Penny Woolcock Discusses Her Latest Project: Dog Fighting

"Her latest gritty film project exposes the shady world of dog-fighting....Of the many distressing scenes in Penny Woolcock's new documentary, Going to the Dogs, which explores the underground world of illegal dog-fighting in Birmingham, one stands out. It's of a young pitbull in training, not out in the city streets – this breed is far too demonised by both press and the police to go for anything even resembling normal walkies – but rather at home, strapped tightly by its lead on to a treadmill....Penny Woolcock is no stranger to the difficult documentary – previous subjects include homelessness and gang culture – but a film about dog fighting, she admits, 'took a great lump out of my heart. There was a period while filming when I felt completely lost, to be honest. I thought it was going to be unremittingly cruel, but the reality was somehow not quite as bad as I'd feared.' The months she spent infiltrating this hidden world were exhausting for Woolcock, now 64. It left her with nightmares, and migraines. For this reason, she has readily embraced the job she has stepped into next. You see, as well as being a film-maker, she is also a director at the English National Opera, and she is currently deep in rehearsals for a forthcoming production of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. Her second career in opera began late in life, when she was invited – out of the blue, the way she tells it – to direct John Adams's Doctor Atomic at the Met in New York. She went on to direct an earlier staging of The Pearl Fishers at ENO in 2010. 'It's exhausting work,' she says, smiling, 'but I will admit, it's a welcome change from dog fighting.'" [Source] 

No Dogs, Just Fish: Leïla (Hanan Alattar) and Nadir (Alfie Boe) in the 2010 production of Bizet's
The Pearl Fishers at ENO directed by Penny Woolcock. (Photo: Dylan Martinez/The Sunday Times)

Fleming and Boe Sing Bernstein on Buckingham Balcony

For those outside of the United States, click the below image to see Renée Fleming sing
"Un bel dì, vedremo" from the same concert.

BBC Proms "Classical For Starters" Features Kylie Minogue and More

Saturday, September 8, 5:15 - 10:30 PM in Hyde Park, London

"Join in the Last Night of the Proms celebrations in Hyde Park, as pop superstar Kylie heads a spectacular line-up including English tenor Alfie Boe, operatic pop group Il Divo and the London Community Gospel Choir, with Proms in the Park favourites the BBC Concert Orchestra. Sir Terry Wogan presents the festivities." [Source]

Alfie Boe Talks Being Naked For "La Traviata" in Wales

Do you keep fit at all?

I do, yeah. Doing Les Misérables is quite a workout in itself but when I’m not doing the show I usually spend time in the gym and go swimming. At one point, I did a lot of weights and was taking all the protein shakes and the supplements and I put on a lot of weight. I became really sort of muscle-bound. I was working out for a show because I had to take my clothes off in La Traviata. 

What? All your clothes?

Yeah, for the dress rehearsal the director wanted me to be stark naked on stage. It was OK. I built myself up to it and did it for the dress rehearsal and the audience went crazy, it was really weird. I got so many whoops, whistles, gasps and intakes of air that they actually cut the scene. So in the end, I just took my shirt off and kept my trousers on. It was an amazing experience though. Whenever I did do it the wings were full. And I didn’t mind. 

So this was full frontal?

Full-frontal, yeah. It was a bit scary. And a bit stupid, I don’t know (laughs). But I’m pretty happy with my manhood so…
[Source]

An Argument For Why Opera Should Be Elite and For Snobs?

Ms. Jenkins sings for the masses

In an article for The Spectator titled "Let's Hear it For Eliticism" writer Michael Henderson takes a look at the current crop of "opera singers," including Alfie Boe and Katherine Jenkins, who think that the art form should be for the masses but has been far too long confined to the intellectually elite: "As for Miss Jenkins, has any singer benefited quite so obviously from the technology of the modern recording studio? Unfazed by the absence of any discernible talent, this decorous lightweight has entered the realm of fantasy: one day, apparently, she wants to give the world her Carmen! Imagine if a club cricketer told his team-mates that he intended to open the bowling for England against Australia at Lord’s, and you have some measure of the lady’s self-delusion. Mr Boe and Miss Jenkins may consider themselves to be opera singers who have been snubbed by snobs. In the real world of opera, which, oddly

Mr. Boe amps up the voice

enough, is more interested in the exploration of high talent than media manipulation of pretty boys and girls, they are regarded as no more than end-of-pier crooners. If this bedraggled group ever gathered under a single banner, it would probably read: opera for the masses! But opera was never intended to be a mass activity. You may as well demand ballet for the masses, theatre for the masses, or even jazz for the masses. Some things are more difficult than others, and cutting them into bite-sized chunks for the benefit of the incurious will not make them more digestible. Opera, thank goodness, is the enemy of accessibility. It can only prosper if there is an elite, based on the honing of skills and a capacity for hard work. In that regard it is like top-level sport, the main difference being that fans of Premier League football

Together as judges on "Popstar to Opera Star"

clubs spend far more money following their hobby in the course of a year than most opera-goers spend on theirs. If this is ‘elitism’, let’s hear three hearty cheers." [Source] For a sampling of the sonically enhanced capabilities of the soprano and tenor, check out a performance from the Brit Awards after the jump.

Mechanic Turned Tenor Thinks Covent Garden Is Snobby

"Former car mechanic Boe, 37 — who was given a three-minute standing ovation at the 25th ­anniversary of Les Miserables at the 02 Arena last year — says he is angry at the treatment he has received in the past because of his working-class background. The youngest of a Roman ­Catholic family of nine from Fleetwood, ­Lancashire, tells me: 'There is a huge class system at work in ­classical music. Years ago, lots of guys came into opera from ­working-class backgrounds, but now it is snooty and elitist.'