Doritos Capitalizes On The Popularity Of Duet By Delibes

Doritos, promoting their "Go For Bold" campaign, created a commercial for the Super Bowl that uses a duet from the opera Lakmé by Delibes. The piece, "Viens, Mallika, les lianes en fleurs....Dôme épais, le jasmin," comes from Act I of the opera and is commonly known as the "Flower Duet." Read more about the opera by clicking here. See several interpretations featuring sopranos Anna Netrebko, Sumi Jo, Joan Sutherland, Renée Fleming, Diana Damrau, Montserrat Caballé, and more, after the jump.

Laura Claycomb Tries To Forget Sutherland And Callas "Lucia"

Creative Coloratura: Laura Claycomb wrote her
Lucia cadenzas with conductor Patrick Summers
(Photo: Sergio Valente)

"Laura Claycomb dies in the New Orleans Opera production of Lucia di Lammermoor. It happens every time a soprano sings the title role -- and most of the world's great sopranos have done it since Donizetti penned this hyper-romantic, bel canto masterpiece in 1835. So how does Claycomb plan to match Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland and other legends who dwell only in memory or the scratchy recordings prized by opera nuts? 'I had to clean the slate to sing Lucia,' Claycomb said. 'So my first job was trying to forget Callas and Sutherland -- all the great stars on old recordings whose singing has gotten stuck in everyone's ears. People sometimes think that's the only approach, but it's really just the style of the 1950s, the style that emerged more than a century after Donizetti wrote the piece.'... 'If you look at the early performance history of bel canto operas, you can see that the originators chose roles very differently, and that audiences expected lighter, more flexible voices -- my kind of voice -- not the big, inflexible Mack Truck singers that sometimes rumble through this repertoire today,' Claycomb said. Claycomb is thrilled with the New Orleans cast, which includes New Orleanian Casey Candebat, Michael Chioldi and William Burden, among others. She also had praise for stage director E. Loren Meeker, who has helped to set the New Orleans production in the era of Downton Abbey." [Source]

Last-Minute Holiday Shopping Ideas From Heavenly Voices On High

Purchase the album here.
Recommended track: "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

If you want to turn the frequency up this holiday season, check out the plethora of recordings from divas both past and present. From the latest release by Measha Brueggergosman to the Germanic overtones of Rita Streich, Maria Stader, and Anneliese Rothenberger, high notes during the holidays will ensure everyone has a holly jolly time. Check out more than 30 albums after the jump to give you instant holiday spirit through sacred seasonal music or christmas classics. Each one is linked to the full digital version to allow you to either choose the entire package or simply download the tracks you enjoy most. You can even make a compilation off the recommended tracks from each selection. Joyeux Noël, Buon Natale, Frohe Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad and с рождеством! Remember to share the music with someone you love this holiday season.

ROH Pays Tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland With New Exhibit

"Dame Joan Sutherland began her professional career at the Royal Opera House in 1952. An exhibition of costumes, photos, programmes and posters has been painstakingly put together. Costumes, headdresses and jewellery from productions such as Lucrezia Borgia designed by Michael Stennett, La Traviata designed by Franco Zeffirelli, Norma designed by Alan Barlow, Anna Bolena designed by John Pascoe and The Midsummer Marriage, designed by Barbara Hepworth, are on display. Exhibitions and Heritage Publications Manager at the Royal Opera House, Cristina Franchi, spoke to BBC News." [Source] Click here to launch the video.

Own Every Note Joan Sutherland Recorded For Decca Studios

To commemorate the one year anniversary of Dame Joan Sutherland's death, the label she spent her entire career recording for will release a 23-CD box set complete with a 48-page booklet. Chances are that most opera fans will already own much (or all) of the material in the recitals left by the soprano known as "La Stupenda," but the many will not be able to pass up the original cover art sleeves and commentary by opera critic George Hall. Dame Joan would have turned 85 on November 7, 2011. This limited-edition box is set for release on October 3, 2011. A complete track listing is after the jump.

Sutherland devotees can opt for a slightly less extravagant package by getting The Prima Donna - Deluxe Edition. Issued on three CDs, you'll get the set as it was originally released plus a 73-minute interview CD that Dame Joan recorded in 2002. The package also comes with an 80-page booklet packed with photos. Release date is also set for October 3, 2011.

"Lucia di Lammermoor" Sextet Makes a Cameo in 1949 Film

A LETTER TO THREE WIVES
"Lora May Hollingsway, who grew up next to the wrong side of the tracks, married her boss who thinks she is just a gold digger. Rita Phipps makes as much money writing radio scripts at night as her school teacher husband does. Deborah Bishop looked great in a Navy uniform in WWII but fears she'll never be dressed just right for the Country Club set. These three wives are boarding a boat filled with children going on a picnic when a messenger on a bicycle hands them a letter addressed to all three from Addie who has just left town with one of their husbands. They won't know which one until that night." [Source]

CAST:
Jeanne Crain as Deborah Bishop
Linda Darnell as Lora Mae Hollingsway
Ann Sothern as Rita Phipps
Kirk Douglas as George Phipps
Paul Douglas as Porter Hollingsway
Classical music used in the film includes Concerto No. 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 83 by Brahms and Wein, weib und Gesang, Op. 333 by Johann Strauß. Watch how a piano reduction of "Chi mi frena in tal momento?", which begins the sextet from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, creeps into the 1949 film from director Joseph L. Mankiewicz:

Enjoy a couple classic clips of the vocal version of the Lucia sextet after the jump.

"No Reservations" Features Plenty of Opera in the Kitchen

Looking back to the 2007 film, No Reservations featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin, there is enough opera interspersed throughout that it could be a fourth character. Original scoring for the film was done by Philip Glass. The film itself is no Academy Award-winning film, but it is a charming romantic story from director Scott Hicks (Snow Falling on Cedars, Shine and Hearts in Atlantis).

Some of the clips included in the film:

"Celeste Aida" Aida (Luciano Pavarotti)

"O mio babbino caro" Gianni Schicchi (Renata Tebaldi)

"Libiamo, libiamo" La Traviata (Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland)

"La donna é mobile" Rigoletto (Joseph Calleja)

"Un bel dì vedremo" Madama Butterfly (Renata Tebaldi)

"Cielo e mar" La Gioconda (Luciano Pavarotti)

"Nessun dorma" Turandot (Luciano Pavarotti)

A full synopsis of No Reservations is after the jump.

Reminiscing About Joan Sutherland With An Aria Performance

Sutherland as Lucrezia

The entire state memorial service held on November 9, 2010, at the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House for the late Dame Joan Sutherland is available on YouTube here. But two moments that particularly stand out are a videotaped performance of the soprano singing "Era desso il figlio mio" from Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia (especially for her marvelous full-bodied delivery of the line "Il mio cuore con esso è morto") and her son Adam speaking directly afterwards. Click on the video below to watch both items.

Dame Joan Sutherland Honored At Westminster Abbey

The Australian High Commission, Australian Music Foundation and Royal Opera House paid tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland yesterday at Westminster Abbey in London. HRH Prince Charles was present as well as a host of artists, musicians and performers, including Yvonne Kenny, Lesley Garrett, Norma and John Major, Elijah Moshinsky, Adrian Collette and Elaine Padmore.Antonio Pappano conducted the ROH Orchestra supported Sydney-born soprano Valda Wilson, a member of the young ensemble at Dresden's Semperoper, sang the Pie Jesu from Fauré's Requiem and the "Alleluia" from Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate. During the ceremony, former ROH General Director Sir John Tooley gave biographical details of Dame Sutherland's life, husband Richard Bonynge read the second reading and her grandson presented the soprano's honor medals. [Source, Source]

Richard Bonynge Discusses Final Days of Dame Joan Sutherland

"'Her death was not a shock to me because she'd been very ill for three years at least....She wanted it, because she got to the stage where she couldn't do anything any more, and she hated that, because she was a woman of immense energy and she was always doing things. She couldn't bear not to be doing things. When it came to the point that she physically couldn't do anything, she didn't want to live any more. She wanted to go, she was happy to go, and in the end she died very, very peacefully. One can't say one was sad that she died, because it was what she wanted and it was the best thing for her. But, my God, she left a legacy, didn't she?'" [Source]

Contact High: Joan Sutherland

Idomeneo - "D'Oreste d'Aiace"
Joan Sutherland
Richard Bonynge, Sydney, 1979
Clip length (0:30)


con·tact high [kon-takt hahy]: when you feel the slight, brief sensation of being high just because you were close to somebody that was definitely high.

From One Dame to Another: Kiri Te Kanawa Takes Over For Joan Sutherland

"One of the biggest names in the operatic world, New Zealand soprano Dame Kiri te Kanawa, becomes the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition's second patron following the death of Dame Joan Sutherland last year. Dame Kiri sits on the jury for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World for the first time, alongside tenor Dennis O'Neill and baritone Håkan Hagegård, who have each served once before. Also joining them is the legendary mezzo, Marilyn Horne, making her fifth visit." [Source]