The Ugly Truth

This has been a happy week for opera fans with the announcement of the 2013/2014 season of the Metropolitan Opera. I for one was thrilled, and already started making loads of plans to go to New York at least twice this season. And although I am super excited on one hand, I can’t help but feel miserable in the other. You see, this discovering of new friends and operas and fangirling is amazing, but in the real world here for me things are not going so smoothly.

For starters, studying music around here was never easy; I don’t think studying music is easy anywhere, but apart from the run of the mill difficulties, we have to deal with a lot of extra problemas. 

As some of you know I am a music major here in Brasil and I study in a college called FAAM in which I chose to go to because of the stellar teachers it has. We have people teaching there that already played in big time international orchestras and sang in major opera houses in Europe. We also have teachers who are authors of super important books here in Brasil raging from Music education to Opera critics and History books. And quite a few teachers also play in the biggest most important Orchestra in the country, OSESP.

Well, our campus was far from ideal, it was in an old huge house that once was a psychiatric hospital, so, yeah, loads of feels. The underground bathrooms once were the morgues, but we lived with it, whatever it might have been. The wooden floors were giving in, being eaten by time and by the complete lack of interest the University has regarding our course. But that haunted house was home, we made it work, since it was a small campus just for us musicians we could study all day anywhere and stay there until early in the evening playing/singing.



One of our only blackboards with pentagrams being used as a bullet board. One of the studens left a note in chalk that reads "Please use me as a blackboard not as a bullet board. PAULO (our course director) DO SOMETHING!"

But last year the issue of accessibility was raised and our campus didn’t fit the part. So this year we are in a new campus, from my point of view far too new, and I say that because the campus is still under construction. So our classes are joined by hammers and drillers and all the noise they make. The place is absolutely filthy; the University has a 10 people staff to do the cleaning in three 14 floors buildings. Back in other campus we had a similar staff for our comparably smaller space. Some windows are broken, and glasses on a few of them are loose, meaning they can fall on our heads anytime.



one of the many broken windows

The music course has taken the 8^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, 12^th and 13^th floors, all of which are in their own ways under construction. For all the 10 people staff, teachers and the 300 students we have ONE ladies and ONE gents restroom on the 8^th floor and that’s it. And they are not gigantic, each has three stalls. And like the rest of the place they are also filthy, some people even got sick after using them.

Back on the other campus, we could get the keys for classrooms where the pianos were so we could study. So we could leave the classroom if we wanted to use the restroom, or have a cup of coffee, or even a sip of water. Now we can’t have any keys, resulting on us having to carry all of our things to the restroom or hiding them somewhere obscure around the classroom. Plus we take the risk of losing the classroom to another student when we leave it since they are all opened. A girl recently left her IPod charging on one of the classrooms and left for a couple of minutes to talk to her teacher. You can only imagine how many IPods she found upon her return. Plus we can only study until 5 in the afternoon, after that all the classrooms are locked even though there are night classes happening on the Campus, that only closes around 11 in the evening. And the music classrooms aren’t used by the night classes.

Another rather humiliating fact is that we are forced to eat our food cold. Yes, you read right, cold lunch. Most of us cannot afford to eat out every day (and when I say us I mean students, staff and teachers), so we cook at home and bring it to college for lunch. Back on the other campus we had a very old heater, but it worked and our food was warm. Sadly this item was not brought into the new campus. There is a cafeteria in the Campus, but the owner has strictly forbidden his staff to heat anyone’s food. So neither staff nor students can eat their food brought from home warm. This isn’t even rather humiliating; it’s utterly and completely humiliating.

Even the basics are lacking. Some teachers have no chalk in their classrooms, yeah, CHALK! So they have to go around the other classrooms asking for some and the other teachers can only give them a bit of it because chalk is apparently extinct on the Campus. Also there are no batteries on the remote controls of the ancient music players; only yesterday one of the teachers bought a pair of batteries so he could teach his class properly.



this is all the chalk one of my teachers had to teach yesterday



All of the equipment is misplaced or broken, for instance, I was having piano lessons the other day and my 70 something year old teacher had to play the piano in a half broken wheeled chair. This week the drums teacher had to once again apologize to his students because he couldn’t give class without drums. Where are the drums? None of the blackboards have the pentagram in them and we did have those sort of blackboards before, but now or brilliant course director found a better use to them, a bullet board. Very insightful I must say, I never thought blackboards with pentagrams would be so much more useful as bullet boards.

this is the "stool" my teacher had to sit on to play



The situation on the old Campus wasn’t always ideal, whenever I see any movie that shows Music Colleges in other countries I can’t help but cry. But we soldiered on, because we love what we do, and even in the most awful of circumstances we want to make music happen. 

But what we are facing now is too much. Of course it doesn’t stop us from studying and making music, even though the key lady has to kick me out of the classrooms everyday at 5pm, I still linger there after finding myself a spot where I can study something that doesn’t require a piano. And I did find a rather cool “balcony” that has an awesome view of the city where I can sing and study, I do have to bring a chair up the stairs everyday in order to sit there, but I really don’t mind, there I can study without being heard or found (meaning I don’t disturb any of the classes taking place in the evening). But when they do find me they are probably going to seal the passage to the balcony, because that’s how things work around here. When you find a way to get your stuff together and do your thing they always stop you telling you you can’t be there or that you can’t do it the way you worked it out.

We students are trying every way we can to change our situation, and I wouldn’t normally post this kind of thing here. But I see that people from so many different places, from all around the world, sometimes read this blog and I think it’s nice for this situation to be known by other musicians and music lovers apart from us.

So that’s basically it. Watching Parsifal tomorrow, YAY!

Ratpack Rigoletto

Oh man, my life is as crazy as crazy gets! Back from Orlando now since Saturday and trying to organize my life and things. As promised I did go to the Live in HD Broadcast of Rigoletto on Saturday after flying 10 hours and being unable to sleep during all of those hours. But as it always is for opera and me, it was worth it! Let’s start from the beginning shall we?

Arrived in São Paulo from Orlando about 7 in the morning and waited a while for my parents to shop at DutyFree and then at 10 am I was FREE! They left me in the subway and for the first time in 3 weeks I was completely alone and I couldn’t be happier! I went to McDonalds for coffee and there I sat sipping my latte for a very long time reading my beloved The Inner Voice by Renée Fleming. Around one I met my friend Caio (one of those friends that watched Joyce DiDonato’s Master Class with me) and we had lunch at a fantastic Japanese food restaurant. After that we went to the movies to watch Rigoletto, I always seem to arrive at the Live in HD at the nick of time, this makes me nervous. I don’t like missing anything, especially the introduction given by the host.

When we walked inside the movie theatre I couldn’t help but be totally astounded. It was packed! It was almost full! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Was this the same movie theatre that only a month ago contained 10 people who were watching Maria Stuarda? Hello? I was delighted! Just as we took our seats the “5 minutes until curtain” started popping up! I love those; I always already know all the information about performers that they give!

First scene of the opera in the Duke's 'Castle', his empire is the Casino

Creative Team:

Production: Michael Mayer
Set Designer: Christine Jones
Costume Designer: Susan Hilferty
Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams
Choreographer: Steven Hogget

Live in HD Host: Renee Fleming

Cast:

Rigoletto: Željko Lučić

Gilda: Diana Damrau

The Duke: Piotr Beczala

Maddalena Oksana Volkova

Sparafucile Štefan Kocan

Well, it starts, and who better to host than our beloved Renée Fleming! I was so excited, I kept showing my friend the book and saying, “It’s her! It’s her!”. And then the Rigoletto Sixties Vegas Party began. I was quite astounded by the sets. WOW, oh my Lord! Genius, my friend thought it looked like a musical, but then again this is the first opera Michael Mayer’s directed, and he is a musical theatre guy. But to my taste it was amazing. The most important thing was there, the story and the music; it was faithful to the plot. This is what I keep saying about modern productions, they work! Of course you can’t have a Planet of the Apes Rigoletto, that’s just wrong (Diana Damrau did one, she’s embarrassed to this day), but with a Las Vegas setting, what could be more appropriate if you want to bring the action to modern times?

Piotr Beczala as the Duke performing Questa o Quella

It was very much to my liking, Piotr Beczala was amazing. He was my first tenor crush, after I saw him as the De Chevalier in Manon last year, oh God. He owns this character, I had already seen him playing the Duke and he’s probably my favorite tenor to portray him. He was sporting a Frank Sinatra swagger I didn’t know he had, very charming and with a voice that just fits the role perfectly. His “Questa o Quella” was just very well executed and fun to watch.

Another absolute star was Diana Damrau, apart from being an amazing singer, she’s a terrific actress. She made it so believable that she actually was a 17 year old teenager eager to love and be loved. She’s so gracious and her Caro Nome BLEW ME AWAY! By the end of the aria I was holding my breath and so was the entire audience in the movie theatre!

Diana Damrau as Gilda performing Caro Nome

The ending of the first act was super cool with the use of the elevators and concluding with a kidnapped Gilda being put inside a huge sarcophagus! One of my favorite parts of the live in HD I must admit is the interview part. Renée was very sassy while interviewing the singers and production team. I particularly loved it when she was talking to the director and he said he was a huge fan of hers and she said she was flattered and felt a high note coming. Oddly enough me and my buddy were the only ones in the movie theatre that laughed at her jokes. Even weirder since there were people there talking in German, others in French, and others in English, and must I remind you that I was in a middle-low class shopping mall in which the movie theatre was in, in Brasil. This isn’t very normal, but then again, what is normal when it comes to art?

Amazing set in which the Second Act takes place, and yes, the chandeliers are replicas of the Met’s famous chandeliers!

Second act, amazing, the opening with the Duke’s aria, you think he might have a change of heart. I remember the first time I saw Rigoletto I was so happy he seemed to be changing, but then he just didn’t, disappointing. But the plot must go on and he can’t be nice now if we want to have a true tragedy! Then there was one of the most amazing moments in the whole opera, Rigoletto’s aria asking the man to free his daughter. It was absolutely heart breaking, Željko Lučić is the best Rigoletto I’ve ever seen, just like Piotr, his voice fits the role quite perfectly. They free Gilda but Rigoletto wants vengeance.

 Piotr Beczala as the Duke (left) Željko Lučić as Rigoletto and Diana Damrau as Gilda (right) 

Another intermission and we are back with sassy interviews, this time with Diana, who is such a sweet, sweet person! She talked about the role and how she recreated it as a sixties teenager. But the highlight for the interview was her little boy, so cute! Both her sons were there that day, which I think it’s pretty awesome, and I’m almost sure she takes them to rehearsals as well, operas singer/mother of the year!

Final act opens with a quite shocking topless pool dancer, and I’m like “Oh my God, he didn’t!”, there was some clapping coming from the audience and if I’m not mistaken some boos as well. Boos make me nervous and make me feel bad for everyone, I would never like to be booed, which must be awful!

Piotr Beczala as the Duke, Oksana Volkova as Maddalena, Željko Lučić as Rigoletto and Diana Damrau as Gilda 

Well when I hear Final Rigoletto act I automatically think of two things I love, “La Donna è Mobile” and my all time favorite quartet “Bella Figlia Dell’Amore”. Both were very nicely done, I liked way too much the fact Piotr did a bit o pool dancing himself, that was quite fun! Having a car on stage was pretty cool, but putting the leading lady inside the trunk after rightly assassinating her was the cherry on top of a fantastic Vegas journey! Diana sang quite angelically her last piece of music that tore me to pieces, and by the end of the opera I was crying, as I do in most operas I go to.  

Željko Lučić as Rigoletto and Diana Damrau as Gilda in the last scene of Rigoletto

I loved it! It’s such a shame I didn’t get to see it live! But I will be there for the next season! If my sources are correct next week they’ll announce the next season and I’ll be able to plan my trip! Have a good one peeps!



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 :)

A Master Class in Life!

How do I begin to describe the most insightful and amazing Master Class I ever witnessed?

I couldn’t find any pictures of the Master Class so this will have to do

First of all I’d like to say it was a brilliant idea to stream this Master Class on the internet. I’m sure aspiring opera singers all over the world were very grateful for that and now as I go through the many notes I made during the Master Class I can’t help but feel like she’s put me on the right track.

Studying music is a tricky and funny thing, it’s not like any other kind of profession I’ve ever come across, but after this Master Class I can see that we are not so far from the everyday person.

As I’ve mentioned here before I take part in an AMAZING theatre group here in my home town. The people from this group are also my best friends, and I wanted to introduce them to opera since I was absolutely sure they’d love it. So I started experimenting with my friend Flavio, first we watched Le Nozze di Figaro (ROH 2006 production), which he liked a lot, then we watched Il Barbieri di Siviglia (Met 2008 production), which he liked even more. Then I took my best friend to watch Maria Stuarda last week and he feel in love. So all things good, let’s go to phase two, “Who wants to watch Joyce’s Master Class with me on Friday?”, the two friends I just mentioned automatically said yes and I was able to get other two friends to watch it as well.

The master class begins and immediately Joyce’s amazing personality gets my friends completely hooked. All my friends have every day jobs, at the occasion I had an engineer, an actress and an English teacher with me. But since we’re all actors on the side what Joyce was explaining wasn’t very hard to follow, she taught a lot on interpretation and ways to get into character to BE the character that was absolutely helpful, not only to me but to everyone there.

But what really moved my friends was the last part of the Master Class when Joyce talked about the “That Persistent Inner Voice”. Since I’d seen the video I knew what was coming, but she went deeper in that one, I felt like she was looking me in the eye when she said “If you wouldn’t talk to anyone else like this, why would you ever talk to yourself like this, in this destructive matter?” (This is not the exact thing she said but it was something like this) “How is this helping you be a better professional, how is tearing yourself down to shreds with criticism helping you at all?” That one hit home, because I’m my worst nightmare, but then I noticed how this can be applied to just any person at all!

And then discussing this Master Class latter with my friends I realized that it also hit home for them! They were all very excited about learning more not only about opera but about Joyce, their new life guru! And some of them are even going the extra mile to try and show Joyce’s videos at work! And then going back to my notes I noticed something quite interesting I’d written down:

“Process is everything! You might be blessed with talent and that’s great, but if you don’t work your butt off your talent will get you NOWHERE. The work gets you there, it’s all about the process. If you have a well founded process, work hard and dedicate yourself you will definitely have more confidence and freedom at what you are doing. No rush! ENJOY the process. Slow and steady wins the race!”

Again, those aren’t the exact words Joyce said, it’s one of the many notes I frantically made during the Master Class. But when I read through that I realized that this message can be applied to anyone! And that’s when I realized that the 3 hours of pure bliss weren’t just filled with knowledge of acting and music but of LIFE, this was a Master Class in life! And for that I’m so very grateful to Joyce, I already knew that she was an exceptional person but this was most definitely the best class I’ve ever had, in all categories!



Me and my friends after the Master Class sort of taking a picture with Joyce hahaha

I’ve sent an email to Joyce thanking her and telling her about my friend’s positive reaction, here is to hoping that she responds! I’d have a heart attack for sure, but it’d be worth it!

So today I’m off to the USA, I’ll arrive there tomorrow but my journey starts today. I’m so happy I’m gonna be able to meet in person some of the AMAZING people that I’ve been talking to so frantically about opera for these last few months. I’m taking my laptop but I have no idea when I’m gonna post again, most definitely after I watch Rigoletto at the Met, but I’m hoping I can post something else before. Cheers everyone and thank you so much for reading and for the comments, they are much appreciated!

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WOLFIE MOZART! Your music is my life, so thank you!

<EDITING>

People! My friend Sydney is making the ultimate #operarox uniform! The “Don’t Smoke Sing Baroque” shirts! They are gonna be $14 each without shipping. If you want one be sure to go to http://songbirdsydney.tumblr.com/ for the info on how to get it, be sure to email her by TOMORROW and the money ASAP. Here’s what the shirts are gonna look like:



The Stuarda Adventure

What Just happened yesterday? I mean whow! I was blown away!

Let me start from the beginning, I live in Santos, a cool seaside city in Brasil, there aren’t movie theatres here that have Live in HD transmition. Actually there are only 2 movie theatres in the WHOLE STATE OF SÃO PAULO that have the Metropolitan’s Live in HD Transmitions. So I had a long journey ahead of me if I wanted to watch Maria Stuarda, but that didn’t bother me, for opera, and especially good opera sung by amazing people and incredible productions I can endure almost anything.

First Scene from the Metropolitan Opera’s

 production of Maria Stuarda

I got my best friend (who also happens to be the director of the theatre group I take part in) to go with me. The journey started off with me waiting for madam to brush his precious hair and ended up meeting my History Music teacher in front of my friend’s house, which is odd since my teacher is not from my town. We left my friend’s house at 12:30 (the transmition was scheduled to start at 3:55 pm) and it wasn’t until 1:00 pm that the bus finally arrived, to take us to São Paulo.

BUT, there was a HUGE traffic jam in the road and we took an hour and 50 minutes to get to São Paulo and it normally took an hour only. I was freaking out, desperate, I kept praying and promising stuff to God if I was able to get there in time. At 2:50pm I was at the metro station almost giving birth to my lungs! The metro ride lasted, as I had expected, 40 minutes and then me and my friend started looking for the right bus stop. But it was raining a lot, we finally gave up and took a cab that took us to the mall. I was breathless and almost doing it in my pants but we managed to get there before it began at 3:54 pm.!

The sound of the orchestra tuning and the people chatting at the Met was like a breath of fresh air, I WAS HOME! I entered the movie theatre jumping like a child and my friend got the atmosphere quite quickly, it’s very electrifying and especially for us, both theatre lovers. At the moment we sat down the lights dimmed and the screen showed there were 5 minutes to curtain. My heart was beating so fast, so exciting!



Elza Van Den Heever as Elisabeth and Matthew Polenzani as Leicester



I was tweeting frantically and then that trailer of the opera showing all the soloists began and I immediately started crying and I saw nothing but that blessed screen that brought (if only for a couple of hours) the Met closer to me. Come on they put the Prayer to play during that trailer and I’d only seen the snippets from the opera at the Met’s site so it was a like a little glimpse into what I was about to watch and there were just too many emotions for me not to cry! I was so glad Deb Voigt was presenting, she’s such a lovely host!

The opera began and right in first notes I was transported, I find the overture absolutely amazing especially the motive, the punctuated rhythm (oh God I’m kind of translating without really knowing my Portuguese musical vocabulary) just grabs you by the collar and demands your attention, it’s terrific!

I was pleasantly surprised by Elza Van Den Heever’s Elisabeth, I already knew her voice was amazing and contrary to general opinion I find her voice most beautiful. It is without a doubt different, but it’s rich and so delicious to listen to. But the voice wasn’t what surprised me, it was the acting, I thought she was playing Elisabeth as a hard to like person, almost a villain. I probably thought that because of the confrontation video I’d seen of her, she didn’t look very friendly, but after being called a Vil Bastarda no one is gonna seem to be too nice. I sympathized A LOT with her Elisabeth; you can see the suffering in her eyes on the duet with Leicester, although I was so hopping she’d hit him with something when she asked him if Maria was pretty and he said yes and she goes “SI? SI? SI?”. The whole strange walk thing was at last unmystified on Elza’s interview and after a few minutes didn’t really bother me as much as I thought it would.

Joyce DiDonato as Maria Stuarda



Then Joyce walked in gorgeous and shimmering light, how does she do that with her eyes? She acts with her eyes it’s incredible! They shone in an incredible way, you could almost see the weary pupils shine from the outdoor bliss she was feeling after being locked up for years! The excellency of Joyce’s singing was just as the doctor prescribed and I thought it was so cool that she made Maria her own. It was her interpretation of Maria Stuarda and not some stereotyped model of what Maria was. So she felt very real, a real human being as opposed to a saint like person that some people paint her as.

The confrontation scene was almost maddening! It was amazing how in the moment they first saw each other I felt that all the oxygen from the movie theatre had been drained. And at that moment I was much reminded of what Joyce had said in a post in her blog at the same day, that they in their own way were both right and that what they were saying wasn’t untrue. The scene was astounding, better than what I had imagined. In a vlog review I saw today the girl was saying that yesterday Joyce let out much more rage at her “Figlia impura di Bolena” than in the performance she had seen.



Joyce DiDonato as Maria Stuarda and Elza Van Den Heever as Elisabeth in the famous confrontation scene



I love the interviews part! And especially with such a sweet and super cool host it’s even better. Joyce was kinda breathless but was amazing as always and said a lot of the things she had mentioned on her blog which I found very cool. And when she gave the shout out to the fans I just couldn’t resist, not only did I wave, no, I let out a big “UHUL!” and my friend followed me by sending kisses to the screen and saying “Joyce, we love you! You’re awesome!” (And need I remind you that this was his first time watching a full length opera).  

Elza Van Den Heever as Elisabeth in the second act

Elza’s interview also took me by surprise because she was so sweet, it’s probably because her character is not sweet at all! She was also kinda breathless (I don’t blame them, I mean, did you just see what they did on stage a couple of seconds ago?) but so very nice and finally explaining why she was walking like a dude. And when you come to think of it, it does make sense, the director wanted to show the audience that these women were completely different, even in the manner of walking! And the fact that she was super excited about her shaving her head for the role and showing Deb how the wig looked so perfect because of it made me want to be her best friend. So sweet!

Well intermission went on fast because I was tweeting frenetically. The second act destroyed me, it just did. Right on the first look we get at it, with Elisabeth without her wig with what was left of her hair and wearing that heavy makeup in that HUGE dress, sources (YouTube) tell me it weighs 50 pounds! The scene of the signing of the death warrant was very really tense, Leicester still quite dumbly trying to persuade her not to sign it and just the whole death issue made the scene heavy in a good way.

Joyce DiDonato as Maria Stuarda



I loved the way Joyce played the slightly older and much more troubled Maria; she had a hand shaking quiver that worked so well. The death sentence, as Joyce said, seemed to come as relief to Mary and after confessing, such a powerful scene, she was ready to face her destiny. The prayer just killed me, I was crying like a baby! Such powerful music, and such devotion, it’s all intertwined by a brilliant chorus coach that really gave great thought to the little nuances of the music and the result took my breath away! It was almost time for Maria to be executed and she pardons the Queen for having send her to death, and with no hard feelings she goes to meet her destiny. When the ladies started undressing her so she was only wearing the red dress I was a mess and I wasn’t expecting that they would take off her wig as well, the sight was very shocking. And we had Maria as she was, no ornaments, no nothing, bare, broken, terrified but also brave and spiritually ready to die. When she walked up those steps my crying became audible, and then I let out a huge sigh like “Oh Jesus, that was soooo…” I couldn’t even describe it.

It was really one of the best things I’ve ever seen, it was certainly the best live in HD I’d ever seen. God, I LOVE OPERA! And now my other friends are super curious and want to go, so I’m taking quite a gang with me to watch Rigoletto next month! VICTORY IS MINE!    

No One Like You!

One thing I’ve come across a lot in this world of wannabe (not a bad sense of wannabe, but really people that are studying to be I mean) opera singers is the time issue and the comparison issue.

I’m gonna start off with the very simple fact that there is no finger print that is identical in two people, there is no finger print just like yours nor mine in any other person. With that said I believe I can affirm that we’re all very different. Now in this world of discovery of repertoire and of performers one can’t help but compare, we compare everything from costumes to vocal type, from high notes to low notes to interpretation to everything! And I’m not saying its bad thing having knowledge of repertoire and having watched many productions and having preferences and a well founded opinion, no!

What I’m talking about is, taking for instance my case, I figured out that I wanted a career in opera when I was 22 and the first person I looked up to a lot was Anna Netrebko. So I googled her and read about her, Anna had her debut in the Mariinsky Theatre at 22, playing Susanna in Nozze di Figaro, what is my reaction? “Oh my world, I’m so far behind, when she was my age she was already doing opera in a big opera house!  And here I am still striving to get those high notes just right, and at my age she was already playing with them” I can assure you that that is a despairing thought! And for me it was a real struggle, I felt really bad, hopeless even!

But then my singing teacher gave a little piece wisdom that I always carry with me and I find that it makes sense and it sometimes comforts when I’m feeling down. These aren’t the exact words she said, because I had to translate it but it goes something like this:

“There is no one like you in this world, or me.  I’m sure there are people out there that are better than you in certain things and people that are not as good as you in others. But you are unique, just like everyone else in this world. There’s only one you and one me.”

It is my absolute dream to sing at the Met, and another wise thing my teacher always tells me is that if you do your best and it’s meant to happen, you’re meant to do this, be certain that it will!

And when you really grasp the meaning of these words you don’t need to compare your development with anyone else. And digging a little deeper how could I compare myself to Anna, she’s completely different from me, she grew up in Russia and I grew up in Brasil, completely different climate, food, traditions, schooling, everything of course her path is gonna be different from mine! When she was 19ish she was in the conservatory while I was studying to be a musical theatre performer, that doesn’t make her better or worse than me, we’re just different!

And then the other issue that is time is completely entwined in the comparison issue. I’ll give you a solid example; I went to the Live Stream of the Met’s “La Clemenza di Tito” last month with 2 friends, one of which wants to be an opera singer. And she told me that she didn’t know who Elina Garanca was (first I just started, ‘cause how can you not know, but anyways…) and I started telling her about Elina and that she was super young, she’s 35 now, if I’m not mistaken. And that one of the earliest things I’d seen her in was a 2003 production of La Clemenza in the Salzburg Festival playing Annio, and that this festival was a really big deal, not just anyone performs there. And my friend just started counting the years with her fingers and came to the brilliant conclusion that she was 25 at the time and then she said “Okay, I have 5 years to make it then.”. I was silent and just thought for a while about what I had just heard, people are so desperate for a result they mirror themselves in successful people to stipulate time. That is a very tricky and awful way to go, ‘cause it’s 99% chance you’re gonna end up disappointed. And it’s very different from having someone who inspires you, a role model, again it is comparing yourself to someone else that, even though has the same profession as you wanna have, is completely different from you!

By the way these two kicked ass on this, I absolutely loved it. Elina Garanca as Sesto and Barbara Frittoli as Vittelia in the 2012 Metropolitan Opera production of Mozart’s last opera “La Clemenza di Tito”

I prefer (and oh my world, this is my opinion, I’m not saying I’m right or wrong) to think that my body is developing and so is my voice, I study every day, try and  watch and learn as many things as I can. I’m doing my share, I can’t force my body to develop itself before it’s really ready to do so. Every new opera that I watch is a journey, into the language, the story, the music, and I’m just trying to enjoy the ride and not overstress myself because of time issues. Plus another wise thing my teacher always tells me is:

“While you’re talking about someone else’s voice or whatever you could have done three vocalizes! It’s not gonna do you any good stressing yourself over other people’s voices.”

And since we’re all different we have different development timing! So, a piece of advice? Sing your age (I now it’s hard, I wish I could sing those Rossinis and Donizettis),  be yourself, don’t try and be the next someone else, people wanna see the real you, not an imitation of someone who’s already out there, and just enjoy the wonderful thing that it is studying music! We do this because we love it, not because our parents made us! Which is not what I can say for most people I know, we’re so lucky to be doing something we truly are passionate for and love.

Peace!

Ps; I’m not saying that having this kind of attitude is easy, I really owe it a lot to my singing teacher, who is an angel and super cool and to many things Joyce DiDonato says in her videos. But you gotta figure it out for yourself, when it really starts making sense in your head I can assure you you’ll feel way better.

Double Baroque Trouble

Is the title too Harry Potterish? Ah well, this has been a week of studying languages (Italian and French mostly, I’m kinda running away from the German), talking a lot about opera (I really had a blast at the #operarox live show, really, those people are awesome, they get me! It’s so difficult to find people who are willing to talk about opera nonstop), and watching new stuff (new to me, this stuff is ancient actually).



Sarah Connolly as Cesare and Danielle De Niese as Cleopatra

Well, I’m gonna talk about the two last operas that I saw, Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Monteverdi’s L'incoronazzione de Poppea both productions from the Glyndebourne Opera and also staring Danielle De Niese as the leading lady. What I think is super cool about these baroque operas is that gender isn’t really an issue, I mean, you have women playing man and man playing women and it’s ok. And it works, and that for me is awesome, especially since I came from a very theatrical background where gender sometimes really doesn’t matter.



Danielle De Niese as Poppea

and Alice Coote as Nero

 

Well I automatically feel in love with the two leading couples! I love this more fiery kind of love that both have as opposed to sweet and tender one, I like love with action! Also I think it’s so cool how both ladies start off maybe not really in love with the guys, but then fall helplessly for them (especially Cleopatra, she turns out to be so devoted to Cesare!). And really, I don’t blame them because, those guys are really something! I don’t know if it’s the fact that they are Emperors, they have that power allure, although the power doesn’t attract me, what does it’s the attitude and the posture one has when it has absolute power. Does that even make sense?

Well, I loved both productions, I thought they were very well done, and it was my first time seeing both and they were both staged in a nontraditional setting. But as I’ve said before, these stories live through so many years because they are timeless. So you get it when Cleopatra wears a little black dress to seduce Cesare and then does the victory dance when she’s successful! I absolutely adored the guy who was the lady in waiting for Cleopatra (his character is a guy) so funny, like the sassy gay friend! Who would have thought there were sassy gay friends in Ancient Egypt! Again TIMELESS stuff!

While watching Poppea I made sure my bedroom door was locked, the last thing I needed was my parents walking into one of those spicy scenes. The opera itself kinda shocked me a little bit because I kept going back to something Tony Pappano said in a documentary about Italian opera, that Monteverdi was 70 something years old in the 17^th century holding the most important church musician position when he wrote this opera. And it’s pretty steamy; it’s one of the fieriest things I’ve seen so far in the world of opera.



Danielle De Niese as Cleopatra



I love Danielle De Niesse, I think she’s so fresh and she brings something so hers to the pieces. She’s a very physical performer, which I like very much, she can move, she can dance while singing and that I think adds so much to the whole interpretation of the operas. Sarah Connolly stole my heart as Cesare, she’s one of those women that just KNOW how to play man, she’s got the man swag, and I felt a lot of attraction toward her Cesare, she looked really hot. But to me, you really can't tell that she's a woman in that costume or whenever she plays guys really. Just to be sure, I asked my sister (expert cross-dressing cosplayer that she is) if she looked like a real man or not, and she told me she definitely did. Another mezzo who has got the man swag up her sleeve is Alice Coote who was playing the ever scary Nero (he scares me because he’s kinda like a serial killer). I’ve said before on the Cendrillon post that she is such a marvelous pants role performer and in this that the character is so different from Prince Charmant, she also nails.



Sarah Connolly as Cesare

I particularly like the scene in the second act where Nero is singing a duet with one of his senate companions (I really don’t know who that guy is actually) and they are talking about ruby red lips, delicious, irresistible, and it’s just so sexy! The music, Alice’s face changes with every passing phrase, Nero seems to at first be talking about Poppea’s lips, but then he looks at his fellow differently, and at first it’s an odd feeling for him, but then he kinda surrenders to it and just enjoys singing about the guy’s lips. And then singing about it isn’t enough, he has to kiss him, so he does and it’s a very “hold your breath” moment, he seems to enjoy it and but then he can’t do that, so with all his absolute power and grace he drowns the guy, still singing about the red lips! For me that was unbelievable, it was so intense, I loved it! 

But to me one of the most moving piece of music in Poppea is the final duet, oh God, it's so beautiful and the way they end in unison, they are one! And even though this opera is about power, sex and passion, with that duet it ends up being a piece about love and about two people who adore each other. Even though historically Nero kills Poppea one year after with a kick on her pregnant stomach, but let’s just pretend they lived happily ever after :)



 Alice Coote as Nero

Well, I don’t care about what other people say baroque opera rocks!