Ja vas lyublyu: A Tribute to Tchaikovsky on His Birthday

Ja vas lyublyu!
Thank you, Tchaikovsky, for teaching me how to say "I love you" in Russian. It comes in handy when I'm trying to impress people with my linguistic skills. =)

But, more than that, Tchaikovsky has shaped most of my appreciation for music. Since "The Nutcracker" takes up more than half of my time during the months of September, October, November, and December, it's safe to say that Tchaikovsky's music is one of the most important in my life. As a ballet student I've seen (and heard) "Swan Lake" countless times. Not that that's a problem at all, my gosh of course not! My favorite (to dance)... the four little swans.

Let's not forget his amazing operas!!!!
My gateway into the Russian opera world: Eugene Onegin. One of my favorite bookhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=ZhQr7w055-Ys, containing one of my favorite heroines is also an opera (not like you didn't know!) that takes everything to the dramatic extreme! Oh, how glorious.
I will not fail to mention his other operas, Iolanta and The Queen of Spades. Let's linger on The Queen of Spades (Pique Dame) for a moment. That baritone aria, OH THAT BARITONE ARIA. It's like heaven wrapped in chocolate...especially when Mr. Hvorostovsky is singing it!


Oh, that Tchaikovsky. Never fails to amaze.


Happy Listening!!!! =)

Be Jealous. Because I Am!!! And Other News

Hearing about anything exciting that happens at the Met makes me want to drop out of school and just live in the Met. Not a bad life. I'll make friend with the Grand Tier Restaurant people, get great food. I'll steal an usher outfit and show everyone how well I know my way around. Plus, you get paid to watch the opera! Usher!!!!!!!!!!! (Dream college job.)
If anyone would like to support me in my new life style feel free to let me know. If you knows someone who knows someone who can get me a little space where I can live in the Met, that's cool. If a friend of a friend can arrange to get me free tickets every night that would be pretty great also.

What prompted this ramble? Well, hearing about the fabulous tribute to Franco Zefferelli is one thing. The 347th performance of Boheme is another. Oh wait, they're the same thing. A star studded event that cut right in the middle of the performance, after the famous and illustrious Act II. Some of the guests were (just to name a few) Rosalind Elias, Richard Stilwell, Lucine Amara, Eva Marton, Leona Mitchell and Justino Diaz. Nice. I was there in spirit of course, but it's not the same. Oh yeah, I heard the actual performance was good, too. Just if you were wondering.

In totally unrelated and random news:
So I have two major crushes in the opera world. It's bad, because they're both married. There's also the age thing. Whatever. Brad Pitt is old(er), too. =P So anyway, my two major crushes are:

Juan Diego Florez. You don't even know. No, you really don't know. Julia Trappe is lucky she got there first. So, JDF is staring in Rigoletto in Peru right now. I'm temporarily moving my home from the Met to Peru. Opera Chic has a couple of videos showing the ever amazing Juan Diego in the ever amazing role of the Duke of Mantua. *sigh* Dear Peter Gelb, give this man a Rigoletto. I seem to be ordering Peter Gelb around a lot lately. Still, Juan Diego deserves it.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Married before I got there. Oh, well. It started with the Onegin last season where my friend and I dubbed him "white haired guy." For a while that's all we talked about and our other friends thought we were nuts. Well, she got over him. Umm... me? Not so much. He's still one of the best barihunks in the business and the NY Times knows how to tell it to you straight. He's just fabulous. Really, really fabulous. (P.S. In the first video of him I really wish they didn't make him wear a wig... oh well)


Quick Recap:
I'm dropping out of school and living at the Met (it's a secret of course). I'm then taking a vacation to Peru and seeing JDF in Rigoletto. I'm stealing some one's job as an usher at the Met. Oh, and I also told you me two secret (not really, it was quite obvious) operatic crushes.
Get it?
Got it?
Good.



Happy Listening!! =)

BirthdayDesk 2

Possibly the greatest living tenor, if not then definitely the greatest tenor still performing (since September 6th, anyway), celebrates his *muffled number* birthday today!!!
I was beyond excited that he was going to conduct "Romeo et Juliette" and that I was going to go see it. He had been my favorite (and, well, still is!) since the very beginning and finally I was going to see him LIVE, IN PERSON! So I got to the Met shaking like a leaf and when the lights went down I knew I was going to lose it. Oh my gosh, he walked up to the podium and I couldn't stop, shaking, crying, laughing, and clapping all at the same time! It was crazy! Of course, I calmed down just before the applause stopped and anyone noticed. It's weird how great singers, or great people in general, can have that effect on you...

YAYYYYY PLACIDO DOMINGO!


Happy Listening!! =)


P.S. If you've been wondering what I've been doing while I've been neglecting this blog... This and this, too, are how I've been wasting- er, I mean, spending- my time.

To Do List: (1) Get stabbed at a Masked Ball, (2) Sing a long aria, (3) Then die

Un Ballo in Maschera
by Giuseppe Verdi

Amelia- Michele Crider
Gustavo- Salvatore Licitra
Anckarstrom (Renato)- Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Ulrica- Stephanie Blythe
Oscar- Kathleen Kim
Ribbing (Samuel)- Hao Jiang Tian
de Horn (Tom)- Andrew Gangestad
Conductor- Gianandrea Noseda


With a production that is nearly 20 years old it's usually difficult to add freshness to it. However, when you have three great, world class singers singing in one place at the same time, it does add a sort of lightness and vivacity to an old set.
The three real stars of the evening sadly didn't include the soprano, which is usually the case. Michele Crider held her own, and with her huge voice it's hard to forget her, but she was slightly out done by her peers despite her soaring second act aria and touching portrayal of the distraught Amelia. It's a little something called "star power" that just didn't shine through. Of course, I'm thoroughly spoiled by sopranos such as Aprile Millo and Birgit Nilsson who can not be outdone in this role. Salvatore Licitra, who plays Amelia's "lover", is a different story. He had a magnificent presence and his voice crystal clear, which makes him one of the three real stars of the evening. By some confusing and unimportant turn of events my mother ended up in the Family Circle Standing Room for the first act. She came down at intermission and the first thing she said was "Oh my gosh, you can hear every syllable the tenor sings all the way up there!" And every high note, too. Every wonderful high note that came almost effortlessly and filled the house with sound.
Stephanie Blythe is another singer that can fill the house with sound. I could hardly believe the size of her voice! Her low notes were so exciting and I couldn't stop myself from whispering "Ooooo yes, chest voice!" The curtain opened on her lair and you knew immediately which one was the power horse mezzo! It's called star power, it's called stage presence, call it what ever you like, but Stephanie Blythe had it! She was chilling as the fortune-teller and her singing hardly required her to open her mouth! She'd open it a crack and you could hear her voice from the nose bleed seats!
My personal favorite highlight of the entire evening was Dmitri Hvorostovsky's Renato (You say potato-or Anckerstrom- and I say Renato) or, more specifically, his "Eri tu." I was slightly surprised because his voice was not as large in the house as I imagined it. Or maybe I was imagining it wasn't big? Surrounded by all those huge voices maybe it just sounded small. I'm convinced that he only took one breath each act and man he could hold those notes forever! My mother and I were rather upset that this wasn't such a "romantic" role because this guy really deserves it. It's sort of like "Well, what's the soprano doing with the other guy if she can have him? Oh well... maybe I can have him instead?" With a baritone who is so extremely handsome, it's hard to believe that he could become so unlikeable in the end. But that's how the opera goes, the baritones never win. Dmitri Hvorostovsky was so sinister yet calm as Renato, it was almost scary. When he discovered that Amelia was...well... Amelia in the second act he sings "Ameeeeeeeeliaaaaa!" Oh my GOODNESS did it sound EVIL. And yet... it was SO GORGEOUS. Evil has never looked or sounded so good. Speaking of sounding good, I waited the entire performance for "Eri tu" and was not disappointed. It's such a wonderful aria and Dmitri pulls it off so so SO well. =)
Kathleen Kim as Oscar was a dream. She's so cute and light. She flies all over the stage and her voice is very ring-y. She got better as the night went on and by the end of the evening she proved herself to be a wonderful singer-actress who I would definitely like to see more often.
One note on the conducting... I felt that some arias, particularly Oscar's two little arias and "Di tu se fedele", were taken a little too slowly. They're both supposed to be light, fluffy arias and are not supposed to be dragged out. The singers tried to sing as slowly as Maestro Noseda was conducting, but I'm sure it was a tad difficult.
Over all, great show. I left with little wings on my heals and I sighed all the way home, hoping to see more performances that were that exciting.

Happy Listening!!! =) (Sorry this was so long! So many feelings for one performance!)

Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin Moviecast

(Just for the record it's pronounced "Yevgenee Ownyaygin")

What a miraculously, amazingly perfect performance! This being my first Russian opera and my first opera in a movie theatre, maybe I shouldn't be talking, but it was just fantastic. Renee Fleming was a dream as Tatiana! What it must have been like to see/hear her in the house, I can't even imagine! Her Letter Scene was simply amazing! I loved how she ran around the stage with leaves in her hands, it was great! I don't care what people say about her, when she tries she is the best! Her tone is perfect and throughout the opera it was flawless. What miraculous work.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky never really caught my attention, UNTIL NOW! Holy moly! It was amazing. He looked every bit as snobbish and jerk-ish as he was supposed to in the first two acts, and then in the final act (when he totally loses it) he looks enraptured and then heartbroken. His singing was unbelievable and it helps that he's good looking. During the polonaise he gets to take his shirt off for a costume change on stage and my friend and I were at the edge of our seats with our jaws dropped. HELLO MR. HVOROSTOVSKY. But he was a jerk to Tatiana, so he can stay heartbroken =P.
Anyway, the rest of the cast was glorious! Ramon Vargas as Lensky was a stroke of genius. What a warm tone! Lately I've been sort of disappointed with some of the tenors the Met has produced, but I wasn't here! What a pleasant surprise! How sad that he has to get shot by his best friend =(, that's the only downfall of the opera. I would have liked to see Lensky live and ONEGIN SHOT! (what a jerk Eugene is, psh) Elena Zaremba's Olga, on the other hand, was slightly disappointing. The acting and attitude was just right, but the singing was a little off. It bugged me that the character was not a soprano because then she sounds too old. Zaremba was, I regret to say, quite a bit wobbly, but enjoyable none-the-less. Sergei Aleksashkin was a wonderful Prince Gremin. His aria almost stopped the show, and rightfully so, it was glorious. Gergiev....Gergiev...there's nothing to say, really, without going overboard! It was perfect, don't let anyone else conduct it!!!!

I'm not so sure if you're supposed to, but I clapped with the audience sitting in the Met. I was one of few who did so, but I wasn't ashamed. It's boring to sit there and listen to other people clap, I wanted it to be like I was right there with them. Most people in my theatre clapped during the curtain calls, but no one dared to let out a "bravo." And it's hopeless to try and see it live AT the Met because the last two performance's are completely and totally sold out =(. Maybe next season???
As for the movie aspect of it, I felt it was mostly good. I would really prefer less "in their face" approach to the singers, I'd rather see the whole stage then just one singer's face for five whole minutes, because the whole stage is what the real audience sees. Some times pulling back is a good thing! However, seeing shots of the orchestra clapping for the performers was charming and I loved seeing the house in it's full glory. Watching the audience during ovations was fun and it really got you into the whole experience.

For anyone who has never gone to one of these moviecasts should definitely go! It was wonderful, my friend and I enjoyed it immensely. And for anyone who has never seen or hear Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin absolutely should! It's a masterpiece!