In Conversation: Lawrence Brownlee Interviews Denyce Graves

As part of his online interview series, Sit Down With LB, tenor Lawrence Brownlee has a Facebook LIVE conversation with the legendary mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. From their homes in Florida and New York, the discussion covers the gamut from hearing Leontyne Price the first time and knowing she wanted to become an opera singer to when she gave Samuel Ramey his wake-up call as a clerk working at the Omni Parker House! We also get to hear about her experience singing with Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti; learning to become a better cook; being friends with Ruth Bader-Ginsburg; admiring singers like Kathleen Battle and Elly Ameling; coping during quarantine life with a family; nurturing her life outside opera by spending time on the farm with horses, dogs and alpacas; and how teaching young singers has brought her a renewed sense of appreciation for the art form. You can see the full interview here.  Watch Denyce Graves sing the "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" (Carmen) and "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" (Samson et Dalila) after the jump.

Opera Stars Pack Kennedy Center For Martina Arroyo Tribute

Denyce Graves

Renée Fleming

Jessye Norman

Joseph Calleja performs "Celeste Aida"

Sondra Radvanovsky performs "O Patria Mia"

Joseph Calleja and Sondra Radvanovsky sing the "Triumphal Scene" from Verdi's Aida

Terence Blanchard Honors Father With Opera About Emile Griffith

Baritone Aubrey Allicock will play Emile Griffith.

"Jazz composer Terence Blanchard couldn't have imagined how timely his opera about a gay boxer would become when he accepted a commission three years ago. Blanchard's Champion with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Michael Cristofer is based on the life of former world welterweight and middleweight champion Emile Griffith. Its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis on Saturday comes just weeks after NBA center Jason Collins became the first active male pro athlete from one of the four major North American team sports to come out as gay. Griffith's greatest triumph came in a nationally televised welterweight title bout in 1962 when he knocked out Benny 'The Kid' Paret by battering him with 17 punches in seven seconds, sending his rival into a coma. Paret died 10 days later. At the weigh-in, the Cuban-born Paret had angered Griffith by using an anti-gay Spanish slur. Thirty years later, Griffith was beaten and nearly killed after leaving a gay bar near Times Square."

The composer (above) hopes to build
a bridge between jazz and opera.

"The 51-year-old Blanchard agreed to undertake the biggest musical project of his career in part to honor his father who could not realize his dream of being an opera singer in an era when companies didn't hire male black singers. His father performed with amateur opera groups, and Blanchard grew up listening to opera recordings at his New Orleans home. Blanchard knows his father would have been 'overjoyed' to see that his son had written an opera performed by a largely African-American cast, including Denyce Graves as Griffith's mother, Arthur Woodley as old Emile and Aubrey Allicock as young Emile. An 11-year-old from St. Louis, Jordan Jones, plays Emile as a boy." [ Source]

For more information about the production, visit the official website for Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

Cincinnati Opera Gets Ryan Seacrest to Host Gala on June 19

TV and radio personality Ryan Seacrest is scheduled to serve as special guest host for Cincinnati Opera's Saturday, June 19 Gala Concert at Music Hall. Seacrest, who is best-known as the host of the highly-rated American Idol, will appear in person at Music Hall for the celebratory event. 'Ryan Seacrest is one of the finest and best loved television hosts,' said Cincinnati Opera's Artistic Director Evans Mirageas. 'His work on American Idol is inspiring, and his personal passion for music is clear. We're thrilled that he'll be joining us to lead our anniversary celebration.' [Source ] Read about the prestigious guest list for the event after the jump.

Evans Mirageas, Ryan Seacrest, Angela Brown and Richard Leech

Palm Beach Opera Displays Financial and Artistic Success

Founded in 1961 as the "Civic Opera of the Palm Beaches," the Palm Beach Opera is a professional opera company performing at the Kravits Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida. For years the jet-set have been traveling from large cities across the country to reach this haven for the rich in an area known

Daniel Biaggi: Captain of the high C's

mostly for its golfing and yachting during the winter months. West Palm Beach is technically a municipality (the oldest in South Florida) with a population that inches toward 100,000 residents and its slightly more exclusive neighbor, Palm Beach, has only 30,000 residents during peak vacation season. Opera can be a tough sell in these parts, especially since Florida Grand Opera is operating a mere 67 miles south in Miami and the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts to movie theater as part of their "Live in HD" series. In the beginning, the company performed one production annually and by the mid-1990s four fully staged operas were taking place each season. Artistically, Palm Beach Opera hit its stride during the directorship of its Principal Conductor Anton Guadagno from 1984 to 2002. The new millennium brought corporate scandals and plummeting stock portfolios for many supporters of the opera. The company had no choice but to

James Valenti: Star tenor and
West Palm Beach resident.

make bold choices for leadership in order to succeed and flourish in the coming decade. After Maestro Guadagno passed away in August 2002, the company brought Bruno Aprea in as the Artistic Director & Principal Conductor beginning in 2005 and appointed Daniel Biaggi as the new General Director in 2008. As Palm Beach Opera celebrates its 50th Anniversary this season by opening with Madama Butterfly on December 16, 2011, it is clear the artistic and financial vision of the company is beginning to pay off. Although they reduced the budget from $6.5 million to $4.7 million, trimmed full-time staff to ten positions and now present three fully staged operas with one concert performance a season (Beethoven's Symphony #9 and Verdi's Requiem were recent choices), the quality of singing has skyrocketed. In addition to meeting the expectations of audiences aurally skilled in houses like the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera, the company has to provide A-list singers alongside budding young talent that fits the budget. Recent seasons have seen veterans Ruth Ann Swenson and Dolora Zajick, as well as newcomers Angela Meade, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nadine Sierra, James Valenti and Nicole Cabell.

Metropolitan Opera soprano Ruth Ann Swenson
at a post-performance dinner 

Now that the company has found its footing, they hope to expand beyond the typical Italian and French repertoire into 20th-century works (especially American pieces) and Baroque. For more about the cast and performance dates of Madama Butterfly at the Palm Beach Opera, click here. And if you are in the neighborhood on January 20 and 22, the company will present two Golden Jubilee concerts featuring scenes from La Traviata, Die Fledermaus, La Bohème, Carmen, Aïda, among others and will be hosted by the baritone Sherrill Milnes. The concerts will be lead by conductors Julius Rudel and Bruno Aprea with singers Angela Brown, Ruth Ann Swenson, Denyce Graves-Montgomery, Brandon Jovanovich and many more.[Source, Source, Source]

Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman & Denyce Graves Share Stage

Diva Trio (left to right): Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman and Denyce Graves (Photo: Robert Isacson)

"Here’s an idea for a new tour: The Three Divas. Kathleen Battle, Denyce Graves and Jessye Norman sang at Ford’s Theatre Tuesday night — the first time the three sopranos ever performed on the same stage. Ford’s chairman Wayne Reynolds wanted something special to honor Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, receiving the theater’s Lincoln Medal. 'I heard he loves opera,' Reynolds told us. 'What could be greater than the three greatest African-American opera singers?' With the VIP audience (Henry Kissinger, Bill Daley, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eric Holder, Roy Blunt, Brent Scowcroft and James Wolfensohn) sitting on the historic stage, each of the singers performed something inspired by Abraham Lincoln. Understatement was not on the program. Graves was first with an elegant 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.' Battle emerged next and began an a cappella version of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' (finishing with a bold gesture to the box where Lincoln was slain), then slipped into a medley of 'Give Me Jesus' and 'Wade in the Water.' Norman brought the mini-concert home with 'Amazing Grace' and 'He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands.' They emerged together for a standing ovation. No backstage tantrums or rivalries? Not even close, Graves told us at dinner: 'Sadly, we didn’t have anything to do together. I kept telling them, ‘Let’s do the Rosenkavalier trio.’” Reynolds, for one, is ready to send the three on the road: 'I think they’d be great together.'" [Source]

Adele and Denyce Graves Share the Same Vocal Surgeon

U.K. singer Adele

"The biggest-selling pop artist of the year has gone silent. The British pop/soul singer Adele was forced to cancel the rest of her 2011 tour. Earlier this year, she suffered two vocal hemorrhages and will need to undergo surgery. Singers are in a high-risk business. Many famous singers have needed similar treatment. 'Essentially, people who sing are vocal athletes,' says Dr. Steven Zeitels, director of the Voice Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. 'So you can look at this as a not unusual scenario as an athlete getting an injury in that area.' Zeitels is now working with Adele. He says that after surgery, Adele will most likely need 'a number of months' to recover. The list of Zeitels' patients is like a who's who of great singers: Julie Andrews, Roger Daltrey and opera singer Denyce Graves. Graves says that in 2000, her vocal cords hemorrhaged while she was backstage, in the middle of an engagement. 'I sneezed. It was that simple,' she recalls. 'I sneezed and I hemorrhaged.' Graves says it was clear something serious had happened. 'I lost my voice immediately and it was most frightening, terrifying experiences ever,' she says. She had surgery, but kept it a secret for fear the news would hurt her career." [Source]

American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves

Stars Celebrate $56 Million Renovation of New York's City Center

The newly painted ceiling of New York's City Center (Photo: Luke Szczygielski)

The 88-year old institution celebrated its re-opening on Tuesday after a massive overhaul of the Moorish style auditorium's lobby, restrooms, backstage areas and hall seating. "Much was made of the various programming that has graced the City Center stage. There have been musicals, represented on Tuesday by Patti LuPone (who sang 'Everything's Coming Up Roses' from Gypsy), Brian Stokes Mitchell (who sang 'It Ain't Necessarily So' from Porgy and Bess, which has been produced at City Center) and Donna Murphy (who, in an homage to our city, sang 'I Happen to Like New York,' a song she also performed a decade ago at a gala right after Sept. 11, she explained at the dinner following at Cipriani 42nd Street. "I love that song," she said). There has been plenty of dance. And there has been opera, which was represented Tuesday by Denyce Graves, who sang from Samson and Delilah. 'Feel free to sing along,' Ms. Graves said. 'I know it's been on a Ragu spaghetti commercial, so you may recognize it.'" [Source]

Read lots more about the details of the renovation over on WQXR , there is photo coverage over at TheaterMania and three more anecdotes from the evening are after the jump.

Denyce Graves to Join "Jazz Roots" Celebration in Miami

In a program called "Jazz Meets Gershwin," mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves will join Michael Feinstein, Dave Grusin, Mark O'Connor, Terence Blanchard and others, for a tribute to George Gershwin at the Knight Concert Hall in Miami, Florida. Music to be featured on the November 4 concert will be Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and excerpts from Porgy and Bess. The evening, partof the "Jazz Roots" concert series, will also include classic songs like "Strike Up the Band," "I've Got Rhythm" and "Funny Face." For more information and tickets, click here. You can also visit the official site for Denyce Graves by clicking here.

To get you in the mood for Gershwin, listen to this inspired performance of Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Andrew Armstrong, conductor Maxim Eshkenazy and The Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio:

Denyce Graves Participates in Abolition of Slavery Concert

"About having her recital connected with Juneteenth, Graves said, 'I think it is a great idea and I'm proud to be a part of it.' Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in 1865. Juneteenth Worldwide is promoter and MusicUNTOLD head John Malveaux's attempt to 'heighten awareness not only in the U.S. but beyond' of the day. Last year, Malveaux kicked off the Juneteenth Worldwide concerts with Salif Keita, an African star from Mali. In Graves, Malveaux has picked a singer who has performed in major opera houses and venues across the globe. She will present a multicultural recital that will range from her famous operatic pieces to old-time spirituals that harken back to Graves' roots as a singer in the Pentecostal church she and her mother attended...'I owe the blood in my veins to people I have never met, these great godmothers I don't even know,' Graves said. 'I am lucky that I have the opportunity to pay that forward.'" [Source]

Harolyn Blackwell & Denyce Graves in Kennedy Tribute

Blackwell with President Bush (2006)

January 20 marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's inauguration. On that day in 1961, the African-American mezzo-soprano Marian Anderson sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." As a tribute to this occasion Harolyn Blackwell will perform on the opening night concert of a three-weeklong series of performances and events commemorating the president. The

Graves & President Obama (2009)

events are taking place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The second opera-related event in the series will be a recital by Denyce Graves on February 1. The mezzo-soprano will sing selections from a 1962 White House program sung by Grace Bumbry who was the first African-American opera singer to perform at the White House. The Kennedy Center Honors awarded Grace Bumbry in 2009 for her exemplary lifetime achievement in the performing arts.
[Source, Source]

White House Opera of Christmas Past

(Photo: Wilfredo Lee)

President and Mrs. Clinton join their daughter Chelsea and Denyce Graves as they sing Christmas carols during the 1995 Christmas Pageant, Wednesday, December 6, 1995 on the Ellipse in Washington.