Echo Klassik 2012 Awards Renée Fleming and Klaus Floridan Vogt

"Die Sopranistin Renée Fleming und der Tenor Klaus Florian Vogt erhalten den Musikpreis Echo Klassik 2012. Fleming und Vogt werden als Sänger des Jahres geehrt, wie die Deutsche Phono-Akademie mitteilte. Als Dirigent des Jahres wird Riccardo Chailly ausgezeichnet. Unter den Preisträgern ist auch die Geigerin Anne Sophie Mutter. Sie wird für die 'Konzerteinspielung des Jahres, 20./21. Jahrhundert' in der Kategorie Violine ausgezeichnet. Die Verleihung findet am 14. Oktober in Berlin statt." [Source]


Watch Renée Fleming sing "Un bel di" at the Queen's Jubilee:

Klaus Florian Vogt Debuts Solo Recording "Helden" on Sony

Coming this January...

How Klaus Florian Vogt Spends His Weekend

The heldentenor with Annette Dasch
in the Bayreuth Lohengrin.

"Klaus Florian Vogt is everything a heroic tenor should be: tall, handsome, romantic and in possession of the kind of voice that wins him standing ovations at opera houses from the Met in New York to the hallowed halls of Bayreuth, Germany, where he is currently appearing in Lohengrin. Mr. Vogt takes up the role of the Knight of the Swan for the duration of the opera festival, which ends August 28. When the singer isn't performing, he spends his free time flying a single-engine plane, surfing, riding horses and playing football with his sons and his neighborhood friends. Above all, he says, he's a family man and looks forward to just being home."

The interview discusses how he spends his weekend and topics like hobbies, his wife (also a singer) coaching him, favorite restaurants and whether he sings in the shower at home. Read the full article here.

Vienna "Káťa Kabanová" Harnesses Much Needed Sadness

Suicidal tendencies. (Photo: Michael Poehn)

"Conductor Franz Welser-Moest, who has described the score of Katya Kabanova as 'turbulent waters' full of 'very many cliffs,' navigated admirably through the musical torrents. That’s not easy in a work where one chord oftens seems internally torn as it expresses the conflicting emotions of as many as three singers on stage. On stage, Janice Watson was heartbreakingly authentic as Katya, with plenty of the range and volume that this opera calls for. Klaus Florian Vogt kept pace as Boris, powering up his delivery to Wagnerian strength as required. Deborah Polanski was a wonderful Kabanicha, the uber mother-in-law whose oppressive domination of Katya — and suppressed sexual desire for her own son — drives Katya first to adultery and then to suicide. Her look of triumph as she bends over Katya’s dead body to slip the wedding ring off her finger and on to her own is one of the many highlights of the less than two-hour performance." [Source]