Happy Birthday June 4

This is a selection of some of my favorite photographs of my favorite mezzo on a significant birthday.

The real Cecilia can't keep a straight face.

This is Cecilia the mogul. 

This is the "I'm too beautiful for you" picture.

There's no one like you. 

They should have filmed the London Il Turco in Italia and released it.  And I would still like to see Figaro from the Met on DVD.  It's still my favorite.  It doesn't hurt to nag.  Have a very happy birthday.

Schubert from Wigmore

Mary Bevan soprano
Tara Erraught mezzo-soprano
Allan Clayton tenor
Henk Neven baritone
James Baillieu piano

I apologize for leaving out the pianist and string quartet.  You can go on to medici.tv and view them for yourself.  The Wigmore Hall series seems to be free.

I sang a bit of Schubert and don't think I was so sedate as these singers.  Let's just say I overdid everything.  Schubert is the most likely to make me miss the life of music.

I don't think I've heard "Die junge Nonne" since I sang it at 19.  Tara does a lovely job.  It helps if you understand the words.

New Releases

This is coming in September--just announced.  We're not sure about the picture and anything about verismo.

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Recent releases from the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD.

Maria Stuarda with Joyce DiDonato
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The Merry Widow with Renée Fleming
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La Donna del Lago with Joyce DiDonato--my recent favorite
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Macbeth with the ever fabulous Anna Netrebko
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More below the break.

Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera 2016-2017

CLASSICS 

Saturday, October 8, 2016
Benjamin Britten – Violin Concerto
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5
Michael Christie, conductor  and Karen Gomyo, violin

Saturday, November 12, 2016 
Giuseppe Verdi – Dramatic moments from La Forza del destino, Otello, and Un ballo in maschera
Pietro Mascagni – Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana
Giacomo Puccini – La Bohème Act I Finale
Gioachino Rossini – Semiramide
Ottorino Respighi – The Pines of Rome
Christoph Campestrini, conductor, Katherine Whyte, soprano, Adam Luther, tenor

Saturday, January 21, 2016 
Gioachino Rossini – Italiana in Algeri Overture
Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 101, “Clock”
Antonio Vivaldi – “The Four Seasons”
Andrés Cárdenes, conductor and violin

Saturday, February 25, 2017
Takemitsu – Quotation of Dream
Johann Sebastian Bach – Double Keyboard Concerto
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 7
Andrew Grams, conductor, Peter Serkin, piano, Julia Hsu, piano

Saturday, March 4, 2017
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 4
Ludwig van Beethoven - Violin Concerto
Michelle Merrill, conductor Chee-Yun Kim, violin

Saturday, April 29, 2017 
Giuseppe Verdi – La Traviata
José -Luis Gomez, conductor

POPS 

Perhaps this is new or I just didn't know about it, but there is also a pops series.

Saturday, November 26, 2016 
Classical Mystery Tour – Featuring a full Beatles cover band: Roll up for the “Classical Mystery Tour” on Thanksgiving Weekend. All your Beatles memories performed LIVE by the Sacramento Philharmonic and members of the original cast of Broadway’s Beatlemania! Fab Four Hit after Fab Four hit!
Martin Herman, conductor

Saturday, January 14, 2017 
The Music of David Bowie : A Rock Symphony: Few artists have redefined rock. David Bowie was the one – and only. To mark the first anniversary of his passing, the Sacramento Philharmonic presents a symphonic salute. “Changes,” “Space Oddity,” “Fame,” Heroes,” Rebel Rebel,” nearly 20 classics. The best of Bowie – from A to Ziggy. Are you ready? Then “Let’s Dance”!
Brent Havens, conductor

Saturday, April 8, 2017 
Pet Sounds Live: A Beach Boys Celebration: The sun-melt harmonies – and all the good vibrations. Conductor Jeff Reed recreates the music of The Beach Boys. Every endless summer smash hit, and wouldn’t it be nice to hear those path-breaking “Pet Sounds” in a 50th anniversary tribute?
Jeffrey Reed, conductor

Tickets for both of these series are now on sale.

Lucia di Lammermoor from ROH

Conductor: Daniel Oren
Designer: Vicki Mortimer

Lucia: Diana Damrau
Edgardo: Charles Castronovo
Enrico: Ludovic Tézier
Arturo: Taylor Stayton
Raimondo: Kwangchul Youn
Normanno: Peter Hoare
Alisa:  Rachael Lloyd

The notorious Lucia di Lammermoor from the Royal Opera Covent Garden played last night in my local movie theater.  It was a not to be missed.

This is Lucia with all the details left in and then more details added.  The stage is divided into two sections for every scene, allowing the character Lucia to be on stage throughout the opera.

The opera begins at the haunted fountain where Enrico and his cohorts are searching for clues to an intruder and ultimately find a message from Lucia to Edgardo hidden in the fountain.  The ghost of the fountain is there, but the men do not notice her.  On the other side of the stage Lucia is in her dressing room preparing to go out disguised as a man.

We are still at the fountain when Lucia enters with her maid, also disguised as a man.  She sees the ghost who goes up to her and kisses her.  Lucia seems to be the only one who notices the ghost.  She sings "Regnava nel silenzio" and describes the ghost to Alisa.

Edgardo arrives for the love duet.  They undress each other and fuck while singing bel canto, to mysterious effect.  I wonder if the porn industry has thought of this.  Edgardo must leave for France, and they exchange rings.

Opera Today

It is with fascination that I avail myself of the fruits of modern technology.

Practically immediately after they finished singing it, Coloraturafan posted a film of a concert version of Verdi's Otello from Cincinnati, starring singers I was not familiar with but whose names I had heard:  Gregory Kunde, Tamara Wilson and Egils Silins.  It turned out to be exciting and beautifully sung.

And now I am listening to an audio of Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala in Lohengrin in Dresden.  This performance also included Evelyn Herlitzius as Ortrud.  I'm only about halfway through it, but Anna's diction is excellent.  Sunday's performance was on Wagner's birthday, so afterward they all appeared in the square and sang a bit for the crowds.  He's very good, but she is astounding.  No one gets that much intensity into her singing.  It is my suspicion that Netrebko wanted to do a traditional Lohengrin.  It was a small price to pay.

And then there is the "O sole mio" by Cecilia Bartoli, performed as an encore to a recital in Bad Kissingen just a couple of days ago with the theme Melodie italiane.  We should all have noticed that as she approaches her 50th birthday, she has finally done crossover. 

I might want to also have a life.  

Posted yesterday

Sweetie, perhaps I will love only you.

Footnote.  I suppose only I will truly love this.  I cannot explain why.

Gregory Kunde

This is Gregory Kunde, winner of the International Opera Awards Male Singer.

If you watch a lot of films on YouTube of Gregory Kunde, you will see that until recently he has focused on bel canto, a field where he blends into the crowd.  Now suddenly he has begun to appear as a spinto tenor, and it turns out he is amazing.  We'll probably never know why he waited, but we welcome him heartily.

Sorry.  Otello has been removed.

Request for Streaming from Salzburg

The operas for this summer from the Salzburg Festival are:

Thomas Adès The exterminating angel with Anne Sofie Von Otter, Charles Workman, Eric Halfvarson,  John Tomlinson, Thomas Allen

Richard Strauss Die liebe Der Danae.

Faust with Piotr Beczala, Ildar Abdrazakov, Maria Agresta, Tara Erraught

West Side Story with Cecilia Bartoli .

All 3 Mozart/da Ponte operas will play.  Don Giovanni is very much the same as last year.  Nozze di Figaro also streamed last year.

Manon Lescaut with Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov.

Otto Nicolai il Templario with Juan Diego Flórez and Joyce DiDonato

I always want to see things I haven't seen before.  My choices are:

Manon Lescaut for Anna
West Side Story for Cecilia
The Exterminating Angel
Il Templario for Juan Diego and Joyce
Die liebe der Danae to get a better idea of it.

Maestro is stepping down

Nicola Luisotti will end his tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Opera in the summer of 2018.  This gives us two more years.  I hope they find someone as good as our last two.