Measha Brueggergosman Discovers African Roots In Cameroon

"On Monday, February, 2, 2015 at 10pm ET, VisionTV will celebrate Black History Month with the world premiere broadcast of Songs of Freedom, a new 90-minute film from Rhombus Media’s Barbara Willis Sweete starring the internationally acclaimed Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman. Every Friday in February at 10pm ET, VisionTV will also broadcast the premieres of 30-minute Songs of Freedom episodes featuring additional footage from Measha’s performances. In Songs of Freedom, Measha performs for the first time, an intensely powerful and spiritual collection of 18 ‘Freedom Songs’, like 'Amazing Grace,' 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot,' 'Go Tell it on the Mountain,' and 'Go Down Moses,' that emerged from Africa via the slave trade to America, then to Canada via the United Empire Loyalist migration and the Underground Railroad. As Measha explores the role music played throughout these turbulent chapters in North American history, she also discovers her roots and embarks on a life-changing

Brueggergosman in Cameroon

odyssey to meet her ancestors in Cameroon, Africa. There, Measha learns about her tribal heritage, is initiated into their traditions, and uncovers the story of her family’s harrowing journey from Africa to slavery in America, and ultimately to freedom in Maritime Canada, where she and her family live today....Online, VisionTV will support the broadcast with a media rich easy-to-navigate website and mobile interactive songbook application for iPad and iPhone. Both the website www.SongsOfFreedom.ca (coming soon) and the Songs of Freedom App are centered around Measha’s full-length performances of 10 Freedom Songs as seen in the feature film and series. Articles, photos, and archival documents will give further context to the songs and a sing-along feature that generates synchronized lyrics of Measha’s performance will invite the online audience to share in their power. Exclusively for online viewing, four music performances have been recorded live on location in Cameroon, Nova Scotia and Ontario, using a 360° spherical camera. This user-controlled technology allows the audience to watch Measha’s performance from every point of view as if they were actually there standing beside her. The app will be available on iTunes (Search: Songs of Freedom)." [Source] Read more about the program by clicking here.

Measha in Cameroon with Bassa tribe elder

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.

A Host Of Talent In "Les Contes D'Hoffmann" At Teatro Real Madrid

Eric Cutler in the title role of Hoffmann
(Photo: Javier del Real/Teatro Real)

Stage director Christoph Marthaler brings together a young cast of invigorating talent including Eric Cutler (Hoffmann), Vito Priante (Four Villains), Measha Brueggergosman (Antonia/Giulietta), Ana Durlovski (Olympia), and Altea Garrido (Stella). The seasoned veteran of the group, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, portrays the character of Nicklausse. Conductor Sylvain Cambreling leads the ensemble. The production premiered May 17 and runs through June 21. For more information on the cast and production dates, click here. Watch a preview video after the jump of highlights from the production.

"Canada's Got Talent" Might Just Kill the Audience With Kindness!

"Canada's Got Talent" host Dina Pugliese with judges Stephan Moccio,
Martin Short and Measha Brueggergosman. (Photo: Andrew MacNaughtan)

"Adjectives were in abundance at the press screening for Canada’s Got Talent. 'Everything about this show is world class,' enthused Scott Moore, the head of Rogers Broadcasting. Performances were variously described as incredible, amazing, mind-blowing and jaw-dropping, and sometimes in combination. It was a carpet-bombing of superlatives. I’d argue that calling any 90-second display of talent amazingly mind-blowing is setting the bar a touch high, but let’s just say that all those involved with City’s new competition show, from the producers to the judges to the host, are quite proud of the result. But Canada’s Got Talent is also something else: nice. In a genre best known for the flameouts of the auditions on American Idol, and the sanctioned abuse provided by judges such as Simon Cowell, the premiere episode was almost bereft of nastiness. Far more often than not, the judges were jumping up and applauding the performers rather than smacking their buzzers. It was unusual. It was unexpected. It seems risky. Can a competition show, so often a mix of performance and acerbic assessment thereof, hold an audience’s interest by being largely … friendly?" [Source] Two more images after the jump.

Measha Brueggergosman Talks About Having a Healthy Heart

Measha Brueggergosman chats on Canada AM (click image to launch video)

Measha Brueggergosman Joins "Canada's Got Talent" as Judge

Opera star Measha Brueggergosman and songwriter Stephan Moccio will join Martin Short on the Canada's Got Talent judging panel. Citytv also announced that Toronto TV personality Dina Pugliese will host the show. Brueggergosman is a Juno-winning soprano who has performed in famed venues around the world including Roy Thomson Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. The Canada's Got Talent live theatre audition tour continue Tuesday in Calgary. The show is set to premiere next March. The Talent franchise originated in the U.K., with reality TV's Simon Cowell serving as creator and one of the show's judges. Since then, new versions have sprouted in nearly every corner of the world, including Australia, Chile, Italy, China, India and Thailand. [Source]

Is Michelle Johnson The Next Great African-American Star?

"Io son l'umile ancella"
Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea)

"Ms. Johnson seems to have the vocal goods as well as star power," wrote The New York Times about the 28-year old soprano who last week won a $15,000 prize at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finals concert in New York. Michelle Johnson hails from Pearland, Texas, and has received degrees from New England Conservatory of Music and Boston University. She is a former member of the Young Artist Programs of Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Opera Tampa, as well as participating in the International Institute of Vocal Arts (Chiari, Italy), Tanglewood Music Center and the Music Academy of the West. Winning important competitions since 2006, she is currently a third-year artist resident at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Her repertoire includes the title role in Suor Angelica, Countess in Capriccio, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Monisha in Treemonisha, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. She is clearly a singer on the rise destined to have contracts floated her way from companies all around the world, surely it is the moment of a lifetime. Let's hope it is not fleeting.

Looking back at a dozen African-American sopranos over the last three decades that have been in Ms. Johnson's position and were hailed as the new great singer to take up the mantle of the lyric, spinto or dramatic repertoire, somehow they have lacked staying power to reach the heights that Marian Anderson forged the groundwork for 56 years ago and that Leontyne Price cemented as the standard for performance. Ms. Johnson will have to work hard in order to have a career that lasts more than a debut at the Metropolitan Opera and remain a household name. [Source, Source, Source]

Wilhelmenia Fernandez "Ebben? ne andrò lontana" La Wally (Catalani)	Carmen Balthrop "Che sento? Oh Dio!" Giulio Cesare (Händel)	Indra Thomas "Pace, pace mio Dio" La Forza del Destino (Verdi)
Marvis Martin "Glück das mir verblieb" Die tote Stadt (Korngold)*	Cynthia Haymon "Signore, ascolta" Turandot (Puccini)	Angela Brown "Ecco l'orrido campo" Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi)
Michele Crider "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore" Tosca (Puccini)	Cynthia Clarey "My Man's Gone Now" Porgy & Bess (Gershwin)	Leona Mitchell "Ernani, involami" Ernani (Verdi)
Faye Robinson "Quel guardo il cavaliere" Don Pasquale (Donizetti)	Jonita Lattimore "Canción de amor" (Villa-Lobos)	Measha Brueggergosman "D'Oreste, d'Ajace" Idomeneo (Mozart)

*bonus: second clip will automatically play "Io son l'umile ancella" Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea)

Measha Brueggergosman Plays Party Hostess

(Photo: Alex Gardner)

Just off a plane (but then when is she not?), the Toronto artist threw open the doors of her Parkdale home the other, other night. Officially, a party to ring in the season, and unofficially, wegather, a pat-herself-on-the-back for getting a Grammy nod recently for best classical vocal performance. So, pasta — not too thin, but not too thick — check. A secularly Madonna CD, among others, check. Friends and colleagues alike, done. And, so … somebody forgot to get the vino, didn’t they?

“Um, we sent someone out for a few cases,” the irrepressible Ms. Measha informed, giving us her best hold-your-horses beam.