Luther College Produces Two Opera News Magazine Rising Stars

Cornfields To The Concrete Jungle: Andrew Stenson (far left) and Emily
Fons (second from right) both attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa,
and will be performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. 
(Photo: James Salzano - Click image to enlarge)

"Talking about their experiences at Luther College and their path into professional singing careers, Luther alumni Andrew Stenson and Emily Fons will be presenting career talks at Luther in October. Stenson, class of 2008, will speak at 9:40 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, and Fons, class of 2006, will speak at 9:40 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15. Both career talks will be held in the Noble Recital Hall of the Jenson-Noble Hall of Music on the Luther campus. Both events are open to the public with no charge for admission. Stenson is quickly becoming recognized as one of the United States' most exciting young tenors. A 2011 recipient of the Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, he will make his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut, as well as debuts with Arizona Opera, Fort Worth Opera, the Cincinnati Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic in the upcoming 2015-16 season. Stenson earned a master's degree in music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Fons, a mezzo-soprano, recently made her German debut at the International Händel Festspiele in Göttingen. A former member of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Fons has also appeared with the Michigan Opera Theatre, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Atlanta Opera. Fons earned a master's degree in music from Southern Illinois University. Both Stenson and Fons both have contracts this year with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, which is considered to be the best opera house in the world. Luther is home to one of the largest collegiate music programs in the nation, with six choirs, three orchestras, three bands, two jazz bands and nearly 1,000 student musicians. Luther students participate in large ensembles, faculty-coached chamber groups, private lessons and master classes. More than 300 music majors study music theory, ear training, history, education, composition, jazz, church music and performance." [Source] Watch a behind-the-scenes video of these young artists getting photographed for the most recent issue of Opera News, after the jump.

Wallis Giunta Profile: More Than A Queen Of The Night In Opera

Glamorama: Wallis Giunta captures a styling moment before a high-style photo shoot. (Photo: Facebook)

"This month, the mezzo sings Tiffany in Adams’s I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky for her Rome debut. Wallis Giunta’s mezzo boasts a silvery top and a hearty midrange, both deployed with crisp diction in an ever-growing repertoire of modern and classic roles. In November, she makes her German debut as Cherubino at Oper Leipzig, where her other assignments through June are Rossini’s Angelina, Siébel in Faust and even a Valkyrie. A July debut in Frankfurt, as Mercédès in Carmen, follows. An alum of the Met’s Lindemann Program, which she completed in 2013, the Canadian began her studies in Ottawa and Toronto, where her first undergrad assignments were quintessential soprano roles — Mozart’s Queen of the Night and Susanna. Now, she says, 'I have high notes, but I can’t live there. It’s not that I have a bad technique and I’m actually a soprano in hiding. The most colorful part of my voice is the middle. So if anyone ever says to me, ‘I think you’re a soprano,’ I say, ‘Well, yes, I am. A mezzo-soprano is just a different kind of soprano, and that’s the kind I am.'" [Source] Watch a video of Wallis Giunta singing "Parto, parto," from Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, after the jump.

Opera News Cover Revamp Resembles Vanity Fair Magazine

Opera News magazine has revealed a new cover layout with its September 2015 issue featuring soprano Diana Damrau. In an attempt to make the magazine more relevant to the popular masses, they may have taken a page out of Vanity Fair's typography handbook. Most notably is putting Ms. Damrau's given name in larger print while putting her surname in italics, which just inverts the concept VF uses. It's easy to compare with several other recent issues of VF and

almost feels like ON has lost its own unique identity. Even going back as far as 1990 when Madonna graced the VF cover with her pearls and plunging neckline like Ms. Damrau in the current ON issue. The Metropolitan Opera Guild publication has typically debuted a new wordmark every decade since its inception in 1936. The latest may be coming a bit early, but it might have something to do with the recent addition of publisher Diane Silberstein in May 2014. Perhaps the new look will help the magazine to gain attention on newstands for as long as it continues to remain in print before going strictly digital. Below are some of the most recent wordmarks over the last 20 years. Take an historical look back at the Opera News cover changes from the last 79 years, after the jump.

Opera Fail: Disappearance Of An Opera News Posting On Facebook

Opera News took to their Facebook page yesterday asking followers where they would rather see their next opera: Vienna or Milan. Users immediately began to point out the obvious and the post has since disappeared. Perhaps some editing would have resolved the issue? See the original post after the jump.

How Partying In Paris And Singing R. Kelly Helped Lucas Meachem

Click here to watch an amusing anecdote from Lucas Meachem about how hanging out with Paul Groves and Susan Graham at Karaoke really paid off at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The story begins at the 5:36 marker of the video. See photos of the infamous Iphigénie en Tauride production from 2006 by clicking here. And feel free to click on the above photo to enlarge it and get lost in the blue eyes of the star baritone. Watch Lucas Meachem perform "Soliloquy" from Carousel after the jump.

Opera Auction: Private Graham Concert; Meade Dinner X2; Signed Fleming Photo; And More!

"Welcome to the bidding site for the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s 10th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards Live and Silent Auction. We invite you to browse our auction catalog and forward it on to your friends and colleagues. The auction will close at the end of the event and winners need not be present to bid or win. Be sure to check back frequently as new items will be added as they are secured! We encourage you to bid generously, knowing all proceeds go directly to fund our community and school programs. The mission of the Metropolitan Opera Guild is to enrich lives through an awareness and deeper appreciation of opera, while supporting the Metropolitan Opera by expanding its reach to diverse communities and a wider audience. The Metropolitan Opera Guild is the world’s premier arts education organization dedicated to enriching people’s lives through the magic and artistry of opera. The Guild fosters collaboration, literacy skills, and self-confidence in children with customized education programs integrated into the curriculum of schools, and builds a deeper appreciation of opera in adults through workshops, community programs, and by publishing Opera News, the world’s leading opera magazine. Through its unique relationship with the Metropolitan Opera, the Guild offers newcomers to opera and its most ardent fans access to one of the world’s most renowned performing arts companies." [Source] Items up for bid include:

**Twenty-minute recital by Metropolitan Opera star Susan Graham at your next dinner party at a mutually agreeable date and time in either New York City or Los Angeles.

**Dinner for two with Met Opera star Angela Meade and the Editor-in-Chief of OPERA NEWS magazine, F. Paul Driscoll, at Loi Estiatorio (132 West 58th Street, New York, NY 10019).

**One autographed photo of Renée Fleming from the OPERA NEWS December 2014 cover shoot. Framed, 11” x 14”, archival quality print. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Browse many more of the items up for bid by clicking here!

Diana Soviero Honored By The Gerda Lissner Foundation

Singers Joseph Dennis, Mario Chang, Ryan Speedo Green, Paul Han, Shirin Eskandani, Alison King, Maya Lahyani, Jonathan Kelly, Arlene Shrut, Honoree Diana Soviero and Alexey Lavrov. (Photo: Howard Heyman)

"On the evening of Wednesday, May 7 at the New York Athletic Club in New York City, The Gerda Lissner Foundation showcased their 2014 winners and honored internationally acclaimed soprano Diana Soviero. Stephen De Maio, President of The Gerda Lissner Foundation, spoke enthusiastically about the winners and how proud he is of the awards given to so many throughout the years to help them attain their goals. He thanked Trustees Barbara Ann Testa, Dorothy Moore, Karl Michaelis and Michael Fornabaio, Vice President/Treasurer of The Gerda Lissner Foundation, for their efforts and all of the operatic notables present. Stephen De Maio was recently honored by Opera Index at their Spring Lunch. The Newark born De Maio, a legend himself, asked Opera News editor and author Brian Kellow to host the program and introduce the honoree, New Jersey born (Jersey City) internationally acclaimed soprano Diana Soviero. Kellow elaborated on Soviero’s great career and the impact she had on her audiences everywhere. The New York City Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden–not bad for a 'Jersey girl.' Kellow mentioned how the arts influenced his life and how the 1945 film Spellbound impacted him. He then thanked Soviero for the influence her performances gave all of us as Cio Cio San,

Experienced Publisher Diane Silberstein Joins Opera News Magazine

WQXR is reporting on a new position filled at Opera News magazine: "Opera News magazine has named Diane Silberstein as its new publisher. Her résumé includes work as the publisher of Penthouse and Playboy adult men's magazines, as well as work at more traditional glossies. Silberstein, who started on May 9, has a remarkable background even by the hurly-burly standards of magazine publishing. Having begun her career at Glamour, she worked her way up to publisher roles at Elle (1992-1994), the New Yorker (1994-1997), Playboy (2003-2006) and Penthouse (2006-2008), before eventually launching Silberstein Media, a company representing media brands for advertising and sponsorship sales. The appointment was reported Thursday by Mediabistro. Silberstein's time at Penthouse had its colorful moments: In 2008, the magazine was one of several publications to pursue a cover story with Ashley Dupré, the 22-year-old call girl involved in the scandal of resigning Governor Eliot Spitzer. 'We would love to have her in the magazine,' Silberstein told the Associated Press at the time. 'We would even consider offering her a cover. We think we could also be very helpful to her in her music career.'" [Source] The official Opera News press release can be found here.

Operatic Selfie For The Ages At Opera News Awards

Luca Pisaroni posted the operatic equivalent of the infamous Ellen Degeneres selfie from the Academy Awards. Some pretty big names in this photo, including: Stephen Costello, Susan Graham, Kristīne Opolais, Ailyn Perez and Joyce DiDonato. (Photo: Facebook)

Sondra Radvanovsky Video Interviews Post MET Norma Debut

Fresh from her MET role debut in Bellini's Norma, The New York Times had this to say: "As the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky sang 'Casta Diva' at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday evening, she drew listeners in with her expressive shadings and heartfelt delivery. She earned a thunderous ovation after the cavatina, in which the druid priestess Norma prays to the moon goddess for peace. Ms. Radvanovsky proved dramatically and vocally arresting in her inaugural American performance of Bellini’s Norma, as John Copley’s drab production returned to the Met for the first time this season. Ms. Radvanovsky has made a name for herself in recent years as a Verdi interpreter, but recently added bel canto roles to her repertory. She has described the title character in Norma, which she recently sang in a concert performance in Catalonia, Spain, as her ideal role both vocally and temperamentally." After the jump, see the soprano interviewed by F. Paul Driscoll and Fred Plotkin in two separate conversations preserved on video.

Major Landmark Soprano Camilla Williams Dies at 92

"Camilla Williams, the first black woman to appear in a leading role with a major US opera company has died in Indiana aged 92. She had been suffering from cancer, according to Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Williams became the first black professor of voice. The singer made her debut in May 1946 in the title role of Madam Butterfly with the New York City Opera. She also became a strong advocate for civil rights. 'It's impossible to overstate how important that was for the music scene in New York, for African-American singers, and for American singers,' F Paul Driscoll, the editor-in-chief of Opera News, told the Washington Post. Williams' debut performance came nearly nine years before Marian Anderson became the first African-American singer to appear at New York's more prestigious Metropolitan Opera. A New York Times review of Williams at the time, said the singer displayed 'a vividness and subtlety unmatched by any other artist who has assayed the part here in many a year.' The following year she performed the role of Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme and in 1948 she sang the title role of Verdi's Aida. In 1951 she sang the title female role in first complete recording of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess." [Source]

Could This Be the Bridge of Dreams For Sopranos?

Opera News does a wonderful spread on soprano Mojca Erdmann in their "Sound Bites" series which features a photo by Johannes Ifkovits that looks mighty familiar. See why this may be the bridge dreams are made of (as well as one of the photographer's favorite locations) after the jump. Read the article here.

Lauren Flanigan Discusses Legal Troubles in Opera News

"In September 2000, she was about to open in New York City Opera's Mark Lamos production of Roberto Devereux. It was a high-pressure engagement, since she was taking on the role in which Beverly Sills had triumphed at the company decades earlier. Just prior to the opening, she made headlines in New York City for being sued for nonpayment of commission by her former representative, Merle Hubbard, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. 'Part of the problem was I had so much trouble in '98 and '99. I was sued by my former agent. I legitimately owed him money — but not like 'thousands of dollars from ten years of service.' Typically what happens is that when a singer goes to another agent, the new agent and the old one work it out. It's a little-known part of contract law that you can't break a contract without paying out the value of the contract. The question was why would they do this, when it was about so little money? We're talking $4,500. I think they just really wanted to ruin my reputation. The lawyer fees drove the costs up so high that I couldn't pay anybody.' Merle Hubbard, the complainant, was joined in the case by Flanigan's former managers Robert Lombardo and Herbert Breslin. In an interview before his death, in August 2011, Hubbard offered his view of the situation. 'Lauren?' he asked facetiously. 'What court case? She declared bankruptcy and got away with it. I never got a cent. She owed me $28,000, and if you add in lawyers' fees and court case and blah blah blah, it came to close to $40,000. That was for completed contracts that she never paid for. I took [composer] Marvin David Levy to hear her, and he decided she should do Mourning Becomes Electra and talked Chicago Lyric into breaking a signed contract and giving it to Lauren, and she did it in Seattle and New York as well. That's just one. She'd pay occasionally and then send me letters saying, 'I don't want you to work for me anymore,' and then I'd call her up, and she said, 'Let's do this.' So she's schizoid on that subject. She's a dishonorable lady — and a fine artist.' Flanigan recalls the events that followed: 'The day of the [Devereux] opening, after begging Sills not to come that night, I was in the lawyer's office filing for bankruptcy. I had $400 to my name. The bankruptcy was supposed to stop everything. So City Opera could pay me. I went in front of the bankruptcy judge in November." [Source]

Paul Appleby Tries to Strike a Balance in Opera and Recital

The young tenor (Photo: Dario Acosta)

"Up to this point, I've spent more time onstage singing with a piano than with an orchestra in an opera," he says. "When you're a song singer, you've got a big responsibility to use every tool at your disposal to grab that audience and get them to engage with you and totally immerse themselves in the world of the song or piece you're singing at that moment. You know, that's why I obsess about my languages more and more as I get older. You think that all this grammar stuff is soooooooo unimportant during your first year at Juilliard — but now I'm grabbing out my old notebooks and textbooks and things from four years ago and really thinking about the language, trying to understand how a French person's brain works in relation to what he's saying. In opera, you need to do just as much work with text and with lines and phrases and consonants and understanding all those things you need to communicate something to an audience. The public deserves your best. You can't rely on sets or anything else to do it for you — you just have to reach inside yourself and not rely on any other thing. Not to diminish a great costume or a great set or a great director, but your responsibility as an artist is exactly the same, regardless of what stage you're standing on." [Source]

Check out the full interview in Opera News, which feature another Dario Costa portrait, by clicking here.

Eclectic Works From Soprano Susan Dunn in 1982 Recital

An early portrait of Susan Dunn
from the cover of Opera News
magazine in July 1987.

Thanks to YouTube user Sutherland9 we are able to hear some extraordinary musical excerpts from a recital that Grammy Award-winning soprano Susan Dunn gave on September 24, 1982. The clips represented show quite an expanse of repertoire for the spinto most well-known for the music of Giuseppe Verdi. During her career she sang 14 complete operas of the Italian master, including Nabucco, I Masnadieri, I Vespri Siciliani, Giovanna d'Arco, Un Giorno di Regno, Attila and Macbeth. This recital is auspicious for the Arkansas-native because it is the same year she made her professional opera stage debut in the title role of Verdi's Aida at the Peoria Civic Opera in Illinois. Within a decade she was singing at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and the Vienna State Opera. Although she scaled her career back significantly in the mid-1990s, she still performs frequently these days in addition to heading the vocal music program Opera Workshop at Duke University. She lives in North Carolina with her husband - conductor and composer - Scott Tilley. [Source]


"Dank sei Dir, Herr" (Händel)


"E Susanna non vien...Dove sono" Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)


"Vissi d'arte" Tosca (Puccini)


"Pace, pace mio Dio" La Forza del Destino (Verdi)


"I know where I'm goin'" Irish folk song


"Johnny we hardly knew ye" Irish folk song

Be sure to check out the latest CD release from the soprano. Listen to clips by clicking here: "In the late 1970s, John Wustman came to Indiana University as a guest faculty member. He chose the Mörike-Lieder as the focus of his first semester. After several classes, I worked up the courage to sing 'Schlafendes Jesuskind' for him. His comment as I finished was that we could make a recording together. Thus began our relationship as mentor-accompanist and singer. As my career began and John and I appeared in concert together, I began to dream of recording the Mörike-Lieder with him. From that dream was born a concert presenting all fifty-three songs in two evenings at Duke University. Thomas Potter, my friend and a fellow student of Mr. Wustman, served as our baritone voice for the songs that required the masculine perspective. The Mörike-Lieder, composed in less than nine months of white-hot inspiration, provide the singer with an incredible array of color, character and vocal challenges. As the singer manages technical and interpretive complexities, the accompanist navigates an arduous path of pianistic virtuosity. At first I was drawn to the eight religiously themed songs, but I have come to embrace the naughty 'Erstes Liebeslied eines Madchens,' the gently humorous 'Rat einer Alten,' the tragic 'An Eine Aolsharfe,' and the moody 'Die Geister am Mummelsee.' Mörike poetry is by turns sensual, humorous, mournful, and eerie, but always evocative. Wolf, using a harmonic language akin to that of Wagner, but without the long- windedness, manages to capture the heart of each poem, often distilling the essence into a few measures a couple of intense pages. After years of studying the Mörike-Lieder together and separately, John, Thomas and I offer this recording. Our hope is that the listener will fall in love with them just as we have." [Source]

Maestro Chailly with the lirico-spinto circa 1990.

Read the June 1989 article in the New York Times about Susan Dunn by clicking here and another wonderful article about the singer's background here. Biographical information and more video clips are after the jump.

Diana Damrau Returns To The MET Post Pregnancy

Proud Mutter in Vienna  (Photo: Johannes Ifkovits/Opera News)

ON: Speaking of things in opera happening for real, talk to me about singing Schweigsame Frau while you were pregnant with your son. It sounds as if it was a wonderful success for you. Was that fun, to do that?
DD: Oh yes!


ON: How long was it between that series of performances in July and the birth of your son?
DD: My son was born the third of October. And my last concerts — after the Schweigsame Frau at the end of July — were in Salzburg, with Mozart arias on the 14th and 15th of August.

ON: Wow. You obviously put a premium on keeping in really good shape, so that must have helped your ability to keep singing. Do you feel any different now as you start going back to singing?
DD: I admit that I have not sung a note yet. Except cradle songs. [Laughs] Before he was born … after about the fifth month, I really felt very strong. I never had problems with breath — I could move all right, and breathe. As for Schweigsame Frau, by that point we couldn't hide [my pregnancy], so as you probably have read, [we] made the character of Aminta pregnant, which gave another dimension to the whole story. It was beautiful for the whole production and for the opera.