Deborah Voigt Recognized By Casita Maria Center For Arts

Honoree Deborah Voigt is seen at far right.

"Casita Maria Center honored Deborah Voigt for her outstanding contributions to music at its Musicale benefit on Tuesday, May 13th at 6:00 pm at the home of Maria Eugenia and William Haseltine in Manhattan. The Musicale featured performances by the acclaimed pianist Alexander Romanovsky and the students of the Casita Maria Music Program. The proceeds from the Musicale will benefit Casita Maria’s Music Program, founded by Gaetana Enders, a board member of the organization." [Source] Also check out a video of Ms. Voigt, performing with soprano Kristin Chenoweth for "The Evolution of the Soprano" at Carnegie Hall that took place on May 3, 2014, after the jump.

Diana Damrau Live At Le Poisson Rouge March 27 In NYC

Following on the heels of a night of Russian exoticism featuring Anna Netrebko, soprano Diana Damrau will perform at Le Poisson Rouge on March 24, 2014 at 7:30 PM. No word on whether the theme will be Bavarian. Purchase tickets by clicking here. During March, the coloratura is in town singing La Sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera and a concert at Carnegie Hall with Zubin Mehta. The little New York City village hot spot Le Poisson Rouge is becoming a regular hangout for stars of the MET. In addition to the most recent concert that also featured Ildar Abdrazakov and Anita Rachvelishvili, past performers have included Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Kathleen Kim, and Patricia Racette. To learn more about Diana Damrau, visit her website by clicking here.

Renée Fleming in Conversation with Leon Botstein and André Previn

Last night was the finale of Renée Fleming's Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall called "Vienna: Window to Modernity," a thoughtful tribute to the time and place where the European musical tradition, under the influence of literary and visual arts, gave way to the 20th century. Here, Ms. Fleming, composer and conductor André Previn, and conductor and music historian Leon Botstein discuss how several of the major Viennese composers of the period—Korngold, Schoenberg, and Zeisl—spent a lot of time in Los Angeles and how their experiences there differed widely. More information about Renée Fleming's Perspectives at Carnegie Hall is available: http://www.carnegiehall.org/fleming/ and http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/5/4/0730/PM/Vienna-Window-to-Modernity/. Watch the video clip, along with two previous others, after the jump.

Vintage Concert Footage: Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle

Karita Mattila Recital Program Complete For Carnegie Hall

Accompanied by pianist Martin Katz, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila will sing a recital program on December 10, 8PM, at Carnegie Hall in New York.

"The first half of the program is devoted entirely to the music of France, beginning with one of Francis Poulenc’s most beloved song cycles. Banalités is the tongue-in-cheek title concocted by avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire—the “banalities” of existence are anything but banal when turned into art. Poulenc’s cycle encompasses languorous boredom in a hotel room, the giddy whirl of Paris, tragic love, and Surrealist wordplay. French genius Claude Debussy was recovering from a serious case of Wagner addiction when he composed the Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire (Five Poems of Baudelaire). Set to texts by one of France’s greatest poets, these are among Debussy’s richest, most complex mélodies (19th-century French art song) that recall memories of bygone lovers, meditate on sensual pleasures and regret, and envision the afterlife. Born in Somero, Finland, Karita Mattila is among the world’s foremost proponents of music from her native country, including compositions by Aulis Sallinen—one of Finland’s most distinguished

Mattila with Katz in Helsinki

composers. Tonight, we hear a song cycle on four poems by Finnish poet Paavo Haavikko. During the heyday of radical music innovators like Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, composer Joseph Marx struggled to cling to his late Romantic origins. Presently, his gorgeous lieder are coming back into sight and sound; tonight, we hear five of his best songs in different moods." [Source] The full program listing is after the jump and you can read the full program notes by clicking here.

Angela Gheorghiu to Sign CDs After OONY "Adriana Lecouvrer"

"Angela Gheorghiu will be happy to meet the fans after the concert performance of Adriana Lecouvreur at Carnegie Hall on November 8. The CD signing session will take place in the foyer of the venue." Which CD you ask? The homage.

"Alberto Veronesi conducts his first performance as OONY's new Music Director. Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur features two of the most dynamic artists on the scene today. Acclaimed soprano Angela Gheorghiu stars in the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur along with celebrated tenor Jonas Kaufmann singing the role of Maurizio. Rounding out this spectacular cast are mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili as the Principessa du Boullion, along with baritone Ambrogio Maestri as Michonnet. The story of jealous rivalry in love is set between the worlds of the theatre and the aristocracy. This fictional version of the real life story of famous actress Adrienne Lecouvreur is played out to its final and deadly conclusion."

Sung in Italian with English Supertitles
Angela Gheorghiu • Jonas Kaufmann • Anita Rachvelishvili • Ambrigio Maestri
Alberto Veronesi, Conductor
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 • 8:00 PM
Carnegie Hall
[Source, Source]

Images are by photographer Cosmin Gogu. Two more after the jump.

LIVE: Renée Fleming "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen"

Fleming will sing Mahler in New York
this January (Photo: Jonathan Tichler)

In 2001 Paramount Classics released Bruce Beresford's Bride of the Wind, a film celebrating Alma Schindler Mahler: "Vienna, 1902: Alma Schindler meets Gustav Mahler. She beautiful, young, plays, and composes: music is her life. She becomes Mahler's lover, then he marries her, asking that she give up composing. She has two children, works as his assistant, does his books, saves him from debt, and feels stifled. In 1910, after the death of a child, she retreats to a spa where she falls in love with Walter Gropius. Will she go with him or stay with Mahler? She conducts an affair with the tempestuous Oskar Kokoschka and is stifled in another way. Then, she marries Gropius, who proves imperious. She leaves him for Franz Werfel: he finds her compositions and insists the public hear them." The soundtrack featured three songs by Alma Mahler ("Bei dir ist es traut," "In meines Vaters Garten," and "Laue Sommernacht") written in 1910. The works are performed by Renée Fleming and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins on

Fleming as Alda in 2001

two of the pieces. They even got into costume and performed one of the numbers at the end of the film with Fleming portraying soprano Frances Alda singing for an audience that includes the character of Alma Mahler. Another piece on the soundtrack was "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" from Gustav Mahler's Rückert Lieder. It featured Fleming singing the famous song (which in the film was arranged by the film's composer Stephen Endelman) and is heard only in excerpt*.

Now is your chance to hear Fleming sing the song in its entirety from a live concert at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw on October 25, 2010:


Renée Fleming will perform Mahler's Rückert Lieder at Carnegie Hall in New York on January 15, 2012 with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. James Levine is scheduled to conduct. Watch a trailer from the film Bride of the Wind after the jump. [Source, Source, Source]
*This is how it was recorded for the soundtrack and film.

Kate Royal Explores the Life Cycle of Love in Recital Debut

The Royal blush of love at Weill Recital Hall.
(Photo: Richard Termine/The New York Times)

Kate Royal, pregnant with her second child, made her Carnegie Hall recital debut in Weill Recital Hall on May 20, 2011. Zachary Woolfe reviews for The New York Times : "Her ambitious program, a kind of original song cycle, was entitled A Lesson in Love, and Ms. Royal divided it into four themed sections: Waiting, the Meeting, the Wedding and Betrayal. (Not the most optimistic trajectory, but so it goes.) While she conveyed a sweet hopefulness in the first two and a sense of serene happiness in the third, it was when heartbreak was her subject that she was truly memorable .....But the second half felt more varied and specific as the emotional content of the works matured and then darkened. The calm clarity of Duparc’s 'Extase' suited Ms. Royal perfectly, as did Fauré’s 'Donc, Ce Sera par un Clair Jour d’Été.' She gave a stunning rendition of Britten’s 'O Waly, Waly'; its combination of pain and hushed serenity seemed written for her voice, which did just what was indicated by the final line, when love 'fades away like morning dew.'" [Source]

Watch a video of Kate Royal singing at WQXR studios:

David Daniels & Dorothea Röschmann Impress at Carnegie Hall

Soprano Röschmann and Countertenor Daniels in duet
(Photo: Hiroyuki Ito/The New York Times)

"The program focused on Handel’s sober, reflective side, featuring several arias and duets from his 1725 opera Rodelinda. Mr. Daniels had a few moments of high-spirited virtuosity, but for the most part the selections played to both singers’ strengths: purity of line and sincerity of feeling. The ornamentation was clean and stylish throughout, and at the best moments, as in Ms. Röschmann’s 'V’adoro pupille' from Giulio Cesare, it gave the crucial illusion of spontaneity....The recital moved into quite another sphere in the encores: Ms. Röschmann’s transcendent “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Rinaldo and Mr. Daniels’s deeply felt 'Ch’io parta' from Partenope. The final encore was the only selection by a composer other than Handel: 'Pur ti miro,' the love duet from the end of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea. This is as expressive as music gets, and Ms. Röschmann and Mr. Daniels traded off the arching phrases with floating eloquence and poise over a steady bass line. It was simply flawless. In its beauty and restraint, its sense of tremendous energy and emotion held in just barely, the performance captured everything the Baroque can teach us." [Source]

Kaija Saariahosta Chosen By Carnegie Hall

(Photo: Heidi Piiroinen/HS)

Carnegie Hall has chosen Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho to the be composer-in-residence for the 2011-12 season. The season will start November 30 with Hannu Lintu leading the Avanti Chamber Orchestra. In the spring concerts will include the French vocal ensemble Soloistes XXI, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra featuring Karita Mattila as soloist and conductor David Robertson, as well as the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst. Saariaho is the most decorated and renowned Finnish composer of this generation. Her biggest success with opera compositions for companies in Salzburg, London, Paris, Santa Fe, Helsinki and Toronto. For more information about concerts, go the Carnegie Hall website here. 
[Source]

Renée Fleming Glitters at Carnegie Hall Recital

(Photo: Chris Lee)

Though Ms. Fleming is sometimes criticized for being interpretively fussy, her singing here was beautifully direct. When evoking the lover’s rapture breaking to the surface in “Ansturm” (“Onslaught”), her voice throbbed with tremulous intensity. But during an eerie passage in “Letzte Bitte,” when the imagery describes blood glistening like the night sky, Ms. Fleming’s sound was focused and spectral. [Source]