I think the most pathetic part about the whole thing was the expression on my face, I looked dazzled and hipnotized. And for most of the time I couldn't get a smile out of my face. And since we were so close, she'd sometimes look at us and smile, and I'd DIE! I died about 15 times watching this concert. But the worst part is when she would look at us, and we would be taking pictures, I only took 3! But I'm so lucky that she looked right at me while I was doing that!

But when she started singing Otello, I grabbed Jaqueline’s hand so tight, I was going like “Oh God, she just sang this at the Met! She’s out of this world!”.  I cried my eyes out! And something very ridiculous happened; there was a very annoying couple who were clearly not enjoying the concert sitting right next to us. And the woman was giving us the eye for holding hands, probably thinking that we were a couple also. We’re not, but even if we were, what’s the big deal? I hated that woman, and kept sighing quite loudly during the songs, and I wanted to strangle her.



Then I learned how to use the zoom in my camera

 When she finished the program the concert hall was filled up by thousands of “BRAVA” “LINDA” “I LOVE YOU!” and she did her first encore "Oh Mio Babbino Caro". And I mean, who doesn’t love that song? Time for me to cry again! Now for her second encore she told us that the night before the audience had asked her to sing this one, “O Silver Moon” from Rusalka. The moment she said the name of the song the place almost crumbled down with cheers from the audience, including moi obviously. And it was a very happy moment for me because I once listened to a recording of Joyce DiDonato singing at the Salzburg Festival and when she said the name of the aria she was singing the crowd went insane (it was Serse’s “Ombra mai Fu”), and at the time I just thought to myself “I wish Brasil had such an enthusiastic audience!”. And after that day I came to realize that it did!

I think it was on the third encore Renée said something like “Aren’t you tired of listening to me sing?” which was responded with loads of cheers and “I LOVE YOU”s. You’ll have to pardon me because I don’t remember the name of the chanson she sang as the third encore, but she did say it was new to her repertoire. The fourth and unfortunately last was Azulão, a song in Portuguese, which she nailed obviously.

This dress was to DIE FOR!

After the concert me and my girlfriends rushed to the autograph cue to wait for her, and let me tell you, the cue WAS HUGE! Again we got to meet rather nice strangers with passion for opera (most of them opera singers or opera students), and you kinda realize you’re not alone. And also that it is of paramount importance to go to these concerts, I think at least, that everyone who is studying to become an opera singer should have gone there that day. And don’t get me started on the price thing, ‘cause 10 minutes before the show they were selling tickets for R$10,00 for students. That's like $5,00!

Then the moment finally arrived, meeting Renée! Since there were a hundred thousand people there, she wasn’t taking pictures. If she did stop to take pictures with everyone she would have left there the next day. I got to talk to her if only for a bit, I told her how marvelous she was and that I was sitting in the front row drooling. She laughed and said “Oh you were in the front role? I hope I didn’t drool on you!”, I wanted to answer something like “Oh you didn’t, but if you had it would have been fine, I would have bottled it or something.” But I just laughed and said something like “But you didn’t…” and then got pushed by the next one in line.

But the thing is, she was also only signing one item per person. She signed my cd “The Art of Renée Fleming”, but my friend Jaqueline had almost all her cds, and her book, she wanted them signed. What did she make me do? So we got in line AGAIN, so Renée would sign two more items of her endless collection, when we got to her again she said “Oh, you again!” and while my friends said a timid “Yes” and went up and said “Let me tell you Renée, she’s not leaving until you sign all her cds!”. She laughed; I’m so funny, I made Renée Fleming laugh! HA!

So it was a terrific day! And many are to come, I have no doubt about it!