Courtesy of my friend, Bill:
Please wach this video of a Slovenian jazz choir called Perpetuum Jazzile performing Toto's "Africa." The thunderstorm effects are the best part.
I don't know how to embed a video yet, particularly one yanked from YouTube. Anyone care to enlighten me?
In the meantime, if you want to know what has actually been inspiring me lately, listen to Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson's recordings of Mahler's Ruckert Lieder. Here's "Um Mitternacht" and here are three more from that album. The last one, "Liebst du um Schonheit," is one of the most beautiful love songs I know. We had Clara Schumann's setting of the same poetry sung at our wedding - I still can't decide which I like more, Clara Schumann's or Mahler's. What say you?
Monday, July 6, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Opera Bob!
This summer, our musical adventures have mostly taken place with a new opera company in Minneapolis called Opera Bob! Yes, it's a weird name for an opera company, but the name is meant to reflect the company's goal to be a more accessible, less formal presenter of opera in the community.
Opera Bob was brought into existence to fill a void in our community: we have one major regional opera company here, The Minnesota Opera, but despite the many theater companies in the Twin Cities, The Minnesota Opera is the only opera company. There are one or two theaters in town that occasionally present an opera, and a few that present musical theater, but in a town full of small, independent theater companies and a community eager to patronize them, Opera Bob's founders thought that there exists a potential audience for independent opera that emphasizes the drama and the music as equal parts of the art form. So many people belive that opera singers are bad actors or that opera is melodramatic and cheesy (and sometimes, those things may be true!), but good opera as an art form doesn't emphasize the music at the expense of the drama - these elements go hand in hand. In good opera, the music serves the drama, and great composers throughout the centuries knew how to take even mediocre poetry and turn it into compelling theater. And that is what Opera Bob hopes to do: perform compelling theater by great composers.
Actually, you can read Opera Bob's mission statement here, on the website. (The website isn't professional-looking yet, but we are getting there!) There are so many neglected, rarely-performed gems by great composers, and this is where Opera Bob hopes to carve a niche in this city.
So, this summer, Chandler and I have been performing in fundraisers for Opera Bob, helping to raise the funds to underwrite our very first show at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in August. All the singers are emerging professionals (you can read the biographies on the Opera Bob website) who are helping raise funds (donate at the website - it's tax deductible!) because we are really excited about this new company. Our Fringe Festival show is actually five scenes from five different operas by four different composers that hang together on a common theme. We decided not to do a full opera, since we are limited by the Fringe to a presentation under 50 minutes, but I think these five scenes are going to hold together really well and give our audiences a taste of some fantastic drama!
I'll be back later to tell you more about our show!
Opera Bob was brought into existence to fill a void in our community: we have one major regional opera company here, The Minnesota Opera, but despite the many theater companies in the Twin Cities, The Minnesota Opera is the only opera company. There are one or two theaters in town that occasionally present an opera, and a few that present musical theater, but in a town full of small, independent theater companies and a community eager to patronize them, Opera Bob's founders thought that there exists a potential audience for independent opera that emphasizes the drama and the music as equal parts of the art form. So many people belive that opera singers are bad actors or that opera is melodramatic and cheesy (and sometimes, those things may be true!), but good opera as an art form doesn't emphasize the music at the expense of the drama - these elements go hand in hand. In good opera, the music serves the drama, and great composers throughout the centuries knew how to take even mediocre poetry and turn it into compelling theater. And that is what Opera Bob hopes to do: perform compelling theater by great composers.
Actually, you can read Opera Bob's mission statement here, on the website. (The website isn't professional-looking yet, but we are getting there!) There are so many neglected, rarely-performed gems by great composers, and this is where Opera Bob hopes to carve a niche in this city.
So, this summer, Chandler and I have been performing in fundraisers for Opera Bob, helping to raise the funds to underwrite our very first show at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in August. All the singers are emerging professionals (you can read the biographies on the Opera Bob website) who are helping raise funds (donate at the website - it's tax deductible!) because we are really excited about this new company. Our Fringe Festival show is actually five scenes from five different operas by four different composers that hang together on a common theme. We decided not to do a full opera, since we are limited by the Fringe to a presentation under 50 minutes, but I think these five scenes are going to hold together really well and give our audiences a taste of some fantastic drama!
I'll be back later to tell you more about our show!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Apologies, update, and onward
Hello family and friends, if any of you are out there, my apologies for the six-month absence. The winter turned out to be a fairly depressing time in my singing career, and as the winter itself is fairly depressing for me, I couldn't bring myself to post. Now that the sun is shining and I've had a number of requests to continue, here I am again!
I'll skip the winter disappointments and talk about the good things, okay?
HANDEL'S MESSIAH: I was asked to sing the soprano solos in Messiah, Handel's most famous oratorio, with the Sioux County Oratorio Society, back in May. I was actually very excited for this, as I haven't ever sung a Messiah in concert with full chorus and orchestra! Actually, although I have done some concert work, I've never done any oratorio!
For any of my family and friends who aren't clear about the definition of oratorio, here it is: An oratorio consists of solos, recitatives, and chorus and is performed with an orchestra, much like an opera, and it has a story and characters, but it is not staged, nor are there costumes or a set. Therefore, it isn't really a dramatic theatrical work like opera. There is very little (if any) interaction between the characters - the soloists basically just stand in front of the orchestra and sing. Many oratorios are based on sacred topics, such as the life of Jesus or other Biblical figures, but some are secular, often based on stories from Greek and Roman mythology.
So, oratorio is very different from opera from a performer's perspective: while you are singing a character, you are basically creating that character in each piece you sing like you would in a song recital, because you don't interact with the others. In Handel's Messiah, there aren't really characters at all, just narration from different Biblical texts by the four soloists. I thoroughly enjoyed singing the soprano solos in Handel's Messiah because it is such a popular, well-known and beloved musical work - although it is quite long, most of the audience knows it well from recordings and other performances. Oh, and the music is beautiful! Well, and the other soloists were great to listen to, particularly the alto and the tenor, who added very nice ornamentations. It is expected in Baroque music to add stylistically appropriate ornamentations, and the tenor was exceptionally skilled at this. Totally fun to hear!
Handel's Messiah is usually performed during Advent, but it is also performed occasionally during Lent. This performance took place right after Easter, but before Ascension Day, which I actually thought was the most appropriate of all, since the three parts of the work are 1) The Birth of Christ, 2) The Passion of Christ, and 3) The Aftermath. The performance I took part in was a shortened version of the work (the entire work is three hours long!), but took pieces from all three sections. I was a little bummed out that one of the pieces that was cut was the soprano aria "I know that my Redeemer liveth," but at least one aria was cut for every soloist. I wonder if the audience was disappointed if they noticed any of their favorite pieces had been excluded? The "Hallelujah" chorus was there, of course, so maybe nobody minded about anything else.
Maybe you are one of the few who don't have a good recording of this massively popular oratorio, and you would like to buy a good one, hm? Well, here are some recommendations:
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Sir Colin Davis
The English Concert and Choir, conducted by Trevor Pinnock
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Robert Shaw
So there you have it. I'm catching up! More tomorrow on my newest opera adventure - Opera Bob! (Seriously, that is the company's name. Come back tomorrow!)
I'll skip the winter disappointments and talk about the good things, okay?
HANDEL'S MESSIAH: I was asked to sing the soprano solos in Messiah, Handel's most famous oratorio, with the Sioux County Oratorio Society, back in May. I was actually very excited for this, as I haven't ever sung a Messiah in concert with full chorus and orchestra! Actually, although I have done some concert work, I've never done any oratorio!
For any of my family and friends who aren't clear about the definition of oratorio, here it is: An oratorio consists of solos, recitatives, and chorus and is performed with an orchestra, much like an opera, and it has a story and characters, but it is not staged, nor are there costumes or a set. Therefore, it isn't really a dramatic theatrical work like opera. There is very little (if any) interaction between the characters - the soloists basically just stand in front of the orchestra and sing. Many oratorios are based on sacred topics, such as the life of Jesus or other Biblical figures, but some are secular, often based on stories from Greek and Roman mythology.
So, oratorio is very different from opera from a performer's perspective: while you are singing a character, you are basically creating that character in each piece you sing like you would in a song recital, because you don't interact with the others. In Handel's Messiah, there aren't really characters at all, just narration from different Biblical texts by the four soloists. I thoroughly enjoyed singing the soprano solos in Handel's Messiah because it is such a popular, well-known and beloved musical work - although it is quite long, most of the audience knows it well from recordings and other performances. Oh, and the music is beautiful! Well, and the other soloists were great to listen to, particularly the alto and the tenor, who added very nice ornamentations. It is expected in Baroque music to add stylistically appropriate ornamentations, and the tenor was exceptionally skilled at this. Totally fun to hear!
Handel's Messiah is usually performed during Advent, but it is also performed occasionally during Lent. This performance took place right after Easter, but before Ascension Day, which I actually thought was the most appropriate of all, since the three parts of the work are 1) The Birth of Christ, 2) The Passion of Christ, and 3) The Aftermath. The performance I took part in was a shortened version of the work (the entire work is three hours long!), but took pieces from all three sections. I was a little bummed out that one of the pieces that was cut was the soprano aria "I know that my Redeemer liveth," but at least one aria was cut for every soloist. I wonder if the audience was disappointed if they noticed any of their favorite pieces had been excluded? The "Hallelujah" chorus was there, of course, so maybe nobody minded about anything else.
Maybe you are one of the few who don't have a good recording of this massively popular oratorio, and you would like to buy a good one, hm? Well, here are some recommendations:
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Sir Colin Davis
The English Concert and Choir, conducted by Trevor Pinnock
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Robert Shaw
So there you have it. I'm catching up! More tomorrow on my newest opera adventure - Opera Bob! (Seriously, that is the company's name. Come back tomorrow!)
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Further explanation
I did something in my last post that I have been trying really hard not to do in this blog: assume non-singers know about dorky singer stuff. I totally didn't explain the Met auditions, so I'm going to remedy that right now!
First of all, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions aren't really auditions per se - it's really a competition. Unlike an audition, which singers do to try to get a job, the purpose of a competition is to encourage talented young singers with cash prizes and sometimes helpful comments on their performances by the judges, who are opera professionals. Winning competitions also adds a little prestige (or padding, depending on how you look at it), to a singer's resume.
The Met auditions are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, which is basically a volunteer organization made up of donors and patrons of the arts. Their website states that the auditions serve to "discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers." The prizes are donated by philanthropists throughout the country, including regional opera guilds and private donors. Any singer who meets the eligibility requirements (between the ages of 20 and 30, US citizen, five arias in contrasting languages, demonstrate operatic potential, possess musical training) may compete in the district auditions.
There are forty-five districts within fifteen regions. Each district may send up to three winners to the regional level (but they do not have to send three - it is often only one or two), and one winner from each region moves on to the semi-final round in New York. Approximately ten singers are then chosen to compete in the final round, and up to five singers may be awarded grand prizes. At the district level, there are also encouragement awards and there may be various other donated awards. The amount of prize money varies greatly from district to district, and some singers decide where they want to compete based on the potential amount of prize money available.
Basically, it's just a competition, and it's nice to be able to win a little money to pay for the ever-mounting expenses of weekly voice lessons, paying a pianist several times a month for coaching and rehearsal, recording costs for audition applications, audition application fees, head shots, travel and lodging for auditions, proper clothing for auditions, music scores, and -- oh yeah -- the fee to enter the competition in the first place!
Have I skipped over something else I should have explained? Feel free to ask more questions in the comments section!
First of all, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions aren't really auditions per se - it's really a competition. Unlike an audition, which singers do to try to get a job, the purpose of a competition is to encourage talented young singers with cash prizes and sometimes helpful comments on their performances by the judges, who are opera professionals. Winning competitions also adds a little prestige (or padding, depending on how you look at it), to a singer's resume.
The Met auditions are sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, which is basically a volunteer organization made up of donors and patrons of the arts. Their website states that the auditions serve to "discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers." The prizes are donated by philanthropists throughout the country, including regional opera guilds and private donors. Any singer who meets the eligibility requirements (between the ages of 20 and 30, US citizen, five arias in contrasting languages, demonstrate operatic potential, possess musical training) may compete in the district auditions.
There are forty-five districts within fifteen regions. Each district may send up to three winners to the regional level (but they do not have to send three - it is often only one or two), and one winner from each region moves on to the semi-final round in New York. Approximately ten singers are then chosen to compete in the final round, and up to five singers may be awarded grand prizes. At the district level, there are also encouragement awards and there may be various other donated awards. The amount of prize money varies greatly from district to district, and some singers decide where they want to compete based on the potential amount of prize money available.
Basically, it's just a competition, and it's nice to be able to win a little money to pay for the ever-mounting expenses of weekly voice lessons, paying a pianist several times a month for coaching and rehearsal, recording costs for audition applications, audition application fees, head shots, travel and lodging for auditions, proper clothing for auditions, music scores, and -- oh yeah -- the fee to enter the competition in the first place!
Have I skipped over something else I should have explained? Feel free to ask more questions in the comments section!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I won the Nebraska Met auditions!
I can't believe I haven't posted for nearly two weeks - so much has happened! Top of the news is that I'm back home in Minneapolis after winning the Nebraska district Met auditions in Lincoln on Saturday, less than 24 hours after arriving back in Omaha from an exhausting week of touring Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa.
Prior to touring, we performed at a couple of events for donors to the opera. On Friday night, we sang arias and songs during a silent auction/wine and scotch tasting in a large, CARPETED hotel ballroom. Oh, and with a keyboard instead of a piano. That was an interesting experience! I have sung for events like that before, but never with a keyboard or in a carpeted room. It's challenging to perform while people are mingling, but I really had to be mindful of the way I was singing this time. It's tempting to 'push' the sound over that din in a room already muffled by carpeting, especially when you aren't supported by an actual piano. It was a good event, though, and I think it was a nice benefit for the opera - there should ALWAYS be scotch tastings at benefits and fundraisers! The next evening was in a similar location, but featured a six-course dinner with wine pairings, followed by a live auction. I was seated at a table with the owner of Omaha Steaks. Fancy!
We started out that week of touring on Sunday night, the 16th, driving to a hotel in Yankton, SD, which would be our home for three days. We did two high school or college shows every day Monday through Wednesday, fortified by the grilled and fried cuisine of South Dakota, nary a vegetable or fruit in sight (sad, sad, SAD - singers do not appreciate acid reflux, even if some of them do rather enjoy the occasional onion ring or grilled ham and cheese). Happily, our hotel not only had an excercise room, but racquetball courts! Darren (the baritone, remember?) pretty much kicked my arse, but at least we worked off the pounds of grease and cheese.
On Wednesday night, we moved our home base to Sioux Center, Iowa, where we gave a concert on Thursday night and our final education outreach show (at my alma mater, Dordt College!) on Friday. It was a little sad, but our voices were pretty exhausted by that point. Then on Saturday, I sang the competition and everyone else went home!
Within the next day or two, I'll write something on what I learned from my experiences, and I plan to continue blogging about auditions, gigs, and making this opera career, so keep reading! I probably have some more pictures hanging around somewhere, too...
Prior to touring, we performed at a couple of events for donors to the opera. On Friday night, we sang arias and songs during a silent auction/wine and scotch tasting in a large, CARPETED hotel ballroom. Oh, and with a keyboard instead of a piano. That was an interesting experience! I have sung for events like that before, but never with a keyboard or in a carpeted room. It's challenging to perform while people are mingling, but I really had to be mindful of the way I was singing this time. It's tempting to 'push' the sound over that din in a room already muffled by carpeting, especially when you aren't supported by an actual piano. It was a good event, though, and I think it was a nice benefit for the opera - there should ALWAYS be scotch tastings at benefits and fundraisers! The next evening was in a similar location, but featured a six-course dinner with wine pairings, followed by a live auction. I was seated at a table with the owner of Omaha Steaks. Fancy!
We started out that week of touring on Sunday night, the 16th, driving to a hotel in Yankton, SD, which would be our home for three days. We did two high school or college shows every day Monday through Wednesday, fortified by the grilled and fried cuisine of South Dakota, nary a vegetable or fruit in sight (sad, sad, SAD - singers do not appreciate acid reflux, even if some of them do rather enjoy the occasional onion ring or grilled ham and cheese). Happily, our hotel not only had an excercise room, but racquetball courts! Darren (the baritone, remember?) pretty much kicked my arse, but at least we worked off the pounds of grease and cheese.
On Wednesday night, we moved our home base to Sioux Center, Iowa, where we gave a concert on Thursday night and our final education outreach show (at my alma mater, Dordt College!) on Friday. It was a little sad, but our voices were pretty exhausted by that point. Then on Saturday, I sang the competition and everyone else went home!
Within the next day or two, I'll write something on what I learned from my experiences, and I plan to continue blogging about auditions, gigs, and making this opera career, so keep reading! I probably have some more pictures hanging around somewhere, too...
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Touring in Nebraska, where the wind goes sweeping...oh, wrong state
Folks, we're leaving in less than an hour for two days in the heart of Nebraska - doing THREE SHOWS tomorrow and two on Friday. Actually, the second one on Friday is at a cocktail party to raise money for Opera Omaha, but the other is a school program.
At any rate, I haven't written as much as I wanted to this week, but it's been busy, and now we'll be gone! Well, when we get back this weekend, I'll share lots of thoughts and stories about hours in the OO van with three other singers, our music director/pianist, and the community programs director. Lots of card games are being planned, and beer has been already purchased! Not for the van, people, for the hotel...yeesh.
At any rate, I haven't written as much as I wanted to this week, but it's been busy, and now we'll be gone! Well, when we get back this weekend, I'll share lots of thoughts and stories about hours in the OO van with three other singers, our music director/pianist, and the community programs director. Lots of card games are being planned, and beer has been already purchased! Not for the van, people, for the hotel...yeesh.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Why I love opera
Doing this education tour has really made me think again about why I love opera and why I want other people, especially kids, to give it a chance. There are myriad reasons, but here are the things I love most about opera:
1. There are no microphones. Singers have to train their bodies and voices intelligently in order to sing in huge theaters without any amplification other than what happens in their own throats, chests, and heads. Yes, good acoustics in these theaters helps, but without vocal training, those acoustics wouldn't matter one bit when an entire orchestra plays and the hall is filled with thousands of bodies dampening the sound. It's amazing to me what the human body and voice can do - like athletes, we train every day, and we must do so thoughtfully and with intention. It's not as easy as it looks, and it takes years of study, practice, and physical development. This is the number one reason I fell in love with opera in the first place.
2. The music is sometimes beautiful, sometimes intellectually stimulating, and sometimes so passionate and emotional and thrilling that whether you are singing it or listening to it, you feel something that you can't put words to. It is that exact transcendent feeling that is why that particular music was composed in the first place - to give voice to something that words alone cannot express.
3. It's a take on our human tradition of storytelling that involves music, drama, movement, and visual arts (sets, lighting, costumes...) - everything - all in one spectacular live event. Oh, and that brings me to...
4. It's LIVE. Anything can happen on stage. When music is recorded in a studio, or when a film or TV show is made, there are all kinds of possibilities for editing, tweaking, changing things in the studio. In the live theater, you have one chance at that high note, one chance at that scene, and one chance to give the audience an experience that will take them into a different world for an evening. Maybe, if you're lucky, you get one chance to show someone who is experiencing their very first opera all the things that you love about it, and maybe that one night will inspire their love for it, too.
5. Every time you do a show, the same exact opera and maybe even the same exact production, it's different. You get a new opportunity to see into a character, perfect or change that character based on the way you are perceiving the music that day. You get to mold and play and create and take the audience along for the ride.
These reasons are the same for me both as a performer and an audience member. No matter how many times I see La Traviata or Don Giovanni or any other opera I've seen a number of times before, it's always a new experience. The notes on the page always stay the same, but the music and the drama are different every time they're brought to life, every single performance.
We might be in a recession, but that is why we need the arts more than ever - to take us away, just for a couple of hours, into something bigger and grander, more terrible and more wonderful. Get thee to the theater, friends!
1. There are no microphones. Singers have to train their bodies and voices intelligently in order to sing in huge theaters without any amplification other than what happens in their own throats, chests, and heads. Yes, good acoustics in these theaters helps, but without vocal training, those acoustics wouldn't matter one bit when an entire orchestra plays and the hall is filled with thousands of bodies dampening the sound. It's amazing to me what the human body and voice can do - like athletes, we train every day, and we must do so thoughtfully and with intention. It's not as easy as it looks, and it takes years of study, practice, and physical development. This is the number one reason I fell in love with opera in the first place.
2. The music is sometimes beautiful, sometimes intellectually stimulating, and sometimes so passionate and emotional and thrilling that whether you are singing it or listening to it, you feel something that you can't put words to. It is that exact transcendent feeling that is why that particular music was composed in the first place - to give voice to something that words alone cannot express.
3. It's a take on our human tradition of storytelling that involves music, drama, movement, and visual arts (sets, lighting, costumes...) - everything - all in one spectacular live event. Oh, and that brings me to...
4. It's LIVE. Anything can happen on stage. When music is recorded in a studio, or when a film or TV show is made, there are all kinds of possibilities for editing, tweaking, changing things in the studio. In the live theater, you have one chance at that high note, one chance at that scene, and one chance to give the audience an experience that will take them into a different world for an evening. Maybe, if you're lucky, you get one chance to show someone who is experiencing their very first opera all the things that you love about it, and maybe that one night will inspire their love for it, too.
5. Every time you do a show, the same exact opera and maybe even the same exact production, it's different. You get a new opportunity to see into a character, perfect or change that character based on the way you are perceiving the music that day. You get to mold and play and create and take the audience along for the ride.
These reasons are the same for me both as a performer and an audience member. No matter how many times I see La Traviata or Don Giovanni or any other opera I've seen a number of times before, it's always a new experience. The notes on the page always stay the same, but the music and the drama are different every time they're brought to life, every single performance.
We might be in a recession, but that is why we need the arts more than ever - to take us away, just for a couple of hours, into something bigger and grander, more terrible and more wonderful. Get thee to the theater, friends!
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