Venera Gimadieva To Perform At Royal Festival Hall On April 1

"Leading Tartar soprano Venera Gimadieva introduces the music of Tatarstan. Following on from a performance that won her critical acclaim at Glyndebourne this summer ('a sensation' in the words of The Guardian), Gimadieva joins conductor Guerassim Voronkov and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra for a celebration of recent works by composers from Tatarstan, alongside vocal masterpieces by Sergey Rachmaninoff, himself of Tatar descent. Highlights include songs such as 'Vocalise' and 'Ne poy krasavitsa pri mne' and arias from Francesca da Rimini as well as Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden."[Source] Click here to purchase tickets. See the concert program, and learn more about Ms. Gimadieva, after the jump. Watch the soprano sing "Salammbô's Aria," by Bernard Herrmann from the movie score of Citizen Kane, in the video below.

Uncovering Elena Obraztsova Treasures As 75 Years Is Celebrated

Operatic Tsaritsa: The legendary
 Elena Obraztsova

For over 50 years, Elena Obraztsova has been a fixture on the operatic scene. Her debut was at the Bolshoi Theater in a production of Boris Godunov in 1963 and as of last week the performer was still singing with plenty of full voice during a gala celebrating her 75th birthday with stars like Anna Netrebko, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Maria Guleghina, José Cura, Julia Lezhneva, Hibla Gerzmava and Olga Peretyatko. In her native Mother Russia, Ms. Obraztsova recorded a trove of music for the label Melodiya over the years. The label was later acquired by EMI and many of the recordings never made it to the CD format barring the arias disc with Giuseppe Patanè that first appeared in Japan and eventually on Russian import. Thanks to the scrupulous work of Melodiya digitizing much of the mezzo-soprano's back catalog, these albums are now available in MP3 format and reveal a surprising depth for the song repertoire by this monumental artist. The majority of her recorded legacy features the works of Soviet neo-romantic composer Georgy Sviridov. Music recorded between 1977-1983, with the composer at the piano, shows how the opera singer placed her esteem of his work alongside Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff whose works she also laid down for posterity. Whether arias,

One of the prized solo recordings to 
make a commercial release worldwide.

romances, or folk songs, it is clear that Ms. Obraztsova was first and foremost a nationalist. The most surprising treat in the discography is a disc of Schumann lieder featuring the complete Frauenliebe und leben alongside excerpts from Liederkreis, 12 Gedichte, Myrthen, and 6 Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem. Her rendition of "Mondnacht" rivals that of German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Next to the contributions of fellow Russian stars Irina Arkhipova and Galina Vishnevskaya, the collection of music put forth by Elena Obraztsova is admirable. There are still albums of hers not available to the public, including a disc of Bach & Händel arias, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Vivaldi's Gloria, Cavalleria Rusticana with tenor Zurab Sotkilava, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, Brahm's Rhapsody for Alto, and a collection of Viennese operetta with conductor Algis Ziuraitis, but there are others still in print on various labels including Deutsche Grammophon (Un Ballo in Maschera, Aida, Alexander Nevsky, Werther, Samson et Dalila, Rigoletto), Sony (Adriana Lecouvreur), Decca (Cavalleria Rusticana, Andrea Chénier), EMI (Nabucco), as well as a slew of recordings on private labels and live performance documents. After the jump: Learn more about Elena Obraztsova, see all of the recordings currently available digitally, and watch the 75th birthday concert in its entirety.

Elena Obraztsova stands center stage as international opera stars pay hommage last week.

Mahler Gets Appearance In "Birdman" Scene Featuring Naomi Watts

The new film Birdman, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, has original music composed by Antonio Sanchez playing throughout the film. Additional classical music is added to several scenes including works by Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Rachmaninoff and John Adams. The real standout scene comes when Lesley (Naomi Watts) is emotionally thanking Riggan (Michael Keaton) for the opportunity of making her Broadway debut in his new play. At this point, the character of Riggan is starting to unravel and things seem as though they are imploding. The vocal line that starts under the scene is "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" (I am lost to the world) from Gustav Mahler's Rückert-Lieder. A full translation of the piece can be found here and a performance by Violeta Urmana (the artist used in the film) is after the jump. "Riggan Thomas, once known quite well to movie theater goers as an iconic super hero called 'The Birdman' had recently turned down a third installment of the franchise. Now washed up, he attempts to reinvent himself as a director by staging a new retelling of a classic Broadway dramatic play called What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The events leading up to the Saturday night premiere prove to be one disaster after another as the original lead actor is injured while on set and Riggan scrambles to find a replacement, but the replacement proves to be exactly who he needs - a method actor who takes the job way too seriously. But Riggan has a hard time juggling between the set, his replacement actor, his equally washed up daughter, and a host of other disasters that prevent a proper staging of the play. Meanwhile, a New York Times critic who Riggan has to woo threatens to shut down production of the play before it even starts with a scathing review of the dress rehearsal. Does Riggan have a hit on his hands or will he even make it to opening night?" [Source]