Iván Fischer Conducts and Directs Festival "Don Giovanni"

Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer will be joined by Budapest Festival Orchestra on August 4 & 7 at Rose Theater in New York City for the Mostly Mozart Festival to perform Don Giovanni. The production will be fully staged and conducted by Maestro Fischer. The production focuses on the human body with 16 stage actors forming the sets and props. Singers for the production will include Greek soprano Myrtò Papatanasiu as Donna Elvira, American soprano Laura Aikin as Donna Anna, Korean soprano Sunhae Im as Zerlina, Hungarian tenor Zoltán Megyesi as Don Ottavio, Italian baritone Riccardo Novaro as Masetto, Portuguese baritone José Fardilha as Leporello, Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson as the Commendatore and Greek baritone Tassis Christoyannis as Don Giovanni. [Source]

Tenor Matthew Chellis is Director at Opera Boot Camp

"Have you ever heard the expression, 'It's not over 'til the fat lady sings?' Well, the era of big, fat opera singers might be over, or at least ending. The trend now is to combine rigorous physical exercise with vocal training. And there's an Opera Boot Camp this summer in Boyne City. Singer Kira Dills-Desurra is from California. She's one of 20 students enrolled. Dills-Desurra says, 'Every morning we get up with a person who's a nutritionist and, sort of, a fitness trainer. And it's really great, especially for singers because we need to build our core and, you know, be sort of fit because what we do is so physical.' It's a 4-week program, Mondays through Fridays with public performances on Fridays and Saturdays. Each day the singers do aerobics, Pilates, yoga and strength training. They study career management and audition strategies. And they're trained to fully understand what they're singing. They're drilled in a variety of languages. Matthew Chellis is the director of Opera Boot Camp. He grew up in Horton Bay and loves to come back often. He says opera singers have long ignored their physical condition. Chellis says, 'Many times singers get wrapped up in, kind of, all these other strange technical ideas that become inhibited by bad physical habits, bad alignment, physical injuries they might have had when they a child.' Opera Boot Camp is held at the Boyne City Performing Arts Center. The aspiring opera stars perform in free public recitals through the month of July. More information here." [Source]

Austra's Lead Singer Katie Stelmanis Started in COC Chorus

"Toronto-based Katie Stelmanis of Austra was one of those precocious kids whose obsession with perfecting any musical instrument she picked up and whose love of singing led to her performing with the children’s choir on vast stages with the Canadian Opera Company. At 16, after 'graduating' from the children’s choir, she began studying opera until she decided that she’d had enough of confining herself to singing historical works and wanted to write her own. In her later high school years, Katie picked up a MIDI controller and started writing soundtracks, which led to her own songs. She started in a band called Galaxy and then went on as a solo artist, releasing her Join Us album in 2008." [Source]

Treasures of NYC: Patti Lupone, Leonard Bernstein, Risë Stevens

"Tony Award-winning actress Patti LuPone takes New York-area residents on a tour of Lincoln Center in Treasures of New York,"which airs July 14 on PBS. Treasures of New York: Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone brings the Broadway veteran back to her academic and performing roots. LuPone is among the first graduates of the drama division of the Juilliard School (located on the Lincoln Center Campus) and also starred in the revival of Anything Goes and her solo evening Matters of the Heart at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. The actress was also married on the Beaumont stage. The 8 PM special promises not only history of Lincoln Center, but also stories of LuPone's achievements at the renowned facility. The presentation highlights the history and recent renovation of the Lincoln Center campus, including vintage footage of Leonard Bernstein and opera star Risë Stevens....Treasures of New York: Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone debuts at 8 PM on WNET Thirteen July 14, with re-airing to follow July 28 at 7 PM on WLIW21." [Source]

Watch the full episode. See more Station Promos.

Deborah Voigt Gets Her Gun Ready For Glimmerglass

"Safe to say that Wagner’s Brünnhilde would never brag about shootin’ a wart off’n grandpappy’s nose, despite the warrior that she is. But then maybe she would in an alternative singing universe, the kind Deborah Voigt, the soprano, has entered here at the Glimmerglass Festival. Ms. Voigt, a heralded interpreter of Wagner, Verdi and Strauss heroines, is appearing as the backwoods sharpshooter of the title in Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, which opens Saturday." [Source]

What Happens When a Note Overtakes a Soprano

Bastille Day Celebration With Jessye Norman

In 1989, Jessye Norman helped France celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution by draping herself in an oversize flag and singing the "La Marseillaise" in Paris.

Universal's Eloquence Releases Rare Archived Recordings

Complete track listings and album notes for each release
can be found after the jump.

Can New York City Opera Retain Its Name Under New Plans?

Steel becoming molten lava.
(Photo: Sara Krulwich/NY Times)

"Mr. Steel has put creative thought into choosing five works for City Opera’s nomadic 2011-12 season. Of special note is a production of Telemann’s Orpheus in an intimate space ideal for Baroque opera, the theater at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. If some other performing arts entity in New York had announced this project, grateful opera buffs would be saluting it. But Mr. Steel’s road show of a season represents a radical rethinking of the company’s mission. The most anguished members of the City Opera family — the orchestra players and choristers, the distinguished artists who signed the letter protesting the company’s decision to leave Lincoln Center and who have counted on the company for years — complain that Mr. Steel’s plans are such a departure from what the company has been for the past 68 years that he can no longer call the company New York City Opera. And they have a point." [Source]

While NYCO Runs Amok, the MET Performs in Central Park

"It has been four years since the Metropolitan Opera decided to stop presenting full operas in its summertime concerts in New York City’s parks, a decision that was difficult to understand, given the popularity of these free performances, and the likelihood that they were winning the company new listeners. Now, presumably, the Met’s high-definition opera screenings are expected to be its audience builders: It is presenting free screenings of 10 of them in its Met Summer HD Festival, at Lincoln Center from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. But the Met also recognizes that it should maintain a presence in the parks with live music, and on Monday evening it opened this year’s installment of its Summer Recital Series with a program of arias and duets, with three young singers — Angela Meade, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano; and Atalla Ayan, tenor — as part of Central Park SummerStage. The bass-baritone Eric Owens was on hand to introduce the program (and to sing Marcello’s offstage line in “O soave fanciulla,” from Puccini’s Bohème, from his seat in the audience)." [Source]

(Images left to right: Meade, Ayan, Cano. Photos by Hiroyuki Ito/New York Times)

Lord Harewood - Queen's Cousin and Opera Lover - Dies at 88

Watch an interview of Lord Harewood and Maria Callas from 1968
by clicking on the photo below:

A complete obituary can be found here.

Catherine Malfitano Leads the Artistic Pack....Finally

(Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times)

Follow Daniel J. Wakin's updates on the New York Times Blog here. The obvious question might be: where were all of these artists, orchestra members and choristers when Susan Baker was flushing money down the toilet with the Gérard Mortier debacle? It seems the company should fold and just start over with someone like Catherine Malfitano leading the way. 

Mumbai Bomb Explodes Near Opera House District

"At least three explosions rocked India’s commercial capital of Mumbai on Wednesday evening, injuring and killing an unspecified number of people in a what the Home Ministry has confirmed as a terrorist attack. India’s NDTV said 10 people were killed in the blasts, which struck the crowded Dadar West, Opera House and Zaveri Bazaar areas of the city. The CNN IBN news channel put the death toll at eight." [Source]

Happy Birthday: Sylvia Sass

"O madre dal cielo" I Lombardi (Verdi)

Sylvia Sass, born July 12, 1951, is an acclaimed Hungarian soprano, particularly associated with Verdi roles. Born in Budapest, Hungary, she studied at Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Ferenc Révhegyi. She made her professional debut at the Hungarian State Opera, as Frasquita in Georges Bizet's Carmen, in 1971. The following year, she appeared at the Sofia National Opera, as Violetta in La Traviata, and during the 1974-75 season at the Salzburg Festival singing Mozart in concert. In 1975, she sang at the Scottish Opera, as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, and in 1976, made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London, in a much acclaimed performance of Giselda in I Lombardi, returning the following

"Ah, dagli scanni eterei...
Perder dunque voi volete"
Stiffelio (Verdi)

season as Violetta. In 1977, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as Tosca. She also appeared at the Vienna State Opera, the Munich State Opera, the Teatro Municipal de Caracas as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, at the opera houses of Cologne, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, as well as the Paris Opera and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, both as Violetta. In 1978, she made her debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, as Puccini's Manon Lescaut, conducted by Georges Prêtre, a performance that was televised live across Europe. Her repertory also included; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Mimi in La bohème, Judith in Béla Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, etc., but she was particularly admired in early Verdi operas, especially as Lady Macbeth. A DVD of her masterful 1981 performance of Bluebeard's Castle under Sir Georg Solti is available. Sass has won many awards, the first in 1972

"Dei tuoi figli"
Medea (Cherubini)

when she won first prize at the Kodály Voice Competition. In 1973, she won the Grand Prix as Violetta at the International Opera Competition for Young Singers. In 1974, she won the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, in Moscow. She was also made an Honored Artist of Hungary, in 1977. Her exceptional vocal and dramatic talent prompted some to hail her as the second Maria Callas. However, perhaps as a result of having taken on too much too soon, her voice deteriorated early, and by the end of the 1980s, she had all but vanished from the

"Nagy ég, remegek!"
Hunyadi Laszlo (Erkel)

operatic scene. In recent years, she has settled in France, where she keeps busy painting and giving masterclasses. Sass has made several recordings of arias, lieder, and complete operas, notably Bluebeard's Castle and Don Giovanni, both conducted by Georg Solti, Verdi's I Lombardi, Ernani, Attila, Macbeth, Stiffelio, all conducted by Lamberto Gardelli, as well as Cherubini's Medea, again with Gardelli, Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs and Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder. [Source]

Opera Helps Sell Deodorant and Financial Services

Oedipus Complex With Operatic Treatment Gets Revival

Sphinx Costume ENO
production of Greek 1990

"Buxton Festival is to host two performances of Music Theatre Wales’ latest production Greek, a vivid, angry re-working of the Oedipus myth by firebrand composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. It can be seen at Buxton Opera House on July 14 and 25. Mark-Anthony Turnage’s brilliant and provocative opera exploded onto the stage in 1988 and conferred instant celebrity on its composer – then still in his 20s. Greek has since become a contemporary classic – and Turnage has continued to hit the headlines – notably with his recent sensational Royal Opera House hit Anna Nicole. The gifted young baritone Marcus Farnsworth, who was educated at Chetham’s School and Manchester University, sings the role of Eddy, the opera’s foul-mouthed, restless protagonist. Mr. Farnsworth, who won the prestigious Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in 2009, will also give a recital on July 21 at the Buxton Festival. Greek is based on the play by Steven Berkoff and the opera was widely seen at the time of its premiere as a parable of the Thatcher years." [Source]